Making Cradle 3+ fully compatible with the Apolyton Edition

[Kull]

3) Sue Franchise (Assassinate Dis-Loyal Governor): As reported in the Source code forum, this attack was broken at some point in the development of the Apolyton Edition. "Sue Franchise" is a legal attack intended to counter the commercial "Franchise" attack, and both were repurposed in Cradle as Ancient Era mechanisms for extorting tribute on the one hand and killing those who paid it, on the other.

Since this attack doesn't work, the only actions necessary are to remove the buttons which would allow a unit to try (and fail) to implement it. We'll explore the larger ramifications as part of the Commercial attack reviews.

[Kull]

2) Sue (Assassinate Great Leader): A legal attack which kills units that have the "CanBeSued" attribute, and is used by the Assassin, Poisoner, Lawyer, Legal Team & Cyber Attorney units. The "Great General" also had this ability, but no longer (you'll soon see why). As envisioned in Cradle, this attack is used by "assassin-type" units in order to kill the various Wonder Units (Sargon, Atilla, Caesar, etc), hence the name. However, in the course of MANY playtests, not once has the AI used this attack to kill a Wonder Unit. Additionally, many civilian units also have the "CanBeSued" attribute, making the title rather misleading. My guess is the AI doesn't use this attack because the cost is exorbitant - 3000 gold per attack (whether it succeeds or fails). However, dropping the cost precipitously would make it too easy to dispose of those valuable special units.

A conundrum, but one which was addressed by extending vulnerability to most of the civilian units (+14), removing susceptibility from all Wonder Units, and dropping the cost to 300 Gold. The cost reduction will encourage the AI to use the attack, while expanding the civilian "target base" allows devious rulers to avoid the "reputation hit" which comes when civilians are killed by military units. The "Expel" attack remains, so the player also has the ability to pursue less violent (and less expensive) means when dealing with troublesome foreigners. As for enemy Wonder Units? The player (and AI) will simply have to deal with them militarily.

Cradle used the "crossed swords" iconography for this attack, but the same imagery was used by army-on-army military attacks, and unique imagery is always preferable. Accordingly:
* An old Ctp mod included a "knife" cursor, and that is now used by this attack (see attachment)
* New Buttons and Messagicons were created, and use the same "knife" imagery.
* Messages were altered to emphasize the utility of this attack against civilian units. In addition, the messages were "backwards" (and still are in AE), and listed the performer as the victim, so that had to be revised as well. For example, "We have successfully killed Assassin". Um, no!
* The sprite (trumpets) and sound (fanfare) are hard-coded to use those assigned to "General Success" (as listed in specattacks.txt) and cannot be altered.

To reflect these changes, the Ancient Era attack has been renamed Assassinate Civilian, and yes, it is heavily era-dependent.

[Kull]

Legal Attacks (3) - All three of these have an "ancient equivalent" in Cradle:

1) Injoin (Sabotage): A legal attack which halts production for 1 turn and is used by the Assassin, Poisoner, Lawyer, Legal Team, and Cyber Attorney. As noted above, Cradle has re-purposed this attack as "Sabotage" and while it did have "flaming building" iconography for the Button & Cursor (along with "fire-related" messaging), everything else was modern (mostly "Gavel" related). The changes include:
* Created a new "burning building" Messageicon
* Sprite shifted from the "swirling papers" to an existing sprite which shows fires burning on all sides of the city (see attached)
* Sounds changed from the "whooshing" of swirling papers to the crackling sound of a large fire
* A successful attack appends a new "fire" icon (see attached) to the side of the city status bar (instead of a gavel)
- This attack is controlled by settings in "units.txt", success is 100% and there's no danger to the attacking unit. Cost is 300, duration is 1-turn (unfortunately not adjustable), and the good news is the AI performs this attack frequently. It has a strong era-related dependency.

[Kull]

This took a LOT longer than I'd ever imagined, but the Special Attacks project is complete. Quite a few surprises along the way, so before moving on to the next big task let's review what was done.

But first, we'll talk briefly about a conundrum which initially appeared "unsolveable" - the fact that Cradle has repurposed many of the modern era attacks into ancient equivalents. For example, Lawyers in CtP2 deploy the "Injoin" attack as a means of disabling production in an enemy city. In Cradle however, the attack is called "Sabotage" and is used by the "Assassin" unit to do exactly the same thing, except the messaging and some of the icons (but not all) use a "building-on-fire" motif. The problem is that once the specialist units of the modern era begin to arrive, you have - for example - lawyers who are setting fires instead of using legal attacks (see attached). Which is disconcerting at best and a real hit to gameplay and immersion. That has been addressed, but for now - to keep the focus on the Special Attacks themselves - I'll simply point out those which have an "Era-dependency" and will address the solutions later.

