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[mainiac]

I got it to work, and I do have a request that the battle report is a bit more...clearer on what side is fighting what. All I get is reports about Militias shooting Militias until the stack is emptied (presumbly because I killed them all). I'm assuming you're working on that too.

Ask and ye shall receive, a rudimentary battle display:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B3vdHCmP0WVNNXRmZmtEX1RwUU0/edit?usp=sharing

[Servant Corps]

Thanks! As school is starting, I won't be able to do any more tests of your game, but at least I finally got an okay idea of how the stack is being emptied. I'm also able to figure out how to change planets, though when I go back to the original planet, I can't see the original units over there. On one of the planets, I see one unit located in the middle of the water, and I cannot move it because, well, it's in the middle of the water.

I also looked at your lore, and I do have one tiny nitpick. Rome and Persia are not pagan. The Romans have already fully converted to Christianity (the last chance for them to stay Pagan was Julian the Apostate, and the Persians followed Zoroastrianism, which does believe in dualism (one good god and one evil god)...but I kinda doubt that people actually pray to the evil god.

[mainiac]

Well with Rome I was thinking a sorta syncratic early christian mixed with late imperial mystery cults thing (not that it's important, just that it's cool) while Persia would still be Zorastrian.  But I figured that all the religions would be pretty syncratic, with 500 years of intermingling and no religious wars in this timeline there's a lot of room for that.

It's troubling that you can't see the units, I thought I just fixed that.  Oh well, back to the codemill.

edit: I tried the latest version I uploaded and I don't seem to have the problem of the missing units that you have.

doubleedit: found a bug in the reading of the unit files and got rid of the annoying enter pressing in the battlescreen.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B3vdHCmP0WVNX0h6UGFrSFFsVlU/edit?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B3vdHCmP0WVNV29rZnJIVHU1dFk/edit?usp=sharing

[Aqizzar]

Congradulations on having a running executable, that's always the first big step.

Although every version posted but the first just gives me an insta-close console.  64x Windows 7.

[mainiac]

Congradulations on having a running executable, that's always the first big step.

Although every version posted but the first just gives me an insta-close console.  64x Windows 7.

That's because I forgot to include all the data files :doh:  My internet is too spotty for uploads right now so if you want it to run, copy all files in the working version's directory into the most recent one then replace none.

I can upload again: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B3vdHCmP0WVNVUNsQy1kZ2xNVnM/edit?usp=sharing

edit: few more tweaks: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B3vdHCmP0WVNNWpvV2UzR0pTRmM/edit?usp=sharing

doubleedit: new unit interface: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B3vdHCmP0WVNOVp5WnE4V0hlc1k/edit?usp=sharing
triple edit: groundwork for resource gather: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B3vdHCmP0WVNTTdVVmEtTnVUdkE/edit?usp=sharing (forgot to include the data files again.  If you want this to work, copy the contents of an older version into the folder).

I wish to pose a question to anyone who's reading the thread.  Is the original game system of farms and mines gathering resources based off the surrounding terrain a good one?  I've been working on that system (counting extra for hexes closer to the city) but am wondering if it's a good one or not.

[Il Palazzo]

Nice work, mainiac. If anyone has got the dogged determination to finally make an EoFS remake, it's you.

Very good approach with the simplification, in my opinion. Guild-only transportation, no tech research and limited city growth are all great ideas.

The EoFS' resource gathering is not that bad a mechanic to keep, I suppose..


Let's see, with the absence of technologies, all buildable units and other game mechanics normally tied to technology would be available right from the get-go. To keep proscription relevant, you'd just need the church to ban specific unit types. Probably with a list of units already proscribed when the game starts. Is that more or less what you're thinking of?

Re: the resource gathering, I'm thinking it'd be good to completely remove the resource-type units.
Perhaps buildings only produce what's needed for consumption and trade, the surplus simply going "poof" ninja-style?
Or, the resources could be stored in invisible warehouses in the producing city. The latter would allow for resource capture, but would still eliminate the tediousness of moving them around.

[mainiac]

Let's see, with the absence of technologies, all buildable units and other game mechanics normally tied to technology would be available right from the get-go. To keep proscription relevant, you'd just need the church to ban specific unit types. Probably with a list of units already proscribed when the game starts. Is that more or less what you're thinking of?

Yeah that sounds like the most direct application and it kinda makes more sense too.

Re: the resource gathering, I'm thinking it'd be good to completely remove the resource-type units.
Perhaps buildings only produce what's needed for consumption and trade, the surplus simply going "poof" ninja-style?
Or, the resources could be stored in invisible warehouses in the producing city. The latter would allow for resource capture, but would still eliminate the tediousness of moving them around.

