Version 4.1 Discussion Thread

[Hydromancerx]

Original Versions (Made by Unknown Authors, NOT by Me):

Original Bamboo

FYI, I made the bamboo.

 

[LunarMongoose]

Got held up yesterday with an unexpected project, but once I got started I just went ahead and got everything done: the normal vanilla mapscripts and "Scenario" worldbuilder saves (except "Earth - 1000AD") have all been updated so they work completely right in the mod now, if anyone ever wants to use them.

10 of the mapscripts were fine as-is, but the rest would crash if you tried to use the largest two world sizes, and 9 of them weren't able to place Ice terrain. The Scenario files, on the other hand, ALL crashed when you tried to use them, and even after I finally figured THAT problem out (it's an issue with the mod's higher max-player count), they had lots of invalid tags (which have now been fixed, obviously).

The mapscripts will still need a future update to use the custom terrain types (or to place the features intelligently), but at least they all work now.

FYI, I made the bamboo.

Oh, sweet! Now I can give you credit. (Now I just need to find out who made the Burnt Forest, hehe.)

Great job on it, btw. (I finally noticed you adapted the Silk Tree trunk.) I am less-than-useless as a graphic artist myself (unless it's something highly symmetric and geometrical like a spaceship model, and even then I can't create the small details worth a plug turkey). I'm also worthless at drawing, painting, and sculpting in general, for the same reason.

BUT, I'm not bad at improving other people's work once I have a good base to start from. Well, as long as all it needs are repositioning some elements and changing some colors... I do seem to be good with colors.

Anyway, I really LOVE how the Nu 'Boo came out, which wouldn't have been possible without your work. Hope you like my new versions, and my new Cattails base!

 

[Hydromancerx]

Well the Bamboo was made from the corn models. I am not sure what you are talking about with the silk tree trunk though.

And sorry I don't know who made the Burnt Trees.

 

[LunarMongoose]

Well the Bamboo was made from the corn models. I am not sure what you are talking about with the silk tree trunk though.

Well I knew the layout/placement was Corn-based, but I was looking at the trees in the Silk resource in-game the other day, and I noticed their trunks looked JUST like the Bamboo trees. But I looked again, and of course, the Corn stalks look the same too, just much smaller.

It's hard to see the triangular shape on the Corn though, b/c in addition to their small size, the stalks are one solid color with no shading. So I still say the finished Bamboo looks more like vanilla Silk tree trunks, lol.

 

[fallen_addict]

new life, new city, new computer and only just installed Civ4:BTS. Promptly came straight to Civfanatics to look for MongooseMod and got all toe-curliingly giddy to see 4.1 is around the corner! Thanks for your dedication to the Mod Mongoose... very much appreciated!

 

[LunarMongoose]

Sorry for the delay (I actually thought I'd have it released a week AHEAD of schedule for a while there), but I got slowed down a bit the last two weeks watching the Australian Open (tennis) followed by the Farmer's Insurance Open (golf). Nevertheless, I've still been working many hours every single day on this stupid update. ... You're welcome.

I've updated the Change Log sticky for the final time before release. It covers Jan 11-28 now, and as always I strongly recommend you read it if you're interested in the mod, b/c there's a lot of important stuff in it.

---

But I'll go ahead and summarize the MOST important bits, as usual. Let's see...

