Rise and Fall of House Julii

[Wolfshade]

LOL

Yeah. A question was incorrect, so the funny answer. I wanted to ask if there'll be new chariots from Andrea, but for my previous question the answer "LOL" is absolutely correct.

Spoiler :

Working on my personal "moddy", I added chariots. And I remembered there was a cool Assyrian one from Yang Liu (or H.Balck). It was never released, but the model was ready (and previewed) and I had a thought probably it could get "alive" finally in Andrea's hands - that's why I asked about chariots.

Also, I have a question about artillery - do you plan to use it; and if yes, then how? I just played old but very-very cool RFRE and there was no arty, IIRC.

There are really good done archers/skirmishers (2-moves) in RFRE - it's just to remind you a fun-bringing aspect. In my personal work, I decided to give skirmishers a stealth attack ability in addition to 2 tiles movement - to bring (or, at least, to try to - I have not much time currently and have no comprehensive results) some tactical look into the combat (archers are weak defenders and not good attackers, but their primary aim was not to kill entire "unit", but to weak it and sit behind the powerful unit back, if I'm correct). I'm telling it with the only purpose - to share an info and be helpful.

 

[The Guardian]

Yeah. A question was incorrect, so the funny answer. I wanted to ask if there'll be new chariots from Andrea, but for my previous question the answer "LOL" is absolutely correct.

Spoiler :

Working on my personal "moddy", I added chariots. And I remembered there was a cool Assyrian one from Yang Liu (or H.Balck). It was never released, but the model was ready (and previewed) and I had a thought probably it could get "alive" finally in Andrea's hands - that's why I asked about chariots.

Also, I have a question about artillery - do you plan to use it; and if yes, then how? I just played old but very-very cool RFRE and there was no arty, IIRC.

There are really good done archers/skirmishers (2-moves) in RFRE - it's just to remind you a fun-bringing aspect. In my personal work, I decided to give skirmishers a stealth attack ability in addition to 2 tiles movement - to bring (or, at least, to try to - I have not much time currently and have no comprehensive results) some tactical look into the combat (archers are weak defenders and not good attackers, but their primary aim was not to kill entire "unit", but to weak it and sit behind the powerful unit back, if I'm correct). I'm telling it with the only purpose - to share an info and be helpful.

Yes there will be artillery in the form of archers, seige archers, ballista, and onagers. I felt, and still feel, that there are plenty of chariot units already available and didn't want to burden Imperator by asking him to make units that are already available.

 

[King Coltrane]

(also, we had arty in RFRE. Ballistas, Catapults, and greek fire)

 

[Jerry'sGoldfish]

and

i hope to see some revelations among units...

ps - no germanic tribes????

 

[The Guardian]

and

i hope to see some revelations among units...

ps - no germanic tribes????

Yes the Germanic tribes and The Suiones are included in the mod.

 

[The Guardian]

I will soon have the last of the units I have requested from Imperator. I have finished the Improvements, Small Wonders and Great Wonders portion of the civilopedia. Still working on the Units and resources civilopedia entries. Version 1.0 of the map ( starting locations only) is complete. While working on the Unit and Resource civilopedia entries, I will also be working on the Unit and Resource icons. When these Items are complete, I believe we will be ready to release the beta version for testing.

I will be interested in getting some good beta testers who can provide detailed reports regarding playability, balance, errors, accuracy and improvement recommendations. If you are interested, send me a PM.

 

[clamel]

I just must ask if you got any new slingers from Imperator in this mod ???

This mod really looks cool and I can´t wait to try it out.
Great Guardian

 

[The Guardian]

I just must ask if you got any new slingers from Imperator in this mod ???

This mod really looks cool and I can´t wait to try it out.
Great Guardian

Yes, there are slingers.Like the Funditores.

And others.

 

[clamel]

Great,
do hope you got some with pants for the Britons, Germanics and northern tribes. Those has been lacking in Civ as far what I can find.
Most slingers are with "Med" warmer climates clothes.

 

[The Guardian]

I have uploaded the scenario files and sent the DL link to my beta testers and hopefully, beta testing will begin soon. This brings us one step closer to releasing the finished scenario. Hopeful that date will be coming soon.

 

[nick0515]

First Beta Test Report

A Brief Description of my Game So Far:

Monarchy Difficultly, playing as Rome:

It is now 533BC. I have spread throughout central Italy and have just come in contact with Etruia, which is the only civ I’ve met so far. They declared war on me when I built a city beside one of their settlers and a brief war ensued in which I took one of their cities then proposed peace along with a trade of 50 gold for one of their techs, which they accepted. They are more technologically advanced than me but not too far ahead. My game so far has been a fairly slow start just spreading out and building basic improvements like wells, cult sights and granaries. I’m enjoying it a lot and am very impressed with the game so far.

