Whales and Whalingboat Development Thread

[Aymerick]

For some time now I've been thinking about adding a new feature in the form of Whales resources and Whalingboat to Plantation Economy (as well as AoFD) so I'm starting a thread here to get suggestions and maybe a little help too...

The general idea is to be able to gather resources from outside the colonies border.

Initialy, I want to have a Whale bonus resource that would yield food on ocean plots. With a new Whalingboat unit, you would sail to the resource and once there, you could activate a "Fishing" or "Whaling" command so that it starts producing and storing the yield onboard until the cargo hold is full.

Eventualy, I also want to add new tradable yields and extend this feature. I was thinking about adding "Whale Oil". Also have "Fish" as tradable resource, but that could also be transformed into food in a new "Fishery" city building or something like that. I also want to extend this to have somekind of "Hunting expedition", where a wagon train type unit could go onto a Deer or Buffalo bonus and do the same.

I've already found the way to have bonus resources appear and yield on ocean plot and I'm getting into the ship skinning and command stuff, but I'd like to have your input on this! And I might need help with the SDK too...

 

[TC01]

I was actually going to suggest this in the Plantation Economy thread but had a momentary lapse as to whether whaling occured during the Colonization period.

I like the idea. In my opinion, one thing Col lacks is water resources. They have fish but that's about it.

 

[Chibiabos]

I was actually going to suggest this in the Plantation Economy thread but had a momentary lapse as to whether whaling occured during the Colonization period.

I like the idea. In my opinion, one thing Col lacks is water resources. They have fish but that's about it.

The Innuit and other coastal tribes were whaling with hand-thrown harpoons long before Europeans arrived.

 

[drjest2000]

To the best of my knowledge, other than the Inuit, whaling was done by the coastal pre-Columbian Pacific tribes as far south as the Oregon-California border and there is some evidence than the so-called "Red Ochre" tribes on of Eastern Canada were conducting some form of deep-sea fishing and whaling as early as 5500 BCE. In the Atlantic, the Norse/Danish/Icelandic Europeans (Vikings) conducted whaling as early as 1100 AD (probably earlier, but they only started keeping written records about then). I guess it should be understood that early "whaling" in these terms was largely limited to localised short-range (coastal) meat-harvesting efforts, unlike the 18th and 19th century long-haul efforts that were largely conducted for lamp oil and ambergris (perfume component).

The art for this woud be a subjective choice. If you wanted to have a large ship graphic, then depending on the era you want to portray will depend on culture and era. The natives used kayaks and dugouts.

With the Europeans, if you go with the age-of-sail theme then the "merchantman" would be the closest match to a late colonial era whaler, an early colonial era whaler would be more like the fast galleon from "Pirates!"

The Japanese did deep-sea fishing and whaling until the Tokugawa shogunate period -- can't remember which of the Shogun burnt all the deep sea vessels and started the isolationist policy -- but the ships were not terribly unlike a large junk or galley depending on era.

If you go with a simple direct approach, making the whale a food resource like clams, crabs, or fish, woud be easier. Really nothing more than a straight forward clone of fish "yield_food" with a different graphic.

If you go with a new resource, e.g. "yield_lamp_oil", then in the GUI you can recycle the graphics of the rum and alter the colours to differentiate them, but then you run afoul of the deep sea aspect of whaling. This is a bit larger than my current understanding how things work under the hood for the game engine, but obviously it's more or less a quest or event like in BtS, which is a known "good" rather than some unknown area. Maybe this could be done as an "off-screen" thing like the pirating mod's sea-lanes venture. The ship would slip off the map on the European area and then return with a random load of whale oil.

Edit: more thinking... Maybe to keep the timeline sort of comparable with real time, you should link the ability to do whaling to one of the later versions of dock? and if you add a new specialist class like "Expert Whaler" as a requirement for whaling ventures, then something add ship promotions along the lines of the pirate mod with promotions for harpooner, sailmaker, renderer, etc to increase the quantity of the cargo? Whaling was largely a dangerous thing back then, wood ships with large fires on the deck to render the blubber into oil was a bad idea. Fires were commonplace. Also they had to pass through the worst and most dangerous seas getting to the whales. I'm going to ballpark a loss rate for ships in the area of 40-50% which was only offset by the highly profitable nature of the whaling economy until the advent of the petroleum industry.

