Quo's Combined Tweaks v7.0.19 BETA

[Guynemer]

How well would QCT work with new leaders and new civs from the workshop?

The biggest problem is that they wouldn't have bonuses for friendship agreements; I think they'd be fine otherwise.

 

[isau]

The biggest problem is that they wouldn't have bonuses for friendship agreements; I think they'd be fine otherwise.

I've been thinking about the best way to resolve this. There are a couple of options.

• I could write global code that finds all leaders with no friendship gifts and gives them a generic one. Perhaps the +1 Trade Route one. It won't be able to display on the leader's agenda, however.
• For some of the more popular leaders (perhaps JFDs leaders for example) I could write special code that gives gifts to these leaders, treating them basically the same as DLC. This is a little risky because it depends on the stability of other modder's code.

Fresh install of 3.11.7 BETA into mod folder, after deleting databases:

Database.log

[2545234.327] [Gameplay] ERROR: near "0": syntax error
[2545234.928] [Gameplay] ERROR: UNIQUE constraint failed: tblQuoSoftCrash.Quo_ExitFile
[2545234.928] [Gameplay] ERROR: UNIQUE constraint failed: tblQuoSoftCrash.Quo_ExitFile

Modding.log

[2545234.928] Status: UpdateDatabase - Loading Gameplay/Quo_PopYield_Code.sql
[2545234.928] Warning: UpdateDatabase - Error Loading SQL.
[2545234.937] Status: UpdateDatabase - Loading Gameplay/Quo_AI_Civ_Code.sql
[2545234.937] Warning: UpdateDatabase - Error Loading SQL.

I'm assuming you've turned off Hardcore Science Rules? This is an "intentional" crash. When you turn the rules off, the file deliberately performs an illegal action and "soft crashes"/exits the file. It's not an ideal way to do it but other than the message in the logs, doesnt impact the game, except to disable the Hardcore rules. Eventually I'll get around to patching this but its a low priority since it has no effect on the game except for the logs.

Very good work. It's very pleasant that you listen to the opinions of civilizators here. After all the collective mind sometimes (not always, but very often) are more effective than the single one. I'm satisfaed of options and the posibilities of setting that you wrote. That's very justly. When the mod will be in the alpha stage me myself or Clack will editing the Russian text for the last time. I think that will be Clack, because i will be busy in the recent weeks...and in the next months be at the countryside... Well, before Combined tweaks have entering the Steam I have some suggestions for the mod. Or it may be the suggestions for the future mods if you are planning to create something else. But first I should say that in all my gaming years (not only civ, but in many other games and genres) I never was much fan of the mods, because the developers almost always made the games as it should be, but now in our modern days, gamers are more oftenly collide with simple lack of balance or some old game mechanics that we loved, so they needs modding communityes now more than ever. I'l tell you again that your mod is right and makes game better. And in the tandem with others global mods makes the Civ VI are very strong game. The developers still should understand that the fans may guide the directions, but not always have the resources for global installations. And I should say that the firaxis are clearly understands that and uses our creativity to short work to themselves and create just a minor patches...at least for now... That explains why they 're continuing simplified the mod creating processes.... Well I may tell much, but wat I really whant to tell as the synopsys - it is good to have such creative community as Civfanatics. Mods were needed always. but in my opinion they should feel organic. And your mod is definately that one...and mods of some other peole here ofcourse. So, back to suggestions. You may agree with them, may disagre, you can even tell me that they are not relevant, but I'm still post them here:

1) Two cards for the last Civic that called "The future government" or "the government of the future" (I don't check how it called in the english version cause I play in russian). The idea is simple and may be integrated in the quo's Combined Tweaks if you agree.
First card - the red War card. Name: The Future Army (Армия будущего). Effects: Reduction of the maintenance fee for all military units by 3 gold per turn. Discount of 70% gold on the improvement of all military units. (Снижение стоимости содержания для всех военных юнитов на 3 золотых в ход. Скидка 70% золота на улучшения всех военных юнитов.).
The second card is the brown economic card. Name: Robotic production (Роботизированное производство). Effects: +5 to production in all cityes (+5 к производству во всех городах).
In the brackets I wrote the russian translation. Yes, I know that you may say to me that's this two additional cards not very necessary but for me it very unfare to see that the developers are not giving some kind of strong bonus for completing the entyre civic three. Same thing with the Last technology in the tech three but there we can place some very strong unit... at least for now, until the developers or modders will create the Future era. I always liked some small future instalments. Since Civ IV. But now at least two future policy cards... Maybe in the future Deliverator will create some future era units for Moar Units mod and placed them on the "Technology of the future" tech.