I haven’t been a beta tester before so am a little unsure of how to do it so I’ll just give you a list of all my observations so far which includes some commentary, some errors, observations etc.

- Barbarian muster hall has pink pixels in the Large pedia image, and the civilopedia says “maintenance = + 2”. Remove the ‘+’?

- Some techs in the first error overlap in the techtree but it looks like there is enough room to spread them out more. These include ‘Bronze Working’ and ‘Sailing’, ‘Tools’ and ‘Boat Building’ and ‘Trade’ and ‘Nature Cult’.

- ‘Roman Militia Barracks’ has pink pixels in the large pedia graphic.

- Rome starts off with a Ziggurat in the city of Rome, should be a Babylon only improvement.

- Throughout the game I had a strange occurrence with the unit “Roman Early Archer”. This unit is often suggested that I build it, yet when I look at my unit queue in the city screen it is not there. If I don’t change it the city will build this unit fine. If I change it, I cannot build it again until the computer suggests it to me again.

Spoiler :

- Pedia images and units_32 for some units don’t match – temporary fill-ins?
Maximum hypertext links exceeded box. Had to click OK about 5 times.

Spoiler :

- The city graphics for different culture groups don’t seem to match that well, perhaps use Kyriakos or Stico sets.

- Carthage is not in the correct location, should be higher up, closer to Sicily shouldn’t it?

- Suione civ starts in Scandinavia.

- Palace civilopedia text mentions TAM.

- Wardog and Diplomat have no pedia text. (Just not done yet?)

- Resource shadow for olives looks strange to me; not matching.

- Pontus built Lydia’s wonder, ‘the Riches of Kroisos’.

- Pontus’ pedia entry describes the Sea Peoples and mentions TAM

- Mine terrain building graphic is very cool!

- Navigation tech allows a resource called Fish3.

- Some of my cities can build ‘Roman Granary’ and ‘Granary’. Same with ‘Temple’ and ‘Roman Temple’.

Spoiler :

- Making lots of money as can’t put science above 50% and don’t need to increase happiness. Using it to hurry units and buildings. Is this intentional? I like it anyway. I’ve always thought you get to little money in many mods/scenarios.

- Ended up being able to build Princepes and Triarii before Hastatii. Perhaps should have to get Hastatii first?

- Discovered Boat Building but can’t build a Coracle.

- AI’s didn’t always build there civ specific advantage wonder straight away but most did, except Etrustcans who built it in 573 BC quite a while after everyone else.

- Got an error for Carthaginian war elephants1. The pediaicons file is missing the ‘1’ as is the ini file in the unit folder.

Spoiler :

- The Aqueduct for Romans seems to be called the ‘Aqueduct of Marib’.

Spoiler :

- Timber Wall pedia doesn’t say that a Palisade is required to build it.

- Why did you reduce the maximum city sizes? By the time I got round to building palisades many of my cities had already gone beyond size 4.

- Is Rome supposed to be able to build Axemen?

- The Etruscans sent a settler and a military unit down the eastern cost of Italy and then fortified both without actually creating a city. I was able to march a settler right beside their fortified units and plant a city, for which they declared war on me. Was odd behaviour from the AI.

Spoiler :

- There are a lot of improvements available early on. It will take a long time to build them all in most cities.

 

[The Guardian]

First Beta Test Report

A Brief Description of my Game So Far:

Monarchy Difficultly, playing as Rome:

It is now 533BC. I have spread throughout central Italy and have just come in contact with Etruia, which is the only civ I’ve met so far. They declared war on me when I built a city beside one of their settlers and a brief war ensued in which I took one of their cities then proposed peace along with a trade of 50 gold for one of their techs, which they accepted. They are more technologically advanced than me but not too far ahead. My game so far has been a fairly slow start just spreading out and building basic improvements like wells, cult sights and granaries. I’m enjoying it a lot and am very impressed with the game so far.

I haven’t been a beta tester before so am a little unsure of how to do it so I’ll just give you a list of all my observations so far which includes some commentary, some errors, observations etc..

Your doing fine. This is a good report and exactly what I need.

.

- Barbarian muster hall has pink pixels in the Large pedia image, and the civilopedia says “maintenance = + 2”. Remove the ‘+’?.

I'm still working on the civilopedia. This type of info is very helpful and will make ky work easier. Yes remove the "+".

.

- Some techs in the first error overlap in the techtree but it looks like there is enough room to spread them out more. These include ‘Bronze Working’ and ‘Sailing’, ‘Tools’ and ‘Boat Building’ and ‘Trade’ and ‘Nature Cult’..

Thanks for reminding, I noticed that too but forgot to correct it.
.

