Medieval Pack II v1.1: A Call to Arms

[Cube]

here's strategies.txt

[Bluevoss]

Cube,

Before I pull these down, can you tell me exactly what these files do? Is this strictly for AI improvements to entertainers & happyness?

Whenever I play CTP2, its right around the time of gunpowder that the AI falls on its face. They can usually limp to ironclads, but generally, they stall there. And like you, I find myself well ahead of everyone else, but well behind "history" when I use MedMod and hit the information age.

[hexagonian]

Originally posted by Bluevoss
Whenever I play CTP2, its right around the time of gunpowder that the AI falls on its face. They can usually limp to ironclads, but generally, they stall there. And like you, I find myself well ahead of everyone else, but well behind "history" when I use MedMod and hit the information age.

Bluevoss,

Try this - I believe this will make a difference. I pulled these settings from MM_Diffdb.txt from the section 'Very Hard'. I do not know if you are using that level or Impossible, but the numbers below are the settings for the AI in terms of bonuses.

# % amount to multiply advance cost by per age for ai
AI_MIN_BEHIND_TECHNOLOGY_COST 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0
AI_MAX_BEHIND_TECHNOLOGY_COST 0.4 0.4 0.4 0.4 0.4

# % amount to multiply production cost by per age for ai
AI_MIN_BEHIND_PRODUCTION_COST_ADJUSTMENT 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0
AI_MAX_BEHIND_PRODUCTION_COST_ADJUSTMENT 0.4 0.4 0.4 0.4 0.4

# multiplier for gold collected for ai
AI_MIN_BEHIND_GOLD_ADJUSTMENT 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0
AI_MAX_BEHIND_GOLD_ADJUSTMENT 1.4 1.4 1.4 1.4 1.4

# % amount to multiply advance cost by per age for ai
AI_MIN_AHEAD_TECHNOLOGY_COST 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0
AI_MAX_AHEAD_TECHNOLOGY_COST 1.1 1.1 1.1 1.1 1.1

# % amount to multiply production cost by per age for ai
AI_MIN_AHEAD_PRODUCTION_COST_ADJUSTMENT 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0
AI_MAX_AHEAD_PRODUCTION_COST_ADJUSTMENT 1.1 1.1 1.1 1.1 1.1

# multiplier for gold collected fo ai
AI_MIN_AHEAD_GOLD_ADJUSTMENT 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0
AI_MAX_AHEAD_GOLD_ADJUSTMENT 0.9 0.9 0.9 0.9 0.9

The settings reflect the following. Take the line

AI_MIN_AHEAD_TECHNOLOGY_COST 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0

as my example. This line says when the AI is slightly ahead of you, its tech costs will be normal - i.e. what you pay is what the AI will pay for tech. If you change the line to

AI_MIN_AHEAD_TECHNOLOGY_COST 0.8 0.8 0.8 0.8 0.8

this means that the AI will only have to pay 80% of the costs to get the next advance - at least this is how I think it works. Now if you apply that logic to all of the other lines in this block of copy, you can give the AI an artificial boost across the board in all areas. Bottom line, the AI should not lag behind throughout the course of the game. It may be a cheat in favor of the AI, but it is a necessary one for all civ-style games. They all have it, and I expect civ3 will have it too.

Wes's changes were very conservative I thought, not only on these numbers, but also on starting AI tech, settlers and so forth - to compare, take a look at Cradle's numbers. Once you catch the AI in those areas, then you can out-strategize it easily. If anything, I have had a difficult time catching the AI on tech in my games because of those initial settings. But I believe that making those changes will help MedMod too.

When CTP2 was released, the creators did something which in theory, should of worked but didn't, When the AI had a sizable lead, they penalized it, making the costs for the AI to research, and produce things higher than for the human. What this was supposed to do was prevent the AI from running away, but since the human player usually manages his cities better, he was able to catch up quickly and then surpass the AI. By the time the reverse penalties (when the AI was far behind) kicked in, the human was mopping up the map with technologically superior forces.

