[Mod] True Culture Location and Territory Naming for the Giant Earth Map

[Gedemon]

hotfix for animal spawning, attached

(edit: obsolete link removed)

 

[Phor]

I found one minor bug on the map which may become problematic if player does not notice.

Spoiler :

The initial outpost for Greek player is placed on the same field as Marble, which prevents Marble to be used unless you move the outpost (costing additional Influence)

In case of starting outposts - looks like there is one region which in hands of experienced player may become lethal. Starting region of Player 10 (Italia Suburbicaria) starts with Mount Vesuvius, which gives that player 5 Influence per turn. I have no idea how to make it more "fair", even if that would be delaying the uneivtable till Rome player gets 40 Influence.

 

[Gedemon]

thanks, I'll move the start position east.

not sure how (or if) we should try to balance the natural wonders.

 

[Phor]

thanks, I'll move the start position east.

not sure how (or if) we should try to balance the natural wonders.

I think the easiest way in that case would be probably modifying Italia regions a bit to make one having a starting position and, second having Vesuvius.

I got a couple "first 50 turns on Endless" plays with Greece to check the progress of that player. In all these plays, the Rome player had a second outpost before turn 10 and with enough luck that outpost may be claimed even around turn 6 (6 turns of Influence from Vesuvius, two discoveries)

It also ended witha a cause of two players having the Vesuvius discovery accomplishment. Currently cannot provide screenshots to show how it looks like in game.

I am not sure what to do with that though as well - That region can be quickly ransacked and took over by either Greek or Hispania player if they would go immediately for it.


EDIT:
Erm... by the way, is there a way to turn off the Fog of War? I saw the mod for that but I couldn't manage to make it work with the map

 

[Gedemon]

set it to off in the map option before selecting a custom map when starting a new game.

 

[Tigranes]

thanks, I'll move the start position east.

not sure how (or if) we should try to balance the natural wonders.

I think we should leave it as is. Given rather underwhelming representation of Rome in HK -- an extra influence will help with establishing Roman Empire as a dominant force in Europe.

By the way Akkad spawns in Transcaucasia on your screenshots and I posted a map showing Eastern Arabia will be a closer/more historical location for them. Yes, their actual core is occupied by Babylon but they never ever ventured that far north while they did some campaigning south of Mesopotamia, roughly corresponding to the northern part of that East Arabian territory.

 

[Phor]

set it to off in the map option before selecting a custom map when starting a new game.

So maybe something my computer cannot keep up with....

I did the exact thing with 10 player Old world map v. 1.1.0.1. I heard (not saw, only heard) video, I hear ambient sounds, yet I cannot do anything due to the loading screen being stuck at 95%... (screenshot in attachments

 

[Gedemon]

By the way Akkad spawns in Transcaucasia on your screenshots and I posted a map showing Eastern Arabia will be a closer/more historical location for them. Yes, their actual core is occupied by Babylon but they never ever ventured that far north while they did some campaigning south of Mesopotamia, roughly corresponding to the northern part of that East Arabian territory.

Akkadians spawn in Mesopotamia or Assyria, the screenshot is from a game with the "larger area spawn" option, allowing them to spawn in adjacent territories. It's either "exact" spawn (exact as "exactly as listed") or "exact + adjacents", more options would be too complex to code. We could expand the initial list to be less historical, but that would make the larger spawn option even less historical...

(edit: could eventually have 2 lists, "strict" and "approximative")

So maybe something my computer cannot keep up with....

I did the exact thing with 10 player Old world map v. 1.1.0.1. I heard (not saw, only heard) video, I hear ambient sounds, yet I cannot do anything due to the loading screen being stuck at 95%... (screenshot in attachments

every time ? I do have hanging bug during the game's initialization sometime.

 

[Phor]

every time ? I do have hanging bug during the game's initialization sometime.

In my last session I tried to play without FOW four times and got stuck all four times. I may try to stream it to show how it sounds like once I finish work.

 

[Gedemon]

does the option works on other smaller maps?

but not something I can fix anyway.

 

[Phor]

does the option works on other smaller maps?

but not something I can fix anyway.

It worked flawlessly on a randomized Giant map even if I forgot I have TCL options set and starting regions of all 16 players ended up named "..." (they work correctly in outpost names though) - screenshot in attachments.

EDIT
I think I got something interesting.
Map started correctly without FoW. The only difference I had put was... not choosing a slot at all. So I can start the game without FoW as long as I want to play as Player 1. At least good the situation it's solved and feedback may be goven to creator of he FoW mod.

