(March 8th, 2015, 16:17)zitro1987 Wrote: part of me wishes 'shadow demons' were in the 'rare' category.
That's not bad either. I think there are more solutions than one. Just think this through carefully and then you will test the solution. My time is coming pretty roughly to an end, but I guess I can assist you in finishing touches to the mod.
Re: Cloud of fear - Any kind of AI spamming spells can be addressed. If the mod is really good, I will re-make the spells AI. I have never really corrected it in Insecticide, because I found the spells so inequal I would have to "spam" Heroism + 12 others... which I did not want to do. Good (ehm.. better) spell AI is among my old wishes.
Few updates, nothing big + old Catnip things. Be careful with Catnip, there was a bug (data instability) somewhere in those. But I leave only a small part. Also some DIFF files (txt) are reversed, like: change =>original, I did it in haste. You have to figure it out.
I have added mountainwalk in battle, you may try them if you wish. Conjurer half upkeep has some problem, I'll do it later (in 10 days? who knows).
Once again, I deeply appreciate all the help I've gotten on tasks that appear impossible in my eyes.
* Unrest and troops - to be honest, I'd leave it alone. My real issue is that: New Request: I don't like the hardcoded 0 gold upkeep of spearmen (and dwarven swordsmen) regardless of cost. It would be nice if they had 1 gold upkeep so that we stop recruiting defending spearmen simply for the unrest bonus.
* Myrran Races on Arcanus: too risky and potentially unpopular of an idea - thinking of dropping it.
* Oh I see, I remember testing a demo of a 'no shooting after move' a couple of weeks ago alongside a demo of 'first strike'. I apologize, I know you created it from Feb 24's version 1.11 I just don't know what you use to find differences among two files to get it to apply to my mod http://www.mediafire.com/download/kq3h2n...tro111.rar
*Conjurer: thinking of dropping it - summoning spells more worthwhile here.
*Tower of Wizardry request - dropping it, I'd rather focus on game mechanics than silly nitpicking.
*Changing experience mechanics is radical and hardcoded - dropping it for now
New request - not sure if hard to mod: The cost of mercenaries increases too much when hiring more experienced units, to the point of hurting you if you have too much fame.
*cost is 200% for 'regular', 250% for 'veteran' and 300% for 'elite'.
*I want cost to be 133% for 'regular', 166% for 'veteran', 200% for 'elite' ... whatever is easy that brings those costs down somehow!
Combat mountain terrain still cost 2mv points for mountaineers, but not for foresters. The code might have been misplaced somewhere.
New request - focusing on unbalanced game mechanics: the 10-20-30-40 cost and research bonuses to books (from 8 to 11 books) changed to 6-12-18-24-30-36 (from 6 to 11 books) - borrowed idea from catnip
Everything looks great, the only one that doesn't seem to work is the 'experience earning' one as my units fail to get a single point (I reversed it back to original mechanism). I also see 'foresters' spending 1 point crossing mountains in battle (but not mountaineers).
I made new versions that include various other changes, including steering away from the 'tier-3 military costs always 110 gold' issue. I may follow with summoning unit cost variations later on.
_Great about the 'experience mercenary' cost issue fixed! I wonder if we can decrease the item purchase prices by 50%, to reflect the scarcity of gold in my mod
_Books and discounts - Still trying to figure this out. It'd probably make more sense to have a distribution such as: 5% -> 10% -> 15% -> 25% -> 33% -> 35% (11 books have unc/rare spells) - > 45/55/etc
6 -- 0% -> 5% (book bonuses not too great starting with 6 books, 5% bonuses recommended for 6-9 books)
7 -- 0% -> 10%
8 -- 10% -> 15%
9 -- 20% -> 25% (book bonuses here insignificant as +1 rare and +1 v rare, add +10% bonus)
10 -- 30% -> 33% (+1 common, +2 rare, +1 v rare, +8% bonus)
11 -- 40% -> 35% (the starting spells very beneficial, +2% bonus instead)
12 -- 50% -> 45% (+10%)
13 -- 60% -> 55% (+10%)
(March 21st, 2015, 07:24)zitro1987 Wrote: Everything looks great, the only one that doesn't seem to work is the 'experience earning' one as my units fail to get a single point (I reversed it back to original mechanism). I also see 'foresters' spending 1 point crossing mountains in battle (but not mountaineers).
I will look into it again. Crossing mountains in battle I did not look at yet. Time's really limited and it'll be worse.
Quote:_Books and discounts - Still trying to figure this out. It'd probably make more sense to have a distribution such as: 5% -> 10% -> 15% -> 25% -> 33% -> 33% (11 books have unc/rare spells) - > 45/55/etc
This is not doable, with a lot of changing intervals (e.g. it is really much work for relatively little effect). What you suggested on front page seems possible, change of interval from a certain threshold (5-10-15-20-30-40-(50)).