[Kull]

Espionage Attacks (4): Here's the latest group of Special Attacks, and again I'll spare you the detailed autopsy and will focus on the highlights. First however, let's talk about a common feature of many such attacks - the existence of EliteChance (in both "units.txt" and "const.txt") which is the likelihood that the unit can be promoted to "Elite" status in the event of a successful attack. Many attacks include this and after extensive testing on ALL of them, I can report that not a single unit was EVER promoted. Not one. By contrast, DeathChance and Chance (of success) all work exactly as intended. It's not a serious problem because other than a few instances itemized in "const.txt", there's no difference between the capabilities of "Un-promoted" vs "Elite" civilians anyway.

EDIT: Just to be clear, the above comment refers to the possibility of civilian units being promoted to "Elite Status" as a result of a "special attack". That does not work. By contrast, military units which have "Veteran Status" and participate in successful combat DO have the possibility of being promoted to "Elite Status". That does work.

1) Investigate City: An espionage attack (shows internal information on the target city) used by the "spy-types" (Spy, King's Eye, Secret Agent & Cyber Ninja) but also shared with all the Diplomatic units.
- A successful attack pops up a window showing internal information on the target city (see attachment). Very important to be aware that this information is only available while the window is open. If you close the window without recording the information, it can't be retrieved from anywhere else! As a workaround, I use the "printscreen" button to get a screen capture so I can review the details later.
- The original sound ("mission accepted") is also the "Acknowledge" voice used by Spy units, which was potentially confusing. At first I shifted it to the "Gossip Whisper", but now it uses the sound of a large gate being opened. As with most of these attacks, the intent is to have unique sounds so you can clearly associate them with ONE activity, not several.
- The AI definitely uses this attack. After changing the sound, I heard a LOT of whispering during the next playtest. That said, it seems unlikely that the AI can process this information in any meaningful way. However, it probably incentivizes the AI to park diplomats next to cities, and that's a desirable outcome (see the Diplomacy review posted earlier).

2) Steal Technology: An espionage attack (steals an advance from the target civ) used by all the spy-type units. This attack works as expected, but the main issue was the messaging.
- An attack that failed because there were no Advances to steal would not notify you with a "pop-up" window, but it did leave a message in the messagelist (which allows you to access it again, if desired).
- By contrast, if the target civ DID have Advances available for theft, successful and unsuccessful attacks would provide a "pop-up" message....but nothing would appear in the messagelist. That was pretty confusing, but eventually I discovered they were coded as "alertboxes" (which, by definition, NEVER appear in the messagelist) whereas the vast majority of special attacks use "messagebox" code. Anyway, it was possible to change that, so now all the technology theft messages "pop-up" and appear in the messagelist.
- That also meant a messagicon was needed, and of course there wasn't one which matched the "open safe" graphic used by the button, cursor, and sprite - but there is now!
- In closing, this attack was originally coded to give the player a choice between stealing a "random" technology, or picking one from a list. The chance of success being lower if you select a specific advance. But all the "choice" code has been commented out in "script.slc", and the same is true in the AE file (so not something specific to Cradle). Anyway, I thought about trying to reactivate that, but - at least for now - there's other fish to fry.

3) Incite Revolt: An espionage attack (causes foreign city to revolt and become a new civ) used by all the spy-type units. Even though "orders.txt" says there is a fixed cost for this (5000), the cost is actually a formula derived from city size and happiness level (usually multiple thousands). This attack also works as expected, but there were a few minor issues.
- Interestingly, in a recent playtest the AI used this against another AI civ, so it's definitely something they know how to do. Not common, however.
- Confusingly, the sprite and sound play regardless of whether the attack succeeds or fails - unless the attacking unit dies. The messaging is correct in all cases, but had a typo (now fixed).
- This attack does NOT result in a Declaration of War, regardless of success or failure or the agent being caught or not. That seems strange, but there's no way to change it.
- Most of the graphics are consistent (waving pitchfork and red flag), but the messageicon graphic comes from the "Slave Revolt" group, so I created a new one to match this graphic set. The sound featured shouting and gunshots, which is not appropriate for an attack that can be used in the Ancient Era, so that was altered as well. Worth noting that you get the same sound and sprites from a spontaneous "unhappiness-based" Revolution.

4) Plant Nuke: An espionage attack (places nuclear bomb in a city) used by the Secret Agent, Cyber Ninja & Empathic Diplomat units. With one exception, the graphics, messages and sound are consistent.
- The pre-requisite for this attack is the discovery of "Nuclear Power". Until that occurs, the button will not appear.
- AI has never used this attack in any of my games, but none have reached this far into the future, so that's not dispositive. Cost is VERY HIGH (8,000) however, so even if the AI is coded to use it, most AI civs don't have that much gold available.
- Not surprisingly, War results from both Success and Failure.
- It seemed odd for the Empathic Diplomat to have this capability, since it's contrary to everything the GL says about this unit (imagine the "empathic shock" from killing/maiming so many people!) Accordingly, I removed it.
- A successful attack displayed the "bomb-with-fuse" sprite, which is wrong on several levels. It now uses the "nuke explosion" sprite, which is clearly a better match.
- This attack includes an EscapeChance percentage (for the attacking unit), but I have yet to see ANY attackers survive. Doubtful that it works.

