Jan III Sobieski scenario

[curtsibling]

Working on the tech tree right now - I have left out various
techs (Inv, Phi, Aut, E2, Ind) as they affect city styles, and I
was not sure what you had in mind for that...I might need a
copy of the current rules.txt, so I can associate techs and
city improvements, although much of that is up to GoD...

[GhostOfDisco]

Here's the latest rules file.

[curtsibling]

Cheers, man!

[GhostOfDisco]

Did some more work on the scenario yesterday, particularly the graphics, including a lot of color-coded units (diplomats, new artillery, (finally!) the Cossack Infantry) and revised Hungarian Hussars:

[McMonkey]

Looking great. I am so looking forward to playing this one!

[curtsibling]

Nice to see the masks working - !
They make a huge difference...!

PS
I haven't forgot your tech tree - Just been busy ironing out
many little tech/event bugs on Ostfront and Eurasian Wars...!

Will get something to you this weekend - Guaranteed!

[GhostOfDisco]

Did some playtesting of the Battle of Vienna last night, found out some interesting things.

First of all, the AI moves the "last" event-generated units first. I was wondering why the Wallachian and Moldavian troops attacked Vienna before the Janissaries and Siphahis did (they tended to relax in Szekesfehérvér) then I reversed the order of unit creation and voila! - Turks going in first!

Also, I thought of the idea of using airbases as sites of major battles - that way you can fight a big battle at a site where one occurred without one unit destroying an entire army with one single move (like the times in Red Front when one of my T-34s destroyed a stack of several dozen units or more - boy, someone's going to be a Hero of the Soviet Union! ) Tried it the the square outside Vienna (where the Turkish Camp is spawned) and the Camp is usually the first thing fought if you reach that square. After destroying the camp and assembling my units for a march on Hungary, I had to endure constant attacks from the rest of the Turkish army that had not been assembled in that square. I think this is from the fact that the MOVEUNIT command to attack Vienna was still in force, and in the most current events file the MOVEUNIT condition is taken once the camp is destroyed (though, to be fair, it did make for an interesting challenge - maybe change it so that the units are no longer compelled to march across Vienna when the Pasha's unit is destroyed...)

On the graphics front, civ2unit's new "Village" terrain tile in his AWI scenario inspired me to rethink my urban terrain, and while (for the moment) I'm still using my current urban terrain, I did revise the Tartar/Cossack village (goody hut) graphic. I also got rid of those whales in the Danube and replaced them with that small ship, which is a scaled-down and modified version of the "Bomb Ketch" from Casus Belli. Upon further reflection, the ship still looks too high-masted for, say, fishermen on the Vistula or something, and I plan to replace it with another graphic, but still...

[GhostOfDisco]

Some new graphics
Hapsburg militia (civilian men drafted by the Imperials from the streets of Vienna to defend the city) and Danish cavalry (after some research, I found out that the Danish didn't have curiassers at the time )...

[curtsibling]

The airbase/village idea for big battles is pretty cool!

Problem is the AI tends to pillage airbases...
Perhaps switching these with forts might be a good move?

In any case, pretty cool concept! I even might adopt it for
Eurasian Wars, for outside Moscow/Stalingrad/Leningrad, etc!

[GhostOfDisco]

Well, forts do tend to have those pesky defensive bonuses...

I'll do some playtesting, see what happens...

[curtsibling]

You can edit the terrain or unit defense rating to reflect the changes?

[curtsibling]

Ghost, I have zipped a file that makes a run down of my
prototype tech-tree for JIIIS!



A few things to note:
===============

*The Mob/nil method is used, to allow you to allocate techs,
but not research them, this is good for multiple tech trees.

*Any tech that comes before 'researchable' in each category
is a tech that the receiving civ starts out with...

*Wasn't sure what is happening with the other civs, so
did not bother naming the 'city' changing techs just now.

