DICTATOR ToT - DEVELOPMENT THREAD!

[curtsibling]

Originally posted by Patine
Curt, why can't the Germans develop atomic weapons? In fact, in every WW2 scen I've come across, they can't. Many seem to forget that Germany was racing the US to the bomb in late '44 and much of '45, and only their surrender ended this. I can't understand why no one allows them the possibility of building A-bombs before or coterminous with the US. They came very close, historically. Can you or anyone shed light on this mysterious convention?

The Germans never came close to getting an A-bomb, as
most of the great minds involved in such research were either
under-funded or chased from Germany by the nazi regime.

The closest Adolf got to having a bomb was some piles of
faulty radioactive material and a heavy water plant in
Norway that British commandos destroyed in 1944.

[AGRICOLA]

I see no reason why Germany should not be able to build the Bomb. However, there is already a potential problem with American nukes.

The US can get the bomb tech by discovering 14 new techs. With an initial research rate of ~2 techs every 3 turns (80% science and max Einsteins) and paying monthly expenses from its large initial treasury, the US can start building bombs in early to mid '42, thereby completely screwing up the scen. Using nukes will create pollution (normal pollution has been turned off) and subsequent global warming (not turned off).

May I suggest that one of the prerequisites for the Manhattan be made an non-researchable tech that is doled out by events at a historically appropriate time.

Edit: Sorry, partial cross post.

[curtsibling]

Originally posted by AGRICOLA 1. The trade arrows are the same color as the food icons.
2. RRII are too faint to be seen easily. This also applies to the game map where, IMO, the RRII's should be darker than RR's.
3. The red markings which indicate that a square is in use by another city are too cluttered. I would suggest removing the X in the centre and make the entire perimeter of the square red or, preferably, white. That way one can more easily see what is in the square.

The trade arrow and RR situation will be looked into...

About the square border cursor, remember that it doubles as the game cursor too, but I reckon it could be simplified.

Originally posted by AGRICOLA I've edited the PEOPLE file with icons from another scen. IMO, most of of the people look like nearly identical, unshaven vagrants from a police lineup. For example, the entertainer (US) is at first glance identical to one of the contented US citizens because the “MP” on its helmet is faint and yellow as opposed to the bold white letters on actual MP helmets. The same holds true for some of the other civs. The beancounters and Einsteins look like hit men from one of Eivind's Mafia mobs and their icons show nothing that might indicate their fields of expertise. It would also help a great deal if the background colors were different for happy, content and unhappy citizens as well as for each type of specialist.

Don't worry, this is the old version people file, I am working on a new one for the final release.

Originally posted by AGRICOLA I think that in order to be consistent with other civs, Roosevelt and Hirohito should be the heads of state for the US and Japan. I can live with Tojo but Eisenhower seems to be a particularly poor choice; in 1940 he was either a colonel or brigadier general, not a head of state.

The name is for not the head of states, but the military commanders.
True Hitler also did not take command of the German army till 1941 (bad luck for the wehrmacht) but I included him anyway.

That said, I might make some changes in this regard - I wonder who could make a viable leader for the commonwealth?

Originally posted by AGRICOLA This has been mentioned before. The complete absence of any intelligence on other civs seems a bit unreal. By all means eliminate all communication with other civs but please consider reinstating the Foreign Minister’s report so that there is a very moderate amount of info for it and for the Demographics pulldown. It is interesting to see if one is making any progress against ones enemies. There is always a certain amount of intelligence available, even in wartime.

This is a symptom of cutting communication with the civs. There is no 'turn off diplomacy' switch.
Even when I put units in contact or turn on contact in the diplo scen tools, the diplo (F3) screen is gone.

Not sure why this is...Maybe a ToT feature. I knew in MGE you could stop civs talking but still have the screen.

Anyone with ToT experience know what causes this?

Originally posted by AGRICOLA I realize that you don’t have much "wiggle" room for unit A/D’s but some of the numbers could be seriously questioned, such as the identical A’s of battle cruisers (13" guns) and battleships (14"- 16" guns) and the identical A/D of the Russian I-16 and the Japanese Zero. The one was obsolete in 1940 while the other was a world class fighter.

Well, the warships have been changed back to CIV2 standards. The Polikarpov has been changed too, based on game testing of my own.
If you look at the hits and fire power ratings of both these fighters now, the Zero has twice the potency of the Polikarpov.

These are the current ratings:
A6M2 Zero, SFl, 1, 6.,2, 4a,4d, 2h,2f, 7,0, 3, Fli, 000000001010001
I-16 Polikarpov, AFl, 1, 4.,2, 4a,4d, 1h,1f, 5,0, 1, Rad, 000000001010001

I know which one I would rather defend my cities with!

Originally posted by AGRICOLA I really regret to say this when I'm about to start playing the US, but I have a feeling that the US civ may be a bit too powerful. It is just a gut feel and is based on the three great wonders that they have . . . . Pyramids, Adam Smith, Michaelangelo . . . . their large initial treasury and their seeming immunity to the unhappiness due to absent units, bombers or nukes that usually plagues a democracy. It’ll be interesting to see how it plays out.

Well, there was not many mass national-riots in the US in WW2!

This was a gameplay choice I had to make, the US AI was being held back under a democracy, as it had to send out so many units it
was cutting back on it's production to make entertainers. I made the democracies use the communist government to represent the
lack of corruption, without the crushing mood problems in the democracy government.

The US AI will give you a good fight, that was my intention. Someone has to stop the 3rd Reich if the paste Russia!

