An Encyclopedia Of & Recommendations For Modding

Ozymandias

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This set of posts is not about the mechanics of making mods; those can be found in the, “Civ3 - Tutorials, Reference, & Guides” sub-forum.

These posts are a set of guidelines and suggestions, for both new and experienced modders alike, from many sources.

That being said -


Very early on, @alexman led a fantastic, collaborative effort on the old Apolyton site, to construct the, "Apolyton University Mod." Its goal: to address the imbalance between the Civ3 AI and a single human Player. Specifically: "Game-play modifications that do not improve the AI nor balance the game are not part of the philosophy of this mod."

I believe that many of the ideas remain sound, and the original thread is particularly well organized. Revisiting it, I saw it as a perfect template for new modders. Yet, as I went through it, I also saw that much of the information was outdated - so I updated it, so extensively that I added "Oz" to the thread's name, as more of a caveat, than a credit ... Then I realized that I could also make it an "encyclopedia," of sorts, putting together a great deal more information, in one place, utilizing the AU mod.

Accordingly, I've pretty much followed the original University's structure, which I've broken down into separate posts. I've also added a large amount of information, mostly in Spoilers, in the hope that this thread can be both a , "Modding 101," and something like an encyclopedia fr modding, that can be added to, over time.

I would also appreciate any suggestions for renaming the thread, as a find the current title to be inadequate.

Further note that any comments in ITALICS indicate the changes I've made; likewise anything in "Spoilers" is either from Sulla, or folks here at CFC (Mostly the latter, although sadly lacking some links, and credits.)
  • There is one entry, on Unit Movement, from Elsewhere.
  • I wind up citing almost all of Sulla's piece, not only because I believe it to be quite valuable, ad (I think) is little known.

- So, we have, in order:
  • Changes to address some specific AI strategic deficiencies -
    • AI Naval exploration
    • AI Naval Bombardment
    • Balancing air power
    • AI research choices (superseded, with URLs to the newer threads & analyses*)
    • Helping the AI's management of happiness
    • Managing AI Builds (augmented by links to my and tom2050's extensive research efforts)
    • AI use of Armies
  • Changes to Units' Values (AF; DF; etc.) capabilities, and cost
  • How the AI chooses which Units to build
  • Improvements and Wonders - Overview
  • Improvements and Wonders - Cumulative & Noncumulative Flags
  • Governments
  • Technologies
  • Resources
  • Other, "Minor Changes"
  • Miscellaneous
I will also, in places, be referencing Sulla's article, "10 Reasons Why Conquests Went Wrong," as I am in agreement with most of what he said. I'll do this by writing, "See Sulla's Point #9." The link will be to the article itself; there's no need for the individual numbers to have their own URLs.

I also highly recommend @Civinator's "Advanced Autoproduction" method for Unit Upgrades.

Another major set of possibilities has been unlocked by @Flintlock's C3X Patch.

- :Dz
 
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AI Naval Exploration:
The AI doesn't fully understand the power of naval exploration, and doesn't build Curraghs until it has reached an advanced point in its military and territorial expansion. Most of the time, this point occurs well after Curraghs have become obsolete. Another problem is that the AI does not perform any suicide exploration missions, not even seafaring AI civilizations that get a reduced sinking probability. The risk of a few sunken galleys is a small price to pay for the potential reward of a trading monopoly with an entire continent.
  • Curraghs get the 'unload' flag and are given the AI Naval Transport flag instead of the AI Naval Power flag.
  • Curraghs have the wheeled property, and Ocean is impassable to Wheeled units.
  • Sea and Ocean tiles cost 2 MP to enter for Curraghs.
  • Ocean tiles cost 2 MP to enter for Galleys.

How to help the AI with happiness
The AI doesn't use the luxury slider. As a result, the AI assigns an inordinate number of entertainers, which cripple its growth, economy, and production. The fact that the AI pop-rushes and drafts more often than most humans, makes the problem worse. Also, the AI's combat tactics often result in war weariness, which forces a switch to inefficient wartime governments and a serious research setback late in the game. So:
  • Doubled the value of entertainers.
AI aggression levels
Adjusted AI aggression levels to be more in line with each civilization's traits, and less based on history, accordingly:
  • Greece from 3 to 2
  • America from 3 to 2
  • Babylon from 3 to 2
  • China from 2 to 3
  • Russia from 4 to 3
  • Iroquois from 2 to 4
Balancing Ground Unit Bombardment
Note: @Flintlock's amazing work on C3X has made this section all but moot - unless you choose not to use it (which might be especially daunting for someone new to modding.) -

- Ground unit bombardment is more powerful in C3C, yet the AI still doesn't make use of it on offense. This is most evident in the age of Artillery, but even Catapults and Trebuchets are more cost-effective than Cannons, so:
  • Increased cost of Catapult to 30.
  • Increased cost of Trebuchet to 35.
  • Reduced bombard strength of Artillery to 10
  • Added build-never flag to artillery for all AI civs.*
* Choosing more than 3 or 4 "Build Often/Never" options will "confuse" the AI: it will simply ignore your choices.

Balancing Airpower
C3C has introduced lethal bombardment to air units. While this change has added a new dimension to military strategy between humans, the AI does not cope well. The AI does not build enough air units and builds almost no AA units, so it's easy to use a fleet of bombers and a minimum ground force to defeat larger and technologically superior AI foes, taking almost no damage in the process.
  1. Removed lethal land bombard from Bombers.
  2. Gave Helicopters bombard strength 6, ROF 3.
  3. Reduced Helicopter defense to 1.
  4. Gave Helicopters lethal land bombard.
Balancing Naval Bombardment
Coastal Fortresses do not serve their purpose of protecting a city from naval bombardment, especially since it’s so easy to avoid the shots from their ZOC. They are the least often built city improvement in Civ3.
  • Increased Bombardment defense of Coastal Fortress to 32.
  • Increased bombardment strength of Battleship to 12

How to help the AI with research choices
(
NOTE: Some of these sound quite interesting, but alexman later figured out specific numeric values which govern the AI's choices in his thread, "
What will the AI research next?" and, in Post #24 of the thread, Alexman acknowledges that there is an RNG - "Random Number Generator" - in play here, as well.


