MOD: A-mod

[Krayzeenbk]

Here is the first release of A-mod, my mix of graphics +altered rules and updated Civilopedia entries... This mod is intended to change the look and feel of the game and tweak some rules, but not to make it completely unrecognizeable. The readme is posted below.

The mod files and the backup files (used for restoring original civ3 when you are done with the mod) can be found here: A-mod download

A-mod version 1.0 readme

Installation
--------------
Installation section found in the downloadable readme.txt.


Summary of changes
--------------------------
Several things have been changed somewhat in this modification. Things that have been changed include:
- Graphics
- Governments
- Units
- General rules
- The tech tree
- The Civilopedia

Graphics changes: I mixed many others' graphics modifications in this mod (with a few edits). Also, I plan on changing the wonder splashes with graphics I found on my own once I either get Photoshop or get Paint Shop Pro to save the pcx right. Following are the graphics packs put into this mod:
- Womoks' terrain graphics (with my fixed grassland forests.pcx)
- soufie77's "tidier" railroads
- Skanky Burns' resource graphics (with a small change to CityIcons.pcx)
- Weymaster's mines
- sn00py's city graphics
- BeBro's much improved era splashes

Government changes: The six governments available in this modification are Anarchy, Monarchy, Theocracy, Fascism, Communism, and Republic. Monarchy is now the default starting government, and the other four (besides Anarchy) are all "advanced governments" (a full table comparing the governments can be found in the Reference section). Progress is slow in a theocracy; however, improvements and units don't require maintenance - theocracy is a government for the final showdown. Fascism is intended for rebuilding, featuring a high work rate. I chose to include the more ideal version of communism because the old communism was too similar to fascism. Communism is a good government for isolationism, with inexperienced diplomats and spies and no support for armies. The Republic is supposed to be a decent government all around, with some support for armies. The downside is it's the only advanced government with war weariness. Each civilization's favorite and shunned governments have been changed to reflect these changes (chart in the Reference section).

Unit changes (chart in the Reference section):
- Armies now have the ability to pillage, build roads, and build fortresses (no animations yet)
- The following units now have zones of control: Archer, Longbowman, Musketman, Rifleman, Infantry, Artillery, Frigate, Destroyer, Battleship, Bowman, Musketeer, Man-O-War.
- Added the units Raider (Kryten's Horse Archer graphics), Mortar, and Guerilla - all of these have hidden nationality and treat all terrain as roads.

General rules changes:
- The optimal number of cities (ONC) for each map size has been changed: tripled for the first three (Tiny - 36, Small - 42, Standard - 48) and quadrupled for the last two (Large - 96, Huge - 128). This makes the Forbidden Palace almost impossible to build, but eases the city limit (which I really hate) a lot.
- Tech rates have been increased by 20% (reasearch will accumulate 20% slower - this is due to the decreased corruption and the lack of a tile penalty for a good part of the game). Tech rates are now 192, 240, 288, 384, 480, for Tiny, Small, Medium, Large, and Huge size maps respectively.
- Some worker jobs are completed faster now - build fortress (12 turns base), build railroad (10 turns base), clear jungle (10 turns base), clear pollution (16 turns base).
- Grasslands and plains may no longer be mined.
- Mountains will produce 3 extra shields when mined (instead of two, like hills).
- Minimum research time is now 3 turns, maximum research time is now 36 turns.
- Desert, Plains, Grassland, Tundra, Flood Plain Ocean, Sea, and Coast no longer give a defense bonus (instead of the 10% defense bonus they used to give).
- The colors have been changed around for 3 civs. Most notably, the Russians are now red (damn commies =P)
- Only 1 city is needed to support an army now (this change is unnoticeable).
- The chance to intercept air missions has been increased a bit, to 55% for regular missions and 15% for stealth missions (yes, the superpower(s) are capable of shooting down stealth planes pretty efficiently).
- Settlements are now towns up to including size 7, they are cities up to and including size 15 (cities would max out too fast in plain civ3).
- Fixed a typo: Copernicus' Observatory is now spelled that way consistently throughout the game (it was spelled Copernicus's and Copernicus' in different parts of the Civilopedia).
- Some early medieval wonders and buildings obviously cost way too much, so their costs have been decreased a bit: Aqueduct (80), Cathedral (120), Harbor (60), Courthouse (60), Sun Tzu's Art of War (450), Sistine Chapel (450), Copernicus' Observatory (300), Leonardo's Workshop (450).
- Apollo Program has been renamed to Space Program for two reasons: 1) to reduce ethno-centrism, and 2) because I love how the Soyuz rocket looks on the launch pad and I intended to use it for the wonder splash =P

