Dropping in to say hi and to wonder what ...

[Celestial_Dawn]

has happened in my long absence.

Mark dropped me a line regarding this Apolyton Pack he was making, and I guess the idea of having everything working in one package without having to overwrite the original CTP files as well as being fully compatible with Patch 1.2, I have to say - has certainly got me intrigued.

Would someone be kind enough to fill me in on :

1. Has anyone actually messed around with the AI files since 4.2? As in actual diplomacy improvements? Is MrBaggins still around?

As a side note, glad to see Thomas, Paul, Alex and Harlan still extremely active.

2. I've seen a whole long line of extensibility improvements or whatever u call them to my 4.2 - those of you who have tried them - are they any good? Would there be any you would recommend?

I ask because I've sufficiently intrigued to try CTP with the new patch along with gfx, maps etc on the Apolyton Pack. And I won't be writing any new mods (at least I hope not!).

So ... those who've tried out the extensions/improvements on my original model ... what's good and what would you recommend?

Sincerely yours

Celestial_Dawn

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Bill, that's not a damsel, that's a cross between a Slaver and the AI Entity! Run!!

[JimMac]

Hi CD,

And glad to have you visit, (pouring out a cool drink for you,- I hope your exams went ok.)

As you can maybe tell, it seems that once most new players to CTP realise the limitations of the release version, they still graduate to your 4.2 mod as the basis for improvements in gameplay in CTP.

I am afraid Diplomacy is still as limited as ever. The only attempt at an improvement to the AI that I have seen and tried is from Dutcheese. I played around 100 or so turns in each of a handful of games with it and it did improve the AI defence IMO. However, there were 2 features that I didn’t like so I removed it again.
1) As the AI kept more defenders in their cities, I could get all the goody huts at the beginning. The much fewer AI scouting units made for a more empty early game, and I was able to stake out all the best city spots.
2) He brought back too much gold for my liking.

It is worth having a look at this mod however, and I would be interested in your opinion of his analysis that under your mod the AI will never build the Alien project. (True enough, it has never happened in any of my games)

As for improvements that I would recommend, I have made small changes to your mod which are more issues of personal taste than definite improvements, but there is 1 very simple thing which has improved the gameplay significantly for me. That is, to increase the normal wage from 4 to 5 as suggested by TP, this makes the managing of gold (and therefore progress of your nation) more of a challenge. I am sure others will have plenty to suggest.

Hope you enjoy your time back here

JimMac

[TP]

Celestial / JimMac,


I fully agree with JimMac on every single word he wrote concerning the "Really Play CTP as it should be MOD" (I do not play with it anymore, too). In line with JimMac, I would be happy on a short statement of you whether the AI in your MOD can never ever finish the bug endgame, too.

However one additional thing to make clear how I draw gold out of the game as JimMac only told one half of the story (no offense please JimMac):

Base Wages on 5.0 (original 4.5)
Wage-Slider on 1.25 (original 1.0)

By adapting both base wages and wage-slider, there is no bias towards the relation between governments with the new numbers. To reflect lower gold income on rush-buy costs due to your MOD and my additional wage changes, I reduced rush-buy costs by 30% on wonders, by 20% on units and by 10% on improvements. Believe me, it's still very expensive as it should be.

And to make it complete, here the list of further changes besides wages/rush-buy costs I did on my personal version of your (great) MOD:

1. Diplomat and Noble both are able to steal advantages in order to give the human (or the AI) player a better chance to keep the pace in science if necessary (and the AI makes a lot of use of that... makes the game harder). Steal advantages also cost now 500 Gold instead of 2000 Gold to make this feature more attractive.

2. I have eliminated the Alpha Transporter and the Cruise Missile as the AI can not use them (and I want the AI to have the same possibilities as a human player).

3. Cyber-Ninja has a 50% success chance (original 40%) for incite revolts to make the Cyber-Ninja a bit more distinctive in comparison with the Spy (which had 40% in your MOD, too).


Regards,
TP

[This message has been edited by TP (edited September 06, 1999).]

[Celestial_Dawn]

Thanks for the replies JimMac and TP. Frankly I'm glad to see that some of you are taking the initiative to carry on where I've left off.

TP - what is the name of your mod, and would you be kind enough to perhaps place a link to it here?

Pity about Diplomacy - I guess it's as stupid as it was before then.

Re: ALP - yes it is quite possible it won't build any because of the muck arounds I did. I didn't test it all the way to ALP, I stopped at about mid-Genetic.

I read somewhere some mod extension or other actually fixed this, so you might want to take a look at that.

I might change things back too if I have a little time on my hands.

At present, I'm just going to sit back, and wait for the Apolyton pack, and then perhaps, time allowing, I will go see what I can do about the ALP as well as implementing a few other suggestions. Maybe

CD

[TP]

CD,


My "official" MOD are the PowerSLICs (currently published version 1.80), however those only refer to changes in the CTP interface (incl. bug-fixing) to create a better atmosphere and to inform players a bit more what's going on. You may download it seperately on Apolyton, however it will be included in the Apolyton Pack.

On my "unofficial" personal MOD, I don't know whether I really should post it. Reason is that I have worked everything within one huge package: Your MOD 4.2 with the above described changes, PowerSLICs (latest update), new colors (grey-scaled radar map), new fonts (no bold fonts anymore in 800x600 as I like it to be fragile), graphics for new units, part of Harlan's new city graphics (but not all) and part of his new leader graphics (but not all). Part of the interface and the GL is in German, the remaining part in English (as I speak both languages rather well, I don't care that much whether it should be completely in English or completely in German).

So it is a sort of two-language "best-of" collection which fits to my specific style and taste - which shouldn't most likely be the best solution for other players. And on top of that, it does not go along with your guidelines on updating of your MOD (which I did not understood in the early days, but now having issues with my offical PowerSLICs, I know the reason why you wrote that stuff...)

So if you are still interested, just say so and I will send you the whole package via Mail.


TP


P.S. Have read your post on another thread on the potential ALP issue with AI not able to finish it. So far, the AI has succeeded in finishing the bug 3 times in my games, in all other games I was the one finishing it (app. 10 times, all other games I either won before via conquering, or I was simply faster than the AI). If you have time to analys this, it would be a big help for everybody to stop the confusion which is currently around on this topic.

[Pintello]

Hi CD,

Long time no see. The Graphics Mod I helped Paul with works very well and even found its way into MarkG's Apollyon Pack, but then I am bias.

Timothy Pintello