The Epic Mod

[dexters]

I posted this in the Creation and customization forums, but though the regulars here might appreciate it.

I've created a mod changing some of the rules as a workaround to some of the bugs in C3C and to improve AI performance. This mod isn't meant to be a completely new game, but to enhance the existing epic game.

Please help me test this mod and give me some feedback!

v.1.0 version notes

----------
Palace
-Produces Army every 80 turns

Fascism
-Assimilation Chance changed from 2% to 4%
-Corruption changed to Minimal from Nuisance
-Unit support now 5/8/10
-10 Free Units
-Diplomats are Veteran
-Is immune to steal technology

-Submarines/Nuclear Submarines now have Hidden Nationality


Download it here.

 

[timerover51]

Personally, I would have shortened the Army production to more like 40 turns or so. However, I personally have an extremely strong dislike to fascism, and with your strengthening of it, I have no interest in playing the mod. For similar reasons, I will never play the Aztec, and normally use them as my AI unit testing opponent as I can exterminate them with a perfectly good conscience, and figure that any slaves captured are now safe from sacrificing. I still do not know why since they are in the game, and the Blood Sacrifice option is included in the Meso-American scenario, that is not automatically their government option.

 

[dexters]

This mod is meant to improve AI performance and as a workaround on the bugs left in C3C. It's not meant as a scenario of a completely new game.


The AI likes fascism due to its military police stats, no war weariness and free unit support so I'm boosting it to make it better as the AI will use it regardless... unless of course I completely gimp Fascism which isn't the point of my mod. It now mirrors democracy in terms of assimilation rate and corruption. Just no trade bonus and a heavy penalty with xenophobia and force relocation. Towns and Cities get one extra unit support (4 to 5, and 7 to 8) and the fascist state now supports 10 free units. I'm also contemplating making metros support 11 units. But I'll admit I havent played a game on this mod yet.

The hidden nationality subs should be fun.

Armies @80 turns means the AI should have access to at least 1 army by the middle ages. It's meant for them to win a battle with an army so they can build hero epic, mil. academy and their own armies later on in the game as well as the pentagon. I may consider shortening it, or better yet, making FP produce its own armies.

 

[silver 2039]

The human player will benefit from this as well however?

Fascism is probably my favorite government to play and strengthening it makes it easier for me to go on conquering sprees and such. And presumably the human player will also be getting the armies and such. The AI really doesn't know how to use armies properly.

 

[dexters]

If you choose to go Fascism it would be a nice bonus, but it won't make it that much stronger.

Xenophobia and forced resttlement are pretty big minuses. Communism is still a much better war government and ideally something the AI would pick.

I had considered making communism support 10/10/10 units instead in a bid to see if the AI would switch to that. But since most human players already use communism as their warmognering gov of choice, it would probably benefit he humans even more than the AI.

 

[silver 2039]

Xenophobia and forced resttlement are pretty big minuses. Communism is still a much better war government and ideally something the AI would pick.

I always liked the xenophobia and forced resettlement. It knocks down population of cities so I don't have to starve them quite as much, and it gets rid of troublesome foreigners. Though the lack of culture is somewhat irritating.

I generally use communism after I've expanded sufficiently under fascism.

But I do notice the AI almost always uses Fascism in war. So its fine probably.

 

[del62]

I always liked the xenophobia and forced resettlement. It knocks down population of cities so I don't have to starve them quite as much, and it gets rid of troublesome foreigners. Though the lack of culture is somewhat irritating.

I generally use communism after I've expanded sufficiently under fascism.

But I do notice the AI almost always uses Fascism in war. So its fine probably.

My preference for war is republic, as extra trade allow me to increase luxuries on slider and in peace the trade is there immediately, it was democracy but i had an unfortunate incident when my government collapsed

 

[Spoonwood]

Produces Army every 80 turns

So you've got one army before/around philosophy if you beeling down the middle as usual... and you've got a second army somewhere around the time of chivalry? You also get the heroic epic sooner... heck... since you know you can *time* a pre-build on the thing for more armies immediately or once you have enough cities. So, 1 army 80 turns in. Then probably another soon enough. Even though I don't play militaristically, this almost sounds like it puts the finishing unit of good warmongers back to knights instead of cavalry, especially if you play as China. Put the military academy at motorized transportation... then see what happens .

 

[dexters]

I may need to do some rebalancing on the army regeneration. My test debug game had the FP generating an army and not the Palace, so the AI got their first army at turn 150~ and the laggards got it later than that.

 

[timerover51]

I think that you might to better tying it to a Small Wonder, say Vegetius Art of War, available with Education, i.e. around the time of the Renaissance. The other option would be to have the Heroic Epic tied to Literature, instead of a victorious army, so that it can be built as desired. The thing with the Palace generating an Army every so many turns is that it removes any uncertainty when armies will appear. You know, at this date, every civilization still in the game is going to get an Army. The human player can plan ahead for this, and have units stacked and waiting. I am not sure how the AI will react to this in advance, as it is not part of the programming. Basically, I would prefer preserving some of the uncertainty that exists in war.

 

[dexters]

good suggestions. I may find a way to allow mil. academy to be built without a victorious army.

 

[timerover51]

Basically, you simply uncheck the box in the editor menu for military academy. Another option is to check the box that increases the chance for leader appearance. Not sure exactly how much that boosts the chances, but I suspect that it would help the AI more than the human player. You can also reduce the number of armies that need to be in the field before you can build the Pentagon to give you another option of building armies. I have played around with all three ideas and they do not give any trouble.

 

[Prof. Yaffle]

This looks pretty good, will give it a go.

Nice one!

 

[dexters]

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=8498009&postcount=4

When I first designed this, I ran half a game to make sure the armies popped out properly, but this is my 1st debug game I'm running to the end (no human players in this game)

The armies are working wonderfully. 7 of 7 all got to built military academies/pentagons, and several if not all built a hero epic too. The results are stunningly good. The pentagon is wonderful and truly makes the AI field some fiece stuff. Watching 2 AI go to war each with each own stack of armies is very nice.

You'll note Egypt has 6 armies. As of the time these screenies were taken, I was at turn 350, so only 4 armies would have popped for them. The other 2 were either lead>army or generated by their military academy (I was not able to spot the AI actually building an army in the cities with the academy)

Here's the wonderful thing. It takes out some of the randomness out of AI's inablity to manage armies so this actually helps them (they will still put in a mish mash of 1 move and 2 move units) but because armies come in 80 turn intervals, the later ones usually get loaded with their latest units. So it's not uncommon to see an army loaded with 3/4 or 4/4 cavalry for example.

I encourage everyone to try it out. I'll run this debug through to the end to watch the submarine behavior.