[MODCOMP] 1492: Reefs and Weather

[KJ_Jansson]

1492: Reefs and Weather

version 0.1 beta

About:
I developed this mini-mod to incorporate this concept into my "1492: Global Colonization" mod but I am releasing it as a separate [MODCOMP] as well. Therefore, this mini-mod contains the numbers "1492". It introduced Reefs and various Weather phenomena: Storms, Thunderstorm and Wind. This mini-mod is made as simple as possible, thus facilitating its integration into other modes.

The basic idea of a mini-mod:
In the late 15th century sea voyage on a ship from the Old World to the New World was extremely risky. Many travelers have successfully reached the new land. However, many disappeared without a trace, along with the ships in the raging waters. Unfortunately, this aspect totally absent from the Civ4Colonization. This mini-mod partially compensates for this shortcoming.

"1492: Reefs and Weather" contains the following elements:

1. Reefs
2. Storm at sea
3. Thunderstorm at sea and on land,
4. Tailwind.

Negative effects:

1. Reefs:
- The ship, sitting on the reef gets 15% damage per turn.
- The speed of the ship is reduced by -5. The ship, sitting on the reefs, will not be able to move more during this turn.

2. Storm at Sea (Tornado):
- The ship caught in a storm gets 20% damage per turn.
- The speed of the ship is reduced to -4. The ship, caught in a storm, will not be able to move more during this turn.
- Storm at sea reduces the impact of food from the tile for 3 (-3 FOOD).

3. Thunderstorm and Rain on sea and on land:
- Unit, caught in a thunderstorm, gets only 5% of damage.
- The speed of the unit that has entered the thunderstorm , is reduced by -1. The naval unit can often continue to move and get out of the dangerous tile, the land unit will leave on this tile up to next turn.
- Thunderstorm slightly reduces the ouput from the tile:
for sea tiles: -1 FOOD,
for land tiles: -1 FOOD, -1 LUMBER, -1 FUR,-1SUGAR, -1 TOBACCO, -1 COTTON.
Weather phenomena do not affect the production of goods in urban buildings or mining in the mines.

Positive effects:

1. Tailwind (Fair wind) on Ocean and near Coast increases the speed of the naval units (+1 per turn).
2. Natural weather phenomena and coastal reefs make travel more dangerous, that adds a reality in the game.

PATH_DAMAGE_WEIGHT parameter vs Caravel lifetime.

PATH_DAMAGE_WEIGHT tag is located in the GlobalDefines.xml file.

GlobalDefines.xml:

	<Define>
		<DefineName>PATH_DAMAGE_WEIGHT</DefineName>
		<iDefineIntVal>2000000</iDefineIntVal>
	</Define>

Table 1 show the PATH_DAMAGE_WEIGHT values and Lifetime (Turn) of a Caravel exploring the ocean in automatic regime before his death.

Value--------------Turn

0-------------------46
500000-------------97
2000000-----------118

Download here
Size: 6.2 Mb

Installation:

1. Unpack in \Mods directory.

Sample:

Achtung Spoiler:

C:\Program Files\2K Games\Firaxis Games\Sid Meier's Civilization IV Colonization\Mods.
If Mods directory is absent, please, create it.
Correct location is here: C:\Program Files\2K Games\Firaxis Games\Sid Meier's Civilization IV Colonization\Mods\1492 Reefs and Weather.

2. The loading through "Advanced" and "Load a Mod".

This is fully English version. Last official 1.01 patch must be installed to play "1492: Reefs and Weather".

Information for modders:

Achtung Spoiler:

Source codes are included in the archive.
The modified source codes are collected in SDK directory.

All changes in the source codes are marked with markers.

// KJ: Reefs and weather START

and

// KJ: Reefs and weather END

Everyone is free to modify, supplement and correct any part of this mini-mod. This version needs to be tested for stability and balancing.

Credits
I would like to thank Пашок, Хальк Юсдаль и NeseryoznijVET for their help and advices.

Screens:

[Writing Bull]

Ich habe diese Mod von KJ_Jansson zusätzlich noch an anderer Stelle hochgeladen, wo die Wartezeit beim Download in der Regel wesentlich geringer ist:

Mirror bei remiXshare

Link ist mittlerweile nicht mehr aktiv. - W.B.

[raystuttgart]

What about Performance-Effects ?

[KJ_Jansson]

What about Performance-Effects ?

What do you mean?

[ausgetreten]

What do you mean?

He wants to know if your mod slows down the game (because all tiles need to be checked constantly if weather effects will happen)

[KJ_Jansson]

He wants to know if your mod slows down the game (because all tiles need to be checked constantly if weather effects will happen)

Ok, thank you, Pfeffersack, for explanation. I didn't understand Ray's question.

Well, I tested my mod to check how many turns a ship can survive when it travels in the automatic mode. I see no delays between turns. I have no technique to measure msec delays if they are present at all.

Three additional remarks.

1. I follow the discussion on your forum concerning "Wetter".

Really, EVENTS system could be used to add the weather conditions in the game. However, in that case AI didn't know how dangerous to enter in "Tornado" etc. regions. In "1492: Reefs and Weather" mod all units know it and they try to avoid dangerous tiles. As result, the moving of AI units is much more realistic.

2. Unfortunately, I couldn't realize in this mod such possibility:

"Wounded unit (a ship or a land unit) that lost >75-80% of its HitPoints must heal on weather-free tile and could not continue moving".

I would be very appreciated if somebody could realize this idea. All source codes are included in the mod. I guess for professinal programmers it could not be too difficult to do.

3. And as usually for my mods: Everyone is absolutely free to modify, supplement and correct any part of this mini-mod or include it in your mods.

[raystuttgart]

Ok, thank you, Pfeffersack, for explanation. I didn't understand Ray's question.

Sorry KJ_Jansson,
next time I'll try to formulate my question a little bit better.

Well, I tested my mod to check how many turns a ship can survive when it travels in the automatic mode. I see no delays between turns. I have no technique to measure msec delays if they are present at all.

I also have not method to measure performance.

But I am a little concerned about performance in TAC right now.
We have added and will add a lot of features that cost a little performance.
Each of them for its own is not critical but it sums up.

Really, EVENTS system could be used to add the weather conditions in the game. However, in that case AI didn't know how dangerous to enter in "Tornado" etc. regions. In "1492: Reefs and Weather" mod all units know it and they try to avoid dangerous tiles. As result, the moving of AI units is much more realistic.

Yes it is true. Our planned weather-effects do not really use AI, but they do not have to either (at the moment).

Tornado: Can not be entered
Winds: Just speed up, slow down or do not allow moevement.

Also, we have conditions that trigger the effects.

For example: Winds are only triggered if there ALREADY IS a ship on the tile.

At the moment:
We do not try to have weather on huge areas. Weather in TAC will become very selective Events. It is not planned as a massive Feature on the whole map.

[raystuttgart]

Update:

Hi KJ_Jansson,

I just had a short discussion with koma about effects on performane by different implementations.

Large scale weather effects all over the map probably do not have a big impact on performance. (Maybe round-times are a little increased, but not significantly.)

We in TAC are probably rethinking our concept about weather.