Fan's Choice Mod?

[Aias]

I was going to put my two cents in to ask about what we would like to see in a new mod as far a techs, units, governments, etc. However, while looking over the threads, I didn't see one. So (if indeed I didn't overlook one) I'll start one. Since I'm no modder, here's some of my request:

-a new crossbow unit (the one I've seen, like in Cradle, is really an arquebuser in some hideous clothing!

-I personally loved the internet wonder in CTP1. If I was behind in techs, I could build it and steal some techs to catch up. If I was way ahead, I'd build it to keep others from catching up. Perhaps a compromise would be to add a new wonder (Computer Hacking?) after this if most liked the way the new internet wonder worked.

-I like the way that resources are handled on Civ3. Wy have uranium appear on the map before a civ knows what to do with it?

-I also like the Civ 3 airlifting of units also.

That's it off the top of my head. I'm sure that certain things (like my resource suggestion) would be very difficult to implement.

I'm interested to see what others think as well.

[Pedrunn]

Originally posted by Aias
-a new crossbow unit (the one I've seen, like in Cradle, is really an arquebuser in some hideous clothing!

New unit graphis is something i wanted to see more often
But we dont have an artist. Still thats not the main reason that causes this lack of arquebusier. There is graphics for one in the civ3 database. The problem is the not very user-friendly sprite creation.

Originally posted by Aias
-I personally loved the internet wonder in CTP1.

Probably possible. And could be done very easily. Since there is a wonder.txt flag called

RandomAdvanceChance

Originally posted by Aias
-I like the way that resources are handled on Civ3. Wy have uranium appear on the map before a civ knows what to do with it?

If just the appearace of the good it would be easy. And possible by Slic. But if you mean strategic resources thats a whole other story

Originally posted by Aias
-I also like the Civ 3 airlifting of units also.

How does it work?

[Martin Gühmann]

Originally posted by Aias
-I like the way that resources are handled on Civ3. Wy have uranium appear on the map before a civ knows what to do with it?

It is easy, you have to know a good, before you can get ideas what to do with it. So the hidden good idea is actual stupid, because the goods were there before human beings appeared on this planet. So if you dig you through an mountain then you could find uranium possibly. You wouldn't be kept from finding it, just because you don't know the tech that allows you to build nukes.

-Martin

[Immortal Wombat]

Yeah. We've knocked around ideas for using strategic resources for months. The real problem regardless of aethetic/gameplay judgements is the AI. There simply isn't any way to get the AI to properly plan to conquer the goods without an almighty overhaul of the diplomatic and AI models.

re: the Crossbow sprite, I have made one, it should be available somewhere. One of the unit creation threads possibly. However, it should be uploaded on my own site by next friday. It's the one from AoK.

[Martin Gühmann]

Originally posted by Immortal Wombat
re: the Crossbow sprite, I have made one, it should be available somewhere. One of the unit creation threads possibly. However, it should be uploaded on my own site by next friday. It's the one from AoK.

You should also submit them to the Apolyton directory.

-Martin

[Immortal Wombat]

Yeah, I thought I had.

[Martin Gühmann]

Originally posted by Immortal Wombat
Yeah, I thought I had.

When did you submit the units, if it was this week then I am afraid Locutus wasn't able to do it, yet. In one of his last posts before the trip to turky he expressed that he felt ill. Well and so far I didn't see him posting anything. If you submitted the units some month ago then it is really strange.

-Martin

[Maquiladora]

Originally posted by Martin Gühmann
It is easy, you have to know a good, before you can get ideas what to do with it. So the hidden good idea is actual stupid, because the goods were there before human beings appeared on this planet. So if you dig you through an mountain then you could find uranium possibly. You wouldn't be kept from finding it, just because you don't know the tech that allows you to build nukes.

-Martin

Yeah but they only made the goods invisible so you couldnt take advantage of the bonuses from it, if you didnt have the technology to "extract" the bonus. You may find the Uranium, but if you dont have the technology to use it you shouldnt be allowed to have the bonuses from finding it.

[The Big Mc]

The problem with unit making is that there are no really good 3d packages available over the net for free.

if I could get one i have several units I would like to make.

[SMIFFGIG]

The problem with unit making is that there are no really good 3d packages available over the net for free.

If you know where to look there is, if u know what i mean

wts your internet connection?

[The Big Mc]

SMIFFGIG

My connection is very fast however it is getting the stuff home which is the problem.

[Aias]

While there are some good points made, the reason that I like the way Civ 3 handles resources is that in ancient times, people wouldn't build a city next to a resource, such as uranium, that they had no use for.

Also, since Pedrunn asked, airdrops in Civ 3 work just by picking a unit out of one city with and airport (like a tank) and clicking on another city with an airport and dropping the unit there. There's no reason to build cargo transports then. Airdropping won't work with all units (such as settlers or artillery), but if you invade a city and conquer it, rush build an airport, you can start flying troops in right away.

