Expedition Playtesting Thread

[chaoyun2k]

More about trading, trading with natives that want "any goods" has never seemed worthwhile (in any of the releases that I've played).  Their offers are often less valuable than yours, but it seems especially so in the last two versions (4RC1 and 4RC2).

I have reported an issue about combat, but I also have a few questions about combat.
1) What do the attack numbers mean, like 3D2 or (1D3+2D3+2)?
2) Is the harquebus a ranged weapon or is it only used in melee?
3) Those equipped with a harquebus seem to be wounded more often that those equipped with steel swords, is there a reason for that?

[puke]

there is now a full fog of war in Palos, whereas it used to remember places that you had seen previously.  was this an intentional change?

[chaoyun2k]

I noticed that in Palos too.

Something I've encountered a few times and that I'm not sure of its purpose.  There is a message about being in a row of bad luck and then eventually a "Judas" is discovered and you are given a choice to defend the man or throw them overboard.  It seems that regardless of the choice you make the row of bad luck continues and you either defend the man or throw another overboard if you chose that option previously.  In one trip from Palos back to the village (about 50 days with all the storms) this occurred 5 times in the last 25 days of the trip.

In one case I kept defending the man and eventually made it to the village and after dealing with some natives I finally stopped getting the row of bad luck message.  In one case I kept choosing to throw them overboard, but there would just be a new message in a couple of days and another Judas would be discovered and he would be tossed. 

I guess I'm just wondering if that is the way it should work or what exactly is the purpose (is it simply another event to deal with)?

[chaoyun2k]

I think I have a better handle on the combat issues and the answer to two of the questions I posted above, but I still don't understand the numbers displayed for attack...or defense for that matter.

1) I'm still curious about the situation with the "Judas" and how that is supposed to work?
2) I see numbers like 1+1D2, 1D2+1D2, 3D2, or 1D3+2D3+2 and I can only guess that a higher number is better, but then I see that clothes and studded vests seem to have the same benefit for defense and I wonder what do those numbers mean?

[Slash]

Hello Chaoyun,

I'll check the "Judas" situation, it's not supposed to happen that often. It's all about the crew blaming one person for a row of bad luck.

The attack and defense stats follow the rollplaying convention of "xDy+z", this means the attack and defense values are calculated in a way similar to throwing x dices of y faces, and adding z to the result.

For example, 3D5+4 is like throwing a 5 sides dice three times, and adding 4 to the result. This gives the attack value (In this case it may range from 7 to 19)

[chaoyun2k]

I think the game has found the limits of my computer.  It is an XP with 2.3 GHz and 1.93 GB ram AMD Sempron Processor.

There are a couple of things that may be issues, like there is no windowed option given when starting the game.  On my computer the music breaks up when I choose any action, so I switch the music off when I start the game.  Also, when I point the arrow at one of the icons it doesn't always respond so I have to use the hotkeys.

When I encounter a hostile tribe that sends out an expedition, the image appears as a native until there is an attack.  Once there has been a battle and there are still natives in the expedition that was sent out, the image of the native expedition then appears to be the same as shallow water.  I tried to get an image, but it seems that I will have to figure out how to get an image with full screen (the print screen key doesn't work).

[Slash]

Hello chaoyun2k,

Are you using version v0.4 or v0.4.1 ? I enhanced some performance things.

Also, are you using the "Windows bundled version"? or the "Java version"? if you are using the java version you can access a windowed mode using the .bat files.

[chaoyun2k]

I tried accessing using the bat files but they all loaded a full screen version.

I am using the version that doesn't include Java.

Yeah, my computer is pretty old...but I like it.   I am using the 4.1 version.

Ok, I just got the oryx windowed to load a windowed version. :oops:  The other denzi windowed loaded a full screen.

[chaoyun2k]

I changed the screen resolution and got a windowed version using the other bat. 

By the way, it's GORGEOUS!

[chaoyun2k]

It appears that when you report back to the king for the fourth title with 2 cities, 5 towns, and 10 villages you need to make sure that one of your towns doesn't become a city or your villages don't become towns before you arrive in Palos.

