The World of Jules Verne

[Sarsstock]

Well I'm going to have to change the last aspect of the Time Travel Punch Card system Patine, in that I DO want people to play as the aboriginals. I'm still planning to include an independent civ so I might use them instead as the civ that receives the time travel techs at random. Then again..... I might just use an even more challenging way to force players to acquire these techs.

This leads me to anew questions I have for the forum and I'd like to know your answers before I make any major decisions.

1) As of now I have 14 naval units in the units.bmp detailing the evolution of naval power from the humble gunboat to the dreaded Extinction Class Battleship. At the same time there are a mere 4 air units to represent the evolution of air power. So that means the 4 units cover everything from the first powered fighter airplane to the advanced rocket bomber. Should there be more emphasis on the evolution of air power as its a more cutting edge frontier of warfare or is emphasis on naval power the smart way to go?

2) For this game I want to introduce what I call the "transparent shield graphic", this is meant to be used for generic units that don't have the specific flag of a civ as its own shield. I personally like it but have had both positive and negative feedback for the idea. I'd like to know what the forum thinks of the idea of a transparent shield for naval, air and other generic units as featured in the screenshot below.

3) Behold the diplomat, the single unit that has the potential to change the course of a game with just a few of his mischievous deeds. I really don't like the idea of having a diplomat at all in the game, however if I do decide in the end to allow the independent civ's to get the random time travel punch cards the diplomat would serve as the only way to get them fairly, as I'm even more against the idea of "tech by conquest". I suppose I could include him but control just how many are made, like how in Imperialism they were created via events and even then only once every 100 turns or so.

[Cyrion]

Personal answer on 2): go ahead with the transparent shields!

In the scens where they were used, they were easy enough to identify!

[Broken_Erika]

i agree, use the transperant shields, if anything wipe off the outline for the mge health bar at the top, then you just have the basic shield like so

[Sarsstock]

Okay then, the scale of public opinion for question #2 is tipping to the side of "yes". Along with the fact that I like them myself I think I'll be using the transparent shields then.

Now please feel free all to let me know how you feel about questions #1 and #3.

[Arthedain]

Love those planes! (the boats are awesome too)

[Patine]

My opinions on each are thus:

1.)I think more balance between air and naval units may be in order. Try, for instance, 7 air and 11 naval in those slots, but still lean at least a bit to naval, though not as much as above.

2.)Transparent shields are fine by me; I'm using them myself in my EotRS scen.

3.)Diplomats are probably preferrable, ultimately, to 'tech by conquest,' and do make event-granted techs actually acquirable when the computer (or another human player) refuse to trade. Put the unit in the 'diplomat' slot, though, not the 'spy' slot.

[Patine]

Another note on diplomats: to minimize their annoyance value, set all units with the 'unbribeable' flag (you can do that with ToT). I don't know if you can stop them from inciting revolts, and if you can, how (short of making everyone a Democracy, but I'm sure you don't want that). Does someone out there know how to do that?

[curtsibling]

I like the generic shield idea, but what I would do is to
remove the MGE-stlye shield shape and emphasise the anchor element...

I tend to denote generic units by leaving out a shield altogether...

[Sarsstock]

Okay, so the answers I'm going with based on your responses are yes to more air units, yes on the transparent shield (with one simple modification) and yes on the diplomat (with several abilities disabled).

Expect the city placement file before the end of the week. I have to budget my time between a slew of contract jobs I'm working in addition to the title screen's I've promised for Eivind, Harry, Tom and Steph.

[Broken_Erika]

edit: i shouldn't post when i'm tired,

[Harry Tuttle]

You already posted that one Erika.

[Broken_Erika]

Um, here's a grey one, in case you need another one,
this is the one i ment to post,

[Sarsstock]

Again thank you Erika, but I'm affraid I still plan on using the Gattling Gun provided by Fairline exclusivly to Tom and myself for the long abandoned "The Blue and Grey" project. As to my knowledge Tom and I are the only ones in possesion of the Gattling Gun this could be the units official debut when the beta version is released.

[Broken_Erika]

Fairline made a gattleing gun?
cool,
must be 1000 time better then my cannon conversions

[Sarsstock]

Well the point is I'm set for Gattling Guns, thankyou.

In any case, I have a question and I'd like to know the forum's opinion. I had initially wanted to include another civ in gameplay.... a united Latin American civ. Like the Latin American countries of its day, this civ would be rich in natural resources but would suffer from poor infrastructure, they would however have the potential through trade and diplomacy to build effective production and economic centers. Their ultimate goal of course would have been to resist European influence if not out right assimilation as well as contend with the native peoples of South America.

Now unforunatly due to limitations I cannot include a seventh civ and still have an indpendant AI-only civ. Basically, I want the forum's opinion whether or not I should include the Latin American civ at the expense of perhaps the Aboriginals or the Secret Society. I would love to keep all three civ's, but alas such is not even possible with ToT.

Any thoughts?