- ‘Roman Militia Barracks’ has pink pixels in the large pedia graphic..

Corrected that one
.

- Rome starts off with a Ziggurat in the city of Rome, should be a Babylon only improvement..

Fixed that also
.

- Throughout the game I had a strange occurrence with the unit “Roman Early Archer”. This unit is often suggested that I build it, yet when I look at my unit queue in the city screen it is not there. If I don’t change it the city will build this unit fine. If I change it, I cannot build it again until the computer suggests it to me again.

Spoiler :

.

Yes I noticed that also. There was an error in the ini file
ATTACK1=Attack.flc
ATTACK2=
ATTACK3=
DEFEND=
DEATH=Death.flc
DEAD=
FORTIFY= Default.flc has an extra space between = and Default
FORTIFYHOLD=
FIDGET=Fidget.flc
VICTORY=Victory.flc
should be
ATTACK1=Attack.flc
ATTACK2=
ATTACK3=
DEFEND=
DEATH=Death.flc
DEAD=
FORTIFY=Fidget.flc
FORTIFYHOLD=
FIDGET=Fidget.flc
VICTORY=Victory.flc

- Pedia images and units_32 for some units don’t match – temporary fill-ins?
Maximum hypertext links exceeded box. Had to click OK about 5 times.

Spoiler :

There are several instances where this occurs. El Justo had this problem in AOI and came up with what I thought was a good solution. I think we can use that solution

- The city graphics for different culture groups don’t seem to match that well, perhaps use Kyriakos or Stico sets.

I am looking at several graphics combinations and Kyriakos' is definately one of them. This is an easy fix and we have plenty of time to discuss this before we release the mod.

- Carthage is not in the correct location, should be higher up, closer to Sicily shouldn’t it?

I'll take a look.

- Suione civ starts in Scandinavia.

According to Tacitus, writing about A.D. 100, Sweden in the first century B.C. was dominated by the Suione Teutonic tribe. Scandinavia was never entered by the Romans, although trade was carried on with Danish amber, fur and various slaves exchanged for several Roman products, including wines and some iron objects.

- Palace civilopedia text mentions TAM.

I'll fix that

- Wardog and Diplomat have no pedia text. (Just not done yet?)

Correct

- Resource shadow for olives looks strange to me; not matching.

I'll tale a look at that. Maybe I can make a new one.

- Pontus built Lydia’s wonder, ‘the Riches of Kroisos’.

Lydia is not included in the mode. I gave it Pontus as they had no starting wonder (civ specific) if we can come up with a better one for Pontus, I can change it.

- Pontus’ pedia entry describes the Sea Peoples and mentions TAM

Good catch. I'll fix it.

- Mine terrain building graphic is very cool!

Forgot where I got it. I think it was Age of Kings. Anyway I liked it so I put it in.

- Navigation tech allows a resource called Fish3.

Oops, forgot to rename that one.

- Some of my cities can build ‘Roman Granary’ and ‘Granary’. Same with ‘Temple’ and ‘Roman Temple’.

Spoiler :

Yes I am aware of that. There is a limit on the number of buildings and the number of cultures. I can't create enough buildings to cover all five cultures and I can't create enough cultures to cover all 24 civs, and these specific building types are required by all 24 civs. I'm still working on trying to figure out a work - around.. If you can think of something, let me know.

- Making lots of money as can’t put science above 50% and don’t need to increase happiness. Using it to hurry units and buildings. Is this intentional? I like it anyway. I’ve always thought you get to little money in many mods/scenarios.

Yes it is intentional. There is no trading of resources and this compensates for that.

- Ended up being able to build Princepes and Triarii before Hastatii. Perhaps should have to get Hastatii first?

Made the following Changes
Unit Requirement
Hastatii Bronze Working
Princepes Alphabet
Triarii Mysticism

- Discovered Boat Building but can’t build a Coracle.

Coracle not available to Rome.

- AI’s didn’t always build there civ specific advantage wonder straight away but most did, except Etrustcans who built it in 573 BC quite a while after everyone else..

Etruria's civ specific advantage is pottery. By allowing them to build it early, you would be allowing them to have a grainary in every city too soon and thereby give them an untenable advantage and destroy any semblance of historical accuracy.
.

- Got an error for Carthaginian war elephants1. The pediaicons file is missing the ‘1’ as is the ini file in the unit folder.

Spoiler :

.

I saw that and corrected it after I uploaded the files. If you haven't corrected it, go ahead and do so.
.

- The Aqueduct for Romans seems to be called the ‘Aqueduct of Marib’.

Spoiler :

.

This has been changed to Roman Aqua Appia. You can fix that in the editor by simply changing the name of the improvement to Roman Aqua Appia

- Timber Wall pedia doesn’t say that a Palisade is required to build it.

