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

[matthewv]

I see one big problem with the map and that's the fact that with no water the entire map is habitable meaning there's too much expansion possible. Can this be counterbalanced matthewv?

We do have dust seas instead of water which are not habitable. In the setings at the begining of the game you can change how they appear(small lakes etc. I have to change the name from lakes yet)If this is set to small lakes you will get a small amount of dust sea. If you think we should increase the amount of dust seas, your wish is my command.

 

[woodelf]

We do have dust seas instead of water which are not habitable. In the setings at the begining of the game you can change how they appear(small lakes etc. I have to change the name from lakes yet) If you think we should increase the amount of dust seas, your wish is my command.

I was more wondering about changing the amount of players per map size. Right now you get 5-6 for small, but you could use 7-9 on the moon map. I think what you've done is terrific, but can the number of players on each size be increased?

 

[dsquared]

we need that artillery, no counter for stack of doom in era 1

What needs doing? I can work on unit balance issues since i already outlined my ideal. any more art to work on, it looks great so far, i cant code wort a damn we need a new focus, getting a semi balanced playable alpha into peoples hands

edit- where are the XMLs taht will make the AI engineers build? i want to playtest the latest. ITS FRIDAY WOOHOO, i need to get this doubly done because i will start working working next week that and school will eat up a lot of my time.

 

[woodelf]

New file sent. The AI did build for me.

More units need doing. 2nd,3rd, 4th era units need doing.

I'm planning on doing tech Civilopedia sometime since I hate TXT_KEY crap.

 

[Belizan]

I just did a quick WorldBuilder check and the AI is doing a great job building stuff. They have mines, Helium3 Plants, glasshouses.

I see one big problem with the map and that's the fact that with no water the entire map is habitable meaning there's too much expansion possible. Can this be counterbalanced matthewv?

Introduce some sort of "dead" terrain type. Like Tundra or Desert, that really is never helpful, and then spread it around in large patches.

 

[dsquared]

i agree basalt seas taht exist on the moon should be useless except for solar power etc

edit belizan i posted in your thread about when we can expect artillery to be ready

well im gonna go play some americas army

 

[matthewv]

So do we just want to make dust seas larger and not produce anything or do we want to indroduce a new terrain type that produces nothing. Personally I think we should just increase the size of the dust seas and reduce it yeild to nothing.

Edit: I was playtesting the mod and noticed I no longer got dust sea on my map.(very little anyway)
What did you do with my dust sea's woodelf?

 

[GeoModder]

Where do we change what the Goody Huts say when you pop one?

"The villagers give you..." doesn't quite work!

And what techs should we limit the lunar debris (goody huts) to giving the players?

A thought... in the GreenMod (by Master Lexx) exists an ancient temple plot (graphics of a mesoamerican pyramid) which, when worked within cityradius, gives alot of commerce (tourism I gather) after it is "explored" by a worker. Perhaps something you can use for the old landingsites of NASA and the Russian space agency?

As on the Goody Huts, how about letting them "appear" only when contact with Earth is gone, representing some equipment sent to the moon but landed on the wrong spot(s) due to the confusion?

Btw, you guys know that with version 1.52 two new unit meshes shipped? A SAM truck and a Houwitzer. Since they're on tracks, they might be usefull as a base mesh as well.

And what's wrong with the whole map being habitable? It has a bit more land then a "Lake" map, and that works fine AFAIK.

 

[matthewv]

Its no wonder the dust seas disappeared. someone set <bwater> to 0 instead of 1 under terrain define for TERRAIN_DUSTSEA_WATER.

 

[Belizan]

Just got done trying out the copy that Matthewv pointed me at. It looks pretty darn good . I was particularly happy with the unit buttons .

Just confirming that the version I looked at had no civic details, and they are all available at thes start. All the terrains produced food, near as I could tell. All the resources seemed nearly identical. We didn't disable the production of size one "frest water" lakes all over the map, which I think we want to. I also experienced CTDs both times, I tried it out, the second time I had to really play some games to not have to hard reboots. Huts seemed a little silly 8). You know we can totally override those? Anyway... Very cool stuff .

 

[JBG]

Guys, I found an interesting mod we might want to seriously consider adding to our own. It's thread is here and it centres around making a popup screen with a quote &c every time you get a new Great Person. It might be useful to add a bit more colour.

That's a LOT of discussion which was going on while I was asleep! I can work on a new Moon Bible if you think it will help. And, yes, I get a quit-crash bug too.

I can work on tweaking results and effects for things like buildings, civics and terrain improvements.

I think with huts, we sould seed them after the cutoff from earth, and they can be ruins, or wreckage or something.

