Modding ideas

from Elemental Forums

Remove technologies and research. I don't like technologies because technology tree doesn't change from game to game. It becomes boring very fast to select techs from the same tree. It kills replayability. Some randomness in tech tree can partially solve the problem, but it is for developers.

Remove improvements except for wild improvements. So shards, metal, crystal, logging camp, etc remain. The reason is the same as in technologies. Ordinary improvements are the same in every city. It is boring to build the same improvements in every city. It kills replayability.

Allow access to weapons/armor/items depending on city level. Level 1 city allows to use Common weapons/armor/items for trained units. Level 2 city - Uncommon items. Level 3 city - Rare items. All high-end items would be Rare. This idea solves problem with city spam and game slowness.

Add +1 counterattack to all monsters and melee weapons. Add unlimited counterattack to daggers and swords. I don't like units without counterattack because they are like cannon fodder. Also this idea solves problem with weapon disbalance.

Add gildar cost to trained units depending on production cost. This idea makes gildar useful and prevents unit spam.

Each member of 4-troops would cost more production and gildar than member of 3-troops. The same with 5-troops and 7-troops. This idea solves problem with obsolescence of small troops.

Stats in uncommon and rare items would cost more resources then corresponding stats in common items. For example, Common sword has 10 attack and costs 1 metal. Uncommon sword has 20 attack and costs 2.5 metal. Rare sword has 30 attack and costs 5 metal. This idea solves problem with obsolescence of weapons/armor/items.

Set army size to maximum from start. This idea adds a choice: to use either many weak troops or a few strong troops.

2,492 views 3 replies
Reply #1 from Elemental Forums Top

I do not think that all these things would be a good idea entirely, although might be interesting to try.

That said some of the ideas I would love to try and mod, like removing research totally and see what happens, what kind of game it becomes. If you get some ideas together I would love to hear them.

I do think that you should consider a rebalance of armours and weapons if you remove research and make city level the dominant feature for new weapons and armour. And would also love to hear those ideas, for if nothing else  those might also be of interest to me when trying to rebalance the vanilla game.

The reason I don't like the core idea (and feel free to do it in a mod, I am just being honest here) is that you take away several key features of the game, cities will become idle-things, weapon progression would be removed and the one with the most grain wins.
Your ideas have merits  though, as I try to say, and I understand the baseline of the ideas. But can you find any alternatives? Since I would love to hear other ideas that "solve" the same things.

Sincerely
~ Kongdej

Reply #2 from Elemental Forums Top

So take out all differentiation of play style? I am not trying to troll here, but I am having a hard time in seeing where this mod adds anything. City improvements adds specialization to cities so that you can have 3 cities that pump out research and another one that has maximum modifiers to troop improvements in a city. Removing technology would make differentiation difficult. If I am playing a fire mage I head towards the fire spell book in magic research and I get some powerful spells that helps me out. You would have to level up 20 times to get any decent spells if you had to pick them up through level up. We may just have different ways of playing the game. It seems like you prefer a streamlined game with fewer choices/depth in the way to build your civilization. I have played probably 7 games over the last week or so and none of them played the same. I played a couple of mages, a couple of warriors, and one game where my sovereign really didn't do too much of anything.  

Just kind of my take on this. I am not sure if you were wanting any opinions or not. I am sorry if you didn't. I see a lot of stuff about the game would have to change drastically.

Galactic Civilizations IV
Reply #3 from Elemental Forums Top

Add +1 counterattack to all monsters and melee weapons.

I've honestly been wondering why this isn't a mechanic of the base game?

Benefits for unarmed combat would be nice too.

 

Add gildar cost to trained units depending on production cost.

I found editing the following two lines in ElementalDefs.xml (copy in Mods folder) to be very effective towards these ends:

191.        <BaseUnitWages>0.00</BaseUnitWages>        <!-- Changed to 0.1, might try 0.5 -->

193.        <MinTurnsBeforeUnitsDesert>25</MinTurnsBeforeUnitsDesert>        <!-- Changed to 2 -->