Bye bye PtW

[Harovan]

I just had an idea: MP can't take more than 8 tribes, but SP can. What about having an extra SP version with LB and the Avatar being 2 powerful, but not replaceable units (like in the Ultima X save), and having been banned to the desert island of Terfin along with some of their most trusted troops (a decent army to start with) and 1-2 ships, but only one settler. The choice of the player is narrowed to one tribe only (and not 8 with different traits as in the scenario above), but we could have LB and the Avatar once more to liberate Britannia.

A lot to tinker with. But let me first think of a good tech tree and unit system. With this raw material we can have different versions.

[Harovan]

I was tempted with regicide, not with LB though, as he is not part of any of these tribes of a virtue, but stands above them. Thus, I had to have him out of the game. But the AI can't handle regicide well, so I decided against it for the sake of SP. I might add it in MP, but in this case I'd have to make 2 versions.

[Arrian]

Gotcha. I was wondering if you played around with a regicide option - killing Lord Brittish to win, that sort of thing.

-Arrian

[Harovan]

Conquest, nothing else.

Backstory is, that LB has been killed and the Guardian trapped the Avatar in the Void. Mayhem and destruction was thrown upon Britannia, the Three schools of Virtues Empath Abbey, Serpents Hold and The Lycaeum destroyed (ruins encircled with pollution, looks scary ) along with LB's castle, the Temple of the Codex, the tower of Stonegate, the Gargoyle city of Ambrosia and Lord Blackthorns castle at Terfin too. They who were once friends and companions of the Avatar, are now enemies and compete for dominance in Britannia. The Timelord gave you, valiant stranger, the opportunity to get hold of one of these tribes (your choice) with the quest to re-unite Britannia, restore the Virtues, bla, bla, bla, you get the message.

There's btw an excellent "Ultima X" scenario in the directory. It inspired me greatly, but unfortunately it's not a scenario file but a plain Civ3 1.29f savegame, so I can't tinker with it and had to make all myself.

[Arrian]

Ah. Sounds cool.

Victory conditions?

-Arrian

[Harovan]

Well, the Dungeons are cities of the particular tribe, as barb camps (even strong ones) wouldn't last long. But I have some nasty ideas with barbarians. The large unsettled areas and the "raging" settings will cause LOTS of barbs, which are brown by the way, since white is already the color of Spirituality. Foot barbs will be Swordsmen, and mounted barbs will be a special unit available at CFC, featuring a knight riding on a Velociraptor. I think I make it 3.2.2, for a challenge. Barb tribe names will be "Ophidian", "Wyrmgarde", "Gargoyle", "Goblin", "Pirate" and other evil Ultima stuff.

[Arrian]

He sure as hell is, he's just lazy to do the extra micromanaging, can't wave goodbye to his precious ancient/med wonders for growth's sake and as you mention, can't be arsed to do a CxxC spacing. Am I right, Arrian, lazy git?

In a way I can understand him, though, I seek myself an alloy of challenge and fun, that's why I never got appealed by deity (which is 90% challenge 10% fun), but don't play monarch anymore (90% fun 10% challenge).

You've summed it up at the end there. Emperor = 90% challenge (work), 10% fun. Occasionally I desire that much challenge, but most of the time I just wanna play. And C-T-T-C turns my stomach. Too damn close!

ULTIMA! Sweet!

Do you have barb camps set up as the dungeons? HARDCORE barb camps, even?

The map looks great.

-Arrian

[notyoueither]

Unmodded, the AI will place a steep premium on certain techs.

[Harovan]

Originally posted by Mountain Sage
I'm out the Ancient Age now. Germany is no. 1 in techs and growing quite well, thanks to a C-T-T-C spacing. It's been peaceful until now, except for a short war against the Babs, which netted me their land north and a GL (Pyramids).
Just note that I tried to get 6 GL with my 4 Archers, but failed miserably. I'm really no good with computers.

Looks like exactly my opening too. 1 leader (army, as all wonders were built) and 1 captured Babylonian city. I strive to keep my neighbors alive, I'm not the conquest type of players.

Now I'm trying to build Sun Tsu and Leo and possibly the Sistine. Once I get the first two, it's a massive update and a war against the English (they are no. 1 overall) and later on against the Russians.
I'm researching at 40-50 turns and still manage to be on the lead (I researched IW, then went the Monarchy path), which I find a bit strange.
Sir Ralph, did you experience the same?
And before somebody asks me, I will post the game on my 'Emperor games' thread when I finish it.

