Which mod should I use?

[Son of moose]

I have at long last just received my copy of CTP2.

Now there is an extremely important question that I need to ask my fellow forum members:

Which mod (if any) should I use in order to play the following type of (variant) scenario in CTP2 featuring:

# An extremely large (mega) map --- well over 1000x1000 tiles in size (possibly somewhat bigger than the proposed World Map)
# A major element of city building and infra-structural (PW) development with no limit to the number of cities that one can build as well as minimal corruption and (preferably) zero (or minimal) maintenance (i.e. a strong CITY BUILDING element)
# A secondary element of expansionist warfare following a prolonged and major military build-up consequent to a strong economy (see above item). In other words, this would be a true EMPIRE BUILDING GAME conducted over an considerable amount of time.

In other words, this would be a scenario with NO LIMITS (or as close as one can get to it with the basic game and/or the available mods). Perhaps someone might be suitably inspired to assist me with this highly expansive vision by modding the ini. (or whatever) files in order to achieve the abovementioned criteria.

I am extremely interested in Stan Karp’s excellent AOM mod --- but I am somewhat worried that the “murderous” ai might neutralize this vision. In many respects, the somewhat “idiotic” and “suicidal” ai (I have seen both words used on this forum) appearing in the original version of the game might be more compatible with such an expansionist approach.

As I might have stated somewhere else on this forum, I am a CB (City Builder) fan and have long desired to play a CB game with a fair amount of added military strategy. Having played an extremely long Civ3 scenario (Caesar of the Romans versus Gandhi of the Indians) by adopting an expansive city building (spawning) strategy (which does not seem to represent the optimal way of playing Civ3 --- as the game has disintegrated into a massive stalemate), I have come to realize that the Civ series (and especially CTP2 with its capacity for true megamaps) can possibly serve as a combined TBS-CB game.

All it needs is a bit of imagination from experts of the game (CTP2 in this case) who are familiar with the ini. (or whatever) files that need to be altered to accommodate this type of gameplay.

IS THERE ANYONE OUT THERE WHO IS PREPARED TO ASSIST ME?

[Maquiladora]

What youre talking about seems a little vague.

AoM has the best AI, builder or warring AI IMO. You could tone down the aggression, and try to stop them wandering over 1000 tiles just to attack you, but without knowing exactly what it is you want to do its hard to know what to say.

If youre looking for assistance you just found it (this forum), but its best if you yourself have a clearer vision of what it is you want to do first.

[Son of moose]

Maquiladora:

Thank you for your reply.

Yes .... perhaps I was being overly vague in my request. In a way, there was some "method in my madness" as I was hoping that some of my fellow forum members might have been interested in further discussing some of the ideas that I raised in the initial post.

However, I will try to be more specific in my request:

# Hexagonian has already explained to me how to increase mapsize .... so this issue has been adressed.

# Hexagonian mentioned that I should adjust the (?) pollution setting to correspond to the reality of playing on a megamap. For my proposed CB-type CTP2 scenario, I am thinking that either zero (or minimum) pollution would be best. What needs to be done to achieve this?

# Is there an entry for the maximum number of cities (or is this hardcoded )? How can this be dramatically increased?

# Is there the concept of corruption (like in Civ3) and can this be correspondingly reduced to mirror a massive number of cities?

# Is there an entry for the maximum number of units (especially military units) and can this be correspondingly reduced to mirror a massive number of cities?

# Can maintainance be substantially reduced or made zero? (I have just restarted my builder Civ 3 scenario by entering zero maintainance for all buildings so that I can now build a series of decent cities rather than a series of cities in revolt ).

