Balance/corrective mod for Rise of Rome by Chab.
I developed this mod with AGE3.
Once extracted, this file should be renamed to "empires.dat" and put into the "data2" folder.
BACKUP your original file !
FEATURES :
*** Fixed All technologies ***
All technologies tech tree no longer disables naval ram (use CustomROR to fix icon issue and make naval ram available).
*** Fixed Highland maps ***
Highland maps now never have water. In original game, it randomly contained rivers or not.
*** Fixed Infantry : ***
No more attack bonus for cavalry against infantry (sounds realistic but cavalry is WAY too strong in RM... and infantry too weak in RM/DM)
Exception :
Shang and Yamato cataphracts have +1 attack over legion (only legion !).
*** Fixed Cavalry ***
Removed attack bonus against infantry. Bonus was +5 in original game.
(+1 damage over Legion and Ballista towers for Yamato and Shang only)
Cataphracts research cost is now 1800 food/650 gold instead of 2000/850
** Fixed chariots ***
Updated chariot archer, now it is a cheaper/weaker unit
HP=40 (was 70), Range=6 (was 7), attack=3 (was 4), costs 30/60 instead of 40/70, reduced train time.
*** Fixed siege weapons ***
-5 attack points for all siege weapons against living units.
Attack against walls/towers/buildings is unchanged
Catapults Min Range is now 3 instead of 2 (stone thrower unchanged)
Helepolis Min Range is now 4 instead of 3 (ballista unchanged)
*** Fixed blast radius ***
War elephants & scythe chariot: blast radius reduced from 2 to 1. Was larger than heavy catapults !
Hannibal blast radius reduced from 2.5 to 2.
*** Fixed Djihad ***
After Djihad is researched, villagers will carry 5 of resources (+ bonus). A resource carriage of 2 is really too little !
Movement speed bonus reduced to 0.2 (was 0.3)
*** Wheel ***
Reduced movement speed bonus to 0.65 (was 0.7)
*** Fixed Alchemy bug ***
Ballista and helepolis attack should be 40+1 and not 40+2 (analysis of the empires.dat file confirms this actually is a bug)
*** Fixed shields costs ***
Shields are too expensive. These are the new costs for the 3 shields (against piercing attacks) :
150/180 is now 120/150
200/320 is now 150/220
250/400 is now 200/300
*** Fixed villagers ***
Fishermen: work rate reduced to 0.45 (was 0.6)
Fixed these researches: stone mining, gold mining, siegecraft: working rate bonus reduced to 0.15 (was 0.3)
Fixed siege craft: damage on towers by villagers reduced to ~3-4 instead of ~8 after researching siegecraft.
*** Fixed Buildings damage ***
Armored elephants attack vs buildings: reduced by 10 (this means -2 damage).
Armored elephants AND villagers with siege weapons research attack vs towers: reduced by 5 (this means -1 damage).
*** Balancing for deathmatch (unfinished !) ***
Shang and Yamato : These people just can't attack any civ protected by ballista towers ! See cataphracts advantage over ballista towers and legions
Egyptian :
Priest range bonus is now +2 instead of +3
Working rate bonus for gold miner reduced to 0.15 (was 0.2)
Chariots HP bonus reduced to +20% (was +33%)
Babylon :
Working rate bonus for stone miner reduced to 0.15 (was 0.2)
Changed priests recover rate bonus +20% instead of +0.75 (it is now proportional. Was too much especially without fanaticism).
Wall/Tower Hit points bonus is now +66% instead of +100%. Maximum HP will all upgrades is now 400 instead of 480.
Shang :
Villager now costs 40 instead of 35 (same change as 1.0c patch, which is hardcoded into empiresx.exe)
Choson :
Long swordsmen now have +40 HP bonus (now 120 HP instead of 160)
Legion unchanged.
Greek :
Removed engineering from tech tree
Added camel with +1 pierce armor bonus (bronze age defense against archers, costs less gold than cavalry).
Removed cavalry (compensation for camel)
Reduced heavy infantry bonus speed to +0.25 instead of +0.3 (centurions were too fast)
Minoan :
+1 range for improved bowman, +2 for composite.
Assyria :
Fix cavalry archer reload time: 1.15 instead of 1.1 (was firing too fast, now +30% bonus)
Persian :
Iron age villagers get +0.2 speed bonus. (compensation for not having wheel: too much difference on iron age with other civs)
Elephants bonus speed reduced to 0.40 (was +0.5) - basic elephant speed is 0.9.
Palmyra :
Add engineering to tech tree
Villager now costs 70 instead of 75
Macedonian :
Heavy horse archer has now +1 range bonus (and line of sight)
Sumerian :
Stone thrower/catapults reload time is now 3.75 (was 3.5). Info: It is 5 for other civs.
Hittite :
Siege weapons now have +50% HP (was +100%). Seems quite fair that way.
Disable centurion(79), aristocracy(113)
Scout ship only get +2 range (was +4), war galley only get +3 (was +4)
Roman :
Short/broad/long sword and legion attack reload changed to 1.125. Was 1. Bonus is reduced from -33% to -25% reload time.
*** Remarks on AI ***
Tech tree changes on greek and Palmyra work well without AI file change because :
- Palmyra's AI file HAS engineering (even if this tech should be disabled in original version !)
- Greek will have engineering in AI file, but won't get stuck and will go on normally (as Palmyra do in the original game)
*** Known issues ***
Minoan/Choson bugs with bowmen/legions in post-iron scenario is fixed if you use customROR.
Rating: 4
I would say that the majority of balance changes are justified. Additionally, the changes are small tweaks so will not introduce changes that just make the game too different.
I think Cataphract is still pretty useless considering its cost and effectiveness. I can't see anyone really changing their position on this with these changes.
The Greek camel change is interesting, as it makes them pretty decent vs. archer and cav in bronze.
As pointed out, the changes don't break the AI so you should be able to test these out against computer players as well as online (of course, make sure the other player has the same file).
Additional Comments:
This is a simple patch to address balance issues, and it does it in a justified and concise way. I would recommend for any inter or onward skilled players to fully appreciate the changes.