Tides of War, a balance mod

[Gaspar]

This is well-done Seven and quite in line with what I'd like to see from a balance mod.

[WilliamLP]

I forgot about this in the poll, but what do you think about the RBMod tile balance changes? E.g. making workshops and watermills interesting much earlier, and making mines not be eclipsed in the late game. It's one of my favourite parts of that mod, though I very much respect the philosophy that if something isn't breaking the game it doesn't need to be fixed.

[SevenSpirits]

A general note; I think you'll find Chm's strength rather dependent on the style of map; a torusworld or something else MP-custom happy-heavy will see it a bit weak, while a standard script will see it ridiculously strong. Not sure if that's fixable, though.

Torusland uses the exact same formula for number of luxury resources as the map scripts that come with the game. It is proportional to the number of players in the game with a bit of variance thrown in. For example, I just rolled a 2-player pangaea and a 2-player torusland map: they had 12 and 10 luxuries, respectively.

Of course, mapmakers can do whatever they want, and in the past that's often involved placing a lot of luxuries. (Compare 5-6 luxes per player with the e.g. 9 per player in pbem25, or the 16 per player from pbem29.) I think we've gotten better about that over time, though. There's also the aspect on blindly rolled maps where some people get a ton of luxes and others get next to none, but hopefully we aren't needing to balance traits around that kind of game!

would it be possible to give Charismatic more free units (similar to Vassalage's free units)

That's possible. Another option I was considering, if the flat 3 happy doesn't work out well, would be adding 2 commerce to the palace for CHM leaders, as an early-game benefit that's different from most.

This is well-done Seven and quite in line with what I'd like to see from a balance mod.

Thanks Gaspar.

I forgot about this in the poll, but what do you think about the RBMod tile balance changes? E.g. making workshops and watermills interesting much earlier, and making mines not be eclipsed in the late game. It's one of my favourite parts of that mod, though I very much respect the philosophy that if something isn't breaking the game it doesn't need to be fixed.

I would love to make changes to tile yields, but I'm restraining myself. I don't think it's needed. It probably won't happen.

[Sian]

would it be possible to give Charismatic more free units (similar to Vassalage's free units)

That's possible. Another option I was considering, if the flat 3 happy doesn't work out well, would be adding 2 commerce to the palace for CHM leaders, as an early-game benefit that's different from most.

While sure it would be an early game benefit, i'm not to sure thats where its buff need to be, rather being in the midgame, where HR and spare hammers, to a certain degree would be able to help any decifits on the happiness econ ...

[Krill]

...Wouldn't giving a bonus on a per city improvement basis be the best solution to that, Sian?

EDIT: Just trying to interpret Sian's post, not suggesting changes or opinions...

[Catwalk]

I like Sian's idea, it's an interesting and useful bonus that fits the flavour of CHA perfectly.

I agree with not changing tile yields in general, but how about just one or two small changes to make underused options viable?

[Azoth]

Another option I was considering, if the flat 3 happy doesn't work out well, would be adding 2 commerce to the palace for CHM leaders, as an early-game benefit that's different from most.

What about adding +1 or +2 happiness to the Palace instead? (On top of the per city bonus)

[Sian]

you can only heap so much happy on the trait before its irrelevant ... and as mentioned, by the time HR is around its going to be effectively so as well

[novice]

HR happiness isn't free.

[Sian]

never said it was ... but it certainly is close enough (specially if you happen to be able to keep hammering out warriors) that any flat +happy looses a bit of its luster ...