Hello,
I love the Civilization series and I have to admit that it went a long way since it early days, but civ2 has a special place in my heart. However, it is not perfect. Although some its quirks are a part of its magic, some of them make the game unbalanced and I just cannot bring myself back to using old strategies when I know there are strictly superior ways of playing the game. I would like to make those strategies more viable and I think that usually it is the easiest to achieve through nerfing overpowered strategies which outshine everything else. While I have some experience in modding cIV, my knowledge of modding civ2 is rather non-existent - the only thing I am aware of is the rules.txt, which does not offer many possibilities. Therefore, I would be grateful if someone more experienced could guide me which my ideas are possible in civ2, and which require other versions (e.g. TOT(PP), freeciv or the NewCivII as described in the thread by Prof. Garfield).
Issue I: Overpowered diplomats
Diplomats through most of the game are easily the most broken unit - ability to purchase enemy unit 2x cheaper than they are produced is insanely strong. However purchasing the whole city with a stack of unit is simply broken. Any other action is a waste.
Solution 1.1: Inciting revolts should give the control over the city to barbarians
Solution 1.2: Unit bribing should be 4x more expensive
Solution 1.3: Planting nuclear device should be reasonably probable (e.g. 10%). Alternatively it may be likely (50-60%) but consume nearest nuclear missile
Issue II: Tall build is too weak
Benefits of having wide empire are too good to ignore. Building nothing but settlers through the whole game should not allow to build stronger empire than careful managing of a few tall cities. The only countermeasure with regards to the wide build (unhappiness) does not work as it is easy to circumnavigate it with either very small cities or luxuries/wonders.
Solution 2.1: Settlers should be unable to build cities if there are not enough other settlers (effectively acting as workers) in the civilization. E.g. the option to build the city should be greyed out if the player has 2x more cities than settlers/engineers (e.g. to build third city you need not only the settler to build it, but also control another one - the spare settler is not consumed in the process. To build city no. 20 you need nine "spare" settlers and one actually building the city). The ratio should be more severe if cities are settled close together (e.g. if BFC of the city overlaps BFC of existing city the ratio should be 1:1, and if the city is settled in BFC of a city 2:1).
Solution 2.2: Buildings and wonders should benefit tall play more - currently it is not worth to invest in wonders / more advanced buildings unless in OCC. e.g. colossus should give additional +100% gold, bonuses of tier 2 (Banks, Universities) and tier 3 buildings should be buffed (e.g. to +75% and +100% respectively).
Issue III: Some governments are not viable
Almost in no circumstances communism is worth considering. Democracy is overpowered in peaceful game and fundamentalism is overpowered in military game.
Solution 3.1: Fundamentalism should have higher corruption/waste and ignore third shield/trade/food (similar to despotism). However, max effective science rate should be removed (50% penalty is sufficient and not so confusing)
Issue IV: Siege weapons are unbalanced
I am under impression that catapults are good, howitzers are overpowered and every other siege weapon is strictly worse than mounted unit of the era.
Solution 4.1: Reduce attack of siege units by one (howitzer by two) but add them ability to ignore city walls. Solution easy enough (modification of rules.txt).
I am a big fan of original graphics/feel so I would prefer not to be forced to use freeciv (I've read that TOT allows the use of original graphics) - especially considering that there are changes to rules in this project (in particular I am aware of worker unit, which makes republic/democracy even more overpowered).
If there are any other issues that seems broken which I forgot about, I will appreciate comments / discussion.
I love the Civilization series and I have to admit that it went a long way since it early days, but civ2 has a special place in my heart. However, it is not perfect. Although some its quirks are a part of its magic, some of them make the game unbalanced and I just cannot bring myself back to using old strategies when I know there are strictly superior ways of playing the game. I would like to make those strategies more viable and I think that usually it is the easiest to achieve through nerfing overpowered strategies which outshine everything else. While I have some experience in modding cIV, my knowledge of modding civ2 is rather non-existent - the only thing I am aware of is the rules.txt, which does not offer many possibilities. Therefore, I would be grateful if someone more experienced could guide me which my ideas are possible in civ2, and which require other versions (e.g. TOT(PP), freeciv or the NewCivII as described in the thread by Prof. Garfield).
Issue I: Overpowered diplomats
Diplomats through most of the game are easily the most broken unit - ability to purchase enemy unit 2x cheaper than they are produced is insanely strong. However purchasing the whole city with a stack of unit is simply broken. Any other action is a waste.
Solution 1.1: Inciting revolts should give the control over the city to barbarians
Solution 1.2: Unit bribing should be 4x more expensive
Solution 1.3: Planting nuclear device should be reasonably probable (e.g. 10%). Alternatively it may be likely (50-60%) but consume nearest nuclear missile
Issue II: Tall build is too weak
Benefits of having wide empire are too good to ignore. Building nothing but settlers through the whole game should not allow to build stronger empire than careful managing of a few tall cities. The only countermeasure with regards to the wide build (unhappiness) does not work as it is easy to circumnavigate it with either very small cities or luxuries/wonders.
Solution 2.1: Settlers should be unable to build cities if there are not enough other settlers (effectively acting as workers) in the civilization. E.g. the option to build the city should be greyed out if the player has 2x more cities than settlers/engineers (e.g. to build third city you need not only the settler to build it, but also control another one - the spare settler is not consumed in the process. To build city no. 20 you need nine "spare" settlers and one actually building the city). The ratio should be more severe if cities are settled close together (e.g. if BFC of the city overlaps BFC of existing city the ratio should be 1:1, and if the city is settled in BFC of a city 2:1).
Solution 2.2: Buildings and wonders should benefit tall play more - currently it is not worth to invest in wonders / more advanced buildings unless in OCC. e.g. colossus should give additional +100% gold, bonuses of tier 2 (Banks, Universities) and tier 3 buildings should be buffed (e.g. to +75% and +100% respectively).
Issue III: Some governments are not viable
Almost in no circumstances communism is worth considering. Democracy is overpowered in peaceful game and fundamentalism is overpowered in military game.
Solution 3.1: Fundamentalism should have higher corruption/waste and ignore third shield/trade/food (similar to despotism). However, max effective science rate should be removed (50% penalty is sufficient and not so confusing)
Issue IV: Siege weapons are unbalanced
I am under impression that catapults are good, howitzers are overpowered and every other siege weapon is strictly worse than mounted unit of the era.
Solution 4.1: Reduce attack of siege units by one (howitzer by two) but add them ability to ignore city walls. Solution easy enough (modification of rules.txt).
I am a big fan of original graphics/feel so I would prefer not to be forced to use freeciv (I've read that TOT allows the use of original graphics) - especially considering that there are changes to rules in this project (in particular I am aware of worker unit, which makes republic/democracy even more overpowered).
If there are any other issues that seems broken which I forgot about, I will appreciate comments / discussion.