RFC w Ireland v1 ...new civ, new flag, new everything...well, almost everything

[antaine]

***UPDATED FILE v2.4
http://www.filefactory.com/file/b1275ah/n/v24_RFC_Irish_marathon.zip

This is not exactly a final release, but it has some alterations to spawns and the like made in reponse to suggestions from players. I have also retooled the problematic first UHV. I'm thinking that the next or final version should include stronger garrisons in the indy cities. I recognize the necessity of razing the british cities before the english spawn, but I'm not sure I like the idea that they all can be razed with the irish starting units. I also think that Eabhrac needs to be made barb instead of indy since the vikings no longer attempt to capture it, whereas they used to do so every time. thoughts?




***UPDATED FILE v2.3
http://www.filefactory.com/file/b0fc1ha/n/RFC_Irish_marathon.zip

I have corrected the art for the pub and the embassy in this version. Other than translations and hitherto unseen major bugs and imbalances, I believe this will eventually be labeled the final release.



***UPDATED FILE v2.2
http://www.filefactory.com/file/b0fb6b6/n/RFC_Irish_marathon.zip

this version fixes the first UHV, which was broken by the marathon mod.


***UPDATED FILE v2.1
http://www.filefactory.com/file/b0fb05f/n/RFC_Irish_marathon.zip

this version fixes the typo in the Ireland civilopedia entry and adds a short one for Brian Boru. It also changes the starting units for the Celtic cities and the starting location for the Irish by one tile (Dublin's location instead of Tara). Still to be done are proper translations of everything translatable and the button graphics for the pub and the embassy.



***UPDATED FILE v2.0
http://www.filefactory.com/file/b14h870/n/RFC_Irish_marathon.zip

this version enables epic and marathon playing, includes a 600AD start, and makes the UHVs more challenging for the Irish. Please post any bugs that pop up, as they may be related to the enabling of marathon and epic. I still have to design new buttons for the Pub and the Irish Embassy (previous attempts to use different art for them caused crashes), correct text omissions (like Brian Boru's pedia entry), and get translations done...but since these things are cosmetic and don't critically affect gameplay, I thought it best to make what I have available so bug issues can be exposed and remedied most expeditiously. Eagerly awaiting your feedback...

***UPDATED FILE v1.31
http://www.filefactory.com/file/b0f0843/n/RFC_Irish.zip

***UPDATED FILE v1.3
http://www.filefactory.com/file/b0f0156/n/RFC_Irish.zip

***UPDATED FILE v1.2
http://www.filefactory.com/file/b0efd8d/n/RFC_Irish.zip ***there is a crash issue with two of the art files in this version, until I can fix it, be sure to replace the files with the two from post #9 in this thread

In modding Rhye's for RFC with Celts, I learned many things.

One of the things I learned was that it was so hard to incorporate the Celts as they didn't really fit the paradigm of a united empire, despite having an ancient and widespread culture. I realized that the mod was fast becoming an attempt to add Ireland to the RFC world while incorporating features of Celtic population and achievement that predated a recognizable sense of "Ireland."

I've also come to suspect (with things noticed by people on the forum) that moving the Celts as I did may have also caused issues with civs thinking they were one slot off from where they really were in the spawn rotation, and so Spain thought it was France and France thought it was England (etc) for purposes of New World colonization.

So I've decided to redo the project from scratch, incorporating other mods and features I liked. I'm going to leave the Celts and Carthaginians alone, as the Celts had a long history of disunited tribes. I will, however, tinker with the minor-civ Celts to add more settlements that will more closely reflect Celtic settlement.

I will take a page from my old book and replace Khmer with "Ireland." 660 AD marks the point at which a newly Christianized Ireland began to coalesce and offer a face with a sense of national identity to the world; however, in order to do this I won't simply replace iKhmer with iIreland, but rather redefine all of iKhmer with new values. This should help fool the game more effectively and avert the problems I encountered with the Celts, but when you look into the game code you will see that the game still things the civ is Khmer.

Enjoy, and I'm open to suggestions and notification of problems.

The File:
http://www.filefactory.com/file/b0ef2b0/n/RFC_Irish.zip


THINGS TRANSFERRED FROM RFC WITH CELTS LARGELY INTACT:

Holy City re-allocation

Minor city spawn dates and locations

Map enlargement

Reality Checks to maintain historical pacing with key civs when AI controlled




NEW THINGS:

Khmer now redefined as Ireland

New flag designed for Ireland (harp on green)

New UB for Ireland (Irish Pub)

New UU for Ireland (Raparee)

New UHVs for Ireland

New UP for Ireland (productivity from the sea...this should help alleviate the overcrowding on the tiny Emerald Isle)

Irish resources changed to ones historically associated with Ireland (Coal in the south to represent rich peat deposits, Sheep, Marble in the west for the world-famous Connemara marble, and stone in the central region near the Burren).

Dynamic names for Ireland and other altered to be appropriate

DLL recompiled accordingly



STILL TO BE DONE:

The button for the Irish embassy still shows up as Khmer

I'd like to design a new button for the Pub...the jail was a nice shape for it in terms of the city view, but I can't figure out how to use that 3D building with a custom designed button.

Anything else that pops up

 

[Panopticon]

Try change XML\ArtDefines "button" entry on line 1795 to read

			<Button>Art/Interface/Buttons/Civilizations/Harp.dds</Button>

 

[antaine]

that did it! Much thanks.

