New Version - 2.5 (July 14, 2022)

[Recursive]

Hey all,

New version inbound. Major features include friendly units un-blockading owned tiles, a revamped top panel and loading screen tips from balparmak, adjustments to strategic resource valuation, possibly fixing multiplayer being horribly broken, and the removal of the cap on City-State unit gifts.

General
- Database cleanup
- DLL defines cleanup (the Great Merge makes this a lot easier I must say)
- Some cleanup of City-State quest and resource valuation code

Balance
   City-States
   - Removed cap on unit gifts, but City-States will still disband the weakest units if they're above their supply cap

   Blockades
   - Blockaded status is now updated when the turn ends and when a unit is killed
   - If a blockaded tile was locked, the city will remember it was locked and will try to work it again as soon as possible
   - Cities will re-allocate the plots they are working before the turn begins (not new, but worth noting; no need to micromanage)

   City Healing
   - City healing rate increased if not totally blockaded
   - If no tiles adjacent to the city are blockaded, healing rate is dramatically increased
   - Blockaded status now determines whether a damaged city can be traded during peacetime

   Units
   - Only COMBAT units in damaged cities start damaged
   - Inquisitors can now be purchased as long as there is a majority religion in the city (fixes some issues)

   Third Party Peace Deals
   - Now trigger war victory bonuses

AI
- Fixed tactical AI issues that were preventing effective city capture and city defense
- Reduced AI willingness to start wars when already at war
- Bumped forbidden range for "no settle" promise for humans by 1 tile
- Improvement to Germany AI to account for the removal of the unit gift cap
- Improved luxury and strategic resource valuation after community feedback, largely from azum4roll
  - Increased base value of strategic resources
  - AI now values each copy of a resource they purchase individually
  - AI will not buy (or offer to buy) more resources when it has a surplus of at least 5
  - Removed a lot of weird code
  - Additional feedback on the new valuation is appreciated

UI
- EUI Top Panel rework (balparmak)
- Added tips on loading screens (balparmak)
- Improvements to lock specialist feature (balparmak)
- Added more UI indicators when a city's tiles are blockaded

Bugfixes
- Fixed a problem causing reproducability issues when loading a save file; might fix multiplayer being horribly broken
- Triremes, Lighthouses, etc. can no longer be built in cities next to Lakes
- Fixed a background image error
- Fixed dummy policies counting towards Adopt Policy button -> Ideology tab feature
- Fixed automated naval units giving up on exploration in tight spaces
- Fixed Workers repairing improvements in cities that are being razed
- Fixed issue where two events that shared choices would only allow you to select one
- Fixed religious followers contest quest not functioning properly
- Fixed bug allowing the trade of multiple cities in a single deal with AI players
- Fixed issue preventing AI rebasing of missiles to missile cruisers

Link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1kDoY0m8etquY134MJlRFqzLptFQwC5Vr/view?usp=sharing

Online as of 2:17 PM CST. Not savegame compatible.

 

[DukeBrani]

Just out of curiosity, why are cities near lakes no longer able to build Triremes and Lighthouses?

 

[Stalker0]

Interesting, so the way I understood that, if you don't have any units near the city your attacking (such as just shelling with bombers and artillery lets say), than the city has a much bigger healing rate. Plus it has a bigger healing rate once the war is over.

I really like that idea!

 

[pineappledan]

Inquisitors can now be purchased as long as there is a majority religion in the city (fixes some issues

are Inquisitors still unlocked by enhancing, or are they available as soon as you found now?

 

[Nightmare Dusk]

Fixed a problem causing reproducability issues when loading a save file; might fix multiplayer being horribly broken

Potential multiplayer fixes? Oh boy!

 

[balparmak]

Some notes on UI changes:

Spoiler Locking specialists :

Currently work like this
- If you click on a slot filled by AI governor, it will remove the citizen working as a specialist, and will assign the citizen to the best plot (according to the AI governor). Note that that slot can be re-filled when the AI governor updates the city.*
- If you click on a empty slot, it will add a Locked specialist without enabling manual control. This way you can micro-manage a few important slots, and let the AI governor manage the other ones. The "Locked" specialists will remain there until you remove them. You'll see a "Reset Specialists" button if the city has any locked specialist slots, this will re-assign all specialists, especially useful if you run into any glitches.
I've considered to add a proper "prevent the AI gov from filling this slot without taking manual control" feature, but it's too much work for very, very little benefit. Just use manual control if you need that.

Spoiler EUI Top Panel rework :

• Increased contrast for all text&numbers, and turn counters use a slightly different tone than their yields to help readability.
• Trade Routes will be colored green when there are unused routes.

Consistency improvements:

• Moved Per Turn yields of Faith and Gold to the left of their respective icons, same as Science, Culture and Tourism.
• Moved progress bars to the right of the icon for Great Person and Golden Age, same as Science and Culture.
• Removed parentheses around Military Supply.

Readability & Clean-up:
A note on Atlas icons vs Font icons: In simple terms, atlas icons are used by Great Person, Tech and Religious unit/buildings and are resized from 45x45 atlases, font icons are almost half the size and used by all other icons on the panel. While atlas icons take more space, they aren't easier to distinguish, and most of them are cropped and/or clip through bars.

• Replaced cropped atlas icons with font icons for Great Person and Religious unit/progress/building counters. Icon for "Luxury Resources" is replaced with the "Trade" font icon, as it was using the Great Merchant font icon before.
• Removed the icon for currently researched tech. This information is provided by Science tooltip and the large tech icon just below the top panel, so this icon is redundant.
  
