Why I was thinking of splitting the tank in two, is because of the real old thanks (like the Mark V) would look really cool with their tracks on the outside running around the whole tankOriginally Posted by Solarius Scorch
This issue is completely unrelated to the goods, it's a general stability problem with the Windows 7.
As for splitting the tank into two parts, I see where you're coming from (T-34 vs. Abrams), but if we go that way, all units would have to be split into at least two variants.While indeed there are tanks which are better than others, they are all in the same general category. The same applies to Interceptors, Cavalry, Plasmatica etc. They are inclusive categories rather than exclusive and this won't change, for both technical and conceptual reasons.
Fra-MarkVStar-2.jpg
and would give the game an early tank, since something is needed between the cavalry and modern tanks. Just a suggestion.
Does the problem occur even with the current mod on you comps? As I said, I run the game from USB on several types of different comps (everything from XP to 7) and it has never happened to me.
I agree it looks cool. Maybe we could add it as a Crazy Awesome Unit if his project ever takes off.
As for the bug, it seems to be affecting the mod primarily, but it also happened before sometimes. CtP engine seems to be quite primitive and it doesn't handle large amounts of data well, and our mod adds a lot of data. That's probably it. But it works fine in compatibility mod, as long as you play normally without switching windows.
Anither thing that I think should be taken care of is the difference between Plains and Grassland. They produce exactly the same (5, 5, 0 and move 1) but grasslands costs a lot more PW to create. The only reason for creating Grasslands is aesthetic and in a strategy game aesthetics isnt a high priority. Why not let grasslands produce a wee bit more food, so that you at least gets something for your hard earned PW points?
Thanks for the input, but we've already taken care of it some tame ago. Now Grasslands give 10 Food.
Cheers!
Great!
Now to the final question. Since my X-mas holiday starts to today the question is of a really pressing matter. Is there a release planned in the near future? Im planning of running through the new and improved mod instead of spending the holiday with nasty relatives
We'll try to release it today. I'm running through historical library files now, everything else is ready.
NEW RELEASE
Hey, everybody... guess what? It's here~!
http://hotfile.com/dl/138224200/536f...1.6.0.zip.html
This is version 1.6 of our mod, although it could have been named 2.0. It has TONS of new stuff! Details inside.
Hopefully Martin puts the newest version on Apolyton and a probably new thread is created. Until then, consider it a semi-official release, but it has everything you need.
Have fun and please comment!
Well, as soon as X-mas is over, I will give it a go and come back with comments!
So, ive started abit of experimenting with it. First and foremost, great work on the new resources. The only one I dont like (and that is only the graphics) is the fish. The could be a bit better with just some sort of wave moving or something. The big red fish doesnt look nice. How about making it a coral reef?
Secondly, I can only get 1 resource on the underwater volcano. Maybe make it 2?
I will give more feedback when Ive tried it out more. Still, great work!
Sorry for not responding earlier, but I was kinda busy with the travelling, Christmas preparations and such. And Max can't use Apolyton at all in the place where he spends Christmas, he gets the 404 error - even though other websites work just fine. Weird.
Anyway, thanks for the first short review, Fonzo! I knew it would be you.
The art for the new goods is a matter of taste I think, especially that the fish is one of me personal favourites - my least would probably by honey, if I were to choose. I understand you don't like it though. So what do you think would be better? It's a serious question. You mentioned a coral reef, but I don't think it would work - reefs grow near the shores, so it would be a Beach type of goods. Before you say anything, animating a fish is beyond our current capabilities, it has to be a still image (unless there is someone else who could do it).
Secondly, there were issues with volcano goods. To be honest I'm not sure what kind of issues, since it was Max who played around with them, but it was about goods not being generated properly or something. I hope Max responds soon with more details.
So I guess that's it for now. So have a great Christmas, a good rest and lots of fun - not necessarily with Forever future, but we surely wouldn't mind.
Of course it would be me
Anyway, thanks for the first short review, Fonzo! I knew it would be you.
Before you say anything, animating a fish is beyond our current capabilities, it has to be a still image (unless there is someone else who could do it).
