RFCEurope Enhanced Edition

[voigt]

RFCEurope Enhanced Edition

As I like a lot this mod and seen that's RFCE is not in active development for few years, I decided to work on a fork of this mod for the past months. My main goal is to bring the experience of this mod closer to the RFC DoC one.
I've been in touch with people who played the old RFCE++ modmod, and I would like to include some of its features.

For the moment, here's what's been done so far:

• Large refactoring of the codebase (thanks to @Leoreth 's work in RFC DoC)
• Added Blue Marble
• Added some extra soundtracks from RFC DoD
• Some minor tweaks.

I plan to work on the following changes:

• Adding the BUG mod
• New gamespeed (Marathon and epic like in RFC DoC)
• New civs (Serbia, Bohemia, Crimea, Lombardy from RFCE++) / Ireland (maybe indy celtics with Rum and Egypt from RFCE++)
• New techs and civics, rebalance of unique power and starting points
• New timepoint (like 1500AD)
• Adding personal unions from RFCE++
• Adding Holy Roman Empire features from RFCE++
• Switching to the RFCEurope map with extra eastern lands (see here)
• Maybe extend the time period to the industrial era (very hypothetical)

How to install this?
The code is in my GitHub repository.
You can either:

• cloning the repo in your MODs location (you can use your favorite git client like GitHub desktop or the CLI. The main branch corresponds to this fork, the original mod is located in the original branch)
• download a zip version in the release section of the repository.

The recommended way is to clone the repository, whoch allows you to get the latest changes by performing a git pull opération on the main branch.
A complete list of all features can be found here.
Province stability maps (and others) can be found here.

Some screenshots

Spoiler screenshots :

Maps

Spoiler maps :

Base

Bonuses

Rivers

Terrains

Every suggestions is welcome!
Same for bug and issues (don't hesitate to post an issue on GitHub if you have an account there!)

 

[HNation]

Very cool! I'm not super-experienced, but I'm happy to help as much as I can.

A couple of remarks

1. The expanded map I posted wasn't the proto-map. It was the current map with the extra eastern lands of the proto-map added. The proto-map didn't include Iceland, Azores, Canaries, Madeira. The new eastern lands still need a lot of work, but the proto-map is a good starting point.
2. I would strongly recommend against extending the game into the industrial era, at least for now.
3. Until the map is finished, I would recommend against adding a 1500 AD scenario, because every map change would need to be manually re-added to the new scenario. It's much less labor-intensive to get the expanded map to a good point first, and then make another scenario. (This is how Leoreth did it for DoC, he got the big map good before making the other scenarios)
4. Are you going to use my mod-mod that changes it to 650 turns (3 turns/year 500-800, 2 turns/year 800-1700, 1 turn/year 1700-1800)? Another option is to use 600 turns as the standard speed, 900 for epic (like SoI), and then 1800 for marathon. 600 turns could be (3 turns/year 500-950, 2 turns year 950-1700, 1.333 turns for year 1700-1800). Absinthe did want to speed up the 1700-1800 era. This would mean 150 turns from 500-950, 375 turns from 950-1700, and 75 turns from 1700-1800. Since turns per year are defined by month in the XML, it would mean that from 1700-1800, there are 16 months per turn.
5. I would recommend adding all of Serbia, Crimea, Tunisia, Egypt, Sicily (Absinthe wanted to add all of these), Seljuks (see my next point), Ireland, Lombardy, Bohemia, Armenia, and Georgia. Perhaps a Wallachian civ could be nice, too, but it might get cramped.
6. With the extended map, I'd recommend a Seljuk civ instead of Rum. Rum was, after all, a Seljuk state, and this way, the parts of Western Persia that are on the expanded map can have a real civ in them instead of just indies/barbs (a Seljuk civ without Rum doesn't have enough land to be viable)

 

[voigt]

About (1), I made a mistake about the name of the map you posted previously, I edited its name in the post.
For (2), the industrial era, it's very hypothetical and would require most of the other planned features to be added before working on it. So, it's definitely not something that's coming at the moment.
For (3), it makes sense. Adding the new map before adding another scenario would be better. Also, since I want to work on adding the mod BUG (and platybuilder) first, once that's done, I'd like to use platybuilder to switch from CivBeyondSwordWBSave to txt files (as in RFC DOC).
For (4), I've already started work to the addition of epic and marathon gamespeed. You can see in the "files changed" tab the changes I've made to the distribution of turns across the era. This can be discussed, of course. Adding gamespeed would require edition of the python and C++ codebase.
For (5) and (6), I completely agree with you.

Also, I'd like to take this time to ask, what do you think about:

• removing the mercenary gameplay. I've never really used this feature in Civ4. I think removing it would make the python codebase more easier. Also, RFC DOC removed this a long time ago.
• removing the ability for naval units to travel foreign seas without open borders.