[Kull]

Yeah, sorry for the misleading statement earlier - memory was wonky. It definitely is NOT part of the Apolyton Edition download package.

[Cyberguy]

Thanks, i've downloaded C3 from the link you posted. I'm not sure that C3 is included in the CTP2 AE edition considering the C3 download is 211mb ( i know it had some other stuff in it, but still) and the patch to make CTP2 the AE edition is only 18mb. Anyway i'll have a go at adding C3 in over the next week and give it a go after i've finished the current game i'm on.

[Kull]

Perhaps you don't have the Scenario version. Fortunately it's still available here.

Here's my scenario folder structure. The folder circled in red contains Cradle:

[Cyberguy]

Is this what you are suggesting, i have gone into Scen000 but i see nothing called Cradle3? Nor in any the lower directories shown in the pic

[Kull]

In order to have that screenshot, you must have opened the "Apolyton Edition Mod Pack" from the initial Scenario screen. You do not need that. It's a mod pack which uses many of the new AE features, but is not required, and in fact - as you discovered - if you select it that prevents you from playing any other scenarios.

Go back up one level to the initial Scenario Screen and select the one called "scen0000". That takes you down one level and reveals the Cradle3 scenario.

[Cyberguy]

Hmm, i may be missing something but should Cradle 3 be obvious? The version I am running is the 11th June 2011 version. Below are what i see:

In scenarios folder i see these (and see them when starting a new game)


Clicking into 1st folder AE_Mod I see this:


which in game look like this:

[Kull]

"Hear Gossip" is now Functional: A few weeks ago I reviewed the Diplomatic "special attacks", and sadly reported that "Hear Gossip" didn't work. Even so, yesterday evening - on a hunch - I added the HearGossip attribute to the Diplomat entry in "units.txt". To be clear, that is not a listed attribute and no units have it, but it did appear in a text file search of the executable. So I ran a quick playtest and parked a Greek Diplomat next to several foreign capital cities, and - voila - Gossip messages appeared! Unfortunately the code for the civ names didn't work, but eventually the problem was solved by moving the message text from "cut_str.txt" over to "info_str.txt" AND using a different format for the civ identifier code. The messageicon originally defaulted to the "red exclamation point", but it was possible to create a new one using an "ear" icon borrowed from CtP1. The messages themselves were rather boring and generic, so those were spiced up as well, and you see the result in the attachment.

Per the earlier review, there should be a chance to HearGossip when a Diplomat uses the ThrowParty attack, or passively when a Diplomat is positioned outside a capital city. So far it does NOT work as an adjunct to ThrowParty (possibly something to do with stringing two attributes together) and it's worth noting that Diplomats parked outside a non-Capital city will never hear gossip. But in this one specific instance it DEFINITELY works, and that includes the sound (whispering) and the sprite (blue puff of smoke).

As a result, this attribute will be added to the other "diplomat-type" units (Ambassador and Empathic Diplomat), and I'll drop the percent chance in "const.txt" from .9 (used for testing) down to .05 since it should not be a common occurrence (the AE default was .02). In addition, I'll add some references to the Great Library so players are aware of the mechanism.

[Kull]

Thanks for the info. I am running Apolyton version of CTP2 under Win7 and will now look to ad the Cradle v3 mod & give that a go.

Super, you are well ahead of the curve! Since you are already running the Apolyton edition, the good news is the Cradle3 scenario is already installed. It should work OK, but please look at the first post in this thread for the two "workarounds" needed in order to select Cradle Civs and to re-activate the Great Library every time you load a save game. Selecting a civ is particularly annoying, since the menu forces you to choose from the AE list, and there's no obvious correlation to Cradle. To help you out, look at this attachment. As an example, if you wanted to play as Assyria, choose the Turks.

[Cyberguy]

Thanks for the info. I am running Apolyton version of CTP2 under Win7 and will now look to ad the Cradle v3 mod & give that a go.

[Kull]

This is a "mod of a mod", and is still under active development, so unfortunately no - not available for download yet. However, you might want to try your hand at the Cradle Scenario which is included with the Source Code update. If you don't have CtP2 loaded (and working) on your PC (and maybe even if you do), I highly recommend that you follow the installation process laid out in this thread. CtP2 is a very old game, but I've had ZERO problems running it in Windows 10 using that method. Once you have the game up and running (to include the Source Code Team's patch), then you'll be able to run Cradle as a scenario. There are a few tricks to get it running properly, so if you have any problems just open a new thread in the main CTP2 forum and I'll help you work through them.

To be clear, that is the original "Cradle v3", and not the version I'm working on here. But even so, it's a fun mod and playing around with it will be good preparation for this new version, once it's finally released (still quite a few months away, unfortunately, as I'm still deeply embedded in the special attacks sub-project).

Edit: The main link for the Source Code download is broken, but the first link in Post #3 is still active.