CTP2 Apolyton Edition 2025-01-20

[Kull]

12) New AE Tile System: I set up a clean version of CtP2 and then copied in the new CTP2 Apolyton Edition 2025-01-20. Next I copied in the Cradle 5 folders (to include activating the Trench System in Const.txt), altered userprofile.txt accordingly and then started a new game. I ran a few turns without any trouble and then used the Editor to display the whole map. Bad trenches.

Next step was to look at the new Apolyton files and right away I noticed that the ctp2_data\default\graphics\tiles folder had a new file (gtset.src) AND a subfolder (/gtset), both circled in the top image. These are new to this version of the Apolyton Edition. The new folder contains all the tga images that used to be embedded in the two .til files (second image), so it appears that you guys have extracted all that, which on one level makes modding a bit easier, since it appears that people can make changes to terrain graphics and tile improvements without having to use the old TileEdit program.

However, tile files also require some text elements (formerly embedded in the .til files), and those are now included in the gtset.src file (third image). A few questions:

1) Why was this not mentioned in the new Apolyton_README.txt file? This appears to be a major change!

2) Assuming that tile graphic files are now handled on an individual basis, is that in addition to the .til file embeds? Is it either/or?

3) If a modder wants to add a new standalone tile graphic (i.e. not embedded in the .til file, how do they generate a new gtset.src file?

Any light you can shed would be greatly appreciated!

[Kull]

11) AIMilitiaUnit Bug: The userprofile.txt file has a setting which - when set to "Yes" - generates a cheap unit in empty AI cities at the beginning of a turn (AIMilitiaUnit=Yes). Potentially a nice feature, except the the code does not distinguish between land and naval units. That might not be an issue with the default unit costs in AE, but it can (and does) result in naval units being placed as garrison units in Cradle, even in landlocked cities. That was a new feature in the Apolyton Edition, so please look at the code and see if it can be altered such that only land units are selected. Thanks.

[Kull]

10) "Exploding Unit" sprite graphics: Any unit which has the "SingleUse" AND "Explodes" attributes in units.txt is destroyed after it hits the target. The problem is that once it's given a target and is moving toward it, the game has ALREADY taken into account that the unit is dead (even before it is actually destroyed) and so the unit sprite disappears the instant it starts moving toward that final destination. See this linked post for description and images.


EDIT: Just tested this with Cradle 5 in AE-2025 and you guys fixed it! Thanks! (should take credit for this in the readme)

[Kull]

9) "Fixed: Do not play sounds that come from positions the player does not, either because the position is unexplored or is under the fog of war."

I understand why you guys did this, but is it possible to add a setting which turns this off and on? As a modder, I find it enormously helpful to know whether the AI is using the various special attacks, and being able to hear the sounds coming out of FOW territory is really the only way to know. It might not sound like a big deal, but it's helped me to tweak various settings and know whether they increase or reduce the number and type of special attacks. Losing that insight is a real bummer.

[Kull]

8) Nuclear Plant pre-req Bug: When the Nanite Defuser is built, it not only wipes out "Nuke" missiles, but destroys all Nuclear Plants as well. Even worse, since the Nuclear Plant is a pre-req for building a Fusion Plant, those can never be constructed (by anyone) from that point forward. That's a serious problem because it effectively removes Fusion Plants from the game. The easiest solution is to remove the Nuclear Plant requirement (deleting "PrerequisiteBuilding IMPROVE_NUCLEAR_PLANT" from the Fusion Plant in "buildings.txt").

Alternatively perhaps the game code could be altered so the EliminateNukes flag in wonders.txt does not destroy Nuclear Plants. I suppose you could get a similar result by removing the "NuclearPlant" flag from the Nuclear Plant entry in buildings.txt, but that might have other effects that I'm not aware of.

[Kull]

7) "Fixed: If an advance is given by diplomacy or a goody hut the advance that is being researched can still be selected from the research dialog." - I think this fixes the problem which I refer to as the "Research Target bug", in which certain game events will alter the Research Target, often shifting the options such that the original Target isn't one of the 4 available from the choice list.

Assuming that's true, does the fix address the other events which can change the Research Target, specifically 1) Completing a Wonder, 2) Gaining a Tech from City Conquest, or 3) Gaining a Tech from Theft?

[Kull]

6) ORDER_SUE_FRANCHISE is Broken: When a unit performs the commercial "Franchise" attack, it siphons off 10% of the production generated by that city (percentage is editable in const.txt). The only way to get rid of a Franchise is with a Lawsuit, specifically the "ORDER_SUE_FRANCHISE" (as listed in orders.txt). Unfortunately, this bug was introduced by the Apolyton Edition, since it worked correctly in the original CtP2. I describe the problem in some detail in this linked post.

EDIT: Found that this was fixed in AE-2025 but still a problem in the test version of Cradle 5. The solution was the "Range" line in orders.txt, which was set to "1" in Cradle (and AE-2011) but "0" in AE-2025. Made the change in the AE-2025 test version of Cradle 5 and the bug is gone! Even so, the bug is real and still exists in AE-2011.

