Proposed fix to reduce Bloom MM

[Vehem]

Overall, it makes mores sense to leave Bloom as one spell that works through python, like I did in my modmod.

Agreed completely. SDK changes for this are overkill and the python method works perfectly.

 

[xienwolf]

Main thing that those auto features would be nice for is that you then have an easily accessible function for the AI to utilize so that they start terraforming as well.

 

[Ringtailed]

Personally I hate Bloom and terraforming spells in general. I'd rather see forests growing & terrain upgrading happen automatically if certain conditions are met.

For now, though, I'd like to see the idea in the original post implemented. If it's a balance issue to have forests appear under towns, maybe it could be set up so that casting the elven bloom spell under a town resets it to a cottage. Anything would be better than the horrible micromanagement event that it is now.

 

[Minor Annoyance]

I was thinking that it would make things easier if bloom destroyed improvements. At least then you would just need the caster and a worker and not a military unit.
On a related note I noticed something that could require a lot of management so I just didn't bother with it. You can't build a lumbermill on an ancient forest but you can build one on a standard forest and it will change to ancient eventually. That could make for a lot of micromanagement when you first get lumbermills. Chopping ancient forests then planting new forests, waiting for them to upgrade and then building lumbermills before the upgrade again. The three options would be to make lumbermills buildable in ancient forests, make forests not upgrade while then have lumbermills, or have lumbermills negate the extra food in ancient forests. Since I've heard people say fellowship of leaves is overpowered (or maybe it's just elves and fellowship, I can't remember) maybe it should be the second or third option.

 

[Shatner]

I was thinking that it would make things easier if bloom destroyed improvements. At least then you would just need the caster and a worker and not a military unit.
On a related note I noticed something that could require a lot of management so I just didn't bother with it. You can't build a lumbermill on an ancient forest but you can build one on a standard forest and it will change to ancient eventually. That could make for a lot of micromanagement when you first get lumbermills. Chopping ancient forests then planting new forests, waiting for them to upgrade and then building lumbermills before the upgrade again. The three options would be to make lumbermills buildable in ancient forests, make forests not upgrade while then have lumbermills, or have lumbermills negate the extra food in ancient forests. Since I've heard people say fellowship of leaves is overpowered (or maybe it's just elves and fellowship, I can't remember) maybe it should be the second or third option.

A lumber milled ancient forest is +1 food, +2 hammers. A mine when you are running Arete gives you +3 hammers. So, you get the same absolute increase in tile-yield (+3) which makes it more or less balanced... I guess. The big thing is elves can't build lumber mills. And non-elves can't really get the full use out of a forested tile so letting FoL give a non-elven civ +1 food and +1 happy per tile (since the forest prevents them from otherwise building a mine or workshop) seems in-line with Sacrifice the Weak effectively giving you +1 food per point of population as well as bonus cash and research.

The problem is to get the bonus "food" from Ashen Veil and to get the bonus hammers from Arete you have to actually adopt a civic. That's a major opportunity cost because you could be running other civics instead. However, you get lumber mills and ancient forests independently of adopting Guardian of Nature. So, I would make it so the Guardian of Nature civic allows the construction of lumber mills in Ancient Forests to be mechanically balanced.

...

Reading that over, that is a MAJOR thematic violation. Guardian of Nature allowing lumber mills is pretty stupid sounding, when you think about it. Yeah, I'm not convinced FoL's needs any boost. Between it's many bonuses and early location in the technology tree it's plenty competitive with the other faiths. At the least...

 

[Muz]

Reading that over, that is a MAJOR thematic violation. Guardian of Nature allowing lumber mills is pretty stupid sounding, when you think about it.

Not really. They herd cattle and sheep right? A Guardian of Nature lumber mill would be more about harvesting the forest before replanting them. They take good care of the forest and only chop it down when the trees are ready for 'harvest', unlike the mass logging of other cultures.


But on the topic, I never really liked bloom or terraform spells. For one thing, it's a major micromanagement hassle.. but one very important thing is that it gets rid of the strategic values of terrain! One of the things about Civ was that you find terrain, you build cities near coasts and rivers, stay away from jungles, tundras, and deserts. But when you can improve terrain, you lose that part of the game.

Also, I find the elves are already a bit unbalanced. They're always the strongest in my games, the most technically advanced, the most populous.. there should be some way to balance them a bit more. Maybe double the amount of food it takes to grow? Elves do have longer lifespans..