Playtesting "The River War v4 beta (for ToT)"

[Allard HS]

http://apolyton.net/upload/view.php?...Warv4beta3.zip

Finally! The newest update! Unfortunately, a few units changed places, especially the artillery, so your old savegames will not work correctly anymore.. I'm sorry; you'll have to start the whole tedious work of railroad laying all over again .

Quite a few changes since the last version, most obvious of which are of course Fairline's magnificent artwork changes, but also a lot of minor tweaks. Wonders have been switched and new ones added, one new improvement has been added (guess where it is..), I adapted the scoring system, I added city walls to all cities, and more. Oh yes, and I pimped up the Omdurman events a bit. Maybe they need more pimping up still, though.

What haven't I done yet?

- I haven't found a satisfying way to remove some units after Omdurman.
- Three new wonders have been added, but haven't been named yet. Any suggestions?
- I still miss the unit for my 5"-howitzer and my Indian screw gun. Fairline, you said you still had one lying around somewhere? hehe
- I'm not satisfied with the a/d factors of the cavalry and CC units.
- I'm curious what you think of the new scoring system.

[fairline]

Allard, here's the howie and screw gun - you already had the right graphic for the latter but I've given it an Indian crew.

DL-ing the latest version....

How are the feet now?

[curtsibling]

Simply tremendous work by all!

River War has been installed into my ToT folders without delay!

I will play this tonight!

[Boco]

Sigh! It's a busy week. I'll try it out as soon as I can , but that might not be until Thursday. So the saner ones among you have a few days to give Allard some good advice before I waylay him with some silly tangent.

- I haven't found a satisfying way to remove some units after Omdurman.

As you know, I have a strong interest in this myself. I tried a lot of variations that didn't work so well in EAv2, before arriving at a compromise that seems okay. I'll compare and contrast our solutions before long.

[Boco]

Any chance to play it curt?

[curtsibling]

I am still in process of gathering info, but what I would say
upfront is a suggestion to change the backdrop from the
sandy colour, this is because it makes unit names and
other info quite hard to read....



The scenario is brilliantly scripted and have tons of info to
keep the player informed of the situation in the war...Also,
the feel of the late 19th century is very rich, the research
that has went into this is huge!

The unit balance is nice also, the sword armed maniacs
indeed do not fare well against maxim guns, but the cav
is to be feared!

More to come as I play on!

[curtsibling]

The sounds need to be done here too!
ToT supports individual stereo sounds for all units.

So there is no excuse for no sounds or for the default elephant noise for horses!

I can handle the sounds if you chaps give me the goahead!

[jim panse]

Sorry for pooping in with that n00b question: How do I disable these dashed sprites? I cannot enjoy the scenario ...

[curtsibling]

Nice play!

There is a good battle method in the scen, using the limited
forces and really feeling the pinch when you lose one of the units...!

I love the unique ships - Are they based from some hidden cities with those names?

Also good is the race to channel your ships down the Nile before the weather causes it to close!

Great stuff!

Now onward to Khartoum!

[curtsibling]

Originally posted by jim panse
Sorry for pooping in with that n00b question: How do I disable these dashed sprites? I cannot enjoy the scenario ...

I think this will help!

Drop this dummy sprite file (made by Catfish) into your folder!

[jim panse]

That´s working now, sah!

Many thanks & cheers to you

[fairline]

Originally posted by curtsibling
Nice play!

There is a good battle method in the scen, using the limited
forces and really feeling the pinch when you lose one of the units...!

I love the unique ships - Are they based from some hidden cities with those names?

Also good is the race to channel your ships down the Nile before the weather causes it to close!

Great stuff!

Now onward to Khartoum!

Don't for get those rail engineers C. It's crucial to get as many of them as possible to the front, building railways (and irrigation/wells as required) to keep your forces moving south. Adjust your gold/research rate to get a tech every 2 turns and research rail engineers before any military reinforcement techs. Also, don't forget to explore off the beaten track for hidden cities (most are now marked with crossed swords).

@Allard: Pretty much finished my run through of the latest version. I love the way you've named battalions/ships by homing to hidden cities - brilliant touch. Having the steamer reinforcements appear farther downstream is much better, as are the increased CC stats. Omdurman appears to be a bit tougher too.

I can't think of any sensible names for the wonders - if I think of anything I'll let you know.

[curtsibling]

I shall keep your words in mind, sah!

[Allard HS]

homing to hidden cities - brilliant touch.

It only worked for existing units. There appears to be some kind of a security against homing event-given units to foreign cities, and instead they are homed to NONE (or "not assigned" here) when given.

I should have made a separate ToT map for those cities instead of putting those British cities with the Nature cities in the corner, but as they are not really annoying, and since I was too lazy to find out how multi-maps worked, I decided to keep it this way

Thanks for the howitzer and the screw gun, btw. Once again, they are marvellous!

So there is no excuse for no sounds or for the default elephant noise for horses!
I can handle the sounds if you chaps give me the goahead!

Hehe, there's no excuse indeed, but they are not yet finished. I have borrowed some sounds from other scenarios, and created a few myself. If you happen to have nice sounds nearby though, I would of course be very glad if I could use them.

[curtsibling]

Apologies, my good Allard!
I didn't mean that to come out like I was scolding, it was just my Brit figure of speech!

I was not sure if you intended to include SFX...I would be honoured to help lighted your workload.

Gimme a list of what units need a sound, and I will whip some up!