Modding the aspects of "Game Speed"

[thedaian]

Does the game always end at 2050 no matter what you set in the interval variables?

I believe that's the case.

As for changing ALL the data by a set value, except unit production, you're basicly making an "Epic" setting with fast unit production. I think the best option would be change research to, say, 200%, unit production to be a bit faster (my random guess would be around 130, or 150, depending on how fast you want to make units), everything else set at say, 150 or so, perhaps lowering the <iBuildPercent> a bit more.

Now, these are really just more or less random numbers, I have yet to test it. I'm a fan of the idea of making a custom setting though, one that's a lot longer, and overall more "accurate" to realtime.

As for a thought about iInflationPercent, inflation is (from what I gather), something that goes up as you get further along in the game, it's probably best to keep that at the default level, though, who knows. It might be tied to what age you're in, or simply how many turns have passed. Ok, just... irgnore that last paragraph.

 

[vader3001]

All, just wanted to let you know there's another out there annoyed with the default game rate in Civ4, following your proceedings so far on adjusting the gameinfo files to compensate, and very interested in the continued results on the efforts to create game settings where one can play an Epic game somewhat following the true course of time in history and enjoy each distinct age and unit without all becoming obsolete in minutes.

Keep up the good work!!

 

[snepp]

Does the game always end at 2050 no matter what you set in the interval variables?

No, the only significance of 2050 is for the time-based victory condition. If you turn the time victory condition off you could win a domination game in 2200 AD if it suits your fancy.

 

[MirvShag]

Whats the difference between these items?

<iConstructPercent>150</iConstructPercent>
<iCreatePercent>150</iCreatePercent>
<iBuildPercent>150</iBuildPercent>

What does each one do?

 

[JumpinDuck]

I want to thank the original poster. It was this very issue that made me think of the game as about average. Sure, Civilization 1 had the same problem but it was the first such game ever, and one would think they'd realize it after so many years of experience and technology advancement in computers and fix it at least in third sequel. I was optimistic about the "epic" speed until I tried it out.

I'm currently trying out the speed where everything is at 150 except for research which is 300. I also changed the year increment, so at first 1 turn equals 20 years, than 10, 5, 2 and 1. And increased the number of turns to make every period as long as it originally was in year terms. Anyway, I'm still trying out, but I already had one pure chariot war around 1000BC, than one when more sophisticated infantry such as spearmen and axemen jumped in, and now it's 400AD, I'm formally in the middle ages, but still haven't got any unit technologies so you really can't tell it judging by the armies. War elephants, horse archers, catapults, swordsmen etc. At last I have time to build large armies and fight wars in every era, something I always wanted. I'm playing without tecnology trading tough, I guess things would speed up considerably with it, but not untill alphabet at least.

Before it was race with time, as technologies were researched faster than I could build farms and mines, let alone units or buildings (wonders were no comment, Stonehange typically about 500BC-500AD). Now it really feels epic, and it made the game fun for me. Thank you again.

 

[BlaZ]

Thanks to the original poster !

Im currently testing a game with 1675 turns.
Changed the values for each technology in technology.xml manually else research goes way too in industrial/modern age.

Would <iYearIncrement>0,5</iYearIncrement> Work ?

<iYearIncrement>10</iYearIncrement>
<iTurnsPerIncrement>200</iTurnsPerIncrement>
</GameTurnInfo>
- <GameTurnInfo>
<iYearIncrement>5</iYearIncrement>
<iTurnsPerIncrement>300</iTurnsPerIncrement>
</GameTurnInfo>
- <GameTurnInfo>
<iYearIncrement>4</iYearIncrement>
<iTurnsPerIncrement>350</iTurnsPerIncrement>
</GameTurnInfo>
- <GameTurnInfo>
<iYearIncrement>2</iYearIncrement>
<iTurnsPerIncrement>325</iTurnsPerIncrement>
</GameTurnInfo>
- <GameTurnInfo>
<iYearIncrement>1</iYearIncrement>
<iTurnsPerIncrement>350</iTurnsPerIncrement>
</GameTurnInfo>
- <GameTurnInfo>
<iYearIncrement>1</iYearIncrement>
<iTurnsPerIncrement>100</iTurnsPerIncrement>
</GameTurnInfo>
- <GameTurnInfo>
<iYearIncrement>1</iYearIncrement>
<iTurnsPerIncrement>50</iTurnsPerIncrement>

 

[Lord Shadow]

low, it seems your year increments are wrong. Your game doesn't comprise the usual 6050 years, but 6331, so your end date will be 2331 AD.

