Hi LeaderEnemyBoss, first of all I am kind of obsessed with the AI, again... Let me know how I can contact you to help and coordinate in this project development.

More side things I have noticed in more testing. I am making some guesswork of how the AI difficulty bonuses really affect the AI.

- Settled urkan don't get new resources recently discovered though techs, you must reload game or resettle to get access to them.

- Mod order doesn't apply properly when you load a modded saved game without explicitly loading the mods first, aplies another load order and could mess things up.

- Urkan and Lices do not gain passive XP per turn while the urkan is on settler mode, that's intended design?

- AI doesn't select any initial tech research on turn 1 (could be OK if the AI didn't settle on turn 1), also they go to initial colonize with the entire army.

- For some strange reason, national buildings cost 0 industry for the AI on impossible, also cost less than normal buildings on serious. Maybe the indrustry discount is applied twice.

- Sometimes strategic gains from skyfin leech not going up in the tooltip counter.

Ninakoru wrote:

- For some strange reason, national buildings cost 0 industry for the AI on impossible, also cost less than normal buildings on serious. Maybe the indrustry discount is applied twice.

Found this one out:

All National Buildings have both Category="CategoryNationalBuilding" attribute and <CostReductionReference Name="DistrictImprovementWithAIBonus"/>.

Now check this out at the CostReductions.xml:

<CostReduction Name="CategoryNationalBuilding">
<Reduction PropertyName="GameSpeedProductionCostReduction" Type="Production" Priority="1"/>
<Reduction PropertyName="AIBuildingProductionCostReduction" Type="Production" Priority="2"/>
<Reduction PropertyName="AIBuildingBuyoutCostReduction" Type="Buyout" Priority="2"/>
<Reduction PropertyName="BuildingProductionCostReduction" Type="Production" Priority="3"/>
<Reduction PropertyName="BuildingBuyoutReduction" Type="Buyout"/>
  </CostReduction>

<CostReduction Name="DistrictImprovementWithAIBonus">
<Reduction PropertyName="AIBuildingProductionCostReduction" Type="Production" Priority="2"/>
<Reduction PropertyName="AIBuildingBuyoutCostReduction" Type="Buyout" Priority="2"/>
</CostReduction

Removing the AI related stuff on the CategoryNationalBuilding makes it work as intended. I just tested it briefly with an impossible difficulty game.

LeaderEnemyBoss wrote:

Shadowhal wrote:

Wild Walkers - Turn 154.savNot sure if it's a bug or intended, but ...

the militia in one of my sieged cities refuses to participate in the relief battle. I had two regular units garrisoned on the sieged city. I created an army to attack the sieging units, but the militia doesn't join the battle. Is that intended behaviour? I seemed to recall they normally would.

You have the "no reinforcements" winter effect active in your save ;).

I also encountered some funny other instances where armies that should still have action points left don't show up as possible reinforcements. And of strangely quickly replenishing enemy milita. I think I had to kill off a supporting towns militia three times in three turns to conquer the city. And even then, I only managed because I didn't commit the whole army to the battle, but left a unit to conquer after the "main" battle in the same turn.

Do these sound familiar? I can dig out some save games if needed. I don't think I have quite the latest version of the ELCP.

There have been very little changes to reinforcements in ELCP. All these instances can probably explained by season effects or maybe other things (else: save or it didnt happen :p). As for Militia replenishing: they do that if you dont besiege the city. Always besiege the city ;).

You are of course right. Sorry for having bothered you. It dawned me earlier today that it might be some winter effect. It's not a mechanism I engage with all that much normally and I keep forgetting that it can things other than give yield debuffs.

Funnily enough the winter ends pretty much the turn after the uploaded save. Just long enough for me to exploit it and the AIs sillily divded army.

One other thing I noticed again: why are roaming Fomorian armies so often (heavily) damaged? Is it because they ignore the penalties of lightening tiles and incur damage. That sometimes reduces them to cannon/xp fodder for my navies.

Oh, and of course, thanks for your continued support. You're the best and I look forward to the upcoming fixes. I too sometimes encountered army-less heroes.

Found another bug, this one comes from the vanilla game.

In all the handicaps the AI gets on higher difficulties, there's a cut in city upkeep, the property is set against the empire itself, instead of the cities, with the result of not working at all.

To fix it, head to Public/Simulation/SimulationDescriptors[GameDifficultyBonus].xml

TotalCityMoneyUpkeep should target at "ClassEmpire/ClassCity" instead of "EmpireTypeMajor".

