Making Cradle 3+ fully compatible with the Apolyton Edition

[Kull]

There's a few reasons:

1) When there's a large number of other civs on the map, they will quickly gobble up all the best goody huts, so it becomes very unlikely that you'll gain free advances or even free units. Exploration thus becomes less interesting.

2) On a map with fewer civs, there's more time to explore adjacent areas in search of good terrain for new cities. When there's a lot of civs in the game, you'll have a number of close neighbors right from the start and will have to found cities as quickly as possible. There's rarely time or opportunity to choose nice locations.

3) Since you won't be able to build many new cities, the only remaining method for growing your empire is warfare. That's fine, but it's nice to have other options.

In general, I prefer a game that's less frenetic right from the start. Others may feel differently, of course!

[Cyberguy00]

"However, it's my experience that extremely high numbers of civs make the game a lot less interesting.."

why?

[Kull]

32 Civs Hard Code limit:

Although AE has 70 civs and Cradle 5 has 32, neither version allows you to select more than 31 at the start of each new game. One reason for this is the Barbarians aren't selectable, but they ARE a civ, and thus selecting 31 really means there are 32 in the game. I could not find anything in writing which states that 32 civs is a CtP2 hard code limit, but there is a file which suggests it. The AE Colors00.txt file (Colors06.txt in Cradle5) has only 32 civ colors so that seems to confirm that 32 is the limit. In addition, Martin Guhmann added a note at the bottom of Colors04.txt (an optional file not used in either version), which talks about "removing surplus civ colors" which were added at some point by Nordicus for a count of civs 33 and higher.

That said, there is an added wrinkle in Cradle. Selecting 31 civs causes a Slic File error to appear at turn 5 (the end of the 2960 BC turn), consisting of a couple messages which point to the code in the traits.slc file (see attached). I did examine the code and could not see anything obviously wrong with it, and regardless you can click "Yes" on each message and the game will then continue normally (and the error will not occur again). Although it's unlikely to have a negative long term impact on your game, I would suggest that players avoid the issue altogether by never selecting more than 30 civs at the start of any new game (the error only appears when 31 are chosen). However, it's my experience that extremely high numbers of civs make the game a lot less interesting, and thus rarely select more than 15, even on a "Gigantic" size map.

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[Kull]

Civ Colors: Quite a few of the standard AE colors are more appropriate for other Civs, several new colors have just been introduced for Cradle 5, and some of the old shades were dropped altogether:

* Rome: From Cornflower Blue to Imperial Red (a different shade from "Barbarian Red")
* Minoan: From Salmon to Baby Blue (the color frequently seen in Minoan wall frescoes)
* Egypt: From Forest Green to Golden Yellow (a color usually associated with Ancient Egypt)
* Assyria: From Light Grey to Black (the first truly "bad-ass" Empire)
* Greeks: From Blue to Light Grey (like architectural Marble)
* Babylonia: From Cyan to Blue (same shade as the tiles on the Ishtar Gate)
* Celts: From Dark Brown to Forest Green
* Mongolia: From a modern Yellow-Green to Cornflower Blue (as used in many of their textiles)
* Harappa: From Purple to Salmon
* Phoenicia: From Pink to Purple (represents the expensive Dye made from Murex snails)
* Han: From Hot Pink to Dark Brown
* Hexagonian: From Beige to Hot Pink

The attachment shows some of the new colors: Assyria & Rome (inset at top) and then Harappa, Minoans & Egypt

File changed: Colors06.txt​

[Kull]

New population limits for City Graphics:

In the original game (and it's no different in AE or Cradle 3/4), the Ancient & Classical Eras share the same 3 City Sprite graphics, each appearing at population levels 1, 6, and 11. Things aren't much different in the Medieval, Renaissance, and Industrial Eras, since there's only one additional graphic and that appears at population level 16.

By contrast, the Player doesn't need any improvements in order to reach Size-12 cities, and the Ancient-Era Apothecary allows them to grow up to Size-20. There are two more buildings available in the Classical Era (Physician & Bath House), and these allow cities to reach Size-40. Which means that for half the game, most of the City Sprites will be stuck at graphic # 3 or #4, and of course they'll reach those levels quickly.

Accordingly, it makes sense to revisit the population-to-sprite linkages, and under the new approach they are now associated with expansions in the City Influence area (see Post #268). Thus the 2nd City Sprite will appear at Size-9, the 3rd at Size-21, and the 4th at Size-33.

Although the Modern, Computer, Genetic, Diamond, and Future Eras each have EIGHT city sprites, the defaults for those are also comparatively low, as the final four appear at Population levels 21, 26, 31, and finally 36. Even though Cradle 5 allows cities to reach Size-80!

So we'll modify these as well, but since there's only one remaining Influence Expansion, now the graphics will tie to City Improvement population expanders. Thus the 5th Sprite will appear at Size-41 (ties to Drugstore), the 6th Sprite at Size 51 (Hospital), the 7th Sprite at 64 (Arcologies) and the last will arbitrarily appear at Size-70, since there aren't any remaining population-related improvements.

File changed: agecitystyle.txt​

[Kull]

Japan Style (0): The original pair of #4 graphics for Japan in the Medieval/Renaissance contained only the central Castle structures, no outlying buildings. In retrospect that was kind of a strange look - where would the citizens live? Anyway, I found some additional Civ3 graphics which use the castles as centerpieces for true cities, and those have now been added as replacements (see attached). These occupy existing slots, so there's no change to the count of Japan-style cities (still at 6).