Tech tree changes:
- Monarchy has been renamed to Theocracy to accomodate the change in governments. The Ceremonial Burial picture is now also the Theocracy picture. The advisor now talks about Theocracy and not Monarchy when you hover the mouse over the tech.
- Nationalism now enables Fascism and the Mortar.
- Currency now enables Wealth.
- Pottery now enables Hanging Gardens.
- Horseback Riding now enables the Raider.
- Replaceable Parts now enables the Guerilla.

Civilopedia: all entries affected by the above changes have been modified/updated to reflect them. In addition, two other minor changes have been made to the Civilopedia:
- A historical error concerning the rise of Yeltsin was corrected in the Russians Civilopedia entry.
- A questionable sentence in the Nationalism entry that is possibly offensive to some people in the former Yugoslavia region has been taken out.
I will make more minor changes as I get around to them; these just happen to be the ones I came across first.


Reference
------------
The reference section includes charts that don't come out right in the forums, and is available in the actual Readme.txt included with the attached file.


The future
-------------
This is only the first, and very beta, release of this mod. Many of the things in here still need extensive playtesting and balancing. I intend to keep adding and modifying the mod for a while. Planned additions/modifications include:
- New wonder splashes
- New unit graphics for Guerilla and Mortar
- Army build road and build fortification graphics
- Further touching up of the Civilopedia
- The addition of either new UUs or of flavor units
- Implementation of the resistance and propaganda modifiers
- Some new tech icon graphics
- Etc.
I'm always open to suggestions, contributions, and criticism (of the constructive kind preferably heh)


Credits
---------
All credits are for graphics so far...
Thanks to: Womoks, sn00py, BeBro, Skanky Burns, Weymaster, soufie77, and Kryten

[Krayzeenbk]

Screenshot

Here is what the game looks like in the early industrial age:

[Krayzeenbk]

Ohhh man... does anyone have 11 MB of webspace with no bandwidth per time limit that I could please use? Forums don't allow that much to be posted and sites like angelfire put a limit on your bandwidth usage...

[Jon Shafer]

Hey that graphics mod looks pretty cool.

You could put the graphics up in a lot of .ZIP files... that's what Sn00py did when he put up his graphics mod. I'm not sure about where you could put the singular 11 MB file though...

[Optimizer]

Do the Hidden Nationality units work well? Are they useful?

[Krayzeenbk]

Yes, they are...

The raider is useful for general harassment in the beginning, while civs are undeveloped, and is also a very good scout (if you can get the horses for it).

I gave the guerilla 3 moves instead of the original 2 so that it can get in across the border, hit something, and get out fast before the enemy can retaliate.

The mortar only has 2 movement points, so it might take some thinking to use it (I might give it 3 later based on people's comments).

I don't think any of the unit special flags available right now allow you to make an enemy unit invisible if its outside your city radii and your units' line of sight (otherwise the three new units would certainly have that ability).

Unfortunately, enemy workers tend to know when your guerillas are nearby (even if they should be out of sight), and like to hide inside the nearest city. They can still be surprised far away from cities, however, and the worker hiding doesn't stop you from pillaging or maybe even attacking the city itself
I'm still working on the balancing, so feel free to dl the mod and tell me what you think