* fixed the loading screen photo's remaining vertical distortion and added some more text
* added route and chopping effects to mouseover text
* fixed the Foreign Advisor crash bug
* disabled the sea monster alerts depending on what era you're in
* deterred AIs from getting Goody Huts with non-better-results units if they haven't met any other players yet
* went through and fixed all the vanilla mapscripts and Scenario files to work completely right with the mod, and organized the mapscripts by expansion
* added power unhealth removal to NanoMedicine so that it's potentially very strong RIGHT AWAY in Industrial (see one of my previous long posts where I covered this subject at length, hehe)
* added new SDK component to make Trait and Civic yield and commerce bonuses add together into their own separate pool, which is then multiplied with the standard pool that comes mainly from building bonuses; this COMPLETELY SOLVES the HUGE balance problem with modifiers getting much weaker over time, so I went ahead and restored Theocracy, Organized Religion, Fascism, and Philosophical to their previous values as a result
* restricted the new lower-chance, second-religion-slot autospread capability to the 3 Medieval religions only
* MASSIVE update/overhaul of the PerfectMongoose starting location code - see my post in my PM thread in the Main Mapscript Forum for details!
* added air strike resistance to Aggression and Tenacity, and increased it on Seafaring
* major update pass on all the Event settings and code to support all the new terrain/feature types
* fixed bug where Events could put more than 4 religions in a city
* cleaned up and significantly augmented the mod's text files - ABSOLUTELY ALL missing TXT_KEYs should be gone, there are many new History entries copied in from Wikipedia, and I should feel comfortable adding in the missing foreign language tags in a future version now thanks to this new, MUCH-better-organized setup
* added History text to the Terrain and Feature Pedia pages
* removed the No Defense effect from all Submarine units b/c it was badly messing up their intended terrain-specific combat stats from MM 4.0
* redesigned the 3 Classical warships - Trireme is now the best attacker, period; Dromon now has SOME extra attack and defense to everything, and keeps its splash damage; Quinquereme keeps all its misc stats, drops the ship-specific ones, and adds attack stats that nullify feature defense (particularly effective for attacking into the new high-defense Reef feature)
* buffed the Dun and Citadel with some additional experience bonuses (prompted by a recent K-Mod version)
* added a text line for the new civic exclusion effects
* made an initial, VERY ROUGH port of the fancy C2C version of the "Giant Earth Map" file - I need you to clean this up later, Rakete!
* finally figured out why units were still spawning wounded in Desert (etc) cities (the code LOOKED like it should've been working right all along), and fixed it (this was an obscure vanilla bug, so NOT MY FAULT! )
* significantly increased gold cost on Dragons and Jedi... again

---

Plus a number of minor tweaks and bugfixes, and DOZENS of interface improvements. This version REALLY breaks through to the highest level of professional-feeling polish in the whole look-and-feel department, so hopefully you guys'll appreciate that.

---

I am now down to the one final item I've been deliberately putting off for the last 4 months: The Great C2C / K-Mod Code Merge of 2013.

This could take anywhere between 1 and 5 days (realistically I'd assume 3), followed by 1-2 days to do final testing and to convert the Change Log into awesome-looking Release Notes that nobody ever reads (but which I'm going to keep making anyway).

The code merge SHOULD fix the AI tile damage pathing, and I'll be writing AI evaluation code for civic exclusions and era change effects like tech cost doubling in the process as well. Wish me luck - this is the really HARD part, heh.

<puts on Master Programmer helmet>





Fortunately everything ELSE is now completely done, and BOY does it look snazzy when you run it.

p.s. - The new 2012 TMNT series is freakin' awesome. Just sayin'.

 

[indrek_k]

ohboyohboyohboy!

(The sad part is that we'll be completely afk from Feb until early March and probably won't have any time to play til we're back.. ah well.)

 

[LunarMongoose]

ohboyohboyohboy!

Wow, that was quick! Please re-read my post Indrek, as I didn't finish editing it until an hour later lol.

(The sad part is that we'll be completely afk from Feb until early March and probably won't have any time to play til we're back.. ah well.)

Workin' as fast as I can... Admittedly I probably should've gotten into 24/7 mode sooner than last November, but I was busy with Diablo 3, darnit.

 

[keldath]

hey l-m,

looking foward to see what you came up with. you do high quality work, so i know we have something to be excited about. im very fond of your work.

i hope youll share the code also.

keep up your good jpb freind.

