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Patch suggestion MOD v1.45 readme (based on 1.29f patch)
Author: player1
Why "patch suggestion"? Simple. These are the changes that if added to original Civ3 rules (based on v1.29f Civ3 patch) would improve game balance and fun. I tried using the conservative concept of not changing the rules too much, if not necessary, in order to keep original Civ3 flavor. I hope that players of this MOD will find game more fun and interesting.
INSTALL INSTRUCTIONS:
Just put BIC file in scenario folder.
Load from game menu.
Here is the link to PtW version.
Comments to changes in v1.45
Since Bombers in this MOD have operational range of 8, it seamed strange to leave Tactical Nukes with shorter range of 6. That's why I now increased bombard range of Tactical Nukes to 8 tiles.
I also fixed inconsistency of having Helicopters with longer range then Jet Fighters by putting operational range of Helicopters back to 6 tiles. Paratroopers still have airdrop range of 8, since they are carried by long range aircrafts, not helicopters.
MOD CHANGES
Upgrade paths:
Longbowmen, Swordsmen, Legion and Immortal upgrade to Riflemen. This way, AI won't have huge army of obsolete units. Still this upgrade is costly. This can prevent AI from building new such units in modern era (since normally they stay in building queue).
For similar reasons, to prevent having ability to build these units in modern age, Frigate, Man-O-War, Privateer and Ironclad upgrade to Destroyer. True, it does look odd to upgrade sailing ship to Destroyer, but look at the costs. To upgrade Frigate you need 120gp per unit.
Submarines get upgraded to Nuc. Submarines. Considering that Nuc. Submarines are better in every way, there are obvious reasons for new upgrade chain.
Unit flags:
All artillery units, Scout, Explorer and Leader get Airlift flag. I don't know why they are skipped in normal rules, since you can airlift tank. On the other hand Presidents (and other Leaders) do fly by the plane too.
Foot Unit flag added to Scout, Explorer and Leader units, in order to make them transferable by helicopters. Since these units already got Airlift ability, there is no good reason to prevent their transport by helicopters.
All artillery units, Tanks, Panzer Tanks, Modern Armor and Mech. Infantry gain Wheeled ability. This prevents moving them on Jungle and Mountain tiles if there is no road.
Note: You can move those units on enemy roads, you just don't get road movement bonus.
Army gets a pillage order.
Normally, Cruise Missiles can be loaded into transports directly, but not from city since they have no active "load flag". I fixed that bug and added load flag when needed.
AI defense flag was removed from Bowmen. Simply put, it was not good idea from first place. Although it could look logical at first glance, since Bowmen have defense of 2, they also upgrade to Longbowmen, a unit with defense of 1. And that could give some bad results for AI.
Cossaks get AI defense flag removed, since I've seen Russians using Cossaks instead Infantry to defend cities. And that's not good.
Mech. Inf. has no more offense AI flag selected (has only defense AI flag now), since AI used this unit too often instead of Tanks when planning attacks (and built Tanks rarely). This should fix that AI behavior.
It seems that there was a bug in AI, which made AI controlled player to use Paratroopers as main offense force instead of Tanks, if you increase Paratrooper's operational range value to anything higher them 6 (confirmed by Firaxis AI guys).
In order to fix the problem I added operational range of 8 to Tank, Panzer, Modern Armor and Mech. Infantry. Since they have no airdrop option, it won't matter in gameplay at all, but it would trick AI to see them as more worthy because of "higher" operational range.
Rate of fire:
Fighters and Jet Fighters get ROF of 2. I always wondered why Catapults have better bombard values then Jet Fighters. This will make those units not great bombers, but still useful since they also now have lethal bombardment ability.
Cannons get ROF of 2, but their price increases to 60 shields. This is done because normally, their firepower is on average weaker then firepower of two catapults. This should make them much more worthy and will reduce some micromanagement
Cruise Missiles get ROF of 4 to make them more devastating, and cost-effective (since they get destroyed after attack). Also, if they are lucky, they can kill 3hp (or even 4hp) Battleship.
Air unit tweaks:
Fighters, Jet Fighters, F-15 and Stealth Fighters get lethal sea and land bombard (they can kill units with bombards). All these units get Air bombard AI flag added.
Why?
