"I have been thinking about the new happiness system myself. Remember that happiness is directly related to crime, and that a few percentage points really add up over time. Not as much as the benefits of the lowered sliders though, I assume.
Gedrin sent me a copy of the his mod today (who knew he had his own mod?). Anyway, in looking through his govt stats, I noticed the flags for positive and negative coefs in the three slider areas (food, prod, and wages). They are all set to 1 right now. I am going to set them to 4 for positive and 6 for negative, and see how that works. This should mean that moving the slider one notch causes these changes to happiness, and that the resulting changes to crime should about equal the benefits or penalties incurred from the slider areas."

Martock, your Barbarian ideas seem good, and very funny as well. Look in risks.txt and strategies.txt and see what you can piece together. I think everything you mentioned can be done, if you want to take the time to learn how strategies.txt works.

On other topics, I have been working on the text files, and have learned a lot about how the various costs and benefits work together when figuring out gold and science.
I think that the new improvement cost system is going to work out very well, perhaps even better than I expected. As you know, cities get their wealth in the real world either from having a valuable commodity they can trade, or from being on a trade route, like an ocean port.
With the previous cost system, this wasn't shown as dramatically in the game as in the real world. If you had a large pop, you were going to have a pretty good income regardless, and at least decent gold and science production, since many improvements' benefits increased directly with size, but costs did not.
With the new system, you really have to think about where your city's strengths lie before deciding to build something. I think it will be possible to see large but poorly producing cities, ala the third world, with the new system.
Unlike wages and upkeep, which are taken out of commerce, the pop-based costs come out of gold only. I don't know if this is better or worse, but it does make things simpler, since you don't have to worry about balancing science improvements as well.

I have doubled the effect of gold improvements, to 40%, for the initial trials. This seemed to give a pretty good balance in my very limited testing so far.

Right now, I have the food/prod/wage sliders set to 12kg/8hr/5commerce at the neutral position. Each notch represents 3kg/2hr/2comm right now.

Good to have you back. Just thought I would alert you to another tread that is going on in the General Forum. It is titled "My AI Analysis." I don't remember who started it, but is has some good ideas about improving the AI's attack ability. I thought you might want to look at it to see if there is anything there you haven't thought of or could use.

Regards,

I went to take a look at your site...and all it did was force me to www.zip2.com

How do I get to your page??

Taliseian

1) i always loved the 'love bug' of doom from CTP1 but was flabbergasted at the sight of the guy on the blue bird of happiness that replaced my doom bug. so i've decided to switch the sprites around and use the love bug as it was and use the new bugette as a barbarian stealth unit. unlike it's bigger and badder brother, the barbarian unit will explode as a NUKE. i will have to see about the nanite defuser though and see if that screws it up. i don't want ABS to shot my little fella down so if i have to make the nuke attack like a plant nuke attack, i'll have to give it an 150% success rate.

2) i don't know if there were plans to revive the old spy sprite but if not, i'm thinking of using that as the middle age bad ass for the barbarians. only problem, what does it do?!! can't give it nukes or parks...hmmm...i wonder if it can be set up so that the anarchist can be used to target specific buildings or at least random ones. i'd definitely give him the ability to use a form of the plague though if we could tone it down a bit that might be more useful.

3) as for the barbarians using forces of the appropiate ages, i've decided that it would be best to limit it to just infantry and stealth units. i think it'd be odd to see a barbarian stealth bomber flying about. i'm gonna use some of the naval units however. i know that the barbarians tend to use them like pirates as i've tested that. i basically gave the barbarians 2 of each kind of ship upto battleships and it used them to pillage, plunder, and attack everything in site.

i've not done any sort of SLIC modding before save for changing some of the sounds in my game so this will be quite a learning experience for me. i do wish someone would put together a more realistic nuke explosion though...seems so puny and crappy the way it is now... if i had any talent for that sort of thing i'd have done that as well.

Thanks for the heads-up, Tim. I have made some changes like the ones Matte mentioned there. Some of the other things I have different ideas about.

Is the Spy sprite different from Ctp1? I thought it was the same. I will try and remember to insert the old sound files for it, if people like them better. I usually play with the sound off, so I can listen to the TV when I play, so the sounds are not a priority for me. Lev sent me the Ctp1 sound files and a modified text a while back. I will get to those once I have the alpha ready.

