Forever Future v 1.5 developement log

[Max_Smirnov]

Hello again. Our ambition to make CTP the single best piece of Civ software continues, and with a new developement team member (Eerion), we're able to push the project forward.

What started as a minor update, is turning now into another serious overhaul, hence the 1.5 name. I'll try to summarize our goals the changes so far, and I invite anyone interested to discussion.

Goals/features:
1. Space and Sea no longer just for fun.
We're introducing a lot of changes to turn space and sea colonisation both more desirable and profitable, especially in the long run.
- Powerful orbital-only units; space presence allows for orbital, and, in extension, air and surface domination. Land cities cannot compete in the battle for orbital dominance for too long.
- Orbital cities make a lot of gold, thus allowing them, amongst other things, to easily churn out units from Nanite factories.
- Undersea cities are more or less safe from orbital attacks, and make a lot of production, which is important, because...
- General increase of prices of modern and future units (without making them overpriced, of course), coupled with greater difficulty of building high-end improvements in land cities; thus...
- Space or/and sea colonisation is the key to long-term domination.
- Control of land cities is still important; without them, the Space cannot efficiently attack Sea (no sea bombardment, lack of strong city-assault units, strong Sea active defense vs. space), and the Sea cannot attack Space (lack of transports or any other means to take the battle to orbit).

2.Goods!
Simply to make the game more fun. Goods will generate various bonuses, like little extra food or production. Generally, the worse the terrain, the better goods it has.

3.Terrain rebalancing
Grassland food yield brought back to 10, and mountain prod yield brought down to 15 (with better mines to compensate). A LOT of minor changes which were unavoidable because of this.

4.Temporary solution to end game problems.
The whole wormhole arc was turned off. Technological victory is now the question of researching a totally overpriced technology, which gives you a quite overpowering unit, the Autowar, that allows quickly wrapping up the opposition - if you're already the most powerful, that is.

5.Early game tech / wonder rebalancing.
No more useless tech/wonders in the early game at least.
HAMURRABI CODEX: production bonus --> 20%, enabled by Jurisprudence
COLOSSUS: boat movement bonus --> +6, doubles trade goods in the host city, obsoleted by Age of Discovery.
CHICHEN ITZA: enabled by philosophy, obsoleted by Agr. revolution
FORBIDDEN CITY: adds extra 25% food in the empire. prod. cost increased to 2880, enabled by Geometry.
Cartography empowered by a new fairly cheap and totally defenseless transport vessel it gives.

6.Layered Anti-Air/Space Active Defense
Various units have various ranges of Active Defense; high-end footsoldiers have weak anti-air active defense. All to make nuke spam increasingly more difficult, and to add to complexity of the game. Overview:
Short(1): SRM: Interceptor, Carrier, infantry etc., all land/water Active Defense
Medium(2): Laser: ASF, Cyberpanzer, SDI laser
Long(3): LRM: SAM, War Walker, Crawler, AA ships
Have fun with those.

7.Power graph tweak
All advances (other than the starting ones) yield 100 times more power points, which is about the right amount compared to population/units.

8.Units rebalancing
Too many changes to summarise them here, mostly to future units (up to Industrial era everything seems to work just right). Most drastic include nerfing of Space Plane and nuke cost increase. Four new units introduced:
- an exclusive underwater spy/infector;
- a comparatively inexpensive orbital domination vessel;
- an interdimensional, invisible hover transport, that is bigger on the inside than on the outside ;
- aforementioned defenseless early sea transport.

[Max_Smirnov]

Some raw meat - current change / upgrade status

All Advance Power Points x100
Von Neumann Machines: cost -> 3,000,000 ('technological victory')
Singularity Power: cost -> 500,000
Alien Archeology: cost -> 500,000

Plains remove cost --> 200
Plain mines: 20/5/1250; 35/10/2500
Tundra mines: 20/10/1250; 40/15/2500
Grassland food yield --> 10
Grassland mines: 15/5/1250; 30/10/2500
Desert farm costs --> 300/500/800
Desert mines: 20/10/1250; 40/15/2500
Mountain basic shield yield --> 15
Mountain mines: 20/15/1250; 40/20/2500
Hill mines: 20/10/1000; 40/15/2000
All basic farm yields --> 10
All adv farm yields --> 20
All mega farm yields --> 35
Shallow water nets: 15/5/400, 30/5/1000
water deep gold yield --> 10
Deep water (all types) nets: 15/5/500, 40/5/1500
Deep water mines: 40/10/2500; 70/20/4000; 120/30/7000
Rift mines: 55/10/3000; 90/20/5000; 145/30/8000
Volcano mines: 80/20/5000; 140/40/7500; 240/60/10000
Space gold yield: ---> 20
Space movement cost: 5 ---> 10
Space "mines": 30/30/2000; 60/60/3500; 90/90/5000
Beach nets: 10/0/75; 15/5/300; 30/5/800