(I would also suggest that you may consider adding starting 1 or 2 uncommon spells for 9 or 10 books (or both). This is most probably possible, and while not entirely easy - I would certainly do it, because I think the starting setup lacks more appeal and because it would add spice to the game. In my experience, these types of changes are well admitted by the players. Btw, messing with starting common spells is hard work due to AI selection, so I would probably avoid it, unless you have some genious plan.)
(March 21st, 2015, 15:52)kyrub Wrote: This is not doable, with a lot of changing intervals (e.g. it is really much work for relatively little effect). What you suggested on front page seems possible, change of interval from a certain threshold (5-10-15-20-30-40-(50)).
(I would also suggest that you may consider adding starting 1 or 2 uncommon spells for 9 or 10 books (or both). This is most probably possible, and while not entirely easy - I would certainly do it, because I think the starting setup lacks more appeal and because it would add spice to the game. In my experience, these types of changes are well admitted by the players. Btw, messing with starting common spells is hard work due to AI selection, so I would probably avoid it, unless you have some genious plan.)
I don't have a genius plan, but now that you introduced a new variable (uncommon spells), I feel this idea is better than my previous ones:
4 - 5% (only 4 more learnable spells and 1 more starting common - let's start the discounts here)
5 - 10%
6 - 15%
7 - 10%
8 - 25%
9 - 30% - 1 uncommon (9 books is a marginal benefit over 8, so let's add a starting uncommon to spice things up!)
10 - 35% - 2 uncommon (10 books on paper is a nice improvement over 9 with +2 rare and +3 v rare, but not nice enough if compared against a retort when you probably learn these through rewards and diplomacy, so let's add an uncommon)
11 - 40% - 2 uncommon + 1 rare (less game-breaking: it's just one [influential] spell and +5% bonus)
12+ - 45-50-55-60
(March 21st, 2015, 17:19)zitro1987 Wrote: 5 - 5% (this is a good starting point, when more books don't bring as great of benefits)
6 - 10%
7 - 15%
8 - 20%
9 - 25% - 1 uncommon (9 books is a marginal benefit over 8, so let's add a starting uncommon to spice things up!)
10 - 30% - 2 uncommon (10 books on paper is a nice improvement over 9 with +2 rare and +3 v rare, but not nice enough if compared against a retort, so let's add an uncommon)
11 - 35% - 2 uncommon + 1 rare (less game-breaking: it's just one [influential] spell and +5% bonus)
12+ - not sure if worth the effort of adding an interval of +10%, as we rarely reach 12 books.
A very good setup in my book, given the limited possibilities. It adds a lot to the original.
I would probably give a second thought to starting from 4 books, since 5% discount is almost negligible, while 10% for 5 books is twice as much and tempting. That extra 5% gives good look to 7 or 8 books (1/5 or 1/4 discount). But the choice's yours. I'll look at it.
Quote:A very good setup in my book, given the limited possibilities. It adds a lot to the original.
I would probably give a second thought to starting from 4 books, since 5% discount is almost negligible, while 10% for 5 books is twice as much and tempting. That extra 5% gives good look to 7 or 8 books (1/5 or 1/4 discount). But the choice's yours. I'll look at it.
You're right - after the great 1 to 2 and 2 to 3 benefits, 3 to 4 is an inferior step up - it just allows 4 more spells. Kind of disappointing. See above for modified %s
Be cautious with the book discount thing. There may be other occurences, although I thought I may have got them all. Needs testing (as everything else). - Magic_exe is a bigger change, a lot of work, but I did with hope to get a much better startup (I feel excited about it, actually). On the other hand, I really must hang up with these big changes, it's eating my precious time... sorry.
You MUST test the AIs, if they get the extra spells as well (for 9 or 10 books). This is not easy, but really necessary. I suggest modifying starting wizard in Magic.exe to have 9 or 10 books (or using one that does have it already) and lowering difficulty, until he starts with it... than check it through ILSE's tool? Not sure. Or using Sorcery, they have Flight as 1st choice, you'll see it confirmed with their Settlers flying over the land very early (use Alt+RVL cheat).
EDIT: Nope, the flight thing does not work, I suggest using Nature wizard, you should see Cockatrices casted really early. (The Insecticide has some really weird AI decisions...)
I didn't modify the 13+ books discount, as (a) it is not easy, (b) I have some doubts about running into 0 cost spells (with conjurer?).
I don't think there's anything big left up. Once the queue passes as done, we'll do the "production carries over" thing. I have a few minor spell repairing suggestions up my sleeve (like Flying fortress becoming Cloud barrier and few other; small changes making current underwhelming spells worthwile.). Big spell changes need a conception and probably a new thread, as we agreed.
Conjurer discount is now 50% rounded DOWN (conservative approach, in 1.40 it is 25% rounded UP)). If you wish to round up, exchange the first "40" byte to "90".
i think the tweaker can change the books research bonus (but not cast bonus)
so far i never realized that spearman violate the usual rule that gold upkeep is 1/50 of build cost rounded up. you could increase their build cost. that way they are more expensive to build but cheaper to maintain. that is a balancing (altough different) and makes them perfect for the guards role.
