LeeS
Imperator
- This thread has gotten a little disjointed with feedback and other comments, so as opportunity permits I will be adding some navigation links to this opening post to where additional info will be made available, such as changes to the mod when Enlightenment Era is also active
For a more integrated gameplay experience, check out the No More TechTree Beelining mod: No More Tech Tree Beelining
What the Mod Does:
- Adds 9 Building-Lines to the Game
- A player can construct and use an individual building from within one of these lines of buildings in their cities during a specifc era or couple of eras, but when they progress to a next era they would have to build a 'better' version from the same line of buildings, and the previous building from the earlier era(s) will become obsolete (ie, not function anymore) at some point during that new era.
- You can of course try to 'game' this obsolescence mechanic by tech tree beelining and thereby avoiding altogether the tech that makes the Ancient-Era 'Food' Building (for example) go obsolete, but this will be somewhat of a corner-case exploit because as soon as you beeline to a new era, you cannot build the old eras' buildings anyway. At most, you'd probably only get this extra benefit from an 'outdated' building in one or two cities if you use the usual tech tree beelining strategy.
- Buildings that become available with a new era are unlocked by a dummy tech that is given when the player advances to the next era.
- Buildings that are replaced by newer better versions go obsolete soon after a player enters the era that unlocks the new replacement building, but this obsoleting effect is tied to a specific tech within the new era, thereby giving a player a chance to upgrade to the new version of the building in cities where the old version exists before the effects of the old building dissipate via obsolescence.
- Having the older version of a building-line within an individual city allows the player a discount on the hammer and gold cost of constructing or buying the new version of the building-line within that same city so long as this upgrade is done during the Era in which the newer version is effective.
- As a player progresses through the game's Eras, the effects of the buildings are enhanced.
- So, for the "City-Growth" line of buildings:
- The Ancient Era Version of the "City-Growth" building (called a Storage Hut) gives +1 Food to the city, and modifies Total City Food Yield by +5%.
- The Classical Era Version of the "City-Growth" building (called a Cold Cellars) gives +2 Food to the city, and modifies Total City Food Yield by +5%.
- The Medieval Era Version of the "City-Growth" building (called a Farmer's Market) gives +3 Food to the city, and modifies Total City Food Yield by +5% (6% if Tradition has been adopted).
- The Renaissance Era Version of the "City-Growth" building (called a Stock Yard) gives +3 Food to the city, and modifies Total City Food Yield by +5% (8% if Tradition has been adopted).
- The Industrial Era Version of the "City-Growth" building (called a Cannery) gives +3 Food to the city, and modifies Total City Food Yield by +5% (10% if Tradition has been adopted).
- The Modern Era Version of the "City-Growth" building (called a Refrigeration Facility) gives +3 Food to the city, and modifies Total City Food Yield by +5% (12% if Tradition has been adopted).
- The Atomic Era Version of the "City-Growth" building (called a Hydroponics Plant) gives +4 Food to the city, and modifies Total City Food Yield by +5% (14% if Tradition has been adopted).
- The Information Era Version of the "City-Growth" building (called a Food Replicator) gives +4 Food to the city, and modifies Total City Food Yield by +5% (16% if Tradition has been adopted).
- So, for the "City-Growth" line of buildings:
- Old Versions of the same "Building-Line" go obsolete, as mentioned before, and although there is a slight overlap between when a new version from within the Building-Line becomes available and when the old version goes obsolete, as a general rule there is only ever one building from within a Building-Line active within one city at any one time.
- The exception to this 'Obsoleting' of the buildings is the Happiness line of buildings. The outdated versions are no longer buildable, but they never actually become obsolete and stop functioning.
- The exception for the happiness buildings was made because otherwise advancing into a new Era meant an instant and nearly irrecoverable happiness hit as soon as the new Era's tech that obsoleted the happiness buildings was researched.