 

[HannibalBarka]

Sorry for the delay (I actually thought I'd have it released a week AHEAD of schedule for a while there), but I got slowed down a bit the last two weeks watching the Australian Open (tennis) followed by the Farmer's Insurance Open (golf). Nevertheless, I've still been working many hours every single day on this stupid update. ... You're welcome.

I've updated the Change Log sticky for the final time before release. It covers Jan 11-28 now, and as always I strongly recommend you read it if you're interested in the mod, b/c there's a lot of important stuff in it.

---

But I'll go ahead and summarize the MOST important bits, as usual. Let's see...

* fixed the loading screen photo's remaining vertical distortion and added some more text
* added route and chopping effects to mouseover text
* fixed the Foreign Advisor crash bug
* disabled the sea monster alerts depending on what era you're in
* deterred AIs from getting Goody Huts with non-better-results units if they haven't met any other players yet
* went through and fixed all the vanilla mapscripts and Scenario files to work completely right with the mod, and organized the mapscripts by expansion
* added power unhealth removal to NanoMedicine so that it's potentially very strong RIGHT AWAY in Industrial (see one of my previous long posts where I covered this subject at length, hehe)
* added new SDK component to make Trait and Civic yield and commerce bonuses add together into their own separate pool, which is then multiplied with the standard pool that comes mainly from building bonuses; this COMPLETELY SOLVES the HUGE balance problem with modifiers getting much weaker over time, so I went ahead and restored Theocracy, Organized Religion, Fascism, and Philosophical to their previous values as a result
* restricted the new lower-chance, second-religion-slot autospread capability to the 3 Medieval religions only
* MASSIVE update/overhaul of the PerfectMongoose starting location code - see my post in my PM thread in the Main Mapscript Forum for details!
* added air strike resistance to Aggression and Tenacity, and increased it on Seafaring
* major update pass on all the Event settings and code to support all the new terrain/feature types
* fixed bug where Events could put more than 4 religions in a city
* cleaned up and significantly augmented the mod's text files - ABSOLUTELY ALL missing TXT_KEYs should be gone, there are many new History entries copied in from Wikipedia, and I should feel comfortable adding in the missing foreign language tags in a future version now thanks to this new, MUCH-better-organized setup
* added History text to the Terrain and Feature Pedia pages
* removed the No Defense effect from all Submarine units b/c it was badly messing up their intended terrain-specific combat stats from MM 4.0
* redesigned the 3 Classical warships - Trireme is now the best attacker, period; Dromon now has SOME extra attack and defense to everything, and keeps its splash damage; Quinquereme keeps all its misc stats, drops the ship-specific ones, and adds attack stats that nullify feature defense (particularly effective for attacking into the new high-defense Reef feature)
* buffed the Dun and Citadel with some additional experience bonuses (prompted by a recent K-Mod version)
* added a text line for the new civic exclusion effects
* made an initial, VERY ROUGH port of the fancy C2C version of the "Giant Earth Map" file - I need you to clean this up later, Rakete!
* finally figured out why units were still spawning wounded in Desert (etc) cities (the code LOOKED like it should've been working right all along), and fixed it (this was an obscure vanilla bug, so NOT MY FAULT! )
* significantly increased gold cost on Dragons and Jedi... again

---

Plus a number of minor tweaks and bugfixes, and DOZENS of interface improvements. This version REALLY breaks through to the highest level of professional-feeling polish in the whole look-and-feel department, so hopefully you guys'll appreciate that.

---

I am now down to the one final item I've been deliberately putting off for the last 4 months: The Great C2C / K-Mod Code Merge of 2013.

This could take anywhere between 1 and 5 days (realistically I'd assume 3), followed by 1-2 days to do final testing and to convert the Change Log into awesome-looking Release Notes that nobody ever reads (but which I'm going to keep making anyway).

The code merge SHOULD fix the AI tile damage pathing, and I'll be writing AI evaluation code for civic exclusions and era change effects like tech cost doubling in the process as well. Wish me luck - this is the really HARD part, heh.

