[Religion and Revolution]: Mod Development

[agnat86]

@Schmiddie

I believe you got the unit button and profession button of the town guard mixed up. See my screenshots. At least, I think the button for the Veteran Town Guard in the Colopedia is supposed to be the same as the button of the unit when it is inside a ship.

 

[Schmiddie]

No, everything is fine, I have checked it again.

The button for the unit shows the unequipped specialist, the button of the profession ingame shows a hand swinging a sword and a star (the new button for the profession ingame when a veteran/specialist uses this profession). The button of the profession ingame (the well known brown background) is similar to the button of the profession selection menu (blue background).

So everything is fine...trust me.

 

[Schmiddie]

I have uploaded a lot of changes regarding units, professions and promotions...just a test.

 

[agnat86]

I have uploaded a lot of changes regarding units, professions and promotions...just a test.

I believe you accidentally swapped characteristics of armed braves and armed mounted braves. armed braves are now faster and stronger than armed mounted braves.

 

[agnat86]

It's not something I easily worry about, but I think you might have overpowered the natives.

Currently, Armed mounted braves have 4 strength and 3 speed, while cavalry has 3 strength and 2 speed. In addition to that, cavalry suffers all kinds of penalties on terrain, while AM Braves retain their attack bonuses.

I think Europeans are supposed to have stronger cavalry than natives.

I would suggest giving cavalry their power of 4 back, and reduce the strength of AM Braves to three. Their terrain bonuses, and the terrain penalties of European mounted units, more than balance that out, in my opinion.

Also, I'm not really a big fan of the changes to all the experts and masters. If you introduce all kinds of penalties for working either outside or inside a settlement, it will give the player the impression that all his colonists are servants and criminals. Also, expert classes are not strict upgrades over Free Colonists anymore, which can force the player to clear specialties all the time. Your worker units become really inflexible this way.

Edit:
I've also noticed that you gave native units a base strength of 1. This would give AM Braves a strength of 5, Mounted or Armed Braves a strength of 4, and regular braves 3 Strength. That would be extremely strong.

 

[Schmiddie]

Yes, thanks for your feedback! I have made some automatic testgames and the European player on bigger maps have problems against the natives now.

I think I will change it back as you intended - should make sense.

Furthermore I might change back a little bit of the penalties - I will change back the penalties of the city workers and the other way around but will grant them a produktion bonus in smiliar profession of +1. This should also be an advantage for the KI which cannot handle the specialities.

 

[agnat86]

Yes, thanks for your feedback! I have made some automatic testgames and the European player on bigger maps have problems against the natives now.

I think I will change it back as you intended - should make sense.

Furthermore I might change back a little bit of the penalties - I will change back the penalties of the city workers and the other way around but will grant them a produktion bonus in smiliar profession of +1. This should also be an advantage for the KI which cannot handle the specialities.

Right, thanks!

I have no problems with the bonuses, as I think these give the player only extra opportunities sometimes.

 

[agnat86]

Hey Schmiddie,

I've looked over the changes and I especially love the way you've made combat more interesting.

I've found some small issues though:

Spoiler :

The Expert Pearl Hunter gets a bonus for gold and silver, but because it can only receive bonuses on sea, these will not do anything.

The Ranger's Light Forest defense is lower than its attack, while its other defense and attack bonuses for features always are equal.

Certain experts, like Firebrand Preachers and Bishops increase Education. This makes no sense, as education is only produced by unspecialized colonists in a school.

The production bonus for ore is removed for converted natives, but not for slaves. Is that deliberate?

Priests, Preachers and Statesmen now have a higher production bonus of Bells and Crosses. I'm not sure about that change; usually, having either one of these in the early game already gives you a very large advantage. I think this will increase the gap that forms between the lucky players that get them from the docks, and those that don't.

The veteran for the light infantry profession is still called "veteran soldier," but if I recall correctly they are supposed to be named "veteran infantry."

I also have some more suggestions:

Spoiler :

Land animals have a native terrain. Maybe it would be flavorful to give them a small combat bonus on that terrain (say, 20% attack and defense). This also would make sense, as polar bears presumably are less dangerous in the desert than on the tundra.