Not a big deal, this upkeep cost usually represents a small percent of empire dust expenses, just to keep things working as intended.

@Ninakoru

Thanks for the bug reports. The first one will be fixed, the second one ... Im not sure if further AI buffs are necessary in ELCP(even if it is technically intended behavior). As for some of the other things you noticed: I may look into them, but I also have only a limited amount of time right now. If you want to contact me more directly, you can always join our channel (and maybe our beta tester team). :) 

LeaderEnemyBoss wrote:

@Ninakoru

Thanks for the bug reports. The first one will be fixed, the second one ... Im not sure if further AI buffs are necessary in ELCP(even if it is technically intended behavior). 

I think, best way is fix all bugs like that, even if it give AI more power. Than carefully set up difficulty level to avoid too big difference gaps. 

For example, "normal" allow human player to win due AI have a changed settings that did not allow him to use full power. At Hard, AI use full power, but still not got any extra resources and so on, next level is same, but AI got some extra resources and so on. Maximum unit cap also can be used to ajust difficulty level.

So, if you find a bug, better to fix it. If that bug affect AI power too much, just change another settings to compensate it.

Hey everyone, ELCP is back! Remember to join my [Discord Channel], if you want to have a chat. Further information for newcomers in the [official forum thread].

About a year ago I released the first version of ELCP. The changes were tame back then, most of my time was spent figuring out how to do stuff. Since then the patch has grown enormously, I got help from other community members* and I think I can finally say, that most of the things I wanted to achieve are now part of ELCP. Over the year I have received a lot of feedback, most of it positive. I currently estimate the userbase to be somewhere between 1500 and 2500**^. For a small community like EL this is quite a feat, and I wanted to take this opportunity to thank you, the users. Without you, this wouldn't have been possible.

As for ELCP's future: I consider the mod as mostly finished. I still have some minor ideas left, however I doubt there will be more huge patches like this one. Currently I am a bit burnt out with EL, but who knows, maybe you will see my name again, be it in EL or in another game.

As for the new changes: The Mykara received another round of tweaks. The most prominent one being the changes to how their Towers work. Mykara Towers can now exploit additional hexes early on, this should provide them a smoother growth curve. On the other hand I fixed a bug that could massively inflate their lategame FISDI gain. We will see how fixing this bug plays out, maybe they'll need another compensatory buff.

In other news, handicaps can now also be assigned to AIs. I have received a lot of feedback, that boils down to "normal difficulty is too easy, but hard is too difficult, halp!". With the ability to assign positive or negative handicaps to individual AIs, you can now finetune the difficulty to your liking!
 

* Shoutout to fellow modders Morgoth, Ninakoru, Cornebre/GATC, Fluffiest, CeltiK and also to the regular beta testers jojo_Fr, HighLordGrim, VoidInsanity, Soulinor and many more (sorry, I probably forgot someone). Special shoutout to the youtuber SB, his instructional videos helped shape the mod in numerous ways.

** The largest userbases come from USA (obviously), Germany and .... Canada? In relation to their population count Canadians love ELCP! Must be the affinity for cold climates!

Downloadlink (Installer) || Downloadlink (Zip) || Downloadlink (Mac)

Note: Multiplayer saves from older versions are not compatible with newer versions (Singleplayer saves are fine)

Changelog for v2.4.1:

General

• Handicaps can now also be assigned to AI opponents in order to finetune their difficulty (Note: Negative handicaps on AI disable achievements)
• Canceling/Destroying Blooms that are still under construction now reimburses the pearl cost spent
• Fungal Blooms can no longer be dismantled during Truce
• Fixed a bug where Fungal Bloom simulation descriptors got copied to their base PointOfInterest during reload
  • In less technical terms this caused inacurate fungal bloom food cost display and also caused dust cost of eclipse buyout to be too expensive
• Fixed the reduced Mercenary and Hero cost winter effect not working at all (thanks jojo)
• It is no longer possible to transfer Units from an Army to a besieged City when the Army is outside the City -Exception: When the Army has a Hero with the Escape Artist skill, it still works
• Cargo Docks can no longer be build on Inland Water tiles to prevent weird issues with land roads being generated over water tiles
• Adressed another instance of the AI locking up (thanks The Numi)
• Overgrown Villages can no longer be dissented (similar to converted Villages, done to prevent a bug that rendered these villages unusable)
• Fixed an issue where Quest-Armies killing themselves in lava rivers would render the corresponding Quest uncompletable
• Flying units can no longer embark down cliffs (done to prevent an issue where Flyers could inadvertendly embark into small ponds without shore lines, leaving them trapped)
• Fixed a Bug were the game didnt count the Number of owned Cities correctly, leading to the Mykara's Kernel of Plentitude producing WAY more FISDI than it should (we are speaking about values between 2x-15x of the intended value)
• Fixed some issues where Mykara Towers didnt upgrade correctly when researching the necessary technology
• Fixed AIs being able to attack your Urkans when at peace ... for real now!
• Converting a Village in a Region owned by a wild Urkan is no longer 50% more expensive
• Settled Urkans and their garrisoned Units now correctly receive passive XP per turn (thanks Ninakoru)
• Urkan Resource gathering is now correctly updated if new resources show up in their region due to the player advancing an era (thanks Ninakoru)

