Wildland

[Silmeran]

I don't know if this idea was brought up before, but I think it may be an interesting game option or a modmod.

Many times seeing how AI pushes stacks of Rangers on me, I was thinking that high tier recon units is just a cannon fodder. Why there is no wild lands, why civilizations must to border each other? Why I have to build a city in the mountains in order to someone else not to do it? It's more about victory points and less about fun.

What if some part of the map would be a wild area restricted from building. This can be done by limitation of number of cities, or distance from capital where new city can be build, or in some other way. You have to choose best place for your cities you but can skip the land you don't want.

Now try to imagine gameplay options it will offer. Dangerous jungles swarming with lizardmen, savage beasts everywhere, barbarian settlements popping near your borders and raiding your just upgraded towns. You would have to choose your paths carefully when sending armies on the enemy. And recon units will be a must.

Of course it will require a change to barbarians and tile upgrades they can build, because with their current state they will just fill all this area with their own powercities. And in case of limited number of cities you won't be able to capture enemy ones, but you would be able to raid and pillage them instead! Сertainly there are even more issues with this idea, but I just wanted to share it.

Implementing "one city challenge" for every civ will be a good start, but there are still problems with the AI I guess.

 

[SwampCow]

There actually is a pretty effective way to emulate this in the game's current state. I play most of my games in this manner now since maintaining any barbarians and animals on the map is almost impossible currently unless you play a Terra map.

What you need to do is set your games up as ADVANCED GAME option (the top one under options) and give yourself a decent number of starting points (I use 2500).

Then you select NO SETTLERS. This will limit most civilizations to between three and five cities based on location. This will lock in the civilizations and greatly slow the encroachment of cultural borders. Doing this with options such as WILDLANDS selected and you will see much more "wild" in your lands.

I would also suggest selecting RAGING BARBARIANS and BARBARIAN WORLD. This will allow all civs the chance to expand through barbarian combat and create much tougher gaming conditions.

If you do all of the above and use a Terra map, then you really see the fun start as the first time you step foot on the New World, you will encounter massive barb armies and a lot of animals.

 

[Silmeran]

That's a smart idea, I should try to combine game options more. Thanks SwampCow!

 

[cyther]

I also am working on this in my modmod and will have it ready for the next release.

Spoiler details :

In the next version of Rise of Darkness I will be implementing a new feature called the Hinterlands. I wanted to get it out in the open before the release so that I could get some feedback and suggestions before it is released.

The basic idea of the hinterlands is to delay developement in the early game by limiting growth and adding new features that will for a short time create an unenterable area that has requirements to both settle and explore.

The Hinterlands in the original thread that it was proposed in.

The Hinterlands

Adds new gameoption: Hinterlands when enabled it will enable all of the hinterland features.

When the map is generated an area around each unit of 3x3 will be created in which settling, building, and travel are possible. Outside of this area all of these actions will be impossible. These plots are marked by a mouseover text that calls them "Wildlands".

There are several ways remove this wilderness. The first would be to wait for your culture to go over this area which will cause it to lose it's wilderness. The second is after turn 125 (Modified by Gamespeed) plots that are next to a culture-filled tile will lose their wilderness. The third is that after turn 250 (Modified by Gamespeed) all wilderness will be removed from the game.

I have one other method but it may be too hard on the AI. I may add a spell called "Mapping" that requires Catography, 120 gold and can only be casted by a recon unit. It will remove the wilderness from the tile but I fear it could not be understood by the AI.

The only way to settle into Wildlands without clearing them is performed by the Kuriotates who can settle in wildlands with either new cites of with settlements.

A way to get by blocking of movement is also enabled. There is a new promotion called "Wildlander" which allows the units with them to walk in wildlands. This promotion is added to your starting scout and provides +5% to the unit's healrate. Other ways to get this are that it is given by the hunting lodge building, it can be given to any unit with Combat 1 and it can be bought in the capital for 30 gold.

