gathering MinMod

[Palaxin]

How To Play

1. update or downgrade 0 A.D. to fit the requirements of the mod version you want to play
2. download the .zip file of the desired MinMod version
3. extract it to <0 A.D. installation folder>\binaries\data\mods
4. run 0 A.D. and navigate from the main menu to Tools & Options → Mod Selection (select the mineral mod entry in the upper field) → Enable → Start Mods
5. start a new single player game with a supported map

 

************************************************** VERSION 0.2 **************************************************

Spoiler

Screenshot from the MinMod Demo map. The original ore textures have been colored yellowish (gold ore, top), greyish (silver ore, upper mid), turquoise (copper ore, lower mid) and brownish (iron ore, bottom).

Screenshot from the map Golden Oasis. Gold ore on the left side, silver ore at the bottom and copper ore at the bottom right.

Download

• required 0 A.D. version: SVN (r17785), Alpha 19 may work as well (no to minimal changes in the concerning files)
• file: minmod02.zip

Known problems

• I only did a minimum of testing, so imbalances should be expected, especially on random maps.
• The AI can gather from the new ores but handles them equally / doesn't take advantage of the different gather speeds. Therefore good testing either requires an improved AI (don't expect me to do this soon) or multiplayer games (if enough people are interested).
• Each ore type uses a different color on the minimap. This may confuse some players.

Gameplay

• Iron: ~70% gather speed (sqrt(2)/2 to be precise), 24/12 max gatherers per ore
  Usually appears next to the initial CC
• Copper: 100% gather speed, 24/12 max gatherers per ore
  Appears in random maps where there is no ore next to the initial CC and in most skirmish and scenario maps
• Silver: ~140% gather speed (sqrt(2) to be precise), 16/8 max gatherers per ore
  Usually appears outside the initial territory
• Gold: 200% gather speed, 16/8 max gatherers per ore
  Only appears in some skirmish and scenario maps where it can be placed carefully

Technologies

• Silver owls civ bonus for Athenians: +25% silver gather rate in each phase (and +10% generic ore gather rate as before)
• Silver mining technology for Athenians and Macedonians: +100% silver gather rate (and +50% generic ore gather rate as before)
• The two standard techs increasing metal gathering rate have been extended to affect also the new ore types

Maps

• Random: all random maps use iron and silver ores with copper being used for a few exceptions
• Skirmishes: Acropolis Bay, Alpine Valleys, Death Canyon, Golden Island, Golden Oasis, Thessalian Plains
• Scenarios: MinMod Demo, Gold Rush
• all other maps: playable as in vanilla 0 A.D.

Models

• Iron Ore: red-brownish veins; no sparkles, 85% gather animation speed
• Copper Ore: turquoise veins; few sparkles; 100% gather animation speed
• Silver: grey/white veins; some sparkles; 120% gather animation speed
• Gold: yellow veins; many sparkles; 150% gather animation speed

************************************************** VERSION 0.1 **************************************************

Spoiler

Screenshot from the MinMod Demo map. The different gather speeds vary between slave, female citizen and infantry units (unchanged) and between the different ore types (new feature).

Download

• required 0 A.D. version: Alpha 19
• file: minmod01.zip

Gameplay

• Iron: 60% gather speed, 3000/600 metal, 24/8 max gatherers per ore
• Copper: 90% gather speed, 2500/500 metal, 21/7 max gatherers per ore
• Silver: 135% gather speed, 2000/400 metal, 18/6 max gatherers per ore
• Gold: 270% gather speed, 1500/300 metal, 15/5 max gatherers per ore

Technologies

• Silver owls civ bonus for Athenians: +25% silver gather rate in each phase (and +10% generic ore gather rate as before)
• Silver mining technology for Athenians and Macedonians: +100% silver gather rate (and +50% generic ore gather rate as before)
• The two standard techs increasing metal gathering rate have been extended to affect also the new ore types

Maps

• Scenarios: MinMod Demo

Models

• Iron Ore: red-brownish veins; no sparkles, 84% gather animation speed
• Copper Ore: turquoise veins; no sparkles; 96% gather animation speed
• Silver: grey/white veins; white, small and few sparkles; 120% gather animation speed
• Gold: yellow veins; yellow, big and many sparkles; 180% gather animation speed

Next Version (probably January)

• more maps
• gameplay feature balance
• maybe other color for copper ore
• maybe some basic AI support
• maybe suggestions or uploaded maps in commentaries

********************************************** ANNOUNCEMENT **********************************************

Spoiler

In order to make an implementation for my trac ticket, I will upload my mineral mod soon here (probably next weekend). It is a first step to make resource gathering more interesting. I would be happy if you could test it and give me some feedback then. Further improvements would include texturing or even modelling which I can hardly do myself (especially the latter one). Also new maps could be created using these minerals or existing maps could get an upgrade. So I'm really interested in people who want to help me

MinMod features:

The four new minerals in my mod are

• Iron: very slow gather rate (60% of current speed), but big/small ores provide 4000/800 metal in total
  Is the most abundant ore and should be spawned/placed near the CC.
• Copper: slightly slow gather rate (90%), provides 3000/600 metal
  Is somewhat abundant and you should reach it from your inital CC without the need of further expansion.
• Silver: really high gather rate (150%), but provides only 2000/400 metal
  Is quite rare and on some maps even the best ore you can find. Usually you need to expand your territory to reach it. Athenians will have an extra technology enabling them to gather silver at the speed of gold.
• Gold: ridiculously high gather rate (300%), but very sparse with 1000/200 metal
  Is very rare and often situated in dangerous areas. These may include the middle of the map, places protected by gaia barbarians or by a large amount of wild animals.

