[We the People] Development "diary"

[raystuttgart]

Ok guys, Town Guards are fully back in the game.
(Internal branch "small features")

Spoiler :

 

[raystuttgart]

Ok guys, I have the next small upgrade.
(Internal branch "small features")

Lumbermills have been renamed to Sawmill (because the Building is already called Lumbermill) and transformed into a level 3 Growing Improvement.
(It is not bult anymore. All Pedia and Strategy texts have been adjusted as well.)

Lodge -40 Turns-> Lumberjack Camp -30 Turns-> Sawmill

 

[Hecur]

Ok guys, Town Guards are fully back in the game.
(Internal branch "small features")

Spoiler :

Is the strenght of the townguard 2 or 3?

 

[raystuttgart]

Which one?
Normal Settler in Profession Townguad or Veteran Townguard in Profession Town Guard?

For Normal Settler in Profession Townguad: 3
(at least currently - as you see in the picture).

I just build it back in today and have not yet fully checked or adjusted balancing.
(It is still in my development branch "small features" for 2.8)

By the way:
In RaR there was a small XML configuration issue for the Veteran Townguard. (The Unit had base strength of 0 instead of 1.)
I discovered and fixed that though when I rebuilt "Town Guard".
I also discovered several other small / non-critical XML configuration issues (mainly balancing) for Units / Profession but should have now fixed them all.

 

[raystuttgart]

Ok guys, next small Update - Russian Religious Experts are implemented in the game. )
All credits for the awesome graphics of course to Schmiddie.

• Orthodox Priest
• Orthodox Missionary

In the 3rd Screenshot you see:
(top row: Priests, bottom row: Missionaries)

• left: Protestant Versions
• middle: Catholic Versions
• right: Orthodox Versions

By the way:
This is also a preparation for "Religions of the New World"

 

[Schmiddie]

Thanks, but I have just made them ready for Col2 and amended them a little bit. The units are from Civ4 (Ressourse Manager). I assume bakuel made them.

 

[raystuttgart]

Ok guys, next small update.

"European Line Infantery" is now restored to be the Expert Unit for Profession "Line Infantery".
--> Basically old status as before RaR 2.7
(where it was transformed into a Unit that could not have Professions / no Profession-Expert / unflexible Unit).

It now again generally behaves like "Veteran Infanterist" and can change Profession (e.g. another Military Profession).

• However it can only be bought in Europe.
• It can not be taught by School System.
• It will also not immigrate randomly.
  
• And of course it can not be built.

Graphics were also untouched, so it still uses the UnitArtStyles for the specific Civs.
The Profession "Line Infanterist" is of course generally also still available for other Units.
"European Line Infantery" is simply stronger when using it.

The System for Human Units - except rare Event Units - needs to be consistent for gameplay.
Especially when we will transform Artillery Units to Professions as well. (Which is planned.)

 

[Tugboatspotter]

Ok guys, next small update.

"European Line Infantery" is now restored to be the Expert Unit for Profession "Line Infantery".
--> Basically old status as before RaR 2.7
(where it was transformed into a Unit that could not have Professions / no Profession-Expert / unflexible Unit).

Infantry is the English spelling btw

 

[raystuttgart]

Ok guys, next small updated.

There were still a few old RaR Events (6 in total) that were deactivated because potentiall being problematic.
These have all been improved, retested and reactivated again.

Generally several events (not only the deactivated ones) have gotten quite a refactoring.
Most of it small technical details though nothing that really changed flavour.

This however will also still need a bit of testing before being published.
(Thus I keep all that stuff in a separate branch "small features" currently - so our Improvement Release will not be delayed unnecessarily.)

 

[raystuttgart]

Ok, next small update.

Merge Treasures is fully implemented.
(including AI)

Credits to Raubwuerger though, who did most of the coding.
(I only did a bit of fine tuning / bugfixing / AI.)

 

[raystuttgart]

Ok guys, the next small update.