These units are tactical bombers. They do their job from close distance. That way they can take out 1hp units. This won't be unbalanced since these units are much worse bombers then standard Bomber unit, and land units have huge defensive bonuses.
Jet Fighters get bombard strength of 4, to make them more distinctive from Fighters. They do have rockets anyway. Since it would lead to less powerful F-15 & Stealth Fighter, these units get increased bombard strength of 6.
In order to balance out increased Stl. Fighters bombard efficiency (compared to Stl. Bombers), Stl. Fighters gets new price of 160 shields. Costly, but anything less would make use of Stl. Bomber meaningless since Stl. Fighter has lethal bombard abilities.
Bombers get their range increased to 8. Large bombers usually have extra fuel tanks, which give them higher operational range. Also it should make modern ships an easier target (it would be a little more difficult to get out of their operational range in one turn). Should be not too much unbalancing since bombers have no lethal bombard turned on. Also lowers the need of relocating Bombers every time you conquer enemy border city.
Since Bombers now have operational range of 8, it would seam strange to leave Tactical Nukes with shorter range of 6. That's why I now increased bombard range of Tactical Nukes to 8 tiles.
Civilopedia says that Cruise Missiles can fly for thousand miles, so let it be reflected in the rules. They get bombard range of 4.
Helicopters can now transport 2 foot units. This makes Helicopter a more useful transport unit.
Ship tweaks:
Frigate gets attack AND bombard rating of 3, while Man-O-War gets attack AND bombard rating of 4. My reasoning was, that historicly, main difference between Ironclads and sailing ships was in ARMOR, and NOT in weapons. These changes reflect that. Ironclad has not much better offense, but has pretty good defense. With new stats Man-O-War becomes pretty interesting vessel. Has attack power of Ironclad (cannon heavy ship), while on the other hand is pretty vulnerable against Ironclads (and even Frigates).
Privateers get defense of 2, increased movement of 4 and lower cost of 50 shields. This will make them more useful to players. On the other hand it's not overpowering considering that Frigate has now both higher attack rating and very useful bombard ability.
Prerequisite tech for Ironclad unit is now Industrialization (instead of Steam Power). Also, Ironclads get cost of 90. This is done in order to prolong use of Frigates as "queen of seas". In original rules, Frigates were quickly made obsolete by Ironclads.
Late game naval units have increased movement by 1. This is done in order to make greater difference between speed of modern naval vessels and sailing ships. It should not be unbalancing since change is for just one movement point.
So Destroyers, Battleships, AEGIS Cruisers, Transports and Carriers get movement of 6. Subs get movement of 4, while Nuclear Subs get movement of 5. Note that now, since Carriers and Battleships are same-class ships, they get same movement rate of 6.
Submarines (nuclear version also) get attack of 10, to make them dangerous enough and force players to make their own submarines to detect enemy ones.
Also, Nuc. Submarines get reduced cost of 120 shields (was 140). Nuc. Submarines are better in every way, but not that much better to keep old price of 140 shields.
Battleship bombard capabilities are barely better compared to Destroyer (8 vs 6). So in order to fix that, Battleship gets bombard strength of 12. AEGIS Cruiser also gets higher bombard strength of 8.
Battleship gets higher cost of 220 shields. This is mostly done in order to make Destroyers more useful.
In order to make AEGIS Cruiser better at defense against bombers (that's the point of AEGIS), I increased their defense rating to 12. It's same defense as of Battleship, but since they are cheaper they become best in escort missions. Makes them more them more useful then simple submarine detectors. Destroyers still stay as main grunt force (cheap).
Basic unit stats:
Longbowmen gets reduced cost of 30 to make them more attractive compared to Knights. 40 cost was too much anyway (Immortals cost 30 and have attack of 4).
Gunpowder infantry units look too much weak on attack and too expensive for defense compared to cavalry or pre-gunpowder units.
Musketmen get 2/4/1 stats, cost 50 (lower cost)
Musketeer gets 4/4/1 stats, cost 50 (useful, finally)
Riflemen get 5/6/1 stats, cost 70
Infantry gets 8/10/1 stats, cost 90 (with old cost)
Reduced cost and higher attack makes these units more valuable.
