New Events Screen and Event System

[Kailric]

I started preliminary work on a New Event Screen. This screen will work in tandem with the vanilla Event system currently in game, however, expanded greatly. This is an attempt to add more character and player interaction to the game.

The Event Screen will have the below moddable features, please add your own suggestions and Event Ideas. Some ideas where listed here.. http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=520382

-Display a wall of text that describes your Event
-Display a peace of art work
-Display Buttons for the Choices the player has in the Event
-Will be able Exit the screen and analyze data before making your selection
-Have multiple Events at once and Scroll through them with buttons
-Can not end turn until all events are handled
-Display a LeaderHead for None Player Character (NPC) interaction, this can set up Quests and Tasks by NPCs such a Foreign Merchants or Advisers even
-new boolean added to EventTriggerInfos to let the program know the Event uses the new screen instead of the old screen


The screen shown is just initial work for testing and shows a FF portrait. Please give any suggestions or ideas on how the screen should look or function.

 

[Kailric]

Reserved for Tutorials

 

[orlanth]

Niice, I love Events

I like that you've made the Event screen bigger. What would be really cool is to have the option for a full-screen Event; if you have a particularly epic fullscreen DDS graphic this could be displayed fullscreen as a background, with a dialog box to the side for event text. Perfect if you want some truly epic/impressive Events , such as in modding a scenario. Especially if like you say you can choose to temporarily leave the screen and analyze data on the map before making your final decision.

The vanilla Civ4EventInfos.xml and Civ4EventTriggerInfos.xml system from Civ4BtS does have good XML tags for modding, but doesn't yet take advantage of unique features of Col so could still be much better. TAC/RaR did add some further good options to Triggers/Events and their similar Achievements XML, so bringing some of their code over could be a good way to make Events more versatile.

Other kinds of tags that would be great for verstility of Event modding would be:

EventTriggerInfos.xml:
<StoredYieldType> , <iYieldMin> , <iYieldMax>: These would work with the existing <bPickCity>, so the trigger would pick a city which has between Y and Z units of Yield X in storage. This would enable all kinds of cool triggers, such as King/Pope quests or demands to hand over a certain number of a stored yield type.

<CivicTypes> : Could have an array of Civics which enable the trigger to happen for that player. This would be great for events that trigger only if you have a certain Tech or government type.

<bOtherPlayerMyKing> : These would work with <bPickPlayer> so you could set the event to pick its "otherplayer" as the King civ of the player for whom the Event is triggered. Again perfect for designing any events involving your King/Pope etc.

<iMinAttitude> , <iMaxAttitude> : would only trigger if your diplo relationship with the "otherplayer" is above or below these thresholds. Would be great for modding events where King/Pope or others decide to punish or reward you depending on how well they like you (could also be used for diplomatic events, blockades, hostile native events and much more).

EventInfos.xml:
<StoredYieldType> , <iYield> : This would add/subtract <iYield> units of StoredYieldType from the city that was chosen by the event trigger. Would work perfectly to enable any event where you deliver, spend, or gain some of any yield type. It would be cool if this worked for "abstract" yields too (which I think it would), so you could have events give you a one-time boost to Ideas, Crosses, Hammers, or Fealty if you want.

<FatherPointType> , <iPoints> : This could enable an Event to add or subtract some Father Points in a given category (which I think includes the trade points in M:C)

<CivicTypes> : Again, would be great to have Event choices that are selectable only for those with a certain Tech or Civic. This would be an awesome side benefit of some techs, in that they could let you choose some more favorable options for certain Events!

 

[Kailric]

What would be really cool is to have the option for a full-screen Event; if you have a particularly epic fullscreen DDS graphic this could be displayed fullscreen as a background, with a dialog box to the side for event text. Perfect if you want some truly epic/impressive Events , such as in modding a scenario. Especially if like you say you can choose to temporarily leave the screen and analyze data on the map before making your final decision.

