ant dev thread/beta release

[Harry Tuttle]

Ok cool, keep us posted.

[beingofone]

I played about 20 turns
I felt like I was in an antfarm, I had one of those when I was a kid.

[biru biru]

Alrighty, definitely some basic changes to make, but I've played a full game with each species and even finally won once! Lot of variety in this game, from huge, advanced civilations to a nearly empty, desolate map. Currently trying a single-nest, republic game (4 species already extinct!) with some success!

Couple of spoiler hints to help, since there was no describe.txt in this version:

First, you may need to adjust a couple of units;
make sure spiders are at move:2.
Poly-Workers and Large Queens should have Att 0; too difficult to maintain under Rep/Dem.
The invisible Ant-Lions should be made tougher. and I'll add more of them.

Other changes include tying some city improvements to particular species genomes as prereqs; setting a couple of wonders that are currently no-no (an accident) to carpenter genome, weaver genome, and leaf-cutter genome specifically; making 'darwins key' the prereq for building spiders (rather than no-no); and learning darwin's key made event-triggered. Total turns for game reduced by about 100 (300ish in all).

Now the hints:

-Quick exploration makes for a lightning early game, average units move 4 spuares per turn.

-Ant nests (cities) are named in whole or in part after the scientific names of various, random ant species. The capitals are named after the scientific name for the species you are playing. Ex: Army, Dolymorphous; Leaf-Cutters, Myrmicinae; Carpenters, Carpentiessi... etc. Take out the 1st queen of a species (Move 0, home in capital city), and the species is out of the game. This is the fastest way to take out an enemy, and a weakness even for ridiculoulsy powerful colonies.

-Rapid terraforming rate means that it makes sense to efficiently utilize and max production on each square b/ moving to the next.

-No negotiations. But non-aggressive species are unlikely to attack (aka. harvesters)

-Exotic ants produces really tough ants for army, bulldog, fire, and harvester ants.

-Grasshoppers have an attack of 1. Let 'em catch a nest, and the nest will produce grasshoppers (each good for gold when captured!). Note that ants do domesticate other insects (although, probably not grasshoppers, of course). Learned this one on accident last night.

--most units are 'treat as roads' and 'ign zone control'. Th go to function works almost perfectly!!!! and speeds up the game remarkably.


Anyway, turns out there is quit a bit of work, but since my computer is down, it's going to be a while. Pelase check it out, and any and all ideas for improvement are welcome here!

[biru biru]

Oh yeah, Happonashi is the king spider who lives in the middle of the map. Defeating him alows a shortcut to late-game advances, (specifically other species genome) and allows the building of spiders. Good luck!

and, last. I can't beat the game on Queen Level yet. I've been playing at easier levels. This is mostly due to how successful the expansionist AI civs are on the gigantic map, I think.

[biru biru]

This should have most of the small bugs cleaned up.

ant.zip

[biru biru]

scenario beta with small bugs cleaned up:

http://apolyton.net/upload/view.php?file=57835_ant.zip

[biru biru]

With the alpha version, how do I go about listing this scenario in the main dowloads area, for people that are just surfing for scenarios?

Also, thinking the alpha might be a ways off, and it might even be in TOT format based on what I've read by artists at this site (haven't played it though, so not sure). Anyway, plenty of room for ideas, new units, changes, etc. If you cna help, let me know!

[biru biru]

Been playing a little bit of multi-player. If anyone would like to go a few turns with this scenario, let me know!

[biru biru]

Hey all! This project has definitely been on the back-burner. After a couple of months of playing some classic scenarios (and learning about multi-player world a bit) I am about ready to make my alpha push. I may want to redo terrain and city graphics, especially if anyone is interested in helping. game mechanics and playability are working pretty well.

Also, here is a link to the old cached thread, pre big crash. It's full of interesting ideas and advice. Also it's neat to see so many 'maybe' ideas that actually made it...

http://apolyton.net/forums/cache.php...54&pagenumber=

[AGRICOLA]

Please check your PM for reply sent this afternoon.

