Tweet
There were problems with 1.04 that were related to the issues that Chris raised. I have gone into the files and done a lot for the next version. What I also did was run a game through 700 turns, checking on the AI every 100 turns to see how it was managing its affairs especially in regard to infrastructure. Testing confirmed that the AI was able to manage to stay in the black in all areas after my changes, so I am optimistic that this will also be the case with a human player.
I haven't run into having to disband units in any of my testing yet, but I tend to focus on science/production before food. Emphasizing food and pop growth will actually do more to stunt early science, because you end up having to pay out a ton of money in wages, leaving very little for science. So I will build Mines and Trading Posts before Farms/Nets - usually saving the bulk of my PW until I get Mines and once I get the Production and Gold infrastructure in place to support growth then I grow either through conquest or peaceful expansion.
Now that the militia code is in place, it may be better to go back to the expensive unit setup too. This will slow down how many units are in your forces. I preferred the expensive model too, but had dropped the prices as a means to get a lot of AI forces out on the map to defend against Barbs - no longer needed now.
And I will say this - Taking away the built-in advantage of being able to max out the sliders does make science slower...which was a goal of mine from the start. Even one click on the slider changes the nature of your science rate dramatically. On the flipside, my advances generally follow the cost structure of the default game - I used it as a template.
I do understand that most players like to move through the ages quickly - I tend to fall in the minority on that. I will provide a Advance.txt file in the next update, where all Advances costs are dropped by 33%, but I firmly believe that this will also make for a much easier game too. My goal was to make the human have to work - and yes, this mod probably will be more militaristic in nature, but the trick will be to figure out how to balance the books to support your armies - you will have to make sacrifices in science to maintain a high production level, which really wasn't the case in the default game.
I may have to look at making a couple of the City Improvements available sooner in the game (most likely the Forge). It's not too difficult to do so either. I did switch Trade/Currency on the tech tree, so caravans are now available earlier too.
Version 1.05 is unofficially up at my site, but I have to do the data entry for that revised Advance.txt file, which will be rebundled with version 1.05 tomorrow.
I haven't run into having to disband units in any of my testing yet, but I tend to focus on science/production before food. Emphasizing food and pop growth will actually do more to stunt early science, because you end up having to pay out a ton of money in wages, leaving very little for science. So I will build Mines and Trading Posts before Farms/Nets - usually saving the bulk of my PW until I get Mines and once I get the Production and Gold infrastructure in place to support growth then I grow either through conquest or peaceful expansion.
Now that the militia code is in place, it may be better to go back to the expensive unit setup too. This will slow down how many units are in your forces. I preferred the expensive model too, but had dropped the prices as a means to get a lot of AI forces out on the map to defend against Barbs - no longer needed now.
And I will say this - Taking away the built-in advantage of being able to max out the sliders does make science slower...which was a goal of mine from the start. Even one click on the slider changes the nature of your science rate dramatically. On the flipside, my advances generally follow the cost structure of the default game - I used it as a template.
I do understand that most players like to move through the ages quickly - I tend to fall in the minority on that. I will provide a Advance.txt file in the next update, where all Advances costs are dropped by 33%, but I firmly believe that this will also make for a much easier game too. My goal was to make the human have to work - and yes, this mod probably will be more militaristic in nature, but the trick will be to figure out how to balance the books to support your armies - you will have to make sacrifices in science to maintain a high production level, which really wasn't the case in the default game.
I may have to look at making a couple of the City Improvements available sooner in the game (most likely the Forge). It's not too difficult to do so either. I did switch Trade/Currency on the tech tree, so caravans are now available earlier too.
Version 1.05 is unofficially up at my site, but I have to do the data entry for that revised Advance.txt file, which will be rebundled with version 1.05 tomorrow.
Comment