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APOLYTON UNIVERSITY MOD 1.06
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(based on player 1's Patch Suggestion Mod)
This MOD tries to present the player with more strategic decisions by balancing the
existing elements of the game. It serves as a base for the Apolyton University curriculum,
which is a series of games aiming improve the skills of participants through discussion
of their strategy in those games.
The goals of this MOD are to:
- Present the player with more strategic decisions.
- Improve the AI.
- Change as little as possible, to preserve the unmodded Civ3 flavor.
- Reduce micromanagement.
GROUND UNITS
------------
Action: Added Wheeled ability to Tank, Panzer, Mech. Infantry, Modern Armor, Artillery,
Radar Artillery.
Reason: To give Paratroopers, Marines, and air and naval bombard support more improtance.
Comment: Also increases realism. You can still move these units on enemy roads.
Action: Reduced the cost of Musketmen and Musketeers by 10.
Reason: To make these units more cost-effective.
Comment: Two pikemen used to cost the same as one higher-tech musketman, yet they are more
effective on defense.
Action: Increased the movement of Musketeer to 2 and lowered its attack to 2 from 3.
Removed AI offense flag.
Reason: To make the AI use musketeers properly.
Comment: Still remains in the spirit of the original unit. A defensive unit that can be used
in an offensive role - supporting knights. Upgrade skips Riflemen because of
usefulness of two movement points.
Action: Increased attack strength of riflemen from 4 to 5 and reduced their cost from 80 to 70
Reason: Make these units more cost-effective and better-used by the AI.
Comment: The AI sometimes uses these units for attack, so an increase in their strength helps it.
Action: Increased attack strength of infantry from 6 to 8
Reason: Make these units better-used by the AI.
Comment: The AI sometimes uses these units for attack, so an increase in their strength helps it.
Action: Increased attack strength of marines from 8 to 10, and defense from 6 to 8.
Reason: Make this unit more valuable, and Amphibious War worth researching.
Comment: This might help the AI build these units more. They are more useful now that tanks
can't pass through jungles and mountains. This unit is as expensive as a tank, yet its
stats are still much lower.
Action: Increased attack strength of paratroopers from 6 to 8, and defense from 8 to 10.
Reason: Make this unit more valuable, and Advanced Flight worth researching.
Comment: To be consistent with the increase in infantry attack. This unit has the AI offense flag,
so it better do some damage when attacking. Provides a good mountain defender for
when Infantry upgrades to (wheeled) Mech Infantry.
Action: Removed the AI offense flag from Mech. Infantry.
Reason: To prevent the AI from attacking with these units.
Comment: Infantry built for attack (because the AI didn't have the resources to build cavalry
or tanks), is now converted to a defensive role and will never attack. This makes the
AI have to build new offensive units, which helps because Tanks are always available when
Mech Infantry is available.
Action: Added zero-range bombard ability to Archers (2), Bowmen (2), and Longbowmen (4).
Reason: To make Archers and Longbowmen worth building, even after Swordsmen and Musketmen,
respectively.
Comment: Combined Arms! Stacks of units with archers have some benefit when defending cities.
The AI aften puts an archer in its cities for couterattack anyway.
Action: Added airlift flag to Catapult, Cannon, Artillery, Radar Artillery, Explorer, Scout,
Leader.
Reason: To reduce micromanagement.
Comment: You can airlift tanks, why not atillery? Leaders can fly by plane.
Action: Increased movement of Radar Artilery by 1. Now requires oil and rubber in addition
to aluminum.
Reason: To keep up with mobile modern units, which was the major drawback of this unit.
Comment: Artillery should at least keep up with Mech. Infantry.
It's still slower than Modern Armor.
Action: Added pillage ability to Armies.
Reason: To give defensive Armies a function besides getting attacked.
Comment: All units that can go into an Army have this ability.
Action: Reduced defense of Modern Armor from 16 to 14.
Reason: To encourage combined arms.
Comment: The AI protects its offense-flagged units with defensive units anyway. MA was too good
for its cost (and still is).
