What game settings are best for FFH2 MNAI?

[DizzKneeLand33]

I am a *very* longtime player of Civ 4, and I in general play a large map with 12 civs on Emperor, epic. However, would it be better for this series to use a huge map with all the civs (I believe 20 in the beginning)? After playing other Civ games for a while the speed of Civ 4 certainly is refreshing, so system limits are no longer an issue. So, I thought that maybe it would be the most fun if all the civs were represented, but is that overkill?

In other words, where is the game the most balanced in your opinion, and what settings (including game speed) give you the most enjoyment for this Mod?

 

[DizzKneeLand33]

Okay, I've decided on Huge, Erebus, Low sea level, 19 civs (max), Emperor, No Tech Brokering, Permanent Alliances, Last Days (since the base AC will be so high with all civs, doubling the clock seems reasonable). Epic speed which should match huge map (I have always thought game speed and map size should go hand in hand for balance).

Oh, and I've drawn Cardith Lorda for my Civ. Time for some fun!

 

[jackal1234]

hey, these are my settings for when i start a new game, just based on my preferences and available time..


map - erebus continent
size - standard
speed - quick
cohesion - medium
advanced terrain -on
smart climate - on (modify climate selection based on civs in game)
ancient city ruins - on

challenge - raging barbarians
challenge - barbarian world
no tech brokering
new random seed
wildlands
blessings of amathaon
lving world
all unique features
puppet states
advanced tactics

i use varn gosam on monarch sometimes to go for the domination with empyrean and chalid astrakein.. takes awhile to get rollin but impossible to stop once it gets started

 

[Jet]

Having played many FFH modmods with many settings, this is my jam these days:

ExtraModMod -- the best mix of fun stuff and balance
Tectonics, Tiny Size, Normal Speed, Lakes. Human + 10 AIs.
10 AIs means many civs will show up in the game, but there's still a good variety between games.
And there will still be several civs in the game even after the first few get stomped, especially with Puppet States enabled.
It's a little compact - you might only settle 4 cities - but for me that's plenty for FFH; more cities don't add anything fun.
And it's quite a lot bigger and less crowded than you'd think, since Tectonics Lakes has a lot of land tiles.
It's big enough that getting enough cities for Domination is still tedious.
* Raging Barbs, Wildlands -- since it is a little crowded, this protects the wilderness areas a bit
* Increasing Difficulty (although I usually start at Deity anyway) -- the AI needs the help
* Puppet States -- fun and much better balanced than the Revolutions option
* Flavour Start -- flavor is fun
* Allow Scenario Leaders, Allow Extra Leaders -- the extra leaders are balanced enough; it's worth it for the variety
* No Tech Brokering -- to slow down the pace of the game, although it is somewhat exploitable with a human and 10 AIs
* Advanced Tactics -- Great Generals and Right of Passage; balanced enough
All victories enabled except the Quick ones -- the Quick victories aren't bad, but sometimes they lead to AI victories that you can't do much about

I usually play with one small mod that allows the Kuriotates to have 3 cities rather than 2 on these settings: in Fall From Heaven 2/Assets/XML/GameInfo/CIV4WorldInfo.xml, go to the WORLDSIZE_TINY section and change iMaxCitiesMod from -1 to 0.

 

[DizzKneeLand33]

Wow, I'm loving that Tectonics Lakes (30% water) map! I haven't done any of the extra mods other than MNAI yet, but that may happen in the future. I stepped down to Monarch with no tech brokering, Large map (which is bigger than a normal Huge it seems, or just as big) with all civs enabled. And yes, the Kuriotates needed an extra city so I changed that in the XML.

Now, I realize this will take a bit of time to win via domination (an Alliance helps take up more of the map), but the games have been EPIC. I have two going on right now on two computers. One, I am going on the warpath with Ljosalfar -- had to cast my worldspell early since the Clan always seems to start next to me, but after that I've slowly gained the upper hand. The AC is sitting on 86 on around turn 350 (hmmmmm.... maybe doubling that wasn't the best idea lmao). All of the horsemen have showed up, and areas in the world are seriously on fire. I'm going for either domination or even religious in that case.