[biru biru]

Looking for new terrain graphics, specifically a dark crack in the ground that was part of some tiles Krashanka put together in the old thread. The thread is retored from cache (see above link), but the file no longer connects. Krashank, if you're still out there, can you ressend them?

Anyone else that has ideas for terrain graphics, I'm going to redo the graphics.

[Varwnos]

Hi Biru
I like your ant scen idea a lot

but let me tell you that the units you have will take something out of it, because:

a) they arent easily identifiable (no one wants to identify a unit by its name, but wants to be familiar with it and just play along)

b) they are in all probability way too many!

I faced a similar problem with a scen i had made, a lot of units but mostly looked the same, so you couldnt say which one was what.

I suggest that you limit the number of units to the basic ones:

yellow/red/black worker ants, guardian ants
spider
grasshopper

etc

i tried to make something that could work, but i dont think it is great, however what is key here is to be able to tell what is what, in this case everyone can understand that the first unit is a yellow worker ant, and the second a black worker ant

[biru biru]

Varwnos,

Thanks for the feedback. I appreciate that it is difficult to tell many of the ants appart. For general reference, the bigger the ant, the tougher it is. If your ant is bigger than the one next to it, it will probably win a fight.

Of course, now that the beta is finished, and after the many hours of making units and integrating them with the tech tree has been vested, i would prefer not to scrap any of them.

Harry Tuttle noted a similar thing, and offered a great solution. Special unit shields, with rank indicators, could help to quickly/roughly evaluate relative unit strengths. A sample of these shields is on page one of this thread, midway down. please check it out as a reference.

Adding shields/rank indicators is going to be a bit time-consuming though, and take some units-design knowlege. Varwnos, if you are willing to work on this, let me know. i will help categorize which units should have which ranks.

[biru biru]

Agricola, Mercator;

Thanks for the help tracking down hex editing info. Mercator, I recieved your paper, and will put it to good use.

[biru biru]

ok, Civ-Tweak worked this time around. Tribes have been set to not restart. That's life in the jungle, baby!

Thanks guys!

[biru biru]

A screen shot

Leaf-cutters begin an assualt on the barbarian capital, arachnid

[biru biru]

Hey guys, I got an email from administration that someone has linked directly to the ant scenario dowload from another site. As cool as it is that someone likes the scenario enough to be distributing it, it would just be better for all, especially me probably, of course, to link to this page instead.

If it's someone here, which i seriously doubt, please don't. If someone here knows about a site at
[html/]http://apogee.gr:10000/apache/index.cgi[\html]
and how i can request they drop the link, let me know.

It may be some multi-player friend online that I passed the link to and who posted it well-meaningly, without knowing the rules. If so, I will ask around and get it fixed.

Thanks all,
br

[Cyrion]

Originally posted by biru biru
Hey guys, I got an email from administration that someone has linked directly to the ant scenario dowload from another site. As cool as it is that someone likes the scenario enough to be distributing it, it would just be better for all, especially me probably, of course, to link to this page instead.

If it's someone here, which i seriously doubt, please don't. If someone here knows about a site at
[html/]http://apogee.gr:10000/apache/index.cgi[\html]
and how i can request they drop the link, let me know.

It may be some multi-player friend online that I passed the link to and who posted it well-meaningly, without knowing the rules. If so, I will ask around and get it fixed.

Thanks all,
br

I had exactly the same thing (with exactly the same link) twice this week with my Discworld files! What does this mean??

[Varwnos]

that is weird. It appears to be some internet sitemaking company from Greece. The url you provided didnt allow me to access it (it asked for a pass), and i didnt find any link to civ2 stuff from the main page (???)

[biru biru]

Oh the deadly river!

Main water feature in the game is a river that isolates 1/3 of the map. It is only 2-3 squares wide most places, but since the only boat in the game sinks off shore and only moves 2 squares, crossing the river becomes very perilous. Though you can move 4 units per boat, you risk losing them all to sinking, wasps, and amphibious river ants. Attrition rate on the river is high.

Queens can paradrop over it and build a nest on the other side, but risky in hostile territory of course.

