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Editor's Note: This release has since been superseded by Carthage Preview 1.
Good day farmers and lawmakers! Today we are pleased to announce our new Babylon release, the first since the "Aztec" release in November.
Many improvements have been made since then. The first you'll notice is on the main menu, where we now have custom artwork, and where background music will play.
In game, you'll notice significant improvements to the map. Forests, jungles, marshes, hills, mountains, volcanoes, and rivers all appear in-game. Resources also appear, although for now they are display-only, with no impact in-game. With your Chariot unit, you'll see that movement costs are factored in to terrain, and a land/water distinction is also present.
Cities now produce units, on a set schedule, including new settlers, and, if they are coastal, galleys. This allows you to colonize your landmass (water transport is not yet implemented), and generally lead Babylon to greatness.
There are also now three AI opponents per map to contend with. They will also build units, and colonize land with settlers. Their AI logic remains primitive for now, but they will colonize based on tile yield, albeit preferring an Infinite City Sprawl (ICS) strategy. Don't be surprised if the AI tries to reach your preferred colonization site before you do!
You'll also run into barbarians, who send out Warriors to make your life difficult.
Make your life difficult, you ask? Indeed, because we now have our first iteration of combat, as well as unit animation. Units all have three hitpoints, and will duke it out whenever they come in contact with another civilization's units. So far, when that happens is based on the AI's random movements - or your intentional ones - but be careful because sooner or later the AI will run into you!
Behind the scenes, a lot of other, less visible improvements have also been made. Many BIQ files can be loaded (although most BIQ features are not yet supported); non-square maps are supported; and improvements have been made for setting a default Civ3 directory for importing artwork and opening scenarios. We've also been making some improvements to our C7 architecture as we switch from a prototype-proof-of-concept phase to a longer-term outlook.
I'd also like to call out that we have had several new collaborators since the Aztec release, with @Caro-Kann , @Lanzelot , @TowelCiv3, and pcen making their first contributions, and @Flintlock , @Puppeteer , @WildWeazel , and @Quintillus making additions to Babylon as well as Aztec. We've thus added the Credits area, where we also recognize the contributions of @Blue Monkey , @Civinator , @Ozymandias , and @Vuldacon .
In addition, there have been many ideas and suggestions from forum residents here at CFC. In the following post, I'll note our broad outlines for the next "Carthage" release, including notes on ways more forum members (not just coders!) can get involved.
You can download the Babylon release from this link, and let us know what you think, in this thread!
We also have a request for you, the users: we opened a poll to find out what systems you would expect to use for C7. This will help us determine compatibility requirements and make some design decisions. Especially let us know if you have something other than a modern Windows PC. Thanks!
Good day farmers and lawmakers! Today we are pleased to announce our new Babylon release, the first since the "Aztec" release in November.
Many improvements have been made since then. The first you'll notice is on the main menu, where we now have custom artwork, and where background music will play.
In game, you'll notice significant improvements to the map. Forests, jungles, marshes, hills, mountains, volcanoes, and rivers all appear in-game. Resources also appear, although for now they are display-only, with no impact in-game. With your Chariot unit, you'll see that movement costs are factored in to terrain, and a land/water distinction is also present.
Cities now produce units, on a set schedule, including new settlers, and, if they are coastal, galleys. This allows you to colonize your landmass (water transport is not yet implemented), and generally lead Babylon to greatness.
There are also now three AI opponents per map to contend with. They will also build units, and colonize land with settlers. Their AI logic remains primitive for now, but they will colonize based on tile yield, albeit preferring an Infinite City Sprawl (ICS) strategy. Don't be surprised if the AI tries to reach your preferred colonization site before you do!
You'll also run into barbarians, who send out Warriors to make your life difficult.
Make your life difficult, you ask? Indeed, because we now have our first iteration of combat, as well as unit animation. Units all have three hitpoints, and will duke it out whenever they come in contact with another civilization's units. So far, when that happens is based on the AI's random movements - or your intentional ones - but be careful because sooner or later the AI will run into you!
Behind the scenes, a lot of other, less visible improvements have also been made. Many BIQ files can be loaded (although most BIQ features are not yet supported); non-square maps are supported; and improvements have been made for setting a default Civ3 directory for importing artwork and opening scenarios. We've also been making some improvements to our C7 architecture as we switch from a prototype-proof-of-concept phase to a longer-term outlook.
I'd also like to call out that we have had several new collaborators since the Aztec release, with @Caro-Kann , @Lanzelot , @TowelCiv3, and pcen making their first contributions, and @Flintlock , @Puppeteer , @WildWeazel , and @Quintillus making additions to Babylon as well as Aztec. We've thus added the Credits area, where we also recognize the contributions of @Blue Monkey , @Civinator , @Ozymandias , and @Vuldacon .
In addition, there have been many ideas and suggestions from forum residents here at CFC. In the following post, I'll note our broad outlines for the next "Carthage" release, including notes on ways more forum members (not just coders!) can get involved.
You can download the Babylon release from this link, and let us know what you think, in this thread!
We also have a request for you, the users: we opened a poll to find out what systems you would expect to use for C7. This will help us determine compatibility requirements and make some design decisions. Especially let us know if you have something other than a modern Windows PC. Thanks!
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