Question: ADVANCE_CIVILIZATION

[Gedrin]

So I was trolling about the civctp.exe again and found this:

ADVANCE_CIVILIZATION

If one sticks it in the Advance.txt file it says unknown Advance Flag. If one puts a number after it, there is no error but it does not 'appear to affect the game'.

I was thinking it might be a way to flag an advance that only the corresponding number in in gamedata/default/civilization.txt could research but it seems not. Anyone know what it does?

[Nordicus]

Gedrin:
Hi.
I'm not sure. Where exactly did you find that? Are you trying to have a specific civ research a specific advance?

[Gedrin]

I found it while trolling through the civctp.exe file.
There are a lot of undocumented and unmentioned flags in there.

And yes I was trying to flag a civ that only one civ could research.

[Nordicus]

Hmm. I've never been in there--I've snooped around on the disk, but that's all.

Yeah, that's hard to do. You can do it with AI types, in the aips--this is from "milmany":

"ADVANCE_BRONZE_WORKING";
"ADVANCE_STONE_WORKING";
"ADVANCE_TOOLMAKING";
"ADVANCE_SHIP_BUILDING";
"ADVANCE_MINING";
"ADVANCE_MONARCHY";
"ADVANCE_RELIGION";
"ADVANCE_AGRICULTURE";
"ADVANCE_TRADE";
"ADVANCE_CITY_STATE";
"ADVANCE_BUREAUCRACY";
"ADVANCE_WRITING";
"ADVANCE_DOMESTICATION";
"ADVANCE_PHILOSOPHY";
"ADVANCE_JURISPRUDENCE";
"ADVANCE_THEOCRACY";
"ADVANCE_CLASSICAL_EDUCATION";
"ADVANCE_GUNPOWDER";
"ADVANCE_ALCHEMY";
"ADVANCE_IRON_WORKING";
"ADVANCE_GEOMETRY";
"ADVANCE_ENGINEERING";
"ADVANCE_CAVALRY_TACTICS";
"ADVANCE_STIRRUP";
"ADVANCE_MECHANICAL_CLOCK";
"ADVANCE_OPTICS";
"ADVANCE_AGRICULTURAL_REVOLUTION";
"ADVANCE_PRINTING_PRESS";
"ADVANCE_OCEAN_FARING";
"ADVANCE_HULL_MAKING";
"ADVANCE_CANNON_MAKING";
"ADVANCE_INDUSTRIAL_REVOLUTION";
"ADVANCE_MACHINE_TOOLS";
"ADVANCE_COMPUTER";
"ADVANCE_ELECTRICITY";
"ADVANCE_PHYSICS";
"ADVANCE_RAILROAD";
"ADVANCE_ECONOMICS";
"ADVANCE_NATIONALISM";
"ADVANCE_BANKING";
"ADVANCE_AGE_OF_REASON";
"ADVANCE_FASCISM";
"ADVANCE_ELECTRIFICATION";
"ADVANCE_PERSPECTIVE";
"ADVANCE_DEMOCRACY";
"ADVANCE_CORPORATION";
"ADVANCE_STEEL";
"ADVANCE_EXPLOSIVES";
"ADVANCE_OIL_REFINING";
"ADVANCE_CHEMISTRY";
"ADVANCE_MEDICINE";
"ADVANCE_ASTRONOMY";
"ADVANCE_TANK_WARFARE";
"ADVANCE_MASS_PRODUCTION";
"ADVANCE_JET_PROPULSION";
"ADVANCE_ROCKETRY";
"ADVANCE_AERODYNAMICS";
"ADVANCE_PHARMACEUTICALS";
"ADVANCE_CONSUMER_ELECTRONICS";
"ADVANCE_ROBOTICS";
"ADVANCE_GENETICS";
"ADVANCE_QUANTUM_MECHANICS";
"ADVANCE_SPACE_FLIGHT";
"ADVANCE_ENVIRONMENTALISM";
"ADVANCE_GLOBAL_COMMUNICATIONS_NETWORK";
"ADVANCE_ADVANCED_COMPOSITES";
"ADVANCE_SEA_COLONIES";
"ADVANCE_SUPERCONDUCTOR";
"ADVANCE_MULTINATIONAL_REPUBLIC";
"ADVANCE_AI_SURVEILLANCE";
"ADVANCE_SUBNEURAL_ADS";
"ADVANCE_INTELLIGENT_MATERIALS";
"ADVANCE_FUEL_CELLS";
"ADVANCE_PERSONAL_ENCRYPTION";
"ADVANCE_FUSION";
"ADVANCE_UNIFIED_FIELD_THEORY";
"ADVANCE_TECHNOCRACY";
"ADVANCE_HUMAN_CLONING";
"ADVANCE_GLOBAL_DEFENSE_INITIATIVE";
"ADVANCE_ARCOLOGIES";
"ADVANCE_SPACE_COLONIES";
"ADVANCE_GENETIC_TAILORING";
"ADVANCE_ULTRAPRESSURE_MACHINERY";
"ADVANCE_WORMHOLES";
"ADVANCE_ZERO_G_MANUFACTURING";
"ADVANCE_CRYONICS";
"ADVANCE_MIND_CONTROL";
"ADVANCE_ASTEROID_MINING";
"ADVANCE_NANOASSEMBLY";
"ADVANCE_WILDERNESS_PRESERVATION_ACT";
"ADVANCE_GAIA_THEORY";
"ADVANCE_VIRTUAL_DEMOCRACY";
"ADVANCE_CLOAKING";
"ADVANCE_ALIEN_ARCHEOLOGY";
"ADVANCE_NEURAL_SILICON_INTERFACE";
"ADVANCE_LIFE_EXTENSION";
"ADVANCE_COMMUNISM";
"ADVANCE_ECOTOPIA";
"ADVANCE_FUNDAMENTALISM";

