More Luxuries Deluxe

[Barathor]

More Luxuries Deluxe​

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(Note: this is currently an addon and the original More Luxuries mod needs to be enabled first.)

Here's an early, unfinished version of the mod for others to try out. Any feedback is greatly appreciated.

I'll flesh-out this main post in the next couple of days with a more detailed feature list, things under development, and future feature I'm planning.

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Really quick:

1) Luxury type totals per map size have been tweaked. I'll upload a nice chart soon.

2) Regional luxuries each utilize new impact tables to help guide them a little better during regional placements. These impact tables use a decrementing impact value as the ripples spread outward from the impact site. I'll upload a diagram of this soon as well to better explain.

3) City-state luxuries utilize a similar impact table for each type to help give a much greater chance of spreading out different types between neighboring city-states. (Don't you hate it when you have a group of city-states within your region and they ALL have the same damn luxury?)

4) City-state luxuries are all exclusive to city-states -- you won't find them anywhere else on the map! Also, city-states will only use this special pool of luxuries, they won't use any random types or anything. Allying with (or conquering!) city-states is much more beneficial. Again, more diagrams and charts will be revealed to better explain!

5) City-state luxury type totals increase with map size. Standard uses 6 luxuries exclusively for city-states. Huge uses 8. (another note: I plan on creating an advanced map option to use a Sparse, Standard, Abundant setting for only city-state luxury quantities... plus many more advanced options. This way, players can play the game the way they wish.)

5) Random luxury totals on maps are scaled by map size. Previously, the default system was a little screwy and usually only placed 3 copies of each random luxury (with the first few types receiving an extra +1 or +2 sometimes) because the world target number was always too small.

Now, it works a bit differently, and the same number of random types are used for each map size -- their quantities increase. Right now, it's equal to half of the default number of civs for each map size. So, for Standard, the 6 random luxuries (marble included) will place 4 copies each throughout the map (not counting any placed as each start location's 2nd luxury type). Huge will place 6 copies of each type.

I plan on implementing a impact table for the random luxury placements too, with decrementing ripples values. At first I was going to utilize it for each separate type, but I decided to keep things fairly random (they're random luxuries afterall!). So, the only thing I'll control is their distances to each other when placed, to ensure that the whole map gets a fair chance at them and there aren't too barren/abundant areas.

 

[Barathor]

(reserved....)

 

[Barathor]

(reserved, again....)

 

[Barathor]

(reserved, one more time....)

 

[[to_xp]Gekko]

top quality work, thanks

 

[historix69]

1) Luxury type totals per map size have been tweaked.

Is it possible to let the player control the ressource-terrain-feature-logic and the amount of each luxuries to be placed? I suppose that some players may prefer only a few luxuries while others prefer plenty of luxuries (= maximum trade).

At the moment I play a game on Giant Earth Map 43 civs where I placed each type of luxury ressource at least 45 times (usually in 15 groups of 3) in their associated regions to allow maximum trade of luxuries between all civilizations. (No mod with additional luxury types so far.) Increased trade makes diplomacy a little bit easier. Trading extra ressources gives additional income or allows trading for other luxuries. The scenario is fun and almost feels like one of the historical economic sims.

To place all these luxuries in their specific regions, it might be necessary to change the ressource-terrain-feature logic if you don't want to place them by hand.

Example :
Silk is historically associated with Asia. Silk in Civ5 is also limited to Forest+Grasland and Forest+Plains. However even on Giant Earth Map it is hard to find 45 no-tundra-forest tiles in Asia. Since the forest is replaced by the plantation anyway, in a scenario it should be ok to allow silk on following tiles : Asia+Grasland, Asia+Forest+Grasland, Asia+Jungle+Grasland, Asia+Plains, Asia+Forest+Plains, Asia+Jungle+Plains.

 

[Barathor]

Is it possible to let the player control the ressource-terrain-feature-logic and the amount of each luxuries to be placed? I suppose that some players may prefer only a few luxuries while others prefer plenty of luxuries (= maximum trade).

At the moment I play a game on Giant Earth Map 43 civs where I placed each type of luxury ressource at least 45 times (usually in 15 groups of 3) in their associated regions to allow maximum trade of luxuries between all civilizations. (No mod with additional luxury types so far.) Increased trade makes diplomacy a little bit easier. Trading extra ressources gives additional income or allows trading for other luxuries. The scenario is fun and almost feels like one of the historical economic sims.

To place all these luxuries in their specific regions, it might be necessary to change the ressource-terrain-feature logic if you don't want to place them by hand.

