no more exploits

[Matternich]

I suppose civ 4 will have its own unique exploits but here's how they should change the ones listed on the page- http://www.civfanatics.com/civ3cheats.shtml that should have been in a civ 3 patch.

I'm sure they’ve already been done to death a thousand times already but here goes.


Right of Passage Abuse- using the ROP to position troops pre-war. This is fine- maybe increase negative reaction by other nations. Possibly -all current ROP with every nation are void or immediately become subject to renegotiation regardless of time left on them.

Free Palace Jump- (abandoning capital so palace reappears in next biggest city) Simple answer is when the capital is destroyed so is the palace- period. No relocations. Seems a fair penalty for losing the capital.

Island block- (positioning any unit on coast to prevent AI landing) This is fine and makes sense except perhaps pre-marine amphibious attacks on non-military units should be allowed.

Ship hopping/swapping- Fair enough on this one it's so hard to set up it should be allowed.

ICS (Infinite City Sprawl, a close network of cities usually to build/increase culture) - For many players this is a legitimate strategy. Maybe some penalty should be introduced that can be removed as a game option on the setup screen. Not sure on the penalty- perhaps introducing limit to the culture score a single or a two citizen city can have. Even easier would be to increase the area around a city where settling is prevented. (Shouldn’t apply to building near other nations cities.)

Scout resource denial-(scout prevents AI connecting road to resource by leaving a friendly scout there.) Time to make the AI smart to this and demand the scout’s removal.

Pop-Rushing- (continually adding workers to city in Despotism/Communism only to kill them off in hurrying building) The best way to stop this would be to give workers consciences. Workers/settlers won't join a city that has already lost x amount (5-10?) of workers hurrying a build until a number of citizens forget. Amounts should vary according to government.

Worker dog pile- (adding masses of workers to a city with hospital to increase score) Simple answer to this is to correlate starvation to the amount of food missing per turn. So for an absence of 4 food- 2 citizens die. Rounding down after 1 starvation death.

Gold mine- Just a bug I guess.

 

[slothman]

Right of Passage Abuse- using the ROP to position troops pre-war. This is fine- maybe increase negative reaction by other nations. Possibly -all current ROP with every nation are void or immediately become subject to renegotiation regardless of time left on them.

If you mean ROP-rape then it isn't too bad. When a civ uses nuclear weapons first all others attack him. In the case of ROP-rape I would just say that he loses ROPS and gets a black mark.

Free Palace Jump- (abandoning capital so palace reappears in next biggest city) Simple answer is when the capital is destroyed so is the palace- period. No relocations. Seems a fair penalty for losing the capital.

If by "No relocations" you mean it doesn't get built automatically then yes. I would just say that it is lost, with more corruption and trading but not diplomacy, but can re rebuilt again. In the War of 1812 we "lost" Washington but rebuilt it. In the small time between losing and gaining though it would be somewhat anarchic.

ICS (Infinite City Sprawl, a close network of cities usually to build/increase culture) - For many players this is a legitimate strategy. Maybe some penalty should be introduced that can be removed as a game option on the setup screen. Not sure on the penalty- perhaps introducing limit to the culture score a single or a two citizen city can have. Even easier would be to increase the area around a city where settling is prevented. (Shouldn’t apply to building near other nations cities.)

I don't do this but some do. At best a rule at the begining would be good which then applies to both players and AI's.

Pop-Rushing- (continually adding workers to city in Monarchy/Communism only to kill them off in hurrying building) The best way to stop this would be to give workers consciences. Workers/settlers won't join a city that has already lost x amount (5-10?) of workers hurrying a build until a number of citizens forget. Amounts should vary according to government.

I think this should be kept. Think of it not just as generic citizen loss but gov't forced enslaving. China took workers/citizens from other regions to build it's great wall. This is similar.

All the others I agree.

 

[Mewtarthio]

I agree. Slaughtering your Workers to rush build still creates unhappiness. As for keeping the number of citizens the same, you're still one Worker short (said Worker could be improving your terrain instead of replacing the dead guy, you know).

 

[Matternich]

Slothman- yes palace can be rebuilt anywhere and agreed corruption is trouble enough without a diplomacy penalty for losing it.

Mewtarthio- Pop rushing refers to that situation where you set up worker pumps to create extra workers quickly and deliberatley to artificially hurry buildings in a city. The workers shield costs are way cheaper than the buildings. So you're not really short of an essential worker.

 

[warpstorm]

Worker dog pile- (adding masses of workers to a city with hospital to increase score) Simple answer to this is to correlate starvation to the amount of food missing per turn. So for an absence of 4 food- 2 citizens die. Rounding down after 1 starvation death.

Worker dogpile was patched long ago. You can't add workers to a city if doing so would cause it to starve.

 

[Matternich]

Warpstorm- Good. (don't think it patched in vanilla though.) Civfanatics should edit the cheats web page.
Still perhaps in Fascism you could add foreign nationals to a city just to watch them starve- sort of racial cleansing increaing war weariness in the other nation.

 

[warpstorm]

I don't feel ICS is an exploit. Neither does Firaxis since they made a whole government type specially suited to make it an even more powerful technique (Feudalism).

I also feel that pop-rushing is a legit strategy. The unhappiness penalties can be harsh if you ever decide to go towards a representative government.

 

[Matternich]

Personally I don't think ICS is an exploit. It is certainly not a cheat but on the civfan web page they call them a list of cheats and exploits.
ICS does however move away from the overall realism of city growth in civ3. Planting so many cities so close just isn't a reality. I know so much in the game doesn't try to go for realism per se but the way cities grow and territory expands does seem to mirror civilization better than other aspects.

ICS is a legal strategy in Game of the Months but pop rushing and worker dogpile (where relevant) are both disallowed.