Making Cradle 3+ fully compatible with the Apolyton Edition

[Kull]

New Advance - Radio Navigation:

The existing Tech Tree didn't contain an Advance which seemed appropriate for this new technology, so here's the solution: The new L18 Radio Navigation Advance (left of attachment) is in the "Sea" series, with prereqs of Mass Production & Naval Tactics, and direct lines to Adv Naval Tactics and Aerodynamics (replacing Mass Production in each case and eliminating two redundant advances in the process). Among other things, it also becomes the new pre-req for building the Destroyer unit (moved from Mass Production) and of course the new Advanced Trawlers TIMP.

And one other interesting Feature. Radio Navigation is also the pre-req for building a new type of Listening Post. It can only be constructed on Mountain Terrain but offers one additional vision hex (from 6 to 7) and it has a new "radio tower" graphic (left of attachment).

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[Kull]

Issue: Undersea Tunnels and "Fishing Vessels":

During the testing, one rather horrific issue did surface. When "Ocean Food" graphics exist in the same tile as an Undersea Tunnel, the tunnel sits ON TOP of the TIMP. Graphically it's just an awful look, especially in the case of the "fishing vessels" which serve as TIMPs for Fisheries, Trawlers, and Advanced Trawlers (see attached). Now this isn't anything new of course, as Road-type graphics always sit on top of the TIMPs they co-exist with. And in most cases that's fine - road on top of a farm? Ho hum.

Of course even with vanilla CtP2, it didn't look great in the few cases where Nets and Fisheries coexisted with an Undersea Tunnel. However, in this case it was too much to bear so I've used our old friend, the "Excludes" mechanism to make it impossible to have a Fishing Boat or a Tunnel in the same tile at the same time. There was some concern as to whether that would put the AI in an "infinite loop" of building first one and then the other, in perpetuity. However, the Aquaculture TIMP - which sits on the ocean floor - is available with L23 Robotics, and Undersea Tunnels are only buildable with the very next Advance in that sequence, Nano Assembly.

Fortunately the AI never builds superseded TIMPs, so any fishing boats eliminated by Tunnels will be replaced by Aquaculture TIMPs, and those two do coexist. So, problem solved.

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[Kull]

Issue: Sonar Buoys and Undersea Tunnels:

While we're on the subject of "Undersea Tunnel problems", you'll recall from Item # 1 of the Status Report that any TIMP located on the Button Bank "Road" or "OceanRoad" columns has a special property - graphically it will be treated as a road. That means the referenced TIMP graphic is assumed to be one of 18, and the game will treat the next 17 graphics (sequentially by TI ID number) exactly the same way as all "other" road graphics.

Looking back at the attachment to that post, you'll see the "Sonar Buoy" is in fact located in the OceanRoad column. And because of that, when Sonar Buoys were first placed on the map the result was pretty nasty, a string of unrelated images (see upper frame in the attachment). So how was that resolved? The answer was to place the Sonar Buoy graphic in 18 consecutive slots in the til file (TI ID 520 through 537). As a result, the graphics always look normal (see bottom image), even when positioned next to each other. Of course, the game still wants to treat these graphically as if they are roads, and thus they will "link" when located adjacent to any tile containing a road, stone road, railroad, maglev, or undersea tunnel. The first four potential issues are eliminated simply by making it impossible to construct Sonar Buoys on Beach Terrain, thus permanently separating them from all land-roads. As for the Tunnel connections, they look a bit odd (see bottom of lower image) but you can always think of them as "maintenance tunnels" and besides, by their very nature Sonar Buoys are usually located sizable distances from one another anyway, so most won't be positioned near an Undersea Tunnel. They have no "transport" capability so it's just a graphical effect.

The final issue is that, like Fishing Vessels, Sonar Buoys and Tunnels cannot coexist in the same tile and there's no way to change that (due to the rules governing the "excludes" mechanism). Again however, their relative rarity makes it unlikely for this to be much of a problem, and it's easily overcome by keeping them separate.

