I have to confess that as I watched the GOTM staff add more modifications to the stock rules month after month, I was afraid that it would hurt player participation. I was obviously wrong! 
Originally, modifications were restricted to three areas: Changes that bring PTW and vanilla Civ3 closer together, changes that remove exploits, and minor changes and unit additions that add flavor and change the effective map size.
But with the introduction of the Predator and Conquest classes, more modifications are being made to the behavior of the AI, so that a game of a given level can appear more or less difficult. Changes are also being made to some AI civilizations (GOTM19 Rome, GOTM20 Zulu), to make them behave in a certain way. This is where I have some suggestions for future games.
The following suggestions are tested extensively, and they do work. Some of them are more radical than others, so my only hope is that the GOTM staff reads through them, becomes aware of them, and do as they wish with them. The modifications can be made to the Predator-class AI, or they can be incorporated in all classes to make the AI rely less on bonuses and more on better decision-making.
Originally, modifications were restricted to three areas: Changes that bring PTW and vanilla Civ3 closer together, changes that remove exploits, and minor changes and unit additions that add flavor and change the effective map size.
But with the introduction of the Predator and Conquest classes, more modifications are being made to the behavior of the AI, so that a game of a given level can appear more or less difficult. Changes are also being made to some AI civilizations (GOTM19 Rome, GOTM20 Zulu), to make them behave in a certain way. This is where I have some suggestions for future games.
The following suggestions are tested extensively, and they do work. Some of them are more radical than others, so my only hope is that the GOTM staff reads through them, becomes aware of them, and do as they wish with them. The modifications can be made to the Predator-class AI, or they can be incorporated in all classes to make the AI rely less on bonuses and more on better decision-making.
- Remove the AI offense flag from Mech. Infantry, Impi, Numidian Mercenary, Musketeer. For the AI, each unit can have a single purpose either offense or defense. Most units have a single AI strategy, but there are some units, like Infantry for example, that can be built for either purpose. But is it smart for the AI to build Mech. Infantry for attacking, when it can be building Tanks? When the AI needs an offensive unit, it builds one from the list of available units with the AI offense flag checked. Unfortunately, the AI has a chance to build any unit, even units that are clearly inferior to others. For example, the AI sometimes builds Guerillas, even when it can build Infantry. Similarly, the AI sometimes builds Mech. Infantry for offense, even though Tanks are always available at the same time. More importantly, the AI usually has lots of Infantry running around, built for attack in the Industrial era before Tanks were available. When time comes to upgrade these units, they become Mech. Infantry with an offensive purpose, and they get sacrificed trying to attack fortified enemy Mech. Infantry. If the AI offense flag is removed from Mech. Infantry, the upgraded units get the AI defense flag, and the AI suddenly has a lack of offensive units after upgrading. Consequently, it has to build Tanks or Modern Armor to compensate. Thats what the human players do, and for a good reason! Similarly, some of the Zulu quota on offensive units is accounted for by Impi, the Carthaginian AI builds some Numidian Mercs for attack when it would be better off building swordsmen, and the French build some Musketeers, which are just too expensive for a 3-strength offensive unit.
- Increase the Optimal Number of cities for all map sizes by 50%. Reduce the percentage of optimal number of cities for all difficulty levels by 1/3. The reason for this change is to make the AI more aggressive in pursuing land. It is sad to see how the AI does not even come close to threatening Domination on any map size greater than tiny. The combined effect on gameplay of these two changes is minimal. There is absolutely no change in corruption. The only change is that players need 50% more cities before being able to build the Forbidden Palace. But increasing the OCN encourages the AI to capture (not raze) cities. The hard-coded behavior of the AI to stop expanding at the OCN was put in when Civ3 was first released. Since then, Firaxis has provided more ways to reduce corruption (police stations, more powerful courthouses), so its worth it to expand well over the nominal OCN.
- Increase attack strength of Riflemen by 1. Increase attack strength of Infantry, Guerillas, Marines, and Paratroopers by 2. Humans know to wait for Tanks (if possible) before going on a major offensive against Infantry. The AI doesnt know that even though the above units are flagged as offensive units, theyre not that great, and often gets into costly Infantry-versus-Infantry wars, especially since it doesnt know how to use Artillery. Increasing the attack strength of these units makes the AI seem like less of an idiot.
- Remove from the Celts the ability to build Medieval Infantry. Humans recognize the value of the Gallic Swordsmen in the middle ages, and can avoid upgrading this Light Knight. Since no cash is required for the upgrade (Med. Infantry is actually cheaper), the AI mindlessly upgrades these units (unless it has not yet triggered its Golden Age). In doing this, the AI loses value towards the eventual Guerilla upgrade.
- Frigates upgrade to Destroyers. Ironclads upgrade to Battleships. Humans know better than to invest shields into these early naval units that become obsolete so fast. The AI builds naval units as soon as they become available, and gets stuck with a fleet of Ironclads and Frigates in the Modern age.
- Add Communism-specific city improvement (secret police). Reduces corruption, produces veteran units, costs 40 shields, has zero upkeep. The AI selects Communism as its form of war-time government, even though Monarchy is usually a far better choice. But when built in every city, the Secret Police improvement brings Communism to the level of Monarchy for empires with a bad FP placement (such as most AI empires). Monarchy with a good FP placement is still much better than Communism, so the change would not significantly affect human strategy. The veteran unit ability is suggested so that the AI places a high priority getting the improvement built as soon as possible, especially since it is usually at war when in Communism.
- Double the effect of entertainers. The AI does not use the luxury slider except to combat war weariness. When a city becomes unhappy, the AI sacrifices growth and production by assigning entertainers instead. While doubling the effect of entertainers is not enough to tempt the human to forfeit the use of the luxury slider, the AI will benefit because it will need fewer specialists to keep its cities happy.
- Add the Enables Alliances ability to Code of Laws, Literature, Polytheism, Republic, Electricity, Atomic Theory, Radio, and Nuclear Power. Add the "Enables Communication Trading" ability to Literature and Medicine. To make the AI take a more varied approach to research, and to make less predictable the next technology that it will pursue. These abilities make no difference in gameplay, since they are already given by Writing (a prerequisite of all of them except Polytheism, but you need an embassy before you can form an alliance anyway).
- Change the AI build-often list as shown below. Increase the aggression of Iroquois and Chinese by 2. Decrease aggression of builder Babylon by 2. Add trade to all civs to encourage harbors and marketplaces, which tries to alleviate their entertainer-mania. Encourage the AI to take advantage of their traits: Scientific have science flagged, Religious have happiness, Militaristic have units. Civs that are not Scientific, not Religious, and not Militaristic, build Culture.
Code:------------------------------------------------------------------------ Civ Agg Off Def Art Stl Wrk Nav Air Gth Prd Hap Sci Wlt Trd Epl Clt ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rom 4 X X X X + Egy 3 X X + + - Gre 3 X X X - Bab 4->2 - + X Ger 5 X X + - Rus 4 X X X + Chn 2->4 + X X - + USA 3 X X X + X Jpn 4 X X X + Fra 1 - X X Ind 1 X + X X - Per 4 X + X X Azt 4 X X + Zul 5 X + Iro 2->4 + X X + - Eng 3 X X X X Mgl 5 X X + Spn 3 X + X X - Sca 4 X X + Ott 3 X - + + Cel 4 X + X - Ara 4 X + + - Car 2 X X + Kor 2 + + X X X = build often - = removed + = added ------------------------------------------------------------------------