[Cube]

Hi bluevoss,

I just changed the entertainers to 0.2 percent, but I had to take this from farmers and sometimes science. I also made it so low growth cities use laborers, since they are usually small. I changed the building priorities for personalities. Science personalities now have a priority for science building just below growth, I think I made it 8000-9000, since it makes sense that a science oriented civ would want to build science buildings. I also Increased the production priority for militant civs since they need production for a large army. I changed some of the number for the goals for ecotopian civs and others. I increased the priority for corporate actions a bit for all personalities, since I saw they were building corporate branches and not using them. I increase the slaving priority for militant civs since it's more likely they would want slaves. I increased the priority for eco terror nano terror and create park for the ecotopian civs to 50 thousand each. if this upset someone in light of what happen I'm sorry, but this was done before the tragedy. How exactly are ecotopian civs supposed to get to a tech level sufficient enough to create eco terrorist and eco rangers if they are always last in tech ? I can see them getting to naturalism, but they wil most likely never get to gaia theory, or whatever's needed for the ecoranger.

The buildings.txt file contains all the changes I mentioned above.

Note: it contains the electric plant, blacksmith and skyscrapers. so you will have to restart if you don't have them. The electric plant is a prerequisite for many buildings so you have to build it in the later ages.

Is it just me or are there no dead tiles in the game. I reduced local pollution to 500 and have yet to see any dead tiles. Can any one who's finished a game tell me if they have seen dead tiles. I rememeber once in my first game unmoded I saw a city with most of it's tiles destroyed by pollution, this guy was total bastard when it came to pollution, he had like 600 or so in four or five of his cities, but now that would just barely be considered toxic. Shouldn't dead tiles start appearing sometime in 1950 or so. From what I know the conservation movement started because lots of cities were producing dead lands and dead rivers.

Hexagonia,

I'll try to do what you said to the diffdb file and see if it helps, but in order to do this I'll have to start a new game with all the changes I have made since my files are now very different since when I started my current game. in this game I think I will have less civs since now only two civs have 20+ cities, me and the orange AI. I'll download cradle soon and see what I can Add to medmod, mostly the unit upgrader. I also have Apolyton Pack(AP) and am playing to see if I can add something to medmod from AP.

[Pedrunn]

Originally posted by Cube

Well I know of no way to attach 2 files, so I'll attach buildings.txt and then post again with strategies.txt.

Cube, if i were you i would not create new descriptions to the buildings. It just give more trouble.
Or do you know if it changes something? Until now i did not find a use for that line. I just use a existent one.
Nice building by the way i already incorporate the Blacksmith and the eletric plant into my play .

[Cube]

well I'm sure it does nothing, but what if it does do something. If you want great library entries and unit icon entries go to my new buildings post, but this version(the one here) has all the buildings that would need an electric plant with the prerequisite electric plant lines and more changes I've made. the thing is that with the electric plant having it's enabling advance be electricity it gets discovered sometime around 1830-1845. I was thinking of making it electrification, but that also gives the movie theater(which requires the electric plant) and I didn't know where to put the movie theater if I change the electric plant's enabling advance to electrification.

I would also change it so the urban planner builds cities with electric plants and get rid of the courthouse since it goes obsolete with criminal code, but still gets built in planned cities after you discover it. Does anyone know if it's possible to make a code that destroys obsolete buildings when you capture a city from a player that can still build them?

Has anyone noticed that AI civs have very low production? In my current game I have 7000 to 8000 production, and the AI civs have at most 3000 production and some of them are in the Information age. I only have one agressive AI, the egyptians, but they only have 2 cities now. They also have very obsolete units ie. phalanx fyrdman and bowmen, even though they are in the modern age. I don't know why the swedish don't finish them of since they took most of their cities. Janilex(spelling) would be very happy about that even though they only had about 7 cities. I have also seen this with other civs they keep very obsolete units. I hope Hexagonia's unit updater fixes this, but if they don't have enough production their units will be disbanded.

Hexagonia,

why don't you move to a server that allows resuming of downloads, or ask geocities to let you do that. I have a 56 k modem and a very bad connection, but it's free what did I expect.

[Martin Gühmann]

Originally posted by Cube
Well I know of no way to attach 2 files, so I'll attach buildings.txt and then post again with strategies.txt.

Of course that is possible just put the files into one *.zip file and it is no problem to attech both with one post to get winzip use this link:

http://www.winzip.com/

Originally posted by Cube
why don't you move to a server that allows resuming of downloads, or ask geocities to let you do that. I have a 56 k modem and a very bad connection, but it's free what did I expect.

Actual his *.zip files aren't located on geocities but on my docs online.