It looks like the dll is made for newer map version than currently public 1.1.0.1.

In version 1.1.0.1 available on mod.io there was no Middle East rework yet so two players ended up claiming the same region:

Spoiler :

Game treats the region as the Green players region with Black players font color on the map (occasionally blinking to show Green's original font color)

 

[Gedemon]

It looks like the dll is made for newer map version than currently public 1.1.0.1.

In version 1.1.0.1 available on mod.io there was no Middle East rework yet so two players ended up claiming the same region:

Spoiler :

View attachment 612388

Game treats the region as the Green players region with Black players font color on the map (occasionally blinking to show Green's original font color)

Thanks, I was hoping to keep backward compatibility, but I get it would be too bothersome now, I'd need to code a way to use separate list, and I'd like to wait for the modding tools to see if that's possible using them (a list in XML or whatever format they use to populate the game's DB)

So alpha map attached to fix that.

 

[Gedemon]

New alpha

- rewrite the code of the function to compute territory loss on Evolution, now all settlements are given either to a "rebel faction" or to a major empire taking the old empire name.
- changed the "number of slots that can create outpost" option to "number of slots that start in Neolithic"
- output all options values to the log for debugging
- clean some other log outputs
- fix Greece Start on the alternate lists
- restore Assyrians as the fallback culture

edit : link to obsolete version removed

 

[NombreyApellido]

was 40ish turns in with previous alpha but was about to restart 'cause i lost the sacred ground deed after going for both gardens and giza

so perfect timing for the new alpha

your work is much appreciated!

 

[Gedemon]

When a City is lost during the Evolution, a Major Empire spawn (if there are any left in reserve)

Spoiler :

For a settlement without city, or detached from a city, it's a minor faction that is used

Spoiler :

 

[NombreyApellido]

couple of quick notes... i tried the starting outpost option and the location for the spawn point of slot 1, i feel it can be problematic for the AI because it's right in the border and AI doesn't seem to move them to a better location before evolving to city

for some reason, only 5 tribes became majors by turn 40. slot 7 and 8 both did not roll back to assyrians

seeing both nok culture and the medes at their historical location was great!

 

[Gedemon]

That's with the default map positions for slot 1 ?

slot 7 and 8 are not assigned to Assyrian from start now (that would be too hard to track with multiple starting position lists), they should still unlock it, but they would need to collect 50 knowledge curiosity (have they now ?)

now, just yesterday I've said @SeelingCat that it wasn't worth the time to investigate how to hardcode a new Culture as that should be easy once the tools are out, but I've also realized that would require another mod to set up, meaning you'll need to download the map, the BepInEx plugin (ie this mod), and another mod to set the additional Cultures required for the starting Era.

Now I ponder hardcoding 1 or 4 simple definitions (1 as a global "proto-Culture" or 4 as "proto-Europe", "proto-Asian", "proto-African", "proto-American") that would be imposed on starting Empire that have not chosen a Culture after a number of turns (to determine), that would make a third mod optional, just for more choices.

I'll try to see if the game can handle assigning the definition of a minor faction to a major player, that would save some time.

 

[Gedemon]

hey, that may be helpful !

Spoiler :

 

[NombreyApellido]

yes, default map locations... i don't think it'll be a problem for human players since they can move it latter on but i haven't seen the AI do this ever. having said this, i think most people would prefer a better initial location, ie not loosing half the footprint to a border... if this goes against the idea of a true location, then perhaps a different territory or a revision to the territory limits could be an option to consider

--

re: proto cultures. how do you feel about yamnaya culture instead of proto european?

 

[Gedemon]

last alpha of the WE, let's hope there won't be too many bug so I can release a new "public" version on mod.io soon (and start working on stability next)

- add money, production and science to the influence compensation when losing territories on evolution.
- add option to set the level of compensation (none, low, average, high)
- fix issue when the Capital had to be replaced on evolution
- fix graphical issue when a new Empire take over some cities of an old Culture on a split on evolution
- add list of potential cities/territories lost on evolution for each choice on the Culture selection/confirmation screen
- new Empire taking control of cities of an old Culture start as vassal of the Empire that has evolved (for now, I'll make the diplomatic state dependent of stability)
- remove Hittites from the "multi Empire" list, as they are only unlocked by one territory now
- always show the territory name instead of the name of the city build on that territory

I may I've found where to set Empire names in the process @SeelingCat

edit: removed obsolete version