Rallying call for all interested: Colonisation of the Moon mod!

[woodelf]

My head is swimming with possibilities....

So once we all get the game running with the groovy terrain we'll need to brainstorm where to drop the prereqs. As dsquared already pointed out (and I already knew) everything is bunched at the beginning.

If you make a change please either jot it down here or jot it down here and upload the XML file you changed so we can all see it. Resources, improvements, ect all need to be adjusted.

 

[matthewv]

Just stick the textures folder I posted in the folder art/terrain.(not the art under the xml folder) and start a moon_map. It is esentail that you start a moon_map map type otherwise all you will get is the old textures.

Edit: I ment art/terrain not art/textures

 

[woodelf]

Just stick the textures folder I posted in the folder art/textures.(not the art under the xml folder) and start a moon_map. It is esentail that you start a moon_map map type otherwise all you will get is the old textures.

Can't get much more idiot proof than that! Thanks man.

Did you get the file from JBG (I sent him your email)? If not it's only 6 hours until I get home!

 

[matthewv]

@woodelf
make sure you check my edit in the above post.

no I did not get the email yet. I can wait till you get home since I'm in school now.

 

[woodelf]

Okay team (and lurkers), time to brainstorm some more units. I have some time at work between experiments to do XML work on UnitClass and UnitInfos files. Start the ideas flowing....

I assume for every research type like Quantum, Beam, ect there will be Foot and Tracked units. I'm not sold on air units being useful since I have never seen the AI use them worth a damn. And I'm not sure nuking the Moon is such a good idea... Spies are something I never use, but I know they have a place here if someone can dream some up I'll do the dirty XML work.

 

[woodelf]

@woodelf
make sure you check my edit in the above post.

no I did not get the email yet. I can wait till you get home since I'm in school now.

Thanks for the edit. I think I might have caught that eventually.

Did you incorporate dsquared's stuff into your XML files? I'm not sure how many improvements and resources he did, but he needs to do some more since they kick ass.

 

[woodelf]

Possible promotions: (all have I, II, II, or IV levels)

Some standard ones like Vanilla -
Mobility
City Attack
Hill Defense
Garrison

Some just for this mod
vs Foot
vs Tracked
vs Recon
vs Skimmer
vs Beam
vs Rocket

Any other ideas?

 

[JBG]

First Aid (heal foot units)
Field Repair (heal tracked units)
Strategy (increases stack strength)
Coordinated Command (increases stack strength even more)
Real-time Comms (increase movement)
Integrated Defence increases stack defence)
Artillery (+15% bombardment)

Vs. beam upgrade: Diffraction Shield
Vs. rocket upgrade: Comms Scrambling
Vs. recon: Stealth

Also the surveying/recon upgrade which grants extra sight radius.

Any good?

Edit: has anyone ever seen the AI use anything other than the strength upgrades? I haven't...

 

[woodelf]

Sadly, when in doubt the AI tends to use strength 1-4 before anything. In Kael's FfH mod they will use vs. Melee and Garrison quite nicely. I'm not sure where you code in how the AI should upgrade. Maybe Kael can keep advising me.....

edit : Yeah, those ideas work well. Bombarding, healing, and sight are all needed.

 

[JBG]

Or we could simply nerf the basic strength upgrade and only confer more strength with the high-level upgrades (like Garrison IV, &c)

 

[woodelf]

Yeah, that works. I know the strength was used to allow units access to "higher" promotions. We can fiddle with it and see if we need strength or if we can bypass it.

Did you get matthew's terrain to work?

 

[Kael]

Or we could simply nerf the basic strength upgrade and only confer more strength with the high-level upgrades (like Garrison IV, &c)

I've definitly seen it try more than one option. Its not unusual, for example, to see 2 axemen running around, one with a bunch of combat (straight strength) upgrades and another with a bunch of city attack upgrades. Once it starts on a line for a unit the AI tends to follow that line. I assume because the upgrades get better as the line goes on so as it compares 1st step upgrades to 3rd step upgrades it chooses the 3rd step.

