Feyd Rautha
King
I would like to make some changes to unit maintenance. I'm not a modding expert, nor do I understand everything in the XML files, but I would be willing to do this myself if I get some guidance. Alternatively, if anyone is working on this modcomp already and likes my ideas could you let me know so I can see if it would work for me?
Proposal:
Unit Maintenance is out of hand. Various reasons exist for altering the current system and various methods could be implemented. What is needed is knowing where to tweak the code or how to implement workarounds if the code is unalterable for a particular item.
Reasoning:
Often in my games, I sometimes wind up going broke because I keep a military that is only marginally able to defend my current holdings. This is normally because the AI doesn't understand unit maintenance. Most of the time on the lower difficulty levels I can defend myself just fine, but the AI winds up crippling itself because they are building too many units. So, instead of tweaking the AI, and keeping myself unable to be militaristic at all without playing the entire game that way, we can kill two birds with one stone if we reduce the unit maintenance.
Methods:
There are a few things that can be done to address this in four major areas: Civics, Buildings/Wonders, Techs, and Code.
Civics
Unlocking Autocracy is currently the only way to reduce unit maintenance. While I think this is appropriate, Warrior Caste in the Honor chain is a definite second option for a reduction. Definitely not as powerful as autocracy, but with both (and other changes) getting a comparable number.
Buildings/Wonders
Wonders are just begging to be buffed some of them exceedingly so. A few options are as follows (in addition to their normal benefits):
Techs
The only one that would possibly work for this would be Military Science due to the advanced logistics that arose out of the time period. This is a "maybe", but I think it would work nicely to remove the brunt of the required "combined arms" necessary in the Industrial era:
Code
There are three areas where this comes into play in the code.
The first is the code for free units. You could scale this by difficulty to be as low as 0 on Deity, but it would allow for basic units.
The second is the code for civilian units. Removing them from the unit maintenance would be ok for the human player, but the AI would be much better since they overproduce workers.
Finally, there is "maintenance inflation". It's by era I've heard which is appropriate, but instead of an exponential curve upwards once you pass X amount of units, the curve could be made more gradual.
The third option is the least desireable in my opinion, but it has been used in the one other mod I've seen dealing with unit maintenance.
Conclusions
Looking at this, you could get 1 free unit per city and a -55% maintenance if you get all the bells and whistles when it comes to unit maintenance. Most of the time, -25% will be what players have by the end of the game if Autocracy is not researched and Himeji Castle is missed.
What is needed:
The first thing is feedback. -55% unit maintenance is HUGE, but it would require a very large investment and the AI would really benefit the most which is the goal in the end.
Secondly, I would need some advice on how to code this. Are free units even a possibility? Where do I find all the items that would need changing? Heck, I'm such a nublet that I'm barely cognizant of how to go about implementing changes as is. HALP!
-----------------------
Anyway, I hope you found this proposal to your liking. If you'd like to help please post here so we can hash out ideas.
Proposal:
Unit Maintenance is out of hand. Various reasons exist for altering the current system and various methods could be implemented. What is needed is knowing where to tweak the code or how to implement workarounds if the code is unalterable for a particular item.
Reasoning:
Often in my games, I sometimes wind up going broke because I keep a military that is only marginally able to defend my current holdings. This is normally because the AI doesn't understand unit maintenance. Most of the time on the lower difficulty levels I can defend myself just fine, but the AI winds up crippling itself because they are building too many units. So, instead of tweaking the AI, and keeping myself unable to be militaristic at all without playing the entire game that way, we can kill two birds with one stone if we reduce the unit maintenance.
Methods:
There are a few things that can be done to address this in four major areas: Civics, Buildings/Wonders, Techs, and Code.
Civics
Unlocking Autocracy is currently the only way to reduce unit maintenance. While I think this is appropriate, Warrior Caste in the Honor chain is a definite second option for a reduction. Definitely not as powerful as autocracy, but with both (and other changes) getting a comparable number.
- Autocracy -25% maintenance (due to later changes)
- Warrior Caste = Allows for one free unit per city in addition to normal benefits.
Buildings/Wonders
Wonders are just begging to be buffed some of them exceedingly so. A few options are as follows (in addition to their normal benefits):
- Heroic Epic -10% maintenance
- Himeji Castle -10% maintenance
- (Maybe) Military Base = No maintenance for garrisoned units in this city (they pay for themselves by being consumers in these mini-cities)
Techs
The only one that would possibly work for this would be Military Science due to the advanced logistics that arose out of the time period. This is a "maybe", but I think it would work nicely to remove the brunt of the required "combined arms" necessary in the Industrial era:
- Military Science Tech -10% maintenance (Advanced Logistics)
Code
There are three areas where this comes into play in the code.
The first is the code for free units. You could scale this by difficulty to be as low as 0 on Deity, but it would allow for basic units.
The second is the code for civilian units. Removing them from the unit maintenance would be ok for the human player, but the AI would be much better since they overproduce workers.
Finally, there is "maintenance inflation". It's by era I've heard which is appropriate, but instead of an exponential curve upwards once you pass X amount of units, the curve could be made more gradual.
The third option is the least desireable in my opinion, but it has been used in the one other mod I've seen dealing with unit maintenance.
Conclusions
Looking at this, you could get 1 free unit per city and a -55% maintenance if you get all the bells and whistles when it comes to unit maintenance. Most of the time, -25% will be what players have by the end of the game if Autocracy is not researched and Himeji Castle is missed.
What is needed:
The first thing is feedback. -55% unit maintenance is HUGE, but it would require a very large investment and the AI would really benefit the most which is the goal in the end.
Secondly, I would need some advice on how to code this. Are free units even a possibility? Where do I find all the items that would need changing? Heck, I'm such a nublet that I'm barely cognizant of how to go about implementing changes as is. HALP!
-----------------------
Anyway, I hope you found this proposal to your liking. If you'd like to help please post here so we can hash out ideas.
