[Gameplay] Improvement Mod

[drsingh]

Improvement Mod {yeah, couldnt think of a name...}

(A mod aimed to reorganise the existing assets to provide a much better game experience. It includes game design and balance improvements.)

 

I have created a mod based on the design I had suggested. As a proof of concept. 

Currently only one civ is working- Mauryans. And AI wouldnt use the features well. So its meant to be played on multiplayer- Mauryans vs Mauryans.

 

In the beginning I'll focus on

I) Improving gameplay, balancing diff strategies(Rush, Boom, Turtle) and units. Getting all the required features. 

Once that part is taken care of-

II) Getting compatibility for all civs. Balancing between civs, and differentiating them.

 

There have been done lot of changes. Since its the first version- many specifics could need rebalancing. I am open to all suggestions and opinions. But I request that you play atleast 10 games on it before forming an opinion, to get the hang of things.

 

Modified Game design- 

(Red marks what is missing currently, Blue are temporary solutions)

Spoiler

Economy changes-

(There should be a standard fixed rate of economy progression)

Units- Female Citizen, Male Citizen

Production building- CC

Production rate-

Single units in phase 1 (no batch bonus)

Batch of 5 units in phase 2

Additional CC unlocked in Phase 2

 

Resources-

Food- All living units, Techs

Wood- Ranged military units, Siege units, Buildings, Economic Techs.

Stone- Advanced Buildings, Phase progression techs.

Metal- All Military units, Blacksmith techs.

 

Resource dropsite buildings can be built outside CC territory.

Farms get +50% bonus when built on farmlands. Farmlands should always be outside starting CC territory.<workaround – civic spaces>

Huntable animals should get better ai. To move in herd. Instead of being randomly spread over a large area. Ranged Male citizens and citizen soldiers get 100% accuracy against animals. Gathering from hunt should be twice of base gather rate from farm.

Stone and Metal mines should be present in the outer half(not border) of the CC territory. The total sum value of metal and stone present in the Starting CC territory should be reduced a bit, (depending on testing)

Cost of Storehouse and Farmstead and build time be decreased. 75w(from 100w).

 

Corral- moved to phase 2. Costs 150 wood. Build limit 2.

(Becomes an advanced infinite food source)

Acts like an animal farm. Has 5 slots for herd-able animals. Gives trickle of food- 1 per second per animal. Maxm 5 animal- 5 food per second. Can train(cost half of food value) total of 10 animal in a game. Choice to either put them in corral for trickle or harvest fast at 2Xhuntable gather rate for a sudden boost. Trickle gets +50% bonus if corral has atleast 2 farms nearby.

 

Alternatively- Phase 1. Cost same (100w). No Build limit.

Corrals have slots for 5 animals. Animals fatten over time to triple the food value. Fat animals come out of Corral. Animals can be trained in corral for the cost = food value. They directly enter the slot in corral if empty space present.

 

Traders-

Change cost- 150f 100w instead of 100f 80m.

Pop cost- 2

Trader moves between CC instead of Market. (Dock build limit 1 per CC)

 To make less efficient-

1 trader(2 pop) going between two CC(placed as close as possible) should generate metal(or wood or stone) per second. Half(or maybe 60%) of what 2 male citizens can gather from a mine per second.

Then if the CC are placed farther away. then the increase in amount should be in proportion to the increased time required to travel, so that the gathering rate per second remains constant.

Speed upgrades to trade cart will increase the gather rate, but still should be taken care that it is 80% or less as compared to gathering directly from mine.

 The trader still can still collect all 4 resources. But since farms will be much faster for food. So it will actually only be used for other 3.

<need help>

 

CC phase progression-

400 stone to phase 2

800 stone to phase 3

Building new CC cost reduced to 600 stone.

 

Generic Tech tree-

Phase 1- Village

1)    House –75w (150w for large house factions)

2)    Store house- 75w

3)    Farmstead- 75w

4)    Farm- 100w

5)    Dock- 200w

6)    Barracks- 150w 150stone

7)    Outpost- 75w

8)    Palisade wall- 5w

 

Phase 2- Town

1)    CC- 600stone

2)    Temple- 300stone

3)    Market- 250w

4)    Corral- 150w (build limit-2)

5)    Stable- 100w 200 stone

6)    Sentry tower- 100w 50stone

7)    Stone wall- 20stone

 

Phase 3- City

1)    Fortress- 800 stone (may be placed in neutral territory like CC. And gives similar expansion)

2)    Blacksmith- 200w 200stone

3)    Defense tower- 100w 150stone

4)    Wonder 

 

Each faction will atleast have all these structures. Plus their unique structures.