UNIVERSITY: cost --> 950, -1 happy
BANK: upkeep --> 15
FACTORY: +1 happy in communism, upkeep --> 40
HOSPITAL: upkeep --> 15
RECYCLING PLANT, ECO TRANSIT: -1 overcrowding, can't build in SEA
NUCLEAR PLANT: Upkeep --> 75
RESEARCH LAB: Upkeep --> 55
SOLAR PLANT: +1 happy
ROBOTIC PLANT: cost --> 12500, upkeep --> 200, no extra pollution (difficult to maintain on land)
FINANCIAL CENTER: cost --> 4500
WATER TRANSFORMER: cost --> 6500
CLONING CENTER, POP MONITOR: cost --> 4000
PERIMETER DEFENCE: defence --> +5, cost --> 6000, upkeep --> 50
ARCOLOGIES: cost --> 17500
HOUSE OF FREEZING: renamed cryo lab. 9000, 150 up, crime x0.7, -2 OC, +3 science/pop, SEA ONLY
FUSION PLANT: cost --> 20000
AI MATRIX: cost --> 16000
FORCEFIELD: cost --> 9000
THERMAL BOREHOLE: cost --> 25000, no pollution, gold per pop +5
ANGEL NET: cost --> 14000
BODY EXCHANGE: cost --> 12000
SINGULARITY PLANT: cost --> 60000, upkeep --> 250, SEA ONLY

*HAMURRABI CODEX: production bonus --> 20%, enabled by Jurisprudence
*COLOSSUS: boat movement bonus --> +6, doubles trade goods in the host city, obsoleted by Age of Discovery.
*CHICHEN ITZA: enabled by philosophy, obsoleted by Agr. revolution
*FORBIDDEN CITY: adds extra 25% food in the empire. prod. cost increased to 2880, enabled by Geometry.

*REPUBLIC: Crime upped to 100%, max science budget decreased to 50%
*ABSOLUTISM: Science coef. decreased to 125%
*DEMOCRACY: Max science budget decreased to 50%