All great suggestions for XML tags. And yes, it would be easy to adjust the size of the screen. Perhaps have the default option, then an option for Full Screen. We should have the Event button displayed when you have a task/quest/mission to complete as well, for tasks that take longer than that turn. You can click the button to bring up the Event Screen again to see what your task is and how close you are to completing it.

Like Lib mentioned AI Merchant Ship Traders; one could arrive offering you a great deal on Spice if you can supply 300 Hides in 10 turns, complete with a Nice visuals, perhaps a Merchant LeaderHead. The quest ship would perhaps appear in the City Garrison so you can load the 300 hides into it. Lots of cool things like that.

 

[Lib.Spi't]

This is looking very cool, and all the suggestions sound great!

Your AI merchant idea sounds great, mine was just an expansion of the pilgrim system, but this all sounds verry exciting.

I have been working on my 'Story Events Sysem' for FTTW, A really nice display system like this, with much more space, all contained in a nice fallout style computer screen would be a pretty great addition!

This is making want to start another new game of M:C so I can carry on play testing

An Event title header would be nice too. So you can give different events different names, like 'The Spice Trader' or whatever.

 

[Don Senglar]

Other kinds of tags that would be great for verstility of Event modding would be:
EventTriggerInfos.xml:

<iMinAttitude> , <iMaxAttitude> : would only trigger if your diplo relationship with the "otherplayer" is above or below these thresholds. Would be great for modding events where King/Pope or others decide to punish or reward you depending on how well they like you (could also be used for diplomatic events, blockades, hostile native events and much more).

These tags would be really very interesting to add. Some events would depend on MinAttitude and MaxAttitude between the player and his king. I like your idea, Orlanth!

 

[Kailric]

The first event I am wanting to add to this system is the mentioned Trader Events, where a Trader arrives and offers to either buy a certain amount of goods for an excellent price if you can produce the goods within so many turns, or sell you some goods at an excellent price. They can be Traders by Ship or Peddlers and Caravans. For this mission I am thinking an NPC LeaderHead will be in the Event Screen to give it more character. The question is how should the interface work for NPCs that want to buy goods?

We could create an NPC Transport at the City that simply waits to be loaded with the goods, or just mark the City and as soon as the City has enough of the requested good the mission is complete, or some other method...

We could have it setup so that when you open the Event Screen for the Trader, it gives the pertinent information, including the City where the goods must arrive. Once the goods are there or other mission parameters are met, a Button appears, like "Complete Mission" or "Complete Trade Deal." If it is a timed event and time runs out you would be given a message saying mission failed or the Trader left, then that Event Screen would be removed.

There could be negatives to failing missions. If you complete a Trade mission you could gain a bonus to Trade Points or a bigger Bonus depending on the time, if you failed you could lose points. The other Father Points could be used this way also for other mission types. For Missions the player could have to invest a certain amount of Gold, if the mission fails you lose the Gold, if successful you gain the Gold back, perhaps with a bonus. Anyway, just some things I am pondering on...

 

[Lib.Spi't]

I think for the trader mission, the best idea would be to have the goods simply in the city, an NPC transport could get confusing, especially if you have a lot of your own ships docking there.

The info in the event screen all sounds good, with a button like the 'delayed diplomacy' one would be good.
So you can check on the status of the mission, what city, how much you have already delivered compared to how much is needed etc.

The ability to gain and lose FF and Trade points as wins and loses sounds good.
We could even have some missions where you exchange FF points, So you could do a peaceful mission that costs you military points but if you win gains you religious points, etc. Same with the investment missions, you invest X gold and if you complete the mission you get the gold back plus a return on investment depending on what it is you invvested in, a fur company could be a free building in the chosen city , or just a big pile of fur, or whatever.

It all sounds pretty good to me.

 

[Kailric]

Ok, sounds like I have a mission. Those tags that orlanth mentioned will come in handy for this. I need to investigate just how the Event System works as you can have "quests", and there is even a quest tab in the message screen, but I have never created one nor had one in the game so I will check out just how they are suppose to work.

 

[Lib.Spi't]

I am currently chomping my way through the event xml in bts, to setup my story events.

oh fun...