Conquest of Elysium 3 dev log - Page 53

Edi · #**521** February 15th, 2012, 02:07 AM

Four people on one computer makes for a very crowded, frustrating ame very fast when you're switching chairs every 30 seconds.

Two copies with two people per computer each is quite doable. You just need to select two players as human from the game setup on both machines (the "Me" setting) and then divide them up as you please.

One computer will be running two instances of CoE3 (one instance of server, the other as client).

Catquiet · #**522** February 15th, 2012, 05:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Edi

Four people on one computer makes for a very crowded, frustrating ame very fast when you're switching chairs every 30 seconds.

So multiplayer games are hampered by the fact that two solid objects cannot occupy the same space at the same time... we are going to need a bug fix for that as soon as possible.

Doo · #**523** February 15th, 2012, 04:40 PM

Just reading the mechanics of playing the dwarf queen here.

Hilarious and sounds fun to play

Edi · #**524** February 15th, 2012, 04:54 PM

The dwarves are fun, yes, but only if you find mines that are conquerable. If the nearest mine is 15 turns march away (extremely unlikely but possible), it's going to be a slow game and probable defeat.

Or if the nearest mine gives you a scouting report to the tune of "Iron Mine. There are 32 units here, 17 Dwarves and 15 Dwarf Warriors", you can forget about it right then and there...

onomastikon · #**525** February 16th, 2012, 08:46 AM

Yes, Tom Chick has some very good and exceptionally positive write-ups of CoE3 over at Quarter-two-Three. Looks great!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Edi

The dwarves are fun, yes, but only if you find mines that are conquerable. If the nearest mine is 15 turns march away (extremely unlikely but possible), it's going to be a slow game and probable defeat.

Or if the nearest mine gives you a scouting report to the tune of "Iron Mine. There are 32 units here, 17 Dwarves and 15 Dwarf Warriors", you can forget about it right then and there...

That sounds very unfortunate. Exactly the kind of contingency-dependence I would have liked to see avoided. Do you feel that this is something that people (whatever that means: The majority of beta-testers, or JK and KO) feel need and will be "fixed"?

Another question: Does the AI do well with teaming? That is, will the AI recognize common goals and try to help its teammates reasonably?
Thank you

Gandalf Parker · #**526** February 16th, 2012, 09:40 AM

Dom3 made choices favoring multiplay which damaged solo play.
CoE3 tends to make choices favoring solo play over multiplay.
However there are map commands which can be used to create a better MP environment. I suspect some of those would be done fairly soon after release

The AI does well on teaming. Altho it is best to select nations which do not have the same resource requirements or they can get grabby.
(but that can be true with human players also)

Edi · #**527** February 16th, 2012, 10:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by onomastikon

Yes, Tom Chick has some very good and exceptionally positive write-ups of CoE3 over at Quarter-two-Three. Looks great!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Edi

The dwarves are fun, yes, but only if you find mines that are conquerable. If the nearest mine is 15 turns march away (extremely unlikely but possible), it's going to be a slow game and probable defeat.

Or if the nearest mine gives you a scouting report to the tune of "Iron Mine. There are 32 units here, 17 Dwarves and 15 Dwarf Warriors", you can forget about it right then and there...

That sounds very unfortunate. Exactly the kind of contingency-dependence I would have liked to see avoided. Do you feel that this is something that people (whatever that means: The majority of beta-testers, or JK and KO) feel need and will be "fixed"?

Another question: Does the AI do well with teaming? That is, will the AI recognize common goals and try to help its teammates reasonably?
Thank you

It is not common for something like this to happen. Few times out of several hundred games. One just tends to remember them. It's not exactly as if the larger maps would be resource poor, the problem can often be that the closest resources are too heavily defended to take early on and you need to look a bit farther away.

The game I remember best was a Druid/Dwarf alliance I played hotseat with Kaljamaha (I had the dwarves). I started off with four mines within three turns of my starting location, all but one lightly defended, so it was easy to expand and solidify until I had a tough core to lean on. Just as well, since I was located right in the middle of the map and right after I had managed to establish those mines as colonies, I started getting invaded by one player after another after another.

Kaljamaha on the other hand started out in the southeast corner of the map. One battlefield and two mines close, then nothing for miles around. Being a Druid, he needed an ancient forest. The nearest one was 10 turns of travel away if you knew the shortest route. All the rest of it was forest interspersed with mountains, which actually allowed him to field massive armies of animals and a gigantic herb income.

By the time he did get that ancient forest, all he had to do was upgrade the main hero and start summoning legendary monsters like the world was going to end tomorrow. After that, all he had to do was roll over the map like an unstoppable tidal wave, but then a version change ruined the savegame. Didn't matter, as there was just one player left anyway, all the others had either been killed attacking me or eliminated each other.

Kaljamaha's starting location though, it would have been instant game over for anyone but Druid, Witch or Troll King due to lack of resources. For each of those three classes, it would have been a good one, especially the witch.

You can't prevent those things happening sometimes, because they are rather on the extreme end of the scale. It's the price we have to pay for everything else working well.

onomastikon · #**528** February 16th, 2012, 10:17 AM

Thank you much, that sounds fair enough. Gandalf's praise of the AI is encouraging to me, I hope it does not dissapoint, as I have a serious single-player TBS itch that needs scratching (LOVE me my Dom3 though for MP itch!).

Am I correct in assuming that there are copious settings one can generously adjust during game setup to define (with modding) an individual game's inherent abundance or paucity of resources, magic sites, and other "stuff"?

Gandalf Parker · #**529** February 16th, 2012, 10:22 AM

Only choosing the Society (or Era) does that.
But there are map commands which do. One in particular addfancyterrain sprinkles the specials. Using that command multiple times on the same map make it do more

Gandalf Parker · #**530** February 16th, 2012, 10:25 AM

The AI for Dom3 was one AI trying to cover all of the unique nations. But CoE3 has many separate AIs. Each nation thinks along its own needs and unique abilities. And even the different independents have different AIs so the wandering animals act different than the wandering bandits which act different than the wandering merchant event. Their actual goals and attack choices are different