Anyone who wants to offer advice

[Vinniemack84]

OK I haven't posted in a while...I work on a cruise line so my Internet sucks when Im at sea. But I have been modding for about a year now or so and have gotten pretty decent at it by my standards. My new stuff is far more enjoyable than my original garbage. Though I will say I have a few things I cant think of solutions for...not really technical as much as just creative. Keep in mind the mod I am working on now is almost done I am just fine tuning it and making it more enjoyable. It is a Medieval mod, based entirely in the medieval times so please keep ideas in that realm. Thanks.

1.) Forcing players to build a more diverse military

It seems as though to me that I cant find a reason to make someone want to build lots of archers or continue to make infantry warriors after knights start showing up. I have beefed up siege units considerably to make them far more useful. Because I think the original ones are to weak to be needed. It seems though that making a large force of nothing but Knights seems to get the job done still...I dont know what to do because I love the Knight units and no one wants to play a medieval map without knights. But I want to make people use Archers and swordsman as well. How have other people tackled this balancing act? I have done a few things but Im curious what others do.

2.) Forcing people to use navy units more frequently.

I have never been able to find a fun and realistic way to get people to want to make large navy's. It seems like Navy's can be used to transport which i use a lot to attack coastal cities, and to bombard cities which I also use. But I can just make 6 or 7 of my best naval bombarding unit and lead my transports to a city. Then bombard with those navy units and attack with the soldiers in my transports...case closed. I would like more of a reason to engage enemy naval units as right now I never really feel the need. So long as I keep just a small force of ships together they seem to be able to get the job done. I would like to find a reason to go into the ocean and really mix it up with the comps, a reason other than me just fighting for nothing. Some kind of goal or advantage...any tips would be awesome.

3.) Well not really a specific question just a general one about interesting things people have done with other medieval mods to make them different and enjoyable. Anything really...Im always curios about other unique ideas that haven't even occurred to me to care about. Im sure there are a lot, I dont play a lot of other peoples mods as I really enjoy the process of modding almost as much as playing. It is just a fun way to be creative. Thanks.

 

[Theov]

I have absolutely no idea whether this post is advice, complaint, question, request or criticism.

 

[Theryman]

Theov, did you even read it? It seems clear that he just wants other points of view...

No idea for one... I know in the editor, you can tag things as build often for the AI, which COULD be a potential fix for number 2 as well. I know for number 2, though, El Justo made the AI love to build ships by having places spawn raw materials, which had to be transported to Victory Points location to 'cash in.' Since all VP points are located on other continents, though, they needed to build transports... and they needed to build escorts for them.

 

[TheOverseer714]

Give longbows a better defense might be an idea. Adding hitpoints to swordsmen might encourage the AIs to build them more often.

 

[Vinniemack84]

I like the HP boost to infantry for sure. I just went in and gave a boost to the HP of infantry soldiers and made sure the mounted units had none. Making them have a damage advantage but not a health advantage. I'm going to look at this other idea of making transportable goods right now. Sounds intriguing thanks. Good stuff.

 

[Vinniemack84]

Theov, did you even read it? It seems clear that he just wants other points of view...

No idea for one... I know in the editor, you can tag things as build often for the AI, which COULD be a potential fix for number 2 as well. I know for number 2, though, El Justo made the AI love to build ships by having places spawn raw materials, which had to be transported to Victory Points location to 'cash in.' Since all VP points are located on other continents, though, they needed to build transports... and they needed to build escorts for them.

Can you elaborate a little on how this is achieved?...the cash in with raw goods idea that is. I would love to give it a test run, do you know a mod that employs this I could DL and take a look at? Thanks.

 

[Theryman]

Can you elaborate a little on how this is achieved?...the cash in with raw goods idea that is. I would love to give it a test run, do you know a mod that employs this I could DL and take a look at? Thanks.

Yes! El Justo's Age of Imperialism. Alas, it could be difficult with random maps...

