Limiters

[Bluevoss]

All,

Has there been any work on game ballence limitations? Right now, it seems that once you start to run away with it, there is little that the computer can do. Some possibilities for consideration:

1) How do you drop the max cities per gov type? I figure that half (or even more) would be pretty fun - in my games, I usually don't come close. What happens when you break this value?

2) The BEST CASE solution would be some slik code that would look at your point lead (if you take first place) and begin adding a negative to eacy city's unrest (or just raise the riot level). This would mean that as you pulled ahead, you would have to put more emphisis (entertainers, buildings, tax/food/workday rates) into cities to keep them from rioting. And with the riot fluxing becuase of your points, it would be possible to fall into a riot state without seeing it coming.

3) Another idea would be to tie the other races deplomacy to your lead. The furhter ahead you are, the more they don't like you . I dunno how effective this is- I still haven't been really challenged by an AI attack yet (playing a mid-range MedMod2.0 game right now).

Any other ideas on this?

Bluevoss-

[Lou Wigman]

There's some SLIC code by IMMORTAL WOMBAT which combines AI civs when the human starts to pull ahead. I haven't had time to test it yet. I don't think anyone has. Work in Progress I guess.

[Dale]

Bluevoss:

Try the World At War MOD. The AI starts with exactly the same as you (one tech and a couple of units) but it's bloody hard to get in front of the AI, let alone catch up!

[Pedrunn]

Welcome back BlueVoss where have you been?
I thoght you had left us for good?

1) ctp2_data/default/gamedat/govern.txt
Jut alter the line

MaxCityThrereshold

[Immortal Wombat]

Lou, I was forced to halt for a while, as I couldn't find a way to store all the unit positions in an array while they were changing owners

[Bluevoss]

Been "Down the Pike" for a bit. Ended up screwing around a little with Civ3 but it really didnt spark anything for me. I've also been working on a novel - the story of Elisha, a Tyrian Princess in 820BC (the founder of Carthage). I've been heavy into research and writing, and have drifted away from games for a bit. I've been on a bit of a break from it, but its time to pick up the story again.

I keep finding myself drifting back to CTP2 - I like the graphics and interface, and love the map generation. So its good to see that work is still going on. The game has such potential.

Got another question - there was a way to force the computer to put lots and lots of races into the game. I did it 6 months ago (had 14 races selected when I started my current game). As I recall, it was set in a file someplace. Anyone remember where? This time, I'll put it in a readme.

Bluevoss-

PS - Just took a city last night after a long battle and was given the choice to destroy it or keep it. Does this happen for any size city? I gotta admit that this is a GREAT addition. In reading about the Hittites and such, destroying a city was a very common occurance. The fact that I can raid into enemy lands and totally destroy their cities (rather than the loooong process of starving them down to nothing while selling off their improvements) is a good thing. Thats, Wes!

[hexagonian]

Go into userprofile.txt and change the
NumPlayer=x
(x is number of civs in the game - the max is either 28 or 32)

Also, you can change the
MaxPlayer=x
(x is maximum number of civs in the game) in that file to something greater than the NumPlayer number (I usually use 6 greater) This will allow cities that revolt to form splinter civs. Please note that you will get pollution messages from time to time warning of global disasters. These messages mean nothing, and they cannot be removed.

After doing this, when you start a game, do not adjust the number setting in the menu where you set up your game parameters.

The coding you referred to about razing cities is a nice one to have. It's also part of 'Cradle' - Martin is the creator of it.

[Bluevoss]

Hex,

Thanks for the info. Thats one thing I love about CTP2 - the ability to put a mess of races in there. Really, early civs rubbed against each other a lot. Since I'm an ancient's fanatic, I really like the thought of spearmen getting run down by chariots. Its so BCish.

I was so pissed when I watched the movie "The Color Purple". I thougth it was going to be about the Phoenicians.

BTW, whats the upper limit to the number of races?

Bluevoss-

[Pedrunn]

Originally posted by Bluevoss
BTW, whats the upper limit to the number of races?

32,
But for every civ you add the end turn will be slower.
Once i played 24 races, but when reached reinassaince age the civs were big and the end turns used to take about 5 minutes to start a new one.
I ended up finishishing the game for lack of patient

[hexagonian]

Originally posted by Bluevoss
I'm an ancient's fanatic, I really like the thought of spearmen getting run down by chariots. Its so BCish.

You have to play Cradle then - currently at 450 turns, I'm at 0 AD with the tech tree lining up nicely with the timeline.

..in a tight battle for 7th place on the power graph too

[TheArsenal]

Speaking of which. Currently, I am playing with 11 civs. One of the things I'm finding is that after I establish an Embassy, not all of the civs are showing up in the screen which shows advances. This hasn't bothered me, as the ones not being shown are lesser in science, and I can guess their rate by using the power chart, but it still would be nice to see. Is this common? Is there a way to fix this?

[hexagonian]

There is a limit of having 8 civs on the comparison screen. There is no way to alter this, as this seems to be hardcoded.

However, you can see what advances you can give/exchange to any civ in the diplomacy menu when you have an embassy with them, and see what they have to give to you. Not ideal, but it works.

[TheArsenal]

Originally posted by hexagonian
There is a limit of having 8 civs on the comparison screen. There is no way to alter this, as this seems to be hardcoded.

However, you can see what advances you can give/exchange to any civ in the diplomacy menu when you have an embassy with them, and see what they have to give to you. Not ideal, but it works.

Not ideal, but a good simple solution, thanks. As I rarely use the diplomacy screen to give away advances and I have *never* gotten a civ to give me an advance (speaks to my diplomacy style, I guess) I would haven't thought to do it this way.

[Pedrunn]

Originally posted by hexagonian
There is a limit of having 8 civs on the comparison screen. There is no way to alter this, as this seems to be hardcoded.

Actually we could probably change it through the ui_data files. But this will need a lot of effort to find the correct file and dicover how to change it without messing out the game.

[Locutus]

Originally posted by Immortal Wombat
Lou, I was forced to halt for a while, as I couldn't find a way to store all the unit positions in an array while they were changing owners

Huh? Why? How hard can it be? Combine a location array, an unittype array, a hitpoint and a veteran toggle array... Index uniquely determines unit...