Back to Apolyton U -
The AI’s research priorities are predictable. Human players with experience can research technologies left by the AI until late (e.g. Polytheism), in order to get maximum trade value from their research. The AI also does not take into account its traits when selecting the next technology to research.
Added flavors, additional technology properties, and dummy resources, as described in the related thread.

The Army
The AI does not know how to build, populate, or defend against Armies in C3C. By contrast, humans rely on armies more than ever before, to the extent that using an MGL to make an army has become a no-brainer, and waging war with Armies against the AI has become shockingly easy.
  • Army: Added 4 bonus HP
  • Army: Reduced transport capacity to 1
  • Pentagon: Replaced 'Build Larger Armies' flag by 'Increased Army Value' flag
  • Pentagon: reduced cost to 300 shields
  • Reduced cities needed to support an Army to 1
  • Also, for detailed info about Armies, see, "A study about Army units: what can and can't they do?"
  • - Better yet, see Sulla's Point #7; the 2nd half is in the Spoiler, below:
Spoiler Part of Sulla's critiques on Armies: :
AI armies are just as powerful as human ones though, so where's the problem? It stems from two places. First, the AI is programmed not to attack units that it does not have a significant chance to defeat. Since it evaluates everything on a unit-by-unit basis, it does not understand that it could kill an army by pooling its attacks with multiple units. Therefore, a human army can frequently walk around with almost complete impunity deep within AI territory, using its auto-pillage ability to disconnect resources and wreck havoc. This is not something that the AI would ever be able to do against a human. Secondly, the AI does not understand how to build competent armies or use them effectively. Anyone who has ever seen one of those longbow/pike/swordsman AI armies knows what I am talking about. Humans can always use armies more intelligently and get more use from them. This was the case in standard Civ3 as well, but it didn't matter as much since armies were in balance with the rest of the units. In Conquests it is possible for a handful of armies to kill scores of AI units; in other words, the AI is bleeding shields out of its ears while the human is losing zero units due to the huge hp totals of its armies. THIS IS NOT STRATEGY. It's taking advantage of flaws within the AI to gain a huge edge for the human which should not exist. The new armies are fun to use, but they are too strong. If humans can win wars against superior opponents without having to make a sacrifice in units to do so, then we're approaching the advantages conferred by Civ2 zones of control, and that's not a good thing.

Spoiler ... & On Leaders :
Sulla's Point #4 begins: "This category is really sad," and goes on, at some length, from there. :undecide:

... AND "Specialists" (Point #8)

... Map Trading: Point #11 - Yep - "11/10."

My additional comments:

The "Build Often / Never Flag"
Note that choosing more than 3 or maybe 4 "Build Often / Never" (each) will "confuse" the AI, although I've never analyzed into what sort of pattern it shifts.
 
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UNITS

NOTE: SINCE I POSTED THIS, APOLYTON HAS RESHUFFLED ITS ARCHIVED PAGES: THE ORIGINAL, INCLUDING ALL UNIT STATS, CAN BE FOUND HERE.
  • Defensive units with attack capabilities: Units such as Infantry, Paratroopers, and Riflemen are marked for AI offense, which encourages the AI to build and use them specifically for offense, even though their attack factors are weak for their cost.
    1. Increased Infantry attack to 8.
    2. Increased Paratrooper attack to 6.
    3. Increased Modern Paratrooper attack to 8.
    4. Removed AI offense flag from Rifleman
    5. Removed AI offense flag from Mechanized Infantry
    6. Removed AI offense flag from Musketeer
    7. Removed AI offense flag from Impi
    8. Note: From extensive testing, the AI will also "override" an A/D flag if, for example, there is a Unit flagged "A" with a significantly higher DF than another unit flagged, "D;" in this case, the AI will reassign the flagged "A" unit as, and for, "D."

  • Cavalry: A large proportion of Civ3 games effectively end when the human player gets Military Tradition. Such a powerful unit makes it hard for the human to resist the temptation to beeline for Military Tradition and roll over his neighbors for an easy domination victory over AI, which often has been researching the upper branch of the tech tree and does not even have Gunpowder.
    1. Reduced attack strength of Cavalry by 1 and renamed to Light Cavalry.
    2. Added a new unit, Heavy Cavalry (6-3-3), which is identical to Light Cavalry but with greater attack strength, and requires Nationalism. Heavy Cavalry is not available to Russians or Ottomans.
    3. Reduced attack factor of Sipahi by 1.
  • The Conquistador: A UU is supposed to provide an advantage to its civilization, but the occasions where a Conquistador is worth building are very rare.
    1. Reduced shield cost to 60.
    2. Increased defense strength to 3.
    3. Added ability for Spain to build Explorers when horses are not available
  • The Keshik: The Mongol UU is a Knight replacement with a reduced defense and cost. That means that Keshiks can't attack as effectively without defensive support, so they have to advance more slowly. Not only is this unfair to the Mongols, it's also historically inaccurate.
    1. Added zero-range bombard strength of 2
  • Modern Armor: Modern Armor is the best ground unit in the game. Its high attack and defense encourage players to follow the one-dimensional strategy of building exclusively Modern Armor as their ground units. You get almost the same defensive value as Mechanized Infantry, but with awesome attack capabilities.
    1. Reduced defense to 14
  • Wheeled units and Impassable terrain: Wheeled mechanized units and artillery units add some depth to military tactics. Special forces become the strongest units in mountains and jungles, which encourages players to research their optional tech requirements more often.
    1. Add wheeled property to Artillery, Radar Artillery, Tank, Mechanized Infantry, Modern Armor, Panzer.
  • The Privateer: This unit's sole purpose is to attack undefended transport ships, costs as much as a Galleon, but has less than a 50-50 chance of victory against either a Caravel or a Galleon. During war time, the Frigate is a superior ship because of its bombardment ability. During peace, the shields lost by unsuccessful Privateer attacks make it better to invest in infrastructure than in Privateers.
    1. Privateer does not require support.
    2. Privateer, Frigate, Man-O-War unbuildable when Destroyers are available.
  • Modern Paratroopers: This unit is weak for its position in the tech tree and its cost.
    1. Marines upgrade to Modern Paratroopers.
    2. Increased attack of Modern Paratroopers to 12.
    3. Added stealth attack (vesrus all units except leaders, air, and naval) to Modern Paratroopers.
    4. Added amphibious ability to Modern Paratroopers.
    5. Renamed Modern Paratroopers to Special Forces.
  • The Guerilla: The AI builds Guerrillas, which cost the same as Infantry, even when it has access to rubber.
    1. Increased attack to 8.
    2. Added ZOC.
    3. Added ZOC to TOW Infantry.
  • The Chasqui Scout: This unit is worse than a Chariot for combat because of its upgrade path, and worse than a Scout for exploring because of its double cost.
    1. Reduced cost to 15 shields.
  • The Enkidu Warrior: This unit has only the defense strategy marked for the AI. That means that the AI does not have an offensive unit available at the beginning of the game, so it doesn’t get any bonus offensive units at higher difficulty levels.
    1. Added AI offense strategy
    Spoiler Important Observations About The Aztec Jaguar :
    "The only UU I would give serious consideration to building in the modern era. For the money, you just can't by a better terror-unit. Fast, able to slip deep into enemy territory and disrupt things, capture workers, tear up improvements and roads....generally make a grand nuisance of themselves, and in the Ancient Era, I'd argue that they're very nearly broken. No per-requisite techs, cheap to mass produce, retreats when wounded against almost everything, capable of bringing down much more expensive horses and chariots, overrunning towns en mass.... perhaps TOO powerful a UU." - source unknown.
Sulla also rips the Medieval Infantry in his Point #6 - and I believe he is correct.