• Reworked happiness indicators: Overall happiness is indicated by a dynamic happiness (emoji) icon instead of the generic green citizen icon. Icons for total happiness and total unhappiness are removed, instead they are color coded.

Placement:

• Moved Gold section to the right of Faith to group main yields. Move Luxury Resources to the left of Trade Routes, on the right side.
• Moved Great Person and Instant Yields to the right side.

You can delete the "ImprovedTopPanel" folder under "(3a) VP - EUI Compatibility Files" to get the old top panel back. Most of the changes can also be customized in ImprovedTopPanel/TopPanel.lua. Here's a list:
ReplaceIcons = default true -- replaces cropped, outsized icons of Pantheon, Prophet and other Great Persons with font icons, uses Trade icon instead of GMerchant for Luxury Resources. Set false to get cropped awful icons back
PerTurnOnLeft = default true -- moves GoldPernTurn and FaithPerTurn to the left of their respective icons, to be consistent with other yields. Set false to get old weirdness
HideTechIcon = default true -- removes the icon of currently researched text. Set false to get the icon back
CondensedHappiness = default true -- Remove Happy & Unhappy icons (keeps their numbers), and replace Citizen Icon with a dynamic Happiness one. Set to false to get happy/unhappy icons back, this reverts the overall happy percentage icon to a dynamic citizen one
ExtraCondensedHappiness = default false -- Set true to remove Happy & Unhappy numbers and only display the happy percentage with the dynamic happiness icon
NoParentheses = default true -- Remove parentheses from supply text, set false to get parentheses back
HideMenuButton = default false -- set true to hide the Menu button (3 lines)
HideCivilopediaButton = default false -- set true to hide the Civilopedia button (question mark)

I've attached some screens for comparison. You can see some additional screens here. Feedback is appreciated, I'm considering to increase the space between sections very slightly since top panel is much less crowded now.

As always, you can chime in with your tips here https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/curated-list-of-vox-populi-tips.677531/

 

[Zanteogo]

Just out of curiosity, why are cities near lakes no longer able to build Triremes and Lighthouses?

I wonder as well... being as we can connect the lake to the ocean via forts.

 

[Recursive]

Just out of curiosity, why are cities near lakes no longer able to build Triremes and Lighthouses?

It was unintended to begin with.

Interesting, so the way I understood that, if you don't have any units near the city your attacking (such as just shelling with bombers and artillery lets say), than the city has a much bigger healing rate. Plus it has a bigger healing rate once the war is over.

I really like that idea!

I made a slight mistake in the changelog which I've fixed - to stop the dramatically faster healing, you need to blockade one of the six tiles adjacent to the city. Other tiles are not relevant.

Remember that land units blockade adjacent undefended tiles now!

are Inquisitors still unlocked by enhancing, or are they available as soon as you found now?

I removed a line which blocked Inquisitor purchases if the city religion didn't match the player's official religion. Unsure.

I wonder as well... being as we can connect the lake to the ocean via forts.

You can also do that with a landlocked city.

 

[PhilMyBelly]

I wonder as well... being as we can connect the lake to the ocean via forts.

Exactly, I think the change is good for isolated inland lakes, however if you can manage to connect it, then boats should be buildable imo!

 

[Recursive]

Exactly, I think the change is good for isolated inland lakes, however if you can manage to connect it, then boats should be buildable imo!

I agree, but this requires complex new code.

 

[hyuckkim]

How can I display the tip in a different language?
Should Lua be overwritten?

 

[greenfieldpark]

Potential multiplayer fixes? Oh boy!

Hehe my thoughts as well. Very ambitious. Really hoping it works.

 

[rkkn]

oof. Where can I find the relevant files for reverting the lake lighthouse etc thing?

Connecting lakefront cities to the ocean is one of my favorite things to do. Also nice seeing a cargo ship move across a particularly large lake.
Even for isolated inland lakes, I've had a setup where a lake was between me and my enemy. When he declared war I built a dromon in it to help with defense

 

[Rekk]

oof. Where can I find the relevant files for reverting the lake lighthouse etc thing?

Connecting lakefront cities to the ocean is one of my favorite things to do. Also nice seeing a cargo ship move across a particularly large lake.
Even for isolated inland lakes, I've had a setup where a lake was between me and my enemy. When he declared war I built a dromon in it to help with defense

Change everything with a MinAreaSize greater than -1 in the Units and Buildings tables to -1.

 

[Stalker0]

Remember that land units blockade adjacent undefended tiles now!

Does a unit need to be next to a city to blockade their tiles, or 1 tile away?

 

[CppMaster]

Only COMBAT units in damaged cities start damage

What does that mean?

You can also do that with a landlocked city

Then why is it intended to block cities adjacent to a lake from building a ship? Water is water, so it'd be more consistent to just treat it as a coastal city. One less arbitrary rule to remember.

 

[balparmak]

How can I display the tip in a different language?
Should Lua be overwritten?

Sadly they're only available in English for now, but I can add other languages if anyone's willing to translate. That said I think non-English languages in VP are outdated, so there's a lot of work to do for them

 

[Agiwan]

Hehe my thoughts as well. Very ambitious. Really hoping it works.

Same, I test it ASAP !

 

[DeAnno]

Luxes seem to sell quite cheaply now, at least at high difficulty, which I think I agree with; why should AI buy luxes at exorbitant cost that it doesn't need? This will have the side effect of making higher difficulties much harder though, losing a large ready source of early gold. I'm probably going to get trashed in my current Deity game and move down to Immortal after.

 

[TaylorItaly]

Please revert those changes to the lakes-no marine,no lighthouse !!
Pangea-maps with inland-sea will not have any navy-that is too bad !!!