You still gather metal from them, it's just like different food sources which all provide food but have different gather rates and occurence. The generic metal ore used so far won't be removed so you can still play all maps like now. My goal is to include this in the main game and on the long term we may remove the generic metal (like generic celtic and greek civs) and replace the ores on existing maps.

I'm using the existing ore textures (for each model in each biome I will make a set of four new ores). To keep this task as simple as possible, I'm currently just colorizing the textures yellowish (for gold), greyish (for silver), reddish (for copper) and brownish (for iron ore). It would be nice if we could replace them one day with better textures or even dedicated models.

The gather animation of the workers will be slightly adjusted to their gather speed. The difference in the animation speeds is smaller than the difference in the gather rates (else it would look quite ridiculous). Currently the difference is slightly less than a 2.5 factor between iron and gold gatherers.

Of course, all numbers may be adjusted, especially in the testing phase afterwards.

 

Edited December 3, 2016 by Palaxin
title tag added

[Lion.Kanzen]

But all for a single stockpile? I mean metal stockpile?

[Palaxin]

Yes, all mines will still provide the metal which the game uses now. The new mines differ in

• position: more valuable metals are found farther away from CC
• gather rate: more valuable metals are gathered faster
• amount: more valuable mines provide less total metal

I'm still not sure if the mines should differ in the last point. Perhaps the amounts should be more equal. But a 4K gold mine otherwise would be an insane advantage. We will see in the testing phase...

Edited February 9, 2016 by Palaxin

[Karamel]

I like the idea in the way to encourage players to use more of the map and have some strategic spots to hold. It was also proposed for some ground with a farming bonus (working in Delenda Est if I read correcly).

I have one doubt though, with gold being fast to gather and small supply, they will deplete quickly. The highest the reward is, the faster it will vanish (so less time to fight for them).

On the same time, wowgetoffyourcellphone also suggested to have metal and stone mines or careers, that are infinite spot (I don't think they are implemented yet in Delenda Est). That way there is still an advantage to keep them under control on the long run, but they may not (or do) give a short time bonus. It may be having all stone/metal spots infinite (like farms), but with more or less gatherers allowed per spot.

Anyway, if you can test the idea (which will require modifying maps) it may give a lot of interesting feedback.

[Lion.Kanzen]

This good way, congratulation, you solved a thing many other were fail to propose. Some interesting, it's like food. Many resources about same stockpile, different rates.

[Palaxin]

you solved a thing many other were fail to propose

not yet I tried to use a script to modify the many files, but %'@#& Windows denies write permission all the time though the property --> security settings say I can write...

I've already modified 200+ files in total and I still have to do nearly the same number. Upgrading the animation for all possible infantry models is insane, you have something like 3 ranks * 5 units * 12 civs

This good way, congratulation

Thank you, I will do my best

[Palaxin]

I like the idea in the way to encourage players to use more of the map and have some strategic spots to hold. It was also proposed for some ground with a farming bonus (working in Delenda Est if I read correcly).

Ah I have to check this mod. I was already starting to think about a farming mod after this one...

However, I don't like infinite resources that much. I could only imagine to have theoretically infinite resources but the gather rate slows down the more you have already gathered (like in real life mines). You could extend gathering by techs to some extend, but I think in the late game there should be a point where resources get sparse.

You are probably right with the gold mines being to small. Actually you could just walk there with 30-40 fully upgraded workers and get the 1000 metal even without extending your territory. Probably I will have to nerf the gathering rate a bit and increase the size.

[Karamel]

After playing more games with the countryside feature (which allows to gather quickly outside your CC) I don't feel infinite stone/metal would fit at last.

The requirement for an infinite food source is because food is a basic resource and if the game comes to lack it even at early phase you're stuck. It's not the case for metal and stone and it would destroy trading in a way.

Regarding the amount you may stick to the small and large spots. The nature of the metal would only change the gather rate. In my countryside feature, there can be much less workers on a spot (8 on a large spot, 3 on a small), so even a gold mine cannot be rushed and you need to control more resource spots to be efficient.

Even more, there are not that much spots, so maybe only 2 levels can be fine (common/rare or surface/deep), at least to start with and see if more would add something significant.

[WhiteTreePaladin]

Age of Empires 3 did something similar with the copper and silver mines. They both contributed to the "coin" resource, but I don't think they had different gather rates.

