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Gold Cost Adjustments

Adjusts gold costs of almost all buildings/units which can be purchased with gold to better fit trendlines. First, base buildings/units are made to fit the gold cost against production cost trendline (Gold=24.279*Production^0.6528 for base buildings, Gold=14.602*Production^0.7291 for base units). This means 2 things: as production cost increases, buying with gold becomes more efficient with no exceptions (the unmodded game has this trend but there are a few exceptions), and buildings/units with the same production cost will have the same gold cost (only applies within buildings or units).

Second, unique buildings/units are handled differently: first, the ratios between their former gold costs and the former gold costs of their base buildings/units are noted, then these values are applied to the base unit's new cost in the mod, so the unique buildings/units do not follow the trendlines.

The full changelog can be found in this spreadsheet.[docs.google.com] Values in the spreadsheet assume Standard speed and Ancient Era start, but gold costs will still scale with start and speed settings as per normal. All base units and buildings are listed, including those unchanged, and only unique buildings/units with different production costs and/or gold costs from the base unit are listed on the 3rd and 4th tabs.

You can use this mod without any DLC. Will not change the costs of new unique buildings/units introduced by other mods.

VERSION 2 UPDATE: Unit upgrade costs are also adjusted. Previous formula: Gold=2*ProductionDifference*(1+CostModifier)+10, rounded down to nearest 5, where CostModifier refers to the -33% unit upgrade cost effect from Honor's Professional Army and the Pentagon, which stack additively. New formula: Gold=[3*ProductionDifference*(1+CostModifier)]^0.95, rounded down to nearest 5. This also has the side effect of making the CostModifier effects slightly less effective (from -33% to -31.64%, and with both, from -66% to -64.12%; the formula is NewCostModifer=1-(1-CostModifier)^0.95). Also removed the maximum percentage a unit's upgrade cost can be discounted, which was -75%. I believe it cannot be achieved in the unmodded game, as there are only two -33% effects, but hypothetically if you have another mod which allows you to reach -100% unit upgrade cost, it will still be capped at -75% unless you use this mod.

Both formulas slightly favour upgrading a unit with a large production difference between itself and its next form than one with a small production difference, which is the same trend as buying units. I changed the formula mainly because a power formula would enforce the trend better, not to mention going in line with the trendlines I found for purchasing buildings/units. In other words, it's more elegant.

The full list of upgrade cost changes can be found in the 5th and 6th tabs of the spreadsheet linked above. The fields indicating upgrade costs and change in upgrade costs consider the unit on the same row upgrading to the unit on the next row. Most sections indicate a full upgrade path, and there are some incomplete ones, e.g. the Horseman to Knight path, as the path from Knight onwards is already listed under the Chariot Archer path (both Horsemen and Chariot Archers upgrade to Knights). Unique Units which have different upgrade costs from their base units are listed, as well as those which have different upgrade paths (e.g. Impi, the Zulu Pikeman, upgrades to Rifleman instead of the Lancer).

This is compatible with my other mods.