Action: Added operational range of 8 to Tank, Panzer, Modern Armor and Mech. Infantry.
Reason: To discourage AI from building paratroopers instead of these units.
Comment: Since these units have no airdrop ability, will not affect gameplay, but it will
make sure the AI doesn't build paratroopers just because of their increased operational range.
Action: Reduced cost of cannon to 30 from 40.
Reason: To balance this unit compared to other ground bombard units.
Comment: Under the standard rules, catapults are always more cost-effective bombard units than cannons.
With this change, cannons are more cost-effective when bombarding a defender of strength 8 and
above. And even with this change, artilery is more cost-effective than cannon for a defender
above strength 8.
AIR UNITS
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Action: Increased ROF of Fighters and Jet Fighters to 2 from 1.
Increased bombard strength of Jet Fighters to 3 from 2.
Increased bombard strength of F-15 and Stealth Fighters to 6 from 4.
Reduced cost of Stealth Bomber to 200 from 240.
Gave all fighters lethal sea bombard (and the AI air bombard flag).
In addition, F-15 and Stealth Fighter have lethal land bombard.
Reason: To increase the importance of airpower and to balance fighters versus bombers.
Comment: Now carriers can use fighers to sink other ships, instead of always carrying bombers.
St.Fighters are a viable alternative to St.Bombers. The F-15 is a good UU (for a plane).
The following table shows the change in cost-effectiveness of each air unit in
bombarding.
===ORIGINAL===
Unit Str ROF Cost Dmg(HP) Value(%Bbr)
-------------------------------------------------------
Fighter 2 1 8 0.17 16
Bomber 8 3 10 1.33 100
Jet Ftr 2 1 10 0.17 13
F-15 4 2 10 0.57 43
St. Ftr 4 2 12 0.57 36
St. Bbr 8 3 24 1.33 42
Cruise 16 3 6 1.85 231*
===AU MOD===
Unit Str ROF Cost Dmg(HP) Value(%Bbr)
-------------------------------------------------------
Fighter 2 2 8 0.33 31
Bomber 8 3 10 1.33 100
Jet Ftr 3 2 10 0.46 35
F-15 6 2 10 0.75 56*
St. Ftr 6 2 12 0.75 47*
St. Bbr 8 3 20 1.33 50
Cruise 16 4 6 2.46 308*
Tables assume a 10-strength defender
Str = Bombard Strength
ROF = Rate of fire
Cost = shield cost / 10
Dmg = expected damage in HP
Value = Percentage of cost-effectiveness of bomber.
* = lethal land bombard
Action: Increased bombard range of Cruise Missile to 4 from 2, and its ROF from 3 to 4.
Reason: To make this unit more useful, since some air units now have lethal bombard.
Comment: The Civilopedia says Cruise Missiles have a range of hundreds of miles.
Higher ROF means it has an extra shot and a chance to kill healthy veteran units.
Action: Increased Helicopter range to 8 from 6, and transport capacity to 2 from 1.
Reason: To make this unit more useful.
Comment: The problem with helicopters was that it was difficult to land troops behind enemy lines.
Action: Increased Paratrooper operational range to 8 from 6
Reason: To make this unit more useful
Comment: For balance, the operational range of Helicopters and Paratroopers should be the same.
Action: Add the "Load" flag to Cruise Missiles.
Reason: To make the loading of this unit official and not an exploit.
Comment: Without this flag CMs can be loaded into transports directly, but not from cities.
NAVAL UNITS
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Action: Added one move to all ships except: Galley, Caravel, Galleon, Ironclad, Carrier
Reason: To make Privateers and Frigates more powerful, without unbalancing later units.
Comment: Naval movement was too low compared to late-game land and air movement.
Player now has a strategic choice between Ironclad and Frigate, since the latter is slower.
Action: Added two moves to Carrier
Reason: To reduce micromanagement of carrier protection.
Comment: Battleships and Carriers do not have a big difference in speed in real life.
Action: Reduced the cost of the Privateer to 40 from 60.
Reason: To make this unit more useful
Comment: It was not a cost-effective unit. Privateers should be cheaper than the more powerful
Frigates.
