RFC Classical World

[CrossRFC]

Lombard UP: specialists give extra culture? Could reflect the more urban elite of the Lombards, or their ties to many different and rich cultures such as the Byzantine, Frankish, Germanic and later Arab cultures.

Visigoth UP: perhaps their law? -25% maintenance from number of cities? Alternatively, they did sack Rome, so a pillaging bonus could also be possible.


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nope, none at all!

as I wrote, I began as the Antigonids to shape the world as I wanted. This means that both the sassanids and the romans were weak compared to an auto-wait game!

perhaps you are right, maybe the flip occurs if the cities are roman

Yes, they only flip the Roman cities. I had a terrible start as the Byzantines where only cities west of Byzantion were Roman. I had to reconquer everything from indies, barbs or Sassanids. That being said, it was a very cool game which I liked very much.

 

[Wessel V1]

The Han seem to have a very strange resource trading policy. This may be true for other civs but the Han are one of the most significant. Take a look at the picture for example. If there were more resources they were willing to trade they'd happily do that.

 

[CrossRFC]

Speaking of resources, every AI significantly undervalues resources when trading them for gold per turn. They'll only give 1 GPT for a resource usually.

 

[srpt]

I did make some changes a long time ago to make the chinese civs more willing to trade silk. I guess I should go back and look at it again.

 

[CrossRFC]

Armenia's capital city is not getting founded by Armenians (again).

Also, for Carthage's 3rd UHV: I have 10 ressources, it checks, but does not give me the point. Perhaps it's set to be to "in" 100 AD instead of "by" ?

Furthermore, you might want to check on that "barbarian flip" mechanic you implemented...the Parthians can't capture Jerusalem without it flipping to barbs!

 

[Wessel V1]

Goguryeo was next on the list. So far I got to 400AD but the game isn't very interesting anymore since about 300AD so I'll try to tech as far as possible.

It didn't start that easy though. My first 2 cities were 2S and 2N of my starting position which are both decent cities. Nothing compared to Liao-tung though, which became a powerhouse and even more so because of Korea's hidden modifiers. I thought it would be a good idea to build the Great Wall there to defend against the Han. Once the economy was doing okay and I send a galley and a pilgrim to India, I built a stack to hopefully attack the Han and also in the future Japan. The Han were doing the same and also at the same rate but with more developed units, I only could build spearmen, axemen and catapults. Catapults are very useful as always. Just when I thought, this is leading nowhere, the Han collapsed. It was 180AD I think and I took Ji and Jinyang. Then, suddenly the Jin spawned and flipped both Ji and Liao-Tung with walls and the Great Wall in it! A marksman can defend pretty well with a 100% bonus, but luckily I still had a small stack which was just enough to conquer the city and retake the 50% GW bonus. Same strategy as with Dacia: made peace, prepared a stack and hit again. After the Jin were wiped out my economy exploded. The cultural goal is pretty easy without the use of the cultural slider and Great Artists. The Byzantine cut the Roman culture almost in half and I overtook them in about 350AD. No competitor left, I'll see how the last turns work out.

Some remarks (version of last sunday by the way, I haven't had time to update):

- The UB is based on a building no other civ can construct which gives the Koreans an unfair advantage.
- Dhows still have no reason to be built.
- Sometimes the AI likes you less when you make a deal like trading resources or open borders. For example, Judea went from Pleased to Cautious.
- Judea should be a bit weaker, I see them controlling the Levant and regularly Egypt in the late game.

EDIT: contact with Genghis Khan causes a crash.

 

[Cetrix]

Hello there, after several busy months I have some time to test the mod again and help you (modestly) for a while.

I did a game yesterday (svn) and it was a good surprise to see all that new stuff ! I can help with city names, balancing advices, historical research, or later a french translation of the mod. But above all, I have read this thread since I left... it's about six months.

 

[Wessel V1]

Good to see you back, have fun testing!

There are some barbarians spawning in the Indian Ocean by the way. However, they don't spawn on the straight so they can't move. It's fun to beat them up with a Great Galley but I think it should be fixed.

