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I really enjoyed hammering out ideas for the Mod-With-No-Name, back when we did that. That was cool. That was very cool, actually. 
But what I had in my head this time was a bit different, and a bit simpler, I think.
Some (and it wouldn't take many) tweaks to the bic file that would make the game more grand in terms of strategy, and fix a few lingering annoyances.
Here's my mod list and the reasons I'm thinking of making the change.
1) Make techs cost what they cost! (actually, you can't, exactly...but you can make the upper time limit 100 Turns, and the lower time limit 1 turn for discovery of new techs).
Reasoning: This shouldn't hurt the AI much at all, given their bonuses, but I've never liked the artificial feel of those arbitrary constraints. One thing it will do for the HUMAN player, however, is really make you think about growth. After all, if you grow and build that library, you could REALLY cut down on the time needed to discover Warrior Code.....Granaries more useful by far. Pottery might actually become a sought after tech! (inadventantly, this strengthens Expansionist, which IMO is a good thing on most map settings).
Also, it'll extend the ancient and middle age period (before you get your libraries and universities built). And in my mind, that's where the heart and soul of the game is.
2) Age-Specific bonus hp's. The editor allows this...every age beyond the first, each unit of that age gets +1 hp per age (such that a regular knight would have as many hp's as a veteran sword....a regular rifleman would have as many hp's as a veteran knight, etc). This hp bonus is reflective of the inherent superiority of later-aged units. one hp per age might not seem like much, but what it means is that your elite MA's have 8 hp's...OUCH!
Reasoning: This should help even out the combat results. I really HAVE seen tanks killed by spearmen. Not often, mind you...but more often that statistics tell me is reasonable.
3) Musket Man changed to a cost of 5
Reasoning: He's too expensive and never gets built.
4) Increase ship movement by +1 point per age over what the movement currently is.
5) Default Barbs: Sorry, but even at raging, the barbs are annoying and little more. I'd LOVE to be able to mod the game so that they could capture cities, but since we can't, I changed the default units: Swordsman, Knight, Caravel. Barbs are now LETHAL, and worthy of the terror they ought to inspire. Simply put, if you're faced with a barbarian uprising in Ancient times...don't even bother trying to defend your towns.
6) Explorer: Available at map making. How silly to not make an exploration unit available till the game's half over with, at a point in the game when there's absolutely nothing to explore. Yeah, it bites into Expansionist's spiffy ability, but not really. By then all the goody huts are gone. At navigation, make another Explorer type unit available...this one costing two pop points. Same abilities as the regular explorer, plus acts as a worker, plus can make new towns.
7) Bombards: All troops with ranged weapons should get them (range 0). Will extend the shelf life of Archers a little.
8) Was giving some serious thought to making all troops cost points of pop to build (and of course, make it such that old troops could be added back into the city). That'd make granaries exponentially more important, and would add in a real guns and butter factor into the mix....how bad do I REALLY need another attacker??
9) Elevated the defensive bonuses for various things (25% for town bonus, for example) - Since all current best practices point to early war, I thought I'd make early war a bit more daunting.
10) Was seriously considering giving all units ZOC ability. I agree the old ZOC system was broken, but c'mon...the total lack of ZOC is downright silly, and all military units can exert at least some control over their area....that's kinna the point!
11) Give Commercial Civs Pottery as their starting tech also...this offsets the fact that the Commercial Civ has a weak (in its current implementation) special abililty, and justifies why Pottery is such a cheapo tech, given the new importance of Granaries.
Was gonna make these modifications and see how it played out, and wanted to see if anybody else might be interested in the modified bic file.
-=Vel=-
But what I had in my head this time was a bit different, and a bit simpler, I think.
Some (and it wouldn't take many) tweaks to the bic file that would make the game more grand in terms of strategy, and fix a few lingering annoyances.
Here's my mod list and the reasons I'm thinking of making the change.
1) Make techs cost what they cost! (actually, you can't, exactly...but you can make the upper time limit 100 Turns, and the lower time limit 1 turn for discovery of new techs).
Reasoning: This shouldn't hurt the AI much at all, given their bonuses, but I've never liked the artificial feel of those arbitrary constraints. One thing it will do for the HUMAN player, however, is really make you think about growth. After all, if you grow and build that library, you could REALLY cut down on the time needed to discover Warrior Code.....Granaries more useful by far. Pottery might actually become a sought after tech! (inadventantly, this strengthens Expansionist, which IMO is a good thing on most map settings).
Also, it'll extend the ancient and middle age period (before you get your libraries and universities built). And in my mind, that's where the heart and soul of the game is.
2) Age-Specific bonus hp's. The editor allows this...every age beyond the first, each unit of that age gets +1 hp per age (such that a regular knight would have as many hp's as a veteran sword....a regular rifleman would have as many hp's as a veteran knight, etc). This hp bonus is reflective of the inherent superiority of later-aged units. one hp per age might not seem like much, but what it means is that your elite MA's have 8 hp's...OUCH!
Reasoning: This should help even out the combat results. I really HAVE seen tanks killed by spearmen. Not often, mind you...but more often that statistics tell me is reasonable.
3) Musket Man changed to a cost of 5
Reasoning: He's too expensive and never gets built.
4) Increase ship movement by +1 point per age over what the movement currently is.
5) Default Barbs: Sorry, but even at raging, the barbs are annoying and little more. I'd LOVE to be able to mod the game so that they could capture cities, but since we can't, I changed the default units: Swordsman, Knight, Caravel. Barbs are now LETHAL, and worthy of the terror they ought to inspire. Simply put, if you're faced with a barbarian uprising in Ancient times...don't even bother trying to defend your towns.
6) Explorer: Available at map making. How silly to not make an exploration unit available till the game's half over with, at a point in the game when there's absolutely nothing to explore. Yeah, it bites into Expansionist's spiffy ability, but not really. By then all the goody huts are gone. At navigation, make another Explorer type unit available...this one costing two pop points. Same abilities as the regular explorer, plus acts as a worker, plus can make new towns.
7) Bombards: All troops with ranged weapons should get them (range 0). Will extend the shelf life of Archers a little.
8) Was giving some serious thought to making all troops cost points of pop to build (and of course, make it such that old troops could be added back into the city). That'd make granaries exponentially more important, and would add in a real guns and butter factor into the mix....how bad do I REALLY need another attacker??
9) Elevated the defensive bonuses for various things (25% for town bonus, for example) - Since all current best practices point to early war, I thought I'd make early war a bit more daunting.
10) Was seriously considering giving all units ZOC ability. I agree the old ZOC system was broken, but c'mon...the total lack of ZOC is downright silly, and all military units can exert at least some control over their area....that's kinna the point!
11) Give Commercial Civs Pottery as their starting tech also...this offsets the fact that the Commercial Civ has a weak (in its current implementation) special abililty, and justifies why Pottery is such a cheapo tech, given the new importance of Granaries.
Was gonna make these modifications and see how it played out, and wanted to see if anybody else might be interested in the modified bic file.
-=Vel=-
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