- This was especially true when using the happiness buildings in one's cities in order to expand and play a little wider than normal, or to grow cities larger earlier when following a 'tall' strategy
- The effects of old versions go obsolete when specific techs within the new era are discovered. The layout of the building-lines and their obsolescence within new eras is such that nearly all the "1st Row" technologies from within a new era will make one or other of these older-era building-versions go obsolete.
- So, when you enter the Medieval Era, the following old versions of the Building-Lines go Obsolete from discovering the following Techs:
Building-Line Tech
Military Buildings Metal-Casting
City-Growth Buildings Guilds
City-Science Buildings Theology
City-Production/Building-Production Buildings Civil Service
Naval Unit-Production Buildings Metal-Casting - Tables showing all the Era-Building-Tech 'Obsoletings':
Spoiler :
- So, when you enter the Medieval Era, the following old versions of the Building-Lines go Obsolete from discovering the following Techs:
- Each of the Building-Lines 'synergizes' with one of the game's Policy Branches
- The Synergy between a policy branch and a building-line is of two basic kinds:
- Faster Construction of the Buildings within the Building-Line:
- Opening the policy branch allows generally 15-20% faster production of the building-line within a city
- Adopting the policies within the branch bumps the construction by an additional 5% for each policy in the branch
- Finishing the policy branch bumps the construction by an additional 20%
- The primary exception is the science line of buildings, which are only speeded when the Rationalism Policy Branch has been completed.
- Adopting and Finishing the Policy-Branch grant extra yields to a city with the building, or modify total city yields similar to the way a University is enhanced by adopting the Free Thought Policy within Rationalism.
- Faster Construction of the Buildings within the Building-Line:
- Where the Policy Branch is not unlocked until a later era, the 'synergy' only takes effect on those versions of the Building-Line that can be built in or after the Era that unlocks the Policy Branch.
- Building-Lines and Policy-Branch Synergy
Building-Line Policy Branch Minimum Era Requirement
Military Buildings Honor Ancient
Equestrian / Armor Buildings --- ---
City-Faith Buildings Piety Medieval
City-Growth Buildings Tradition Ancient
City-Production/Production Buildings Commerce Modern
City-Happiness Buildings Aesthetics Medieval
City-Science Buildings Rationalism Renaissance
City-Production/Building-Production Buildings Commerce Medieval
Naval Unit-Production Buildings Exploration Renaissance
- When you enter a new era, and a new version of a building becomes available, each city will have one of two options for each of the building-lines:
- If the city has the previous-era's version of the building, then in that city you build an Upgrade version of the building at a reduced-hammers-cost. You can also elect to purchase the Upgrade version of the building, and the gold costs will be reduced.
- If the city does not have the previous-era's version of the building, then in that city you build the Basic version of the building. You can also elect to purchase the Basic version of the building.
- As an example, here is the city Washington after using IGE top progress to the Medieval Era. In this image my choice in the city of Washington for the Military line of buildings is the Basic version of the Tactical School because Washington does not already have the Ancient Era's Warrior's School building:
Spoiler :
If I then use IGE to give Washington the Warrior's school building, my city choice for the Tactical School changes to the Upgrade version of the Tactical School (and note that between the two images the Upgrade version is less expensive in terms of hammers):
Spoiler :
- The Synergy between a policy branch and a building-line is of two basic kinds:
- The lines of Buildings:
- Military Buildings
- Used to enhance the production speed, combat power, and XP of Melee and Gunpowder units.
Spoiler : - Equestrian / Armor Buildings
- Used to enhance the production speed and combat power of mounted and armor units.
Spoiler : - City-Faith Buildings
- Used to increase a city's Faith generation, and also gives small boosts to local happiness and city culture. The city must already have a Temple-Class building in order to construct any of these.
Spoiler : - City-Growth Buildings
- Used to increase a city's food generation.
Spoiler : - City-Production/Production Buildings
- Increases a city's Production. A Factory-Class building is required to construct any of these buildings
Spoiler : - City-Happiness Buildings
- Used to increase a City's Happiness. Primary Happiness Effects are local to the city, but if the Aesthetics Branch is completed, Global Happiness will be added. If the player adopts the Aesthetics Policy Branch, small culture boosts are added from having these buildings in a city.
