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I developed a small add-on mod that corrects some play imbalances I found in the game. In reading some of the threads in the forums here, many other people have noticed these too. Ex.: The first of the game has the worst combat; use all ocean tiles before grassland tiles; slavers being a dominant unit in the game. Below is a copy of the readme file for the mod. I may try to add some files for the new improvement before posting it for download.
Please reply with your feelings about the changes, and any additional tweaks you would recommend. The files are all txt files, so it's something that could be tried easily, and then discarded if you didn't like it (I believe this will be especially easy with the 2nd patch).
Units: I made many changes to the Ancient and Renaissance units, in order to break up the Ancient age into an Ancient and a Medieval age. I wanted each age to have a defensive and an offensive infantry, a ranged unit and a mounted unit. I also made a few changes to the advancement table to try and separate the two eras. Most notably, pikemen appear much earlier, while the Renaissance units appear somewhat later. In the original version, musketeers appeared immediately after pikemen, which made them not worth building. I tried to give the units values which would make it an even battle between an offensive unit and a fortified defensive unit on open ground.
Unit/Age Cost A R D HP FP Mov Vis Available Obsolete
Warrior 135 1 0 1 10 2 1 2 Toolmaking Classical Ed
Mounted Archer 200 1 1 1 10 2 3 2 Domestication Cavalry
Ancient Age
Phalanx (Hoplite) 160 1 0 2 10 2 1 1 Bronze Working Philosophy
Legion 240 2 0 2 15 2 1 1 Iron Working Classical Ed
Archer (Gr. Fire) 240 1 2 1 10 2 1 1 Stone Working Gunpowder
Lancer (Horse Ar) 240 2 0 1 15 2 3 1 Domestication Stirrup
Medieval Age
Pikeman 320 2 0 2 20 2 1 1 Philosophy Gunpowder
Samurai 400 3 0 1 20 2 2 1 Classical Ed Gunpowder
Siege Engine 480 0 4 0 10 3 1 1 Engineering Cannon Making
Knight 480 3 0 2 20 2 3 1 Stirrup Cavalry
Renaissance Age
Musketeer 560 4 4 4 15 3 1 1 Gunpowder
Cannon 720 3 8 2 10 3 1 1 Cannon Making
Cavalry 720 5 0 4 15 3 3 2 Cavalry
TERRAIN: Originally, ocean types were generally better than land types in
overall value, which didn't seem right to me. Therefore, I have strenghtened some of the land types, and weakened some of the ocean ones.
Also, all ocean types give 10 gold, as do rivers. However, rivers only add 5 food OR 5 production, not both. Finally, forest and jungle tiles can be mined (representing tree plantations), with the same costs and benefits as on the plains tiles.
Terrain Food Prod Gold River
Grassland 15 5 0 5f
Plain 10 10 0 5f
Green Hill 5 15 5 5p
Br/Wh Hill 0 15 5 5p
Mountain 0 20 5 5p
Forest 5 20 0 5p
Jungle 10 15 0 5p
Swamp 5 5 0 5f
Desert 0 10 0 5p
Tundra 0 5 0 5p
Glacier 0 0 0 5p
Beach 10 0
Shallow Water 10 5
Cont. Shelf 10 10
Deep Water 5 10
Trench 5 15
Rift 5 25
Volcano 5 45
Rivers and ocean squares add 10 gold, instead of five.
Governments: Democracy pays 4 in wages, not 5.
Republic can use 1 unit for martial law, at an effect of 1.
Advances: Engineering also requires Alchemy
Stirrup requires Classical Ed instead of Iron Working
Gunpowder requires Optics instead of Agricultural Rev.
Philosophy and Engineering costs 50% more to discover, and Gunpowder about
15% more. Banking and Classical Ed have been brought back to standard costs.
I created a new improvement, the stockade, which is a primitive form of city walls. It adds 1 defense, prevents slavery, costs 200 production and 1 upkeep, and is available with stoneworking. City walls now adds 3 defense, still protects against slavery and conversion, costs 600 production and 5 upkeep, and is available with engineering.
By dividing up the city walls improvement this way, it makes it easier to protect against slavers when a city is small, while preventing the full city walls benefit until the siege engine becomes available. This way, you won't be assaulting walled, fortified phalanxes with legions, and only archers to soften them up beforehand. The 2 improvements combined cost twice as much as the original walls did, but are still worth building.
