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[MOD] Insane-Abundant Balance Mod

naselus

Join Date 10/2006

+146

[MOD] Insane-Abundant Balance Mod

Insane Abundant Balance Mod

A mod designed around balancing the game for large maps with many planets.

Features:

* Massive AI work, to make the AI more competitive even on normal difficulty.

* Replaces Large Empire Penalty with stacking maintenance costs.

* Reworks the balance between 'wide' and 'tall' empires to make planet-grabbing less important, smaller empires more capable of competing with large ones.

* Fixes sensor stacking and engine stacking.

* Includes dozens of bug fixes

* Trade and Tourism more valuable

* Diplomacy less exploitable

* Ship blueprints improved

Install Instructions:

Just extract the .zip file to your My documents\my games\galcvi3\mods folder, then start the game. Activate mods by going into the Options meun, selecting the Gameplay tab, and turning on the 'Enable Mods' checkbox, then restart your game. To check it's working, just start a new game. If the minor races are listed as playable factions, then the mod is working.

Current Version:

1.7.1 for GC3 1.7

Latest version download link available at:

http://www.nexusmods.com/galacticcivilizations3/mods/13/?

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maniakos
Stalker0
DARCA1213

Quoting a0152570,

reply 500

Quoting naselus,

reply 499

but as you tweak engines it may further throw out the balance with tiny fighters stationed on carriers. The fact that they don't inherently need engines makes them pretty effective for their size (allowing all space to be weapons and defense).

I am confused, as fighters do not use engines, how would tweaking engines through out the balance?

Just the relative power of a ship that requires no engines dedicated to only attack and defense.

Ie Fighters use tiny hulls and have roughly 40 space (all weapons and defense due to no engines)

small ship has roughly 60 space but now have are dedicated to engines (if naselus uses the 50% engine model) so only 30 space for weapons and defense

Medium has roughly 80-90 space, but 40-45 space is dedicated to engines with only 40-45 space left over for weapons, making it roughly comparable spacewise to what the fighter can carry in terms of raw firepower/defense.

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Another balance thought I had was the doubling factor of weapons / defense. Each tech does double the throughput of the component, making situations where a ship with 1 tech higher vastly outguns and is mostly invulnerable to a ship with 1 less level in overall technology. The lesser tech ship is 4 times less effective at 2 tech levels of difference, making fights with out teched units a complete roll over.

Perhaps each tech level shouldn't always double a components effectiveness? It might make all those older ships the AI likes to run around with more of a threat, and make the lesser powers more relevant.

Right now the game snowballs pretty hard, and once you get a good head of steam going you have so much more power than someone who is just behind you, and even more so as the gap widens.

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They don't double every time. Kinetics increase by 1 point, lasers by 2 and missiles by 3 for each level, so while differences are bigger at low tech they're much less impressive later in the game.

I think there's more of an issue with the AI being too fond of military tech, at the expense of everything else tbh. It's running around with obsolete ships because it's not able to build newer ones quickly enough, and it starts building up it's fleet a little early - impacting on it's industrial potential later in the game.

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Icemaniaa

Join Date 04/2010

+14

@Syntax_VI, given your previous comments I'm going to give a slow pacing game a try. Just won on Turn 237 on Incredible with a Research victory which seems to come well before other victory conditions become practical.

@Naselus, apart from a focus on terraforming, the other area where the AI still struggles is using large fleets which are at or near maximum logistics. A lot of the time in wars you can pick off small enemy fleets with no risk and face just the odd large fleet. Can this be modded or is it hard coded?

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Partly that's bugged in the hardcode. The AI seems reluctant to fleet sensibly with about 80% of it's forces.

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Quoting naselus,

reply 506

The AI seems reluctant to fleet sensibly with about 80% of it's forces.

Hopefully 1.4 will show a big improvement. Do you expect a lot of your mod rework with 14 AI changes? (i know it would be only a guess)

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Probably not tbh. It usually only boils down to a few dozen lines of xml difference to get it working again.

