PowerSLICs 1.6 - Changes to 1.5: Few cosmetic things + English Translation

[Big Dave]

TP,
One thing I'd really like to see is a button on the "AI has tresspassed AGAIN!" messages that requests that the AI stop tresspassing. What I'd like this button to do is request that the offending civilization stop tresspassing. This would replace the 10 (count 'em, 10!!!!) mouse clicks that making this request normally takes.

Thanks a bunch for considering this.

[Big Dave]

Thanks for looking into that for me, TP. Too bad it couldn't be done, but thanks for making the effort.

[JimMac]

TP,

Thanks for your recent message concerning your views on gameplay in CTP., and your suggestion of an E-mail game after the patches come out. Yes, I would happily agree to such a game, as it should be both fun, and an enjoyable challenge.

I agree we should standardise on CDs mod and your Mod (Hmmm does this give you an advantage??

I have altered slightly a few of CDs changes. I think that they improve gameplay, but you/others may feel that this is just a matter of taste;-
-Democracy was too expensive for its benefits compared to comparable governments,
-Monarchy’s martial law affects are too strong compared to subsequent governments,
-he “forgot” to increase the value of Giant Squid,
-he made archers range attack and cavalries defence too strong,
-interceptors shouldn’t have bombard, (otherwise why build bombers), and he reduced bombers range too much,
-some other changes in unit values in an attempt to give overly powerful units some weakness or disadvantage.

Having said all that, I would be happy to play with the standard CD mod.

Regarding the AI cheating, I agree that you should not make the game easier, but wouldn’t it be good if the AI played smarter so that it didn’t need such a head start?

Sometimes it does really silly things;-
-Fortifying units outside its city, while inside its city it may have only 1 or in some cases no units.
-moving a land unit with the bombard capability and then trying to bombard.
-when my army barely survives a battle and takes an AI city, the units the AI had been bringing for support (which could easily beat my by now weakened army) do not attack, but instead run away!

Surely for the Activision programmers, such things should not be hard to fix.

I like your idea of allowing diplomats the ability to steal technology, this is a much better way of allowing weaker players to come back into the game, than Activisions idea of having the same unit HP/FP points.

Looking forward to a good E-mail game.

JimMac

P.S. A suggestion for your PowerSLIC 2.0 MOD, if you do an English language version,,-it would be useful for us lazy people if you included a replacement Script.slc, rather than the present cut and paste, and delete the bits you don’t need method.
P.P.S
Not that I want to raise the matter again, but I cant vote for your mod at this site yet!



[This message has been edited by JimMac (edited August 11, 1999).]

[LittleWing]

You've made a real nice job TP, thanks.

The only annoyed thing is that, in late game, I have dozens of "our unit have spotted an bombarding ennemy unit".

As there's a lot of bombarding units, and units with great see range (spy, interceptors...), these messages are too much frequent IMO. Maybe these warning messages should only appears if the ennemy units is adjacent to one of my units.

[TP]

JimMac,


Yes you are right - it's a matter of personal taste. I propose to do the following: As soon as patch 1.2 is out, let's exchange a small Word document which tells of the changes each one of us has made based on CD's MOD 4.2. Then one day later, we can chat (via ICQ for example) on the changes we both agree on and further general rules for the game. Last step is to come up with a MOD which we both like and install it on our machines... and then we'll see what this leads to :-)

I am really looking forward to this !

Oh, by the way I just can confirm that stealing of advances works now for Nobles and Diplomats as well (including lowered cost of 500 Gold per action). And I can hereby also confirm that the AI knows how to use that as well... one of the tiniest enemies in my latest game just sent out a bunch of nobles to go advance-shopping in my cities. I loved it !

On AI cheating you are right - however I do not think that I am good enough in programming (especially in that weird way the AI is defined). Therefore I won't be able to make the AI smarter. Sad but true.