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[Kull]

New Commercial TIMP System:

I wanted to introduce the new TIMPs (Advanced Trawlers and Mega Farms) before getting into the systemic revisions made to the Tile Improvement system, but as you can see from the prior posts, the discussion was simply too disjointed. The Ocean Farms systems was completely rebuilt earlier and has the fewest number of new changes, yet even there it was impossible to talk about the new level without delving into other affected areas. In that regard, Land Farms and the others are even worse, so let's start over and begin with the biggest system change of all - the Commerce TIMPs.

As I mentioned in Item 6 of the Status Report, most Tile Improvements are hard-coded to provide three primary effects: Food, Gold, or Production. Of those, the basic premise for food (Farms or Boats) and production (Mines, both Ocean and Land) works quite well, but those for Gold were much less realistic. In both the original CtP2 and AE, the Commerce sequence begins with L1 Trading Posts, upgrades to L2 Outlet Malls, and finishes with the L3 Nature Preserve. The first two make some degree of sense since they are basically stores, but the third level has no connection to the other two, and frankly the idea that a "Nature Preserve" is the top level economic structure in any real-world commercial system is just laughable. Equally bad, the time frames for each level are completely out of synch with a game which starts in 4000 BC. Level 1 is a structure found historically in frontier America circa 1700 AD, Level 2 is a commercial system which originated in the 1960s, while Level 3 has roots going back to the early 1900s. Just a terrible, terrible mix.

And Cradle isn't much better since that also begins with the same 1700s era structure but then segues into a Roman enterprise from 2000 years earlier (the Latifundia) and then moves on to a system which arose in Europe during the Middle Ages (Township) before finishing with the same top level structure I derided earlier.

OK, so what then? Well, if we consider the matter historically, there's no doubt that commercial activity - from the beginning - has occurred in and has emanated from, human settlements. And certainly CtP2 recognizes that, because the primary economic engines of the game are the cities which are the foundation elements of every empire. What's missing are the smaller settlements, and those will become the Commercial TIMPs of Cradle 5.​

[Kull]

Level 1 Commerce TIMP - "Village": First available with L2 Pottery, it can be constructed in Forest & Jungle terrain (each with a different "village graphic). Historically villages could be found on many different terrain-types, but in the early stages of the game we want the AI to utilize Plains & Grasslands for Food while Hills & Mountains are reserved primarily for Production. The new art is borrowed (and modified) from a few Civ3 images, but in general we're talking about "huts" and you'll see similar imagery associated with the initial land farms (more on those at the appropriate time). Accordingly, the Level 1 image on the ButtonBank is a single hut (as you can see in the attachment to the "Status Report" post).

With the discovery of L6 Aqueducts, villages can now be constructed on Plains terrain, but since the AI can't help itself and sprawls these everywhere, they are restricted to "Plains terrain adjacent to the City" (using the new "NextToCity" tag in tileimp.txt). Finally, the discovery of L10 Feudalism allows villages to be constructed in Swamp terrain, and here we utilize a 4th graphic. Obviously a sequence in which different Advances trigger buildability on additional terrain-types isn't intuitive, so the new GL entry for Villages explains the system in great detail.

The attachment shows all four Village images, clockwise from Argos: Plains, Forest, Swamp, Jungle.

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[Kull]

Level 2 Commerce TIMP - "Town": This is similar to the "Township" which existed in earlier versions of Cradle, but now it fits into the proper time sequence. First available with L10 Feudalism, these can be built on Plains terrain, but again only in the circle of tiles immediately surrounding a city. This uses the Cradle township graphic. With the advent of L12 Banking, towns can now be built on Forests and we have a different graphic which uses "houses" similar to those seen in the Township, but now with a "Trading Post" as the central structure. A pair of these same houses are used in the L2 ButtonBank image. The final "town-granting" Advance is L20 Advanced Urban Planning, and this allows them to be built on Jungle and Swamp terrain (using the previous two graphics). As with "Villages", all this is explained in the associated GL entry.

The attachment shows both Town images, clockwise from Argos: Plains (plus Jungle) and Forest (plus Swamp).