 

[Kailric]

Maybe the whaling ship could only be built with Drydock. I like the idea of commanding your ship to "gather" food at a whale resource though. There isn't much going on in the game non military wise outside of cities besides transporting so this addition could diversify things a tad bit more. Whaling could also produce "trade goods" just to keep from having to add a whole new resource for "whale oil" or ambergris.

Anyway, I will be glad to help out with any SDK coding once there is some specifics figured out.

~Cheers

 

[Aymerick]

Thanks to all for your input guys! I'm glad this dicussion has started and that people like the idea!

Very interesting history lecons here! I don't think we should bother too much about the historical exactitude of whaling but focuse more on gameplay improvement...

If everyone is ok with that, I'll be in charge of managing the development of this future feature. I've allready prepared a Module as basis so that, not only everyone can participate in the development, but we can also have this as a ModComp that could fit into any Mod out there and could be adapted to anyone's specification.

As drjest2000 suggested, this could propably be done as an "off-screen" mission. But done that way, I don't think it would improve the gameplay or allow the feature to be extended as much as having an "action" or "command".

And as for adding new yields like "Whale Oil", I think we should begin with the gathering of food first. Once the "action" works, we can extend it. I've added alot of tradable yields before so don't worry, I'll make new and original graphics. Same thing for the xml gameplay details, like ship builing requirement or resource bonus value, we can tweak and adjust later on.

Here is the link to the Module with what I've done so far: http://www.filefront.com/14304309/Whalingboat_v0.01.rar

Look for the "WHALING_BOAT" quote in the SDK and please use the same quoting format for any future modification.

Phase 1 Development Status:

Bonus Resource:
- Resource placement on ocean from Genetic Era Mod - Incomplete
Include a new "CIV4TerrainSchema.xml" and "bOcean" element in the "CIV4BonusInfos.xml" for the bonuses to appear on ocean terrain. I'm still looking for a way for the bonuses not to appear on "EuropeAccessable" terrain. Adding "isEuropeAccessable" or "isEurope" as false won't work.

- Ocean Terrain Yield - Completed
Modified the "calculatePotentialYield" so that ocean terrain can now yield resources.

- Added Whale Bonus resource and graphics from Civ4 - Completed
Only appear on ocean terrain.

- Changed the "Fish" Bonus Resource to "Coastal Fish" - Completed
Only appear on coast terrain.

- Added "High Seas Fish" Bonus Resource - Completed
Only appear on ocean terrain.

Unit Model and Graphics:
- Added "Whaling Boat" unit model from Civ4 - Incomplet
I took the "Whaling Boat" improvement from Civ4 and merged it with the Frigate but the animation won't work. Anyone is good with units and animation?

- Added "Whaling Boat" interface graphics - Completed
I've made the Unit Button and Europe screen ship icon for the Whaling Boat.

Fishing/Whaling Action:
- Interface graphics - Completed
I've made a "Action Button" for fishing/whaling but I probably need to rework it.

- Command/Action SDK - Unworked
Kailric, I'm really hoping you can do that part! It's the most important and you're the expert! You've done alot of that stuff before in "Privateers, Pirates, and Buccaneers"... Keep in mind that it should be somewhat open so that we can extend it for future uses by different units, on different terrain or for different yields. As for some specification and questions, here is what I have in mind:
- Bonus Resource makes valid.
- Yield rate and cargo hold storage by turn linked with the plot yield rate.
- Open to any YieldTypes.
- What if the terrain has more than 1 YieldType (if we add other YieldTypes like "Whale Oil")? Should it be able to gather 1 of each by cargo space or let us choose?​

Allright so now we need feedback, input and help! If you want to participate let me know! I'll be updating this thread with progress regularly...