"Minor Changes" (alexman's wording)
  • Removed 'Explore' ability from Settler, Worker, all ground bombardment units, Tactical Nuke, Leader, Army, and King units.
    These units were not meant to explore the map, in fact, their zero defensive strength makes it dangerous for them to do so. Accidentally sending these units exploring in harm's way is quite common, especially since the 'E' key is right next to the 'W' key.
  • Added airlift flag to all ground bombardment units, scout, Explorer.
    If airlifting Modern Armor is allowed, why not Artillery? It's a pain to have to use transports only for these units, when there is no clear reason to do so in terms of game play.
  • Added foot unit flag to scout and Explorer,
    so they can be transported by Helicopters, just like Infantry. This restriction rarely comes into play, but there is no clear reason why it should be there.
Spoiler AA combat formula :

  • The real strength of each AA unit is 1/10th of the value shown in the editor. So Flak has a strength of 0.2.
  • Each AA unit in the tile being bombarded takes a shot against the defense of the bombarding air unit. The chance of shooting down the air unit is A/(A+D), as with all other forms of combat in Civ3. Remember, A is 10 times less than what is in the editor for the AA unit.
  • The maximum number of AA units that are given a chance to shoot down the plane is 4. Any AA units above 4 are ignored.
So, for example, if you want the formula for the probability of N units with a strength of A shooting down a plane with defense of D, here it is:

1 - (D / (D+A))^min(N,4)

You can d/l the basic Combat Calculation Tables Here.

Here's
Naval Air Defense versus Bombers (new: 9/6/22)

The (severe) limitations of Aircraft Carriers are discussed Here.



Spoiler Sulla's Comments On "Airplane Range" & "New Bombardment Rules" :
Sulla's Points #2 & #3:

[2] Airplane Range: This wouldn't be all that big of a deal on its own, but when the addition of lethal bombardment is factored in, it means that air power is ridiculously overpowered now. The sad thing is that it was never under powered back in standard Civ3, it only required some intelligence on how to use it. Now we get bombers that can hit units 10 tiles away, bombarding as strong as artillery (12) at getting 3 shots instead of 2. And they can kill units. If you've seen stealth bombers (18/0/3, range 16), it's even worse. The sad thing is that if you can build a certain amount of bombers in Conquests, you're essentially invincible to attack. Where's the strategy or game balance in that? At least with artillery you still needed to KILL the unit after you knocked it down to 1hp.

[3] New Bombardment Rules: This is actually a corollary to the above problems, but starting in Conquests the bombardment units always hit units first in cities, never improvements or population. Always units. Since in prior versions of Civ3 bombarding cities had only a 1/3 chance to hit units, this means that bombardment essentially becomes 3 times more likely to hit units in Conquests. This again provides a massive advantage to the human player when assailing cities, even before we consider lethal bombardment. This aspect of Conquests is totally broken, making artillery much stronger than before, and giving bombers almost godlike control over the battlefield. The old rules were irritating at times, but at least kept things in balance.


Spoiler Unit Movement: The 1-7-23 Rule :

The, 1-7-23 Rule:

This is comment which I found to be quite interesting, and would very much appreciate @timerover51's thoughts -

There was a rule of thumb in the middle ages called the 1-7-23 rule, which said that a journey which takes 23 days by walking should take 7 days by horse and 1 day riding by boat along the shoreline (basically overnight).

I thought "What would the game be like if this were actually implemented into civ 3?" So a person walks 3 squares per turn along the road. Implementing this rule would mean if you want true scale for how much faster boats were throughout history, you should give boats a speed of 69 so that they are 23 times as fast as walking along the road. I did one game of this, but it was just too much. I kept tweaking it and eventually settled at 1/4 of that which a scaleup each era. So ancient era ships have a speed of 17, Middle Ages ships have a speed of 34, and IA ships and on have a speed of 69. And I gave Curraghs a speed of 12 because why not.

 
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AI Unit build priorities
Another note: this is, far and away, superseded by extensive work done by tom2050 and me. and with the contributions of many others, as well:
:help: I have all of the info from tom2050's major league testing of flags, but not the associated links. I'd be much obliged if anyone who has them PM-ed then to me. That being said:
Here is the list of AI Flag preferences, from my notes, In descending order:
  • Stealth
  • Enslave
    All Terrain As Roads
    Speed: The faster the unit the more likely the AI will build it.
    Radar
    Zone of Control / Radar (tie)
    Defensive Bombard
    Amphibious
    Hidden Nationality
    Starts Golden Age
    Unit can upgrade
    Blitz*
    Pillage
    Detect Invisible
    Invisible
* HOWEVER (and also from tom2050 - "It appears that the AI does not place a high value on the Blitz ability. From a human player standpoint, Blitz is an incredibly powerful tool, but it is primarily because human players know how to use bombardment to lower an enemies hit points, and then use Blitz forces to knock out many enemies while minimizing causalities; the AI does not know how to do this, and the programmers probably realized this, and thus programmed the AI to not place a high value on Blitz. Giving a unit the Blitz ability would only increase the AI building them (with all other things being equal) by around 4%.

