MOD: The BALANCER

[WesW]

Regarding ship movement- I think that the increases made in the 1.5 version are sufficient. Of course, naval warfare is a small sideshow in my games. Since there are no ocean TIs to pillage and defend nor trade routes to pirate as in Ctp, I do not see naval power as ever being a big factor in the game, unless you want to bulk up for a Normandy-like invasion. If you play on a water world, however, then things will be different.

I read in the patch fixes an item about advances being displayed correctly. I forget exactly what it said, but I hoped that it meant you could add new icons. Since you guys are adding new stuff to the game, I have some files you might want to look at.

One is the tech tree for the Medpack II. Harlan, I and another guy spent about 6 hours a day for a month developing it, and it is simply the best tree ever designed for a civ game. I am finally getting access restored to my Apolyton site after months, so I can post individual files like the GL if you want the descriptions and graphics that accompany the advances. I am also about to post city improvement graphics for all the ones in Ctp2 for the Crusade release, if you want to use those for your new improvements.

I can also post a list of the new Wonders I added to the Medpack I and II. The last version of the Medpack I was called "Age of Wonders", where I added dozens primarily to help the AIs, who could not shift out of wonder production if someone beat them to it, and thus lost the use of their best cities for anything else. These could give you a host of new ideas for your mod.

I don't know if I will eventually put together a Medpack III or not, but until then just ask me for stuff, and I will do whatever I can to help you guys out.

[monkspider]

Hey guys, thanks for all the good suggestions, i pretty much agree with at least the vast majority of them, and you can expect to see those changes soon.
One possible issue is that if Republic is raised back to having only unit support of one, that would give little reason to play as Democracy. Any suggestions for striking a balance between those two?

[ChaingKaiShek]

Basic Ideas of things which could be added

Now While I do not have any ideas at the moment about what could be done to balance The republic and still make democracy 'desirable' (Mainly because I dont have the civedit screen to look at and see variables I can adjust.) perhaps you can lower the unitcost to one as suggested OR add some free supported units to that government type. Therefore leaving democracy still desirable as it would have lower support costs.

Perhaps as a republic, support costs could be lowered, adjusting the amount of free units (not many mind you.) and then perhaps raise war wariness as well, therefore also making a desire to change to democracy.

Just a few ideas on the matter, I do however have some other ideas about perhaps a new government type and also some wonders which could go along with it. Or maybe just the wonders, as it really would be hard to balance in another government without making it super-powerful.

First idea for a new wonder would be the Works Progress Administration (WPA) which in the united states did strive to bring about a forward movement in the Arts as well as boosting to employment for out of work performers during the great depression. Fitting enough a boost to culture per turn would be great for this wonder, as well as a boost in production maybe. Actually, can you even change production levels through wonders? So maybe I should have looked at the abilities of the editor before running my mouth, but it's too late now! This wonder could also be named "The Federal Theater Project" if Works Progress Administration isn't fitting enough.

And since the theme of American 'wonders' continues, I'll move on to the T.V.A. (Tennessee Valley Authority) granted this one wont fit in as well, as You cannot limit wonders to certain cultures (American mainly) but it can't hurt to add ideas to the mix. The TVA mainly employed workers to build several dams throughout the Tennessee river valley, thus a boost in production perhaps at the cost of culture per turn would be nice for this wonder. As we know now what negative effects such projects can have on the ecosystem of our planet. Then again the Hoover Dam *is* in the game, maybe this one is not needed.

Moving right along I suppose that is all for now, I'm sure I'll come up with more ideas to bore everyone with later. For now I should at least act like I'm trying to work.

[Elucidus]

I had planned on asking you, Wesw, if I could use a lot of your stuff from CTP1/2, after I got my Internet access back, that is. Of course my desk collapsed last night, damn the movers for not knowing how to put it back together, so I cannot do anything on my computer until I get a new one.

One thing I have noticed. The biggest pain of trying to Mod Civ III with more people than just yourself there is only one file. This means that anytime someone makes a change, you cannot just incorporate it into the original. With text files you could just agree to work on different areas. Or even just send the changes and they could copy and past.