Knight to Cavalry upgrade looks pretty cheap considering it's benefits (+50% to offense and movement for just 10-20gp). And its devastating if done early in rennaissance age. To make this a little bit more balanced I increased cost of Cavalry to 90 shields. Despite higher cost of Cavalry, Cossaks will keep their cost of 80 shields, since their higher defense is not much impressive on its own.
Marines and Paratroopers get some changes too:
Marines get 10/8/1 stats.
Paratroopers get 8/10/1 stats.
This makes these units more valuable and gives every of them special tactic. Paratrooper will invade and hold position, while Marines will assault. These units can be especially good in Jungles and Mountains, which wheeled units can't pass. And since in modern times Infantry gets obsolete these unit take role of jungle & mountain warriors. Someone could argue that Attack of 10 makes Marines capable of killing Tanks, but since smart players will stack tanks with Infantry support, that should not be problem.
Paratroopers also get operational range of 8. Real problem with these units was that it was difficult to land your units behind enemy lines, since they need to start from your cities. Hopefully this change will make them more strategicly useful.
Modern Armor gets defense of 14 to make Mech. Inf. more important.
Radar Artillery is mobile unit, so it gets movement of 2. Since Radar Artillery has movement of 2, it now needs Oil and Rubber (plus Aluminium).
Non-unit related changes:
In standard game Wealth is heavily underrated. Wealth income doubled (4 prod. to 1 gold before Economy, 2 to 1 after).
Taxmen and Scientist values increased to 2 points. Before, I hardly ever used them, since getting two shields is better then one taxmen (difference between getting 2 shields by mining and getting extra pop by irrigating). It's still not much, but higher values could be unbalancing in early game (and give graphic glitches).
Worker's "working speed bonus" in Communism is increased to +50%.
This is done because of flavor (Communism is "worker ideology") and to make Communism more distinctive from Monarchy. Also it gives Communism one unique bonus in peacetime.
Spy experience was changed to Veteran for all non-communist governments and to Elite for Communist government. That way, I've increased success chances for spying missions, which are by default low. Note that Diplomat experience is still Regular, so you'll have good reason to use Spy instead of Diplomat for Steal Tech mission.
Steal World Map mission is added to Diplomats. World Map is most useful in ancient era anyway.
Cost of Propaganda spying missions is HALVED. Propaganda becomes more viable option, but it still fails often against culturally superior civilizations (as it should). Democracy immunity becomes more important.
Attack bonus against barbarians is lowered too.
Why?
Since I don't think, that even novice player thinks it's fun to have his one lone warrior defeat 15 enemy horsemen. And that's something that can happen with anti-barbarian bonus of 800% at easiest difficulty.
Now, at Chieftain difficulty, bonus against barbarians is 200% (still good), at Warlord is 100%, at Regent and Monarch is 50%, and at Emperor and Deity difficulty there is no bonus at all.
Also, I made a small change in difficulty settings for effective number of optimal cities (used when calculating corruption). I raised number of optimal cities at lower difficulty levels, while keeping old numbers at higher levels. That way, I made game a little easier on corruption (but not too much) at lower difficulty levels.
So at Chieftain, optimal number is 150% of base number instead of 100%, at Warlord 120% instead of 95%, at Regent 100% instead of 90% and at Monarch level 90% instead of 85%. At Emperor and Deity levels optimal number is left unchanged (80% and 70% as before).
EDIT:
Post is too long.
Look 2 post down for rest of MOD info.
Version 1.2 was downloaded 35 times.
Version 1.22 was downloaded 44 times.
Version 1.25 was downloaded 57 times.
Version 1.26 was downloaded 19 times.
Version 1.27 was downloaded 221 times.
Version 1.3 was downloaded 27 times.
Version 1.31 was downloaded 72 times.
Version 1.32 was downloaded 17 times.
Version 1.33 was downloaded 67 times.
Version 1.34 was downloaded 29 times.
Version 1.35 was downloaded 43 times.
Version 1.36 was downloaded 13 times.
Version 1.37 was downloaded 12 times.
Version 1.38 was downloaded 6 times.
Version 1.39 was downloaded 36 times.
Version 1.4 was downloaded 29 times.
Version 1.41 was downloaded 28 times.
Version 1.42 was downloaded 54 times.
Version 1.43 was downloaded 11 times.
Version 1.44 was downloaded 54 times.