[Kull]

5) Unit Promotion CTD: This is an old bug, regrettably not fixed in the earlier Source Code releases. Whenever a unit is promoted to "Veteran" or "Elite", a notification appears in the "Msgs" list. It contains an "eyeball" icon, and if you click that it centers the screen over the promoted unit, and the cursor blinks at that location. However, if you open the message and click the "Eye" AFTER the unit boards a vessel, the game is unable to locate it, and instead you get the "No exception object" error message, after which the game CTDs.

Eventually I determined that the only solution was to remove the "EyePoint" code from each of the "promotion" messages, but that's a blunt force method, and it's really a shame to lose the eyepoint functionality in all promotion cases since the CTD only happens in this specific instance. A code fix here would be greatly appreciated!

[Kull]

4) Sleeping Units Issue: The ability to set units on "Sentinel", so they only "wake up" when a foreign unit enters their field of vision is a great game feature. The problem happens when they are posted inside coastal cities, because any unit set to "sleep" will automatically board any ship that either passes through or originates from that city. Considering that there's already a "board ship" order & button, this is not only duplicative but effectively makes it impossible to place units on Sentinel Status while in cities, because they are always at risk of being carried off by a passing transport.

Now some players may consider this a great feature, so perhaps the best solution is to add a flag (again probably in "const.txt") which turns the "Sleep-mode automatic boarding" capability on or off.

[Kull]

3) "TerrainImprovementDB: CantPillage Terrain Improvement cannot be pillaged." - This was listed as an improvement added in 2006-02-15 (Revision 543), and it does work, but there's a BIG problem, specifically that the "CantPillage" flag is not recognized by the AI. They park units on these TIMPs and stay there, fruitlessly trying to pillage them. Can the code be modified so the AI recognizes the flag or (maybe easier) doesn't see these TIMPs at all and thus ignores them? A complicating factor could be that, for example, it's possible to have multiple TIMPs in the same tile. So if "Farm" was given the CantPillage flag but "Road" was not, what happens when both are in the same tile?

[Kull]

2) "Changed: The AI waits with building wonders until it has four cities or no space for more cities." - This was listed as an improvement in the 2011-06-12 (Revision 1111) readme file, but it does not work. The specific code can be found in the strategies.txt file (MinNumCities), and the default is "4". However, my test games show the AI often starts building Wonders with as little as 2 cities. Might want to take a look at the code which controls this.

[Kull]

This is a list of bugs, feature requests, broken stuff, and general comments. I'll post them individually (by no means in order of importance, lol) and number them for reference:

1) "Fixed: The AI does establish embassies and throws parties at civilizations it is at war with." - This sounds weird. Did you mean to say, "does not"? Also, is it possible to add a flag (maybe in const.txt) which allows embassies to be automatically re-established after a war ends? Would be a nice way to reduce micromanagement.

[Kull]

First some big thanks:

1) "Fixed: A bug in AI path finding that prevented the AI from sieging cities." and "Changed: The AI considers less cities for siege. This way it focusses on more important cities and waits until it has built more units."- I've had an awful time getting the AI to attack cities in Cradle 5, so hopefully these (and the multitude of similar improvements) make a big difference.

2) "Changed: The AI ignores trespassing for Diplomats, so that it can build embassies. Trespassing with diplomats is not considered a violation anyway." - Exactly. This really inhibited the ability of AI civs to establish embassies with neighbors. Hopefully we'll see more of that now.

3) "Fixed: Freed slaves go to random cities, so that they do not starve in overcrowded cities." - This is great. The code to distribute slaves was an excellent improvement, and it was disappointing not to see the same mechanism applied to freed slaves. Thanks!

4) "Added: Trench tiles from CTP1 and enabled in new maps." - Such a seemingly minor improvement, but perversely something that I wanted to see more than almost anything else! Gonna be so nice to have these in CtP2!

5) "Fixed: Saves games accumulated size if the game was played for a long time. A reload reset this." - I noticed this happening but wasn't sure why. Since I do a ton of testing it will be nice to have less HD space wasted on bloated save games.

6) "Added: Enslave settler message for attacker says where the new slaves will be working" - This was a really annoying bug. It worked fine for City Slave Raids, and it DID provide a message for Settler captures, but it almost always gave the name of the wrong city. Hopefully that's the fix you're talking about.

7) "Fixed: Fixed overwriting glyphs fixes mostly the capital C." - Such a seemingly simple thing, but so annoying. For the longest time I thought it was a font issue and kept trying to fix it. Ugh.

8) "Fixed: For modders, the slic Liberate functions sends the conquering units home before the city is given to the Barbarians." - I found this to be a huge bug, since Liberate City trapped your armies inside the now Barbarian-owned city. There was a workaround for coastal cities, but you were helpless with inland ones. Can't wait to test this and see how it plays out. My only caveat is the readme comment - this isn't a modder function but rather a gameplay fix, yes?

9) "Improved: AI priorities to its goals, such as attack or siege" - God I hope so! Can't wait to study the numbers in the new "strategies.txt" file.

There's obviously a ton of other new improvements, and I'm looking forward to seeing all of them in action, but these ones jumped out right away. Thanks!

That said, there's quite a few issues that weren't mentioned, so I'll start to go through them next.

[EPW]

Awesome

[Kull]

Holy cow!! Talk about unexpected! Definitely have to peruse the changelog and see if you guys have fixed the bugs I discovered while building Cradle 5 (which was sooooo close to done, lol). Hopefully that will work with this new version.

Thanks!