Help, playtesters needed for Alexander scenario

Harlan · December 18, 2000, 18:27

Hi,
As I may have mentioned elsewhere, I was a bit frustrated in making the Alexander scenario, because of limitations placed on me by Activision. For instance, no non-Activision graphics allowed, not even from CTP1. So now the first patch fixed some of the most outrageous bugs in the scenario and allows new cities in scenarios to be constructed again, I've started in on my own version.

I think this version is really gonna be much better. I continue to suggest no one play the Alexander scenario until this version is released. Here are some of the changes planned:

- a bunch of cities restored (they were cut against my will). Certain areas were way underpopulated, for instance all of Mesopotamia having only one city, which greatly upset the playbalance I had envisioned.

- the following wonders added:
Hanging Gardens
Parthenon
Statue of Zeus
Mausoleum
Oracle
Royal Road

- new graphics for old units (using CTP1 and Tom Davies art), as well as a few new units, such as the Companion Cavalry and Hypaspists, both buildable only in Macedonia itself.

- changes in trade goods to be more appropriate to the times (things like Iron, Gold).

- new SLIC events, though I'm still consulting with Locutus to find out what is and isn't possible and/or slowing the game too much.

- changes in some parameters, for instance governments will generally support more cities and it will cost less in unhappiness if you go over that limit.

- etc etc

Most importantly, the scenario can finally be properly playbalanced and thoroughly debugged (I already have compiled a list of all the bug reports on the scenario in these forums and am working through them). I'm asking for volunteers- anyone who wants to play some rough versions incorporating the new changes. I should have something ready to try out within 24 hours, for serious playtesters only, willing to provide lots of feedback (I've had experiences when people volunteer to be a playtester, I send them files, and then never hear from them again- grr).

Also, now is the time to offer suggestions on how to make the scenario better. Generally speaking, I'm trying to keep changes to the text files to a minimum, so you don't need a super long readme just to understand what's going on. But I'm open to ideas, be it units, wonders, events or whatever that you feel is sorely needed. And if people come up with files to make the AI more intelligent (perhaps I can steal from another mod) or want to help with Great Library files and other things, I'd love to see that as well.

OmniGod · December 18, 2000, 22:11

OHHH OHHH ME ME... PICK ME!!!

Omni

Rollo Tomasi · December 19, 2000, 00:06

As the one who brought up the first problems with the scenario, I would think so lowly of myself if I didn't volunteer myself to be a playtester. I'm excited to see the new improvements

swat-spas · December 19, 2000, 05:40

cool, i'm looking into tweaking things myself, so anything thats already done (as examples, or just so i don't have to do it. .) plus at this point the game still needs a bit more to make it really playable. .the ai is just a bit sllllooow.. .so a functional scenario with all of the nuances certainly makes it interesting.

swat-spas · December 19, 2000, 05:41

i can't help on the graphical angle. .but i'd like to see a sort of wishlist of ideas started that can actually be implemented into the game. :c)
[This message has been edited by swat-spas (edited December 19, 2000).]

Chris B · December 20, 2000, 10:59

This may be too much to ask, but the original didn't let you get to Seres. It gave you that corny turn around Message. Doy you think you could expand the map to include China?? all your other changes sound good.
-CB

Harlan · December 20, 2000, 16:44

To all the playtesters who replied here and in email, I'm still working on the files. Hopefully should have something to send off late tonight. Thanks for your interest.

To Chris, man, you're very persistent on the Seres (China) issue. Didn't you see my response when you made this same exact point in another thread? Here it is again:

PS- About reaching China. I had to fight tooth and nail to get the map as inclusive as it was. There's no way China would ever have been allowed. The bigger the map, the slower the scenario runs. Plus, Alexander could never have led an army into China. Period. There just wasn't enough food and water along the way. The Chinese sent an army out west a few hundred years later, and despite superhuman efforts to provision the army at every step, still 95% of the soldiers died simply from the journey (not counting battle losses). The Silk Road was only fit for small bands of travellers. Later the Chinese created a string of oasis towns that grew crops to feed passing armies, but that took over 100 years of development- time Alex didn't have.

To that I'd add, to make a new map I'd have to start completely over, which no way am I going to do. But even in historical terms I don't see how its justifiable- there was simply no way for an army of Alex's type to get to China by land in 320 B.C. Chris, if you have any counterargument based on historical evidence, I'd like to hear it.

