Playtest Feedback Thread

[The Capo]

This is the error message I keep getting. Do you mind resending me the file? This is the fourth download...

CRC failed in NewMOD\Assets\D2Leaderheads.FPK. The File is corrupt.

I'll try to fix this. I'll upload a new D2Leaderheads.FPK and see if that helps.

 

[Vortilex]

Thanks, I really want to start playtesting before June

 

[The Capo]

I haven't been able to upload the file because I don't think dropbox or Filefront recognize it on it's own and I'm trying not to compress it (since I beileve there was a decompression issue with you). Failing that, I'll try to upload it as a rar file and hope you can decompress it.

Anyway, so far in my first playtest after removing Machu Picchu, I still got a MAF but this time it was much later (late Renaissance/early Industrial) in the game than with Machu Picchu in. Which does pose a serious problem.

I will either have to cut out some more python, or some more art. Personally I'd rather cut out more art, because I like the features we have so far. I know you guys do too, but I REALLY need you to help me figure out how to make this mod more streamlined and perform better.

So, any ideas?

 

[The Almighty dF]

I haven't been able to upload the file because I don't think dropbox or Filefront recognize it on it's own and I'm trying not to compress it (since I beileve there was a decompression issue with you). Failing that, I'll try to upload it as a rar file and hope you can decompress it.

Anyway, so far in my first playtest after removing Machu Picchu, I still got a MAF but this time it was much later (late Renaissance/early Industrial) in the game than with Machu Picchu in. Which does pose a serious problem.

I will either have to cut out some more python, or some more art. Personally I'd rather cut out more art, because I like the features we have so far. I know you guys do too, but I REALLY need you to help me figure out how to make this mod more streamlined and perform better.

So, any ideas?

What features could we cut out that could help reduce MAFs?

 

[The Capo]

Yes, basically I have to remove some things to get it to run better than it is running now. I mean, if there are MAFs at this stage imagine how poorly it will perform after I add Inquisitors, which is a python-heavy feature.

I remember the discussion before about the Inquisitors, you know, whether or not we should have them in the game. I think the decision was that, since there is a religious victory added, it makes sense to add the inquisitors.

I suppose the most important question right now is whether or not they should be added anyway. Because even WITHOUT them there are performance issues. I still haven't put in the new python traits (because I want to try and get this MAF issue under control). It is even worse than I originally reported because I left out that I'm playing on a small map with five civs.

Perhaps the mapscript I use is to blame (although this is highly doubtful). I think I might have to cut the Flavian Amphitheatre next or possibly the capture slaves thing which would mean Serfdom reverts back to its old ways and to be honest I think we'd have to go back to the drawing board on favorite civics, I'm not sure though as I don't really know how the system works. So I need feedback here, because this is a delicate issue.

 

[Xyth]

It's best to treat MAFs and game speed as two separate issues. Python code affects game speed but is extremely unlikely to have anything to do with MAFs. MAFs are caused by art. I made some suggestions in another thread.

Perhaps the mapscript I use is to blame (although this is highly doubtful). I think I might have to cut the Flavian Amphitheatre next or possibly the capture slaves thing which would mean Serfdom reverts back to its old ways and to be honest I think we'd have to go back to the drawing board on favorite civics, I'm not sure though as I don't really know how the system works. So I need feedback here, because this is a delicate issue.

The Flavian Ampitheatre wouldn't be much of an issue, it's code isn't called too often. The slavery code I also wouldn't worry about as we figured out the section causing a potential problem wasn't even being used anymore (in the SDK/Python forum thread) and could be deleted. Machu Picchu was the worst culprit by far.

