Saturday, June 1, 2013

Update on Updates

This is just a heads up on the things I'll be adding soon, I thought you should know before I'll release it and get people complaining because units are more expensive now for no reason.

So, I want to make Imperial upgrades to increase the unit's cost with about 20%. Why? Well because units get really, really powerful with their Imperial upgrades and it kinda makes sense to also make them a bit more expensive, and this is how AoE2 also worked.
Not only that, but by doing this I give players an important choice to make, upgrade their units to imperial and have really powerful stats but more expensive units, or don't upgrade them to Imperial, be weaker but also cheaper. Each player's economy will determinate with which strategy they go.

You might think "But now players with the best economy will win easier!". Well, not exactly, because they will use all that economy on more expensive units and dry it out faster, while players with weaker economy can still train more units for the same, cheaper price.
Plus, I did not increase the stats Imperial upgrades give, I only made them increase the unit's cost.

Another thing that I will add soon, Revolution civs are now getting villagers! But only 10 of them...
The idea of Revolution is still the same, you have a shitload of resources, you want to go kamikaze and train units stupid fast (+ infinite Forts and almost infinite Factories), you go for Revolution. But now, after all your Settlers transform into Militia you will still be able to train 10 more Settlers. How you use those Settlers is up to you.
Revolutions are times in which every villager takes up arms against their oppressors, not many still have time to work.

And another thing related to the "Out of sync" error in multiplayer, I have a file that might fix it for some but not for others, so I'll decide if I release it or not according to the survey.
So please vote! Thank you.

PS: And for God's name people, run the patcher as administrator!

13 comments:

  1. I must say i am impressed lately by you still working so hard on a game that is more than 6 years old. Its one of the reasons i still play this game with friends on a lan. Great work, Mandos.

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  2. Great idea, Mandos! Every new idea you have greatly improves this game to the extent that I want to play it over Minecraft! Lol.
    I want to ask something though, even though you do get an unlimited amount of factories and forts in Revolution mode, you still are only limited to 2 for each. Sometimes, you are even limited to one fort unless you have the card that allows for an extra fort.
    I was going to ask if it was possible to raise the factory build limit to 3? Or is that something that is hardcoded?
    I figured since most people after the Colonial Age will be focusing more on battling rather than resource management it would make sense, especially if one player is in Revolution.
    Also, would it be possible to make an advancement for iron clads for most civs post imperial age? That would also make Naval combat a bit more fun.
    :) Keep up the good work!

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    1. I did made the Factory limit 3 for Revolution in the last updates. As for non-Revolution, you have a good point, but, what about Natives and Asians? Would it be fair if Europeans had their entire economy sustained by Factories while the others struggle with villagers?

      I don't understand the Fort problem? Each time you get the Revolution Fort card the Fort build limit is increased by 1. To make this faster I suggest you build a Church and research the Religious Service tech to get shipments in faster.

      I do plan to include the Gatling Gun or at least the Iron Clad for all civs in the Imperial Age, but I'm still trying to find a good way to do it, since the Home City doesn't have a category for Age5 cards, it goes only up to Age4 in the HC.

      Thanks for playing!

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    2. @Mandos,

      What about you keep the card at Age IV and it gives access to those units but they are greyed-out because they can only be trained in Age V? Is that possible?

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    3. Yes, it is, but I want something different, something that would require Fame. I could make the card to cost Fame but I dunno. Still thinking.

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    4. I think I have an idea that could make the Asians and Natives keep up with the European Economy if you do this update for all Euro Civs.
      You can create a tech to make the Native and Asian civs to work a whole margin faster than an average European Settler. It makes sense for the Asian Civs because China produces tons of goods IRL.
      So would making the natives and Asians gather rates better than the Europeans at a certain age be able to keep it up to balance? Or would that throw it off?
      Another idea I had was that Factories could be captured like farms and plantations. This way the Euro civs would have to protect their factories and make it more strategic.
      Again, I don't know if this will throw the game off balance but those are ideas I had to balance it out.

