There are quite a few new game options in "Shadow", some were snuck into 0.25 but I'll list them all now because some have been modified and vanilla players may not be aware of the new options that got put into 0.25.Barbarian World- The Barbarians start with a city for every player in the game (this is the Labrascum option renamed).
Wildlands- Double the normal rate of animals, in "Shadow" this has been rewritten so that it truely doubles (there was a smooth check that took place after our doubling that made our change insignificant). Also in the new version animals continue to be spawned much later if this option is selected.
Blessings of Amathaon- Doubles the amount of bonuses generated on the map.
Living World- Doubles the frequency of events.
Last Days- Doubles the rise and fall of the Armageddon Counter.
Hallowed Ground- Removes the Armageddon Counter from the game.
Compact Enforced- The Mercurians and the Infernal won't be spawned during the game.
No Lairs- Lairs won't be be automatically created on the map (though animals can still make lairs).
No Settlers- No players can create settler units.
End of Winter- The world starts frozen and slowly thaws to the normal terrain type.
No Unique Features- No Unique features are created on the map.
Remove Religion- Fellowship of Leaves- Removed the Fellowship of Leaves religion from the game.
Remove Religion- The Order- Removed the Order religion from the game.
Remove Religion- Octopus Overlords- Removed the Octopus Overlords religion from the game.
Remove Religion- Runes of Kilmorph- Removed the Runes of Kilmorph religion from the game.
Remove Religion- The Ashen Veil- Removed the Ashen Veil religion from the game.
Remove Religion- The Empyrean- Removed the Empyrean religion from the game.
Remove Religion- The Council of Esus- Removed the Council of Esus religion from the game.
AI No Building Requirements- With this option selected the AI no longer needs any building requirements for units. So they can build axemen without training yards and longbowmen without archery ranges. My goal eventually is to improve the AI enough so that this doesn't have much effect (and in "Shadow" the AI's ability to field upgraded units is MUCH better than in 0.25) but we put this in for testing and decided to keep it for players that wanted to try it out.

I have been playing a lot of games with various religions on or off. Especially on smaller maps 7 religions is an awful lot. Sometimes its nice to have a game with just the Order and the Ashen Veil, or the Empyrean and the Council of Esus. I also think that it will be helpful to scenario designers.

I've also been playing a lot of "End of Winter" games. We have been talking about a mechanic like this for a long time and we finally found a way to do it that isn't processor intensive on huge maps. I think you guys will enjoy it.

Looks good. The Remove Religion - ____ options seem like they would be really good if Ice brings back the White Hand. Maybe you can go ahead and implement 21+ religions now. ;)


Assuming you still haven't gotten it to remember your settings, I think I'll change the default options to Advanced Start/Barbarian World/Wildlands/Blessings of Amathaon/Living World/End of Winter, and play around with disallowing religions pretty often too.


Have you considered an option to half the AC too? I usually want it to rise slower than usual, especially sine Advanced start and Labruscum/Bararian world tend to make it rise faster. Hopefully the normal AC rate is lower now that such issues as the death of Prophecy mark units and razing evil cities has been addressed. Lately I've always ended up always turning the AC off rather than deal with its rapid rise.

I have been playing a lot of games with various religions on or off. Especially on smaller maps 7 religions is an awful lot. Sometimes its nice to have a game with just the Order and the Ashen Veil, or the Empyrean and the Council of Esus. I also think that it will be helpful to scenario designers.


Yeah, whenever I wanted to play Order/AV games, I always opened up the WB, made a one-tile island in the middle of the ocean, built a barbarian city on it and made it the holy city for all the other religions, and then turned the tile back into ocean. This option will make it a lot simpler!

Looks good. The Remove Religion - ____ options seem like they would be really good if Ice brings back the White Hand. Maybe you can go ahead and implement 21+ religions now. ;)


I don't like the 21 religion idea, as I won't be able to disable any:(

But for scenarios disabling some religions will allow creating more realistic situations

...Have you considered an option to half the AC too? I usually want it to rise slower than usual, especially sine Advanced start and Labruscum/Bararian world tend to make it rise faster. Hopefully the normal AC rate is lower now that such issues as the death of Prophecy mark units and razing evil cities has been addressed. Lately I've always ended up always turning the AC off rather than deal with its rapid rise.

