NOTE: This mod was built using patch v.3.13. As a result, it will crash if the new v.3.17 patch is installed. I will update this as soon as I can, but things are very busy in real life for me at the moment. Thanks for your patience! --jkp1187

DOWNLOAD VERSION 1.42 here:


http://forums.civfanatics.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=7690

For those who want to play this game with up to 40 civs, I have merged it with Lt. Bob's 40 civ mod (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=234779). This is available for download here:

http://forums.civfanatics.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=8424



v. 1.35 has introduced several more tweaks, one new technology (Astrogation), and a reworking of several pre-existing features for game balance. It also includes an SDK change. Merging this mod with other SDK mods will now require a compiler.



Key changes from v. 1.12:
NAME CHANGES FROM 1.35:

i.) Apollo Program renamed MISSION TO MARS
ii.) Clones (future workers) renamed CLONEJACKS
iii.) The BUILDING "Advanced Shielding" has been renamed to DEFLECTOR SHIELDING
iv.) The unit DREADNOUGHT has been renamed to TITAN

c.) NEW TECH FROM 1.35:
i.) ASTROGATION (prereq = Biological Warfare, Satellites, Composites.)

d.) BUILDING CHANGES FROM 1.35:
i.) RECYCLING CENTER (no longer eliminates buliding pollution...now is +1 health and +1 happiness, cost reduced by 50%.
ii.) ARCOLOGY (Cost increased to 1000 hammers).

Substantive changes from 1.35:

1.) This build includes Bhruic's Unofficial BtS Patch v. 1.11. The only SDK addition is the on/off switch for the resource depletion function. If you want to play with more than 40 civs, please download the mod titled: "JKP1187's NextWar + 40"

2.) SDK MOD: The mod now has its own CvGameCoreDLL file, so merging with other mods will now require a little bit of compiling. This change was necessary to create an in-game on/off switch for the Resource Depletion function. Resource Depletion defaults to off. I have included the two SDK files with changes in the CvGameCoreDLL folder.

3.) MISSION TO MARS REPLACES APOLLO PROGRAM and ASTROGATION TECHNOLOGY ADDED: Per my discussion earlier, I removed the Apollo Program and replaced it with a new project called Mission to Mars, to make the Space Race a bit more of a race. I also added a new technology, Astrogation (prerequisites: Bio Warfare, Satellites, and Composites) that will enable construction of the Mission to Mars.

4.) Cost of the Mission to Mars is now 2500 hammers, to represent the magnitude of such a project.

5.) Biological Warfare now requires Aquaculture.

6.) The Nanoids promotion is now available with Combat III or Drill III -- previously it was available only with Combat IV.

7.) Recycling Centers now cost 150 hammers (reduced from 300). They now only provide +1 health and +1 happiness instead of removing all building-related pollution. Thanks to endgame buildings such as the Arcologies, and the ready availability of Sid's Sushi and Cereal Mills, I felt that this building needed to be nerfed a little.

8.) Biological Warfare Missiles now receive a 100% bonus when used against Gunpowder, Archery, Siege, Mounted, Melee, and Clone units.

9.) Clone units are now eligible for the Anti-Biological Warfare promotion.

10.) Assault Mechs -- adjusted the value iAirCombatLimit to 100, as it was supposed to be. The Assault Mech's ranged attack should now work as intended.

11.) Renamed the Dreadnought Unit and Category both to "Titan". This was done to avoid confusion in case players wished to merge NextWar with a mod that included the WWI-era Dreadnought-class ship. No changes otherwise made.

12.) The future worker-replacement "Clones" was renamed to "Clonejack", again to avoid confusion, as there was already a "Clones" unit category. No changes otherwise made.

13.) The building "Advanced Shielding" was renamed to "Deflector Shielding", again to avoid confusion. In this case, the civilopedia was confusing BUILDING_ADVANCED_SHIELDING with TECH_ADVANCED_SHIELDING. (The technology remains named "Advanced Shielding".) No changes otherwise made.

14.) Readjusted the frequency of checks for resource depletion. Also made the checks scale with game speed.

15.) Readjusted the likelihood of resource depletion.

17.) Made several XML text edits to certain Civilopedia entries/added some new NextWar concept entries for new players under the "Beyond the Sword Concepts" section.

18.) Rebalanced the game speeds. I left the tech rate at the default rate, but gave small (4%) increases to everything else -- growth, worker rate, building construction rate, unit construction rate, culture rate, etc. -- to keep in line with the 5% increase in game turns. (Culture rate costs, which had been increased 5%, is now increased by only 4%.) ERRATA: the Civilopedia says the across-the-board increase was 5%. This is incorrect. The correct number is 4%.

19.) Cost of the Arcology building increased to 1000 hammers. I also removed the +50% discount for Arcologies that Expansive leaders received. I felt that this building just was too inexpensive (especially for an Expansive leader.) The shielding buildings, however, have retained their earlier costs.

20.) Updated to include new events from JKP1187's Events Mod v. 1.13.

21.) Verified that Biological Warfare Missiles do not cause population loss on use in cities, so I removed that misleading text from the Civilopedia.



JKP1187's Not Just Another NextWar Mod


NEXT WAR RULES AND CHANGES


NOTE: This information is accessible via the Civilopedia under Beyond The Sword Concepts\Next War Rules and Changes.


1.) SUMMARY


This mod will give an epic-style game that permits players to start in any era (ancient through future) and play to any of the standard victory conditions, with the NextWar techs and units playable once they become available in the game, and overall making as few other changes as possible. Everything's been updated to be compatible with 3.13, and I have added a few tweaks here and there (nothing major) to enhance playability. Download and enjoy! This mod uses as a starting point both Paul Murphy's NextWar mod, and the code included in the NextWar–Enhanced mod done by Ansible. Many thanks to both!


2.) RULES CHANGES:


a.) SPACE RACE: Most of the Space Race projects have been assigned to new technologies. The idea is to delay the Space Race until the players were using the additional NextWar technologies. It just didn't seem fun to have a player arrive at Alpha Centauri before the new techs had been researched, which was quite possible.


