First off, I must say that the game I am playing today is incredibly improved compared to the old 1.00. Mainly, unit types and terrain effects on combat/attrition are now sensible and the AI is much tougher; both on the operational and strategic levels.
The latest patch brought about a dramatic increase in difficulty for expansionistic players. No longer is rapid expansion possible, but IMO there are some general balance issues left to address.
1) Every province taken, every annexation, every war declared, plunges your relations with all other nations by frightening amounts; and they never rise again! (except very slowly for friendly nations and unless you give them money). By the time things are finally looking up for you, all of your neighbors will start attacking you and won't let up until you are pulverized. This is unrealistic and it detracts from the overall fun.
I propose a radical redesign of the diplomatic relations model, where all relations slowly return to 0 over time (say, 4 points per year). For each diplomatic action the relations are modified depending on your basic friendliness with the other nations. Furthermore, I don't think you should be so greatly penalized for winning wars of self-defense. Lastly, on the 'normal' aggressiveness level, the AI should not react differently to human and other AI aggression.
2) Certain events occur too often, and others too seldom.
2a) Fewer manufactories gained/destroyed in fire. These events happen way too often. Saving money to build a manufactory is a major investment, and losing it in a random fire is murder.
2b) More explorers. Nations with no historical explorers are inevitably going to stall in their development due to lack of income. This is especially true after the 1.06 research balancing. Gaining random explorers should be a common event until sea tech 11 is reached. It should be dependent on the number of ports in the nation and the number of existing explorers.
2c) Conversion of heretics should be more common; certainly a lot more common than the opposite. It is to be assumed that a low level of government sanctioned conversion is always going on.
3) This is unconfirmed, and perhaps more of a bug than a balance issue, but Sweden never seems to get a COT in the Grand Campaign despite having one in later campaigns. This is worth looking into. Also, if Denmark does better than Sweden and Sweden does not have a COT, Denmark should get one. Lastly, on the subject of COTs, shouldn't the Holstein/Hamburg COT really be located in Mecklemburg/Lubeck instead?
/Doomie
[This message has been edited by Doomdark (edited 22-01-2001).]
The latest patch brought about a dramatic increase in difficulty for expansionistic players. No longer is rapid expansion possible, but IMO there are some general balance issues left to address.
1) Every province taken, every annexation, every war declared, plunges your relations with all other nations by frightening amounts; and they never rise again! (except very slowly for friendly nations and unless you give them money). By the time things are finally looking up for you, all of your neighbors will start attacking you and won't let up until you are pulverized. This is unrealistic and it detracts from the overall fun.
I propose a radical redesign of the diplomatic relations model, where all relations slowly return to 0 over time (say, 4 points per year). For each diplomatic action the relations are modified depending on your basic friendliness with the other nations. Furthermore, I don't think you should be so greatly penalized for winning wars of self-defense. Lastly, on the 'normal' aggressiveness level, the AI should not react differently to human and other AI aggression.
2) Certain events occur too often, and others too seldom.
2a) Fewer manufactories gained/destroyed in fire. These events happen way too often. Saving money to build a manufactory is a major investment, and losing it in a random fire is murder.
2b) More explorers. Nations with no historical explorers are inevitably going to stall in their development due to lack of income. This is especially true after the 1.06 research balancing. Gaining random explorers should be a common event until sea tech 11 is reached. It should be dependent on the number of ports in the nation and the number of existing explorers.
2c) Conversion of heretics should be more common; certainly a lot more common than the opposite. It is to be assumed that a low level of government sanctioned conversion is always going on.
3) This is unconfirmed, and perhaps more of a bug than a balance issue, but Sweden never seems to get a COT in the Grand Campaign despite having one in later campaigns. This is worth looking into. Also, if Denmark does better than Sweden and Sweden does not have a COT, Denmark should get one. Lastly, on the subject of COTs, shouldn't the Holstein/Hamburg COT really be located in Mecklemburg/Lubeck instead?
/Doomie
[This message has been edited by Doomdark (edited 22-01-2001).]