 

[Arexander]

I am sure this would get more advice if it would be in Creation & Customisation main forum. That's where all the modders are.

 

[Optional]

Arexander hits the nail on the head.

Talking about the Creation and Customization forum, maybe you'll find benefit from this thread, that examines how the AI chooses which units to build.

Which version of Civ III do you have, Vinniemack? Since you're saying you want players to build more archers and swords, and not just knights, I wonder if you're having an earlier version of the game, where a unit called Medieval Infantry was not yet introduced. This unit comes with Feudalism, is like a swordsman but has 4 attack instead of 3, costing 40 shields. The AI builds it a lot in my games.
If you've already got those in your game - maybe it's them you meant when you were talking about 'infantry warriors' - then you could consider lowering the amount of iron and horse resources in the game. I think - but I'm not going to check it now - that it's set at an average of 2 occurrences per player of each resource. The knight is the first unit that needs both resources, so lowering their presence would favour the build chances of other units.

I wonder also if you're playing on a level that is a bit low for you if you're saying that artillery units and a large navy are hardly needed. Especially artillery units are very needed on higher difficulty levels, where it's more like your knights versus their muskets, instead of your knights versus their spears.
You'll also need more boats from the start on higher levels, as it already begins with barbarian galleys sinking more of your curraghs or galleys, although a really big navy is rarely needed, that is true.

A popular mod covering the medieval period is MEM.

Maybe you want to ask a moderator to move this thread to its proper place, especially if you have more to put on the table I would do that. Good luck!

 

[ChaosArbiter]

1.) Forcing players to build a more diverse military

It seems as though to me that I cant find a reason to make someone want to build lots of archers or continue to make infantry warriors after knights start showing up. I have beefed up siege units considerably to make them far more useful. Because I think the original ones are to weak to be needed. It seems though that making a large force of nothing but Knights seems to get the job done still...I dont know what to do because I love the Knight units and no one wants to play a medieval map without knights. But I want to make people use Archers and swordsman as well. How have other people tackled this balancing act? I have done a few things but Im curious what others do.

If you're talking about human players, something you might think about is increasing certain stats - give the Knights higher Attack, but poor defense while beefing up the Defense of Foot Infantry. To encourage the use of Longbowmen, try giving them a higher Defensive Bombard.

You run the risk of crippling overspecialization, but if you want to encourage unit diversity, that's pretty much what you have to do - why *should* someone build three different units when one unit is as good, and faster to boot?

2.) Forcing people to use navy units more frequently.

I have never been able to find a fun and realistic way to get people to want to make large navy's. It seems like Navy's can be used to transport which i use a lot to attack coastal cities, and to bombard cities which I also use. But I can just make 6 or 7 of my best naval bombarding unit and lead my transports to a city. Then bombard with those navy units and attack with the soldiers in my transports...case closed. I would like more of a reason to engage enemy naval units as right now I never really feel the need. So long as I keep just a small force of ships together they seem to be able to get the job done. I would like to find a reason to go into the ocean and really mix it up with the comps, a reason other than me just fighting for nothing. Some kind of goal or advantage...any tips would be awesome.

I don't have any real tips, but my use of ships is essentially the same as with land units: remove enemy vessels that threaten me or are in the way, and take enemy cities. Due to the scarcity of Marine units in most games, and the comparative ease of land travel (I play on pangaeas most often), the latter is rare, and the former is generally easy enough to do with land artillery, as the AI normally withdraws injured ships to heal them.

Point being that there really is no need for a navy most of the time the way I play, so I never build them.

 

[Moff Jerjerrod]

Are you talking about getting human players to build certain unit types more or the AI?

If it is the former I agree with point number 1 that ChaosArbiter made. If it is the latter then you need to experiment with the different unit flags in the editor and test it out in game while observing the AI behavior.

To have the navy play a bigger part in your games play more archipelago or load some of the earth map based scenarios.