Some general notes.

[Jabie]

0.5 is a big improvement on 0.4. I love the new tribal villages and the rebuilt depots etc. Never saw the mutant horses though

* There's still no way for a builder to win. You gotta go aggressive, which tends to be against my general play style. There aren't enough cultural buildings and the lack of any means to adjust the cultural slider hurts as well.

As I mentioned in a previous post, seizing cultural artefacts (hit singles, movies, broadway plays) from city ruins is probably the way to go here. I'd consider some kind of "Light Age Studies" tech (or path) that can come after Radio or Education and allows you to build Plazas that give +1 Happy, +2 Culture and an additional +1 Happy & Culture per cultural artifact held.

* There needs to be a means to clear radiation. Perhaps you should hang Biology after Medicine and give the ability to clear fall-out and create/use chemical weapons (from the Next War mod)

* Values. City Hall is a nice addition. I'd like to see some extra buildings only available if you are using a particular value. Something like:

+ Democracy - Courthouse.
+ Technocracy - Research Lab
+ Anarchy - Collosuem (renamed Arena)
+ Monarchy - No idea. Something military.
+ Plutocracy - Grocer (?), Money Changer
+ Federalism - Castle (Renamed fortress)
(+ Religion - Temple)

With the world gone to hell in a handbasket, the final value seems like one a lot of people would adopt. It's credo is "God rules the world" It could be found in the "Light Age Studies" path discussed above.

* I agree with a poster on another thread. Silos should produce Cruise Missiles in the main, with Nukes as the exception. One solution would be to limit the amount of Nukes by making them a National Unit.

* It's probably worth communicating with the designer of the Necro Cristi mod. They're doing a post-apocalypse world but with zombies, I suspect that you've got the foundation for some good cross-pollination. (I tired downloading it, but it was going to take 3 hours according to my PC!)

* Speaking other of mods. Espana 1936 allows Workers to build and remove trenches and barbed wire. Not too sure about the trenches, but barbed wire feels right. It also has potatoes and fruit as foodstuffs, which again feels right.

 

[davidlallen]

Thanks for the suggestions.

The horses didn't make it into 0.5. I have coded something, but it isn't quite what I want yet.

I mentioned about entertainment archives, but your point here is different, like the conch shell and piggy's glasses. These are one of a kind items which individually give a +1 happiness or some other bonus. It would be cool if you found them in ruins, and then you could transport them to cities. This way you could choose which city would get it, but it might be captured on the way. Definitely something to add!

You and refar both suggested cleaning out radiation. See my comment in his after action report. Is the problem (a) too much initial radiation in the countryside, (b) too much initial radiation around city ruins, (c) new radiation from nuke blasts, (d) trouble finding paths due to radiation, (e) something else? I am willing to discuss, but it was part of the theme.

Vision-specific buildings is a good idea which is on the list. I agree with your suggestions.

The "religion" vision, "God rules the world", is a good idea. I have to think out how that would work, but it certainly fits in with the other visions. I had an early idea that one of the leaders would be a radical monk type, but I couldn't find art to support it.

Regarding cross-fertilization with NecroCristi, thanks, but too late! I know the punk with fire axe is already in his mod. I have posted a few times on his thread, and he has posted on mine. I think he is focusing on zombies, and I'm not, but we are definitely cross-fertilizing.

I agree barbed wire fits. I was thinking of two different "walls" buildings, like the greek scenario has ("walls" and "high walls"). The first one would be just barbed wire, the second would be a rusty metal fence type thing. I know seZereth has proposed to work on a fort, and the depot he made has barbed wire, so maybe we can cook something up.

 

[davidlallen]

Oh, I missed replying to your point about "builders can't win". So, when you mention no way to adjust culture, you must mean something different than the culture slider you get with Education. What do you mean?

I have just added a religious victory as described in this thread. So if you convert more than 51% of the population to your vision, you win. That is not exactly what you meant.

I will think out more culture related buildings. It wasn't part of my original theme but it is definitely valuable playtest feedback. Which are the vanilla buildings you miss most from the current mod?

 

[seZereth]

Barbed wire is definitely possible, and i am happy if i can reuse some assets i created.

 

[Refar]

I like your idea of religious victory. 51% threshhold might need tweaking - but we will have to try first

You and refar both suggested cleaning out radiation. See my comment in his after action report. Is the problem (a) too much initial radiation in the countryside, (b) too much initial radiation around city ruins, (c) new radiation from nuke blasts, (d) trouble finding paths due to radiation, (e) something else? I am willing to discuss, but it was part of the theme.

To me it was pretty sure new radiation from Nukes.
The level of initial radiation on the map was high, but it went along with the setting and i learned to live with it, settling/choosing my cities around it.

The nukes made it really annoying.

 

[seZereth]

I like your idea of religious victory. 51% threshhold might need tweaking - but we will have to try first

To me it was pretty sure new radiation from Nukes.
The level of initial radiation on the map was high, but it went along with the setting and i learned to live with it, settling/choosing my cities around it.

The nukes made it really annoying.

what about making nukes limited and instead use tactical missiles, e.g. cruise missiles, v2, etc. along those lines. which dont cause fallout, but just destroy stuff?

 

[Refar]

Yes, was my thinking as well.

 

[davidlallen]

In version 0.6 the silo will generate vanilla tacnukes and guided missiles as well. I agree with the comment that most of the ICBM's should have been used up *during* the apocalypse, so 2/3 of the result will be guided missile, 1/6 tacnuke, 1/6 icbm.

 

[Refar]

Those numbers sound good judging from what i seen in my game.

Another - really very minor note - would it be possible to have the units rebuilt in depots to show up as "built" in the game statistics ?

Right now it only shows "Current" and "Lost", while "Built" is 0. On Tanks this is more or less the same as Built = Current+Lost. On Nukes however Built = Current+Lost+Used - and "Used" does not show up anywhere.

This is just a curiosity thing tho, so if it takes lots of coding, it's not worth it.

 

[davidlallen]

Another - really very minor note - would it be possible to have the units rebuilt in depots to show up as "built" in the game statistics ?

Right now it only shows "Current" and "Lost", while "Built" is 0. On Tanks this is more or less the same as Built = Current+Lost. On Nukes however Built = Current+Lost+Used - and "Used" does not show up anywhere.

Hm. I rarely use the stats screen, so I never thought of that. I am not sure how to trigger an increment of those values when I add a unit via the depot. I will put that onto the to-do list.

 

[GeoModder]

I will think out more culture related buildings. It wasn't part of my original theme but it is definitely valuable playtest feedback. Which are the vanilla buildings you miss most from the current mod?

How about a gipsy-analogue for culturally improving your territory instead of buildings?
The safer your territory is (compared to other civs), the more chance a wandering caravan with entertainers will stop in your city and increase the culture or happiness ratio for a while. Actually, the same thing can be done for barter traders.