Action: Prerequisite of the Ironclad is now Industrialization instead of Steam Power.
Increased cost to 90 from 80.
Reason: To make Frigates more useful.
Comment: Frigates became obsolete too fast. England might have a half-decent UU now.
Ironclads were actually more cost-effective for bombarding than battleships.
Action: Ironclad upgrades to Battleship.
Reason: To compensate for reducing the shelf-life of this unit by making it available later.
Comment: The civilopedia says that the ironclad was "the forerunner of the modern battleship".
Action: Frigate and Privateer upgrade to Destroyer
Reason: To encourage building these units
Comment: The upgrade cost is significant.
Action: Increased attack factor of Submarines and Nuclear Subs to 10 from 8.
Reason: To make these units (and hence AEGIS) more effective.
Comment: Makes these units more dangerous on attack, but still vulnerable if attacked.
Action: Increased ROF of Battleships, and AEGIS by 1.
Reason: To increase the significance of naval power.
Comment: Battleships are now as effective for bombardment as bombers.
The following table shows the change in cost-effectiveness of each naval unit in
bombarding.
===ORIGINAL===
Unit Str ROF Cost Dmg(HP) Value(%BB)
-------------------------------------------------------
Frigate 2 2 6 0.33 125
Man-O-War 3 2 6 0.46 173
Ironclad 4 2 8 0.57 161
Destroyer 6 2 12 0.75 141
Battleship 8 2 20 0.89 100
AEGIS 4 2 16 0.57 80
===AU MOD===
Unit Str ROF Cost Dmg(HP) Value(%BB)
-------------------------------------------------------
Frigate 2 2 6 0.33 83
Man-O-War 3 2 6 0.46 115
Ironclad 4 2 9 0.57 95
Destroyer 6 2 12 0.75 94
Battleship 8 3 20 1.33 100
AEGIS 4 3 16 0.86 80
Tables assume a 10-strength defender
Value = Percentage of cost-effectiveness of battleship.
IMPROVEMENTS AND WONDERS
------------------------
Action: Great Wall now also adds city walls to all towns in the same continent.
Reason: To make this wonder worth building.
Comment: This will mainly affect the outskirts of your empire (just like the real Great
Wall), since core cities will be larger than size-6 after Construction.
Action: Increased happy faces for Cure for Cancer to 3 from 1
Reason: To make this wonder worth building.
Comment: In the late game, when most empires have access to 6-8 luxuries,
1000 shields for one happy face is just not worth it.
Action: Longevity requires Sanitation instead of Genetics. Reduced cost to 800 from 1000.
Reason: To make this wonder worth building.
Comment: By the time of Genetics, most cities are already maxed out population-wise.
Action: Military Academy no longer requires a victorious Army.
Reason: To make Armies more common, and war just for leaders less important.
Comment: The Heroic Epic still requires a victorious Army.
Action: SS Life Support needs Recycling instead of Superconductor
Reason: To force players to research more modern techs before launching
Comment: The civilopedia entry mentions the importance of recycling for this component.
Action: SS Stasis Chamber needs Genetics instead of Synthetic Fibers
Reason: To force players to research more modern techs before launching
Comment: Cryogenics need a deep understanding of biology, including Genetics.
Action: SS Docking Bay requires Robotics instead of Space Flight
Reason: To force players to research more modern techs before launching
Comment: Just say you need robotic arms to load things in the docking bay.
Only the purely military techs now aren't required for a space victory.
Action: Increased the cost of all SS components by 50%
Reason: To make Manufacturing Plants a viable option.
Comment: The AI still places a high priority on building spaceship parts.
Action: Increased the upkeep of Banks from 1 to 2
Reason: To make building this improvement less of an obvious choice.
Comment: The AI benefits from this change as it generally builds banks later than the human.
Action: Increased the upkeep of Research Labs to 3 from 2.
Increased cost of Research Labs to 240 from 200.
Reason: To make building this improvement less of an obvious choice.
Comment: The AI benefits from this change as it generally builds labs later than the human.
