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All updated for Warlords. With a few other changes to it. Enjoy
Readme:
New Balance v2.0
26 Jul 06
by Peter Shafer
Works with Civ IV Warlords v1.0
MOST changes in this mod are not based on other people's work, and indeed pioneered some ideas others have developed more fully. However, a few ideas (like the desert/arctic promos) clearly are inspired by the works of others. Artwork used is always credited:
Zuul's mod:
How to use:
UNZIP to the civ4\warlords\mods\ folder like any other mod. So you should have a "New Balance" folder right under your MODS folder in your main CIV directory.
This mod makes the about 25%-40% longer. Since 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.
You'll see more units in the game and have a livlier classical/medieval/gunpowder age experience.
2: The difficulty levels of NOBLE and PRINCE are changed. NOBLE is almost 100% equal. NOW it is truly you vs. the AI evenly. Prince ups the AI's ability in a few stats- upkeep, war morale, etc...
Select when playing:
"NEW BALANCE" SPEED
Works with EPIC too- but those games are ridiculously long.
----------
v2.0
----------
Works with WARLORDS retail version 1.0 (This was the biggest effort- loads of changes to format of various xml files)
All ships +1 speed from Vanilla, except Caraval/Ironclad +2, except workboat (stays at 2).
Workboat cheaper.
Spy mission cheaper now, except the sabotage one. But now spies cost 1 extra support.
AI no longer gets 10 free production at start of game (this is an old change I never documented).
Added Arctic/Desert combat promotions.
Added base Withdraw chance to some mechanized units. increased Cavalry unit withdraw chances in general. These units were too underpowered for historically how powerful horses make civilizations.
Archer units gained +20% and +10% (when mounted) versus Axemen when attacking. The AXEMAN unit has always made swordsmen worthless, now there is a further reason why you might choose swords men.
Increased graphic size of Spies, CA, BB, Workers slightly.
Decreased WORKER figures from 2 to 1.
Decreased MG figures from 3 to 2.
Added first strike chance to Explorers and Scouts (they're sort of ambushy units). Explorer STR=5 (was 4).
GALLEY and Trireme cost 25 (was 30). The economy needs them cheaper for them to appear in the right numbers, IMO.
CIVICS CHANGES:
Too many to list here. Check them out IN GAME. They are different now.
Commerce buildings reduced in effect, generally: BANK provides 40% commerce bonus, Market 20% (was 25%). Etc...
Knowledge buildings reduced similarly to commerce buildings.
Reworked date advances s to better match technology pace of game.
Scaled back to 33% the bonus Industrial gets for making wonders.
FORGE costs 100 not 120
ALL SWORD UNITS gain 25% DEFENSIVE bonus vs. ARCHER (not vs. longbows and x-bows, though).
CARRIERS carry 4 not 3 units, are slightly cheaper (the real cost is the planes).
KNIGHTS/MACEMEN moved to slightly different research track.
SUBMARINES gain 25% attack versus TRANSPORTS. Slightly cheaper too.
BATTLESHIPS slightly more costly.
UNITED NATIONS with FISSION (So a little earlier)
Radio Towers with RADIO
OIL is more clumpy in distribution:
A few nations now will tend to control it- and it's easier to take it militarily- makes it more strategic I think.
NAVY SEAL can board SUBMARINES.
ADDED 2 PROMOTIONS:
DESERT COMBAT and ARCTIC COMBAT: +25% defense in terrains, plus double movement in those terrains. Requires Combat I first.
U.S.A flag changed to Betsey Ross style.
CLEAR JUNGLE with BIOLOGY!
I changed this back from Steam power for many reasons. Steam Power is a powerful enough tech. The REAL reason the US could build the Panama canal wasn;'t steam power alone, it was defeating the mosquitoes... biology. And lastly because this line of reasearch (butter) needed a boost versus the other line (guns). No more debate on this, this is my mod, I make it how I want to play the game. if you don't like this, change it back yourself. Anyway, further reasoning: 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 ROADS, CAMPS and PLANTATIONS and MINES and such in JUNGLE with GUNPOWDER which is much 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.
COTTAGES built with 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. This change is hard to deal with if you're used to having loads of $$ in the game- you will need to balance your economy much more carefully now.
WINERIES with POTTERY:
Why? Well, duh!
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:
Spies need to be earlier in the game...
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.
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).
CANNONS require GUNPOWDER + Printing Press (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 researched the other mechanical branch a little too.
AMBUSH PROMOTION not available until you develop STEEL
FORBIDDEN PALACE, CITY WALLS, and CASTLE are cheaper to build.
PAPER needed for Beaurocracy (was civil service- so it's one tech later).
SHEEP: +1 food, prod. and trade w/pasture (was +2,0,+1).
WHALE: +1 Prod and food as base tile. (was +1 food)
CAVALRY upgrades to Tank OR Gunship: 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 tanks and artillery ruled the lands... so, now human and AI have a choice.
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.)
Balanced start locations better at higher difficulties.
Units after Warrior and up to Musketmen are 5 prod. cheaper to produce. This has the effect of making the classical/Medieval age more populated and a bit more "lively."
Workshops come with METAL CASTING. (Earlier than vanilla)
AI HANDICAP is now truly much closer to EQUAL with the player on NOBLE difficulty.
AI HANDICAP at PRINCE is balanced a bit more in the AI's favor- with slightly grater Barbarian activity.
Observatory requires Astronomy and Liberalism (was just Astronomy)
Turned DOWN the volume when cities are selected (and only those city sounds), so it's not so overbearingly noisy when you're tweaking a city and you can still have your game volume up for the other sounds.
