Modding Q&A
- Thread starter Oni Ryuu
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timerover51
Deity
If you are making your own maps, you locate the Barbarian camps where you want them.
No, I play only on game generated maps.
timerover51
Deity
Then you are pretty much at the mercy of the map generator.
Is it possible to have a game generated map with terrain even less fruitful than one in 3 billion years old worlds? I mean to make land terrain less fruitful, not just reduce the percentage of land, because AI doesn't settlle islands well and barbarians don't inhabit islands on game generated maps too.
The goal is to have worlds with a lot to explore and with bigger distances, yet with small populations. It seems in the standard world generator choosing "arid" along with 3 billion years is a good option but I'd like an even stronger effect.
The goal is to have worlds with a lot to explore and with bigger distances, yet with small populations. It seems in the standard world generator choosing "arid" along with 3 billion years is a good option but I'd like an even stronger effect.
tjs282
Stone \ Cold / Fish
World age primarily affects how "broken-up" the terrain types are. With a 3-bn year map, you get larger continuous regions of similar terrain, but with a 5-bn year map, you get more fragmented/variable terrain.
Cold vs Warm affects the relative north-south extent of the Tundra-regions away from the poles, or the Desert/Plains-regions away from the equator, respectively.
Arid vs. Wet affects the total numbers of vegetated tiles (Forest, Jungle, Marsh) on the map. It might also affect how many river-sources are spawned, but I'm not so sure about that (map-size seems to have a greater effect in that regard).
For a map which has lots of land to explore, but which limits total possible population without significantly handicapping any of the potential spawn-points, you therefore likely want a 60% water, Cold, Arid, 5 billion year map.
(Up to Standard-size, any geography type will generally be OK, because even on an Archipelago, the 'islands' will still likely join up)
If you go Warm, you might also want to make sure that none of the (Opponent) tribes are Agricultural, to limit the utility of irrigating Desert. Or, if you're going with All-Random opponents, make sure "Culturally linked starts" is switched off -- otherwise the map-generator will spawn in some/all of the American tribes (4/5 of whom are Agri) before it picks anyone else.
Cold vs Warm affects the relative north-south extent of the Tundra-regions away from the poles, or the Desert/Plains-regions away from the equator, respectively.
Arid vs. Wet affects the total numbers of vegetated tiles (Forest, Jungle, Marsh) on the map. It might also affect how many river-sources are spawned, but I'm not so sure about that (map-size seems to have a greater effect in that regard).
For a map which has lots of land to explore, but which limits total possible population without significantly handicapping any of the potential spawn-points, you therefore likely want a 60% water, Cold, Arid, 5 billion year map.
(Up to Standard-size, any geography type will generally be OK, because even on an Archipelago, the 'islands' will still likely join up)
If you go Warm, you might also want to make sure that none of the (Opponent) tribes are Agricultural, to limit the utility of irrigating Desert. Or, if you're going with All-Random opponents, make sure "Culturally linked starts" is switched off -- otherwise the map-generator will spawn in some/all of the American tribes (4/5 of whom are Agri) before it picks anyone else.
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And industrial civs have it easier converting jungles to the most fertile grassland.
Concerning the archipelago set up, it it'd used to look the most promising to me before I found out that the AI is so cautious in settling overseas. Even when an island is only a few tiles away. In one of the games AI even prefered to wage a quite suicidal war on the player instead of expanding overseas.
So no mods or tweaks to produce even harsher worlds than usual with the map generator? Well, I consider trying to rise the price of settlers to three citizens instead of two. Fewer cities would suit me better because I manage them manually. Hopefully, such a rise wouldn't hurt the efficiency AI algorithms much.
Concerning the archipelago set up, it it'd used to look the most promising to me before I found out that the AI is so cautious in settling overseas. Even when an island is only a few tiles away. In one of the games AI even prefered to wage a quite suicidal war on the player instead of expanding overseas.
So no mods or tweaks to produce even harsher worlds than usual with the map generator? Well, I consider trying to rise the price of settlers to three citizens instead of two. Fewer cities would suit me better because I manage them manually. Hopefully, such a rise wouldn't hurt the efficiency AI algorithms much.
Fergei
Prince
- Joined
- Mar 31, 2020
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I think if you raise settler pop cost at the outset the AI will struggle. I phase my increased pop costs settlers when everyone has about 4 cities.
If its smaller empires you want, I do that.
1) remove AI starting units
2) increase AI difficulty by reducing their 'cost factor'
3) stuff a lot more Civs into each world size (something like this biq, https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/civ-3-conquests-retuned.666520/)
4) reduce domination win condition percentages dramatically.
You will see empires of 5-9 cities at the end of the expansion phase, so you could really focus on micromanaging and have lots to explore because everyone's share of the world is so modest.
Alternatively, could you make it so settlements cannot be made on jungle, tundra, forest and desert? That would massively reduce the amount of cities but would give the human an advantage as they can clear forest and jungle then plant.
timerover51
Deity
I do not have any problem in my mods with the AI settling islands. At times, it is very annoying. Against that I have increased the resource yields for Coast, Sea, and Ocean tiles, and the AI does like to settle there a lot.
I have some thought about adding secondary animations to worker jobs animations. I thought it will work like with attack animation where we have attack1, attack2 and attack3 slots available for it. When I add more animations to worker jobs and naming them road1, road2 or default1 and default 2, nothing is happening. Do yo know what triggers secondary animations and how often it does?
Thanks for your ideas both posted in this message and in the thread of your scenario in which many changes were made in the directions I'd thought about too.
But how is it possible to increase the cost of settlers since everyone (or even anyone) has 4 cities or so?
Thanks. I will try to tempt AIs with increased resources too. What are the values you use?
timerover51
Deity
I have Coast set to 2/2/2, Sea set to 2/1/2, and Ocean set to 1/1/1.
timerover51
Deity
I have every civilization set to a cost of 4 for settlers, but also have Towns set to 9-12 and Cities set to between 21 and 28.
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timerover51
Deity
For a better idea of how I approach modding, you should go here. https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/timerover51-naval-mod.322522/
I owe a lot of my ideas to TETurkhan and his Test of Time mod for Play the World. That, plus my military knowledge. I do need to update the Naval Mod with my latest ideas.
Fergei
Prince
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There will still be space to settle even with smaller empires, for example islands and tundra. Especially for the human who can make bold placements at their borders or can settle deep within war torn territories.
You could increase their shield cost or the amount of population they use or both. You could make the starting settler unit upgradeable at Swordsmen or Horsemen so the settler disappears as an option. Then add a higher cost settler unit at a tech of your choice. I find it works quite well having gaps in the tech tree where a settler unit isn't available. It lets the AI focus on other things.
- Joined
- May 5, 2005
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- 9,745
Not directly from start, but very early in the game, you could use the submarine bug as a trigger for a not unlimited war.
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I'd like to have much more challenging barbarians. For that, I've set "Attack bonus against barbarians" to 0. And also added the "HP bonus" of +2 to Barbarian land units (which are my custom units having the same other characteristics) and the sea Barbarian unit got the "HP bonus" of +1. So Barbarian units are now about the same strength the player and the AI produce.
It seems to work as expected. Just I'll probably make them even tougher. A graphical glitch started to appear though: in the end of a combat with that custom unit, for a moment, the displey either whitens or animations freeze. Is it a fixable thing?
It seems to work as expected. Just I'll probably make them even tougher. A graphical glitch started to appear though: in the end of a combat with that custom unit, for a moment, the displey either whitens or animations freeze. Is it a fixable thing?
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