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Quoting Syntax_VI,

reply 486

Naselus, do you have any control how the AI views military power? It's such a big deal in diplomacy, and I really don't understand how the AI determines I am ripe for conquest. Late game its not such an issue, but I always find that even if I'm the toughest kid on the block the AI thinks i'm weakest.

They must be calculating something in their score that doesn't make sense. I read in another thread that they counted shipyards towards their military power, and since the AI and the player use this system in a fundamentally different way (players groups planets together for one powerful shipyard, AI builds one in each system). Not sure if this is still the case?

This is one that I'm currently rather interested to find myself, tbh. I *know* the values that I've given it in GalCiv3GlobalDefs seem to have some kind of impact... but I also don't think it's the only thing impacting. I'm gonna see what happens if I reduce everything to 0.

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Playing your great mod with a few changes to speed and starbases on the largest map. Still really early but very happy with the way things are going. I'm using very slow research and slow production. I also have teh AI set to the one below godlike. I removed FOW to check on things and all but 2 of the 18 AI's are doing as well as expected. These were former minors and for whatever reason they haven't done much to really colonize or expand. I'm just below the middle in research but I wasn't too lucky with planet types so that might have something to do with it.

As for speed the small ships and colony ships with Ion drives are moving at 15-17 speed which is great right now. Have to wait to see how the big hulls with better tech engines operate. I increased the coverage of SB's and their exclusion zones while also buffing then. The AI seems to do very well in placement. The only difference is we humans setup colonies and SB's from the outside in and the AI does it from nearby to farther away. But that is game restricted.

I did tone down most resources and especially anomalies as these are mainly a human benefit as the AI skips those with pirates. Resources seem to be nicely placed and the AI with the larger SB range is getting their fair share for sure. I tend to research the terraforming and trade them for other techs so its too early to know if the AI is handling that properly.

One last thing I did was to lower maintenance cost on ships, especially the small and tiny ones. I don't build that many so early anyway so I think this is an AI buff. They overbuild which hurts them economically. I kept the bigger hulls the same cost but slightly lowered medium hulls. So the empires with more military stances aren't spending as much money in upkeep as before.

I'm really hoping this turns into a great game both mid and late. I know my style isn't the same as others but your mod really helped to get a game that I think will work perfectly for me.

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Next thing you need to do is mod the AI strategies Then release the lot as a mod for players using sparser settings.

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Updated to 1.3.4:

1.3.4

* Added a global scope to hyperion logistics system.
* Hyperion Shipyard now gives +100% military manu for the planet it's built on.
* All defenses now have a flat Mass of 2.
* AI builds more transports when at war.
* Removed min relations requirements for treaties.
* Tweaked AI's willingness to accept said treaties.
* Hyperion buildings now correctly target ships.
* Basic Carrier modules are now only 35 mass (down from 50), but only carry 1 fighter each.
* Escort carrier module now carry 1 of each type of fighter, weighs 100 mass.
* Reworked battle behaviour and class calculations:
* Missiles and carrier modules now give Value, Kintetics Fortitude and lasers Threat.
* High-Threat ships now target high-value first. High-value tend to target high-fortitude. And high fortitude now target high threat.
* Fortitude removed from all defenses, value removed from engines and things.
* Simplified entire automatic role assignment process so I can control the AI's role decisions more easily.
* Reworked Difficulty:
*AI suffers -20% production at Beginner and -10% at Easy
*Gifted AI now has +10% production and growth and -10% maintenance. This bonus then doubles with every extra level of difficulty.
*Genius and above also get +5 per level logistics bonus
* No freebies or magic stuff for the AI on any level, just production, growth, logisitcs and maintenance modifiers.
* Engine bonuses reduced to +0.5 moves per engine per level (from +1 moves per engine per level). Starts at 1 move per engine for hyperdrive, to avoid slowing down early game.
* Tweaked AI tech weights on strategies to make them a little more keen on growth in the mid-game.
* AI generally keener on Terraforming techs; moved higher=level terraforming tech to Age of Ascension.
* Adjusted scores, in the hopes of making the AI understand when it's military sucks.

