Alternate Naval Mod Idea

[dhague]

Prior threads (here and TWcenter) suggest a partial fix for the AI "Ship-Spam" problem by adjusting build/support costs. I just got through two complete games trying another solution.

I adjusted the port-building tech levels to city for port, large_city for shipwright, and huge_city for dockyard. AI ship levels seemed to be much more "reasonable". I surmise that (by the time ships can be built by the AI) there is enough competition from other high-level unit priorities to limit ship building. I did see more high-level units in AI armies by midgame than without this change.

The only problem was trade income reduction for town level settlements. Perhaps a better fix would be a 4-level port_building where the first level just got a trade fleet and only the higher levels got warship building plus more trade fleets. Also, it would seem appropriate to adjust the number of each factions "starting ships" as a balance issue.

Comments are sought and welcome.

[Turbo]

Prior threads (here and TWcenter) suggest a partial fix for the AI "Ship-Spam" problem by adjusting build/support costs. I just got through two complete games trying another solution.

I adjusted the port-building tech levels to city for port, large_city for shipwright, and huge_city for dockyard. AI ship levels seemed to be much more "reasonable". I surmise that (by the time ships can be built by the AI) there is enough competition from other high-level unit priorities to limit ship building. I did see more high-level units in AI armies by midgame than without this change.

The only problem was trade income reduction for town level settlements. Perhaps a better fix would be a 4-level port_building where the first level just got a trade fleet and only the higher levels got warship building plus more trade fleets. Also, it would seem appropriate to adjust the number of each factions "starting ships" as a balance issue.

Comments are sought and welcome.

My solution was similar. I removed the ships from the first port level build. Aside from more advanced units being built, I noticed that Carthage and the Greekstates actually started building land units instead of cranking out ship after ship.

[dhague]

Update for completeness: I did implement a 4-level "port_buildings tech tree" with "docks" being the lowest level at large_town (trade fleet only, no warships). Then I copied and renamed the "barbarian port TGA-s" in the appropriate faction \UI\faction\BUILDINGS and \UI\faction\BUILDINGS\CONSTRUCTION directories and added the appropriate text descriptions. RTW accepted my changes. From testing, the AI seemed perfectly happy with building "docks" prior to "ports". Large towns got the appropriate trade income. The AI ship levels looked reasonable and the AI was still generating more high-level units by midgame. Looks like a success to me (at least until the forthcoming CA Patch resets all of our tricks).