New Beta Version - June 14th (6/14)

[Gazebo]

Hey all,

New beta version inbound. Going to get some humie feedback for a few days before calling this official.

Bugfixes

• Fix for interception issues
• Performance improvements
• Fix for tile yield snafu in certain situations
• Corrected ranged damage UI value for cities (vanilla bug)
• Diplo AI tweaks
• Many smaller fixes and adjustments
• Cleaned up AI wonder selection logic
• AI should more reliably finish things it is working on for construction

Balance
War Weariness:

• Liberating a city reduces your current war weariness by 25% immediately

Happiness:

• Now uses a tech median value, instead of player tech value
  • What this means: I tinkered with this long ago, but I'm coming back to it. In essence, there is no longer a gradual increase from tech - instead, there's a penalty/bonus from being above/below the median, respectively. So, if you are ahead of the global tech median, your people expect more from you. If you are below the tech median, your people expect less. Should help balance out some concerns people have had with win-more runaways and downward spirals.
• Pop scaler now an exponential method, tempered by yield-specific variables
  • Since the flat tech scaler has been reduced, this was modified slightly to keep large city unhappiness at a reasonable level
• Dropped unhappines scaler from specialists to .25 (was .34)
  • Specialists overall could use a slight buff
  • This also slightly weakens the potency of Freedom, which has been overperforming on the happiness front.
• Adjusted luxury happiness scaler upwards just slightly.

Resources:

• GA monopolies gain +2 GAP on tile.
• Crab - improvement gains +1p

Units:

• Explorer - now gets a combat bonus instead of penalty (meant to update this when I updated the Bandierantes, but it slipped through the cracks)

Unit Combat:

• CS/RCS on most ranged land units, and some melee units, adjusted:

• RCS
  [/LIST][/INDENT]
  
          Slinger 6-> 7
          Archer 6 -> 7
          Chariot Archer 8 -> 7
  
          Composite Bowman 11 -> 13
          Atlatl 11 -> 13
          Bab Bowman 13 -> 15
  
          Chukonu 19 -> 20
          Crossbow 20 -> 21
          M. Bowman 22 -> 21
          Longbow 22 -> 23
  
          Minuteman 30 -> 33
          Musketman 30 -> 32
  
          Gatling 45 -> 48
  
          Machine Gun 60 -> 63
  
          Light Tank 65 -> 62
  
          Bazooka 65 -> 68
  
          CS
  
          Warrior 6 -> 7
          B. Warrior 6 -> 7
          Jag 8 -> 10
  
          Slinger 4-> 5
          Archer 5 -> 6
          War Chariot 8 -> 9
  
          Catapult 4 -> 6
          Ballista 4 -> 6
          Composite Bowman 8 -> 11
          Atlatl 8 -> 11
          M. Archer 10 -> 11
          Hunnic Archer 12 -> 13
          Bab Bowman 10 -> 12
  
          Trebuchet 8 -> 11
          Hwacha 8 -> 11
          Chukonu 13 -> 15
          Crossbow 13 -> 15
          M. Bowman 18 -> 15
          Longbow 14 -> 16
          Camel Archer 18 -> 17
  
          Cannon 14 -> 15
          Hussar 28 -> 27
          Cuirassier 25 -> 23
          Minuteman 20 -> 23
          Musketman 17 -> 20
          Janissary 20 -> 23
  
          Gatling 25 -> 30
          Berber 32 -> 33
          Field Gun 20 -> 25
  
          Machine Gun 35 -> 40
          Artillery 25 -> 30
  
          Bazooka 40 -> 45
  
          Rocket Artillery 48 -> 56
          Helicopter 55 -> 56

  
  Improvements
  • Forts get half the yields of citadels at tech yield upgrade points
  Buildings:
  • Fixed missing museum on Louvre
  • Floating Gardens (Aztec) - gains +2 culture
  • Walls of Babylon - gains +1 culture
  • Added an extra writing slot and theme to the amphitheater
  • Tinkered with happiness reduction values a bit to fit new model above.
  Policies:
  • Justice - Added +1 production in all cities (Tradition)
  • Cultural Exchange - now buffs Amphitheater and Opera House instead of Guilds (4/4, was 3/3) (Artistry)
  • Colonialism - dropped barracks/armory/military academy/fort/citadel science to 3 (was 5) (Imperialism)
  • Refinement - now +1 happy per 3 GW (was 2) (Artistry)
  • Exchange Markets - now +1 happy per TR (was 2) (Statecraft)
  • Entrepreneurship - gains +1 happy per workshop (Industry)
  • Enlightenment - gains +1 happy per university (Rationalism)
    • Why these changes? Happiness bonuses were 'tall-loaded' on these policies. Spreading the happiness from statecraft/artistry into the industrial age policies is better for wide/war players, and balances the medieval policies against fealty a bit better (in terms of positive happiness generation)

Known issues:Options list is still enabling all of the Event Systems 'no x event' types - I don't know why it started doing this, but check your options list before you start

Not savegame compatible with saves from prior versions.
Link: https://mega.nz/#!zJcVwQhK!hQoUPJ5UfZSlSxjx2i4W9LHao0c8YGe7ZfWvaQ_rFJ0

G​

 

[maux]

First and foremost...Thanx for all your work!
Is there ny changes to CP or just to other parts of VOX?
I´m playing with CP only for the moment to see how the AI handles/improves the "vanlla" game.

 

[wobuffet]

Looks excellent! New happiness system looks to feel very different: for me, at least, should be nicer in the early going when I'm well behind in techs.

