I'm not the only one who worked on this mod... even if the others don't know it. Many thanks to player1 and his patch suggestion mod, he gave me many ideas. Also, bringing the age of sailing sooner doesn't come from me, same for making the Barbs tougher. My priority when I mod is to make not-so ambitious changes to have a better gamplay balance. I also try to make some things less absurd (ie ships can connect 2 neighbouring cities in less than 1 year) or useless (helicopters, privateers). I didn't use a hacked version of the editor for this, it's only the result of me toying with the normal editor. Anyway, please comment this !
(the ideas are italic, while the explanations are normal-fonted.)
Citizens :
- Taxmen are now called "merchants". They appear with currency .They now produce 2 gold each.
- Scientists appear with education. They now produce 2 bulbs each.
Specialists are too weak in Civ3 because their production is not multiplied by the improvements. I raised their production to bypass this. Still, producing 2 gold/bulbs corruption free right from the beginning of the game would be too powerful, so I toned it down.
Cilizations :
- Applied the name list which was in Marla's map. Now, there won't be a bunch of "New Berlin" or so
- Changed the Barbarians to pink. This horrible colour deserves to disappear as soon as possible
- Changed the French to white. Also renamed Joan d'Arc into Joan of Arc.
Civ advances :
- Writing now doesn't allow to trade communications.
- Radio allows communication trading. This way, the tech and map trading is slower : you don't know the whole world at 1000 BC
- Mapmaking is renamed Hullmaking. It doesn't allow map trading.
- Navigation allows map trading. This way, you'll have to explore for a longer time. Also, the AI has less things to trade for techs. It slows down the tech progress
- Education allows sea trade. Because caravels now come with education.
- Mass production doubles the (wealth) improvement. It's cumulative with the bonus of Economy. I agree with Player1 that wealth isn't powerful enough, but it should reflect the waste of early economical systems.
Combat experience :
- Conscripts have 4 HP
- Regular have 6 HP
- Veteran have 8 HP
- Elite have 10 HP
This way, a fluke during the combat has less impact on the overall battle. The outcome of a battle is much more how it should be.
Diplomacy and spying :
- Halved all costs except "establish embassy" and "plant spy". Spying was too expansive before. It's now usable, but not excessively.
Units :
Many units upgrade, because I don't like having plenty of obsolete units in my building queue. I also dislike it when the AI produces them. Now I force the AI and the player to build modern units.
- All land units (except armies) now have airlift command. I didn't understand why some units had not. Precisely, settlers, workers, explorers, scouts, all land artilleries and leaders now airlift.
- Doubled all rates of fire of all bombing units, to compensate the doubling of HP
- Paratroopers now have 8 attack and 10 defense. They have a range of 8. This way, they're a bit more useful.
- Helicopters also have a range of 8 and can carry 2 units, for the same reasons.
- Marines have 10 attack and 8 defense. They're the only sea-land attacker, and they arrive just before mechanized infantry. They should be a bit more efficient when attacking.
- Swordsmen / Immortals / Legions upgrade to knight. They're the best offensive unit of the ancient era, that's why I upgrade them to the best offensive unit of the early medieval era.
- Longbowmen upgrade to riflemen.
- Cavalry / cossacks upgrade to tank. This upgrade is pretty expansive, so it's not really unbalancing. You'd have to think before sacrificing your 3rd movement point.
- Bombers upgrade to stealth bombers.
- Jet / stealth fighters / F15 now have a range of 8
Sea units :
I don't like how sluggish the sea units are in Civ3. I understand that triremes are slow, but a modern destroyer isn't even twice as fast ! I modified deeply the movement points of sea units. It works correctly on standard / large maps. It's still not enough on huge maps though.
- Triremes now have 4 movement points. This way, you can explore even if a coastal enemy city has 3 coast tiles in its borders.
- Caravels now have 6 movement points, and only 1 defense. This way, they're more vulnerable to later sea units.
- Caravels come with education. All the age of sailing arrives sooner than before. It's the only way I found to have caracels for more time than just the gap between astronomy and navigation.
