New Version - Feburary 15th (v. 2/15)

[Gazebo]

Hey all!

New version inbound, with some worthwhile changes. Here's the list:

Bugs - DLL

• Fixed bug related to diplomacy if you attacked/bullied a CS too many times (auto-war wasn't triggering diplo screen)
  
• Fixed bug related to consulates policy display in WC
  
• Fixed bug related to insulting the AI and opinion generation
  
• Fixed bug related to camps not granting culture upon capture
  
• Adjusted value of insult to make it last a bit longer
  
• Fixed bug in scouting xp bonus that was not granting the extra xp from finding natural wonders

DLL - Other

• Incorporated Ilteroi's improvements (pulled from UAI, largely):
• Changes to tactical AI, deal AI, settler site location AI, Homeland AI, production AI and diplomacy AI (improvements to quality of AI decision-making and performance)

Rewrote a bunch of the code for spies:

• Spies take longer to travel based on player distance from your empire (no more 1 turn teleports across the world)
• Re-spawn time for spies doubled (now 10 turns)
• Increases in city potential (i.e. jumps from 1 Potential to 2 Potential, etc.) in owned cities will now result in a notification, so you can know if your cities are becoming better targets for foreign spies. This is similar to the 'intrigue rising' message from Civ:BE. Can only occur once per 40 turns per owned city (to limit spam)
• Greatly simplified Potential model- all cities now have a potential of 0-10, with 10 being the most vulnerable. The 'stars' in the espionage screen correspond to this (so 5/10 = 2 1/2 stars). Potential calculation modified to include city unhappiness (more unhappiness = more vulnerability) and city wealth (more trade routes/money = more potential entrances for spies and more things to disrupt!)
• Notifications will occur if a spy fails to take an advanced action even if said spy passed all other tests - this is rare, but it is a good warning that an enemy spy is in your city (and a good warning for the spy owner to move the spy!)
• Spies cannot be killed from advanced actions until they have completed a few advanced actions in a city - the number of actions until killable (i.e. the heat is on) is based on the rank of the friendly counterspy in the city.
• Advanced Actions are now affected by the length of a spy's stay in a city - the longer a spy is in the city, the better chance that they will complete a high-yield advanced action. This time bonus is capped at the spy's rank, so higher ranked spies get better bonuses for staying in the same cities longer.
• Adjusted cooldown values and decay rates on advanced actions to increase the number of turns between advanced actions for each spy. Cooldown is 'global' for each player, so if one spy performs an advanced action in an enemy city, all spies will be unable to do advanced actions until the cooldown ends. Cooldown time varies, but is somewhere between 5-20 turns (roughly).
• Advanced actions are slightly more rare overall, but also slightly more potent.
• Added 'steal research' advanced action in which you get a fraction of a the other player's science output per turn added to your output that turn. Does not reduce the other player's science output, simply boosts yours.
• Rewrote tooltips to more clearly explain new systems.
• AI encouraged to diversify spy presence by discouraging them from sending all their spies to the same civ, and to avoid sending spies to friends.

Units:

• Carthaginian Quinquereme now gains the Reconnaissance Promotion (instead of coastal raider), giving it XP from revealing tiles.
• New Unit: Volley Gun! Artwork courtesy: Wolfdog, Nutty, typhoon353
• Unlocked at Metallurgy, obsolete at Dynamite
• CS/RCS: 14/24
• Range: 2
• Is unit in-between Crossbowman and Gatling Gun.
  
