Rebalancing Civ4: RtR Mod

[Partisan]

Is it possible to make certain units have more HP than others?

ie, most units having 100 HP, gunpowder units having 150 HP, and Tanks/Armor/Helicopter having 200 HP

It's possible. That doesn't mean it's easy or makes any sense. In civilization 2 this worked pretty well and is one of the reasons I favor civ2 combat model but I'm not sure it'd work in cIV as it is. I don't like cIV combat (and it's not about deterministic vs RNG) but to change even the slightest things you'll have to commit your cause to rebalance the whole game. Not pretty. Much easier just change combat strength and a few promos, in my opinion.

[Krill]

How do you "defend better" against someone who gets lucky and wins a 2v1, or wins attacking your unit fortified on a hill forest, or wins with a chariot against a spear?

Never take 2v1s. Always do a 3v1 so if you lose the first battle you can stop without losing tiles. spear v chariot is again a lesson to always bring more units. If you lose a battle with odds on defence though there is nothing you can do to solve the problem except demand deterministic combat which is not something a balance mod will introduce.

[zakalwe]

An alternative to deterministic combat could be a "safe victory" option when odds are highly in your favor for a given combat. It would guarantee that your unit wins, but you'd take (a lot) more damage than you'd expect, on average.

Just a random thought that popped into my mind.

Edit: Then again, how would this work on defense? Probably not so workable.

[pindicator]

Motion: Make aqueducts not suck, particularly Gardens.

With aquaducts, reduce their cost? Any reduction probably has to be countered with a cost increase to HG, and you lose out on that special case where Org Rel + Stone beats out IND + Stone for reducing the cost of that wonder.

Not sure what else you can do that doesnt change the function dramatically. Although maybe thats what is needed: how many times do you want health in these games? That's probably an architect of our MP map design here- when was the last time we had a game where unhealthiness was a major hurdle pre-factories?

[Krill]

Seriously, when was health ever a major issue? The cities that most often need health are the ones that you grow to size 15+ by turn 75, everything else is getting slaved or lacks the food to grow that high.

[novice]

IMO it's okay to have buildings that generally suck but are situationally useful. It is a strategy game, after all.

[Krill]

Colluseum, theatre, public transport, hospital, monuments...

[Commodore]

I guess maybe just the Garden, then? Something like -25% maint reduction? Basiltaphants and Jans are nice, Bowmen certainly don't edge them out in most situations in the general UU lotto.

Actually, upon reflection, I could see a maint reduction working well, it's another efficiency adder for those huge cities where you need an aqueduct anyway, much like the +food and +happy synergy works well for the Khmer and Ottomen.

[Krill]

TBH, you have a point on the garden.

Edit: cost decrease would generally seem like the best method. Greece has a Colosseum that gives happy and artist slots, Mayans have the ball court that gives a load of happy. Dropping the price to 60 from 80 and the health makes it a bit more meh but the techs are good and the UB is a pain but not as big a pain as the skirm and doesn't deal with chariots or HA which are more dangerous attackers.

[kjn]

TBH, I'd look into fixing the underlying mechanic of health and happiness, especially in how they impact a city, before fiddling with buildings.

Each missing happy effectively give -2F, higher maintenance, and you miss out on the benefit of anything the citizen might do.

Each missing health gives -1F.