Future of CtH

[Charriu]

As you can see I just uploaded version 4.0.0 of CtH. I plan this to be the final major release of CtH. Reason is that I have nothing more that I would like to change, which would not explode the scope of the mod. Don't worry I won't run away from the project immediately. I will still stay around for bugfixes, but like I said I don't plan to initiate any discussion about further changes. Of course you can still do so and I will participate in the discussion.

For now I just want to say thank you to everybody who contributed to the mod over the development time and for all the feedback you gave me.

[GeneralKilCavalry]

Thanks for all the development you've done! I wished I'd been much more present for the many games in the recent 2-3 years, but having played the mod sporadically over multiple releases on live online games with various friends, it has been great seeing how small and subtle changes can drastically enhance the replayability of the game.

[pindicator]

Commodore and I were joking about the map maintenance in PB65 and the joke became "Why don't you just build Versailles?" So is there anything that can be done for Varseilles?

I know the price was lowered from 800h to 600h to accommodate the marble bonus lowering to 50%, but even then has anybody ever bothered to build it? Thinking about it just a ltitle here, I'm not sure there's much that can be done: either you lower the hammer cost so that it becomes insignificant to build, or you add another benefit and risk going outside the scope of the mod. Maybe knocking another 100h off the cost, but I'm not sure that would tilt the balance for it being buildable.

I guess I'm hoping someone else has a better idea than I do on this one.

Edit: Is it possible to have Versailles increase the effect of distance maintenance reduction?

[Charriu]

No it's not possible to increase the maintenance effect. For the maintenance calculation the distance towards the next seat of government is used. Palace, Forbidden city and Versailles all act as these seats of government

[Charriu]

This is me saying good bye to you all. I plan to take a break of undefined length from the forum, Civ4 MP and the development of the mod at the end of August. As for the mod I leave it in your hands and you can do with it what you want. But before the end I plan to post the final version here. To that extend I will shortly post the currently planned changes in the mod discussion thread and would like to direct any discussion of the mod changes that way. I will also leave instructions how to turn the balancing back to BtS level if anybody wants to start anew, but use the new balancing capabilities and BUG features.

As for why I'm leaving. First of all I think the mod is in a rather stable state that I can leave it behind. Any additional changes could still be made by anybody, who can change some numbers in the xml files. The big reason though is that I feel very tired of Civ4 MP. You may have noticed that I stopped watching the other games and also provide my usual analysis of the games. This is one symptom of that tiredness. I started my last game PB67 (which turned into PB70) in the hope that a diplo game could be the one thing that makes MP interesting. And while it did make playing MP more interesting and actually worthwhile of my time, I also have to recognize that there are only that many diplo games and that the player base at large has issues with playing diplomacy.
Another issue is that I feel increasingly at odds with the meta and what players expect from the game here. Actually this something that always was present during the development of CtH. I talked about that in my PB70 thread that almost every game here feels the same as in just build up a huge military conquer one or two neighbors and win by concession. Playing MP for me feels like removing half of the fun content of Civ4 (like some buildings, wonders, victory conditions and certain playstyles). To name a few things that bother me.

- Too much focus on slavery
- 2-movers are way to powerful, especially knights
- No War Weariness
- No Barbarians

I do not intend to say that this is all wrong. Do play with all these things. It's just that I don't like it. In the end I have to conclude that I am the wrong player for this style of play. So feeling more and more astrayed from the meta and player base I think the best thing is to give it a long pause (maybe for forever).

I want to thank everybody for your input over the time and for playing with my creations.

[Tarkeel]

I'm sorry to see you go Charriu, you've always been a bright spot on the forums.

While I understand where you're coming from, I don't entirely agree with all of it. Yes, there's a meta focused on building an army to take out your neighbors, but if you don't also develop your economy that's not going to win you the game.

I do agree that slavery is still too powerful though; both in the early game and late modern era, and removing barbarians and war weariness alters the game in significant ways.

[Qgqqqqq]

So long, and thanks for all the fish.

You've made an amazing contribution to the forum, and I'm sad (if not surprised) to see you heading off. I wish you all the very best.

[Krill]

I just saw this thread.

Sorry to see you go Charriu, you've given a lot to the community and I thank you for that.

I wish you the best for the future, and I hope our paths cross again

[pindicator]

Dang, just saw this as well. You've been a major contributor and asset to this community and I've loved bouncing ideas off you here. Hope you pop in from time to time to say hello.

You will be missed!

[RefSteel]

Thanks so much for everything you've said and done here, Charriu! I'll definitely miss seeing your posts here, and your creations have done amazing things for the game - including making many types of gameplay viable that weren't before in MP, even though they weren't able to introduce the full range of variation in gameplay you hoped to see. Even outside the games you see here I played (just for instance) a single-player CtH game as Catherine of Russia recently with an Enlightenment variant (including No Slavery Ever and never starting a war, among other things) playing as though it were a scored Adventure from the old days before the site became all about MP, and it was a delight, especially because of things that would never have been possible in single-player BtS. Thanks (again) for adding so much to this beloved old game!