3 different types of buildings of previous phase need to be built to unlock phase progression tech.

 

Phase pop limits-

Dependent on house build limits. House gives 10 pop each. CC gives 20 pop each.

House limit-> phase1- 4, phase 2- 8, phase 3- 20(or more depending on rules).

Phase 2 has a tech which increases the pop cap to-15 per house.

So phase 1 has 60 pop limit. Phase2- 100(+100 per additional cc), Phase 3- Max.<workaround>

Fertility Festival allows female citizen production at double the train time of CC. (so limited by max 4 buildings in phase 1)

 

Mauryan and Persian houses- give 11 pop each. 17 after tech.

Those factions which have larger houses-

House limit-> Phase1- 2, phase 2- 4, phase 3- 10(or more).

20 pop per house. 30 after tech. Fertility festival enables female citizen production- at faster rate- equal to CC train time.

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Changed roles-

Phase 1- a temporary stage. Most will advance soon. Except those going for all in rush (which can be effective).

Phase 2- Better booming with batch production enabled at CC and further CC buildable. Also access to mounted units from stables. Also enable Traders. (Economy focus)

Phase 3- In contrast to previous phase this phase is military focused. Access to Champion units. Powerful blacksmith techs. And Siege weapons.

 

In phase 1 there’ll be option of either-

making a double barracks (300w 300stn) and rushing the enemy,

or going to phase 2 for faster gatherer production (400stn).

Or a balance- defensive single barracks and phase 2(150w 550stn).

 

In phase 2 there is option to either-

Getting 2nd CC for 600 stone. To boom harder with double the Citizen-gatherer production and starting trade.

Or go to phase 3 with 800 stone to get earlier access to Champions.

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Military changes-

Soldiers can also gather resources, but at a slower rate. They (including male citizen) gain experience from combat and are upgraded to higher rank. They can also gain ranks by training them in Barracks for resource and time cost. Gaining ranks through Barracks is phase dependent. While gaining through xp is independent.

 

Ranks and stat scaling-

Lvl1- Citizen Soldier - x

Lvl2- Elite Soldier -1.2x (+1 armor)

Lvl3- Champion Soldier – 1.44x (+2 armor)

Male Citizen(from CC) – 0.5x (-4 armor) <approximation>

 

Here Champions have +2 armor and 44% better stats than Citizen Soldiers so they are better. But Citizen soldiers in 1.5 times the number will fight them equally.

 

2 Unique Champion units available to each faction. (except Mauryan, which have 4)

These have identical stats to lvl3 Champion, but have ability to gain a further lvl (lvl2 10% boost) through xp only.

Citizen Soldiers can be trained at lvl 1 only even in phase 3.

 

Fortress and special buildings unlock the unique champions. Can also train them.

All infantry available to a faction is trainable in Barracks (build limit 4). All mounted units available to a faction are trainable in Stables (combined build limit 4). Military units are trained in batches of 5. Tech in phase 3 allows batches of 10. Faster batch production.

Because of build limits of barracks and it getting idled during rank upgrade. The preferred mode of obtaining higher rank soldiers will be through combat xp. Barracks(or stable for mounted units) will be used to upgrade in special situations- like after reaching pop limit. Or to counter an enemy unique champion when your own unique champion is not suited for it.

 

Experience gain-

+25% faster in own territory. Further 50% due to aura of Statue or a hero.

+100% against enemy support units (Female, Male citizen, Trader, Priest)

Capped at (+100%) if under multiple effects.

Hunting animals will not give any xp.

 

Blacksmith upgrades- (all of these increase metal cost of unit)

Single tier upgrades for Infantry armor, Cavalry armor.

Single tier upgrades for damage depending on weapon- eg Sword upgrade, Spear, Arrow, Javelin etc.

Effect can be maxm upto 20%.

 

Some maps can have Neutral Mercenary camps guarded by gaia mercenary. Capturable and provide another military production facility. Important since otherwise military production is limited by 4 barracks.

 

Combat changes-

3 damage types- mele, ranged and siege.

Buildings only get affected by siege attack. Every unit has a siege attack.

Units have either mele or ranged attack. And 2 types of armor.

Until the game develops all mechanics (like formation, charge etc), it would be advisable to include hard counters. To better assess the success of game design.

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UI changes- <need help>

1)    Economic overview- To help plan your macro. Even more important if some of your fighters double as gatherers. Total number of gatherers can be shown in brackets next to each resource at the top. Hovering on it can give detail distribution. Eg Female-1, Male- 10, Soldier- 6, Cav- 1 etc.