 

[toft]

Thanks to the original poster !

Im currently testing a game with 1675 turns.
Changed the values for each technology in technology.xml manually else research goes way too in industrial/modern age.

Would <iYearIncrement>0,5</iYearIncrement> Work ?

<iYearIncrement>10</iYearIncrement>
<iTurnsPerIncrement>200</iTurnsPerIncrement>
</GameTurnInfo>
- <GameTurnInfo>
<iYearIncrement>5</iYearIncrement>
<iTurnsPerIncrement>300</iTurnsPerIncrement>
</GameTurnInfo>
- <GameTurnInfo>
<iYearIncrement>4</iYearIncrement>
<iTurnsPerIncrement>350</iTurnsPerIncrement>
</GameTurnInfo>
- <GameTurnInfo>
<iYearIncrement>2</iYearIncrement>
<iTurnsPerIncrement>325</iTurnsPerIncrement>
</GameTurnInfo>
- <GameTurnInfo>
<iYearIncrement>1</iYearIncrement>
<iTurnsPerIncrement>350</iTurnsPerIncrement>
</GameTurnInfo>
- <GameTurnInfo>
<iYearIncrement>1</iYearIncrement>
<iTurnsPerIncrement>100</iTurnsPerIncrement>
</GameTurnInfo>
- <GameTurnInfo>
<iYearIncrement>1</iYearIncrement>
<iTurnsPerIncrement>50</iTurnsPerIncrement>

way too what?

 

[Stargirl]

I want to thank the original poster. It was this very issue that made me think of the game as about average. Sure, Civilization 1 had the same problem but it was the first such game ever, and one would think they'd realize it after so many years of experience and technology advancement in computers and fix it at least in third sequel. I was optimistic about the "epic" speed until I tried it out.

I'm currently trying out the speed where everything is at 150 except for research which is 300. I also changed the year increment, so at first 1 turn equals 20 years, than 10, 5, 2 and 1. And increased the number of turns to make every period as long as it originally was in year terms. Anyway, I'm still trying out, but I already had one pure chariot war around 1000BC, than one when more sophisticated infantry such as spearmen and axemen jumped in, and now it's 400AD, I'm formally in the middle ages, but still haven't got any unit technologies so you really can't tell it judging by the armies. War elephants, horse archers, catapults, swordsmen etc. At last I have time to build large armies and fight wars in every era, something I always wanted. I'm playing without tecnology trading tough, I guess things would speed up considerably with it, but not untill alphabet at least.

Before it was race with time, as technologies were researched faster than I could build farms and mines, let alone units or buildings (wonders were no comment, Stonehange typically about 500BC-500AD). Now it really feels epic, and it made the game fun for me. Thank you again.

Could you post your settings ?

 

[BlaZ]

way too what?

Oops , way too fast.
Cause you have all the extra turns so generally much further developed towns. So i editted the number of research points needed for industrial , modern technologies and increased them.

Settlers/workers are too cheap also, cant find how to change them though.

 

[Cloud Tiamat]

Does there have to be 7 <GameTurnInfo> or can additional ones be added?

 

[anarchoi]

Hello

I have never tried modding or anything and dont understand much of what you guys say. But I DO like the idea of a real Epic
paced game.
However it seems to be that everybody in here is using different settings so I dont know which one to use. Im going to try this : Anyone please tell me if theres something wrong with it :

