Improved 1UPT (One Unit Per Tile)

[jaldaen]

Improved 1UPT (v.1)
by Joseph Miller

-1- Description
-2- Potential Mod Conflicts
-3- Version History
-4- Credits
-5- Contact information

== Description ==

This mod is designed to improve the 1UPT (One Unit Per Tile) mechanic in Civ 5.

Reasons for changes:
I added +1 movement to the units in order to help mitigate the traffic jams that AI Units (especially allies) can create when
they sit on rough terrain without a road. The additional movement allows passage through them (as long as one of the tiles on
the other side of the unit remains open). Since I gave in increase in movement to all units, that meant I needed decrease the
movement bonuses of roads and railroads and increase unit sight range. I also needed to increase the city's sight and bombard
range. More changes to come as playtesting continues.

== Potential Mod Conflicts ==

Since I changed the base movement of units, this mod will conflict with other movement changing mods. Known conflicts include:
db0's Large Scale mod.

If someone does experience a conflict, then please let me know so that I can make a note of the conflict here.

== Version History ==

Version .1:
*Added extra movement to all units (including embarked units) to help avoid 1UPT traffic jams caused by the AI.
*Lowered the road and rail road movement modifiers.
*Increased city and unit sight range.
*Increased city bombardment range.
*Increased minimum distance between cities to 3.

== Credits ==

db0 for letting me look at his Large Scale Mod code so that I could understand how to code the globals.
Thalassicus for the Modder's Starter Package template.

== Contact information ==

I can be contacted via PM on the civfanatics forum. My user name is: jaldaen.

The file can be found via the in-game browser, but you can also find it below:

 

[jaldaen]

<Reserved>

 

[jaldaen]

This will be the official place to discuss the Improved 1UPT mod. Please feel free to make comments, suggestions, and point out problems. I'm open to revising this mod and expanding it if there are good ideas for improving the 1UPT that are reasonably modest and don't require a master coder (which I'm not).

Anyways, I hope you enjoy this mod and look forward to your feedback.

Good Gaming,
Joseph

 

[jaldaen]

To prompt discussion here are some observations from my play throughs with this and similar mods:

1) Settlers move 3, which allows for a little more leeway with starting locations, but also leads to faster expansion. Is this a problem or do you like this feature? Why or why not?
2) Scouts move 3, which makes for much faster exploration. Is this a problem for you or do you like this feature? Why or why not?
3) Workers move 3, which makes for speedy improvements. Is this a problem for you or do you like this feature? Why or why not?
4) Barbarians move faster and can really wreck your day if you don't keep someone around to protect your workers/improvements. Is this a problem for you or do you like this feature? Why or why not?
5) Some of the mounted UU's move 6 now, is that too much in your experience, your does the increased speed of biped units make up for this increase? If you don't like mounted units moving 6, then what extra benefit could I give to the Companion Cavalry, Sapahi, and War Chariots that would make up for their decreased speed when compared to biped units?
6) The Americans get a sight range of 3 due to the changes to the rules. Is this too much or do you think it's fine since it's the civ's trait? If it's too much, then do you have any suggestions for replacements for the extra sight range the Americans recieved?

There are other questions I could ask, but these are a good starting point. I'll post more when I have the time to do so.

Thanks,
Joseph

 

[jaldaen]

After doing some thinking about 1UPT and some of the concerns people are having with it, I have come up with a list of various approaches that could help improve the current system (or completely overhaul it).

Here's some of my ideas (not all of them are great, but I figured I'd toss out my thoughts and hope that feedback could get me going in the right direction):

