Acken's Minimalistic Balance for singleplayer (and AI improvements)

I am having trouble getting stupid Steam to put the mod in my MODS folder. I have subscribed to it, it shows as downloaded and ready and yet nothing in the folder or in the game. I even tried removing the four other mod folders that where there, and Steam copied them back in immediately. I went and unsubscribed from the other four, and they are not coming back, but yours is still not showing up. I have tried to find where Steam is storing the mods, but cannot find that. I would prefer not to download the mod directly as I would like to get updates as they are available automatically.

 

Try deleting your cache folder (or at least the moddatabase file in it). Unsubscribe first, then delete, then subscribe, then launch game.

 

Deleting the whole cache directory seemed to do the trick, thanks!

 

Is there a detailed list of all the balance 'tweaks' somewhere? All of the pluses and minuses to technologies, buildings, policies, religions, etc...

 

In the OP

 

I have read that twice and I did not see a list of specific changes for example:

"Policies have been revamped to improve balance between them. No longer feel obligated to play a boring 4 city Tradition into Secularism and explore more options to help you to victory."

How have they been revamped?

 

It's in the OP and in a txt file in the mod. See List of current changes.
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=14107218&postcount=736

 

That's what I am talking about, thanks, I am just blind.

 

We were talking about how powerful Roman legions are in this mod I think a couple of pages back. They're very strong because swords are stronger in general. I would suggest taking away the legionary's strength bonus and instead giving them a free Cover1 promotion. This would represent the Roman tower shields. It makes them start off less OP but later on in the game when it's time to upgrade, they would keep the cover promotion making it useful in the long run.

 

When I upgraded my Crossbows to Gatling Guns I was quite surprised to see they now have a range of two, I don't see that in the change notes. I must say I love that extra range and hope it's not a bug. Are the machine guns and bazookas upgraded in range as well?

(Never mind, I see it now: "Industrial and above ranged units now have a range of 2 but their melee and ranged strengths have been reduced". Still blind)

 

Yes and I'm fairly sure it's in the change notes under units.

 

Having a lake next to your city is a very good natural barrier.. the AI embarks many of its units so that my city can one-shot them
Could you prevent AI from embarking within range of an enemy city in the absence of naval support?

 

Speaking of lakes, they are useful for irrigation but kind of a wasted tile. I'd like to see some ability to improve their yield.

 

Tactical AI is sadly not something I'm good with , I can look into it by integrating what another AI modder has done.

 

Well that's fine then, although I still think merely reducing the AI tendency to embark within the range of an enemy city will help solve the problem.

On another note, the Exploration tree is done quite well in NQmod, and it includes resettlement too. You might want to check it out if you're planning on making any changes to it.

 

Hey everyone! Lately I have been rolling maps a lot, trying to somehow find a map suited to win against the deity AI. I think I have finally found a very stellar map and I really wanted to share it with you. I would very much appreciate if people participate in this challenge, even people that have never tried deity. This is a fantastic map, it allows for many different win conditions and ways of playing. I will be posting some stats:


- You are playing as the Huns
- Standard size / standard speed / deity difficulty
- Pangea / all other map options are standard

Spoiler :

- You start next to a river, but you can move the capital to the coast in 2 turns
- Plenty of pasture tiles
- Lots of strategic ressources for early GPT
- Lots of hills and river tiles
- Fantastic production in the capital
- Insane amounts of land to settle
- Protected completely by a combination of hills & mountain ranges
- Lots of city states around, including 2 religious ones for an early pantheon
- Great potential for worker steals (I got 4 without ever declaring on the AI)
- Decent enough map for warmongering (I took 2 capitals in less than 100 turns)

As you might have noticed there are two savegames. One starts the game at T0, the other is one of my saves with the following ancient ruins:

Spoiler :

- Three Population Ruins
- Two Gold Ruins
- One Culture Ruin
- One Upgrade Ruin
- One Map Ruin

I myself haven't finished the game yet (somewhere in the early 100's) and to my knowledge not a single person has been able to beat Acken deity yet, including Acken himself. I encourage everyone itt to give this safe a try, it's a lot of fun, a great map, but also really tough opponents. It will definitely still be a challenge:

Spoiler :

Korea, Poland, Maya, China, Sweden, Assyria..

A screenshot of the starting position for anyone that is curious. It only gets better from there!