I'll make the correction.

- Why did you reduce the maximum city sizes? By the time I got round to building palisades many of my cities had already gone beyond size 4.

Shall I change it to 6 or 8
- Is Rome supposed to be able to build Axemen?

- The Etruscans sent a settler and a military unit down the eastern cost of Italy and then fortified both without actually creating a city. I was able to march a settler right beside their fortified units and plant a city, for which they declared war on me. Was odd behaviour from the AI.

Spoiler :

[/QUOTE]
I haven't seen that happen, but, it could be because there are several tiles in that immediate area that can not be built upon. Can not build on mountains. The tile directly south of Arpinium is not buildable as is the tile directly north of the settler.

- There are a lot of improvements available early on. It will take a long time to build them all in most cities.

There are indeed many choices. This is intentional. For the greatest degree of success, the player must think and choose wisely. To be successful the player must make good decisions in the early phase of the game, both in what he/she chooses to research, and what he she chooses to build.

Great job Nick. Thanks

 

[nick0515]

Just quickly re the city sizes, higher like 6 or 8 maximum for level 1 cities makes more sense to me. More time to make use of your walls (god a I hate that useless mechanic that only allows walls to fully function with size one cities )

 

[Wolfshade]

Beta Test Report on v1

A brief description of the game progress:
I started as the Assyria (I was definitely sure somebody will start as Rome so I chose other civ), Warlord difficulty. Played to the 432 BC.

My strategy was & is to get into the North Africa, so concrete steps:
1) spread across northern Mesopotamia to lock an access to the rich lands on the south for Pontus & Troy (I'm OK with them building small cities in hills and mountains);
2) capture Judea cities to get access to the Mediterranean sea & Egypt;
3) pacify Babylon, Midea & Parthia in any way, but not to spend a lot of time on them since they're not a primary goal.

From the start, I moved 2 warriors to the south to meet my neighbors and, especially, Judea - I needed to stop their growth as earlier as possible. So I captured 2 workers, killed 2 warriors (lost my own 1) using terrain defense bonuses, was in their territory for ~40 turns. Then requested 20 gold & signed peace treaty. I had 5 or 6 cities that time & they still had 2.

Then I moved remaining warrior to the Babylon - destroyed 1 unprotected city & 1 protected with warrior. Babylon requested peace and I accepted it, with the gold from them, of course - I took ~90% of their total treasury, slowing them down. Pacified.
Troy declared war on me because I refused to make a gift - a tech (don't remember which one exactly). I played ~20 turns & saw no troyan units. I requested peace & took a little of gold from them.

Berbers were destroyed (by Carthage, I suppose).

Later, Midea settled 2 cities near my border. I destroyed both with 2 mesopotamian bowmen & 2 early swordsmen, killed 4 early (light?) archers and 1 light horseman, requested peace & 100% of their treasury - request was accepted. Pacified.
Parthia a couple of times requested ~20 gold from me - I gave them because I had ~1000, it's not a problem. And unnecessary war would be a problem. Pacified.

Gathered a little army (5+5 bowmen & swordsmen) & moved it to the Judea. While moving, Greek City States & Rome declared war on me (they wanted techs). ~20 turns later signed a piece treaty, tossed 40 gold total to both - saw 3 greek triremes only. What's the matter to declare war on the unreachable civ - I don't know.

Game crashed on building a trading boat (see a detailed report), so I stopped - for yesterday.


Overall impression so far:
* game process is slow (many turns, a few important events);
* tension is low because of big distance between civs;
* a lot of redundancy (see below);
* nothing new to the gameplay (oh, why?).

Detailed report:

Spoiler :

Release: Roma1.biq
Maturity: Beta
Date: 2012/APR/30

Miscelaneous issues:

Objects:
-1) Picts civilization, Pict barbarian - intentionally?
02) Hattusas - capital of Hittites;
03) Rome & Etruria have close civ colors - should be more contrast;
04) (72,24) & (73,23) = ocean, intentionally?

