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

[Tombaugh]

Maybe hospitals and medical labs could increase the food from internal trade routes
(something like +15%).
Policy topic: the combat bonus from the exploration finisher affects only newly trained units, the description is a bit misleading. (Actually my IGE tests doesnt show any combat bonus neither for old nor for new units)
And the ratio policy which grants +2 beakers from improvements doesnt improve landmarks.
@yung.carl.jung
@acken
thx for congratulations

 

[Acken]

Possible bug about exploration

 

[wayneb64]

Not sure if this is really a V5 issue, but I did not see it during any of my V4 games. Sometimes the mouse over tool tip timer gets set to zero so that no matter where you move your mouse there is always a rectangle of some text next to it.

To reset it, you can just open the options panel and cancel.

 

[Acken]

Shouldnt be an issue with my mod. Or cant sre why.

 

[wayneb64]

It doesn't sound like it would be, but the only change I have made was to download V5 directly (couldn't wait for Steam). Has the game itself been updated recently with a patch?

 

[Chum]

Is there an easy way to make the new AM maps load in MP? Currently, they show up on the SP dropdown, but not on the MP one.

FYI, for anyone interested.

You need to add "SupportsMultiplayer = True" to the mapscript file, line 26.

Then copy the maps folder out of Acken's mod folder, and put it in your assest/maps folder of the main game.

Seems to load the maps just fine then.

 

[Acken]

It doesn't sound like it would be, but the only change I have made was to download V5 directly (couldn't wait for Steam). Has the game itself been updated recently with a patch?

No. But my mod doesnt modify the ui so i cant see how its related...

 

[adcarrymaokai]

The Community Balance Patch is a whole different thing, it has some interesting stuff as well

Where is it? I can't find.

Also, what is NQMaps?

Diplo victory somewhat requires the player to gift units to cs and liberate. Turtling for a diplo victory is often not posible. You ll also have to reach globalization. The mod however facilitates early alliances by uping the rate at which you get quests. The current issue in the mod is about patronage wich is rather bad unless you truly save cs.

So Diplo is pretty much an aborted Dom now?

Cs are mostly getting eaten by domination focused ais. Its not something easily fixable if i want to keep diplo being harder and domination civs to not get blocked by cs. Tbh i think i will have to move away from stuff that scales with cs number, civ abilities and policies. I think its terrible design to begin with.

Why is it terrible design, and what is going to happen to DiploV, to Greece, Sweden, Germany, Austria, Venice, Mongolia, Siam in that case? What about social policies?

What if you just made AI's less focused o attacking CS -- only if the covet the luxury resource they can't get.

Anyway, here is a screenshot from my game. I had a nice small Piety game spamming Evangelical missionaries and converting the world, but Caesar has other plans for me. Probably will retire, since Diplo is not even possible anymore.

 

[Acken]

Where is it? I can't find.

Also, what is NQMaps?

Cbp is on the mod project subforum.
Nqmaps is a mapscript for nqmod. The two map mods of my mod are based on it.

So Diplo is pretty much an aborted Dom now?

Its less work than a complete domination and still requires other sources of delegates.

Why is it terrible design, and what is going to happen to DiploV, to Greece, Sweden, Germany, Austria, Venice, Mongolia, Siam in that case? What about social policies?

Because a civ shouldnt be good only if it can ally 10 city states. Firaxis made them conquerable for a reason. Genghis is even designed for it. Finally they take a lot of room to be allowed to remain there for a conquering civ.

What if you just made AI's less focused o attacking CS -- only if the covet the luxury resource they can't get.

And then cs would block the ai down once again because of 1upt. Ideally id have the ai just ally its neighbouring cs reduce the space they take and make the ai stop diplo victories. Easier said than done.

Anyway, here is a screenshot from my game. I had a nice small Piety game spamming Evangelical missionaries and converting the world, but Caesar has other plans for me. Probably will retire, since Diplo is not even possible anymore.

Well im not sure how a missionary spam is going to work...
The mod at that difficulty forbids fooling around.

 

[adcarrymaokai]

Well im not sure how a missionary spam is going to work...
The mod at that difficulty forbids fooling around.

I picked Pilgrimage and had +20 fpt from foreign cities following my religion.

Anyway, I ditched that game and decided to cheese it with Poland. Pretty easy Tradition start with salts. And I did not even do anything -- this was the map I rolled. Full Tradition, 1 in Piety, and just finished Commerce. Only took Piety as a filler (and Borobudur), since Patronage is now useless, and I am not going for CV.

Isabella tried to be funny, but she paid for it in the end. Now I can just build some more units because Dido is around, and then I can cruise away into space. I was not playing very seriously, but Poland is still Poland.