UI

• Fungal Blooms now display the correct pearl cost when being constructed (they didnt account for pearl cost reduction of governors)
• Using teleport abilities now correctly updates the idle Army buttons

Balance [XML]

• The "Manual Labor" Quest now only requires 2 Titanium and 1 Glassteel to complete (a delvers unit is still required though)
• Pixie Blood now increases the Regeneration of units in owned territory by 15% instead of increasing it by 20% but only in Cities
• Mercenaries now scale with the highest reached era instead of game time to make them more useful for fast teching players
• The level of Heros on the Market is now somewhat randomized depending on the highest reached Era, you may encounter higher level Heros earlier as a result
• Winter effects that affect resource gathering are now halfed for Mykara
• Increased the bonus Industry of Organic Industry from 10% to 15% (also affects Mykara-Symbiosis trait)
• Fungal Blooms on Villages now require 4/4 turns to build/destroy
• The Urkan Encampment Technology now also grants +5 Max Unit Slots and +2 Reinforcement positions on Urkans
• Reworked Mykara Towers to make them more valuable before Era 5
  • Fungal Blooms on Towers require 2 turns less to build across the board; Dismantle time is equivalent to build time
  • Towers can now grant a "+Hex" effect; "+1 Hex" means, one additional hex is exploited
  • Tower prioritize high FISDI and food tiles for exploitation
  • Era2 Towers now have "+1 Hex", Era3 Towers "+3 Hex", Era5 Towers "+6 Hex" (the same as before)
  • Winter1 Towers have "+2 Hex", Winter3 Towers have "+6 Hex" (same as before)
• Allayi Symbiosis now also grants vision of Pearl Clusters in the Fog of War
• Roving Clans Symbiosis now grants a 50% Dust and Science Bonus on Trade Routes
• Ardent Mage Symbiosis now adds +5 Inluence per owned City to the Main City instead of adding +5 Influence to all owned Cities
  • This is done in order to ensure, that overgrown Cities work with this trait, which they didn't before
• Drakken Symbiosis now reduces the food cost inflation for Fungal Blooms on Villages by 50%
  • In practice this almost halves the food cost for blooming Villages
  • Dust Cost for buying out Blooms on Villages is also reduced by 50%
• Buffed several defensive buildings in order to improve defensive play and make rarily seen defensive techs more attractive
  • Reduced the Production Cost of the following buildings by 50%, additionally these buildings no longer require Strategic Resources and their Dust Upkeep has been removed: Medical Center, Bells and Whistles, National Military College, Razor Palisades
  • Reduced the Production Cost of the following buildings by 25%: Materials Hoard, Imperial Kennels, Military Reserves
• For Custom Factions, ALL Faction Traits (positive and negative!) that modify the FISDI on specific tiles now also affect Fungal Blooms

AI

• Gave the Mykara and (to a lesser extend) the Cultist AI difficulty appropiate reductions to Fungal Bloom Construction/Village Conversion, so they have an easier time keeping up in higher difficulties
• Improved Mykara's scouting AI once more
• Mykara will prioritize their own heros as governors
• Reworked blooming AI, they should be better at prioritizing more important blooms (resources, towers)
• Reworked the Assimilation AI, AIs take Assimilations bonuses into account now, and can switch assimilations midgame if the situation demands it
• Improved the Empire-Plan-AI a bit, Science-And-Industry will be chosen more often, Empire-And-Expansion less so
• The AI will now dispatch designated troops to search eclipse ruins
• Made the AI less likely to give away (multiple) cities during peace talks depending on their current situation (thanks Changlini)
• Improved Roving Clans Victory Notification reaction, they should be better at directing their privateers at enemies that are winning
• Improved AI decision making when it comes to building the Victory Wonder (better city selection, will try to finish industry buildings and equip industry tomes)
• AIs now start researching on Turn 1
• Fixed some rare "passivity" AI issues that could occur for players without the Symbiosis or the Shadows DLC
• Fixed some issues with AIs being unable to move around enemy units they dont want to attack
• Fixed some issues with the Catspaw-AI, catspawed units should no longer sit around passively
• Readjusted several xml values with the help of Ninakoru
• Fixed AI building cost reduction being applied twice to National Wonders - whoops! (thanks Ninakoru)
• Fixed AI difficulty bonus to City Upkeep not being correctly applied (thanks Ninakoru)
• Stockpiles should no longer take precedence over other constructions already in a citie's queue

