[Religion and Revolution]: Mod Development

[Schmiddie]

It is a really nice picture.

But it is a completely different style compared to the Achievment images we already have.
Our Achievments images usually show ingame graphics combined with less realistic backgrounds that also look like game graphics.

I am convinced that Willi will come up with really awesome images for the "Sea Battle Achievments".
If he doesn't have time for those Achievment images I wouldn't mind using such images as well.

However, I will leave such graphical decisions to Schmiddie, our graphical specialist.

Hm... It is a really nice picture. I will test it ingame and have a look if it fits with the mod...

 

[Schmiddie]

Hey Team,

I will do some changes / improvements of the unit folder structure under

Religion_and_Revolution\Assets\Art\units

So please don't be surprised if a lot of files will be shifted into the new structure within the next days...these are just some changes of the folder structure, there will be no changes ingame.

Edit:
It is changed and uploaded to SVN. Please update your SVN

 

[agnat86]

I've committed a lot of changes in pedia texts, mostly for yields (see attached screenshots). I hope you like the new layout!

My main intention is to make the pedia more user-friendly by placing links to similar pages and shortly describing what the purpose of each yield is in the game, so that it becomes easier for inexperienced players to gain a little oversight in the vastness of the new functions that have been added.

I was planning to do a similar overhaul for units, professions etc, but I've noticed that a lot of Game Concept texts, which are meant as guidelines for new players, are quite outdated, like the Concept text about Border Expansion, which wasn't updated when Culture was added to the mod.
In addition to that, I think some Strategic hints and explanations of game features need to be added. For example, nowhere in the pedia have I found how Monasteries work, and I think it could be frustrating for new players to not have access to such information. Such a thing could handily be explained in Game Concepts.

By the way, I've also renamed some professions and unit names, and a lot of terrain bonuses. Please let me know if you disagree with any of those changes, then I will explain why I made them.

 

[raystuttgart]

I've committed a lot of changes in pedia texts, mostly for yields (see attached screenshots). I hope you like the new layout!

Yes, that is looking good.
(Strategy and Background being clearly separated by their own headings.)

By the way, I've also renamed some professions and unit names, and a lot of terrain bonuses. Please let me know if you disagree with any of those changes, then I will explain why I made them.

As far as I have seen, the renamings are ok.

 

[raystuttgart]

In addition to that, I think some Strategic hints and explanations of game features need to be added. For example, nowhere in the pedia have I found how Monasteries work, and I think it could be frustrating for new players to not have access to such information. Such a thing could handily be explained in Game Concepts.

Sure, adding new entries in "Game Concepts" for new (complex) features is always a good idea.
So if you have some time and motivation for that, that would be great.

 

[Schmiddie]

Hi Folks,

Due to the fact that we have implemented "Great Admirals" now, wouldn't it be nice to implement names for them as we already have for Great Generals?

This are my suggestions for Great Admirals so far:

England:
George Anson
Martin Frobisher
Richard Howe
John Byron
Samuel Hood
George Rodney
Edward Boscawen

Denmark:
Nils Juel
Coort Sivertsen Adelaer
Ulrik Christian Gyldenlove
Peter Jansen Wessel Tordenskiold
Olfert Fischer
Steen Andersen Bille

France:
Anne Hilarion de Tourville
Victor-Marie d'Estrees
Francois Joseph Paul de Grasse
Louis Guillouet d'Orvilliers
Charles Henri d'Estaing
Louis Antoine de Bougainville


Dutch:
Philips van Almonde
Jacob van Wassenaer Obdam
Michiel de Ruyter
Cornelis Maartenszoom Tromp
Jan Willem de Winter
Engelbertus Lucas

Sweden:
Gustav Wattrang
Nils Ehrenskiöld

Spain:
Juan de Fuca
Juan Sebastián Elcano
Blas de Lezo y Olavarrieta
Juan Alvarez d'Avila
Luis Váez de Torres


Portugal:
Nicolao Coelho
Afonso de Albuquerque
Francisco de Almeida

Russia:
Semjon Iwanowitsch Deschnjow
Fjodor Petrowitsch Lütke

I would like to find at least 6 names for every nation...

