KURATKO'S EXTENSION to PATCH SUGGESTION MOD by PLAYER1

This is just another attempt to add something to the excellent conservative mod created and continually improved by Player1. Like many of you, I also prefer rather conservative mods, but still there are things that I miss and that make me to add some bits according to my personal taste. Though I am aware that there are already too many similar mods, I decided to post my attempt too in the hope that some ideas I incorporated here might be found inspirative for the major conservative mods. If you would like to give a try to my changes, I will be grateful for your feedback.

LIST OF CHANGES:

First, I list the changes made in the Patch Suggestion Mod by Player1. My changes follow. Some of the changes I made were inspired by Alexman's AU mod.


CHANGES 

Upgrade paths: 

Fighters upgrade to F-15 for Americans (corrected in 1.21f patch). 

Longbowmen, Swordsmen, Legion and Immortal upgrade to Riflemen. 
This way, AI won't have huge army of obsolete units. Still this upgrade is costly. 
This can prevent AI from building new such units in modern era (since normally they stay in building queue). 

For similar resons Frigate, Man-O-War, Privateer and Ironclad upgrade to Destroyer. 
Yes it looks odd to upgrade sailing ships to Destroyer, but look at the costs. To upgrade Frigate you need 120gp per unit. 

For game balance reasons I made War Chariots upgrade to Knights (corrected in 1.21f) and Jaguar Warriors upgrade to Riflemen. Both these units become obsolete in early ancient age, but their usefulness lasts much longer. So delaying their upgrades is a good thing. 

Note: Why Jaguar Warriors to Riflemen? 
Jaguar Warriors skip Swordsmen, and Swordsmen upgrade to Riflemen. 


Unit flags: 

All artillery units, Explorer, Scout and Leader get Airlift flag. 
I don't know why they are skipped in normal rules. You can airlift tank. 
On the other hand Presidents (and other Leaders) do fly by plane. 

All artillery units, Tanks, Panzers, Modern Armor and Mech. Infantry gain Wheeled ability. 
This prevents moving them on Jungle and Mountain tiles if there is no road. 

Note: You can move those units on enemy roads, you just don't get road movement bonus. 


Rate of fire: 

I always wondered why Ironclads have better bombard values then Jet Fighters. 
Also, battleship bombard capabilities look a little weak compared to their use in World Wars. 

Because of that, folowing changes are made: 

Fighters get ROF of 2 (aprox. a little better then catapult). 

Battleship and AEGIS Cruiser get ROF of 3. 
This makes Battleship good bomber unit, while AEGIS Cruiser gets bombard capability similar to Destroyer (bom/rof: 4/3 vs 6/2) 


Basic unit stats: 

Explorers get defense of 1. This gives them ability to sometimes stay alive after attack by Swordsmen or Riflemen (retreat), which means that they can be a little more usefull (pillage?). Note that this doesn't give them ability to capture workers or cities since they still have attack of 0. 

Longbowmen has cost of 30 to make this unit more attractive compared to Kights. 
40 cost was too much anyway (Immortals cost 30 and have attack of 4). 

Gunpowder infantry units look too much weak on attack and to expensive for defense compared to cavalry or pre-gunpowder units. 

Musketmen gets 3/4/1 stats, cost 50 
Musketeer gets 4/4/1 stats, cost 50 (useful, finally) 
Rilfemen gets 5/6/1 stats, cost 70 
Infantry gets 8/10/1 stats, cost 90 (as before) 

Reduced cost and higher attack make these units more valuable. 

Special Ops: 
Paratrooper gets 8/10/1 
Marines get 10/8/1 
This makes these units more valuable and gives every of them special tactic. 
Paratrooper will invade and hold position, while Marines will assault. 
These units can be especialy good in Jungles and Mountains which wheeled units can't pass. And since in modern times Infantry gets obsolete these unit take role of jungle & mountain warriors. 
Someone could argue that Attack of 10 makes Marines capable of killing Tanks, but since smart players will stack tanks with Infantry support, that should not be problem. 
Paratroopers get operational range of 8. Since helicopters got higher range too. 


