Advanced Rivals (BtS 3.19)

f1rpo

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I've now integrated Advanced Rivals into my Advanced Civ modpack; Advanced Rivals is no longer updated.

The Advanced Rivals mod
* handicaps the (single) human player by giving the AI civs Advanced Starts;
* turns off most of the other player handicaps through a custom difficulty setting;
* assigns start points unequally to the AI civs to encourage dog-eat-dog dynamics.


Download site
See manual.pdf for instructions on how to set up a game.
The included Pyrrhic Victories mod is disabled by default.

More background on Advanced Rivals:
Spoiler :
I didn't want to call it "Advanced AI" because the mod doesn't make the AI more intelligent. The premise is rather that the AI is a lost cause and that the player needs to be handicapped. About the BtS handicaps I dislike how the AI civs (appear to) generate commerce and production out of thin air; it's not plausible and a little sneaky. I find it cleaner and simpler to give the AI civs only a big headstart.

The mod adds a difficulty level, called "no handicap", which disables almost all advantages the AI normally gets from Prince upwards. The single handicap then is that the AI civs receive a configurable amount of Advanced Start points, and the player does not.

Not all AI civs get the same amount of points: A few start almost on a par with the player, a few far ahead, and some in the middle. The mod tries to place the most dangerous AI civ far away initially, and a rather weak one nearby the player, so that the player doesn't immediately swim with sharks. Over time, the stronger rivals tend to subdue the weaker ones, which should create urgency for the player to catch up and get involved.

Example (Standard-size Fractal map):

full size 1.3 MB
Upper left screenshot: The player starts as normal with 1 settler and 1 other unit.

Pyrrhic Victories

modifies combat to make it more predictable and less winner-take-all. If a unit would die in combat despite superior odds, combat ends in a retreat instead (that's the eponymous Pyrrhic victory). The unlucky unit receives little experience, if any, whereas the unit that survived combat against the odds gains much experience.


Download site
See manual.pdf for the exact rule changes.
 
Last edited:
I downloaded, installed the mod and started a few games. I couldn't find the difference. I assume, because you've got screenshots, and I haven't found the correct setting yet. Whether quick-start or custom, Prince or Emperor, we all seem to start from the same state. I loaded the mod one last time to make sure that there wasn't a difficulty setting besides the usual ones (no dice).

Am I missing a critical step?

Great idea, though. I hope I'll get a chance to take it for a spin.

BTW, the usual way to distribute mod components is to post to the forum (as you did) and upload to the file database (here http://forums.civfanatics.com/downloads.php?do=cat&id=3 ). It makes it a bit easier to find. :)
 
Sorry to hear it's not working (at all :lol:). For all I know, you're the first tester apart from myself. There should be a new difficulty setting if nothing else. The definition is certainly in the Civ4HandicapInfo.xml; beats me why it doesn't show up. (I assume you checked/ cleared the cache, and the mod loads without noticeable errors.) Good thing I didn't put it in the database yet.

Here's what it looks like on my computer:


Can somebody confirm that it does (not) work?
 

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Thank you for the screenshot. It says "AdvRivals-v0.1" in the corner; could that be the problem? My structure is Mods/AdvRivals/Assets/XML etc.

Mods/AdvRivals-v0.1/Assets/XML should also work. (AdvRivals.ini won't load unless renamed, but that isn't critical.)

Mods/AdvRivals-v0.1/AdvRivals/Assets/XML would not work ... that's probably obvious.
It does seem like none of the mod's files are actually loaded.
 
It works for me (with a folder AdvRivals). Suddenly, I was on turn 26 and one of my rivals already had 2 cities so I guess it works as intended :lol:
 
Thank you for the screenshot. It says "AdvRivals-v0.1" in the corner; could that be the problem? My structure is Mods/AdvRivals/Assets/XML etc.

Mods/AdvRivals-v0.1/Assets/XML should also work. (AdvRivals.ini won't load unless renamed, but that isn't critical.)

Mods/AdvRivals-v0.1/AdvRivals/Assets/XML would not work ... that's probably obvious.
It does seem like none of the mod's files are actually loaded.

Boy is my face red. :blush: noob mistake. It works great.

Turn 26 and Amsterdam is pop5 and Carthage has three cities. Awesome.
 
A new version is up: v 0.3 v 0.4

Main additions (full list in the manual):
* AI changes that should help the AI to keep (or extend) its initial lead, e.g. fewer defensive units.
* Advanced Start points can be freely assigned to civs through an XML file.
* I've (tentatively) tested the mod using a broader range of game options, and made small adjustments -- starting at later eras, large maps, various map scripts. Still no multiplayer support however.
* Raging barbarians no longer spawn solely based on unclaimed tiles, and keep their stamina up despite Advanced Start.
* The "Pyrrhic Victories" mod component (see first post) is now available as a separate download: Link

The next step would be more testing; I'm not sure when I'll get around to that. Then, I'm considering merging Adv. Rivals into K-Mod (as a modmod). K-Mod seems to be the most recently maintained comprehensive mod that doesn't drastically alter gameplay.

As for the file database, I'll just wait till I have 30 posts, as approval by an administrator takes a very long time.
 
These components look very interesting! Having no multiplayer support is a deal breaker though. Hope you'll get around to that.
 
Problems with multiplayer:
1. How to allow players to enter their start points. An input box next to each slot would be ideal, but the Custom Game screen can't be modified (not part of the DLL). For singleplayer, I can get away with using the "Base Points" box for the start points of the strongest opponent, and set the other points based on that single number. For multiplayer, I guess there'd have to be a popup before or after the Dawn-of-Man screen, where players enter how many points they want. Then, the assigned points would have to be synchronized and announced somehow.
2. Assignment of starting plots. In singleplayer, I make the assignment purely based on the number of start points (e.g. to avoid placing the civ with the most points next to the one with the fewest), but for multiplayer, placement may have to take into account teams and human vs. AI control.

The only Civ multiplayer I've ever played was Hot Seat, and that may have been Civ III, so I'm a bit out of my element with this. I should rework my plot assignment algorithm anyway (currently ignores iStartingLocPercent from the difficulty setting), but issue 1 sounds like it would take me too much time. For a modder with Python and multiplayer experience, it might be fairly easy though.

An update about the AdvRivals mod:
I haven't changed it in a year or so, but I've spent time on and off modding smaller things into a K-Mod mod. I think I can integrate AdvRivals pretty seamlessly into K-Mod (as just another game option), but haven't done so yet because I worry that the warlike K-Mod AI would quickly eliminate the civs that start with relatively few points. So, I'm still in the process of modding AI code that deals with matters of war and peace.

Meanwhile, in the K-Mod games I've played, I've been using a custom difficulty setting that combines moderate (ongoing) AI bonuses akin to Monarch with a headstart akin to Deity. (Mostly just through Civ4HandicapInfos.xml.) I quite like this, but still want to merge AdvRivals because it's more flexible and doesn't give all AI civs the same freebies.

[As for "Pyrrhic Victories", which shouldn't have multiplayer issues:]
Spoiler :
I wouldn't recommend that mod anymore, or maybe only when playing with Raging Barbarians -- combat randomness is especially bad in the early game. Even then, it would be more elegant to limit the number of combat rounds (like in air combat) than to use an arbitrary survival threshold. Either way, a side-effect of this kind of mod is that it's gets (even) easier to wage war with very few losses. I think it would have to be coupled with a cost on unit healing, and that's a big task to design and implement.
 
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