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Icemaniaa

Join Date 04/2010

+14

A great list of changes Naselus, particularly the end of AI freebies ... !

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Great to see the next set of changes, will try to start a new game soon (previous is too much fun for now), though I'm still not too sure about defenses.

On that note do you have any control over how defenses work? IE Shields have no effect on Kinenitcs or Missles and so on. Would be nice if they were at least partially effective rather than useless.

Also, working after your previous version the Drengin tech Homage unlocks the 'Temple of Strength' but nothing actually unlocks with that tech (no new buildings).

EDIT: When you say removed all other bonuses, do the higher level AI's still have the fog of war removed?

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Protien re sequencing (also in the drengin tech) doesn't seem to do anything either (references unlocking a protein sequencing farm but none are made available).

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If anyone else has a game that has gone late, can turn on god mode (console + type the word 'god') can you check to see if the AI has built up Iconia or not?

Not sure if this pertains strictly to the Yor, or any race that uses Iconia type planet as their homeworld.

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Naselus

Got a real hoot and enjoyed your comments wrt micro over in the “I have seen the furure…: post.

Prompted me ask this about your mod and SB micro. I made this change to the default constructor:

<RequiredComponentType>ConstructionModule</RequiredComponentType>

<ComponentType>ConstructionModule</ComponentType>

<ComponentType>InterstellarDrive</ComponentType>

<FillerComponentType>ConstructionModule</FillerComponentType>

<FillerComponentType>InterstellarDrive</FillerComponentType>

<FillerComponentType>ConstructionModule</FillerComponentType>

Its stripped but for construction mods and engines. Starts with 2 modules but is slow, speeds up quickly as you progress and best of all it is what is summoned by a starbase request. If a player needs/wants a long range fast constructor, he designs one. Which typically we all always do because the default sucks.

This mod has really taken the pain out of constructor spam/base upgrading .. at least for me.

So just wondering why you don’t do something similar in your mod?

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I did:

<ShipBlueprint>
<InternalName>ConstructorBlueprint</InternalName>
<ShipHullType>Cargo</ShipHullType>
<Role>Support</Role>
<RequiredComponentType>ConstructionModule</RequiredComponentType>
<ComponentType>LifeSupport</ComponentType>
<ComponentType>InterstellarDrive</ComponentType>
<ComponentType>InterstellarDrive</ComponentType>
<ComponentType>InterstellarDrive</ComponentType>
<ComponentType>InterstellarDrive</ComponentType>
<ComponentType>Sensor</ComponentType>
<ComponentType>Sensor</ComponentType>
<FillerComponentType>ConstructionModule</FillerComponentType>
<FillerComponentType>InterstellarDrive</FillerComponentType>
<FillerComponentType>Sensor</FillerComponentType>
<FillerComponentType>LifeSupport</FillerComponentType>
</ShipBlueprint>

You might want to give them some sensors. On difficulties where the AI has FoW, they benefit a lot from sensors on constructor and colony ships.

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My mistake, I took on look and saw the life support and assumed it was standard and put my change in. I prefer to use the default 99% just for starbase upgrades (via the request button) When i need a LR/fast one i make it, after it done its thing, i'm back to the default which concentrates just on C Mods. I get your point on sensors as i have used LR constructors as scouts ready to capture resources. But typically my faster/LR scout ships find the stuff and then i send out the constructor,

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Quoting a0152570,

reply 519

Yeah, it's more about the AI doing it than for the player tbh; it seems to colonize much more effectively on normal and below if it has them.

