Mod of CEP Mod

EricB · Feb 19, 2014

Hi guys,

Attached is my own mod of the CEP mod if you would like to try it out. I've been working around the clock for the past several days building this thing. In the past I had a ton of changes to the CEP mod. I modified the CEP files directly to do that. Finally, I built my own separate mod. Much cleaner this way.

Anyways, there are tons and tons of changes from the CEP mod. It requires the CEP mods to work, so don't bother trying without that first. If you were to count the number of individual adjustments from CEP it may number around 200 changes.

All you need to do to get it to work is install that civ5mod file in your MODS directory (under My Documents/My Games/CIV5 usually). I've tested just about all of it when it was running within the CEP mod. Some modest testing as a separate mod. It's stable and doesn't crash your system. Some effects are easier to test than others. I tested all the easy ones that don't require playing a full game.

Mostly, this mod is designed to improve the balance of the CEP mod. Things that were less useful are buffed. Things that were too good are nerfed. It coves a wide range of areas of the game. I created a short text file with a summary guide of the changes. It's unpacked when you download and set up the mod for the first time. It'll be in the mod directory. I also extensively commented the code. It's divided into a lot of files so that it's easy to find exactly what you're looking for and so when there's an error I can trace it to its source quicker. Basically modular programming design but with just XML.

Many, many leaders have been tweaked. A couple of highlights are that I added a Longship unit for Denmark (still need quality art for it at the moment). Netherlands Trade Office is a naval building in the mod. I made significant changes to England, Carthage, and many others. About 20-25 civs have been affected in some way. Many policy tweaks, especially in the later trees. I attempted to re-balance some beliefs. Chopping is reduced to 40 production.

Anyways, please give it a try. Let me know what things you like and what you don't. Suggestions are welcomed as it's a work in progress. I've incorporated lots of ideas into it that I've seen people write about on this board.

Hopefully, this increases fun as that's the goal!

stackpointer · Feb 19, 2014

Great work! Now that I finished most of the modifications needed to get YieldLibrary and TopPanel files running for BNW, I'll probably play a couple games with this and CSD active.

secondcircle · Feb 19, 2014

I'll give this a try.

agc28 · Feb 20, 2014

EricB,

Please continue to release your ModMod after every major release of Thal's mod. I know this is a lot to ask for, and I very much look forward to your ModMods.

On a side note. You might want to name your Mod "EricB Mod of CEP 3.14.1". And sync with the version number in the future.

Tomice · Feb 20, 2014

Thanks alot for your effort! While I don't agree to all your changes, you certainly have convinced me of your skill as modder. I know there is a lot of thought and testing in this!

I hope there will be a lot of people trying both versions of Communitas in comparison. This should speed up the development process. I personally have been travelling for the last 10 days, so I have to check some of the forum discussions and especially your posts explaining your changes before commenting in detail.

Ahriman · Feb 20, 2014

Do you have a changelog?

Tomice · Feb 20, 2014

There is a quick summary file within the download and each change is commented in detail. Here is the summary:

Spoiler :

And here is an example how the code is commented. This is the "America" file in the "Civs" folder (use notepad++ to open the file so various parts of the code are coloured differently - comments would be highlighted green):

Code:

<GameData>
	<!-- Remove Free Tech from NASA Center Building -->
	<Buildings>
		<Update>
			<Where Type="BUILDING_NASA_CENTER" />
			<Set FreeTechs="0" />
		</Update>
	</Buildings>
	
	<Civilization_FreeUnits>
		<!-- Delete starting units for America -->
		<Delete CivilizationType="CIVILIZATION_AMERICA" />
		<!-- Add a Settler, Worker, and Scout for America -->
		<Row>
			<CivilizationType>CIVILIZATION_AMERICA</CivilizationType>
			<UnitClassType>UNITCLASS_SETTLER</UnitClassType>
			<Count>1</Count>
			<UnitAIType>UNITAI_SETTLE</UnitAIType>
		</Row>
		<Row>
			<CivilizationType>CIVILIZATION_AMERICA</CivilizationType>
			<UnitClassType>UNITCLASS_WORKER</UnitClassType>
			<Count>1</Count>
			<UnitAIType>UNITAI_WORKER</UnitAIType>
		</Row>
		<Row>
			<CivilizationType>CIVILIZATION_AMERICA</CivilizationType>
			<UnitClassType>UNITCLASS_SCOUT</UnitClassType>
			<Count>1</Count>
			<UnitAIType>UNITAI_EXPLORE</UnitAIType>
		</Row>
	</Civilization_FreeUnits>

	<!-- Increase Movement and Combat Strength for the Minuteman -->
	<Units>
		<Update>
			<Where Type="UNIT_AMERICAN_MINUTEMAN" />
			<Set Combat="26"
				 Moves="3" />
		</Update>	
	</Units>
	
	<!-- America Text -->
	<Language_en_US>
		
		<!-- American Trait -->
		<Update>
			<Where Tag="TXT_KEY_TRAIT_RIVER_EXPANSION" />
			<Set Text="All land military units have +1 sight. 50% discount when purchasing tiles. Starts with a Scout and a Worker." />
		</Update>
		
		<!-- American Minuteman -->
		<Update>
			<Where Tag="TXT_KEY_UNIT_HELP_MINUTEMAN" />
			<Set Text="Renaissance Era Vanguard Unit unique to the Americans. It is stronger than the Arquebusier it replaces, moves faster, and sees further." />
		</Update>
	</Language_en_US>
</GameData>

One could just delete the whole file to keep America as it is in "normal" Communitas.