[Pedrunn]

Originally posted by Aias
Also, since Pedrunn asked, airdrops in Civ 3 work just by picking a unit out of one city with and airport (like a tank) and clicking on another city with an airport and dropping the unit there. There's no reason to build cargo transports then. Airdropping won't work with all units (such as settlers or artillery), but if you invade a city and conquer it, rush build an airport, you can start flying troops in right away.

This can be very easily implemented. Specially ecause there is a event called:

Teleport(army_t, location_t)

Which i tested the event and it works very well.

[TheArsenal]

Originally posted by Maquiladora
Yeah but they only made the goods invisible so you couldnt take advantage of the bonuses from it, if you didnt have the technology to "extract" the bonus. You may find the Uranium, but if you dont have the technology to use it you shouldnt be allowed to have the bonuses from finding it.

Exactly. And from the aspect of game play, having a resource pop up later - especially in another civ's boundaries - forces you to make decisions on how to obtain that resource. It keeps things interesting in that respect.

[Martin Gühmann]

I also played with the Teleport event, unfortunatly I ended with an army that had to locations, the consequence was a game crash.

-Martin

[Locutus]

Yes, the Teleport event has proven to be buggy. Might be just as easy to just kill the units and recreate them at the new location. The only potential problem here is UI: every singly unit in the game would have to have a new button for a teleporting order. I'm not sure if this would work without resorting to ugly hacks...

[Martin Gühmann]

Originally posted by Locutus
The only potential problem here is UI: every singly unit in the game would have to have a new button for a teleporting order. I'm not sure if this would work without resorting to ugly hacks...

Actual you only need an unused event as slic object on that your new order can be triggered. So such an event could be the Teleport event, but I think you shouldn't use it in that way as I am afraid that it will be then used on the unit and that is not the intension. Maybay also self definded slic objects does work. But that is not shure as it says in Orders.txt EventName.

The real problem is that we only have a fixed number of UnitPretest_* available.

-Martin

[tlatoani]

I think that the concept of having resources pop up when a civilization has discovered how to take advantage of it would add a layer of strategy to the game. Specially if it could be combined with an option of requesting to buy a resource from a player and the requirement of having a resource to actually build a unit even if one has the knowledge of how it would be built. In “real life” the knowledge of how to build a nuclear bomb is out in the internet, but you need enriched uranium to go ahead and build the dam thing. The same with oil, who knew that it would be such a highly regarded commodity, which would make vast stretches of desert such a valuable territory worth fighting for. In the game, if you don’t have a resource within your possession, you would either buy it or you conquer it. As IW said, the trick would be to get the AI to realize this and actively want to have such resources. Otherwise, if it never went after iron ore, it could never have knights, which would put it at a disadvantage against the human, and nobody wants that.

Since my knowledge of computer programming is restricted to GAUSS, I’m totally useless in this respect. But I was wondering if it could be possible to get the AI to want to acquire a resource it has just discovered a use for. Like if it discovered “trade” it would need gold to finance it’s trade, so have the AI go after all the gold possible. I think the best possible way would be to put declining weights on the need for a resource with a larger weight placed on the resource which it most recently found a use for. Depending on the regard/trust level between nations and on the aggressiveness of each civilization, it would either request to buy a resource or declare war for it. With the strategy being to conquer an enemy city that’s next to the resource in question. Like I said, these are only ideas, I have absolutely no idea if it could be possible to put them into practice. Sorry

[Aias]

One of the things that may be a bit tricky is that the computer does have knowledge of the whole map before the game starts but is also subject to the fog of war. I assume this may be true for CTP2 as well. It is my understand that on Civ 3 the computer actively seeks out these locations. I guess this is some sort of AI cheat. So I guess that not only would one have to program the AI to go and actively search out these resources, but also how to use them and trade for them. Again, this is my assumption. I'm not a programmer nor do I play one on TV.

Also, balance may be an issue. On Civ 3 one civ doesn't have all of the resources in their empire, so this makes trade, diplomacy, and war a necessity. This is especially true when iron arrives. Going from bronze to iron is a huge advantage, especially when your opponent does not posess it. If your opponent has it and you don't, then it becomes a question of bartering for it or builing up a huge "bronze" army and throwing sheer numbers at the AI.
When it does pop up in your territory, you have to build a road to it to gain access to it. If it lies outside of your sphere of influence, you can build a road and establish a colony to gain its use. I pet peeve here is that the AI my settle right next to your colony, and steal the resource use from you. I usually get pissed and declare war, especially if this was my only sources. If I do it to the computer, they really don'tseem to mind.

[The Big Mc]

Well that’s were the prototype ctp2 colony is better. it can't be captured it has to be destroyed. if I remember the code is around here somewhere.

The original colony’s were devised by pedrun but I modified them to allow for the immigration of pop points from colonies to cities. There not finished but is still a work in progress. !