Originally posted by AGRICOLA Finally, I am nearly apoplectic that Canadian units are on US soil near Boston and Pittsburgh at the start of the scen. We Americans won the War of 1812 so either send the damned intruders back to where they belong or we’ll torch Ottawa. Fortunately, the Mexicans appear to be more respectful of US territory so there are no current plans to send marines to level the Halls of Montezuma.

You'd think the US being whipped three times in a row trying to invade Canada would keep the dastardly Canucks in place!

Well, I will see about moving those unit away, as they serve not much purpose anyway...

[curtsibling]

Originally posted by rmsharpe
And just where the heck is Instanbul?

It is near the odd place you enter when you are working on CIV2 at 5am in the morning!

[curtsibling]

Advice needed...

I want to include William Lyon Mackenzie King as the Commonwealth leader.

Does anyone think this is correct/wrong?
Is there anyone more relevant I could use?

And using just his surname, 'King' might not look very useful.

Would 'Mackenzie King' be accurate...Canadians, please advise!

[curtsibling]

BTW:

Based on Agricola's advice I am going to increase the road
movement multiplier to 6, as opposed to 3...Does this sound OK?

[curtsibling]

Originally posted by AGRICOLA
I see no reason why Germany should not be able to build the Bomb. However, there is already a potential problem with American nukes.

The US can get the bomb tech by discovering 14 new techs. With an initial research rate of ~2 techs every 3 turns (80% science and max Einsteins) and paying monthly expenses from its large initial treasury, the US can start building bombs in early to mid '42, thereby completely screwing up the scen. Using nukes will create pollution (normal pollution has been turned off) and subsequent global warming (not turned off).

May I suggest that one of the prerequisites for the Manhattan be made an non-researchable tech that is doled out by events at a historically appropriate time.

Edit: Sorry, partial cross post.

Well, I see the problem that no other nation was really close to the bomb apart from the USA.

the US but something like 40% of their war effort of 1944 into the bomb.

Could Germany really match that?
And without the team of geniuses that the Yanks had on the job?

About the US civ's bomb, good point!

I will make the preq tech for the A-Bomb path, Atomic Elements
be available to the USA at the outset of 1944.

[AGRICOLA]

Mackenzie King sounds alright but he was even less of a "military leader" than Churchill, even though it takes a considerable stretch of the imagination and the truth to call Winnie a military leader. King's main preoccupation was with keeping the lid on a country where a considerable part of the population didn't think much of the idea of being conscripted to go out and get shot at for King and Empire.

Have you considered someone like Jan Smuts of South Africa? There is a shortage of military leaders from the "colonies". British troops could hardly be place under the command of a colonial.

Also, in the US, George Marshall was Eisenhower's mentor and military superior throughout the war.

It might be a lot simpler to use heads of state rather than military leaders to represent the various civs. Like Churchill and Mr X of the Commonwealth, Gustav V was a head of state rather than a military leader.


Regarding the scen, I'm going to make minimal changes, all in accordance with your thinking, and then proceed with the game.

[curtsibling]

Cheers man!
Let me know what you come up with!

Current changes that have been made:

*Civ 'kings' changed to the national leaders for each faction.
*Colour coded people heads added.
*Trade arrows are now golden.
*Road multiplier changed to 6.
*Unit stats have been tweaked, with emphasis on naval.
*Oil terrain is now 'industrial' and graphics have been changed.
*Sounds tweaked.
*Events tweaked, added US atomic research trigger.

More to come!

[Leonidas]

Curt:

Glad to see that you are still working on these great scenarios.

heheh

There are so many excellent scenarios, I think it will take years before I can play them all.

Cheers!

[curtsibling]

Thanks, Leo!



Well, tonight I have opted for a total upheaval of the tech tree!

I will make the techs all incremental and hierarchical, and will increase the tech paradigm accordingly.

This will give more logical and straightforward path to each disovery...

Stay tuned!

[rmsharpe]

You are the scenario king!

[Boco]

Originally posted by Agricola
The complete absence of any intelligence on other civs seems a bit unreal. By all means eliminate all communication with other civs but please consider reinstating the Foreign Minister’s report so that there is a very moderate amount of info for it and for the Demographics pulldown. It is interesting to see if one is making any progress against ones enemies. There is always a certain amount of intelligence available, even in wartime.

Originally posted by curtsibling
This is a symptom of cutting communication with the civs. There is no 'turn off diplomacy' switch.
Even when I put units in contact or turn on contact in the diplo scen tools, the diplo (F3) screen is gone.

Not sure why this is...Maybe a ToT feature. I knew in MGE you could stop civs talking but still have the screen.

I don't know of a way limiting communication without limiting intel via the F3 screen. During the development of DST, Koby was playing with limiting options in various Game.txt menus (e.g. @EMISSARY, @GREETINGSxx, etc.), but that's a Pandora's box. Occasionally Civ2 will pull a reply out of Labels.txt rather than Game.txt, and that can't be edited out.

What shows on the demographics screen (F11) is dictated by whether you have embassies or not. If you have 'em, then you'll be able to see who's no. 1.

[jim panse]

Curt, on a minor minor note: Could you change the intro text a little? Just stay to the original succession of Nazi German victories - Poland, Denmark, Norway, the Benelux Nations, France.

[curtsibling]

Originally posted by rmsharpe
You are the scenario king!

Cheers, old buddy!

Thanks to Red Bull, I am more like the insomnia king!