Yeah resource units were a real pain in the ass.  They were micromanagement hell and shipping them around made the guild pretty pointless unless you were close to leagueheim.  It's probably best like you say, use em, sell em or they're gone.

[Il Palazzo]

It's probably best like you say, use em, sell em or they're gone.

This has got the disadvantage of completely reshaping ye ole EoFS economy. You'd have to come up with some new balance to accomodate it.

I have a vague recollection of discussing this half-baked idea on the EoI forum, where the economy would work as stated above, with only production potentials and no stockpiles.
The conclusion, I believe, was that trade with the guild would need to play a major role in the game. Otherwise losing a few cities could irrevocably cripple you with little hope of catching up with the rest of the players.
So it went like this: houses automatically offer their surplus production on the guild-controlled market(with the option to opt out), and whenever any house wants to buy something, they make use of that surplus. There's only as much stuff to buy as is produced by other houses. Since the guild is controlling the trade, the price houses sell at is lower than the price to buy the same stuff. The difference going to the guild coffers, which may or may not have other uses.
One could bribe the guild to embargo a house(no access to the market), or to rise prices on some stuff.

It would pretty much require universal warehouse(i.e., pooled production capacity per house, rather than per planet), which may not be such a bad idea, considering the intended lack of meaningful fleet operations, so no military blockades. Also, further simplification, which is good.

[mainiac]

So it went like this: houses automatically offer their surplus production on the guild-controlled market(with the option to opt out), and whenever any house wants to buy something, they make use of that surplus. There's only as much stuff to buy as is produced by other houses. Since the guild is controlling the trade, the price houses sell at is lower than the price to buy the same stuff. The difference going to the guild coffers, which may or may not have other uses.
One could bribe the guild to embargo a house(no access to the market), or to rise prices on some stuff.

Although goods going from player to player is an interesting idea, I'm not sure it fits with the setting.  Basically I want to recreate the feeling of the manorial economy that dominated Europe from around 400-1400.  Although a lot of sale (and gifting and tribute) of bulk commodities did take place most of the economy was oriented towards localized self sufficiency.  So if a player is making advanced resources they should be using those resources themselves, otherwise it's not a profitable venture.  Even if you forced the player to sell the excess at a loss to the guild, the other players could bribe them to do so, making it a profitable activity to make advanced goods on the best planets for those goods.  So I'm just thinking it's best to limit nip it in the bud and make it so that the guild has a limit on how much it will sell of a given resource to a player.  I think a common aphorism in this universe is "no one beats the guild."


edit: units can now be upgraded.  W00t.  I'm considering making this the way that all units are acquired beyond basic militia.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B3vdHCmP0WVNRDBpMXZzQW0tX0k/edit?usp=sharing


edit: few more tweaks made: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B3vdHCmP0WVNWXh0RjU4M18wR0k/edit?usp=sharing

I have a question for anyone following this.  Does anyone have any advice on where I can acquire some freeware graphics to use in this, even just as placeholders?  That's a pretty big bottleneck right now as it's not something I want to be focusing my efforts on yet but I really need to be able to make stuff look different from other stuff.

[Karlito]

Just search around a bit. I found this site without too much trouble, and it looks like it might have some stuff you can use.

[mainiac]

I didn't see any unit sprites that seemed appropriate on that site.

[mainiac]

Nothing for the past few days due to traveling but I decided to just start drawing my own images:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B3vdHCmP0WVNLUxPSGhJU1pMSmc/edit?usp=sharing

Fixed a problem with whitespace in data files.  Speaking of which, would anyone be interested in helping me to make data files for units or maps?

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B3vdHCmP0WVNdXVoMzlxZ3RnbXM/edit?usp=sharing

[mainiac]

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B3vdHCmP0WVNSnoxeFBjd01nNlE/edit?usp=sharing

So not a whole lot in the past few days going on but I've got the map reading working better and the ability to switch players (currently it just switches between red and blue when you hit turn.)  I'm sort of just nibbling at things because I'm not sure where to go from here.  Anybody have anything they think I should do next?

[Servant Corps]

Work on the economy or the elections/church "ministries".

[mainiac]

Work on the economy or the elections/church "ministries".

I can do that.

In the meantime, I'd appreciate if anyone could let me know how adequate my mapmaking skills are.  In this build I've got right now, the map that shows up at the start is supposed to be a region of earth.  Is it recognizable what region that is? https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B3vdHCmP0WVNb3d1VmxWTVlYWEU/edit?usp=sharing