Vincentz Infinite Projects [VIP MOD]

[isenchine]

Very funny (Greenland)!

You do know that Platy designed a screen to display the "Stacks of Doom", don't you? Or rather it was a screen, which he now displays differently in his Platy UI.

It would be a waste of useful information otherwise (Strength, Promotions).

 

[vincentz]

Awesome! The fact that the unit list went outside the screen always bugged me as well!

Where can I find that line to tinker with the numer of units displayed before grouping? Depending on screen size, you could have more or less displayed, and I'd like to tinker and find the ideal number for my resolution.

CvGameTextMgr.cpp line 1448

Very funny (Greenland)!

1) You do know that Platy designed a screen to display the "Stacks of Doom", don't you? Or rather it was a screen, which he now displays differently in his Platy UI.

2) It would be a waste of useful information otherwise (Strength, Promotions).

1) But why need an extra screen when a single number can change it

2) It would be wasting useful information for sure. But would it make it more tactical or less.
In a "realistic" way it would make sense not having the info. Without at least a spy on the spot, how can we know what drills, orders, strategies etc that the enemy unit have.
Then again a simple "Show Combat Odds" would give it away (unless that was disabled as well).

 

[isenchine]

1) I kept the screen. It is simple and efficient, it doesn't give away any other information (all military units have names in my mod).

2) Tactically, you have a point, I'm just sticking to BtS rules (although I never use Combat odds and certainly not Advanced ones). But then, you need to code things for a spy to be able to tell you the information. I guess I'm assuming that you automatically have one in the stack...

 

[vincentz]

2) The spy will be able to see the units in the unitplotstack (?) at the bottom of the screen, and mouseovers there (I expect) will show. I guess I'll keep the info, at least until I think it completely through

EDIT :

Added Culturally Linked Starts. I have no idea why I havent added it before .

Though the extra Civs prolly not going to be added to 0.97 (unless I can find someone to do a lot of tedious work with them)

Spoiler :

 

[Noyyau]

CvGameTextMgr.cpp line 1448

Thanks!

 

[epicivfreak]

I agree with you, and most of your suggestions are actually already in the engine, though not optimal. F.ex with the start river. The tiles behind the river which not counts as river is unfortunately many times used as a start pos.
Game also tries to boost bad starting pos. Best example

Spoiler :

In .97 I did reduce both tundra, ice and swamp, but what really matters the most is the individual mapscripts.
I might look at them later, but there are some that have a "Balanced" option, which iirc is part of what you are looking for.

Hmmmm. . . perhaps you misread something, because my method is actually intended to, and should always, avoid exactly that "Greenland" scenario entirely by putting in place a more intelligent method for finding start locations. That crap in the picture is the reason I came up with the idea in the first place!!!

The start location routine in place right now often puts civs in ice/tundra, however, using my method that would NEVER happen again. Ice/Tundra tile types get cut from the "possible start location" list prior to trying to find suitable start locations so there's never a need to change the tile type from ice/tundra to something more habitable (as in your Greenland pic). Changing tile types in my method is only there to ensure the placement of resources in correct tile types.

I've done a little bit of number-crunching and most maps generated will have a number of sources and deltas equal to at least 3 times the number of civs. Even if you cut all the ice/tundra options out like I suggest, that should still leave you with enough locations on any map to not have to do your "Greenland" scenario, however, all the mapscripts will still do exactly that from time to time, so clearly Civ4 is not currently doing what I'm suggesting when it comes to finding start locations.

 

[vincentz]

The "Greenland" was just an example of the boosting already taking place, and I put it because its quite obvious that boosting was taken place, while other places it might not be that obvious. On starts with lots of water, it is typical for the map generator to put extra seafood. And if I'm not mistaken, the booster will also place (small) rivers on bad starts, to balance them.
The "Greenland" example shouldnt happen anymore. It was a screenie of a Puritan mod I made for those people who like to play by civ vanilla rules, but also wanted to try 34 civs on bigger than Huge maps.
In an earlier version of VIP I did lessen both ice and tundra, and was surprised that it was back to default, but I can assure you it WILL help with that adjustment.

What HAVE bugged me (and a lot of other people) is the river starting positions. Quite a few civs started near river deltas or at the source of rivers, but the source of a river in civ IV is not technically a river, and I would love to fix that.

Giving all civs the same('ish) startposition would be fair, but imho also a bit boring as the exploration (and later capturing) of enemy civs capital would be bland, but if I'm not mistaken that is what the "Balanced" mapoption will do (I havent tried it though).

