AdvCiv-SAS (Simple Advanced Strategy) 5082

- Much stronger AI than in AdvCiv-SAS 5055, in particular it should be way more resistant to snowballing and better at defending and going into the late game, leading games to generally be closer and harder to decide on a winner early on:

• improved worker AI efficiency (apply 1 worker per tile logic to more functions, attempt to improve cities in more cases rather than idling) and reduced parking in cities,
• increase siege threshold pre renaissance if we have no key strategic bonus (as of now iron, copper, horse, camel, elephants) (we need more catapults and trebuchets if we have no key strategic bonus, helps reduce longbow spam, and make a successful longbow + catapult +/- trebuchets rush)
• force one artist if we don't have BFC and city culture per turn is low, until we do, in CvCity::doTurn
• force emergency buildingclass_harbor if city is coastal (ocean) and low food per turn (tunable in sas defines (https://github.com/wonderingabout/A...ework/Assets/XML/GlobalDefines_advciv_sas.xml) anyways etc)
• add emergency defense buildings to build at highest priority if invasion risk is high enough, in CvCity::doTurn: This seems to lead in autoplay to much harder snowball, and to games lasting significantly longer. As a side effect, it also reduces a bit unit spam which should slightly improve economy and bankruptcy risk. This change should make AI players especially stronger, at least it appears so in autoplay.
• make civ specific unit importance evaluation lower and tunable, and other tweaks or fixes: addresses the case of japan ai relying too much on samurais when knight units are available, and now it is tunable in sas defines.
• enhance AI promotion choices (e.g. more restrictive city raider force promotion (if we are weaker, etc.), add optimal naval unitais promotion support, move some / a few settings to sas defines, add support for combat promotions and/or such and other fixes and tweaks anyways etc)
• fix/address AI settlers staying parked for a very long time in cities when it should be safe enough or urgent enough not to do so (e.g. 3 cities at turn 100 vs 1 city at turn 100 in some cases which was critically bad)
• AI now favours a military instructor specialist rather than a great general leader, as this is much stronger and scales better with late game: added logic to favour decremntially top 3 hammer cities especially more, and especially more so if they have or are building the heroic epic effect building. Also removed the limit on military instructors per city. Should lead to much stronger AI.

- Heavily reduced the cost of most wonders (e.g. 275->225, 525->425, 900->625-650, etc.): they were too costly to be significant strategic alternatives to just unit spamming. Hopefully should reduce early bankruptcies and lead to a more efficient economy and faster tech pace.
- Multiple other balance changes (non-exhaustive):

• increase TECH_DEPOPULATION 's negative health + happiness effect from -6 to -8. Adjusted and rebalanced the health and happiness gains from other future era techs. The total is +8 / +8 health / happiness gain. Moved effects so that they mostly apply in later techs to increase their strategical importance. Also Adjust tech flavors and such if any other such but anyways etc to match these changes anyways etc
• Barbarian civ-specific buildings can be captured (`iConquestProb`) with half the chance of their generic building equivalent (since their cities are overall easier and lower risk to capture, it balances it out). See Sevopedia/XML.
• BUILDING_PUBLIC_TRANSPORTATION 's iUnhealthyPopulationModifier effect from -15 to -20, increase cost from 150 to 200
• swap BUILDING_PENTAGON and BUILDING_EIFFEL_TOWER tech prereqs to be more historically accurate in the tech tree timeline,
• move BUILDING_THREE_GORGES_DAM to TECH_MARINE_TECHNOLOGY

- (Much nicer) Bonus specific builds logic is now fully customizable in sas defines, and refactor/enhance code anyways etc
- fix/tweak incorrect sevopedia ice cap information, and of terrain peak or/and such 's unit(s) panels information as well
- moved more tunables to sas defines
- multiple performance and code/refactoring optimizations
- 48 civs DLL included to match these changes
- update docs and other tweaks and fixes

Recommended to upgrade to this new version if you are using 5055 or an older version.

see for full changes: commit history from AdvCiv-SAS 5055 to 5082 viewable at https://github.com/wonderingabout/AdvCiv-SAS/commits/tech-rework/?since=2025-10-11&until=2025-10-31 or at https://github.com/wonderingabout/A...74...37615028018c14723ab4598cf095c39604f2a002