<GameSpeedInfo>
<Type>GAMESPEED_EPIC</Type>
<Description>TXT_KEY_GAMESPEED_EPIC</Description>
<Help>TXT_KEY_GAMESPEED_EPIC_HELP</Help>
<iGrowthPercent>150</iGrowthPercent>
<iTrainPercent>150</iTrainPercent>
<iConstructPercent>150</iConstructPercent>
<iCreatePercent>150</iCreatePercent>
<iResearchPercent>250</iResearchPercent>
<iBuildPercent>150</iBuildPercent>
<iImprovementPercent>150</iImprovementPercent>
<iGreatPeoplePercent>150</iGreatPeoplePercent>
<iCulturePercent>150</iCulturePercent>
<iAnarchyPercent>150</iAnarchyPercent>
<iBarbPercent>150</iBarbPercent>
<iFeatureProductionPercent>150</iFeatureProductionPercent>
<iUnitDiscoverPercent>150</iUnitDiscoverPercent>
<iUnitHurryPercent>150</iUnitHurryPercent>
<iUnitTradePercent>150</iUnitTradePercent>
<iUnitGreatWorkPercent>150</iUnitGreatWorkPercent>
<iGoldenAgePercent>125</iGoldenAgePercent>
<iHurryPercent>67</iHurryPercent>
<iHurryConscriptAngerPercent>150</iHurryConscriptAngerPercent>
<iInflationPercent>18</iInflationPercent>
<iInflationOffset>-150</iInflationOffset>
<GameTurnInfos>
<GameTurnInfo>
<iYearIncrement>31</iYearIncrement>
<iTurnsPerIncrement>65</iTurnsPerIncrement>
</GameTurnInfo>
<GameTurnInfo>
<iYearIncrement>19</iYearIncrement>
<iTurnsPerIncrement>52</iTurnsPerIncrement>
</GameTurnInfo>
<GameTurnInfo>
<iYearIncrement>15</iYearIncrement>
<iTurnsPerIncrement>91</iTurnsPerIncrement>
</GameTurnInfo>
<GameTurnInfo>
<iYearIncrement>8</iYearIncrement>
<iTurnsPerIncrement>78</iTurnsPerIncrement>
</GameTurnInfo>
<GameTurnInfo>
<iYearIncrement>5</iYearIncrement>
<iTurnsPerIncrement>130</iTurnsPerIncrement>
</GameTurnInfo>
<GameTurnInfo>
<iYearIncrement>2</iYearIncrement>
<iTurnsPerIncrement>200</iTurnsPerIncrement>
</GameTurnInfo>
<GameTurnInfo>
<iYearIncrement>1</iYearIncrement>
<iTurnsPerIncrement>200</iTurnsPerIncrement>
</GameTurnInfo>
</GameTurnInfos>
</GameSpeedInfo>

Best regards
Anarchoi

 

[69king]

I think the solution to this problem is to work backwards.

Start by doubling everything (# of turns and game speed factors) But in a way that the # of years is still 6050. This way the original game balance is still intact.

Then reduce the game speed factors for unit creation and buildings/improvements (and other factors when they are understood better)
But making sure that it does not upset the game balance too much.
Creating units faster, thus having more units should not affect the balance too much (maybe settlers and workers can be tweaked individually to make them take longer to produce)

Then the final step is to tweak the year increment values so that the right units/techs/buildings are being created in historically accurate time periods.

 

[Bevertje]

isn't it possible to connect the technologies to the game year or turn? so you can only allow a technology to be researched when his target year or turn is passed.

for example: navigation can only be researched in 1400 AD or so?
in one game i played, i was sailing the great oceans (had navigation) by 1000 AD.

 

[69king]

I think that would require a reworking of the actual game code rather than just the stuff in the xml files

 

[Keith Larson]

Just wanted to throw my 2 cents into this discussion and suggest a simpler way to adjust game speed is to increase tech costs. This directly adresses the problem at hand, which as civilization become developed and contacts increase the research rate gets out of hand. Try this: 150% cost for Middle Ages, 200% Cost for renaissance, 250% cost for industrial and modern.

 

[King Jason]

To all the thankyou's - no prob.

I'm going to bring about the final answer to the 2050 question.

Answer; no.

If you go into your XML and delete all of the <iYearIncrement>/<iTurnsPerIncrement> info and just put

<iYearIncrement>30</iYearIncrement>
<iTurnsPerIncrement>5</iTurnsPerIncrement>

The game will end and score will be caculated in 5 turns.

remember, the <iYearIncrement> is trivial, it only amounts to the current year of the game.

So actually, if you made a game with this;

<iYearIncrement>1010</iYearIncrement>
<iTurnsPerIncrement>6</iTurnsPerIncrement>

You would be finished in 6 turns, and the year would be 2060.

the end year wouldn't be too far off... but the game time would be all wrong

So in essence it comes down to simply how long one want's to play. the <iYearIncrement>/</iTurnsPerIncrement> balancing is for two reasons.

A.) with slowing the tech tree down significantly, if you have no care of what year your in (corresponding to history) you should still make some turns a bit longer, for the simple fact that you might win a time victory when you're just discovering economics.

B.) Immersion. some people want to follow more closely with the historic timeline of the earth. This is the one that's harder to do because firstly, multiple people are going to establish settings they like, and second, it's a bit hard to detirmin just when in the turn cycle you'll discover X, technology.

so for the most part those following along that seem to be waiting for the 'perfect' time setting, it may not come too soon, so I'd just say edit the XML to suit the longer play style (with more research time) and add a few more turns.

That'll atleast give you some nice long games to play, regardless of if it's 1942 and you've just invented the rifle.

Oh and btw, I've edited my original post to be much shorter and to the point, Also, maybe by tomorrow or the next day I'll have a list of exactly what each value corresponds to in the game.