Modern Armor gets defense of 14 to make Mech. Inf. more important. 

Radar Artillery is mobile unit, so it gets movment of 2. Since Radar Artilley has movement of 2, it needs Oil and Rubber (plus Aluminium). 

Civilopedia says that Cruise Missiles can fly for thousand miles, so let it be reflected in the rules. They get bombard range of 6 (same as for Tactical nukes). Cruise Missiles get ROF of 4 to make them more devastating, and cost-effective (since they get destroyed after attack). Should have no problem killing pre-gunpowder veteran units (4hp). 
Still not possible to kill elite units (since ROF is 4), but lets say that even elite warriors know how to hide from missiles. 
Also, if they are lucky, they can kill 3hp (or even 4hp) Battleship. 

Fighters get lethal sea bombardment. 
Jet Fighters, F-15 and Stealth Fighters get lethal sea and land bombard. 
All these units get Air bombard AI flag added. 
Why? These units are tactical bombers. They do thier job from close distance. That way they can take out 1hp units. This won't be unbalanced since these units are much worser bombers then standard Bomber unit, and land units have huge defensive bonuses. 
Fighters get only lethal sea, since historicly Fighters were used for attacks on capital ships like dive bombers, but Fighters were not used as tactical bombers on land, until Jet Fighters became available. 
Helicopters get range of 8. Real problem with these units was that it was difficult to land your units behind enemy lines, since helicopters need to start from your cities. Hopefully this change will make them more strategicaly usefull. 
Helicopter can now transport 2 foot units. This makes Helicopter more usefull transport unit. 




Army gets price of 300 (changed back to 400 in v1.32), to make players build these in Industrial age, not after they get 80+ shileds cities. Army gets also a pillage order. 

Ship tweaks: 

Caravels get defense of 1 to make them more vulnerable to armed ships like Frigates and Privateers. You get Caravels before Cannons anyway. 

Privateers have cost of 40. They are small, lightly armed ships, which means cheaper then Frigate (and slower too). This will also make them more useful by players. 

Submarines (nuclear version also) get attack of 10, to make them dangerous enough and force players to make thier own submarines to detect enemy ones. 
Giving them retreat possibility would be fine too, but that's not possibile. 

Carriers and Battleships are same-class ships. They should have same movement rate. 

Battleship gets cost of 220 shileds (was 200) to make Destroyers a more viable option. 

AEGIS Cruisers get attack of 14, to make them more them more useful than submarine detectors (they cost 160 shileds, you know). 
Destroyers still stay main grunt force (cheap). 

Prequisite tech for Ironclad unit is now Industrialization (instead of Steam Power). 
This is done in order to prolong use of Frigates as "queen of seas". 
In original rules, Frigates were quickly made obsolete by Ironclads. 
Ironclads get cost of 100, in order to make them more distinctive from Frigates. Also Frigates become more popular because of relatively cheap cost. 

Late game naval units have increased movment by 1. This is done in order to make greater difference between speed of modern naval vessels and sailing ships. 
It should not be unbalancing since change is for just one movment point. 

So Destroyers, Battleships, AEGIS Cruisers, Transports and Carriers get movment of 6. 
Subs get movement of 4, while Nuclear Subs get movment of 5. 



Non-unit related changes: 

Draft and Rush happiness penalities lowered to 20. 40 turn penalities were too much for AI (fixed in 1.21f patch). 

In standard game Wealth is heavily underrated. Wealth income doubled (4 prod. to 1 gold before ecomony, 2 to 1 after). 

Taxmen and Scientist values increased to 2 points. 

I hardly ever used them, since getting two shields is better then one taxman (difference between geting 2 shiled by mining, and geting extra pop by irrigating). 

It's still not much, but higher values give grapic glitches. And I am not sure which value is optimal. 

Changes to Spaceship components:
Life Support System needs Recycling. 
Why? Just look civilopedia entry. It talks about recycling too much. 
Docking Bay needs Robotics. Part which needs to be transformed to Space Station (before landing to Alpha Centauri) needs ROBOTIC ARMS, also that could help when loading things from space station in earth orbit (all this is in civilopedia). 
Statis Champer should need Genetics. 
Why? To discover cyrogenic, human race needs advanced biology understanding, including genetic. 
With these changes only pure military techs are not needed for SS like Stealth, Integrated Defense or Smart Weapons. This will make end game more interesting. Players will have time to use some more advanced techs before finishing Space Ship. 