Author: player1
Why "patch suggestion"? Simple. These are the changes that if added to original Civ3 rules (based on v1.29f Civ3 patch) would improve game balance and fun. I tried using the conservative concept of not changing the rules too much, if not necessary, in order to keep original Civ3 flavor. I hope that players of this MOD will find game more fun and interesting.
INSTALL INSTRUCTIONS:
Just put BIC file in scenario folder.
Load from game menu.
Here is the link to PtW version.
Comments to changes in v1.45
Since Bombers in this MOD have operational range of 8, it seamed strange to leave Tactical Nukes with shorter range of 6. That's why I now increased bombard range of Tactical Nukes to 8 tiles.
I also fixed inconsistency of having Helicopters with longer range then Jet Fighters by putting operational range of Helicopters back to 6 tiles. Paratroopers still have airdrop range of 8, since they are carried by long range aircrafts, not helicopters.
MOD CHANGES
Upgrade paths:
Longbowmen, Swordsmen, Legion and Immortal upgrade to Riflemen. This way, AI won't have huge army of obsolete units. Still this upgrade is costly. This can prevent AI from building new such units in modern era (since normally they stay in building queue).
For similar reasons, to prevent having ability to build these units in modern age, Frigate, Man-O-War, Privateer and Ironclad upgrade to Destroyer. True, it does look odd to upgrade sailing ship to Destroyer, but look at the costs. To upgrade Frigate you need 120gp per unit.
Submarines get upgraded to Nuc. Submarines. Considering that Nuc. Submarines are better in every way, there are obvious reasons for new upgrade chain.
Unit flags:
All artillery units, Scout, Explorer and Leader get Airlift flag. I don't know why they are skipped in normal rules, since you can airlift tank. On the other hand Presidents (and other Leaders) do fly by the plane too.
Foot Unit flag added to Scout, Explorer and Leader units, in order to make them transferable by helicopters. Since these units already got Airlift ability, there is no good reason to prevent their transport by helicopters.
All artillery units, Tanks, Panzer Tanks, Modern Armor and Mech. Infantry gain Wheeled ability. This prevents moving them on Jungle and Mountain tiles if there is no road.
Note: You can move those units on enemy roads, you just don't get road movement bonus.
Army gets a pillage order.
Normally, Cruise Missiles can be loaded into transports directly, but not from city since they have no active "load flag". I fixed that bug and added load flag when needed.
AI defense flag was removed from Bowmen. Simply put, it was not good idea from first place. Although it could look logical at first glance, since Bowmen have defense of 2, they also upgrade to Longbowmen, a unit with defense of 1. And that could give some bad results for AI.
Cossaks get AI defense flag removed, since I've seen Russians using Cossaks instead Infantry to defend cities. And that's not good.
Mech. Inf. has no more offense AI flag selected (has only defense AI flag now), since AI used this unit too often instead of Tanks when planning attacks (and built Tanks rarely). This should fix that AI behavior.
It seems that there was a bug in AI, which made AI controlled player to use Paratroopers as main offense force instead of Tanks, if you increase Paratrooper's operational range value to anything higher them 6 (confirmed by Firaxis AI guys).
In order to fix the problem I added operational range of 8 to Tank, Panzer, Modern Armor and Mech. Infantry. Since they have no airdrop option, it won't matter in gameplay at all, but it would trick AI to see them as more worthy because of "higher" operational range.
Rate of fire:
Fighters and Jet Fighters get ROF of 2. I always wondered why Catapults have better bombard values then Jet Fighters. This will make those units not great bombers, but still useful since they also now have lethal bombardment ability.
Cannons get ROF of 2, but their price increases to 60 shields. This is done because normally, their firepower is on average weaker then firepower of two catapults. This should make them much more worthy and will reduce some micromanagement
Cruise Missiles get ROF of 4 to make them more devastating, and cost-effective (since they get destroyed after attack). Also, if they are lucky, they can kill 3hp (or even 4hp) Battleship.
Air unit tweaks:
Fighters, Jet Fighters, F-15 and Stealth Fighters get lethal sea and land bombard (they can kill units with bombards). All these units get Air bombard AI flag added.
Why?
These units are tactical bombers. They do their job from close distance. That way they can take out 1hp units. This won't be unbalanced since these units are much worse bombers then standard Bomber unit, and land units have huge defensive bonuses.
