RFC:Africa (Helpers needed!)

[Kubko]

So I started making a new RFC modmod that will simulate the developement of Africa, starting in 500AD.

Map image(map and picture by veBear):


List of civs(by veBear):

Civs on map from start:
- Byzantium (North-East Africa, but no real core territory, as they start on the core territory of the Turks and the Mamluks; Instability solved by granting less penalty for cities on Mamluk and Turk core territory) - Capital: Antioch
- Sassanids (Persia) - Capital: Ctesiphon
- Vandals (Maghrib) - Capital: Carthage
- Kanem-Bornu (Modern day Chad) - Capital: Njimi
- Yoruba (start in Ife) (Nigeria) - Capital: Ife
- Ethiopia/Aksumite - Capital: Aksum
- Makuria (Sudan/South Egypt) - Capital: Dongola
Then these would soon follow in:
- Arabia (620 AD) - Capital: Mecca
- Swahili (650 AD) (East-Coast of Africa) - Capital: Zanzibar
Followed by a second 'wave' of starting nations
- Hausa (1000 AD) (Nigeria-Niger-Chad) - Capital: Kano
- Morocco (1040 AD) - Capital: Marrakesh
- Turks/Ottomans (1040 AD) (Capital: Isfahan, capital of Seljuk Empire) (Persia, North Levant) - Upon the conquest of Antioch, the capital automatically switches to that city
- Zimbabwe (1070 AD) - Capital: Great Zimbabwe
Then we get the more regular, every now and then, spawns:
- Mali (1230 AD) - Capital: Ka-ba
- Mamluks (1250 AD) Conditional spawn: only if Arabia is Unstable or Collapsed, something the Turks should usually have fixed by now - Capital: Cairo
- Kongo (1390 AD) - Capital: Mbanza-Kongo
- Somalia (1410 AD) (Start of Adal Sultanate) - Capital: Zeila
- Songhai (1460 AD) Conditional spawn: only if Mali is Unstable or Collapsed - Capital: Gao
- Merina (1625 AD) (Madagascar) - Capital: Antananarivo
- Ashanti (1670 AD) (Ghana/Ivory Coast) - Capital: Kumasi
- Oman (1690 AD) (Southern Arabia) - Capital: Muscat
- Dutch/Boer (1650 AD) (Western South-Africa) - Capital: Kaapstad (Cape Town)
- Zulu (1700 AD) (Eastern South-Africa) - Capital: Ulundi

Europeans:
- Spain (1500 AD) (Start in Algerie) City: Mazalquivir (Mers El Kébir)
- Portugal (1570 AD) (Start in Angola) City: Luanda
- France (1650 AD) (Madagascar/Seychylles) City (M): Fort Dauphin, City (S): Séchelles
- Britain (1660 AD) (Sierra Leone): Bunce Island

Bugs/things not fixed yet(green=solved red=unsolved):

Spoiler :

If I try to play a civ with autoplay, it says I die before it even starts... The civ spawns fine though if I don't play with it
Solution: I had < and > in wrong order in the dll

Every few turns I get random unit to the water at the very south of the map, along with a python error about mercenary names
Solution: Edit mercenarynames.py


Theres only 11 civs when I start, they're player number 0-11 from vanilla RFC(from egypt to maya, i can tell by the dynamic civ names), but random player number from the civs I have added.

The civilization I pick always is player number 1.


Every civ gets free settler and warrior to random spot, they also get their free starting units to hardcoded spots.

I also noticed theres a 'random' option in civ selection and the civs are sorted alphabetically,in vanilla RFC there isn't one in and the civs are sorted by WBS order, might have something to do with player number bugs? Even if I make a civ unplayable from wbs, it still appears in the civ chooser menu.
Solution: Set a leader to every civ in the WBsave.



I need to disable dynamic civ names for now, how do I do it?

The popup asking if you want to agree the flip of cities to a rising civ doesn't work and gives you an error

Traits are still there, or atleast their names are shown
Solution: Edit the leaderheads XML file

Now heres some things I need help with:

History
City names
Art
Leaderheads
UU, UB and UHVs for each civ
Tech tree

Link for map NOT MOD, only if you want to help me with the start in 500bc(also has xml for civs):

Spoiler :

http://rfc-africa.googlecode.com/files/AfricaMap.zip

There is a very early svn build avaible, it isn't meant for playing, only for testing. If you want to test it, use this url to svn checkout:

http://rfc-africa.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/

(see latest changes at http://code.google.com/p/rfc-africa/source/list)

When you are finished with the Checkout, rename the folder of the mod from "rfc-africa" to "RFCAfrica".

