Slower Tech + Balance v0.7a
9 NOV 05
by Peter Shafer

INCLUDES following mods:
Improved DOMESTIC ADVISOR by homegrown:
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=135189

Improved DIPLOMACY TEXT by rjwoer:
http://apolyton.net/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=142029

FORT changes inspired by RealFort mod at:
http://apolyton.net/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=142803&perpage=30&pagenumber=1


How to use:
UNZIP to the civ4\mods\ folder like any other mod.  So you should have a "Slower Tech + Balance" folder right under your MODS folder in your main CIV directory.

You CAN replace the old mod with this one mid-game without harmful effects- your date may advance that is all.

What this mod is about:
I'm not trying to change CIV in any major ways but wanted a few things to be better...  This mod is to make the NORMAL game about 25%-40% longer.  What do I mean by longer?  I mean that TECHNOLOGIES drive the pace of the game- they come slower.  There are about 25% more turns, so when playing it feels like you stay in each era a little longer.  This means you get to mess with units a bit more before the next tech makes them obsolete.  Some other things are slowed down a little too for balance reasons: city growth, etc... but in a proportional way that is better than the vanilla EPIC game included in the game.

Based on (Select when playing):
NORMAL SPEED (works with EPIC too- but those games are ridiculously long now)
PRINCE (although other levels are OK too!)

Adds 35% cost to all techs to slow those down a bit.
Adds 35% to the game length too; I made it proportional. So it's about 560 turns not 430.

Units are built at 90% cost.

So, EPIC games are EPIC games are 781 turns long now... I can't think how that would be fun, but there you have it.

So what you should see is that you get more units in each era (but not too many more), and more TIME in each era.  You cities will gorw a bit slower, there wqill be a few less great people (as they tend to advance the age by discovering things), etc...

Other changes (ALL SHOW UP ON TECH TREE, so don't worry about remembering):

FISSION reveals URANIUM (was physics):
Because the stupid AI will trade Uranium and mine it before it can USE it! -sigh- So that's fixed.

WINERIES possible with POTTERY:
Why? Well, duh!

COTTAGES NOT possible until Monarchy (was Pottery):
The economy heats up too fast too early otherwise. I figure you need a slighty betetr knowledge of civics before you have suburbs.

SPY & SCOTLAND YARD available with NATIONALISM:
Why? Because waiting until communism SUCKS.... and besides the plans for textile mills were stolen by "spies" in real life back in the 1700's or so... I figure an earlier tech should get you spies.

SCOTLAND YARD and spies are cheaper:
'Cause FIRAXIS screwed up and made spy issions NOT modifyable in COST!  DAMN IT!  SO I cut the player a break here at least. 12% cheaper.

MAP TRADING with ASTRONOMY not with paper:
Because I want larger black spots on the map a little longer... give my sailing ships something to DO!

TECH TRADING with GUILDS not with Alphabet:
I think this makes sense to some degreee, plus tech whoring early in the game can ruin it.

GREAT LIBRARY with ALPHABET not literature:
Literature is NOT what was in the great library in real life- it was scientific texts and philosophy, this wonder can be one tech earlier.

CLEAR JUNGLE with BIOLOGY (instead of being able to do this right away!)
Because jungles are FIERCE scary DANGEROUS places, damnit! It was medicine that allowed the panama canal clearing of jungle, no amount of slaves dieing in great numbers could do it! So jungles stay on the map until the 1800's or so... nice.

Note that you CAN build CAMPS and PLANTATIONS in JUNGLE with GUNPOWDER which is earlier than MEDICINE.  This is to help get those trade items (Ivory and Bananas) into the game a little earlier than medicine, and to simulate that Conquistadors used the natives to do the work by dominating with guns and forcing them into slavery.

DRY DOCKS with ENGINEERING (was steel):
Shipbuilding is an ancient art really, and the concept of dry docks goes back to ancient Greece and the Cartheginians... so we'll compromise- this allows more sailing ships to enter the game if you want to focus that way.

