Civ2 PBEM and units exchange

[yaroslav]

Hi all!

Well, I want to tell you about Civ2 PBEM utility and its units support. You can download it here:

http://apolyton.net/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=73277

The point is that I want to do a 3.0 version that includes two new features:

* Better password system: Reuse the Civ2's passwords, so you don't need to set one password for your civ in the PBEM and one password your civ in the utlity

* Allowing unit exchange (I'm not sure about it, but many people have asked for it)


But, I have a BIG doubt. How can I implement unit exchange without allowing cheats? I mean, if I implement the standard civ2 'give unit' system, the unit that one civ gives to other will apear in the other's capital, and this is like teletransport!

For example: it's colonies and you want to transport units from America to London, so you tell French (your ally) to accept some units and give them back to you the next turn. Voila! The units appear in London only after one turn!

Any ideas?

Do you want unit support?

I would love any kind of feedback

[klesh]

When units are given in MP though, the unit merely changes ownership and doesnt move. Thats should be okay? I really hope this part works, as it would bring tons of depth now to diplomacy. Good luck!

-FMK.

[yaroslav]

Originally posted by Field Marshal Klesh
When units are given in MP though, the unit merely changes ownership and doesnt move. Thats should be okay? I really hope this part works, as it would bring tons of depth now to diplomacy. Good luck!

-FMK.

Thank you for your answer... but then How can you give units that are in a city or in a stack? Or can you only give units that are alone in a square?

[klesh]

Well I dont have too much experience with this, and actually I'm not sure if I gave you all the 'proper' info before.

You see, human to AI gifts probably work the way you are talking about, MP or SP. Its the fact that you are dealing with the AI diplomat thats the problem. With human to human diplomacy in MP, there is of course a whole seperate way of going about things. Whole different window and options within the game.

When you give a unit inside one of your cities to another human player (by this I mean someone that is actually online with you) the unit is merely ejected from the city and placed on the nearest open tile around the city. I have no idea what happens if say the entire city radius is filled... And no, one cannot trade stacks in their entirety... its all one unit at a time. I also have no idea what happens if you give a loaded ship (but not the contents) to another human player online. As the ship is going to stay put as well as the your original cargo units on the same tile I dont know who gets to use the square.

I dont really understand how you go about making these utilities. But you might want to look more at the Multiplayer human to human diplomacy mechanism, and see if you can 'hack' that into something more useable. It would be more usefull than examining the human to AI diplomacy.

-FMK.

[Henrik]

You cannot gift stacks, so the ship thing won't happen ;-)

[Cyrion]

First of all, I belong to those who believe that units trading is necessary in PBEM!

For instance, in the "Age of War" scenario, an Ottoman player could be willing (I know I was!) to buy a Battleship (which he hasn't the techs to build himself) from another (more developed) nation (who would like the money, but not to give the tech!).

Then about where the units go (I'm not sure, but I think it behaves like that):

1) if the unit is not in a city (or maybe it is city radius??): it simply changes it's nationality without being moved!

2) if it is in a city, it doesn't go to the capital, but rather to the nearest city of the correct civ! (which explains why I got battleships in landlocked cities! bad... )

So as you see, I don't believe that the "teleportation" would be such a great problem! Unless some players would trade units back and forth just to move them (not really comfy, anyway!). So it's no more a matter of trust than anything in pbem, so no problem for me!

And last: when trading cities, I would to trade the units in them with the city as well!

Thanks for your work, Yaroslav!

[Stefan Härtel]

That kind of unit support would be great.

[klesh]

Originally posted by Henrik
You cannot gift stacks, so the ship thing won't happen ;-)

Please clarify. Will the ship be traded and the land units frozen in the water, or does the game tell you outright that you cannot trade stacks. I thought you got to select from which unit in the stack?

-FMK.

[Henrik]

Stacked units does not appear in the list to pick from.

[yaroslav]

Thank you alll for your feedback. So, let' hear what you think about this proposal:

1) You can give a unit that is on a square
2) You can give ALL the unit that are on the same square (to give a stack and not only a unit)
3) You can give all the units that are in a city when you give the city...

What do you think?

[klesh]

Sounds good to me! Now, what about a window or entry field whereby you can specify the unit's home city? Now if thats the case, what about a NONE unit that is gifted to another player... would it require to be homed?

Either way I think allowing the reciever to specify which cities will home these units would be very very handy.

-FMK.

[Cyrion]

Originally posted by yaroslav
Thank you alll for your feedback. So, let' hear what you think about this proposal:

1) You can give a unit that is on a square
2) You can give ALL the unit that are on the same square (to give a stack and not only a unit)
3) You can give all the units that are in a city when you give the city...

What do you think?

Sounds perfect!

[yaroslav]

Originally posted by Field Marshal Klesh
Either way I think allowing the reciever to specify which cities will home these units would be very very handy.

-FMK.

Yes, a idea that also someone has told me about in the CFC's PBEM forum. I will try it, but I don't know if I can do it - easily