And guys, we ALREADY HAVE A TERRAIN CALLED "MARIA BASALT!" We can just tweak the values on that, and Matthewv might be able to program it into the python file that it always appears in big blobs (like the Maria on the moon). As it's nice and flat, it would be ideal for building most terrain improvements, but some might not work as well. Glasshouses might not work, for example, due to the lack of a dust layer.

If we do that, AND slightly up the amount of dust seas we get, we can make things a bit more interesting.

Anyway, that's just an idea - and it doesn't need any work, as the hard bit's already done!

 

[woodelf]

Its no wonder the dust seas disappeared. someone set <bwater> to 0 instead of 1 under terrain define for TERRAIN_DUSTSEA_WATER.

OOPS! I was trying to get rid of the food problem! My bad.

edit - When this gets set back to 1 do the tiles generate more food again? I'll check soon.

 

[woodelf]

Btw, you guys know that with version 1.52 two new unit meshes shipped? A SAM truck and a Houwitzer. Since they're on tracks, they might be usefull as a base mesh as well.

Thanks for the heads-up. I'll look into how hard they are to skin.

 

[woodelf]

I'm about done doing quotes and Sid's tips for the techs. Next is actually putting in the proper advisors and flavors. That might help the AI.

 

[fe3333au]

Good work everyone

Sorry if the ideas below have already been mentioned or dismissed ... I am on page 11 and still reading ... but must soon throw some zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

I also do not have cIV running on system yet ... need new system ... so these ideas may not be possible to impliment anyway ...

... But here goes ....

Goody Huts and Barb camps ... old spaceware left behind, automated and temporary manned camps, robotic rovers ... all the junk sent and left before the first permanent colonies were sent.

Popping Results
> Cash ... the value of the rare and precious substances used to construct them eg. all that gold our Apollo landers left behind.
> Map ... they were survey units, maybe geological or water searches.
> Explosion ... unstable isotopes caused the unit/facility to explode and damage or kill the unwary or clumsy scout.
> Robot Scout/Worker ... they are found inactive and are either easily repaired or just required a recharge.
> Rogue Robot ... found inactive, but on activation attacks through a malfunction in programming.
> Colonist (manybe specific types) ... find a missing colonist/explorer who went into hybernation.
> Cash ... Artifact, collector's value for finding a piece of space exploration history ... the first (Buzz's ??) golf ball, flag, imprint of the first Chinese astronaut, Mummified remains of the 2020 Virgin Starliner passengers and crew, etc.
> Abandoned Base which can be converted into a settlement.


Defensive Weapon Idea
> Landmine or Bobby trap ... these would be invisible to everyone but the team that placed them ... immobile ... self destruct but with much damage caused ... the target unit walks into it and ... BOOM !!!

EDIT ... Wow got there ... kudos to you all especially the core ... amazing work and dedication

 

[matthewv]

Defensive Weapon Idea
> Landmine or Bobby trap ... these would be invisible to everyone but the team that placed them ... immobile ... self destruct but with much damage caused ... the target unit walks into it and ... BOOM !!!

good ideas fe3333au.
I actually had this idea when I first saw this thread but was not going to mention it until all the main work is done on this mod as this might be hard to impliment in a way that the AI will use it properly.

edit - When this gets set back to 1 do the tiles generate more food again? I'll check soon.

I mangaged to get rid of the food problem. In the global defines xml their is a tag called <yeildbonus> or something like that. Change this from a 1 to a 0 and I think your extra food that is apearing should disappear.

 

[dsquared]

I will be back in 6 hours, someone post by that time what needs doing, as far as graphics goes or anything else really. I havent contributed in a couple days and am looking for some direction.

 

[woodelf]

I will be back in 6 hours, someone post by that time what needs doing, as far as graphics goes or anything else really. I havent contributed in a couple days and am looking for some direction.

The only graphical thing I can think of is skinning some units for some variety, but that's merely cosmetic. You've nailed the resources and I think all of the improvements. Now it's simply time to tweak the values so it's playable.

I know you listed new units 20 or so pages ago. Do you want to code them in or wait for me to do it? After I do the tech tree I'll most likely jump towards them.

We also need ideas for some early buildings that give happiness. I can also put those into XML if someone can think of anything.

There's also adding some variety to the civs. Right now their traits are most likely default and everyone gets the same starting techs.

Let me get the tech tree's flavor and advisor correct and we can see how the AI does then.

 

[woodelf]

I mangaged to get rid of the food problem. In the global defines xml their is a tag called <yeildbonus> or something like that. Change this from a 1 to a 0 and I think your extra food that is apearing should disappear.

Was it this?

<Define>
<DefineName>EXTRA_YIELD</DefineName>
<iDefineIntVal>0</iDefineIntVal>
</Define>

 

[matthewv]

<Define>
<DefineName>EXTRA_YIELD</DefineName>
<iDefineIntVal>0</iDefineIntVal>
</Define>

I think so. Either that or something else. Dont remember what else if it is.