CARAVAL carries TWO special units:
As they were, even with more time to use them, the Age of Discovery wasn't quite as fun as it ought to have been when I played TERRA maps... so I let the caravel be a little more effective at delivering Conquistadores (Explorers and MIssionaries if you will). :)

SPY costs 70 not 80:
I'm pissed that I cannot mod spy mission costs down to about 25% to 50% of their current costs, but FIRAXIS SCREWS US on this- that will have to wait until the SDK comes out!  At any rate, I CAN make spies cheaper... so they are!

CANNONS require GUNPOWDER + ENGINEERING (was steel + gunpowder):
This unit came WAY too late in the game, in my opinion- about 1 tech away from ARTILLERY!  So now it can occur in the gunpowder age, but not instantly with gunpowder, you need to have research other branches to engineering as well.

AMBUSH PROMOTION NOT available until you develop STEEL

ALL SHIPS have +1 movement from vanilla civ iv. (except work boats)

Graphic SIZE of BATTLESHIP, CARRIER and DESTROYERS is increased a bit.

FORBIDDEN PALACE, CITY WALLS, and CASTLE are cheaper to build (just a little)

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CIVIC STUFF (Look over this screen in the game- the info is there too)

UNIVERSAL SUFFRAGE: +25 war weariness.

PACIFISM: +125% great person rate

ORGANIZED RELIGION: +20% culture, lowered upkeep to MEDIUM

THEOCRACY: +10% Unit speed build in religious cities.

CASTE SYSTEM: +1 free specialist each city.

HEREDITARY: +25% gold/prod. in capital.

EMANCIPATION & FREE SPEECH: LOW upkeep (were set to none)

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PAPER needed for Beaurocracy (was civil service- so it's one tech later).

GOODY HUT MAP: Reveals a little more map a little further away.

INTERNET possible with COMPUTERS (was Fiber optics)

SDI costs 600, not 500.

HINDUISM/BUDDHISM spread at 90% rate.  CHRISTIANITY/ISLAM spread at 110% rate.

CHRISTIAN MISSIONARY: OK to go into CLOSED BORDER territory: Makes this a tough religion to stop unless you are Theocracy.

ISLAM missionary: 3 moves (was 2): Makes this religion spread further faster- if there's open borders (or in a war who cares!)

SHEEP: +1 food, prod. and trade (was +2,0,+1) with pasture.

WHALE: +1 Prod and food as base tile. (was +1 food)

AI values ICBM as not at 30 power not 40:  They're overvalued diplomatically a little, I think.

CAVALRY upgrades to Tank (was gunships):  I've no idea why cavalry to gunships was in the vanilla game since all the worlds cavalry was usually dead in the intervening 100 years that tnaks and artillery ruled the lands... so.

CASTLE with CONSTRUCTION (was engineering): so it's earlier

BUNKER w/REFRIGERATION (was electricity): so later by one tech

Reworked TECH REQUIREMENTS for FLIGHT, ARTILLERY, ROCKETRY, and COMBUSTION to make those a little harder to run for without supporting techs.  FLIGHT was too easily skipped completely- I didn't like that for the space race.

MARKET is a -1 health building.  It brings in a lot of trade, people, and so disease (like the plague) so this needs to be represented somewhat in the game, IMO.  (Besides I want something to slow city growth just a tad.)

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FORT CHANGES:
three levels, by tech:
Basic:
+5% Heal

w/Optics:
+5% Heal
+1 Visibility

w/Steel:
+5% Heal
10% withdraw chance gained
1 first strike chance

Because the AI doesn't build forst and they are more helpful now the time to build them is increased by +66%.

I didn't like the combat bonus anti-first strike powers gained in v0.2 of the Real Fort mod (made them too powerful) so I changed the bonuses.  My concern is how the AI will handle this since the AI *never* builds forts as far as I have seen.  So this makes them interesting choices, but not too powerful, I think.  At any rate the code is IN the mod now and can be adjusted as seems reasonable now.
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