About the bug in the trade route system that sends wagons to the capital instead of the intended city:
I have determined the cause of this bug and corrected it in my build.
Good to hear. How does that help me or others?
Also what happens now in that situatio?
- I am actually surprised to learn that borders do not reflect the actual owner of the plot. Maybe this is another feature that somehow got broken at some point. I haven't played vanilla or TAC in ages, so could someone confirm that borders are suposed to work like that (they do in Civ4 BTS and I'd like it to be that way to make culture meaningful)
....
- As far as I know, most (or rather all the remaining) of the documented features should be accurate. These blanket statements are not really fair to modders who are doing their best with what limited time they have (After all, they are using their precious leisure time to create a game that other people can play and complain about). Not sure what you mean by the aura ?
So you were not aware of the border bug but you are quite sure all other info given the player by the game is accurate (except the combat stats, that is)?
Also I did not make a "blanket statement". All I said is that if two quite important stats in the game are wrong, it makes me suspicious of all others too. Btw, the combat stats bug has been known for a long time now and I am not aware it has been fixed.
These are real AI problems and I am working on resolving them. For instance, I want the AI to protect and escort their merchant\transport ships and to carry out coastal patrols. The construction of empty buildings in tiny cities is yet another problem that I intend to resolve.
Well, I keep hearing about how the modders have improved the AI. I realise that is one of the if not the most difficult aspect of game programming. But you guys keep boasting about AI improvements and I keep looking for these improvements in vain.
Not sure what you mean with this, this more of a game balance thing. Arguably, the customs house is a bit too generous. IMHO 80% of the export price is too good. I'd like something like 50% and then have the warehouses at something like 25%. These export alternatives actually ruin an important theme of the game and if I had my way I would consider removing it altogether.
Game balancing is one of the things modders do, is it not?
On the customs house I agree with Sarin. It is definitely necessary in the late game to reduce micromanagement.
I also use it to export during the WoI although I could live with a reduction of the percentage after the DoI.
The african port has generally better export prices for livestock and due to the random price fluctuations, the prices there will be different from the European port.
These are not valid points.
Different prices with random fluctuations but within the same range add nothing because of the time lag between my decision to send a ship to either port and the turn I actually sell the goods.
Say I can sell a good in Europe for 5 and in Africa for 6. So I send the ship to Africa. By the time it arrives that price could be down to 5 or up to 7. But the same goes for the price in Europe. As I cannot reconsider without a massive time loss (sailing back without selling and starting anew) it remains the same lottery whether there is one port or two (or more).
Add to that the added micromanagement for each ship I send and the problem of wanting to send half a shipload of goods with higher prices in Europe and the other half with higher prices in Africa and you end up with a lot of thinking for a net profit of about 100 gold. Totally not worth it.
On livestock I assume that "export prices" mean the prices I have to pay? Well, I typically buy 100 cattle and sheep each and maybe a few hundred horses in a game.
I you mean selling prices that doesn't change my argument. I usually do not sell livestock as I need the food and can still produce valuable goods from wool and leather. If I sell horses at all I sell them to the natives.
To add it up I usually go to Africa only maybe 10 times in a whole game to buy livestock or slaves.
I have shown some ways to make Africa more interesting above. It is up to you to implement them or your own rather mysterious thoughts.
I have been thinking about randomizing the FFs (by swapping them by a maximum of 1 or 2 slots)
I have made that proposition a few times over the years. Good to hear someone agrees.
It would definitely be an improvement for replayability but I personally would like them to be more volatile. Again, it's up to you but maybe you can at least code it so that players can easily adjust the number of slots by XML.
I can tell you that in the past three months I kept thinking about starting another game. I did not because between the combat stat bug and the trading route bug and the SCS issue I reported in mid-January I am just to frustrated by my last experiences.
I will probably not start another game until they are resumed.
It is clear to me that mine is just one voice of many and that in the end the modders decide about changes, bugfixes and the order of implementation. So I don't expect my proposals to be implemented.
I wrote this because I am thankful for many hours of playtime that you modders beginning with the TAC team up to now have given me. So I thought I owed it to you to explain why and how you lost this player.
I am aware that modding resources have been stretched. Thus, although I have some other grievances and see more unnecessary convolutions in the game I have restricted myself to the most serious issues.
I am also aware that it is more fun to invent new features than to debug or document or to clean up someone else's mess. But in a complex project that comes with a price. A price that players pay in the form of CTDs, non-lethal bugs or inconsistencies.
For me that price has become too high.