Changes in rules.txt

[rah]

I don't think playing that way would save much time. I check for demand while others are moving. It's the moving of the caravans that takes the time.

[SlowThinker]

Hm, in a duel I have enough work without caravans.
And it is always very time consuming to track years when demand changes (and so ACN of cities).

[rah]

That's generally true for a lot of things in MP. You don't have the time so you have to go by experience and general feel. If you start doing a lot of those thing during your turn, people will stop playing with you.

In a way, it makes MP more enjoyable because you don't have a lot of time to do all the GAME SCIENCE that you guys have raised to a new level. It's making quick decisions against a worthy opponent.

[Ming]

Yep... MP is different than SP in that regards. When playing SP, you can take all the time you want, because the AI isn't going to complain and lose interest. Totally different when other people are waiting to do their thing.

[War4ever]

yeah its speed chess..if your good enough the lack of time won't kill your game

[Ming]

Well, some people like to play MP like they do SP... and those are the people that have a hard time finding a game

[War4ever]

no no you got it wrong....the find one game.....its the next game they have a hard time finding

[rah]

Yep. But I can remember a few people that it took us more than one game before we gave up on them.

[Ming]

True... and you can tell when "the call" is made... as king chat becomes the tool. When people start sending the "zzzzzzz" message on a regular basis during somebodies turn

[SlowThinker]

This is why I think it is good to simplify the game and why I suggested to simplify caravans.
Also I consider useful to set the scenario flag ON (this flag allows every tech with prereqs to be available for research).

[StrategicKingMi]

How about this,
1) make all regular grasslands,plains, forests and water 1 x production
2) make all special resources 3 x production to increase there value
3) create a special "General "unit for each player that the indvidual creates themselves. For instance give 20 points(in 2 by 2) to be distributed amoung AF-DF-MOVE-FP-HP with a max number of 6 per catagory. Once this unit dies, it can never be rebuilt.
4) reduce all city improvements cost by half
5) Create a ballon scout unit with 0 attack factors and sees 2 spaces.

[Hydey]

You may like a game with those changes strat but I am happy with civ the way it is.

[rah]

Out of all of that, the only thing that caught my interest was the balloon unit. It would be great for early exploration.

[SlowThinker]

Originally posted by StrategicKingMi
1) make all regular grasslands,plains, forests and water 1 x production
2) make all special resources 3 x production to increase there value

I agree with the idea there should be strategic points of a very high value whose capturing would be worth of losing many many units. (Choke points are such strategic points too, but points that have a large economic value would bring something different).
But there is many specials on the map, and so there would be too many strategic points - they would lose their value. Also I dislike the fact that seed of specials is known.
So my idea is to 'clear' specials completely - to give most of them normal stats. Then to take some 'unimportant' terrains (for example swamps and jungle have equal stats - one of them may be taken off) and give them new names and 'super stats'. Then to write a program that will adjust a map generated by Civ2 so that there is only few 'super terrains' on the map.
But there is a problem that a player that will start near a 'super square' has a big advantage. Solution: the super terrain has to be mined or irrigated (for a long period - for example 30 turns) to get those super stats.

4) reduce all city improvements cost by half

I disagree. Improvement cost should be balanced so that their construction is good under some circumstances and not so good or bad under another circumstances. In other words so that there are not clear strategies, clear decisions. (For example it is clear to never build granary, it is clear to found new cities as fast as possible. And this is bad IMHO.)
So granaries should be cheaper, barracks should be more expensive etc.

5) Create a ballon scout unit with 0 attack factors and sees 2 spaces.

Some 'sees 2' unit would be good. But stats must be set carrefuly so that secret operations and raids remain possible.
Flying unit could decrease importance of triremes - so they should be expensive or available only later in the game.

[rah]

If an early flying unit couldn't carry anything or open huts, tiremes would still be important.