Example :
Silk is historically associated with Asia. Silk in Civ5 is also limited to Forest+Grasland and Forest+Plains. However even on Giant Earth Map it is hard to find 45 no-tundra-forest tiles in Asia. Since the forest is replaced by the plantation anyway, in a scenario it should be ok to allow silk on following tiles : Asia+Grasland, Asia+Forest+Grasland, Asia+Jungle+Grasland, Asia+Plains, Asia+Forest+Plains, Asia+Jungle+Plains.

Actually, I plan on creating sparse/standard/abundant values for each type of resource separately (bonus vs. strategic vs. luxury), and even for each luxury type (city-state, regional, random) so players have more control of what they want their maps to look like.

Though, unfortunately, I'm not planning on on values anywhere near what you're describing -- whoa!

Also, regarding "historical" placements of resources on the map, or total realism in general, I'm personally not very interested in that, so the mod won't really steer in that direction. I prefer Civ as a totally random world, with a rewritten history, and historical items mixed-up between civs of different times -- with our real history as just an influence and source of content to play with.

BUT, the mod already does place luxuries like you've said. For example, if needed, the game will place Silk on barren grasslands or plains -- even hills. Then, before the map generation process finishes, it throws forest or jungle (depending on latitude) on the tile to clean things up and make it look more like it was naturally placed there.

The only thing I don't alter is terrain types, so that the natural clusters and bands aren't disrupted and cause the terrain to be a dotted mix of things, like past Civ games.

 

[Barathor]

Coding away on this still; the next build is nearly complete. As soon as I get this one out, I'll finalize the images and examples and upload them here so players can better see what's going on without looking under the mod's hood. My descriptions were very brief and some players may be a little reluctant to try it out without painting a better picture of things. After that, I'll then tackle the advanced settings and expand upon it.

I coded the new system for the random luxuries now, using the decrementing impact ripples and such, like the other luxury types.

With the new impact and ripple systems in place for each type, I'm focusing on their spacing on the map right now. I've pushed out the average placement area for regional luxuries so they're a little further compared to the previous build available now. I've also added in “hard” ripples on the main luxury layer to space out placements and prevent clustering; especially when neighboring regional luxuries meet and collide and with randoms mixed in. So far, things are looking pretty good.

Another thing I'm going to change is that I'm going to initially place all marble random luxuries first before the rest of them. This way, they have a clearer map to work with and can be distributed and spaced out as best as possible. Then, the rest of the randoms will be placed, one of each type at a time until the total is met. Also, marble will have a larger target number compared to the other randoms. Lastly, because of marble's unique nature, I've modified its preferable indices so that it gives all terrain types a fair chance during placement, instead of initially favoring desert/tundra like the other mined/quarried luxuries (which gives those regions some love and leaves more room for the luxuries which need the more fertile terrains.). This way, it'll be better distributed throughout the map.

Another idea I was thinking about in the future, was to maybe initially place one or two random luxury types in each civ's region, outside of the starting area, before the rest of the randoms are placed randomly throughout the map as a whole (to clarify, the grand total would still work out be the same). This way, it would give each civ a very consistent shot at getting at least a set number of random luxury types. Though, this may prove to be a little too, I don't know, “artificial”, and take away from the nice randomness of things and adapting to it. Or, maybe this would be a more fitting effect to use under the "Strategic Balance" setting. Just a thought I've jotted down to look into later on.

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Regarding advanced settings, I may as well ask these questions early so I have a little feedback before I jump into it.

1) Strategic Balance: with Brave New World and the greater importance of factories to get to ideologies faster, do you believe a small node of coal (3) should be placed as well? Sure, it may seem cheesy to some or not fun; but the same can be said about the major nodes of iron, horse, and oil received; and it may not be for those wishing for more “strategic balance” under this setting -- should it be included?

2) Legendary Start: among a few other things, this setting adds a third regional luxury to start locations alongside the 2nd random luxury type. Instead, would players prefer to get two placements of their 2nd random luxury type instead and keep their starting regional luxury count at two?

The difference isn't huge, but it has a subtle impact. With 2 copies of each instead of 3 and 1, you’ll have the ability to trade with same civ twice instead of only once (since they won’t want another copy of your regional luxury!). This opens up some additional possibilities, for instance, maybe you only like one of your neighbors and plan on attacking the others or the others are just not playing nice with you. It just gives you an additional option. Plus, visually, it may look better instead of seeing a clump of three of the same types at your start.