In other words if you have 3 cities, 4 towns, and 10 villages because one of the towns became a city while you were traveling, the king doesn't give you a title.

Is this intentional?

And by the way what do the last 4 ranks require?

[chaoyun2k]

Well, I have tried reducing the number of colonists to have the right number of villages, towns, and cities and I have tried building more villages, but the king still won't offer me the 4th title.  The current title is Vizconde and even when I cached the extra colonists and built more villages the king doesn't offer anything new.  I'd still like to know the requirements for the last four titles.    Is there something else I should try?

[Slash]

Hello Chaoyun!

Well, this sounds like a bug, doesn't make sense not to get the titles just because your settlements are bigger. I will fix this. http://slashie.net/mantis/view.php?id=2090

Also, the following are the rank requirements:

Conde: 2 cities, 5 towns, 10 villages
Marqués: 5 cities, 10 towns, 30 villages
Duque: 10 cities, 30 towns, 60 villages
Virrey: 30 cities, 60 towns, 90 villages (i.e. Populating a lot of america )

A new version is coming!

[chaoyun2k]

(i.e. Populating a lot of america)

HAHA No kidding, more like poking a village into every possible space...and that doesn't include the viceroy title requirements!  I'm trying to get the conde title at around the 25th year.

A new version is coming!

Looks like a new strategy is called for too. 

[chaoyun2k]

I took a guess that the last title is 60 cities, 90 towns, and 120 villages.  I did some rough calculations based on those numbers.

To build a city you need 80,000 wood for houses and say another 9,000 for farms and storage towers (assuming you put farms into every settlement).
Time to build settlement 14 days set.
Time to build storage and farms 14 days minimum set.
Time to build 2000 houses (guessing an average of 30 days)
Assuming you can chop around 1200 wood per day (includes movement time) 75days.
Total time to build a city will be roughly 5 months, times 60 cities is 25 years spent building the cities.

To build a town you need 20,000 wood for the houses and say another 6000 for farms and storage towers.
Time to build settlement 14 days set.
Time to build storage and farms 14 days minimum set.
Time to build 500 houses 7 days average assuming you have enough people in your expedition.
Same 1200 wood per day is another 21 days.
Time to build a town will be roughly 2 and a half months, times 90 is roughly 19 years additional.

To build a village you need with farms you will need around 5000 wood minimum.
Time to build settlement 14 days
Time to build farms and storage towers 14 days.
Assuming you don't build any more houses (or you build a few more with the farms and storage towers) no more time
Same 1200 wood per day is another 4 days roughly.
Time to build a village is a little more than a month, so you have another 10 years.

Minimum time spent just building would be 54 years, if my guess was close, and assuming you actually want someone to obtain all 8 titles.

I don't know what planned improvements will cut that time down, but you might want to consider reducing the requirements for the last two or three titles.  Before you posted the requirements, I had guessed that it was going to be:
Marqués: 5 cities, 10 towns, 20 villages
Duque: 10 cities, 20 towns, 30 villages
Virrey: 20 cities, 30 towns, 40 villages
and then 30 cities, 40 towns, and maybe 60 villages for the Viceroy title...but that was just a guess and I had guessed a minimum building time of about 30 years under current game conditions.

EDIT:  That doesn't even consider the population growth needed, but I thought that the growth would take care of itself once you had enough buildings.

One thing I should add though is that it is taking me nearly 20 years game time to get the first city, and most of that building would take place after that.  That would mean around 70 years of game time for the current requirements under the current conditions.  I focus on building the first settlement by making trips to Palos to "purchase" colonists and add those to the growth.  The twenty years does include building enough capital to purchase those colonists and the extra ships and the military needed to "encourage" trade with the natives to increase the capital.

[chaoyun2k]

One consideration that I did not mention in my post above is that the expedition has to be big enough to carry enough of the wood and supplies for the building plan, but I think that has been addressed in an issue that suggested drawing from the settlement.  That may speed up the building of the houses a little.

I'm looking forward to the new version. 

Was I close on the viceroy guess?

Were my calculations useful? or were they confusing?