Alright I'll probably push a version update soon with almost none of the civ changes I wanted to make, otherwise at this pace I'll never release a version before it becomes too big in march or something.
Not pressing you but do you have any idea when it'll be ready? I'm just trying to decide weather to start a new game with v3 or wait for v4.
Civilizations
-Assyria
Royal Library also gives +1 science and gives 20xp instead of 10xp
Assyria receives a free great writer when discovering writing
-Byzantium
Receive a free great prophet at Theology
Dromon now available at optics, has 11 ranged strength instead of 10 and Trireme can be built by Byzantium
The Cataphract can always be bought for 150 faith in a city with a religion, even if you don't have the tech or the appropriate belief
Warning : theroycrafting below :
Like another poster i think +15xp for RL would be better for simplicity's sake if for nothing else (this way every +xp building or social policy gives you +15). Great Writer could be pushed slightly further (Philosophy or Drama if you want to put players out of the usual beeline) for 2 reason : 1 avoid +30xp ancient era units and 2 it wouldn't sit there doing nothing as you don't have a slot ready (does your changes allow the AI to understand not to use it for pitiful bulk culture if it can't use it for a Great Work?)
As for Byzantium i fear Theology could be too late on higher difficulties unless you beeline it at the expanse of defensive techs (something i wouldn't want to do on higher difficulties
), especially if you "fix" AI priority for Piety.
Obviously this will require testing.
- anything in the swords-musket line is downright terrifying. I dont think there is any counter to it + cities are so weak.
I was in the same boat the first time i tried the mod. Coming from Vanilla CiV where this line is close to useless it's a big surprise. That being said you can counter them with
- Your own swords. Obviously req Iron
- Horses. Horsemen are good against Swords because while not as strong, their mobility allows for more of them to attack a given swordman and finish it. Try to stay out of retaliation range as much as possible and obviously tech to knights once you see longswords.
- Bows. They are not useless but you need comparable tech bows. Composites against swords, XB against longsword. Outdated bows are museum pieces and nothing else. No longer can you hope to defend against early sword rushes with just basic archers. Also Bows are weak to melee attacks so you need something to put in front of them if they are not in a city. Spears can fill that role. They won't be enough by themselves but make half decent meat shield for bows.
Cities are weak yes. Worse is walls don't seem to make them much better (thought they do help). I understand the idea was to remove the Giant Death Towers that some Tradition cities were but currently they fall really quickly and bows are still very strong against cities. I would rather have cities better able to defend themselves against non-siege units and put those siege units back at their rightful place : stuff that breaks city defenses. Unfortunately this would probably require more than just small changes as AI is not very good at using siege units.
White Peace not being around is a double edge sword. The AI is still incapable of understanding defensive terrain and that no matter what it does it will not break through - 30 turns of microing units in a pointless defensive war drains enthusiam for the game.
With the fix and the overall enthusiasm of AI for wars, it's true that wars tend to last for very long times. Even AI to AI wars. In the one game i won i bribed an AI to go to war with another one and they stayed at war dozens and dozens of turns without any side really winning.
I suggest also trying difficulties below deity for now. The challenge is there on level 6 and 7.
This. And unless you are a very good Deity player (in unmodded CiV), even try Emperor (it's 5 in the mod). As long as you are still learning to adapt to the changes it won't be a piece of cake but similar to unmodded Immortal you can make mistakes and still win if you notice and correct them. Starting at level 6 in the mod, an early mistake will probably be your doom.
White peace can still happen. What has been fixed is that it is the bug making it always available. If the AI is stuck in a war with you and refuses to make peace it can be annoying yes. It's probably something I'll look into to increase its likelihood of making peace if it gets nothing done for a good number of turns.
Easy (i guess) suggestion : add "war weariness" to the peace weighting. If an AI is at war for a given amount of turns but does not win any city from the war : make it willing to sign a white peace. It's probably easier than having them able to analyze the map and understand they can't get past a choke point.
Huge forces like these are less common in real games though since you would have quit that game well before then.
But the removal of the unit cap might worsen the "carpet of doom" syndrome. Not sure why you removed it completely. Wouldn't it be better to try and tweak it but keep it as some sort of sanity check?
EDIT : Also don't you think it would be worth asking a mod for a sub-forum? This way we could have in addition to this thread at least a few others to discuss changes to UAs, new tactics, have a different thread to discuss balance or report bugs. You mod deserves it's own place more than some of the dead ones.
) so took the new culture buildings with faith reformation. In the end i had most of order filled. Libert-Piety-Commerce-Rationalism filled. Some policies in Patronage and the tradition opener (took it late in industrial to help my puppets grab strategic resources and then built HG in cap as nobody went trad 
). It might be a bit too much, but OTOH i like how you can mix 2 early trees and still take good later trees. I think i will try a Poland game focusing on culture and see if i can fill all trees.
/turn but receive more gradual upgrades, at Education and maybe Printing Press, then it might be possible to put a scientist on the Library. This would cause more early GS so probably less late game GS and it might help avoid the crazy research spike after labs. It would also help tall empires in some way because you will only ever be able to plant a limited number and the more you concentrate your science, the more tall benefits from less cities. However from what i've read, tall have other issues than merely science (such as AIs being able to suicide-crash enough units to crush you no matter your fortifications). I don't like bringing the +50% to NC back. Maybe try 33% if you think 25% is not enough. The Scientist slot is a lot (especially if libraries have one, you'll get 2 academies fast).