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[Kull]

Level 3 Commerce TIMP - "Suburb": First available with L16 Electricity, these feature the existing "Modern City" TIMP graphics used by all small cities once CtP2 (and Cradle) enters the "Modern Age". The L3 ButtonBank image has three of these structures, thus completing the "1-2-3" visual effect. Suburbs can be constructed on Plains terrain, but are no longer restricted to the immediate environs of cities since we're truly in the era of "suburban sprawl". L19 Mass Transit allows suburbs to be constructed on Desert and Grasslands, Forest with L20 Advanced Urban Planning, and lastly Hills become available with L21 Global Economics. While the others use a mix of the Modern City TIMPS, this final graphic is the CtP2 "Outlet Mall".

The attachment shows Argos with a Modern Era City Style (size 40+), and this time it includes the Level 4 image adjacent to the city ("Urban", discussed next) while clockwise from there we see three Suburbs on Grassland, Plains (also Desert & Forest), and Hills.

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[Kull]

Level 4 Commerce TIMP - "Urban Area" (as shown in the attachment above): These become available with L20 Advanced Urban Planning. Similar to "Suburbs", this uses the third level "Modern City" TIMP graphics. Once again we restrict construction to the tiles immediately surrounding the city, but now we extend buildability to all terrain types except Mountains and Glaciers. Visually the result is a city surrounded by tall high rises and then a series of lower structures, but all with similar art.

Taken altogether, this results in a map which contains a vast amount of pleasing visual diversity, and utilizes a Commercial System that mirrors the one seen across the world, from the earliest of times until now, and on into the future.

Finally, while the depiction of the four Commerce Levels has radically changed, the PW costs at each level remain fairly close to what they were:

PW Cost (Old):
Trading Post: Grass/Plain/Forest/Jungle/Desert/Glacier/Swamp/Tundra +600
Latifundia: Grass/Plain/Forest/Jungle/Br.Hills/Hills/Desert/Swamp +1200
Township: All except Glacier +1500, Tundra +1800
Nature Preserve: All except Glacier/Tundra +2100

PW Cost (New):
Village: Plains/Forest/Jungle/Swamp +500
Town: Plains/Forest/Jungle/Swamp +1000
Suburb: Grass/Plains/Desert/Forest/Hill +2000
Urban: All except Glacier/Mountains +3000

Files Changed: tileimp.txt, tilerefund.slc, uniticon.txt, traits2.slc, gl_str.txt, tips_str.txt, Feat_str.txt, sounds.txt, Great Library, and the Tech Tree.​

[Kull]

Revised Production TIMP system:

Unlike the Commercial TIMP system, Mines did not require a complete overhaul and there are still four levels, but the alterations were quite extensive. The major change (other than additional graphics) was to shift "Mine shaft" graphics from the second level of Mines to L1, and move the "Open Pit" graphics from Level 1 to L2. There were several reasons for this:
- The "open pit" is the underlying look for the existing mine TIMPs used in L3 and L4, so it's a more coherent sequence to use pits for the last 3 levels instead of going "pit-shaft-pit-pit".
- The new Shaft graphics from Civ3 are all smaller and look fairly primitive. Plus the reality is that large open pit mines (at least in early times) were primarily used for exposing and then excavating large sections of rock - things like marble, granite or sandstone. Conversely, the earliest forms of mining were tunnels of the sort used to obtain flint nodules or follow veins of metal into a hillside (thus "shafts"). Of course historically it wasn't "either/or", as both types co-existed in history and still do.
- For this reason the name of the first level will also change, from "Mine Shaft" to "Early Mines".
- Another major change is to remove buildability from the Plains terrain-type, primarily to keep it largely devoted to Food TIMPs.
- Lastly, the original CtP2 shaft graphic is modern in appearance, with a timbered entrance and a metal cart on rails. Accordingly, that graphic is more appropriate for a later era, and will shift to L3. That also means a new ButtonBank graphic is needed.

Level 1 Production TIMP - "Early Mines": Available with L2 Mining, these can be constructed on Dunes, Hills (2 types), and Mountains (3 types). They use three Civ3 "mineshaft" graphics borrowed from the Modern Times Mod, with one dedicated to Dunes, another in Hills, and the third in Mountains (counterclockwise from Pylos in the attachment). A new ButtonBank graphic was also created using the "Dunes" version.