GOVERNMENTS
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Actions: Increased corruption for Republic from 'Nuisance' to 'Problematic'
Added 3 free unit support to Monarchy.
Increased worker speed to 3 from 2 for Communism.
Doubled free unit support per town/city/metro and added 10 free units for Communism.
Added 1 free unit per city and two free units per metropolis for Democracy.
Reason: To reduce the relative effectiveness of Republic
and the relative weakness of Communism
Comment: Non-religious civs rarely had a reason to be in any other form of
government than Republic. Communism was never worth it, even for
religious civs.
GLOBAL CHANGES
--------------
Action: Doubled value of Wealth
Reason: To make this build option sometimes worth choosing.
Comment: It's still better to build units and disbanding them in corrupt cities (instead of
using Wealth and rush-buying), but at least now Wealth is more useful than it
used to be.
Action: Doubled effect of specialists
Reason: To make encourage 20+ size cities.
Comment: This might benefit the human more than the AI for cities under max-size, and
it adds some micromanagement. On the hand, having a few large cities rather than
many small ones reduces micromanagement, and presents the player with another
decision.
Action: Reduced cost of Propaganda by 50%
Reason: To make this option worth pursuing.
Comment: Playtesting by player 1 has indicated that this reduction in cost is not too much.
AESTHETIC CHANGES
-----------------
Action: Added more (and accurate) city names
Reason: "London 2" just doesn't seem right.
Comment: Thanks to Sevorak and his mod for the compilation.
CHANGES TO AI BUILD-OFTEN LIST
------------------------------
Action: Changed AI build-often list as shown below
Reason: To bring AI build order closer to what expert human players have found optimal
Comment: Added production to all civs to encourage factories. Each civ has at least one
marketplace category (trade, happiness, wealth) to encourage building this important
building. Encouraging AI to take advantage of their cheap buildings: Scientific
have Science flagged, Religious have happiness, Militaristic have trade and units.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Civilization Off Def Arty Setl Work Nav Air Grth Prod Hap Sci Wlth Trad Expl Cult
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rome (4) X - - X + +
Egypt (3) X X + + -
Greece (3) - + X X X
Babylon (4) + + X X
Germany (5) X + X + -
Russia (4) - X + X +
China (2) + - X - + +
America (3) X X X + -
Japan (4) X - + X +
France (1) + X X X
India (1) - + + X X -
Persia (4) X + + X -
Aztecs (4) X + X +
Zulu (5) X + + +
Iroquois (3) + X + X -
England (3) X + - X X
X = original
- = removed
+ = added
Action: Added "Emphasize Production" to advisor settings for all AI civilizations.
Reason: To bring AI irrigation, mining, and worked tiles closer to what expert human
players have found optimal.
Comment: The AI used to irrigate too much and had to compensate by assigning many entertainers.
The result was often large but unproductive cities.
VERSION HISTORY
[I][deleted 1.01 to 1.05][/I]
1.06:
Added operational range of 8 to Tank, Panzer, Modern Armor and Mech. Infantry.
Added the "Load" flag to Cruise Missiles.
Reduced cost of cannon to 30.
Restored steal tech cost to original value.
Moved Longevity to Sanitation.
Removed the Swordsman-Longbowman upgrade path and restored Longbowman stats to original.
Gave Communism 10 free units plus double free unit support per city instead of free building maintenance.
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It means you get four times as much gold when you set your cities to "Wealth". I hope this can get rid of the tedious task of setting core cities to produce units, that you immediately disband in corrupt cities. If we quadruple wealth, then it is exactly the same to set the core cities to "Wealth" and rush the improvement in the corrupt cities using the extra cash. Otherwise disbanding units gives four times as many shields for each shield in the core city. Do you think this is unbalancing? I would love to give it a try. I increased the tech costs, for good measure, in case we end up with too much cash by setting all our empire to "Wealth".
)
I've tried it before, it works quite well and there isn't anything the AI can do wrong with it. Just the opposite: Finally the escorting-archers-with-spearman-thing will pay off.
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