At least you'll be happy to know that if you cross over the mountains into the start of China, there are a couple of towns there now (Kashgar and Khotan).

[This message has been edited by Harlan (edited December 20, 2000).]

Chris B · December 21, 2000, 22:26

I'm not the one making the scenario, so I can't complain. But only a couple a more squares would get you there based on my geography- if you could make it that far, you could...
Also- is it fair that U can get Knights and Longships as the game progresses (you may have heard this before)?

Harlan · December 22, 2000, 00:29

A couple more squares (actually more than 10) gets you to where things start to get more fertile and populated, and then what? You still need a much larger map to get China in.

As for the Knights and Longships, I did not want that in, but I was told there had to be something to research, and I couldn't change the tech tree. Now that the restrictions are off, those guys get the boot. Replaced by more intelligent things.

Harlan · December 24, 2000, 22:02

Here's a post I just sent to all the playtesters for this scenario. I could be wrong, but this seems to be very disturbing stuff. If anyone has any ideas, please let me know! The bottom line is, it seems the way the files are being accessed when starting a scenario is very different than when saving a file from a scenario you've started.

>I saved the game. When I tried to load it I got the following crash to my desktop:
>
>Paths Error
>GG102.SPR not found in asset tree
>
>Any ideas here? Maybe I have a file in the wrong place?

I've been trying to fix the bug brought to my attention with the GG102.spr comment. Its rather important to be able to load saved games, after all!

Something is really ****ed up, to pardon my French. Its not just that one sprite, but seems to be every sprite. On a whim, I tried copying all the sprites to the Call to Power2/ctp2_data/graphics/sprites folder, and loaded a game of the scenario. It would now open no problem, except the game thinks its a regular game, and not from a scenario! So all the graphics, names, units strengths, etc are different. This does not happen if you save and load say, a WW2 scenario file though.

Whatever the problem is, I'm pretty sure it isn't my fault! This may be the first time someone has gotten to the testing point of saving and loading scenario based games, at least since the patch, which seems to have done something to the way games are saved (I saw a mention that the location of autosaved files is different now, for no apparent reason).

I don't have more time today to try and solve this, Christmas Eve and all. If you want to save and load this scenarios, there is one thing you could do. Figure out all the files that are different between this scenario and the regular game, and swap the non-scenario files with the scenario ones. Of course be very careful, so you can swap them back. That's a big pain in the butt though, and I can see why someone wouldn't want to do that.

Or just play a really long time in one sitting! Don't turn the computer off!

But I'll get to the bottom of this, one way or another. I have a feeling it may affect all scenarios. It may be something only Activision can fix in the next patch.

Another thing you may try: putting all the files in the original Alexander scenario folder. Maybe it doesn't realize its not longer coming from there.

Harlan

Harlan · December 24, 2000, 22:19

Okay,
A few more minutes tinkering, and I've found a workaround to the problem. Rename the official AlexanderTheGreat scenario folder to something else, and then rename the folder I sent to AlexanderTheGreat. The save and load should work fine then. It will now appear first on the list of scenarios when you start a scenario. Not exactly the way I would prefer it to work, but better than nothing. There needs to be a way in the game to rename a scenario.

Harlan

heardie · December 29, 2000, 04:41

Well, if you want a mere mortal, I';; test it

December 31, 2000, 21:17

Harlan
Since the Strategy Guide from Brady Games did not even mention your scenario, could or would you create a short strategy guide?

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Harlan · December 31, 2000, 21:55

I suppose I could do that, but only after I'm done making the new version, which is quite different (and better!

). The playtesters are discovering lots of things that need fixing and improving.

January 3, 2001, 01:34

Thank you very much. I,m playing the game now and it is fun. I have taken the West Coast, Egypt and Rome. I think I might head off to India.

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Chris B · January 3, 2001, 16:16

Sorry Harlan, I haven't touched Civ ever since I got Age of Empires Collectors for Christmas. Is the scenario out Now?

jethro · January 4, 2001, 02:06

lookin for a play tester,im a little late,but i enjoyed the official version,and am willing to give acurate feedback.sign me up

Harlan · January 4, 2001, 03:06

Jospeh, what are you playing? The version that came with the game? I recommend holding out on playing that further till my updated version will come out. Its gonna be much better.