Mark, you need to give Martock the special designation "Klingon Barbarian from Hell". (Kind of like Caveman Lawyer.)
If you get the Barbarians to doing the things you talked about, send me the files, and I will try and work them into the mod. I have already changed some of their force-matching settings, and have them building garrison troops and naval units.

Also, before I forget, I need someone to take a look at the diplomacy files and see what they can do with them. This will be a big and complicated job, so be forewarned. From all the griping I am reading, this is an area that is full of promise, but sadly underdeveloped. This theme of unfulfilled promise is something that I keep finding as I go through the texts and read the forums.
The more I explore the files, the more I believe that the tools are there to make a game that will totally rock. The trouble with the original settings is that the play-testers simply didn't have enough time to play with all of them, or even half of them in certain sections. I wonder also who the play-testers were at Activision. From what the Activsioners told those of us on the A-team during beta-testing, I think that most of them were regular employees who do this for all their games, mostly for de-bugging purposes. If that is the case, then they probably had little experience with civ-games, since Activision doesn't make any other civ-type games.
Oh well, WE have the game now, and we know what to do with it.

I have spent today on the strategies.txt and the files which relate with it.
I have made many changes to the various force-matching lists, raising them so that the AI will not attack unless it is strong enough to win. This goes for field battles as well as cities. Basically, the AI's offensive strength needs to be 1.2 times as much as the defender's defense strength when attacking in the field, and needs to be 1.6 times as much when attacking cities. These settings may need to be raised.
I changed the Harass force-matching files to be those used in taking cities. The Offense settings deal with field battles.

The most important thing I did today dealt with the way the AI chooses which city improvements to build. I had asked in months past for the ability to have the AI pick improvements to either play to the city's strength, or shore up a weakness, depending on the type of improvement. This was something we were unable to do in Ctp1, and something which is sorely lacking in all civ-type games. Well, I don't know if the programmers were listening to me or not, but this ability is present in Ctp2, and I think it is going to result in dramatic improvements to AI performance once the settings are set properly.
This is one of the instances I alluded to earlier, where you have all this potential that isn't being used properly. I say that because the settings initially present had the AIs doing the same things that they were in Ctp1. Specifically, it had them building science and gold improvements based upon factors other than the city's commerce income, building production improvements in its worst-producing cities, which doesn't make sense when you think about it, and a few other things that didn't make sense as well. I think that people are going to see major improvements from simply having these flags used properly. I also went through the building element lists to make sure they were appropriate.

All in all, it's been a good day. This game has so much promise, it just makes me drool as I continue to explore it. It is just too bad the programmers didn't have more time to develop all the game's tools.

Btw, Gedrin has created a monster Excel spreadsheet for his mod in which he has set up most of the major default/gamedata files so that you can make changes to the sreadsheet DB, and it automatically changes the text files sheet accordingly. Then you can save the text sheet as the game's text file. This is going to have huge improvements to altering such things as units, advances, terrains, governements, etc.
As some of you may know, advances are the foundation upon which everything else is built upon in game. Well I *think* that Gedrin's spreadsheet will allow you to decide when you want a new advance to be discovered, and what things are linked to it and enabled by it, and the spreadsheet will calculate how much the advance should cost and make the appropriate changes to all the things that are linked to it. Amazing.
Gedrin is still working on the spreadsheet, and it is about 1meg zipped, so please wait until I post it on my website before asking for a copy from me. I only have a 26k connection for the next couple of weeks.

Diodorus, let me know sometime how your advances work is coming, either in this thread or in one of your own if you think that is better. Since the new improvement cost system comes out of gold rather than commerce, you can use the standard cost system as a basis for your new advances.

Wouter (Locutus) emailed me today, and said that he would have a militia trigger sent to me by tomorrow, when he goes on vacation. It may not work perfectly, but should be good enough for the alpha version. I just need to get an idea of how it affects general game flow. For those of you who didn't use the Ctp1 Med mod, I think you are really going to like this feature.

Klingon barbarian from hell...hmmm...i like that!
now if i can just get mark to give me that title...

anyway, i'll definitely tear about the files on my puter when i get back. the barbarian problem is getting it's warriors from somewhere so it's just a matter of tying in the rest of these guys. now the one question remains...if an attack costs money, can the barbarian ignore that or does it go into the negatives?? i didn't remember to look at that when i was having fun with the infector, but i'll do it in my current game and pop back and forth to see about it.

