Charlie888
Chieftain
- Joined
- Apr 30, 2002
- Messages
- 8
First this post is about making single player more difficult and interesting. I have no problem with the computer planting settlers on every unclaimed piece of land-u cant use your culture to wall off half a continent and expect the computer to let u do it. Im talking about other features, like the computers extreme under use of factories+solar/hydro plants (most capitals have them but not usually anywhere else), the computer's sending in a group of 10-20 tanks in the late game when i have 50 tanks waiting for them (the computer also has an extra 30 tanks waiting back at their homelend they could have sent in). First of all, the computer should focus on building early and should pick and choose its battles-divided into two groups. First, threats as one group, and easy wins in the other. The threats would have 1.5 to 2.0 times more miltary than them and the computer would seek allies in mutual protection pacts or in war alliances. When not in a serious war, the computer should go after the weak civs(civs that have less than half of their military). See i win diety every time and i have never been defeated militarily by the computer. I build buildings, any and all buildings I can and hold the land that i manage to claim early on. As the game progresses the computer builds up huge armies and fights pointless wars often fighting enemies continents away. Some wars are good however and some civs get taken out and land get taken (good job firaxis). Because of tech bonuses/priority most computers get way ahead in research on diety. I sell all my resources (if i have 2 iron then i trade away both irons) and I save my money and catch up in tech-once i hit nationalism i draft until i have 4 rifle guys in all my cities. After that, i ignore military again and develop. This keeps me in a somewhat respectable military-usually these rifle guys replace crappy spearmen which would have been raped by a computer with any sense to attack me. I shoudl eb forced to have a somewhat sensible military no amtter what victory i am attempting(culture or diplmo). Drafting, buying tech, and selliing all resources are ways i "catch up" and then when i get the technology for tanks, (i usually have factories and hydro plants in most cities by then) i mobolize and then I dominate by picking off weaker civs after i mass huge numbers of tanks. These civs i rape are 1. near by 2, often the same size as me (but they havent built nearly as many buldings-catherderals/collsuems/factories/hydro plant and later on manufacruring plants and have wasted their military-they dont get others to help them as well) Sadly another easy win.
So all you hackers/editors out there who might have some clue as to edit the AI here is what i propose-
1. Tell the AI (and its allies) to have a certain amount of military numerical advantage over its "victim" before it declares war. Make sure it sends 1/4 of the number troops the enemy has- against a civ. For example against a civ with only 100 mech infantry (at LEAST 25 tanks should invade-and not spread out either) This goes for transports-dropping 3 or 4 guys does nothing against me unless 1. i am weakened 2. they have a chance to pillage a vital resource (taking it away from me) or 3. its a very small unimportant island. Sending a force of proportional size (as i propose) will help the computer be successful against mainlands and avoid the idiotic trickling of units one at a time. I once was in a game where 2 computers fought for hundreds of years. They were both on sizeable islands and neither sent enough against the other to EVER take one of the other's cities. Their navies and coastal land improvements were ruined.....so sad, so stupid.
1.5. Also tell the AI to draft from all their nearby cities when one of their cities is threatened. 2 or 1 draftees rarely stops/slows down an invasion. Also coastal cities should send out their ships if the city has a small defensive force and is under attack. I took one japanese city and killed 5 battleships which easily could have moved a space over.
1.7 AI almost seems to max out its military units in the late game, Ai should have 4/5 defensive units in each city and build its offensive might until it can no longer finance more units.
2. Railroads should have a movement cost of .25. Infantry would move 4 spaces, tanks move 12. Much more reasonable and fun than no movement cost (two sided wars will suck. as they should)
3. Increase all sea movement by 1 for all sea units regardless of what age they are in-ships are often much too slow to be worth it most of the time (in continental maps) and irritating as hell in island maps (so slow). Aegis crusiers should have an extra two attack and one more defense to make them more usable-otherwise battleships are much more worth the money.
4. Stop giving the computer free settlers when cities get razed. They should just have them take it the "old fashioned way". Not a major point, however.
5. Computer threats should be serious, demanding a sizeable sum or a resource. Demanding 14 gold and a world map is stupid/lame and not worth a possible war. Im more than happy to pay it to a guy with 4 armies and 60 tanks when i have rifle guys/infantry.
6. Deity level computer AI either gets too large a bonus on tech or focuses too heavy on it. its no fun/realistic/sensible in 1500ad and the computer has tanks already-so many units get skipped over. I usually play the french and i rarely ever see a musketman.
7. Give expansionist civs an extra worker starting out-expanionist civs get the short end of the stick-everyone seems to agree. Important point for MP in my opinion.
8. Add facism as a middle ground between democracy and communism. Democracy being most peaceful/technology driven/unwarlike and communism as full out warlike. Five military police, but high corruption levels (corruption maybe slightly better than monarchy) for facism. Adding government specific buildings like statue of liberty, reichstag, and something good for communism would eb sweet. Forbidding switching over in mid building would be a must. Lets say the reichstag allowed another city to produce armies, then a fascist country should not build half of it and then switch to democracy and be able to finish it. I dont know, if u switch governments after a government specific building is built, does it become inactive or is destroyed? fascism can be added in the editor i know.