Units:
05) AfricanElephant unit palette issue;
06) AfricanPhalanx unit - Attacks from Extraordinarius;
07) Archer - LQ unit;
08) Archer folder, RomanEarlyArcher.ini - a cause of possible crash (if unit is used);
09) AthenianHoplitePW, A1_.flc - shield overlapped with the coat;
10) BlackPretorian - civ color trouble (change to blue to see);
11) CamillianCavalry - palette issue, see a white horse;
12) Celt-IberianSpearman, A1_.flc - palette issue (see shield in S direction);
13) CelticLightSkirmisher, A2_,4_,6_ - palette issue;
14) ClassicalGreekHoplite, A4 palette & resize issue;
15) CohorsAuxiliarium - LQ unit;
16) HannibalBarkas - palette issue because of resizing;
17) LegioItalia - civ color trouble;
18) LibyanCavalry - palette issue (see a horse);
19) LibyanSkirmisher - civ color trouble;
20) Liby-PoeniCavalry - palette issue (see a horse);
21) LibyPoeniVeteranInfantry - civ color trouble;
22) MassaliaHopliteEllenic - palette issue -> civ color trouble;
23) MassilianHoplite - palette issue -> civ color trouble;
24) MassyliDromader - palette issue -> civ color trouble;
25) NobleCavalryBodyguard - palette issue -> civ color trouble;
26) Principes - palette issue & civ color trouble;
27) RepublicanCohort - palette issue -> civ color trouble;
28) RhodianHoplite - palette issue -> civ color trouble;
29) RomanDecurian - palette issue & civ color trouble;
30) SpartanHeavyHoplite - palette issue -> civ color trouble (change civ color & see arms);
31) SpartanHoplitePW - Athenean;
32) SuioneSkirmisher - civ color trouble;
33) TarentineLeukaspides - civ color trouble;
34) Thespian Hoplite - civ color trouble;
35) UmbrianWarrior - civ color trouble, = SuioneSkirmisher intentionally?

Resources icons:
36) Wines resource has an incorrect path to the big icon;
37) Barley resource has an incorrect path to the big icon;
38) Bear resource has an incorrect path to the big icon;
39) Boar resource has an incorrect path to the big icon;
40) Chicken resource has an incorrect path to the big icon;
41) Cod resource has an incorrect path to the big icon;
42) Cotton resource has no big icon;
43) Crabs resource has no big icon;
44) Dates resource has no big icon;
45) Eel resource has an incorrect path to the big icon;
46) Fish3,5,7,8,9,12 resources have an incorrect path to the big icon (if the same icon for all variations of resource planned) or have no big icon;
47) Glass resource has an incorrect path to the big icon;
48) Goats resource has an incorrect path to the big icon;
49) Herbs resource has no big icon;
50) Honey resource has no big icon;
51) Mackeral resource has an incorrect path to the big icon;
52) Oil resource has an incorrect path to the big icon;
53) Olives = Dates, probably, it'll be informative to use black olives from Kyriakos to separate these 2 resources?
54) Pearls resource has an incorrect path to the big icon;
55) Pigs resource has no big icon;
56) Red Fish resource has an incorrect path to the big icon;
57) Salt resource has no big icon;
58) Sardines resource has an incorrect path to the big icon;
59) Sea Bass resource has an incorrect path to the big icon;
60) Sole resource has an incorrect path to the big icon;
61) Stone resource has no big icon;
62) Stonehenge resource has no big icon;
63) Sulfur resource has an incorrect path to the big icon, typo in the resource name (sulfEr);
64) Tea resource has an incorrect path to the big icon;
65) Tilapia resource has an incorrect path to the big icon;

Races icons:
66) Dacia has no map-icon (LH instead);
67) Gallia has no map-icon (LH instead);
68) Germanic Tribes has no map-icon (LH instead);
69) Greek City States has no map-icon (LH instead);
70) Iberia has no map-icon (LH instead);
71) Nubia has no map-icon (LH instead, see an icon transparency issue in Civilopedia);
72) Parthia has no map-icon (LH instead);
73) Picts has no map-icon (LH instead);
74) Pontus has no map-icon (LH instead);
75) Rome has no map-icon (LH instead);
76) Scythia has no map-icon (LH instead);
77) Suione has no map-icon (LH instead);
78) Troy = Lydia, intentionally?

Techs:
79) Greek Unificatin typo, should be a Greek Unification;
80) Marian Reforms big icon transparency issue;

Great Wonders:
81) Forum Romana big icon transparency issue;
82) Great_Stone_Quarry (underlines);
83) Temple Of Zeus - STATUE of Zeus, intentionally?

Small Wonders:
84) Horus Knight Barracks big icon transparency issue;

City Improvements:
85) Anubis Temple big icon transparency issue;
86) Large City Wall big icon transparency issue;
87) Osiris Temple big icon transparency issue;
88) Persian Granery typo, should be GranAry;
89) Pharoah Statue typo, should be PharAOh;
90) Roman Fishing Dock big icon transparency issue;

Governments:
91) Gallic_Chiefdom (underline);
92) typo in Unit Support Parameter - should be gpt, not gp;

Civilopedia in a whole:
93) SPQR big icon transparency issue;




Animations issues:
1) replace
#ANIMNAME_PRTO_CarthaginianWarElephant
with
#ANIMNAME_PRTO_CarthaginianWarElephant1 in pediaicons.txt;
2) Babylonian Skirmisher has a graphical defect - a black line on the left border in the last frame of Default animation;
3) replace
Camel Rider
with
CamelRider in pediaicons.txt;
4) EarlySailingShip has an incorrectly named .ini file.




