[XML] Your house rules?

Baldyr · Dec 5, 2009

What XML modifikations have you done to your copy of RFC?

So far I have been modding aspects of the game concerning Russia in particular, but also made some alterations to the Viking and the English civilizations. I have also messed around with terrain and improvements.

Units:

- the Cossack is a Cuirassier that gets defensive bonuses (and doesn't require Iron)
- the Berserker is an Axeman replacement
- all melee and most gunpowder units (and even some mounted units) can enter Marshes
- all melee, archery and gunpowder units (except mechanized) can enter Jungles after the discovery of the Compass

Terrain:

- can build Roads, Watermills and Cottages on Marshes after the invention of Engineering
- able to drainage Marsches with Steam Power, thus making them workable (allowing Farms) and passable (for most units)
- military units on Marsh take 25% damage every turn
- military units on Jungle take 20% damage every turn
- military units on Ice take 25% damage every turn

Improvements:

- razed cities become Towns (and can thus be plundered further)
- Towns enjoy the same privileges as Forts ("ActsLikeCity") and even get a 20% defensive bonus
- also Cottages, Hamlets and Villages get defensive bonuses (5-15%)
- pillaged Cottages convert to City Ruins and worked City Ruins upgrade to Cottages
- Forest Preserve is renamed Nature Preserve and can also be built on Marshes

Buildings:

- Trading Post allows one Merchant instead of the default Navigation promotion
- Opera House is a new English UB - the Shakespearean Theatre (+25% culture and happy from Silk, but requires Literature and Printing Press)
- Royal Exchange (former English UB) is a national wonder - the Stock Exchange (+100% commerce)
- (the old) Stock Exchange is re-introduced as a modified Wall Street world wonder (-50% hurry cost)
- Kremlin is the Saint Basil's Cathedral world wonder (allows all expansion civics, requires Military Tradition)

I'm always looking to add new stuff to my game, so I really look forward to your suggestions!

BurnEmDown · Dec 5, 2009

I don't have much to contribute on any changes I made, since I didn't

But I'm quite interested to know if the AI is "aware" of these changes. For example does it build Nature Preserves on Marshes, Keep troops in Towns due to their defensive bonuses, walk around Jungles and Marshes as quickly as possible, and all those things?
Also one thing I would like to comment is how you changed the Viking UB's ability from navigation promotion to allow one merchant, I think this is definetly worth to include in RFC as it syncs very well with the Viking's UHV and is quite realistic as well.

Baldyr · Dec 5, 2009

BurnEmDown said:
But I'm quite interested to know if the AI is "aware" of these changes. For example does it build Nature Preserves on Marshes, Keep troops in Towns due to their defensive bonuses, walk around Jungles and Marshes as quickly as possible, and all those things?

I would be very interested to know this too, but I guess the AI will only utilize any XML changes depending on the situation at hand, rather than including them into any form av game plan. If it wants to fortify on a good defensive tile it might opt for the 20% defensive bonus of a Town rather than staying in the open plains. (But it might opt for the security of a Fort on a hill if the opportunity is there.) If it wants to move units from tile A to tile B it might choose a route through Marsh or Jungle - not taking into account that the units will be damaged in the process - or that the siege units will not be able to make the charted trip. (Or, it will automatically discard a route because some units in the stack won't enter some of the terrain.)

In short: I dunno. But I'm not that concerned either, since the game - or the mod - doesn't take place on an "even play field" anyway. I'm happy as long as I can play it as I want to, the AI be damned...

BurnEmDown said:
Also one thing I would like to comment is how you changed the Viking UB's ability from navigation promotion to allow one merchant, I think this is definetly worth to include in RFC as it syncs very well with the Viking's UHV and is quite realistic as well.

