Conquest 3.5.2e - on 1.10.0 ADD ON Server

[Mabuse]

after implementing both population options i must say that LOCAL-pop option is a real blast though.
the graphical display of the pop in the cities looks nice, and the strategical effect is huge. enourmous to say the least.

global pop is almost boring

no-pop is umm .. simple


of course both options got worked out a bit more, so thevalus in the posts above may got changed according to new insights .

i also work on active cities to give a blasting solo-player expierience
its like "conquest SX" survival against the undead hordes
(but also you might set the ai to low in MP and get harrased from time to time)




EDIT:

I think both your ideas break the KISS principle of Conquest and bring an additional micromanagement.

There are two related problems -

• the amount of units in the game may become too high, especially in case sides can develop undisturbed
• the value of a militia is very high, as the militia is almost as effective as the infantry (3 militias kill approx. 2.5/3 of an infantry), but represents also a cheap blocking tool.

In Conquest Minus I wanted to lower the effectivity of militia (e.g. to decrease their HP to 24 or 22). I think this would be a better solution than your ideas (but I perceive your ideas solve also the problem of "too many units").

btw, one more note about that:
--------------------------------

conquest is still KISS even with population (and other features)
however, pop is optional.

i think you underestimate the ability of players to adapt to a given situations/rules.

value of infantry is in (main) CONQUEST therefore higher than militia, since infantry is able to fortify AND heal (heal cost no pop). so infantry has not only by far the better defense, but infantry can be also maintained without spending pop.

tbh, i dont dislike the idea of reducing militia hp to 24 - its imo not the badest solution -
however i wont do that in conquest, since i also want to keep the offensive value of militia to PERHAPS finisih off badly wounded units. with the invention of POP, militia can comfortably stay the way they are. it will not be overused, since that is simply no longer possible.

[Mabuse]

version 3.4.0 is on add on server now


Version 3.4.0
- added icons for all right-click menue items for more gaming pleasure
- changed pictures fro ingame menu for pleasure
- Upkeep Options discarded
- Population Options included
a) Global Population: each Player has a certain Pool of Population
which grow each Turn determined by Number of Cities by a certain amount.
Units cost different amont of pop, depending on their strengh.
This is a purely limiting option, the player has just to keep an eye on the population.
You can buy additional pop though.
b) Local Poplation: each citiy has its own population.
per turn the pop of a city grow by 1. the max a city can hold is 10.
the population of the city is displayed graphically on the map via items.
additional pop can be bought.
this also adds a lot more strategical depth to the game.
you must consider where to get your supply of troops from.
you may also leave "empty ground" for an enemy.
beside its also looking cool.
- addd another realm-mode option, where infantry is spawned on each city.
- the miitia from basic realm mode was changed to a dwarven militia
- added ai spawn options.
ai can be set from inactive over a slighty harrassing state to a full challenge
for simplicity, all ai units are undead. since undead can also cross deep water to a certain extent
however, it also makes fun to conquer the realms of conquest haunted by an undea plague
- added solo player option.
- white is now AI color, the colors for players have been locked.




the main new thing is that you can play conquest now in solo mode.
strengh of ai depends also on how much villages the map has -
and of course which gametype you chose -

for capitol mode "high activity" ai on a 60 villages map should already make some fun,
once you got the hang it may be too easy, then "extreme" will provide a challenge

of course cities can be also activated on mp games



EDIT:
---------

one last note about how the "ai spawns" work.

each ai city has its own "gold counter". the counter starts at a given value (usually 1) and is increased each round by a certain value (between 1 and 2.5). each turn a city has a certain chance to spawn an enemy (5%-10%). the ai spawns always the strongest unit it can get for its actual gold.
when the city reaches 25 gold it spawns a 25 gold unit.

further versions may randomly assign an ai theme (humans, undead) -
and there amy be the option that a scn designer can specify the ai-type of enemy.
a real world based map may not want to have undead ai spawns.
on a fantasy theme undead opponents fit imo

[Mabuse]

Version 3.4.1:
- added also Humans as ai enemies
- which type of enemies is determined randomly
- certain maps (europe, crusades, far east) use only humans as enemies
- added two more ai-options "medium" and "intense" to allow more finetuning

3.4.2:
- fixed Bug concerning the (missing) rounding when using FULL HEAL in 1.9.
- fixed realm mode bug in single player (you had to select a region for the ai too)
- minimum default pop in global population option reduced to 20
- ported the Version 3.4.2 also to 1.9.8 server
- have fun with humans as enemies, and more options to finetune ai strengh
- also added recommendation when to use which ai setting (e.g. "extreme activity" for "realm mode")
- adjusted ai-difficulty settings
- new unit (human "monster" unit - Dark Knight)

e.g.
enjoy Crusades Map in single-player, realm mode, against extreme ai

[Mabuse]

Future Versions:

Short Term:
--------------
- "Dark Knight" gets renamed to "Grand Knight"
- in single player you can select from all regions in realm mode


Long Term:
-----------------
- More Types of Enemies, Orcs, Elves, Dwarves, Drakes, Kalifa
- after more enemies are available, each map will get a specific Type of enemy to give each map a special flavor
- OPTIONAL: Type of Spawn depends on Type of City (e.g. Elvish Cities spawn Elven Enemies)
(maybe its not worth the effort, lowest priority)
- Rise of Rome Map
- ArcadiaUltra Map

[Nauzhror]

If anyone is interested I've launched a conquest tournament. Everyone is free to register for it.

http://forums.wesnoth.org/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=35011

[Mabuse]

Just a note about the work in progress:

- added orcs, drakes and kalifa as AI enemies.