Gameplay issues:
1) Mesopotamian Spearman has no sense since Mesopotamian Bowman is stronger + can go into
the mountains + Warrior Code tech (allows Bowmen) can be researched earlier in the game (redundancy);

2) there should be a "city upgrade chain": small -> medium -> big farm. All of them available from the start and while they give 1 content face only, I never built them & have no plans to do it. I build improvements which give me production (1) & gold (2). Happy people is not a problem - yet, at least. Redundancy, again;

3) is it possible to build Caravan Houses? They announced as the Space Race victory replacement;

4) replace roads with red stone roads from Pounder to make them vivid & recognizable;

5) Anarchy govt mismatch the Civilopedia description - science & production remain;

6) please, compare (Assyrian) Early Horseman, Horse Archer & Chariot. Horse Archer rules and doesn't require any special resource against others 2 (redundancy). So they both have no sense. How to make them "live" - use a Stealth Attack function.

A quick overview of warfare games basis:
* it was introduced in the Age Of Empires Game: horseman kills -> swordsman kills -> spearman kills -> horseman. Closed circle. To achieve victory, player will need all kinds of units. The same mechanics applied to Total War Games with addition to the circle archers/slingers/javelineers.
* there was never such a concept in Civilization games before Civ4 where specific units granted bonuses against other units.

How to apply the system to the Civ3 - use a stealth attack (applied in my own mod partially):
(copy a table below to the Notepad for comfortable view)
Attacker Aim
Archer (fast, 2 moves) Swordsman
Horse Archer (fast) Archer
Chariot (fast + wheeled) Archer
Horseman (fast, not wheeled) Archer + Horse Archer
Spearman Horseman
Artillery (big offense, little defense) anyone
Fast Artillery (+ horse) anyone

Circle is closed by the artillery. Thus, you can't win a battle using only few unit types - it's necessary to use a big variety in a specific order of attack.

I'm not talking about application of the described mechanics to the scenario, it's just an idea/example which may be interesting and useful.

All for now, more ahead. Once more, thank you, Guardian, for letting me participate the event!

 

[The Guardian]

Just quickly re the city sizes, higher like 6 or 8 maximum for level 1 cities makes more sense to me. More time to make use of your walls (god a I hate that useless mechanic that only allows walls to fully function with size one cities )

If you take a look in the editor you can see three improvements:
City Wall
Large City Wall
Great City Wall

You can also see in the civilopedia
they give the city greater defense capability
There is also a Roman Tower unit: immobile 30 defensive strength and a Ballista Tower improvement that auto produces a tower Ballista
The same is available for the eastern empires.

 

[The Guardian]

Which of these is the best?

Roma Eternus Palma

Spoiler :

or
SPQR

Spoiler :

 

[Wolfshade]

Link is broken, but from all variations I'd choose a pic with no Vatican - it fits medieval scenario better than the ancient one.

 

[Wolfshade]

I like the left one. It's more common than concrete characters - and scenario covers a big period of time, so not only these guys will participate.

 

[The Guardian]

Beta Test Report on v1

A brief description of the game progress:
I started as the Assyria (I was definitely sure somebody will start as Rome so I chose other civ), Warlord difficulty. Played to the 432 BC.

My strategy was & is to get into the North Africa, so concrete steps:
1) spread across northern Mesopotamia to lock an access to the rich lands on the south for Pontus & Troy (I'm OK with them building small cities in hills and mountains);
2) capture Judea cities to get access to the Mediterranean sea & Egypt;
3) pacify Babylon, Midea & Parthia in any way, but not to spend a lot of time on them since they're not a primary goal.

From the start, I moved 2 warriors to the south to meet my neighbors and, especially, Judea - I needed to stop their growth as earlier as possible. So I captured 2 workers, killed 2 warriors (lost my own 1) using terrain defense bonuses, was in their territory for ~40 turns. Then requested 20 gold & signed peace treaty. I had 5 or 6 cities that time & they still had 2.

Then I moved remaining warrior to the Babylon - destroyed 1 unprotected city & 1 protected with warrior. Babylon requested peace and I accepted it, with the gold from them, of course - I took ~90% of their total treasury, slowing them down. Pacified.
Troy declared war on me because I refused to make a gift - a tech (don't remember which one exactly). I played ~20 turns & saw no troyan units. I requested peace & took a little of gold from them.

Berbers were destroyed (by Carthage, I suppose).