Longevity and Cure for Cancer tweaks: 
Longevity is not enough useful in modern age (and sometimes it gives more problems then it helps). Also, Cure for Cancer 1 happy face is useless in modern times when civs have 6+ luxuries. 
So upping Cure for Cancer effect to 3 HAPPY FACES will make it PREMIUM wonder, which it is supposed to be. 
Longevity will be upgraded with 2 happy faces around the world. In combo with old effect this will make it a very good wonder. 
This way Genetic will be important tech in modern world, as it is (historically). 
And don't forget that these two wonders are two MOST EXPENSIVE WONDERS in Civ3. They should be a GOOD wonders. 

Military Academy small wonder doesn't need anymore a "victorious army" as prequisite. This is done in order to make building of armies a better option. 
It would not be unbalancing since army cost is as high as of one Wonder builing, making army by using leaders should still be usefull. 

In Civ3, Great Wall wonder is at very low value for human player. 
In order to fix that, I added an additional befenit to that great wonder. 
Every city, at same continent as Great Wall, will also get free City Walls improvment. 


Cost of Propaganda spying missions is HALVED. 
Propaganda becomes more viable option, but it still fails often against culturally superior civilizations (as it should). Democracy immunity becomes more important. 
Cost of Steal Tech missions decreased by 30%. 
That way Steal Tech could be usefull mission in early stage of game, but not always because of agressive tech trading in 1.17 patch. Still it would be worth if you are in war with everybody. Also, since mission cost DOESN'T depend from tech commercial price, sometimes it's still better to buy those techs. It's still more usefull to "safely" steal tech then buy, if only one civ has that tech. Usefullness increases in industrial and modern age, when this option is usefull even when 2 or 3 civs have that tech. 

Attack bonus against barabarians is lowered too. 
Why? 
Since I don't think, that even novice players think it's fun to have his one lone warrior defeat 15 enemy horsemen. And that's something that can happen with anti-barabarian bonus of 800% at easiest difficulty. 
Now, at Chieftain diffculty, bonus against barabarians is 200% (still good), at Warlord is 100%, at Regent and Monarch is 50%, and at Emperor and Deity diffculty there is no bonus at all. 
 


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Kuratko's changes:

Railroad now takes 18 turns to complete. It is very powerful and should take more time to build the complete net.

Terrain bonuses changed:
Grassland gives no shield bonus with mining. (I do not want the whole countryside mined). When polluted, it is changed to Desert. 
Hills give three shields when mined. (To balance fewer shields from Grassland).

Tundra and Jungle give no commerce bonus with road. (To build a road across the tile, i.e. to access a resource, you need to clear the Jungle or plant Forest or to build a colony). [removed in ver. 1.34.1]

Jungle gives one shield bonus when mined. Sea gets one shield.

Clear jungle now requires Mathematics.

NOTE: Since starting from 1.29f patch roads/railroads cannot be built on terrain with no commerce bonus on roads, there is a problem with accessing resources placed on Tundras and Jungles. Jungles can be cleared and you can build road on the base terrain. On Tundras, you can plant trees once you know Engineering. The only other way to get the resource is to build a colony on that tile and connect it with a road to the rest of the world. If a resource tile is completely surrounded by Jungle or Tundra - such resource would never be accessible, unless you clear jungle/plant trees. Also, be sure to build the colony sooner than the tile falls within someone's cultural borders as from that time on you cannot build colonies anymore and the resource will only be accessible when a city is placed on that tile.
[removed in ver. 1.34.1]

Barbarian sea unit changed to Privateer. To make sea exploration a better challenge.