This can easily be implemented by anyone who wants to (in the CIV4ImprovementInfos.xml):

Spoiler :

Baldyr · Dec 5, 2009

Baldyr said:
- Towns enjoy the same privileges as Forts ("ActsLikeCity") and even get a 20% defensive bonus

This one I'm actually particularly fond of. As far as I can tell, Towns can be used for all the things that Forts are able to do - as long as they are within your cultural borders. Including working as harbors on a distant landmass without a coastal city, utilize resources, function as an airbase, receive city defender bonuses, and so forth. And not to mention work as a canal (in conjunction with Forts, i presume).

My thinking is this: While playing as the Russians I would like to found the Belorussian capitol of Minsk. The problem is it's proximity to the Estonian and Latvian capitals of Tallinn and Riga (the latter is actually an ancient port older than both Moscow and perhaps even Kiev). To gain the same access to the Baltic Sea I can now build cottages and work these up to Towns, allowing me both coastal defensive positions, ports for ships and trade routes - and as bases for my airplanes and Paratroopers. Just as if I had built cities on those tiles (not that I could do that, since Tallinn and Riga would be located on adjacent tiles). The same thing with Petrograd up north - it would simply be too crowded with all these (historically) important cities (like Novgorod between Minsk and Petrograd). Now I can pick which will be actual cities and which will simply be Towns.

I build lots of Towns. (And I "prebuild" Towns on historical locations for plunder and cultural conquest in-game.) I've actually considered giving Towns the collective benefits of the resource based improvements, making these mere cheap end solutions before I can afford to build Cottages on them and work these all the way up to Towns. (Preferably in late-game.) What do you think?

Baldyr said:
- razed cities become Towns (and can thus be plundered further)

But there is also another side to this modification: Say that I conquer a city in the Far East that I'm not gonna keep (and pay maintainense for), so I raze it and there appears a Town improvement on that tile. I can now use this "occupied" town as a defensive position during the war (as soon as my culture envelopes it) and as a frontier outpost. Perfect for placing Paratroopers as border guards and for re-basing bombers if a new war was to brake out.

I do, however, wish that there would be some way of "upgrading" a Town into a city proper. Not that it would be practical in most circumstances (I built the Town inside my own BFC), but it would make it more of a gradual scale all the way from Cottage (and even City Ruin) to City.

It would be nice nonetheless to have the option to revert my decision to "raze" the city (I really should change the text pop-up to "dispand the city" or "degrade it to town" instead) and turn it back into a city later. Like with a new Worker action that allows one to found a city on a Town tile just like a Settler does. I can, of course, do the same with a Settler, but its not the same... psychologically. :rolleyes:

apenpaap · Dec 6, 2009

My game has two changes: Stalins diplomusic is the Soviet anthem (different versions for each era) and the Plague (escept the conquerors plague) is disabled.

Baldyr · Dec 6, 2009

apenpaap said:
My game has two changes: Stalins diplomusic is the Soviet anthem (different versions for each era) and the Plague (escept the conquerors plague) is disabled.

These are Python changes, right? Good ones, both of them. Is the Soviet anthem already in the game or did you import it elsewhere? (And different versions? :eek:

) I usually don't play with sound so I'm only vaguely familiar with the diplo music.

The plague feature does get old really fast, but I wouldn't disable it personally thought. (Just like I don't disable espionage or the space race.) I feel that plagues could be made into something better, though. Right now they are easily exploitable since you only have to keep a Warrior in every city and be ready to evacuate all Workers when it hits somewhere on the map. (I seldom bother to cancel open borders any more.)

For starters all units could take damage on a random basis - not just kill the weakest one in each city. That way you could end up loosing some of your best units (if you don't evacuate) - or none. It would make for a less predictable experience. Any other suggestions to how to alter the plagues?

As I mentioned the Space Race, I really don't think that a mission to Alpha Centauri does much for RFC as a historical mod. It could, however, be made into a Cold War style race to the Moon (Mars?) or something in that fashion. Looking at the real Space Race there were several goal to beat: First launch into space, first satellite in orbit, first manned space flight, first space walk, first space station, first man on the moon. Maybe top it all off with a mission to Mars for a Space Race victory? Could something like this be done in RFC, you think?