 

[Hosannah]

First and foremost...Thanx for all your work!
Is there ny changes to CP or just to other parts of VOX?
I´m playing with CP only for the moment to see how the AI handles/improves the "vanlla" game.

So there's nothing wrong right now?

For the record, any time there are 'bugfixes' or 'AI improvements' or 'performance optimizations,' those are taking place in the CP.

G

 

[pza]

oooooh baby, i've been waiting for many of these changes for a loong time! (+2GA points on GA monopolies hype!)

the combat strength balance is huge. I'm interested if any of my combat knowledge still applies.

 

[theMisterRud]

aaaaaaaaaaaand I'm going to Romania for a work trip today, without my PC

It's tough man, great job guys ! Looks great, will try it as soon as I get back

 

[Eddie.exe]

I’m actually going to liberate cities now!

 

[balinte]

Whats the reasoning behind the cs/rcs changes? Just curious.

 

[ryanmusante]

Whats the reasoning behind the cs/rcs changes? Just curious.

Explained best here and in the overall thread.
https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/going-for-gold-units.632623/page-2

 

[peterw1987]

Wow, tradition justice buff. Now playing wide tradition is not punishing that much anymore. Will try this patch now.
Great job.

 

[Bridger]

War Weariness:

• Liberating a city reduces your current war weariness by 25% immediately

Does this refer to re-conquering your own cities or liberating another player or CS city back to the original owner (or both?).

 

[Moi Magnus]

Does this refer to re-conquering your own cities or liberating another player or CS city back to the original owner (or both?).

Liberating for another player or CS. In G's test, the AI (almost) never liberated cities because it was (almost) never worth it. Now, they should do it more often.

 

[Enrico Swagolo]

Concerning policies, isn't that going to make Artistry and Statecraft less viable for wide as well? Let's say I have 10 cities or maybe 20 or more, there's no way I'm getting to getting something equal to 1 happiness per city with the new trade route happiness or the Great Works (unless I'm French I guess). Fealty's going to be too much of a recommended choice for wide now unless Artistry/Statecraft get something else for wide I think. Granted, Happiness appears to be way more lenient now so maybe it won't be necessary anyway.

Aztecs seem to have also gotten buffed Faith/Gold kill yields, that or Epic scales instant yield differently now. Appears to be 100% (so 150% on Epic where I play) of CS, both Faith and Gold. I'd still like no Culture on the UB and a better Production scaler instead to make it more interesting, but the Aztecs seem good. Jaguars are strong. Not as strong as the uncatchable Slingers, but they're good. They seem like an okay civ with a decent niche. Starting next to them might either force you to rush Spearmen, or be Inca.

 

[BiteInTheMark]

Pop scaler now an exponential method, tempered by yield-specific variables

• Since the flat tech scaler has been reduced, this was modified slightly to keep large city unhappiness at a reasonable level

I am interested in the point when the exponential calculation exceeds the previous, linear calculation. Is there any optimum?
I wonder how the UA of India is still useful if growing too fast means exponentially growing unhappiness. Any thoughts about that?
But else, the change log looks interesting. I like the buffs to aztecs and babylon.

 

[pineappledan]

• Added an extra writing slot and theme to the amphitheater

What is the theming bonus on amphitheater?

 

[CppMaster]

What is the theming bonus on amphitheater?

+2 Culture
"To maximize your bonus, make sure the Great Work Slots are all filled with Writings either from your own Civilization, or from Civilizations other than your own."

 

[grmagne]

Can a melee unit still defeat a ranged unit in 1-on-1 combat? With buffs to both RCS and CS, it seems like it would be really tough to do.

 

[pineappledan]

Initial impressions:
I’m with Enrico; Not super hot on the +culture on floating garden. I think another bonus to either food or production is more fitting.

The jaguar being only 1 CS lower than the unit it upgrades to seems wrong. It makes ruins with unit upgrades pretty much worthless. I think 9CS is the right spot.

Just want to point out that field guns could use some RCS boost, if Gatling guns are going to hit that hard. There is a difference of 8RCS between the two, which is pretty dramatic

 

[Enrico Swagolo]

I'm thinking ranged got overbuffed. Everything is tanky and hits hard.
Culture UB concerns also apply to BabyWall by the way. +2 Gold rather than -1 Gold would synergise with the UA and be interesting, especially if it costed just a tiny bit less Production. +1 Culture isn't all that interesting anymore now that almost all civs have it.

Initial impressions:
I’m with Enrico; Not super hot on the +culture on floating garden. I think another bonus to either food or production is more fitting.

The jaguar being only 1 CS lower than the unit it upgrades to seems wrong. It makes ruins with unit upgrades pretty much worthless. I think 9CS is the right spot.

Just want to point out that field guns could use some RCS boost, if Gatling guns are going to hit that hard. There is a difference of 8RCS between the two, which is pretty dramatic

I don't agree concerning Jaguar CS, Samurai is also only 1 CS lower than a Tercio. In both cases, you upgrade less for CS increase and more for additional anti-mounted capabilities. Jaguar is unique in that it's the only unit available instantly, and if Spear was considerably better as it used to be, Jaggy'd not be good. Him holding his own against Spears means Aztecs have more flexibility and can avoid teching to Bronze Working and spending hundreds of Gold if they want to keep their unique unit.

 

[pineappledan]

Samurai is also only 1 CS lower than a Tercio.

How many ruins do you come across with your samurai? It’s a pretty different situation when talking about a unique warrior replacement