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Some friends and I are trying to make a patch/scenario of the game that makes a huge balance/content overhaul of the game. I wanted to get some feedback from the community about the list of changes we're looking at, and what seems to be the worst offenders in terms of balance in the game.
Bug fixes
- Write some SLIC script to fix the farm under city/mine under city bug.
- Took away AC's attack and ranged attack in hopes of putting it in rank 3.
Balance Changes
Governments
Theocracy- The prerequisite was changed from religion to perspective. The science cost of the advance was changed to match perspective's cost. The thought here is that theocracy is just too good. If you take a cursory look at the government explanation work/analysis done by Celestial Dawn you'll see that Theocracy is strictly better than Monarchy (and each require the same advance!) Theocracy is almost strictly better than Republic.
Democracy- The Democracy Gold Coefficient increased from 1.25 to 1.4. The workday expectation was increased from 8 to 10 hours.
Democracy is supposed to be a strong science government but its terrible sliders just push wages and rations so high that theocracy is just stronger in science
Technocracy- Added a martial law happiness bonus of 0.5 for the first 4 units.
This is a fluff thing. I mean Technocracy not having a martial law bonus just seems ridiculous. Especially if theocracy gets it. (How weird is that).
Units
All unit upkeep costs were increased where production costs were increased (to keep upkeep 3% of production)
Longship - The production cost was dropped from 720 to 700.
The Ship of the Line is out of line in terms of how good it is. Maybe making the longship cheaper will keep the first person with machine tools in an island game from just running away with the game.
Ship of the Line- The production cost of the SOL was increased from 855 to 900.
Beating someone to machine tools can be crushing, turning a small advantage into a huge one. This small increase means that the civ slightly ahead loses perhaps a turn. This gives the behind civ another turn to catch up. This may be a really good place to add another unit. Change the current ship of the line to a 3 assault/3 ranged/3 defense/4 move unit and add an ironclad with its stats of 5 assault/5 ranged/5 defense/3 move, or perhaps remove its ability to transport so many units and instead add another transport ship.
Nuke - Increased nuke cost from 4,000 to 4,500.
Everyone seems to ban it because it is so unbalancing. It may be fundamentally unfixable as it can destroy far more production than its worth, its practically its purpose. Perhaps the solution of the other civ games: requiring a wonder before it can be produced is good.
Mobile SAM - Decreased Mobile SAM cost from 2000 to 1500.
At least in my games this unit has always been underused, when it could be such a good counter for the nuke. The purpose of this cost decrease isn't just because it is so quickly replaced by the war walker but because the nuke is too good. The availability of a cheap strong counter might bring the nuke into balance
Space Plane - Increased production cost to 2500 from 2250.
Another integral unit getting a nerf. Getting a bunch of these quickly is a game ender. Units that break basic game rules (in this case movement) were in general undercosted by the game developers (example: nuke-negates combat, wonders-almost all of them).
Park Ranger - Increased production cost from 3,750 to 5,000.
At the point in the game where this is buildable high production cities are able to crank these out alarmingly quickly. 100,000 to make the opposing civilization entirely unplayable is just too cheap.
Plasmatica - Dropped the cost to 4000 from 4500. Increased the attack and defense of the unit from 15 to 16.
This unit is a joke. Compared to the space marine which is 24 attack and 20 defense. The production cost is identical to the plasmatica, it has the benefit of being able to attack off of a transport (now that space planes are available this is super awesome). The only concievable advantage that the plasmatica has is that it has 6 movement. But, if you want 6 movement, build a tank for half price. Frankly this unit needs more of a boost than we're thinking about giving it. Is it possible to make it so that the plasmatica gives double martial law bonus? (The fluff on the plasmatica makes it sound as though this would make sense). (How are tanks supposed to enforce law as well as infantry anyway)...(I'd do whatever that lady told me).
Pikeman - This unit doesn't feel like it has room to breathe as agricultural revolution comes maybe 4 turns before musketeers come rolling out from gunpowder. Then there's a massive wait before machine gunners. This is more of a fluff issue as the unit does get used meleeing for cannons and muskets, but that's just so terribly historically inaccurate.
Wonders
Wonders in general need a large increase on their production costs to balance them against other uses for production. The Labyrynth (on high good maps), London exchange and Edison's lab are the worst offenders. Maybe a good idea would be to have all wonders simply have a significant maintainance cost in production or gold if this is possible, though the london exchange may just have to be reworked or removed.
If anyone has any suggestions or criticism, I'd really love the opportunity to hash some of this out.
