Players largely underutilize the carthage apartments as they would often rather save the stone than spend it on the apartments. This patch decreases the wood cost of the apartments, which may make the unique structure more impactful, but but also more differentiated from normal houses.
Due to the stone cost, the building remains a partial impediment to going p3, but the decreased wood cost rewards the p2 economy and training mercenaries. This could also help encourage early p2 builds which are cool.
Details
- Reviewers
wowgetoffyourcellphone borg- - Group Reviewers
Balancing - Commits
- rP27852: [Gameplay] Slightly reduce cost of Carthaginian apartment and allow their house…
Agree on it?
Diff Detail
- Repository
- rP 0 A.D. Public Repository
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Tests Skipped - Build Status
Buildable 22279 Build 54466: Vulcan Build Jenkins Build 54465: Vulcan Build (macOS) Jenkins Build 54464: Vulcan Build (Windows) Jenkins
Event Timeline
Build failure - The Moirai have given mortals hearts that can endure.
Link to build: https://jenkins.wildfiregames.com/job/macos-differential/7243/display/redirect
Successful build - Chance fights ever on the side of the prudent.
Link to build: https://jenkins.wildfiregames.com/job/vs2015-differential/8332/display/redirect
My original idea was to make it an upgrade of the normal house. that way I think it would be much more usable. i would make the upgrade cost like 175 wood. More expensive than one each but you don't need to move a unit to build it.
If the upgrade should make up the cost of the apartment then upgrading existing houses would be 25 wood and 50 stone? Since nobody has to build it, should the upgrade cost be 50 wood and 50 stone?
edit: my numbers were wrong above
Isn’t that cost somewhat comparable to the house tech upgrade? Why would anyone upgrade each of the houses and pay that cost when they could just do the house tech upgrade once? The problem might not look that bad in 200 pop but at 300 pop a real difference would exist.
I think there has to be some other differentiator. It’s gimmicky, but maybe make the upgrade time equal zero. It would def be a boon to the carth eco.
So you get 10 extra pop. If you do the house upgrade tech you’ll extra pop for every single house, and the cost isn’t much more. You’re basically always better off doing the house population tech.
Add the ability for houses to upgrade to apartments in p2. The cost is 50 wood and 50 stone, 25 more wood than the upfront cost of apartment, but no need for units to build it.
Since the two structures share the same footprint, this should work out pretty well.
Build failure - The Moirai have given mortals hearts that can endure.
Link to build: https://jenkins.wildfiregames.com/job/macos-differential/7244/display/redirect
Successful build - Chance fights ever on the side of the prudent.
Link to build: https://jenkins.wildfiregames.com/job/vs2015-differential/8333/display/redirect
If the problem is stone, why not remove that and add a wood cost instead of lowering the wood cost?
Something like:
Build = 250 wood
Upgrade = 300 wood
Or maybe something like 300/350 but give the aparments something special.
I think the stone is important to set it apart from a house. The idea is that they may be used well in p2, but they might slow your p3 time since you need to gather more stone. Its a good dynamic, but I think the overall cost was too much like a house to justify getting multiple apartments.
I wouldn't want them to have any special abilities, being a 'big house' is kind of like the carthage economic civ bonus, something they don't have already.
Available in the village phase would it be bad? Maybe it can change the beginning of the game of cartage and bring some new things.
Hmm that could be good actually. I'll have to think about it. It would be very strong, but the mercs aren't available untill p2 anyway. I might update the patch later with p1 access to apartments.
I like this idea. I generally find the apartment a little boring but that would be interesting
Move apartments to village phase, set upgrade time to 45 seconds.
I think this will work out since carthage have no other economic bonuses. This will be a boost to mercenary and early rushes and perhaps to booming as well, but the need for stone sets up an additional opportunity cost vs other stone investments.
Build failure - The Moirai have given mortals hearts that can endure.
Link to build: https://jenkins.wildfiregames.com/job/macos-differential/7246/display/redirect
Successful build - Chance fights ever on the side of the prudent.
Link to build: https://jenkins.wildfiregames.com/job/vs2015-differential/8335/display/redirect
Build is unstable, some tests have failed - The Moirai have given mortals hearts that can endure.
Link to build: https://jenkins.wildfiregames.com/job/docker-differential/8917/display/redirect
Shouldn't the tooltip say how much the player is "earning"? Something like: upgrade to apartment. +10pop...
Build failure - The Moirai have given mortals hearts that can endure.
Link to build: https://jenkins.wildfiregames.com/job/macos-differential/7247/display/redirect
Successful build - Chance fights ever on the side of the prudent.