*Not sure what you have in mind for the Ottomans, so I left
them out, with only a few techs, I can add more in if you wish.

*The techs mostly concentrate of Jan's attempts to boost the
government on the Commonwealth, and subdue Cossacks.

*I left the icon numbers blank, as I am not sure what you are
doing about icon at this stage, if you need a hand, I'm here.

*Wasn't sure what was happening with individual units, etc.
I assume you'll go ahead and link the techs to your unit list.

*It should be easy to slip these techs into a fresh rules file,
and overwrite the vanilla techs.

*Any modern techs not used can be given the no/no preqs.

Hope this is useful...I am working on two scenarios right
now, thus the long delay (for which I apologise, sir!) But
I am up for helping put the final rules together too!

Cheers for the patience!

:b

[GhostOfDisco]

Been looking at your tech tree, curt, and generally I like it. I do have some comments, though.

First of all is religion. Currently, I've separated the three "happiness" improvements (Temples, Cathedrals and Colosseums) between the three main Christian denominations at the time - Catholicism, Orthodoxy, and Protestantism. (Temples = Orthodox Churches, Protestant Churches = Cathedrals, Catholic Churches = Colosseums) Also, I've renamed Communism (the tech) "Counter Reformation" because of the decrease in effectiveness it causes on Cathedrals (i.e. "Protestant Churches), though, since Orthodox Muscovy has the Communist government (partly to avoid the "revert to generic title" thing that happens when I convert a save game to a scenario, and partly because it might be good for the AI Moscow, as the lack of corruption could help it in governing so large a territory. Plus, the fact that I've already got "Electronics" as "Catholic rule" (i.e. Catholics will be happier under a Catholic ruler than under the thumb of heretics ) would still emphasize the "Catholic bent" of post-Deluge Poland. I dunno, what do you think?

(Also, why there are no sadly no happiness improvements I could see to make a "Mosque" for the Muslims, I did make "Islam" a city changing tech (replaces Industrialization), so that the Turks and Tartars have the same city set. BTW, curt, where is that Ottoman city set you said you were going to make? )

Then there's government. You've created a pretty good tech tree there, though I'm not so sure about Monarchy and Communism as Improved Governments - one of the reasons I have Poland as a Republic is because of the Sejm's interference in foreign policy - historically, there were times when Sobieski (either as Hetman or King) could not go through his plans because of opposition in his government, which sometimes included the Sejm. If there was a possibility to create a "Despotic Republic" government - a Republic with higher corruption than the regular Republic in the game- I'd love that, but as far as I know such a thing is impossible. Democracy, with its representative government, trade bonuses, and lack of corruption would be ideal for representing a reformed parliamentary monarchy, were it not for the fact that military units on expedition would be guaranteed unhappiness (under the Republic, the effects of Wawel Hill (Women's Suffrage) cancel out the unhappiness caused under said govt, but under Democracy there's one extra unhappy guy...). Though that might give the player incentive to get wonders like the Duchy of Prussia (located in Konigsburg, and in this hypothetical scenario (no pun inteded) would be Cure for Cancer) and Sobieski's victory (which, if I go with this idea, would be the Hanging Gardens) so, if and when he achieves the reformed monarchy, he'll be able to offset the unhappiness and thus prevent civil disorder.

However, this thinking about government and reading through my old Civ II strategy guide did get me to thinking about my concept of using the Apollo Program as something for political reform, and then I remembered something: one of the reforms proposed during this time period was for electing monarchs vivente rege - that is, while the king still lived. In doing so, this ensure to lessen if not completely eliminate the chaos that happened between one king's death and the next king's election (during the great 1648+ Cossack rebellion, the king died in the middle of the war, and so the nobles had to go back to Warsaw for the elections - not the most convenient time for such a thing!) Also, I know that John Sobieski hoped to secure the crown for his son Jacob, who would had a chance for the crown in the following elections had not Augustus of Saxony not arrested him. So, my idea for the Apollo/Alpha Centauri is have the program be the adaptation of the vivente rege elections, and the whole "get to Alpha Centauri" thing is getting Jacob Sobieski elected as your sucessor. Once he is elected as the future king of Poland, you win the scenario! (Well, you finish it - hopefully you'll have completed enough objectives to earn a "Victory" according to the scenario parameters. )