I've been up all night again so I'm gonna sleep

relink to the first post: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=134109
(most of you shouldn't need to read it again)

any additional info we've come up with that people think I should, or want me to add to the first post, just say so, we can get a little guide put together.

 

[Lucky4s]

Great info in this thread, thanks too all posting information on this.

I had an idea, that might give you guys with more knowledge than I ( which is about everyone here....) on another possible path to go down.

I would assume somewhere in the python, there is a value for "minimal turns" to complete a tech. IIRC civ 3 was baselined at 4 turns no matter what, maybe setting a minimal turn requirement somewhere might be easier than tinkering with all of these XML values?

Just a thought. I do share all your views on this matter though. It seems that too many times when I build a small army of axemen/swordsmen, I can already upgrade them to infantry. Or I'm building nukes while my cities are defend by musketmen....

 

[JumpinDuck]

Could you post your settings ?

Of course. Just keep in mind it still probably needs balancing.

<Civ4GameSpeedInfo xmlns="x-schema:CIV4GameInfoSchema.xml">
<GameSpeedInfos>
<GameSpeedInfo>
<Type>GAMESPEED_EPIC</Type>
<Description>TXT_KEY_GAMESPEED_EPIC</Description>
<Help>TXT_KEY_GAMESPEED_EPIC_HELP</Help>
<iGrowthPercent>150</iGrowthPercent>
<iTrainPercent>150</iTrainPercent>
<iConstructPercent>150</iConstructPercent>
<iCreatePercent>150</iCreatePercent>
<iResearchPercent>300</iResearchPercent>
<iBuildPercent>150</iBuildPercent>
<iImprovementPercent>150</iImprovementPercent>
<iGreatPeoplePercent>150</iGreatPeoplePercent>
<iCulturePercent>150</iCulturePercent>
<iAnarchyPercent>150</iAnarchyPercent>
<iBarbPercent>150</iBarbPercent>
<iFeatureProductionPercent>150</iFeatureProductionPercent>
<iUnitDiscoverPercent>150</iUnitDiscoverPercent>
<iUnitHurryPercent>150</iUnitHurryPercent>
<iUnitTradePercent>150</iUnitTradePercent>
<iUnitGreatWorkPercent>150</iUnitGreatWorkPercent>
<iGoldenAgePercent>125</iGoldenAgePercent>
<iHurryPercent>67</iHurryPercent>
<iHurryConscriptAngerPercent>150</iHurryConscriptAngerPercent>
<iInflationPercent>18</iInflationPercent>
<iInflationOffset>-150</iInflationOffset>
<GameTurnInfos>
<GameTurnInfo>
<iYearIncrement>20</iYearIncrement>
<iTurnsPerIncrement>100</iTurnsPerIncrement>
</GameTurnInfo>
<GameTurnInfo>
<iYearIncrement>10</iYearIncrement>
<iTurnsPerIncrement>100</iTurnsPerIncrement>
</GameTurnInfo>
<GameTurnInfo>
<iYearIncrement>10</iYearIncrement>
<iTurnsPerIncrement>140</iTurnsPerIncrement>
</GameTurnInfo>
<GameTurnInfo>
<iYearIncrement>5</iYearIncrement>
<iTurnsPerIncrement>120</iTurnsPerIncrement>
</GameTurnInfo>
<GameTurnInfo>
<iYearIncrement>2</iYearIncrement>
<iTurnsPerIncrement>325</iTurnsPerIncrement>
</GameTurnInfo>
<GameTurnInfo>
<iYearIncrement>1</iYearIncrement>
<iTurnsPerIncrement>200</iTurnsPerIncrement>
</GameTurnInfo>
<GameTurnInfo>
<iYearIncrement>1</iYearIncrement>
<iTurnsPerIncrement>200</iTurnsPerIncrement>
</GameTurnInfo>
</GameTurnInfos>
</GameSpeedInfo>

I'm currently in the end of 9th century. Armies consist of macemen, crossbowmen and the rest of medieval stuff, minus knights. Romans have them, tough. The fun part is that I'm playing with Arabs, and I estabilished Islam somewhere in 6th century, and all neighbours became annoyed or cautious (I guess it disturbed them that fellow buddhist become something else ), and wars started to happen. A lot. So basically I'm currently spreading the one True Faith. Didn't have this much fun since playing Colonization.

The problem might be that when high middle ages technologies come, and year increment goes down to 2, research might get too fast. So I guess I should make 5 years/turn last a bit longer. But it's just guessing, I'll see what happens next.

 

[King Jason]

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