Alright, I've once again gained motivation to polish Casual Terrain Plus for HR, intended as a multiplayer balance and QoL modmod.
This pass focuses on Upkeep (meant to limit population growth payoff) and hurrying with population.
As I raised base population maintenance from 0.6 to 0.9 (-35% for Organized, but not affected by maintenance discounts), both regular maintenance (affected by buildings and civics) and unit upkeep became much more stifling. I still liked how it punished overexpansion, but it was obviously not fun and took time to learn moderation. So to lessen the early impact:
1) Society civics and some other scale free units/military from population in accordance with their upkeep and room for value.
2) Economy civics and some other reduce cities maintenance, sometimes to offset Medium and High upkeep biting more. Benefits are supposed to keep up with those too. For example Theocracy echoes Organized Religion's +25% building production. Aristocracy regains it's +1 gold per specialist at a cost of 0.25 population upkeep and double city coefficient compared to Low - still requires testing to figure if latter is in good place. Basic maintenance is lowered on Tiny and Small.
3) Base improvements yield sum is set as 2 for all. Unirrigated farms, pastures, orchards and camps are 1F1C, so by default you don't crush your economy if you don't try to maximize a certain yield. Irrigated farms are 2 food and Villages/Towns lose 1 food without irrigation to keep the mechanic relevant with bland rivers. Labor civics naturally change less now and don't scale as hard. I probably forgot to mention it before, but pollution is nerfed to 0.5 unhealth, because it was hurting loyalty a lot more with growth tempo I'm setting.
4)
Processes convert 50/66/100% hammers to commerce, 200% for max level Culture, 66/80/100% for Science. There is even no Forge multiplier anymore, 33% rate was such a waste and created an unhealthy advantage for Philosophical and Financial.
Now to whipping (slavery hurrying). Base HR nerfed it to oblivion: not only cities require 24+4/pop food, limiting effective whipping to size-2 cities (maybe 3-4 for Imperialist), but Granary costs crazy 80 hammers while contributing only 25% food saving. What whipping was supposed to address originally are food-heavy and hammer-starved starts like on Flood Plains, but if you have to pay 80 hammers to access the "solution", you lose so much momentum that it cripples you anyway. So while I agree that 50% is just too much, Granary should at least be worth it's opportunity cost.
My solution is simple - Granary gets a whipping discount, but by building it you lose exactly the momentum you are supposed to have in excess - growth. Granary is -1 food +1 commerce, net neutral, punishing yellow hill abusers, compensating grass settlers. Food multiplier (30% now) is in place, use it's power to catch-up. Still should be smart to wait for size 3 if worked plots don't provide at least 3 excess food.
A city starts with 22 food requirement for growth. Suppose you have 2 food surplus, so it would take 11 turns before it's ready to become size-3, the (usually) optimal time to whip. If you have no improvements, you break even on yields working tiles with boni/FP/coast, but let's say you work a common tile with an improvement yielding 1 extra point while growing. You pay 22 food + 11 opportunity cost to get 40 hammers without a Granary, leaving you with 7 extra that an Agrarianism civ would get from a farm. It falls off with 2-3 more population (3 food/size in Casual Terrain Plus). Granary offsets this by 2 population, except you grow slower. May be worth setting initial growth value higher while buffing the hurry multiplier.
Still, the more outstanding tiles you have the more you lose from whipping, unless you are an Imperialist, so some buildings have a discount, making them a worthy target even on higher sizes. You can try to make some overflow money if you need it.
Expansionists now have +2 food per cultural level after first, so this also addresses a spike they would get at lvl2 - this is how the whole idea came to be, actually. They are now 2nd whipping trait in addition to Imperialist (in case you didn't know what their -33% was for), hurray (hurry-ay?) for Filipe being crowned as the ultimate slave-driver.
On the topic of slave-driving, Aztecs exist again. Their unique units have a 25/10% whipping discount and Sacrificial Altar is a lucrative deal ahead of it's time. Siege units are also discounted, their high cost was making opportunity windows narrow, if reachable at all, and the unit ecosystem evolved too - Skirmishers are stronger, Drill1 and Cover (meant to counter Archer/Skirmisher stacks) provide collateral damage protection.
Wonders don't have a 200-300% hurrying penalty anymore, production boosting boni are nerfed to 50% for them and few without get a discount. Creative is nerfed to 35% wonder production, it was getting overloaded. Warriors now can refund 7 hammers (~100% effectiveness for Traditional) for an early food>hammer conversion (they are built with food). Workers can refund 30 + 1/pop out of 60, breaking even at size 10 for Industrious, except food can't get multipliers - still can be abused by some min-maxing, but only for buildings/wonders and I doubt it can reach more than a whipping Creative. I think being a prize for spending military/stacking worker buffs like Pyramids matters more. Rams and Siege towers are also refundable, feel free to move the production around as an Imperialist.
Other changes:
- Map sizes are calibrated for Smart Map v9.26 script coming as part of the package. MapScriptTools API it relies on is updated to Terkhen's v1.06 and now handles all 3 sea features to my skills' extent. This means coast isn't a guaranteed 3 food anymore, details in the Highlights. Separate version exists for Natural Wonders, option is for show, they are always on (couldn't figure it out). Happiness and Health boni calibrated to 50/80/150% for Few/Normal/Many, since there are just so much of them in HR. Plot picker weights are improved, late era boni are ignored. Balancer option is changed to regular range by default, since it can take stuff away from you as well as provide, keep that in mind. Tiny is configured to be vertical double "Pangeas" by default meaning more likely Flood Plains on Equator and Small is configured to be horizontal unless they get tilted. Yes, you can fit 10 players on Tiny comfortably, but feel free to adjust the default for yourself. If you disable separation override continents can get bridged on Low sea. Longer reefs on Low sea, shorter on High. Mountains can be worked for 4 hammers (may have been overkill, but I personally play without them at all) and boost reef and river spawn chances.