... Moving right along -

The Civ "Rome" (or any other Civs replacing it) is hard-coded (beyond the Legion's Terraforming Flag) to both produce a higher % of "A" units rather than, "D," and will also, in general, behave more aggressively.
  • Most Civs will produce "D" units to "A," units at a ratio of ~60% / ~40%; Rome reverses this.
MUCH more information can be found, scattered throughout my old, "FUBAR Editor Documentation" thread.

Spoiler AI Naval Builds :
From tom2050 -

It seems that, as far as naval production goes, the AI seems to consider Naval Transports and Naval Carriers in a different light than Naval Powers. I don't have spreadsheets and stacks of data to back this up, but am fairly confident that this conclusion is correct.

I believe the AI considers (to some extent) the decision to build transports/carriers based partially or fully off w/e algorithm it uses for ground forces and air. It seems that when I have Build Often set for only navy; the AI built less transports than when it was set to navy, offensive and defensive ground units.

On the same note, on another test, initially build often was set to offensive and defensive ground, naval, and air. The AI rarely/occasionally built a naval carrier. When build often naval was removed (so offensive and defensive ground and air remained), the AI built 2-3x as many carriers as before.

As far as Naval Missie Transports go, I have no clue, done no testing with that. But this leads me to believe that "BUILD OFTEN NAVAL" is more for ships with ONLY "NAVAL POWER" selected. A simple test would be to have build never 'naval' turned on, and the AI should still build carriers and transports (I may try it to see). This may already be known, but I figured I would throw this out there.

So in essence, the point is, a good way to get a nation to perhaps build more NAVAL WARSHIPS is to simply allow it to be a transport also (for 1 troop) or (1 aircraft). Of course, it depends on the scenario if it is an option. For a pre-aircraft scenario, adding the ability to be a Naval carrier would effect nothing, but may make the AI build more of these ships anyways; and with build often AIR selected would increase this chance.


Lastly,
Spoiler Stealth :
The AI only looks at Stealth ability, and not what Stealth targets it can act upon. This can be used by modders to coerce the AI to build more units of a certain type that it normally would not build that often.
 
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IMPROVEMENTS AND WONDERS

NOTE: SINCE I POSTED THIS, APOLYTON HAS RESHUFFLED ITS ARCHIVED PAGES: THE ORIGINAL, INCLUDING ALL UNIT STATS, CAN BE FOUND HERE.
  • The Colosseum: Colosseums cost as much as two full-price Temples to build and maintain, but produce half as much culture and don't allow Cathedrals like Temples do. Their cost is prohibitive for an ancient city build. Even with the luxury scarcity in C3C, Colosseums are one of the least built city improvements.
    1. Reduced maintenance to 1 gold per turn.
    2. Reduced cost to 110 shields
  • Balancing Naval Bombardment (mentioned above, and left here for completeness) Coastal Fortresses do not serve their purpose of protecting a city from naval bombardment, especially since it’s so easy to avoid the shots from their ZOC. They are the least often built city improvement in Civ3.
    1. Increased Bombardment defense of Coastal Fortress to 32.
    2. Increased bombardment strength of Battleship to 12
  • Longevity: This Wonder does not provide the builder with a noticeable advantage because it comes at a time when most cities have already reached their maximum size, so they do not benefit from double population growth.
    1. Changed required technology to Sanitation.
    2. Reduced cost to 800 shields
  • Cure for Cancer: This Wonder does not provide the builder with a noticeable advantage because with it comes at a time when most cities have marketplaces and access to multiple luxuries, so a single happy citizen rarely makes a difference.
    1. Increased happy faces to 3
  • The Knights Templar: This Wonder is considered weak compared to other Wonders of its period. Also, the AI doesn't understand that it needs to build a barracks in the Knights Templar city.
    1. Added 'veteran ground units' flag.
    2. Crusader upgrades to Guerilla.
  • The Statue of Zeus: Due to the clustered distribution of luxury resources, the player with ivory has an enormous advantage. The AI doesn't understand the value of ivory, and when it has ivory, it doesn't understand the value of Mathematics. The AI also doesn't understand that it needs to build a barracks in the SoZ city.
    1. Increased cost to 300.
    2. Added 'veteran ground units' flag.
    3. Removed bonus HP from Ancient Cavalry.
    (Sulla rips "The Statue of Zeus" apart in his Point #7."
  • The Oracle: This Wonder is one of the weakest in the game, yet it is usually one of the AI’s top priorities.
    1. Reduced cost to 200 shields.
  • The Military Academy: Armies are extremely powerful in C3C. Their power is magnified against the AI because the AI refuses to attack Armies in the field, it does not use leaders to build Armies (so it cannot build the Military Academy), and does not build armies even when given the Military Academy.
    1. Removed victorious Army requirement.
    2. Removed 'increased army value' flag.
    3. Removed the 'build Armies without leader' flag.
    4. Added ability to spawn an Army every 25 turns.
    5. Reduced shield cost of Army to 1.
Spoiler What Happens When Improvements Become Obsolete :
This must be considered "anecdotal" as it was only noted by @Zefyrinys HERE -

I'm working with a scenario where almost all city improvements can become obsolete, so I'll write down what I've observed so far. What I have changed in these improvements is what the techs make them available, how much culture they generate (this only goes for those buildings that already generated any culture originally), that most improvements don't require another improvement (e.g. the university doesn't require you to first have a library) and, as already stated, that improvements will go obsolete with the discovery of a certain tech.

Hospital
If you have a city of size 13 for example, and the Hospital goes obsolete, the city will stay size 13 and stop growing. The food box keeps filling up, but once it's full you can see that the city is not growing anymore. You can't have workers join the city either.

Aqueduct
Similar situation as with the hospital. I have also noticed that if you started building an aqueduct before Aqueducts became obsolete, you can finish the aqueduct, and it will appear in the city. But it will have no effect.

Manufacturing Plant
Even after going obsolete, Manufacturing Plant plants will not disappear from your cities. But you can't build any new ones. The ones you have still require maintenance, and I'm like 90% sure that they will keep boosting your production.

Factory
Same thing as the Manufacturing Plant.

Airport
Airports disappear completely from your cities, and new air units will be regular.