Finally on your request for an easier installation of PowerSLICs: Yes I know that the current solution is not very appealing, so I will think about a way how to make a small installation program. Do you know any shareware/freeware software which allows to write installation scripts ?


TP

[This message has been edited by TP (edited August 21, 1999).]

[TP]

All,


I noticed that my MOD is now uploaded at Apolyton (Mark&Dan, thanks !). Also I saw that the download section has a link to this thread. So let me use this message to give you one more tip here as a kind of "extended readme" file:

If you do not like some of the changes I made (for example the warning on bombard-able units being spotted), just simply go into the "INSERT INTO script.slc" file and outcomment the parts you do not like by putting // in front of the code. I tried to make the code easy readable, i.e. I commented each new section with a few words. Just outcomment the whole section untill a new section begins - no other changes in any more files are required if you want to get rid of a specific unliked feature although I hope there are none of them in PowerSLICs :-)

So see you with a new major version after patch 1.2 is out ! Have fun with the current version - constructive feedback is always appreciated here.


TP

[TP]

All,


I am a damn lier. I stated there would be no more version before patch 1.2 German is out which is not true :-)

As you can imagine, PowerSLICs is a very dynamic project and I am constantly working to make it a little bit better. So I decided to share my personal version 1.7 with you. However it is only a small little tiny neglible minor update with two or three new features I already described above to make the thing complete for now:

1. I eliminated the warning on bombarding-capable units spotted as those messages come ways too often in later game phases. Instead I finally managed to implement an "EyeIcon" in the messages when you got bombarded. This icon will allow you to zoom the map to the place where the bombarding took place. This is the main reason why I am sending this to you as I have been missing that feature personally and thus was forced to go through the whole map if I wanted to find the bad bombarding guy.

2. Added City growth messages including information on city's current happiness level. Message has its own messageicon.

3. When downloading advances from the Internet or getting them via Edison's Lab, you will now be able to directly proceed to the corresponding Great Library page. Finally, even better synchronizing of messages with war animations.

It's downloadable at http://www.civnation.com. Maybe Mark/Dan will update it here too, but as it is only a small update, it may be not the effort for you Apolyton guys. In case somebody downloads it, please rate it here so I can get a feeling how attractive (or dull) PowerSLICs is for you. Thanks a lot.


TP

[MarkG]

I would have put it up yesterday, but I was playing ctp

btw, I've installed your mod, and it's great! But the installation should be easier(specifically the scripts.slc)

the television message is hilarious

[TP]

MarkG,

You are right with the installation. I am currently in the process to find a way to make installation very easy for the next major version (but with no big success so far).

Problem is that I want not to give a full SCRIPT.SLC file to players as then they would loose changes from other MODs (e.g. Dutcheese's one). Same is true for the INFO_STR.TXT file. Tricky thing, maybe I'll find a solution.

TP

[MarkG]

why not supply both: a scripts.slc with only your changes and your changes alone(as you have it now) for those who havent applied any other mods

[TP]

MarkG,

Very good idea. Version 1.71 (same benefits, but including a full script.slc file plus new installation instructions) is already in your and Dan's mailbox.

TP

[JimMac]

Now that I got to have

The Powerslic is a great little mod, - the ranking updates are the best! However I think that I must have made some error installing it, as I dont get the "building complete" voice and I sometimes get some messages in german. (What does "Staaliche Bautrupps" mean anyway?)

So a new slic install would be very much appreciated.

JimMac

[MarkG]

1.71 version posted
http://apolyton.net/cgi-bin/ctp/files/download.pl?id=43


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Markos, Apolyton Civilization Site
"I would recommend that I should not be banned until I say so"

[JimMac]

Wow! That was fast work Markos.

Thanks.
Take the rest of the day off.

JimMac

[MarkG]

yeah, I'm fast some days....

what rest of the day? do you know what time it is now in Greece


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Markos, Apolyton Civilization Site
"I would recommend that I should not be banned until I say so"