Modest Improvements (These are improvements that might be easy to make... or impossible depending on what XML allows):
1) Create an "Opportunity Fire" action for ranged units, this would act differently from Fortify (and might even replace the button or have it's own button). Essentially, if the unit was attacked, then it would get a "first strike" attack. (Note very useful against Japan, unless you kill the unit outright). Any thoughts about how to make this work? Or even if it's a good idea?
2) Change modern era gunpowder units (musketmen make sense as "melee" units due to inaccuracy of their weapons) to have ranged attacks, but still be able to conquer cities. This would increase "realism," when facing outdated units, but the question is... Is it worth the change?
3) Allow embarked units to stack with naval units. Essentially, set the units so that they are considered "civilian" unit they disembark, this addresses the issue of tiremes ravaging embarked units because you can't adequately protect them from other naval units without creating an unnecessarily large naval escort.
4) Alternative to #3: increase zones of controll for naval units so that a "screening force" can be used to keep enemy ships at bay.
5) Civilian units able to stack with AI Ally units so that an AI unit can't keep you from improving a certain tile. This would also help to avoid the AI blocking wooded hills, which I think technically require three moves to pass through (though I'll have to check this in-game) by allowing you to build a road on that hex.
6) (Thanks to Josh at the 2Kforums) An alternative to #2, change ancient and medieval range units to have a range of 1 and keep gunpowder units to "melee." Also perhaps give ancient and medieval ranged units a penalty to attacking modern gunpowder units to make up for their ability to "bombard" gunpowder units from range. Or perhaps there is another way to balance the archer vs. rifleman/infantry set up... if you have an idea, then let me know.

Complex Improvements (These would be great, but they'd require a lot of time and coding to do properly and might be impossible depending upon what the XML can handle):
7) Make Units Armies/Fleets/Air Groups with promotions as a way to modify the base army. For example, you build a warband in the ancient era. When it is produced you can add a certain number of "promotions" to the warband. If you have archery, then the army gains a range attack (1 hex range) and voila! It's a warband with archers. If you spent all your promotions on archery, then it'd essentially act as an archer unit. The problem with this approach is that it'd be gutting the current unit system in favor of something more complex. In addition, you'd need to find a way to make each civilizations army have some kind of flavor they could add to it. Not impossible, but definitely a longer term project.
8) Improve the AI's use of 1UPT tactics. I'm not certain how much I could do here since I've never attempted programming AI, but this would also help improve the 1UPT system.

So what are your thoughts on these ideas? Are any of them more or less appealing to you? If so, then why or why not?

Thanks,
Joseph

 

[db0]

Just to point out that if you used my code for modifying movement, our mods*will* conflict and both will increase the movement by 1 in turn, resulting in moves of 4 for most units

 

[riban]

Hey,

This sounds pretty good I wish to check it out, could you post it here as some of us are still on dial up

 

[jaldaen]

Just to point out that if you used my code for modifying movement, our mods*will* conflict and both will increase the movement by 1 in turn, resulting in moves of 4 for most units

Good point! Although I didn't use your SQL (I did it through XML), it'd still cause additional movement. I'll make it clearer in the readme... and in this thread.

 

[jaldaen]

Riban,

I'm glad you like the sound of this mod. I've uploaded it to the Civfanatics Downloads area and added a link to the file in the first post.

Enjoy,
Joseph

 

[Baleur]

Screenshots!
lol j/k, nice job

 

[Huck Finn]

I like this mod, are you still working on it Jaldaen?

 

[jaldaen]

Huck Finn,

Yes, I've been focused on my Portugal mod for the last week waiting for further feedback from people playing the 1UPT mod. So if you have any feedback, then feel free to post it here as I'd love to know what's working/not working with the mod and how I might make it better. Posts #4 & 5 have some thoughts about the mod and its possible future. I'd love to know what you think of my ideas.

 

[snipperrabbit!!]

Personnally, I think it'll be better to add another layer of distinctiveness between units :

PRIMARY
AUXILIARY
CIVILIAN
NAVAL
AIR

where melee, gunpowder, armored are primary forces ie with precedence to defend the tile while archery, siege, mounted & recon are auxiliaries.

In regard to embarkation, I dislike how it is currently implemented in the game. My idea is to keep their strength but lower their HP to 2 (except for Askia) : this way barbarian ships have to end their turn (maybe with some damage taken as well) to sink an embarked unit and are then exposed to retaliation.

 

[davbenbak]

I like the unit labels (ranged attack, melee attack, worker, general) idea as well. I wish the rule was no two of the same type in a hex so that you could stack some units together or atleast let them pass through each other. The road blocks/traffic jams are annoying. I think that would help more than extra movement.