The Medieval Pack II Beta: The Gathering (Part 2)

[janilxx]

quote: Originally posted by janilxx on 04-18-2001 02:27 AM

quote: - When does militiias move with numpad(arrowkeys)? In turn 1? Or only after you get phalanx?

I tested this in my new game. Militias moved in the first turn. Right after I built my city. I used numpad keys.

quote: - How many conversations you can have in turn with the same AI? Should be 4 but there might be a bug

I managed to have at least 10 conversations with the same AI in one turn(over 4 was the same request).


I sometime ago read about invisible cities in mountains. And now I "saw" invisible city myself. I suppose that should not happen. Should it be fixed already in mod? Or should I search through the threads to find the solution?

Sometimes when there is a slaver in action the screen is centered to the target city. I saw this last yesterday when orange AI's slaver was in action in Barbarian city. Screen was centered for a few second to the barbarian city. Can that centering be disabled?

I am not sure about this but I am curious. AI finds a unit/technology from hut and then there will be a lag. In my experiences the lag happens most of the time(not alltimes) after orange AI(before green). Have you guys seen this too? Why is it allmost everytime before the green? Is the green usually the player that moves a lot and thats why he founds so many huts? Of why? I am just curious.


Jani

[MrFun]

Aaaaawww -- my connection is on ISP cable at 655k!
[This message has been edited by MrFun (edited April 21, 2001).]

[Immortal Wombat]

Wes: I will send my Battering ram to Omni, but there is no guarantee that it will go up, I don't know if he is back yet. I will mail it to you. I have the graphics for a trebuchet (thank you AOK ), but the attack animations do not go right for me, and I can't figure out the problem, so it may look a little silly.

[WesW]

Huysmans, I plan to put the pirate trigger into the mod as soon as you get it finished.
Btw, for those of you like Huysmans who only check in every few days, you need to take some time and at least read *my* posts since you left. It doesn't take all that long, and it will get you caught up on all the important events since you left. Huysmans is referring to the Elite units which I addressed a few days ago.

As for units, I would rather have a Trebuchet than a battering ram, but if you can send it to me or post it somewhere, I will be happy to take a look at it. None of the unit flags which Martin found in the exe that I have tested have worked. I have not tested the nullify or ignore city walls flags, but I did test the attack city bonus. I would have really liked to have had this one for mounted units.

I have not heard from Wouter either, so I don't know what he is doing.

The latest update replaces many of the old mod's pics, so hit "yes to all" when it asks if you want to replace them.

My apartment connection is 45k, and my parents' is 26k, so I will cry a tear or two for Jani next time I am at my parents'.

[Immortal Wombat]

Wes, do you still need a seige engine unit? You mentioned in the previous thread that Morgoth was busy. I have a battering ram sprite that looks ok unanimated because its on wheels.
Would you like to include it as a seige unit, as Martin discovered the BonusAgainstCities line in Ctp2.exe ?

[janilxx]

quote: Originally posted by Huysmans_666 on 04-20-2001 03:26 AM WES : Could you use one more slic builder..namely me ? I'm working... YES STILL working on a script for pirates and I thought maybe you could use it in the medmod ? Let me know !

Check my comment about present pirates from the older MedMod thread. I told there about pirates that are still there. And I suggested that there should be two kind of pirates, old ones and new ones. Read that post.

-Jani

[Huysmans_666]

Hi Y'all,

Been a while since my last post but I'm busy with work so excuse me

But anyways, gonna try this new update tomorrow a whole day of medmod playing...wow has it been this long ?

I read a post a while back and it struck me......indeed there are a ****load of units which you just don't get.
Like arquebusier or somethin' they didn't show up on my build queue, is it a bug or are they just not yet in the game ?

The refugee bug adds a great deal of realism to the game I think, with all your armies racing through enemy territory is bound to spawn refugees which flee to the nearest city.
Excellent work on that one !