Cathedral
New Cathedrals can't be built, but the ones you already had stay in their cities. They continue costing maintenance and producing happy faces after going obsolete, but they stop producing culture.

University
I only tried to build one university, and it got finished the same turn Universities became obsolete. I checked that city, but no university could be seen in it.

Spoiler Improvements & City Growth :

If you have no Aqueduct-type building in your mod, then cities will grow beyond size 6 without one. Similarly, if you have no Hospital-type building, cities will grow beyond size 12 without one.

So if you want (say) to allow no cities ever to grow beyond size 12, you need to ensure that your mod contains a Hospital-type building, but it can never be built (e.g. requires an “unfindable” resource).

Also, don't forget that you can change the limits for the kinds of cities - e.g. allow cities to grow only to 4 before requiring an Aqueduct and then to 20 before requiring a Hospital, or whatever.

- -https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/city-growth.172902/


Spoiler Here's a list of Cumulative (& Non) Flags for IMP/SW/GW :

Cumulative Flags:
  • Doubles Sacrifice
  • +50% Research Output
  • +50% Luxury Output
  • +50% Tax Output
  • Resistant to Propaganda
  • Reduce Corruption
  • Reduce War Weariness
  • Increases Food in Water
  • *Increases Trade in Water
  • Increases Shields in Water
  • +1 Trade in Each Trade-Producing Tile
  • Doubles Research Output
  • *Treasury Earns 5% (max total earned from interest is still 50gpt)
  • Reduce Corruption
  • Reduces War Weariness in All Cities
  • Doubles City Defenses (Bombardment defense only)

Not Cumulative Flags:
  • Defense bonuses of improvements
  • Removes Pop. Pollution
  • Removes Bldg. Pollution
  • Increase Luxury Trade
  • Doubles Combat Strength vs. Barbarians
  • +1 Ship Movement
  • +2 Ship Movement
  • Halves Unit Upgrade Cost
  • *City Growth Causes +2 Citizens
  • Increase Chance of Leader Appearance
  • Build Larger Armies
  • Allows Healing in enemy Territory


Other Notes:

The Flag, "Immune to: Build an embassy," does not work.
 
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Governments
  • Republic: Increased flat free unit support to 18 units.
  • Democracy: Increased flat free unit support to 18 units
Spoiler Factors Affecting The AI's Choices :
These settings do effect the AI's government choice:

- Favorite government
- Shunned government
- Military Police Limit
- Unit Support (cost per unit, free units and support per city *combined* - the AI makes a calculation based on the number of units and settlements owned to determine the best option)
- Corruption (Minimal > Nuisance > Communal > Problematic > Rampant > Catastrophic; it doesn't seem that the AI makes any calculations here, it won't choose Communal over Nuisance even with 50 cities on a standard map)
- War Weariness (if at war)
- Standard Tile Penalty (avoided)
- Standard Trade Bonus (highly valued)

These settings DO NOT have an effect on the AI government choice:

- Rate Cap
- Worker Rate
- Assimilation Chance *
- Draft Limit
- Hurry Method
- War Weariness (if at peace)
- Xenophobic and Forced Resettlement
- Resistance Modifiers *
- Espionage (Diplomats, Spies, Immune to... etc.)
- Government-specific improvements and wonders

- From @embryodead in the, "FUBAR Editor" thread.

* @CivFan94 noted Here that both the “Assimilation Chance” and “Resistance Modifiers” might indeed affect the AI's choice.


... And Sulla really doesn't like, "Feudalism," and, "Fascism" (Point #10) - And, to repeat, I only cite so much of his article because I ~99% agree with him.
 
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Technologies
  • Philosophy: The free technology granted by Philosophy in C3C has added a 'no-brainer' decision to technology research: If you have the opportunity to learn Philosophy before all other civilizations, you should always try to do so.
    1. Not required for era advancement
    2. Removed half the cost of the Republic, and added it to Philosophy.
Spoiler What Technology the AI Will Research Next :

The AI places a value on each technology it can research next. The values depend on the various things allowed by each technology, as well as on the turns needed by that AI civ to complete the research. Here are the values:

SS Component: 261/turns
Government: 259/turns
Conscription: 259/turns
Mobilization: 259/turns
Defender (no resource): 198
Attacker (no resource): 134
No trade: 149/turns
Defender (resource reqd): 70
Naval Transport: 34
Resource (lux, strat, bonus): 16
Double Worker Speed: 8
Allows Diplomats: 8
MPPs: 8
ROPs: 8
Alliances: 8
Embargoes: 8
Trade Over Ocean: 8
Attacker (resource reqd): 6
Wonder: 6
Irrigation: 4
No Disease: 4
Trade Over Sea: 4
Bridges: 2
Double Wealth: 2
Map Trades: 2
Communications Trade: 2
Small Wonder: 2
Specialist: 2
Unit (no A/D/NT): 2
Improvement: 2
Other tech: 1
Recycling: 1
Prec. Bombing: 1
Worker Job: 1
Bonus Tech: 0
Reveal Map: 0
Sacrifices: 0
Empty Tech Cost: 256/turns
Optional: divide by 1.5 (for Techs "Note Required For Era Advancement")

These values are cumulative. For example, Iron Working allows swordsmen and iron, so it has a value of 22 more than if it were just an empty tech. Furthermore, for the Romans who build Legionaries (attacker and defender), Iron Working is worth an additional 70 points.

- And again :help: I no longer have the URL for this one, either.

Spoiler Comments About The AI's Favorite & Least Favorite Techs :
These are the 20 favorite techs of the Conquests AI. Never research them if you can trade!

Top 20
1. Rocketry
2. Replaceable Parts
3. Bronze Working
4. Nationalism
5. Flight
6. Warrior Code
7. Invention
8. Feudalism
9. Gunpowder
10. Computers
11. Map Making
12. Astronomy
13. Magnetism
14. Combustion
15. Fission
16. Ceremonial Burial
17. Pottery
18. The Wheel
19. Masonry
20. Iron Working

Next are the 20 most avoided AI techs. You can easily get a monopoly, but some of them are pretty useless!