* MISSION TO MARS (formerly APOLLO PROGRAM) requires ASTROGATION (formerly ROCKETRY) (Cost increased to 2500 hammers).
* SS ENGINE: requires COLD FUSION (formerly FUSION)
* SS COCKPIT: requires CYBERNETICS (formerly FIBER OPTICS)
* SS DOCKING BAY: requires SHIELDING (formerly SATELLITES)
* SS LIFE SUPPORT: requires HYDROPONICS (formerly ECOLOGY)
* SS STASIS CHAMBER: requires CLONING (formerly GENETICS)
* SS CASING: requires COMPOSITES (unchanged)
* SPACE ELEVATOR: requires ROBOTICS + SATELLITES + FUSION (formerly just ROBOTICS + SATELLITES).

b.) CORPORATE EXECUTIVES: I have left the unit cap from the 3.02 patch in place -- no more than three (3) executives per corporation per civ can exist/be constructed at any given time. The basic AI tends to spam corporate executives to its own detriment. Bhruic's patch fixed this somewhat, but without the cap, the AI still tends to overbuild. (At the same time, I did not feel that the cap would severely restrict the human players' corporate expansion.)

c.) PARTISANS EVENT/EMANCIPATION: Whenever a city is razed that is owned by a Civ running the labor civic Emancipation, the Partisans event will ALWAYS fire. (It will never fire for any civ that is NOT running Emancipation.) I felt that it would be nice to add a slight bonus to Emancipation while in the process of fixing the code for this event (which had been buggy.) The event will never fire if Random Events are turned off.

d.) ARCOLOGY/ARCOLOGY SHIELDING/DEFLECTOR(Advanced) SHIELDING: The cost of all three of these buildings has been doubled. These are supposed to be mammoth society-altering structures; it seemed appropriate that their hammer cost at least be in the same ballpark as a National Wonder.
i.) In addition, the Arcology now requires both Hydroponics and Composites -- to simulate the fact that special building materials are necessary for the structure.

e.) EXPLORER/CONSCRIPTION: For some reason, Explorers were given the ability to be created via Nationalism/Draft. In addition, they are also available to be created as the “freebie” unit given to colonies upon independence. Since it is, in my opinion, nigh-useless to have an explorer as a draftable unit (all the more so because an Explorer can’t be upgraded to anything,) I have disabled this.

f.) NEXTWAR SCENARIO LEADERS REMOVED: Because this mod is meant to be as faithful as possible to the standard “epic” game, the NextWar civs/leaders (Mr. Big/America Inc., The Lady/Southern Empire, etc.) have all been removed. I did not believe that they added much to the epic game.

g.) "CRACKED LIKE AN EGG" REMOVED: The NextWar event where the world "cracks like an egg" after 20 nuclear explosions/meltdowns has also been removed from this mod.

h.) ADDITIONAL GAME TURNS/GAME END YEAR: Every game speed option now has 5% more turns -- NORMAL speed has 525 turns, not 500 turns. The speeds have also been adjusted to end at 2100AD instead of 2050AD. The reason for this is to give additional time for players to exploit the NextWar techs and units.

i.) Rebalanced the game speeds. I left the tech rate at the default rate, but gave small (4%) increases to everything else -- growth, worker rate, building construction rate, unit construction rate, culture rate, etc. -- to keep in line with the 5% increase in game turns. (Culture rate costs,
which had been increased 5%, is now increased by only 4%.) ERRATA: the Civilopedia says the across-the-board increase was 5%. This is incorrect. The correct number is 4%.

j.) RANDOM EVENTS: I have added all of the random events from JKP1187's Random Events Mod. I have also added three new NextWar-specific random events that are available only in this mod:

The Cylons: (Prereq: At least one civ must have TECH_CLONING and at least one civ must have constructed a Cloning Factory, must have barbarians active)
1.) A group of Barbarian Automatons appears on a plot randomly chosen WITHIN the player's territory. Number varies depending on map size.

Sensors: (Prereq: TECH_SHIELDING and at least one (1) Stealth Destroyer):
1.) All Stealth Destroyers receive the SENTRY promotion.

Slip and Fall: (Prereq: Must have at least one (1) Assault Mech, unit must be on a plot that does NOT have a route of any kind (road or railroad), unit must be at full strength, cannot have COMMANDO promotion.
1.) Assault Mech suffers 33% damage.


k.) RESOURCE DEPLETION ADDED: I have added the simulated resource depletion code from the NextWar Scenario (it had been left out of the original mod.) The game will periodically do a check to see if any resources currently being worked (with the requisite improvement, a fort, or with a city,) should disappear to simulate resource depletion. The chances of a resource depleting are between 1:10 and 1:30 when the check is made (it won't necessarily be every turn, and the interval between checks scales with game speed) Resources will not disappear unless the civilization that owns the resource has the enabling tech (e.g., Iron Workin for Iron.) Also, if the civ is running the economic civic Environmentalism, the chance of resources disappearing for that specific civ are reduced by 50%.

NOTE: as of version 1.35, this option can be switched on or off via the Custom Game startup screen as desired by the player. The setting defaults to "off", so if you hit "Play Now!", you will not have the option to switch it on.

l.) Nanoids promotion is now available to Armor, Naval Units, and Gunships.


3.) EXTRAS:


a.) TECH QUOTATIONS/VOICE-OVERS: I have added voice-overs for all of the NextWar technologies. I have also done vocals for the short multiplayer narrations (e.g.,“You have discovered Advanced Shielding.”) Yes, that’s my voice. I retain the copyright on that work. Others may use them freely as long as (a) they do not use them for a profit, (b) I receive credit, (c) they are used only for mods to Civ 4 and its expansion packs, (d) those expansion packs are made freely available on Civ Fanatics and/or Apolyton, or (e) I otherwise specifically grant permission for their use. I also changed a couple of the tech quotations to ones I thought fit better.

Also, if you are going to reuse the voice overs in part or in full, please post a notice that the copyright on that work is held by me. Thanks!

b.) GLANCE TAB: I have included code restoring the glance tab to the diplomacy screen in CvExoticForeignAdvisor.py. If you think it's too ugly, just don't look at it! :-)

c.) CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL ICON: I have included a new icon (provided by bmarnz) showing C. Everett Koop's likeness as the icon for the CDCNational Wonder. This replaces the CDC's previous icon which was (confusingly) identical to the United Nations' icon.

d.) NEW UNIT CATEGORY ICONS: I have included new icons for the NextWar specific Unit Categories (Clones, Assault Mech, Bioweapons, Dreadnought).

Previously, the game re-used pre-existing icons, which could be confusing.

e.) STALIN'S NEW MUSIC: Variations on the Great Soviet Anthem were included for Stalin's middle and late era diplomatic music. (The early era music remains the Volga Boatsman's Song.)

To the best of my knowledge, the music included is in the public domain. Both files are available for free download here:

http://www.hymn.ru/index-en.html If that is not the case and you are the copyright holder, please contact me immediately via private message at the Civilization Fanatics Center or the Apolyton Civilization Site. My userid is: jkp1187.

f.) NEXTWAR INTRO SPLASH SCREEN: now plays regardless of which intro screen the player has selected (although the music from the selected screenstill plays.)

g.) NEW CIV FLAGS: Added new flags for America, England, France, Spain, Russia, France, Germany, India, Rome, and Arabia. Most of these are from BadRonald's flag mod from CivFanatics.

h.) ENGLAND/RUSSIA COLOR SWITCH: Purely for my own aesthetic reasons, I switched the colors of Russia and England. England is now Dark Red, Russia is now White.

Hmm...interesting. Here's a Koop buttun for ya. button (http://forums.civfanatics.com/uploads/112827/Koop.rar)

Thanks, bmarnz -- that looks good. Adding your DDS file to the mod.

Forgive my ignorance, but where should I extract the files to?

Forgive my ignorance, but where should I extract the files to?

C:\Program Files\Firaxis Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4\Beyond the Sword\Mods


@ jkp1187

Is it possible to merge the ranged bombardment mod with this in the next update?