Now for a suggestion, could there not be a script which enable the capture of enemy units, like in WW2, the germans captured like 10000 russian tanks etc.
Could there be something like a one-in-100 possibility that a unit will be captured.
I don't quit see the good for such a trigger but its reality...and that is what we are goin' for ain't it ?

Maybe it's a stupid question to ask but...has anyone heard from locutus in the last two weeks ? Where's he at ?
Is that militia trigger working or not...I hear people which it did not work, I hear people that it did work.
Has there been any improvements to the trigger since two updates ago ?

the thing that bugs me the most is that I should have all these neat units and I can't build them ...... whoohoohoo

WES : BTW : When installing the newest update winzip gives me a message that a certain sprite/tga already exists and shall be overwritten...is this OK or what ?

Dale : Is the diplomod and the withdraw script and the aircraft refuelling thing final or are you still working on that one ?

WES : Could you use one more slic builder..namely me ? I'm working... YES STILL working on a script for pirates and I thought maybe you could use it in the medmod ? Let me know !

Well gotta go...some work has to be done today ?
Shame that CTP2 can't be played on NT4.0, I have that installed at my work, then I could play all day long

[janilxx]

quote: Originally posted by WesW on 04-20-2001 01:21 AM I had no idea that people would be getting updates on floppies when they had to get the large graphics zips to begin with.

I do not have internet connection from home because I live in quite small town(75 000 residents) and this f***ing little town can not offer me fast internet connection(yet but if I will wait a few months I suppose I will get DSL connection to home). And I do not like slow modems.

So I can only use my company's internet connection to get mod updates. I burned the first big files to cd and took them home that way but now I do not want to spend money to CD-R every time you have a new update so I am using floppies.

Jani

PS. Did my floppies work at home yesterday? NO! Damn f***ing floppies! I hate them, I hate them, I hate them!


[This message has been edited by janilxx (edited April 20, 2001).]

[WesW]

I had no idea that people would be getting updates on floppies when they had to get the large graphics zips to begin with. Anyway, you will just have to use two floppies this time, due to the pics included with the texts this time.

Joseph, I don't know why you would still have the 117c pic in your files, but you need to delete it. The new pics have a corrected file in them.

The mod is being developed for play on regular-sized, or normal-sized, maps. Everyone needs to use this size for evaluating the beta. Once the public release is out, I will develop a version for huge maps.

The militia code always goes buggy on me in the classical or medieval age, so count yourself lucky if you have been making it further.

[Palpatine]

Well i reached the renaissance with the new update. No crash so far. Did you reload your modpicker?

Only the milita prob ist even worse now. Normaly they first disappeart in the industria age... . Now they are gone in the medieval age and left my citys defenseless to my enemies arg .

And the city-limit is much to low. 10 city is close to nothing on a gigant map... . 15 was a much better value in my opinion.

Palpatine
[This message has been edited by Palpatine (edited April 19, 2001).]

Downloaded the update and install it. The game crashes a lot starting around turn 30. I uninstall the game reinstalled it and it still crashes around turn 30. I set userprofile to "NO", change the Picture 117L. One crash to desktop no error message. The other were all Invalid Fault 0197:0041f86f. Maybe it is my computer? It's not a lot of fun all of a sudden, I like the game and I like the Mod, just can't play very far.

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[janilxx]

Argh... texts.zip does not fit into one floppy :-/

Could it be possible that when texts.zip does not fit into one floppy then you would make two smaller zips too for floppy copiers?

Jani

[janilxx]

quote: Originally posted by Dale on 04-18-2001 09:44 PM Really though, what's the big problem with settlers moving through your nation?

If you can make settlers not to build their cities inside of my borders or just next to my borders then I would gladly allow them to wander through my nation.

If settlers do not build cities inside my borders I suggest everyone to give your map to that AI. Then he sees that there might be too long way to cross your country and he will send his settlers to other direction. I think this helped me once(???)

