[Mod] NORMAL game pace: SLOWER TECH but more normal unit building! (Other fixes too)

[Sirid]

I agree with what son of Moose said. Granted the 'Super Epic' idea wouldn't appeal to those who want to finish a game within a week, but I know that myself and a few others prefer a long, drawn-out strategy game that covers the complete span of civilized history, and I believe changing the pacing to add triple the number of turns would do the trick for that.

[Mao_Tse_Tongue]

Great mod DM. I'm off work next week and I plan to put in some more play testing time.

So far the early to mid game plays great.

[userqwerty]

Dear mad,

Please consider looking at the changes this mod

http://apolyton.net/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=143625

does

I particularly like cheapear ships and invisible scouts

love your mod keep up the good work

[Melloj]

Dearmad,

I am playing a game with 9 civs on a large map. Its about 1999 and I am at war with the mongols. They declared war on me, and I invaded their land. They had a large island with only them on it, and once I invaded I noticed they have several oil resources.

The thing was though that most of the island was jungle. And seeing as it was fairly late in the game i was surpised to see that many of the mongolian cities had no real improvements built up around them besides roads and mines/plantations on resources.

No farms/regular mines/town's etc. Now this could be that the mongols hadnt had the clearing tech until recently, but since I am fairly late game, I doubt this. So I just wanted to know if you have seen the AI experiencing any problems adjusting to the 'tough jungle' part of your mod?

Maybe this could be something you need to look into?

Anyways...nice full game on your mod, though I still felt that the early part of the game, the the BC era, went by a bit too fast on normal speed, though the extra turns in the 17-1800's were fun. Tech still seemed to come at 6-7 turn intervals late game, but this could be due to good positioning leading to good expansion, and support.

[Quin007]

Originally posted by dearmad
I'll be posting the next version this weekend. Saturday I think; longer Epic, a few bug fixes, and the other stuff I've mentioned above.

are you planning to extend epic games only or are you going with other changes too, like cheaper basic technologies, buildings and units, more emphasise on the classical era (settlemet, followed by first wars and territory rivalities)?

[dearmad]

The basic changes (I'm at school so this is off the top of my head) that I'd planned for next time (beyond fixing any bugs I introduced):

Longer epic game (though not 3x what it is now- I think 2400 turns is just insanse, and if someone wants that kind of insanity, they can learn to XML that in... Something like 900 turns or so.

Slightly adjust starting location so that at higher difficulty levels the no one will start in the middle of only jugnle...

*slightly* cheaper techs in earlier ages (Basic techs ONLY) in combination with cheaper units in that era (-5 points to create) OTHER than the archer and warrior (not archer/warrior rushing).

slightly more expensive late rennaisance+ techs.

I dropped road building through jungles to IRON working. This will make jungle clearing a little more quick when the tech to do it comes, and make them traversable during wars in a more rapid way- so while they are still defensive borders, they won't hold off the AI for 4 turns while they march through them to get to you.

Melloj:
I've found the AI clears jungles out almost instantly once it has the tech to do it. And with roads going through jungles now (in the latest version) it happens even faster. While YES some AI are crippled if they are surrounded by Jungle, this is what I wanted- I wanted to face inequity in the face of the terrain. For the most part, there are plenty of other competing AI's- and when *I* start with a jugnle challenge, I enjoy that- as it means I need to go seafaring or conquer someone with better terrain FAST.

userqwerty:
In the next version, ships (not workboats) are a little cheaper. EDIT: I mean Caravals and Triremes (Galleys) are. The other ships aren't- Remember, a shipyard cuts the cost in half.

While I've thought about the explorer being made to go into rival territory, I decided against it. To me the explorer is an expedition, not some sneaky spy... and since spies are cheaper/earlier now, you can use a spy for this if you like. Also, I wanted the one pesky missionary who could ignore borders to be the xtian ones (a little flavor to religion). If you have a compelling argument the other way, though, I'm open to it.


Last things:
I'm waiting until the PATCH is out so I can have this mod fixed to take into account any patch changes. If the patch is delayed, though, I'll release.

I've been trying to playtest things a bit while dicovering a good tech flow balance before I let these latest changes out- I've found some really unfun things out in the meantime (with some tech changes I made) and can spare you all that stuff.

[Quin007]

sounds great!!! Everything seems superb, don't worry about the jungle either - IRL civs didn't flourish there either.

Can't wait for the next version

[senormoll]

the poll should have had an option for Great Idea! Can't wait to try this one. I love the fact that all the religions aren't the same....firaxis didn't have the balls to change anything i guess. like i said, i look forward to playing this.

[TopT]

d/loaded the mod and am enjoying the longer time spans however i am getting hit with, what I think is a bug in that the game crashes to my desktop around 1100 AD
I am playing SP with 9 others on a lg map in epic
I have a P4 3.2 with 512 mb Asus P4P 800 MB

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks

[dearmad]

I've yet to experience any crashes of that sort. Well, actually any crashes (w/civ iv), sorry.

[kenhwcan]

Enjoy tjis mod a lot, but am having problems installing saved games. Here is the path I use to extract the mod
My Computer\My com (C\Program Files/Firaxis
Games\Sid Meier's Civilaztion4\Mods
Have discovered that if I reinstall the mod every time I start the game I will get it to work, but if I do not reinstall it will not work. Am I using the wrong path, any advice, Thanks

[TopT]

Continued from my previous post:
To be more specific- the game seems to run fine. The crashes come after loading a saved game. When i try and load the saved game initially, it will always state that it must restart the game to load the mod. Is this normal? and, onec it loads the mod, my name in the game changes to the name of my computer. Did I do something wrong or has this happened to anyone else?

[Ibumar]

Not sure about the crashes, but a work around I found about the switching of your name to that of your computer.
Before you load the saved game switch to the mod through the advanced menu like you would if you were to start a fresh game, then load the game like you normally would.
This won't work anymore if your saved game was saved with your name already switched to that of your computer.

[Dr. Broom]

You should see about modding in the inquisition mod by Mylon at http://apolyton.net/forums/showthrea...46#post4149364

[Mohawk55a]

Re: Cavalry to Gunships

Dearmad,

I believe the cavalry to gunships upgrade was a "flavor" design based more on American military doctrine & traditions than on any technological path. Early horse cavalry was used to scout and screen for army formations. This role has since been given to modern-day "air cav" units.

I personally prefer this approach, but for many people's gameplay the upgrade to tanks may make more since or be more useful.

I like what you are doing with this mod and I really look forward to trying it over the holidays. Keep up the good work!