I finished the game now. Not much going on on my side of the globe, but Europe became a mess. The Romans managed to knock the Visigoth resistance down but the barbarians were too much for them and they were killed around 450AD. Judea eventually got killed to due to internal pressure, even though they were winning the war versus Byzantium. I think the cultural goal for Korea should be moved to 400AD. Just take a look at the picture. Earlier civs were either dead or too small and newer civs don't have a chance to build culture.

 

[CrossRFC]

Late game independents flexing some serious military might...

Spoiler :

And I just noticed, as of 610 AD, as the Gokturks I have 71% (!!!) inflation! Shouldn't inflation start at civ birth? Something isn't right here...

 

[Wessel V1]

That may be the reason why I lost so much money in the early years with the Kushans. I think you simply need to conquer as many cities as possible now only to make sure you won't run out of money.

 

[Cetrix]

Is there an issue with some units in the desert ? The romans UP (free units near an ennemy city) seems to be buggy in north Africa when the units spawn in the desert. It was versus independant city, and Rome was AI. The units didnt move at all and it was 3 tiles from the city. [edit] It seems to happen sometimes with other civs. Maybe it's just civ dumb AI.

And feedback from 2 games with Seleucids :
- It's strange to see Antigonids in Syria with the 320BC start to be honest (it's more before Ipsos battle in 303BC), but it's ok and very nice to play with or against.
- I would like to suggest one more civ in Greece (Makedonia) but it might be overcrowded for this scenario ? Yeah, but Makedonia... sounds nice... Maybe as minor civ.
- Win as Seleucids is easy if you have the presence of mind to buy mercenaries when you can. Conquer Antogonids, then Egypt, then Greece, then fight back the Bactrians. And resist later to Rome, Parthans.
- Well, well, well... Parthans. I've red that sprt had troubles to make them strong enough to expand to the Seleucids. I don't know how to help... But maybe they should never accept to make peace with the Seleucids ! Or if they loose 2 cities.
- When the Parthans spawn, they cut the Seleucids into two territories. I think that if the Seleucids don't take back Persia after X turns, they will loose the bactria/margiana zone to indies. With an event, at least with AI.
- Rome AI is well done. Good job. Sometimes they are too slow, but finally they conquer all what they have do to.
- ...But it's not OK with Byzantines. They should start as vassals of Rome in 320AD, and then be released in 395AD. In my two games, they fight them each other all the time...
- And still, byzantines should get all the eastern roman cities. Sometimes they dont get Nubia/Crimean/Arabian roman cities.

I saw that some leader txt are not set yet. Is there someone working on it?

 

[ace99]

Any thoughts on making some civs conditional spawns?

 

[CrossRFC]

Is there an issue with some units in the desert ? The romans UP (free units near an ennemy city) seems to be buggy in north Africa when the units spawn in the desert. It was versus independant city, and Rome was AI. The units didnt move at all and it was 3 tiles from the city. [edit] It seems to happen sometimes with other civs. Maybe it's just civ dumb AI.

And feedback from 2 games with Seleucids :
- It's strange to see Antigonids in Syria with the 320BC start to be honest (it's more before Ipsos battle in 303BC), but it's ok and very nice to play with or against.
- I would like to suggest one more civ in Greece (Makedonia) but it might be overcrowded for this scenario ? Yeah, but Makedonia... sounds nice... Maybe as minor civ.
- Win as Seleucids is easy if you have the presence of mind to buy mercenaries when you can. Conquer Antogonids, then Egypt, then Greece, then fight back the Bactrians. And resist later to Rome, Parthans.
- Well, well, well... Parthans. I've red that sprt had troubles to make them strong enough to expand to the Seleucids. I don't know how to help... But maybe they should never accept to make peace with the Seleucids ! Or if they loose 2 cities.
- When the Parthans spawn, they cut the Seleucids into two territories. I think that if the Seleucids don't take back Persia after X turns, they will loose the bactria/margiana zone to indies. With an event, at least with AI.

