Rhye's Catapult

[CyberChrist]

Cyber, but I shall have no problem if I take care and put mod folders into the,
well, mod folder under the main game folders... shall I?

No - none at all, but as I said then there is not long from getting used to doing that and then forgetting where you are and changing the default xml/python files - which could easily(and fast) lead to a required reinstall of Civ4. Firaxis created the Custom folders for a reason - and that is it(I assume).

OS drive considerations not withstanding then there is no real reason to place or alter anything in the main install folders instead of in the Custom ones located under Documents\My Games.

 

[Rhye]

i know this might have already been asked but haw many civs do you think you will add if you find out how to add more

No, it hasn't been asked.

It will feature the new civs contained in Warlords, + some more, depending on the availability of custom leaderheads and units

 

[Xanikk999]

This might of been asked also but are you going to include lots of new civics, techs, wonders, units, and buildings?

(I didnt feel like reading this whole thing )

What kind of new stuff are we talking about?

 

[Xanikk999]

I kind of like the idea of having an over-abundance of techs.

I mean like in RaR for civ 3. If you played that you know what i mean by over abundance of techs.

I just like to sit down to a long game.

 

[Rhye]

Civ4 will fall back on using the files in the default folders if those used in the Document folders fail to check out the tests, but if you changed the files in the default folders and they don't work you might very well be looking at having to do a complete reinstall of Civ 4.

what? I am not touching default files at all. Custom files are stored in the mod subfolders

Btw - any comments to my suggestion about the individual spawn scripts?

It's one of the solutions. It needs a lot of work, and will completely cut the waiting. But offers a completely static world as well.
Late starts are a very insidious topic, we'll discuss again about this. For now, we've got a load of unexplainable bugs that come with "dynamic" late starts

 

[Rhye]

Rhye, you see, it is less that 400 turns this way..
Tech costs and other costs will have to be balanced

yeah, this 038 is clearly too fast.

I can raise some costs back, or reduce the timeline to 400 again.
What do you prefer? I'm leaning towards the former...

 

[Rhye]

xanikk, this mod is actually very different from RaR, and more similar to RoC.
In the first page there's a to-do list that explains everything you want to know

 

[CyberChrist]

what? I am not touching default files at all. Custom files are stored in the mod subfolders

Heh heh, no I realize that - it is just easy to forget yourself and stretch the bad habit to include other modifications that lie outside a mod. But enough on this issue - I said what I had to say about it(a few times, heh). Lets get on with talking about your excellent project which is what we are all really here for.

As for the startup scripts then it would only mean your starting point would be historically accurate(and ensure game didn't end before you had a chance to play even your first move), but isn't that the whole point of this project - to have the game advance more or less in accordance with history as we know it?

 

[Rhye]

yes, but more or less it means that I have to do 18 historically correct scenarios.

 

[CyberChrist]

Yes indeed, I did say it would require a good deal of work

An alternate compromise might be to make a startup script for each appropriate era(ancient, classical, medieval, renaissance, industrial, modern) and allow all nations to start at any of those eras. Perhaps adding a new Enlightenment era located between the renaissance and industrial eras(for the purpose of the start up scripts if nothing else).

 

[Rhye]

I've had an idea that would solve both China and handicap levels, but Ill need your help, a big help

I'd reduce the difficulty levels the player can choose to 3 (easy/medium/difficult) and in the sdk a switch would make each of them correspond to different values depending on the civ.
So, Chine range could be higher than English one...including maintenance.
Your help is needed in defining the middle values, and the % of the modifiers

Yes indeed, I did say it would require a good deal of work

An alternate compromise might be to make a startup script for each appropriate era(ancient, classical, medieval, renaissance, industrial, modern) and allow all nations to start at any of those eras. Perhaps adding a new Enlightenment era located between the renaissance and industrial eras(for the purpose of the start up scripts if nothing else).

sounds a possible compromise

 

[V. Soma]

I've had an idea that would solve both China and handicap levels, but Ill need your help, a big help

I'd reduce the difficulty levels the player can choose to 3 (easy/medium/difficult) and in the sdk a switch would make each of them correspond to different values depending on the civ.
So, Chine range could be higher than English one...including maintenance.
Your help is needed in defining the middle values, and the % of the modifiers

Let's try this. What would be the modifiers exactly?
You know, I have those tables with the civs economic output, that might help with setting the %-s...
(and I can make new tables - I like statistics)

 

[V. Soma]

I loaded a game as Germany for two reasons:

1.
To see the loading time: it was 7 mins.

2.
To make statistics
See the attached table:

I hope I improved it, it now has the list of cities (size), and a new indicator:
goods/number of cities - that is, how much hammer an average city of the civ has

I also show a % comparison to China.

Hammers:

Uhh, the ancient civs that are "developed", have 35-40% of China

Science:

Well here the range is wider but still:
India - 76%
Japan - 52%
Egypt - 36%
Persia - 6%

Now I will play a bit up to AD 1500 and will have new stats

 

[V. Soma]

Playing with Germany is by no means boring

AD 1030

First, you have no place (quite historic... Lebensraum, does it ring a bell?)
My second city which I placed at "the Baltic states" flipped to Russia...
I had to crank out a settler fast to get "Hungary"
(since there is no Greece, Rome is already in the Balkan)

 

[V. Soma]

yeah, this 038 is clearly too fast.

I can raise some costs back, or reduce the timeline to 400 again.
What do you prefer? I'm leaning towards the former...

Yeah, the former

 

[V. Soma]

Here is the stats from 1500

SCIENCE:

WOW!

I am surprised, see, two nations are on par with China!
Yes, Japan and France does around 100%...

Now, I guess I got to give a background on these civs:

Japan:
Usual expansion here: big cities on main isle, and a few in Asia, one in Aussie.

France:
Louis made it bigger than usual - has a nice city in southern France,
and he has taken the city in Denmark from me through culture,
and has a city in Sweden, too.

I checked F6 and see that France actually IS AHEAD of China in tech by 1-2! Wow!

Other big civs (Inida, Egypt, Spain) make around 70% of China in science.

HAMMERS
(goods/cities)

How do Louis and Toku fare?

France is the winner: 77% of China, while Japan is 37%
This is no wonder as Japan is on an island
The other such nation, England has 41%,
Spain has 58%

Let me add that China has 5 cities size 10 or bigger,
France and Japan has 4

Me, as Germany, counted with handicap (Prince),
do 20% of China's science and 55% of hammers...

 

[enen]

Maybe the lion isn't a military unit?

For finding the list of units, I suggest you use the method in PyHelpers.py.

Thank you!

inside reviveActivePlayer() there's:

GET_PLAYER(getActivePlayer()).initUnit(((UnitTypes )0), 0, 0);

if you change the first number you'll find out if that theory is true

Yes, the lion isn't a military unit, now is shown, but not in createStartingUnits()!
I think this is synchronization problem: the lion is recreated after the createStartingUnits() has been executed. That's why isn't there. I've added the unit enumeration code to both the createStartingUnits() and onBeginGameTurn() and only the later has shown the lion at (0,0).

I will try to find a solution.

 

[enen]

Screenshots:

 

[V. Soma]

I started another one, as England.

Loading time is 7 mins., again.

Greece is killed, again...

Stats: see attached file

This time China does not advance as fast in goods!
Well, we'll see how it evolves...

 

[Surtur]

One possibility to stop China could be the mongols. Maybe change the keshiks to be as strong as knights and let the mongols start already at war with China. Of course they have to start with many keshiks when they spawn.