Lone Wolf · Dec 6, 2009

Are we including Pytnon?

Plagues are disabled, except the Conquerors one. I do it for the sake of the AI, mostly.

It's harder to escape the Conquerors by Workboat cheese.

AI's at Monarch build units at 85% of human hammers instead of 110%, at 80% at Emperor instead of 100%. Their financial unit cost is lessened by 10%. Their unit upgrade cost, civic upkeep and unit upgrade cost is 5% higher as a compensation.

At Emperor, you no longer receive a diplo malus for being human, the speed of AI workers is now 30% more instead of 50%.

I'm also gonna reduce the colony maintenance to 10% of original.

Human player receives +10 stability points as part of the initial stability handicap (20/15/5 instead of 20/5/-5) (I don't bother with Viceroy).

Stability penalty for Representation is halved, Wonders, Courthouses, Security Bureaus, Jails give an extra stability point, the tolerance for tiles not in your historical area is now 52 instead of 32.

Germany's stability softened - it now has an increased tolerance of foreign culture, like the Dutch/Portuguese stability.

Aztecs and Incas are less likely to respawn.

Qin leaderhead made to play worse in order to give the Mongolians a chance without plague. Cyrus and Asoka are also slightly hampered in order to compensate for the lack of plague, that gives them more chance at dealing with the barbs.

Victoria is willing to trade techs more (10 TechTradeKnownPercent). The British were big proponents of free market and exchange of ideas, after all. She places a bit more emphasis on culture, for the newly founded cities to grow and builds a bit more units.

American leaders behave like Mansa in regards to tech trading, to help them catch up. Washington puts more emphasis on culture buildings. Aggression level of American leaders and Frederick is increased (never understood why Firaxis Frederick is such a peacemonger). Pacal tries to build more units, to live 'till Monty, at least.

Tokugawa is slightly less isolationist (80 TechTradeKnownPercent).

Isabella is still a religious fanatic in diplo, but now has an emphasis on science techs, as well as on religious ones, to help her occasionally be the first to the New World.

Crossbows can be now unitai_city_defence.

Increased the starting units of Mongolians and Arabs.

Islamic spread rate lessened, Christianity upped.

Increased the amount of free AI European colonists.

apenpaap · Dec 6, 2009

The Plague disabling is Python. The Diplomusic isn't. As for the different versions, I have it played on piano for the Ancient and Classical ages, an instrumental version for Medieval and Rennaissance, and the full version for the Industrial, Modern and Future eras.

I usually think of the Space Race as a race to Mars. It makes more sense, considering it takes place in the 20th/21st century, while I don't really expect ships to Alpha Centauri until the 22nd.

apenpaap · Dec 6, 2009

O yeah, I also have the Blue Marble graphics.

PPQ_Purple · Dec 6, 2009

Well, if only XML changes are to be told I have only one. Ships of the Line update to Battleships and not destroyers. It makes the early navy more usefull later on.

Cethegus · Dec 6, 2009

Let's see...

- More resources on the map (Coffee, Salt, Tobacco)
- Heavily modified civics (among many, Pacifism replaced with State Atheism/Leader Cult with similiar effects but changed penalty and upkeep cost)
- Modified UU/UB/Wonder effects (Stonehenge replaced with The Sphinx, Pyramids and Sphinx swapping stats)
- New buildings and wonders (World Trade Center, CN Tower, Belém Tower, The Akshardahm, San Marco Basilica)
- Second set of UB for each civ in the making (missing only the French, Greek, Spanish, Indian and Vikings'/Swedish UB)

Baldyr · Dec 6, 2009

Lone Wolf said:
Are we including Pytnon?

Well, now we are! :lol:

Many of your changes seem very good and my hope is for some of it to end up in a future official patch. I think it would help if you posted the Python and/or XML involved somewhere so that others would be able to apply them in their own games without going through all the trial and error you must have gone through.