Well, since everyone's a fan of eye candy, here's some new graphics I'd like to show you. One idea I got the other day was to incorporate the small Duchy of Courland (a small Polish vassal state, south of Riga) into the game. Nothing major, just add a few cities (two, in fact) and give said cities their own local "flavor" by having the build unique Courland units which canot be built anywhere else (of course, if you switch production in Courland, you can't build Courland units again, but that's the game engine for you.) The Courland infantry I got from a model in the OiM mod for Rome: Total War (I think I linked to it earlier in the thread) The cavalry guy - well, I thought I heard somewhere that Courland produced reiters or some other type of Western-style non-dragoon cavalry, and I do know there was a small number of "reiters" in Polish service at Vienna, so I made up this reiter/cuirassier unit.
The flag (flown from one of the Courland cities, I might add) is supposed to be one of the historical Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth banners was. Of course, national flags weren't exactly set in stone during this period, and I might go back to the "usual" Polish flag, but still, this flag will be an option.
Also, in the top of the picture you can see a naval battle going on: two Polish warships (a sloop and a frigate) ganging up on a Brandenburg frigate, with a Swedish ship of the line about to join them. You can clearly see that again I used the "civ-color mask" thing, and I think it managed to turn out well.

You can also see what graphic I made to replace the whale terrain. (True, nobody really used cogs in that period AFAIK, but I needed something that could plausibly resemble both sea and river sailors...)

[curtsibling]

Looking good, Ghost! :b

Much of what is in the tech tree is totally open to your re-interpretation, as I was mostly 2nd guessing things that
might be designed for the scen as I went along...I agree on the government factor. One way to change the corruption
level is to have the communist govt and to edit the 'distance from palace' corruption flag in the rules file.

I reckon a Republic without much of the support from courthouses and luxuries could be a pretty shaky affair,
and might represent Jan's attempts to streamline the creaking power of the Polish Senate...Combined with
a lack of prosperity (initial lack of trade improvements) this early Republic might do the trick.

Going to Senate Reforms (Monarchy) from Republic could also show that while socially, Jan has gained control,
the merchants and magnates are still annoyed at his rise, and are not pulling their weight financially
(corruption, less trade) and when the player/Jan finally gains Government Act (Communism) this could
represent Jan's dream of a Sobieski dynasty being set up, obviously this never come to pass properly
in our world, but in CIV2 land changing history is an option! It's all really your call, but these
were my thoughts on the choices I made for the governments, etc...

What do think of the Cossack tech options? Tried to make it a mini-tech tree that effects a series of barb-spawning
techs via events. The Polish player starts off with these 'bad' Cossack techs, representing the poor state of the
Cossack society. The more of 'good' Cossack techs that are researched, the more negative Cossack techs are removed!
Eventually, the Cossacks will feel themselves given a fair deal by the Commonwealth, will provide cavalry and there
will be no more (or maybe much less) renegade action. Again this is a historical 'what-if?' situation for the player.

PS
Totally forgot about the Islamic city set! Crikey!

Will get that done ASAP!

[GhostOfDisco]

What do think of the Cossack tech options? Tried to make it a mini-tech tree that effects a series of barb-spawning techs via events. The Polish player starts off with these 'bad' Cossack techs, representing the poor state of the
Cossack society. The more of 'good' Cossack techs that are researched, the more negative Cossack techs are removed!
Eventually, the Cossacks will feel themselves given a fair deal by the Commonwealth, will provide cavalry and there will be no more (or maybe much less) renegade action. Again this is a historical 'what-if?' situation for the player.

I love it!