Bug fixes
- Write some SLIC script to fix the farm under city/mine under city bug.
- Took away AC's attack and ranged attack in hopes of putting it in rank 3.
Balance Changes
Governments
Theocracy- The prerequisite was changed from religion to perspective. The science cost of the advance was changed to match perspective's cost. The thought here is that theocracy is just too good. If you take a cursory look at the government explanation work/analysis done by Celestial Dawn you'll see that Theocracy is strictly better than Monarchy (and each require the same advance!) Theocracy is almost strictly better than Republic.
Democracy- The Democracy Gold Coefficient increased from 1.25 to 1.4. The workday expectation was increased from 8 to 10 hours.
Democracy is supposed to be a strong science government but its terrible sliders just push wages and rations so high that theocracy is just stronger in science
Technocracy- Added a martial law happiness bonus of 0.5 for the first 4 units.
This is a fluff thing. I mean Technocracy not having a martial law bonus just seems ridiculous. Especially if theocracy gets it. (How weird is that).
Units
All unit upkeep costs were increased where production costs were increased (to keep upkeep 3% of production)
Longship - The production cost was dropped from 720 to 700.
The Ship of the Line is out of line in terms of how good it is. Maybe making the longship cheaper will keep the first person with machine tools in an island game from just running away with the game.
Ship of the Line- The production cost of the SOL was increased from 855 to 900.
Beating someone to machine tools can be crushing, turning a small advantage into a huge one. This small increase means that the civ slightly ahead loses perhaps a turn. This gives the behind civ another turn to catch up. This may be a really good place to add another unit. Change the current ship of the line to a 3 assault/3 ranged/3 defense/4 move unit and add an ironclad with its stats of 5 assault/5 ranged/5 defense/3 move, or perhaps remove its ability to transport so many units and instead add another transport ship.
Nuke - Increased nuke cost from 4,000 to 4,500.
Everyone seems to ban it because it is so unbalancing. It may be fundamentally unfixable as it can destroy far more production than its worth, its practically its purpose. Perhaps the solution of the other civ games: requiring a wonder before it can be produced is good.
Mobile SAM - Decreased Mobile SAM cost from 2000 to 1500.
At least in my games this unit has always been underused, when it could be such a good counter for the nuke. The purpose of this cost decrease isn't just because it is so quickly replaced by the war walker but because the nuke is too good. The availability of a cheap strong counter might bring the nuke into balance
Space Plane - Increased production cost to 2500 from 2250.
Another integral unit getting a nerf. Getting a bunch of these quickly is a game ender. Units that break basic game rules (in this case movement) were in general undercosted by the game developers (example: nuke-negates combat, wonders-almost all of them).
Park Ranger - Increased production cost from 3,750 to 5,000.
At the point in the game where this is buildable high production cities are able to crank these out alarmingly quickly. 100,000 to make the opposing civilization entirely unplayable is just too cheap.
Plasmatica - Dropped the cost to 4000 from 4500. Increased the attack and defense of the unit from 15 to 16.
This unit is a joke. Compared to the space marine which is 24 attack and 20 defense. The production cost is identical to the plasmatica, it has the benefit of being able to attack off of a transport (now that space planes are available this is super awesome). The only concievable advantage that the plasmatica has is that it has 6 movement. But, if you want 6 movement, build a tank for half price. Frankly this unit needs more of a boost than we're thinking about giving it. Is it possible to make it so that the plasmatica gives double martial law bonus? (The fluff on the plasmatica makes it sound as though this would make sense). (How are tanks supposed to enforce law as well as infantry anyway)...(I'd do whatever that lady told me).
Pikeman - This unit doesn't feel like it has room to breathe as agricultural revolution comes maybe 4 turns before musketeers come rolling out from gunpowder. Then there's a massive wait before machine gunners. This is more of a fluff issue as the unit does get used meleeing for cannons and muskets, but that's just so terribly historically inaccurate.
Wonders
Wonders in general need a large increase on their production costs to balance them against other uses for production. The Labyrynth (on high good maps), London exchange and Edison's lab are the worst offenders. Maybe a good idea would be to have all wonders simply have a significant maintainance cost in production or gold if this is possible, though the london exchange may just have to be reworked or removed.
If anyone has any suggestions or criticism, I'd really love the opportunity to hash some of this out.
). If they attacked they died to the back row cannons(20-40 ranged combat rolls and only 5 need to hit to get a kill). If they park the unit in range of mine, 40-90 bombard rolls and only 5 need to hit to get a kill.
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