Moraelin's Exponential Mod 1.04
-------------------------------

I've called it the exponential mod, because that's what it does to the units'
strengths. Which isn't to say that it doesn't do anything else. It does. It
has actually grown into something geared more toward more historical accuracy
than merely a unit upgrade. But the main concern I've seemed to be spearmen
defeating tanks, hence the exponential scale. Now units that are several eras
apart are MUCH more different in combat. (It's still possible to win with
obsolete units, but it will take hordes, not one on one.)

Do not expect a totally easy conquest, though, because it might not happen.
The computer will also tend to produce better units, and the exponential
scale works just as well against you. The defense bonus of fortifications and
cities has increased two fold, too, and the defenders are better matched to
the attackers than before. Citizens and buildings are also harder to destroy
with bombardment. Briefly, even with an upgrade advantage, conquest isn't half
as easy as before. Also more units have zone of control, and more units tend
to provide fire support for each other, and/or are able to bombard. You may
need to actually apply combined arms tactics this time around. Also barbarians
will start MUCH stronger, and you will not enjoy as much of a bonus against
them on the lower difficulty levels.

Be sure you actually understand the new setting, rather than mechanically
applying the old tactics. They may, or may not work exactly as before.
Probably not. You have been warned.

To install it, just unzip with full paths in your game's directory. When you
want to play with it, simply load it as a scenario from the game's main menu.
When you don't want to play with it, just start the game normally. It does not
overwrite any of the game's own files, so you can just delete it if you want
to uninstall it.

The full details of what is changed follow below, and a few questions and
answers are at the end.

Changes in 1.04
---------------

Early war just got more expensive ;)

- Upped the price of Archers (from 2 to 3), because they were better than 
Spearmen, yet cost the same.

- Upped the price of Bowmen too, so they stay the same as the Archers.

- Upped the price of Pikemen a bit, too. (From 3 to 4.)

- Upped the price of Longbowmen from 4 to 5.
(Basically now there's a steady increase, both in capabilities and in price
for defense that goes: Spearmen, Archers, Pikemen, Longbowmen, Musketmen.)

- Upped the price of Swordsmen from 3 to 4.

- Upped the price for Immortals and Legionary to 4, too, so they stay in
sync with the Swordsmen as price goes.

- Upped the price of Horsemen from 4 to 5, too. (I.e., they still cost the 
same as Longbowmen, have the same attack, only half the defense, but twice
the movement. IMHO it's reasonable.)

- Upped the price for Mounted Warriors to 5, too, so they stay a replacement
for Horsemen. Gave them ZOC, like the Horsemen, too.
(Basically now there's a steady increase in both price and abilities for
offense that goes: Warrior, Chariot & Archer, Swordsmen, Longbowmen & Horsemen,
Knights...)

- Upped the price for Cossacs, so now it's the same as Cavalry. (It already
has more attack power than cavalry, which should be advantage enough.)

- Gave Chinese Riders, Japanese Samurai and Indian War Elephants a ZOC, same
as Knights.

- Upped the price for Panzer, so it's the same as for the new Tanks.

- Upped the price for Man-o-War, so it's the same as the new Frigates.

- Upped the price for Destroyers a little bit, because it was the same as
the new Ironclads. Gave them +1 movement, to make up for it, though.
(Real destroyers ARE faster than battleships, and a lot faster than Subs.)

- Destroyers and Battleships now require Iron. (The Bismarck or Tirpitz
for example weighed almost 40,000 tons. 'Nuff said.)

Changes in 1.02
---------------

- Bug fix: oops. The editor thought it had a map, when it didn't, so the game
would crash if you start without customizing the world. Sorry.

Changes in 1.01
---------------

- Theocracy no longer has the standard trade bonus. Having both some free
troops AND more money was probably overkill, and made it too powerful. (BTW,
to make it clear, what I have in mind by "Theocracy" is somewhat more like
Vatican than some of the rabid fundamentalist regimes.)

- Gave Explorers a 2 square radius of sight, too. They appear so late in the
game anyway, that they weren't too useful otherwise.

- Swordsmen now upgrade to Knights, too, so they don't stay in the unit list
for ever.

- Privateers upgrade to Destroyers, too.