This is a very real concern for me, on emperor - unless i can grab the Propercy of Ragnok, the AI will normally send the AC up to 70+ before i can get the tech/units able to deal with the horseman.

How about an option that multiplies the required GP points for a GP by x? Call it 'Sterile Minds'.

End of Winter- The world starts frozen and slowly thaws to the normal terrain type.
Heck, yeah! I assumed I wouldn't see this until Ice, so many thanks for putting it in now.

*excitement level for Shadow doubles*

An option we have added for our MP games (not optional in fact) in the previous version that would be interesting with more religion : a player that already have a holy city can't research the tech to discover another religion until another player have found the religion . However this is doable only for religions granted by techs on a dead end tech tree .. and i don't know how the new religions will spread .

Tcho !

Edit : for the option double the amount of bonuses , you should divide the iUniqueRange by 2 (and reduce a little more if there is lots of players in a small map ) also to makes it more efficient . If not all the last strategical bonuses added will missed .

End of Winter looks and awesome idea! The fight for land will be intense to the xtreme..

Heck, yeah! I assumed I wouldn't see this until Ice, so many thanks for putting it in now.

*excitement level for Shadow doubles*

Same for me :) This will double the fun factor from early game expansion and struggle for survival.

AI No Building Requirements- With this option selected the AI no longer needs any building requirements for units. So they can build axemen without training yards and longbowmen without archery ranges. My goal eventually is to improve the AI enough so that this doesn't have much effect (and in "Shadow" the AI's ability to field upgraded units is MUCH better than in 0.25) but we put this in for testing and decided to keep it for players that wanted to try it out.[/indent]

I loved this option, i will see how de AI do in shadow, but i think i will use it many times anyway :)

_Valis;6244366']Same for me :) This will double the fun factor from early game expansion and struggle for survival.
Add wildlands, raging barbs and barb world to create a crazy and *very* realistic fight

I second the opinions on the End of Winter option. Coming out of the Age of Ice at the beginning of a game will greatly add to the atmosphere.

Having the ability to disallow religions will make games more credible, at least for me. If I hand pick my rivals and I leave out the dwarves and the Ljosalfar, I don't want RoK and FoL in the game.

With the AI having no Building Requirements maybe it will make better choices as to what units it fields.

Nice job team.

End of Winter sounds really interesting, I'll definitely have to try that out.

Wildlands -- well, now maybe I'll finally have a chance to build the Grand Menagerie.

Wasn't wildlands in the current version? I'm sure there was something to do with making more animals.

I'm sure it's been done before but Barb World + No Settlers + No City Razing, in multiplayer :) I wanna try that

Wasn't wildlands in the current version? I'm sure there was something to do with making more animals.

Yeah, some of these got added in the 0.25 playtest version (we had some time to kill waiting for firaxis to release 3.13). Wildlands in particular works much better in shadow because the doubling occurs after a smoothing alogrithm that balances the amount of anaimals that are going to spawn, instead of before it.

Blessings of Amathaon- Doubles the amount of bonuses generated on the map.


Forgive me for asking rather than trying this out myself in .25, but I've been wondering - what exactly does this do? I can't tell from the description. Does it mean that each special resource (cow, gems, etc.) adds twice as many food/hammers/gold to the tile as normal? Or that the bonus when you connect to the resource (happy/gold/etc.) is doubled? Or that each special resource you connect to gives you two of that resource (for trading, mostly)? Or all tiles produce double? Or the map has twice as many resources (cows, gems, etc.) placed on it, but they act like normal resources? Does it affect unique landmarks? Does this affect mana nodes?

--Confused in Cali

I think that for me the Day of Outrage is 12th December not the 11th ;)seeing the game options available in Shadow.
I was really hoping that an option to slow down experience from combat would have been available, because Marathon is clearly not as balanced as Normal Speed.
On Marathon your units usually get a lot more experience than at Normal Speed because they perform more fights; in my Marathon games i always notice these unbalancement

-Heroes or units become really unstoppable if they become a lot experienced
-Too easy to have units or heroes over 100 xp (usually i have Heroes with over 500xp in my games)
-Too much 99,9% combats
-Entire Armies or Civilizations even if more advanced can be easily destroyed by an experienced Hero in a stack with a Medic and some defensive units to protect it from counterattacks, in the opposite case moving an Hero or experienced units to a besieged city can solve nearly all problems if you need to defend the city from an enemy stack.
-If units can become too powerful when used they usually have 99,9% combats; it doesn't force you to use them more strategically, you simply use them everytime they are available

The aforementioned observations really give a clue that experience in Marathon is not balanced, it's a problem nearly similar to the AC which when introduced for the first time (before it was fixed) in FfH2 moved too fast toward 100 on Marathon.

