Multiplayer Difficulties Yield Modifier
1) Purpose of this mod:
The goal of this mod is to allow friends with various different skill levels to play with one another while maintaining a balanced and fair match for all parties. This mod was created by altering Zobtzler’s Multiplayer Difficulties Mod. More details below if you are interested in the formation of this mod.
2) Description:
This mod gives various yield modifier selections in replacement of difficulty setting selections. So instead of seeing –
Settler
Chieftain
Warlord
Prince
King
Emperor
Immortal
Deity
You will instead see –
24% Penalty
18% Penalty
12% Penalty
6% Penalty
0% Default
6% Bonus
12% Bonus
18% Bonus
24% Bonus.
All of these modifiers impact all yields EXCEPT for food. Food is always default.
3-a) How this mod was formed:
The intention of Zobtzler’s mod is to allow players to receive the penalties or bonuses that the AI gets at various difficulty selections. How this manifests is by more than a simple yield modifier, but also combat modifiers, starting unit modifiers, Free eureka’s / inspirations, and barbarian pillage reward modifiers.
The problem is that when someone with low to medium experience selects a somewhat high bonus selection in Zobtzler’s mod they will receive free eureka’s, free inspirations, free settler, free builder, and extra military. This can be a bit to oppressive in multiplayer matches as the person with all those extra units and early jump-start can easily roll the opposition. On the flip side, if someone with a lot of experience takes a somewhat larger penalty their production inevitably gets hamstrung to the point that they are largely sitting around doing nothing and constantly waiting for the next turn.
The inevitable result of these wide differences in penalties and bonuses is that there are only 3 viable difficulty choices for friends playing multiplayer and it frequently feels like the veteran (or the noob) of the group is always 1 level too high or 1 level too low. The goal of this mod is to provide more precise difficulty selections for friends with various experiences to play together in a multiplayer match without feeling like some of the players in your group are either too strong while others are too weak.
3-b) Even more specifics:
This mod separates yield modifiers by chunks of 6%. Zobtzler’s mod would separate yield modifiers by chunks of 7%, except for gold and production, which would always be doubled. So at maximum you could expect to see your production and gold to be basically halved. This would leave you a sitting duck to any of your neighbors. This mod removes all of the non-yield benefits and penalties like getting extra starting units, barbarian camp rewards, free eurekas, free inspirations and then equalizes the yield modifiers to all be valued equally and then finally separates the difficulties in chunks of 6% (for all yields) rather than 7% (for science, faith, and culture) (14% for gold/production).
4) Compatibility
This mod will not function properly if used in conjunction with other AI difficulty altering mods or Zobtzler’s Multiplayer Difficulties mod.
Special Thanks to Zobtzler’s work on his Multipalyer Difficulties mod. Without his initial mod, this one would not be possible.
