Thanks to RJ, Bledsoe, and Parkin for their responses. Basically, what Im trying to do is make it so that the game is more about large scale wars, with lots of units, with less focus on the micro management of cities. However, I want the advantages I modify to benefit the AI, as well as myself, so that it's an even playing field for large scale wars.
The military strategy is by many considered to be the weak part of the AI. So if you remove other elements from the game, the AI is bound to perform less optimal. It is just easier to write an AI that is capable of developing nice cities than it is to develop one with a decent war strategy. Tactics are very hard to program. I would at least install the betterAI mod which improves the AI on various fronts among which the war tactics. A good player will still easily whipe the floor with an equal strength AI player, but the AI has become better.
So, I have done the following: ...responses and suggestions would be appreciated, as to how I can have a game that is geared more toward large scale wars with lots of units, and less on micromanagement:
I don't understand how the changes below reduce micromanagement. You want to reduce the upkeep part of the game and want bigger cities. Ok, the bigger cities means less cities so that's probably less management, but reducing the upkeep part of the game doesn't reduce micromanagement.
1. 3 sq. radius custom assets, and 24 civ game core dll.
2. 6 spaces between cities from 2: xml/global defines.
-This works well with the 3 sq. radius, and makes genghis kai's giant map much more playable.
The game is not wel balanced to support cities with a city radius of 3. There aren't enough luxury resources and health resources to keep the population happy and healthy when you're using significantly above 20 tiles. A radius of 3, increases the number of tiles within the city area from 21 to 37.
Also note that with a minimum distance of 6 between cities, there will be significant unused areas because the city that could be placed in the area to use the tiles is too close to another city.
3. 3 times longer science on quick: xml/game info/ game speed.
-This makes the buildings, tile improvements, and units, produce quickly, while the advances take a long time; enabling large scale wars in ALL eras.
Note that you don't mention the number of turns in the game. It might be very hard to finish the tech tree during a game.
4. All civs start with only mysticism: xml/ civilizations, which enables:
A. tech trading
B. open borders
C. defensive pacts
D. vassals
-This puts all players on a level playing field, while keeping intact their personality differences. Also, lets face it, people were doing things like making defensive pacts when civilizations first started; and tech trading can go back farther than showing each other how to build fires, etc... However, I left the obvious with their default advance; such as map trading needs map making, etc...
5. Inflation on quick game speed: xml/ civilizations
<iInflationPercent>1</iInflationPercent>
<iInflationOffset>-500</iInflationOffset>
-Correct me if Im wrong on this:
The value -500 means that after 500 turns, inflation starts to increase. The rate at which it increases is 1% which means that once every 100 turns, the inflation increases by 1%.
-This will increase gold for the player AND the AI, allowing for larger scale wars.
The effect is indeed as you've written. Since a quick game takes less than 500 turns, you can easily just set the inflation at 0%. It won't make a difference. Inflation doesn't have a big influence in this game anyway. Most games are won before inflation starts to be an issue and it typically is at 0% during the expansion phase of the game.
Things I still need help on:
1. Can you lower the civics from LOW to NONE, or is there a numerical value that I can assign?
Yes, just look at the upkeep entry of the pacifism civic.
2. Could I alter the minimum distance between cities, where it would still be 6 for each player, but only 2, BETWEEN different players?
It is probably possible, but not with a simple xml-edit. You'd probably need to do some C++ programming with the SDK or maybe it's doable with python editing.
3. I didnt really understand the formulas very much for the number of cities cost and the distance from capital costs that were on the forum. Is there a simple way to lower these values, to free up more gold for both the AI and the player to build more cities and units?
You could lower the values iDistanceMaintenancePercent and iNumCitiesMaintenancePercent in the CIV4HandicapInfo.xml file. That will lower the city upkeep costs. They are the Handicap_m mentioned in the post that I linked. Since the AI always uses the noble difficulty level modifiers for city upkeep, you should at least change them at the noble level and the level at which you will play.
Finally, is there anything in this post that would give me an advantage over the AI, because like I said, Im trying to make it an even playing field for large scale wars, I want all modifications to benefit the AI, as well as the player...
You're probably a lot more capable at military tactics than the AI.
You're welcome. Note that we're not specialists on this field. The people in
Creation and Customization know a lot more about modding. Don't ask me about python modding or modding using the SDK. I won't have the answers.
Good luck modding!
) thats why I think he needs to try more civs for a huge map.