Jani

[This message has been edited by janilxx (edited April 19, 2001).]

[WesW]

UPDATE ALERT: New text update posted.

This update contains all the new unit pics that Hex made for the modpack (I managed to make the Trireme pic myself). The Ctp1 Marine that I added in the last update is still included in this update, for those of you who missed the last update.

There is a whole list of things in this update. Players will have to start a new game after they install this update, so you may want to take that into account before you install.

I have added messages to tie old the orbital lab feat to public schools. I also adjusted messages to try and account for the fact that spies can sue, and the new Partisan and its abilities. I have had trouble getting these messages to work, however, so if you see messages which say "unitrecord[0].name" instead of the unit's name, let me know. I can also use some advice from you if you know why some messages work, and others don't.

I fixed the last remaining alphabetical errors in the units and tile improvements sections of the GL.

Unconventional units:
I did not realize that assassinations caused anarchy, so I have removed that ability from Partisans. I also reduced the cost of inciting revolutions by 30%.
To reply to the withdraw question- I *think* that there is a setting which keeps AIs from settling inside your borders. This means that if settlers are crossing into your territory, they are trying to get to the other side and settle there. I want to keep the exception for civilians, for the reasons Dale mentioned.

Air units:
I ran some tests, and saw that aircraft were too vulnerable to bombardment, so I have doubled their hitpoints. This may mean that dogfights will take a while, but I don't know of any other way to balance things.

Sea units:
I noticed that the flanking ability did not work right, so I removed it from ships. They should bombard correctly now.

Trade:
I have reduced the rate that goods' values decrease when you discover more of them on the map. I also doubled the coefficient of distance for trade. This should make longer routes more profitable. If they are too profitable, let me know. This should stop the way that your trade routes lose value as you explore the map.

Gedrin's Refugee trigger is in the update.

Governments:
I have made several changes to the governments. I have decreased city limits, but I also decreased the penalty for exceeding those limits. Distance penalties have been raised, making roads more important.
I raised the max science setting by 5% for ancient govs, and 10% for modern and future govs. I also decreased the production coefficient for all govs by about 10%.
This will put more science into the game and take away some production. I think this will go a long way towards balancing the game, since people have consistently reported falling behind in science and having nothing to build at times.
Here is an excerpt from the Main readme which I wrote to explain my reasons for the city changes:

"Explanation: In all previous civ games, the key to winning has been expansion. If you could create a larger empire than your neighbors, you could then out-pace them in science and productivity. I have made changes to the governments with the aim of making this tactic much harder. Historically, the greater the empire, the faster it collapsed, and it is my aim to have the game reflect this tendency. If you want to conquer the world, you will have to wait until you have the most advanced governments, then strike fast to accomplish the feat before revolts thwart your ambition."

The mod, and therefore the game, keeps getting better. If there are some gameplay options, or unconventional attacks, that you want to use but don't for some reason, report them, along with the reason (e.g.: too expensive, the success rate is too low, etc.).

Also, notice the reports that come in from people. Some say the AIs are too passive, some say they are too aggressive. One guy will say one thing, and another the exact opposite, whether they are referring to behavior or gold or production, etc. To me, this means that the game is well balanced, and that it has a high replay value. When everyone has the same complaint, like with science slowing down in the Industrial age, that is the sign that something is not right.
I am not saying that you should not report what you experience, but don't jump to the conclusion that the game is bad simply because people report difficulties mastering it.
What we all want, I believe, is an enjoyable game that is very hard to win, but fair in its rules and settings.

[Dale]

Correct. Civilians won't be withdrawn by script. This was done so diplos and settlers could move through to new hunting grounds. Really though, what's the big problem with settlers moving through your nation? They're only trying to get to a place to settle. Anyways, I have to change something else in the withdraw script, so I'll look into it.

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Rommell to a sub-commander outside Tobruk: "Those Australians are in there somewhere. But where? Let's advance and wait till they shoot, then shoot back."