 

[noto2]

How is patronage now useless? Liberating CS gives you an enormous amount of influence. If a CS ally of mine is attacked and I can't get to it in time to save it, at least I get so much free influence it will be an ally for the rest of the game when I do liberate it.

Having your rival waste their military attacking your allied CS is an opportunity, not just a problem. If you pincer attack you can wipe their army out as it is caught between the CS and your troops, it's a very easy war compared to straight up taking on your rival head on.

Also, if attacking another civ that has swallowed up CS, hitting that CS first and using your new ally as a base of operation is quite helpful, especially in intercontinental warfare.
You don't need to always defend CS but you definitely have the option of doing so... it's not like you're forced to sit around while other civs gobble them all up. I can't count the number of times my main rival builds up a large force, only to march it in a vulnerable formation across my border or along my border just to attack a CS. Bingo! Prime opportunity to completely wipe your rival's military off the face of the earth.

 

[adcarrymaokai]

By the way, I was able to get Stonehenge and Colossus, which is really weird.

Are great writers fixed, as well as great scientist? I have planted my scientist, but my writers are chilling around. Artists can at least be saved for a golden age. Let's see how long it will take to win with science. Also, scientists, engineers, and merchants now separate?

Because a civ shouldnt be good only if it can ally 10 city states. Firaxis made them conquerable for a reason. Genghis is even designed for it. Finally they take a lot of room to be allowed to remain there for a conquering civ.

From the two games I have played, it seems like domination civs are doing the best.

 

[Chum]

Acken map scripts -

So, there's a significant difference between your map scripts and the Hellblazers Oval/Donut/Continents, which I've been playing prior to this because NQ gives us some trouble in MP. That difference is lux distribution. Your luxes tend to be clumped, which is slightly good, but mostly bad. It's great for a pantheon, obviously. Controlling all of the truffles between your capital and your expansions certainly lends itself to taking the truffles pantheon, but the problem is the double DoW and the early denouncing due to land grabbing. You can't expand if you don't have the happiness to support it, and if you don't have a good lux distribution, you can't cover that happiness gap by trading away to the other 7 players on the map anymore, since 2-3 of them will invariably not trade with you. In short, 8 truffles and 2 spices is nowhere near as good as 4 truffles, 2 spices, 2 copper and 2 crabs, since there will come a point where you're sitting on 3 truffles you can't unload.

Both of the maps I rolled last night were this way, and that severely changed my gameplan from playing on the HB maps, since you can't go nearly as wide anymore (and Tall just doesn't keep pace in the mod).

 

[yung.carl.jung]

I rolled a few maps with the new script aswell, but did not have similiar problems.

However I can definitely confirm that luxes clump.. a lot. In my game it was not an issue.

@Acken

I remember you saying something about giving City States a bigger variation of luxes - what happened to that?

I've honestly had like four or five games with 16 City States that had only like four.. five, one time even three different luxes... I've never seen a distribution that bad.

Three luxury ressources for 16 CS. That means that 5 City States have the same luxury each. That's crazy. I think something really needs to be done about that.

Let's be real - pretty much half the CS are gone once you hit modern. I really think they should give good benefits if they're not lasting so that early CS allies (which are harder to get because less gold) pay off more. It's just so frustrating to have 5 CS allies and they give you 2 different luxes in total..

Aside from that I love love love the new map script. So much open space, few choke points, fair distribution of luxes and strategics.. just great.

 

[Acken]

I just forgot to do it again when changing the script from scratch. I ll also look at lux distribution

 

[Acken]

By the way, I was able to get Stonehenge and Colossus, which is really weird.

Are great writers fixed, as well as great scientist?

Yes.

Also, scientists, engineers, and merchants now separate?

Next version.

 

[adcarrymaokai]

Hmm not building culture buildings other than monuments is now punishing. All the AI's are pushing higher tourism and influence your people so that even Commerce finisher and all the happiness from Order can't save you. So the classic 4-city Tradition is dead now? You can accumulate only so much culture in 4 cities, while a 22-city AI will crush you with tourism.

Anyway, I think I need a new computer. The mod creates domination runaways, and my turns take 1-1.5 minutes, which is a bit too long to keep in the mind in the game. But I would like to play more. Pretty interesting changes.

 

[Acken]

Staying on 4 cities for long is unlikely to work yes.

 

[Tombaugh]

I have a problem with liberating a city of Alexander(Game crashes). However I dont know, if its related to your mod, because it is during the election of the world congress leader.

 

[Acken]

Ill look into it. Does it cradhes when clicking liberate ?