- Frigates / Man'o war / Galleons / Privateers now come with navigation. Now, the age of sailing will last longer. In the normal version, you can get ironclads just after getting these sailing boats.
- Privateers now cost 40. They have 7 movement points. This way, they're useful : pretty good to explore the ocean, and to destroy enemy exploring caravels.
- Frigate / Man'o war / Galleons now have 8 movement points.
- Frigate / Man'o war upgrade to destroyer. Man,'o war also has lethal sea bombardment. At last, the English UU is useful.
- Ironclads now have 10 movements and upgrade to battleship. Don't worry, it's pretty expansive (240 gold per boat)
- Transports / Destroyers / carriers / battleships / aegis cruisers now have 15 movement points (well, 5 but consider all sea tiles as roads).
- Submarines have 12 movement points. They upgrade to nuclear sub.
- Nuclear subs now have 15 movement points.
Improvements and wonders :
- Longevity now comes with medicine and costs 600 shields. I like the fact that the population booms at the beginnig of the industrial era (railroad + hospitals). It's pretty accurate historically. Longevity helps you to create this "demographic transition" feeling.
Governments :
Like many people, I personaly prefer representative governments over dictatorships in real life. But in Civ3, it's almost useless to be a dictator, as representative countries are too good compared to the others. So I made dictatorships more interesting, and toned down a little bit the others. I also introduced rate caps to slower the tech race, esp. at the beginning of the game.
- Anarchy and Despotism have no chance to assimilate foreign nationals
- Anarchy has a rate cap of 50%.
- Despotism has a rate cap of 70%
- Monarchy now uses the whip. It was pretty stupid that a regime unable to raise massive funds had to buy its improvements. It was a huge weakness of monarchy compared to republic.
- Monarchy has a military police of 4
- Monarchy, like Republic now has a rate cap of 80 %
- Democracy now isn't immune to propaganda
- Communism has a military police of 6
General :
- Standard Barbarian is now a swordsman
- Advanced Barbarian is now a knight
Barbs are whimps in Civ3. I'd like them to be more powerful (check this thread : http://apolyton.net/forums/showthrea...threadid=45142 to see how I thought about strengthening them, purely theoretical though). With these settings, they're much more of a nuisance until you get swordsmen / pikemen. You'll wipe them out then.
(the ideas are italic, while the explanations are normal-fonted.)
Citizens :
- Taxmen are now called "merchants". They appear with currency .They now produce 2 gold each.
- Scientists appear with education. They now produce 2 bulbs each.
Specialists are too weak in Civ3 because their production is not multiplied by the improvements. I raised their production to bypass this. Still, producing 2 gold/bulbs corruption free right from the beginning of the game would be too powerful, so I toned it down.
Cilizations :
- Applied the name list which was in Marla's map. Now, there won't be a bunch of "New Berlin" or so
- Changed the Barbarians to pink. This horrible colour deserves to disappear as soon as possible
- Changed the French to white. Also renamed Joan d'Arc into Joan of Arc.
Civ advances :
- Writing now doesn't allow to trade communications.
- Radio allows communication trading. This way, the tech and map trading is slower : you don't know the whole world at 1000 BC
- Mapmaking is renamed Hullmaking. It doesn't allow map trading.
- Navigation allows map trading. This way, you'll have to explore for a longer time. Also, the AI has less things to trade for techs. It slows down the tech progress
- Education allows sea trade. Because caravels now come with education.
- Mass production doubles the (wealth) improvement. It's cumulative with the bonus of Economy. I agree with Player1 that wealth isn't powerful enough, but it should reflect the waste of early economical systems.
Combat experience :
- Conscripts have 4 HP
- Regular have 6 HP
- Veteran have 8 HP
- Elite have 10 HP
This way, a fluke during the combat has less impact on the overall battle. The outcome of a battle is much more how it should be.
Diplomacy and spying :
- Halved all costs except "establish embassy" and "plant spy". Spying was too expansive before. It's now usable, but not excessively.