Aymerick

 

[Kailric]

Kailric, I'm really hoping you can do that part! It's the most important and you're the expert! You've done alot of that stuff before in "Privateers, Pirates, and Buccaneers"... Keep in mind that it should be somewhat open so that we can extend it for future uses by different units, on different terrain or for different yields. As for some specification and questions, here is what I have in mind:
- Bonus Resource makes valid.
- Yield rate and cargo hold storage by turn linked with the plot yield rate.
- Open to any YieldTypes.
- What if the terrain has more than 1 YieldType (if we add other YieldTypes like "Whale Oil")? Should it be able to gather 1 of each by cargo space or let us choose?[/INDENT]

K, I just got your download and I am checkig it out. One question, once the ship starts whaling should it still be visible on the Map? Or will it function like "Live among natives" where the unit is removed from the map. Here is some ideas... If it is removed then it would be replaced by the "Whaling Graphic". This "Whaling Graphic" would then need to be a "Unit" instead of a feature or improvement so the player can interact with it. The "Whaling Graphic" would then just have one command to "End Mission". So if you end the mission the whaling boat would reappear and you can do what ever with it.

Also, for enemy ships they can "Pillage" the plot. When they do so either the Whaling ship can appear and defend itself or it is simply destoryed. I would probably go with Destoyed as most whaling ships didn't have much defence any way.

Another question is how are the Whaling Ships created? Will it be a new profession for Colonists or will the ship be built? Or some other idea.

Also, when you mention that the command can support any yield I have always wanted to build a "Logging Camp" that funnels logs into my Colony with out haveing to actually found another City. Lots of times your first colony lacks any good resource for lumber but if you could build a Logging camp inside your borders it would remedy this problem. Anyway, this code could also be adapted for things such as that. I'll get back to this post or a new one with any more questions...

EDIT: Ok, I got some of the codeing done. I am at the point when I have to decide what the ship does when it gets full. Does the player just recieve a message stating the Whaling Boat is full and a Button appears so you can click on it to zoom in or does the ship auto transport the Food to cities that are "Importing Food"? Auto transport to cities seem vialable as it is already a feature of fully automated transports.

Also, should there be a chance that the whaling bonus gets "exhausted" and the player has to find new areas to whale. The whaling bonus could also appear much like Forests grow?

 

[Kailric]

I worked on this today. And have some code for testing.

Whaling works as follows in the current code:

-Only Whaling class ships can fish in the High Seas
-Must be over a Fish or Whale resource
-Bonus resource must be in the high seas or away from the coast

Once your whaler is over the fish or whale hit the Fish the High Seas command. It will start its mission but if your unit has moved that turn it wont gather fish until the next turn. Once it has a turn with full movement it will fish and gather the max amount of bonus resources, thus spending its movement that turn. When the ship has no more room for Food you will get a message along with a button icon to click on to auto zoom to that ship and then the ship will end its mission.

Right now the whaler only has one cargo space but the code should work for ships with more than one cargo space.. haven't tested that yet though.

Check it out and see what you think...

~Cheers

Download is attached


Edit: The resource appearing in the Europe plots isn't that big of deal to me. Actually it gives those plots something else to do besides just sending my ship to Europe. But to change that will probably take SDK changes to check if the plot "isEurope()".

Edit2: I just edited the code so that it will be more yield friendly as you requested above. All the Yields have there own integer Definition for them in the SDK already. So I fixed the code to except a YieldType input. Then I can just add a switch that checks for what yield is inputed and the code can be set up to check for that yield. Also, I can make the "Fish the High Seas" command appear as whited out, much like Found City is when you are too close to another city, so when you mouse over it the help text tells you what you need to do in order to be able to gather that resource. This would help new players figure things out faster cause if the Command doesn't appear at all some people will be like... what the heck does this thing do? Anyway, I'll post this new code tomorrow sometime.

 

[drjest2000]

Kailric, I gave your mod file a test run and it operates precisely as explained and is a great graphic. I was able to complete numerous missions with the whaler and even had to dodge French privateers in a beautiful simulation of "Master and Commander"

The model is really well chosen and designed. I am looking forward to the addition going beta ... or gold... these days is anything ever not beta except home VCR tapes? LOL

I added some screen caps here so others can see the ship from additional angles, hope you don't mind.