Jet Fighters get bombard strength of 4, to make them more distinctive from Fighters. They do have rockets anyway. Since it would lead to less powerful F-15 & Stealth Fighter, these units get increased bombard strength of 6.
In order to balance out increased Stl. Fighters bombard efficiency (compared to Stl. Bombers), Stl. Fighters gets new price of 160 shields. Costly, but anything less would make use of Stl. Bomber meaningless since Stl. Fighter has lethal bombard abilities.
Bombers get their range increased to 8. Large bombers usually have extra fuel tanks, which give them higher operational range. Also it should make modern ships an easier target (it would be a little more difficult to get out of their operational range in one turn). Should be not too much unbalancing since bombers have no lethal bombard turned on. Also lowers the need of relocating Bombers every time you conquer enemy border city.
Since Bombers now have operational range of 8, it would seam strange to leave Tactical Nukes with shorter range of 6. That's why I now increased bombard range of Tactical Nukes to 8 tiles.
Civilopedia says that Cruise Missiles can fly for thousand miles, so let it be reflected in the rules. They get bombard range of 4.
Helicopters can now transport 2 foot units. This makes Helicopter a more useful transport unit.
Ship tweaks:
Frigate gets attack AND bombard rating of 3, while Man-O-War gets attack AND bombard rating of 4. My reasoning was, that historicly, main difference between Ironclads and sailing ships was in ARMOR, and NOT in weapons. These changes reflect that. Ironclad has not much better offense, but has pretty good defense. With new stats Man-O-War becomes pretty interesting vessel. Has attack power of Ironclad (cannon heavy ship), while on the other hand is pretty vulnerable against Ironclads (and even Frigates).
Privateers get defense of 2, increased movement of 4 and lower cost of 50 shields. This will make them more useful to players. On the other hand it's not overpowering considering that Frigate has now both higher attack rating and very useful bombard ability.
Prerequisite tech for Ironclad unit is now Industrialization (instead of Steam Power). Also, Ironclads get cost of 90. This is done in order to prolong use of Frigates as "queen of seas". In original rules, Frigates were quickly made obsolete by Ironclads.
Late game naval units have increased movement by 1. This is done in order to make greater difference between speed of modern naval vessels and sailing ships. It should not be unbalancing since change is for just one movement point.
So Destroyers, Battleships, AEGIS Cruisers, Transports and Carriers get movement of 6. Subs get movement of 4, while Nuclear Subs get movement of 5. Note that now, since Carriers and Battleships are same-class ships, they get same movement rate of 6.
Submarines (nuclear version also) get attack of 10, to make them dangerous enough and force players to make their own submarines to detect enemy ones.
Also, Nuc. Submarines get reduced cost of 120 shields (was 140). Nuc. Submarines are better in every way, but not that much better to keep old price of 140 shields.
Battleship bombard capabilities are barely better compared to Destroyer (8 vs 6). So in order to fix that, Battleship gets bombard strength of 12. AEGIS Cruiser also gets higher bombard strength of 8.
Battleship gets higher cost of 220 shields. This is mostly done in order to make Destroyers more useful.
In order to make AEGIS Cruiser better at defense against bombers (that's the point of AEGIS), I increased their defense rating to 12. It's same defense as of Battleship, but since they are cheaper they become best in escort missions. Makes them more them more useful then simple submarine detectors. Destroyers still stay as main grunt force (cheap).
Basic unit stats:
Longbowmen gets reduced cost of 30 to make them more attractive compared to Knights. 40 cost was too much anyway (Immortals cost 30 and have attack of 4).
Gunpowder infantry units look too much weak on attack and too expensive for defense compared to cavalry or pre-gunpowder units.
Musketmen get 2/4/1 stats, cost 50 (lower cost)
Musketeer gets 4/4/1 stats, cost 50 (useful, finally)
Riflemen get 5/6/1 stats, cost 70
Infantry gets 8/10/1 stats, cost 90 (with old cost)
Reduced cost and higher attack makes these units more valuable.
Knight to Cavalry upgrade looks pretty cheap considering it's benefits (+50% to offense and movement for just 10-20gp). And its devastating if done early in rennaissance age. To make this a little bit more balanced I increased cost of Cavalry to 90 shields. Despite higher cost of Cavalry, Cossaks will keep their cost of 80 shields, since their higher defense is not much impressive on its own.