Link to build: https://jenkins.wildfiregames.com/job/vs2015-differential/8336/display/redirect
Build is unstable, some tests have failed - The Moirai have given mortals hearts that can endure.
Link to build: https://jenkins.wildfiregames.com/job/docker-differential/8918/display/redirect
Build failure - The Moirai have given mortals hearts that can endure.
Link to build: https://jenkins.wildfiregames.com/job/macos-differential/7259/display/redirect
Successful build - Chance fights ever on the side of the prudent.
Link to build: https://jenkins.wildfiregames.com/job/vs2015-differential/8348/display/redirect
binaries/data/mods/public/simulation/templates/structures/cart/house.xml | ||
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16 ↗ | (On Diff #22218) | second story (not capitalised) |
Build failure - The Moirai have given mortals hearts that can endure.
Link to build: https://jenkins.wildfiregames.com/job/macos-differential/7264/display/redirect
Successful build - Chance fights ever on the side of the prudent.
Link to build: https://jenkins.wildfiregames.com/job/vs2015-differential/8353/display/redirect
Can we have construction animation in the upgrade? Just like the towers.
I tested the balance and would recommend setting the apartment construction time to 90 secs and upgrading to 55 secs.
The reason for me asking for this change is that with the current situation, it is possible to build an apartment before pop 20. With the increase in construction time, this makes it more difficult, so you will probably have to build a house before, and then some apartments. Being able to build an apartment early is op.
I'll commit the required actor improvement along with this gameplay patch once the patch has been accepted. I've already made the local change.
Build failure - The Moirai have given mortals hearts that can endure.
Link to build: https://jenkins.wildfiregames.com/job/macos-differential/7276/display/redirect
Successful build - Chance fights ever on the side of the prudent.
Link to build: https://jenkins.wildfiregames.com/job/vs2015-differential/8365/display/redirect
Build is unstable, some tests have failed - The Moirai have given mortals hearts that can endure.
Link to build: https://jenkins.wildfiregames.com/job/docker-differential/8947/display/redirect
binaries/data/mods/public/simulation/templates/structures/cart/house.xml | ||
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16 ↗ | (On Diff #22218) | ^ ;P |
binaries/data/mods/public/simulation/templates/structures/cart/house.xml | ||
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16 ↗ | (On Diff #22218) | Unless I am missing something, I think the entire point of building an apartment is to get the extra pop cap space. Otherwise, it is just a different looking building that is more expensive than a house. |
binaries/data/mods/public/simulation/templates/structures/cart/house.xml | ||
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16 ↗ | (On Diff #22218) | I suppose I could just say "with double the population bonus" |
binaries/data/mods/public/simulation/templates/structures/cart/house.xml | ||
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16 ↗ | (On Diff #22218) | That is the same as having the number in. (Which requires retranslating everytime a balancing change changes it.) I'd be more in favour of "... with more population bonus" as that is a lot less likely to change. People can check the exact effect by right-clicking the upgrade icon. |
Build failure - The Moirai have given mortals hearts that can endure.
Link to build: https://jenkins.wildfiregames.com/job/macos-differential/7277/display/redirect
Successful build - Chance fights ever on the side of the prudent.
Link to build: https://jenkins.wildfiregames.com/job/vs2015-differential/8366/display/redirect
Build is unstable, some tests have failed - The Moirai have given mortals hearts that can endure.
Link to build: https://jenkins.wildfiregames.com/job/docker-differential/8948/display/redirect
@real_tabasco_sauce I can't test it right now, but apartments probably aren't counting as a village structure for phase up.
Thanks, I forgot to change that. I’ll do it when I add the construction actor from wow
make apartment a village class structure, update house actor from @wowgetoffyourcellphone for upgrading feature.
Build failure - The Moirai have given mortals hearts that can endure.
Link to build: https://jenkins.wildfiregames.com/job/macos-differential/7315/display/redirect
Successful build - Chance fights ever on the side of the prudent.
Link to build: https://jenkins.wildfiregames.com/job/vs2015-differential/8404/display/redirect
Build is unstable, some tests have failed - The Moirai have given mortals hearts that can endure.
Link to build: https://jenkins.wildfiregames.com/job/docker-differential/8986/display/redirect
I think its must be <VisibleClasses datatype= "tokens" > Village -Town </VisibleClasses>
well, yes, but the original line is "-Village Town", so just removing the line altogether should restore the parent class, which is "Village"
Build failure - The Moirai have given mortals hearts that can endure.
Link to build: https://jenkins.wildfiregames.com/job/macos-differential/7317/display/redirect
Successful build - Chance fights ever on the side of the prudent.
Link to build: https://jenkins.wildfiregames.com/job/vs2015-differential/8406/display/redirect