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

[bonniepbilly]

Spoiler :

-Warrior code now gives 2 warriors instead of a spearman and an archer.

Acken, did you discuss this previously? In this case I totally missed it. Was it really OP? In my experience it was a significant reason why Honor was competitive, but I play much less than you guys so I'll trust you on this.

 

[consentient]

Buying influnce could also work like buying great people: the more you buy from the same city-state the more it would cost.

I guess that could work. I'd make it a Patronage policy though so not everyone can do it.

Although, having thought about it, I guess I'm generally against spending faith for things. It seems really gamey to buy anything with faith, more and more, to me, and I'm not sure it's in the spirit of AckenMod. I guess only the maestro himself can decide

 

[wayneb64]

Is there a reason why the AIs never seem to vote for each other, especially when there is no chance they can win the election themselves? If I cannot win, I will generally vote for someone else who would otherwise not win to gain favor with them and hopefully get things passed that are favorable to both of us.

Is this something that is easily altered so the balance mod can have somewhat more realistic politics? Shouldn't the AI vote for their 'bestest' friend if they are a minor player?

 

[Chum]

Spoiler :

-Warrior code now gives 2 warriors instead of a spearman and an archer.

Acken, did you discuss this previously? In this case I totally missed it. Was it really OP? In my experience it was a significant reason why Honor was competitive, but I play much less than you guys so I'll trust you on this.

Yep, serious nerf to honor. Warriors don't compete very long, so you get 2 useless units until you get to Iron Working. Yay.

Won't be going honor anymore.

 

[Jaybe]

Yep, serious nerf to honor. Warriors don't compete very long, so you get 2 useless units until you get to Iron Working. Yay.

Won't be going honor anymore.

Solution: change it back to spear & archer.

Helps to have archive of previous version so you can copy&paste the code.
OTOH, spears upgrade much, MUCH later than warriors.

 

[Acken]

Spoiler :

-Warrior code now gives 2 warriors instead of a spearman and an archer.

Acken, did you discuss this previously? In this case I totally missed it. Was it really OP? In my experience it was a significant reason why Honor was competitive, but I play much less than you guys so I'll trust you on this.

It depends. 2 warriors are weaker but transition a lot easier into swordmen than the awkward spearman.

I feel two warrior allow for a faster swordmen rush which i think fit honor better.

Honor is still extremely competitive overall and is probably the best tree for domination because of the per kill gold and statue of Zeus. I have just finished the next challenge on demigod with a dom victory with it as my main tree and even wondered if it wasnt too good.

Worth saying the heroic epic change is also a buff.

 

[Acken]

Is there a reason why the AIs never seem to vote for each other, especially when there is no chance they can win the election themselves? If I cannot win, I will generally vote for someone else who would otherwise not win to gain favor with them and hopefully get things passed that are favorable to both of us.

Is this something that is easily altered so the balance mod can have somewhat more realistic politics? Shouldn't the AI vote for their 'bestest' friend if they are a minor player?

Its just how the game is coded. Its possible to make but its a lot of coding for little value in my opinion.

 

[Acken]

Version 7

Steam workshop has been updated (or soon will be) and if you use the workshop your game will be updated automaticly.
You can find the .civ5mod version there (treat it as a .rar file or simply drop it in the mods folder):
Dropbox

Here is the list of changes:

Spoiler :

Warfare
-City strength base has been increased to 7 from 8, city strength from pop has been increased to 0.33 from 0.30
-Chariot Archers now upgrade to Crossbowmen instead of Knights
-Pikemen now upgrades to Musketmen instead of Lancers
-Catapults, Trebuchet, Canons now have the indirect fire promotion
-Catapults, Trebuchet, Canons and Artillery cost more production
-Knights now are 21 strength

Policies
-Industrial Espionage has been reduced to 33% increased espionage speed.
-Military tradition no longer boosts the production speed of the Heroic Epic, instead the Heroic Epic gives 4 happiness.
-Warrior code now gives 2 warriors instead of a spearman and an archer.

Misc
-No limit for barb exp
-Better spy rate in the later eras. Customized spy formula.
-Some national wonder cost were reduced or how much extra cities make the cost grow
-The cost of science and culture buildings in faith (reformation beliefs) has been increased by 33%.

AI
-AI should be a little more tolerant for other civs early expansions
-Deceptive AIs are more likely to build an army but now the AI no longer hides whether or not it covets your land.
-New AI flavors to encourage culture and science buildings under specific conditions (mostly city size)
-More AI building decisions improvements
-Slightly higher AI tech penalty exponent due to city number

Fixes
-The change to GPP generation was not working properly. GSEM specialists now give the correct 2 per specialist.
-Removed the vanilla bug allowing to easily renew friendships on the turn it expired. The AI will now update its opinions before the player is able to send a demand.