The only other bit of python I would be concerned with is this part of Next War:

def cannotConstruct(self,argsList):
pCity = argsList[0]
eBuilding = argsList[1]
bContinue = argsList[2]
bTestVisible = argsList[3]
bIgnoreCost = argsList[4]

# player can't build an arcology if they have shielding or advanced shielding
if eBuilding == gc.getInfoTypeForString("BUILDING_ARCOLOGY"):
if pCity.getNumRealBuilding(gc.getInfoTypeForString("BUILDING_ARCOLOGY_SHIELDING")) or pCity.getNumRealBuilding(gc.getInfoTypeForString("BUILDING_DEFLECTOR_SHIELDING")):
return True

# player can't build shielding if they have advanced
if eBuilding == gc.getInfoTypeForString("BUILDING_ARCOLOGY_SHIELDING"):
if pCity.getNumRealBuilding(gc.getInfoTypeForString("BUILDING_DEFLECTOR_SHIELDING")):
return True

If you can get rid of that then you can have all Python callbacks disabled which will help a ton. Although that code is tiny and won't affect speed by itself, having the callback enabled slows down the cannotConstruct() function. That function is called multliple times whenever the AI is deciding what to build - in other words, it's called a LOT, every single turn.

 

[The Capo]

Well, I'm in the middle of heavily cutting down on frivilous unit-art and I am going to replace some texture sizes and stuff like that, so hopefully that will help with the MAFs.

As far as performance goes; what exactly is this Next War bit of code asking the game to do? I could potentially remove it, but if it is integral to the Next War mod I might as well leave it in. I still haven't cut out that extra Slave function, so I'll do that after I finish streamlining the units.

I'm basically cutting down every unit group to one unit where possible (if there are cool units that use more than one model, like the Celtic Swordsman, Vietnamese War Elephants or the Carthaginian Spearman [because of the Sacred Band of Carthage model] I leave them alone). So I think once I finish that and get rid of the extra Slave code I'll try another game and see how it goes. It's all I can really do.

 

[Xyth]

I'm not very familiar with Next War so other than what it says in the comments I'm not sure how vital it is. Seems the first part of it prevents someone building an arcology if they already have shielding, and the second part prevents them building arcology sheilding if they already have deflector shielding.

That seems pretty minor to me and in my opinion it's a hefty price to have a slowdown throughout the entire game just for the sake of a few buildings mechanics in the future era.

 

[Vortilex]

How do the other large mods do it? You know, like RoM and LoR? They're larger-scope mods, but I think that maybe some of the guys working on those projects can give some insight into this matter.

 

[The Almighty dF]

How do the other large mods do it? You know, like RoM and LoR? They're larger-scope mods, but I think that maybe some of the guys working on those projects can give some insight into this matter.

RoM has MAF issues too, as does Extra. No clue on LoR.

 

[Vortilex]

My point is that I have only encountered them late-game in those mods. When toying with the assets in them, though, there are several .fpk files in there, so I'll assume that that helps delay the MAFs.

 

[The Capo]

My point is that I have only encountered them late-game in those mods. When toying with the assets in them, though, there are several .fpk files in there, so I'll assume that that helps delay the MAFs.

The amount of FPKs has nothing to do with it. Those mods also have less new leaders. RoM is riddled with MAF issues, LoR does not, but they also don't have as good graphics as DII does. The thing you should also remember is, since DII is meant to be an MP mod, best played with scheduled MP games or Pitboss, MAFs wouldn't really be an issue. This latest version I want to be an SP version too, so now I have to compensate for that.

I'll figure it out, I'm in the process of cutting down on unit graphics, and I have already done a bunch in that regard.

LH graphics is another animal, the only thing I can really do here is cut down on LHs that don't necessarily need to be shadered. You may say to yourself "Cap', what are you thinking!? They'll look worse un-shadered!!!!" That is not the case, CFK hardly has any shadered LHs and his are amazing. Not to mention one of my best, and most popular LHs (Dido) isn't shadered, but I used effects to make this less apparent. So I think I can pull it off to a small degree.

 

[Vortilex]

Go for it, man! It's kind of a lesson to us on trying to add too much to a project and seeing it collapse under its own weight. I guess it's time for a kind of DII diet.

 

[The Capo]

I figured this would be the best place to update you on how the next playtest is going. First I'd like to say that this will probably be the second to last playtest. Meaning there will be one more after this one and then the final release.

Now, what this means is that the vast majority of the new material will be in this playtest. This means there will be a lot for you guys to handle, so when it does come out it will have AI Autoplay as a feature so that you can start games out in later times, this should theoretically help you with your playtests. This next playtest will also feature the new text, and new leaders for the mod (this includes leaders that will be removed like Askia) as well as the new traits. There are also going to be a ton of features so this one will be pretty in-depth. The last playtest will mostly be graphical and performance-based. So that one will be where the final optimizations occur, and we'll just be seeing how well the mod performs.

