Settlement Limit Mod - question re other Civs

[Riconatic]

I would like to exactly udenstand how settlement limit carry over should work for me and for AI.
For me it seems that AI does not carry any settlement limit bonuses over.

Thing to note: I have mod to decrease settlement limits for all. Modern limit is 8.

Somehow only one AI have secured +1 to settlement limit for modern. "Best of them" have been gaining same amounts of culture and science than I.
I am thinking they do not have same rules than I have.

 

[Noble Zarkon]

Thing to note: I have mod to decrease settlement limits for all. Modern limit is 8.

Probably a question for the mod author then.

 

[Riconatic]

Probably a question for the mod author then.

It is my own mod.

Yeah its pretty hard to have a conversation about game mechanics when you are modding them.

What does the value 8 instead 16 have anything to do with the bonus carryover?

Nobody is modding the carryover mechanics. Just the base value.

 

[Noble Zarkon]

It is my own mod.

Ah ok - I have moved this to the forum where you are msot likely to get an answer.

 

[Riconatic]

Ah ok - I have moved this to the forum where you are msot likely to get an answer.

This is not a mod questions. Carry over logic is not modded in any way. I am not interested in that.

I am interested the default game behavior. Which is the problem.

 

[Yzman]

This is not a mod questions. Carry over logic is not modded in any way. I am not interested in that.

I am interested the default game behavior. Which is the problem.

There are topics such as this one which discuss the behavior

Y

Thread 'Question About Settlement Limit'

Mar 11, 2025

I've been playing my first game on the March patch. I seem to recall that in my previous games, when I transitioned from Exploration to Modern, my settlement cap would increase by three, but in my current game, it only increased by one. Does anyone know if this was rebalanced in the latest patch (I didn't see anything in the patch notes about this), or if there are other factors that affect how much the settlement cap increases from age to age? As a side note, I saw in a Civ youtube video, a player who had a settlement cap of 18 in Exploration and managed to increase the cap to 35 by...

• y10
• Replies: 15
• Forum: Civ7 - General Discussions

 

[Noble Zarkon]

I am interested the default game behavior. Which is the problem.

Can you explain how you came to this conclusion please, that might help us understand the issue a bit better.

 

[Riconatic]

Can you explain how you came to this conclusion please, that might help us understand the issue a bit better.

Observed from game. AIs rarely ever have settlement limit bonusses. Player have much more. Just like my example image. Through 2 ages I have gained +10 to settlement limit. One AI has gained +1.

Also observing other peoples screenshots. Very good place to follow AI behvarior discussion is this thread. I do NOT use that mod, but it is almost unbeatable AI behavior discussion source:
AI discussion

There are also screenshots similar to mine where player has + settelement limits more than AI. I believe that mod author tried to actually mod AI behavior to somehow prioritize AI to gain more settlement limit bonuses because it was bad. However I am not 100% sure as I do not use that mod.

The thread you moved me away from had hypthosesis where player gains automatically all civic/tech +1 settelement limits. (If I understood discussion correctly). There was also one other theory, but for me that seems impossible. However my working theory is that AI do not get those at all same way as player. Whatever the calculation is at the end.

And my actual point was to reitarate need for getting the full understanding how to limit bonuses are calculated during transition. So basically continue thread and gain more discussion and maybe gain more understanding.

 

[LilBudyWizer]

I see you reiterate, but I still don't understand. Perhaps what you're missing is that you have all the techs and civics of the previous age at the start of an age. You start exploration with a minimum settlement cap of 8. You start antiquity with a minimum of 3. You can unlock 3 more through researching basic civics. If a civ specific civic unlocks another then you'll get that one too. You'll have all the bonuses of all the techs and civics of the antiquity age at the start of exploration. Regrettably you don't get bonus attribute points for doing poorly in the previous age. You just fall further and further behind there. It really has nothing to do with AI and is just the game mechanics.

I can't help but think part of your question why didn't the AI get the bonuses to increase the settlement cap? The simple answer is the level of difficulty you're playing on. You're just leaving the AI in the dust behind you. You forced the end of the age before they could get that far. Play on deity and you'll likely find they have no problem increasing those caps, but you sure do. The biggest thing limiting the number of cities the AI builds is the settlement cap. Those penalties get extreme. With notque's mod they'll go 1 or 2 over, but not beyond that. They may have finished antiquity with only 4 settlements and then suddenly they can build 4 more, but they have to actually do so. That takes time. Exploration may have ended before they really had a need. With antiquity the settlement cap bonuses unlock rather late.

One thing easy to miss is all the civilization push age progression forward. Playing on governor that's likely mostly you doing it so you can do lots of stuff. With deity it's the AI pushing it forward. With an average player like me I find the age ending before I managed to do much. Losing to the AI gives you different perspective on the AI. My view is that deity is for me like governor is for the AI. It makes me realize often times the AI did best it could with what it had.

