v8 feedback

[A_Hamster]

@Deon: re: Acolyte. Yes, that's it. Nicely done. The reason I wanted the female pirate settler head was because my personal image of Gaian empaths has them dressed like Greek goddesses with their hair piled high, and the female pirate has that kind of elaborate hairdo. However, that's just a matter of taste, and the empath in the original SMAC wonder movie wears her hair loose. However, if it's not too complex, one last change to the unit: could you add a forest green hem to her skirt, like in the button art?

As for other units, the look of these Ideologues is a bit off, but perhaps you can fix that. Maniac says we need a new Great Doctor, these could be used as a base. (The body: that helmet is ... awkward looking.)

Song of the Moon Ideologues http://forums.civfanatics.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=5422

@Maniac
re: Great Doctor and Solar Power Transmitter (SPT). Okay. Perhaps for the SPT, we could use Woodelf's satellite, but with a change of texture. (Real solar panels are black for functional reasons, not aesthetics.)

The Next War mod doesn't have a Leviathan unit.

Ah, sorry. Got the names mixed up, it should be Dreadnought

That's a remnant for an old idea for a victory condition. I'll remove the Lagrange Points.

*Nod* Will you be putting in Transcendence, like in SMAC?

I like the Acolyte. I've put it in the game with Deon's new texture.

Yes, it's a good match with his changes.

The Helion is a flame/plasma/whatever thrower. As a consequence its weapon should have an animation like the flamethrower, and neither GarretSidzaka's Space Soldier or Zerver's Plasma Bolter fits.

Generally speaking (that is, without thinking in terms of a specific unit use), I like the helmet of GarretSidzaka's space soldier, but its weapons are rather silly. I mean... some sort of sword??

Yes, I know, which is why it wasn't my first choice. Maybe as a base for Deon or other modelers to work from?

GarretSidzaka also made this Space Infantry. I considered it, but since it takes the Chinese cannoneer animations from the Warlords Genghis Khan mod, rejected it. To make it easy, it seemed best to keep my suggested units all BtS or Vanilla related. It also looks awkward when firing, although it does make sense if the unit is using some kind of mortar.

I like the look of the Plasma Bolter, the weapon and the colour scheme of the texture, but I can't get it to work either. Scene Viewer crashes when I try to open the file. I suspect one of the problem is that Zerver only made a shadernif model. The second problem is, as pointed out by many in that unit's thread, that the texture is MUCH too large. The third (minor) problem is the Russian flag on the uniform.

Apparently it uses custom Janissary animations, which are included in this download. It also has a custom sound. He does include the instructions for where to put all the changes (if I'd downloaded that first, maybe I could have gotten it to work.)

Don't worry about the suggested name change; it's just a matter of taste. Helion is too much like "hellion" for me, so I think "thug" rather than "soldier". "Inferno Gunner" makes more sense if one uses Zerver's Plasma bolter. I'll just change the name in my own copy.

A question though. Are all those texture really used by the unit?? There are no less than 18 included in the download. Added up that's just as bad as the huge texture used by the Plasma Bolter.

I don't know. Are lots of textures for a single unit bad?

If the drop pod animation is not feasible, how about a jump pack animation instead?

Oh, yes, are the AX factions supposed to show up later in the game, or are they not yet activated?

Anyway, I'm going to play my second game of Planetfall. Hopefully I can provide more meaningful feedback, now that the initial learning curve is past.

 

[Psyringe]

Well, my game seems to have come to an end now. When I click on "end turn", the game crashes to desktop during the interturn. Maniac, do you want me to try anything and/or do you want the save?

 

[Maniac]

A save would be appreciated!

 

[Psyringe]

A save would be appreciated!

Here you are. Just hit "end turn", the game then crashes during the interturn phase (at least it does so for me, every time). Tell me if you want me to test anything.

 

[Maniac]

I am unable to find the cause of the crash. It must have been something introduced in patch a though. Someone else mentioned getting a crash too, so it's probably not just a freak occurence.

If you or someone else gets a crash, do attach the save. Perhaps I can spot some similarities between the save.

 

[StormLord-711-]

I have a save with a crash! Unfortunately, this was my first game. Fortunately, I didn't really like the settings anyway.

 

[Maniac]

Thanks!
I can't even open the save though. I get a runtime error. Can you or anyone else open it?

 

[Psyringe]

I can't open it either. When I try to load it, the game displays a "Failed to uncompress game data" error and then immediately crashes to desktop. Perhaps the file got corrupted during upload?

 

[Maniac]

I can't open it either. When I try to load it, the game displays a "Failed to uncompress game data" error and then immediately crashes to desktop. Perhaps the file got corrupted during upload?

Hmm, "Failed to uncompress game data" I usually get from saves meant for previous patches. StormLord, did you have patch 'a' installed when starting/playing that game?

Anyway, I have identified a possible cause for the crash. I can't know for sure though without people playing new games under patch b. If I have identified the cause correctly, then your (Psyringe's) patch a game is irretrievable lost.

So please do tell whether or not you continue to have crashes under patch b.

 

[Psyringe]

Anything specific to look out for? I'm curious, what do you think was the reason for the crash in my game?

 

[Maniac]

See this thread, especially the bottom of post #4.

 

[StormLord-711-]

Ehh, no, I didn't have patch "a" installed.

