MOD: The BALANCER

[Harlan]

Hi,
I haven't tried your mod yet, but it looks promising. However, I really don't like the following section:

General Unit Changes
*Swordmen now upgrade to riflemen
*Longbowmen now upgrade to riflemen
*Cavalry now upgrade to tanks
*Frigates now upgrade to ironclads
*Privateers now upgrade to destroyers
*Ironclads now upgrade tp destroyers
*Destroyers now upgrade to Aegis Crusiers

These things are completely different, and should not be upgradable! Sorry, but having a wooden ship for instance is completely useless in making a metal one - you need to start over. Having development lines stop occasionally adds strategy to the game - should you build a Cavalry when you know its the end of the line? Everything being upgradable makes things too easy and takes all the thinking out.

[Asesino_Virtual]

Troubles.

Hey, Monkspider, Im having the same problems than GemTomGun.
When clicking in a squatter for producing it, the game crashes.

[monkspider]

How curious!
Let me check into this immediately, I think I know what the problem might be. I played a whole game as an expansionist civ with no problems.
I am assuming you guys extracted all the files to all the right places too, right?

[monkspider]

Hey Harlan,
Sorry for the mixup, but those changes that you dislike are actually not part of the mod. They were suggested by a member of our community but I have not implemented them into any version of my mod.

[monkspider]

Okay guys, get a slightly updated version here

http://www.geocities.com/monkspider/BALANCER131.zip

and make sure you follow the instructions in the readme, that should work things out for you.
I don't know if this will work for you Gentom, as there may be some kind of incompatibility between our three mods, but if you have any more questions, please let me know!

[Asesino_Virtual]

I got the clue.

Monk, the game still crashes when i pick the squatter. But now i KNOW whats the problem: im playing with No-Civ-Specifics abilities option.
When the civs specific stuff is off, i get the squatter anyway. And that origins the bug.

Check it. I hate the civ specific stuff, not the abilities, just the special units. Is there a way to get rid of the special units??... mmmh, perhaps playing with the editor?

[WesW]

I am allowing civ-specific abilities, and I am getting the crashes too, right about the time a Squatter would first be produced.
Perhaps you could put out a version without the new unit until you get the bugs worked out?
I really like all the changes so far. The Squatter is one addition that could be most easily left out. The AIs are filling up my maps extremely fast with normal settlers.

[Elucidus]

Copy the settler folder in the Art/units folder. Name the new settler folder Squatter. Also name the ini file inside the folder to squatter. It's what I did and it fixed it. Of course I renamed it to colonist, but that's just me. Also renamed the scout to pioneer.

[Elucidus]

I liked most of what you did. And believe me the changes I made to it are just what I prefer, not a knock on you or your ideas. Also, some of these are changes I made beforehand. So here is what I did, in case someone cares:

Renamed the Scout to Pioneer (something I did before)
Renamed the Radar Artilery to MLRS (same as above)
Renamed the Squatter to Colonist (I was gonna use pioneer, but I already did)

Changed clear jungle from 10 to 12 turns; it should take at least a little longer to clear jungle than to clear forest

Clear forest now gives 15 shield (a nice compromise) 10 seemed too little and 20 too much

Changed Fortress to give 75% Def and Fortification to give 33%

Mountain gives an extra shield now 0 2 0

World sizes are all +1; 16 civs max in all; +25% max cities per size

Tiny is 80x80; distance 10; max cities 15; tech rate 100
Small is 100x100; distance 12; max cities 20; tech rate 120
Standard is 140x140; distance 16; max cities 30; tech rate 160
Large is 180x180; distance 20; max cities 40; tech rate 200
Huge is 255x255; distance 25; max cities 52; tech rate 240


City Sizes increased. 7 and 14 (instead of 6 and 12)

I removed the infantry and mech. infantry's ability to make roads and clear forests/jungles. They can still build forts, however.

Great Wall, no longer doubles city defense, however it gives city walls to all continetal cities, and doesn't expire; afterall city walls don't expire.

Well those are my thoughts. I made other changes, but can't remember anymore. Happy gaming.

[monkspider]

Hey, thanks for tracking that down for me Elucidus, i'll update the download with the nesscarry missing files.

[Elucidus]

No problem buddy. Glad to help.

[monkspider]

I should have realized that I needed to include the unit files in the patch, but i figured since I was using the copy tool the game would simply know to use the settler animations.
Silly me!
I will rename the Squatter unit to Colonist in the next major update in homage.

[Elucidus]

I'm just glad someone like you is around to do such mods. If it weren't for someone like you and Snoopy (graphics-guy), I'd either have to do this myself or live with it the way it was. Well, thanks to everyone who keeps adding things. I put 'em all together in one zip file, just so it's easier to restore later.
Thanks again.

[korn469]

Hi,
I haven't tried your mod yet, but it looks promising. However, I really don't like the following section:

General Unit Changes
*Swordmen now upgrade to riflemen
*Longbowmen now upgrade to riflemen
*Cavalry now upgrade to tanks
*Frigates now upgrade to ironclads
*Privateers now upgrade to destroyers
*Ironclads now upgrade tp destroyers
*Destroyers now upgrade to Aegis Crusiers

These things are completely different, and should not be upgradable! Sorry, but having a wooden ship for instance is completely useless in making a metal one - you need to start over. Having development lines stop occasionally adds strategy to the game - should you build a Cavalry when you know its the end of the line? Everything being upgradable makes things too easy and takes all the thinking out

Harlan those ideas are part of my mod...and the reason for those changes are simple

Civs should never build a warrior unit in the modern era, since warriors eventually upgrade to longbowmen that means often times in the late game some of my cities with a production of over 100 shields per turn will put a warrior in the build queue, and there is really no plausiable argument for a modern day civ arming a couple of people with clubs and axes

if you argue that it is a partisan/peasant army/resistance/ force then it is already covered in civ by city resistance
if you argue that is a quickly assembled group then that too is already covered by conscription

also they did upgrade the US cavalry to tanks

The cavalry was due many changes in the 20th century. It fought WWI with its horses and dismounted infantry tactics. However, in the 1930s, the cavalry began its transition from horse to armored vehicles, better known as the tank, although one more unit would fight on horseback in WWII, 26th Cavalry in the Philippines. The army eventually turned the 26th into a mechanized fighting unit, but they still fought bravely.

source found here

[Elucidus]

Korn,

I agree with you to a point.

Swordsmen, Longbowmen, and Cavalry, I think, should upgrade to Riflemen in my opinion. As it is merely arming them with different weapons. Frigates and ironclads, however, should not be able to upgrade. I thought about this, and I think there should very well be a way to obsolete these units, but since there isn't I understand your reasoning.

I just couldn't rationalize it and therefore decided to take that out.


Edit: Typo