Promotion Overhaul: First Preview [WORK IN PROGRESS]

[raystuttgart]

Hi guys,

several of our gameplay features do not yet have specific Promotions.
Specialized Promotions - in general - are also part of my "Promotions Overhaul".

Credits for Buttons:
other Mods (most from Caveman 2 Cosmos)

Since the ones below do not require much programming and I also already have buttons I wil create them now (for Release 3.1):
(All my other "Specialized Promotions" require programming the actual features first.)

Promotions vs. Slaves / Criminals (Runaways and Revolting)

• Slave Hunter I
• Slave Hunter II
• Slave Hunter III

Promotions to prevent Slaves Running away / revolting

• Slave Master I
• Slave Master II
• Slave Master III

Promotions vs. Natives (unless armed with Guns / Horses)

• Conquistador I
• Conquistador II
• Conquistador III

Promotions vs. Royal Units (Land)

• Guerilla Warfare I (Requires General)
• Guerilla Warfare II (Requires General)

Promotions vs. Man-o-Wars and Ships of the Line

• Ship of the Line Combat I (Requires Admiral)
• Ship of the Line Combat II (Requires Admiral)

Promotios vs. Pirates / Privateers / Smuggling Ships

• Coastal Guard I
• Coastal Guard II

Sailing faster on Lakes / Rivers / Shallow Water

• Calm Water Sailing I
• Calm Water Sailing II
• Calm Water Sailing III

Increasing chances of Capturing Enemy Ships

• Boarding Crew I
• Boardign Crew II

Increasing chances of Capturing "War Prisoners"

• Non-Lethal Force I
• Non-Lethal Force II

...

As a first Preview how the Promotion System Overhaul (Specializations and Tactics addon) may look like:
(Folders containt several Promotions of course.)

By the way:
Some of these Promotions like (e.g. Morale / Demoralized, Command Chain ... )

• will be given by the game (e.g. Morale System, Tactics / Command System)
• are temporary / situational modifiers (e.g. the Red and Purple ones)

This is work in progress - it is not finished yet:

 

[raystuttgart]

Remark:

The "Promotions Overhaul" and the "Combat Overhaul" are basically 2 sides of the same medal.
(They need each other to work out as expected.)

e.g.

• Unit Specialization Paths is using permanent Promotions
  
• Moral System is using temporary Promotions (morale Effects build up and vanish again after some time)
• Fortification Overhaul is using temporary Promotions to build up and visualize "Fortification Strength"
• Bombard System is using temporary Promotions to build up and visualize "Bobard Damage"
• Tactics System is using semi-temporary Promotions (first have to be acquired - then selectable / changeable each turn by Player)
• Command System (based on "Command Points" and distance to own Colonies) is currently still an "experimental concept" but it would use Promotions as well
• ...

For more information see:
Combat System Overhaul (Part 1 of ...): Splitting iCombat
Concept Preview: Combat System Overhaul (Part 2 to Part ....)

 

[raystuttgart]

By the way:
Sorry if my modding may currently seem to be "chaotic and confusing" to some of you ...

I have phases where I mod on several of my game concepts at once.
Whenever I get new ideas for a topic I jump to that topic and implement it ...

The reason why I started working on this - one of my oldest concepts - again this morning:
Discussions about "Negative Promotions" (see here) gave me an inspiration which caused a conceptual breakthrough for this.
(This concept has become a lot easier than it was before.)

 

[Arkona]

I dont want to hijack but C2C has a promotion to but 1 land unit into another like PoW i think that would be nice for this mod to . And question PoW for europeans ? or natives only ?

 

[raystuttgart]

... PoW ...

Prisoners of War would only be taken between Europeans / Kings.
(Natives would not take POW and would not be take as POW themselves.)

Basically this comes back to another concept "War Overhaul / War Weariness / POW". - In a later stage / later release ...
(I create deep nets of concepts ... sorry ... it is really hard to understand for a player that does not know the big picture.)

