Hi everyone!
Following extensive discussions within the dev team, we are now ready to provide an updated schedule for the integration of 4UC. We want to release a first alpha version of 4UC around the beginning of October. In the alpha version, the four components of all civs, including models/textures and description text, will be fully implemented. Some of the Civilopedia strategy entries may still be missing, they will be added later.
We will do some testing before the alpha release to fix obvious bugs. However, it is likely that the version will be unstable and that a lot of issues still need to be addressed. You are all invited to playtest it and to report any bugs you notice. We've decided to release the alpha version as a modpack: IGE and Quick Turns will be included, but it won't be possible to add any custom mods to it. This is done because we want to focus on issues within the core mod itself (rather than those caused by modmods), and because debugging modpacks is much easier than debugging custom setups, in particular heavily modded ones.
We will update the alpha version as we fix crashes and other game-breaking bugs, so playing full games with it may become possible, but our main focus will be on preparing the beta release. Once the major and game-breaking issues have been addressed, we will release Version 5.0, the first beta version. Of course, it's not yet clear how long it'll take to fix the bugs in the alpha version. An early estimate would be 4 weeks, resulting in a release of Version 5.0 in November. Along with the release, we will provide information on the changes required to make modmods compatible, so modmodders can begin updating them.
Some of the components will be implemented slightly differently than proposed to help the AI use them effectively:
- The "Trommelfeuer" promotion of Germany's Krupp Gun will be changed from "Attacks from a unit with this promotion add +5% RCS to all units with this promotion for this turn. max of +50% RCS" to: "Attacks from a unit with this promotion add +3% RCS to all units with this promotion for the next turn. max of +30% RCS."
- The "Ibutho" promotion of the Zulu InDuna will be changed from "When expended, grants +30 XP to the unit the Induna is stacked with" to "When expended, grants +30 XP to the nearest unit." It will work as before if a unit is stacked with the InDuna, and it will now also have an effect when there's no other unit on the same tile.
Furthermore, we may have to drop some of the more complex UA reworks due to the limited dev resources. If their implementation turns out to be too complex or time-consuming, we will resort to an alternative version of the respective civ. This affects the two following civilizations:
- Egypt: Instead of the sponsored proposal, we may implement the original 4uc proposal which doesn't make any changes to the UA.
- China: The sponsored proposal requires a complex rework of the UA. As an alternative, we may implement only the Baochuan from the sponsored proposal and implement the other components (the UB "Examination Hall" and the unchanged UA) from the original 4uc China proposal.
Thank you for your patience. We'll keep you updated on the progress and let you know if any adjustments to the schedule are necessary.
Following extensive discussions within the dev team, we are now ready to provide an updated schedule for the integration of 4UC. We want to release a first alpha version of 4UC around the beginning of October. In the alpha version, the four components of all civs, including models/textures and description text, will be fully implemented. Some of the Civilopedia strategy entries may still be missing, they will be added later.
We will do some testing before the alpha release to fix obvious bugs. However, it is likely that the version will be unstable and that a lot of issues still need to be addressed. You are all invited to playtest it and to report any bugs you notice. We've decided to release the alpha version as a modpack: IGE and Quick Turns will be included, but it won't be possible to add any custom mods to it. This is done because we want to focus on issues within the core mod itself (rather than those caused by modmods), and because debugging modpacks is much easier than debugging custom setups, in particular heavily modded ones.
We will update the alpha version as we fix crashes and other game-breaking bugs, so playing full games with it may become possible, but our main focus will be on preparing the beta release. Once the major and game-breaking issues have been addressed, we will release Version 5.0, the first beta version. Of course, it's not yet clear how long it'll take to fix the bugs in the alpha version. An early estimate would be 4 weeks, resulting in a release of Version 5.0 in November. Along with the release, we will provide information on the changes required to make modmods compatible, so modmodders can begin updating them.
Some of the components will be implemented slightly differently than proposed to help the AI use them effectively:
- The "Trommelfeuer" promotion of Germany's Krupp Gun will be changed from "Attacks from a unit with this promotion add +5% RCS to all units with this promotion for this turn. max of +50% RCS" to: "Attacks from a unit with this promotion add +3% RCS to all units with this promotion for the next turn. max of +30% RCS."
- The "Ibutho" promotion of the Zulu InDuna will be changed from "When expended, grants +30 XP to the unit the Induna is stacked with" to "When expended, grants +30 XP to the nearest unit." It will work as before if a unit is stacked with the InDuna, and it will now also have an effect when there's no other unit on the same tile.
Furthermore, we may have to drop some of the more complex UA reworks due to the limited dev resources. If their implementation turns out to be too complex or time-consuming, we will resort to an alternative version of the respective civ. This affects the two following civilizations:
- Egypt: Instead of the sponsored proposal, we may implement the original 4uc proposal which doesn't make any changes to the UA.
- China: The sponsored proposal requires a complex rework of the UA. As an alternative, we may implement only the Baochuan from the sponsored proposal and implement the other components (the UB "Examination Hall" and the unchanged UA) from the original 4uc China proposal.
Thank you for your patience. We'll keep you updated on the progress and let you know if any adjustments to the schedule are necessary.