 

[Riconatic]

I see you reiterate, but I still don't understand. Perhaps what you're missing is that you have all the techs and civics of the previous age at the start of an age. You start exploration with a minimum settlement cap of 8. You start antiquity with a minimum of 3. You can unlock 3 more through researching basic civics. If a civ specific civic unlocks another then you'll get that one too. You'll have all the bonuses of all the techs and civics of the antiquity age at the start of exploration. Regrettably you don't get bonus attribute points for doing poorly in the previous age. You just fall further and further behind there. It really has nothing to do with AI and is just the game mechanics.

I can't help but think part of your question why didn't the AI get the bonuses to increase the settlement cap? The simple answer is the level of difficulty you're playing on. You're just leaving the AI in the dust behind you. You forced the end of the age before they could get that far. Play on deity and you'll likely find they have no problem increasing those caps, but you sure do. The biggest thing limiting the number of cities the AI builds is the settlement cap. Those penalties get extreme. With notque's mod they'll go 1 or 2 over, but not beyond that. They may have finished antiquity with only 4 settlements and then suddenly they can build 4 more, but they have to actually do so. That takes time. Exploration may have ended before they really had a need. With antiquity the settlement cap bonuses unlock rather late.

One thing easy to miss is all the civilization push age progression forward. Playing on governor that's likely mostly you doing it so you can do lots of stuff. With deity it's the AI pushing it forward. With an average player like me I find the age ending before I managed to do much. Losing to the AI gives you different perspective on the AI. My view is that deity is for me like governor is for the AI. It makes me realize often times the AI did best it could with what it had.

I do not believe I left them so far behind. I am fairly sure that two AIs made more culture points whole time compared to me and as all our numbers are relatively low every age lasted over 100 turns. So those few AIs should have same civic bonuses that I have.

Some kind of full game log would be nice. It would possible to examine what AI did with it’s culture and tech points.

 

[Yzman]

Here is my unmodded game in exploration age on sovereign. I will ask again...are you sure that you modding the game isn't causing some weird behavior? I find it hard to talk about the base game mechanics when you are using a mod that may or may not be inadvertently effecting the settlement limit decisions.

If base is 8 for exploration...than nearly everyone is over that. Xerves has bonus so his being higher than rest makes sense. MY suspicion is that the AI's that don't have a bonus either

A. Don't have bonuses to settlement increases
B. Do but did not research the proper techs / civics. You don't get these automatically if you didn't research them is my understanding.

 

[LilBudyWizer]

Funny you should mention it, I'm working in those files:

;Log AI map analysis (mostly choke points) information, 0 = off
;AIChokePointLogging 0

;Log all AI systems, 0 = off
;AIMasterLogging 1

;Log in-depth internal AI information, 0 = off
;AIVerboseLogging 0

Those are in AppOptions.txt. That's what the AI system did UserOptions.txt has a whole bunch more logging options, a whole section for it. I think you'll need some software assistance to make use of the logs. Those are in the same directory as the Mods directory.

 

[Riconatic]

Here is my unmodded game in exploration age on sovereign. I will ask again...are you sure that you modding the game isn't causing some weird behavior? I find it hard to talk about the base game mechanics when you are using a mod that may or may not be inadvertently effecting the settlement limit decisions.

If base is 8 for exploration...than nearly everyone is over that. Xerves has bonus so his being higher than rest makes sense. MY suspicion is that the AI's that don't have a bonus either

A. Don't have bonuses to settlement increases
B. Do but did not research the proper techs / civics. You don't get these automatically if you didn't research them is my understanding.

I am sure. In all cases it would be game code problem.

I have occasiollay seen other persons post screenshots where one AI has managed to secure settlement limits boosts like player. Same as your screenshot now. But it seems rare

Funny you should mention it, I'm working in those files:

;Log AI map analysis (mostly choke points) information, 0 = off
;AIChokePointLogging 0

;Log all AI systems, 0 = off
;AIMasterLogging 1

;Log in-depth internal AI information, 0 = off
;AIVerboseLogging 0

Those are in AppOptions.txt. That's what the AI system did UserOptions.txt has a whole bunch more logging options, a whole section for it. I think you'll need some software assistance to make use of the logs. Those are in the same directory as the Mods directory.

Thanks for the tip!

Can you elaborate bit? You say you are working with these files? Are you planning to release some kind of logging mod? What logs have you tried yourself?

But I have to try to turn these on for my next games.

 

[LilBudyWizer]

No, I'm working with the config files so you can set select options in game without editing the files. There's a whole lot of logging options in there. I think working with the logs will take an external program. If I were going to do something like that it would just be to get them into the windows event viewer.

 

[Yzman]

I am sure. In all cases it would be game code problem.

I have occasiollay seen other persons post screenshots where one AI has managed to secure settlement limits boosts like player. Same as your screenshot now. But it seems rare


Thanks for the tip!

Can you elaborate bit? You say you are working with these files? Are you planning to release some kind of logging mod? What logs have you tried yourself?

But I have to try to turn these on for my next games.

Here is later in the game...AI is having zero issues with settlement limits.