Changes
-------

- Increased the number of born happy citizens, as follows:

Chieftain: 5
Warlord:   4
Regent:    3
Monarch:   2
Emperor:   1
Deity:     0

Basically it's only easier on the lower difficulty levels. (The AI should get
one extra happy citizen, too, if I understood correctly how this works. So
there, it's not just to unbalance it in the players' favour. In fact, it means
the higher difficulty levels should be harder than before for the player.)

- Reduced the bonus against barbarians, as follows:

Chieftain: 250
Warlord:   200
Regent:    150
Monarch:   100
Emperor:    50
Deity:       0

Frankly, the HUGE bonuses on the lower levels meant that barbarians were
never any threat at all and were just a source of cheap experience of your
units. Even setting the advanced barbarian unit to knight, a lousy Warrior
would cheerfully defeat them every time. In fact, given that barbarians
don't get any technology advances and are soon obsolete anyway, I'm thinking
of just removing the bonus completely. (I mean, really, if you don't want
barbarians to be a threat, just start the game without them completely.)

- Changed the default barbarian unit to spearman. (Still 1 attack, but they
should be better at defending themselves and their encampments.)

- Changed the advanced barbarian unit to Mounted Warrior. (Knight looked a
bit out of place when noone had discovered them yet.)

- Changed the barbarian sea unit to Privateer, (Which is to say: try to
either run or be the one who attacks, because otherwise they'll sink your
galley without breaking a sweat.) Pirates should be a terror, not something
you train your crews on. They also bombard coastal cities and tile
improvements now, so you WILL need to do something about them.

- Increased the optimal number of cities more fairly for the map size. (I
mean for example the small map is 6400 squares, while the tiny one is 3600
squares. The small map has almost double the space for cities, yet only gets
an optimal size increase from 12 to 14 cities. The standard map size is a
whole 10000 squares, more than 3 times the space of a tiny one, but only had
16 cities optimal size. Hence, the larger your map size, the quicker you'd
run into corruption problems. And this would get even more out of hand on
the higher difficulty levels, since the optimal number of cities would
further be decreased. Now I don't have a problem with the difficulty rising
when you choose a higher difficulty, but penalizing people for the map size
is IMHO overkill.)

- Doubled the defense bonuses of everything man-made: city, metropolis, city
walls, fortifications, etc. Conquest should be a lot less easy for both sides.
(Player AND AI alike.) I mean, really, that's how it was In Real Life.
Storming castle walls was just short of suicidal, and urban warfare is a
soldier's worst nightmare. Also increased the penalty for attacking across a
river, or of attacking a fortified unit.

- Scouts now see on a two square radius, instead of one, to give expansionist
civilizations more of an advantage early in the game.

- Gave Explorers a 2 square radius of sight, too. They appear so late in the
game anyway, that they weren't too useful otherwise.

- Increased the normal military unit strengths on an exponential scale: 1, 2,
4, 8, 16... This should make it less much likely (but still possible) for an
ancient unit to defeat a modern one.

- Many National Units now fall somewhere in between upgrade stages of normal
units. E.g., a Hoplite now falls between Spearmen and Pikemen, rather than
being up to date all the way until late middle ages. They also upgrade to that
next step. (E.g., Hoplites to Pikemen, Bowmen to Longbowmen, Impi to Pikemen,
and so on.) This may sound like a "why bother" small upgrade, but bear in mind
the above exponential scale: you might need all the advantage you can get.
Besides, you can always wait for the next upgrade, if you really want to.
Other national units continue to be just a replacement with more movement
points (e.g., Impi or Panzer), and others continue to be a replacement that
needs less resources (e.g., Samurai = knight without needing horses, and War
Elephant = knight without horses or iron.)

- Archers and their variants (e.g., Longbowmen) are now better at defense, but
slightly less of an offensive unit, to reflect their historical role better.
They can, however, now bombard weakly (e.g., Longbowmen are half a catapult in
that aspect), so they can be used in a combined arms fashion. They also have a
zone of control now.

- Longbowmen upgrade to Marines, so they don't stay in your list of units for
ever.

- Swordsmen upgrade to Knights, for the same reason.