<puts on Master Programmer helmet>





Fortunately everything ELSE is now completely done, and BOY does it look snazzy when you run it.

p.s. - The new 2012 TMNT series is freakin' awesome. Just sayin'.

oh , so realistically we won't have it for the WE, but with prayer we may do
let's pray than

I really am awaiting your new version. I love your mod. thanks for the great work

 

[keldath]

hi hanibal,

nice to see your still here as do mongoose

 

[HannibalBarka]

hi hanibal,

nice to see your still here as do mongoose

Shalom my friend. I think LM presence is wayyy more important, i do develop no mods buddy though i was an IT guy
It's been ages I haven't played Overlord, i should try it again. I really loved many uniques feathures in it.

 

[JosEPh_II]

Still watching and waiting for 4.1 release.

Thanks for continuing to work on it. Looking forward to this C2C/K-mod merge!

JosEPh

 

[LunarMongoose]

Here's my quick update on 4.1's status (with a more detailed one to follow Soon™):

You can't hurry "Awesome"... not even with Slavery or Democracy.

Still watching and waiting for 4.1 release.

Thanks for continuing to work on it. Looking forward to this C2C/K-mod merge!

JosEPh

I'm only merging the AI code (unless something really jumps out at me), so don't get your hopes up TOO high.

 

[LunarMongoose]

Guys, just pretend I died in the blizzard... It'll make the final two days of waiting for my big status update SO much more rewarding, b/c then you'll get to witness my surprise resurrection as I finally post my big status update in, well, two more days.

Just sayin...

 

[Lark]

Guys, just pretend I died in the blizzard...

As someone who lives where it can get below -50C (albeit rarely), I believe the rules of competitive weather complaining require me to make a snide remark: "You call that a blizzard?"

My grandfather that retired in Texas told us that when it got cold enough to freeze there, drivers solved the icy-road traction problem by spinning their tires until they melted their way through to the tarmac. So when a line of Texans that had come to a stop wanted to start again, one would spin 'til he got going, the next would spin 'til he got going, ...and Gramps would drive onto the verge and go around.

It's too bad Mongoose froze to death and can't enjoy making fun of Texans.

 

[LunarMongoose]

Wow... HI LARK!!! *pounces* *hugs*

Haven't seen you on here in a while.

As someone who lives where it can get below -50C (albeit rarely), I believe the rules of competitive weather complaining require me to make a snide remark: "You call that a blizzard?"

To be honest, I COMPLETELY agree with you. I mean, the police captain who calls and leaves public service messages on everyone's phones all the time even referred to it as a "historic storm". I was like, "Are you serious?". I mean, I know it was worse in other places, but here in Boston we only got one foot of snow, and it was over 40 degrees outside THE VERY NEXT DAY, causing it to start melting relatively quickly.

I did walk to the nearby grocery store (which was actually open, surprisingly), at 7am on Saturday though, which was right in the middle of the worst of it, so that was fun.

My grandfather that retired in Texas told us that when it got cold enough to freeze there, drivers solved the icy-road traction problem by spinning their tires until they melted their way through to the tarmac. So when a line of Texans that had come to a stop wanted to start again, one would spin 'til he got going, the next would spin 'til he got going, ...and Gramps would drive onto the verge and go around.

I've never owned a car in my life (part of why I'm back in Boston now), so I wouldn't know anything about tire spinning, hehe.

It's too bad Mongoose froze to death and can't enjoy making fun of Texans.

I know, right?! *whimper*

 

[JosEPh_II]

Must've died the next day or the last storm that passed thru Boston. No word or Update since the middle of February.

Somebody dig his frozen body out and let it thaw!

JosEPh

 

[indrek_k]

LM, are you alive?

 

[keldath]

ye weird,

LM vanished , 4.1 was almost out, and now? who knows, hope hes ok.