- Specialists rebalanced again. I realized that in HR negative gold is accounted for, so some consume it for extra focus. Great people consume 2 food since they are buffed here. Artists provide 1 happiness now, though AIs are as oblivious as ever, AND convert 2 gold into production. Nazca Lines cost 3 gpt. Keep in mind negative gold gets multipliers.
- "Teamer" difficulty for all starting tech + Leather Working. I figured since AIs fall off in technology, playing in teams of 3-4 can round the edges, until multiplayer gets proper attendance. It's hilarious how your "teammates" deny you wonders time and time again >_<.
- Imperialist trait is nerfed to 20% until Urban Planning ("Kremlin" tech).
- National wonders city limit increased to 3. Probably a bad idea, but have fun.
- Penalties for breaking treaties and (hopefully) switching religion are removed until they get fixed.
- Lots of promotion adjustments. Woodsman2 and Guerilla2 can be accessed from each other's lvl1. Cover protects from archer category collateral damage, but weakens you to Siege and isn't accessible from Drill1 anymore since it would stack 50% protection from collateral. Pick one or wait for lvl4. Tactical leaders can make Melee, Archers, Gunners and Mounted immune to first strikes lvl2 with Flanking2 and their Siege only has 15% to die instead of CityRaider1 which you can obtain from a Grand Temple instead. Lots of promos reduce upgrade cost or have new enablers. Guerilla3 and Barrage1 lead to Flanking1, latter to Drill2. Mobility protects from collateral. Commando provides 10% withdrawal and is accessible from Nomad3. Defensive provides Drill1 instead of Medic1.
- Text should cover most changes except for building hurry discounts. Civic descriptions sure are ugly, but it won't matter once you memorize it. Tell me if I missed something.
- Tree features speed up building some improvements. Forest>Jungle>Savannah. Chopping provides 25/20/15 so you don't lose 50% of Savannah's worth for each range after 2.
- Sea scales with Dry Dock, Shipyard and Custom House now. Boats scale with civics. Coast changed to 1F1C, Ocean to 2F, Harbor is +2 food on water. Reverted the Trading Post nerf, though with +1H-4C. Features are yield-neutral and allow boni to spawn. Reefs and Atoll swapped yields. Reefs are Flood Plains for the sea with 0.5 unhealth each - not very realistic, I know, but gotta keep it in check. Reefs can spread with a 5% (.5%?) chance per turn. Islands and Atolls are 0.5 Health to offset Reefs
- Lakes have 50% chance to spawn Islands and get a separate Harbor (doesn't benefit from seafood or enables GLH) already at Sailing.
- Boni spawn at Flood Plains and Reefs, but remove extra food from it (you can use it to predict strategics up to Saltpeter). Stone quarries lose 1 more yield again, but you can build a mine instead and boost your Stonehenge thanks to the river connection.
- Flood Plains have 20% chance to be replaced by Savannah and 10% to be replaced by Swamp. Coupled with a decent Hill chance should prevent mega-FP spots, but they are still OP. Cleared tiles can grow FP with 5% (.5?) chance.
- Smart Map start location picker adjusted close to perfection - now ignores late strategic boni and only counts rivers if you would start on it (enabling Levee).
- A pseudo-improvement reveals 3-4 tiles around the starting settler.
- A huge Conscription adjustment, mainly for Humane. Available from size 3. Archery units and some UUs are conscriptable for 1 pop/40 hammers. Conscription civic lowers unit costs, so you can be effective at higher city sizes. Instead of direct +2 Health Humane get free Aqueducts, enabling early Engineers. BTW, Charismatic get free Monuments.
- Culture level 3 is double the regular (200 on Normal) to avoid Industrial/Creative/Expansionist spike, Legendary is 150%, because most cultural buildings double faster (over 100-500 years instead of 1000).
- Fortifications, Boats, Marine Reserves, Villages and Towns provide culture pressure.
- Turned off Global Warming, should save some turn time and nerves.
- Irrigation moved to Engineering.
- Since Humane was uplifted to be a decent trait, Dissent discount is nerfed to 35%. Palace is also nerfed to -25% so that you can't completely bypass unhealth dissent in your first city without doing much. Since it's cheap now, you can move it around just for dissent, but remember you lose out on doubled culture. Organized was getting overloaded, so also nerfed bonus Improvement speed to 25%.
- Chiefdom starter civic changed to +25% Culture +25% Commerce in capital to postpone Industrious and Expansionist spikes, also to make switching to Monarchy less of a win, potentially bypassing it for Theocracy instead.
- Savannah can spawn at Desert enabling you to get food from Plantations and making it less harsh to cross with an army. Desert UUs will still wreck you.
- Politicals' capital has -100% war weariness and maintenance, 50% defense from spies.
- Idolatry is lowered to 15% Wonder cost increase.
- Guerilla3 is accessible to Mounted that started with Guerilla1/2 for 40% withdrawal chance, though you will still lose out on a lot of strength outside of hills.
- Archers, Chariots, Crossbowmen, Elephant units adjusted further for a healthier competitive environment.
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