Suggestions and requests

[Lennon789]

Hey, it's been a while since I've visited these forums or played the mod, but I updated my SVN yesterday and began a campaign as the Holy Romans. The new changes are great, I love the BUG features, but I do have one complaint:

Espionage is by far the most tedious and time-consuming aspect of the game. And by this I mean constantly having to adjust your espionage slider and player weights of rival civs. Is there any way to automate this process so that the game will automatically adjust your slider and player weights to keep up with the espionage points rival civs gain against you?

If my request is unclear to anyone I can elaborate further.

 

[Leoreth]

I don't know if it's a good idea to automate these actions, but maybe it would already help if you were notified in case a rival civ increases their EP against you?

 

[NorwegianSalmon]

Espionage is by far the most tedious and time-consuming aspect of the game. And by this I mean constantly having to adjust your espionage slider and player weights of rival civs. Is there any way to automate this process so that the game will automatically adjust your slider and player weights to keep up with the espionage points rival civs gain against you?

One of my main issues with Beyond the Sword.

Another way that espionage can be really bothersome is if you're going heavy on espionage as England, Indonesia or Japan, and having to ferry every damn spy every time you want to use it, since your capital is on another landmass. It's a large amount of micromanagement that really doesn't need to be micro-managed.

 

[Chep]

I hardly ever change my spy settings.

Usually it is "oh, I want to see what he is teching later in the game" (or even steal a tech) and sometimes "uh, I need to wreck some havoc there during the next war" (~10-15 turns of 100% of my esp points and then back to techleaders)

 

[Lennon789]

Another way that espionage can be really bothersome is if you're going heavy on espionage as England, Indonesia or Japan, and having to ferry every damn spy every time you want to use it, since your capital is on another landmass. It's a large amount of micromanagement that really doesn't need to be micro-managed.

This might be a radical solution to the problem, but what if we completely eliminated the spy unit? My proposed alternative would be to simply select espionage missions against the cities of rival civs on the espionage advisor screen. The time to complete these missions would be contingent on how far the city in question is from your capital (or from your closest city to the target city, I honestly don't know which would be better). And the number of simultaneous missions you could send your spies on could be a function of the number of espionage buildings in your various cities.

 

[BenZL43]

Is there anybody else here that think Manila is founded by the Spanish too early?
Also, I think a requirement should be added: Have at least 1 city in the New World.
So in order to get Manila, the Spain has to build the TC and have 1 city in the New World.

It is totally out of sense if Spain, that is now OCC'd to Madrid only, about to be eradicated by the Moors, suddenly get a city in Manila out of nowhere.

 

[Manuss]

What about using the flag of the Mamluk sultanate for egyptian respawn? Is it possible?
http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Sultanate_of_mamlucks_flag.png

 

[merijn_v1]

What about using the flag of the Mamluk sultanate for egyptian respawn? Is it possible?
http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Sultanate_of_mamlucks_flag.png

With my upcoming Dynamic Flags modcomp, yes.

 

[Sanguivorant]

One of my main issues with Beyond the Sword.

Another way that espionage can be really bothersome is if you're going heavy on espionage as England, Indonesia or Japan, and having to ferry every damn spy every time you want to use it, since your capital is on another landmass. It's a large amount of micromanagement that really doesn't need to be micro-managed.

I agree, it is not easy doing espionage on another land mass. How about a spy naval unit that functions the same way as a normal spy?

 

[merijn_v1]

Is there anybody else here that think Manila is founded by the Spanish too early?
Also, I think a requirement should be added: Have at least 1 city in the New World.
So in order to get Manila, the Spain has to build the TC and have 1 city in the New World.

It is totally out of sense if Spain, that is now OCC'd to Madrid only, about to be eradicated by the Moors, suddenly get a city in Manila out of nowhere.

I agree. But the "at least 1 colony" requirement should be given to the Trading Company, not the settler spawn.

First of all, it doesn't make much sense if you have a Trading Company, without having colonies.
Secondly, as the colonial conquerors require the Trading Company which requires a colony, it's impossible to get them without a colony. (and therefore, impossible to get Manilla) So the effect is the same.
Thirdly, it avoids a potential bug. The spawning units is triggered by the completion of the Trading Company. If you don't have any colonies, the colonial units won't spawn. But as the trigger doesn't happen again (because you can't rebuild the Trading Company). So you will never get any units.
(Okay, a second trigger can be included that spawns the colonial units when you build your first colony while having the Trading Company. But to me it makes more sense if the colonials are trigger upon the completion of the Trading Company, not by the foundation of your first colony)

This should count for all colonial civs, not only Spain. This to avoid OCC problems.

 

[Leoreth]

I agree. But the "at least 1 colony" requirement should be given to the Trading Company, not the settler spawn.

Excellent solution

 

[Leoreth]

Excellent solution

Okay, an excellent solution with one small problem. When is a city a colony?