 

[Kailric]

Kailric, I gave your mod file a test run and it operates precisely as explained and is a great graphic. I was able to complete numerous missions with the whaler and even had to dodge French privateers in a beautiful simulation of "Master and Commander"

The model is really well chosen and designed. I am looking forward to the addition going beta ... or gold... these days is anything ever not beta except home VCR tapes? LOL

I added some screen caps here so others can see the ship from additional angles, hope you don't mind.

I just watched that movie the other day But your are right that there is lots of Betas going around these days. And that is a sweet model Aymerick found. I hope we can get the animations working for it. I have learned to cut and paste things in models but haven't done animations yet...

 

[Aymerick]

I worked on this today. And have some code for testing.

Whaling works as follows in the current code:

-Only Whaling class ships can fish in the High Seas
-Must be over a Fish or Whale resource
-Bonus resource must be in the high seas or away from the coast

Once your whaler is over the fish or whale hit the Fish the High Seas command. It will start its mission but if your unit has moved that turn it wont gather fish until the next turn. Once it has a turn with full movement it will fish and gather the max amount of bonus resources, thus spending its movement that turn. When the ship has no more room for Food you will get a message along with a button icon to click on to auto zoom to that ship and then the ship will end its mission.

Right now the whaler only has one cargo space but the code should work for ships with more than one cargo space.. haven't tested that yet though.

Check it out and see what you think...

~Cheers

Download is attached

Woh Kailric, you're the man! that was fast!

One thing... The "Fish the High Seas" command button keyboard shortcut is set to "W" and that's originaly used to cercle throught units. So if the ship is on top of a bonus it will start gathering instead of cercling throught units. It should be set to another key, but that's XML right?

Also, you can have more than one ship gathering at the same bonus. I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not... It does make sense that multiple ship can fish in the same area. What do you think?

And about the animation, I'll ask Deliverator if he wants to help, but did you make it so that it changes to some sort of improvement when fishing? It could be interesting, but more complicated, to have different graphics when activated...

 

[Kailric]

Woh Kailric, you're the man! that was fast!

One thing... The "Fish the High Seas" command button keyboard shortcut is set to "W" and that's originaly used to cercle throught units. So if the ship is on top of a bonus it will start gathering instead of cercling throught units. It should be set to another key, but that's XML right?

Also, you can have more than one ship gathering at the same bonus. I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not... It does make sense that multiple ship can fish in the same area. What do you think?

And about the animation, I'll ask Deliverator if he wants to help, but did you make it so that it changes to some sort of improvement when fishing? It could be interesting, but more complicated, to have different graphics when activated...

Like you said I been adding new commands and missions for a while now and your code help speed things up a great deal as well. It actually took me longer than expected cause I haven't really added any "missions" that do much more than move the unit to and from Europe or cities so I had to learn a few things. I have added tons of commands but commands are different than missions.

Yeah, key is set in XML.. I ment to make it so you press Alt-W.. is that key made for any thing? Just change the mission XML to look as in the below code. I don't know what bAltDownAlt is used for but thats what I had turned on. You can also change the KB_W to another key like KB_L or something not used.

<HotKey>KB_W</HotKey>
<bAltDown>1</bAltDown>
<bShiftDown>0</bShiftDown>
<bCtrlDown>0</bCtrlDown>
<iHotKeyPriority>1</iHotKeyPriority>
<HotKeyAlt/>
<bAltDownAlt>0</bAltDownAlt>

I would say only one ship per resource as it fits with the rest of the games functions. Units in cities can't work the same plots and this is virtually the same thing just outside of cities. Also, what would be the point in having lots of new resources all over if only one was needed? I'll add a check for another ship already working that plot if that sounds good.

I guess we want the AI useing whaling ships as well right? That would take a while to code but I am up for it at some point. Anyway, I'll post a new upload later on today.

 

[Aymerick]

Yeah, key is set in XML.. I ment to make it so you press Alt-W.. is that key made for any thing? Just change the mission XML to look as in the below code. I don't know what bAltDownAlt is used for but thats what I had turned on. You can also change the KB_W to another key like KB_L or something not used.