No animated goods. Well, then the fish suits just fine. Another thing Ive encountered (there will probably be more posters like this, the further i get into the future) is that when I started a game, sometimes the editor goes berserk (has never happened before) and creates 2 or 3 big continents and thousands of smal 1-2 tile islands. Looks totally weird. Have you played around with the editor somehow?
And, Im sorry to say, this version is really unstable. Last one I could play without even having autosave running, now I cant get through two or three turns without the game shutting down on me (gigantic map with 8 players, 7 comps). Is this because of the new resources? If so, I must say, stability before resources
Last edited by Fonzo; December 27, 2011 at 18:25.
Hello,
As for the game crashing down: do you run the game in W98 compatibility, as we've advised you to do a thousand times? If yes, then it's something we don't encounter. If no, I suggest you sober up and reread this page. :P Anyway, we don't know what the cause for crashing is, but it's certainly not the goods; we're trying to find the cause.
Secondly, yes indeed we've played around with the editor. It works the same as before, but maps are much bigger now - a Medium map is almost as large as a Gigantic one in the original version (so Medium is a default size now, as it should be; Gigantic is generally not recommended, unless you want specifically that kind of game). You should play around with the editor to grasp how to make good maps now, or just use smaller map sizes. Maybe we'll try to write a short guide or something.
Sorry to say but.....Yep, I am. Ive at least noted some consistency. It crashes specifically when you reload a saved game and then try to end the turn. So, as long as I dont reload, it is playable.
Ahh, thats why my ships take a loooooong time to get somewhere on the world map.
Another suggestion is to (well, here we come again with the Cichzen Itza) to let the Chichzen Itza wonder stay in play a little bit longer. Since you shortened it in this patch, its hardly worth building since the 12-20 turns it takes to build, you are almost up to the science that makes it obsolete.
Oh yes, I noticed the same thing recently (I normally don't load previous saves while playing, so I couldn't see it before). Well, I'm really sorry, but all I can promise is that we'll be investigating this problem. It may be that the game is simply incompatible with modern systems and we couldn't really do anything about that. Let's be happy it works in the first place.
XD Yep!
We're still making some adjustments, so thanks for the tip. We'll discuss it.
The same is valid for the Meroes Court. I built it and 2 rounds after it got obsolete (by a blooody comp, playing at deity lvl). I also believe you have done something with the comps. Normally I have no problem at Deity lvl, now they are running ahead of me big time.We're still making some adjustments, so thanks for the tip. We'll discuss it.
Another thing I also would like to see. Now, for the first time, playing with a massive ammount of comps and two friends, the area to settle is a bit crowded. This resulted in an overproduction of settlers (and since I didnt like the position of some of the conquered cities, I got even more settlers). Why not allow even settlers to merge with other towns? This way, you can actually start to move people around, where they are best needed.
Last edited by Fonzo; January 3, 2012 at 17:38.
Hey guys!
I would have loved to comment earlier (since I downloaded your last version the day it came out), but I couldn't remember my password.
So, here it is, my third comment on apolyton, and it's again just for your awesome modification.
First, thank you, because it came out during the holydays and I spent a lot of nice time with your game. Overall, I would say I still love it like your first release + the new changement/additions that, from what I saw I like them too.
Here are random thought I remember :
The Horsemen, it's nice, but with only 2-1 I never used it to attack.
Samurai, I like that you added it for monarchy. He is pretty strong for his time, but like you aimed, it makes changing/choosing the government a harder choice.
Cultism, finally I don't change it everytime I have the possibility.
Skiff, very usefull, I love this little unit.
Factory/Town hall, I'm not sure but... the +1 for certains government wasn't in the last release? Whatever, I like the idea.
Meries Court, I agree, it's obsolete too fast.
The new goods, I like them all (I like the red fish!!)
As I'm playing with hotseat and it's longer, I didn't get further in the science tech, so I can't comment for latter things.
Glitch / Problems :
I had a problem with a folder (dll?) during the installation..., I don't remember what it was, but I wasted 3hours before finding that it works if I didn't copy the new version and kept the ones from your first release. I know it vague, but I really don't remember since I installed the day it came out.
When I started a new game, every 3 or 4 attempts at creating a game with the editor , my game crashed. After restarting the game, it works fine and crashed about 3 or 4 attempts again.
