A new mod enters the ring - Introducing "Close to Home"

[Charriu]

To my knowledge there is no "maximum number of combat rounds", but I might be wrong. But yeah that also may be an option.

[superdeath]

The start of the tiny always war game made me think a bit. You know how in the early game the RNG is a lot bigger factor compared to later stages of the game, because you have fewer units. How about a game option that just produced X amount of units instead of just 1. Everything stays the same when you for example produce an axeman, but instead of getting 1 axeman you get for example 3 axeman. I wouldn't use this option for the standard games we are playing, but maybe for a tiny always war game like PB68 this might be interesting?

I don't know how easy this is to implement, but a way to achieve a ~similar effect with fewer unintended consequences might be to reduce the maximum number of combat rounds (e.g. air units only have 5 rounds already) and/or increase the ratio of "hitpoints" to average damage for regular combat.  (Currently all units start with 100 hp and do 20 damage per victorious round against units with equal power.)  This would still have unintended consequences of course, for instance around First Strikes (making them stronger).

the idea of "first strikes" should be... that they are stronger. Makes units that are immune to FS's, that much better.

[civac2]

If you want to go there you could just half the damage of everything. Makes battles massively more consistent. No need for maximum number of rounds.

[Amicalola]

It seems to me that the American UB is currently is little too strong, but a fun building that I'd like to keep. What if we made it a little more expensive? Either 100 or 120 hammers, just as a slight nerf?

[Mjmd]

I said when it was implemented its too early in the tech tree, but Charriu has to break it in PB67 first. Or reduce it down to +1 instead of +2. +2 is what wonders give.

On the subject of nerfs since Amica reminded me:
Rome +5 hammers UU
Great Lighthouse +100 hammers. This continues to be a game defining wonder and its hammer cost is pretty cheap. Or maybe +50h and obsoletes at astronomy as well.

[Amicalola]

I said when it was implemented its too early in the tech tree, but Charriu has to break it in PB67 first. Or reduce it down to +1 instead of +2. +2 is what wonders give.

On the subject of nerfs since Amica reminded me:
Rome +5 hammers UU
Great Lighthouse +100 hammers. This continues to be a game defining wonder and its hammer cost is pretty cheap. Or maybe +50h and obsoletes at astronomy as well.

I agree on Rome. I think GLH could be increased +50 without changing the obsoletion, or at least I would start with that, but then I might be biased.

[Mjmd]

There was no reason at all I was reminded

[Ginger()]

There was no reason at all I was reminded

[Charriu]

I've looked at the performance of those three (new America UB, Rome UU and Great Lighthouse)

America UB: As you know I only changed it with the recent version, which is used from PB65 onward. So far we have 3 players playing America. This alone isn't an indicator if an element is too strong. Rather it can be attributed to the new and shiny thing that players want to test and play. All of these games are still running and I feel it is too early to talk about the America UB. That doesn't mean I won't look at it. I will do so at the T150 reports of PB65 and PB66, which might be a good first moment to discuss it in the respective lurker threads. Until then I would like to delay the discussion about this UB until maybe PB65 and PB66 are done.