Any ideas? Especially Russia, Sweden and Portugal need some more...

 

[raystuttgart]

Due to the fact that we have implemented "Great Admirals" now, wouldn't it be nice to implement names for them as we already have for Great Generals?

Actually as far as I know, the nation specific lists of "Great General Names" already contain both:
Names of Great Generals
and
Names of Great Admirals

I might be wrong, but I really don't believe that all names in those lists are only Generals.
(Because in TAC "Generals" were also used for Ships.)

If I am correct, splitting up these lists would be quite some effort.
(Somebody would have to sort those lists by Admirals and Generals)

Also I would need to implement a new feature "Nation Specific Great Admiral Names".
(But actually I could probably code it quite fast, since I had also coded "Nation Specific Great General Names".)

Is it really a big problem if sometimes a General is called like an historic Admiral (and vice versa) ?
I believe that most of the players would not notice anyways.

Or what are you suggesting ?

Edit:
If somebody will prepare/sort the lists, I am willing to program "Nation Specific Great Admiral Names" .
(As I said, then it should also be checked if the list of "Names for Generals" already contains some Admirals.)

 

[Schmiddie]

I believe that most of the players would not notice anyways.

That should be correct.

You are correct - I did not notice that some names in the "Generals List" are naval officer (only a few).

Maybe I could add the names above to these lists and everything is fine...

 

[raystuttgart]

Maybe I could add the names above to these lists and everything is fine...

Well, whatever you prefer.

A) You could simply add the names of Admirals you have found.
--> Would be absolutely fine /enough for me.

B) We could split the existing list and I could implement "Nation Specific Great Admiral Names".
--> But then somebody would need to sort/prepare the lists of names

 

[AbsintheRed]

Adding civ specific great admirals is only an xml change
Also, it shouldn't be too hard or too much time to check those few names in the current great general lists
If you guys open a new thread about this, I'm sure there will be 10+ generals and 10+ admirals for all nations in no time, community can get those together really quickly

EDIT: Heck, I'm willing to do the sorting if you guys want me to
I already made huge lists of Great People for RFC Europe, and all 8 nations here are a separate civ there
We don't have great admirals there though, but it shouldn't be too hard to find some names

 

[raystuttgart]

Adding civ specific great admirals is only an xml change

No, it is not.

TAC / RaR contains a feature "Nation Specific Great General Names".
(Thes lists are defined at the Civilizations. The logic for that is in DLL and would need to be duplicated.)

Currently this list is used for both: Great Generals and Great Admirals.
However, since I originally coded the feature in TAC, I should not have problems to do the DLL changes needed to handle 2 nation specific lists (one for Generals and one for Admirals).

EDIT: Heck, I'm willing to do the sorting if you guys want me to

I'll be gone during the upcoming week but Schmiddie can handle this, any way he likes.
If I get the separated (nation specific lists) for Generals and Admirals, I can implement the feature next weekend.

 

[Schmiddie]

Adding civ specific great admirals is only an xml change
Also, it shouldn't be too hard or too much time to check those few names in the current great general lists
If you guys open a new thread about this, I'm sure there will be 10+ generals and 10+ admirals for all nations in no time, community can get those together really quickly

EDIT: Heck, I'm willing to do the sorting if you guys want me to
I already made huge lists of Great People for RFC Europe, and all 8 nations here are a separate civ there
We don't have great admirals there though, but it shouldn't be too hard to find some names

Cool!

I think there should only be a few admirals/naval offier in the current lists. In the lists for England and England_Europa for example are only Generals but no Admirals.

If you do such lists you maybe could consider:

- The Generals and Admirals should have been active officers between 1500 and 1800
- If possible divide between the Player Nation (England for example) and the European King (England_Europe) - If you have a look at the lists for England you will see some British Generals of the Colonial Era and some Generals of the Revolutionary Era which fought for the Continental Army. Maybe it is the same for the other nations - I have not checked this so far.
- I have already made a fast Admirals research for some nations (see above).