Later, Midea settled 2 cities near my border. I destroyed both with 2 mesopotamian bowmen & 2 early swordsmen, killed 4 early (light?) archers and 1 light horseman, requested peace & 100% of their treasury - request was accepted. Pacified.
Parthia a couple of times requested ~20 gold from me - I gave them because I had ~1000, it's not a problem. And unnecessary war would be a problem. Pacified.

Gathered a little army (5+5 bowmen & swordsmen) & moved it to the Judea. While moving, Greek City States & Rome declared war on me (they wanted techs). ~20 turns later signed a piece treaty, tossed 40 gold total to both - saw 3 greek triremes only. What's the matter to declare war on the unreachable civ - I don't know.

Game crashed on building a trading boat (see a detailed report), so I stopped - for yesterday.


Overall impression so far:
* game process is slow (many turns, a few important events);
* tension is low because of big distance between civs;
* a lot of redundancy (see below);
* nothing new to the gameplay (oh, why?).

Detailed report:

Spoiler :

Release: Roma1.biq
Maturity: Beta
Date: 2012/APR/30

Miscelaneous issues:

Objects:
-1) Picts civilization, Pict barbarian - intentionally?
02) Hattusas - capital of Hittites;
03) Rome & Etruria have close civ colors - should be more contrast;
04) (72,24) & (73,23) = ocean, intentionally?

Units:
05) AfricanElephant unit palette issue;
06) AfricanPhalanx unit - Attacks from Extraordinarius;
07) Archer - LQ unit;
08) Archer folder, RomanEarlyArcher.ini - a cause of possible crash (if unit is used);
09) AthenianHoplitePW, A1_.flc - shield overlapped with the coat;
10) BlackPretorian - civ color trouble (change to blue to see);
11) CamillianCavalry - palette issue, see a white horse;
12) Celt-IberianSpearman, A1_.flc - palette issue (see shield in S direction);
13) CelticLightSkirmisher, A2_,4_,6_ - palette issue;
14) ClassicalGreekHoplite, A4 palette & resize issue;
15) CohorsAuxiliarium - LQ unit;
16) HannibalBarkas - palette issue because of resizing;
17) LegioItalia - civ color trouble;
18) LibyanCavalry - palette issue (see a horse);
19) LibyanSkirmisher - civ color trouble;
20) Liby-PoeniCavalry - palette issue (see a horse);
21) LibyPoeniVeteranInfantry - civ color trouble;
22) MassaliaHopliteEllenic - palette issue -> civ color trouble;
23) MassilianHoplite - palette issue -> civ color trouble;
24) MassyliDromader - palette issue -> civ color trouble;
25) NobleCavalryBodyguard - palette issue -> civ color trouble;
26) Principes - palette issue & civ color trouble;
27) RepublicanCohort - palette issue -> civ color trouble;
28) RhodianHoplite - palette issue -> civ color trouble;
29) RomanDecurian - palette issue & civ color trouble;
30) SpartanHeavyHoplite - palette issue -> civ color trouble (change civ color & see arms);
31) SpartanHoplitePW - Athenean;
32) SuioneSkirmisher - civ color trouble;
33) TarentineLeukaspides - civ color trouble;
34) Thespian Hoplite - civ color trouble;
35) UmbrianWarrior - civ color trouble, = SuioneSkirmisher intentionally?

Resources icons:
36) Wines resource has an incorrect path to the big icon;
37) Barley resource has an incorrect path to the big icon;
38) Bear resource has an incorrect path to the big icon;
39) Boar resource has an incorrect path to the big icon;
40) Chicken resource has an incorrect path to the big icon;
41) Cod resource has an incorrect path to the big icon;
42) Cotton resource has no big icon;
43) Crabs resource has no big icon;
44) Dates resource has no big icon;
45) Eel resource has an incorrect path to the big icon;
46) Fish3,5,7,8,9,12 resources have an incorrect path to the big icon (if the same icon for all variations of resource planned) or have no big icon;
47) Glass resource has an incorrect path to the big icon;
48) Goats resource has an incorrect path to the big icon;
49) Herbs resource has no big icon;
50) Honey resource has no big icon;
51) Mackeral resource has an incorrect path to the big icon;
52) Oil resource has an incorrect path to the big icon;
53) Olives = Dates, probably, it'll be informative to use black olives from Kyriakos to separate these 2 resources?
54) Pearls resource has an incorrect path to the big icon;
55) Pigs resource has no big icon;
56) Red Fish resource has an incorrect path to the big icon;
57) Salt resource has no big icon;
58) Sardines resource has an incorrect path to the big icon;
59) Sea Bass resource has an incorrect path to the big icon;
60) Sole resource has an incorrect path to the big icon;
61) Stone resource has no big icon;
62) Stonehenge resource has no big icon;
63) Sulfur resource has an incorrect path to the big icon, typo in the resource name (sulfEr);
64) Tea resource has an incorrect path to the big icon;
65) Tilapia resource has an incorrect path to the big icon;