-Martin

[Cube]

Martin,

I didn't think about zip until I finished posting.

Well here's a game update, current year 2070 AD.

I went to war with the persians with the persians in my last update, but I forgot to mention it. the bastards were pirating my trade routes, I askedhem to stop, they said yes after I threatened, and they did it again. So I decided to go to war with them to show them I wasn't kidding. I took two of their small cities quite easily, since they only had musketers and cannon and I had Machine gunners, self propelled guns, and tanks and I did it on alert status. Well I didn't want to take any more cities so I just tried to stop attacking them, until they asked for peace. Eventually they did so, I said yes, and lowered my status to peace.

Well here comes a really interesting part, I have been trying to get the incans(orange civ, 31 cities) to a regard high enough to offer an alliance, and they did. Then a few turns later they send a proposal that says attack the mayas to honor our military pack. I said yes thinking, I'll just say yes and not attack, and it went to war with the mayas automatically. Shouldn't it wait for me to attack before it goes to war? well They will make a good test for my battle tanks, and war walkers which I am about to discover. What happens If I say no to attacking a civ, does it break the alliance or does it just lower my regard.

A few turns after I signed the the cease fire with the persians, they pirated again, so I called in the Incans to attack them for us and they said yes, but that might have been a mistake since I think they are already at war with the persians. Oh well!

I also asked for an advance trade[super conducter(Incans), digital Encryption(me)] and they asked for gold instead(3300) and I said yes. Something wierd, I discovered robotics in 2030 or so. of course I was avoiding it because it obsolete the factory, so that might explain it. I think the reason the Incans aren't attacking themayans is they have to many cities. Should I give them Virtual Democracy? I also have an Alliance with the Indians, but don't remember if I've mentioned it. This gave is really good diplomatically. Thanks Dale. Now I should be able to have enough space to build the Gaia controller, once I have some sea cities, mayan, persian cities, and access to build obelisk in my Allies territory.

[WesW]

Hi everyone. I have been checking in periodically, but I have been spending most of my online time reading about the recent bombings.
As far as the Medmod, I have been waiting on some things to come in from people, and I believe that most all of it has now. I will be releasing a version of the Crusade! mod as a beta. The code should be stable, and it will allow players to customize it to their own tastes (you will more of what I mean when I post the files.)
Once the beta is released, I will be bowing out of the mod-making community for the time being. There have been major changes in my life in the last couple of months. The short story is that I am able to lead more of a normal life now than I ever have since I was a child. It is still tough a lot of the time, though, and my increased activities leave me worn out most days. I used to do my mod work when I did not feel like going out with friends or making my school classes or attending church activities. Now I am able to do these things regularly for the first time in my adult life, but unfortunately I do not have the energy to continue my mod work in addition to these new activities.
I think we have done about all that can be done with the game as far as innovations and major improvements to the game. I hope that people like Pedrunn and Cube continue to playtest the mod and refine its settings. I think that the list of improvements in the Crusade! beta will be a fitting way for the Medpack to go out, and I hope that players continue to enjoy it for a long time to come.

One other topic that I think everyone will be interested in:
I have been thinking about what to do with the donations that have been trickling in over the last couple of months.
Rather than trying to divide the funds among the mod developers, I have decided to donate the $165 that has been sent in so far to the relief fund for victims of the Trade Center bombings. The Medmod has always been a labor of love, and I think it fitting that the funds donated to it should be given away in that same spirit, one of love.

[Cube]

As far as the Medmod, I have been waiting on some things to come in from people, and I believe that most all of it has now. I will be releasing a version of the Crusade! mod as a beta. The code should be stable, and it will allow players to customize it to their own tastes (you will more of what I mean when I post the files.)

Nice can't wait!

There have been major changes in my life in the last couple of months. The short story is that I am able to lead more of a normal life now than I ever have since I was a child.

WOW! I wish I had a Real Life. how I envy you. I've been trying to get one since senior year in high school(1 or 2 years ago), but it's hard.

I think we have done about all that can be done with the game as far as innovations and major improvements to the game. I hope that people like Pedrunn and Cube continue to playtest the mod and refine its settings.

Sure will. You forgot about Bluevoss and others.

One other topic that I think everyone will be interested in:
I have been thinking about what to do with the donations that have been trickling in over the last couple of months.
Rather than trying to divide the funds among the mod developers, I have decided to donate the $165 that has been sent in so far to the relief fund for victims of the Trade Center bombings. The Medmod has always been a labor of love, and I think it fitting that the funds donated to it should be given away in that same spirit, one of love.