Modding

• Added a global Tag "#ELCP" that mods can use to detect, whether ELCP is active
• AIs will recognize units with the resettle ability as settlers and use them accordingly (used by GATC's FCFCitylords)
• Army Debugger is now displayed correctly for catspawed Armies

Thanks a lot Leader.

As always, smart and useful moves.

Yeah, ELCP is mostly finished, and it's a masterpiece !

I guess the major game changer features were, and are :

- Army animation speed X4 (great in MP).

- Fortification Mod (make defense easier over aggressive playstyle).
- Slight but precise faction rebalance (like Kapaku nerf and Mykara buff).

Every player shoud play the mod.  :)

Cheers for all the hard work.

Jojo_Fr wrote:

Thanks a lot Leader.

As always, smart and useful moves.

Yeah, ELCP is mostly finished, and it's a masterpiece !

I guess the major game changer features were, and are :

- Army animation speed X4 (great in MP).

- Fortification Mod (make defense easier over aggressive playstyle).
- Slight but precise faction rebalance (like Kapaku nerf and Mykara buff).

Every player shoud play the mod.  :)

I agree that no one should be playing EL without it! Awesome work!

Thank you LeaderEnemyBoss, you are awesome!

Great work guys, especially LeaderEnemyBoss. Impressive patch!!

The problem is that now that AI uses the game resources much better using Empire Plans, growing their cities, using Luxuries, better city building, proper army gearing and managing, the vanilla difficulty bonuses are way too high.

The two most OP bonuses are industry/buyout: On Impossible AI gets 50% industry discount on buildings, 60% industry discount on units, and 50% buyout discount on top of that, keep in mind buyout cost is already tied to industry cost.

So they spam units and buildings like there's no tomorrow. By the time you end up two basic buildings, AI already has maybe two cities filled with 4-5 basic buildings, 6-8 units and going for era 2 by turn 15-17.

So Serious difficulty is between Impossible-Endless difficulty on vanilla, Impossible is harder than Endless Vanilla, Endless is quite absurd with ELCP.

I am updating my old Improved AI mod, next in line is to make a new difficulty mod that will spread AI bonuses more gradually between difficulties and covering more aspects instead of a focus on OP Industry/Buyout (and to a lesser extent OP Approval).

Too high to whom? I personally feel quite comfortable on impossible (that means I win some, I lose some), and I know of a few hardcore players, that like the nastiness of ELCP Endless. So I will probably keep everything as it is, there is no shame in going down with difficulty. Ofcourse external mods can do with the difficulty whatever they like.

Well that's nice that you guys have professional diferences but that really doesn't answer my question.

All I wanted to know is how the % values of handicapping interact with the difficulty levels. Do they override or work alongside each other?

Slashman wrote:

Well that's nice that you guys have professional diferences but that really doesn't answer my question.

All I wanted to know is how the % values of handicapping interact with the difficulty levels. Do they override or work alongside each other?

Handicap modifiers have a low priority and are therefore calculated AFTER most difficulty modifiers. So a +5% handicap on hard grants a bigger bonus than a +5% handicap on normal

Aha! OK thanks!

LeaderEnemyBoss wrote:

Too high to whom? I personally feel quite comfortable on impossible (that means I win some, I lose some), and I know of a few hardcore players, that like the nastiness of ELCP Endless. So I will probably keep everything as it is, there is no shame in going down with difficulty. Ofcourse external mods can do with the difficulty whatever they like.

I am in the same place, I can handle Impossible if I focus on a victory and unless some AI goes totally runaway out of control.

Yeah is up to you, I will show you the changes in detail when I have finished my mod anyways.

The idea was to make it compatible with the ELCP variables unless you wanted to add it to the CP core.

Anyways if the difficulty was balanced a bit, those hardcore players still have the Handicap for their masochist experience ^^