 

[Chum]

. Double post

 

[Chum]

I agree it might be hard to balance this but if you faith buy influence, you aren't buying great people, other buildings or military with faith. Buying influnce could also work like buying great people: the more you buy from the same city-state the more it would cost.

Your idea sounds good too.

You already can buy influence with faith. GMs get you 60 influence + enough gold for another 100ish minimum. Combine that with quests and coups and really, influence is about the easiest thing there is.

I don't see a need for more.

 

[Chum]

It depends. 2 warriors are weaker but transition a lot easier into swordmen than the awkward spearman.

I feel two warrior allow for a faster swordmen rush which i think fit honor better.

Yeah, assuming you have iron. Do you play your map script without strategic balance? Because anytime I do, I trash the map because I've got half of a Pangaea and either no iron or coal.

 

[Plumfairy]

After reducing the difficulty down to Immortal & fixing the AI's production bonus for that level in the xml, I've finally been able to survive into the Renaissance. (My current game is still ongoing.)

I have a couple questions/comments:

1) Wow, whatever you did to the AI is really, really impressive. In the non-modded game, I had gotten used to trying to survive until the early Renaissance, at which point I usually blew past the AI civs & started trying to maximize my end-game score and/or winning time. But in my current game, the AIs are actually able to keep up... they keep expanding, opportunistically attacking/conquering when they should, and (most importantly) gobbling up weaker civs. It looks like they're going to be competitive until at least the end of the Industrial Era. (Assuming I don't outright lose before then.) Very nice!

2) The wikipedia tooltip for the Commerce tree hasn't been updated for the mod, so when I finished the tree I got a totally unexpected surprise: an extra trade route. Yippee! BTW, I really dig all the various ways that you can pick up additional trade routes in this mod. The additional routes aren't freebies... you do have to work for them. But they're attainable and they do a good job rewarding different play choices.

3) Why did the Commerce policy Merchant Dynasties (15% off gold purchasing items) get buffed? (i.e. now it also grants culture when you buy stuff) I thought the Commerce tree was already the best mid-game tree for most strats, so why was the second-best policy in the tree made even better? I'm not complaining, exactly.... I'm certainly loving the additional culture in my current game. But I'm curious about why the change was made.

 

[Acken]

Many civilopedia arent updated. But every tooltips should be.

Merchant dynasties does not give a gold reduction. Do not confuse with mercantilism that got nerfed from 25 to 15.

 

[Acken]

Yeah, assuming you have iron. Do you play your map script without strategic balance? Because anytime I do, I trash the map because I've got half of a Pangaea and either no iron or coal.

Not really. I ll look into what the script does with iron with it turned off.

 

[Plumfairy]

Many civilopedia arent updated. But every tooltips should be.

The tooltip for the Commerce finisher isn't updated; I don't think it's mentioned anywhere in-game that the Commerce finisher gives an extra trade route. (i.e. The Civilopedia doesn't mention it, and hovering over the commerce tree on the policy selection page doesn't mention it either.)

*shrug* Not a big deal, though.

Merchant dynasties does not give a gold reduction. Do not confuse with mercantilism that got nerfed from 25 to 15.

Sorry... I got the policy names mixed up.

But yeah... I hadn't realized that Mercantilism's percentage discount was reduced. Commerce's culture buff makes sense now.

BTW.... thanks a bunch for clearly documenting all the changes on steam & organizing them so they're easy to absorb.

 

[dappi]

Hmm, I can't get the mod to work properly with the ynaemp mod. The civilizations doesnt start according to their tsl, as they should.

If I load one of the earth maps regularly (without the ynaemp mod) everything works fine.

 

[Acken]

Try deleting the map folder from my mod. Both scripts are obviously not compatible.

 

[miaasma]

did you change salt to a hill resource? i'm only seeing it either on hills or open grassland right now for some reason, except for the map you posted for the challenge

 

[dappi]

Try deleting the map folder from my mod. Both scripts are obviously not compatible.

Great, that works! Thanks!

 

[pipdog]

My thoughts ont he lastest release:
The rebalance of the tech tree, and the social policies, and the work on AI are all very impressive. I like them much better than the vanilla ones. But imo, the aggressiveness of the AI need to be tuned down (or adjustable). In my last game (demigod), after settling my third city at around turn 60 in my own backyard, all of my neigbours (4) deem my expansion aggressive, one denounced me, 2 declared war on me. It has been a fun challenge, but it also makes any passive diplomatic playstyle impossible.
I would like it much better if there is an option to adjust the aggressiveness of the AIs.