 

[DC123456789]

City on a different continent? Perhaps exclude North Africa and the Levant, since they do sometimes get conquered before colonization actually starts.

 

[Leoreth]

Problem is, for the game Britain is a different continent than Europe, and so are all islands.

 

[ImNotHere]

Problem is, for the game Britain is a different continent than Europe, and so are all islands.

Is there some way to say not in Europe, Ireland, Iceland, and Britain and at least x tiles away from the capital? Since for the purpose of some UHVs the continents are labelled, can't a similar system be used here?

If the system of naming continents is possible in this context, maybe say "any English, French, Spanish, Dutch, or Portuguese city that is in North America, South America, Africa, or Oceania," and use the British UHV continental divisions.

 

[BenZL43]

how about cities that fulfill all these requirements?
1. city not in Core Area and ＞20 tiles away from the capital
2. city not located in the same and neighboring continents (so Glasgow can’t be counted as colony of Spain, or Oran for Portugal, since Africa and England are both an adjacent continent to Europe... I assume)

 

[Leoreth]

If the system of naming continents is possible in this context, maybe say "any English, French, Spanish, Dutch, or Portuguese city that is in North America, South America, Africa, or Oceania," and use the British UHV continental divisions.

But Europeans are not the only ones who can build a trading company (even though they're the only ones who can receive conquerors), so we need a mechanism that suits everyone.

how about cities that fulfill all these requirements?
1. city not in Core Area and ＞20 tiles away from the capital
2. city not located in the same and neighboring continents (so Glasgow can’t be counted as colony of Spain, or Oran for Portugal, since Africa and England are both an adjacent continent to Europe... I assume)

There is no such concept as adjacent continents either. But tile distance to capital and a different continent could work. This might still make an English city in Greece a colony but whatever.

 

[BenZL43]

how about using the lNeighbours function from Consts.py line 134? but make it neighbor's neighbors instead. I take this England as example:

[iRome, iVikings, iSpain, iFrance, iHolyRome, iNetherlands, iGermany], #England
#1: Cities in these civilization's core area can not be counted as colony, and then...

[iEgypt, iBabylonia, iGreece, iCarthage, iSpain, iFrance, iHolyRome, iPortugal, iItaly, iGermany], #Rome
[iFrance, iEngland, iHolyRome, iRussia, iPoland, iNetherlands, iGermany], #Vikings
[iCarthage, iRome, iMoors, iFrance, iEngland, iPortugal], #Spain
[iRome, iVikings, iSpain, iEngland, iHolyRome, iNetherlands, iPortugal, iItaly, iGermany], #France
[iRome, iVikings, iFrance, iEngland, iNetherlands, iItaly, iPoland, iGermany], #Holy Rome
[iVikings, iFrance, iEngland, iHolyRome, iGermany], #Netherlands
[iRome, iVikings, iFrance, iEngland, iHolyRome, iRussia, iPoland, iNetherlands], #Germany

#2 So England have 16 different neighbor's neighbors civilization, as I bolded. Cities in these civilization's core area can not be counted as colony

Therefore the possible colony will not be in Europe or around Europe (not even Greece, it's Rome's neighbor, in which is England's neighbor)
This would force them to find colony outside of Europe, which most likely will be at USA for England.
I could elaborate further if necessary.

 

[BenZL43]

Spoiler :

Translated to the nearest cities in-game that will probably represents these colones in the pictures:
Ath Cliath (Dublin), Cordoba, Hamburg, Barcelona, Athens, Naples, Tunis, Kition, Alexandria, Cairo, Jerusalem and Baghdad does NOT count as England's colony.

Khartoum, Sana'a, Muscat, Mogadishu, Lagos, Sefadu, Arguim, Accra, that 1 city coded to spawn in east coast of Africa above Mozambique, Durban, Cape Town, all of Pakistan, all of India, Pagan, Tumasik, Brunei, Deutsche-Guinea, all of Australia, all of Canada, all of USA core, Yax Mutal, Georgetown and all the rest of the cities that I didn't mention CAN count as England's colony.

 

[BenZL43]

or perhaps it's easier to define an "expanded" version of tEuropeTL and tEuropeBR (Consts.py line 85 and 86 respectively), let's call it tTCColoniesTL and tTCColoniesBR that include North Africa, and define that having cities inside those tiles does NOT count as colony.

This rule does NOT apply to USA and Russia. (their rules remain unchanged)

Is there any other civilization that granted colonies by building TC that is not USA, not Russia and not located in Europe?

EDIT: tTCColoniesTL (44,33) and tTCColoniesBR (73,65)

EDITEDIT: apparently the coordinates I wrote was based on the original Rhye's map not from DoC's revised Scandinavia map.

Here's the coordinates I meant, in DoC map: tTCColoniesTL (45,32) and tTCColoniesBR (74,65)