Making Cradle 3+ fully compatible with the Apolyton Edition

[Kull]

Upgradeable Gov-Specific "Special" Unit issues (con):

"Pezheteroi" to "Praetorians": The problem here is that each unit individually exists for a short period, and the length of the upgrade chain (L6 Republic to L10 Theocracy) isn't much better. The solution involves adding the Swordsman to the chain (thus Swordsman>Pezheteroi>Praetorians) and shifting his starting Advance to Copper Smelting, thus extending the upgrade range from L3 to L10. Moving the Swordsman makes a LOT of sense, because swords definitely utilized metals, and those were not the materials used by the Neolithic weapons of the L1 timeframe (largely flint, obsidian and fire-hardened wood).

However, we still need an offensive unit for the early game and that role is now filled by the new Club Warrior (previewed in Post# 370). Although the base sprite resembles a feather clad warrior from the Americas, the feather headdress also has antecedents in the Middle East, as depicted in ancient Ur and the later Sea People warriors seen on the wall carvings of the Egyptian Temple of Medinet Habu. As the Swordsman replacement, the Club Warrior is first available with L1 Agriculture, can be promoted to Elite, and is does not disband until the Oligarchy government.

- Files changed: Units.txt, UnitBuildLists.txt, elite.slc, Advance.txt, Great_Library.txt, gl_str.txt, 2D unit art (multiple), sounds.txt, newsprite.txt, updater3.slc & Tech Tree

[Kull]

Elite Unit Upgrade Bug plus revised times and costs:

1) There's a bug which happens when the same Advance triggers a "Feat of Wonder" AND an Elite Unit upgrade. For example, when L12 Gunpowder was researched, you saw the Feat but none of the message boxes which allow the player to review the various Elite units eligible for upgrade. And the same bug hit L18 Mass Production, which also had both a Feat and an Elite upgrade. The solution was to move the two Feats of Wonder to L13 Cannon Making (a better link anyway, since the feat grants a bonus when attacking city walls) and L16 Industrial Revolution (the Feat is a bonus to Production, and thus equally relevant to this Advance)

2) Elite upgrades followed a single path, which often produced a nonsensical result. For example, the L9 Dark Age promotion upgraded the Elite Legion (Attack 35 & Defense 25) to the Elite Pikeman (A25 & D20). Not only is that a statistical downgrade, but it costs the player 1800 Gold per unit. Talk about "insult to injury"! Accordingly, Cradle 5.1 has altered this progression so now there's a "Defensive Unit" sequence (Spearman>Hoplite>Pikeman>Halberdier>Infantryman) and another for Offense (Club Warrior>Hypaspist>Legion>Man-At-Arms>Arquebusier>Infantryman). The sequences merge with the first modern riflemen at L15 Flintlock, and proceed in a single line from that point forward (Infantryman>Machine Gunner>Marine>Hover Infantry)

3) Elite upgrade costs were also quite exorbitant, and in most cases it would cost much more to upgrade units in sequence instead of skipping to the final upgrade. For example, the string for "Elite Hoplite" in Cradle 5.0 is Hoplite>Legion>Pikeman>Halberdier>Infantryman and the total cost of doing each upgrade in sequence is 7600 Gold (1000+1800+1800+3000). However, going directly from Elite Hoplite to Elite Infantryman is only 4900. That's obviously a problem, as there shouldn't be financial incentives for skipping upgrades. Accordingly, all of the upgrade costs were revised downward (roughly by 33%) and for every string, the cost of upgrading is exactly the same, whether upgrades are skipped or not.

- Files changed: Advance.txt, feat.txt, feats.slc, feat_str.txt, updater3.slc, updater4.slc & Great_Library.txt

[Kull]

Wonder Unit Upgrade issues:

As described in Post# 216, the Cradle Wonder Units in Cradle v5.0 upgrade automatically at L14 Age of Reason and again with L16 Electricity. There are some issues, however:

1) "Age of Reason" Upgrade Slic Issue: When my v5.0 Rome campaign reached the Age of Reason, I discovered the "upgrade" only works when the units are located on unowned or "Roman-owned" tiles. All the units which were in foreign territory did NOT upgrade! In addition of course there is no associated message, which is disconcerting. Eventually the problem was traced to a single line in the wonderunits2.slc file. Extensive testing confirms that the fix works. In addition, a pair of "upgrade notification" messages have been added.

2) Brigadier & Colonel attributes: All four of the new units were given the "Plunder unit creation" capability, but that's too many. It's OK for the Field Marshall & General, since most of those were "Great House" units which already had this ability prior to the upgrade. But testing shows that it's overpowered for the Brigadier and Colonel to get it too, so it'll be removed and replaced by different attributes:
* Brigadier: Gains CanHarvest (the collection of terrain gold when fortified on a tile)
* Colonel: Acquires AlwaysHeal (the ability to heal in the field even if the unit moves that turn)

3) Hernan Cortes Upgrade: By the time Magellan's Voyage is complete, the player has probably researched "Age of Reason", or if not, it will happen very soon thereafter. Cortes is scheduled to upgrade to Brigadier when that happens, but if missed, he'll remain in-game forever. Neither situation is ideal, so his Brigadier promotion has been scrapped and he'll remain as is until the upgrade to Colonel (the existing plan for US Grant).

4) Genghis Khan Upgrade: The Mongol Empire soon broke up into multiple "Khanates", two of which lasted into the late 1700's. Accordingly, it's not unreasonable for Genghis to remain in-game until the final Wonder Unit Upgrade at L16 Electricity, especially now that his Victory Enslavement attribute has been removed. Keeping Cortes, Genghis & Grant around a bit longer adds some variety, which is not a bad thing.

5) Sun Tzu Upgrade: Changes from "Field Marshall" to "Brigadier". Only Great House Wonder Units (and the Great General) should have the FM promotion.

- Files changed: Units.txt, plunder.slc, wonderunits2.slc, info_str.txt & Great_Library.txt