Units :
Many units upgrade, because I don't like having plenty of obsolete units in my building queue. I also dislike it when the AI produces them. Now I force the AI and the player to build modern units.
- All land units (except armies) now have airlift command. I didn't understand why some units had not. Precisely, settlers, workers, explorers, scouts, all land artilleries and leaders now airlift.
- Doubled all rates of fire of all bombing units, to compensate the doubling of HP
- Paratroopers now have 8 attack and 10 defense. They have a range of 8. This way, they're a bit more useful.
- Helicopters also have a range of 8 and can carry 2 units, for the same reasons.
- Marines have 10 attack and 8 defense. They're the only sea-land attacker, and they arrive just before mechanized infantry. They should be a bit more efficient when attacking.
- Swordsmen / Immortals / Legions upgrade to knight. They're the best offensive unit of the ancient era, that's why I upgrade them to the best offensive unit of the early medieval era.
- Longbowmen upgrade to riflemen.
- Cavalry / cossacks upgrade to tank. This upgrade is pretty expansive, so it's not really unbalancing. You'd have to think before sacrificing your 3rd movement point.
- Bombers upgrade to stealth bombers.
- Jet / stealth fighters / F15 now have a range of 8
Sea units :
I don't like how sluggish the sea units are in Civ3. I understand that triremes are slow, but a modern destroyer isn't even twice as fast ! I modified deeply the movement points of sea units. It works correctly on standard / large maps. It's still not enough on huge maps though.
- Triremes now have 4 movement points. This way, you can explore even if a coastal enemy city has 3 coast tiles in its borders.
- Caravels now have 6 movement points, and only 1 defense. This way, they're more vulnerable to later sea units.
- Caravels come with education. All the age of sailing arrives sooner than before. It's the only way I found to have caracels for more time than just the gap between astronomy and navigation.
- Frigates / Man'o war / Galleons / Privateers now come with navigation. Now, the age of sailing will last longer. In the normal version, you can get ironclads just after getting these sailing boats.
- Privateers now cost 40. They have 7 movement points. This way, they're useful : pretty good to explore the ocean, and to destroy enemy exploring caravels.
- Frigate / Man'o war / Galleons now have 8 movement points.
- Frigate / Man'o war upgrade to destroyer. Man,'o war also has lethal sea bombardment. At last, the English UU is useful.
- Ironclads now have 10 movements and upgrade to battleship. Don't worry, it's pretty expansive (240 gold per boat)
- Transports / Destroyers / carriers / battleships / aegis cruisers now have 15 movement points (well, 5 but consider all sea tiles as roads).
- Submarines have 12 movement points. They upgrade to nuclear sub.
- Nuclear subs now have 15 movement points.
Improvements and wonders :
- Longevity now comes with medicine and costs 600 shields. I like the fact that the population booms at the beginnig of the industrial era (railroad + hospitals). It's pretty accurate historically. Longevity helps you to create this "demographic transition" feeling.
Governments :
Like many people, I personaly prefer representative governments over dictatorships in real life. But in Civ3, it's almost useless to be a dictator, as representative countries are too good compared to the others. So I made dictatorships more interesting, and toned down a little bit the others. I also introduced rate caps to slower the tech race, esp. at the beginning of the game.
- Anarchy and Despotism have no chance to assimilate foreign nationals
- Anarchy has a rate cap of 50%.
- Despotism has a rate cap of 70%
- Monarchy now uses the whip. It was pretty stupid that a regime unable to raise massive funds had to buy its improvements. It was a huge weakness of monarchy compared to republic.
- Monarchy has a military police of 4
- Monarchy, like Republic now has a rate cap of 80 %
- Democracy now isn't immune to propaganda
- Communism has a military police of 6
General :
- Standard Barbarian is now a swordsman
- Advanced Barbarian is now a knight
Barbs are whimps in Civ3. I'd like them to be more powerful (check this thread : http://apolyton.net/forums/showthrea...threadid=45142 to see how I thought about strengthening them, purely theoretical though). With these settings, they're much more of a nuisance until you get swordsmen / pikemen. You'll wipe them out then.
Comment