ICS? Icey No!

[PieceOfMind]

I'm not going to be able to work on this mod over the next week or so. However Dale now has a related thread/mod:
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?p=9929671#post9929671

 

[Louis XXIV]

Dale might have thought of the simplest solution. Looks quite interesting, at least in theory.

 

[PieceOfMind]

Recent additions to the patch (but not yet released):

Thanks for the heads-up, Greg.

Just for the sake of convenience, I copied the additional changes added in 12/3 update and pasted the list below. (This is not the complete list, only the most recent additions.)


AI
•AI will be more aggressive about pursuing Diplo victory if they are wealthy. (Added 12/3)
•AI more effective with building, moving, and using aircraft and anti-aircraft more effectively. (Added 12/3)
•AI more likely to effectively use siege units in a city attack. (Added 12/3)
•Better nuke targeting by AI. (Added 12/3)
•Tactical AI Tuning: Reduce chance of AI civs making "suicide" attacks. (Added 12/3)
•Multiple tweaks and bug fixes. (Added 12/3)


GAMEPLAY
•Increased city strength ramp-up based on technology. (Added 12/3)
•Catapults and Trebuchets now weaker against units but stronger VS cities, and reduced effectiveness of Archers & Crossbowmen (and their UUs) VS cities. (Added 12/3)
•Have culture cost for policies never go down (trading away cities to reduce culture cost exploit). (Added 12/3)
•Reduced effects of Forbidden Palace and Meritocracy (Happiness per city). (Added 12/3)
•Reduced points from Wonders & Cities, increased points for population. (Added 12/3)
•Reduced culture needed for first plot acquisition. (Added 12/3)
•New Building: Circus Maximus (National Wonder for happiness track). (Added 12/3)
•New Building: National Treasury (National Wonder for economic track). (Added 12/3)
•Unhappiness beyond a certain point breeds rebels within your empire, based on the number of cities a player has. (Added 12/3)
•Reduced amount of food needed for cities to grow at larger sizes. (Added 12/3)
•Tradition branch balance (Landed Elite and Monarchy improvements). (Added 12/3)
•Liberty branch balance (Settler training bonus now only applies to capital). (Added 12/3)
•Buildings can now no longer provide more Happiness than there is population in a city (wonders are excluded from this). (Added 12/3)
•3 new additional Natural Wonders added to gameplay, with accompanying “rarity” code. (Added 12/3)
•Multiple Tech Tree tweaks to address “slingshot” tech exploits. (Added 12/3)
•Killing a barb inside a city-state's territory now gives a 5-turn buffer where there is no Influence intrusion penalty. (Added 12/3)
•Reduced and balanced combat bonuses. (Added 12/3)


UI
•Additional updates to the Global Politics screen. (Added 12/3)
•Added game option to disable turn-blocking promotions and policy choices. (Added 12/3)


DIPLO
•Additional AI attitude tool-tips for cases that were not already covered. (Added 12/3)


MODDING
•Support for mods that perform major restructuring of the tech tree including adding, deleting, and updating techs, buildings, and units. (Added 12/3)
•Added GameEvents system for overriding Gameplay DLL specific functionality. (Added 12/3)
•Fixed "Reload Landmark System" mod flag to now refresh landmarks defined in "ArtDefine_Landmarks". (Added 12/3)
•Multiple SDK Updates (details to come with full patch notes). (Added 12/3)

Good to see they're trying to address ICS at least a bit. I wonder how it will go.

 

[alpaca]

Depends on how much they nerf Meritocracy and the FP. Local happiness puts a hard cap on the number of cities you can have. If the policies still add something like +2 happiness per city you can still ICS. Freedom should deliver, so I doubt the changes will stop ICS. They will make it a bit less effective, though.

It makes Theocracy more interesting in ICS for +0.8 happiness per 4-pop city. This makes Rationalism, impossible, though, so I'm not sure it's the best choice.

 

[Txurce]

It makes Theocracy more interesting in ICS for +0.8 happiness per 4-pop city. This makes Rationalism, impossible, though, so I'm not sure it's the best choice.

If you're not sure, the developers have succeeded in improving the game!

 

[alpaca]

If you're not sure, the developers have succeeded in improving the game!

Actually I will be sure after some thinking about it: It depends on other factors in the patch. If library only has 1 sci slot, Rationalism is definitely the better choice.

 

[PieceOfMind]

Some interesting notes in the next patch to come:

BALANCE CHANGES

Game Rules

• Cities must now have three or more tiles in between them (1 more tile than before), unless separated by a sea/coast tile.
• Cities now only get 1 free production and 0 free gold (1 less in both cases)
• Trade routes get bonus gold based on population of capital; formula changed a bit so minimal gold received for hooking up very small cities
• Bonus production from excess food (used when building settlers) tapers off if excess is 3 or more.
• Allied maritime city states provide 3 food per turn to the capital, not 4
• Balance pass on production and maintenance costs throughout the game.

source: http://forums.2kgames.com/showthread.php?104604-February-Patch-Notes

There are heaps of other fairly noteworthy changes to gameplay. Many of them would also be relevant to the countering of ICS.

Discussion of new patch in gen discussions.

 

[Jhael]

Also, other per-city effects like Order's crazy +5 production per city are causing people to build massive empires and see ridiculous benefits.

+1 production per 2 citizens in a city instead? Or even less? +1 for 3 citizens? With a maximum cap of +5 would be probably best to add so it doesn't get insane at some point...Like my tendency to build cities of size 40 and greater

 

[nukehumvee]

I always make sure each city gets their own 36 tiles.
Anyways, does this mod affect the AI? Because the AI tends to spam cities when I'm not looking.

 

[PieceOfMind]

This mod doesn't touch the AI, though it could behave differently when playing the mod.

Do note, by the way, this mod was written for a much earlier version of the game, and since then there have been many major rule changes to the game to curb (or at least change) ICS. I'm no longer working on this mod, but I might revisit it later. Honestly I don't think this mod is necessary anymore, though anyone is welcome to use it for ideas.