I like how you gave all experts and masters small bonuses when performing similar jobs. However, many different outside professions, such as Farmer and Cotton Planter, are now lumped together in the same "group." This may make the player feel that they are playing with some kind of converted natives.
I propose to subdivide them into three smaller classes, based on the terrain type they specialize in. Like this:
Grass: Tobacco Planters, Hemp Planters and Grape Pickers.
Prairie: Cotton Planters, Indigo Planters and Red Pepper Planters.
Savannah/Marsh: Sugar Planters, Coffee Planters, Coca Collectors, Cocoa Planters

 

[Schmiddie]

Thanks! That makes sense....I will change it this way.

 

[agnat86]

@Schmiddie

About the changes to the pearl hunter: you've now set LandYieldChanges to 1 to give them a bonus for Silver and Gold. However, this also results in them getting a +3 production bonus of Gems on land, which makes them just as good as prospectors in gems mining.

That's why I would suggest to just remove the bonuses for silver and gold. If you think pearl hunter to be too weak a profession then, then perhaps you can just increase the production bonus of gems they receive to 4.

 

[Schmiddie]

vetiarvind, I have made some testgames and I have the impression that the King still increases the tax to fast. Sometimes I have 3 or 4 increases in approx. 10 rounds...and without trading any goods!!!

Maybe you could have a look to the newly made changes of the logic?

 

[vetiarvind]

vetiarvind, I have made some testgames and I have the impression that the King still increases the tax to fast. Sometimes I have 3 or 4 increases in approx. 10 rounds...and without trading any goods!!!

Maybe you could have a look to the newly made changes of the logic?

Really? Hmm.. I think i didn't check the dll corresponding to the code change so it looks like you're running the old code. Would it be possible for you to run the build in "release" mode once and check that in as well, please?

Sorry for seeming lazy, but my current code base is much different from the R&R one right now and it will take me a little while to revert to the correct revision and resume my work. If you are unable to build, do let me know!

 

[Schmiddie]

Hm, what do you mean with "release mode"?

I have started new games based on the current SVN Version...

 

[vetiarvind]

Normally, we checkin the dll with the SVN, but I only checked in the code. So u'd have to build the code to get the dll. (most projects don't encourage checking in a dll file so i didn't out of habit)
While building,you'd have a "release" or "debug" mode to generate the dll. But based on your question, I assume you don't normally build the dll
I guess in that case I'll check in the dll by tonite tonight.

 

[Schmiddie]

No, since I was only a graphic modder so far without any knowledge or consideration regarding the dll (ray took care of all of these things) I have never thought about the dll...It would be very nice if you could have a look and make changes if needed...

 

[vetiarvind]

No, since I was only a graphic modder so far without any knowledge or consideration regarding the dll (ray took care of all of these things) I have never thought about the dll...It would be very nice if you could have a look and make changes if needed...

I've committed the dll. Pls. pull latest and let me know in case you encounter this issue. (i've played 200 odd turns after this fix and it's all good)

 

[Schmiddie]

Thank you so much, I will test it in the next days...

 

[agnat86]

Hey Schmiddie, I see that you have made Blackbeard require Exploration and Military points, and no political points. Is that a mistake? Because currently, all FFs require political points and points of another category, and the interface is also based on that system. Blackbeard probably will not appear correctly on the Founding Fathers screen now.

 

[Schmiddie]

Hi Folks,

I have made all changes, developments and improvements I had on my list for this Release.

I assume that the next Release can be published within the next 3 weeks.

Regards

Schmiddie

 

[agnat86]

@Schmiddie

While I like most of the changes to attack and defense bonuses to military units, I believe it results in a layout problem:

Spoiler :

As you can see, it becomes quite a Wall of Text, and it will be hard for the player to get some oversight into the strong and weak points of units. Also, it just doesn't look very elegant.

So I would suggest the following:

- Try to make the attack and defense bonuses for specific terrain types or features equal. Then it would just say, for example, -30% Forest Strength, instead of -30% Forest Defense and -90% Forest Attack.

- I also don't know if combat bonuses or penalties for Grassland, Prairie or Savannah make much sense. The other terrain types we have (Desert, Marsh, Tundra, Permafrost) are rough and inhospitable, and I can imagine some units being at an advantage or disadvantage there. But these three terrain types just don't seem to make much difference, especially not when they are overgrown by forests.