Chris, that should answer your question. I'm hoping to have at least something out by next week, though it won't be final.

Jethro, I can use more playtesters. A couple people have given me good feedback, but most seem to have disappeared off of the face. Maybe its the holidays.

January 4, 2001, 22:47

I will wait. Thanks

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Harlan · January 5, 2001, 18:22

Jethro,
What's your email. I have a new version for playtesters to playtest, but have no way of notifying you.

Maksim-Smelchak · January 6, 2001, 20:04

Harlan,

Please send me a copy of the improved ALexander scenario. Please also read my post in the Medieval Mod forum. I particularly wanted to know where the other three wives are. I've only found the Sogdian wife after lots of looking. I also wanted to know how to get the Corinthian settlers. I've beaten the scenario several times and never seen a settler. My Email is Max200@Lanset.com just in case. Great job with the scenario. Even with what Activision did yo it, I really enjoyed it. The only research woth having is the Hagia Sophia. The longboat will wipeout the Trireme as obselete. I made that mistake once.

Cheers,
Max.

Chris B · January 7, 2001, 21:13

Im havin lots of trubble.
I downloaded all your files and the cenario loaded fine, but then it crashed because i didnt have grafics for the isege tower. Fine, I put in dummys- the then the same thing happened with the horse armor advance.
Did I miss something. Also, do the difficulties mater? I've been playing on medium and keep getting whooped.

Maksim-Smelchak · January 7, 2001, 21:28

Harlan,

I downloaded all of the most current Alexnew files and followed the directions from the playtest area. My program doesn't get as far as actually starting the scenario. I have the menu option for the Alexnew 2.0 scenario and choose the Macedonians. After the load bar finishes, the program crashes and says that it can't find the "gg102.spr" sprite. I tried changing my sprite, the "gu102.spr," to a "gg" name and the rename doesn't go through claiming that a "gg102.spr" already exists. It also makes that annoying glass breaking sound! What am I doing wrong? I hope this info helps.

Cheers,
Max.

Harlan · January 7, 2001, 23:38

Chris,
You probably don't have the most recent set of sprite files. I recently updated those to have the Seige Tower graphic (that update is up right now). The Horse Armor advance problem is because of a file in the Pictures folder. It should be named UPAP161L.tga, but I accidentally had a space in the name, so it came out UPAP161L .tga.

Max,
I imagine that your problem is that you aren't naming the folder the scenario goes in as "Alexnew". If you call it anything else, you'll have messages saying that certain sprites can't be found. Let me know if that helps.

I will have a new update of files posted tonight. In any case why not send these kinds of messages to me as emails, I'll get to them faster.

Changmai Beagle · January 8, 2001, 20:32

I wouldn't mind taking a run at testing. I think you did a good job with the scenario as it is. It's quite interesting, but the next one sounds even better.

P.S. I just lost Babylon to a 12 stack and had to fight off a 5 stack attacks against some troops I fortified in the mountain passes, so there's some AI signs of life. But I'm sure looking forward to a new awesome AI mod.

Harlan · January 8, 2001, 21:02

Changmai,
If you want to be a playtester, you have to let me know your email.
[This message has been edited by Harlan (edited January 08, 2001).]

slamp · January 9, 2001, 04:46

Harlan, count me in. I will send you an email with my email address.

Biekert · January 9, 2001, 20:36

Harlan,

Any word on an update? I am patiently waiting for your new-and-improved scenario to come out before trying it at all! Many thanks for your efforts on our behalf. . .

Harlan · January 9, 2001, 23:47

Biekert,
The first "official" version may not be out for a while (a couple weeks?), as we are beginning to realize the depths of AI stupidity, and that means more work. But there's a version I have now that, while still problem filled, is tons better than the one with the CD. Give me your email and I'll let you know how to get it.

Chris B · January 15, 2001, 01:01

Harlan, new BUG:
every game i load, it says i can't find the sprit GG102.spr
I then tried moving all the sprites into ctp2/default/gamedata. then it worked
new games start fine what could be wrong????

Also, i am seriously unimpressed with your latest version of texts.
Ionian cities can no longer build and close up infantry units at all, and Rhodes can still build every buildable unit in the game.
please fix this

[This message has been edited by Chris B (edited January 14, 2001).]