From default/aidata/interactions.txt

Threat Actions that need to be implemented:

1. THREAT_MASS_TROOPS - TBD (cut? same as declare war.)

2. THREAT_INVADE - TBD (cut? same as declare war.)

3. THREAT_ATTACK_CITY - TBD, raise priority of seige goals for city

4. THREAT_ATTACK_ARMY - TBD, raise priority of attack goal for army

5. THREAT_PIRATE - TBD, raise priority of pirate goals

6. THREAT_SPECIAL_ATTACK_CITY - TBD, raise priority of special attacks for city

7. THREAT_DESTROY_CITY - TBD, might launch weapon of mass destruction on city

8. THREAT_PILLAGE - TBD, raise priority of pillage goals

9. THREAT_JOIN_MILITARY_ALLY - TBD, request military pact with foreigner

10. THREAT_SELL_TECHNOLOGY - TBD, (cut)

11. THREAT_GIVE_AID - TBD, give gold and advances to foreigner

12. THREAT_END_AGREEMENT - TBD, immediately end agreement

13. THREAT_TRADE_EMBARGO - complete, immediately establish a trade embargo

14. THREAT_DECLARE_WAR - complete, immediately declare war

//

City State could be the early government for the player who concentrates on peace and perfectionist development instead of war and exploration. Since City States are really a collection of small independent countries that don't work well with each other, a sustained military campaign should be nearly impossible- units wandering around create lots of unhappiness. The total city number would be very limited, maybe the most limited in the game. But on the other hand, it would have the best science and economic aspects of the early types.

The peaceful player would naturally rush to this, then to Republic, then Democracy, etc...

Other ideas: Imperialism, allowing far flung colonies and exploitation of distant resources. Some kind of Khanate or Despotism, for players wanting to act like a barbarian. Horrible in most respects, but major military bonuses and exclusive units like the Horse Archer and Longship. What would be neat would be if you're losing pretty badly, switch to this gvmt and try to conquer the world like the Mongols did, leaving a swath of death and destruction everywhere.

Your mod is looking really good. I can't wait to get my hands on it.

Martock, or should that be Klingon Barbarian From Hell, you did indeed see a spy guy on a cane. You can thank Wes and Tom Davies for that one. It was an early spy form that Wes added in one of his Med Mods. Tom Davies, like many of the other well done player created sprites, was the one who created the sprite for Wes.

Speaking of Tom Davies, what ever happened to him and Katy and are they working on any other sprites?

Regards,

ADVANCE_CITY_STATE {

Prerequisites ADVANCE_AGRICULTURE

Cost 640
Icon ICON_ADVANCE_DRAMA
Branch 0
Age AGE_ONE
{

That cost assumes that all costs for all the current advances are Doubled. Using that change has reduced the headlong lunge to gunpowder considerably, and makes (in my view) for a much improved early game.

The characteristics for City State in the govern.txt file:

I have been meaning to write Tom Davies and see what he is up to. He may be on vacation, or playing something else right now.

Kevin, keep looking into the diplomacy files. I would love it if some others started as well. They are big and complicated and really in need of major work, from what I can tell on the forums here.
Btw, Kevin, you appear to be a student in engineering at UAH like myself. We need to get together some time when school starts back. It would be nice to meet someone from the boards here in person.

Don, "someone" is supposed to be setting up my site. Of course, he has many other things to do as well. You will hear about it as soon as it's up.
It is just as well that it hasn't gone up yet. I am still finding things to do with getting the Alpha ready to post.

Today I implemented the militia triggers, which are better than the Ctp1 version. With the new trigger, units are updated when appropriate tech is discovered to allow a new defensive unit, as they were in the Med mod I. Additional militia units are added to a city when a size is reached that expands the city's radius, except for the third stage. Units are added at size 9, 21, 33 and 45. Militias are kept from moving and sleeping, and are automatically fortified by slic commands, without the need to kill existing units. Those of you familiar with the Med mod I trigger will note that this method is much more refined than the old way.