[Palaxin]

MinMod Version 0.1 is ready!
You can get the download at my first post.

I can't get the mod be displayed in the 0 A.D. main menu UI (where you should usually select the mods). Can someone tell me what I have to do? I thought it would be enough to place the mod folder in binaries\data\mods, but it doesn't work that way I made it work by overwriting the files in the public folder, but I know it is not supposed to make changes there...

Sadly I can't work on the mod in the next weeks or maybe months due to my bachelor thesis. Feel free to try the demo map, create own maps, and make your own modifications (most can be done in the templates).

Edited February 9, 2016 by Palaxin

[Palaxin]

Regarding the amount you may stick to the small and large spots. The nature of the metal would only change the gather rate. In my countryside feature, there can be much less workers on a spot (8 on a large spot, 3 on a small), so even a gold mine cannot be rushed and you need to control more resource spots to be efficient.

Good idea, I included less workers for more valuable ores (though more than 8).

Even more, there are not that much spots, so maybe only 2 levels can be fine (common/rare or surface/deep), at least to start with and see if more would add something significant.

Each ore provides significantly less than the 5000 metal of the default ore, so it should be possible to place more ores and more different ore types on the map. I think 3 types are a good number, so usually we could use iron, copper and silver. Gold could be reserved for scenario and skirmish maps where they can be placed carefully

[fabio]

Cool, you may want to add some screenshots to demonstrate your changes before trying it.

[Palaxin]

Age of Empires 3 did something similar with the copper and silver mines. They both contributed to the "coin" resource, but I don't think they had different gather rates.

I admit that the gather rates are somewhat experimental, but I think it would be nice if the ores would differ in more than just textures.

[Palaxin]

Cool, you may want to add some screenshots to demonstrate your changes before trying it.

Good idea! Screenshot of the demo map attached

[av93]

Nice concept.

Included or not, it would be nice to include the models. Also colored sparkings could be a good addition to the different ores.

Edited November 29, 2015 by av93

[niektb]

There is a mod.json file that you need to include. See f.e. https://github.com/0ADMods/han_china

[Palaxin]

Fixed the ingame selection of the mineral mod. I exchanged the download .zip file. Thank you niektb!

[Palaxin]

On 11/29/2015 at 6:15 PM, av93 said:

Nice concept.

Included or not, it would be nice to include the models. Also colored sparkings could be a good addition to the different ores.

Thank you Actually I added white sparklings to silver ore and the existing sparklings to gold ore (size a bit increased). This should show the value of these ores, whereas iron and copper do not have sparklings. But it would be very easy to add sparklings to them, too.

Edited February 9, 2016 by Palaxin

[Palaxin]

Atlas does only have access to the public folder, not to the mod folder? Because I can't use the new ores when I load the mod from the game UI. This means you have to add/overwrite files in the public folder to use Atlas or is there another solution?

Edited November 30, 2015 by Palaxin

[niektb]

Atlas has no problems with loading from mod folders, but you need to press the 'Save configurations' in the Mod Loader.

[av93]

Thank you Actually I added white sparklings to silver ore and the existing sparklings to gold ore (size a bit increased). This should show the value of these ores, whereas iron and copper do not have sparklings. But it would be very easy to add sparkings to them, too.

Reminds me Minecraft

I think that ores should differentiate more in relation to stones and bigger sparks could be a fast solution. BTW I don't know if in reality ore veins are shiny.

About gameplay, maybe it would be simpler to have two kinds of ore, rich and standard (mining rate) and two kinds of size.

Edited November 30, 2015 by av93

[Loki1950]

Reminds me Minecraft

I think that ores should differentiate more in relation to stones and bigger sparks could be a fast solution. BTW I don't know if in reality ore veins are shiny.

About gameplay, maybe it would be simpler to have two kinds of ore, rich and standard (mining rate) and two kinds of size.

Depends on what it's the ore of.

Enjoy the Choice

[Palaxin]

MinMod version 0.2 with random map support released!
download at my first post

Thank you for your feedback on the previous version! I included some suggestions:

• Karamel: ores should only differ in gather rate, but not in size / resource amount
• av93: ores should differ more from stone; I added copper sparkles and slightly colored the ore textures according to the respective metal

About the gameplay proposal to only include two different ore types: most random maps only use iron and silver ores. Copper with the standard gather rate is used where it is difficult to introduce two ore types. Gold is reserved for skirmish and scenario maps where it can be placed carefully and mark places of special importance. So random maps use 2 ore types on average and skirmish/scenario maps 3 types.

Let me know if you have any problems or further suggestions  

Edited February 22, 2016 by Palaxin

[niektb]

How does this affect the minimap?

[Palaxin]

16 minutes ago, niektb said:

How does this affect the minimap?

you can see the mini map colors of the ores best in the upper left picture of the demo map (gold, silver, copper, iron, current ore from top to bottom)

Edited February 22, 2016 by Palaxin