A-BOMB: C/u 3000/180
ABC CLONE: C/u 1400/42
AIR_TRANSPORT: not disabled by Adv. Compos (only ADrive)
AIRCRAFT CARRIER: Ranged --> 24, C/u 4400/132
ARMOURED RECON: C/u 1100/33
ARTILLERY: C/u 2000/60
ASSAULT DROID: A/R/D: 32/16/16; c/u 6000/180, obsoleted by Battleoids instead of DNA
ASSAULT TRANSPORT: No bombardment, can defend only Air (rng 2), 16 HP, A/R/D 20/30/15, C/u: 7500/225
AUTOWAR: Increase pop option, cannot settle, A/R/D: 32/16/32, sees spies & commandos, nano-attack, no space defense
BATTLEOID: defends air, land and water now (like ass. droid, no space). ADef rng 2. A/R/D 60/30/40. Movement: Land, Sea, Space. No counter-bombard. U/c: 14000/210 (half upkeep)
BATTLESHIP: C/u 2800/84
BOMBER: C/u 3300/99
CANNON --> C/u 640/19
CHEM TROOPER: C/u 1700/51
COLONIST: no longer obsol. by von neumann
COMBAT ENGINEER: no longer obsol. by von neumann
COMMISSAR: C/u 2200/66
COMMANDO: C/u 2500/75
CONSCRIPT: --> C/u 650/20
CRAWLER: A/R/D 6/18/30, C/u 4000/120, defend air/space, can't bombard, enabled by frictionless surfaces, + ZOC, no shallow water movement, sees stlth-air, Adef rng 3, vision 3
CYBERPANZER: AAdef added, rng 2, 50% efficiency, also vs. space, A/R/D: 32/24/30, can entrench, C/u: 8000/260
DEEP GUARD: can't see stealth subs, move -> 10, C/u 3000/90
DESTROYER: C/u 1250/38
DEVASTATOR: Cost --> 6500, 25/25/20, upkeep -->195, no transport, size small, defend & bombard air & space, space-only
DOMINATRIX: A/R/D 9/6/18, inaccurate support, C/u 5400/162
DRONE: C/u: 2200/66
DREADNOUGHT: A/R/D 40/60/40, has 24 HP, C/u 16,000/480
DRUID: C/u 10000/150 (half upkeep)
DRYAD: C/u 1300/20 (half upkeep)
EARLY SUB: C/u 1100/33
EARTHSHAKER: C/u 4750/145, Adef rng 2
ESCORT CRUISER: Adef rng 3, U/c 2600/78
FASCIST: C/u: 1800/54
FIGHTER: C/u: 3000/90
FUSION TANK: Attack -> 40. C/u 6750/205
GOD SOLDIER: A/R/D 30/30/30; C/u 6600/100 (half support)
GUNSHIP: C/u 3750/225, Double Upkeep, can't see subs
HANNABU: Cost --> 5000, can't see subs
HELIX KNIGHT: Only defends air. Adef rng 3., C/u 7000/105 (half support); A/R/D 20/40/20, can counter-bombard
HOVERCRAFT: A/R/D 6/0/6, transport cap --> 3
ICBM: Move --> 3, fuel --> 12, C/u 6000/360
INTERCEPTOR: C/u: 4000/120
IRONCLAD: C/u 1200/36
KRAKEN: Ranged --> 24, A/R/D 24/24/30, C/u 7000/210
LAND WARRIOR: AAdef added, 50% efficiency; A/R/D: 16/10/16; C/u 2500/75, not obsoleted by hardwar (only Cybertronics)
LEVIATHAN: C/u 15,000/450
MACHINE GUNNER: C/u 1000/30
MARINES: C/u 1500/45
MECHANIZED INFANTRY: C/u 1850/55
MOBILE GUN: C/u 2600/72
MOBILE INFANTRY: C/u 2500/75
MOBILE SAM: Adef rng 3, C/u 2250/70
MUSKETEER: C 500
NUCLEAR SUB: C/u 2000/60
NUKE: No space movement, C/u 4000/240
RIFLEMAN: C/u -> 700/21
PLASMA DESTROYER: Adef rng 3, A/R/D 35/20/25
PLASMATICA: AAdef added, 50% efficiency; C/u 4500/135
PRAETOR: A/R/D 40/25, C/u 6600/200, now is Stealth (Commando)
SEA ENGINEER: no longer obsol. by von neumann
SDI LASER: Adef range 2, Vision --> 2, C/u 2000/60, now obsoleted by hardwar instead of forcefields.
SHIP OF THE LINE: C/u 1000/30
SLINGER: Cost --> 75, upkeep --> 2
SPACE BOMBER: Attack/def --> 8, Ranged --> 32, super-barrage fire, inaccurate support
SPACE CRUISER: Attack/def/rng ---> 60, can't bombard water, HP --> 40, cost --> 35000, upkeep --> 1050
SPACE ENGINEER: no longer obsol. by von neumann, cannot be built in sea
SPACE FIGHTER: Cost --> 5000, upkeep --> 150, renamed to aerospace fighter, Adef rng 2
SPACE_PLANE: cost --> 5000, upkeep --> 150, can carry only 3 small land units
STEALTH BOMBER: C/u 4200/126
STEALTH LAUNCHER: obsoleted only by dimens. physics now.
STEALTH SUB: A/R/D 40/40/15, C/u 5000/150
STORM MARINE: A/R/D 40/0/20, no paradrop, C/u 4000/120, sight 2
STORM TROOPER: C/u 3000/90
SWARM: A/R/D: 32/0/24. Move -> 16. C/u 5000/150
TANK: C/u 2750/85
TRACKER: C/u 3500/105
WAR WALKER: Adef rng 3, C/u 4250/130, obsoleted: DNA ascension
WORMHOLE PROBE: CAN'T BUILD
ZEPPELIN: C/u 1600/48
NEW UNIT: SKIFF (early coastal fragile & cheap transport)
NEW UNIT: ION FRIGATE (orbital domination vessel)
NEW UNIT: THARXIS (very stealth land transport)
NEW UNIT: AQUATOID (undersea spy)


CONCEPT: LAYERED AD
Short(1): SRM: Interceptor, Carrier, infantry etc., all land/water
Medium(2): Laser: ASF, Cyb-panz, SDI
Long(3): LRM: SAM, Walker, Crawler, AA ships

[Max_Smirnov]

Right now I'm considering making the Republic even more extreme (15 city limit); to keep Imperium ICS from an easy jump to Absolutism/Noble Republic, those systems should be nerfed in some way as well (reducing limit to 40 cities, or something). Planning for tier 3 policies (Theocracy/Absolutism/Noble Republic) can really start once tier 2 is finally balanced (Cultism, Tyranny, Monarchy, Oligarchy, Imperium); it requires some more fine-tuning. If the ICS allowed by the Imperium should turn out to be overpowered, it will be nerfed a bit as well.
On the other hand, a new bonus I codenamed "the Glory of Rome" is being considered: extra Happiness bonus in capitol for both Republic and Imperium.