World sizes: Increased number of civs and distance between players:
Tiny - 60x60, 6 civs, dist. 9, 8 cities, 180 tech rate
Small - 80x80, 8 civs, dist. 12, 10 cities, 220 tech rate
Standard - 100x100, 10 civs, dist. 15, 14 cities, 260 tech rate
Large - 130x130, 12 civs, dist. 19, 24 cities, 320 tech rate
Huge - 160x160, 16 civs, dist. 24, 32 cities, 400 tech rate

Democracy and The Republic swapped in the research Tree. Democracy is now in the ancient age and enables new City States government, government Republic is still enabled by The Republic (but now in the late Middle ages). Democratic government (now renamed Modern Democracy) is available in the Industrial age with The Corporation.
The City States government is added to represent ancient form of Democracy. It has stats similar to Monarchy (which is available at about the same time) with the following distinctions: corruption is communal (cities are more or less independent), gets one more free unit per every city, only 2 military police and weak war weariness, immune to steal world map, slightly better in resistance. Favourite government for Greece and Iroquois.
Changed max. science rates: Anarchy 60%, Despotism 70%, Monarchy 80%, City States, Republic and Communism 90% and Modern Democracy 100%.

Tax Collector requires Currency and Scientist requires Philosophy.

Explorer available with Map Making (much sooner) and its movement changed to 1 (still has all terrain as roads). They can build colonies.

Solar plant gives 100% production bonus.

The Great Wall grants Walls to every city on continent.

Archers, Bowmen, Longbowmen and Riflemen get zero range bombard ability (they will get a free shot when stacked with a defensive unit).

Longevity wonder comes sooner, with Medicine, is cheaper (800 instead of 1000) and gives 1 happy face in all cities. [changed in ver. 1.34.1]

CHANGES TO AI BUILD-OFTEN LIST

Changed AI build-often list as shown below to bring AI build order closer to what some expert human players have found optimal. Added production to all civs to encourage factories. Each civ has at least one marketplace category (trade, happiness, wealth) to encourage building this important building. Encouraging AI to take advantage of their cheap buildings: Scientific have Science flagged, Religious have happiness, Militaristic have trade and units.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Civilization  Off Def Arty Setl Work Nav Air Grth Prod Hap Sci Wlth Trad Expl Cult
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rome (4)       X   -                          -    X                 +         +
Egypt (3)                                     X    X    +       +              -
Greece (3)                            -            +        X        X         X
Babylon (4)                                        +    +   X                  X
Germany (5)    X                                   +        X        +         -
Russia (4)                                -   X    +        X        +
China (2)          +                          -    X        -        +         +
America (3)                               X   X    X    +                      -
Japan (4)      X                      -            +    X            +
France (1)                                         +    X            X         X
India (1)                                     -    +    +       X    X         -
Persia (4)     X                                   +        +   X    -
Aztecs (4)     X                                   +    X            +
Zulu (5)       X                                   +                 +    +
Iroquois (2)                                  X    +    X                 X
England (3)                           X            +            -    X         X

X = original
- = removed
+ = added



CHANGES in ver. 1.33.1

Just reflection of Patch suggestion mod changes made in ver. 1.33:

Range for Cruise Missiles lowered to 4 tiles. (6 appeared to be too much)

Jet Fighters get bombard strength of 3, to make them more distinctive from Fighters. 
Still, not to much to make them unbalanced. 
Since it would lead to less powerfull F-15 & Stealth Fighter, these units also get increased bombard strenght of 5. 
In order to balance out increased Stl. Fighters bombard efficiency (compared to Stl. Bombers), Stl. Bombers get reduced cost of 200 shields (was 240). 

Increased cost of Spaceship Components! 
They will be aprox. 50% more expensive compared to original prices. 
This is done, in order to prolong (and make more enjoyable) space race. 
New costs for SS components are 250, 500 and 1000 shields (compared to old costs of 160, 320 and 640 shields).

CHANGES in ver. 1.34.1

Terrain properties reworked.
Road bonus returned back to Tundra and Jungle. There were too many problems with these settings since 1.29f. 
Cities forbidden in Desert, Tundra, Forest and Jungle. This should increase the value of colonies. Also somewhat blocks expansion.
Longevity effects lowered, 2 happy faces in the city, none elsewhere.