Changes in rules (BIC) file for patch 1.17

[Nero Would]

Here are the changes I have found in the rules file (Civ3mod.bic) for the new patch (1.17) compared to the previous one (1.16). Some of these are mentioned in the readme file, but some are not.

Buildings and Wonders

• Coastal Fortress maintenance is now 0 gold/turn (was 1).
• Great Lighthouse now costs 300 shields (was 400).
• Forbidden Palace now costs 200 shields (was 300).
• Wall Street now costs 300 shields (was 400).

Espionage

• "Expose enemy mole" has been renamed "Expose enemy spy".

Resources and Terrain

• Bonus resource "Game" gives +2 food (was +1).
• Oil and Aluminium can no longer appear on Plains tiles.
• Aluminium can now appear on Tundra tiles.

Rules

• Unhappiness from pop rush and draft now lasts 40 turns (was 20).
• Building and citizen defense against bombardment is now 16 (was 8).

Units

• Barbarians are allowed build all units except civ unique units (before they were only allowed Warriers, Horsemen and Galleys).
  According to Jeff Morris of Firaxis, this change is a bug that exists only in the version of the patch that was distributed on 14 Feb. It was removed from the version distributed on 15 Feb.
  
• Upgrade paths have been changed to allow upgrade to civ unique units, except that Americans cannot upgrade Fighters to F-15s.
• The Egyption War Chariot now upgrades to Horseman instead of to Knight.
• The Greeks can no longer build Pikemen.
• Army unit gets Blitz and Zone of Control abilities.

Techs

• Military tradition base cost is now 68 (was 60).
• Rocketry base cost is now 240 (was 260).
• Fission base cost is now 280 (was 300).
• Computing base cost is now 260 (was 280).
• Space Flight base cost is now 300 (was 320).
• Nuclear Power base cost is now 280 (was 300).
• Superconductor base cost is now 300 (was 320).
• Miniaturisation base cost is now 320 (was 340).
• Synthetic Fibres base cost is now 280 (was 300).
• Satellites base cost is now 260 (was 280).
• Laser base cost is now 280 (was 300).
• Genetics base cost is now 320 (was 360).
• Stealth base cost is now 300 (was 320).
• Smart Weapons base cost is now 280 (was 300).
• Robotics base cost is now 320 (was 360).
• Integrated Defense base cost is now 360 (was 380).

 

[Shaitan]

Great job, Nero. Thanks!

I don't suppose you've got a list of the changes from 1.07 to 1.16?

 

[msrsb]

> Army unit gets Blitz and Zone of Control abilities.

What exactly is the Blitz ability?

 

[Shaitan]

Originally posted by msrsb
> Army unit gets Blitz and Zone of Control abilities.

What exactly is the Blitz ability?

Blitz allows the unit to continue attacking when it has movement points left. Now when you have tanks in an army they should be able to use their multiple attacks.

 

[Sirian]

40 turns is excessive, even more so for the draft than the whip.

The draft penalty was already TOO HIGH at 20 turns (the Civilopedia said 10, which sounds just about right), just that the Overriding Contentment rendered the penalty meaningless in specific situations, where the draft could be exploited to churn out a ton of free units.

If this is correct, it's the first disappointing news I've seen out of the patch, which otherwise has been very exciting. It relegates the draft to pointlessness now. Just fixing the overriding contentment flaw would have done the job, closing the loopholes. This... looks bad. One extreme to the other.

What's even worse than the penalty in your own cities, is the penalty added to captured AI cities when they draft. This is only going to encourage even more razing, since who is going to want to inherit a city plagued by leftover draft/whip unhappiness from AI actions -- unhappiness which is NEVER going to go away now.

And I have to wonder if the AI's can stay afloat now once they go into whip frenzy. They are pretty much going to be forever worthless thereafter, with this new double penalty, if they even once slip to communism and whip/draft for some war they've gotten into.