To make Marathon games a bit more balanced i suggest one of the following game options:

-slow down combat experience gains to civ4 vanilla levels, it should make units leveling harder on Marathon
-Vorshlumpf suggested to make an option which gave 0xp to any combat over a certain percentage (e.g. combat over 99%), it should also have a good benefit on gameplay.

That'd put Leaders with the Raiders trait at a huge advantage.

Forgive me for asking rather than trying this out myself in .25, but I've been wondering - what exactly does this do? I can't tell from the description. Does it mean that each special resource (cow, gems, etc.) adds twice as many food/hammers/gold to the tile as normal? Or that the bonus when you connect to the resource (happy/gold/etc.) is doubled? Or that each special resource you connect to gives you two of that resource (for trading, mostly)? Or all tiles produce double? Or the map has twice as many resources (cows, gems, etc.) placed on it, but they act like normal resources? Does it affect unique landmarks? Does this affect mana nodes?

--Confused in Cali

This option (which is already in .25 and probably hasn't been changed) makes the resources twice as common. It does not change their yields or effects at all. It does not effect Unique Features. I'm not actually sure whether or not it effects the amount of mana on the map.

I *love* the no religion idea. I can explain how many times I've really been in the mood for a good order vs ashen veil game but no matter how hard I try, everyone always switches to my religion because I end up getting to tough. Sometimes I like to play a handicapped game with overwhelming odds against my religion. Now thats possible!

My first game is now Svartlafar, Esus Religion/Aeron Guild, Ice World.:)

That'd put Leaders with the Raiders trait at a huge advantage.
I had also suggested that XP bonuses (Raider, Valor, Great General) be changed to percentages, not hard values. For instance if, instead of +1 xp we have FLOOR[LARGER[+50% xp, +1 xp]] then you would need at least a two-xp battle to gain anything from the Raider trait.

My uber-raging barbs game was an experiment of sorts with the 0 xp option. Unfortunately, it doesn't work as well as I had hoped, since I was still getting from 0 to 3 xp for 99.9%+ battles. If I can, I'll reduce the overall XP award in my next game to see how that affects it.

inthe ice world, do jungles appear? (becaue i can't really imagine the ice covering jungles...


maybe a stupid question, sorry

I don't think this option means that the world is entirely covered with ice and tundras. Even the AoI scenario had a small tropical region that was untouched by the long winter. I say this option should still have jungles, but not as many. They should however become more common as the game goes on.


I had also suggested that XP bonuses (Raider, Valor, Great General) be changed to percentages, not hard values. For instance if, instead of +1 xp we have FLOOR[LARGER[+50% xp, +1 xp]] then you would need at least a two-xp battle to gain anything from the Raider trait.

My uber-raging barbs game was an experiment of sorts with the 0 xp option. Unfortunately, it doesn't work as well as I had hoped, since I was still getting from 0 to 3 xp for 99.9%+ battles. If I can, I'll reduce the overall XP award in my next game to see how that affects it.

I would only agree to making the trait grant a percentage bonus instead of a flat +1 xp if the number weren't rounded down. That is, I would want it to accompany changing xp from an integer to a double, like in one of the options from Snarko's Options mod. (I really think we need a new version of Snarko's options for Shadow). This also made it so that a lot of battles give you only a fraction of a point of xp, thus making xp farming more difficult.

Looks good. The Remove Religion - ____ options seem like they would be really good if Ice brings back the White Hand. Maybe you can go ahead and implement 21+ religions now. ;)

Mulcarns dead. You don't worship a god defeated by a mere mortal. Instead, a guild that decreased the thawing of the earths and allowed you to build disciples of Mulcarn (They have nothing else to do).