Making Slavery more interesting is fully implemented now.
(Internal branch "small features")

All the new great graphics were created by Schmiddie.

The concept introduces 4 new Units:

• Freed Slave
• Revolting Criminal
• Revolting African Slave
• Revolting Native Slave

LbD - "Learning by Doing" (a major component of the mod) now has 4 sub-features:
("Revolting" is completely new and "become Free" has undergone some changes)

• become Expert - for Free Colonists, Freed Slaves and Converted Natives
• become Free - for Indentured Servants, Petty Criminals, African Slaves and Native Slaves
• Fleeing - for Indentured Servants, Petty Criminals, African Slaves and Native Slaves
• Revolting - for Petty Criminals, African Slaves and Native Slaves

The major changes with this implementation:

A) Criminals, African Slaves and Native Slaves can now also revolt and then attack the Player (it is an additional feature to "fleeing" which also still exists)
B) African Slaves and Native Slaves can now also become free as Freed Slave or Converted Native. (Petty Criminals and Indentured Servants can of course still become "Free Colonists")
C) Freed Slaves and Converted Natives can become Experts (just like Free Colonists)
D) Some minor balancing changes (e.g. preventing exploits by letting Slaves work as Pioneers or other outside Professions - Petty Criminals can still work as Pioneers)
E) Adaptation of all Pedia texts (incl. Gameconcepts) to reflect the changes above

Remark:
Indentured Servant was almost untouched.
He is the only "forced labor" that will not revolt - for gameplay and balancing reasons.

 

[Swarbs]

A) Criminals, African Slaves and Native Slaves can now also revolt and then attack the Player (it is an additional feature to "fleeing" which also still exists)

May be difficult, but is there a way to tie that to wars and enemies (other cols with bad relations). That way criminals and slaves won't just revolt and be a nuisance you can easily kill, but may revolt and join your enemies. Similar to how Spanish Florida would accept fleeing British slaves provided they served in the militia.

In other words, if you are at war or have bad relations with another colony there is a greater risk that your criminals and slaves will revolt and join them, turning into colonial militia when they do (possibly stealing some of your weapons to do so). The chance could be tied to how many guard units you have in each colony.

That would make slavery even more interesting if during a war you had to keep some units in reserve to stop your slaves joining the enemy, rather than just marching everything off to fight on the front lines.

 

[raystuttgart]

Please do not use this thread for feature discussions.
(It is only supposed to inform community about progress and other things going on in the mod.)

For your suggestion, please use Making Slavery more interesting.

 

[raystuttgart]

Ok guys, the next small update.

Trade Posts in Native Villages is fully implemented now.
(Internal branch "small features")

All the new great graphics were created by Schmiddie.

This concept introduces:

• 1 New Expert Unit
• 1 New Profession

Explenations to game play:

• It pretty much works similar to "Missionaries" , but instead of Converted Natives the Villages with Trade Posts will send Treasures back home from time to time.
• Profession "Native Trader" requires Trade Goods to be equipped.
  
• The more population the Native Village has the faster it will generate gold and thus spawn treasures.
• It will not spawn micro treasures, but only spawn treasures from the gold collected if enough gold for a medium size treasure was collected.
• AI knows how to use the feature as well and also uses it.
• The icon (for billboard) currently used is the icon of Yield "Trade Goods"

 

[raystuttgart]

Hi guys,
next small updated.

I used code of devolution to display some additional information in Citizen Help.
- Turns worked to become Expert
- Turns worked to become Free
- Yield Modifiers (Both: + Modifiers and % Modifiers)

 

[raystuttgart]

Hi guys,
next small update.

I implemented a new Game Option: "Only 1 Colonist living per Native Village at same time"

• It is intended for those who consider current rules for "Living with Natives" (unlimited at the same time) a small exploit and want a little more challenge.
• You need to activate the Game Option purposely in Custom Games though - it is not activated by default.
• Once activated, you can only train 1 Colonist at a time per Village - but of course sequential training per Village or training in other Villages is still possible.
• AI will not get into trouble because of this.
• The button was purposley not deactivated in the case another Colonist is already living in the village - a message will inform you, why you have to wait.