C:\Program Files\Firaxis Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4\Beyond the Sword\Mods


@ jkp1187

Is it possible to merge the ranged bombardment mod with this in the next update?

@Ruffriders

I hadn't really contemplated including the ranged bombardment, because (in my opinion) that's a pretty big departure from the standard rules, and I'm trying to keep this mod with relatively unchanged core rules. (And, to be honest, I've never played it.) Right now, my modding time is being spent working on expanding the number turns maybe by 5%-10% and am also writing some new random events (some of which will apply to the general game, others of which will be NextWar-specific). In the process of the latter, I've found that I'm more or less going to have to learn python, so that's sucking up my free modding time.

Certainly, if you want to splice that mod in yourself, using this the stuff from my NextWar mod, please feel free to do so (as long as you give me a shout-out).


@Cornelius

Make sure that you create a subfolder under "mods" when you extract the files -- e.g.,

C:\Program Files\Firaxis Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4\Beyond the Sword\Mods\JKP1187's NOT JUST ANOTHER NEXTWAR MOD (or whatever).

Well, with 700 hits to this thread, I assume that at least some people have downloaded the mod and given it a try. Does anyone have any feedback?

Next, I am going to add ~ 5% to 10% more turns to every game speed, to give more time to use the new NextWar techs. I will also be adding some new random events soon.

It's worked fine for me so far. I haven't really played enough to get to the Next War part of the scenario, but everything seems to be running smoothly. I'll let you know when I get to the good part.

It's worked fine for me so far. I haven't really played enough to get to the Next War part of the scenario, but everything seems to be running smoothly. I'll let you know when I get to the good part.

Thanks. I'm especially interested in how well the alloted time works -- assuming competent play, do you have a shot at maxing out the tech tree? I never really felt as though i did with Ansible's NextWar-Expanded (but it's a question whether or not my play was adequately "competent", plus I usually play with NO TECH BROKERING enabled, which also slows down teching a little.)

I'm thinking of increasing number of turns by 5% (e.g., NORMAL speed goes from 500 to 525 turns,) leaving tech speed completely unchanged, then slowing down everything else (culture production, population growth, production, espionage,) by, say, 3%. (Mainly b/c I don't want tech to out-pace everything else by too much, having never messed around with these game speeds before.) Appreciate thoughts on this.

Thanks. I'm especially interested in how well the alloted time works -- assuming competent play, do you have a shot at maxing out the tech tree? I never really felt as though i did with Ansible's NextWar-Expanded (but it's a question whether or not my play was adequately "competent", plus I usually play with NO TECH BROKERING enabled, which also slows down teching a little.)

I'm thinking of increasing number of turns by 5% (e.g., NORMAL speed goes from 500 to 525 turns,) leaving tech speed completely unchanged, then slowing down everything else (culture production, population growth, production, espionage,) by, say, 3%. (Mainly b/c I don't want tech to out-pace everything else by too much, having never messed around with these game speeds before.) Appreciate thoughts on this.Well I'm currently playing my first game with the is mod and so far so good. This is exactly what I wanted, normal game but with extra techs. I agree with increasing the game length, but I'm unsure if I'd want the culture etc rebalanced to slow everything else, just the extra turns - but I haven't thought it through.
Quick question, to add extra turns do I just add extra turns on
</iTurnsPerIncrement>
?

Well I'm currently playing my first game with the is mod and so far so good. This is exactly what I wanted, normal game but with extra techs. I agree with increasing the game length, but I'm unsure if I'd want the culture etc rebalanced to slow everything else, just the extra turns - but I haven't thought it through.
Quick question, to add extra turns do I just add extra turns on
</iTurnsPerIncrement>
?

Yes, more or less, but note that where you add the extra turns can radically affect the date tracking. If you add it to the first grouping, where iMonthIncrement is (on normal speed) at 480 (i.e., each turn = 480 months or 40 "years" per the in-game date,) you could easily end up with a end turn at, say, 4500AD or something like that. Adding the turns to the end will be easier to keep the date range under control. You can also tack on a new increment (e.g., in the code below, if you want a final increment where one turn = 1 month for 50 turns, that can easily be done just by adding one more "<GameTurnInfo>" with <iMonthIncrement> = 1, and <iTurnsPerIncrement> = 50 (and, in the game, the calender will advance exactly 50 months in that time, one month per game turn.)



<GameSpeedInfo>
<Type>GAMESPEED_NORMAL</Type>
<Description>TXT_KEY_GAMESPEED_NORMAL</Description>
<Help>TXT_KEY_GAMESPEED_NORMAL_HELP</Help>
<iGrowthPercent>100</iGrowthPercent>
<iTrainPercent>100</iTrainPercent>
<iConstructPercent>100</iConstructPercent>
<iCreatePercent>100</iCreatePercent>
<iResearchPercent>100</iResearchPercent>
<iBuildPercent>100</iBuildPercent>
<iImprovementPercent>100</iImprovementPercent>
<iGreatPeoplePercent>100</iGreatPeoplePercent>
<iCulturePercent>100</iCulturePercent>
<iAnarchyPercent>100</iAnarchyPercent>
<iBarbPercent>100</iBarbPercent>
<iFeatureProductionPercent>100</iFeatureProductionPercent>
<iUnitDiscoverPercent>100</iUnitDiscoverPercent>
<iUnitHurryPercent>100</iUnitHurryPercent>
<iUnitTradePercent>100</iUnitTradePercent>
<iUnitGreatWorkPercent>100</iUnitGreatWorkPercent>
<iGoldenAgePercent>100</iGoldenAgePercent>
<iHurryPercent>100</iHurryPercent>
<iHurryConscriptAngerPercent>100</iHurryConscriptAngerPercent>
<iInflationPercent>30</iInflationPercent>
<iInflationOffset>-90</iInflationOffset>
<iVictoryDelayPercent>100</iVictoryDelayPercent>
<GameTurnInfos>
<GameTurnInfo>
<iMonthIncrement>480</iMonthIncrement>
<iTurnsPerIncrement>75</iTurnsPerIncrement>
</GameTurnInfo>
<GameTurnInfo>
<iMonthIncrement>300</iMonthIncrement>
<iTurnsPerIncrement>60</iTurnsPerIncrement>
</GameTurnInfo>
<GameTurnInfo>
<iMonthIncrement>240</iMonthIncrement>
<iTurnsPerIncrement>25</iTurnsPerIncrement>
</GameTurnInfo>
<GameTurnInfo>
<iMonthIncrement>120</iMonthIncrement>
<iTurnsPerIncrement>50</iTurnsPerIncrement>
</GameTurnInfo>
<GameTurnInfo>
<iMonthIncrement>60</iMonthIncrement>
<iTurnsPerIncrement>60</iTurnsPerIncrement>
</GameTurnInfo>
<GameTurnInfo>
<iMonthIncrement>24</iMonthIncrement>
<iTurnsPerIncrement>50</iTurnsPerIncrement>
</GameTurnInfo>
<GameTurnInfo>
<iMonthIncrement>12</iMonthIncrement>
<iTurnsPerIncrement>120</iTurnsPerIncrement>
</GameTurnInfo>
<GameTurnInfo>
<iMonthIncrement>6</iMonthIncrement>
<iTurnsPerIncrement>60</iTurnsPerIncrement>
</GameTurnInfo>
</GameTurnInfos>
</GameSpeedInfo>






The reason I'm worried about balance with the other factors is that if I arbitrarily increase number of game turns without balancing anything else, victory conditions are thrown a little bit off. If you will, right now, technology doesn't need to be balanced (increasing the number of game turns IS the balance, so to speak,) and re-adjusting the spaceship part techs has put the ability to win the space race at the end of the tech tree, and presumably at the end of the game, where it's supposed to be. But if Increase turns by 5% without balancing out anything else, then presumably the average player will be able to score, for instance, a cultural win 5% quicker (as far as points are concerned) than he otherwise would have in a normal, non-NextWar game.