- Infantry and Mech Infantry can bombard now, but only about half the strength
of a dedicated Artillery and Radar Artillery unit, respectively. They also
have only one square range and 1 rate of fire. (Historically, Infantry
divisions always had some heavier weapons with them. Like mortar squads and
howitzers, for example. And while you could argue whether you can bombard a
metropolis with mortars, I could answer that bombarding it with catapults
isn't any more realistic, either.) This also means that attacking a stack
of infantry will mean they provide fire support for each other, rather than
fighting one by one like in Jackie Chan movies. Their cost has been increased,
too, but they should (rightfully) be cheaper than Tanks and Modern Armour.

- Tanks and Modern Armour now require Iron instead of Latex (natural rubber).
I mean, really, who came with THAT idea? Rubber parts are a very small part
of a tank's weight, and are made of synthetic rubber, not latex. On the other
hand, a tank has tens of tons of steel in it, so it's just silly to make a
whole division of them without any Iron. Also gave them the same bombardment
capability as the Infantry and Mech Infantry. (Having an 120mm main gun and
HE ammo for it means you can actually USE it.) I've upped their price, too,
so they stay more expensive than their Infantry counterparts.

- Mech Infantry also requires Iron and Aluminum instead of Latex (natural
rubber.)

- Riflemen now require saltpeter, too.

- Increased the mounted troops' strength, for historical accuracy, but upped
their price. Also gave all of them a zone of control.

- Cavalry upgrades to Tanks. Mainly so it doesn't stay in your list for ever,
and hopefully to reduce the AI's chances of keeping manufacturing it for
ever.

- Privateers upgrade to Destroyers, for the same reason.

- Increased all air units' range to 8. Especially the fighters had a laughable
flight zone. And I've matched their strength to the scale used for the ground
troops. Also increased their price. Air superiority isn't cheap.

- Stealth Fighter now actually has an attack value, and can intercept bombers
too. (Why call it a Fighter if it can't act in a Fighter role, anyway? What it
really was boiled down to a smaller Stealth Bomber.) It should have less
attack than a Jet Fighter, and about the same bombardment value.

- Cruise Missile now has a full range of 8.

- Increased the defense rating of citizens and buildings during a bombardment,
so you'll need some heavy duty bombing to destroy either. Catapults will
likely no longer cut it, unless used in really large numbers. I'm not sure if
this is realistic, but then the rampant "let's massacre a whole town with
catapults so they don't revolt after I take it" tactic was IMHO getting just
as silly.

- Shakespeare's Theater changed from 8 happy faces only in the town building
it, to 4 in that town and 1 in the rest of your towns on the continent. I
mean, really, his plays are played all over the world, not just in his
hometown.

- Longevity changed to give 2 happy faces in home town, 1 to all other towns.
It was pretty useless at the late point you can build it otherwise, since your
cities would be full anyway.

- SETI is now also Scientific, not just expansionist. (Look at what other
distributed projects it's spawned in real life, like the search for cancer
cure.)

- Wall Street is now Commercial.

- Added Government: Theocracy. It is based on Monotheism, so it should appear
roughly between Republic or Monarchy and Democracy. (I'm pondering making it
a discovery of its own, though, so it requires one more research step.)

Max science rate: 50% (as low as Despotism. Sorry, religion does not equal research.)
Worker rate: 100% (same as Republic, less than Democracy)
Assimilation rate: 2% (Same as Monarchy or Republic, less than Democracy or Communism)
Corruption: minimal
(I would have liked that instead, cathedrals deter corruption only under a
Theocracy. I don't think it's possible, though.)
Draft Limit: 2 (same as Monarchy or Communism)
Max MP: 2 (Same as Despotism, less than Monarchy)
Hurrying Production: Paid Labor
(Sorry, didn't want it to be Yet Another Forced Labor Regime.)
Resistance factors: basically except for Anarchy (-5) and Theocracy (0),
your own people will have a +5 to resist anyone, due to indoctrination,
but then the people from conquered cities will also have +5 to resist YOU.
War Weariness: Low (But not None. "Thou shalt not kill.")
Requires Maintenance (obviously)
NO Standard Trade Bonus (Less money than Republic or Democracy)
Cost Per Unit: 1 (Same as, say, Monarchy, Despotism or Communism)
Free units: 1/2/4 (Less free units than, say, Monarchy, Despotism or Communism)
Spies and Ambassadors: Conscript
Propaganda modifiers: Let's just say, don't set your hopes too high against Democracy or even Republic
Immunity: nothing

Basically I've tried making a somewhat balanced Goverment, that has both
advantages and disadvantages. (E.g., the 50% max research can be crippling if
you're already behind.)

