Animals in C2C

[Джойнер]

First of all, I will write about the bugs that I noticed at the beginning of the game:
1) The field commander still has a button to turn on his golden age, although if I made a field commander, I will never spend it on the golden age. Consequently, the field commander's golden age button is not only useless, but also harmful, because I must constantly be careful not to accidentally press it.
2) Caves are never generated in the SmartMap map template. I should either choose any other template, or manually stamp the caves in the editor at my discretion.

Now the main problem of the whole Caveman2Cosmos mod:
AI basically does not know how to get animals. In several games, I consistently outperformed AI in science just by having a lot of myths about animals. AI is completely incapable of boasting of this, because it does not even try to climb into distant lands for the sake of preying animals that are rare for their state.
This problem can be solved in such a way as to reduce the cost of research for AI in Handicap, but is this really a crooked way of balancing is the only one?
Alternatively, you can change the Teleport Hunting Awards option in favor of AI. A player with this option enabled will still need to manually escort animals to the city up to a settled lifestyle.

Are there more flexible options for solving this AI flaw?

 

[Toffer90]

1) The field commander still has a button to turn on his golden age, although if I made a field commander, I will never spend it on the golden age. Consequently, the field commander's golden age button is not only useless, but also harmful, because I must constantly be careful not to accidentally press it.

That's a bug that wasn't there last time I played with field commanders.

 

[Thunderbrd]

That's a bug that wasn't there last time I played with field commanders.

Was addressed during this cycle I believe so if you're not on SVN but rather on release you'd still be dealing with it.

 

[Mr Smith]

AI basically does not know how to get animals. In several games, I consistently outperformed AI in science just by having a lot of myths about animals. AI is completely incapable of boasting of this, because it does not even try to climb into distant lands for the sake of preying animals that are rare for their state.

I solved this for myself by making the shift from science bonus to culture happen the moment myths are enabled instead of at Writing iirc.

Caves are never generated in the SmartMap map template. I should either choose any other template, or manually stamp the caves in the editor at my discretion.

You should use feature option "Standard" if you want C2C's features, since they are not implemented in the script itself and so you have to rely on allowDefaultImpl(), which also lacks any defign benefits of MST and SmartMap in particular (since C2C version is based on pre-MST). If you are interested, I'm attaching a version with MST bonus balancer a implemented, since it the biggest drawback of being out of date, as well as DeicifyEdges and HillifyCoast (peaks blocking valuable settling spots).

Also, if others visit this threat, pls press like on the first post to petition for SmartMap update.

P.S. Погонял бы в мультиплеер.

 

[raxo2222]

I solved this for myself by making the shift from science bonus to culture happen the moment myths are enabled instead of at Writing iirc.

On V42 folklore stuff was reworked - it starts with much lower science per myth, and its science output is gradually reduced on each lifestyle tech.

 

[Mr Smith]

On V42 folklore stuff was reworked - it starts with much lower science per myth, and its science output is gradually reduced on each lifestyle tech.

Thanks, but can AI even acquire those at a pace comparable to players?

 

[raxo2222]

Thanks, but can AI even acquire those at a pace comparable to players?

Nope - AI generally is worse than vaguely competent player.

 

[Toffer90]

Thanks, but can AI even acquire those at a pace comparable to players?

Some work the last 2 months should improve their ability to do so, but they will always be worse than the human player at it.

 

[Thunderbrd]

Some work the last 2 months should improve their ability to do so, but they will always be worse than the human player at it.

There would be things we could do to make the AI better at it with some 'cheats', such as influencing the chance of capture for the AI based on diff level or making them somehow more capable of sensing the proper targets when a human player wouldn't realize they were there. I used to suspect that firaxis had done some things like this with goodies and was surprised they hadn't tbh. I'm not saying I ADVOCATE for that necessarily, only that it's something that COULD be done.

 

[Toffer90]

There would be things we could do to make the AI better at it with some 'cheats', such as influencing the chance of capture for the AI based on diff level or making them somehow more capable of sensing the proper targets when a human player wouldn't realize they were there. I used to suspect that firaxis had done some things like this with goodies and was surprised they hadn't tbh. I'm not saying I ADVOCATE for that necessarily, only that it's something that COULD be done.

Indeed, my statement assumed an even playing field.

 

[Mr Smith]

I'm not sure it would matter after the latest changes (which I haven't tried out yet), but can you guys please add an option to disable animal factions if it's not much trouble?

 

[Джойнер]

There is an idea how to balance bonuses from animal myths, provided that the game engine allows such modifications.

The state acquired a new myth about the animal.
This myth becomes known to all other states according to the following scheme:
First turn - 1 cell around the capital in all directions
Second turn - 2 cells around the capital (in total - three)
Third turn - 3 cells around the capital (in total - six)
Fourth turn - 4 cells around the capital (in total - ten)
And so on according to the same algorithm.
As soon as the spread reaches the capital of another state (or any city in another state), the myth becomes known to that state.

In my opinion, this is the perfect way to balance bonuses from animal myths.
Again, I repeat, under the conditions if the game engine allows such changes, because I am not aware of the intricacies of modding.

 

[Mr Smith]

There is an idea how to balance bonuses from animal myths

Developer team's stance is that animal stuff is supposed to be competetive, but actual benefits of myths (folklore now) are negligible in the current SVN versions, if you don't use those. There's a thread about upcoming folklore rework that would lower requirements further and that's likely as far as it goes.

provided that the game engine allows such modifications.

I've suggested similar thing for sentry and a dev said it would be stressful to check a ton of tiles.