Files included in mod:
Units.txt, Terrain.txt, Government.txt, Advances.txt, Improvement.txt, gl_str
Please reply with your feelings about the changes, and any additional tweaks you would recommend. The files are all txt files, so it's something that could be tried easily, and then discarded if you didn't like it (I believe this will be especially easy with the 2nd patch).
Units: I made many changes to the Ancient and Renaissance units, in order to break up the Ancient age into an Ancient and a Medieval age. I wanted each age to have a defensive and an offensive infantry, a ranged unit and a mounted unit. I also made a few changes to the advancement table to try and separate the two eras. Most notably, pikemen appear much earlier, while the Renaissance units appear somewhat later. In the original version, musketeers appeared immediately after pikemen, which made them not worth building. I tried to give the units values which would make it an even battle between an offensive unit and a fortified defensive unit on open ground.
Unit/Age Cost A R D HP FP Mov Vis Available Obsolete
Warrior 135 1 0 1 10 2 1 2 Toolmaking Classical Ed
Mounted Archer 200 1 1 1 10 2 3 2 Domestication Cavalry
Ancient Age
Phalanx (Hoplite) 160 1 0 2 10 2 1 1 Bronze Working Philosophy
Legion 240 2 0 2 15 2 1 1 Iron Working Classical Ed
Archer (Gr. Fire) 240 1 2 1 10 2 1 1 Stone Working Gunpowder
Lancer (Horse Ar) 240 2 0 1 15 2 3 1 Domestication Stirrup
Medieval Age
Pikeman 320 2 0 2 20 2 1 1 Philosophy Gunpowder
Samurai 400 3 0 1 20 2 2 1 Classical Ed Gunpowder
Siege Engine 480 0 4 0 10 3 1 1 Engineering Cannon Making
Knight 480 3 0 2 20 2 3 1 Stirrup Cavalry
Renaissance Age
Musketeer 560 4 4 4 15 3 1 1 Gunpowder
Cannon 720 3 8 2 10 3 1 1 Cannon Making
Cavalry 720 5 0 4 15 3 3 2 Cavalry
TERRAIN: Originally, ocean types were generally better than land types in
overall value, which didn't seem right to me. Therefore, I have strenghtened some of the land types, and weakened some of the ocean ones.
Also, all ocean types give 10 gold, as do rivers. However, rivers only add 5 food OR 5 production, not both. Finally, forest and jungle tiles can be mined (representing tree plantations), with the same costs and benefits as on the plains tiles.
Terrain Food Prod Gold River
Grassland 15 5 0 5f
Plain 10 10 0 5f
Green Hill 5 15 5 5p
Br/Wh Hill 0 15 5 5p
Mountain 0 20 5 5p
Forest 5 20 0 5p
Jungle 10 15 0 5p
Swamp 5 5 0 5f
Desert 0 10 0 5p
Tundra 0 5 0 5p
Glacier 0 0 0 5p
Beach 10 0
Shallow Water 10 5
Cont. Shelf 10 10
Deep Water 5 10
Trench 5 15
Rift 5 25
Volcano 5 45
Rivers and ocean squares add 10 gold, instead of five.
Governments: Democracy pays 4 in wages, not 5.
Republic can use 1 unit for martial law, at an effect of 1.
Advances: Engineering also requires Alchemy
Stirrup requires Classical Ed instead of Iron Working
Gunpowder requires Optics instead of Agricultural Rev.
Philosophy and Engineering costs 50% more to discover, and Gunpowder about
15% more. Banking and Classical Ed have been brought back to standard costs.
I created a new improvement, the stockade, which is a primitive form of city walls. It adds 1 defense, prevents slavery, costs 200 production and 1 upkeep, and is available with stoneworking. City walls now adds 3 defense, still protects against slavery and conversion, costs 600 production and 5 upkeep, and is available with engineering.
By dividing up the city walls improvement this way, it makes it easier to protect against slavers when a city is small, while preventing the full city walls benefit until the siege engine becomes available. This way, you won't be assaulting walled, fortified phalanxes with legions, and only archers to soften them up beforehand. The 2 improvements combined cost twice as much as the original walls did, but are still worth building.
Files included in mod:
Units.txt, Terrain.txt, Government.txt, Advances.txt, Improvement.txt, gl_str
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