The same would apply even for a conquest/domination win, since in terms of producing units, a player would be able to build units 5% quicker -- thinking in terms of the number of turns as a % of overall turns available in the game. So if there are 500 turns in a game, a unit that takes 5 turns to construct would take 1% of overall game turns. If there are 525 turns in a game, and the same unit still takes only 5 turns to complete (all else being equal) then this only take 0.95% of the total game turns. Since your final game score (AFAIK) depends on how quickly you win versus how many game turns remain when you win, this sort of marginal difference will add up.

So, assuming two identical players are playing Civ -- one regular BtS, the other my NextWar mod, and assuming they play on identical maps against identical opponents, and every player makes identical moves, and assuming the player goes for ANY victory condition OTHER than space race, the NextWar player will get a higher score than the vanilla player because he's given more turns in which to successfully complete the game. It creates an incentive for the points mavens to basically NEVER try to go for the space win in NextWar (which really kinda hurts the purpose of the mod). The Space Race win, since it's been moved to the end of the game regardless, will always be the lowest-scoring win.

So right now, for those reasons, I'm inclined to do a little re-balancing, but I will hold off until I get some feedback after a couple of you have played the game to the end and tell me what you think.

P.S. This is based on what I believe to be true about total points at victory -- if this is incorrect, I'd appreciate it if someone would give me a heads-up.

Just wondering whether this is something which needs fixing or if I somehow corrupted a file. This happens when starting up the game with this mod.

EDIT ...image has been removed...

Just wondering whether this is something which needs fixing or if I somehow corrupted a file. This happens when starting up the game with this mod.



Since I haven't added any NextWar-specific events yet, I haven't included the file "Civ4GameText_Events_BTS.xml" as part of my NextWar mod, so that shouldn't be from the mod. Were you maybe messing around with that file in your core game directory -- C:\Program Files\Firaxis Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4\Beyond the Sword\Assets\XML\Text?

It looks like it'll be real easy to fix, though. Looks like the problem is that one of the XML tags for the Spanish language is formatted incorrectly. Instead of the opening tag for that one line being spelled , it's spelled [SpanisH], which doesn't match the closing tag of -- it's all case-sensitive, you see. So if you fix that (and as long as there are no other typos) it should be good.

Got me out of my strict lurking state to congratulate your "Kelp... its what's for breakfast" voiceover :lol: - Really good!

For a bit of feedback:

Really enjoying it so far, running a bit tight on time with the tech tree like you predicted... In all fairness though, I hate the whole time victory concept so I usually remove it from the victory conditions.

Definitely makes Next War a heapload more appealing, without making too many dramatic changes that drift from the original intention. Its like... Next War, just not beta. Really cool stuff.

Now I just need to figure out how to combine it with Rhye's and Fall of Civilization for the ultimate Civ 4 experience....

Got me out of my strict lurking state to congratulate your "Kelp... its what's for breakfast" voiceover :lol: - Really good!

For a bit of feedback:

Really enjoying it so far, running a bit tight on time with the tech tree like you predicted... In all fairness though, I hate the whole time victory concept so I usually remove it from the victory conditions.

Definitely makes Next War a heapload more appealing, without making too many dramatic changes that drift from the original intention. Its like... Next War, just not beta. Really cool stuff.

Now I just need to figure out how to combine it with Rhye's and Fall of Civilization for the ultimate Civ 4 experience....

Thanks for the feedback. I have some free time during this four-day weekend, so I will definitely change around the time a little. Do you think a 5% increase is sufficient (i.e., a "normal" speed game would go from 500 to 525)?

Probably, yeah. I'll go start another game and check out how long it takes me this time around and see exactly where I am in the tech tree. Will play a huge map with plenty of civs and see how it goes :)

Since I haven't added any NextWar-specific events yet, I haven't included the file "Civ4GameText_Events_BTS.xml" as part of my NextWar mod, so that shouldn't be from the mod. Were you maybe messing around with that file in your core game directory -- C:\Program Files\Firaxis Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4\Beyond the Sword\Assets\XML\Text?

It looks like it'll be real easy to fix, though. Looks like the problem is that one of the XML tags for the Spanish language is formatted incorrectly. Instead of the opening tag for that one line being spelled , it's spelled [SpanisH], which doesn't match the closing tag of -- it's all case-sensitive, you see. So if you fix that (and as long as there are no other typos) it should be good.

Yeah I noticed that. Good to know it's only on my end then. I'm at a loss to think how the file got changed - I don't mess with any files like that.

Anyway, sounds like a great mod. I'm playing a game with this mod at the moment so I'll report back if anything looks odd.

I'm not sure I agree with your suggested change that bombers and fighters see subs...

Yeah I noticed that. Good to know it's only on my end then. I'm at a loss to think how the file got changed - I don't mess with any files like that.

Anyway, sounds like a great mod. I'm playing a game with this mod at the moment so I'll report back if anything looks odd.

I'm not sure I agree with your suggested change that bombers and fighters see subs...

That's cool. I'm still going back and forth over it myself. I won't change it at all unless everyone demands it and I have a chance to test it out in a game myself and agree that it's an amazingly wonderful idea. So far, I haven't had any time to play a proper game of civ since last month....so no worries on that last bit for the foreseeable future.

I am also going to be releasing a mod component with some new random events for the basic game...hopefully I will have some time to throw in one or two NextWar-specific events and add it to this mod as well over the 4-day weekend.

Updated to v.0.92. I have added 5% more turns to all game speeds. Contrary to my earlier post, I did not make any other balancing adjustments; since people were saying that it seemed that the game was moving too fast to reach all the NextWar techs, I figured it was best to at least make this change immediately. Hopefully I'll get round to playing a full (normal speed, anyway,) game over the next week or two to see how things balance when I adjust for research times.

Also added several new random events that I drafted from my JKP1187's EVENTS mod (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=251885). All of these events are independently usable in the vanilla BtS epic game (although most of them occur toward the end of the game and Battle Lasers in particular can only happen so late that it's probably only of use to NextWar players.)