Is there a Lone Wolf modmod out there, including all of your changes? (One could go through the files with Winmerge and copy the good stuff. Commenting would be helpful!)

Lone Wolf said:
Human player receives +10 stability points as part of the initial stability handicap (20/15/5 instead of 20/5/-5) (I don't bother with Viceroy).

Stability penalty for Representation is halved, Wonders, Courthouses, Security Bureaus, Jails give an extra stability point, the tolerance for tiles not in your historical area is now 52 instead of 32.

Germany's stability softened - it now has an increased tolerance of foreign culture, like the Dutch/Portuguese stability.

I'm personally considering messing with stability, since I really would like to have a more "dynamic" mod. And by that I mean more collapses and respawns - also for the human player. I have actually never ever experienced a collapse myself, but I think it would be nice if it were (almost) inevitable and thus would be something one has to deal with. (The game would also be more of a challenge. Note that I personally view most of the UHV:s pretty stupid, so I really only go for the Trimph Arch bonus.)

So what would be a good cause for stability penalties in the mod? Overexpanding? Bad civic choices for the era at hand? Maybe it should be done on a civilization to civilization basis? (So that the Arabs and Mongols tend to collapse at the hight of their territorial expansion, for example. The English shouldn't collapse that easily, though. The mess that was the Holy Roman Empire could be achieved with a very unstable Germany that collapses and respawns constantly. Only at modern times should a "unified" Germany be allowed, maybe with more stable civics being available.)

Lone Wolf said:
Aztecs and Incas are less likely to respawn.

I'm guessing you used the tResurrectionProb (lines 817-847 in Consts.py) - but is a high value more or less likely to respawn? And does 0 mean no probability what-so-ever - and value of 100 a "certain" probability? Can this value be higher than 100?

I myself am thinking of ways to make the Mongol spawn a real threat to the Russians (historically they razed all but one city), and suppose I need to enlarge their spawn area drastically. Hence they shouldn't respawn later in the game (taking all of Central Asia and huge chunks of Russia with them every time). I don't think they will end up being "playable" either, but I really don't consider the Mongols playable as is in any historical sense. I simply won't play as the Mongols.

Lone Wolf · Dec 6, 2009

I'm guessing you used the tResurrectionProb (lines 817-847 in Consts.py) - but is a high value more or less likely to respawn? And does 0 mean no probability what-so-ever - and value of 100 a "certain" probability? Can this value be higher than 100?

Higher value - more likely. I don't know the details.

I myself am thinking of ways to make the Mongol spawn a real threat to the Russians (historically they razed all but one city),

Well, that's an overstatement. There are definitely more then one Russian city they didn't raze.

Note that I personally view most of the UHV:s pretty stupid, so I really only go for the Trimph Arch bonus.

I agree here.

Is there a Lone Wolf modmod out there, including all of your changes?

No, though I'll upload them here soon, if you ask so.

Baldyr · Dec 6, 2009

apenpaap said:
I usually think of the Space Race as a race to Mars. It makes more sense, considering it takes place in the 20th/21st century, while I don't really expect ships to Alpha Centauri until the 22nd.

As I said before the Space Race could be made into something slightly different (and more feasible), like a Mission to Mars. I also think that there should be a separate tech for Space Flight, allowing the Apollo Program (renamed Space Program) - and ICBM:s. There could also be some projects like Space Station and Lunar Program to aid in the later manned mission to Mars. (These could replace or be earlier variants of the Space Elevator theme.)

First man in space and other mile stones could be events triggered by a space race situation (like several civilizations trying to research Rocketry/Space Flight). Say that the player who has put the most :science:

into the tech would be given the opportunity to further fund their space program (with money, lots of money), in order to manage the first manned space flight. There would be a chance of success, and that would complete the tech in one single turn. Otherwise the event would dub the opponent the First Man in Space. Or something.