Forgive me for asking rather than trying this out myself in .25, but I've been wondering - what exactly does this do? I can't tell from the description. Does it mean that each special resource (cow, gems, etc.) adds twice as many food/hammers/gold to the tile as normal? Or that the bonus when you connect to the resource (happy/gold/etc.) is doubled? Or that each special resource you connect to gives you two of that resource (for trading, mostly)? Or all tiles produce double? Or the map has twice as many resources (cows, gems, etc.) placed on it, but they act like normal resources? Does it affect unique landmarks? Does this affect mana nodes?

--Confused in Cali

I think it doubles the presence of resources. We use it in MP to prevent truely "crap land" starts. It seems to narrow the gap between the 'haves' and 'have nots' in regard to starting position. Everyone should have at least something to work with.

One note: It makes alot of seafood. This means that - if your land is simply not suiting your style - you can run to the coast to settle and count on at least a seafood or two (or three) for a fishing start (a second tier start, in my opinion, but better than nothing and a solid 'plan b').

I think it does give more mana nodes, but this affect is much less apparent than the abundance of resources and I'm not sure.

inthe ice world, do jungles appear? (becaue i can't really imagine the ice covering jungles...

maybe a stupid question, sorry

They do. As I recall jungles don't freeze but stay batches of relative warmth. As one of the players mentioned earlier in this thread the thaw mechanic transforms the map into a much colder version of what it will eventually warm up into. But that doesn't make it solid ice.

Regarding the Barbarian World option - do animals still spawn with that selected?

I'd like to run a BW game, but I enjoy the early "great hunt".

I would only agree to making the trait grant a percentage bonus instead of a flat +1 xp if the number weren't rounded down.
Oops, it messed up the formula.

Basically, I'd like to get no more than +1 XP for having the Raider trait, but the battle has to be significant enough for me to even get that (so not even Raiders would get 1 XP from a 99.9% battle).

Something like:
FLOOR[SMALLER[+50% xp, +1 xp]]
Or even make the 50% as low as 25%

wow, awesome looking options. <3 hallowed ground, compact enforced, and end of winter!

They do. As I recall jungles don't freeze but stay batches of relative warmth. As one of the players mentioned earlier in this thread the thaw mechanic transforms the map into a much colder version of what it will eventually warm up into. But that doesn't make it solid ice.

maybe doviello could turn worked tundra into plains over time?
just like mines have a chance to spawn rescources.

I have to say I am a big fan of no settlers option. All the games I've played so far since 025 was with no settlers.

Anyone else like playing with no settlers?

I have to say I am a big fan of no settlers option. All the games I've played so far since 025 was with no settlers.

Anyone else like playing with no settlers?

ya No Settlers is a great option, stops the AI from spamming cities everywhere and leaves some wilderness into the late game

Would be cool with a couple more options like:
*One settler per era (slower expansion).
*Better start (more resources near starting point).
*Half AC.
*World sinking (slowly shores converts to sea all over the world).
*Fog (slowly edges of explored map converts to fog of war, slower with writing and map making).
*No Stability (chance for cities to convert to barbarian and near civs).

i recon the first 3 would be doable, the last 3 would be a lot tougher (stability could represent increased chance of cultural flip further away from capital?)

i'd like those options though, i would def. use em :)

The wintery start sounds brilliant. I've always wanted to see a game where the geography changes, and this is most definately a step in the right direction.

Now if only I could download it! Gah, damnable intermaweb!

ya No Settlers is a great option, stops the AI from spamming cities everywhere and leaves some wilderness into the late game

I'm curious: How do the Kuriotate play during a "No Settlers" game?

I'd guess Kuriotates become a bit overpowered with no settler option in .30 since sprawling is re-implemented.

City of Thousand Slums becomes a powerful wonder to get also.

I'd guess Kuriotates become a bit overpowered with no settler option in .30 since sprawling is re-implemented.

City of Thousand Slums becomes a powerful wonder to get also.

Actually, in no settler games, the Khazak tend to do best. WIth the gold limt easy to mantain they get huge production bonuses.

Can we get .25's debug option that allows using worldbuilder in multiplayer games back?

By the way, did that ever really work? I didn't figure out how to turn it on (since it isn't displayed by default) until I had already made numerous changes to the game (which could easily have caused a bug), but it never seemed like selecting "yes" to entering worldbuilder had any effect. (I was playing a hotseat game against myself, not a true multipleyer game online)

Actually, in no settler games, the Khazak tend to do best. WIth the gold limt easy to mantain they get huge production bonuses.