 

[Skaz881]

Will this mod be updated?

 

[Barathor]

Ooh, look at that, a month went by already.

Yes, I'm very much planning to update this. I'll pick up where I left off as soon as I finish up my latest Beyond Earth game.

Also, after this next update, I'm going to release the beta to the Steam masses (and take cover!), and hopefully I can get some more feedback on things.

 

[BttLsht]

Added to my hype list.

 

[qadams]

Regarding advanced settings, I may as well ask these questions early so I have a little feedback before I jump into it.

1) Strategic Balance: with Brave New World and the greater importance of factories to get to ideologies faster, do you believe a small node of coal (3) should be placed as well? Sure, it may seem cheesy to some or not fun; but the same can be said about the major nodes of iron, horse, and oil received; and it may not be for those wishing for more “strategic balance” under this setting -- should it be included?

2) Legendary Start: among a few other things, this setting adds a third regional luxury to start locations alongside the 2nd random luxury type. Instead, would players prefer to get two placements of their 2nd random luxury type instead and keep their starting regional luxury count at two?

1. Yes, it definitely should be included.

2. I think the double placement of the 2nd luxury is probably better than having a 3rd luxury.

This is really great. Thanks for all your hard work!


PS - Any progress on adding a Cannabis luxury?

 

[qadams]

@Barathor -- One of the things I hate is meeting a dozen or so city-states and finding out that they nearly all have the same luxury. No variety. That's totally annoying. Although it's not entirely clear from your description at the top, I think this mod should address that issue. Am I right?

 

[Barathor]

Thanks for the feedback, qadams.

And, yes, I really hate that too! Indeed, this version of the mod will definitely address that!

On Standard, 6 luxury types will be exclusive to city-states only -- you won't be able to obtain them from any other sources. So, alliances will be a little more valuable (along with conquering city-states).

This spreadsheet is from a while back for an old idea I was tossing around with inside the More Luxuries thread: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=13210834&postcount=217

You can see how volatile the default game's distribution is. In those three Standard examples, there were 7, 9, and 5 unique types for each of those maps. Subtract two to account for the Mercantile luxury types and you're left with 5, 7, and 3. The next table shows what the average should be if the distribution stuck strictly to the intended percentages. So, Standard would be 7+2 and Huge would be 9+2. But, remember, in the default game only 3 of those types are exclusive to city-states. The rest, besides the Mercantile ones, are taken from the Random pool a great majority of the time.

That's why I think 6 exclusive types makes a good number for the mod, on Standard (for clarity, that's NOT counting the two Mercantile types). This will be adjustable though, with an advanced map settings option.

Also, I've implemented a decrementing impact and ripple system for city-state luxury distribution to avoid neighboring CS having the same type, which could hurt during the earlier part of the game. So, it'll do its best to really space out the placements. Also, they're all distributed evenly and will have nearly the same totals present, give or take 1 since the total isn't always perfectly divisible by 6 or whatever the target is.

I forget what's currently uploaded right now, I think it uses an older method I didn't fully develop yet, but in the version I'm tinkering with now it works really well. I'll try and get it ready and throw it up here and on the Steam Workshop.

 

[qadams]

Wow, this really sounds great. Drop everything else you're doing and get the new version finished right away!

 

[qadams]

By the way, Barathor, I just realized that you are also the author of the Optimized National Wonder Scaling mod, which is one of my favorites. I use it almost every time I play, unless I'm planning to go very thin and tall. Excellent work!

 

[Makenshi]

Hi, just dropping by to say:

1) This More Luxuries mod is THE PWNZ, made of awesomesauce and badassery. Keep it up man, respect.

2) Will it include Ebony in a future update [will it be updated]? I saw the art for it in the dowloads database, it looks sweet!

3) That Optimized National Wonder Scaling mod mentioned above caled my atention; any chance of it being uploaded here? Pretty please with sugar on top?

 

[Sayjimwoo]

This mod is definitely on my radar. Thanks for making the more Luxuries mod even better Barathor

 

[Lynnes]

I forget what's currently uploaded right now, I think it uses an older method I didn't fully develop yet, but in the version I'm tinkering with now it works really well. I'll try and get it ready and throw it up here and on the Steam Workshop.

So is this the version which is currently available under downloads yet?
Or is it the previous version?

I just discovered this nice addition to your great luxuries mod! It just makes it even better!

 

[Sayjimwoo]

Hmmm. I have had this thread bookmarked for over a year. Maybe this mod is no longer supported.