Well, yes, I did experience the same, hence my question if increasing the tech rate 25% didn't hurt the AI too much. After we got out of the Ancient age, only the English and French did any considerable research. I was at 0% all the time and looked for a good deal, but all deals were ****e. Later I had to research Republic myself, because Liz had a Monopoly on it and wouldn't trade it except for a ridiculously high price (~3..4k, rough estimation). This part of the mod surely has to be worked with.

[Harovan]

Originally posted by Theseus
"alva trap" indeed.

So we have a new thing named after one of our posters?

But I still say Arrian's ready for Emperor. Especially with granaries and a *slight* willingness to adopt tighter city spacing.

He sure as hell is, he's just lazy to do the extra micromanaging, can't wave goodbye to his precious ancient/med wonders for growth's sake and as you mention, can't be arsed to do a CxxC spacing. Am I right, Arrian, lazy git?

In a way I can understand him, though, I seek myself an alloy of challenge and fun, that's why I never got appealed by deity (which is 90% challenge 10% fun), but don't play monarch anymore (90% fun 10% challenge).

SR, when C3C comes out, let's spend a little time comparing what's new, what you've done, and the AU Mod.

I've always felt that the AI is sub-optimized on purpose, and that we should be able to modify difficulty through tweaks rather than just starting resources and conditions.

In my mod my target was to playtest some tactical changes mainly in preparation of a tactical PBEM mod. What good are new combat conditions or clever tactics in SP, if the AI doesn't use it? So my goal (increasing fun in MP) is not the same as the goal of the AU mod (improving the AI in SP) and I don't know how both can get together. But I will gladly share my experiences.

By the way, I worked hard the whole weekend, to get a new scenario together. It replays the RP epic Ultima (which I'm a big fan of). Highlights are a limited timespan from swords to muskets (and thus stretched research), no exploring (well, everyone knows the map of Britannia), no city building (each of 8 tribes has 10 prebuilt cities at the "historical" locations, settlers are disabled), and large unsettled forests, mountains and swamps for sweet warfare. Luxuries are replaced by magic reagents (mandrake root, spider silk and alike). Each tribe has an UU, additionally out of basic units with the help of these reagents can be made "magic" units, like the Blackrock Swordsman, or the Spellthrower (Archer with range 2 bombardement). Chariots and War chariots will be able to transport foot and bombardement units (and have their attack taken away).

It's designed to be replayable scenario (like a pre-set gameboard, each game will turn out different) mainly for MP (PBEM), but also playable in SP for each tribe.

It's far from completion, though. Here's a screenie of the map. It's height is stretched 200%, because the map view stretches the width (width of tiles is twice their height).

[Mountain Sage]

I'm out the Ancient Age now. Germany is no. 1 in techs and growing quite well, thanks to a C-T-T-C spacing. It's been peaceful until now, except for a short war against the Babs, which netted me their land north and a GL (Pyramids).
Just note that I tried to get 6 GL with my 4 Archers, but failed miserably. I'm really no good with computers.

Now I'm trying to build Sun Tsu and Leo and possibly the Sistine. Once I get the first two, it's a massive update and a war against the English (they are no. 1 overall) and later on against the Russians.
I'm researching at 40-50 turns and still manage to be on the lead (I researched IW, then went the Monarchy path), which I find a bit strange.
Sir Ralph, did you experience the same?
And before somebody asks me, I will post the game on my 'Emperor games' thread when I finish it.

[Theseus]

"alva trap" indeed.

But I still say Arrian's ready for Emperor. Especially with granaries and a *slight* willingness to adopt tighter city spacing.

SR, when C3C comes out, let's spend a little time comparing what's new, what you've done, and the AU Mod.

I've always felt that the AI is sub-optimized on purpose, and that we should be able to modify difficulty through tweaks rather than just starting resources and conditions.

[Harovan]

Now that's one sweet idea.

[Thoth]

Originally posted by Master Zen


Damn

you know any other sneaky way to get certain plains not be carrier-based?

Oddly enough, the "footsoldier" flag is the key to this. Set your carriers to "Carry footsoldiers only". Only aircraft that you have set to be "Foot" units will be allowed on the carriers.


I thought this was common knowledge on 'Poly, I'm certain I nicked the idea from one mod or another here.

[Yahweh Sabaoth]

Wow SR, this looks incredible. I may have to give this a go, as one of the Asians.... we'll see, we'll see. It certainly wouldn't be as exhilirating as your endless war against the Russians I'm sure but I think the other continent deserves some attention.