Questions and comments

[roidesfoux]

First off let me say that this is the best mod ever. Rebellion and civil war have been so important throughout history, the lack thereof in Civilization 4 was an unforgivable omission. I've only been using RevolutionDCM for a few days, but the experience has been fantastic.

1) I want to jump on the bandwagon of "more transparency/documentation". It's somewhat frustrating to see a city getting worse, even though the factors seem to be net positive, or vice versa.

2) For the Barbarian Civ mod, does conquest of a barbarian city cause a minor civilization to upgrade to major? If so, does the AI seek out barbarian cities, or does it go straight for other civilizations?

3) I prefered the art for the old resource flags, but I've been looking through the xml and I can't find out where that change was made. Can anyone help me with this? (Also, the icons for non-BtS units are fuzzy. I'm wondering if this is related.)

4) Just throwing this out there, because I know that the mod as-is takes a lot of effort, but if someone found the time to add a tech conquest mod, that would be superb.

 

[Mattygerst]

Instead of starting a new thread - I figured I'd hijack this one with a question of my own:

JDogg's work, in my opinion along with the BUG/BAT modders - is the ONLY reason to play Civ BTS to this day. The game, on its own, is completely unplayable. But, with the BetterAI fixes - there is no doubt that the game is vastly more enjoyable today than it ever has been before.

With that - I have one question about the Revolutions Mod. I just started using this mod, and if I'm asking a question that is common knowlege - please excuse my ignorance.

Question:
With the great emphasis built on Civil Wars & Empires breaking down...obviously the human player can see the adjustments to make - but can the AI actually DO this and not continually break apart? In other words...is this a mod that is useful and more fun for a single-player element? Can the AI actually use the revolutions mod correctly?

 

[roidesfoux]

This isn't so much a direct answer to your question but a description of a recent game that is somewhat relevant.

My continent was shaped roughly like an "H". I started out on the upper left limb, the Dutch started on the lower left limb, and the Inca started on the upper right limb. On the right half of the continent, here's what happened:

On the southern limb, Ethiopia formed as a minor civ, and started attacking the Inca. They were unable to take the outlying city they aimed for, but after a bit the became a major civ, and their SOD moved in. The captured the outlying city, then drove into the core, taking the Incan capital (Cuzco). The war continued without any cities changing hands, when all of a sudden Cuzco seceded, under control of Pacal of the Mayans. Pacal founded another city, and fought Zara Yaqob to a standstill. Eventually peace was made. While this was going on, Zara was able to take 2 of Hunya Capec's remaining 4 cities, until the Inca capitulated. Somewhat later, the Mayans asked to become my vassal (I refused), and before long they became Zara's vassal.

On my side, I had my capital at the center, and a ring of 6-7 cities around it. I was able to keep things under control with no problem. To my south, William Van Orange had a similar setup, except he also had a string of 3 cities extending across the bar of the "H". Despite the distance of these cities from the capital, he also never had a rebellion or any unrest.

Unfortunately, I accidentally saved over this game just after reaching the industrial era, so I don't know if things would have continued to be stable.

 

[roidesfoux]

One more question:

Is the garrison effect dependant on the strength of the units, or just the number? In other words, will a Crossbowman have a greater effect than an Archer?

 

[jdog5000]

1) I want to jump on the bandwagon of "more transparency/documentation". It's somewhat frustrating to see a city getting worse, even though the factors seem to be net positive, or vice versa.

Yes, what's needed is more visibility of the civ-wide effects that affect each city. It'll be added.

2) For the Barbarian Civ mod, does conquest of a barbarian city cause a minor civilization to upgrade to major? If so, does the AI seek out barbarian cities, or does it go straight for other civilizations?

Yes, sort of. Getting a second city helps a lot to get over the threshold, but isn't a guarantee like capturing a major city is. The AI will go for barb cities, but given to equally distant options usually picks another civ over a barb city.

3) I prefered the art for the old resource flags, but I've been looking through the xml and I can't find out where that change was made. Can anyone help me with this? (Also, the icons for non-BtS units are fuzzy. I'm wondering if this is related.)

Sorry, I don't know why this is different ... you could try using WinMerge to compare the art xml files.

can the AI actually DO this and not continually break apart?

Sort of ... the AI knows about some Revolution effects, and the effects have been generally setup so that successful AI empires will be stable. The goal is for there to always be some stable AI empires, some unstable ones, and for the AI to at times be able to stabilize an unstable one. It's working pretty well currently.

Is the garrison effect dependant on the strength of the units, or just the number?

Just the number.