FY and RUS official 1.03 version

A version of FY updated for the 1.03 version should be ready in the next days.

Among the news features, WH4 and WH5 Murmansk and Arkhangelsk Whites) will now belong to the Siberian faction. Siberian Whites will have diplo option with Finland. There will be too events linked to Siberian control of the Arkhangelsk/Perm axis.

Oh…The AI has been improved too.

PON one month turn mod removed

I’ve suppressed the mod . This removal isn’t tied to the mod itself, as it produces satisfying results with PON 1.01f.

 

Howewer, today Paradox France has released a new version , named 1.01g. Dev has moreover stated a new version could appear in the next days.

The mod needs to modify 100 files. Being a painful task, and having too much fun with AI modding in older AGEOD games, I’ve decided to wait the first official patch to refresh the mod.

With obsolete files, this mod could produce strange results. Better to shelve it the time the public beta patch process achieves. Good luck to the volunteers who are participating to the PON finalization.  🙂

Why PON will be only really playable in October?

Here’s an excerpt of a thread about Japan on Paradox forum:

Dev:

Japan is a very small nation in 1850 that is closed… the whole idea of playing with Japan is that… not to make it the new industrial monster in 1852…
If you want a more open game, then choose another faction.
You have to understand the constraints your faction has…

Player:

But what if i have railroads in every province in 1858 and massively produce man-goods and mech-parts? Why i must wait for Meiji Restoration of 1868? Why my middle class and new mlitary elite cant overthrow feudals?

What is underlined by this funny exchange?

PON is currently made of 2 parts: one program, defining rules; a mass of data, defining the objects affected by the rules.

These 2 parts have no relations. The data is clearly not adapted to the rules and the rules aren’t tailoring all the possible interactions between the objects.

If Japan is closed, building railroads should be impossible. Either the rules aren’t covering the interaction between the political status of Japan and economical possibilities, either the data hasn’t been tailored for the rules and japan has the tech  and the resources necessaries to build railroads.

Other examples are flourishing right now on the official forum: African tribes having artillery units , German unification impossible in spite of Prussian early diplomatic success, economical sunrise in 2 years at start, railroads in the Sahara in 1855……………………

Not only the data and the rules will have to be better coordinated but the time needed to get feedback about changes is just tremendous with several hundred of turns needed to test 2nd generations tech and structures.

That’s why PON will only be playable in october. Until then, sadly, PON is in open beta test….

update: what a dev says about PON today…….

PON is still very young. We may have overextended ourselves, but lets meet again in some months, or in a year, and I’m sure a lot of water will have flown under the PON bridge.

October 2011……maybe later……

August 4th edit: October seems to be indeed the real date….

New Fatal Years version available

Not much changes 😉

Fixed a bug of the official version affecting Czech demobilization event.

PON one month turn…I’m happy with

From the test I’ve made, Changing turns to one month divides effectively time needed to play by 2. Data may be adapted to the new turn length in every aspect: economics, military, diplomacy, colonization, technology. I begin to suspect PON has been designed with one month turn as a plan B if needed, as the changes are most often very easy.

In the current version of the mod, not all the data has been updated. First because some changes are long to implement. Then PON current state shows evidently game balance hasn’t been tested, and data will have to be overhauled to slow economic affairs, stop endless wars, etc. So  I prefer to wait for something more definitive before doing this work.

However, in any case thanks to this mod I plan first to really play PON ( because 15 days turns force you either to need around one year to play a GC or to relinquish any other gaming activity).

Then, fewer turns will give me a possibility to add AI events:  10 more seconds for turn resolution isn’t as bad with 840 turns than 1,680.  In the same time, PON devs will certainly optimize turn resolution and these 10 more seconds will be compensated by a faster turn resolution ( IMHO, AGEOD could reduce turn resolution by 20 seconds, maybe 30 in the next months.

Economy in PON made easy at start

There’s a great tutorial for PON here:

http://www.quartertothree.com/game-talk/showthread.php?t=65261

This tutorial advises you to cancel at start all foreign exchanges to understand how your economy works, what’s possible and needed.

So I’ve created an altered version of the GC without foreign exchange, named 1850GC.zip, available in the box to your right, to be installed into the Scen directory ( backup the original file before).

 

American capitalist doing profit on the first game turn…

PON one month turns experimental draft released

available in the bx to your right.

 

Beware: there’s not a mod but an experimental set of files. There’s for now no installation process and you have to manually place them in the corresponding PON folder.

 

The release is aimed at helping anyone wanting to work on a one month turn mod.

PON: one month turns mod on the way

1,680 turns being a little too long for a game, I’ve decided to build a one month turn version. There is certainly much work as some parameters aren’t moddable and will need to be addressed in an indirect way. However, at last, with only 840 turns;-), there are chances to finish a game and to test really game balance, AI improvements and other modding stuff.

I hope to release an experimental draft soon.

Fatal Years next release

I will release the next version after SEPRUS will have at last delivered the patch they promised soon in March.  Yes i’m a little sad what could have been a great game to have been more or less pushed into oblivion because of …. Enough said.

 

I prefer release the next FY version after the official patch release in order to make possibly needed adjustments.

 

Quick Take on PON AI

First , PON is brilliant. Really. Above anything Paradox have produced since EU1. Great concepts, like diplomatic crisis.
I’ve tried the Risorgimento scenario On French side, with the AI having +2 bonus in FOW, more time and all behaviour, the other settings being the default one. I won, rather easily.

The military AI has in PON the same usual trouble I try to solve in my mods…a real difficulty to occupy the key region in the  right time.  That’s not to say the AI is poor, but it lacks the necessary skill to procure a real opposition to an experienced player.

The other AI ( colonial, diplomatic, economical) seems to be much better, fortunatly.There are some events helping AI to build railroads but that’s not a real cheat.