Tile Bonuses and Classical Combat

[Anemone]

Sorry if I missed the right forum, I wasn't sure if this was a better place or strategy and tips.

Anyway, is there a mod to lower the bonuses units recieve from tiles, or remove them completely? I ask because in general I try to play a game of Civ, raise my empire to a respectable standard (I just started playing Civ IV, and use Noble/Epic/Huge settings usually, and mostly play inland sea in single player.) Then find that the computer empires 'suffocate' me, by building cities around my borders apparently just to harass my expansion as usually there's poor resources there so I assume it's just because they're programmed to be incredibly annoying. The natural answer to this is to crush them, but I've found that one archer unit can hold off 3/4 swordsmen on it's own and the whole nature of combat in this age seems to be just random pot luck. With the dice 90% of the time ending in the computer's favour. I figure it' s due to the ridiculously high tile bonuses they get, and the city bonus as well, it gets really annoying to see a 6/7 strong army decimated by two or three units. (I could understand if the city had walls, but wouldn't having archers crammed into tight streets and alleyways be cause for penalties not bonuses?)

Another thing, before Civ I played SMAC mostly, (I prefer it a whole lot, but even locusts and planet busters get boring after a while.) And in that game you could 'block' communications from other faction leaders. Is there a mod to add a similar thing to Civ IV? Basically, I get spammed by other empire leaders to the point where I feel like declaring war just to make them shut up. In general I want to deal with them as little as possible due to their seemingly random thought patterns (e.g. asking you to declare war on their enemies then declaring peace with them the next turn, demanding ridiculous tributes when your empire dominates theirs, offering ridiculous trades like clam for iron, etc.) so a mod to silence them would be welcomed.

Finally, is there anyway, without lowering the difficulty, to make barbarians less 'random'/aggressive or to just remove them completely? It seems they just spawn in random forest/jungle tiles and all move to attack my empire, I wouldn't mind if there were barbarian cities producing them anywhere near my borders but exploring generally reveals none and I'm not too fond of playing on island maps. It's a bit aggravating to see a barbarian skim along the borders of an AI empire just to attack mine, frankly I wouldn't miss them if I could remove them.

 

[Jazzster]

I don't agree.

The feeling that the computer had loaded dices drove me nuts in earlier versions of Civ, but in cIV (playing on noble) I don't really get that feeling. -- Rather I get the feeling that you don't plan your city attacks before you go ahead. -- Cities are hard nuts to crack if you go in Civ III style.

Also, the tactics you talk about, that the AI uses to block your expansion, is something I use my self to block theirs. Nothing wrong with that.

 

[Theoden]

For your barbarian problem, checking the "no barbarians" option on the game setup screen (you have to choose custom game to have the option iirc) will solve it.

For your city attacks bringing combined arms, especially catapults will help greatly in capturing cities without great losses.

 

[jimbob27]

I disagree with you too... but all the changes are easy if you're sure. They're all small xml mods. There should be somewhere you can change the defense bonus's in the terrains folder.. and you can use the units.xml to remove any city defense specific to the units (such as archers). and I think the barbarian stuff is in the global defines.xml.

Just ask the people in the modding and customisation folder.. they'll be able to tell you specifically which values to change.

You do realise you can just turn the barb's off.. in the custom game menu? Fiddling with barb activity always changes the difficulty too. The whole point of barbs is to give you some challenge early on before the other civs become a threat.

 

[Anemone]

Thanks for the heads up about barbarians, I'll make sure to turn them off in future games. Guess I'll just have to tech catapults faster in future.

The whole point of barbs is to give you some challenge early on before the other civs become a threat.

I'd rather deal with an enemy I can actually fight back than an endless stream of sourceless units.

 

[ChicagoCubs]

Thanks for the heads up about barbarians, I'll make sure to turn them off in future games. Guess I'll just have to tech catapults faster in future.

I'd rather deal with an enemy I can actually fight back than an endless stream of sourceless units.

First, barbarians are a good way to level up your units. You'll get a couple decent promotions before tossing them at the AI forces.

Second, you need to "see" all of the land to prevent barbs from spawning. They come from the fog (greyed out areas). Just produces a few more troops and station them around your borders to clear up some of the fog. Hills are your friends for seeing better.

 

[wiseguy101]

I agree with ChicagoCubs, in that barbarians are a good way to level up your units. However, on higher difficulty levels, the barbarians just keep on coming, and can overwhelm your cities if you're not prepared. Make sure to anticipate this when you move up to difficulty levels above Noble!

 

[Zombie69]

My current game at Deity had barbarians on and they weren't much of a threat, so i disagree with the difficulty level comment. I saw a few warriors and archers, and one lone axeman. In fact, at Deity, barbarians are less of a problem than on noble, because AI civs settle the place so fast there's no room for barbarians to spawn from. That's the key if you don't like them, just eliminate fog of war.