• Moved Lancer to Metallurgy, Moved Cannon to Gunpowder, moved Gatling Gun to Dynamite
• Gatling Gun CS/RCS now 30/30
• Subs have a larger city attack penalty (75%)

Buildings:

• Moved Arsenal to Rifling
• World Wonders now have their costs increased based on the number of world wonders you have built, scaling with era.
• The cost increases as follows:
• For every world wonder you have already built from the same era: 10%
• For every world wonder you have already built from the previous era: 5%
• For every world wonder you have built from any earlier eras (eras before the previous one): 2%.
• This should help control runaway wonder spam a bit.
• Building purchase costs (gold) increased slightly (based on % of known techs - was 50%, is now 100%)

Balance:

• Unhappiness values increased slightly (more late-game unhappiness)
• Reseach gained from international trade routes now scales with era (value is multiplied by era integer, so 2x in medieval, 3x in renaissance, etc.).

LUA:

• Added CvPlayer:InitNamedUnit(UnitTypes eUnit, int iName, int iX, int iY, UnitAITypes eUnitAI, DirectionTypes eFacingDirection) - creates a unit with a specific name (based on the ID # assigned to unique names in the Unit_UniqueNames Table)

Full code for LUA function:

Spoiler :

#if defined(MOD_BALANCE_CORE)
//CvUnit* initNamedUnit(UnitTypes eUnit, int iName, int iX, int iY, UnitAITypes eUnitAI = NO_UNITAI, DirectionTypes eFacingDirection = NO_DIRECTION);
int CvLuaPlayer::lInitNamedUnit(lua_State* L)
{
	CvPlayerAI* pkPlayer = GetInstance(L);
	const UnitTypes eUnit = (UnitTypes)lua_tointeger(L, 2);
	const int iName = lua_tointeger(L, 3);
	const int x = lua_tointeger(L, 4);
	const int y = lua_tointeger(L, 5);
	const UnitAITypes eUnitAI = (UnitAITypes)luaL_optint(L, 6, NO_UNITAI);
	const DirectionTypes eFacingDirection = (DirectionTypes)luaL_optint(L, 7, NO_DIRECTION);

	CvUnit* pkUnit = pkPlayer->initNamedUnit(eUnit, iName, x, y, eUnitAI, eFacingDirection);
	CvLuaUnit::Push(L, pkUnit);
	return 1;
}
#endif

New version will be uploaded as of 11:55pm EST (2/15).

Cheers,
G

 

[Delekhan]

The spy changes look really promising.

 

[skodkim]

Nice release - looking forward to playing!

Are the wonder production modifiers moddable? If not, please, please, please make them so

\Skodkim

 

[Gazebo]

Nice release - looking forward to playing!

Are the wonder production modifiers moddable? If not, please, please, please make them so

\Skodkim

Yes they are- they can be turned off entirely in the CBP if you set this to zero:

UPDATE CustomModOptions
	SET Value = '1'
	WHERE Name = 'BALANCE_CORE_WONDER_COST_INCREASE';

(Location: ~\MODS\Community Balance Patch (v 13)\Core Files\Core Changes\CommunityPatchDLLChanges.sql)

OR you can edit the values in the CP:

-- Wonder Stuff
INSERT INTO Defines (
Name, Value)
SELECT 'BALANCE_CORE_WORLD_WONDER_SAME_ERA_COST_MODIFIER', '10';

INSERT INTO Defines (
Name, Value)
SELECT 'BALANCE_CORE_WORLD_WONDER_PREVIOUS_ERA_COST_MODIFIER', '5';

INSERT INTO Defines (
Name, Value)
SELECT 'BALANCE_CORE_WORLD_WONDER_EARLIER_ERA_COST_MODIFIER', '2';

(Location:~\MODS\Community Patch (2-15)\Core Files\Core Values\CoreDefines.sql)

 

[skodkim]

Fantastic - thanks!

\Skodkim

 

[Funak]

Hard to judge the spy-changes just by your words, but it looks good.

I like the unit-changes in general, got rid of the overpowered lancer and moved the cannon earlier could possibly make defending against sieges hard, but meh who cares about that? Cannons are fun

Not sure how I feel about the wonderchanges, I feel like there should be a better way to solve it.

Also not a huge fan of the increased science from traderoutes, they are already pretty damn essential to keep your gold income possitive, but I feel like this is going to make internal traderoutes even weaker.

