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This page explains some details of broad features in the Communitas Expansion Pack, particularly features that might not be intuitively obvious at first glance.
Smarter AI[]
We made the AI smarter, and reduced the simplistic bonuses given to it in the unmodded game.
Firaxis told the unmodded AI to never purchase units or buildings with gold. Thalassicus taught the AI how to make intelligent decisions with its gold, weighing the importance of various priorities, leader preferences, and the situation "on the ground" in each game.
Each AI leader also has a more distinct personality and preferences. They're less bland now. AIs are more effective at war, clearing barbarian camps, and choosing good units for their army.
Learning AI[]
Thalassicus trained the AI to figure out what mods the human uses, then automatically learn the purpose every unit, building, wonder, and technology in the game by looking directly at the effects of each item. The AI also plans ahead by looking at tech chains and prerequisites. It does this in a fraction of a second before each game begins. The AI uses this information to improve its choices about what to build or research.
In addition, the AI presents its findings to human players in a helpful "Good For" section at the top of hover-tips. This helps new players learn what things are good for without needing to look at every detail of every item unlocked by every technology. These ratings also help experienced players analyze game balance.
In the unmodded game Firaxis had humans tediously tell the AI the purpose of each building, instead of the AI figuring it out on its own. This information was often inaccurate, especially if mods change the effects of buildings, or modders introduced entirely new buildings the AI had never seen before.
Balanced Horses and Iron[]
The Horses vs Swords poll revealed 3 times as many people like iron more than horses. We made several changes to balance this.
- Raised strength of horse units.
- Moved bonuses to the horse path on the tech tree.
- Horse and iron tech paths require the same number of techs, and both link to catapults.
- More open terrain favorable to horses, encouraged by faster jungle-clearing speed and higher forest-clearing production.
- Less productive mines reduce importance of the iron path.
These changes also make the game more replayable. The horse path has everything we need to create and benefit from open terrain. The iron path does the same for rough terrain. This choice between open or rough terrain rewards us for playing each game differently, based on the terrain in our territory. This variety lets us play longer before games become predictable and repetitive.