- Changed Egypt, Persia and Aztec to prefer Theocracy. (Basically, Egypt and
Aztec preferred Despotism anyway, so I thought I'd give them a small upgrade.
Persia is based on geographic location.)

- Increased Jungle shield production to 1. It's still less than Forest, and
it still has the disease effect, and it still gives no shields from clearing.
I thought that as it was, it was just too crippled.


Questions and Answers
---------------------

Q: Why should I install Yet Another Mod?
A: Only if you think you need what this one offers. If you're happy with
another mod or with the game as it is, sure, stick to whatever you already
have.

Q: What if I think it totally unbalances the game and makes it Not Fun?
A: Then you can tell me exactly what you think is the problem. But I mean
exactly What, Why and How, not just "it unbalances the game and isn't fun",
leaving me to guess what do you mean. Or, of course, you can always play
without the mod :)

Q: What if I have a better idea?
A: Sure, I'll be happy to listen to it. There's no telling whether I'll think
it should go into the mod, too, but if it's good and doesn't go against the
whole idea, chances are I will.

Note that some stuff may be out of my control, though. The editor does have
severe limitations, and Firaxis never released any scripting support, nor a
DLL interface for taking control of certain functions. I.e., anything more
complex than changing unit numbers, may well be simply impossible to put into
a mod.

Q: What if I think it gives the player too much of an advantage against the
AI?
A: Well, you can always tell me in exactly what way, for a start. Note,
however, that certain things are well beyond my control. E.g., "but the AI
doesn't upgrade its units" is really an AI problem that should be taken to
Firaxis. I don't intend to stop doing any signifficant changes to the game,
just because the AI is lobotomized with a blunt spoon. I did however do my
best to keep it fair for the AI, too. E.g., because old units disappear from
the list, the AI may still keep its old units, but when it produces new units
they'll be modern ones, not yet another Spearman. So hopefully, the AI should
actually be less of a pushover.

Or you can play on a higher difficulty setting.

Or you can play without the mod.

Q: What if I think it's not historically accurate?
A: Tell me in exactly what way, please. There is no telling whether we'll
aggree, though. There are lots of ways to view the game. The jurry is still
out on whether one Tanks unit means a batallion, regiment or division, for
example, and whether it also includes the auxiliary people and infantry
support, or it's just the tanks alone. That influences a lot of other stuff,
such as whether their defense should be enough that even civilians with pot
lids can destroy them on open ground, or it should be higher, or whatever.
I've opted for what I think is the more historically accurate idea that it
is a division, and that it includes more people than just the tank crews.

Q: Why should tanks be so disproportionately stronger than Hoplites, anyway?
A: First, because a unit of hoplites might be something like a couple hundred
people with spears. The hoplites had to provide their own weapons and armour,
so only the relatively wealthy could afford the privilege.

In the famous battle of Thermopilae, the number of Spartan defenders who gave
their lives was 300 men. That's all. Not thousands, not tens of thousands.
Compared to a modern armour division, the infantry support alone is not just
enough, but overkill to mow them all down. Even without the tanks themselves
getting into the act at all. The whole Greek retreating ARMY for which King
Leonidas was trying to buy some time, was something like 5000 hoplites. Again,
that's not enough to pose any signifficant threat to a single modern division.

Second, because tactics have evolved. Historically, a Hoplite Phalanx was
already obsolete in ancient times. Their compact formation may have looked
like a wall of spear tips from the front, but was so slow to maneuver that it
stopped being effective as soon as someone finally figured how to do a
flanking maneuver. I.e., with more modern tactics, a modern officer would have
no problem dispatching them even if he had no firearms. With firearms, the
Hoplites die before getting their spears anywhere near the modern unit.

And third, because in gameplay terms it make more sense to have to upgrade,
than to go "oh, my pikemen should still hold those tanks for a couple of
rounds". It's not like there are even that many upgrades you can go through,
so taking at least every other upgrade is not that much to ask for.