Oh yay, I noticed a very boring glitch. This happened in your first realease too. Sometimes, when a player changed governement, ALL his unites became invicible for 1 or 2 turns (I can't even see their health). Also, with a national militia, it even happened that she stays ALWAYS invicible. It was okay, as I'm playing in hotseat with friend, we just disband this unit... but imagine if it happens to a computer...?
Last one is with the cleric, his unhappyness attack stays for 10 turns... is it voluntary? I doubt it, so I changed it back myself to 1 turn in the "Units.txt" folder ;p
- My game never ever crashed when I was playing, expect with the editor like I said.
Pfff, that was long to write. Overall I'm very happy with your release, and I hope to entertain myself even more when I will have more time to play. You guys are really credit to team.
Last edited by PePeTTe; January 7, 2012 at 11:54.
Thank you sir, this had been very helpful.
A few tidbits:
- Horsemen - they weren't really meant as a city assault unit; more like powerful scouts/harassers.
- Meroe court - it gets obsoleted just as fast as any other wonder of its age. It's not our fault if some people postpone researching iron working indefinitely
- dll problem - noted. I'm gonna remove them from the updated release.
- editor crashes - no idea, never crashed on me. The sizes of maps have been increased, though (so now Medium is really the default one).
- immortal units - I don't know what's causing this, but it DOES (very occassionally) happen to the computer. Some of its units become very hard to kill, while some - very rarely - become invincible. OR rather, borderline invincible. I had to sink computer's battleship with a nuke, but then I reloaded, entered cheat mode and attacked it with two Battleoids. It yielded, although one battleoid died, and the other was heavily damaged.
Hi Max,
Do you think we're ready for another trial multiplayer game? Thanks for all your effort on this.
Quinns
So, now Ive almost played through the game in single play mode and I now have a more extensive report of the mod.
Comments
First, the new units that I like. Love the skiff, Orbital cannon, Oblitterator (although I cant use it, see below), Chausser (although, with the high cost of the unit, it should have some more power), AA-gun (although I really cant see any use for it, since I prefer SAMs) and Ion frigate (great space opera ship).
Also love the new graphics for the spy-sat. And the Helix Knight and Armoured Transport!!! Just perfection!
I dont like the new graphic for the Mobile gun and the Armoured recon. The new ones doesnt fit in the appropriate "square" and the graphic doesnt fit with the rest of the units. Must say I preferred the style of the old ones.
The new active defence range on some units are great, although I personally think its a bit to long on some unit. With the new active defence range on the war walker (in the mod 3) the use of any airborne units is effectively killed. Im now playing against the AI on deity lvl and he has war walkers all over the place. I cant even get an Obliterator to fly more than a couple of meters before being blown out of the sky by multiple shots from the comps war walkers (and the comp love his war walkers and mass produce it). I would reduce the active defence on this unit to one and the webber to 3. As it is now, the active defence actively kills any air units after the invention of war walkers.
I still would like to see some change done to the useless AI wonder.
Major problems
Well, we have already adressed the problems with invisible (old triremes that suddenly appear in front of you) and invincible (old triremes that you need to bombard with a couple of battleships to sink) units, but Ive noticed that the bug often comes together.
So, Changing to a modern government?. Here there is a big issue. My Civ had Democracy and I wanted to change into Technocracy. This really didnt work well. At the end of the anarchy, suddenly almost all my cities revolted and changed into another civ (and yes, since I had several wonders, they where happy enough). I shut the game down, reloaded and tried another time and this time the game crashed. After shutting the comp down, letting it rest for a while (to empty all residual memory) I finally managed to change, but only if I played until just before the actual Anarchy/Technocracy switch, saved the game, shut the comp down and reloaded.
Minor problems
This leads me to autosave. If it is possible, I would reomend it to be at end of turn instead of at the start, since crashes are more frequent during the switch of turns.
Devastator unit. I loved the old one that could travel freely from space into the atmosphere. Now, it only has move space so its really useless. The strange thing is that it has active air and spot air, but cant move in air. Something wrong?
The Phantom, is it just for air combat nowadays?
