🚂 1888A Steam & Steel - Official Thread

jkprince

This mod is great even as-is so far!

Some thoughts

2-move land units are not as useful as they appear due to there being a lot of industry around the map providing 3-moves to everything. I'm not sure how to add something extra to them (don't make it so industry gives them 4 moves obviously, the map is small enough)
There could be a few more rivers, but thinner ones that run through provinces rather than divide them. The rivers all being impassable walls is kinda strange, but its interesting. Just please add some of them that aren't. Oh, also, places like Crater Lake just kinda confuse the AI and make for a waste of perfectly good barges and gunboats
Inf-Elite improve on Inf-Trained in sea and air transportability, but they need just a smidge of an improvement in terms of land combat over Inf-Trained to truly be an upgrade. Maybe make it so tanks and bombers can provide arty support bonus to them as alternatives to gun-artillery (not stacking of course)? Or, give it a low-power version of the Hail_Bullets anti-infantry-targeted attack, like the Machine_Gun unit?
Machine-Gun ought to be considered as artillery NOT in terms of providing the +1 atk to infantry, but in terms of RECIEVING the +1 +1 atk/def from all levels of General (and possibly the balloon, etc bonuses as well) Also it should have a bit of added anti-air capability on top. Rn its a bit expensive for 8 PUs, don't reduce its price, just buff it a little.
Add more techs that are sidegrades instead of outright upgrades. Also make it so fewer units become obsoleted, because sometimes I want to go back to cheap options (ie, trenches will never become obsolete IRL, ever)
After you have reached the end of a tech line and unlocked the highest quality unit, you should be able to get techs that removes the PU maintenance cost from them, starting from the bottom-up. Removing the maintenance cost of the mid-range units would cost the most Science (because those are the most widespread), with the starting low-range units and the late high-range units would cost less Science to remove their maintenance. The techs that remove PU maintenance from units that are cheap to buy would be more expensive than removing maintanance from expensive units.
There could be techs that increase resource yields, or maybe even reveal and unlock entirely new resources to fight over. The idea of regions becoming more or less valuable over the course of the game sounds rather interesting. What if I want uncontested river control so that I can build hydropower, or if I want to invade my neighbor for their helium to make my zeppelins more survivable?

TheDog

@wc_sumpton
Thanks for taking a look

TheDog

@jkprince
Some interesting comments, I will talk them over with Ebbe.

ebbe

@jkprince
that is a good piece of high quality feedback! thanks for that....

Rivers: we're working on a bridge concept...

wc_sumpton

@ebbe said in 1888A Steam & Steel - Official Thread:

we're working on a bridge concept...

Just wondering what you mean...

Cheers...

ebbe

@wc_sumpton

we are looking for a way that a kind of bridge can be introduced,
to cross big rivers...
but it likely will not be possible to make it with all realistic bridge features
( so within the possibilites of Triple A code making some choices)
Like: can a bridge be conquered by land units from land? unlikely
can it be entered only when water TT it is in , is controlled ?
could it be damaged and repaired?
should a bridge be allways friendly neutral and by this accessable
by all sides all the time?
And with limited capacity a crossing point with slight bottleneck ?
just some thoughts....to test

I realy would like a Bridge type close to reality also for other projects...
it would be an interesting unit to add to strategic games

TheDog

@wc_sumpton
Currently in test is a
Bridge it is 0-0-0 (its really 0-0-1) with AA defence and 14TC, the AI does buy them.
So its 2 barges in 1 bridge that doesnt move, but its still a sea unit.
Like the current Coastal-Fort.

jkprince

SaS_fullsetup_semirealisticish.tsvg

the randomization in this map is neat but I also made a save with edit mode as an alternate consistent setup

TheDog

Latest version v010 ready for download.

Updated manual
New Unit Bridge that can be placed in Rivers and Channels, it is a non moving 'transport'
New canal Hellespont & Anatolia
Post 2 on 1st page for Code Raiders has a summary of how Winter works
Winter is coming, well on turns 4, 8,12, etc (with a Winter symbol . With a popup to warn & remind you of its effects for 1 turn

Winter in a territory and Sea Zone (Arctic, North and Antarctic)

Winter Terrain Effect for this turn

.
Your comments are most welcome.
.
Link to 1st post that has;
Google Drive download link
Latest 1888a SAS manual
Latest TripleA version

https://forums.triplea-game.org/topic/4056/1888a-steam-steel-official-thread

TheDog

Latest version v015 ready for download.