So the AI does a decent job of picking between the promotions, it does favor strength over movement, but will get bombard upgrades for units that can do that and such.

And of course once the unit has the promotion he uses it well, taking advantage of the additional strenght/movement/healing/etc.

The problem comes when a promotion doesn't do anything standard and is instead used to confer some bonus in python. From your examples it doesn't look like this applies to anything you are doing. The AI is unaware of python effects and won't pick the promotion if it exists.

But you can get around this too, it just takes a little coding. If you have a promotion that requires combat2, you can write a check for when a AI controlled unit gains combat3 and (if you have the requirements) give it a 25% chance to remove combat3 and add your special promotion instead.

There are probably more clever answers, but for the time being I wouldn't let the AI stop you from doing anything. Make all your promotions and fix the AI issues that pop up as they happen.

 

[woodelf]

Thanks Kael. So basically we should include what we want and pound the code into submission later! That sounds elegant.

 

[Kael]

Thanks Kael. So basically we should include what we want and pound the code into submission later! That sounds elegant.

Don't let technical limitations keep you from designing the game you want. You may have to cut things later, but shoot for everything you want int he design phase. The engine is amazing, and capable of so much more than any of us are doing with it so far. I feel like I am just begining to touch the surface.

 

[dsquared]

Do we have the moon_map script in there? I dont appear to have it was anyone else able to find this file?

edit- i guess ill xml it in and see what it looks like but it looks good in photoshop

 

[woodelf]

Do we have the moon_map script in there? I dont appear to have it was anyone else able to find this file?

edit- i guess ill xml it in and see what it looks like but it looks good in photoshop

It's in matthewv's file from 2-3 days ago. The Colonize the Moon zip file.

Any new resources, improvements rolling out of you dsquared?

edit - here's the link to the post : http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=3661443&postcount=384

 

[dsquared]

ok well I just had to hard reset my computer, somewhere in the mod there is a MAJOR problem I was in the main screen and went to load the mod again and it hung. dont know what happened anyways ill try and get that file

edit got it and loading it up, if it works ill add some of my stuff

edit2 - ok now i get like a million more errors on startup, there wasnt a moon map so i put moon map.py in the public maps folder instead of under mods and it gives me a failed to load python moon map module error anyone having better luck? when it did finally start a game it was using vanilla terrain and just calling it maria basalt for instance mhmm

edit 3 - WELL THATS WHY, the XML in his file had no terrain editing it was a plain xml file ok ill use yours and see if that helps

edit 4 - ok had to restart the comp the hard way AGAIN, apparently trying to exit the mod causes a loop ugh

edit 5 - working i guess, the script needs to be updated for the new terrain but heres a screenshot

 

[woodelf]

Wow, that's alot of edits!

So did you need to change anything in the XML or did mine work?

@matthewv - the file is finally sent via email.

 

[Kael]

ok well I just had to hard reset my computer, somewhere in the mod there is a MAJOR problem I was in the main screen and went to load the mod again and it hung. dont know what happened anyways ill try and get that file

edit got it and loading it up, if it works ill add some of my stuff

edit2 - ok now i get like a million more errors on startup, there wasnt a moon map so i put moon map.py in the public maps folder instead of under mods and it gives me a failed to load python moon map module error anyone having better luck? when it did finally start a game it was using vanilla terrain and just calling it maria basalt for instance mhmm

edit 3 - WELL THATS WHY, the XML in his file had no terrain editing it was a plain xml file ok ill use yours and see if that helps

edit 4 - ok had to restart the comp the hard way AGAIN, apparently trying to exit the mod causes a loop ugh

edit 5 - working i guess, the script needs to be updated for the new terrain but heres a screenshot

Looking good! Makes me want to go trolling for some alien booty.

Any plans to start the moon off "dry" and then terraform all the normal stuff back into it? So instead of having lakes you would just have empty craters that you could fill with water, plant fish in, etc?

 

[woodelf]

So what can we sub in for the trees? Another terrain type? Duplicate an existing terrain? How are the craters coming?