# As you suggest above, can the AOM (as it is most definitely the best CTP2 mod available) ai be correspondingly downgraded. I would preferably wish to remain at peace (or most certainly not in a state of near-continuous war) with my opponent(s) at least until I have managed to build up a fairly strong and viable empire that should be able to fairly easily repel enemy attacks without sustaining too much damage. [In my recent Civ3 scenario, Gandhi of the Indians has taken a great delight in systematically destroying a significant amount of my carefully laid out tile improvements. I freely admit that some collateral damage is appropriate and unavoidable in what is essentially a war game but the amount of damage is very disconcerting!!! I think that I now need to defeat him via the Space Race ]. Please don't misunderstand me in this regard as I certainly want a good and fair fight once I have encroached upon my enemies teritory. After all, a titanic battle (or, better still, a series of epic battles) would seem to be appropriate to this particular type of scenario.

# Are there any other changes (that I have not even thought about) that can be made to better accommodate my somewhat unusual vision for a City Builder CTP2 scenario.

Hopefully this reply is not too vague but I am looking for ideas and advice.

[Maquiladora]

Originally posted by Son of moose

# Hexagonian mentioned that I should adjust the (?) pollution setting to correspond to the reality of playing on a megamap. For my proposed CB-type CTP2 scenario, I am thinking that either zero (or minimum) pollution would be best. What needs to be done to achieve this?

I dont have much experience with adjusting pollution levels but i think the only value you NEED to change is in govern.txt in ...\ctp2_data\default\gamedata.

   PollutionCoef 1
   PollutionUnhappyCoef 0

PollutionCoef - Government modifier to Pollution rate. Pollution is multiplied by this number.
PollutionUnhappyCoef - Unhappiness amount caused by Pollution. Pollution is multiplied by this number to get Unhappiness amount.

# Is there an entry for the maximum number of cities (or is this hardcoded )? How can this be dramatically increased?

In govern.txt again for each government:

   TooManyCitiesThreshold 1000

# Is there the concept of corruption (like in Civ3) and can this be correspondingly reduced to mirror a massive number of cities?

There is crime in CtP2, the default level is 25% IIRC, crime is altered by government, distance from capital, city buildings, wonders etc.

In govern.txt you can reduce:

   CrimeCoef 2
   CrimeOffset 95

CrimeCoef - Government modifier to Crime rate. Crime is multiplied by this number.
CrimeOffset - Happiness rate where crime starts. Cities with Happiness over this number will have no crime.

Youll also want to change:

   EmpireDistanceScale 0.00001
   MinEmpireDistance 100
   MaxEmpireDistance 4000

EmpireDistanceScale - Coefficient for distance to capital happiness penalty. Distance is multiplied by this value to get penalty
MinEmpireDistance - Distance below which there is no penalty
MaxEmpireDistance - Distance above which the penalty no longer increases

# Is there an entry for the maximum number of units (especially military units) and can this be correspondingly reduced to mirror a massive number of cities?

All units are supported by empire production for each government, in govern.txt:

   SupportCoef 1

SupportCoef - Government modifier to Support cost. Support cost is multiplied by this number.

Also you can change the support cost for units in units.txt (same folder).

# Can maintainance be substantially reduced or made zero?

In buildings.txt (same folder), "upkeep".

# As you suggest above, can the AOM (as it is most definitely the best CTP2 mod available) ai be correspondingly downgraded. I would preferably wish to remain at peace (or most certainly not in a state of near-continuous war) with my opponent(s) at least until I have managed to build up a fairly strong and viable empire that should be able to fairly easily repel enemy attacks without sustaining too much damage.

Youll be best speaking to Stankarp about this, you should also consider though, AoM is more complex than any other mod and so generally slightly slower, theres a greater chance this might cause problems on your big map.

# Are there any other changes (that I have not even thought about) that can be made to better accommodate my somewhat unusual vision for a City Builder CTP2 scenario.

There are a load, you should start reading, the Resources for modmakers thread topped in this forum. For anything you cant find then ask again.

[Son of moose]

Maquiladora:

Thank you so much for your extremely comprehensive and most helpful reply.

I will most definitely check these various parameters ..... but only after I have managed to complete my TWO Civ3 scenarios. Although Civ3 and CTP2 are clearly two separate games with several key gameplay differences (such as PW), I still feel that these two variations will constitute a useful trial run for my proposed CTP2 CB scenario.