Yeah, Khazad are one of the best civs at one-city challanges.

But in a No-Settler game, you would still be able to capture barbarian cities.

I imagine that Cardith of the Khazad would be the best choice for an OCC or No-Settler game (also with unrestricted leaders)

One little problem: options are not saved from the prev game. So, if I often restart, for example, as I do not always like random nation choice, I have a boring task resetting a big list of options according to my tests. I do not know if I can preset options in some config file.

Then balance issue: AI research techs of forbidden religions. That can make starting rush of some nations vain. BTW once I have seen Auric Ulvin found FoL pretty early. OK, he is looser up to Ice but so maybe it is better to remove him at all now.

One little problem: options are not saved from the prev game. So, if I often restart, for example, as I do not always like random nation choice, I have a boring task resetting a big list of options according to my tests. I do not know if I can preset options in some config file.

You can hide options you never use by setting the <bVisible>1</bVisible> tag to 0, and you can make an option to be default on by setting <bDefault>0</bDefault> to 1 in this file:

Assets\XML\Gameinfo\CIV4GameOptionInfos.xml

You can hide options you never use by setting the <bVisible>1</bVisible> tag to 0, and you can make an option to be default on by setting <bDefault>0</bDefault> to 1 in this file:

Assets\XML\Gameinfo\CIV4GameOptionInfos.xml

The problem I have with this is that when I try, I can no longer play Multiplayer games with others (they can't see my game listed anymore). This is true even when they set the same options in their file, or if I send them my CIV4GameOptionInfos.xml file.

Perhaps this is the wrong thread for this, but do you happen to know a workaround for that?

Sorry no, either duplicate your ffh folder and rename it to something appropriate and just edit one of the versions and use that one for SP.

Most changes should work in MP if all players have the exact same files, so I don't know what is happening for you guys.

Could we maybe get an option to disable world spells?

..you can make an option to be default...

Thanks! I hate starting games and then discovering that I've forgotten to set an option.

And thanks, too, It-Ogo, for asking a question it never occurred to me to ask.

Speaking of "never occurred": I thought FFH's unit experience system was somewhat unbalanced... and I always play Marathon games. I hadn't made the connection between the game speed and the xps.

How could the xps system be modded? Poking around in the files I don't see where to set the xps/promotions progression. (I suppose Leader Traits could be used (Modifying the setting used for Charasmatic), but since some leaders get 3 traits I suspect that won't work. And it'd be a total kludge, anyway.)

I'm looking forward to trying out End of Winter and "No AI building requirements." And the other options too, but especially those. :)

Could we maybe get an option to disable world spells?This seems to be a very good additional option to be implemented.

On the other hand, a question for the team: Too many options cause very individualistic scenarios, practically none compareable to each other. Do you intend to finetune FfH further or try to limit it at a certain level?

As long as this thread is bumped, I may as well request the next GameOption I was going to writ ein my MODCOMP be added to the main mod. It is quite a simple one which many might enjoy using.

Could you maybe add a gameoption to allow the AI to ignore Level Requirements? This ought to help them pick up their Magic Game the same way that the no Building Requirements had helped them pick up the War Game in general. It'll also be of INSANE help to Basium as an AI

This seems to be a very good additional option to be implemented.

On the other hand, a question for the team: Too many options cause very individualistic scenarios, practically none compareable to each other. Do you intend to finetune FfH further or try to limit it at a certain level?

We implemented an option to disable world spells since that request was made (actually based on that exact request).

I think there is a danger in presenting to many game options. On the minor side its confusing to players, but thats not a huge deal since help text does a good job and if they dont understand it they wont use it.

More importantly we have to support all these game options and many require significant ai or gameplay changes. This differs by what it does. For example disabling world spells is easy, no ai work or anything. But keeping the ai from requiring buildings to build units is pretty complex. All of the ai work to get the ai to understand the value of unit enabling buildings has to be disabled if that option is selected.

Plus you have the complexity of the interaction of options. What happens if you have option a, b, f and m all selected and working together. How will that work? It does get a little hairy sometimes. We certainly dont have the resources to test all the game options on each release so if i do something to break the barbarian world option that i didnt think would be related, it probably wont be discovered until its released.

