good rule edits, anyone?

[joncnunn]

The combo of making Jungle impassible to starting settlers while still allowing starting workers to enter (and road) jungle gives humans a huge advantage settling the jungles in the ancient and middle ages as the human will and the AI won't.

Originally posted by Willem

I have an early Settler that's wheeled so there's limits to where the AI can go. I like it myself since I can sometimes find choke points that prevent any AI Settlers from crossing into my territory. I admit though that the AI sometimes gets a terrible starting position and becomes useless, but that's only the occasional one and there's 14 others in the game so I don't really worry about it to much.

I do have a non-wheeled Settler come up with Magnetism, so the Jungles can be developed then.

[joncnunn]

On the ocean impassible to early naval units, I note that the AU mod for naval units is:

1. Ocean costs 2 MP & impassible to wheeled.
2. Sea costs 2 MP
3. Curragh given wheels.
4. Galley & Dormon given ignore movement cost in sea.
5. Caravels / Carracks and all later naval units given both ignore movement cost in sea and ignore movement cost to ocean

[The net affect is that the Curragh needs 2 MP to enter a sea and can't possibly enter ocean, the Galley Dormon spends 2 MP per ocean tile, and all other naval units not affected.]

[Dis]

anyone ever make settlers wheeled?

I'm going to try that right now.

[Mace]

Originally posted by joncnunn
On #1: What your describing will hurt the AI, it's not going to want to road tiles unless it's either inside it's cultural boundary or it's also part of it's irrigation chaining.

re: making mountains require wheeled flag

I don't see that at all. Maybe I'm missing something:
What you say is true about the AI not building roads outside its cultural boundaries; so therefore the AI wouldn't build one across a mtn range to move faster thru it.

But that doesn't matter because the AI doesn't build roads across mtn ranges in the standard rules anyway.
So the AI is already limited in that respect.

[Willem]

Originally posted by Mace
Doesn't that weaken the AI's REX quite a bit?

That's kind of the idea. I was really annoyed at the Settler sprawl in the default game, and that's one of the things I came up with to slow it down.

And it seemed to make sense to me. I even have a wheeled Worker, so Jungles are pretty much off limits until Engineering.

What about the Mayan civilization, who developed a civ out of Jungle without magnetism? So did Ankgor (Thailand) and to some extent, India, and Inca.

Yes, I have thought of giving the Meso American civs a non-wheeled Settler UU, but I haven't tried it out yet. I'm thinking that would give them to much of an advantage.

[Willem]

Originally posted by joncnunn
I'm refering to a virtual all grassland area, no hills or plains.

AI does not know that it's needs to plant forests on some of the grassland no shield tiles to increase sheild production.

Like I said, I've modded my food requirements up to 3 so I'm not really gaining anything myself, at least until Railroad. I can only have one Forest tile being worked, the rest have to be farmed. Mind you the situation changes somewhat once Railroads are built.

However, if you're playing at higher levels, things balance out since the AI gets production bonuses after Regent.

[Willem]

Originally posted by joncnunn
The combo of making Jungle impassible to starting settlers while still allowing starting workers to enter (and road) jungle gives humans a huge advantage settling the jungles in the ancient and middle ages as the human will and the AI won't.

But I've also made my Workers wheeled, until Engineering. Plus I increased the movement cost for Jungle to 4, so it takes much longer now to build roads/clear jungle etc. So even by Engineering, it's not really that much of an advantage. And the AI will build roads for Colonies and trade routes, so it's not as crippled as you might think.

[Dis]

I actually did make settlers wheeled, and changed tundra to be impassible to wheeled vehicles.

and I forbade building cities in tundra and desert. not historically accurage I know (considering I live in a city in the desert ). But I found the map to be much more pleasing. Large deserts made excellent barriers between nations. When I reached a desert, I stopped and made this to be my barrier to my neighbor. Great for defensive purposes.

I know this helps the human more than the ai I suppose. But I think it looks better. It's not like I don't get enough challenge anyways (I'm no where near beating Sid level).

I did allow to build colonies in the desert and tundra. but I find colonies to be useless, so does the AI it seems

[Dis]

Originally posted by Willem


That's kind of the idea. I was really annoyed at the Settler sprawl in the default game, and that's one of the things I came up with to slow it down.

And it seemed to make sense to me. I even have a wheeled Worker, so Jungles are pretty much off limits until Engineering.



Yes, I have thought of giving the Meso American civs a non-wheeled Settler UU, but I haven't tried it out yet. I'm thinking that would give them to much of an advantage.

this is the best way. I'm a big fan of this now myself.

I just limit myself to not exploit the ai weakness in expansion. Because I won't build in desert or jungle myself (though will build culture there to try to expand my borders into them)

[Dis]

I've had some other thoughts.

Is there a way to create a new base structure that acts like a barracks.

I want to make barracks go obsolete with military tradition. and force the player to build military bases. Similary to civ2, but only 1 transition. And also have Sun Tzu's expire here.

I have also put an expiration date on the Pyramids. Far too powerful a wonder as it is. It still will be verypowerful boost in the early game though.

and I've also had a few radical thoughts. Like making temples go obsolete. I think we've reached a point in where many of the world's population (except in the U.S. and middle east) is athiest. How much happiness does a temple actually provide? Perhaps force the player to build something new like television stations or something.

again some of these may favour the human. but in my case, I can't beat sid level, so I don't see the problem.

[Willem]

Originally posted by Dissident
I've had some other thoughts.

Is there a way to create a new base structure that acts like a barracks.

I want to make barracks go obsolete with military tradition. and force the player to build military bases. Similary to civ2, but only 1 transition. And also have Sun Tzu's expire here.

It's easy enough to do, but for your idea, you need Conquests. With that XP, any improvement can be made obsolete with a particular tech.

I've done something similar, but I've made the Barracks type buildings government specific. So everytime I switch govs, I have to rebuild my military infrastructure.

and I've also had a few radical thoughts. Like making temples go obsolete. I think we've reached a point in where many of the world's population (except in the U.S. and middle east) is athiest. How much happiness does a temple actually provide? Perhaps force the player to build something new like television stations or something.

The problem with this idea is that you also lose all the culture from the Temples. And if they were built early in the game, that could be quite a bit, since the culture doubles after a thousand years.

[Dis]

I do have conquests. And I have made barracks obsolete in my mod. But then I forgot to create another barracks like improvement . So after military tradition all my units were regular and I couldn't upgrade.

[Last Conformist]

Originally posted by Jaybe

There is no (good) reason for MA to be airliftable unless you are thinking that an MA is 1-5 tanks and nothing else, or just because Firaxis made it so. For all practical (i.e., realistic) reasons no armored unit should be because armored units are not airlifted en masse IRL.

There's a very good reason for allowing airlifting of MA; it reduces the tedium of moving them by ship. Allowing the same for artillery reduces tedium even more.

[asleepathewheel]

I think you have to do something with the AIs valuation of Literature. Its almost a challenge in C3C not to build the Great Library. The failure of teh AI to get literature at a decently early time also means that much of the sci trait is being squandered

[joncnunn]

As I recall, Literature's value to the AI was greatly increased in the 1.22 patch.

Originally posted by asleepathewheel
I think you have to do something with the AIs valuation of Literature. Its almost a challenge in C3C not to build the Great Library. The failure of teh AI to get literature at a decently early time also means that much of the sci trait is being squandered