Bottom 20
1. Facism
2. Democracy
3. Atomic Theory
4. Steel
5. Superconductor
6. Ironclads
7. Integrated Defense
8. Smart Weapons
9. The Laser
10. Physics
11. Chemistry
12. Printing Press
13. The Laser
14. Communism
15. Espionage
16. Nuclear Power
17. Recycling
18. Currency
19. The Republic
20. Stealth

Favorite techs by era:

All Ancient Techs
1. Bronze Working
2. Warrior Code
3. Pottery
4. Ceremonial Burial
5. The Wheel
6. Masonry
7. Map Making
8. Mysticism
9. Iron Working
10. Horseback Riding
11. Alphabet
12. Philosophy
13. Writing
14. Mathematics
15. Code of Laws
16. Polytheism
17. Construction
18. Literature
19. Monarchy
20. Currency
21. Republic

All Middle Age Techs
1. Invention
2. Feudalism
3. Gunpowder
4. Astronomy
5. Magnetism
6. Navigation
7. Literature
8. Theology
9. Chivalry
10. Monarchy
11. Engineering
12. The Republic
13. Theory of Gravity
14. Monotheism
15. Education
16. Economics
17. Metallurgy
18. Military Tradition
19. Banking
20. Music Theory
21. Printing Press
22. Free Artistry
23. Chemistry
24. Physics
25. Democracy

All Industrial Techs
1. Replaceable Parts
2. Nationalism
3. Flight
4. Combustion
5. Steam Power
6. Refining
7. Industrialization
8. Electronics
9. Navigation
10. Mass Production
11. Chivalry
12. Scientific Method
13. Motorized Transport
14. Electricity
15. Advanced Flight
16. Economics
17. Military Tradition
18. Music Theory
19. Free Artistry
20. The Corporation
21. Sanitation
22. Amphibious Warfare
23. Espionage
24. Printing Press
25. Medicine
26. Communism
27. Ironclads
28. Steel
29. Atomic Theory
30. Democracy
31. Facism

All Modern Techs
1. Rocketry
2. Nationalism
3. Computers
4. Fission
5. Synthetic Fibers
6. Genetics
7. Miniaturization
8. Space Flight
9. Robotics
10. Ecology
11. Advanced Flight
12. Satellites
13. Sanitation
14. Amphibious Warfare
15. Stealth
16. Recycling
17. Nuclear Power
18. Espionage
19. The Laser
20. Smart Weapons
21. Integrated Defense
22. Communism
23. Ironclads
24. Superconductor
25. Fascism

... :gripe: URL & Credit unknown; derived from alexman's numbers, above.
 
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Resources

Resource Scarcity: The goal is to have resources which are scarce enough to provide a challenge, while they are plentiful enough so that they don't force players to fight a certain war or lose the game. So we want to increase strategic options while keeping the challenge offered by scarce resources.
  1. Increased the frequency of coal from 120 to 160.


Spoiler "Fake" Resources :

This must be considered as, "anecdotal" -

The AI plainly "likes" going after certain Resources. This can be used to help "steer" an AI Civ's "direction of interest." For example, setting a very rare Resource - - "Unobtainium" - in the center of a group of impassable Mountains might be quite useful.
 
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Unit Combat -

Spoiler Sulla's Comments On Lethal Bombardment :
This change, without a doubt, was by far the worst thing that BreakAway Games did to Civ3. The stand-alone game offered a great balance between artillery and regular units, with artillery being able to damage other units but unable to defend themselves. Most importantly though, they could NEVER kill other units; the only unit which could was the pricey, one-time use cruise missile. Regular units were the only ones which could actually kill units or capture other artillery pieces, so it was necessary to use a combination of both to achieve best results. Intelligent use of combined arms like this added a great deal of strategy to Civ3, and helped elevate it quite a bit beyond its two predecessors (where catapults were 6/1/1, for example). Bombardment on ships and planes worked the same way, and intelligent players fighting wars in the Modern Age would frequently use both. Bombers, for example, could hit targets much further away than artillery but had the weakness of being shot down or having the city they were based in captured. Battleships could defend themselves against attack without need of a protecting unit, but could only hit targets along the coastline. Bombardment in standard Civ3 was thus able to offer a very large advantage to the player, but the fact that units still had to expose themselves to attack in order to finish off another unit for good kept bombardment units from running away in strength and the player from exploiting his/her edge in artillery to ridiculous degrees.

Any such balance has been thrown out the window in Conquests.

I suppose I should explain how it started. I'm in a unique position to do so since I was part of the beta test for Conquests and read all of the discussions on the bulletin boards which are now sealed away forever on some Atari server. Apparently the folks at BreakAway didn't think that players were using air power enough in Civ3, so they decided to emphasize it in the expansion. Thus it was proposed to double the range of all planes (OK with me) and give all planes lethal land and sea bombardment (whaaat?!) Now anyone who has invested a significant amount of time in Civ3 should have been able to see instantly what the implications of such a decision would be. I envisioned stacks of 100s of bombers pounding Deity civs to a pancake and then cavalry walking into the undefended cities. I pointed this out immediately. I played a test game that drastically showed that this design change would destroy any balance after the discovery of Flight. Here's what I said about it, pulled right from a game I submitted during the testing:

Finally, another issue that needs to be dealt with is lethal bombardment for airplanes. It's just excessive and extremely overpowering in the hands of a human player against an inhuman AI. When the Aztecs sneak-attacked me, I had just built my first bomber that very turn and had no air force to speak of. 10 turns later, even with just a dozen bombers I was able to redline and then KILL every defender in an Aztec city, which my cavalry then proceeded to walk into untouched. What could I have done with 20 bombers - or 50? I could have killed all the defenders in every city and let my units walk into them one by one without ever fighting a battle. Combining non-lethal artillery with lethal bombers is even worse, which I was able to do routinely as well. I don't even want to THINK about what radar artillery plus stealth bombers could do. Suggested Fix: No planes should have lethal land bombardment. Sea bombardment yes, but never land bombardment. This was what I said when I first read the desciption of that change, and my testing has only proven it out. Lethal land bombardment of any kind is simply too overpowering for any units to have it. Maybe that makes you unhappy - deal with it, it IS too powerful. The fact that the range for air units has been greatly increased already massively increases their power. Adding lethal land bombardment on top is way, WAY too much.


Spoiler Air Combat :

AA Combat Formula
  • The real strength of each AA unit is 1/10th of the value shown in the editor. So Flak has a strength of 0.2.
  • Each AA unit in the tile being bombarded takes a shot against the defense of the bombarding air unit. The chance of shooting down the air unit is A/(A+D), as with all other forms of combat in Civ3. Remember, A is 10 times less than what is in the editor for the AA unit.
  • The maximum number of AA units that are given a chance to shoot down the plane is 4. Any AA units above 4 are ignored.