But I love scenarios that arent just preconfigured maps. If you are going to have preconfigured maps, why not just use a random map so its replayable. Id rather have scenario games that have unusual conditions for the player to try out. So I created a set of hidden game options that are only intended for scenario use (you would never use them in the "epic game"). That way we can apply unusual victory conditions, etc.

@xienwolf- that would be a pretty big boost for the ai. But I dont know if its anything the ai doesnt do as well as a human player (it pretty good at going out and attackign stuff). A better question may be, is it worth lowering the min levels for the t4 angels for everyone (understanding that it would be a pretty big boost for basium)?

im starting to think the AI_No_Building_Reqs option is no longer needed, even on noble i find the ais get tier2 units nice and early.

im still hoping for a Always_Raze_Cities option (similar to how on OCC human players auto-raze cities, but its no good because AIs dont)

Well, Basium is a side-effect. The main goal is the Arcane Line, which some people still feel the AI is not doing a good enough job of producing Mages & Archmages in.

I've implemented the option in my MODCOMP now, just had to structure some IF statements carefully in 2 places, so it wasn't too much, and my internet was down for a while after I finished up seZ's new HUD anyway. Hopefully a few people try it out :)

Well, which some people still feel the AI is not doing a good enough job of producing Mages & Archmages in.


As in I have never seen any mages or Archmages from the AI. Even when I changed the AI weight as was suggested in another thread, it still never happens. I let the AI auto play for about 300 turns and Adepts with 30+ xp were spammed all over the map. Only the Shiem had a mage level with the witch unit, but thats an auto summoned mage.

As in I have never seen any mages or Archmages from the AI. Even when I changed the AI weight as was suggested in another thread, it still never happens. I let the AI auto play for about 300 turns and Adepts with 30+ xp were spammed all over the map. Only the Shiem had a mage level with the witch unit, but thats an auto summoned mage.

Most of the AI's dont pursue the mage tech line. Thats interntional for now since other branches are so much more profitable for them.

Most of the AI's dont pursue the mage tech line. Thats interntional for now since other branches are so much more profitable for them.

I figured that was one reason, but I gave them all the techs they needed and cheated in a boat load of gold for them. They never used it to to upgrade and sat there with their moola hording every dime... =)

Considering this is a game option thread can we have a option to stop minister Koan from poping up...

im starting to think the AI_No_Building_Reqs option is no longer needed, even on noble i find the ais get tier2 units nice and early.

im still hoping for a Always_Raze_Cities option (similar to how on OCC human players auto-raze cities, but its no good because AIs dont)

Sadly, I think it still is. There are still too many games wherein AI's have only warriors, or other prerequisiteless units in their empire.

i would REALLY REALLY like an option disabling astronomical events, they are seriously getting on my nerves...

i would REALLY REALLY like an option disabling astronomical events, they are seriously getting on my nerves...

The astronomical events were added for a design reason. I needed a signifcant sample of events that wouldn't have any requirement. They could happen anytime during the game. The reason we need them is becqause without them if there is only a small sample of events that can happen (events that do things) then you cycle on the same event over and over and end up with things like the obelisk event happening 8 times in one game and such.

Now with the astronomical events we dont have the repeating events issue anymore. Now that does mean that sometimes you will get and event without an effect. But thats better than the alternative. If we allowed an option to disable the astronomy events it would go back to repeating events. In fact it would be twice as bad as it was because at the same time I added the astronomy events I doubled the event chances (i always wanted a higher event chance, but I couldnt do it unless I had a sample of always available events to draw from).

Anyway, thats the reason they are in the game.

The astronomical events were added for a design reason. I needed a signifcant sample of events that wouldn't have any requirement. They could happen anytime during the game. The reason we need them is becqause without them if there is only a small sample of events that can happen (events that do things) then you cycle on the same event over and over and end up with things like the obelisk event happening 8 times in one game and such.

Now with the astronomical events we dont have the repeating events issue anymore. Now that does mean that sometimes you will get and event without an effect. But thats better than the alternative. If we allowed an option to disable the astronomy events it would go back to repeating events. In fact it would be twice as bad as it was because at the same time I added the astronomy events I doubled the event chances (i always wanted a higher event chance, but I couldnt do it unless I had a sample of always available events to draw from).