Ok, I've add "bShiftDown" so it's "Shift+W" now and doesn't conflict.

I would say only one ship per resource as it fits with the rest of the games functions. Units in cities can't work the same plots and this is virtually the same thing just outside of cities. Also, what would be the point in having lots of new resources all over if only one was needed? I'll add a check for another ship already working that plot if that sounds good.

You're right, let's go with one ship per resource then...

I guess we want the AI useing whaling ships as well right? That would take a while to code but I am up for it at some point.

I haven't thought about that but now that you mention it, AI should use it... Eventualy

Also, for enemy ships they can "Pillage" the plot. When they do so either the Whaling ship can appear and defend itself or it is simply destoryed. I would probably go with Destoyed as most whaling ships didn't have much defence any way.

I don't think the enemy should be able to "Pillage" the plot. And when attacked, I think the Whaling Boat shouldn't actualy fight, it should act the same way the Pionner does when attacked, that is get capture by the enemy ship...

Another question is how are the Whaling Ships created? Will it be a new profession for Colonists or will the ship be built? Or some other idea.

I'd say it can be build at a Shipyard or bought from Europe like any orther ship unit...

Also, when you mention that the command can support any yield I have always wanted to build a "Logging Camp" that funnels logs into my Colony with out haveing to actually found another City. Lots of times your first colony lacks any good resource for lumber but if you could build a Logging camp inside your borders it would remedy this problem.

Good idea! It sounds a lot like the "Hunting Party" to get food from Deers or Buffalo I suggested. I think having a "Wagon Train" type unit would be best then funneling yields directly into a Colony as good transports plays an important role in Col...

Unless it's made somewhat like the supply pod in Alpha Century, like an improvement that as to be link by road to a Colony, maybe the distance could have an impact on yield rate... But it sounds complicated to me...

I am at the point when I have to decide what the ship does when it gets full. Does the player just recieve a message stating the Whaling Boat is full and a Button appears so you can click on it to zoom in or does the ship auto transport the Food to cities that are "Importing Food"? Auto transport to cities seem vialable as it is already a feature of fully automated transports.

Would the ship travel back and forth to the resource with a full load of food each time? Or something like the "Return Home" from your Mod? Either one could be nice, but not necessary... I'll leave it up to you to decide if you want that in...

Also, should there be a chance that the whaling bonus gets "exhausted" and the player has to find new areas to whale. The whaling bonus could also appear much like Forests grow?

I think it's a good idea that should be looked into! I've also set the bonus placement to be somewhat rare, that could be tweaked too...

 

[Kailric]

Ok, I'll make it so that only one at a time on gathering and to capture it you may just have to give it a CaptureUnitType with no combat strength in the XML. I'll test it and see.

I'll look into tieing it into the trade routes network and have it at least head to a city you have selected that imports food and unload there.

I believe the "feature growth" like forests is handled in the XML. But "exhausting" the bonus may have to have some more SDK coding, I'll look into that as well.

Here is a thought on collecting resources outside of the city. I see at least four possible ways.

1. A new command for Expert units to collect resources. Say move a Expert Lumberjack to a square with lumber and the unit will start to gather it. Either it could start to work, or the unit gets spent and a Feature takes his place, similar to the Lodge. Getting the Lumber to the City could be done it a few ways, but automatic will be the simplest.

2. Then similar to the above but a new Unit is created that does the above, like a Frontiersman or something.

3. Or it could be a profession a unit can take on and the Unit becomes like a Wagon train that can load cargo and then it works that spot until its full like a Whaling ship, ala Frontiersman profession.

4. Or Pioneers build lumber camps, Hunting camps, Tobacco Plantations, and such that gathers in the goods either automatically or a Immobile unit is added that gathers the goods and reports when it is full.

Geess.. just so many ways to do this

EDIT: and giving the Expert units worker animations would be easy as cake. I done this will several units already.

 

[Kailric]

I worked on this some more tonight. I didn't test the capturing for the Whaling ship yet but I made it so only one unit can fish a spot at a time. The command to fish is visible at all times now but is whited out if you can't fish. I'll get the Capture working and get the Whaling ship delivering its cargo when full maybe in the next day or two.

