[WTP] Quick questions

[raystuttgart]

In my current game I noticed that in the score list all nations had "cannot declare war" below them.
However when I enter diplomacy I can declare war. Is the red statement of cannot declare war only true that THEY cannot declare on ME - and if so, why?

That is a displayed text because you selected the Game Option "No Variables Hidden".

My old explanation here was wrong.
It is indeed only "Player can / is allowed to declare War".
(But the display was not correct becuase of a wrong "else" - affected only the display though)

Edit:
I checked the code again and I think this might be a small bug.
It will however only affect the display of this tiny text and nothing else.
Will need to verify this though.

The code where this TXT_KEY is called currently, does not really make sense.
TXT_KEY_MISC_CANNOT_DECLARE_WAR

 

[raystuttgart]

@ConjurerDragon
It was indeed a display bug (due to a wrong "else") considering "No Variables hidden".
It is internally fixed now though.

 

[ConjurerDragon]

@ConjurerDragon
It was indeed a display bug (due to a wrong "else") considering "No Variables hidden".
It is internally fixed now though.

Where do I set the option "No variables hidden"? And which variables are hidden/shown depending on that setting?

 

[raystuttgart]

Where do I set the option "No variables hidden"?

It is a checkbox (Game Option) when you start a "Custom Game".
Maybe it is currently even activated by default (for "Play Now").
(Until RaR 2.5 - before I retired from Civ4Col modding - it was not.)

You must have activated it - otherwise you would not see the "Gold Amounts" of the Natives in the Score List.

Edit:
By the way, you can check your activated Game Options in the Victory Screen (F8).
There you will find a tab "Settings" which will display them all.

And which variables are hidden/shown depending on that setting ?

It will e.g. give you additional information ingame about Attitudes/Diplomacy, Gold Amounts, Leader Traits ... (Which are otherwise hidden or only visible in Pedia or XML.)
With the upcoming Releases it will also give you even more information about things like e.g. "Learning by Doing" in City Screen.

Basically this "Game Option" is displaying you information that were secret / hidden in game in "Vanilla" (or most other mods).
Robert Surcouf (one of the co-founders of RaR) wanted to have these informations available to players though.
(Since then the feature was enhanced though by other modders, e.g. devolution.)

 

[raystuttgart]

Some of the problems in WTP are:
(Which are almost all inherited by RaR though.)

A) We have lots of small but useful features that only "hardcore RaR" players (and we modders of course) know but "new players" do hardly even notice.
B) We have a lot of possible settings for customizations (e.g in Maps or XML) that were never properly documented and only modders know how to use.

There really is a reason that WTP was built upon RaR.
Because no other Civ4Col mod ever (except WTP, which now of course has even more) had any comparable amount of small features and possibilities for customization.
This however also makes it really hard for new modders (that are not programmers) to build their own mod-mod from WTP - because there is simply so much knowledge involved.

Summary:
We do need to somehow help new players and non-programming-modders to get to know all of these possibilites, because they do enhance gameplay and allow a wide array of customizability.
However, currently nobody wants to invest the time to do so (e.g. by documentation) ...

 

[raystuttgart]

Just as an example (implemented not that long ago):

Did you know that you can change the Yield your "City Center Plot" produces by simply clicking on it?
(It was documented in the release Notes and in discussion threads of course, but which player really reads "Release Notes" or all of our discussion threads.)

Just as another example (implemented a long time ago):

Did you know that you can "Drain Swamps" or "Replant Forrests" by Pioneers?
(It is one of the Features I believe a lot of players never use.)

Just another expample (implemented even longer ago):

Did you know that if you have "Citadels" or "Bastions" your cannons in Cities can bombard Ships or enemy Units in adjacent tiles?
(It is actually a really cool feature in WOI.)

 

[Mr. ZorG]

about the fact that cannons can fire at enemy ships passing by, I knew. but the fact that you can change products on the central tile of the city ... thanks for that)
By the way, in the game I did not find a description of this function anywhere (maybe I searched badly?)

 

[ConjurerDragon]

It is a checkbox (Game Option) when you start a "Custom Game".
Maybe it is currently even activated by default (for "Play Now").
(Until RaR 2.5 - before I retired from Civ4Col modding - it was not.)

You must have activated it - otherwise you would not see the "Gold Amounts" of the Natives in the Score List.

I had not. I just started a new game (Single Player, Scenario, Gigantic Americas map) and the option was not there. The option is already enabled in the settings of the map itself, just as in the huge version of the Americas map:

Version=11
BeginGame
   Era=ERA_DISCOVERY
   Speed=GAMESPEED_TAC_MARATHON
   Calendar=CALENDAR_DEFAULT
   Option=GAMEOPTION_LEAD_ANY_CIV
   Option=GAMEOPTION_PERMANENT_ALLIANCES
   Option=GAMEOPTION_NEW_RANDOM_SEED
   Option=GAMEOPTION_NO_MORE_VARIABLES_HIDDEN
   Victory=VICTORY_REVOLUTION
   Victory=VICTORY_DOMINATION
   GameTurn=0
   MaxTurns=0
   MaxCityElimination=0
   NumAdvancedStartPoints=720
   TargetScore=0
   StartYear=1492
   Description=TXT_KEY_WORLDBUILDER_RAR_AMERICAS_GIGANTIC
   ModPath=
   WBNorthAmericanNative=1
   WBSouthAmericanNative=1
   WBCentralAmericanNative=1
EndGame

Edit:

By the way, you can check your activated Game Options in the Victory Screen (F8).
There you will find a tab "Settings" which will display them all.