I feel like the unhappiness increase could have been focused around specialists, maybe not as expensive as they were at the start. But they have gotten way too reasonable, there is no reason not to work a engineer over a mined hill anymore.

 

[zer0lis]

Nice changes! While some of them look good on paper, testing is needed for a proper feedback.

Something i dont agree at a first glance:
-Unhappiness values increased slightly (more late-game unhappiness)

Damn, i was already struggling to keep my empire happy.As i play for domination mostly, this is even worse.
As much as I like the new happiness system, I haven't master it. For a city in ancient era with a garrison and a wall, the locals still "don't feel safe, -1 unhappiness". What the hell do they need more?
As you advance, you will need all buildings in a city to keep the value close to 0 (almost impossible for me) and with the changes to building purchasing cost, this is another blow.

 

[Funak]

Damn, i was already struggling to keep my empire happy.As i play for domination mostly, this is even worse.
As much as I like the new happiness system, I haven't master it. For a city in ancient era with a garrison and a wall, the locals still "don't feel safe, -1 unhappiness". What the hell do they need more?
As you advance, you will need all buildings in a city to keep the value close to 0 (almost impossible for me) and with the changes to building purchasing cost, this is another blow.

Barracks Honestly the disorder unhappiness is pretty unreasonable until you get to the midgame, at which point you can pretty much skip having any defensive units if you've picked up all the buildings.


Also, the idea behind the happinessystem isn't to can out in every city, you should be fine with a few points unhappiness in every city, that's what your global happiness bonsues from luxury-resources and polices are for.

 

[Llednar Twem]

I have yet to actually try this because I was at work and am now about to go to sleep, but wouldn't nerfing wonderspam be a pretty massive blow to Egypt? That's basically the only thing that civ is designed to do. It would also be a nerf to the wonder building pantheon and the bonuses from stone and marble, but that's not as significant as hitting an entire civ.

 

[zer0lis]

Quick question, is the new version save compatible? I see dll changes so i guess not.
Edit: Its the first time i can re-load ingame and not get CTD. I should win more often now

 

[WileyNg]

I have yet to actually try this because I was at work and am now about to go to sleep, but wouldn't nerfing wonderspam be a pretty massive blow to Egypt? That's basically the only thing that civ is designed to do. It would also be a nerf to the wonder building pantheon and the bonuses from stone and marble, but that's not as significant as hitting an entire civ.

Well I think the wonder tweaks are the most controversial among all changes and I think there might be a more creative solution out there rather than just a percentage nerf. I am very curious on what everyone's take on this. Imma set up a poll.

Also not a huge fan of the increased science from traderoutes, they are already pretty damn essential to keep your gold income possitive, but I feel like this is going to make internal traderoutes even weaker.

Funak had a point. I think again there are too many boost to the tech cost. The immortal AIs and I always proceed to eras at least 300 years faster than it took in the real world. I raised that point because frankly it's quite weird to have 1 per unknown tech even in the modern era when you are producing 500 per turn. What Funak is saying is true, but we cannot overlook the fact that trading routes indeed contributed a lot to the technology advancement in history. So perhaps things need to be more balanced.

As for the internal route, I use them quite a lot, especially to consolidate all the food and hammers into a few key cities, mainly the newly found city and the capital. I think we are good as it is. Just that the two types of trade route serve different purposes.

 

[Funak]

Funak had a point. I think again there are too many boost to the tech cost. The immortal AIs and I always proceed to eras at least 300 years faster than it took in the real world. I raised that point because frankly it's quite weird to have 1 per unknown tech even in the modern era when you are producing 500 per turn. What Funak is saying is true, but we cannot overlook the fact that trading routes indeed contributed a lot to the technology advancement in history. So perhaps things need to be more balanced.