2) Cultural annexy of territory and the cities. The mechanic that I loved back in the civ IV. I understand that in the current game status it's very difficult to achieve, and that sould be another global mod... Here in Combined Tweaks i liked the idea of cultural bomb from the wonders and the districts... I understand that you're using the base ability of Poland that the developers added paches ago... or you reprogram something global by yourself? I don't know is there was something similar in the Civ V mods... In that time I'm not tracked the most mods...only a few...

3) Can you make an option in Combined Tweaks options file that may return the ability of capturing enemy settlers? I think that should be optional too. On default you may leave this theak turned on.

4) The ability of creating constant alliances with one of the AI or human players until the end of the game. That was a very interesting mechanic back in the Civ IV days...

I can write many things, but i understant that some of my wishes may be Implemented only by the developers if they will decide to make them be... It's a very difficult programming process...

Thanks for the feedback.

1) Let me think about these. I haven't added any new Policy cards yet because there are still a few I want to address.

2) I agree this would be cool. I think another modder might have built something similar to this. I do miss this feature from Civ 3/4.

3) Yes this is doable.

4) This is also doable (I think). If I do it I will make an option that is turned off by default.


FYI the next big thing I'm working on, besides finishing off patch 3.11 and pushing to Steam, is some kind of in game confirmation window that shows you all of your MyOptions settings so you can review them before starting the game.

 

[Fierro]

Hi! How can I enable ice on maps? Is it possible to make this option toggleable? Because ice adds atmosphere

 

[isau]

Hi! How can I enable ice on maps? Is it possible to make this option toggleable? Because ice adds atmosphere

I can add it as a MyOption. Firaxis has tweaked Ice since the game was released so its much less likely to block circumnavigation than in it used to be.

 

[biship]

I'm assuming you've turned off Hardcore Science Rules? This is an "intentional" crash. When you turn the rules off, the file deliberately performs an illegal action and "soft crashes"/exits the file. It's not an ideal way to do it but other than the message in the logs, doesnt impact the game, except to disable the Hardcore rules. Eventually I'll get around to patching this but its a low priority since it has no effect on the game except for the logs.

Yes, I had turned them off. Ok great, it's an expected error. I just wanted to let you know in case it was new.

 

[Sole Survivor]

I tried a game last night on prince with standard size map and was having fun with all the changes except to science and culture. At turn 80 I was making around 30 science with a campus in every city. But all the AI players had 10 or less. Half of them only had 2 or 3 science per turn. It made the game way top easy and I got bored. Is there any fix to keep the AI competitive? Should I also download an AI mod and increase the difficulty? Should I change some setting in this mod?

 

[isau]

I tried a game last night on prince with standard size map and was having fun with all the changes except to science and culture. At turn 80 I was making around 30 science with a campus in every city. But all the AI players had 10 or less. Half of them only had 2 or 3 science per turn. It made the game way top easy and I got bored. Is there any fix to keep the AI competitive? Should I also download an AI mod and increase the difficulty? Should I change some setting in this mod?

That is very weird. I play on Emperor and have to work extremely hard to keep up with the AI. It's possible that scaling on lower difficulties is off. I may have to look into whether the AI is getting the bonuses it should.

You can also try opening the MyOptions.sql file and changing the first setting in there for Hardcore Science Rules. Disabling that will revert to the default rules for science/culture (i.e. you get it for free based on city population). I personally find that playstyle too easy because it doesn't create the same pressure to have campus and theater districts, but that could just be me.

 

[wige]

Hey there,

Firstly - thanks for the unbelievable work on this mod. I've returned to Civ 6 after a lengthy gap (by fanatics standards) and this has breathed new life into the game for me. Love the changes to science and theatre, those early campuses and monuments make a hell of a difference to the prioritisation. Also, the friend benefits are a lovely change as well. Playing as Gilgamesh, and everyone wants to be my mate! Does the AI factor in the benefits it receives? or is that just changes to the AI in general? Either way, it's nice to be able to chase friends/alliances for extra security if I'm chasing a building game. The reduced war penalties as well are a nice bonus. Just a generally awesome mod and wanted to take the time to say thanks for your efforts.

Secondly, and really quite a minor thing, the promotion/perk of "Spear of Fionn" - not sure if this has been mentioned, or I'm missing something in-game, but is there a way to have this display on the unit banner? I can't see the units that have it and those that don't.

Thanks.

 

[Fierro]

That is very weird. I play on Emperor and have to work extremely hard to keep up with the AI. It's possible that scaling on lower difficulties is off. I may have to look into whether the AI is getting the bonuses it should.

You can also try opening the MyOptions.sql file and changing the first setting in there for Hardcore Science Rules. Disabling that will revert to the default rules for science/culture (i.e. you get it for free based on city population). I personally find that playstyle too easy because it doesn't create the same pressure to have campus and theater districts, but that could just be me.

