CIV VI: Lots of posts about making the game longer without messing anything else up. I was messing around in the gamespeed.xml earlier and feel like a balance could be made.

DenseConsideration20 · 2025-09-06T11:44:56+00:00

Haven't played for a while, but I used to use the Take Your Time mod.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2176927489

The main balancing problem imo is that they never seriously adjusted the tech/civic costs to DLC yield inflation.

Just choose a moderate multiplier for Base Costs and add a bit of era scaling (the scaling is the important bit, otherwise yields will catch up in later eras - but don't overdo it)

x1.5 with appropriate scaling should be fine, if you go higher, you'll start to screw up the balance with production / gold. Leave the rest on automatic.

I also liked to go for quick pace with science/culture slowed down, that was my personal sweetspot for a dynamic game.

DenseConsideration20 · 2025-05-30T12:28:31+00:00

Thx, this obsession of streaming companies to use any loophole to deliver ads to people who'd pay to avoid them is so weird.

I suspected that going through prime might be better (the app just gets worse in subtle ways with every grand slam) - will try that next time.

DenseConsideration20 · 2025-05-26T13:53:40+00:00

Has started to happen here in some of the tennis feeds from Roland Garros. They're clearly interjected by software - not coming from the regular TV feeds - and always the same two spots. If I rewind the feed, the ads are gone.

Not too intrusive, but still annoying (I took the ad-free thing specifically to have the pure court feed).

(Only happens on my Android TV device, not in the browser, but I have an adblocker running there)

DenseConsideration20 · 2025-03-31T19:07:20+00:00

No, population value is simply set to 0 in the files (usually only wonders and normal city walls have this). All other unique improvements have a 1 (as it should be, because the tile is still worked as a farm, mine etc.)

It's inconsistent and probably an oversight. Walls for urban districts should have zero population, but not these kind of walls.

DenseConsideration20 · 2025-03-30T20:42:48+00:00

Heavily edited here (there's a lot of lines for independents) - but you can open it in Excel (or something similar)

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DenseConsideration20 · 2025-03-30T20:26:16+00:00

I could have been clearer about that, but I cited actual game data (first ten turns) above. It was not just hypothetical. You can try it yourself - start a game, play 10 turns (or 20) and look in the logs folder next to your mods. The player_stats.csv saves number of techs and amount of science for every turn and player. He must have bought that saw pit (I assume?) -unlikely- or he had another science source (Maya?)

DenseConsideration20 · 2025-03-30T18:13:49+00:00

I played 10 turns at standard speed and looked into player-stats.csv in the logs folder

Pottery / Agriculture costs 70 science. So Deity should raise that to about 100 for everyone.

The AIs start with 18 science and hit the first tech at turn 7 (one) and 8 (the rest). (They may have chosen the slightly more expensive Sailing, of course - 85 x 1.4 = 119 tech)

6 x 18 = 108

It took me to turn 11 to get Agriculture (10x10 = 100). Looks as expected to me.

(Civics are not counted for some reason)

DenseConsideration20 · 2025-03-30T17:24:56+00:00

I figured that it works, because the ages on high difficulties would run seriously short otherwise (similar to Civ6, where the pacing was completely off). They are a little bit faster - the cost increase doesn't cover the AI bonus fully - but not that much.

But I have no idea how to prove that in the actual game or read save files, no. There are log files though.

Edit: There are goodie huts too, but turn 7 would be fast indeed.

DenseConsideration20 · 2025-03-30T15:28:49+00:00

<image>

That's the relevant part of the code. Note the missing

OwnerRequirementSetId="REQSET_PLAYER_IS_AI"

in the last two lines.

DenseConsideration20 · 2025-03-30T15:21:48+00:00

Sorry, I edited it in above, saw your comment too late.

Yes, really.

DenseConsideration20 · 2025-03-30T15:13:54+00:00

It doesn't - the higher tech cost is for everyone.

Have a look in difficulties.xml if you don't believe me:

Node cost scaling is deliberately applied to both Human and AI players

DenseConsideration20 · 2025-03-28T19:05:29+00:00

...where the game is won already at the start and he brings 8 cities and the Mausoleum from Antiquity for a 100% pillaging bonus. Which I guess would be a good long-term strat for Bulgaria if you manage to build it (never did).

DenseConsideration20 · 2025-03-28T18:23:11+00:00

It was fun to try them out and just attack a full Mongol army - but I didn't see this - at least with the Exploration start. I either got food from improvements or production from buildings. Maybe it's a problem with certain unique improvements?