Rome UU: So far Rome was chosen 7 times and randomly selected once out of a total of 16 CtH games. In all games the UU was the same. Here are the exact games and how well Rome and the Praetorian performed.
PB55: RuffHi/Civac FIN IMP. They won this game in a great performance. The praetorian was used offensively together with catapults, so not a rush scenario. I would say the praetorian was important in this game as even without the offensive it ensured a peaceful development for Civac, because the others were afraid to take them up early.
PB56: Mjmd AGG IMP. Mjmd one a long and hard fought war against PRO RuffHi with his praets and those even were AGG praets. The praets helped in the conflict, but I would say they were far from dominant as the length of the war has shown. Mjmd was in a strong position in this game, but was not able to win.
PB58: AutomatedTeller CRE FIN. AutomatedTeller tried a war against Tarkeel, but failed in achieving anything significant. In the end he even was eliminated by Tarkeel.
PB59: Commodore PRO ORG. Commodore fought a forever war against the TBS (China). In the end Commodore was eliminated by his neighbors. The Praet certainly helped in this game, but they did not lead into a dominant position for Commodore.
PB60: GKC AGG CRE. GKC lost in a war against Jowys non-AGG Vikings. A good performance by GKC, but even AGG praets were not enough.
PB61: Joshy IMP CHA. Joshy used praets to conquer his neighbor JesseL. He had a good strong position in this game, but was not able to win. Of note is that I think even a generic civilization would have been successful against JesseL, who was very weak in this game.
PB62: Superdeath AGG CHA. The game ended early in T89 before praets could shine in a big way
PB63: Ginger SPI PHI. Ginger won this game. The praets certainly helped early on to defend his empire, but they were not enough to crush a neighbor.
PB66: Still running game. Too early and spoilery to say something
PB67: Still running game. Too early and spoilery to say something
PB68: Still running game. Too early and spoilery to say something. But interesting as a tight AW game.

So out of the 8 performance 3 can't be judged yet. We have one performance (PB55) in which the praet was important and very successful on the offense. I did not count PB61 because the enemy was so weak. In 5 games (PB55, PB56, PB59, PB61, PB63) it certainly helped on the defense or scared off neighbors. In 2 games it utterly failed even on the defense and and one even with AGG (PB58, PB60)

All in all I think the praetorian is far from totally dominant in each game even in capable hands. If I do change anything with it then only increase the cost by 5.


Great Lighthouse: This wonder was built in almost each game so far. Here are the results:
PB52: pindicator Carthage PRO. pindicator won this game. The Great Lighthouse was very useful and important in this win, but that maybe more because of the broken PRO implementation back then.
PB53: TBS PRO. TBS won this game in a draw. Once again the Great Lighthouse was very useful, but this is another game with a broken PRO implementation
PB54: El Grillo. El Grillo didn't win this game, but was in a strong position largly thanks to the Great Lighthouse. This marks the first version in which PRO only supplied a bonus to domestic trade routes fixing the trait so far.
PB55: Superdeath Carthage PRO. Even with all these bonuses Superdeath was not able to get into a strong economic position this game.
PB56: NobleHelium. NobleHelium won this PB. The Great Lighthouse certainly helped, but I think the bigger factor here was swallowing their northern neighbors early on.
PB58: Tarkeel ORG. Tarkeel won this PB. The Great Lighthouse was definitely helpful in this win
PB59: Amicalola ORG. Amicalola won this PB. The Great Lighthouse helped him on his way immensely.
PB60: Amicalola ORG PRO. Amicalola dominated this game with the Great Lighthouse
PB61: bellarch. bellarch was certainly in a strong position thanks to the Great Lighthouse, but was not able to win.
PB62: A land based map that ended before the Great Lighthouse was relevant
PB63: Bing ORG. This map was a bit more land based. Therefore the Great Lighthouse wasn't as strong as in other games.
PB64: Ongoing game, but I think I am save to say that the Great Lighthouse is important here too.
PB65: Was built in this game, but too spoilery to talk about anything
PB66: Was built in this game, but too spoilery to talk about anything
PB67: Too early
PB68: Too early

This looks a lot different compared to how Rome performed. One important detail though is that with PB65 onward the circumnavigation bonus changed from an extra trade route to just giving +50% trade modifier with a harbor. This alone is already a nerf towards the Great Lighthouse too. It will be very interesting too see how the players with this wonder will perform in these games. Should this wonder remain to be very strong then it's time to look into more nerfs for it. One thing though I already want to dismiss is obsoleting it with Astronomy or better phrased with the same tech that obsoletes the other important water wonder: Colossus.

[Tarkeel]

I'm not sure I'd call the 3.0 circumnavigation changes a nerf to TGL. It's actually a very slight buff as the extra TR will get that 50% mod with harbor.