Or, there would be a reward for being the first one to research Space Flight (or Rocketry). The message would read something like "The Union of Socialist Soviet Republics has managed the first manned space flight!". What the reward would be is another thing to consider, but it could be something like a free great person or a space ship parts build modifier. (Or a discount for building the Apollo/Space Program wonder.)

Also, it would be nice if someone did a future modmod for RFC. Or combined Next War with RFC, or something. (There the Alpha Centauri mission has already been replaced with a Mission to Mars, later in the tech tree.)

Baldyr · Dec 6, 2009

Cethegus said:
- More resources on the map (Coffee, Salt, Tobacco)
- Heavily modified civics (among many, Pacifism replaced with State Atheism/Leader Cult with similiar effects but changed penalty and upkeep cost)
- Modified UU/UB/Wonder effects (Stonehenge replaced with The Sphinx, Pyramids and Sphinx swapping stats)
- New buildings and wonders (World Trade Center, CN Tower, Belém Tower, The Akshardahm, San Marco Basilica)
- Second set of UB for each civ in the making (missing only the French, Greek, Spanish, Indian and Vikings'/Swedish UB)

Is there any easy way of adding those new resources to the game?

Is there a Cethegus modmod available where one could view all of your changes in more detail?

Also, I found it hard to add buildings/buildning classes to the mod. I'm guessing you have to define these things in the Consts.py - am I right? (Adding new 3D models is something I haven't even considered yet.)

Talking about UB:s, the russians really would need a Kreml/Kremlin building replacing the Castle. What is the second UB you have given the Russians, by the way?

Baldyr · Dec 6, 2009

Lone Wolf said:
Well, that's an overstatement. There are definitely more then one Russian city they didn't raze.

It was indeed an over-statement, since they only plundered some cities. But the only Russian city of any great importance they didn't "conquer" was Novgorod (due to season and difficult terrain). Moscow was vassalized and Kiev, more or less, razed. As far as I understand, at least.

My thinking is that the Russians should collapse at the hands of the Mongol hordes. After which the Mongols themselves would collapse. The result would be a host of independent cities for the Russian (human) player to conquer.

Lone Wolf said:
No, though I'll upload them here soon, if you ask so.

I do!

Baldyr · Dec 6, 2009

PPQ_Purple said:
Well, if only XML changes are to be told I have only one.

I think we are beyond the point where his thread is confined within my own modding capabilities. I don't think I will be learning any Python scripting proper, but I will be copy-pasting stuff and trying them out for size. :mischief:

So please enlighten us about your Python changes, then.

Lone Wolf · Dec 6, 2009

I do!

See the attachment. Mind you, these files were done by me just now, so there's a small probability of errors.

Deon · Dec 6, 2009

Spasibo

.

Cethegus · Dec 7, 2009

Baldyr said:
Talking about UB:s, the russians really would need a Kreml/Kremlin building replacing the Castle. What is the second UB you have given the Russians, by the way?

I had a long and frustrating time thinking about this some months ago. Historically (and culturally) Kremlin should be a definite UB for them, but then reality struck me: what would be its unique effects, and wouldn't it obsoletisize too soon for a UB? In the end, I opted to go for the lazy but tested solution: look it up from someone else's work. As it would happen to be, History in the Making mod (which started the whole thing) kept going with the Soviet theme, insisting that Gulag (forced labor camp) would replace Jail with +4 :hammers:

unique asset.

I'm still a bit unhappy and disappointed about my solution, but for now it'll have to work. It doesn't really help things that the creator of the mod Varietas Delectat has opted to include Kremlin as the Russian base graphics for Castle, which would help all things fit into place perfectly.

But leaving that matter and going onto the next, I don't consider my changes to be of high enough value to be uploaded anywhere, so I haven't done so nor am I planning to. Unlike Lone Wolf's Python travels, my changes just add a ton of simple things in the game instead of enhancing the game's spirit.
I'd also wager that my changes would spark a heated debate what way I should have gone about things and are my new sets of civics any good, which I would rather not see.

Spoiler :

[XML] Your house rules?

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