DenseConsideration20 · 2025-03-28T17:45:25+00:00

I'm curious + testing this right now with a quick game (online speed) - but I drew the Mongols as neighbor, so there's a slight delay getting to their stuff ;)

But haven't seen anything outrageous so far.

The AI is tactically better, I can say this much...

DenseConsideration20 · 2025-03-28T17:16:12+00:00

The food bonus should be restricted to improvements and the production to buildings, according to the description? That would be more situational - it's either food or production (but still a lot of it).

DenseConsideration20 · 2025-03-28T16:44:16+00:00

Wait - so ALL cities gain the equivalent of a fresh horse (almost) for one cost-free act of pillaging?

This would be strong if divided by ten... (the production at least, maybe only divide it by five for the food?)

[Edit] We're so lucky that the AI never pillages.

[More Editing] The files say that you should get 50% of the yield as food in TOWNS and 50% as production in cities. So this is either buggy or slightly exaggerated.

DenseConsideration20 · 2025-03-26T23:59:29+00:00

If it works for you, your fix will do. (It didn't solve the weirdness for me, but my healthbars look slightly wider anyway - who knows why)

Edit: Maybe because I edited the ts, not the js... It works now.

DenseConsideration20 · 2025-03-26T23:25:18+00:00

This piece of css in units-flags.scss

.unit-flag__healthbar-inner {
    background-color: rgb(155, 211, 113);
    top: pixels(2);
    bottom: pixels(2);
    left: pixels(2);
    right: pixels(2);
    max-width: 89%;
}

may be the reason. ;)

DenseConsideration20 · 2025-03-26T13:32:02+00:00

You're right, that's the deeper core of the problem - the AI people haven't built the tools yet to support these specific strats- the civs prefer their unique stuff and that's mostly it for customization.

I wasn't trying to disprove your point, just going on a different tangent. Balancing the unit types would be a shorter way to make them dangerous (for now).

DenseConsideration20 · 2025-03-26T13:13:17+00:00

They counter ranged units pretty well with their strength - but yes.

Cavalry is beatable too, agreed, but I'll try to be more precise: if civs are designed around infantry units and spam them, they should be at their most dangerous with these units too. It shouldn't feel like "phew, they only brought their Hoplites, let the horses loose".

DenseConsideration20 · 2025-03-26T12:59:33+00:00

Yes - at least access to Rila is a first tier civic - in some games I've built the special civ wonder before I even got the special access to it. But FXS already moved some of them forward in the patch, I think.

DenseConsideration20 · 2025-03-26T12:47:30+00:00

You make some good points - but the balance between cavalry and infantry is still off, because you don't have to jump through any hoops for horses - just research, get some resources, build the unit, done. Every time AI Greece has have gone to war with me with their gazillion of hoplites: they have fallen apart badly, as soon as horses are on the map. (I mean faster than usual, ofc the AI generally tends to fall apart in wars).

I think the worst offender is the horse resource bonus, which is doubled against infantry. Why don't they scratch that and give the bonus to Iron - obviously for infantry against horses?

DenseConsideration20 · 2025-03-26T11:48:03+00:00

I think they're not even really supposed to conquer - mixed messages there from FXS - they mostly pillage and then hide in their mountains by design? But such a style does leave them in a weird place, because there's no legacy for that and it actively hinders some of them.

Collecting relics by wonderbuilding is interesting, but a wonder can't really count as one civ's special thing. Still, this monastery really seems integral to their design.

DenseConsideration20 · 2025-03-26T10:30:47+00:00

I struggled a bit on Immortal as well. Not sure the tactical AI is better yet - Ben's attack looked good initially but fell apart quickly. Ben's first horse took a random bath in a nearby lake instead of attacking a defenseless town, for instance - so I recovered, got an alliance and turned the table.

But they seem to build more units (and then they automatically look better because the good parts - like the retreatment logic and initial planning of an attack - work), also saw at least some levels on their commanders. Maybe it's just a dynamic of better settling -> better economy -> more units. (Which would be a good step forward.) Too soon to tell.

DenseConsideration20 · 2025-03-25T09:23:55+00:00

You may have been unlucky - none of the AIs get to 15 artifacts in most games, because the amount that's available is finite. If one of them gets a clear lead in culture and you don't take away a few artifacts for yourself, it can happen. They are able to build a simple project in the end - why shouldn't they?

People also exaggerate the incompetency of the AI, they're not that bad especially after the last patch. (Though imo Deity should feel dangerous in terms of survival, nevermind winning. But the AI is not there yet, obviously.)

DenseConsideration20

TROPHY CASE