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  3. Hello Mandos, impressive work as usual. The idea with the ability to build 10 more settlers is great, so now revolution is a bit more viable in a multiplayer match. I think that the Asian civilizations and Native civilization "Imperial" units should have the same cost as usual, since technically they are "Exalted" and "Legendary" units, not "Imperial". Speaking of AoE2 gameplay mechanics, do you still remember the technology "Sappers"? Which increase the villager's siege damage, I was wondering if that technology could be integrated into the game as that would open up new strategies, which is good to keep a strategy game alive.

    Speakings of Gatling guns, I seem to have a bug in which that the Gatling gun portrait is always replaced with organ gun portraits...

    And speaking of Iron clads, they are made to be a hybrid of a frigate, and a monitor, while being a little bit inferior to both units, hopefully it can be integrated well into a normal game. Perhaps the iron clads can be made to negate the bonus damage from "heated shot"? Since they are fully ironed or steeled, and are shown during the U.S. civil war to basically negate all damage from round shots, explosive shells, and heated shots.

    Lastly, I think the Asian civs and the Native civs can do well with some more "reform" technology, in which they pay for a card with whatever resources to improve unit health, speed, resource collection and the such (Example being Old-Han reforms).



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    1. Well, when I said "Imperial" I was also referring to "Exalted" and "Legendary" techs. Though I'm not so sure its a good idea now.

      I don't want villagers to do damage because I don't want them to be used to harass. You already have enough units for that, I don't want to make it even more annoying.

      That is one weird bug with the Gatling Gun, I'll look into it.

      The Ironclads are a delicate subject. Although you have a point, I still feel they are too powerful, OP if I can say. So, making changes to them is a bit hard. I am trying to find a way to add Gatling Guns and Ironclads to Europeans without Revolution, but only in a small number and expensive, I'll probably use Fame but I still don't have a good way to do it.

      I don't get the last suggestion? Add cards for Asians and Natives which improve stats? Don't they already have such things?

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    2. Yes, Ironclads are kind of op, and are supposed to be weaker than both dedicated vessel, so what I meant is nerf them, and then make the heated shot bonus damage not applicable to the ironclads to make them unique. This makes them much more durable against cannon and building anti-ship attacks, since the Ironclads are historically a close range, shore artillery, and anti-ship support ship. Although I wished there were more cards such as the ones I mentioned, it does not seem like a good idea now, in terms of civ balance. The original idea was supposed to help Asian civs catch up with the Europeans with the use of these "modern" reform cards, since the euros have factories.

      Speaking of revolution unit balances, perhaps you can try giving the factories a separate option to create Gatling guns, at a rate comparable to the heavy cannons. And Ironclads can be bought from the home city, although via a infinite use merc card. Or, also make the Gatling guns available as a infinite use merc card unlocked in the industrial age. You can of course also make the resources used in the merc cards "fame" instead of gold.

      About the sappers, I just thought that incorporating some game play mechanics from the much more "balanced/successful" AoE2 might improve the game.

      Anyway, thanks for your hardwork, and thanks for responding to the community. :)

      Btw, did you know that the black riders are an actual regiment of German Calvary known as the "Schwartz Reiter" whom wore heavy armor, and with multiple pistols as their main weapon? So I was wondering, if it's possible to spice up the Hackapell and the black rider mercs to make them more useful, fun, and historically accurate. But, it's just a suggestion, so please do as you wish.

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    3. Hey, Mandos. I love your mod, but is there anyway you are considering to put more than 25 cards in a deck? Is it even possible?

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    4. I think it is but I forgot how...
      Anyway, having less cards available is more strategical, the idea is, you can have 25 cards, its up to you which ones you chose to help you win the game.

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  4. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  5. have you seen Chief Sioux? he looks terrible this Star
    I can't look at it
    return the old circle!

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