Cradle 1.2

[Immortal Wombat]

Shadow, try here

The SLC files go in the ctp2_data/default/gamedata directory, but you have to put a line in script.slc to include them. Details should be in the top of the slic file. Open it with wordpad or something.

[Martin Gühmann]

Immortal Wombat already posted the Cradle fix slic files on his homepage (the link: http://www.weaver1.btinternet.co.uk/CradleFixes.zip ), see his earlier post. The forts for AIs code shouldn't be needed for the Cradle setup as there is also a Cradle compartible version in CRADLE Deity Slayer (AI SLIC boosts). You can also install it into the standart version just open the CRAI_FortsForAIs.slc, for further instructions just open that file with any texteditor like notpad, (as IW already said). For the two files on IW's homepage just unzip them into your ..\ctp2_data\default\gamedata directory.

-Martin

[stankarp]

I have a problem. Its about 800 BC, gigantic map, 14 civs (and 4 extra for revolts), very hard and lots of Barbs. Every now and then when i try to save the game crashes back to desktop. It happened a few times since 1000 BC.

One thing was very disappointed with CTP2 compared with CTP1 was that there was no chance to acquire advances when capturing enemy cities. I really missed that.

Any chance of introducing that to cradle ?

[Martin Gühmann]

Originnally posted by stankarp
One thing was very disappointed with CTP2 compared with CTP1 was that there was no chance to acquire advances when capturing enemy cities. I really missed that. Any chance of introducing that to cradle ?

Open the CRA_const.txt in your ..\ctp2_data\default\gamedata\ folder with any editor (e.g. notepad), and search in the file for these lines:

CAPTURE_CITY_ADVANCE_CHANCE 0.33 # chance of gaining an advance when capturing a city (assuming they have advances you don't)

Change the value there to 1.00 and you should gain an advance whenever you capture a city and your opponent has an advance you don't have. By the way in the original game there was a chance of 50% like in CTP1 but unlike in CTP1 it was less probably that the AI had advances that you didn't have.

-Martin

[hexagonian]

I'm wondering if the crashes that are happening are due to the adjustments in userprofile.txt, specifically the MaxPlayer setting.

The 1.3 Beta changes are merely numerical balances in the text files and numerical adjustments in both the disaster/updater SLIC code. And I was getting crashes to the desktop with adjusted MaxPlayer numbers pre-1.3 Beta, when I tried to save the gamefile from time to time.

Autosave helps in this matter, but its a very imperfect solution.

[hexagonian]

Taking a page from EU2, I have created a set of Modswapper gamefiles, with different ending times (from 600-1000 turns) - also included are some newly-defined Victory options based on the Science Victory setup in the default game.

Below is the readme file for the newly created Cradle Victory options. Each option is part of a separate Modswapper setup.

--------------------------------------------

CRADLE - Birth of an Empire (600 Turns)
You must have the following to succeed
Appian Way Wonder (enable advance Bureaucracy)
20 Theatres (enable advance Drama)
20 Arenas (enable advance Civic Engineering)
20 Courthouses (enable advance Jurisprudence)
20 Forums (enable advance Ethics)
60% Coverage of the world with Obelisk Tile Improvement (enable advance Civic Engineering)

Maintain your Empire for 30 turns.

In addition, the Coliseum Wonder has been changed to give a (+1) Empire Happiness, instead of a free Arena for every city.


CRADLE - Global Empire (800 Turns)
You must have the following to succeed
Voyage of Columbus Wonder (enable advance Nationalism)
30 Governorships (enable advance Nationalism)
30 Manufactories (enable advance Nationalism)
70% Coverage of the world with Colony Tile Improvement (enable advance Nationalism)

Maintain your Empire for 40 turns.


CRADLE - SETI Colony (1000 Turns)
You must have the following to succeed
Icarus Project Wonder (enable advance Computer)
20 Command Centers (enable advance Computer)
40 Think Tanks (enable advance Computer)
70% Coverage of the world with Satellite Relay Stations Tile Improvement (enable advance Computer)

Have everything in place - it will take 75 turns to fly to Alpha Centauri.