 

[KJ Jansson]

We have a very high activity of enemy ships in "Privateers, Pirates, and Buccaneers" mod and this is excellent. However, here such pirate's activity will destroy a number of Whaling ships and your settlement instead to create infrastructure must again and again build new Whaling ships that will be easily destroyed during next pirate ship visit.

How about a "Patrol mission", when both a player and AI could send one of his battle ships in a patrol mission to protect a number of see or ocean squares against pirate ship invasion?

 

[Kailric]

We have a very high activity of enemy ships in "Privateers, Pirates, and Buccaneers" mod and this is excellent. However, here such pirate's activity will destroy a number of Whaling ships and your settlement instead to create infrastructure must again and again build new Whaling ships that will be easily destroyed during next pirate ship visit.

How about a "Patrol mission", when both a player and AI could send one of his battle ships in a patrol mission to protect a number of see or ocean squares against pirate ship invasion?

I thought about that too when thinking about adding this to the Privateer mod. The AI already has a "Patrol Mission" once it gets a significant navy at least one of his ships goes on a patrol and looks for enemys. Having a mission for the Player to set up way points along a patrol route has been something in the back of my mind I been wanting to do, so its definitely on the "todo" list. Any encouragement helps to though

 

[kaibayashi]

Ok, I'll make it so that only one at a time on gathering and to capture it you may just have to give it a CaptureUnitType with no combat strength in the XML. I'll test it and see.

I'll look into tieing it into the trade routes network and have it at least head to a city you have selected that imports food and unload there.

I believe the "feature growth" like forests is handled in the XML. But "exhausting" the bonus may have to have some more SDK coding, I'll look into that as well.

Here is a thought on collecting resources outside of the city. I see at least four possible ways.

1. A new command for Expert units to collect resources. Say move a Expert Lumberjack to a square with lumber and the unit will start to gather it. Either it could start to work, or the unit gets spent and a Feature takes his place, similar to the Lodge. Getting the Lumber to the City could be done it a few ways, but automatic will be the simplest.

2. Then similar to the above but a new Unit is created that does the above, like a Frontiersman or something.

3. Or it could be a profession a unit can take on and the Unit becomes like a Wagon train that can load cargo and then it works that spot until its full like a Whaling ship, ala Frontiersman profession.

4. Or Pioneers build lumber camps, Hunting camps, Tobacco Plantations, and such that gathers in the goods either automatically or a Immobile unit is added that gathers the goods and reports when it is full.

Geess.. just so many ways to do this

EDIT: and giving the Expert units worker animations would be easy as cake. I done this will several units already.

I think it would be good if you made it like the Work Boat in Civ4, except that when it is full it becomes an active unit again and returns to its original city or can be sent to another as needed/according to trade route.

Each resourse could possible have more than one unit fishing it at a time, similar to how buildings have multiple slots, depending on the 'size/amount' of the resourse. Different incarnations of the resourse could have different numbers of 'slots', and these could decrease as the resourse is exhausted.

Within your Pirates mod I think that the Whaling/Work Boats should have the chance to escape/retreat to their home port when attacked, to prevent having to replace them too often with the increased naval presence in the mod.

In van Col/AoD tho i think its fair for them to be pillaged like a normal tile improvement, eg farm/plantation etc. I guess this would largely depend on the cost of producing the unit in the first place. Then again if the income generated is that high then these units would be worth using a privateer or something to protect.

 

[Aymerick]

I'm updating to version 0.02 with some XML changes as well as translation for Gametext. Here is the file: http://www.filefront.com/14320225/Whalingboat_v0.02.rar

I've asked Deliverator about the ship's animation and he's gonna take a look!

I worked on this some more tonight. I didn't test the capturing for the Whaling ship yet but I made it so only one unit can fish a spot at a time. The command to fish is visible at all times now but is whited out if you can't fish. I'll get the Capture working and get the Whaling ship delivering its cargo when full maybe in the next day or two.

I've set the ship as "OnlyDefensive" and the capturing already works like for other non-combat units. It will also evade to Drydock or Shipyard...