 

[merijn_v1]

I will help with coding, when you included some of the basic things. I can do artwork, XML and a little bit python.

Spoiler :

The mod is currently in a too early stage for me to do some useful coding. But when it's at a further stage, I will help with coding. In the meantime, I will follow the progress and do some testing.

For the SVN, it would be useful to add this note in the first post:
When you are finished with the Checkout, rename the folder of the mod from "rfc-africa" to "RFCAfrica".

 

[Kubko]

I will help with coding, when you included some of the basic things. I can do artwork, XML and a little bit python.

Spoiler :

The mod is currently in a too early stage for me to do some useful coding. But when it's at a further stage, I will help with coding. In the meantime, I will follow the progress and do some testing.

For the SVN, it would be useful to add this note in the first post:
When you are finished with the Checkout, rename the folder of the mod from "rfc-africa" to "RFCAfrica".

thanks

 

[christos200]

Good idea.

 

[Optical]

I'm happy to help with XML, but my skills in other areas are miniscule to non-existent.

 

[veBear]

I can help somewhat, but currently do not have much time. Still, updating some CivGold civs should be possible

 

[Kubko]

I can help somewhat, but currently do not have much time. Still, updating some CivGold civs should be possible

Can I use your leaderheads flags etc?

Atm, Arabia just flips Egypt and Jerusalem. Is this good, or should they conquer them instead?

 

[Nintz]

Arabia should flip Jerusalem.

They should have to conquer Egypt though.

Also, why does this start so late? Africa was a bed for civilizations long before 500 A.D.

P.S. I would be willing to help with this, but I have absolutely no experience. I do have time if someone were to teach me, though.

 

[Nintz]

Very Early SVN Testing:

I went ahead and got the SVN, just to see how things looked. Here's a list of the things I noticed in the first 5 minutes.

1. Leaders have no names...just weird all caps things.

2. I somwhow founded Njimi, and it became Baghdad. Probably because I was an Arabia replacement.

3. The Kanem-Bornu capitol is horrible for balance.

4. I could build Hindu, Buddhist, Confucian, and Taoist missionsaries. Out of curiosity, I built a taoist missonarie and it didn't do anything.

Will post more soon.

EDIT: Wave 2 of bugs and balance issues.

1. The AI seems to really like wonders.

2. Upon further review of the religion bug, it appears my city is falsely imbued with Hinduism, Taoism, Buddhism, and Confucianism. It cannot get these religions, yet it can build their buildings and missonaries.

3. Someone needs to design a tech tree.

 

[veBear]

From me, use anything you want

@Nintz: The reason this mod starts so late is because while Africa surely had civilization long before 500AD, these were few and would bring hours and hours of gameplay with only two to three civs present at the map in the first part of the game. So basically, it's just because we don't want the game to be boring.

About Arabia, they should flip Jerusalem, I agree with that, but then have to conquer Egypt (which should be one of their goals: Conquer Egypt, Mesopotamia and Persia by XXX AD). We also somewhat need to represent the great Islamic Golden Age, and their age of enlightenment, so one of their goals should be somethong like 'Build X Mosques, Madrasas and Minarets by YYY AD. But that's just suggestions. The final decission is up to you

 

[Nintz]

I have thought of a couple mechanics you may want to eventually implement.

1. Religion- Aside from the monotheistic religions, you could have Zoroastrianism in the far NE, and Ancestor Worship on the Africa mainland.

2. Crusades- I know this isn't Europe, but Jerusalem is in the map. Thus, you could have a European nation spawn early with limited tech, but attacking Jerusalem. You could also do a Kingdom of Jersualem like in SoI.

3. NE Mongol Invasion- They did invade the Middle East, and tried to invade Egypt after all.

4. Plague Immunity- Due to the natural environment, Africans were affected drastically less by many diseases. I would still put in the plague, but have them only hit the foreign Middle East, Anatolia, and maybe Egypt.

5. Improvements over forest/jungle- I honstly don't know on this one. However, this might make certain areas, such as the heartland of Africa, easier to represent.

 

[Gem Hound]

I would say that the plague should still be able to spread to Africa, just at a small % chance of spreading in Africa.