--------------------------------------------

Having never tried the Science Victory option in the game - and hearing that it was rather easy, I tried to make it harder by increasing all requirements. For those who have done the Science Victory, you may want to tweak the various CRA_endgameobjects.txt files to make it harder or easier - plus make adjustments in the ending year of the game in the various CRA_Const.txt. file.

One thing though...
My computer is down at home, so I have no way to test these files. What I need is for somebody who is willing to download the attachment, unzip it, and launch each of the following setups through Modswapper...

CRADLE - Birth of an Empire (600 Turns)
CRADLE - Global Empire (800 Turns)
CRADLE - SETI Colony (1000 Turns)
CRADLE - 1.3 Beta

...and then report back if you did/did not have problems. Be sure to check over the Great Library entries for the above affected changes too (buildings, tile improvements, wonders and so forth)

(Be aware that there are some file overwrites to the CRADLE 1.3 Beta too...)

Anyhow, the files are located at this location

[Immortal Wombat]

Sounds impressive Dave, I'm downloading now

Is there any way of putting all the victories in one game option, and then having each one only working for a set period? Then if you blow it, you can go for the next one.

[hexagonian]

Ben,

As far as I could tell, there was no way to put multiple science victories in the game. The Science victory is structured to build 2 Buildings, a Wonder, and the Obelisk tile improvement. (although I was able to add additional buildings to my requirement by placing a prereq. building for the ones that the endgame required.)

The question that I have concerns that the default game victory condition is enabled by the same advance for all elements that you need to build. For the first setup (600 turn) I changed the prereq. requirements of the buildings to different advances. So what will happen if a player builds the Appian Way wonder, which allows all other civs the ability to start in on the remainder of the Science Victory themselves? Does it grant the advance (Bureaucracy) to all other civs so they should be able to start building the remaining elements themselves? However, the reamining building reqiurements are different advances.

Also, I'm hoping that the game is not hardcoded to grant the remaining civs the GAIA_CONTROLLER advance, because then I have to restructure my work on this. I did not see anything in any files to reflect this though. Could you take a quick look at the files on your CTP2 setup to see if there is anything in the default SLIC files or in any of the endgame-related files.

I believe it will still be hard to get the Science victory in my setup without having to compete against rival AI civs who also are building the Science victory option themselves.

I just realized that the zipped file also overwrites some files from the 12/19 Update too. So this may force everyone in your soon-to-be-started succession game to make sure they have the same files too.

[Immortal Wombat]

I'll add it as a separate mod anyway, without any overwrites.

I was thinking, it should be possible to grant multiple endgames, using SLIC to check the building and wonder routines, and just have the obelisks done by file. Then everytime the victory fails, just scan the map for obelisks and remove them all.

If you wanted...

[child of Thor]

On the home Apolyton page near the section that has a link to WeS's Med Mod site is a link for 'Cradle of civilisation' i hadn't noticed it before but was thinking it could be confusing for new people looking for Hex's 'Craddle' mod for CTP2. Is this a new link and has anyone noticed this? I hope this isn't a really old thing - i couldn't find mention of it.

[Hermann the Lombard]

Cradle 1.3 quake bug

Cradle 1.3 BETA: Twice now there have been reports of distant earthquakes. All seems well up on the screen, but down under Msgs the "normal' earthquake message is accompanied by two others in the form "A quake happened at x=, y=, the Nearest City is Abydos, Ri" Onscreen, the report was "Force 2." Also, at the time it happens I can't delete the two spurious messages by right clicking (nothing happens). They go away, probably when I end the turn again.

Also, I have found several GL problems with erroneous pre-requisites and links that go to the wrong unit. Horse Archer is MIA in the GL (and Horse Archer links go to Spearman Militia).

Umm...should we start a Cradle 1.3 thread instead of appending this to the 1.2 thread?

[Immortal Wombat]

Originally posted by child of Thor
Is this a new link and has anyone noticed this? I hope this isn't a really old thing - i couldn't find mention of it.

Its an old Civ2 site, scenarios and such. I think its not very busy these days.