Replacing these two files with the attached will give the harp icon as the button for them both (so you don't have a police badge for the pub or the Khmer flag for the embassy).

I'm eager to hear other comments as people play the game as well =)

Thanks again.

 

[AnotherPacifist]

Can't wait to play it, although I'll be unhappy if the Christian holy city is razed by barbs.
Maybe you can include a 600 AD scenario too?

 

[antaine]

Hm...well, I've just now noticed that there's a problem with the first UHV showing succeeded when it is not. I'm open to ideas on how to fix it.

 

[AnotherPacifist]

The first criteria is a piece of cake. You just need to conquer Dunedin and since it's a "by" criteria, it kicks in even before the English show up. More pertinent would be a "in 1500" rather than "by 1500."
Oh, and thanks for the numerous Christian missionaries. I think starting with 3 is probably enough?
And of course, if you raze all the Celtic cities on Britain and save your initial settlers until after 820 to found a city in Scotland and Wales, the English won't have any iron.

 

[antaine]

yes, that was all I meant to start them with...I'll be fixing that and for the Americans as well

I've altered that line in victory to read

if (iGameTurn >= i860AD and iGameTurn <= i1500AD):

and defining i860AD

I'll post a new riseandfall and victory in a few minutes. I'd also like to play with ocean squares so that the vikings would make landfall nearer york instead of edinburgh...such is a bit more historically accurate.

 

[antaine]

here you go, this should fix the UHV, the missionaries make the vikings more likely to take York/Jorvik instead of Edinburgh. I'll be giving a link to the complete package, updated, as well

 

[antaine]

hm, the game keeps crashing when I try to build a pub, but I can't see clearly what's causing the error...

It has to do with the button changes I just made, so here are the original art files...these don't seem to replicate the crash

 

[AnotherPacifist]

I wonder if you should adjust the starting techs for Ireland? Right now they are rather unhistorical (no sailing, theology, feudalism)? To be creative you can eliminate machinery but give Aesthetics and Literature (i.e. the knowledge to make a Book of Kells and potentially the Great Library if it hasn't been built yet).

 

[antaine]

I'm thinking so...I'd originally thought that using another 660AD civ would have done the trick for the techs, but I'm thinking I may just copy the list that England starts with, or France.

 

[AnotherPacifist]

I would eliminate machinery since the English should have better tech for a fighting chance. Giving them aesthetics and literature would be a good experiment (usually these won't result in Greek wonders being built in Ireland and historically Irish monasteries were a major repository of knowledge in the Dark Ages--in my game all of Europe had succumbed to the barbs because China built the Great Wall)

 

[antaine]

Done and done. I'll be putting a link to the new complete package up at the top in a few minutes

 

[antaine]

sigh...the "control england" uhv still doesn't work...now it shows "NO" too early.

thoughts?

 

[AnotherPacifist]

You should copy the "in" criteria for Germany. (I think it's "if year is 1500 then check the areas" and don't need to check before 1500).
Also, the 3rd criteria is fairly simple as long as the Christian shrine is still around. I would make it at least 50%.

 

[antaine]

but if the Irish vassalize the English in 1300, I want the UHV to reflect a success, even if England is again independent in 1450. I think what's happened is that I've only defined 0,0 failre and 0,1 success, without also defining a "not yet" to be returned in the meantime.

I think i need to say "between 860 and 1500 check, if England is owned by Ireland return 'yes,' if not, return 'not yet'" If after 1500 check, if England is not owned by Ireland return 'no.'"

The complication was modeling it on the Mongols, who spawn after China...therefore, there's not need to require the checks to start "after" a given year as it is with the english spawn.

I'm going to work on figuring out how to do that in python, but if anybody has it figured out in the meantime and would care to post the lines I'd be grateful for the help.

 

[antaine]

I'm going to try this now:


if (iGameTurn >= i860AD and iGameTurn <= i1500AD):
bEngland = False
if (self.getGoal(iKhmer, 0) == -1):
bEngland = self.checkOwnedCiv(iKhmer, iEngland)
if (bEngland):
self.setGoal(iKhmer, 0, 1)
if (iGameTurn == i1500AD+1):
if (self.getGoal(iKhmer, 0) == -1):
self.setGoal(iKhmer, 0, 0)

 

[antaine]

I think that did it. New package going up at the top shortly

 

[nody]

Did you place independent cities on 'what used to be Khmer'?

 

[antaine]

I enabled the Angkor spawn in barbs.py, but that was it. I'm open to suggestions for which cities people think should spawn and on what years.

I'd also like to know if people think the UHVs are realistic given the time required. The "spread Christianity" one is virtually assured to happen even if you don't do anything to advance it, but such is the same for the Arabs the way Rhye has them coded. The one where you have to build the buildings is doable, but I just made it under the wire (the 1470s) despite starting on the requisite building production my very first turn. If England spawns at war with Ireland, as it often does, it makes the UHV problematic, but still possible.

My concern is that it is not realistic to vassalize or conquer England before 1500, or, if it is, it is not possible AND spending all your time building libraries and monasteries.

Should I move the deadline for that uhv later? And if so, when? I thought it might be apropos to pick a date in which the real England cemented greater control over the real Ireland. The 1500s was my first thought, but 1690 for the Battle of the Boyne, 1800 for the Act of Union or 1920 for Irish independence (this last choice would basically mean that Ireland would have to vassalize or conquer England any time during the period where England had dominated Ireland in real history).

Thoughts on this? Has anyone managed to achieve all three at the same time?