MOD: Rise and Rule for Conquests

[isak]

The Rise and Rule mod (RAR) is based on our experiences with the Double Your Pleasure mod for Civilization III and the expansion pack Play The World.

Rise and Rule is only released for the latest (and last) Civ3 expansion pack Conquests. The simple design philosophy behind the mod is that variety is the spice of life and an essential part of strategy. If there's only one path to success, there really isn't much strategy involved.

We've tried to beef up the selection of improvements, wonders, units etc., hoping to give you more to choose between. Don't think you'll be able to build everything everywhere. We have tried hard to make that option the certain road to failure. A wise ruler will weigh cost vs. benefit in every single decision made.

The nitty-gritty cold facts

200 techs
13 governments
100 Improvements
67 Great Wonders
36 Small Wonders
14 Specialist Citizen types
52 Resources
340 Units (including flavor units)
lots of changes and improvements over the Double Your Pleasure mod.


Give it a spin, and tell us what you think. It's downloadable from the DYP Website. The file is pretty large (115 mb) so our server may slow down a bit the next few days, at least until we find proper mirrors.

The mod requires you to have Conquests v.1.22 installed.

[LordVipper]

Congratulations yet again,you outperformed yourselves

[Tau]

The only significant balance issue I've found by now is that it strongly favours Religious civs by introducing all those new Wonders (Shangri-La is far too powerful) and improvements. The Iroquois own the universe!

Other than that, I'm simply amazed at the level of detail and commitment on your part. This is great fun to play. The greatest merit is the fact that you've improved playability in the later stages of the game. The new modern-era governments were a brilliant idea.

Just one question: why does Social Democracy cause more corruption than other contemporary governments? If you take a look at international corruption surveys, you'll find traditional welfare states in the top 10 of least corrupt nations.
This is more of a realism issue than one of playability, but there might be other ways of offsetting the benefits of the government type. For instance, there might be a minimum to the amount of public funding you allocate for healthcare etc. (as a game effect, would it be too clumsy to treat this as having at least 20% on the "luxuries" slider?).

Anyways, keep up the good work. Are you thinking of adding new civs?

[TheRockit]

I haven't played this but it certainly appeals to me... overall does it change the standard difficulties of C3C or how the AI performs? I.E. is Chieftan MORE difficult now than in the original game?

[The Rusty Gamer]

I'm playing at the second level of difficulty and I have heaps of gold without trying too hard and I can do the next level of research within about 3 to 4 turns (average size map). Possibly an imbalance here or do I need to play at a more difficult level or does the research level need to be changed for maps? The max turns for research is set at 50 (I looked) but I haven't got anywhere near that.

[isak]

@Rusty Gamer:
There could be imbalance issues - especially if you're using a pre-made world map, but also with the mod in general. Send me savegame if you can, and I'll take a look at it.

Other than that, in general I'd recommend playing the RAR mod at one level above your regular C3C level, to balance the fact that the AI isn't quite as good at figuring out the rules changes, as a human player is.

[Cookie Monster]

I've been playing this mod now for about 4 nights and am truely impressed. It totally changes C3C and makes a very interesting game.

Hopefully some of those missing graphic icons will be filled in later.

[mistrornge]

RAR

Having problems with advanced commands. Checked the box in preferences (as well as food/metal on tiles) but nothing seems to take. Exit the game and return and still they don't appear as choices.
Any ideas? Am I the only one with this issue?

[Cookie Monster]

I don't seem to have those problems. Using advanced commands no problem but I don't use display food and shields on map tiles though.

Do you have C3C 1.22 installed?

[Bjornlo]

Originally posted by Tau
If you take a look at international corruption surveys, you'll find traditional welfare states in the top 10 of least corrupt nations.

It is true that the socialist-democracies such as those typified by Scandinavia are amongst the least corrupt countries in the world. It is also a fact that these countries also have the shortest work weeks and the resulting lower productivity per worker.
So, I think this is reasonable. Because, if you look at the cost to society of socialism, then you have to add that in somehow. There is no other easy way in the game for a government type to model loss of producivity other then through corruption.

summary: I think corruption need not only reflect graft & theft, but also other things which negatively impact productivity.

[Bjornlo]

One thing I did disagree with quite strongly was the fact that as far as I could tell all the military units I tried were amphib. This is realistic how?

[Ralts]

I have run into a problem...

When playing the American's, I get the "Airborne.INI" file error and it crashes out.

Anyone else get this problem?

[gerdthebeige]

I really enjoy this game. I have run into some significant problems when playing as the Americans. The game crashes when you reach the American flavor for armor, American rifleman and several other advanced units. I was saving every turn to avoid getting bounced back too far but reached the end when the default unit, American rifleman would crash the system. The message states that the file is not found. (words to that effect) it involves multiple units. I was able to play France without similar effects. It seems there are some fixable glitches.

[Doc Tsiolkovski]

You need the PtW extras. Get them at Civ3.com (downloads, for any reason they are listed under 'Terrain').

[Boris Godunov]

Erm, I don't see where I can download the full mod. The page for C3C downloads says the mirrors aren't up yet...