The ones higher up take precedence over the lower ones. I've specialized all these in the new AI personality types I made (should be ready after Awesome Aips is done). So, the only way I know to do that is to make an aip for each individual civ(!)--or like I want to, make a generic type for multiple civs (for example: democrat.aip will be used with civs like England, USA, et cetera, for a WWII scenario, so that no other civs can research their tech). But stealing tech...I don't know. If units are missing from the aips' build lists, then there shouldn't be any problem.


Someone told me the other day about your ideas for reducing costs of units, which is funny because I did that with air units to see if the AI would put forth some sort of air attack that might just induce fear rather than laughter. Most air units are too expensive, IMO.
How much playtesting have you done with these changes?

[Gedrin]

I'm in the late 1800's in my first game.
I found it much harder than usual in the earlier years. As I mentioned I got attacked by much larger stacks. I find it just as easy to wage an offensive war, however retaliation does seem somewhat more difficlut to deal with. Still I dispatched the Greeks with ease. Once a civ's back is broken they cannot field a real force.

Trouble is I've made a number of other mods too, including a new tech Human Rights Movement. I moved the Emancipation Act to there (and yes updated all AIP's to account for it). The biggest diff is that I cannot wage war and continue to grow my empire. Mostly because my main military is cavalry, cannons and muskets which are not special forces so I must go to at war status. When I do that my standing defense costs of muskets shoot up to 60-70% of my output. Heap on top of that the pollution problems of the industrial revolution and I'm having a hell of a time just hanging on to my cities. 'Tis the bane of the slaver's existance, sure your population increases rapidly but so does your pollution and therefore the happiness drops and slaves are not very good entertainers... Bam... they go form a new civ.

Course my only real rival, Brazil... well he imploded due to pollution. 3/4 of his cities revolted to barbarians but Rome shall not fall this time.

[Nordicus]

Well, that's some healthy optimism there

Yeah, we had to deal with unreal pollution--I mean, insanely absurd, or absurdly insane. Either way, massive chunks of the world were sinking fast. So, on my big azz map, I had to take extra precautions. Haven't gotten into the industrial age yet, so....
I think pollution is normal, realistic, and sometimes inevitable, but only if it comes from accurate sources. So, I made the AI more agreeable (in certain circumstances, of course--it's not, for example, going to agree it it's at war, it can't afford that) to reduce pollution agreements and Ecopacts as well, moreso with peaceful types naturally. We also had to raise the threshold at which a civ will revolt from pollution--I raised mine very high in my own games, for my map. Personally, this makes not much sense to me--looking at massive disasters: did the western coast of the US incite a civil war after the Exxon incident? Or even Chernobyl.
I think it would take some extreme pollution, unchecked for decades, to seriously disrupt most nations' citizens. But maybe that's just me.

Anyway, I think that with lowered costs for units, not just air units in my game, along with Awesome Aips, the AI just might be able to fight with some half-assed conviction and intelligence. I mean, it can when conditions prevail and it cheats, but I'd like to see the stacking along with "smarter" use of the stacking, if possible. Generally, I have seen that with our files, if the AI has the units to stack, it can really run amok if you're not prepared--a while back, using my old strategy of buttering up an AI with gold and tech to gain an alliance so I could get them to attack my enemy, who were closer, I forgot I had changed the AIs' reaction, making them very difficult to win over; anyway, that civ (China) did ally, wipe out the civ I wanted them to, but that heart on their face didn't last long when they pulled ahead of me in tech, and being "warmany," built up a massive army and didn't like it when I demanded some tech for all the goodies I gave them....To shorten the story, I got whacked and had to quit to save my ego.
"hot_war_prep" is what they went into and gathered their army, and they did that for a long time, and were able to do it with the tech I gave them and money, so by the time they turned on me, they had over a dozen stacks of 7-8 and a couple 9--they conquered me with the army I paid for!

Anyway, had the cost for units been lower, I really would have gotten a sh*t-kicking--but I quit when I was down to my last three cities. So, I didn't lose technically. So, if you're interested, after the release of Awesome Aips, very soon, I'd like to see what you've been doing. There's a few guys with interesting ideas that, combined, might just make this AI really scary.

Anywho, enough blabbering. Let me know.
(Made your own wonders too?)

Later.

N.