- Significantly stronger AI than in AdvCiv-SAS 5030, in particular in the early game offense, and renaissance to end game offense (heavily relaxed siege thresholds at renaissance and later eras (our gates were too strict at these eras, resulting in single digit or very low cannons count, even when no other alternative than pikemen was available, as a result AI now uses cannons a lot more, while still being conservative with catapults and trebuchets), relaxed early siege thresholds a bit (helps when catapults and trebuchets are our only offensive unit but not only, also helps supports early rushes better in autoplay it seems as well), removed UNITAI_COUNTER for units where it was bad/ineffective (chariots, cartage numidian cavalry), added offense only (default) and defense only logic in no production fallback unit code (in CvCity::doTurn anyways etc), both fallback as well to any eligible land combat unit if we have no offense unit in offense only or no defense unit in defense only: tunable in sas globaldefines (https://github.com/wonderingabout/A...ework/Assets/XML/GlobalDefines_advciv_sas.xml), added anti very cheap unit logic in the no production fallback unit code as well (reduces seemingly reliably ancient macemen or such that escaped the AI_ChooseUnit gates); results in significantly stronger early game (offense mostly if we can, else defense rather than always a bit too much longbowmen): e.g. De Gaulle AI has a 7 chariots + 3 catapults stack invading a rival at monarch at normal gamespeed at turn 100 vs not before we had too much longbowmen), e.g. 2: Charlemagne AI +/- 50 cannon class units at turn 250 vs less than 10 before this change (quite often spamming pikemen even when we have cannons available, and no muskets yet, which was very bad, although siege gates were nice especially against trebuchet spam, they are now more flexible))
- balance fixes (some units had the effects of other units: e.g. the persia_immortal and the greek_hoplite were in other units, so they were a bit too weak while other were too powerful, etc.) and adjustments (rebalance culture buildings to be stronger (colosseum class, etc.)), buffed or reworked several civ-specific units (cannon class (see below), french_musketeer, etc.)
- allow copper for some civ-specific units: roman_legionary, persia_immortal (the gallic_warrior had it, plus bronze at this era is plausible), and other units (see below). Not added to generic units (e.g. the generic unit_swordsman of all civs) to keep strategic importance of iron anyways etc.
- allow pikemen to upgrade to musketmen (they would use a nearby gun if they had it and not wait to die to cuirassiers, against which they are also useless now (unitcombat_polearm vs unitcombat_mounted_ranged is very ineffective)), helps AI produce less of them as well
- remove TRAIT_EXPANSIVE was overlapping with our more general TRAIT_PROTECTIVE (does not just protect defensively in our mod but also more generally protects health too and also has no anarchy (protects political stability more or less anyways etc)) and empire-expansion related TRAIT_IMPERIALIST (settler discount same, but also trade route based scaling yield modifiers), so TRAIT_EXPANSIVE was redundant. Also, it was among weakest (flat health not so helpful) and hardest to balance (most often weak or some (very in this case i mean but anyways etc) rare times op).
- overhaul all traits with a focus on historical accuracy most importantly, but also gameplay relevance (+/- civ-specific building and unit timing and effects as well but anyways etc) and overall civ theme to a lesser extent, with the help of chatgpt 5 and multiple rounds of review, +/- other AIs or not so much but anyways etc. For example, julius caesar has been changed from organized + imperialist to aggressive + imperialist (war theme and strength), hammurabi has been changed from organized + aggressive to organized + protective (more of an administrator + defensive civ overall if i'm not mistaken but anyways etc), saladin has been changed from protective + spiritual to spiritual + charismatic (more of warmonger in civ4 + historical warmonger and charisma), isabella has been changed from spiritual + expansive to spiritual + aggressive (very ruthless campaigns), charlemagne has been changed from imperialistic + protective to aggressive + organized (more controversial according to chatgpt 5 but he was focused on conquest and doing admin of his empire. He seems to perform nice in some games so i hope this helps mesh better with his more aggressive overall civ4 profile if i'm not mistaken but anyways etc), or hatshepsut has been changed from spiritual + creative to spiritual + financial (historically more accurate according to chatgpt 5, plus will most likely buff her if i'm not mistaken, which is nice i think if i may say but anyways etc). See for the list of all changes with a before vs after comparison as well as rationales the table at https://github.com/wonderingabout/A...-rework-with-rationale-andor-such-anyways-etc anyways etc. Note: as of now leaders' flavors unchanged for simplicity vs base advciv but anyways etc
- removed trait_expansive related building modifiers (they were the granary and harbor in advciv-sas before, removed as too generic and op plus no good/relevant candidate to replace them in a balanced way but anyways etc)
- fix missing FreePromotionUnitCombat in all unitcombats for trait_protective and some unitcombats for trait_aggressive.Hopefully works fine now in this case i mean but anyways etc and buffed the eleigible units' unicombar types since but anwyays etc
- swapped the imperialistic and organized traits' logos/icons
- buff and rework most traits (e.g. trait_spiritual is more about religion now, and trait_creative is more about cultural happiness anyways etc) anyways etc
- fix incorrect iron vs metal on renaissance bonus valuing logic (cannons need iron not no bonus, plus logic was checking for all metals, when copper is largely obsolete at renaissance (unlike in middle ages but anyways etc), so fixed logic)
- fix dual counting bug (as of now was only affecting siege units)
- replace the "HOLY_ROMAN_LANDSKNECHT" with the "HOLY_ROMAN_HOUFNICE (cannon-based, better match with holy roman empire's aggressive profile, medieval window was too tight, and the old landsknetch was obsolete too soon in combat by the time it was produced). Note: can also use copper for this civ-specific unit (as per above change: plausible bronze artillery). Note 2: as of now high copper value at renaissance for holy roman empire buyer trading logic not implemented as tedious. Note 3: overall very good results ingame it seems, in one run Charlemagne AI made a decisive push from turn 200 building many houfnice units and winning (see https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/advciv-sas-simple-advanced-strategy.699716/post-16875736) for example anyways etc.
- reduce tech costs a bit in the mid game until end game (they were still quite a bit too high for AIs and all players to keep up with timeline, now a bit better anyways etc. I don't want to reduce it too much to punish overbuilding military, so that players who build less units may be rewarded by higher tech advantage and possibly comeback (if they don't die xd but anyways etc)).
- performance optimizations
- minor UI enhancements in sevopedia
- 48 civs DLL included
- various other tweaks and fixes