Originally posted by Hermann the Lombard
Cradle 1.3 BETA: Twice now there have been reports of distant earthquakes. All seems well up on the screen, but down under Msgs the "normal' earthquake message is accompanied by two others in the form "A quake happened at x=, y=, the Nearest City is Abydos, Ri" Onscreen, the report was "Force 2." Also, at the time it happens I can't delete the two spurious messages by right clicking (nothing happens). They go away, probably when I end the turn again.

Off the top of my head (I'll check the files at home later...) I think you need to open CRA_disasters.slc, and find the line that should look something like message(ND_HUMAN, 'test_message') or 'debug_message' or something, and remove it (delete it, or put // at the start of the line. Its an old messagebox that I thought had been removed before, or that it would never come up.
I'll fix it this evening.

[hexagonian]

Re: Cradle 1.3 quake bug

Originally posted by Hermann the Lombard
Also, I have found several GL problems with erroneous pre-requisites and links that go to the wrong unit. Horse Archer is MIA in the GL (and Horse Archer links go to Spearman Militia).

Umm...should we start a Cradle 1.3 thread instead of appending this to the 1.2 thread?

Check under 'Mounted Archer' - that is the name of the unit (at least I think that is the unit that you are referring to) I checked the Great Library info and it seems to be correct.

Where is the link in your game that is plugging you into the Spearman Militia?

I do plan on starting an official 1.3 Beta Thread (that will hopefully be topped) once I can finalize the Victory options setup. This thread can then be dropped (though I will provide a link for this current thread in the new thread)

Ben,
Did the files load correctly...?

I really like the 3 setups as they are structured (historically, they all make sense) and to merge them into one game would be nice. What you will have to do is to SLIC in a turn deadline for each victory option.

Some questions and comments...

1. One of the features that is so nice in EU2 is there are a number of setups that allow you to play the game anywhere from 100-400 years. A player can choose to play for 100 years, for example, and have a clear cut objective to reach in the game. What I tried to do in my setups is simulate this - so a player can play a 600-turn game with a clearly-defined goal. Currently the game does have a multiple ending option too. (diplomacy/conquest/science/hi-score)

The question I have regards the AI's ability to do one of the options. I believe the CTP2 AI is not structured to attempt any of the options other than hi-score. (Has anyone ever seen the AI accomplish a science victory?) If the AI can't handle the attempt, then what you want to accomplish should work, and could make for a very interesting game - (BTW, the science-style options are expensive, and lead along parts of the tech tree that are usually the last to be researched).

It should be very easy to stop the AI from accomplishing the Science victory option in my setup because of the time factor involved in maintaining all the pieces (30 turns in the first option) Simply go out and pillage a few obelisks and attack AI cities to allow the DestroyBuilding SLIC code to kick in...So, in reality, I do not want the AI to focus on that strategy in the game.

At this point in time, I'm wondering how the AI will counter the human player, if he is attempting the Science-style victory - this is what needs to be tested.

I have no idea how easy or difficult it would be for the human player to accomplish any of the Victory options as I have them set up, so until they are played through and evaluated, the SLIC file can be set up but not really effectively tested. Long term, this is something that can be approached though.

And if we can get some reports on how the modpack setups are working, it would help tremendously to see this come about.

I still plan on retaining the 3 modpack options, because these give the option of a very structured and focused game.

[Greyhawk]

Help with increasing civs

I've been playing Cradle now since I came back to CTP2 after giving up on Civ3. The only thing good there is the culture aspect. It is just not very complex and too easy to get advances. Anyway, I love Cradle. Thanks to all. One question I've got, though. I can't remember how to increase the number of civs in a game. I changed the userprofile to 21 civs to give me some extra room above the 16 that I want, but when I start a game it defaults to 20 civs (I know, + barbs), and I try to change it to 16 civs and I can only change it to 8 or less. What the heck am I forgetting?

Thanks in advance!

[hexagonian]

In Userprofile.txt
change NumPlayer to 17 (16 + human player)
This establishes the starting number of civs in your game

Change MaxPlayer to 20 or more (revolting barb cities will become new civs)

Once you have changed the userprofile settings, do not attempt to set the number in your options box when setting up the game. They will default back to 8.