Spoiler : - City-Science Buildings
- Increaes the city's science. The buildings add small direct amounts of science to the city, and % increases to overall city science output. If the player has completed the Rationalism Policy Branch, these buildings will make additional percentage modifcation to total city Science Yields.
Spoiler : - City-Production/Building-Production Buildings
- Adds a production percentage increase to constructing buildings in the city, and adds a small number of hammers. If the Commerce Policy Branch is Adopted, these buildings will add an additional small number of hammers directly to the city's base production. Finishing the Commerce policy branch adds additional small numbers of hammers to the city.
Spoiler : - Coastal City/Naval Unit-Production Buildings
- Increases the Production-Rate of Naval Units in the city, and adds a few hammers directly to city production yields. If the Exploration Policy Branch is adopted, the rate of naval-unit-production is increased further, and newly-created naval units will also be 'born' with more experience. The buildings allowed in the later Eras allow more unit-XP based on which policies within Exploration the player has adopted, and which of the later Eras the building fits-into.
Spoiler :
- Military Buildings
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AI Balancing Issues:
- City-Staes and Barbarians are never able to construct any of the buildings introduced by this mod.
- The AI is not able to rationaly determine whether or not Building-X will become obsolete soon after it is completed. Nor is the AI able to understand that soon it will advance into the next era, and the Building-X it is currently about to finish in City-X will have to be upgraded to a newer and better version of Building-X within a matter of two or three turns of completing Building-X in City-X. The AI simply has no code written to "think ahead". The result is that the AI gets itself 'stuck' constructing and re-constructing Building-X, then Building-X1, then Building-X2, especially in expand cities with essentially no production.
- This creates an exploit for and in favor of the human player.
- To address this issue, when the AI player advances to a new Era, the mod inspects all of the AI player's cities. If the AI city has one of this mod's buildings, then a RNG dice-roll is made to determine whether the AI city should get the Next-Better-Version of Building-X in that individual city for free.
- Each such building in each AI-player city makes its own individual RNG 'dice-roll'.
- Each Era is given its own "percentage chance" requirement such that when the AI advances to the Classical Era, they have a 95% chance that each upgradable building within a city will be upgraded, but by the time they advance into the Future Era, the chance is 65%.
Era AI Chance %
Ancient N/A
Classical 95
Medieval 90
Renaissance 85
Industrial 80
Modern 75
Atomic 70
Information 65
- BTW, this here is in miniature a capsule summary of the whole cheating cheating AI bonuses issue. I used to be a member of that club -- not so much any more after running into essentially the same issues. We as a mod-making and mod-using community just have to hold out hope that if there ever is a CIV6 they'll try to build a better AI.
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Advancing to New Eras:
- When you advance to a new era, you are given a dummy technology that does not show within the tech tree.
- This era-specific dummy technology acts as the 'unlocker' for that era's buildings
- As soon as you advance to the new era, the mod inspects the city-production qeues of all cities in your empire, and rebuilds them if necessary to replace the previous-era's building with the new era's building if any of the previous-era's buildings are in an individual-city's production qeue. Any hammers towards any of these buildings are preserved and applied directly to the production needed for the new-era's building. This occurs both for human and AI players.
- Since the buildings introduced by this mod are generally unlocked by these era-specific dummy technologies, the buildings do not show in the tech tree. The buildings do show in the civilopedia.
- Dummy Era-Specific Techs:
- Classical Era:
Spoiler : - Medieval Era:
Spoiler : - Renaissance Era:
Spoiler : - Industrial Era:
Spoiler : - Modern Era:
Spoiler : - Atomic Era:
Spoiler : - Information Era:
Spoiler :
- Classical Era:
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You're a legend my friend I just updated my game and everything seems to be working again, didn't realise the oct and dec updates where all that important, I thought they were cosmetic only, my bad, anyways
lol. we'll see how a war of attrition plays out could be quite interesting 
