Game mechanics

[Seravy]

Coding is done, next up, inserting and testing. In a few hours (or tomorrow morning if I sleep) we'll know if it works or not. (I had problems trying to insert a far call in this part of the code before but that call was a lot more resource intensive)

(whether it plays better and by how much is a different story, we'll find that out after release)

[Nelphine]

Looking forward to this immensely. Going to try impossible lizards with new ai buffs!

[Seravy]

Inserting code done (this sure took a hell of a lot of time, I had to even get rid of the "neutral city production" procedure and incorporate neutrals into the main one to have enough space)
Next up, reading the whole thing in the inserted state to make sure everything is correct (I usually find a dozen of typos or logic problems in a code of this size) and after that I can start the game and see if it crashes on turn 1 or not as it usually does after changes this big :D

...if only it wasn't 4:40am.

[Nelphine]

hehe, take your time. we'll wait with baited breath, but we'd much rather you do it at your pace

[Seravy]

finished reading it, fixed lots of things (found like 20 of them), recompiled and inserted...time to start the game!


Well...it isn't crashing which is actually a huge thing on first run.
It only builds sawmill and trade goods though, there clearly is a bug somewhere. I'm going to look for that after sleeping...

[Seravy]

Ready for release. I'll let the AI play another 100 turns by itself and if I don't see any problem, I'll start uploading.

Obviously I haven't had a chance to play against it, so you might experience a sudden ramp up in difficulty.  

[Catwalk]

How about changing the formula for growth from housing so the % is based on production rather than the worker/farmer ratio? I think that would allow for more diverse economic strategies, as is you typically only build housing to get to size 2.
Example: Every 10 hammers per population gives a 100% bonus to the base growth.

And while we're at it, change builder's hall to give a regular growth bonus instead of a housing bonus.
Example: 60 hammers, 2 upkeep, +40 growth per turn. This makes it an excellent early choice for low pop sites.

I also think Sawmill should be revised, it's a must-have in all cities unless you aren't planning on building anything there.
Example: 4 hammers and +30 growth per turn. This makes it useful in cities you want to prioritize, but not a necessary first choice.

[Nelphine]

Sawmill is specifically designed as must have. (Although in late mid game or later, I rarely build it first - I just buy every building I want for 3-6 turns, so no point in a sawmill until I'm done that.)

[Catwalk]

I thought part of the point of the mod was to introduce more interesting tradeoffs and encourage decisionmaking? At least that's my key objective. Building sawmill first every time is getting boring. I'd much prefer it were there were different viable alternatives depending on the site and your needs.

[Nelphine]

I believe it was specifically for your capital to make sure it always got going quickly, and early AI, to make sure they didn't end up picking something 'bad' and crippling themselves. With an auto first choice for both those scenarios, sawmill makes sure everything at least has the option of working effectively.

Later game it of course isn't as interesting, but seravy decided that price was worth making sure the starting of the game always worked.