Spoiler :

So without further ado, here are the two savegames I promised: http://www118.zippyshare.com/v/6KMOvKcN/file.html

 

Hi YCJ

Well first of all, best of luck to you on the Deity try. That's indeed a challenge. A bit out of my league, have just moved up to Demi-god, lost the first game to Korea's mega science. (They where 9 tech ahead in Renas.-era, and doubled my beaker level...)

Now playing again (As Polen), and of cause, things are looking pretty brigth when you can finish, Liberty, Piety AND Commerce, before industrial and Rationalism.

So you choose Atilla for this. I assume it's because you can conquer a lot super early with the horsearchers? Please elaborate on your thoughts on this. Would be so cool if you could go into as much detail, as you can find the time to, in regards to the opening turns, like turns 0-70. You obviously have some insight the we Demi players can learn from.

And of cause, if you feel like it, it would be super cool if you could post some screenies and a sort of report on this game.

Thx in advance

 

I'm really a DemiGod player myself, I still regularily lose on Demi if I get a bad start or if I mess up

In regards to the Atilla game I chose them not for the Horse Archers but for the Battering Rams. I grew my capital really fast and got an early library to speed up Mathematics (where Rams are now) so I could rush them. I figured in such a crowded map they would be really useful. My plan was to take two capitals as soon as possible. I went Liberty left side, settled five Cities on my own and then switched over to unit production. Assyria had the biggest military of all, so my decision to attack him first might have been bad in hindsight. He even got Terracotta army just a few turns before I DoWed. Regardless, after twenty turns of zerging I managed to take his capital with Rams and Horse Archers. I razed two of his cities and left him with one. Finished Liberty, moved my army north to Korea for an ambush. Took their capital in less than ten turns since his units were stuck somewhere else. Really disappointing though since he had no wonders, his capital was very low population and had no useful buildings whatsoever. That's it for my write-up.

As for the opening turns - I think you're completely right, they're by far the most important turns in any game so I will be going a little more in-depth:

Surviving the Early Game

With the mod doing city state quests is so much easier. They are also more important, especially mercantile, cultural and militaristic ones. This should always be one of your main focuses. In this section I mainly want to discuss how to deal with "angry neighbours". Whether or not the AI will declare war on you is dependent on a few factors: a) Their pathing, meaning your cities and the terrain you picked b) Their army score and your army score c) World diplomacy. A few tips: Settling "worse" cities for a good strategic position is almost always worth it. Even if you are the tech and military leader you will still get DoWed at some point in the game. Better be prepared. Settling on coast is always a risk, as is settling on flatland. Archer units used to be the prime defensive and offensive unit, but they're not anymore. Melee units, in this case warriors and spearmen boost your military score by a much higher value. Even if they were worse at defending, the idea is to get the AI to never even declare war on you because it will definitely be a war of attrition that slows you down heavily. So you want to get your military score up early which means building units early on instead of buildings like the granary, water mill, library and shrine. This has the added advantage of being able to tribute city states, especially when you have a quest for it. You get gold or potentially a worker out of it. Speaking of workers - try not to steal from a warmongering AI, they'll never make peace again. Stick with the peacemongers or science civs and slow them down. Use all of your units to do city state quests, tribute and buy more units. Having a decent standing army is important. Settling cities later than in the unmodded game is possible, so if there is a key wonder you want desperately just go for it. Most of the time it will work out. From my experience: Even at DemiGod wonders like Pyramids, Hanging Gardens, Petra and Temple of Artemis sometimes go on T60, Oracle sometimes goes on T80 or later. Great Wall is also a decent wonder to invest in.

Tradition or Liberty?

In most games this is the biggest decision you will be making. There are a lot of factors going into this, but in my opinion it is quite different from the unmodded game. First off, four city Tradition is no longer a viable tactic for peaceful victories. You are very likely to lose a science or culture victory to someone with a bigger empire. Four city Tradition is however viable as a domination strategy - you focus on nothing but science until you get to a key military unit like Artillery, Bombers, Atomic Bombs, XCom et cetera. So what does this mean for peaceful victories? Even when you are going Tradition it is heavily advised to settle at the very least five cities, preferably six. In the unmodded game it is rather easy: If you have space for four cities you go Tradition, if you have space for six or more you go Liberty. In AckenMod you need space for five or six cities that are at least decent to have a chance of winning a peaceful victory condition with Tradition. Tradition empires have faster border growth, need way more workable tiles. The penalty for wide empires has been reduced heavily, which means Liberty can both settle cities closer and settle cities with less good tiles available. What this all amounts to is that Liberty and Tradition essentially need the same amount of space. So now going Liberty or going Tradition is finally a real decision. Liberty however still relies on having a lot of luxuries early game since the happiness policy is so much worse than Monarchy is. Cues for going Tradition would be: Mountains, abundant rivers, lots of grassland tiles, few tundra or desert tiles. Cues for going Liberty: Lots of great production tiles, pastures or camps, some tundra, desert, mountains (not next to your cities, mountains taking up workable tiles). If you are in a situation where there is only space for three or four cities in total the only way to win, be it peacefully or domination, is to either go Honor or go Tradition and do a timed push. Without getting at least one capital your chances are looking pretty bad.