 

[Kubko]

I think I should move the kanem-bornu spawn to later, because wikipedia says this:

The empire of Kanem began forming around AD 700 under the nomadic Tebu-speaking Zaghawa. According to the Girgam, the Zaghawa were forced southwest towards the fertile lands around Lake Chad by political pressure and desiccation in their former range.

Newest SVN commit: persia, ethiopia and makuria now have cities on spawn

 

[veBear]

1. Religion- Aside from the monotheistic religions, you could have Zoroastrianism in the far NE, and Ancestor Worship on the Africa mainland.

Zoroastrianism was basically replaced by Islam 150 years after the start of ths mod, so I don't see this as a good idea myself. Ancestor Worship seems OK, although I would suggest the name 'Paganism' used instead, as it is more generic.

2. Crusades- I know this isn't Europe, but Jerusalem is in the map. Thus, you could have a European nation spawn early with limited tech, but attacking Jerusalem. You could also do a Kingdom of Jersualem like in SoI.

Kingdom of Jerusalem... no. Jerusalem is in the map, but if you look at the propotions of the map, then you'll see why KoJ would be a bad idea. Sword of Islam had lots of space for that kingdom, this map has not. Besides, the crusaded would be better represented by a Barb-army spawn outside of Jerusalem if it is controlled by Arabs at year XXX and XYZ (so we get two crusades).

3. NE Mongol Invasion- They did invade the Middle East, and tried to invade Egypt after all.

They Invaded middle-east, but didn't get into Africa. Besides, what would their core territory be? Absolute no on this one. Also best represented by Barbarian Army spawn (this one with a Great General, and having a pop-up (coded in Python) telling of the Mongol Arrival 5 turns before they appear would be even greater, saying something like 'A nomadic people have just crushed the mighty Chinese to the east, and rumors are telling of their arrival to the Middle-East' to Arabia, the Turks, the Byzantine, the Sassanids and the Mamluks. Could also be represented by a respawn of Sassanids, though then it must be coded that the army does not appear if the Sassanids are still alive, something that are not very likely due to both Arabian and Turkish spawn).

4. Plague Immunity- Due to the natural environment, Africans were affected drastically less by many diseases. I would still put in the plague, but have them only hit the foreign Middle East, Anatolia, and maybe Egypt.

Plague for some civs... I say delete it. I guess an unhealthy-wave over the Middle Eastern cities could be coded, but since this is not Europe, I believe we could make it a bit less harsh.

5. Improvements over forest/jungle- I honstly don't know on this one. However, this might make certain areas, such as the heartland of Africa, easier to represent.

Ever checked out RFC:Asia? It's currently in beta stage, and they did something like this. Grab ideas from here.

 

[Kubko]

Ok, I have made arabian war and settler maps so they should attack sassanids and byzantium egypt, they have enough units to do it, but they still like to use their camel archers to defend their cities and scout with the rest, even if they're in war with byzantium/sassanids?Any way to make them attack?

 

[veBear]

Upload the LeaderheadInfos.xml and I'll make the Arab leader more aggressive

 

[Kubko]

Upload the LeaderheadInfos.xml and I'll make the Arab leader more aggressive

http://rfc-africa.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/Assets/XML/Civilizations/CIV4LeaderHeadInfos.xml

 

[Buddhafish]

I love this concept. I was considering starting a project like this at one point, but I can't code much, so I figured it wasn't for me to start. Is there any consideration to adding the Dutch as a European nation and creating some sort of the Boer Wars in South Africa?

 

[Kubko]

Ok, I managed to make Arabia attack, but the problem is they attack Antioch instead of Byzantium egyptian cities. They also like to defend workers with 2 units

 

[veBear]

Okay, for the Leader you use as the Arabian one, change the following values:
<iLimitedWarRand>100</iLimitedWarRand> to <iLimitedWarRand>75</iLimitedWarRand>
and then
<iLimitedWarPowerRatio>100</iLimitedWarPowerRatio> to <iLimitedWarPowerRatio>120</iLimitedWarPowerRatio>

Also, change the UNITAI_COUNTER in here to UNITAI_CITY_ATTACK

		<UnitAIWeightModifiers>
			<UnitAIWeightModifier>
				<UnitAIType>UNITAI_COUNTER</UnitAIType>
				<iWeightModifier>100</iWeightModifier>
			</UnitAIWeightModifier>
		</UnitAIWeightModifiers>

That should do the trick and make them more aggressive. About them conquering Anatolia... that should be denied through War and Settlermaps. Byzantium should indeed be alive when the Turks come around, so we need to fix that.