True, but only as to display, not to change the feature.

 

[raystuttgart]

but the fact that you can change products on the central tile of the city ... thanks for that

It is not described ingame (or in Pedia) anywhere.
(It is not the only small feature that is not described in Pedia. Most of the small ones are not.)

I am not even sure that small features like that really need a description other than Release Notes or forum posts.
Because it is not really a big "game concept / game mechanic".

 

[raystuttgart]

True, but only as to display, not to change the feature.

It is not possible to change any "Game Option" that you set at Game Start ingame again.
(One it is set, you can only change it by starting a new game or by complicated manipulation of a save game which can break it though.)

I also know that these Game Options are saved into maps. (Just like "Game Speed".)
(Basically it is the choice of the map / scenario maker what he configures when he starts creating it.)

But if you start a new "Custom Scenario", you can overwrite / change Game Options and Game Speed.
Otherwise, when you simply use "Scenario" it will simply use the settings saved into the map.

"Play Now" will simply use the default settings for the Game Options. (Configured in XML.)
In "Custom Game" you can set them manually again.

So it really matters how you start a game.

If you want to set and control all "Game Options" and "Game Speed" manually, simply always choose the "Custom" start variant. - I personally never do it differently.
(That is in fact the reason why it exists.)

Summary:

Instead of "Scenario" you could simply have used "Custom Scenario".
Then you could have chosen all the Game Options and Game Speed. (The rest will stay the same.)

Once you started the game it is too late to reconsider.
(It has never been different in Civ4 BTS or Civ4Col though.)

 

[Hibernian]

Did you know that you can change the Yield your "City Center Plot" produces by simply clicking on it?
(It was documented in the release Notes and in discussion threads of course, but which player really reads "Release Notes" or all of our discussion threads.)

That is really cool, I did not know that. Thanks a lot.

Thanks also for pointing out how I get the 5x5 cities again. I had searched the forum for "5x5" but could not find it, apologies for not reading the installation guide. I thought that would have been a setting in the options rather than a .dll file. But abyway, works great now

 

[Hibernian]

@ConjurerDragon
It was indeed a display bug (due to a wrong "else") considering "No Variables hidden".
It is internally fixed now though.

Was this text bug related to the same bug, i.e. also fixed internally already ?

 

[Hibernian]

Did you know that if you have "Citadels" or "Bastions" your cannons in Cities can bombard Ships or enemy Units in adjacent tiles?
(It is actually a really cool feature in WOI.)

Does that also work for the fort or large fort I can build outside the city ? It's a lot of work for the pioneers but if that work I might build a fort at my coast.

 

[raystuttgart]

Was this text bug related to the same bug, i.e. also fixed internally already ?

Yes, it was.
We thoroughly checked everything in the mod the last month and fixed everything we found / could fix.

 

[raystuttgart]

Does that also work for the fort or large fort I can build outside the city ?

Yes. But in Forts also your "Gun Powder Units" will attack enemies that want to walk by.
Forts also have other small features (like creating Culture around them) and events.

 

[Mr. ZorG]

By the way, does the fort prevent the founding of a colony nearby (across one field), just like a regular colony or not?

 

[raystuttgart]

By the way, does the fort prevent the founding of a colony nearby (across one field), just like a regular colony or not?

I do not think so, but the original code has changed a lot after I had retired a few years ago.
(It was merged with a Civ4 BTS Mod Component "Super Forts".)

So I am not 100% sure.
You could simply try though by using World Builder to place a Fort and a Settler (to found a City).

By the way:
Forts do need a "Gun Powder"-Unit (Infantery types with Muskets) or "Cannon"-Unit to become activated and use their features.
(It should be explained in Colopedia.)

 

[Mr. ZorG]

yes, and then, when passing by a fort of enemy units, a wonderful inscription appears: your troops opened fire on the natives and hit them or didn’t hit

 

[devolution]

I think we need to improve the gametext a bit. It's reasonable that the GUI should be able to provide a short description of "hidden features" like fort mechanics, bombardment\attack, monastery, choosing city plot yield etc.

A slight issue with the fort attack is that we don't have a tag for it so we'd have to special case the improvement, which is undesirable.

 

[Mr. ZorG]

So after all, when you hover over the button, for example, "build a fort," a small table appears with a description. why not add to it something like this: "when inside a military unit, it can fire at enemies passing by."