Marines and Paratroopers get some changes too:
Marines get 10/8/1 stats.
Paratroopers get 8/10/1 stats.
This makes these units more valuable and gives every of them special tactic. Paratrooper will invade and hold position, while Marines will assault. These units can be especially good in Jungles and Mountains, which wheeled units can't pass. And since in modern times Infantry gets obsolete these unit take role of jungle & mountain warriors. Someone could argue that Attack of 10 makes Marines capable of killing Tanks, but since smart players will stack tanks with Infantry support, that should not be problem.
Paratroopers also get operational range of 8. Real problem with these units was that it was difficult to land your units behind enemy lines, since they need to start from your cities. Hopefully this change will make them more strategicly useful.
Modern Armor gets defense of 14 to make Mech. Inf. more important.
Radar Artillery is mobile unit, so it gets movement of 2. Since Radar Artillery has movement of 2, it now needs Oil and Rubber (plus Aluminium).
Non-unit related changes:
In standard game Wealth is heavily underrated. Wealth income doubled (4 prod. to 1 gold before Economy, 2 to 1 after).
Taxmen and Scientist values increased to 2 points. Before, I hardly ever used them, since getting two shields is better then one taxmen (difference between getting 2 shields by mining and getting extra pop by irrigating). It's still not much, but higher values could be unbalancing in early game (and give graphic glitches).
Worker's "working speed bonus" in Communism is increased to +50%.
This is done because of flavor (Communism is "worker ideology") and to make Communism more distinctive from Monarchy. Also it gives Communism one unique bonus in peacetime.
Spy experience was changed to Veteran for all non-communist governments and to Elite for Communist government. That way, I've increased success chances for spying missions, which are by default low. Note that Diplomat experience is still Regular, so you'll have good reason to use Spy instead of Diplomat for Steal Tech mission.
Steal World Map mission is added to Diplomats. World Map is most useful in ancient era anyway.
Cost of Propaganda spying missions is HALVED. Propaganda becomes more viable option, but it still fails often against culturally superior civilizations (as it should). Democracy immunity becomes more important.
Attack bonus against barbarians is lowered too.
Why?
Since I don't think, that even novice player thinks it's fun to have his one lone warrior defeat 15 enemy horsemen. And that's something that can happen with anti-barbarian bonus of 800% at easiest difficulty.
Now, at Chieftain difficulty, bonus against barbarians is 200% (still good), at Warlord is 100%, at Regent and Monarch is 50%, and at Emperor and Deity difficulty there is no bonus at all.
Also, I made a small change in difficulty settings for effective number of optimal cities (used when calculating corruption). I raised number of optimal cities at lower difficulty levels, while keeping old numbers at higher levels. That way, I made game a little easier on corruption (but not too much) at lower difficulty levels.
So at Chieftain, optimal number is 150% of base number instead of 100%, at Warlord 120% instead of 95%, at Regent 100% instead of 90% and at Monarch level 90% instead of 85%. At Emperor and Deity levels optimal number is left unchanged (80% and 70% as before).
EDIT:
Post is too long.
Look 2 post down for rest of MOD info.
Version 1.2 was downloaded 35 times.
Version 1.22 was downloaded 44 times.
Version 1.25 was downloaded 57 times.
Version 1.26 was downloaded 19 times.
Version 1.27 was downloaded 221 times.
Version 1.3 was downloaded 27 times.
Version 1.31 was downloaded 72 times.
Version 1.32 was downloaded 17 times.
Version 1.33 was downloaded 67 times.
Version 1.34 was downloaded 29 times.
Version 1.35 was downloaded 43 times.
Version 1.36 was downloaded 13 times.
Version 1.37 was downloaded 12 times.
Version 1.38 was downloaded 6 times.
Version 1.39 was downloaded 36 times.
Version 1.4 was downloaded 29 times.
Version 1.41 was downloaded 28 times.
Version 1.42 was downloaded 54 times.
Version 1.43 was downloaded 11 times.
Version 1.44 was downloaded 54 times.
) but the others seemed to mix better the tanks and mech infantry than they did in 1.2. (Odd how the biggest AI was the furthest behind in tech.) 
