RAND 1.76 Balancing and Suggestions

[Afforess]

Thank you to everyone who submitted suggestions. I re-read the entire thread and wrote down all the main points and will be addressing them.

Here is what I plan on addressing:

• Rebalance Welfare office?
• Shale plant employment?
• Remove spy upgrade chain?
• Rebalance Mech Infantry Upgrade to Tesla Infantry?
• Have AI stop exploring when at war?
• Fix AI trading cities?
  • Distance from palace (colony?)
  • Mantaince benefit
  • Rev Stability
  • Nationality
  • Infrastructure
  • At risk of losing
• Bargain with AI when wants human to declare war?
• Avoid AI road spam? - Done
• Increase Preatorian inrease STR (by a promotion?), increase cost
• AI persuade for war decaration when at Peace?
• Lower castle maintenace?

For those eager to see the current 1.76 changelog, it is here:

Changelog:

• Updated to Latest RevDCM
• New Artwork for Cleopatra
• Speed enhancedments from Koshling (thanks!)
• AI cache civic values, for speed enhancements
• Civic screen hides civics that can never be unlocked due to No Future Era
• Civic screen allows viewing of civics of other team members
• Civic Screen dynamically resizes based on the text for each civic option class
• Removed Civic Parliment
• Removed Civic Vassalage
• AI factors road cost, time consumed, and movement increase into whether to build roads, should reduce road spam considerablly
• Pirate ships are less common
• Rewritten ALL civics, more details later

New XML tags in CivicInfos:

• iCityLimit - Limit of number of cities that can be founded
• iForeignerUnhappyPercent (similar to commerce happy percents), causes unhappiness for the given values. (e.g 20 -> 1 unhappiness per 20% foreign culture, 5 - > 1 unhappiness per 5% foreign culture)
• BuildingClassCommerceChange (similar to BuildingCommerceModifier), allows civics to alter the exact commerce buildingclass's produce in all cities
• UnitClassProductionModifier - civic changes global production of specific unit class

The AI has been made aware of all the new tags

 

[Arakhor]

That sounds impressive, Afforess. More RoM-AND!

 

[Dancing Hoskuld]

I have to agree with Joseph here. I don't use this option because of the need to chop forest.

Edit: That comment was before I realised there were more posts on the next page. I agree that "realistic cultural spread" needs some work so that we don't go back to the old days where the AI would chop all the trees and cripple itself.

Afforess - have you done anything the the main screen to fully incorporate Johnny Smith's specialist stacker? Last time had a go I could not make head nor tail of it.

 

[Archaic]

could you please, swap bronze working and metal casting around and move spearman to bronze working?

 

[Requia]

[*]Rewritten ALL civics, more details later

Wait, am I gonna lose my free xp?

 

[Afforess]

could you please, swap bronze working and metal casting around and move spearman to bronze working?

Metal casting comes before Bronze Working for a reason. The first metal working was gold. Bronze working came later.

Wait, am I gonna lose my free xp?

Can you be more specific?

 

[Dancing Hoskuld]

Copper was also cast long before bronze came along.

 

[Afforess]

As per my promised date of May 30th, AND 1.76 beta 1 has been released: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=344528

 

[youmakemefart]

THANKS FOR YOUR WORK ON THE MOD!!!!! YOU RULE!!!!!


I would strongly recommend you also fix:

1) the millitary weakness of the AI
2) the tiny impact electricity has on a civ - completely the opposite of actualy (economic) history...

 

[Babri]

Just a small suggestion from my side. Make civs more unique. Maybe an additional UU/UB for each civ & a unique ability.

 

[Afforess]

Just a small suggestion from my side. Make civs more unique. Maybe an additional UU/UB for each civ & a unique ability.

IDK, the leader traits were rebalanced already. I'm open to a specific list of changes, but just telling me to add 2x as many UU's and UB's will not happen, I'm definitely not that creative.

 

[Babri]

IDK, the leader traits were rebalanced already. I'm open to a specific list of changes, but just telling me to add 2x as many UU's and UB's will not happen, I'm definitely not that creative.

No problem. Just one more request. Can you change Native American Empire to Sioux & give them a cavalry UU instead of Axeman UU. That simply suits them better.

 

[45°38'N-13°47'E]

If I can give a suggestion: I'd move ICBMs and Tactical Nukes a little bit further in the modern era; right now to produce them you need Adv Rocketry while producing A-Bomb requires Aerodynamics but Adv Rocketry and Aerodynamics aren't dependant on each other. So it's possible to build ICBMs before A-Bomb which is quite strange... I'd suggest changing ICBM and TN prerequisite techs or to change A-Bomb prerequisite tech so that you can't build ICBMs and TN before A-bomb (making A-bomb totally useless, btw). Thanks!