1.) Battle Lasers
2.) Futbol War
3.) Napalm
4.) Billions and Billions
5.) Reactive Armor
6.) Greek Fire
7.) Free Enterprise
8.) Fiat Money
9.) Crossing the Rubicon
10.) The Generals' Putsch
11.) Cure for Cancer
12.) Carnation Revolution

Updated to v.0.921 -- just imported updated files for the events mod, no NextWar-specific changes made here.

Will try, I liked the last version.

Will try, I liked the last version.

Did you finish it? If so, what victory conditions, what year did you end, what level were you playing? Just curious....Feedback like that will help.

I did play and liked it alot. I won a domination victory, but I didn't play on the harder levels yet. I don't see much to change, but I do love playing as the Pirate or Barbarian if you want to add them in. Black Beard or One Eyed Willie for the Pirate.

looks like great work, the kind of stuff Firaxis should really have done themselves. i wish id downloaded this before i started my current a game. As it is im playing in next war but ive already made a whole load of changes of my own (not related to next war, just my own preferences).

Do you have a list of all the Next War xml files youve edited? That way I can know which ones I can just replace with my own Next War xml files and which ones I need to go through and add in my own preferences?

Actually, nearly all of the files will be at least a little different from Paul Murphy's original NextWar mod, because his mod used an earlier build version of BtS as a base, whereas mine (based on Ansible's work) uses the final release version of BtS 3.13 as its base.

Updated to 0.93. Added new random events, no gameplay changes made.

just to let you know, im now playing with your mod. Will give you feedback when I finally reach the future age (I've just entered industrial on a massive map on marathon speed so might take a while)

Thanks. I still haven't had a chance to play a game since I started doing this mod and the Events mod over a month ago. Hopefully I'll find some time to play over the holidays....

Downloading new version now. Hope I can play as the bad guys!!!

Great mod! We are using it for our multiplayer sessions now and so far it has been running wonderfully stable, bug-free and balanced.

Great mod! We are using it for our multiplayer sessions now and so far it has been running wonderfully stable, bug-free and balanced.

Great to hear! Please let me know how the end game works out for you.

I have only been able to research the entire tech tree once so far and the only "weird" thing I encountered was that you can put several Dreadnoughts and Attack Bots into one single transport ship.

I have only been able to research the entire tech tree once so far and the only "weird" thing I encountered was that you can put several Dreadnoughts and Attack Bots into one single transport ship.

I'll look into that when I get a moment. I suspect that this is just because, as far as the game is concerned, a unit is a unit and four units can fit on a single transport, though it kind of seems weird given the civilopedia description of these units.

Oh -- what difficulty level were you playing when you ran the tech tree?

I was playing on Prince. Sure, a unit is a unit, I was just wondering if it is possible to have the Dreadnought and Attack Bot count for more than one unit in a transport.

On the other hand I love the effect on gameplay that those units have, instead of having to manage hundreds of tanks you can use your Dreadnoughts and Attack Bots.

Clone units are a bit underpowered I think, by the time you are able to build them you can already get Mech Infantry and the modern tank.

I was playing on Prince.

Hmm. That's good -- I wanted to make sure that this wasn't a Settler, Chieftan or Warlord level game (not that there's anything wrong with them...just that the players get too many bonuses to make it a fair test....)

Would you say that more turns need to be added so that people have a shot at the space race win?

Am playing a game as we speak... so far it's very stable, no errors spotted.
very nice work.

a few questions though: would it be possible to mod in jdog5000's "Revolution 1.25" mod, and how would one go about it?
another mod I might try to mod in, if that were possible, is Wolfhanze's "1850-1920 Enhancement Mod v2.0" to flesh out that period.
any hints on how would be much apreciated.

Now i'm back to the game.

tnx for your great work.

Am playing a game as we speak... so far it's very stable, no errors spotted.
very nice work.

a few questions though: would it be possible to mod in jdog5000's "Revolution 1.25" mod, and how would one go about it?
another mod I might try to mod in, if that were possible, is Wolfhanze's "1850-1920 Enhancement Mod v2.0" to flesh out that period.
any hints on how would be much apreciated.

Now i'm back to the game.

tnx for your great work.

Hey, glad you like it. Please let me know how the endgame works out. Over the holiday weekend, I may try tweaking the game turn thing a little if I can get some feedback from the players.


It should be possible to merge this with another mod -- all you would need to do is compare the XML files in my mod to those in jdog's mod, and make sure that all the XML tags here are also in there, and copy the rest of the files into the exact same folder structure. There aren't any SDK modifications in NextWar, so you could accomplish it using Notepad if you had the time. (If you're made of less sterner stuff, I thoroughly endorse WinMerge, which is available for free on-line.)

Please feel free to give it a try; if you upload for distribution, please give me credit in your mod itself and link to this thread. Thanks.

Oh, and the lawyers insist that you take a look at my copyright notice under "EXTRAS" in the OP.... :)

Just curious -- what do you guys think about the time-frames? Good enough, or would it be improved with an overall 10% increase? (E.g., NORMAL speed games go from 500 turns to 550?)

And if the turns are increased, should culture, production, city growth espionage -- in other words, everything but technology costs -- be increased to keep things in balance?

I was hoping to do some more playtesting over Xmas...but unfortunately that so-called "real life" thing intervened, so I'm more or less just going off of feedback from the masses here.... :king:

Finally reached the future era so can give you some feedback! Really enjoying it and most things seem to be working very well.

Just curious -- what do you guys think about the time-frames? Good enough, or would it be improved with an overall 10% increase? (E.g., NORMAL speed games go from 500 turns to 550?)

Not playing with time as a victory possibility so can't really comment.

On weird glitch I'm getting is that when I build arcology shielding, my arcology disappears and I have to rebuild it. Then when I build advanced shielding, the arcology shielding disappears and I have to rebuild that!!

And now for some stuff which probably goes beyond the scope of your mod:

One thing I don't like is the speed at which I'm getting through these techs. I'm in 1993 and I've got assault mechs, advancing shielding and am seven turns away from cloning. To me these future era techs are epic social-technogical changes, not stuff I can rush through in the space of ten years. I suppose I'm saying I don't like the way there are four turns per year now and I think the tech costs should be increased at this stage.

Also, with all my production bonus buildings and huge population it seems like the new buildings can be created way too quickly. Shouldn't an immense dome over a metropolis which filters the atmosphere be something like a wonder?

Not playing with time as a victory possibility so can't really comment.

On weird glitch I'm getting is that when I build arcology shielding, my arcology disappears and I have to rebuild it. Then when I build advanced shielding, the arcology shielding disappears and I have to rebuild that!!



Thanks for the heads-up on this. I will look into it and see if I can reproduce it. Do you have a save file for when this was happening, by any chance?


And now for some stuff which probably goes beyond the scope of your mod:

One thing I don't like is the speed at which I'm getting through these techs. I'm in 1993 and I've got assault mechs, advancing shielding and am seven turns away from cloning. To me these future era techs are epic social-technogical changes, not stuff I can rush through in the space of ten years. I suppose I'm saying I don't like the way there are four turns per year now and I think the tech costs should be increased at this stage.