Tradition Early Game

Tradition has received an indirect buff because Acken made culture progression a little bit faster, which helps Tradition a lot. Getting the Aqueducts up earlier in your expos is key. So is allying cultural city states. For Tradition I always skip the Monument and go for a solid Scout / Scout / Scout or Shrine build order. The focus on your scouting should be where you settle your four core cities. The AI plays very aggressively, so you want to settle your first three cities rather far away from the capital so that you still have space for one or two good cities in between. This is really important because your border cities now get free walls. Abuse this. If you are starting next to Atilla, Caesar, Shaka, Harald, Oda, Genghis or anyone else with a warmongering focus it can be a good idea to get the policy for free walls if you see an army next to your borders, even if it delays Monarchy and Landed Elite. Caravans and cargo ships aren't nearly as important. It is not worth to settle coast if there are only few good water tiles. I often delay my internal trade routes until I get at the very least three food from caravans. Sometimes longer. Going for a four city national college should still be your priority, but as I mentioned earlier it is advised to settle one or two more cities after that is done. The national college is also far weaker than in the base game so delaying it is not nearly as problematic. Your build order is much more free. After going for the national college it is definitely viable to get workshops before going towards universities. Both options are equally viable I feel. Since trade routes are weaker your cities will be smaller, meaning universities have much less of an impact.

Liberty Early Game

Liberty works fantastically on its own, but it also works well in conjunction with Piety. This holds especially true if you have a civ with a shrine or temple unique building. As mentioned earlier you can settle cities much closer. This is incredibly important because early roads are very costly, so you want to get them done asap while still being profitable. It will also increase your worker speed by a huge amount. Workers for early tiles improvements - pastures, camps, hills - should be the focus of your Liberty empire. Personally I will only go Liberty if I will self-found at least six cities. Liberty lacks the early walls that Tradition provides, but it has nice production bonuses that you will be using to pump out some units inbetween key buildings. Be very careful not to piss off your neighbors, Liberty cities are typically less developed and therefore harder to defend. When playing Liberty I almost always have a worker as my second build in every single one of my expo. I try to get eight or nine workers by the time I settled my last city in order to abuse the worker speed bonus as much as possible. Old strategies like Liberty composite bow rushes still work to an extent, but are much harder to pull off. On the other hand a civ that has a swordsman unique unit will benefit greatly from Liberty since a mixed army of swords and composites can easily nab you one or two early capitals. A prime civ for this would be rome or greece. The national college is not nearly as important and can be delayed until T100 although that is not advised. Your capital will probably be rather small on T100 so with Liberty I'd say workshops before universities is almost always the way to go.

General Science Advice

If you have six or seven cities constantly growing your chance of catching up to the AI is much greather than with four or five. Being eclipsed in research is not a problem. I usually catch up way after public schools, if science civs are involved it may take til after research labs. Never forget that, if you are going for a peaceful victory condition, you can slow down your opponent by starting a war. Even if you are not trying to win, your opposition will likely build some units therefore slowing him/her down. One thing people tend to pay little attention to is spies. They are hugely important in this mod, a triple promoted spy can technically get you a technology every few turns. From carlsguides section on spying:

I could do a write-up on Honor or Piety but truth be told is I pick Liberty or Tradition in close to 90% of my games. Both are viable, but I think Liberty or Tradition are almost always superior.

 

Alright so I'm back to working on the mod after these last months looking for a job and the interview parade that goes with it. Found a very good position so I'm happy. The joys of getting out of school and getting hit left and right by the "not enough experience" meme we all know and love.

So expect a release of a v5 in the next 2 weeks as I narrow down the areas I want improved for that update (which is basically me going backward in time through that thread since January).

 

Really happy to hear that my man! Can't wait to enter slavery after I'm done with university.

I thought of one more thing I think we can all agree on: Berserkers should retain the +1 movement promotion after upgrading. Denmark can use any help they get.