9. I know most people are in favor of making the game shorter but i think that is focused on the late game slowness. I propose that in the sense of balancing out the game, that a mild increase in the research cost of the first age techs-make the game last longer in this time period-regent to deity it just seems to me that this part of the game goes by too quick. This one certainly isnt vital, just a tweak
10. Here's another tweak, maybe a very very slight lowering of cost for infantry/marines/paratroops, so they are used more in the late game. Right now i dont think they cost much less than tanks. Computer only uses them when they lose oil for tanks or they build marines when they lose rubber. Paratroopers -what sense does it make if a unit, dropped from the sky into hostile territory has a higher defense than its offense. Give them sensible stats like 10/5 or 9/5. In ww2 they were used to get behind enemy lines and surprise attack (they should have a chance against infantry on offense at a big cost to their defense) Marines should get an extra defense point(becoming 8/7) to even things out nicely-their as good as infantry on defense in real life but gameplay demands a balance. Never built a paratrooper, in any of my games, tanks are just better, thus far...
11. Have a level slider for pollution/global warning/corruption. I agree with the current corruption and pollution levels but having a greater customization would increase the happiness of the civ3 masses (including my bro who hates global warning more than anything-hes one of those enivornment snobs-actualyl cleans up the computer's pollution)
Some of these changes can be made on the editor but for those that cant, like the AI, I hope that someone will email me about how they or I could go about tweaking Ai behavior. Email me especially if u know how u could do most of these changes. I have put alot of thought into this post btw
What do you think? Intelligent people only plz lol
So all you hackers/editors out there who might have some clue as to edit the AI here is what i propose-
1. Tell the AI (and its allies) to have a certain amount of military numerical advantage over its "victim" before it declares war. Make sure it sends 1/4 of the number troops the enemy has- against a civ. For example against a civ with only 100 mech infantry (at LEAST 25 tanks should invade-and not spread out either) This goes for transports-dropping 3 or 4 guys does nothing against me unless 1. i am weakened 2. they have a chance to pillage a vital resource (taking it away from me) or 3. its a very small unimportant island. Sending a force of proportional size (as i propose) will help the computer be successful against mainlands and avoid the idiotic trickling of units one at a time. I once was in a game where 2 computers fought for hundreds of years. They were both on sizeable islands and neither sent enough against the other to EVER take one of the other's cities. Their navies and coastal land improvements were ruined.....so sad, so stupid.
1.5. Also tell the AI to draft from all their nearby cities when one of their cities is threatened. 2 or 1 draftees rarely stops/slows down an invasion. Also coastal cities should send out their ships if the city has a small defensive force and is under attack. I took one japanese city and killed 5 battleships which easily could have moved a space over.
1.7 AI almost seems to max out its military units in the late game, Ai should have 4/5 defensive units in each city and build its offensive might until it can no longer finance more units.
2. Railroads should have a movement cost of .25. Infantry would move 4 spaces, tanks move 12. Much more reasonable and fun than no movement cost (two sided wars will suck. as they should)
3. Increase all sea movement by 1 for all sea units regardless of what age they are in-ships are often much too slow to be worth it most of the time (in continental maps) and irritating as hell in island maps (so slow). Aegis crusiers should have an extra two attack and one more defense to make them more usable-otherwise battleships are much more worth the money.
4. Stop giving the computer free settlers when cities get razed. They should just have them take it the "old fashioned way". Not a major point, however.
5. Computer threats should be serious, demanding a sizeable sum or a resource. Demanding 14 gold and a world map is stupid/lame and not worth a possible war. Im more than happy to pay it to a guy with 4 armies and 60 tanks when i have rifle guys/infantry.
6. Deity level computer AI either gets too large a bonus on tech or focuses too heavy on it. its no fun/realistic/sensible in 1500ad and the computer has tanks already-so many units get skipped over. I usually play the french and i rarely ever see a musketman.
7. Give expansionist civs an extra worker starting out-expanionist civs get the short end of the stick-everyone seems to agree. Important point for MP in my opinion.
8. Add facism as a middle ground between democracy and communism. Democracy being most peaceful/technology driven/unwarlike and communism as full out warlike. Five military police, but high corruption levels (corruption maybe slightly better than monarchy) for facism. Adding government specific buildings like statue of liberty, reichstag, and something good for communism would eb sweet. Forbidding switching over in mid building would be a must. Lets say the reichstag allowed another city to produce armies, then a fascist country should not build half of it and then switch to democracy and be able to finish it. I dont know, if u switch governments after a government specific building is built, does it become inactive or is destroyed? fascism can be added in the editor i know.
9. I know most people are in favor of making the game shorter but i think that is focused on the late game slowness. I propose that in the sense of balancing out the game, that a mild increase in the research cost of the first age techs-make the game last longer in this time period-regent to deity it just seems to me that this part of the game goes by too quick. This one certainly isnt vital, just a tweak
10. Here's another tweak, maybe a very very slight lowering of cost for infantry/marines/paratroops, so they are used more in the late game. Right now i dont think they cost much less than tanks. Computer only uses them when they lose oil for tanks or they build marines when they lose rubber. Paratroopers -what sense does it make if a unit, dropped from the sky into hostile territory has a higher defense than its offense. Give them sensible stats like 10/5 or 9/5. In ww2 they were used to get behind enemy lines and surprise attack (they should have a chance against infantry on offense at a big cost to their defense) Marines should get an extra defense point(becoming 8/7) to even things out nicely-their as good as infantry on defense in real life but gameplay demands a balance. Never built a paratrooper, in any of my games, tanks are just better, thus far...
11. Have a level slider for pollution/global warning/corruption. I agree with the current corruption and pollution levels but having a greater customization would increase the happiness of the civ3 masses (including my bro who hates global warning more than anything-hes one of those enivornment snobs-actualyl cleans up the computer's pollution)
Some of these changes can be made on the editor but for those that cant, like the AI, I hope that someone will email me about how they or I could go about tweaking Ai behavior. Email me especially if u know how u could do most of these changes. I have put alot of thought into this post btw
What do you think? Intelligent people only plz lol
)- I have a few comments on some of them though.