Also, keep the ideas comming, the more the merrier.

I still have to say, please bare with me until I can get my internet access, back. I can't make any corrections or updates until then. See ya later.

[skar760]

Originally posted by monkspider
Hey guys, thanks for all the good suggestions, i pretty much agree with at least the vast majority of them, and you can expect to see those changes soon.
One possible issue is that if Republic is raised back to having only unit support of one, that would give little reason to play as Democracy. Any suggestions for striking a balance between those two?

Don't know anything about modding caus I haven't even looked at the bic-file but there should be a reason for the democratic military to be that expensive, so why not give them a +1 skill each or even make them elite? Yes, all democratic units should be elite. Nice idea if I think about it
Or since a democracy's army should be an instrument of defense give them a defense-bonus.
Another idea: Here in Germany soldiers are used to help in cases of catastrophies (I guess elsewhere as well) so give all foot units the ability to clean up pollution in a democracy.

As I mentioned I'm a complete greenhorn considering modding so I don't know if these ideas may be realized. Just trying to help

so long

skar

[gamecommander]

Mod changes due to patch

It looks like now that the patch is out for the game, some of your modding might be overkill in some aspects of the game, especially corruption. Since the patch reduces it, so many ways to cut corruption might not be neccesary, but then again, I haven't played the game patched yet. I plan to finish my current game using v1.51 of the Balancer, then update w/ the patch, reinstalling if needed.

Good luck guys!

[Elucidus]

Being that the size of the patch is slightly (sarcasm) more than will fit on a floppy disk and that I don't have internet at home, I may not be able to work on this for a while. I am going to try to span the file with winzip. Wish me luck.

[monkspider]

Hey guys, Im through with the finals and back from the Uni!
I have some ideas to help out the Republic, what would you think about decreased unit cost but increased corruption, leaving Fascism as the only government with that particular level of corruption, also, as someone said earlier, some of my anti-corruption bonuses will have to go due to the new patch.
What do you guys think?

[gamecommander]

This post is basically to ask how the next version is coming, and to get the thread back to the top. Perhaps, with the thread back in the spotlight, we can get some more ideas for the mod.

[Elucidus]

Hey guys,

Looks like I'm gonna be out of the mod business for a little while longer. I still have no internet...well, at least no internet worth talking about. If anyone needs anything from me (Monkspider if you have something specifc you would like me to work on, I can give it a try, but...) don't email me anything as I am unable to receive anymore. It is full, so just leave a message here and I'll try to check it.

Well, Merry Christmas everyone...or happy whatever religious holiday it may be for you. If you not religious than just ahppy day.

I'll talk to you guys later.

[TheGraduate]

Love of Graduate

Hello guys, I believe it's my first appearance in this thread even though I have been sticking with this thread since the very beginning. Just want to post this message to say Thanks to all of those who inspired so much into the mod.
After the version changes, however (I uninstalled everything and then patched it, so... everything I had before was gone), I decided not to install any mod for the moment, instead, hoping someone would create a mod using the patched version. Why all these hassel? Well, after hundreds and hundreds of hours into this game, I realized that if there are no new stuffs, wonders, units, unit improvements, it gets tedious... more specialized units with different civilizations might be really nice.
One more thing, the wonders in the later stages of the game are a lot less in quantities and effectiveness, thus the importance. Therefore, without modding, this game is no longer as attractive as before, to me...
Having so much said, I would like to conclude: PLZ guys.. MAKE MORE MODS,.... MORE IMPROVED mods!! Get all the genius out of your brain!!! We all have a Beautiful Mind!!!!....... and I love you all!!


Happiest New Year!!

