(7-WD) Austria UA change

[Legen]

Spoiler Austria's current UA :

UA (Habsburg Diplomacy)
+50% rewards from CS Quests. May arrange Marriages to Allied CS with Gold. While at peace with Married CS, gain 75 Resting Influence, scaling with Era; and +15% GP generation in the Capital.

Proposal

• Austria's Marriages no longer increase GP generation.
• Austria's UA now has "Gain 1 Delegate per Marriage".

Spoiler Austria's proposed UA :

UA (Habsburg Diplomacy)
+50% rewards from CS Quests. May arrange Marriages to Allied CS with Gold. While at peace with Married CS, gain 75 Resting Influence, scaling with Era. Gain 1 Delegate per Marriage.

Rationale

Austria has been performing consistently among the top 5 in AI tests. My hypothesis for this is that this civ's high GP generation interacts with the handicaps in a way that negates the main restriction of the Marriage mechanic: reliance on Gold. Every Great Person born generates Gold, which Austria can then use to establish more Marriages, which in turn accelerates how often they keep generating GPs for more Gold, and in turn accelerates how often they get Marriages, all in a virtuous cycle. This essentially means that, at some point of the game, AI Austria operates as if Marriages didn't cost Gold.

Spoiler Emperor handicaps, from DifficultyChanges.sql :

-- Yield types given for each type of difficulty bonus trigger
INSERT INTO TriggerYields
  (HistoricEventType, YieldType)
VALUES

  ('HISTORIC_EVENT_GREAT_PERSON', 'YIELD_FOOD'),
  ('HISTORIC_EVENT_GREAT_PERSON', 'YIELD_GOLD'),

-- Base amounts by Difficulty Level and Era
INSERT INTO DifficultyBonusAmounts
  (HandicapType, EraType, Amount)
VALUES

-- EMPEROR
  ('HANDICAP_EMPEROR', 'ERA_ANCIENT', 72),
  ('HANDICAP_EMPEROR', 'ERA_CLASSICAL', 72),
  ('HANDICAP_EMPEROR', 'ERA_MEDIEVAL', 139),
  ('HANDICAP_EMPEROR', 'ERA_RENAISSANCE', 304),
  ('HANDICAP_EMPEROR', 'ERA_INDUSTRIAL', 359),
  ('HANDICAP_EMPEROR', 'ERA_MODERN', 512),
  ('HANDICAP_EMPEROR', 'ERA_POSTMODERN', 695),
  ('HANDICAP_EMPEROR', 'ERA_FUTURE', 906),

This proposal tries to break this cycle by replacing the GP generation bonus on the UA for an ability that doesn't interact with handicaps like that. This first attempt brings back their former ability to gain Delegates from Marriages. While the 1:1 rate seems powerful, I'm taking into consideration that its former power was inflated by Austria's marriages effectively costing no Gold back then, due to the described cycle. Without Marriages fueling GP generation (and consequently, how much Gold Austria gets), AI Austria should have a much harder time securing CS alliances and Marriages.

Given the expected scope of the change on AI performance, it is hard to predict where Austria will end in relation to other civs. It is likely that next Congress will need more proposals to fine tune this civilization.

 

[pineappledan]

I don’t want to see the return of the extra WC votes.

 

[Rekk]

The entire point of the previous change was to get rid of the WC votes.

 

[rkkn]

instead of this, I think a straight nerf would be better. As well as reducing the handicap yields for great people and increasing them elsewhere. The tests have shown that great people is the biggest source of handicap yields.

 

[axatin]

There is currently a bug in the code: Austria's bonus to GP generation from marriages is applied twice (so it's effectively +30% and not +15% per marriage). As Austria is currently stronger than intended, no changes to Austria should be made in this session. @Stalker0 @Recursive Do you agree?

 

[Legen]

There is currently a bug in the code: Austria's bonus to GP generation from marriages is applied twice (so it's effectively +30% and not +15% per marriage). As Austria is currently stronger than intended, no changes to Austria should be made in this session. @Stalker0 @Recursive Do you agree?

That's crucial information. For now, I'll refrain from addressing Austria directly, and see if I can adjust the GP handicap instead.

@Recursive @Stalker0 @axatin @Hinin I'd like to withdrawal this proposal, in light of the mentioned bug.

 

[axatin]

We discovered the bug just yesterday, will be fixed in 4.6.1.

Proposal withdrawn by request.

 

[Recursive]

There is currently a bug in the code: Austria's bonus to GP generation from marriages is applied twice (so it's effectively +30% and not +15% per marriage). As Austria is currently stronger than intended, no changes to Austria should be made in this session. @Stalker0 @Recursive Do you agree?

I agree, yes.