 

[HNation]

About (1), I made a mistake about the name of the map you posted previously, I edited its name in the post.
For (2), the industrial era, it's very hypothetical and would require most of the other planned features to be added before working on it. So, it's definitely not something that's coming at the moment.
For (3), it makes sense. Adding the new map before adding another scenario would be better. Also, since I want to work on adding the mod BUG (and platybuilder) first, once that's done, I'd like to use platybuilder to switch from CivBeyondSwordWBSave to txt files (as in RFC DOC).

All of this sounds good

For (4), I've already started work to the addition of epic and marathon gamespeed. You can see in the "files changed" tab the changes I've made to the distribution of turns across the era. This can be discussed, of course. Adding gamespeed would require edition of the python and C++ codebase.

I'm not sure how I feel about marathon gamespeed. It works in DoC because that mod covers 5020 years, it might be excessive in RFCE, for the same reason it wasn't included with SoI.
I would recommend increasing the number of turns in standard, as well. I've already made a 650 turn one, I can also make a 600 turn one if you'd prefer. Absinthe was going to do this but then he left.

For (5) and (6), I completely agree with you.

Also, I'd like to take this time to ask, what do you think about:

• removing the mercenary gameplay. I've never really used this feature in Civ4. I think removing it would make the python codebase more easier. Also, RFC DOC removed this a long time ago.

Bad idea. I use it in pretty much every RFCE game I play. There are a lot of cool regional units only accessible through the mercenary screen, and mercenaries were ig in medieval Europe.

• removing the ability for naval units to travel foreign seas without open borders.

I don't agree with this, either. This just makes naval travel more difficult for no reason.

Also, the eastern part of the map still needs some work. A lot of the rivers and terrain don't match up with the existing map, and Mesopotamia has way too much grassland.

 

[Krieger-FS]

Great work with the modmod!

Just a suggestion regarding new civs: how about the Khazars? They would fit perfectly in the new map area and could make the early game more interesting!

 

[voigt]

All of this sounds good

I'm not sure how I feel about marathon gamespeed. It works in DoC because that mod covers 5020 years, it might be excessive in RFCE, for the same reason it wasn't included with SoI.
I would recommend increasing the number of turns in standard, as well. I've already made a 650 turn one, I can also make a 600 turn one if you'd prefer. Absinthe was going to do this but then he left.



Bad idea. I use it in pretty much every RFCE game I play. There are a lot of cool regional units only accessible through the mercenary screen, and mercenaries were ig in medieval Europe.

I don't agree with this, either. This just makes naval travel more difficult for no reason.

Also, the eastern part of the map still needs some work. A lot of the rivers and terrain don't match up with the existing map, and Mesopotamia has way too much grassland.

Ok, got it for mercenaries and naval travel in foreign seas.
As for the new map, I used my script to render all the map elements (see here). There is indeed some discontinuities in the feature and terrain maps. For example, dense forest/grassland in the Urals. I also see differences in southeast England between the original map and the new one.

Great work with the modmod!

Just a suggestion regarding new civs: how about the Khazars? They would fit perfectly in the new map area and could make the early game more interesting!

Thanks! Yeah totally, adding more central asian civs would be neat!

 

[stillblackadder]

Really looking forward to the new civs and mechanics in the mod! Currently playing through some civs on the most recent version and noticed couple of bugs.
1.Research gets bugged in all the yesteday saves I got - impossible to make a turn without freezing

2. It seems to be impossible to redirect the crusade? I got almost 3000 by the time of the first crusade as Venice but did not get prompted (could some AI be hoarding gold?)
3. I get this error on both Burgundy and Venice playthroughs - could be a reason for both bugs?

 

[voigt]

@stillblackadder I've fixed the issue (3), you can check it by pulling the main branch. I have also the freezing of (1), I don't know why this bug occurs... I've never experimented this kind of freeze. I have to investigate the crusade functionality, maybe there's a regression with the refactoring I did.

 

[HNation]

@voigt can you add more music to the Soundtrack? For example, this song, written by King Henry VIII

 

[stillblackadder]

@stillblackadder I've fixed the issue (3), you can check it by pulling the main branch. I have also the freezing of (1), I don't know why this bug occurs... I've never experimented this kind of freeze. I have to investigate the crusade functionality, maybe there's a regression with the refactoring I did.

Thanks for the quick fix! Regarding the research bug - I seem to be getting it every time I try to load the save after I closed the game. I mean savefiles work fine as long as I do not close again - if I restart the application all of them are suddenly broken. Does it happen to anyone else? Could it be because I downloaded the files as zip?

 

[voigt]

@stillblackadder ok thanks for the details. It may coming from the save game file parser. I will work on it.
I really recommend using the git version with GitHub desktop, it's much easier to get updates.

 

[voigt]

@stillblackadder I've been able to fix the issue with existing savegame. The bug was caused to the game modifier setup at the start of the game.
I made a new release for this fix.

 

[stillblackadder]

@stillblackadder I've been able to fix the issue with existing savegame. The bug was caused to the game modifier setup at the start of the game.
I made a new release for this fix.

Thank you! I will take a look at it as soon as I will finish the game I have on the "original" branch. It is actually great to be able to switch between branches