loki100 wrote:having been overcome by feelings of guilt have started the process of coding up the various event suggestions that are knocking around so they can be properly evaluated.
Thank you, Loki. Your efforts are very much appreciated!
Branching events, real modeling of political systems (ie. no determinism on governments, mainly the Second Empire, but even just in terms of who serves as British PM, etc.), a functional AI (most important), and a better contentment/militancy system (or at least a more transparent presentation of the current system).
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loki100
- AGEod Guard of Honor
- Posts: 2401
- Joined: Sun Aug 14, 2011 4:15 pm
- Location: Caithness
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jscott991 wrote:Branching events, real modeling of political systems (ie. no determinism on governments, mainly the Second Empire, but even just in terms of who serves as British PM, etc.), a functional AI (most important), and a better contentment/militancy system (or at least a more transparent presentation of the current system).
Its better to be realistic. AGEOD is a small team, the funding for PoN's development was badly undermined by Paradox, so almost any time allocation from AGEOD is of free time (see Pocus' message above). The intent is to port over some of the AI developments for EAW, that will solve some of the worst problems ... not least the stack of doom issue. But even here you have to be realistic. Athena works on scripts, its relatively easy to develop these for the more focussed games such as ACW or EAW - tell her how to react to feasible situations and so on, but near impossible for an open ended game such as PoN.
In my AAR, the British AI responded badly to a global war with Italy. Ok, one reason was the lack of ships (something we can improve by script and event production), but mainly Athena had no real guidelines and to develop one would be a huge time investment.
Branching events would be nice, but believe me, they again take a lot of time. Even the long event chains (unifications, Balkans) all need making more robust to cope with the variations of a game in progress.
The point I'm trying to make is what is realistic is some AI improvements (from other games), hopefully solutions to a few long standing problems such as the canals, clean up the event chains so the AI will unify Italy/Germany etc, improve AI interest in building a fleet and generally deepen game play by more events. If by a combination of code and events we can generate a more interactive, strategically minded diplomatic AI that will be a huge gain.
If you think the Second Empire is modelled so badly, and, from my understanding, I don't share your view that it was a happy success, then do a mod. Kensai's Austrian one is a superb example of how to improve on the game from a particular perspective, but that is the only way that sort of change will be made.
AJE The Hero, The Traitor and The Barbarian
PoN Manufacturing Italy; A clear bright sun
RoP The Mightiest Empires Fall
WIA Burning down the Houses; Wars in America; The Tea Wars
PoN Manufacturing Italy; A clear bright sun
RoP The Mightiest Empires Fall
WIA Burning down the Houses; Wars in America; The Tea Wars
I wasn't expecting AGEOD to do anything I suggested. I was asked what key elements I thought PoN was missing to be the best strategy game ever made. The holes in the AI and the political system are glaring because the game purports to be so in-depth.
The determinism on governments like the Second Empire is a very unfortunate (and bizarre) design choice. To create a game that says the Second Empire will last 18 years, no shorter and no longer, regardless of how the situation in Europe plays out is simply strange. To be honest, I can't imagine any other game (Paradox or otherwise) making such a decision, so it was quite shocking to me when I realized that was how AGEOD chose to model this period. This goes beyond the Second Empire, though. I understand that won't change at this point, but I don't get why it was done that way to begin with (and at this point, I guess I don't really care; I will keep modding my game to make sure there's a French emperor beyond 1871, but it's not exactly easy to do).
The determinism on governments like the Second Empire is a very unfortunate (and bizarre) design choice. To create a game that says the Second Empire will last 18 years, no shorter and no longer, regardless of how the situation in Europe plays out is simply strange. To be honest, I can't imagine any other game (Paradox or otherwise) making such a decision, so it was quite shocking to me when I realized that was how AGEOD chose to model this period. This goes beyond the Second Empire, though. I understand that won't change at this point, but I don't get why it was done that way to begin with (and at this point, I guess I don't really care; I will keep modding my game to make sure there's a French emperor beyond 1871, but it's not exactly easy to do).
Can anyone help me set up a Mantis Bug Tracker service? I have a domain and hosting space, but not enough time to sit and read all the documentation* necessary. I believe a good online (community) instrument to characterise and prioritise the remaining bugs and missing features of PON, with the necessary log excerpts, etc will help modders and Pocus in particular to speed up the process.
I have not abandoned PON myself and I am serious for a modding effort, if I can find a "coalition of the willing" for a 1910 starting date DLC. We can use a lot of stuff (OOBs, etc) from EAW, as well as the experiences learned from the highly interesting 1880 Scramble for Africa DLC. As we work for this goal (a new DLC with a late starting date, something missing!), we could also make it appealing for the developers to pay this game one more visit, perhaps for a Gold version. I would really like to see for example the missing feature of the "loans", etc.
But first things first, without a centralised wiki-styled bug/feature hunting tool, we cannot even attempt to do this. Forums are good for discussion, but they are not ideal to improve a piece of software.
*if anyone knows of tutorials, YouTube videos, or has personal experience, please contact me here or through PM...
I have not abandoned PON myself and I am serious for a modding effort, if I can find a "coalition of the willing" for a 1910 starting date DLC. We can use a lot of stuff (OOBs, etc) from EAW, as well as the experiences learned from the highly interesting 1880 Scramble for Africa DLC. As we work for this goal (a new DLC with a late starting date, something missing!), we could also make it appealing for the developers to pay this game one more visit, perhaps for a Gold version. I would really like to see for example the missing feature of the "loans", etc.
But first things first, without a centralised wiki-styled bug/feature hunting tool, we cannot even attempt to do this. Forums are good for discussion, but they are not ideal to improve a piece of software.
*if anyone knows of tutorials, YouTube videos, or has personal experience, please contact me here or through PM...
Care to unify Germany as Austria? Recreate the Holy Roman Empire of the 20th Century:
Großdeutschland Mod
Are you tough enough to impersonate the Shogun and defy the Westerners? Prove it:
Shogun Defiance Mod (completed AAR)
Großdeutschland Mod
Are you tough enough to impersonate the Shogun and defy the Westerners? Prove it:
Shogun Defiance Mod (completed AAR)
Still, flecha, there are things we can fix ourselves, if we only had a core of modders eager to fix what we have with the current engine. So many things can be fixed by simply tweaking the database and introducing-improving the events.
But we need something like that! A bug bash system. There is no excuse in not having a community one as well. Check out this video, their team is 2-3 persons, as small as the AGEOD one. I am willing to set up one bug-feature ticketing tool on my own hosting service for AGE games exclusively, but need help.
Trust me, without it you cannot keep up with the things that need to be done.
But we need something like that! A bug bash system. There is no excuse in not having a community one as well. Check out this video, their team is 2-3 persons, as small as the AGEOD one. I am willing to set up one bug-feature ticketing tool on my own hosting service for AGE games exclusively, but need help.
Trust me, without it you cannot keep up with the things that need to be done.
Care to unify Germany as Austria? Recreate the Holy Roman Empire of the 20th Century:
Großdeutschland Mod
Are you tough enough to impersonate the Shogun and defy the Westerners? Prove it:
Shogun Defiance Mod (completed AAR)
Großdeutschland Mod
Are you tough enough to impersonate the Shogun and defy the Westerners? Prove it:
Shogun Defiance Mod (completed AAR)
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