Anyway, thats the reason they are in the game.

ahhhhh thats fair enough, makes a lot of sense now :) however, the events that make desert and tundra anoy me the most, is it possible to make such events only affect the civ that had those event occur to them? not the whole world? having half your fat cross change into desert or tundra in the first 20 turns are crippling. and i didnt even get those events, it was the AI O_o

Be a man, live with it!^^
As u said, it effects the whole world; I dont hear the AI whining.

yea, or design a lot more events without prereqs. so you can dilute the frequency of astronomical events ;)

yea, or design a lot more events without prereqs. so you can dilute the frequency of astronomical events ;)

Definitely a solution I'd prefer, ideally with more chains and long-term events. The rate of precession on Erebus must be astronomical (hah!) for constellations to come into and out of prominence with such frequency.

I just want an option for no Barbatos...he's far too annoying. I'd rather it honestly be made into an event that spawns him and the ruins (some explorers have found some ruins and have awoken an ancient evil...). Far too many games he destroys or cripples civs that start too close.

I think there is a danger in presenting to many game options. First, thank you for this long statement. This I had in mind, it's nice for the individualistic user, but very complex for the overall game and will become practically not comparable for all players any more. Also one option can alter the strategic term completely.

So general advices and hints will become more and more useless.

But the more you could tailormade your own game play the better for each of us egoists.

Most of the AI's dont pursue the mage tech line. Thats interntional for now since other branches are so much more profitable for them.That's interesting because I felt, having mages with e.g. fire II and archmages with air III gives very big advantages in defence and attack as well. Others such as law III are nice to have, but not so decisive. And war is of great importance.

Does a strategic map of the AI exist? And if yes where is it? I know, this could give us humans a very good advantage against perfect calculation cycles etc.

The astronomical events were added for a design reason.
Anyway, thats the reason they are in the game.Frankly speaking in all my games I cancel the random events option.
1. Because of their sometime great influence and disturbance of my plans at the very moment.
2. I found out that in many games the AI tricks (e.g. it exactely knows all my moves even when they are "hidden" and uses this knowledge against me.) very much to be a player of a same attitude.

Example in FfH: When letting a worker unprotected very sure a barbarian will come and kill him exactely with no slow approach to him before or similar. Protecting him the turn before no attack will occur.

It's a great problem to program and weigh strategic issues. So when programming a difficult game it's very much easier to let the AI trick than to program a good strategic thinking AI.

That's interesting because I felt, having mages with e.g. fire II and archmages with air III gives very big advantages in defence and attack as well. Others such as law III are nice to have, but not so decisive. And war is of great importance.

Does a strategic map of the AI exist? And if yes where is it? I know, this could give us humans a very good advantage against perfect calculation cycles etc.

Mages and archmages would be a big advantage to the AI in defence and offence but they lack the knowledge to upgrade adepts, making the magic tech options fairly useless for the AI...

Mages and archmages would be a big advantage to the AI in defence and offence but they lack the knowledge to upgrade adepts, making the magic tech options fairly useless for the AI...

The Ai doesnt have any problem upgrading adepts (as far as I know). It is just usually unable to do so because it doesnt have the required techs (because we incent the ai to go down other branches of the tech tree).

The Ai doesnt have any problem upgrading adepts (as far as I know).

I'm currently playing a game where all civs have had Sorcery for quite a while, yet I have yet to see a single Mage. I have seen Adepts though.

I've seen the Sheaim AI get a couple of Eaters of Dreams, but nothing else above an adept since Shadow was released.

Would those of you who are interested in seeing more Mages & Archmages try using my MODCOMP and seeing if the option leads to AI fielding magical units properly? There are really very few changes I have made which you will see without modding anything yourself, and those are detailed in the second post of the thread (link is the last link in my sig, MOD-MOD Platform)

What modcomp is that? There are lots of links in your signature. (In fact your signature exceeds the lind limit. :mad: )

Sorry about that, I often forget that I use a larger monitor resolution than some other people do :( Does it stretch the screen out for you? If so I'll look for a way to change it, because that ANNOYS ME when something forces me to scroll left/right to read posts....

Anyway, what you want is here (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=273242) if you are willing to try it out for me.

EDIT: nm about the sig. Just remembered that there is a limit to how many lines long a sig can be, that must be what you are meaning. I am having problems finding the forum rules to figure out how many lines I need to cut though...