Races icons:
66) Dacia has no map-icon (LH instead);
67) Gallia has no map-icon (LH instead);
68) Germanic Tribes has no map-icon (LH instead);
69) Greek City States has no map-icon (LH instead);
70) Iberia has no map-icon (LH instead);
71) Nubia has no map-icon (LH instead, see an icon transparency issue in Civilopedia);
72) Parthia has no map-icon (LH instead);
73) Picts has no map-icon (LH instead);
74) Pontus has no map-icon (LH instead);
75) Rome has no map-icon (LH instead);
76) Scythia has no map-icon (LH instead);
77) Suione has no map-icon (LH instead);
78) Troy = Lydia, intentionally?

Techs:
79) Greek Unificatin typo, should be a Greek Unification;
80) Marian Reforms big icon transparency issue;

Great Wonders:
81) Forum Romana big icon transparency issue;
82) Great_Stone_Quarry (underlines);
83) Temple Of Zeus - STATUE of Zeus, intentionally?

Small Wonders:
84) Horus Knight Barracks big icon transparency issue;

City Improvements:
85) Anubis Temple big icon transparency issue;
86) Large City Wall big icon transparency issue;
87) Osiris Temple big icon transparency issue;
88) Persian Granery typo, should be GranAry;
89) Pharoah Statue typo, should be PharAOh;
90) Roman Fishing Dock big icon transparency issue;

Governments:
91) Gallic_Chiefdom (underline);
92) typo in Unit Support Parameter - should be gpt, not gp;

Civilopedia in a whole:
93) SPQR big icon transparency issue;




Animations issues:
1) replace
#ANIMNAME_PRTO_CarthaginianWarElephant
with
#ANIMNAME_PRTO_CarthaginianWarElephant1 in pediaicons.txt;
2) Babylonian Skirmisher has a graphical defect - a black line on the left border in the last frame of Default animation;
3) replace
Camel Rider
with
CamelRider in pediaicons.txt;
4) EarlySailingShip has an incorrectly named .ini file.




Gameplay issues:
1) Mesopotamian Spearman has no sense since Mesopotamian Bowman is stronger + can go into
the mountains + Warrior Code tech (allows Bowmen) can be researched earlier in the game (redundancy);

2) there should be a "city upgrade chain": small -> medium -> big farm. All of them available from the start and while they give 1 content face only, I never built them & have no plans to do it. I build improvements which give me production (1) & gold (2). Happy people is not a problem - yet, at least. Redundancy, again;

3) is it possible to build Caravan Houses? They announced as the Space Race victory replacement;

4) replace roads with red stone roads from Pounder to make them vivid & recognizable;

5) Anarchy govt mismatch the Civilopedia description - science & production remain;

6) please, compare (Assyrian) Early Horseman, Horse Archer & Chariot. Horse Archer rules and doesn't require any special resource against others 2 (redundancy). So they both have no sense. How to make them "live" - use a Stealth Attack function.

A quick overview of warfare games basis:
* it was introduced in the Age Of Empires Game: horseman kills -> swordsman kills -> spearman kills -> horseman. Closed circle. To achieve victory, player will need all kinds of units. The same mechanics applied to Total War Games with addition to the circle archers/slingers/javelineers.
* there was never such a concept in Civilization games before Civ4 where specific units granted bonuses against other units.

How to apply the system to the Civ3 - use a stealth attack (applied in my own mod partially):
(copy a table below to the Notepad for comfortable view)
Attacker Aim
Archer (fast, 2 moves) Swordsman
Horse Archer (fast) Archer
Chariot (fast + wheeled) Archer
Horseman (fast, not wheeled) Archer + Horse Archer
Spearman Horseman
Artillery (big offense, little defense) anyone
Fast Artillery (+ horse) anyone

Circle is closed by the artillery. Thus, you can't win a battle using only few unit types - it's necessary to use a big variety in a specific order of attack.

I'm not talking about application of the described mechanics to the scenario, it's just an idea/example which may be interesting and useful.

All for now, more ahead. Once more, thank you, Guardian, for letting me participate the event!

Lots to review here. Most of the Resource and icon issues are being worked on already. These are civilopedia and pediaicon issues that I am currently working on.

I will look at the rest of suggestions in greater detail as soon as I can finish up the tedious civilopedia and pediaicon work.

I certainly want to give your overview of warfare concepts a closer look.
Good report. Thanks

 

[imperator1961]

Which of these is the best?

Roma Eternus Palma

Spoiler :

or
SPQR

Spoiler :

I quote the second: SPQR