@ Ray

Would this Feature have an impact on the game speed? In this case we should leave it as it is.

 

[AbsintheRed]

No, it is not.

TAC / RaR contains a feature "Nation Specific Great General Names".
(Thes lists are defined at the Civilizations. The logic for that is in DLL and would need to be duplicated.)

Currently this list is used for both: Great Generals and Great Admirals.
However, since I originally coded the feature in TAC, I should not have problems to do the DLL changes needed to handle 2 nation specific lists (one for Generals and one for Admirals).

Are you sure it's not possible in xml?
It's very much doable to add civ-specific great people in a simple xml way in Civ IV BtS
Did Firaxis change how unique units are handled for Colonization?

 

[AbsintheRed]

Cool!

I think there should only be a few admirals/naval offier in the current lists. In the lists for England and England_Europa for example are only Generals but no Admirals.

If you do some liste you maybe could consider:

- The Generals and Admirals should have been active officers between 1500 and 1800
- If possible divide between the Player Nation (England for example) and the European King (England_Europe) - If you have a look at the lists for England you will see some British Generals of the Colonial Era and some Generals of the Revolutionary Era which fought for the Continental Army.
- I have already made a fast Admirals research for some nations (see above).

Cool, I will update the lists in the next couple days.

 

[raystuttgart]

@ Ray
Would this Feature have an impact on the game speed? In this case we should leave it as it is.

No, this would not have any noticable impact on performance.

Did Firaxis change how unique units are handled for Colonization?

No, but I did.

I did create logic for TAC to have names of Great Generals (and also ships) specific for a nation.
These nation specific list are of course also in XML. (CIV4CivilizationInfos.xml)

But the logic currently uses the same list for Generals and Admirals.
If this is supposed to be split, I will need to code that. (Which is pretty simple for me though.)

Edit:
Ok guys, I will leave this topic to you.
If I get the lists, I will implement the changes needed.

 

[raystuttgart]

"Nation Specific Great Admiral Names" is now implemented, tested and uploaded to SVN.
(DLL functionality and basic XML setup.)

So there is one list for names of Great Generals and another separate list for names of Great Admirals now.

Now we only have to fill the nation specific lists of Great Admirals in
CIV4CivilizationInfos.xml

At the positions where these entries are found:
(Natives or Wild Animals or The Church don't need to have any names for Admirals. So there the tags are simply empty.)

<Admirals>
	<Admiral>Admiral Example</Admiral>
</Admirals>

 

[raystuttgart]

I added 2 new Promotions:
(Buttons from Schmiddie)

Ship Carpenter I + II
(Will allow ships to heal a bit better.)

Reason:
Also in Ship Combat, there are now more battles where both sides survive.
(Being able to heal your ships a bit faster will be quite interesting / useful now.)

 

[raystuttgart]

@agnat86:

You are doing an AWESOME job with the game concepts and pedia improvments !


I just have no idea when I am going to find the time to do the German translations for all your improved and new English texts.

Edit:

It might make sense to move all texts for Game Concepts into a separate xml.
(It is really a massive amount of text. And it would make translations a bit easier.)

Something like:
CIV4GameText_RaR_Game_Concepts.xml

 

[agnat86]

@agnat86:

You are doing an AWESOME job with the game concepts and pedia improvments !


I just have no idea when I am going to find the time to do the German translations for all your improved and new English texts.

Edit:

It might make sense to move all texts for Game Concepts into a separate xml.
(It is really a massive amount of text. And it would make translations a bit easier.)

Something like:
CIV4GameText_RaR_Game_Concepts.xml

Thanks.

That seems like a very good idea. It might save me some time too, as at the moment I have to navigate through four different xml files. I will look into it.

EDIT: Done it, all Concept texts are collected in one xml file now.

 

[Schmiddie]

Thank you, great work!

However, the concept "War of Independence" has no text...