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Hmm, I just assumed that when you made all the defense equal the same mass that you were adjusting defensive values accordingly, or did I miss something? Seems like the same defense values are there, but just the mass has been reduced. Wouldn't this make Point defense the most effective, shields next, and armor pretty bad now? (seeing as how armor defense values stayed the same/as did defense, whereas PD and Shields just got substantially lighter) Or does everything mathematically balance now?

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I think it balances now. Remember that PD needs to stand up to 3 times as much firepower as armour per hit. I'm not sure though; it's extremely complex because of the variable DPS of various things. Go, play test, find out

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Quoting Syntax_VI,

reply 516

Odd bit of behavior I observed after checking my first game with your mod, and just running a soak with your latest version: The Yor and their home planet Iconia, I have observed that the AI *does* terraform this planet, but in both version (1.2xx and now 1.34) the AI doesn't actually build anything on the new tiles. Leaving Iconia mostly empty.

If anyone else has a game that has gone late, can turn on god mode (console + type the word 'god') can you check to see if the AI has built up Iconia or not?

Not sure if this pertains strictly to the Yor, or any race that uses Iconia type planet as their homeworld.

Iconia was built up in a game I was playing. And they were very far ahead of everyone else.

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interesting RE Iconia, I'll keep an eye on it i guess, though I hardly ever play with the stock races anymore (so no Yor).

One potential bug I just noticed is to do with starbase carrier modules. They used to give 5 interceptor drones, then the Assault upgrade did *something* though I couldn't figure out what.

In any case I just installed them on various starbases (waited the turn for completion) and decided to see what the difference was. None of my starbases got any additional fighters from either of the two modules.

This module did work AFAIK in the previous version of the mod. Can anyone else confirm?

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Treaties seem pretty easy to get now. I can offer an Alliance to someone who is Furious with me and they will accept it. Not sure if it is a two treaty like the others are? Non aggression pacts are also almost 100% likely to succeed (again i'm not sure if this one is two sided either). The only time the AI doesn't want to accept my treaties is usually if I'm at war. Mind you my score is quite a bit higher than any of the dozen+ empires i'm in contact with so that may be influencing things.

I didn't notice any boosts from signing mutual free trade agreements with various powers, even when we both traded for it (free trade on each side). I did see the AI's power ranking shoot up (i think) but could not see any bump on my side (I wrote down the tech / economy numbers before hand, and also checked tool tips on individual colonies).

I used to never even have the option to trade these agreements (only give them) so I'm not sure how it is supposed to work. Its certainly nice to actually have the ability to make treaties with the AI, as I could never get relations high enough prior to even have the option past open borders and the occasional NAP, but it may need tweaking.

Also, when I set AI's up as teammates in the game, they do start allied, but being at war with one doesn't seem to mean you will be at war with the other. Not sure how its supposed to work in Vanilla.

Not really seeing any evidence of the AI terraforming to any degree. I've checked powers that have the same science as me and no dice, they are not researching it nor are they building it on planets (or at least they still ave planets available terraforming tiles 250 turns into the game, and havent researched the tech either).

For now I've just made a house rule to not research past the 2nd level of the tech tree to try to keep on even footing with the AI.

AI also does not seem to build its Hyperion buildings, which puts it at a pretty big disadvantage.

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Icemaniaa

Join Date 04/2010

+14

Incredible on the latest version certainly seems a lot easier. I'm playing Very Slow Pacing & Research and at Turn 194 my power score is 6 times higher than the nearest AI. Maybe it's the lack of freebies in which case the bonuses may need to be higher but then again once 1.4 hit it might be just about right!

https://www.dropbox.com/s/9ttyk5rapst2e5p/Naselus%20Very%20Slow%20Incredible%20Turn%20194.png?dl=0

Agree with Syntax on treaties, there isn't a single race that I can't form an Alliance with and get an instant Alliance victory. Also agree with Syntax on AI terraforming.

The AI is still struggling to build fleet properly using it's logistic capacity.

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