Arrgh.


- Sirian

 

[Nero Would]

Originally posted by Shaitan
Great job, Nero. Thanks!

I don't suppose you've got a list of the changes from 1.07 to 1.16?

There is a list of the undocumented changes from 1.07 to 1.16 in <a href="http://apolyton.net/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=37330">this thread on Apolyton</a> (I thought there was one on CivFanatics too, but I couldn't find it).

 

[loki]

I will probably revert the changes concerning the localization of resources. Plains are now essentially useless to settle if they don't have aluminium.
Thanks for the tips

loki

 

[Magnus]

Query:

If an army may now blitz, can it blitz only if it is filled with units that can blitz, or can an army of 3 horsemen blitz, since it has 2 movement? If it could, think about how it could affect ancient warfare!

 

[msrsb]

Originally posted by Magnus
Query:

If an army may now blitz, can it blitz only if it is filled with units that can blitz, or can an army of 3 horsemen blitz, since it has 2 movement? If it could, think about how it could affect ancient warfare!

Horsemen can't attack more than once in every turn anyway, so this blitz command is only really important when it comes to Moderm Armor, the only unit able to do multiple attacks AFAIK.

 

[Alexnm]

Nero: nice work.

Sirian: I'm also worried about how will the AI react to these changes. I fear that it might be even more crippled than it is now due to its bad management (Soren, you did a wonderful job, but no AI will ever manage their cities like a human can do). I'll have to play with the new patch to see how it works.

(I think I'll say to my boss that I'm sick and go home... but I'll still have to download the patch... using a 33K modem... )

 

[Dirk Aurel]

Thanks Nero

As for Blitz,well I approve of this adjustment,my only problem is that Mech Inf doesn´t Blitz afaik.Think I will change Mech Inf to Blitz aswell,an army only consisting of tanks to keep Blitz ability sounds silly,Mech Inf is faster than classic tanks anyway.

Great Lightouse 300 hmm,that´s not much,will see how it works in game.

Agree with Loki on aluminium in plains,what are plains good for???

Last thing that makes me wonder is the defense against bombardment~16.Sounds a bit high to me...Bombing cities to rubble was bit too easy,but 16...hmm.Hope to hear from others how this effects the game´s bombardment units.

 

[zzcczz]

Originally posted by msrsb


... so this blitz command is only really important when it comes to Moderm Armor

Don't forget about calvary... they can now attack more than once in an army.

Also, I noticed that when you sue for peace and get a few cities, none of them come with a free defender anymore . Now you have to quickly rush units over to these new spoils or risk loosing them back to the civ that gave them to you!

 

[Dirk Aurel]

Originally posted by zzcczz


Don't forget about calvary... they can now attack more than once in an army...

Hold it Mr zzcczz,are you telling me that it doesn´t matter if the unit has Blitz capability or not,merging that 2+ move unit into an army will give it Blitz?Are you sure?

Doesn´t it rather "support" Blitz now if the units already have it...

 

[royfurr]

Hmmm, havn't yet played with the new patch (WAY to deep into a game with 1.16f, GOTTA contine that for a while ...). So I'm not sure, but-

Blitz for ancient unit armies, will help in ancient conquest, of course. But boosting the defense against bombardment will greatly weaken an already frustratingly weak unit, catapults. I ofen have stacks of 15+ "cats" attacking cities and get a dozen or more in a row "bombardment failed". In my current game I didn't have the single Horse resourse on my continent, so had to resort to Swordsmen and cats to war against the Egyptians with the War Chariot (THANK GOD IT WAS THE EGYPTIANS AND *NOT* THE IROQUOIS!!). With even higher bombardment defense ....

Seems like this will help mounted attack nations, in ancient times especially, despite the variable chance of retreat, relative to other methods (combined arms bombardment attack aproach) of capturing cities. Especially Militaristic ones, with their greater chances of Leaders/Armies.