1. The more "Prisoners of War" the other side takes, the higher the "War Weariness" (causing Unhappiness) of the other side will get.
2. If the "War Weariness" gets too high you automatically lose the War and the loser needs to return all POW for free (as free Colonists again)
3. The winner will get a DLL-Diplo-Dialog-Pop-Up and can decide to sell all POW to the loser for Gold or to return them for free for Attitude improvement.
4. If he does neither of both the winner will keep all POW and they will basically function like "Criminals" (e.g. try to run away)
5. But a subfeature of LbD "LbDReturPOW" will at some point return the POW to the former owner (as free Colonists again)
6. If the former owner / enemy is completely elimiated from the game, the POW will automatically become free Colonists of the current owner.

-----

For the first stage "POW" would simply be like "Criminals". (Run away, Revolt or become Free)
(I will need time to implement full "War Overhaul / War Weariness / POW". Maybe in Release 3.2 or 3.3 - not in 3.1 probably.)

-----

Just do not ask too much.
Whenever somebody pulls a string in one of my concepts he will kind of "pull out the next concept" ...
(The complete game design / vision is connected by various concepts ...)

 

[ConjurerDragon]

...
Promotions vs. Slaves / Criminals (Runaways and Revolting)

• Slave Hunter I
  
• Slave Hunter II
  
• Slave Hunter III

Promotions to prevent Slaves Running away / revolting

• Slave Master I
• Slave Master II
• Slave Master III
• Slave Master IV
• Slave Master V

When colonization first came out (the original game not Civ IV - Col) I remember an article about how the game was ahistorical, lacking some of the most prominent colonizers (e.g. Portugal) and completely ignoring slavery
e.g.
https://www.filfre.net/2020/12/ethics-in-strategy-gaming-part-2-colonization/
With that barrage of promotions you´ll turn the tide!

Promotions vs. Natives (inlc. Native Mercenaries)

• Conquistador I
  
• Conquistador II
  
• Conquistador III

I would suggest to excempt Native Mercenaries. And those native braves that are armed with guns. Conquistadors like Pizarro or Cortez were the shining examples of "modern" technology (arquebuses, steel armor and swords that had a longer reach than the wooden weapons on which obsidian was placed of the Aztecs. They used the native prophecies against them, appearing as returned gods from across the sea and appeared as monstrous godlike creatures for people who had never seen a human riding on a horse.

All those advantages should be gone, once the natives aquire guns and horses themselves that can penetrate the spanish armour and are no longer going practically naked and with woodenbased clubs with obsidian blades on top against armoured opponents with a longer reach.

Promotions vs. Royal Units (Land)

• Unconventional Tactics I (Requires General)
  
• Unconventional Tactics II (Requires General)

I´m not sure but I think the use of "unconventional tactics" is relatively new and contemporary "guerilla warfare" would sound better?
https://apps.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fullt...and thus ultimately gain the nation’s freedom.

 

[raystuttgart]

With that barrage of promotions you´ll turn the tide!

Well, I hope that is a good thing.
I just want this mod to be a bit historically correct ...

I would suggest to excempt Native Mercenaries. And those native braves that are armed with guns.

Agreed.
(This is still work in progress anyways.)

I´m not sure but I think the use of "unconventional tactics" is relatively new and contemporary "guerilla warfare" would sound better?

Agreed.
(I will rename them.)

 

[modmod]

So far looks fine.
Await combat overhaul P1 too (is that for 3.1?).

What does Slave Master do? And for which units?

 

[raystuttgart]

What does Slave Master do? And for which units?

Is is pretty simple actually.
(Just a few lines of code and a new XML modifier in Civ4PromotionInfos.xml).

You can e.g. give it to "Colonial Militia" or "Town Guards".
Every Unit with that Promotion that is stationed in a City will reduce the chances of "Slaves / Criminals Fleeing" and "Slaves / Criminals Revolting".

So it directly affects these 2 features:
(It is not related to Combat.)

• "Slaves / Criminals Fleeing"
• "Slaves / Criminals Revolting"

 

[Arkona]

do you have a plan for something like a police promotion against unrest ?
Would be nice only for the townguard would give the Unit more use .

 

[raystuttgart]

do you have a plan for something like a police promotion against unrest ?

Now I do.
(Did not have one before, so thanks for the hint.)

 

[raystuttgart]

By the way guys:

The XP system itself will be overhauled as well.
(Otherwise this would not work because not enough XP would be generated.)