Recommended to upgrade to this new version if you are using 5030 or an old version.

see for full changes: commit history from AdvCiv-SAS 5030 to 5055 viewable at https://github.com/wonderingabout/AdvCiv-SAS/commits/tech-rework/?since=2025-10-04&until=2025-10-10 or at https://github.com/wonderingabout/A...38...b8c861af13f28c070022e1bcca3c48e6040bc174

- Much stronger/efficient AI than in AdvCiv-SAS 4986 (full evacuation of doomed cities, razing faraway cities early, fix/enhance happiness buildings priority when needed, emergency peace if in multi-war threat, better valuing of low value bonuses (e.g. pig = 1 health < wheat = 2 health (one from granary)), better / more varied military composition (reduced excess siege in particular, focus more on offense units generally after minimal defense needs are met, anti very cheap early units excess (in particular ancient macemen as very inefficient)) with various settings, added iAIObjective to key strategic bonuses (as of now copper, iron, horse, camel, low value for elephants for war elephants window, aluminium, uranium) with new AI logic on top of existing one in other areas for this setting (that was 0 in base advciv though if i'm not mistaken), now also in settling priorities, working tiles (improve it first), trade it better/smarter (e.g. horse is valuable at medieval era if we have iron, but not at classical if we have elephants, nor at renaissance even if we have iron (new units fallback (cannons, muskets, etc. if any more))
- adjusted timelines at each game speed for a slower/longer middle ages (was too short to really let units shine if i may say anyways etc) and late industrial era. In particular, GAMESPEED_MARATHON reduced from 1250 turns in base advciv to now 1000 turns in advciv-sas.
- fixed tech costs to match era modifiers removal (was using old logic so costs were too high)
- performance optimizations
- balance changes and reworks: new unit combat types to replace UNITCOMBAT_MELEE: UNITCOMBAT_MELEE_POLEARM (spears, pikes, etc.) and UNITCOMBAT_MELEE_SHOCK (axes, swords, maces, etc.). In continuation to the past split of UNITCOMBAT_MOUNTED into UNITCOMBAT_MELEE and UNITCOMBAT_RANGED that allowed pikemen to be strong against knight units but no longer against cuirassiers which was nonsensical, this new UNITCOMBAT_MELEE split allows for example axemen to now be barely stronger than swordsmen vs much stronger before which was too skewed (but they still remain strong against polearm), and many other things. Reworked and buffed spearman units.
- civ-specific units changes: replaced the mongol_keshik with the mongol_khishigten (horse knight based, meshes better with ger timing and historically more accurate) and the english_redcoat with the english_yeoman_archer (crossbowman based, better match with the english empire's defensive profile, nice cover if no bonus early)
- finer hammer cost tuning, now per 1 hammer no longer rounded to closest 5 multiple for the human player like in base advciv: e.g. sworsdsman cost increased to 42 (btw xd if i may say but anyways etc) stays at 42 not 40 (and 43 does not become 45), fairer vs AIs which did not have this and caused cost mismatches even at same handicap if these were to be changed to non 5 multiples, now fixed/enhanced. Also allows finer balance especially for early units (ancient macemen cost 18 not rounded to 20 anymore)
- bug fixes and tweaks
- new GlobalDefines_advciv_sas.xml file with some settings being now tunable in https://github.com/wonderingabout/A...ework/Assets/XML/GlobalDefines_advciv_sas.xml
- UI enhancements: in particular in sevopedia promotions (now shows as buttons = images the list of all units and the list of all buildings that have this promotion as free promotion), and in sevopedia civics (also shows as buttons the list of all leaders that have civic as their favourite civic) and beautified and refactored code
- 48 civs DLL included now
- various other tweaks and fixes

Strongly recommended to upgrade to this new version if you are using 4986 or an old version.

see for full changes: commit history from AdvCiv-SAS 4986 to 5030 viewable at https://github.com/wonderingabout/AdvCiv-SAS/commits/tech-rework/?since=2025-09-06&until=2025-10-03 or at https://github.com/wonderingabout/A...f8...e3ecaf41449b5a4415d3a98ff0c68c0d0ccd7738