Readme:
New Balance v2.0
26 Jul 06
by Peter Shafer
Works with Civ IV Warlords v1.0
MOST changes in this mod are not based on other people's work, and indeed pioneered some ideas others have developed more fully. However, a few ideas (like the desert/arctic promos) clearly are inspired by the works of others. Artwork used is always credited:
Zuul's mod:
How to use:
UNZIP to the civ4\warlords\mods\ folder like any other mod. So you should have a "New Balance" folder right under your MODS folder in your main CIV directory.
This mod makes the about 25%-40% longer. Since 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.
You'll see more units in the game and have a livlier classical/medieval/gunpowder age experience.
2: The difficulty levels of NOBLE and PRINCE are changed. NOBLE is almost 100% equal. NOW it is truly you vs. the AI evenly. Prince ups the AI's ability in a few stats- upkeep, war morale, etc...
Select when playing:
"NEW BALANCE" SPEED
Works with EPIC too- but those games are ridiculously long.
----------
v2.0
----------
Works with WARLORDS retail version 1.0 (This was the biggest effort- loads of changes to format of various xml files)
All ships +1 speed from Vanilla, except Caraval/Ironclad +2, except workboat (stays at 2).
Workboat cheaper.
Spy mission cheaper now, except the sabotage one. But now spies cost 1 extra support.
AI no longer gets 10 free production at start of game (this is an old change I never documented).
Added Arctic/Desert combat promotions.
Added base Withdraw chance to some mechanized units. increased Cavalry unit withdraw chances in general. These units were too underpowered for historically how powerful horses make civilizations.
Archer units gained +20% and +10% (when mounted) versus Axemen when attacking. The AXEMAN unit has always made swordsmen worthless, now there is a further reason why you might choose swords men.
Increased graphic size of Spies, CA, BB, Workers slightly.
Decreased WORKER figures from 2 to 1.
Decreased MG figures from 3 to 2.
Added first strike chance to Explorers and Scouts (they're sort of ambushy units). Explorer STR=5 (was 4).
GALLEY and Trireme cost 25 (was 30). The economy needs them cheaper for them to appear in the right numbers, IMO.
CIVICS CHANGES:
Too many to list here. Check them out IN GAME. They are different now.
Commerce buildings reduced in effect, generally: BANK provides 40% commerce bonus, Market 20% (was 25%). Etc...
Knowledge buildings reduced similarly to commerce buildings.
Reworked date advances s to better match technology pace of game.
Scaled back to 33% the bonus Industrial gets for making wonders.
FORGE costs 100 not 120
ALL SWORD UNITS gain 25% DEFENSIVE bonus vs. ARCHER (not vs. longbows and x-bows, though).
CARRIERS carry 4 not 3 units, are slightly cheaper (the real cost is the planes).
KNIGHTS/MACEMEN moved to slightly different research track.
SUBMARINES gain 25% attack versus TRANSPORTS. Slightly cheaper too.
BATTLESHIPS slightly more costly.
UNITED NATIONS with FISSION (So a little earlier)
Radio Towers with RADIO
OIL is more clumpy in distribution:
A few nations now will tend to control it- and it's easier to take it militarily- makes it more strategic I think.
NAVY SEAL can board SUBMARINES.
ADDED 2 PROMOTIONS:
DESERT COMBAT and ARCTIC COMBAT: +25% defense in terrains, plus double movement in those terrains. Requires Combat I first.
U.S.A flag changed to Betsey Ross style.
CLEAR JUNGLE with BIOLOGY!
I changed this back from Steam power for many reasons. Steam Power is a powerful enough tech. The REAL reason the US could build the Panama canal wasn;'t steam power alone, it was defeating the mosquitoes... biology. And lastly because this line of reasearch (butter) needed a boost versus the other line (guns). No more debate on this, this is my mod, I make it how I want to play the game. if you don't like this, change it back yourself. Anyway, further reasoning: 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 ROADS, CAMPS and PLANTATIONS and MINES and such in JUNGLE with GUNPOWDER which is much 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.
COTTAGES built with 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. This change is hard to deal with if you're used to having loads of $$ in the game- you will need to balance your economy much more carefully now.
WINERIES with POTTERY:
Why? Well, duh!
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:
Spies need to be earlier in the game...
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.
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).
CANNONS require GUNPOWDER + Printing Press (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 researched the other mechanical branch a little too.
AMBUSH PROMOTION not available until you develop STEEL
FORBIDDEN PALACE, CITY WALLS, and CASTLE are cheaper to build.
PAPER needed for Beaurocracy (was civil service- so it's one tech later).
SHEEP: +1 food, prod. and trade w/pasture (was +2,0,+1).
WHALE: +1 Prod and food as base tile. (was +1 food)
CAVALRY upgrades to Tank OR Gunship: 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 tanks and artillery ruled the lands... so, now human and AI have a choice.
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.)
Balanced start locations better at higher difficulties.
Units after Warrior and up to Musketmen are 5 prod. cheaper to produce. This has the effect of making the classical/Medieval age more populated and a bit more "lively."
Workshops come with METAL CASTING. (Earlier than vanilla)
AI HANDICAP is now truly much closer to EQUAL with the player on NOBLE difficulty.
AI HANDICAP at PRINCE is balanced a bit more in the AI's favor- with slightly grater Barbarian activity.
Observatory requires Astronomy and Liberalism (was just Astronomy)
Turned DOWN the volume when cities are selected (and only those city sounds), so it's not so overbearingly noisy when you're tweaking a city and you can still have your game volume up for the other sounds.
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