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[Kull]

Level 2 Production TIMP - "Mines": These become available with L7 Iron Working, use "open pit" graphics, and all are buildable on the same 6 terrain types as Early Mines. From a visual coherence perspective, the LotR Mod mine graphic (used at this level) has the same "rock border" used by several of the "Farm" graphics featured in the roughly contemporaneous "Advanced Farms" series. In addition, the metal scaffold has been replaced by the wood struts from the AOM graphic, and those are featured in all three of this level's mine graphics (see attached).

[thistleknot]

how can I acquire this mod?

[Kull]

how can I acquire this mod?

It's not released yet, but definitely getting close.

[Kull]

Level 3 Production TIMP - "Advanced Mines": First available with L15 Modern Metallurgy, this is yet another upgrade TIMP that's buildable on the same 6 terrain-types as the earlier levels. Once again there are three graphics, one of which is the original CtP2 mine shaft (used exclusively on Alpine Mountain terrain). With the discovery of L17 Oil Refining, Advanced Mines are buildable on Desert terrain (the graphic is an Oil Derrick) while L18 Corporation extends availability to Tundra terrain (with an Oil Pumper graphic) (see attached).

[Kull]

Level 4 Production TIMP - "Mega Mines": These are buildable on all designated terrain-types with L21 Global Economics. The original CtP2 graphic appears on Hills and Dunes, a modified version is used for Alpine and Brown Mountains, a third image (an edited version of the CtP1 space station) appears on Polar Hills and Mountains, and a grey-colored oil pumper is seen in Deserts (see attached). The final Mega Mine graphic is the one used for Carbon Sinks (as previously discussed here)

With that, there is far more visual diversity associated with Mines, even though - it must be emphasized - the underlying benefits remain the same at each level. On the other hand the PW costs have been significantly reduced on the early levels (which brings them more in line with AE).

PW Cost (Old):
Mine Shaft: Dunes +1200, Hills +1500, All Mtns +1800
Mines: Dunes +900, Hills +1200, All Mtns +1200
Adv Mines: Desert +1500, Tundra +1500, All Hills +1800, All Mtns +2400
Mega Mines: Desert +1800, All Hills +2400, All Mtns +3300, Tundra/Glacier N/A

PW Cost (New):
Early Mines: Dunes +400, Hills +600, All Mtns +800
Mines: Dunes +700, Hills +900, All Mtns +1000
Adv Mines: Desert +1500, Tundra +1500, All Hills +1200, All Mtns +1800
Mega Mines: Desert +2000, All Hills +1500, All Mtns +2200, Tundra/Glacier +3000

Files Changed: tileimp.txt, tilerefund.slc, uniticon.txt, traits2.slc, gl_str.txt, tips_str.txt, Feat_str.txt, sounds.txt, Great Library, and the Tech Tree.

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[Kull]

Granaries and Early Farms:

Before examining the revised Land Food TIMP system, let's review a small but significant change to the Tech Tree. All the early Buildings (Bazaar, Ziggurat, Shrine, Walls) are available at Levels 1 or 2, while Granary is Level 3. Yet historically the Granary preceded most of them, and should be one of the first buildable structures. As an additional indicator of the problem, it was usually possible to reach the Dynasty Gov-type before Granaries were even available.

While not a perfect solution, the chosen fix was to shift the Granaries Advance to L2 and move Water Lifts (which holds the "Farms" TIMP) to L3 (see attached). The pre-req Advances are fine (except with respect to each other), while the research costs have been modified to match their new levels (they are still sequential Advances in the "Environment" series). In addition, we'll alter one of the Dynasty pre-reqs to Granaries (the old pre-req of Brick Making is still part of the chain), thus ensuring they are researched before Dynasty.

The main downside to all this is "Farm" TIMPs have now shifted out to L3, when in reality that was also a very old technology. Accordingly, I'm going to add a new feature to the "Pasture" TIMP, allowing them to be constructed on Grassland with the discovery of L1 Agriculture. This is a very cheap improvement (100) which adds a modest +5 to the Food level. Although they have a unique graphic and appear as "Early Farms" on the Tech Tree and in the Great Library, the name will appear as "Pasture" when you see them on the map (similar to how "Carbon Sink" is really just a version of the "Mega Mine").

Files Changed: Advance.txt, advancelists.txt, tileimp.txt, GL.txt, and the Tech Tree

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