seanw3

Withdraw to the rear of the field*

I wrote a long post a ways back about how I would do a 9 tile limit system. It would need to include upgradable tiles. Those tiles would need multiple upgrading paths. I don't see a good 9 tile system coming from using the current improvement mechanics with less space to build. People would be destroying things to build late game structures. Cities would still be able to creatively snake by settling next to a mountain or river. Use of terrain like hills and forests would pretty much go ou

If it were a design decision, that would be fine, but range for bows is an intended feature. It needs fixing and then we can discuss realism versus gameplay. You should be able to withdraw from combat and save a unit from archer focus fire.

If a unit only has Throwing Daggers, the same bug applies. But that is a secondary weapon, allowing the AI to use melee routines if it is not in range.

Bows have been fixed. Rage ended.

ARGH! I put ranges on bow units and now the AI just frakking sits there with its thumb up its ass if it is not in range. How did the tactical AI iteration not add a skip turn strategy to archers? Melee units will skip turn to protect archers but archers will hang there until you choose autoresolve? Expect a new version in a few minutes...

Better UI than Win8. Can I pay 300 dollars for that or does it cost more?

Right, but they are a small dev team. I would expect to see very small optimizing for the next 6 months. So, go ahead and test on max settings. But tone it down to minimum levels when you want to have fun and play the game.

I took it upon myself to fix bows so that each one has a limited range. Only to find out that the tactical AI is incapable of understanding this fact and just sits there and pouts about being out of range. Would be nice if the ranges were fixed and the AI could understand ranges and move closer or skip turn. When might we expect some more Tactical AI work?

Unfortunately that bug is caused by there not being enough champions to fill those spots. The game refuses to let me reuse champions. I can fix it by renaming a few of them and duplicating them in the units file. I will add that to the list.

I was going to say celibacy from the internet is the only answer. Celibacy FTW!

The valid criticism of the 9 tile limit is why I dropped it as an idea a few months ago. One tile limit seems to be a better choice. I don't like the idea of making building position affect its usefulness either. Too much management for most users and it opens up a whole new can of worms as far as exploiting the system goes. There are many directions you can go with cities, but most of them see at least as problematic as the current system. At least the 1 tile city reduces m

Now it is fixed. There was this odd little "Showasoneunit" tag in the xml I never noticed before. Not sure why that was ever there.

Just fixed that last update. If you uploaded before this message, mercenaries are bugged for Master Merchant. [Edit] They are still broken. I will fix them soon.

I have never thought this trait worthy of choosing. Not much Warlordness to it. Not as good as the other options either.

It is less than 36 because of larger buildings taking up more space. You might end up with only 8 buildings.

I just got a big laugh from a CNN report on fraudulent tax return scams. It sounded more like an advertisement for people to try it, than a PSA about the dangers of it. Really bad news that the government is unable to thwart a 14yr old with a laptop from stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars a year. I will certainly be paying closer attention to this sort of thing. Good post Dr!

I notice no one has commented on that article. I was going to, but I am on the edge of fanboy status as is. I don't want to be the first one.

Assuming the game is popular and assuming there are many people who want to use mods, but lack the ability to do so, would anyone be willing to make an installer program that actually puts the files where they need to go? This is out of my area of expertise, but Murteas or someone well versed in software might be able to help out here. Just a thought about the endgame for modding.

Well, you have to see from my perspective. I just spent hours and hours putting this thing together. The person that wants to play it need only figure out where the files go and drop them in. I don't know how to make an executable to do that for you. I feel you should take the time to learn how to install the mod. But I'll ask around for someone willing to cook something up.

New version (42) is up. This update focuses on traits. Fire Elementals get a fire spell, since the Mantle of Fire is bugged for some reason. I found the Ophidian Scale Armor bug, but decided to leave it in for nostalgia. Stock Sovs can now be used and are set up to work on the same point system as custom Sovs. Faction traits get some bonuses too. Might want to make a few custom nations just to see the differences. Verga should be able to solo the whole map if I made things right. Try Sparse M

New Tile Art! Nice stuff! I am a proponent for the 9 tile limit for cities. They look nicer. 1 tile or 9 tile limit achieve the same goals for me: order. We must have order! The potential memory costs of a 9 tile limit would convince me though, that 1 tile is better for the size of game I want to play. 9 tiles may be something better suited to smaller maps.

Beta 3 sounds like alot of fun then. I think FacDif is the most interesting thing to discuss. Maybe you devs could compile some lore for each faction in a dev post soon? That would seem to be the best thing for making sure all of us are on the same page. For instance, Umber and Yithril seem very similar if the lore is not known.

I need faction traits too. Altar doesn't have much in that respect. I'll stick them with +75% diplomacy until I can think of something that fits the lore better.

Currently, the dragons will go for any adjacent units and within that, the weakest unit. So, low armor and fast units are fodder in sense.