I can re-arrange what date corresponds to what year, no problem. I wasn't worrying about that when I added the extra turns in. I personally don't care about what the "date" is since the no. of turns are more important, but it adds to the flavor for a lot of people, so I'll take that into account.


Also, with all my production bonus buildings and huge population it seems like the new buildings can be created way too quickly. Shouldn't an immense dome over a metropolis which filters the atmosphere be something like a wonder?


Hmm. This is an excellent point. The times I've played it, I was a little annoyed at how the AI went crazy building Arcologies while there were still normal present-day stuff to be had (i.e., they can't build stealth bombers, but they CAN build arcologies.) I've thought about changing Arcology to require both hydroponics and another tech (such as Composities) to delay it a little. I also may increase the hammer cost for such things -- your arguments make sense.

Oh -- what game level/speed were you playing?

Thanks for the heads-up on this. I will look into it and see if I can reproduce it. Do you have a save file for when this was happening, by any chance?

I just did some fishing about and, from what I understand, it seems this particular problem has already been noted (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=5772313&postcount=70) and fixed (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=232146). Let me know if you still need a save file.

I can re-arrange what date corresponds to what year, no problem. I wasn't worrying about that when I added the extra turns in. I personally don't care about what the "date" is since the no. of turns are more important, but it adds to the flavor for a lot of people, so I'll take that into account.

Well its two problems. One is purely flavour. The other is that I just think the tech costs are too low, but that goes for modern era techs too. Both problems are probably just my personal taste so don't consider it a priority.

Hmm. This is an excellent point. The times I've played it, I was a little annoyed at how the AI went crazy building Arcologies while there were still normal present-day stuff to be had (i.e., they can't build stealth bombers, but they CAN build arcologies.) I've thought about changing Arcology to require both hydroponics and another tech (such as Composities) to delay it a little. I also may increase the hammer cost for such things -- your arguments make sense.

Well I'd certainly agree with anything that makes them come later or be a bit harder to create.

Oh -- what game level/speed were you playing?
Monarch/Marathon

I just did some fishing about and, from what I understand, it seems this particular problem has already been noted (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=5772313&postcount=70) and fixed (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=232146). Let me know if you still need a save file.


Cool. I'd gone thru Chiyu's thread earlier, but I must've missed the arcology discussion. Let me look into it a little more -- it's possible that the designers intended for the previous shielding layer to be removed.



Well its two problems. One is purely flavour. The other is that I just think the tech costs are too low, but that goes for modern era techs too. Both problems are probably just my personal taste so don't consider it a priority.



Well, I've been meaning to re-arrange the date/turn ratio. I think 2100AD is a good 'end' point for the NextWar mod in any event, so I'll see what can be done to bump it up to there. Admittedly, I almost never play on Marathon, so it's good to hear feedback about that level, too.

Thanks again for the feedback; please feel free to post any other suggestions or bug reports.

By the way, this is how the Marathon turns per month work out for this mod (earliest eras are at the top, the later eras are at the bottom):


<GameTurnInfos>
<GameTurnInfo>
<iMonthIncrement>180</iMonthIncrement>
<iTurnsPerIncrement>100</iTurnsPerIncrement>
</GameTurnInfo>
<GameTurnInfo>
<iMonthIncrement>120</iMonthIncrement>
<iTurnsPerIncrement>300</iTurnsPerIncrement>
</GameTurnInfo>
<GameTurnInfo>
<iMonthIncrement>60</iMonthIncrement>
<iTurnsPerIncrement>170</iTurnsPerIncrement>
</GameTurnInfo>
<GameTurnInfo>
<iMonthIncrement>24</iMonthIncrement>
<iTurnsPerIncrement>201</iTurnsPerIncrement>
</GameTurnInfo>
<GameTurnInfo>
<iMonthIncrement>12</iMonthIncrement>
<iTurnsPerIncrement>129</iTurnsPerIncrement>
</GameTurnInfo>
<GameTurnInfo>
<iMonthIncrement>6</iMonthIncrement>
<iTurnsPerIncrement>180</iTurnsPerIncrement>
</GameTurnInfo>
<GameTurnInfo>
<iMonthIncrement>3</iMonthIncrement>
<iTurnsPerIncrement>264</iTurnsPerIncrement>
</GameTurnInfo>
<GameTurnInfo>
<iMonthIncrement>1</iMonthIncrement>
<iTurnsPerIncrement>231</iTurnsPerIncrement>


iMonthIncrement refers to how many months on the in-game clock pass per each turn. (E.g., 12 = 1 year, 24 = 2 years, if less than 12 months, you get a month added to the title "January 2021".) In this case, going backwards from the bottom:

231 turns @ 1 month/turn = 19.25 years
264 turns @ 3 months/turn = 66 years
180 turns @ 6 months/turn = 90 years
129 turns @ 12 months/turn = 129 years

As it happens, I only altered the chronologically last value -- so in the vanilla game, the marathon there are only 156 turns @ 1 month/turn = 13 years for the final round. So though I've padded marathon by 75 turns, in-game, this only results in an increase of 6.25 years. Perhaps, instead, I'll add 40 turns to the 12 months/turn era, then space the rest out so that the game ends at 2100AD.

As for tech speed, well, the values are what they are, and I'm not inclined to change those absent a lot of playtesting. I will say, however, that the Marathon speed increases tech costs by 300%, which makes sense because it has increased overall number of turns by 300%. (Normal speed being the baseline). So if you're tech'ing too quiickly, maybe it's time to go to Emperor? :worship:

I just did some fishing about and, from what I understand, it seems this particular problem has already been noted (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=5772313&postcount=70) and fixed (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=232146). Let me know if you still need a save file.

Yep, I reproduced the problem and the code in the thread above worked to fix it. An update to the mod including this and a few other things (including two NextWar-specific random events: Sensors and The_Cylons) will be forthcoming this weekend.

Updated.


v.0.98
1.) Added New NextWar-specific Events:

*Sensors (NextWar only) prereq: must have one Stealth Destroyer, must have Tech_Shielding
1.) All Stealth Destroyers receive Sentry promotion.

*The Cylons (NextWar only) prereq: civ can't be at war, some civ must have Tech_Cloning, some civ must have built a Cloning Factory.
1.) Groups of barbarian Automatons appear inside civ's borders. Total number depends on map size.


(See here for descriptions of new events from JKP1187's Events mod (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=251885))

2.) Restore Arcology City Ruins to CvEventManager -- now if a city with an arcology is razed, the special arcology ruins will be shown.

3.) I restored the resource depletion code and nuke/cracked egg code -- I did NOT activate it, though, it is commented out. This is just for my convenience. I am thinking about returning the resource depletion function to this mod, although I am undecided whether or not I will use the same values given in the original NextWar mod.

4.) GameSpeedInfos: re-worked the math so that the game will always end at 2100AD now.

5.) Fix Python Callback for Arcology/Shielding/Advanced Shielding. Now properly Arcology building is replaced with Arcology Shielding, which is in turn replaced by Advanced Shielding. Also Arc Shielding and Adv Shielding given +3 health to correspond to Arcology (Adv Shielding already had +1 health so this means ttl of +4 health for it.) (Thanks: Chiyu and Lumpthing).

