My Great Commander is crippled!

[EugeneStyles]

So... Great Commander has an ability Field Fortification, but it seems to always be greyed out (for me, at least). I was standing in a forest in my own territory, and it was greyed out, so I used some captured Thrall Militia to build a fort instead (figured, maybe he can't use it in forest?). Then I was standing in enemy territory on grassland and it was still greyed out. Then I tried grassland in my own territory and when it was still greyed out, I figured there must be a problem.

Later in the same game, I got another Great Commander and standing in the city where he emerged, the Command Post button was greyed out. I was playing as Ljosalfar, btw. Are Great Commanders broken in the current patch, or is there some other reason that I missed why they should be able to use their abilities for me? Or did I just manage to break my game somehow?

 

[Valkrionn]

So... Great Commander has an ability Field Fortification, but it seems to always be greyed out (for me, at least). I was standing in a forest in my own territory, and it was greyed out, so I used some captured Thrall Militia to build a fort instead (figured, maybe he can't use it in forest?). Then I was standing in enemy territory on grassland and it was still greyed out. Then I tried grassland in my own territory and when it was still greyed out, I figured there must be a problem.

Later in the same game, I got another Great Commander and standing in the city where he emerged, the Command Post button was greyed out. I was playing as Ljosalfar, btw. Are Great Commanders broken in the current patch, or is there some other reason that I missed why they should be able to use their abilities for me? Or did I just manage to break my game somehow?

Make sure Arcane Lacuna wasn't active.

 

[Endovior]

Actually, the mechanic is that Field Fortification can only be used in neutral territory (ie: outside of any cultural radius). You can neither use it in your own lands, nor in those of your enemies... which are the two situations you described. You can technically use it on top of mountains, but doing so produces no fort, and the resulting fort commander dies immediately thereafter, so you practically can't do that, either.

Also, that last is probably a bug.

 

[Valkrionn]

Actually, the mechanic is that Field Fortification can only be used in neutral territory (ie: outside of any cultural radius). You can neither use it in your own lands, nor in those of your enemies... which are the two situations you described. You can technically use it on top of mountains, but doing so produces no fort, and the resulting fort commander dies immediately thereafter, so you practically can't do that, either.

Also, that last is probably a bug.

Ah, yeah. Been changed quite a bit in the team version.

 

[EugeneStyles]

The last thing might be an oversight on my part. I haven't gone back to check that save... it's possible that I had already built a Command Post there and forgot about it, or something like that (I don't *think* I already had a Command Post, but I wouldn't rule it out)...

And yeah, just played another game with a different civ and figured out the fact that field fortifications can only go in neutral territory... which isn't mentioned in the mouseover text and seems kind of counter-intuitive. But if that's the way it's supposed to be, then that's fine. =) As is, that game I popped a Great Commander on turn 3 from a lair and was able to throw forts around the entire continent. Very strong. Allowing them anywhere would probably be OP. I'm hoping that forts cost a little bit of maintenance and can't be placed next to each other or cities in the next version...

Also, this isn't terribly important, but the forts built by GC's get vanilla Fort Commanders - seems like they should get the civ-specific commander.

 

[Valkrionn]

Next version, forts can be built anywhere (was actually intended to be used to establish a hold in enemy territory; Linked the wrong python to the spell)... So long as they are 1 tile away from all other forts. It also creates the proper Fort Commander.

 

[Merddyn]

Huh, I could have sworn it was possible to build them in enemy territory, as I remember doing so in the past... In fact, during a siege by myself (Amurites), my brother, (Austrin, and my friend, (Scions) against... The Chislev, I believe. My brother had been having trouble with them for a long time, and all I had in the region was a wizard(might have been an adept), bladedancer (or swordsman), and great commander, so I ended up popping a bunch of forts within a couple of tiles of them via the commander to start lobbing fireballs into them. Of course, once Korinna got there they were just used to mop things up.

Now, I suppose it could have been Fall Further as opposed to RifE, as it was quite some time ago, but that still seems rather doubtful. Then, I haven't played much lately (been a bit sick of turn based strategy games, especially Civ 4, so I've been waiting for the new version before I get completely burned out on them. XD), so I guess that might have changed and I just never noticed.

Edit: On second thought, it COULDN'T have been Fall Further, as I'd not have Tower Mages. ^^; Thus the act of fireballing them'd be negated.

 

[Valkrionn]

It was possible before 1.2. Fixed a bug with it in 1.2, but introduced a new one... Namely, didn't realize it was meant for enemy territory, and used the same python used for the Kuriotate Pioneer spell, which only functions in unowned territory.

Effect is still the same for both spells (and has been updated to produce the correct commander, and claim the fort), but the req is different... The Commander version will not check for ownership of the plot. Just verifies it's not a city.