01-09-1999 01:57									#1
	Can any of these things be done in CTP now? Support Apolyton, buy Alpha Centauri

The mod makers on this site have helped provide great enjoyment from this game. Once you get used to the interface, and get the right mods, CTP is a great game. (Yes, I know how good CIV2 is, I have been playing it for years on and off, but with the continual improvements to CTP it is now becoming my first choice when I want to play a strategy game).

However the mods I use improve the appearance (Harlan ,Slax,Paul), and interface and game mechanics (CD, TP) but is there any scope for increasing the strategic options for the use of units in this strategy game?

For me, the more decisions I have to make, the better the strategy game. -I know I am brilliant when my decisions result in success and when my decisions lead to disaster I wonder what on earth was I thinking (Note,- by decisions, I don’t mean routine micro-management actions)

For example,-
There are units which are general all rounders in ability, equally good in attack or defence, eg Pikeman (30-0-30) or a musketeer (40-40-40). So unless I want a unit with a special ability I build the strongest unit, -no choice. In order to increase my strategic options, I would like to alter their statistics so that one was better at defence while the other better at attack.
Q1. Do I need to change a lot of AI.fli’s in order that the computer AI can use the units properly? (It would be nice if the AI made its build choices on the basis of the revised stats, but I suspect this wouldn’t happen).

Q2. Is it possible to give a special ability (flag) to a particular unit so that it fairs better or worse against another particular unit?
For example, could I have a rocket-firing soldier that has fairly weak attack strength compared to all his contemporaries, but has double attack strength against, say, a tank. This feature would also enable the CIV2 ability of a Pikemans double defence strength against a horse unit.

Different subject,-
Q3. Is there any way to include points in your score for the amount of gold you have?
I would find this particularly useful in multiplayer. CTP takes longer to play than CIV2. And CIV2 MGE takes my friends and I a couple of months to play a LAN game, at the rate of a few hours per week. I think it is perfectly reasonable to determine the winner by the highest score at a certain time (especially since I prefer to play a more peaceful game than most). However almost every factor is taken into account for determining score apart form the effort I have gone to to collect gold. It would also give me a reason to think about the use of gold, apart from rush buys.

Q4. A question about battle calculations that I should know the answer to, but don’t.
Is there any difference between attacking with a unit that has firepower of 2 and hit points of 10 and a unit that has a firepower of 1 but hit points of 20?


Apart from Q4, can these things be done with CTP as it is now?
Any advice from the experts would be appreciated.

Thanks
JimMac

	01-09-1999 09:31									#2
	Support Apolyton, buy Alpha Centauri

Q1) I'd suggest looking at the default file in the AIP folder. It tells the computer how to use the various units. It's the same for all personality types. As long as you don't change a defensive unit to an offensive one, and vice versa, your changes shouldn't really affect anything. I modified both unit values and the aips for my mod. If you decide to modify the aips, though, you will need to do it to all the personality types.

Q2) That ability flag isn't availible in CTP. We all wish that it were.

Q3) I don't know about.

Q4) There should not be any difference.

	03-09-1999 13:06									#3
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Thanks for your reply WesW.

I wonder how difficult it would be for Activision to incorporate a special ability flag which could be used when doing battle calculations?

Oh well .. I guess I will just give my "rocket man" a higher attack value than a tanks defence, but give him a poor defence value, -not quite the same though.

JimMac
[This message has been edited by JimMac (edited September 03, 1999).]

	03-09-1999 23:14									#4
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on a similar note - can you make terrain affect the defence of some units? eg the only time a legion ever really beat a Macedonian/successor Phalanx was generally in hills - although I believe you could at least restrict by not allowing Phalangites to move into mountains