The goal of this mod is to leave the shape of Civ4-Warlords intact, but change lots of the details that break the game balance.
I've written most of it.
A> Revamp Withdrawl and Collateral damage.
Withdrawl is boosted significantly, and Collateral damage and Collateral Damage units are reduced. This means that combat consists of Collateral to soften units up a bit, then Withdraw units to reduce your casualties, and then finally your hard-hitting stack-cracking units.
Overall, this makes attacking with single types of units far less practical. It also boosts the value of the Flanking and Drill promotions (which where quite poor, yet the AI purchased them quite often).
See:
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=212676
This component is completed.
B> Revamp pre-gunpowder units.
Every unit from Warrior up to the Knight is reworked and rebalanced.
Amoung other things, the Axe/Maceman is not god, UUs are balanced around an increased power and cost, and Horseback Riding is very much worth researching.
See:
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=227227
This component is done, but might need more tweaking.
C> Barbarian Invasions.
The ancient era is more dangerous. Barbarian densities and animal densities are knocked way up, and are often strong enough to overrun entire NPC civilizations.
I want to fold in a "Barbarian Settlement" system into the game as well, from the Revolution mod, without adding in the other components. This means when the Barbarians lay claim to entire continents, they will settle down and form civilizations.
See:
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=208934
for the effects of boosting the strength and number of Barbarians.
D> Technology Spreading changes.
Most technologies are split into two halves -- THEORY and APPLICATION. You cannot trade the application.
See:
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=213763
for how I split techs.
Second, technology is made more expensive.
Third, the "tech boost" from knowing someone who has a technology is increased.
This creates a natural technological diffusion, and makes playing keep-up easier.
Rebalancing of the "more expensive" and "tech boost" components needs work, but this is done other than that.
E> AI changes.
I've been poking around Blake's AI, and am planning on changing the Power function that is at the core of many AI decisions. This will make the AI smarter about knowing who it can crush, and who it should fear, by reflecting in-game power more accurately.
This component isn't finished.
F> Economic Changes.
This one hasn't been started yet. The plan is to encourage players and AI to maintain a bank balance.
Gold in the bank will generate both INTEREST and INFLATION.
The amount of gold you need to get max INTEREST will be roughly half of the cost of a current technology.
There will then be a small grace zone in which you gain no more interest.
Past the grace zone, you start getting INFLATION for having money in the bank.
The benefits of this:
More AIs will have money to buy/sell technology.
Cheesy player tactics involving "build up a huge horde" then "burn it doing a tonne of research", which can generate non-trivial advantages, are less viable.
For this to work, I need to teach the AI how to deal with it.
I need to display the changes.
Finally, I need to balance the amount of income you can get.
G> Goodie huts.
The cash benefit and map benefits of Goodie huts needs to scale with tech research speed. As it stands cash and maps are much better on high-speed games, and useless on low-speed games.
This is just something I want to do, haven't looked into fixing it yet.
...
How is that for a plan? I believe I can execute it -- sadly, I don't know if I'll be able to finish it before BTS!
I hope to be able to post a playable beta by this weekend. I just want to do a few more tweaks and get the first of my AI changes in.
I've written most of it.
A> Revamp Withdrawl and Collateral damage.
Withdrawl is boosted significantly, and Collateral damage and Collateral Damage units are reduced. This means that combat consists of Collateral to soften units up a bit, then Withdraw units to reduce your casualties, and then finally your hard-hitting stack-cracking units.
Overall, this makes attacking with single types of units far less practical. It also boosts the value of the Flanking and Drill promotions (which where quite poor, yet the AI purchased them quite often).
See:
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=212676
This component is completed.
B> Revamp pre-gunpowder units.
Every unit from Warrior up to the Knight is reworked and rebalanced.
Amoung other things, the Axe/Maceman is not god, UUs are balanced around an increased power and cost, and Horseback Riding is very much worth researching.
See:
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=227227
This component is done, but might need more tweaking.
C> Barbarian Invasions.
The ancient era is more dangerous. Barbarian densities and animal densities are knocked way up, and are often strong enough to overrun entire NPC civilizations.
I want to fold in a "Barbarian Settlement" system into the game as well, from the Revolution mod, without adding in the other components. This means when the Barbarians lay claim to entire continents, they will settle down and form civilizations.
See:
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=208934
for the effects of boosting the strength and number of Barbarians.
D> Technology Spreading changes.
Most technologies are split into two halves -- THEORY and APPLICATION. You cannot trade the application.
See:
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=213763
for how I split techs.
Second, technology is made more expensive.
Third, the "tech boost" from knowing someone who has a technology is increased.
This creates a natural technological diffusion, and makes playing keep-up easier.
Rebalancing of the "more expensive" and "tech boost" components needs work, but this is done other than that.
E> AI changes.
I've been poking around Blake's AI, and am planning on changing the Power function that is at the core of many AI decisions. This will make the AI smarter about knowing who it can crush, and who it should fear, by reflecting in-game power more accurately.
This component isn't finished.
F> Economic Changes.
This one hasn't been started yet. The plan is to encourage players and AI to maintain a bank balance.
Gold in the bank will generate both INTEREST and INFLATION.
The amount of gold you need to get max INTEREST will be roughly half of the cost of a current technology.
There will then be a small grace zone in which you gain no more interest.
Past the grace zone, you start getting INFLATION for having money in the bank.
The benefits of this:
More AIs will have money to buy/sell technology.
Cheesy player tactics involving "build up a huge horde" then "burn it doing a tonne of research", which can generate non-trivial advantages, are less viable.
For this to work, I need to teach the AI how to deal with it.
I need to display the changes.
Finally, I need to balance the amount of income you can get.
G> Goodie huts.
The cash benefit and map benefits of Goodie huts needs to scale with tech research speed. As it stands cash and maps are much better on high-speed games, and useless on low-speed games.
This is just something I want to do, haven't looked into fixing it yet.
...
How is that for a plan? I believe I can execute it -- sadly, I don't know if I'll be able to finish it before BTS!
I hope to be able to post a playable beta by this weekend.
I just want to do a few more tweaks and get the first of my AI changes in.