Well, I didn't download it individually at least. I just downloaded Planetfall a few days ago (according to my saves on/before April 14th), but I'm not sure if it came with a patch.

 

[Maniac]

Ehh, no, I didn't have patch "a" installed.

I'm wondering how common this is. I've had suspicions for a while there was something fishy with the patch download statistics, so with patch a I kept track how many times the patch was downloaded compared to the main file in the last two weeks. At one point there were more main file downloads than patch downloads. So either new people aren't downloading the patch, or there's absolutely no one who plays Planetfall on a somewhat regular basis.

 

[Pfeffersack]

3. Spawning Spots can't exist adjacent to each other.

That does not seem to be the case with Patch 8b for me. I have attached a pic. I failed to create a save of the turn before so far, but as it happened quite a few times in my game I will probably be able to do so, if necessary.


The second pic shows a weakness in the AIs base placement logic - IMO, it hardly ever makes sense to build a base on a nutrient bonus because of the output restrictions.


One of my outlying bases faced a "native revolt". I never had that before and the base showed no revolt risk in the turn before...is this a feature or a bug? The save is from the turn before, to make the revolt happen end the turn.

 

[Maniac]

That does not seem to be the case with Patch 8b for me. I have attached a pic. I failed to create a save of the turn before so far, but as it happened quite a few times in my game I will probably be able to do so, if necessary.

It's fixed for the next patch. Some little bit of python code which I had forgotten about caused this.

The second pic shows a weakness in the AIs base placement logic - IMO, it hardly ever makes sense to build a base on a nutrient bonus because of the output restrictions.

What output restrictions? The base gets the full four nutrients.

One of my outlying bases faced a "native revolt". I never had that before and the base showed no revolt risk in the turn before...is this a feature or a bug? The save is from the turn before, to make the revolt happen end the turn.

It's a feature. They're food riots, caused by a nutrient shortage. If you get another one of these revolts, the base will turn barbarian and start producing Rebels. It's the mechanic which I plan to use for the Free Drones faction.

 

[Pfeffersack]

What output restrictions? The base gets the full four nutrients.

I wasn't aware that this had been changed from the vanilla roules and moreover, I was fooled by building on a mineral bonus once and receiving only 2 minerals on the base tile. That is still the entire bonus yield, but you lose out the 1 mineral you get regardless of the terrain (so in the sum you get here more out of building the base not one it). But as long as the AI differentiates between nutrient and mineral boni, it is fine of course

It's a feature. They're food riots, caused by a nutrient shortage. If you get another one of these revolts, the base will turn barbarian and start producing Rebels. It's the mechanic which I plan to use for the Free Drones faction.

Ah, didn't think of the food shortage and the suppressing impact of EB in many games I played. Cool, I'm looking forward to the day the Drones (and other SMAX factions) make their appearence

---

Patch 8b has worked miracles in regard to native life and fungus. Maps with High Sealevel are now less problematic; their FC starts around 15, while a land-heavy maps start with ~20. Then the usual increase starts, but it does not seem to be impossible to get it to hold in the low 30s. I also made excessive use of bunkers in my recent too games...and yes, they are the key to managing native life. There is only one slightly annoying thing about them...if you ever loose a bunker-unit, rebuilding it with anew former first seems to require destroying the bunker terrain improvement first (for which you need a military unit)

And finally, I saw the first time an AI switching to Terraformed, while others stayed in EB for the entire game I played with cold climate and low sealevel in that game, so I guess the AI really bases its decision on the map outlay here.

 

[Teodosio]

A small issue I am having: the AI's always trade away the "Alien Artifact" for free if they have it; if it is me that have it and want to trade it with them they don't want to pay anything for it. The same happened with Planetfall v7. In short it seems that the "Alien Artifact" is worthless in diplomatic trade.

A very good improvement that has been added lately is the capability of moving land units on water within one's own territory. Now it is much easier and quicker to move units around and there is no more need of micromanaging sea transports. I don't miss early roads anymore!

 

[Maniac]

In short it seems that the "Alien Artifact" is worthless in diplomatic trade.

Yes that is a fact. I was planning on making the Alien Artifact a happiness resource. (I guess for the souvenir value or technological gadgets derived from Progenitor tech) That should solve it.

I don't miss early roads anymore!

 

[felix86]

Just wondering, are there plans to make planetbusters behave like in SMAC, i.e. turn land into sea?

 

[Teodosio]

I have a constant crash in my campaign!
The save game is attached. After I click "end turn" the game crashes. I have tried it three times, one of them after rebooting my pc.

Since I am uploading my save game I will report a small issue I am having since v7. I find in every campaign that I can easily outspend tha AI in espionage. In the espionage screen I see that I can perform missions against my enemies at an average 70% of the cost, and all of this happens before the espionage slider is unlocked and without any purposeful act on my part.
This is a problem because I can see my enemies' territories and often the inside of their cities without effort. I think the issue is due to the "Network Node" being a very early building that allows a Librarian citizen, providing +4 esp points. I always use "auto manage citizens" in my cities that places a Librarian as soon as the network node is built. This at long generates a number of "Hackers" great persons that I settle in my cities, further increasing my espionage points production.
Can I suggest to unlock the espionage slider earlier in the game to enable the AI to keep up? At "Polymorphic Software" for example?