 

[raystuttgart]

Hi guys,
next small update.

The requested 4 new Russian Founding Fathers are now implemented.
The great graphics were of course created again by Schmiddie.

 

[raystuttgart]

Ok guys, I have fully implemented "Happiness vs. Unhappiness".
(Some aspects might still be improved though.)

the implementation concept was changed a lot though.

• It does not have a specific dedicated Profession for it (but the implementation would allow it to be added in the future by XML)
  
• There are 2 Yields technically: Happiness and Unhappiness that need to be balanced
• It does not give modifiers on Production of Yields
• It however does give modifiers on many other small features (that can make your life a lot easier or harder)

------------
General Comment:

"Happiness vs. Unhappiness" is a glue feature.
It connects your efforts of taking care of the needs of your citizens to the behaviour of your citizens.

Take care of your citizens needs (by providing Buildings, Security, Religion, Education, Government, Culture, Domestic Market, Peace and Treaties with other Colonies) and the population will grow faster and learn faster, Slaves will become Free Settlers faster and flee and revolt less, your Cities will generate more profits from Domestic Market and Entertainment and on national level there will also be more immigration from Europe.

Neglect their needs and the total contrary will happen.
A big city that is not taken care of will be quite inefficient and cause a lot of trouble.
This feature works in both ways ...

Remarks:

"Happiness vs. Unhappiness" is a "base features" that can be further expanded in the future - all technical possibilities are there.
(It was explicitly designed to be easily modifialble and expandable by modders)

e.g.

• new Traits for Leaders and Founding Fathers
• using it by Civics or Techs
• ...

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

Effects of Happiness:
(positive balance and negative balance)

The effects are listed as Mouse Over Help like this this (once they occur):

Spoiler :

Explanations in Game Concept and in Pedia of Yield

Spoiler :

Causes of Happiness / Unhappiness:

Unhappiness is caused by:
(Every cause will be listed by Mouse Over)

• Overpopulation
• Slavery
• High Taxes
  
• Wars with other European Colonies (Natives do not matter)
  
• Lack of defenses in City (depending on population size)

Happiness can be gained by:
(Every cause will be listed by Mouse Over)

• Buildings (e.g. Churches, Schools, Taverns, Medical Houses, ...)
• Enough Production of Crosses, Bells, Health, Education and Cultur (depending on Population size)
• Satisfying Domestic Demand of goods (having enough of a specific good to satisfy the domestic demand)
• Treaties with other European Colonies (Natives do not matter)

All of this can be balanced in XML. (GlobalDefinesAlt.xml)
(The system is designed to be allow easy addition of further effects - but some might need coding)

The causes / gains are listed as Mouse Over Help like this this (once they occur):

Spoiler :

There are additional visualisation helpers to give you some information:
(e.g. Billboard icon that tells if a City is happy or unhappy)

Spoiler :

Sorry, I would post more images but I can only upload 10 per post ...

 

[Schmiddie]

I like the feature but I'm struggling a little bit with the smilies. I think they don't fit with the "look" of the game. Maybe we find something that fit's better.

 

[raystuttgart]

I like the feature but I'm struggling a little bit with the smilies. I think they don't fit with the "look" of the game. Maybe we find something that fit's better.

Yes, it would be nice if we can find better icons for the GameFonts.
(Smileys was just the best I could do myself.)

I was considering:
Happiness --> Roses
Unhappiness --> Angry Fist

@Schmiddie:

I will finish a few small things for "Happiness vs. Unhappiness" and then create my branch "happiness".
(I still want to code a small effect addition to it: "Festivities and Unrests")

I will then send you the link and a DLL again, so you can check it ingame.
Maybe you can then look at the GameFonts and see if you can create better and more atmospheric icons.