cowboys

[EKM]

If you've looked around in the units.txt you've probably seen the cattle unit. If you rem the can't_build line with a # aking it #can't_build then you can build cows that will add 5 food to the tiles they are standing on. If this is all you do you will be getting cows named 021. Also in the file you'll see reference to rustling although it is not currently implemented in the game.

Now my questions to those of you tinkering with the units. Have you been able to succesfully get cattle rustling into the game? Also have you ever gotten the AI to build cattle?

EKM

[Nordicus]

Hey, EKM, how's it going?

Cows? I've actually never seen one in the game. I've seen it mentioned in the text, but I assumed it was something "they" cut.
Honestly, I have no idea.
But I have seen in the AI files the build option for it (0.01, I think, very weird). Have to check that later.

Anyone else know about this cow thing?

Oh, EKM, I have another bunch of files if you want. In a couple days, with more changes, it should be v.1.12 or 1.13. But I'll send them when there ready.

Later.

N.

[Slax]

The cow unit which did exactly what you said - add 5 food to a tile it is on - was cut from the game during play balancing (they did play balancing?). There is a cow mod in the Download section which brings them back, but I have never tried it. I think it was unablanced because a player could create masses of cows. But I don't know for sure. Do a search, the topic of the cow unit has come up many times, especially early on.

[EKM]

Checked out all the old cow posts in the search section seeking "cow" in the subject. Also tried the cow mod. All it did was what I could already do enable the building of cows after the domestication advance. "They" cut it because of some play balance issue. The only real issue would be that rustling was not implemented. Even if you can build a lot of cows and make planty of excess food your still paying unit support and anyone should be able to steal your cows. Of course it never got that far.

EKM

[Nordicus]

EKM:
I've never used it--how did the cow mod work in your game? Seems like a waste not being able to use it.
As far as swiping cattle from other civs, I'm not sure.

UNIT_CATTLE {
SHIELD_COST 135
POWER_POINTS 100
MAX_HP 1
ATTACK 0
DEFENSE 10
FIREPOWER 2
ZB_RANGE_ATTACK 0

BATTLEFIELD_RANGE 0
BATTLEFIELD_RADIUS 1

VISION_RANGE 1

ACTIVE_DEFENSE_RANGE 0
ELECTRONIC_COMBAT_FACTOR 0

MAX_MOVEMENT 100
FUEL 0

SHIELD_HUNGER 3
FOOD_HUNGER 0

DEFAULT_SPRITE SPRITE_CATTLE
DEFAULT_ICON ICON_UNIT_CATTLE
DESCRIPTION DESCRIPTION_UNIT_CATTLE
# #id string of the default sprite

SOUND_SELECT1 SOUND_SELECT1_CATTLE
SOUND_SELECT2 SOUND_SELECT2_CATTLE
SOUND_MOVE SOUND_MOVE_CATTLE
SOUND_ACKNOWLEDGE SOUND_ACKNOWLEDGE_CATTLE
SOUND_CANTMOVE SOUND_CANTMOVE_CATTLE
SOUND_ATTACK SOUND_ATTACK_CATTLE
SOUND_WORK SOUND_WORK_CATTLE
SOUND_VICTORY SOUND_VICTORY_CATTLE
SOUND_DEATH SOUND_DEATH_CATTLE
ENABLING_ADVANCE ADVANCE_DOMESTICATION
OBSOLETE_ADVANCE NULL

############## special flags #############################
MOVEMENT_TYPE_LAND
LOSS_MOVE_TO_DMG_NONE
SIZE_SMALL

CANT_CAPTURE_CITY

VISIBILITY_CLASS_0

VISIBILITY_CAN_SEE_0


CANT_ENTRENCH
CANT_PATROL
IS_SPECIAL_FORCES
HAS_NO_ZOC
BONUS_FOOD 5


NO_INDEX

CANT_BUILD
CAN_BE_RUSTLED
CHEAT_INDEX 6
}

### UNIT DONE4 ###

There is a CAN_BE_RUSTLED option. But that doesn't seem to work. All I can think of giving it settler qualities:

SLAVE_RAIDS 0.75 0.5 2 4 SOUND_ID_SLAVE_RAIDS SPECEFFECT_SLAVE_RAIDS
SETTLER_SLAVE_RAIDS SOUND_ID_SETTLER_SLAVE_RAIDS SPECEFFECT_SETTLER_SLAVE_RAIDS
VICTORY_ENSLAVEMENT

but this turns cows into slaves...pretty stupid.
Unless someone can add cattle or cow to the pop file, like this

POP_SLAVE
{
HUNGER 5
BONUS_SHIELD 0
BONUS_FOOD 0
BONUS_TRADE 0
BONUS_GOLD 0
BONUS_LUXURY 0
BONUS_SCIENCE 0
SHIELD_COST 0
KILL_PREF 90
TYPE_PREF 100
MIN_SIZE -1
MAX_SIZE -1
IMPROVEMENT NULL
#flags
CAN_WORK_FIELDS
IS_UNPAID
IS_SLAVE
ADD_HAPPY_ADJUST 0 0
REMOVE_HAPPY_ADJUST 0 0
}

### POP DONE ###

replacing POP_SLAVE with POP_COW, and of course increasing the number in this file from 8 to 9. But sometimes CTP is pretty rigid regarding some numbers, so I dunno.
That's as far as my thinking goes.

If none of this works, it sure would be nice to just have cattle as trade good, huh?

[TheBirdMan]

That's for sure.

This would solve our problem sending food between our cities (just i CIV II).

As it is now (if enabling the cows), you can send your cows to other cities - fine. The enemy might kill them - also fine. They produce more food than I want - that can be changed.

But it "feels" strange to use them. Don't really know why - m'be because they look clumsy - too big. Anyway I have turned them off again after trying play with them.

That "feeling" I have - units looking too clumsy or sci-fi for me - make me unwilling to use such units, just take a look on f.ex. infector, plasmatica, fusion tank and subneural_ad. Simply don't like the way they are looking.

That's also the reason I gave away my "half-part" of SMAC after playing the game for a couple of weeks. Good game - but the colors and units...............

[ghen]

Well, I glanced at what has been said here.. and if you turn cows into slaves or have any code in the cow that relates to a slave, then what will happen with the Emancipation act?

[Nordicus]

Well, Ghen, "mad cow disease" will look like a grazing in a meadow--we're talkin bout a hoard of revolutionary bovine armed forces! No one will be safe! O the deafening "moooo!" droning thru the land!
Nah, it was a stupid idea, like I said, but I get a lot of them and I can't determine sometimes when I think it's good or stupid, so I throw it down...look at it and then decide it's stupid.
It still may be possible to include cattle (as a trade good). That's my story, and I'm stickin to it