PROJECT: Playtest

[J Bytheway]

Originally posted by Tamerlin
Thanks for your reply Solver, but is it a line you have to add manually yourself somewhere (For example, in an APOL file if you want to play with the SAP2)?

The idea of my utility is that you don't have to search through all the *_Const.txt files looking for the right place to insert the line .

[Peter Triggs]

Yeah, you could have used John's new utility. I forgot about that.

BTW, it seems to me that SAP is obsolescent. It was intended to enable people to 'play CTP2 as it was meant to be', and isn't that just what we're working on with the source code?

[J Bytheway]

Originally posted by Peter Triggs
BTW, it seems to me that SAP is obsolescent. It was intended to enable people to 'play CTP2 as it was meant to be', and isn't that just what we're working on with the source code?

Not quite - the source code project is "The CTP2 engine as it was meant to be" whereas SAP is "The CTP2 rules as they were meant to be". Of course, SAP does 'emulate' engine modifications in its SLIC, but it does a lot more besides.

[Tamerlin]

Originally posted by J Bytheway


The idea of my utility is that you don't have to search through all the *_Const.txt files looking for the right place to insert the line .

I have not yet tested your utility J Bytheway, I think that I should give it a try though I don't know if it easy enough to use for me. I should try...

[Fromafar]

Originally posted by Martin Gühmann
But what I actual want to know now from the playtesters is if the unit in the wrong place bug still occurs. I think that has to do with a memory leak that Fromafar fixed and therefore it would be gone with the memory leak.

The description from the patch "Increased animation queue to 12, making unit-in-wrong-place bug less likely" is not very helpful.

For the past 3 weeks, I have been playtesting with different values for 2 possible candidates in the code: k_MAX_UNIT_MOVEMENT_ITERATIONS in Action.h and k_MAX_ACTION_QUEUE_SIZE in Actor.h.
Neither increasing nor decreasing (applying reverse logic - should make the bug more likely ) seem to have any impact. I can set k_MAX_ACTION_QUEUE_SIZE to 2 and/or k_MAX_UNIT_MOVEMENT_ITERATIONS to 1 without even so much as an Assert in the debug mode.

[Colwyn]

I know Ive asked this before but since things are moving along nicely now one of the first things that will improve the games AI by about 1000% is to define the code change to reduce the max # of units in a stack to less than 12.

Ie I think 5 or 7 would be best as once the human player creates 2-3 super stacks they clean up b/c the AI will never optimise their stacks and once lost their 2 defenders in each city will fall like domino's esp with mv>1 stacks.


The code is open, can anyone get back to us on if it can be done, i would hope/expect it to be a simple script maxstacksize=12 or something.

If so lets playtest I'd be very surprised if this doesn't improve CTP2 AI alot.

[beechworth]

Hi There,

Gave it a good thrashing

No crashes and I liked all changes. Only comments are three things which still bug me (but only one bug?).

1. Wonders that give the effect of building eg Hygia Sophia gives a temple so why does temple still appear in the build que?

2. Capital is in the build que - this is such a unique building I think it should have have its own button to include it in the que.

3. Enemy movements - yoc can switch on and off but I would like an option to only see certain enemy's movements (Why do I want to see an aly moving around? no need to answer but it would be nice to have an option......)

The last 2 are not bugs just wish lists stuff but is the first a bug?

Well done to everyone - VERY VERY GOOD!!!

Beech

[The Big Mc]

Originally posted by beechworth
Hi There,


1. Wonders that give the effect of building eg Hygia Sophia gives a temple so why does temple still appear in the build que?


Beech

It’s good planning to have a backup just encase the wonder was destroyed or made obsolete that’s why it’s left in.

[beechworth]

I see what your saying but cant it be coded to come back into the build que if the wonder is obsolete or destroyed? Or put a check box in that will hide items in the buid que that a wonder provides? It would just give the game more polish - I have no idea how hard it is!

Thanks for the quick responce

Beech

[Flinx]

Suggestion for building effects granted by wonders

I too would like to see something different done here. Suggestions:
- Have a check box in the options menu to have buildings whose effects are granted by a wonder to not appear
- Change the appearance of building names whose effects are granted by a wonder e.g. grey and/or italic and/or asterisk

Hygia Sophia gives the effect of a shrine in each city so building that shrine does nothing to increase happiness. If you want to increase the happiness of a city and you have Hygia Sophia, don’t bother building a shrine. If you want to make sure you do not take a happiness hit when Hygia Sophia becomes obsolete, then build the shrine prior. The second is the reason to have the (option to have the) shrine on the buildable list; the first is the reason to remove or highlight the shrine.

[Gilgamensch]

Actually never bothered to check, but:

If you have Hygia Sophia and you had some shrines prior, to you still pay for them?

[mindlar]

Originally posted by Solver
One bug, BTW - if I get a diplomacy proposal, something's definitely wrong there. I get either their proposal, but on the left it says "The xx have ACCEPTED our proposal" (rather than say that we got a proposal), and I only have the OK button instead of accept & reject. Or, it says that they REJECTED proposal, I get the OK and Threat buttons - again, this happens when THEY send me a proposal.

I've been seeing this a lot and has made the game unplayable. What will happen for me with a new game is:

1. I will encounter a civ and move a unit next to their city
2. They will send a stop trespass agreement (which appears accepted or rejected) on their turn and I end up being unable to move units (their turn) or end the turn (since it is their turn).

On occasions something else will happen that causes the turn to continue, however 75% of proposals sent to me result in the game becoming stuck.

[Solver]

1. I will encounter a civ and move a unit next to their city
2. They will send a stop trespass agreement (which appears accepted or rejected) on their turn and I end up being unable to move units (their turn) or end the turn (since it is their turn).

It doesn't get the game stuck for me. I still can click the OK button, if it appears as "accepted", or the OK or Threat button, if it appears as "rejected". But at least it's good to see that the bug doesn't only happen to me, so hopefully it will be fixed soon!

[Ekmek]

Re: Suggestion for building effects granted by wonders

Originally posted by Flinx
I too would like to see something different done here. Suggestions:
- Have a check box in the options menu to have buildings whose effects are granted by a wonder to not appear
- Change the appearance of building names whose effects are granted by a wonder e.g. grey and/or italic and/or asterisk

Hygia Sophia gives the effect of a shrine in each city so building that shrine does nothing to increase happiness. If you want to increase the happiness of a city and you have Hygia Sophia, don’t bother building a shrine. If you want to make sure you do not take a happiness hit when Hygia Sophia becomes obsolete, then build the shrine prior. The second is the reason to have the (option to have the) shrine on the buildable list; the first is the reason to remove or highlight the shrine.

A way to make some buildings obsolete or unbuildable would be nice. Either because a wonder replaces or a tech, say monotheism makes shrines obsolete so you can only build churches. It would add to a modernization feel.

[Solver]

Well, you can say that shrines become temples later on, and churches later... IMO, having to upgrade buildings which would become obsolete would add little to gameplay.

Oh, and I believe that buildings granted by wonders should be highlited on the build queue, but not removed from it - you may choose to build them, after all, as part of the planning for that wonder becoming obsolete.