As a result of all this, the eleven new or revised styles use all 40 of the remaining slots, so barring the elimination of an existing style (looking at you, "Palace") all 255 slots are occupied and there's no room for more.

Files changed: agecitystyle.txt, civilisation.txt, citystyle.txt, gl_str.txt

​

[Kull]

Inca style (5): The Inca will use 3 graphics for the Ancient and Classical Eras and then add a new #4 for the Medieval Era and a different #4 for the Renaissance. Then they shift to the CtP2 Mesoamerican style in the Industrial Era. See attached example (shows 2 of 5 graphics).

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[Kull]

Cahokia style (4): Has 3 graphics for the Ancient and Classical Eras and then adds a new #4 for the Medieval Era (see attached example with 2 of 4 graphics), shifting to CtP2 Mesoamerican in the Renaissance Era. This new style is used solely by the North American Tribes. Originally I planned for the Inca to share these, but they now have a unique style of their own.

[Kull]

Revised Castle Style (4): Barbarians, Celts and Vikings use the CtP2 "Castle" style which features a small Medieval castle right from the beginning. As with the "Persian Dome", it's definitely not accurate in the Ancient and Classical eras. The updated style is more appropriate for Ancient Europe (attached example shows 2 of 4) with 3 graphics for the Ancient Era and a different # 3 for the Classical.

Once the Medieval era arrives, the original Castle sprites for the Ancient/Classical periods now appear while the Middle Ages sprites move out to the Renaissance (previously these were used for both Middle Ages eras). That means this style uses ALL the original Castle-style sprites, thus providing more differentiation in each time period.​

[Kull]

Revised Arab Style (-3): Arabs, Persia, and Turks use the "Arab" style which starts off with a Persian-style dome as the central building and then grows larger from one era to the next. It's definitely not accurate in the early parts of the game, so under the new system the Turks will follow the Levant-style (which does return to "Arab" in the Middle Ages) while Persia & the Arabs will now use the Indus-style cities in the Ancient & Classical eras. Unlike Harappa however, Arab-style will keep using the Ancient Era # 3 in the Classical period. The attachment shows the difference - Indus3a is the top level Arab city while Indus3b is the one used by the Harappans.

The existing Arab sprites for Ancient/Classical (31-33) will not be used (making those 3 slots available), while the four used for Medieval/Renaissance (41-44) will stay the same. The "style name" will remain "Arab" and we aren't creating new art, so it's just a matter of changing linkages in the agecitystyle.txt file.

Revised Palace Style (-1): As noted earlier I needed 4 additional slots, three of which came from the Arabs while the 4th comes from the largely unused Palace-style. The last Palace Style graphic in the Modern era (20) was removed, and the final slot for this style will be a repeat of the one before (19). Again, this only required a change to the linkages in agecitystyle.txt.

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[Kull]

Indus style (6): Harappa will use 3 graphics for the Ancient Era, apply a different # 3 for the Classical Era, and then add a new #4 for the Medieval and a different #4 for the Renaissance. Then shift to CtP2 Asian in the Industrial Era. See attached example (shows 2 of 6 graphics)

[Kull]

Since the last post, I've taken another look at the new cities and decided to expand the list. At that point there were still 7 open slots, but making some changes to a couple of the CtP2 styles increased that to 11, all of which are now utilized. We'll start by reconsidering the "Levant" style:

Levant style redux (4): Under the new system, the Turks have moved into this group (from the Arab style), and both the Hebrews and Carthage now have their own styles. The additional change is that a second # 3 has been added, which appears in the Classical Era (so the top level cities using this style will change when moving from Ancient-to-Classical. As before, all Levant styles will shift to the CtP2 Arab series starting with the Medieval Era.

Hebrew style (1): This civ will continue to use most of the Levant-style graphics in the Ancient & Classical eras but the city style featuring the Temple of Solomon will move to the # 3 position in the Classical era. As before, the Hebrews will use the Levant style in the Medieval era, but the final two cities will now be Ancient Levant # 3 while the new Classical # 3 moves to the #4 slot. They will begin using the CtP2 Arab series starting with the Renaissance.

Carthage style (1): Similar to the Hebrews, Carthage will use most of the Levant-style graphics in the Ancient era, but in the Classical they will feature a new "Carthaginian" city in the # 3 slot (see attached). Carthage shifts to the CtP2 Rome series at the Medieval Era.​

[Kull]

Levant style (4): Three graphics for the Carthaginians, Hittites, and Phoenicians (see attached example with 2 of 4 graphics) with a 4th for the Hebrews. However, all follow different paths after the Classical Era:
- Carthage shifts to the CtP2 Rome series starting with the Medieval Era
- Hittites and Phoenicia shift to the CtP2 Arab series starting with the Medieval Era
- Hebrews keep using the existing 3 graphics in the Medieval Era and add a new #4 (featuring the Temple of Solomon), after which they shift to the CtP2 Arab series with the Renaissance

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[Kull]

Japan style (6): Yamato will use 3 graphics for the Ancient Era, apply a different # 3 for the Classical Era, and then add a new #4 for the Medieval and a different #4 for the Renaissance. Then shifts to the CtP2 Asian style in the Industrial Era. See attached example (shows 3 of 6 graphics)

[Kull]

Minoan style (3): Three graphics used by the Minoan civ in the Ancient Era (attached example shows 2 of 3 graphics). They shift to Greek in the Classical Era and then to CtP2 Roman in the Medieval era.