1. Antigonids had Syria after Alexander's death until 303 BC, when they were catastrophically defeated.

2. After their catastrophic defeat, the Antigonids conquered Makedonia, becoming the Macedonian dynasty until its capture by Rome. So Macedon is actually already in the game! Antigonids frequently capture Pella, while losing Antioch, thus somewhat simulating actual historical events in a dynamic way.

3. A Roman invasion can really ruin your day as Seleucids especially on the tight timetable for the 1st UHV

4. Parthians are indeed struggling in most games.

5. Such an event exists. "Facing internal troubles at home, the [insert civ name here] has withdrawn its garrisons from its outer territories!" Or something like that. Regions with contested stability become independent.

 

[srpt]

I'm working on a new map. I'm not exactly what came over me but I just thought I'd give it a try and once I started it was so much fun I couldn't stop. its 50% bigger than the old map and I'm quite pleased with it so far. its more about uncrowding the important city sites than allowing more cities but some cities which were not viable before, such as Epirus, Pelusion and Tarsus, can now be included. most of the important city sites have been arranged so they fit together with a minimum of overlapping or unreachable tiles. the only cities that are still crowded are Tyre-Damascus and Ctesiphon-Babylon, which are so close together in real life that crowding is the only way to represent them. also Aleppo is out and Edessa is in. of course theres even more of useless africa and siberia but that can't be helped. I will probably cut 10 tiles off the top when Im done. here's a peek:

 

[Wessel V1]

I don't know if a bigger map is a good idea... one of the key strengths of this mod is the fact that all cities are so close together, which makes it possible even for the AI to do amazing stuff. This creates more dynamic gameplay and also makes it smoother for less powerful computers like the laptop I'm using now. The Korean game was smooth until the end whereas RFCE has lots of lag from about the 13th century on and CtDs starting in the 15th century. If the new map is just for a different version that's fine by me, but please keep the actual map as it is.

 

[CrossRFC]

I would consider skewering the map in such a way that Indonesia no longer forces the map to include so much useless ocean and African plains. Also yes, everything above Hadrian's Wall in Britannia should also be cut. But nice map. Also Epirus! Woohoo!

Edit: looks like there's finally room for some pretty cool cities like Rhodes, Crete, and Tarsos!

 

[srpt]

the old version will always remain for those who prefer it.

the new map will not add too many more cities. maybe an increase of 25%. at the start of the mod there may be 2 or 3 extra preplaced cities (Tarsos and Epirus I think, and Bhodgaya as the Buddhist Holy City, something I always wanted). the biggest difference is that many important cities that on the small map could only be included by sharing many tiles with another important city now have a full fat cross to themselves. for example Antioch, Tyre, Tarsos, Jerusalem, Taxila, Multan, Varanasi, Pataliputra, Ephesus, Athens, Pella, Byzantium, Susa, Babylon, Xian, Luoyang and Jinyang no longer share any tiles with each other at all and in nearly every case fit together with none or few wasted tiles . as I mentioned, Damascus and Ctesiphon are the exceptions and share many tiles with Tyre and Babylon respectively. Edessa shares 1 tile with Antioch. Ancyra lose a couple each to Byzantium and Sinope. Some key ports, such as Charax, Sirajis and Pelusion also become viable with more than half of a fat cross to themselves. another thing I like is that there will actually be room for settlement in the game. right now thats not really part of any civs strategy.

btw I dont plan to change provinces much or at all. I may add Andhra between Tamil Nadu and Kalinga, Macedonia and Han but I can't think of anything else.

 

[AbsintheRed]

It's not always needed to have full BFC
Actually it sort of loses it's importance if true for almost all cities
3-5 shared tiles usually makes good service for gameplay

Having said that, you know I prefer to have bigger area for the civs, so I absolutely understand where this came from
Still, based on the pics you showed us there might be a little too much room for those cities
Don't really want to interrupt though, just my two cents

 

[AbsintheRed]

How big is that map btw? Somewhere around 80*180?

 

[srpt]

176x84. good guess.