Here is a thought on collecting resources outside of the city. I see at least four possible ways.

1. A new command for Expert units to collect resources. Say move a Expert Lumberjack to a square with lumber and the unit will start to gather it. Either it could start to work, or the unit gets spent and a Feature takes his place, similar to the Lodge. Getting the Lumber to the City could be done it a few ways, but automatic will be the simplest.

2. Then similar to the above but a new Unit is created that does the above, like a Frontiersman or something.

3. Or it could be a profession a unit can take on and the Unit becomes like a Wagon train that can load cargo and then it works that spot until its full like a Whaling ship, ala Frontiersman profession.

4. Or Pioneers build lumber camps, Hunting camps, Tobacco Plantations, and such that gathers in the goods either automatically or a Immobile unit is added that gathers the goods and reports when it is full.

Geess.. just so many ways to do this

I like #4, you could build an improvement outside the colony, let's say a lodge for lumber, and move a Expert Lumberjack over to start working. Each goods already have a unit type set as well as graphics, the produced good could simply appear on the map as a unit, then you use un wagon train to pick it up...

 

[Kailric]

I took some time this morning to check out the AI. I done some work with it but I am still learning about how they have it coded. If you know what to look for a lot of the codeing is done for you already. Like it didn't take long to program the Whaling ships to automaticly unload its cargo. So far I plan to make it work like this...

1. You spy a nice prime source for Fish on the high seas and send your Whaling ship there to pick it up. Once there you hit the command to start fishing.

2. The Unit gathers fish until it is full, you then recieve an update message on its status.

3. The next turn two things can happen depending on your trade routes.

a.If you only have one city or no trade routes set up the unit will simply return to the nearest city, Checking for enemys along the way, then unload. It will reenter your unit select que at this time.​

b. If you have a trade route set up for one city to Export Food, and another to Import Food then the Whaler will take the food to the Import city. You must have an Import and a Export set up though for this to work.​

When the unit unloads you get a report saying it is ready for a new command.

I done a lot of that already useing existing code so it didn't take long.

I still think its a better idea to have only one whaler per spot. This fits the game and also encourages Exploration by the player to find new whaleing spots, something it would seem a true whaler would do . And pillageing only works really if the spot has an Improvement. The way we have it set up, with an actual ship, if a Privateer destroys the ship then he gets the Cargo as a reward so thats good enough.

I'll download 0.02 and add my changes to it and repost it later on this morning sometime.


Here are some more thoughts on this...

1. Should this mission cost gold? That is should the player have to fund the Whaling mission? After all the player is getting extra food outside the games normal means so this would have an effect on the players growth. Albeit, the player does have to spend resources to build the whalers so thats helps balance out this addition in itself.

2. I like the idea too of putting Experts to work. This would make them even more valuable. It could work like this: you Equip your LumberJack with tools to make him a pioneer. He makes his way outside the city to a prime timber spot where he, and only he, can then build a Logging Camp. Once built he spends his tools and is no longer a pioneer but starts to work choping lumber or simply just disapears into his Logging Camp. And as you mentioned a Unit icon appears and the Lumberjack then starts to fill it up. Each Expert would have its own "lodge" it could build. What ever way it works it does sound like a cool addition and most of the Graphics are done already, like I would say that Scouts could do the "Hunting Camp" or "Hunting Party", you mentioned, Aymerick, and the Graphics are already in Civ4 I really like that idea cause after you have explored the whole map scouts are useless... but not anymore .

This of course would be a whole different mod so we'd have to come up with a name for it and have its own developement thread.


3. Here are some ideas on whaling. There could be two fishing ships. The first can be built with Docks and can only fish for High Seas Fish and works like now. The graphic would maybe look like the Civ4 workboat. The second can be built with Drydocks and is the true Whaler ship we have now. It can work High Seas Fish and Whales and has 2 cargo spaces instead of one. And there could also be the added bonus that when you fish for Whales the Whaler gathers in Food and Trade Goods(Whale Oil), each filling up a spot in its cargo. Sounds yummy

K, I'll be back later with an update...