Regarding the individual placement of civs near their "habitats" i.e. seafaring near sea, would, for me, be impossible to code.

But if you look at the above 34 culturally linked starts screenie, then you'll see that there isnt a single ice or tundra start

 

[j_mie6]

placing seafaring civs would not be too hard if I'm thinking correctly. Add a new xml tag to the Civilization xml called bSeafaring. Add support for it in the dll and expose to python. then give all coastal spots priority to civs with seafaring set to true

 

[vincentz]

That would be pretty sweet. I wonder why no one have done it before.

---------------------

Now land units can blockade. They wont block tile yield (food/production/commerce) as naval units do, but will only block resources to city. Blocking tile yield would be too easy to destroy enemy cities imho.

Also (hopefully) made AI Palace building a top priority.

Also.. Considering instead of each pop giving 2 unhappy and 2 unhealthy, making it 2 unhealthy, 1 unhappy and 1 unhappy for every unhealth.

 

[Seraiel]

@ vincentz:

Is it possible, to somehow only get the graphics but not the mod itself? I play for HoF, so I need to use BUFFY, still, I'd find it very great if I could play with those terrain graphics, they look even better than Blue Marble!

 

[vincentz]

Thanks and yeah of course. I already isolated them awhile ago :

http://forums.civfanatics.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=22966

 

[j_mie6]

as an extension to what I said before, in order to give priority for seafaring civs, take every player in the game and put into a list. Sort them in order of seafaring first. Then sort the possible start locations by coastal first in a list. Then simply pair them off. This way, the coastal spots are picked first, and seafaring civs are allocated first, so all seafaring civs get first pick of coastal spots. Alternatively only have list of the seafaring civs, once they all have coastal spots, then shuffle available map spots and carry on with other civs.

 

[vincentz]

Well, its way beyond my programming skills, and should prolly be made in python

 

[j_mie6]

I shouldn't think it is beyond your abilities at all!!!

Defining the new xml tag is easy peasy. in order to link it through the dll and into python as a method you just follow one of the other xml tags, finding everywhere it is referenced. Easy after the first time. For the python code, I would be willing to take a peak at it, if you could hook up that xml tag, I've had to do too many in my time, and the process is tedious for me.

 

[epicivfreak]

The "Greenland" was just an example of the boosting already taking place, and I put it because its quite obvious that boosting was taken place, while other places it might not be that obvious.

Ah, I see. In that case, since you're focusing on the balancing aspect, forget I ever mentioned the boosting/balancing bit because that was just an afterthought as to how to help a civ that starts on a desert river. The important bit was the river-valley starts, at Source and Delta.

Or, simply pretend I'd written this instead (copied and pasted what I'd wrote before, boost bits removed and clarifications added):

Step 1 - Find river starts
Find the delta (the two tiles where river meets coast) of every river in the world, put one of those two tiles from each river on a list of "possible start locations." Then, find the source (the two tiles where a river starts) of every river in the world, putting one of each of those tiles on the same list.

Step 2 - Cull the list
Automatically cull any tile from the list that is on ice or tundra. You should still have way more start locations than you need (civ4 has tons of rivers), so then, reduce the list of start locations by ensuring you have decent spacing between all the civs.

Step 3 - Place and Boost
Place all civs in the locations found, ensuring that seafaring civs start at the delta, not the source of a river - and that the coastal tile is not a lake, but has a clear path to the ocean tiles.
*********************************************
This should ensure that all civs start immediately adjacent to a river, which is historically where city-building civilizations began anyway (river-valley civilizations).
*********************************************
PS: Note that if you could somehow ensure that civs start locations occur on the longest rivers first and then work your way down to the shortest rivers during the above process, that would be extra-super-duper-awesome.

 

[Seraiel]

vincentz, did you see this question from above?

@ vincentz:

Is it possible, to somehow only get the graphics but not the mod itself? I play for HoF, so I need to use BUFFY, still, I'd find it very great if I could play with those terrain graphics, they look even better than Blue Marble!

 

[vincentz]

vincentz, did you see this question from above?

Look at the answer below your question above

There is no XML, Python or SDK changes. Its a simple overwrite of graphics only.

 

[j_mie6]

did you see my above post?

 

[Seraiel]

Look at the answer below your question above

There is no XML, Python or SDK changes. Its a simple overwrite of graphics only.

Ups ^^ Sorry ^^

 

[Seraiel]

How is that possible? The terrain looks completely different than on your screenshots. It's so bright, that my eyes are hurting and I can hardly see the roads, nor differentiate the improvements well!

Here are 2 screens:

Spoiler :