 

[gfurst]

Suggestion: It would really be awesome if merged together the modcomp for dynamic traits. It opens a whole world of possibilities for gameplay.

 

[DrewBledsoe]

No problem. Just one more request. Can you change Native American Empire to Sioux & give them a cavalry UU instead of Axeman UU. That simply suits them better.

You are aware, that there were no horses in The Americas until the arrival of the Spanish?

 

[strategyonly]

No problem. Just one more request. Can you change Native American Empire to Sioux & give them a cavalry UU instead of Axeman UU. That simply suits them better.

You are aware, that there were no horses in The Americas until the arrival of the Spanish?

Horses only returned to the Americas with Christopher Columbus in 1493. These were Iberian horses first brought to Hispaniola and later to Panama, Mexico, Brazil, Peru, Argentina, and, in 1538, Florida. The first horses to return to the main continent were 16 specifically identified horses brought by Hernan Cortes. Subsequent explorers, such as Coronado and De Soto brought ever-larger numbers, some from Spain and other from breeding establishments set up by the Spanish in the Caribbean. Later, as Spanish missions were founded on the mainland, horses would eventually be lost or stolen, and proliferated into large herds of feral horses that became known as mustangs.

 

[Babri]

You are aware, that there were no horses in The Americas until the arrival of the Spanish?

Well a late cavalry UU would suit them because they were excellent riders & used muskets on horses much better than the European did. Similarly other Plain Indians were also very skilled horsemen.

 

[Babri]

I'm open to a specific list of changes, but just telling me to add 2x as many UU's and UB's will not happen, I'm definitely not that creative.

So here comes my list of changes. I am open to discussion. Some of my suggestions might be OP right now but we can sort it out.

Carthage UB -> As it has 25% more expensive so I think additional 10% commerce boost would be ideal.

Phalanax Greek UU -> Hmm... I think this should be changed to Spearmen with higher strength or an axeman with bonus against mounted units. 100% defence against chariots is not interesting.

Terrace Inca UB -> This building is quite strong but feels boring. The 2 culture can be changed to +1 food on hills

Fast Worker India UU -> An elephant UU with higher strength & First Strike. The problem with the current UU is that its value decreases in slow speed games.

Baray Khmer UB -> Change it to +2 food bonus or maybe 10% food bonus instead 1 food.

Mint Mali UB -> The building is nice but a slight boost would be good for it. A slightly higher cost than Forage but 15% commerce bonus (instead of 10% wealth bonus) might be a good change.

Ball Court Mayan UB -> Very weak compared to other replacements like Greek UB. Needs a boost. +2 Happiness maybe

Dog Soldiers Sioux UU -> Change it to a cavalry replacement with 3 movement. As your mod contains surround & destroy, it would be a nice touch if it gets more bonus from surrounding the enemy.

Siam UU -> Should be 10 strength & 1 movement. Right now it is too similar to Khmer UU.

Sumeria UB -> It costs as much as Sacrifce Alter but does not provide the food bonus. It needs a boost.

Timurid UB -> Change it +5 XP & have a slightly higher cost like 65 hammers or something.

 

[DrewBledsoe]

Actually, has anyone really ever found any use for Chariots? Because Spearmen are a resourceless unit, and come so early on, they are almost entirely negated. Yes they still work against axemen, but just one spear in a mini stack stops them dead.

I've almost never seen the ai use them, and never build them myself. In fact, I've not really found much use for any of the Horse mounted units, right up until Horse Archers and Light Cavalry, when they become somewhat useful.

In the vast majority of games, I'll often ignore the "horse tech line" entirely, and then when it's quick to research stirrup, research them all one after another. This doesn't seem right to me, given the horses' dominance in warfare. I haven't any simple suggestions I'm afraid.

 

[Babri]

Actually, has anyone really ever found any use for Chariots? Because Spearmen are a resourceless unit, and come so early on, they are almost entirely negated. Yes they still work against axemen, but just one spear in a mini stack stops them dead.

I've almost never seen the ai use them, and never build them myself. In fact, I've not really found much use for any of the Horse mounted units, right up until Horse Archers and Light Cavalry, when they become somewhat useful.

In the vast majority of games, I'll often ignore the "horse tech line" entirely, and then when it's quick to research stirrup, research them all one after another. This doesn't seem right to me, given the horses' dominance in warfare. I haven't any simple suggestions I'm afraid.

I agree about Chariots. But other horses are decent. They move faster enabling you to surround your enemy, then you can attack the enemy stack/city with your best troops. It is really helpful & can considerably cut your losses.