As for the internal route, I use them quite a lot, especially to consolidate all the food and hammers into a few key cities, mainly the newly found city and the capital. I think we are good as it is. Just that the two types of trade route serve different purposes.

You're completely misunderstanding me, I want there to be better catch up mechanics, I just don't like them being on the traderoutes, as traderoutes are heavily dependant on location, neghbors and so on.

 

[Delekhan]

I like the trade route changes a lot. Until now the extra science was mostly an afterthought, especially after the Renaissance era.

Now Science on trade routes presents another factor to consider - they really matter, like the science on Civ:BE trade routes. You have to watch out for whether you're giving away tech to a juicy high-gold trade partner. You can also use them to prop up a weaker civ that is the enemy of your enemy.

Also: this change has the effect of really making the "Sanction Civ" World Congress Vote much more meaningful, and gives it some real bite! I can't wait to dream up ways to use it to screw my enemies.

Final point: It also makes the science bonuses you get from Tourism Influence more meaningful (I think, so long as the multiplier is getting applied to that too). That combined with the faster spies under the new system should be interesting.

 

[Gazebo]

I like the trade route changes a lot. Until now the extra science was mostly an afterthought, especially after the Renaissance era.

Now Science on trade routes presents another factor to consider - they really matter, like the science on Civ:BE trade routes. You have to watch out for whether you're giving away tech to a juicy high-gold trade partner. You can also use them to prop up a weaker civ that is the enemy of your enemy.

Also: this change has the effect of really making the "Sanction Civ" World Congress Vote much more meaningful, and gives it some real bite! I can't wait to dream up ways to use it to screw my enemies.

Final point: It also makes the science bonuses you get from Tourism Influence more meaningful (I think, so long as the multiplier is getting applied to that too). That combined with the faster spies under the new system should be interesting.

Indeed – I think the tech value increase is a more interesting way of doing 'catch up' mechanics for weaker civs, as the '% discount if someone else knows this tech' is fairly dull from a gameplay standpoint. It may not be as effective, mind you, but it is far more engaging and easier to 'see' from a player's point of view.

G

 

[Finarvi]

I think about building one big trade city with access to many other civs and build there any possible trade buildings and wonders. And see as AI caravans start coming with loads of gold and science!

I hope it's not illegal

Great changes (as always). I'm almost sure that wonders change will evolve but it's OK as quick patch.

 

[Funak]

I think about building one big trade city with access to many other civs and build there any possible trade buildings and wonders. And see as AI caravans start coming with loads of gold and science!

I hope it's not illegal

Great changes (as always). I'm almost sure that wonders change will evolve but it's OK as quick patch.

Ai never send caravans to good tradecities, they always choose the cities where you gain the least from it. Makes buildings like East india company and the colossus actually worse for your tradecities. Pretty funny actually, that the AI values keeping you down over keeping themselves up.

 

[Finarvi]

Seriously? That's a shame. I'd say, it's AI's cheating... and stupid behavior. Almost trolling.

I always value my own benefit on first place, then I check if I'm not helping civ that grows too strong.

 

[Delekhan]

That can't be true. AI's routinely send trade ships to my capital. Portugal sent ships from three of their cities to my capital, probably because I managed to complete the Colossus.

If what Funak said was true, they'd instead be sending their ships to my frontier settlement in the Tundra (gotta have those furs).

 

[Funak]

That can't be true. AI's routinely send trade ships to my capital. Portugal sent ships from three of their cities to my capital, probably because I managed to complete the Colossus.

If what Funak said was true, they'd instead be sending their ships to my frontier settlement in the Tundra (gotta have those furs).

Seriously? That's a shame. I'd say, it's AI's cheating... and stupid behavior. Almost trolling.

I always value my own benefit on first place, then I check if I'm not helping civ that grows too strong.

That was how the AI handled traderoutes in vanilla, and I haven't noticed a difference in this mod at all actually.
They only ever send caravans to cities without markets in for some reason, as soon as I build a market they stop sending traderoutes.