He is right, game on difficulties lower than Emperor are super easy. I'm playing on King and have 20+ science gap between me an AI in Medieval era (also I was first to enter it). At least they have largest army. On the other hand, i'm not sure this is because of your mod. King was always easy for me, but this time I tried out with Smoother Difficulty (i thought it would make game challenging). Opposing to this, Emperor feels very hard, I can't keep up with AI. Probably will tweak your mod options for King.

 

[isau]

He is right, game on difficulties lower than Emperor are super easy. I'm playing on King and have 20+ science gap between me an AI in Medieval era (also I was first to enter it). At least they have largest army. On the other hand, i'm not sure this is because of your mod. King was always easy for me, but this time I tried out with Smoother Difficulty (i thought it would make game challenging). Opposing to this, Emperor feels very hard, I can't keep up with AI. Probably will tweak your mod options for King.

Hmm I will need to look into it. I wonder if there is something that happens at lower difficulties that limits the number of districts that AI players are building. That would limit their science output, since their bonus is based on how many districts they own. I do most of my own testing on Emperor on the assumption that most players are playing around that difficulty, but that may not be an accurate assumption.

In general in a game with 7 AIs, about 2 of them should struggle, and 2 should do pretty well. AI Ghandi in my recent Emperor game smoked me on Science so hard (around 125 / turn for him vs 40 / turn for me) that I wondered if I got something wrong.

Another option, I suppose, is I could turn off Hardcore as the default and simply rely on Firaxis' rules, having Hardcore be an option that is there but that has to be manually turned on, perhaps with a recommendation that is intended only for higher difficulties.

One thing to note is that the AI bonuses to research get a boost as they enter later eras, once at Renaissance and once again at Modern. If a lot of them for some reason aren't making it to the Ren that could be part of the reason they're doing poorly.

One last note, in the next patch I am also doing a minor change to the tech tree that is intended to limit beelining. Right now it is possible for the AI to beeline to Cartography in the Rennaisance with just 3 techs, which is ridiculous. The main impact of that is on Great People, it's the reason Great People types seem to vanish so quickly. So at a minimum look for that change in the next few days. I will see what I can do about lower difficulty scaling as well.

 

[isau]

I just put something together and realized why the difficulty may seem "off." I just realized the Civ being used was Gilgamesh/Sumeria.

Sumeria has a huge advantage in Hardcore because its unique improvement generates Science and Culture, which are much more difficult to generate in Hardcore than they are without it on. The unique improvement comes early and can be spammed easily, and can really make a difference in the ability to generate science. I may need to look into the yields that unique improvement provides or else the rules on how many can be placed side by side. Same with the Mission, Chateau, etc. These were all fairly weak buildings in the Vanilla game, but being forced to find sources of culture/science may have made them overpowered due to the easy ability to spam them. Especially the Mission and Ziggurat, since those have very few rules over where they can be placed.

 

[clack]

I just put something together and realized why the difficulty may seem "off." I just realized the Civ being used was Gilgamesh/Sumeria.

Sumeria has a huge advantage in Hardcore because its unique improvement generates Science and Culture, which are much more difficult to generate in Hardcore than they are without it on. The unique improvement comes early and can be spammed easily, and can really make a difference in the ability to generate science. I may need to look into the yields that unique improvement provides or else the rules on how many can be placed side by side. Same with the Mission, Chateau, etc. These were all fairly weak buildings in the Vanilla game, but being forced to find sources of culture/science may have made them overpowered due to the easy ability to spam them. Especially the Mission and Ziggurat, since those have very few rules over where they can be placed.

In addition, the AI spam Chateau, which has a "cultural bomb", in total, AI often snatches my territory, being a friend or ally.

 

[isau]

In addition, the AI spam Chateau, which has a "cultural bomb", in total, AI often snatches my territory, being a friend or ally.

Yeah the Chateau's Culture Bomb ability is intentionally nasty. Chateaus can only be built on rivers, so that's really the only place where you need to watch out for it.

Note that if you befriend Cathy you can also use the Chateau as a Culture Bomb as well.

It's still weaker than Jadwigas' Culture Bomb ability, which can be placed virtually anywhere, so I think it's fine in terms of balance. It's basically similar to how in old Civ games players would snatch tiles with culture generation.

 

[Sandling]

I've been thinking about the best way to resolve this. There are a couple of options.

• I could write global code that finds all leaders with no friendship gifts and gives them a generic one. Perhaps the +1 Trade Route one. It won't be able to display on the leader's agenda, however.

Would it be possible to have a random pool with all the friendship gifts you designed that custom leaders draw from at the start of a game? I'd personally prefer that over one fixed Gift, and I can understand the hassle in regards to making custom ones for every single one (Aside from perhaps custom designing very popular ones, but this way you would at least have a solid base for every custom leader/empire)

 

[Fierro]

Another option, I suppose, is I could turn off Hardcore as the default and simply rely on Firaxis' rules, having Hardcore be an option that is there but that has to be manually turned on, perhaps with a recommendation that is intended only for higher difficulties.