Final comment
For me, the most important thing is stability. I play this game by using a USB memory and let it travel between different comps (without actually installing the game), this allowing me to respond to a PBEM whenever I feel like it. The old mod allowed that, but the new doesnt (without problems). I love the work and the changes you put into this old game, but as long as the stability issue isnt cleared up, I will keep my old game mod on the USB.Still, great work!!!
Last edited by Fonzo; January 19, 2012 at 06:31.
Okay so I looked at the older post's about installing the mod and had to reinstall my game when i found that it won't work with 1.21 hack. Anyway I can't figure out how to properly install this mod. I have tried copying files to the call to-power folder but it doesn't override anything and just makes a copy of the file into the folder. How do I over wright files? If so where do I overwright them to? please be specific. I would appreciate step by step instructions please. Your mod sounds excellent, can't wait to play it.
Last edited by ctp1addict; January 21, 2012 at 17:21.
I just use drag and drop. When the comp asks me "There are files named the sam, do you wish to overwright them", I just press yes.
Yeah, just overwrite the folder "ctp_data" in your game with the "ctp_data" folder found in the archive. Sorry that it doesn't work with 1.21, maybe in the future. You need 1.2. If you're getting any garbled messages in-game, overwrite the "ctp_program" folder as well, but this is not required for the mod to work. Just ctp_data.
@Quinns
I'm planning to start a new game in a couple of weeks; for now, my life is in too much turmoil.
@Fonzo: thanks for the detailed critique, and many kind words. I am overjoyed that at least some of my sprites are any good. First and foremost, sorry about the bugs. Something went wrong, somewhere along the way, we don't know where, and the process of bugfixing is going to be a quite adornous one. I'll get to it as soon as I have a luxury of a free couple of weeks.
- govt change problem. This had never happened before. Frankly, I have no idea, what could have caused this. Hopefully it's just another facet of the same bug that crashes the game in general. Changes to govts were kept to minimum.
- autosave I can't fix. Sorry. Not my league. Again, if we manage to stop the game from crashing, it won't be such an issue.
- Devastator is well, experimental. We're trying to balance the game in a way that makes the colonisation of space more worthwhile. Maybe we should return to the good old Devastator, albeit with reduced stats. That would obsolete the Obliterator, which was meant to patch the gap.
- active AA defense. In general, I feel like the mission was accomplished - with the new interlocking fields of fire, nuking your neighbour became increasingly difficult. Air units do suffer horribly in the Genetic Age, but: they have their moment of glory in the Modern (Nuclear) Age, plus they are absolutely devastating if left unchecked. Veteran CtP players loved to spam Fighters (and SOL's), and rightly so. If this swings balance the other way too much... we'll see after more MP playthroughs.
- AA gun. Remember that SAM's can no longer target land units with their ranged fire. AA guns can, which makes them decent assault units in their own right. Also, the tests have shown, that 4 Fighters attacking 6 Mechanized Infantries usually come out victorious with no losses; while 4 Fighters attacking 4 MI's + 2 AAG's are usually destroyed with all land units surviving the fight.
I totally agree with you that the game needs to force the player to actually use space and sea cities (as it was in the original game, you never had the use for them). I think you are on a good way to actually give more active air and to boost the production of both sea and space.
To get some more out of the space stations they really need to be compared with the sea stations. These are right now masters of production and I get more prod points out of them even compared to a land city almost twice their size. Personally I think the the space cities (even though they have the nanite factory that gives a huge boost) should be as production dense as the sea cities (you dont allways have the gold to pump into the nanite factory, especially for a cruiser) or maybe lower the production capability of the sea cities a bit.
As Im playing right now, you really need some support for the armoured transport and there is none. Ive tried with the Hannabu but it cant go up into space with the transport and the phantom is way to slow in atmosphere (can only move 4) and cant shift between space and atmosphere anymore. The aero space fighter is the only one that can follow the armoured transport around, but it gets low on gas (maybe put a E-Cat/LENR reactor inside that bad boy) and it gets shot down really quick by war walkers (it is still my favorite unit in the game and I love the graphic upgrade).
