[Testers Required] Age of Discovery Update!

[Dale]

Hi all,

I'm currently doing an update to my Age of Discovery scenario and require some testers to sign up. So if you liked the original AoD, then this update will blow you out of the water. Among other fixes such as slowing native growth (no settlers), new unit graphics to make each type unique in appearance and other minor fixes (AI/texts/etc) there is a brand new concept.

Please indicate your interest to test this update by posting in this thread.

Introducing: Pirates & Traders!

This brand new concept on the Civ4 scene will bring a new perspective and strategy to the Age of Discovery scenario.

Players can now build pirates (caravels/galleons/frigates) to sail the High Seas plundering at will. Pirates have their nationality hidden so you do not know who owns them.

In the same line as Colonization, whenever you hook up a resource in the New World traders will begin to transport it back to Europe. Traders will automatically leave the New World and sail back to Europe (caravels/galleons/indiamen).

Pirates are able to raid these traders to steal gold from the trader's owner. No declaration of war required! Players with military ships (caravel/galleon/frigate/SotL/ironclad) can attack these pirate ships, discovering who owns them. This will result in war!

So strap yourself in for the wildest ride on the Spanish Main, with pirating, traders and increased wars!

Dale

EDIT: New test version http://s23.quicksharing.com/d/844427...07/AoD1.12.zip

[rjmatsleepers]

Have you fixed the bug that causes a crash on the discovery of Lutherism (and other religions)?

RJM

[Dale]

Didn't know there was a bug. Works perfectly on mine.

Do you have anything in your custom assets folder?

[Kinjiru]

Hi Dale,

I don't have time to test for you, but I did want to say that the concept sounds great. I was toying with the idea of a piracy mod, but again, that whole time constraint thing...

Your work is always top-notch, so I am looking forward to the results of this latest endeavor!

[rjmatsleepers]

Originally posted by Dale
Didn't know there was a bug. Works perfectly on mine.

Do you have anything in your custom assets folder?

If you didn't know about the problem with Lutherism, you probably haven't seen the comments on the Spanish flag either. It's worth checking your original thread.

You asked, "do I have anything in my custom assets folder?" I have a lot of sub folders, most of which appear to be empty. The only thing of substance is the dll for Blake's improved AI. But I think I experienced the bug before I downloaded this.

RJM

[Dale]

Ahhh yes, I remember the spanish flag bug. I couldn't replicate it, and of the hundreds of downloads here and cfc only one instance of it was reported (from memory).

The spanish flag used is the one that came with vanilla civ4 (desert war scenario). So I didn't even have it in the file list of the mod as it was in default assets.

Dale

[Dale]

Okay, the update is ready to test. Please give it the full works.

See first post

Pirates & Traders!

Once you start getting a presence in the New World, private traders will begin to travel from the New World to Europe under your flag. For flying your flag they receive some insurance against pirating, and also you receive taxes when they reach Europe. If a trader is pirated, you will have to pay the owner the insurance (between 1-10 gold). If they reach Europe you receive taxes (between 1-10 gold). You cannot build traders, and they are not able to be controlled. They will travel on existing sea lanes, so open up as much of the Atlantic as possible to speed their journey. There are three levels of trader: caravel, galleon and indiaman which are available at the relevant techs.

Pirates can now be built by civs. Pirates carry no flag, so you do not know who owns pirates. Pirates are always under the owning civs control, so you can give them orders. Pirates come with a new mission "Raid". By clicking on the raid mission (pirate flag) you can raid adjacent traders (yes, be in the tile next to the trader, and you can only pirate traders). Click the raid icon, then click on the trader to pirate. You will receive an amount of gold for piracy. Watch out for other civ's military ships as they can capture your pirates.

You normal ships also have a new mission, "Capture". If you are in the tile next to a pirate click on the hangman's noose icon to capture the pirate. You will recover some bounty from the pirate as the Pirate Hunter. To capture a pirate, be in the tile next to them, click on the noose icon and then click on the pirate.

Please comment on these new concepts. As well as these new concepts I have fixed other bugs as raised in the Poly and CFC threads.

Have fun and let me know.

Dale

[Dale]

New version posted in first post of this thread! Please test.

[Dale]

File location updated. My ISP kept cutting the end of the file off.

[Ekmek]

Dale,
I like the piracy stuff. One of my favorite aspects of Ctp2. doesn't civ4 create trade routes between cities automatically? Isn't there a way to draw a line between those two cities and have ctp2 piracy as well?

Besides, that I like your concept as well, actually seeing the ship do the trade is cool and having to track it down. I'm assuming the trade ships cant be controlled bythe player right? I'd like to give this a try (if my PC can handle it)

[Dale]

Hey E.

I don't really like the idea of a line between cities. Makes the route too static. With my method there's no known factor of where the trade ships will travel. It does become a "hunt and seek" strategy (which the AI seems to do well). So to the question of drawing a line between the cities, I assume it's possible, but I won't be pursuing it for this concept.

The trade ships are not controllable. They sail directly from their home city to the target location. They move before the player takes their turn.

You need a pretty beefy PC to play AoD. People have said they never have problems playing Civ4, but get "out of memory" problems with AoD. It's a huge map, and very involved. Also, the many tweaks I've done to make the AI better also take up more memory. So unless you've got a gig of RAM I don't think this'll perform fast for you (I run 640 meg RAM and I get slowdowns from 1/2 the game on).

Dale

[Ekmek]

Thanks Dale,

having the ships not controllable then makes up for the static lines

I'm assuming that the traders have to be in port for you to get a bonus of some sort?

Great stuff. I only wish I had a computer that could handle. Keep up the good work, by the time I do get that computer I'm sure your stuff will all fleshed out and ready for me to play

[Dale]

Originally posted by rjmatsleepers
Have you fixed the bug that causes a crash on the discovery of Lutherism (and other religions)?

RJM

Sorry I didn't get back to you, but yes I found out the problem. I'd turned movies off and thus didn't get the crash.

I have now fixed this bug.

Dale

[rjmatsleepers]

Originally posted by Dale


Sorry I didn't get back to you, but yes I found out the problem. I'd turned movies off and thus didn't get the crash.

I have now fixed this bug.

Dale

Great - I'll give it a try (when I get a break from RL )

RJM

[conmcb25]

Wow, glad to see you back working on this one Dale, Ill try and give the new one a go