So, for example, if you want the formula for the probability of N units with a strength of A shooting down a plane with defense of D, here it is:

1 - (D / (D+A))^min(N,4)

-alexman


Intercepting Enemy Air Missions
Once again, tom2050 -

The "chance to intercept enemy air missions" percentage in the "general settings" tab of the editor controls only the probability that aircraft assigned to air superiority in the region will engage the attacker in combat. This means two very important things. Firstly, this percentage does not affect surface based anti-aircraft (that is, a land\sea unit with an "air defense str"). Secondly, if the interceptor's numbers come up and succeeds in intercepting the enemy, it does not automatically mean success.

As far as I can tell, only bombing and precision bombing can be intercepted (but I have not tested this!). When an intercept occurs, the outcome is decided by comparing the interceptor's attack with the bomber's defense. As far as I can tell, the procedure is the same as for any other kind of combat between two units in that one aircraft will be destroyed and the other may take damage in the fight. An aircraft going into a fight without full health will suffer the same penalties as a land or sea unit would.


Spoiler AI Naval Targets :

AI transports seem to attack (drop troops of at) small islands first before they will attack larger landmasses. The AI must assess landmass size as a part of a Civ's strength.. because the AI will travel halfway around the world to reach a small island somewhere and attack there, instead of dropping troops off at a major continent right next door. So for instance on World Maps, if there is an enemy on an island anywhere, the AI will likely go there first, instead of attacking a enemy city on the mainland next door. Of course, there are rare exceptions.. such as... The AI will judge defensive strength of that city, and if very weak, may attack the city on a larger landmass instead. The AI seems to know what a city's defensive strength is inherently, without having to see it (no surprise there).

This is somewhat of a problem for scenarios because there is not much of a way to get around it, since AI actions cannot be altered in any way.

So as far as I know, how AI determines where a transport will attack:
1. Defensive strength of units in a city, (number of units in city?).
2. Will go for smaller landmasses before larger ones (with all other things equal).

 
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Miscellaneous
And Sulla has some comments on this, as well:

Spoiler Sulla On Corruption :
In Civ3, the primary limiting factor is corruption, which keeps you from capturing an endless amount of productive cities. Corruption was too high in the initial release of Civ3, but it has gone down in virtually every patch and new version released since, to the point where it is now probably too low, if anything. Civil engineers allow you to bypass this limiting factor by over-irrigating hopelessly corrupt cities and turning that surplus food into a specialist that produces shields.

This is the reason why standard Civ3 doesn't have a specialist that produces shields. In the right hands, it can be extremely powerful. I wouldn't have a problem with it, except that the AI does not understand how to do this and therefore it is a tool only to make the game easier for the human. And furthermore, where does the advantage come? In the Industrial Age, exactly where the human player is already getting the edge that comes from rails and factories! :weed: As it stands now, I think that specialists would need to be reworked in such a way that the AI could figure out how to use them better. Since that's not going to happen, I'd prefer the situation in standard Civ3 without them.

Also -
Spoiler Sulla On Map Trading :
... Err, yes, I had an 11th issue with Conquests. I personally am not a fan of the new emphasis on exploring, which moved back contact and map trading well into the Middle Ages. Now I would agree that it was ridiculously unrealistic for civs to have a complete map of the world and all be in contact with one another by 1000BC. But at least for high-level games, this was really a good thing for game balance as it kept the AI civs rapidly progressing and aggressively settling all the land out there. When the AI civs do not have contact with one another, they fall behind and perform poorly, even on higher difficulties. In Conquests, on archipelago maps in particular, the civs can be kept apart and trading keep the player in the tech lead for much, much longer now than used to be the case. This is because the AI stinks at exploration. Yes, they get a bazillion free units at the start of the game to play with, but how many times have we seen an AI civ fail to contact a civ across two tiles of water right next to their starting position? The AI isn't good at exploration and the player is, so pushing back contact trading will always reward the player if he/she make a decent investment in exploration. I should tell you that all of the "Sid" wins in testing (and there were a couple), were based upon creating archipelago maps (to negate the Sid expansion bonuses) and keeping the AI civs separate for most of the Ancient and Middle Ages to broker techs. I didn't like this strat of play and am sad to see that it can still exist. I LIKE the world to get into contact with one another right away, because that's when the game really starts to begin! And, although it's a personal issue, I don't like playing large stretches of the game with a dark map. I like to see where everyone is ASAP. The changes to map trading and communications trading don't mess up the game all that much, but I have never liked them myself and will use this as an opportunity to sound off against them, so nyah nyah.


Conquests Ini Settings

Global Warming : What happen to which terrain
 
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Cumulative Flags:
  • Doubles Sacrifice
  • +50% Research Output
  • +50% Luxury Output
  • +50% Tax Output
  • Resistant to Propaganda
  • Reduce Corruption
  • Reduce War Weariness
  • Increases Food in Water
  • *Increases Trade in Water
  • Increases Shields in Water
  • +1 Trade in Each Trade-Producing Tile
  • Doubles Research Output
  • *Treasury Earns 5% (max total earned from interest is still 50gpt)
  • Reduce Corruption
  • Reduces War Weariness in All Cities
  • Doubles City Defenses (Bombardment defense only)

Not Cumulative Flags:
  • Defense bonuses of improvements
  • Removes Pop. Pollution
  • Removes Bldg. Pollution
  • Increase Luxury Trade
  • Doubles Combat Strength vs. Barbarians
  • +1 Ship Movement
  • +2 Ship Movement
  • Halves Unit Upgrade Cost
  • *City Growth Causes +2 Citizens
  • Increase Chance of Leader Appearance
  • Build Larger Armies
  • Allows Healing in enemy Territory
 
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Ozymandias, thank you very much for bringing all this thoughts and ideas together. :)

I am surprised how many of these ideas are identical with concepts in the CCM mods, so sometimes completed by the perception, that there can be situations when less (or nothing) can be more, the big advantages of the advanced autoproduction of buildings and very nice findings of other modders (p.e. cuts in the tradenet by El Justo and to set ships cheap in production).

