Three questions

[Cjb64]

I posted these questions in the "quick questions quick answers" thread but after a few days haven't gotten any answers. Maybe these just don't have quick answers, but your help would be appreciated.

1.) Are there any mods or ways I can change the xml so that the AI doesn't get any bonuses beyond what a human player would get at prince difficulty?

2.) I made a scenario that has some natural wonders start within the cultural borders of some civs, when the AI is playing that civ the tile yield for the natural wonder is what its supposed to be, yet when I play that civ there is no tile yield for that natural wonder...is this just a bug or what?

3.) Is there anyway to slow down the passage of time? In the scenario I made I'm playing at marathon speed, starting in the year 1000 AD, yet by the time only 40 turns have gone by it's already the year 1600 AD.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Spatzimaus]

1.) Are there any mods or ways I can change the xml so that the AI doesn't get any bonuses beyond what a human player would get at prince difficulty?

Not quite. Setting the AI's handicap to Prince (a very simple change that many mods do) gives him MOSTLY the same ratios as a player at Prince, but there's a second set of bonuses the AI gets that depend purely on YOUR handicap. While you could neutralize these as well, it'd require quite a bit more in terms of XML updates.

And realize that these handicaps are designed simply to adjust for the fact that the AI is a freakin' moron. If you make the playing field entirely level, then the player will have no real challenge whatsoever. Bumping the AI up to Prince is a common mod, as the Happiness effects of Chieftain are just too pronounced, but you should only do this if you're also adding some other ways for the AI to remain competitive.

2.) I made a scenario that has some natural wonders start within the cultural borders of some civs, when the AI is playing that civ the tile yield for the natural wonder is what its supposed to be, yet when I play that civ there is no tile yield for that natural wonder...is this just a bug or what?

You'll have to be more specific. Some natural wonder effects (like Happiness) don't show up in the tile yields, but they're still there because they don't depend on whether the tile is actually worked. If some other yield is having a problem, have you confirmed whether it's ACTUALLY not giving the yield (by manually setting a worker to work that tile)? Or is it just not displaying the yield correctly in the city window?

3.) Is there anyway to slow down the passage of time? In the scenario I made I'm playing at marathon speed, starting in the year 1000 AD, yet by the time only 40 turns have gone by it's already the year 1600 AD.

The year numbers are set within the GameSpeeds table. For each speed you'll see a series of entries defining how many months pass per turn, and how many turns go by at that speed. If you're trying to create a scenario, then you want to delete that whole table and rework it from scratch. However, note that this has many other effects, like how many turns pass before the game ends in a Time victory, or what turn number the game starts on when you tell it to do a late-era start.

 

[Cjb64]

Actually that would be perfect if I could just get the AI to play with the happiness settings at Prince. Unfortunately I don't know how to do this, so if it's a fairly simple change I'd appreciate if anyone could tell me how to do that.

As for the natural wonders, the one I'm having trouble with is Mt. Fuji. It starts within Japan's cultural borders and I can see that its tile yield on the main map is 5 culture as long as I'm playing any civ besides Japan. When I play as Japan though, both on the main map and in the city screen, there is no tile yield for it, the 5 culture doesn't appear anywhere on the map. Maybe it's one of those wonders that I don't have to work to get the bonus for, I haven't checked yet.

Thanks for the info about the GameSpeeds table. I guess I could go in and tweak the numbers, wouldn't bother me too much since I always turn off time victory. Honestly though it seems like something Firaxis just didn't do very well. I know it doesn't impact gameplay, but I was #2 in tech researching early renaissance technologies, when i noticed the year was already like 2225 AD or something. It's just one of those little things that detracts from game immersion.

 

[Cjb64]

Well, I went to the last row of the GlobalAIDefines folder and changed the AI handicap from Chieftan to prince, not sure if that's the simple change you're referring to in your first answer though. What are some examples of simple changes people generally make to keep the AI competetive after bumping the AI's handicap up to Prince?