- drakes and kalifa are special AI enemies, which will be used only on special maps (like jelwan, or thebes (which got newly added)

- orcs got added to the random list

- all regions selectable in single-payer realm mode

- fine tuning of ai


atm i test a bit what can be done about the ai.

[MCP]

Hi,
Zeus and I played our first conquest game today. I have to say I am impressed. Random enemies on independent villages makes things very interesting.

We're complete newbs to the details of strategies in Conquest, but it's quite familiar in many ways to games we've played before. I also think I will like it more than regular wesnoth. It's very interesting the idea of 10 turns, 20 turns, how goals can change very rapidly. Same thing with independent city populations.

Iirc, we played low level AI, independent village populations (no effect on recruiting at all...), show income stats each turn, Capitol Mode. It was fun.

[Mabuse]

hey MCP - great you enjoyed it.

the changes mentioned above will be the final ones ones for a while
(although i think i will add POLAND map to the pack too, since i think it is a good map)

since.. i want to work on another add-on too, which you probably also know well
(no details here )


EDIT:
i also enjoy playing a solo conquest game from time to time, with an appropriate ai it is real fun.
and yes, the population settings seem not to have any bad effect on recruiting in a normal game.
thats kinda the way it should be. of course on local population you might get sometimes get a shortage, although that never happened to me.

On realm mode start it can happen, if you have a lot of starting gold.
...or if you get a lot of money from a full developed realm. E.g. all cities are full regions and have a worker - it might be imaginable that you may run into a population problem, but its also unlikely.

it has an effect if you try to finsish off wounded units by buying militia (one after another) and hope for some luck for example. or constant wars at border regions may drain the pop out of the border cities.

[Mabuse]

3.4.3:
- "Dark Knight" gets renamed to "Grand Knight"
- in single player you can select from all regions in realm mode
- Thebes, Celestia Map added
- More Types of Enemies, Orcs, Drakes, Kalifa
- Jel Wan get Drake as default enemy, Thebes map get Kalifa as set enemy

[Mabuse]

I have a Vacant Place for a Map Maker - if you are interested - PM me
details will follow.

[Mabuse]

3.4.4:
- Clelestia Map Bug fixed. Wasnt able to recruit on Mountain Villages.

[SlowThinker]

3.4.4:
- Clelestia Map Bug fixed. Wasnt able to recruit on Mountain Villages.

I tried Celestia in your Conquest and any recruit turns the village into yellow. Is it intended?

[Mabuse]

I tried Celestia in your Conquest and any recruit turns the village into yellow. Is it intended?

Hello Slow, i cannot reproduce the bug.
yellow images are displayed when the code for new "stuff" is correct but the images cannot be found.

however, the villages are default gfx and so i cannot see a theoretical source of error here.
in my tries i could not reproduce the bug, everything works fine here



EDIT:
----------

i found another bug ....

3.4.4a:
- Clelestia Map Bug fixed. Wasnt able to recruit on HILL Villages.
(damn, kinda overwrote the hill villages when making it possible to train from mountain-villages)

[Mabuse]

Recommendation of the Day:
----------------------------
Grab a Mate (or two), and set up a Calestia-Map Game,
Unlimited Turns, Medium or Hard AI.
Capitol Mode.

HF

(other options such as POP or income statistic are optional)

the ai will make expanding more interesting and you also have to fight your mates after a while


EDIT:
----------------

inspirated by the "flier-debate", where i suggested you could weaken the power of fliers (for example on wesnoth map) by placing impassable mountains near rivers with good effect. i just did that and uploaded it in the conquest pack.

3.4.4b:
- new version of wesnoth map. a massive mountain range now protects wesnoth
partially from fliers from bitter

[Mabuse]

currently i think about a way to make the ai-spawns in capitol mode a bit more Balanced.
atm i prefer an "average" distribution.

intead of randomizing "militia, dwmilitia, infantry, dwinfantry, cavalry" and thus giving each option a 20% chance to appear,

i randomize "militia, dwmilitia, dwmilitia, infantry, infantry, infantry, dwinfantry, dwinfantry, cavalry"
and thus giving both the weakest and the strongest options both a 11% chance, the 2nd weakest and 2nd strongest option have 22% to appear each, while the medium strong unit has a 33% chance to appear. this will make the "extreme weak/strong" spawns more rare, and equalize the ai-distribution more.

there may be also an option to select the strengh of the ai spawns "average", "strong" (the three strongest options get a 22% (inf),44% (dwinf),33% (cav) distribution) or "weak" (three weakest options get a 33% (militia), 44% (dwmil), 22% (inf) distribution)