-TheGraduate

[WesW]

Have you guys been having a lot of crashes in your games? I have been trying to make the Medpack III, and I keep getting them. I just checked into Ancient's thread, and they are reporting the same thing.
From what I can tell reading posts in the Help forum, the patch made the game much less stable. Apparently, the game file will become corrupted but might not crash until much later. We had this same problem with the Ctp games.
I have been wondering why the files forum seems less active than it was a few weeks ago, and these crashes may be the reason.
As for me, I have started the mod over using the patch bic file, and I have re-installed the game and the patch.
Btw, last night I added 2 new govt's to the game. Their stats are below. I feel good about them, and if you want to use them here that would be fine.



#GOVT_City_State
^
^
^Under a City State, you as the Speaker for the State Assembly command by the power of that aristocratic assembly, which is drawn from the ruling classes of the individual cities of your culture. City State governments are very commerce-focused, favoring the marketplace and restricting governmental intervention into private affairs. This allows for greater $LINK than other governments of its era. Due to extensive secret police networks in each city, enemy $LINK missions to investigate cities never succeed. On the downside, the every-man-for-himself tendancies and policies of a assembly cause a lot of $LINK, a low tolerance for military police, some war weariness and little support for a draft.
The City State is designed for a small, highly-developed commerce state with little miitary aggressiveness.

^
^Worker efficiency...............100%
^Hurry Method.....................Paid Labor
^Corruption / Waste...........Rampant
^War Weariness.................Low
^Draft Rate..........................1
^Military Police Limit ...............1
^Unit Support
^ per town........................2
^ per city...........................4
^ per metropolis...............6


#GOVT_Theocracy
^
^
^Under a Theocracy, as the Annointed One of a theocratic state, you command supreme rule over the people and the nation.
Theocratic governments are focused on expanding the faith, by military means if necessary. This allows for higher unit support per city, no war weariness and large support for a draft. Also, corruption is spread evenly across all the cities of your religion. Due to the conviction of the citizens of a theocratic regime, and the vigilance of the Inquisition, enemy $LINK missions to plant spies never succeed, while theocratic spies are excellent at their craft. On the downside, the priests are quick to pull out the whip to hurry production, which is bad for the performance of the infidels and sinners forced to work developing the cities and countryside.
The Theocracy is designed for large, poorly-developed states bent upon the forcible domination of their neighbors.
^
^Worker efficiency.............50%
^Hurry Method...................Forced Labor
^Corruption / Waste..........Communal
^War Weariness................None
^Draft Rate........................3
^Military Police Limit ...........3
^Unit Support
^ per town......................3
^ per city.........................5
^ per metropolis..............8

[Yaga]

More than a bump: Yaga's Balancer Mod Mod

All,

Dunno about you, but I still play The Balancer whenever I play Civ. Having gone through the game half a dozen times since the patch came out and Monk and Elucid wandered off to the real world, I was thinking of releasing some of the mods I'd made to their mods to this list.

If anyone is still playing and/or interested, and there are mods you'd like to see and or think need some tweaking, feel free to post them here; I'll probably include them.

Some of the things in the works for Yaga's Balancer Mod Mod are:
- Two new government types: Constitutional Monarchy (Industrial) and City State. (Revision of Republic for Ancient times - Republic to be moved to late med.)
- Each Civ will have *TWO* UU's - one every other era. (meaning that the Americans, with a Modern UU, will get a Medieval one, and the Eqyptians, with an Ancient, will get an industrial)
- Additional city improvements in all eras
- Additonal small wonders in all eras
- Totally revamped Naval units - power, movement, etc. Also a new unit, the coracle, a 1 movement naval unit available very early on.
- Modification of some of the changes previously made by Monkspiter and Elucidus
- I am also attempting to revamp the tech tree a little so as to add derivitive techs

As always, fair gameplay and ultimately *balancing* will be the goal.

Ah, also, I suck at making new graphics. Anyone who'd want to help would be greatly encouraged.

[Elucidus]

Hey guys,

I'm back. Sorry for the lapse. I want to re-work on the mod, but don't know where things stand. I'll see if I can contact Monkspider. I should have my DSL in a couple of weeks, until then I at least have dial-up.

[joseph1944]

Moonspiker your web page is not working. It said unavailable.