Ahriman · Feb 20, 2014

Thanks. I'm not in a situtation where it's easy for me to dig things out of files at the moment.

But overall, I like these:

Spoiler :

I don't like these:

Spoiler :

A lot of the others I have no particular opinion on or would have to think about more.

ExpiredReign · Feb 20, 2014

I haven't yet given it a go but but based on the feedback and the details listed I would have to agree with a large portion of Ahriman's concerns.

Sailing tech move -- no don't see the need
Museum change -- ditto
England -- I like the longbowman
Songhai -- jungle bonus?

These are the few that leap out at me as in need of review.

EricB, as you can see, making a mod that appeals to everyone is next to impossible. You can see now why CEP is such a remarkable mod, with such a wide base of changes made it still manages to maintain a large user base despite ALL of us disliking at least one aspect of it. Hats off to Thal for managing to keep a user base willing to put up with weird design choices.
Additionally the input from many, many experienced users is not to be under-estimated, it is a wealth of knowledge that should be mined for all it has.
To the users. :goodjob:

Ahriman · Feb 20, 2014

EricB, as you can see, making a mod that appeals to everyone is next to impossible. You can see now why CEP is such a remarkable mod, with such a wide base of changes made it still manages to maintain a large user base despite ALL of us disliking at least one aspect of it. Hats off to Thal for managing to keep a user base willing to put up with weird design choices.

Oh absolutely. Can't say this enough. And great that you're pushing on further, with your own vision.

EricB · Feb 20, 2014

I found a bug today in the mod with England. It crashes upon starting a game with England. It took a while, but I found the source of it. It was in the Ottomans unique ability area. In there I was setting up the Ottomans starting units. I copied and pasted from England when making the file and there's 1 spot where it still read 'England' instead of Ottoman. Fixed it and it's working now.

I found it while working on implementing those naval changes. I can get the new mod uploaded in a bit. Still testing it...

In short, the plan is to have naval ships heal differently based on what ship it is.

Here's the plan:
Triremes and Biremes heal 20 in friendly, 5 in neutral, and 0 in enemy territory
Carracks and Galleasses heal 20 in friendly, 10 in neutral, and 0 in enemy territory
Frigates and Galleons heal 25 in friendly, 15 in neutral, and 0 in enemy territory
Ironclads, Destroyers, Submarines, Battleships, and Carriers heal 30 in friendly, 20 in neutral, and 5 in enemy territory
Missile Subs, Missile Cruisers, and Missile Destroyers heal 35 in friendly, 25 in neutral, and 10 in enemy territory.

Ahriman · Feb 20, 2014

In short, the plan is to have naval ships heal differently based on what ship it is.

Why? This seems like unnecessary complexity to me.
Note that already: modern ships are faster and can much more easily get to friendly territory, and in the late game a turn is 1 year rather than 30 years.

35 healing per turn seems way too strong (it could be more than the damage you take from someone attacking you); 5 healing per turn seems way too low; it takes 20 turns to fully heal and so has all the problems we already talked about in terms of making early naval units frustratingly weak. I really don't understand why you're trying to change mechanics in a way that undermines using naval units in the early game, when they're already less useful because there are fewer coastal cities or enemy ships for them to fight and fewer sea trade routes (though I'd agree they need some stats reductions to balance them).

It seems much simpler to just set 0 in enemy, 10 in neutral, 20 in friendly, 30 in own city for all naval units.

EricB · Feb 20, 2014

So I edited that mod slightly today. I added that naval combat stuff. It may or may not work out. Ahriman may be right that it's too complex. Perhaps there's an easy way to just make it modular so people could play with whatever style they'd like. If you'd like to try it out without that stuff it's easy to comment it out (or delete) from the 2 naval files it's in.

Also, changed Carthage setting them up like people recommended:
Free Trireme
No starting warrior
no sailing tech
free harbors
units crossing mountains
cothon building that grants tyrian purple resource
african forest elephant

Plus, fixed a bug with England's units being accidentally deleted and starting with nothing.

Also added in a version number so that people can easily identify which CEP version it's compatible with. I'm heading out of town for a bit so probably won't be able to do much for a while. Just wanted to get the content out there in case someone wants to use it. Like I said, the link on the original post is updated to a new file.

Tomice · Feb 20, 2014

Thx, EricB! This version of Carthage should be a bit more balanced while keeping it's core assets. The delayed start of land exploration should be enough of a nerf. :thumbup:

@Ahriman:
During the discussion about about naval healing I found that it is interesting having to rely on local allies for quick repair of major damage. Or on the newly suggested Great Admiral with a healing function (similar to the Khan). The 5 healing are a compromise to allow for healing of minor scratches from barbarian encounters and such.
But I could imagine that 10 would turn out the minimal for fluent gameplay. I just suggested to keep it as low as possible to make other healing sources worthwhile.

I do fully agree that it doesn't make sense for later ships to heal faster than early ones. Early on, we neither have allies nor great admirals, and our ships are slower, so we need the healing effect more than ever.
The high lategame healing on the other hand devalues healing from allies and great admirals.

So I think 5-10 per turn in neutral territory is the sweet spot throughout all eras.

Mod of CEP Mod

EricB

Prince

stackpointer

King

secondcircle

Chieftain

agc28

Warlord

Tomice

Passionate Smart-Ass

Ahriman

Tyrant

Tomice

Passionate Smart-Ass

Ahriman

Tyrant

ExpiredReign

Deity

Ahriman

Tyrant

EricB

Prince

Ahriman

Tyrant

EricB

Prince

Tomice

Passionate Smart-Ass

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