Another thing. The defcon sat has an active space:2 and the comp uses it inside his cities. As such, it actually attacks my ion frigates from inside the city and actually does quite a bit of harm on them. Is this meant to be (it feels a bit strange that a satellite ambushes you from inside a city, suddenly blasting into space and down again)? Another thing, when they use active def, they sound like propeller planes
Well, my two cents. I hope to see more upgrades like this one. Keep up the great work!
I noticed there is no dark age or middle age in the game, looked in the library and also couldn't find a middle age. I request that you make a middle age or dark age for the game with a change in city graphics to suit the dark or middle age, perhaps a castle with town for the city graphics. Also is it possible to make the game continue into a space age where you can continue playing the game in space and solar systems to spread threw the galaxy, playing against aliens? perhaps after you beat the game or if that isn't possible make a space scenario that comes with your mod. There is a space scenario that was being made for ctp 2 but it never was completed, maybe you can take a look at it to see what I am talking about, I know the whole tile set for the scenario was changed into space, stars, planet's ect... I had an Idea that the storyline for call to power about the space alien project/victory in the library could be used for the beginning of continuing the game in space after the alien comes to life. what do you think of that?
Now Ive almost finished the game and Ive seen some more strange bugs.*Strange non-visible bombardments on space units. No active bombardment unit in sight (and no city) but still some of my space units suddenly get a kick from "something".*When I cahnged into Virtual democracy, my units lost hit points (as should be) but couldnt regain those hit points. Everything, even newly produced, flew around damaged.* Crawler is possible to build in land cities (but not move out of them) which makes it the perfect defence against space.In total, the stability and balance of the game was better in the previous release. As is now there are several issues that needs to be looked at.
*Stability, stability, stability. This version isnt possible to carry around on a USB stick and play on every comp you find. More often than not, it breaks down, even though you run it in old win mode.
* The active defence on some of the units is way to high (and some outright strange, like the crawler have active space/air but no active sea????) which means that flying units are totally killed.
*Some units (like the THARXIS and the phantom which can fly in air (with move 4?) and space but cant shift between these two) needs an overhaul since they are now virtually useless.
All in all, a good update, but Im sorry to say its far from done. I still would recommend (and still do, especially in PBEM) the earlier version. Hopefully with some tweaking here and there, this will be worth playing. Sorry about the harsh critique since I think you guys do a splendid and much needed overhaul to one of my favorite turn based games.
Thanks for the input, guys. We may not seem like it, but we carefully read every single post and taking in into consideration.
I am not going to deny that the current version is buggy as hell - that's why it hasn't been uploaded to the Apolyton. Consider it beta if you want. I think it's still more fun than the last official release, despite the various technical problems, but it's up to you what you want to play.
What counts in the end of the day is that we are aware that it needs to be fixed. This is going to be an extremely arduous work, because we need to start from the previous release and gradually add all the changes again. We need to find the time to do so; and we will do it ASAP. Hopefully it works out, but there is a possibility that the CtP engine simply can't handle this many items, but we don't want to consider this yet.
And no, we're not going to make a space game from scratch.
Yep and doing one hell of a work. Will be fun to see the Alpha version of this patch, Im really looking forward to it. One suggestion is actually skipping the new res (although very nice and makes res more important, it is not worth it if it bugs the game to oblivion), since I think it is those that really puts the gremlin in the machinery. Instead, work with those few you have and modify them a bit, making them a bit different than the vanilla version.Thanks for the input, guys. We may not seem like it, but we carefully read every single post and taking in into consideration..................................... .................................................. .................................................. ..............
And no, we're not going to make a space game from scratch.
Ohhhh, Master of Orion II. Cant tell how many hours Ive spent with that game, especially building my super boarding dreadnaughts with extra troops on board that could effectivelly board any ship and take it over.
Not sure what you meant by new res, but if it's the new maps, then it's not it...
And how the hell did you manage to capture an Antaran ship? They always explode!
Not sure what you meant by new res, but if it's the new maps, then it's not it...
And how the hell did you manage to capture an Antaran ship? They always explode!
Ahhh, I meant resources. I think its them that are causing all the havoc.
No, they dontAnd how the hell did you manage to capture an Antaran ship? They always explode!
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