[biru biru]

slaver-ants (spies) seem to have lost their abilities (steal tech, bribe units).

unit is set to diplomacy, and is in the spy-slot for graphics/sounds.

does this sound familiar? maybe rules text could have an error?

[biru biru]

Guys, my buggy spy units are killing me. If you can see what is wrong, please help!

IN RULES TEXT

Slave-Makers, nil, 0, 2.,0, 0a,0d, 1h,1f, 5,0, 6, Esp, 000001000000011



IN GAME TEXT


@SPYMENU
@width=320
@title=%STRING0 %STRING1 arrives in %STRING2

@SPYOPTIONS
Make Contact
Investigate Nest
Gene Sampling
Industrial Sabotage
Invade Egg Chamber
Scent Mark for Mass-Attack
Subvert Nest

@SABOTAGEOPTIONS
@width=320
@title=Spy Options
@options
Bribe Unit.
Sabotage Unit.

@BLEWITUP
@width=320
%STRING0 %STRING1 sabotaged by %STRING2 %STRING3!

@BOND007
@width=320
@title=Intelligence Advisor
Our slaver-ant has escaped, and achieved veteran status!
She has been returned to %STRING1 to recuperate.

@BOND
@width=320
@title=Intelligence Advisor
Our slaver-ant has escaped unharmed!
She has been returned to %STRING1 to recuperate.

@BONDGLORY
@width=320
@title=Intelligence Advisor
Our slaver-ant was captured after completing her mission!

@NAILED
@width=320
@title=Intelligence Advisor
Our slaver-ant was captured before completing her mission!

@ENEMYEMBASSY
@width=320
@title=Foreign Minister
%STRING0 establish embassy.

@ENEMYINVESTIGATE
@width=320
@title=Foreign Minister
The %STRING0 have investigated %STRING1.

@STEALSPECIFIC
@width=320
@title=Spy Orders
Shall our spy attempt to steal a specific
gene?

No, any will do.
Yes.

@STEALHARD
@width=320
@title=Spy Orders
The %STRING0 of %STRING1 are vigilant and wary, Sire.
Shall our slaver-ant attempt to steal technology anyway (she
cannot attempt to steal a specific advance).

Never mind.
Yes, make the attempt.

@STEAL
@width=320
@title=Intelligence Advisor
%STRING0 steal %STRING1.

@NOSTEAL
@width=320
@title=Intelligence Advisor
No new advances found.

@SABOTAGESPECIFIC
@width=320
@title=Spy Orders
Shall we give our slaver a primary target,
or tell her to use her judgement.

Use her judgement.
Give primary target.

@SABOTAGEHARD
@width=320
@title=Intelligence Advisor
Attempting sabotage in an enemy capital, or against
nest fortifications is very risky!

Cancel action.
Proceed.

@SABOTAGENO
@width=320
@title=Intelligence Advisor
Our spy reports that the enemy catacomb complex
is surrounded by guards. No sabotage is possible.


@SABOTAGE
@width=320
@title=Select Primary Target
@listbox

@SABOTAGEONE
@width=320
@title=Intelligence Report
%STRING0 destroyed!

@SABOTAGETWO
@width=320
@title=Intelligence Report
%STRING0 production sabotaged!


@PRETEXTALLIED
@width=320
@title=International Incident!
This act of espionage by the %STRING0 gives
us a valid pretext to cancel our alliance with
them!

No thanks.
Cancel alliance.

@PRETEXT
@width=320
@title=International Incident
This act of espionage by the %STRING0 gives
us a valid pretext to declare war!

No thanks.
Declare war on %STRING0.


@INCIDENT
@width=320
@title=Intelligence Advisor
This could cause an international incident if
we are detected! Continue anyway?

Cancel action.
Continue.


@MAJORINCIDENT
@width=320
@title=Intelligence Advisor
This could cause a MAJOR international incident if
we are detected! Continue anyway?

Cancel action.
Continue.

[biru biru]

I've tried rebuilding the spy unit from scratch, and also built a diplomat unit. Neither had the diplomacy functions working. The slaver-ant (spy) used to work perfectly...