There are a few other ways to get through wildlands. The Promotions Orc and Werewolf (Also used as the Doviello Racial) allow movement into wildlands. Another final faction that has immunity to the wildlands is any Barbarian unit.

The final feature in the Hinterlands is that some features and terrains require either a promotion or technology to enter.

• Forest- Cartography or Elf
• Ancient Forest- Hunting or Elf
• Desert- Exploration or Nomad
• Trackless Desert(Spawned in large areas of desert)- Writing or Nomad
• Hills- Crafting or Dwarf
• Crag(Spawned in large areas of hills)- Bronzeworking or Dwarf
• Tundra- Ancient Chants or Winterborn
• Ice- Warfare or Winterborn
  Edit:
• Jungle- Exploration or Orc

 

[Valkrionn]

Haha, would you mind if I steal it from you when you're done?

 

[cyther]

Sure, not at all. Be careful though it has some nasty DLL work. (at least to me)

 

[Valkrionn]

All DLL work is nasty to me. Had enough issues just adding in some game options.... Should be able to figure it out though.

 

[FireBlaze]

I love how all the modders swap around ideas and merge there stuff with others. It's awesome, although this may come from the fact that you're already modding from a mod (and sometimes from a modmod)

 

[far_wanderer]

I also am working on this in my modmod and will have it ready for the next release.

Haha, would you mind if I steal it from you when you're done?

YAY! I would very much approve of this idea. I had an idea a long time ago similar to it, but never worked on it further because it was far beyond my coding skills. It means I'll have plenty of ideas on how to make it even better once I have a chance to try it, though.

 

[Avahz Darkwood]

Humm I seem to remember Kael trying something a good many versions ago and it ended up being a big mess...

 

[Tasunke]

idk ... the non-movement seems a little extreme imo ... but I guess it requires testing. However, I definitely love the crag, trackless desert, and ancient forest Ideas. Which makes me think that ancient desert could spawn in large swaths of forest

 

[squadbroken]

It doesn't change gameplay mechanics, but you could also try the PerfectWorld2 mapscript. It tends to make really large maps, especially if you allow pangaeas.

 

[Tasunke]

aww ... but I was asking if Ancient Forest also spawns the way crags and trackless desert appear to.

 

[cyther]

Yes, I would have a function in ongamestart that would start the game with some crags, ancient forests and trackless desert much like how end of winter is handeled now but without it beging temporary.

 

[Breez]

Wouldn't an easier way be to ...

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=321485

I believe the distance required between cities is set in GlobalDefines.xml, and could be changed for this mod in GlobalDefinedAlt.xml

Code:

<Define>
<DefineName>MIN_CITY_RANGE</DefineName>
<iDefineIntVal>2</iDefineIntVal>
</Define>

is the default. You could set it to 3 to insure at least that Kuriotates cities don't overlap their BFCs, or 0 to allow every tile on the map to be a city. (Not that I'd necessarily recommend either...) Of course, this is a limitation that applies to humans as much as to the AI, and it would mean that stupid AI city placements would be even moe annoying as they could block good spots from further away.

and set the distance to a relatively high number such as 20? (adjust to taste)

I think you would still have the flexibility of settlers but retain the spacing between cities. Also the barbs could not "fill in" the area in the middle.

I have changed this number to 3 personally and like the game much more now.

 

[Valkrionn]

That accomplishes nothing other than spreading out your empire. What Cyther is coding will be much more in depth.

 

[Neomega]

I wanted my games to have wildlands... and I got them, kind of like this


tectonic 30% water, wet, recommended number of civs
end of winter
wildlands
raging barbs
barbarian lands

The civ growth is greatly hindered, except ljosalfar if they are in.

 

[Breez]

That accomplishes nothing other than spreading out your empire. What Cyther is coding will be much more in depth.

I can't disagree with that but his seems over kill IMHO

The way I look at it is

Option A: Wait a bit for a in depth mod

Option B: mod a file and play with what you want today... in any mod, any patch level