6.) NextWar main title screen now shows regardless of which screen chosen by user.

7.) Partisans -- this event now only fires with Emancipation...and should fire every time a city owned by a civ running Emancipation is razed. This will not fire for civs NOT running Emancipation, as it had been doing in the past.

8.) Increased building costs:
Arcology: from 250 hammers, now 500 hammers.
Arcology Shielding: from 150 hammers, now 300 hammers.
Advanced Shielding: from 200 hammers, now 400 hammers.
(Credit to Lumpthing for the idea) The rationale here is that these buildings are monumental constructs that require massive amounts of resources as well as a radical re-structuring of society. The cost should be commensurate.

9.) Clarified civilopedia text regarding replacement of arcology/arcology shielding/advanced shielding, per #8.

10.) ExoticForeignAdvisor.py file moved to the "Screens" folder as it is supposed to be! ("Glance" tab now available for use -- sorry, I hadn't realized it was in the wrong folder until now.)

11.) [EDIT: THIS WAS REMOVED BECAUSE I COULDN'T GET IT TO WORK PROPERLY]
iCulturepercent increased by 3% for all game speeds. Did this to make culture wins take a little longer to balance out the longer turns.



As always, please let me know if you see any bugs.

Downloading. Thanks for the work.

Ok, is it just me or is there a download link missing in the first post ?

Sorry -- introduced bugs with this version. Fixing them now!

As it happens, I only altered the chronologically last value -- so in the vanilla game, the marathon there are only 156 turns @ 1 month/turn = 13 years for the final round. So though I've padded marathon by 75 turns, in-game, this only results in an increase of 6.25 years. Perhaps, instead, I'll add 40 turns to the 12 months/turn era, then space the rest out so that the game ends at 2100AD.

In my opinion the important thing is to make the acquirement of all the modern techs correspond roughly with today, or the near future.

Personally I think 12 months per turn is just too much, it just doesn't seem to make sense with the population growth and technological changes etc. I think 3 months per turn is pushing it too. So I would probably just ditch these last two phases and have the 6 months per turn phase take on all their turns.

As for tech speed, well, the values are what they are, and I'm not inclined to change those absent a lot of playtesting. I will say, however, that the Marathon speed increases tech costs by 300%, which makes sense because it has increased overall number of turns by 300%. (Normal speed being the baseline). So if you're tech'ing too quiickly, maybe it's time to go to Emperor? :worship:

Hehe, well I would do but I'm technologically more or less equal with the other powerful civs, so I'd only have to get the techs even faster on emperor.

Updated to v. 0.991. Fixed the bug I caused and made a few additions besides.

v.0.991

* Removed the code that increased culture costs, because the game threw a fit when I tried to use it. I missed it before releasing 0.991.

* Added new events from JKP1187's Events (Darwin's Voyage, The Buccaneeers, Blackbeard).

* Fixed small bug in The Cylons event.

* Added new Diplomatic music for Stalin Middle and Late diplomatic eras. To the best of my knowledge, the music included is in the public domain. Both files are available for free download here:
http://www.hymn.ru/index-en.html
If that is not the case and you are the copyright holder, please contact me via PM at the Civilization Fanatics Center or the Apolyton Civilization Site. My userid is: jkp1187.

Stalin's early diplomatic music remains Peter's Volga Boatsmans' tune.

* Added new flags for America, England, France, Spain, Russia, France, Germany, India, Rome, and Arabia. Most of these are from Bad Ronald's flag mod, which can be viewed here:

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=194319

* Switched colors of Russia and England.
Russia = white, England = dark red.


from v.0.98:

1.) Added New Events:
*Darwin's Voyage
*The Buccaneers
*Sensors (NextWar specific)
*The Cylons (NextWar specific)
2.) Restored Arcology City Ruins to CvEventManager -- now if a city with an arcology is razed, the special arcology ruins will be shown.
3.) I restored the resource depletion code and nuke/cracked egg code -- I did NOT activate it, though, it is commented out. This is just for my convenience. I am thinking about returning the resource depletion function to this mod, although I am undecided whether or not I will use the same values given in the original NextWar mod. (I do not intend to restore the cracked egg code.)
4.) GameSpeedInfos: re-worked the math so that the game will always end at 2100AD now.
5.) Fix Python Callback for Arcology/Shielding/Advanced Shielding. Now properly Arcology building is replaced with Arcology Shielding, which is in turn replaced by Advanced Shielding. Also Arc Shielding and Adv Shielding given +3 health to correspond to Arcology (Adv Shielding already had +1 health so this means ttl of +4 health for it.) (Thanks: Chiyu and Lumpthing).
6.) NextWar main title screen now shows regardless of which screen chosen by user.
7.) Partisans -- this event now only fires with Emancipation...and should fire every time a city owned by a civ running Emancipation is razed. This will not fire for civs NOT running Emancipation, as it had been doing in the past.
8.) Increased building costs:
Arcology: from 250 hammers, now 500 hammers.
Arcology Shielding: from 150 hammers, now 300 hammers.
Advanced Shielding: from 200 hammers, now 400 hammers.
(Credit to Lumpthing for the idea) The rationale here is that these buildings are monumental constructs that require massive amounts of resources as well as a radical re-structuring of society. The cost should be commensurate.
9.) Clarified civilopedia text regarding replacement of arcology/arcology shielding/advanced shielding, per #8.
10.) ExoticForeignAdvisor.py file moved to the "Screens" folder as it is supposed to be! ("Glance" tab now available for use -- sorry, I hadn't realized it was in the wrong folder until now.)
11.) iCulturepercent increased by 3% for all game speeds. Did this to make culture wins take a little longer to balance out the longer turns. {NOTE: THIS CODE HAS BEEN REMOVED FROM LATER VERSIONS BECAUSE IT DID NOT WORK}

I know its probably too late for the latest update but in the future it would be great if you could make a note of the files that have been changed in the latest update. This is because I've made a few changes to the game itself, amounting to my own mini-mod, and it would make merging my mod with yours easier.

I know its probably too late for the latest update but in the future it would be great if you could make a note of the files that have been changed in the latest update. This is because I've made a few changes to the game itself, amounting to my own mini-mod, and it would make merging my mod with yours easier.

I will try to keep that in mind, though it's hard to juggle everything...

For this one, a LOT of files were touched. Basically all the events files were updated, several new XML and sound files were added, the XML files controlling sound were edited, several python files were edited, XML text files were changed.

Basically, between 0.93 and 0.991, a lot of the files were changed in one way or another. Note especially that the ExoticForeignAdvisor.py file was unchanged, but it was moved to its proper location. Also, don't forget that PythonCallbackDefines.xml in the ASSETS folder WAS changed (it's easy to miss where it is.)