XP System Overhaul System allowing natural XP generation using all game elemements (both water Units and land Units)

 

[Elirector]

do you have a plan for something like a police promotion against unrest ?
Would be nice only for the townguard would give the Unit more use .

I had the same idea few weeks ago and have just forgot to post, thank you
And also townguards and militias should get XP for just bein fortified in colony (in upcoming XP overhaul), may be for each turn with negative happiness but without unrest, or just randomly at the end of turn.

 

[ConjurerDragon]

I had the same idea few weeks ago and have just forgot to post, thank you
And also townguards and militias should get XP for just bein fortified in colony (in upcoming XP overhaul), may be for each turn with negative happiness but without unrest, or just randomly at the end of turn.

No unit should gain XP for doing nothing.
A townguard or militia may stand around fortified most of the time, but their active role is defending the colony against attacks or raids and THAT should gain them XP. Or catching criminals and runaway slaves and the occasional animal that concerns the people.

 

[Elirector]

No unit should gain XP for doing nothing.
A townguard or militia may stand around fortified most of the time, but their active role is defending the colony against attacks or raids and THAT should gain them XP. Or catching criminals and runaway slaves and the occasional animal that concerns the people.

they are not doing nothing. they are doing their exact work: defending colony and maintaining safety inside, if we want them to reduce chance of unrest - they should get xp for that. Not just free xp every turn, but representation of their police work.

 

[ConjurerDragon]

they are not doing nothing. they are doing their exact work: defending colony and maintaining safety inside, if we want them to reduce chance of unrest - they should get xp for that. Not just free xp every turn, but representation of their police work.

I don´t mind giving out XP for a unit that *defends the colony*. Just not to a unit that waits and waits and waits but noone attacks or raids.
You don´t get combat experience by waiting for combat. And as promotions are bought by the XP gained and the unit could buy a promotion that makes it better in combat wtih XP from making sure that no jaywalking or littering happens in the city I object against that. If those policing XP you suggest could only be used to become better at policing - fine.

 

[raystuttgart]

No unit should gain XP for doing nothing.

I agree.
But there could e.g. still be "DLL checks":

• A Unit with Promotion "Slave Master" actually preventing a "Slave Revolt" (to happen by LbD Revolt): Give a bit of XP. --> Message triggered that Slave Revolt successfull prevented.
  
• A Unit with Promotion "Law Keeper" actually preventing a "Unrest" (to happen by Unrest mechanic): Give a bit of XP. --> Message triggered that Unrest successfull prevented.
• ...

There is a "strategic decision" involved to use that Unit like that.
Thus the relevant game features will be able to generate XP.
(Standing around inactively itself will not.)

----

Summary:

It is not just getting XP for doing nothing.
It is XP for actually being involved in a game feature.

This is what I meant with this one, when I talk about "all game elements". <--- game features that are to be actively considered in strategy

XP System Overhaul System allowing natural XP generation using all game elements (both water Units and land Units)

Everybody ok with that?
(Trust me, I will not throw XP for free.)

 

[Elirector]

Everybody ok with that?
(Trust me, I will not throw XP for free.)

Exactly the thing I had in mind

 

[CptBadger]

Will TG and similar units being used for policing purposes have a base percentage chance to stop revolts/escapes, prior to promoting? If you're at peace, and they don't have a base chance to stop revolt/escape, they'll never start earning xp for policing.

Other than that caveat, love the concept especially regarding slave Master tree.

Would be great for xp to be obtained for various tasks other than outright combat, like trade vessels earning a point of XP for every 1000 goods sold in Europe (or whatever number is balanced.) I mean, a merchant man with a crew thats made the trip back and forth a dozen times would surely operate more effectively than a brand new ship and rookie crew.

 

[raystuttgart]

Will TG and similar units being used for policing purposes have a base percentage chance to stop revolts/escapes, prior to promoting?

I will need to see what I will do.

1. Currently this is just "work in progress". I will need to see when and if I will ever finish this. (Because it is almost too big for a 1 man project.)
2. Currently it is also just "ray's private WTP modmod". I will need to see if WTP team wants to integrate it. (Because this concept has never been discussed / agreed.)

Thus if some other modder wants to implement a similar concept before, go ahead.
I would of course also share all the buttons and others stuff I have collected.
(I am busy enough with all the other stuff I am currently working on.)