[Experiment] Autoplay with civic changes to minimise the AI goliath states.

I've noticed that the AI plays R:I with only one plan - Expansionism. There is no deviation from this plan unless someone else gets there first and then they just go to war on friends and enemies alike.

Freakwave shares my playstyle and woes and this is what he said to sum up my thoughts exactly;

Freakwave said:

...First let me say that i play custom maps almost always. Nowadays Perfect mongoose old world + new world, because it combines my fav map script PW and the new RI features scrubs and marsh. So this will be tailored towards custom maps.

The idea is to not have all areas occupied at the end of the classical age. While still being able to run large empires. With the coming of Revolution mod it will be more of a challenge to stay large early on. I must say alot is wishfull thinking and alot comes from things that bug me while playing this mod.

Things like small empires not being able to compete while they should, if they have the right government and trade policies. Large empires out teching small ones just because they have more cities. Right now i am thinking, more upkeep for number of cities than distance to capital. So small empires can compete with larger ones. This would encourage colonies hopefully. Yes all very greek (in both examples )...

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I too use the same mapscript, I also have a plan to change things so that the world has empty space by the end of the classical age. I'm a fan of rev mod but I have concerns over it being implemented successfully on MP games. I also long for an alternative to the BIG Empire (currently I can't compete on Monarch difficulty unless I follow the AI script and expand my Empire as fast as I can).

So I have changed the existing civics (but have a plan to revamp the civics completely - here). I have basically changed the following;

Barbarism
+50% Maintenance for number of cities
+50% Maintenance for distance to Palace
+1 per city

Monarchy
+30% Maintenance for number of cities
+20% Maintenance for distance to Palace
+10% Great General Emergence
Workers build 10% faster
Lower Military upkeep (+6 free units)
-10% in all cities
+2 from Palace
+1 from Versailles and Forbidden Palace
Same building opened up as standard.

Oligarchy
+15% Maintenance for number of cities
+20% Maintenance for distance to Palace
+1 per city
+10% in all cities

Theocracy
unlimited Priests
+15% Maintenance for number of cities
+20% Maintenance for distance to Palace
-25% War Weariness
+2 from State religion
+1 per religion
-10% in all cities

Parliament
+10% Maintenance for number of cities
+2 all cities
+1 from Mayor Office
+25% War Weariness

Here's the file; extract it to - C:\Program Files (x86)\Firaxis Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4\Beyond the Sword\Mods\Realism Invictus\Assets\XML\GameInfo - make a copy of your original CIV4CivicInfos.xml file first of course.

Now to go along with that I have started a large map using the mongoose script and using the Game.AIplay feature I have autoplayed and saved so we can see how the new civics have effected the AI?

I did another game overnight (using the original CIV4CivicInfos) that got to 2002AD and the Spanish won a cultural victory but they were by far the biggest empire on earth with 41 cities! their nearest rival had about 12 cities?!

Here are the saves for the game using autoplay saved after 0 turns, 500 turns, 700 turrns, 900 turns and 1100 turns. I think it looks like a success but I need more time to try some other examples.

In order for this to work you need to use the CIV4CivicInfos I attached in the post above. I download and extract the saves here; C:\Users\admin\Documents\My Games\Beyond the Sword\Saves\single to get them to work.

One small note for the R:I team is that I did get a "Python Exception" error pop up. ( I haven't touched python by the way, so I doubt if it's to do with my changes). The error reads as follows.

Can't find type enum for type tag CIVIC_VASSALAGE.

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Antmanbrooks said:

One small note for the R:I team is that I did get a "Python Exception" error pop up. ( I haven't touched python by the way, so I doubt if it's to do with my changes). The error reads as follows.

Click to expand...

Thanks, noted and fixed. Will be uploaded soon.