I modified the strategies.txt to reflect the AI's need to build fewer defensive units, allowing more to be spent on other types, which I think most everyone will agree is a good thing.
I realized that the Ctp1 small icon tgas didn't fit into the Ctp2 units tab properly, so I had to resize the large pics for the "b" tgas. Not a big deal, just tedius, like so much of mod-making.
Last night I changed the settings for the city sprites so that they change when cities grow in radius.
I changed a couple of the personalities to have them explore at least medium.
I changed many of the civ personalities, making the ratios of the different types more even, and more appropriate to the civ in certain cases.

As to governments, I like the ideas you guys have proposed. Gedrin has Imperialism in his mod. From his settings and Harlan's comments it appears that this form is very similar to my Con. Monarchy. No big deal. I can put it in as Imperialism and work out the details when I get to the govt's.
In the Ctp1 texts, Republic is always called City State, and only shown as Republic to the player. I figured it was only a name change, like Phalanx, Marketplace, Silo and so many other things in the game which were called one thing in the files and shown as another during the game.
Anyway, your version sounds good. It can be a needed early Peaceful gov like Fund. was a needed middle-game Religious gov.
Imperialism will pretty much take Fascism's current place in the game for expansionistic or militaristic players.

Btw, does anyone know what the DefenseCoef flag does?

Since Wes has/had 14 months (very rough guess) on the Med Mod for CtP1, it isn't too likely he can learn the ins and outs of CtP2 and throw together a perfectly finished product in just 1 month.

Correct me Wes if I am wrong.

Also, Wes, I hope you replace the regular Fighter and Tank graphics with the superior WW2 ones now available, and now you're got something for Dive Bomber and AA Gun as well, not to mention Pillboxes and maybe Barbed Wire tile improvements. I was right it was about the invasion of France, but I'm glad to see I was wrong that there was no new graphics. Obviously the maker of this one was able to talk Activision into bending that rule heavily.

Falves, you would have to make your own sound file, I assume.

I had thought in the past about keeping this thread going until it rivaled some of those you see in OT. All the "people" who thumb their noses at Ctp might be a little shocked at that.
I won't do it, though. When I get the Alpha posted, I will start another thread for it.

Well, I spent this evening playing the WWII scenario, and tonight gathering the units I want from it and integrating them into the Med mod. I have not tried to load it yet, choosing to make this post before retiring for the night. I "hope" you don't have to includ the entire tile sets just to get the Pillbox and Barbed Wire.

I put the Stuka and Fairey graphics into the mod, replacing the Stuka and B-17 units from Harlan's WWII pack. I added the Spitfire, and set it to replace the P-38.
I added the two German tanks and the WWII-scenario's Artillery unit, calling the Panzer II "Mech. Infantry", the Panzer III "Armor", and the Artillery "Anti-Aircraft Gun". I have not decided if I will use them in the mod yet. If I do use the Anti-Aircraft Gun, it will have the same properties described for the Antiair unit in the scenario: active air-defense, bombard air, water and land, and a bonus against mounted units. (The WWII-scenario's Artillery graphics were already in the game, btw. This was the standard artillery unit up through the beta-testing, when they decided to put in the current, mounted artillery version for some reason.)
As mentioned above, I added the files for the Pillbox and Barbed Wire. The Pillbox seems to work fine, but the Wire doesn't show up on the map. The text at the bottom of the screen says that the wire is there, but whatever is supposed to show up on the terrain is missing or something. If someone with more experience adding stuff like TIs can tell me what I need to add, I would be grateful.
Btw, does anyone know if Pillboxes attack every unit that comes next to them? This might be a bad feature in a regular game.

When playing the scenario, I noticed that fighter-type aircraft should be flanking units, and made that change to the mod.
I have also thought for a while now that City Walls should give an added bonus versus mounted units. I don't think that feature is possible without slic, but I came up with a pretty good alternative: give that bonus to militia units, since Militias will always be defending cities.

One note of interest: The setting which appears to allow Pillboxes to bombard things from 2 tiles away is the "BombardRange" flag. Some of you were talking at one time about making units capable of doing that. This appears to be another example of something already in the game that we didn't know the use of.

I have been thinking about it, and I have enough units available to make a solid WWII-era unit progression. Thinking about it somemore, I could merge the current Renaissance and Industrial age units together to form one really good age, rather than the two thread-bare ages that we have under the current layout. I will put this together tomorrow, and post everything.