I want to keep a lot of the new features a secret because some of them are pretty surprising, I think you all will be very happy with what I have done behind the scenes and I hope this makes up for lack of news here.

If anyone reading this would do me a favor and let me know if you are interested in playtesting that would be helpful, I haven't been so lucky with the PMs and I'm begining to get worried.

 

[AbsintheRed]

Didn't you say for a couple of times that you will choose who will get the next playtest?
Anyway, you can count on me

 

[The Capo]

Didn't you say for a couple of times that you will choose who will get the next playtest?
Anyway, you can count on me

Yeah, but I wasn't sure if anyone was still paying attention because I haven't been getting much feedback from anybody. I'm still waiting on a couple of "patches" for the next playtest, but so far everything's working pretty well.

 

[The Capo]

Alright everybody, I suppose I'll post this here because it involves a few things but ultimately involves the playtest. There is going to be more information on it when the links are sent out (which will be in a PM), but I figured if I discussed a few things here I might get more interest, so if you want to playtest, please PM me.

Anyway, on to what we're doing/testing here. The main additions so far have been Better AI, Manhattan Project is now a National/Team wonder, Mastery and Religious Victories, New Traits/Combinations, New Leaders, Improved Leader Personalities, Multiple Derivative Civilizations, Improved/Unreleased Unit Graphics (including new ethnic art), and Flags By Eras/Leaders. I have yet to try the Flags based on Leader yet but that will be part of a playtest patch, along with one of the Module Packs re-released with these features (Basically to see if I followed all of the right XML). I haven't decided which civ that will be yet (probably Huns or Timurids) but it will be cool. We can discuss that stuff in other threads though.

The part about the unreleased unit graphics; there is going to be a lot of new and unfinished stuff in this playtest. I will get into more detail when I send the links out, but there is going to be a very strict understanding regarding these units, reasonable, but strict. So keep that in mind if you volunteer.

I hope I get some help on this, there is a lot in this update and we're getting close to finishing. Thanks.

 

[The Capo]

PLAYTEST V​

Alright everybody, Playtest V has been sent out so if you check your PM box you should have mail. If you do not have mail please PM me and I'll get back to you with it (or explain why I didn't send it to you).

I'm pretty excited about this one, as there is a lot of new material involved. There are details in the PM, so again, if you want it please PM me and I'll see what I can do.

There is also AI-Autoplay involved, which should supposedly help you playtest, I totally forgot how to use it though so we might have to figure that out. Although I'd just suggest playing the game normally, so when the AI Autoplay pop-up comes up just hit OK. I don't really know how to actually get the AI-Autoplay to work itself, so if you know tell me, if not I'll figure it out.

Enjoy.

 

[The Capo]

Try to keep all comments regarding the playtest, or issues with the download, or anything like that in this thread just so everyone can stay up to speed on everything. Thanks.

 

[The Almighty dF]

-Nomadic needs a button
-Seti still labeled as Amenhotep III
-Civopedia info under Strategy says King Richards' Crusade gives a bonus to knights, but the actual wonder info doesn't say this.
-I noticed some error message when starting a game saying something about alt root being missing or something, I'll try to screencap it this time. (Edit: Directory from civaltroot.py is not valid or does not contain civilizationiv.ini) Also upon entering world builder (to test out unit graphics), I noticed that "City Ruins" is blank under the map button. I click City Ruins, and... the game crashes.
-English axemen have pink axes
-Frankish rifleman's gun is pink

Suggestions/Question:
-I notice the Arabic Great Scientist is the generic GS, if this isn't a bug, it'd be neat to have a middle eastern GS for middle east civs.
-Nationalistic could use a cheaper Security Bureau and Jail.
-I notice most civs seem to have the same Industrial settler/worker as they do Renaissance. For some civs, this looks -really- odd.
-Is the German Medieval/Renissance flag -supposed- to be a grey-black checkerboardish zig-zag pattern? It looked odd, so I wasn't sure if it was an error or not.