2)    "To war" (Alt-Q) flag- near idle citizen button on mini map. Clicking on it and then on map- selects all military units in whole map and ‘attack moves’ to the point you selected. This includes lvl1 and lvl2 soldiers who might be gathering.

3)    Auto banners- For better control and micro of important units. Beneath Hero banner and above control group banners is a space for 4 Banners. Which form by themselves. This include the Champion soldiers (one type in 1 banner). If somehow you have more than 4 types of Champion soldiers on map. Then 4 with most numbers get their own banners.

4)    Different rank of units show up with separate icon when selected. Eg. You are still able to double click on hoplite to select all (lvl1-3). But they have are shown in 3 groups as 3 icons in ui.

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Unit costs and gather rate-

Female Citizen-> 50 food. Gathers- food-0.8, wood-0.6, stone-0.3, iron-0.3 (gives a gathering bonus aura 10% to all males)

Male Citizen(option of mele or ranged)-> 60 food 10wood. Gathers- food-0.6, wood-0.6, gold-0.6, iron-0.6

(food here is base gather rate of farms. On farmlands 1.5X. Hunting is 2X. Herdable 4X)

(Both male citizen and female citizen have same train time= 10sec. Single Citizen soldier from barracks has double that train time=20 sec)

 

Citizen Soldier- food,wood,gold,iron- all 0.4.  Builds 50% slower. Carrying capacity reduced by 5.

Elite Soldier- food,wood,gold,iron- all 0.2. Builds 50% slower. Carrying capacity reduced by 10.

Champion Soldier- Cant gather. Cant build

Citizen cavalry(2 pop)- food from hunt- 2.5. from herdable- 5. +15 carrying capacity.

 

Cost of upgrading rank of units will be difference in cost.

Eg- Male citizen can be upgraded to spearman for 20 metal. And to archer for 15wood 5 metal.

Time- 20 seconds for going up 1 rank. 30 seconds for going up 2 or more ranks(lvl1->3, Male citizen->lvl2, lvl3).

 

Cost of military units- (an example)

Lvl1 citizen soldiers- (upgrade cost in bracket – lvl 1-2, lvl2-3)

Spearman- 60 food 10wood 20 metal (Lvl2->10metal, Lvl3->+10food 10metal)

Archer/javelin- 60 food 25wood 5 metal (5w 5m, 10w 10m)

Swordsman- 60 food 30 metal (10m, 10f 10m)

Slinger- 60 food 25stone 5 metal (5stone 5m, 10stone 10m)

 

Sword Cavalry (2 pop)- 140 food 50 metal (20m, 20f 20m)

Spear Cavalry (2 pop)- 140 food 25wood 25 metal (20m, 20f 20m)

Ranged Cavalry (2 pop)- 140 food 40wood 10 metal (10w 10m, 20w 20m)

 

Unique Champion unit cost = lvl 3 soldier

So eg Swordsman- 70 food 50 metal

Ranged Cavalry (2 pop)- 140 food 70wood 40 metal

 

These costs have been fixed considering-

that even arrows and spears need a little metal. And mele units need more metal because of their armor. Higher rank units need more metal because of better armor. Upgrade costs according to the 44% stat increase from lvl1 to 3. And cavalry costs assuming they have double the HP but only slight (20%) increase in attack damage compared to their non-mounted counterparts.

 

This results in- Food and Metal being required for all military units. Some of them also require wood and less metal.

The gathering rate being equal for wood, metal and stone. Makes it easier for player to plan his macro and switch gatherers if needed.

Dock and siege weapons have not been touched yet.

 

I need help from the community regarding- 

1) Implementation of Trader changes.

2) UI changes

3) Farmland bonus (native)

4) Exp gain bonus in territory

5) Better implementations of Upgrade mechanic, and house limits.

6) Play testing

 

Note- Corral only garrisons animals if you Ctrl Rt click on it to make itself the destination. Once the animal spawns it cant garrison back. Apart from that Corral changes are fully functioning.

To Upgrade units stand them as close to Barracks or stable as possible. It doesnt show, but under the effect of aura - the 1000 sec train time becomes 10 sec.

Farm and corral are capturable in neutral territory. to make it preferable to destroying it.

 

This is my first attempt at modding. But due the excellent layout of game it became very easy. I've been working on this straight for 2 days. Since I am leaving home tomorrow. And It'll be few months before I get back on it.

 

Acknowledgements-

Wildfire Games-
For creating a wonderful game. Making it easily moddable. And the prompt replies when i asked for help.

wowgetoffyourcellphone-
For creating Delenda Est. Which I liked a lot and adopted some ideas from. Civic space and Corral aura have been modified from DE.

improvement.zip

Edited March 18, 2017 by drsingh