Mars 2020 development thread

[Immortal Wombat]

Just to let everyone know that my Mars 2020 colonisation scenario is still being worked on, albeit slowly, and any ideas that people have as to what I shuld put in it would be very helpful, as the first version was not really very good.

For a rundown of what the scenario entails, see here.

So anyway, <i>Update 9/7/01</i> - Implemented BlueO's city expansion into the scenario, with city-dome extensions as the suburb expansions. Goods produced there are research and much-coveted Martian produce.

I also tried to write some code to build terrin improvements for the AI, but the CreateImprovement function doesn't work, so the Ai is still bad.

Any more ideas or things you want to see in the scenario, let me know. Thanks

Ben

[hexagonian]

The initial premise was very good, and the way you had the SLIC set up was creative. One thing you need to work on is the idea that Earth will cut off supplies to any warmongering civs. I do not think in the long term that this will work for the AI - especially if the AI is prone to start skirmishes.

Are you planning on adding new techs and new units? As you know, I can assist you in the graphics end of this with the existing sprites and tga files - I now have all of the CTP1 units converted to CTP2 tgas, so if you need any, just email me. Same with the techs.

The thing you need to concentrate on is what the AI is producing in the early going, and even more importantly, make sure that the AI can build the needed tile improvements. There are a variety of ways that you can get the AI to build tile improvements - generally the AI seems to be wired to build food improvements first, so you can add a food bunus to all improvements to get them to build a particular improvement.

Make sure you use the cheat option to look at what the AIs are doing during the course of the game too.

I would also like to see if there could be any random events programmed via SLIC into the scenario. (like pop loss due to accidents that occur in the harsh Mars environment) Is this possible to do?

[Immortal Wombat]

The initial premise was very good, and the way you had the SLIC set up was creative.

, but the SLIC needs mostly a complete overhaul

One thing you need to work on is the idea that Earth will cut off supplies to any warmongering civs. I do not think in the long term that this will work for the AI - especially if the AI is prone to start skirmishes.

That is true. The AI shall/are no longer cut off from earth by war.

Are you planning on adding new techs and new units? As you know, I can assist you in the graphics end of this with the existing sprites and tga files - I now have all of the CTP1 units converted to CTP2 tgas, so if you need any, just email me. Same with the techs.

Yes I am, and thanks for the offer. If you could send me the fusion tank, space engineer, and space marine for now, I would be very grateful. Techs are mostly my own additions, for Low-G warfare and large-scale terraforming

I would also like to see if there could be any random events programmed via SLIC into the scenario. (like pop loss due to accidents that occur in the harsh Mars environment) Is this possible to do?

It is definitely possible, though I might have some difficulties with it. How often should the accidents occur? Should the risk be cumulative, can the AI take the added strain? What "accidents"? A bubble-dome bursting shouldn't be too difficult to code, say maybe a 1% chance each turn that one of your cities will lose a pop, or 1/2 its total population maybe in extreme cases. An earthquake would be harder to do, and there was a long standing project when the game was first released to try and get natural disasters into CTP2. I would be very hesitant to add in extra SLIC just for the sake of it, but the dome-bursts I will definitely consider, at least for human players.

[hexagonian]

Originally posted by Immortal Wombat
It is definitely possible, though I might have some difficulties with it. How often should the accidents occur? Should the risk be cumulative, can the AI take the added strain? What "accidents"? A bubble-dome bursting shouldn't be too difficult to code, say maybe a 1% chance each turn that one of your cities will lose a pop, or 1/2 its total population maybe in extreme cases. An earthquake would be harder to do, and there was a long standing project when the game was first released to try and get natural disasters into CTP2. I would be very hesitant to add in extra SLIC just for the sake of it, but the dome-bursts I will definitely consider, at least for human players.

The bubble dome bursting sounds fine, and having the this occuring as a random chance rather than on a set turn sounds good. A 1% chance of this occuring is a good probability.

In the same way you could program the SLIC messages to the player saying that the accident was an earthquake, a meteor strike or whatever you want. It would be nice to program the SLIC to randomly destroy tile improvements too.

[Immortal Wombat]

It would be nice to program the SLIC to randomly destroy tile improvements too.

Getting carried away now
I'll have a look into it, maybe at the weekend.

[Immortal Wombat]

Update 17/6/01 Did that catastrophe code, but it only affects the human player. 1% chance of a bubble burst, 0.1%chance of an earthquake, which will also look at 4 random tiles around the city, and destroy all the tile improvements there.

I have now done all the techs, and redone the units.
Most units available before the completion of "Mars Atmosphere" wonder have "fuel" points, to simulate the reliance on oxygen. The basic astronaut unit can only stay outside the dome for four turns. Astronauts are also very cheap, they can build, effectively by converting a pop. point to a unit. This means that, like settlers, BuildingRemovesAPop.
I am planning to do the buildings this week, and sort out the pictures for the new techs.
Most of the SLIC is done too, and hopefully it has no bugs in it. I have not encountered any so far. Now the rules are (almost) complete, I have two major challenges, the AI, and the Great Library.

I had an idea about the AI, I think the problems might lie in the starting strategies that the AI uses, so I will get rid of them, and make sure all the other civilizations are "aggressive expansionists" to give them a decent chance of winning.

The Great Library will take me ages, I have to update mostly all of the 36 units, 40ish techs and a few wonders and buildings

Its going well though, ideas still welcome.

Ben

[hexagonian]

I don't envy you on the Great Library work - thats a headache.

Are the Astronauts a military unit with the ability to build a city. If they are merely a military unit, then the AI might not be 'smart' enough to know when to stop building them, building astronauts to the point of disbanding cities.

And if you have been able to simulate disasters via slic, that is really something cool I could see a lot of uses for that, especially since all you will need to do is alter the message file and not the SLIC file.

[Immortal Wombat]

The astronauts are just military units. I'm hoping the AI won't be stupid enough to build too many of them, as it seems to understand settlers quite well.

The disasters are quite simple at the moment. What was being discussed when I found this forum was a way to get natural disasters based on terrain and volcanic activity, tsunamis on the coast etc. That would be cool .

I will test very thoroughly whether the AI can understand the astronaut concept though, and find a way to alter it.

[Immortal Wombat]

Damn you Activision
I want that *.til editor

Take a look at this Mars scenario for Civ II Now why on earth (or Mars) shouldn't I we be able to do that for CTP2?

Anyway, update: I have been through strategies.txt, and made growth top priority in almost all AI strategic states. However, I have rediscovered some bugs which prevent me from building units, so I don't know what's going on there

[Martin Gühmann]

Originally posted by Immortal Wombat
The disasters are quite simple at the moment. What was being discussed when I found this forum was a way to get natural disasters based on terrain and volcanic activity, tsunamis on the coast etc. That would be cool .

I saw an example of a sinking island caused by a vulcanic eruption in the Seven Samurai Scenario. I played it by accident, it took me only four or five hours to finish it. But it is also an example for a non civ like scenario in a civ game.

-Martin

[Immortal Wombat]

I've seen the SLIC that makes it happen

Seriously though, it is a great effect, but pretty boring to code, and takes a lot of time.
Just shows what the game can do though, that scenario was pretty fun the first 2 times I played it.