Most balanced game settings?
 

Is there a general consensus regarding the game settings which are best for balance (ie. don't obviously suggest any particular strategy)?

Seems to me that 'normal' research would bias a game far too much in favour of magic, SCs etc. So wouldn't 'difficult' or 'very difficult' be the best choice?

Indie strength should probably be higher than 3 to deter very early mass expansion. Maybe 6 or 9?

There seem to be enough magic sites at the 40 setting, but 50 seems to be a common choice. Does that make finding magic sites too important? In other words, is it almost always optimal to search for magic sites at 50?

Seems like 'difficult' research, 6 strength indies, and 45 for magic sites should be best for balance. Anyone with more experience care to comment?

Re: Most balanced game settings?
 

Those are pretty good settings, albeit 'difficult' research can actually bias things in favor of magic in a way, and definately in favor of certain nations.

Nations with cheap researchers get a longer period in which they have key spells; likewise, because nations like Abyssia and Marignon start with powerful spells, they can come out the gate a good deal quicker than other nations, and that initial spell's advantage lasts longer.

Indies I'd definately go 6+, 6 for a "normal" game, 9 if you want people to have to build up armies and/or research good spells before expanding much. Lower settings can be handy sometimes though - you want a game with quick player vs player action, weak independents allow quicker expansion.

Re: Most balanced game settings?
 

I like indie strength 7, it makes them pretty formidable so that early expansion is not a cakewalk. The difference between 6 and 7 is imo greater than e.g. between 7 and 8.

As for magic sites, depedns on map size. On large maps, 30, 35 or 40 tops. Any more and there will be no call at all for national armies if research is normal. Having difficult research and a site frequency of 30 means that you really need to focus on what to do and when and prevents the early SC rush. The downside is that blood magic gains more prominence, because blood slave income is not tied to site frequency.

Edi

Re: Most balanced game settings?
 

Indy strength depends a lot on whether the AI is important to you or not. If we're talking purely MP, the indy strength can be anything because it's the same for all races - lower means quicker player contact, higher makes it slower.

I'd agree that Normal research in the unmodded game makes it all about magic, and I now use Difficult or Very Difficult to make troops more important for longer. But as Cainehill says, this distorts the value of starting spells and cheap researchers - it makes Libraries very important for a number of races. I don't really see any way round this, and I think it's the lesser of the two problems.

If you're playing SP or using AI nations to fill out a small MP game, I find indy str 5 or 6 to be optimal. It's not too hard for the AI to expand, and not too easy for the human player. The other possibility is indy str 0 ...

I think the default setting of 40 for magic sites is too high for anything other than a small (<100 prov) map, and it baffles me why people play MP games with it cranked up to 50 or higher and then complain that magic plays such a big part of the endgame. I would set it at 30 or lower for a large map, so that Acashic Record is not such a no-brainer. (With default setting of 40 the chances of an AR finding no sites in any province other than farm lands is less than 13%)

CC

Re: Most balanced game settings?
 

You should not use Indy 0 when playing against the AI, not even if your life depends on it: you, as a player, can exploit the lack of independents by doing some Call of the Wind, and sending lone commanders to take everything quickly. Take a province, recruit a commander there, attack another province, recruit another commander, send the previous commander on an attack vector... and you can take twenty provinces a turn quickly.

Low independent levels may result in a similar thing happening, as the AI will probably do some overkill, instead of using just the amount of force needed to kill those five barbarians.

Re: Most balanced game settings?
 

The AI actually seems incapable of taking unoccupied indie provinces. I've seen AI stacks of literally hundreds of units refusing to go into empty indie provinces for turns on end, because the threat assessment algorithm apparently doesn't know how to handle anything empty that has no nation flag in it.

Edi

Re: Most balanced game settings?
 

From my experience Indy lvl 6-7 is a good choice for expansion speed if any AI play. For pure MP game you can go to 8 or even try 9 (but this may cause real expansion problems !).
Site at 40% are already plentiful enough. About research I'm more uncertain : sure Hard research makes for a less SC intensive game, and makes normal troops more worthwhile, but OTOH it has the side effect of even more strengthening powerful nations (such as Caelum, with its very good AG starting spell and quickly available LB), and make poor ones even poorer (such as TC)... So no obvious solution.