WARNING: This version is NOT compatible with your old saved games, so finish them before upgrading.

Each Faction has been Themed, with a free starting Tech, free units and a Theme benefit, hopefully this is balanced? (see table below)
New Units are Triplane, Inf-Biped, Armored-Train, Artillery-Rocket, Fort & Carrier, Tech2PUx2
Kraken & Sandworm Beasts randomly appear and wreck havoc with your plans (They can be turned off in Game Options)
Winter can be turned off in Game Options
Vanquished nations are now shown on the Politics Panel
Updated manual

.

.
Your comments are most welcome.

.
Link to 1st post that has;
Google Drive download link
Latest 1888a SAS manual
Latest stable TripleA version

https://forums.triplea-game.org/topic/4056/1888a-steam-steel-official-thread

ubernaut

@thedog def gotta give this a try

TheDog

Thanks, any feedback would be appreciated!

TheDog

@ubernaut
Any thoughts or comments?

ubernaut

@thedog haven’t had a chance to look at it yet but it’s on my list

TheDog

Latest version v1.020 is ready for TripleA download.

In TripleA
Click Download Maps Button
Click Installed tab
Click 1888A Steam and Steel
Click Remove Button
Click Yes button to remove
Click Ok button (Successfully removed)
Click Close (To force the map list to refresh)
Click Download Maps Button
Find & Click 1888A Steam and Steel
Click Install button (be aware, displayed percentage download is not working as intended, have a coffee)
Enjoy!

.
@frigoref Thanks for fixing the download file

TheDog

Someone has reported this

Two history synchers?
https://github.com/triplea-game/triplea/issues/13883

This has happened to me, but only in the maps development.

Has it happened again? If so I would upgrade to a later version.
Like this one
https://github.com/triplea-game/triplea/releases/tag/2.7.15287

LaFayette

That 'two history syncers' error is maybe now fixed. If it's still happening in the latest (which would be 2.7.15287 as of this writing), please let me know.

LaFayette

The map.yml file is not parsing correctly:

https://github.com/triplea-maps/1888a_steam_and_steel/blob/main/map.yml

map_name: 1888a_steam_and_steel
games:
- {game_name: 1888A Steam and Steel, file_name: 1888a_steam_and_steel.xml}

I believe the game_name needs quotes around it, or written in multi-line format, ie:

map_name: 1888a_steam_and_steel
games:
- { game_name: "1888A Steam and Steel", file_name: 1888a_steam_and_steel.xml }

or:

map_name: 1888a_steam_and_steel
games:
 - game_name: 1888A Steam and Steel
   file_name: 1888a_steam_and_steel.xml

TheDog

@lafayette
Thanks, I have updated/corrected my maps on GitHub.

A lot of maps, map.yml format will be like mine, single player there appears to be no problem. However will the new 2.7 lobby work correctly?

EDIT
If this is the latest documentation it will need amending to reflect your post above.
https://github.com/triplea-game/triplea/blob/main/docs/map-making/reference/map-yml-file.md

LaFayette

If this is the latest documentation it will need amending to reflect your post above.
https://github.com/triplea-game/triplea/blob/main/docs/map-making/reference/map-yml-file.md

I see 'version' is in the docs, that should be taken out.. The rest of it at a glance looks okay. Was there something else in there that needs updating? As far as YAML goes, it's a question of the differing formats. In the shorthand format, the quotes are needed so that YAML knows where the field ends. In the long-hand format, with 'map_name' on its own line, YAML infers the data type based on the first character of the value. So, it can tell the value is text, and YAML treats the rest of the line as text.

A lot of maps, map.yml format will be like mine, single player there appears to be no problem. However will the new 2.7 lobby work correctly?

There are going to be two servers! The lobby server and "support server". It was planned to have 3, {lobby, support, maps}, but maps & support were combined.

Immediately, the support server won't be able to index maps that have a bad map.yaml file. Those maps won't be listed as available for download. Locally, eventually the map will be invisible to the game itself. I think there is some flagging put into the code right now to use the old map loading system. In short, it will become a problem soon.

After the 2.7 launch, I have high on my list to try and provide a map indexing status page of some sort. I recognize that process is pretty opaque right now.