Good do that. I for one donated $200 to the Red Cross. I will probably send some money if you do donate it.

[Bluevoss]

Bluewho?

Seriously, I think what the Medmod really needs is a stronger middle game. Right now, when you hit gunpowder, the AI falls apart and cant keep pace with the player. Is there anything that can be done about this?

Maybe we need a diplomatic thing, where races that are further back exchange more tech. Specifically, if the player was in first place, the other races should be horse-trading tech to keep up. We need that to keep the game interesting.

[Cube]

Hi Bluevoss,

Have you Been reading my post? If you have you've noticed my game is really good. The Orange Civ(Incans) and Pink Civ(Indians) have been keeping up in science, even though I rarely give them advances. The Indians built Galileo's Telescope and for a while they were researching faster than I was(in the late industrial and early modern age), and the Incans just expanded really fast. Maybe some of the pathethic civs should have a higher priority for building science wonders.

I do agree with your idea though, some of the civs in my game are very pathetic science wise and if i wasn't keeping them up by giving them advances they would be even more pathetic. Try this:
open MM2_diffdb and change the science cost line from
AI_MIN_BEHIND_TECHNOLOGY_COST 0.8 0.8 0.8 0.8 0.8
AI_MAX_BEHIND_TECHNOLOGY_COST 0.3 0.3 0.4 0.4 0.4

TO

AI_MIN_BEHIND_TECHNOLOGY_COST 0.8 0.8 0.8 0.8 0.8
AI_MAX_BEHIND_TECHNOLOGY_COST 0.4 0.4 0.3 0.3 0.3

Note: This is in very hard If you're playing Imposible it won't work.

this seems to make sense since it reduces the cost for advances of the later ages and makes early advances harder to research but they don't cost much.

I just realized something else in the line

# % amount to multiply advance cost by per age for ai
AI_MIN_AHEAD_TECHNOLOGY_COST 0.9 0.9 0.9 0.9 0.9
AI_MAX_AHEAD_TECHNOLOGY_COST 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0

It's penilizing the AI since I changed the top one to 0.8

I'm going to change it to:

# % amount to multiply advance cost by per age for ai
AI_MIN_AHEAD_TECHNOLOGY_COST 0.8 0.8 0.8 0.8 0.8
AI_MAX_AHEAD_TECHNOLOGY_COST 0.8 0.8 0.8 0.8 0.8

Does changing Diffdb, require me to restart, or can I continue a game.

I can read slic now, can't write it well though. I'll open up Dale's slic file and see if I can figure it out, and hopefully I might be able to edit it succesfully. I'm about to enter the genetic age and it's 2100 AD should I change the end year to 2300, or can I win the science victory before 2200?


Edit: Just realized something on impossible you can make the min behind tech cost decrease as ages pass, just like in very hard.
change it to:

# % amount to multiply advance cost by per age for ai
AI_MIN_BEHIND_TECHNOLOGY_COST 0.8 0.7 0.6 0.5 0.5
AI_MAX_BEHIND_TECHNOLOGY_COST 0.25 0.25 0.25 0.25 0.25

That will help if you're playing Impossible, If you're playing very hard do what I said above this.

[Bluevoss]

Cube,

Thanks for the vals - I'll pop them in the file and give them a try. Hopefully, someone can tell us if we need something special to make the new values "take" in a saved game.

Been so busy recently - hope to get a little time this weekend for some tinkering.

[Rhuarc]

Question

Ok, has anyone managed to get a noCD crack for CTP2 that will work with the MedMod installed? I got one and tried it but it just tells me that I have slick errors. I have not been around for awhile, so if this question has already been answered I am sorry. THanks for any help you are able to give me!!

[WesW]

Crusade! beta

Hi everyone,
I have the beta ready to post, but I am having trouble again gaining access to the webpage. When Mark or Dan get this straightened out, I will post the beta.

There are four components to the beta:
1)New improvement pictures and the Stonehenge movie from Ctp 1.
2)Population boom trigger by Jules.
3)Pirate code from Wouter.
4)Terrain-based Elite code enhancement by Wouter.

Instructions for the Pirate and Elite code are included in the Crusade! readme.