Nowadays in my eyes many of these old concepts must be rethought. The phantastic Flintlock mod/patch is a real game changer for C3C and even modding C3C. Per example now battles with big AI stacks, containing tons of offensive artillery units and defensive units in it, are possible. What are the consequences for land units with an alternative offensive/defensive strategy and the programming, that the offensive land artillery now can recruit the defensive land units of cities to form these offensive stacks ? How should land artillery now be set? When two of these "monster stacks" with let´s say only 100 artillery units in it, combat each other and land artillery units still are set available to everyone and a defense value of zero, the winner of such a battle will capture the 100 artillery of the other stack. If land artillery will be set to a defense value of 1 or more, 100 additional units must be eliminated, making the time for that battle lasting much longer. This is the reason why in my present settings for the next version of CCM every civ holds its own land artillery units, so they can not be captured and are eliminated when the defending units of such a stack are destroyed.

There are many other settings that must be rethought, too, when using the Flintlock mod/patch.

The ancient modders in the Apolyton thread did not have some of the perceptions about C3C, we have today, and especially they did not have the options that now are available with the Flintlock mod/patch. Nevertheless it is very good, that now all these old ideas are concentrated in this thread. :thumbsup:
 
I am surprised how many of these ideas are identical with concepts in the CCM mods

I'm not ;)

There are many other settings that must be rethought, too, when using the Flintlock mod/patch.

:think: … Volunteers? :popcorn: I'll happily amend these posts with new info, as I just did a few minutes ago…
… And, @Civinator, O Wise Mage Of Modding! CCM is a delight, and a veritable treasure trove unto itself. PM me anything, & I'll add it in ASAP.

The ancient modders in the Apolyton thread did not have some of the perceptions about C3C, we have today, and especially they did not have the options that now are available with the Flintlock mod/patch. Nevertheless it is very good, that now all these old ideas are concentrated in this thread. :thumbsup:

:thanx:


:D
 
@Ozymandias

Thanks for such a comprehensive topic.
May I suggest that the topic be sticky?

Related to post number 6 about the Governments section.
https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/an-intro-to-an-encyclopedia-of-modding.675210/#post-16220187

Inside the spoiler is written the following:

These settings DO NO effect on the AI government choice:

- Rate Cap
- Worker Rate
- Assimilation Chance
- Draft Limit
- Hurry Method
- War Weariness (if at peace)
- Xenophobic and Forced Resettlement
- Resistance Modifiers
- Espionage (Diplomats, Spies, Immune to... etc.)
- Government-specific improvements and wonders

I don't think the bold part is correct.
In one of the attempts to balance the Governments the only thing I changed were Assimilation Chance and Resistance Modifiers.
I have Assimilation Chance increased and at the same time reduced Resistance Modifiers for non-representative Governments.
This has led to an increase in the Civilizations that use non-representative Governments. Of course, I can't directly prove a change in the way civilizations behave since we all know that Civilizations decide anyway to choose Governments that don't have War Weariness when in war, and yet in every new game there is a war.

I wish @Civinator would comment if he has anything to add regarding this case.
 
Thanks for such a comprehensive topic.

You're most welcome!

May I suggest that the topic be sticky?

Even I lacked the hubris to suggest this before some else did :D. I'll PM a Moderator about this. There are also some other Stickied, ancient threads of mine with 99% dead URLs which I'd also intended to tend to.

Related to post number 6 about the Governments section [...]In one of the attempts to balance the Governments the only thing I changed were Assimilation Chance and Resistance Modifier [...] I have Assimilation Chance increased and at the same time reduced Resistance Modifiers for non-representative Governments.This has led to an increase in the Civilizations that use non-representative Governments. Of course, I can't directly prove a change in the way civilizations behave since we all know that Civilizations decide anyway to choose Governments that don't have War Weariness when in war, and yet in every new game there is a war.

TY! :) I'll add an "*" accordingly.

EDIT: Done, and cited.
 
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@OzymandiasI have Assimilation Chance increased and at the same time reduced Resistance Modifiers for non-representative Governments. This has led to an increase in the Civilizations that use non-representative Governments.

I wish @Civinator would comment if he has anything to add regarding this case.

The list of embryodead is only a 'rule of thumb' and the setting of governments in my eyes is one of the most difficult tasks when modding Civ 3. A deeper exploration about the values the AI really sets for choosing a government at present is not available. May be there will come a time when Flintlock can present a table of value settings for the AI in choosing governments as he just did it for other AI decisions.

Therefore at present I have nothing to add here. :)
 
"Game-play modifications that do not improve the AI nor balance the game are not part of the philosophy of this mod."

I am continually running into the AI using my own improvements against me. Given the changes to the Dinosaurs and the ability to build leaders with the proper resources, the AI in the PTW Test of Time scenario drives me absolutely nuts. There are a couple of other ones where I am running like made to keep even at the modified Regent level.
 
"Game-play modifications that do not improve the AI nor balance the game are not part of the philosophy of this mod."

I am continually running into the AI using my own improvements against me. Given the changes to the Dinosaurs and the ability to build leaders with the proper resources, the AI in the PTW Test of Time scenario drives me absolutely nuts. There are a couple of other ones where I am running like made to keep even at the modified Regent level.

We're certainly on the same page here: I always try to mod at Regent level, as that is, purportedly, the level at which the AI's play is most equal to a hypothetical human's.
 
What are the consequences for land units with an alternative offensive/defensive strategy and the programming, that the offensive land artillery now can recruit the defensive land units of cities to form these offensive stacks ?

Having watched a huge Sid AI debug game with the C3X mod, a problem with these stacks is that they often end up with a bunch of defensive units and artillery type units and that's it. Once they find a city, they will bombard and bombard the city as much as possible. They will bombard to the city down to size 1 and destroy all improvements after redlining all units. That might sound ok, or might not sound ok. It's a tough call. But worse, is that no attacker ends up with such a stack apparently, unless it just so happens to come nearby. It's not like one medieval infantry or knight or longbow travels with such a stack. They will also park near a city and bombard it with no attack support for quite a few turns if the war continues.

I haven't seen how Korea handles their UU. I picked random civs, and they weren't in it. But, I would guess that Korea ends up with a military edge when warring against other AIs.

Edit: If an AI has infantry proper next to a heavily bombarded city, then they will attack.
 
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