I should note then that I turned off hardcore in MyOptions. Will turn on it next time maybe, but as you said some civs become overpowered with it so there is sense to wait for balance tweaks if you decide to apply them.

Would it be possible to have a random pool with all the friendship gifts you designed that custom leaders draw from at the start of a game? I'd personally prefer that over one fixed Gift, and I can understand the hassle in regards to making custom ones for every single one (Aside from perhaps custom designing very popular ones, but this way you would at least have a solid base for every custom leader/empire)

That is very interesting idea but that would cause inappropriate bonuses for some civs. My suggestion is that every civ could get one of global traits (Industrious, Cultural, Religious etc.) and than Quo could create bunch of bonuses, which are sticked to their category. For example, India could have a Religious trait. At the start of the game script could choose random friendship bonus from Religious pool. That would make every game exciting and still appropriate. Nonetheless, I'm fine with current system.

 

[isau]

Would it be possible to have a random pool with all the friendship gifts you designed that custom leaders draw from at the start of a game? I'd personally prefer that over one fixed Gift, and I can understand the hassle in regards to making custom ones for every single one (Aside from perhaps custom designing very popular ones, but this way you would at least have a solid base for every custom leader/empire)

It would be extremely challenging. Part of the problem is the gift has to make sense for the leader. Most of them give something strongly tied to their ability set.

There's also an issue with trying to create random assignments in SQL. It's technically possible, but the problem is the game has to remember between saves what the last random configuration was, and that can get very tricky.

That said, I have something planned that is random-esque and connected to your relationship with rival civs. Stay tuned.

 

[Sole Survivor]

Thanks for the replies. It wasn't me that was playing Gilgamesh, so that wasn't the reason for the difficulty seeming off in my Prince game. Though I do agree ziggurats give a huge advantage to the early game with this mod. I tried again on Emperor and it was definitely more challenging, though some AI were still very far behind. I like the suggestion to try with Smoother Difficulty which I haven't played with in a few months. I think that may provide the difficulty scaling with this mod to make the AI truly competitive. Though not necessarily smarter lol. In my Emperor game, Russia was at war with France and kept not attacking a French city on Russia's borders that Russia had surrounded because it was trying to get to Paris and secure France's capital. Russia never managed to get Paris though cause France was attacking from both cities. Russia definitely should have taken the other city first since it was closest to Russia and then moved on to Paris, which was the next closest city. Is there a way to tell the AI to grab the closest city first and then move to the next closest city and so on rather than walk past other cities in attempt to go straight for the capital?

 

[Seidenstricker]

When I attempt to start a game it returns me to the main menu. I have no other mods loaded. Have checked file integrity in Steam and all is well. Any suggestions?

 

[isau]

When I attempt to start a game it returns me to the main menu. I have no other mods loaded. Have checked file integrity in Steam and all is well. Any suggestions?

Did you download from here on Civ Fanatics or from the version on Steam?

Also if you are on PC can you please close out of the game completely, restart it, attempt to start the mod, and then browse to Documents\My Games\Sid Meier's Civilization VI\Logs and paste the contents of the file named Database.log?

 

[isau]

Thanks for the replies. It wasn't me that was playing Gilgamesh, so that wasn't the reason for the difficulty seeming off in my Prince game. Though I do agree ziggurats give a huge advantage to the early game with this mod. I tried again on Emperor and it was definitely more challenging, though some AI were still very far behind. I like the suggestion to try with Smoother Difficulty which I haven't played with in a few months. I think that may provide the difficulty scaling with this mod to make the AI truly competitive. Though not necessarily smarter lol. In my Emperor game, Russia was at war with France and kept not attacking a French city on Russia's borders that Russia had surrounded because it was trying to get to Paris and secure France's capital. Russia never managed to get Paris though cause France was attacking from both cities. Russia definitely should have taken the other city first since it was closest to Russia and then moved on to Paris, which was the next closest city. Is there a way to tell the AI to grab the closest city first and then move to the next closest city and so on rather than walk past other cities in attempt to go straight for the capital?

In general there should be at least a few AIs who fail to keep up. This is partly by design. Their science and culture bonus in hardcore is linked to the number of districts built. If they are all failing to keep in Hardcore that is more of an issue.

If you use Smoother Difficulty I would recomend using MyOptions to turn off most of the changes the Combined Tweaks mod makes to science/culture. Also maybe the modification to Great People. I'm not too sure what is in the "smoother difficulty" mod and am not sure how it would stack with this mod. Turning those features off would probably allow it to work fine.