Adjusted Start Biases v1.0.0

[Desucrate]

1.0.0 of Adjusted Start Biases has been released! Available at: https://forums.civfanatics.com/resources/adjusted-start-biases.31997/

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This mod increases Civs' start biases based on the historic geography of their society, making it more consistent that you spawn in an area similar to their base of power in history.


Leaders' effects on start bias is generally lowered, with the exception of leaders who benefit greatly from specific terrain, for example:

Xerxes' desert bias is lowered from 10 -> 5*, but Hatshepsut's navigable river bias is unchanged from 20 -> 20.

Pachacuti's mountain bias is unchanged from 20 -> 20, but in order make Inca and its terrace farms more viable, he has an additional 15 bias to hills.


*However, Persia's desert bias is increased from 5 -> 10.


You can expect to usually spawn in an area that fits your Civ, but YMMV based on RNG, Leader/Civ combos, and being named Isabella (magnetises herself to natural wonders quite often)


In 1.0.0, the Modern Age Civs are not yet given adjusted biases as I wanted to be able to test and receive feedback on the overall mod before doing what is likely the most niche part of the project.


Any and all feedback is welcome - I would like to know if you get any relatively common spawns that feel wrong historically/gameplay wise (if you keep spawning in the wrong biome, or miss nav rivers as hatshepsut, as an example)

 

[Mississippian]

Hi! Glad to see some start bias mods.

What I'm really looking for is a mod that will let me choose my own start bias, or at the very least let me choose a different civ and leader's start bias.

Is there any chance you would include a set of files with the default start biases or include some way for us to adjust settings via the mod file?

Thanks!

 

[Desucrate]

I don't believe I'm well-versed enough with the tools available to be able to do that, unfortunately.

However, if you're willing to do file editing to choose your biases, you can use a text editor to view the game files in steamapps\common\Sid Meier's Civilization VII\Base\modules. the base-standard folder contains leaders.xml, which has the start bias of every leader near the bottom.
You can cross-reference that with the start_bias_leaders.xml file in my mod to see what rows of the database I'm updating and which rows I'm adding, and you can make your own modifications to my mod's files from there to achieve the changes you desire.

For editing civilizations, the process is the same, except their data is in modules\age-[age of the civilization you want to edit]\civilizations.xml, and in the age-specific files of my mod.

Make sure to change my mod's files rather than the game files, as it'd be a bad idea to change basegame data without a backup.

I hope this helps! Apologies for not being able to make a comprehensive config file; I'd do it if I knew how.