Another game I am Elohim and the AC has been much more sane (just around 30 by turn 250). Maybe that's because Lanun has the Ashen Veil holy city as well as his favorite octopus one. Oh, and the Illians beat me to order (lol) and the Clan now have called in the Mercurians -- yeah, this one is strange. The Illians were good as well as clown boy, until the Illians went away from state religion and an immediate war happened between the two.

This has just been a blast so far!

That Tectonics map sets some chokepoints like the Erebus but there are also open spaces, so I'm really liking that one. I never played that map in real civ, I wish I had seen it sooner.

 

[Ringan]

Having played many FFH modmods with many settings, this is my jam these days:

ExtraModMod -- the best mix of fun stuff and balance
Tectonics, Tiny Size, Normal Speed, Lakes. Human + 10 AIs.

I am really enjoying Tectonics for FFH! Lots of good chokepoints and defensive positions. Thanks for these recommendations!

 

[westamastaflash]

How on earth do you guys survive on these small maps with 'flexible difficulty' turned on? I'm playing Elohim and my lord the AI research speed is insane, and I can't build enough units to deter them from killing me once the difficulty ramps up to immortal, let alone deity. And the unit gold cost per/turn is killing me too!

Well...

The Sheaim and Infernal have completely destroyed everything. I killed most of the horsemen and the avatar of wrath as well as Hyborem. But my god the massive amount of free units the Sheaim get when they start steamrolling is crazy. I guess I should have rushed the altar much faster. I have no research though so I can't even get an altar victory :-(.

 

[westamastaflash]

Here's a fun save of the disaster . Right after I get a notice that pretty much all my units were just killed by the apocalypse. I really should have killed Os-Gabella much earlier I suppose.

She won a domination victory a few turns later.

 

[westamastaflash]

Well, managed to win an Altar victory on Prince (also was nearly complete with domination). Now to attempt Monarch level.

 

[westamastaflash]

Also just finished a 'Mediterranean' map (lots of fun) as Good Elves on Monarch. Had pretty much every victory laid out except conquest (domination would have happened first). Tower of Mastery got me there first. Elves really start steamrolling through tech when they get ancient forested towns. Evermore was pop 40 by the end.

 

[Tielby]

Thanks for necro-ing this thread. I'd been wondering if I should change my settings but didn't think to check for a whole thread on it until you brought it up to the top.

 

[westamastaflash]

Thanks for necro-ing this thread. I'd been wondering if I should change my settings but didn't think to check for a whole thread on it until you brought it up to the top.

Blame @Ringan that's what got me seeing it!

 

[The_Reckoning]

I'm enjoying MNAI on standard size Totestra with an extra 3 AIs (for 10 factions total), all on same landmass, allow pangeas, low sea level and no tech trading. Monarch difficulty. E: I've since added all unique features, advanced tactics and no minimum AI level requirements.

I think it gives the right balance of space vs neighbors. I think the AI copes best with all the landmass being one. I like the way the desert in the middle acts as a natural separation early then can be turned into plains with spring.

I've tried Erebus a few times and found the mountains too oppressive, and I'm not sure how well the AI copes with the bottlenecks.

I'm not seeing the option for quick victory conditions - how might they be enabled? I feel like I'm never going to actually finish a game with domination needing 56% of land!

Would love to hear what everyone else is playing on!

 

[ChiefBigFeather]

Experimenting with different map scripts, I found ErebusContinents to produce the best results in terms of flavor. Spawning Illians in ice, elves in forest etc. just seems to work much more reliably. Clustered landmarks also seem rarer.

The only issue I have with the Erebus script is it‘s tendency to cluster start positions. Lowering the sea level seem to help, as that produces much more massive and cohesive land masses. The distribution of start positions seems improved under those conditions. I do have to experiment further with sizes and player counts though (maybe cohesion).

 

[Qgqqqqq]

@The_Reckoning 'Quick Victories' are options on ExtraModMod, which others were playing.

I echo Tectonics and ErebusContinent as fun options. That being said, I've really enjoyed playing Tectonics with 'randomised actual earth on' - basically spawns the world map but with some variety.

 

[The_Reckoning]

Ah, I'm glad to hear - since my last post I figured out how to mod in victory conditions and scooped them over from the relevant ExtraModMod files.