MOD: Cultural Significance

[The Rusty Gamer]

I've experimented with a few rules tweaks to alter your gaming pleasure and "free" the game up a bit.

The culture border level is now at a maximum of 100! BUT...every building that did not give any culture points now gives you 1. This means you need to focus on developing tiles in the immediate area of a town in its early stages but that every building is now culturally significant (hence the name of the mod).

In non-PTW version, turns taken to discover techs can now be from 1 to 100 and the tech rate has been lowered 25%.

In PTW version, turns taken to discover techs can now be from 1 to 1000 and the tech rate has been pushed up! However, the timescale has been extended - you begin in 9000 B.C.

To compensate every labourer now produces 1 science beaken. Scientists produce 3! Entertainers and taxmen produce none however.

This provides more interesting variety in the tech research length; maximum of 40 turns was too boring in my opinion.

Towns go up to size 7 and cities 15. Your civilization will feel less tight this way.

Map sizes have all gone up and give you more room for your civilization to breathe.

Alphabet is required in order to build Barracks. Think of it as educated military training.

Free Artistry is required to enable workers to clear pollution. This should create a bit of excitement in the game if pollution starts appearing and you cannot remove it yet.

At Chieftain level, 5 citizens are content, at Deity none!

At Chieftain level 25% corruption, each level up add 25% until at Deity 150%!

At Chieftain level 200% optimal number of cities, each level up drop 25% until at Deity 75%.

Some units may now cost during Anarchy!

Town: 8 free units
City: 4 free units
Metropolis: 0 free units

The lesson here is that the later in the game it is, the more costly Anarchy can be! Be careful.

That's it, enjoy!

[The Rusty Gamer]

Update from 1.00 to 1.01

The tech rate is now only 25% lower than the standard game instead of 50%.

The optimal number of cities is now 200% at Chieftain level, and drops 25% each level until 75% at Deity. (For comparison, the standard game starts off at only 100% at the lowest level).

[The Rusty Gamer]

Why I like these changes

I like the feel of this mod because it seems more freed up, less hassling to play.

It's probably not likely that you will win with a cultural victory since the border levels are at maximum, however it makes you focus on the development of the immediate squares around you early on in your cities, especially noticeable in your capital, and it makes every building important. Each building has a cultural significance, hence the name of the mod.

I also like the idea of the wider range of number of turns to discover techs as a maximum of 40 seemed boring. Originally, I halved the tech rate but it seemed to be a little too fast to discover things hence the change to only 25% lower. I felt there needed to be some compensation for the more costly prohibitive techs that had been healthily constrained by the 40 turn limit.

Higher town and city sizes again makes the game feel freer, more encouraging to play.

Also, the lowering of corruption in general makes the game feel alot less "heavy going" but the corruption challenge is still there at the higher levels of difficulties for those that want it.

So, please try this mod and tell me what you think.

[The Rusty Gamer]

Update from 1.01 to 1.02

I've added 25% to corruption at each level of difficulty since I felt it was maybe a little too low. Now 25% at Chieftain and 150% at Deity - now there's a challenge.

Alphabet is now required in order to build Barracks. Think of it as educated military training. This gives more motivation for researching Alphabet in the early stages as well.

Maps have been enlarged. This should give more breathing space for your civilization.

Please let us know what you think.

[Optimizer]

I'd try the mod if I only had access to my game. It seems interesting!

[The Rusty Gamer]

PTW version uploaded

The PTW version of this mod has now been uploaded. Both version are inbedded in the zip file.

The only tweak (but quite a major tweak) with the PTW version over the non-PTW version is that turns taken to discover techs can now be from 1 to 1000 and the tech rate has been pushed up! However, the timescale has been extended - you begin in 9000 B.C.

[The Rusty Gamer]

Update from 1.02 to 1.03

To compensate for increased tech turns, every labourer now produces 1 science beaken. Scientists produce 3! Entertainers and taxmen produce none however.

Also, I fixed a problem with the units not being defined for the new civs in the PTW version.