The Long Freeze

[ls612]

The modders already know this, but for everyone else, we have agreed to have a Long Freeze, starting sometime around now and ending the first weekend of November, in order to spend an extended period of time balancing, bugfixing, and tweaking the mod to be more focused and polished. This thread will be to list the tasks that I think need addressing during this period, and for discussion of the changes generally.

Here are the things that people have complained about that may or may not get changed during the Long Freeze. I would like for us to finish them all, but who knows if that will happen during the allotted time.

Stability/Bugfixes:

• Fix issues with Property Decay calculations and display, pointed out by Vokarya
  [*]Fix minidump occuring when a new map is generated using Viewports
  [*]Fix Messages in the Combat Mod and related to the Auto-Build tag.
  [*]Fix the Volcano Message issues.
• Identifying and replacing redundant tech quotes.
  [*]Replacing redundant Civic icon/buttons.
  [*]Replacing redundant or missing Unit Class icon/buttons.
• Fixing broken Unit icon/buttons.
• Fix any other bugs/crashes that will crop up.

General Balance:

• 
  [*]Increase tech costs for later eras using the Erainfos tag (yes I know this is controversial, but I think it needs doing as part of the next few items)
  [*]Increase building costs from the Mid-Classical onwards (the exact formula is in the Industrial and later Build costs thread, but I think I'll be adjusting it as part of the steps listed below)
  [*]General Gamespeed shortening. This has been on my todo list since mid July, and it's high time I did it. The new plan will be for the eras to have 10000 turns in Eternity, 5000 in Snail, 3000 in Marathon, 2000 in Epic, and 1000 in Normal. This way games will go faster, which is a necessity for having a good possibility to get far into a game before abandoning it.

Other Changes: (note, these are mostly Koshling's area, so he may want to clarify this part)

• More AI enhancements
• Multiple Map code (but not yet game implementation)
• Multi-Threading? (This may add too much instability, so it may want to wait until after the Long Freeze)

Thoughts, opinions, and discussions are welcome.

Release: If all goes well I should be uploading V27 in the morning of Saturday Nov 3rd.
(Items that have been crossed out have been completed.)

 

[bill2505]

i agree .

 

[shenryyr]

only thing I would suggest is to spend some time trying to get the AI to handle civics changes better. like- spend a couple great people on a golden age before jumping into 12 turns of anarchy. or.. after changing civics, don't change civics again for a long time. and certainly... don't change into absolutely ******** civics. for instance, I spent a great person on a golden age to switch into written tradition among some other civics. then after the golden age was over, I turned on ctrl-shift-x automation for 100 turns and the first thing the AI does is switch into Oral tradition. >.>

 

[bill2505]

i dont agree with this General Gamespeed shortening. This has been on my todo list since mid July, and it's high time I did it. The new plan will be for the eras to have 10000 turns in Eternity, 5000 in Snail, 3000 in Marathon, 2000 in Epic, and 1000 in Normal. This way games will go faster, which is a necessity for having a good possibility to get far into a game before abandoning it.
i thing eternity should remain very long (140000) ,thats why it is called eternity. and shorten it from snail

 

[ls612]

i thing eternity should remain very long (140000) ,thats why it is called eternity. and shorten it from snail

Hm, from a math perspective that makes my life a tad harder, but I suppose that would be fine. Maybe I could add a gamespeed in between the shortened Snail and Eternity. Adding gamespeeds are a pain though IIRC.

 

[Hydromancerx]

Just wanted to give a few heads up.

1. Before the freeze I will be trying to add minor stuff that have been on my todo list. For instance I just added the Veladrome which I have been wanting to add ever since we got Bicycle resource, but just never got around to doing it. After the freeze start however it will be all about fixing the stuff ls612 mentioned above.

2. I have a special Halloween related thing that I will be released before the next release. Since I do not want to spoil it by posting before the freeze it will be released sometime during the freeze. SO is already aware of this. Which is why he was moving the release to come right before Halloween.

 

[ls612]

Just wanted to give a few heads up.

1. Before the freeze I will be trying to add minor stuff that have been on my todo list. For instance I just added the Veladrome which I have been wanting to add ever since we got Bicycle resource, but just never got around to doing it. After the freeze start however it will be all about fixing the stuff ls612 mentioned above.

2. I have a special Halloween related thing that I will be released before the next release. Since I do not want to spoil it by posting before the freeze it will be released sometime during the freeze. SO is already aware of this. Which is why he was moving the release to come right before Halloween.

Unfortunately I won't have the time to do the release on a weekday, so it'll have to wait until November 3rd. You can still add your Halloween surprise though, but V27 won't be uploaded on the 31st.

 

[Hydromancerx]

Aww nuts! Well the SVN people will at least get it before Halloween.

 

[Hydromancerx]

@Vokarya

Could you take the time during the long freeze to identify and replace redundant tech quote text? This would do a lot in the mods presentation. Thanks!

 

[GiuseppeIII]

Just wondering of ths was possible bit you could you make viewports easier to navigate. Like on the miltaryistic advisor screen you could move a box around which would show what land and how much land the viewport would be covering

 

[Little Abigail]

i thing eternity should remain very long (140000) ,thats why it is called eternity.

Just because it's called Eternity doesn't mean it should last a literal one. At least try to prune it down to under 100k turns.

 

[strategyonly]

Just because it's called Eternity doesn't mean it should last a literal one. At least try to prune it down to under 100k turns.

ahaha i think he added ONE (?) too many zeros on it??

 

[Little Abigail]

ahaha i think he added ONE (?) too many zeros on it??

I would sincerely hope so.

I could quite easily deal with 14,000 turns on Eternity.

For 140,000 turns I would need to be playing on a map that is a 1:1 scale of the Earth. Needless to say this would get dull quite fast.

 

[bill2505]

Just because it's called Eternity doesn't mean it should last a literal one. At least try to prune it down to under 100k turns.

oops!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[bill2505]

Just because it's called Eternity doesn't mean it should last a literal one. At least try to prune it down to under 100k turns.

if you dont want eternity then dont play eternity. what your problem with that.
ls612 could you raise it to 2000000000

 

[Little Abigail]

Go hog wild. Make it ∞ turns long.

That would be a true Eternity length.

 

[strategyonly]

if you dont want eternity then dont play eternity. what your problem with that.
ls612 could you raise it to 2000000000

Go hog wild. Make it ∞ turns long.

That would be a true Eternity length.

ahaha you guys cracked me up, thx for the laugh!!

 

[Praetyre]

And I thought my private 30,000 turn Eternity modmod was an epic marathon at a snail's pace.

 

[primem0ver]

Here is my 2 cents worth for balancing: Please make it so that bonuses to growth and science (yes... all those little myths etc...) get added to cities for later starts so that if you start in a later era, it doesn't take forever... I honestly prefer to start with the ancient era.

On a side note: LONG = month? LOL. That's not a long break!

 

[Nimek]

Since you decided to make long freeze. It is possible to also add equipment promotions lines
during this period?

Please please very much