For the sake of helping spellman judge what is and isn't a good starting position, and perhaps for the sake of helping me improve the code that evaluates starting positions, would anyone be interesting in telling me their opinions of a couple starting positions if I posted a couple example screenshots?
|
Planetfall PBEM 2
|
Maniac Wrote:For the sake of helping spellman judge what is and isn't a good starting position, and perhaps for the sake of helping me improve the code that evaluates starting positions, would anyone be interesting in telling me their opinions of a couple starting positions if I posted a couple example screenshots? Sure. 
To be able to select expansion factions, aftet setting the starting era to expansion, change the difficulty level and then reset it to its intended value. The list of available factions will have updated.
*** Mardoc: Svensgaard 23-4 GMT Maniac: Sinder Roze 6 GMT Sareln: Luttinen ?? GMT Iskender: Santiago ?? GMT Sian: Yang 15-21 GMT full set of AI factions: yes, meaning 6 AI slots need to be added besides the 5 human slots, for a total of 11 Unity pods: no Tech trading: no Aggressive AI option turned on Scattered Landing Pods turned on Players and game starter need to create a copy of their Planetfall v16 map folder and name it 'Planetfall PBEM2'. The game starter should set up the game under that map folder. Set an admin password. Mention it in the lurker thread in case you ever disappear? Everyone should make sure they have the latest patch v16e. Emperor difficulty PlanetFall_Big_and_Small mapscript, default map settings. Quick gamespeed Expansion era start: to be able to select expansion factions, aftet setting the starting era to expansion, change the difficulty level and then reset it to its original value. The list of available factions will have updated.
I've released a new small patch e, which I suggest we use. So far only downloadable on WePlayCiv.
Changelog: 1. Very water heavy starting positions are discouraged. 2. Naval Academy can no longer be built inland. 3. Native Life can't be gifted to factions without excess Psi Potential. 4. Spore Launchers can now also pick the Flagella morphosis. 5. Flagella provides +75% instead of +50% defense on Coast/Shelf/Ocean. 6. Flagella and Amphibious Pods no longer provide a defense bonus on Trench. 7. Interface: improvements outside the base radius show the correct yield increase. The first point is the reason why I've released it and why I hope we'll use it for this game. Given the interest in Scattered Landing Pods here, I decided to have another look at the option, as I wasn't happy with the starting positions the option generated. In vanilla Civ4 the startingplot generator tries to place civs as far as possible from each other. This is countered by the game trying to place each civ in an as lush as possible environment. Planetfall doesn't try to place everyone in a lush environment. It basically ignores terrain yield, disregarding the amount of fungus or arid/polar terrain, and then improves the worst positions by adding nutrient/mineral/energy bonuses. By default Planetfall tries to start most factions a set rather small distance from each other. With the Scattered Landing Pods option, that code is turned off. With both that code and the code trying to place civs in a lush environment turned off, the dominant factor for starting plots becomes how far civs are from each other. This results in factions often being placed on thin peninsulas surrounded by lots and lots of water. With this new patch I've tinkered with the code for Scattered Landing Pods, so that factions start with more land inside their base radius. A major improvement IMO. |