Still, it helps city defense, thus makes warfare more expensive and challenging ... unless you have an Army ... with mounted units.

Or am I mistaken, someone said something about Horse not having multiple attack abilties???

 

[Dodgy Geezer]

re: units that can blitz and the patch in general

I am sure that I have managed to blitz with a tank (not MA). I think to do so you have to win the first attack, and move onto the square in question. If you retreat due to multiple defenders, it seems to count as two moves, hence you can't blitz.

Having adopted the patch halfway thru' a game, my immediate impression is that cities are now much harder to take - a combination of the improved resistance to bombardment and the horse unit having a chance of no-retreat. What really irritates is the way that conscript riflemen end up becoming elite when I try to take a city with infantry/cavalry. Promotion seems to happen that little bit to often, even if the defender is not a militaristic civ.

The J command (the goto (jump?) for all units at a location) works as specified but I can't help thinking that it should leave fortified units behind. I have a stack of infantry and want to move then, and end up having to move a single one back to the original location as the defender.

Haven't really noticed the pop rush limitation as I try not to do it anyway.

Finally, I have a sneaking suspicion that the AI is now a little bit more dodgy. Will need to play a few more games to be sure though.

 

[Shaitan]

Just verified this - multi movement units do not gain a blitz ability simply because they are in an army. I haven't yet verified that units WITH a blitz ability can indeed blitz when in an army.

 

[Dirk Aurel]

Thanks for clearifying it Shaitan,I have checked it now;


Units without Blitz capability will not Blitz only because they are in an army now....

Nor will an army Blitz which has (at least) one unit that can´t Blitz.

As for Blitz armies,yes this works,just make it only consist of units with Bitz ability (Tank,Panzer,Modern Armor,sorry if i missed one)


On my part I have now given Mech Inf the ability to Blitz.This is justified by modern Mech Inf being more mobile than for instance tanks.Since the Mech Inf´s attack value ain´t too high it doesn´t have that much of an impact.

That´s it...

 

[zzcczz]

Originally posted by Dirk Aurel


Hold it Mr zzcczz,are you telling me that it doesn´t matter if the unit has Blitz capability or not,merging that 2+ move unit into an army will give it Blitz?Are you sure?

Doesn´t it rather "support" Blitz now if the units already have it...

That's what I'm saying

If you have a calvary army with movement points left after the first attack, they can attack again. Believe me, it was a real shocker, buty I like it

 

[royfurr]

quote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Originally posted by Dirk Aurel


Hold it Mr zzcczz,are you telling me that it doesn´t matter if the unit has Blitz capability or not,merging that 2+ move unit into an army will give it Blitz?Are you sure?

Doesn´t it rather "support" Blitz now if the units already have it...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Originally posted by zzcczz


That's what I'm saying

If you have a calvary army with movement points left after the first attack, they can attack again. Believe me, it was a real shocker, buty I like it

Mr. zzcczz,
Is it possible that you've yourself, (or you are using), a file thats been modded to give Calvary the blitz ability, which they normally lack?

If not, and if now Blitz capable armis can do so if they have a multi-movement unit contained, then putting even a Horsemen into an Army will really streghthen ancient armies attacking. I had the impression from Shaitan and Dirk Aurel in the posts above yours that this was not so (NOT: multi-movement units like
Horsemen, in Armies, now the Army can actually blitz) ...

Shaitan and Dirk Aurel, you guys tested this? What were your conditions (Horse or Calvary ect? All units in the army where of these types with NO slow units, or some slow units?? etc)

Oh we're really having fun now ...

 

[Ed Cogburn]

Originally posted by Nero Would

Game gives +2 food (was +1).

Gives +2 food where?

Barbarians are allowed build all units except civ unique units (before they were only allowed Warriers, Horsemen and Galleys). I haven't checked to see if they really do build them.

I've seen warriors, horsemen and galleys but nothing else so far.