RomaMini - Development

[Harry Tuttle]

Little update.

-Fixed that annnoying river mouth graphic to conform to river graphic.

-Made mountains impassable

-Added some arable lands in the Sahara

[Harry Tuttle]

Should I include Bleda?

[Harry Tuttle]

Just thought of an idea. I want to create a temporary border to keep the Goths, Anglo-Saxons, Avars, etc at bay, but depict the tribes being in areas of Western Russia during the 2nd century BC.

Since I don't want to create extra rules files and I don't want any terrain tiles except mountains to be impassable, I was thinking of planting non-movement Barbarian Border Units.

I was hoping I could have hexed in a truce between the Barbarians and the Tribal Barbarian civ which could be broken through a create aggression event later on in the game. The border units would be weak and upon the create aggression event I could have a combat unit created within the cordoned off area for each tribe. This attack unit would be able to kill the border units, allowing the noncombat tribe units to move toward Western Europe with a GoTo event, depicting the Barbarian Invasion.

If by chance any major civ (Rome) happens upon these areas before the so said tribes have begun expanding with combat units the major civ could attack the border units and get at the defenseless tribe units. The border units, being Barbarian, would have the "invisible except during combat" flag unit the units advanced field, plus the "barb unit will not expire" flag, plus the "barb cannot be bribed flag". This way the units will stick around and, hopefully (if I'm right in my intuition) they will also not be shown to the major civs during the sequence between turns where barb units all over the map usually show up.

Will this work?

[Harry Tuttle]

This idea will also solve the "empty land" problem which would allow the AI to settle large tracts of Asia.

[Harry Tuttle]

Also, when dealing with technology and the Fantasy and NonFantasy rules. In regards to how each tech is hardcoded in each variant, what causes the game to recognize different variants in a scenario file? Do I need to worry about whether I'm working with Fan or NonFan rules? Are the rules files different as far as lines or slots?

[Boco]

Is this what you're after?

From Test of Time Advance Slot Properties (Version 1.3) by William Keenan:

• Ind, Fantasy: Does not change city picture to Industrial (5th row in cities.bmp)
• U2, Fantasy: Changes city picture to Modern (6th row in cities.bmp).
• X1, Fantasy: Changes city picture to Industrial (5th row in cities.bmp).
• X2, Fantasy: Changes city picture to Alternate Modern (7th row in cities.bmp).

From Catfish in CivFan thread: ToT Map3 Bug
Note: you can toggle between game types by hex-editing the .sav file. Game type is stored in byte 982:

0x00 Original
0x01 Sci-Fi
0x02 Fantasy

Catfish and Mercator list some other quirks in this thread in CivFan. They recommend against using Fantasy as a starting point. Unless you have a specific purpose in mind, I'd agree. Have you set your eyes upon the Catapult or something?

Btw, I thought I read from Techumseh, that hexed alliances fail to dissolve with MakeAggression. If I understand your aim, you might be able to use Leo upgrades instead. Three possible schemes that use Leo:

• Use an unassailable air unit in one border slot. 'Upgrade' it on demand via Leo to a vulnerable weak ground border unit of the same role.
• Alternately, use two slots for each Barbarian unit. Slot A can't enter/attack impassable, while slot B can. Put the border in impassable terrain. Upgrade A to B via Leo.
• Or...apply the kiss principle. Slot A Barbarians are immobile, slot B are mobile.

These may be too simplistic or limited for your needs, but hopefully they may trigger an idea.

[Boco]

Hey Harry, how much snow did you get in the last 24h? We're approaching 2' (>55cm). Still, I'll take this anyday over what Moscow's faced this winter.

[curtsibling]

My brother is in West Virginia just now and says that 10-12 inches
of snow is expected in the next few days...Sounds like fun!

[Harry Tuttle]

We only got about 3". That huge storm that hit the East coast missed us and went through Southern Ohio. Cleveland got only the usual flurries and lake effect snow.

I guess since the hexed alliance is unbreakable I could just have the barbs sit out there and hope that the tribal barbarians don't try to go after them, especially if I have a go to event carrying combat units away from that general area.

As for the hardcoded mechanics in the fanatasy game - will a converted game like RomaMini have any of those characteristics if I use a fantasy rules file that is consistently edited to fit?

[Boco]

I'd be surprised if it did. Very likely the conversion leaves 982 coded for original. Just remember this tidbit comes from someone who hasn't read the procedure.

@Tech: did you find any way around the unbreakable alliance hex?

[techumseh]

AGRICOLA did, by having one civ allied and the other with just a peace treaty.

[Boco]

Nice bit of Sherlocking, Agricola! Sorry for the earlier lack of credit.

[Harry Tuttle]

I thought it would hardcoded original. Thanks!

Ah I see, the alliance can be broken! Awesome! Thanks for the help Tech, Boco, and Agricola!

[Boco]

Originally posted by Harry Tuttle

I was hoping I could have hexed in a truce between the Barbarians and the Tribal Barbarian civ which could be broken through a create aggression event later on in the game. The border units would be weak and upon the create aggression event I could have a combat unit created within the cordoned off area for each tribe.

This might require you to forbid negotiations. Agricola, Tech, does the AI ever break this alliance without a MakeAgression?

Originally posted by Harry Tuttle

If by chance any major civ (Rome) happens upon these areas before the so said tribes have begun expanding with combat units the major civ could attack the border units and get at the defenseless tribe units. The border units, being Barbarian, would have the "invisible except during combat" flag unit the units advanced field, plus the "barb unit will not expire" flag, plus the "barb cannot be bribed flag". This way the units will stick around and, hopefully (if I'm right in my intuition) they will also not be shown to the major civs during the sequence between turns where barb units all over the map usually show up.

Will this work?

I think mostly yes. Some details

• Labels for adjacent invisible-until-attack (IUA) units are shown in the Status panel. An obsessive player can locate many this way.
• The first time you try to move in a square occupied by an IUA unit, nothing happens. Your second attempt initiates combat.
• IUA units show in city screens, unless they are 0af (air?) units.
• During the AI's turn, the screen centers on the IUA unit as it moves, but you don't see it until it attacks.

If you ever need units to be invisible until 'discovered', use the conventional submarine flag on an immobile unit. I'm using that with success for Sanussi camps in EA.

If you have storms at sea, IUA units could be particularly nasty and useful

Let us know what you come up with

[AGRICOLA]

This might require you to forbid negotiations. Agricola, Tech, does the AI ever break this alliance without a MakeAgression?

I really don't know.

If Civ A is allied to civ B but civ B merely at peace with civ A, MakeAggression should work if civ B is the aggressor.

As I have done this only in cases where civ B is human controlled, I have no idea how long civ B would remain at peace with civ A if both are AI controlled. I suppose that it might help if civ B is a peace-loving bunch of appeasement-minded pussycats.

I'll see what I can do about testing this.