What balance changes have you made in solo play?

[Lord Gay]

Hi all! I'm new here so let me start with a little intro. Even though I've had Civ 3 for years, it somehow never occurred to me that there would be gaming forums for it. Even though I've visted forums for my other games, I guess I figured the only thing you could have for Civ 3 would be maps, and who needs those when the game generates them anyway?

I've recently stumbled across this place, and have been reading a lot on how things work. This has answered a TON of questions on things I could never figure out, and had really pissed me off about the game. I'm now actually enjoying the game, and have been poking around here for ways to continue to increase my fun.

I only have vanilla, no expansions, and have picked up two graphics changes so far (mood badges and irrigated tiles). The mood badges are awesome!

The reason for this post is to ask what rules changes people have made to improve or balance the game. I'm also interested in what other goodies there are to add fun, but mostly I'm curious about rule changes.

In my game I feel that bombard units suck, so I've doubled the values of artillery, ships and planes. I've tweaked military units, and fiddled a bit with some other things.

I found this thread: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=228676

It has some interesting ideas, and I'm curious if others have, or can, share the specifics of changes they've made. Remember, all of this is brand spanking new to me. I only just learned that there are expansions for the game; I know nothing of what else exists to enhance play. Thanks for anything you care to share!

[Steph]

You can change a lot of things!

The main problem is to have the AI use it correctly.

Sometimes you have an idea that sounds wonderful on paper...

For instance, I tried to have every unit to cost population point.

A human player can play with it, and it's fun as it limits a bit the size of armies. But the computer will just build unit after unit and the cities woud remain empty .

[timerover51]

You might want to take a look at one of my threads,

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=322013

for some more ideas. There is also a PDF file there for download that will give you more details on a specific mod that I have made. I am working with the Conquest editor, that gives you a bit more to work with than the basic or vanilla editor with respect to what you can change. You also have more units to work with.

In the basic game, when I was editing for that, I focused mainly on the resource and terrain yields, unit combat ratings, and Wonders. Most of the changes that I have made to buildings are mentioned in that PDF file, and except for increasing gold/trade in water squares, can be done with the vanilla editor.

Boosting the terrain and resources yields has two main effects. First, with the increased resources, the game moves faster. Things are built faster, research is completed faster, the map is explored faster. Second, because I have boosted the effects of coastal buildings, I have biased the game towards coastal development verses inland development. Aside from the limited effects of irrigation, and then, railroading inland squares, there is no way to increase food yields there, so I have boosted the food and production yields of the coast to compensate. With that bias, playing on a archipelago or continent map is more rewarding, and you have more time to develop before running into the AI.

Changing some of the Wonder characteristics can have a major influence on the game. I have them set so that they never go obsolete, so their effects continue throughout the game, and with many of them, they automatically put a building in every city that I have on the map, rather than simply on the continent, as I play on a lot of water maps. Unfortunately, in Vanilla, you cannot have Wonders or buildings automatically build units, which also can have major affects. Again, see the PDF file for more ideas.

With respect to units, I have also boosted the bombardment ability of artillery, aircraft, and ships. I have pretty much reworked all of the naval units attack and defense values, and in some cases, also boosted hit points, and changed or added upgrade paths. An example would be the Ironclad where I have made it to upgrade to Battleship, boosted combat rating to 8 attack, 12 defense, 12 bombard, a bonus of 4 hit points, and movement is now 5. The Battleship I have uprated to 54 attack, 48 defense, 36 bombardment, an 8 hit point bonus, and a movement of 7. Another example would be the Cavalry unit, which I have set to upgrade to Tank. All of the modern units have been upgraded quite a bit. I will be posting in the next week or two a Vanilla version of my naval mod.

You can also make some major changes to the game in the general setting editor, where you can change the maximum population for a town and city, alter defensive factors, change research times, and change the duration of Golden Ages. All of those changes, singly or in combination can have major results in the game.

Lastly, since this is getting a bit long, changing setting in the government editor can have massive effects on the game and how you play it.

One final remark, I am on Macs, and the Macintosh version of Civilization 3 Complete does not have an editor, and the Mac editor I have for the basic version is about the most unstable piece of Mac software that I have ever encountered. I bought an inexpensive Windows box simply so that I could edit the Civilization game. For a dedicated Mac person to buy a Windows box is a major concession.

[Ozymandias]

I recommend checking out the "Completed Modpacks" and "Completed Scenarios" sub-forums and having a look at the more popular mods (off the top of my head, check out Rhye's Of Civilization). Also check out Plotinus' "How To Design A Scenario" in the tutorials sub-forum; he also recommends some fine - indeed, excellent - mods, including his own.

Best,

Oz