IIRC, these were the files that were unchanged:


*CvGameUtils.py

*Everything in the folder: \Mods\JKP1187's NOT JUST ANOTHER NEXTWAR MOD\Assets\Sounds

*CIV4ArtDefines_Building.xml

*CIV4ArtDefines_Improvement.xml

*CIV4ArtDefines_Unit.xml

*CIV4UnitCombatInfos.xml

*CIV4BuildingClassInfos.xml

*CIV4EventSchema.xml

*CIV4EraInfos.xml

*CIV4ProjectInfo.xml

*CIV4TechInfos.xml

*EVerything in the folder: Mods\JKP1187's NOT JUST ANOTHER NEXTWAR MOD\Assets\XML\Terrain

*NextWarBtSGameTextObjects.xml

*Everything in the folder: Mods\JKP1187's NOT JUST ANOTHER NEXTWAR MOD\Assets\XML\Units


Everything else was edited, changed, or is new in one form or another.

If you're not using one, I highly recommend that you use a text comparing program like WinMerge (which can be downloaded for free online).

Thanks; in that case the only files in your mod I'll be needing to edit again are CIV4LeaderHeadInfos.xml and CIV4CivilizationInfos.xml. I assume the latest changes you made have to do with the flags.

Thanks; in that case the only files in your mod I'll be needing to edit again are CIV4LeaderHeadInfos.xml and CIV4CivilizationInfos.xml. I assume the latest changes you made have to do with the flags.

Yes, and sound files.

Oh, and I'd still check every file that isn't on the list -- there were a few tweaks made to many files between 0.98 and 0.991.

Sorry -- my list above was wrong. Stalin's new music goes in the Diplomacy folder under /Sounds. :p My brain must have been fried when I wrote that.

Check everything! Everything! :crazyeye:

JKP -- Just finished my first game with your mod. Immortal diplomatic victory as Stalin after luckily getting a permanent alliance with Sitting Bull. 8 civilizations, standard timing, etc.

Just downloaded the latest version and will start a new game this week. Will probably bump it down a level....had I not got the permanent alliance, would have finished in 3rd or 4th place.

I agree with some earlier posters that the technology in the end of the game is too quick. I like what you are implementing to slow it down a bit.

Great job with the mod, I enjoyed my game a lot.

JKP -- Just finished my first game with your mod. Immortal diplomatic victory as Stalin after luckily getting a permanent alliance with Sitting Bull. 8 civilizations, standard timing, etc.

Just downloaded the latest version and will start a new game this week. Will probably bump it down a level....had I not got the permanent alliance, would have finished in 3rd or 4th place.

I agree with some earlier posters that the technology in the end of the game is too quick. I like what you are implementing to slow it down a bit.

Great job with the mod, I enjoyed my game a lot.

Immortal victory??!? I haven't even won a game on Emperor yet. :bowdown:

Thanks for the feedback. If you play as Stalin using 0.991, let me know how you like the music!

Immortal victory??!? I haven't even won a game on Emperor yet.

I mostly play between Monarch and Emperor...Monarch too easy, Emperor generally too hard. I figured since it was a longer time based mod, Immortal would be more like Emperor.....I was wrong.

Believe me, had I not lucked into a Permanent Alliance, I would not have won...I went from industrial age to future age through the alliance.

I do like the midgame and lategame music for Stalin.....it sent chills down my spine a few years ago when I went to a CSKA hockey game in Moscow (they were the former Red Army team) and they played this anthem as the national anthem.

Well, I finally came round to merging your mod and the Rvolution mod I mentioned and it appears to be working.
Oddly enough there weren't any duplicate files at all so no need (apparently) for merging.
It started mighty fine, wether ot not it'll play fine is a wholly different discussion.
I'm going to play this new combination a bit, see if I'm allowed to maintain my optimism :D

Well, I finally came round to merging your mod and the Rvolution mod I mentioned and it appears to be working.
Oddly enough there weren't any duplicate files at all so no need (apparently) for merging.
It started mighty fine, wether ot not it'll play fine is a wholly different discussion.
I'm going to play this new combination a bit, see if I'm allowed to maintain my optimism :D

Cool! I was actually thinking of merging this with Revolution, just haven't had the free time to do so. I'm also thinking of merging NextWar with Dale's Combat Mod -- though even if I do so, I will keep a 'clean' NextWar without Dale's so that people can have a choice.

If it works out, please upload it!

Per request, the next time I do an update on NextWar, I will make sure that I indicate the files that were changed, for the ease of people who have integrated it with other mods. I have one or two minor coding changes to the EVENTS mod that are going to be made, and once that's done I will add the new events to NextWar.

Cool! I was actually thinking of merging this with Revolution, just haven't had the free time to do so. I'm also thinking of merging NextWar with Dale's Combat Mod -- though even if I do so, I will keep a 'clean' NextWar without Dale's so that people can have a choice.

If it works out, please upload it!


Yeah...I would like to see it merged with Revolution as well. I'm about to start a new game, and would like to play with the merged file.

I just finished my latest game on this mod....emperor loss this time on Terra. I didn't fall "a$$ backward" into a win like the last time...held my own, but an early permanent alliance between Ethopia and Rome (of all things?) pretty much settled the issue for me...after that, I couldn't keep up. I did like the event where a virus unleashed automotons against my poorly defended capital...."Martha, fetch my shotgun".

Thanks. In retrospect, I may have made the random event "The Cylons" a little too strong, especially given that it is random and the units spawn INSIDE your borders, so I may nerf it a little at the next update. (Maybe only 2 units, change them to a pillage-type AI instruction instead of the "attack_lemming" instruction which has them attempt to seize a city.)

BTW, a general question: what do people think about restoring the resource-depletion code from the original mod, where resources have a random chance of disappearing over time? I'm thinking as long as it doesn't happen too often, it could spice things up a little.

Thanks. In retrospect, I may have made the random event "The Cylons" a little too strong, especially given that it is random and the units spawn INSIDE your borders, so I may nerf it a little at the next update. (Maybe only 2 units, change them to a pillage-type AI instruction instead of the "attack_lemming" instruction which has them attempt to seize a city.)

BTW, a general question: what do people think about restoring the resource-depletion code from the original mod, where resources have a random chance of disappearing over time? I'm thinking as long as it doesn't happen too often, it could spice things up a little.

I didn't think it was too strong, it penalized me for having a weak defense in my capital. Wouldn't go to 2 units either....I like having some random events that are "easy" and others that are "game changing". IMO, I think most of the random events are too nerfed anyway. As long as the events are "random" and they happen as much to a civilization way in the lead as to me, I don't mind them at all, and wish there were more that could be "game changing".

For example, one of these stupid "marriages", every so often should result in a permanent alliance. And maybe a "failed marriage" should every so often automatically result in a war....

I like the concept of resource depletion. Agree...gives the game spice. My $.02

Ressource depletion sounds ok, but a merge with Dale's combat mod would be huge.

For example, one of these stupid "marriages", every so often should result in a permanent alliance. And maybe a "failed marriage" should every so often automatically result in a war....


Wow. That's an idea. Let me think over the implications...it has the potential to be game-breaking, but if done right it could be cool.

Maybe one of the ways to think about it is if both parties are monarchies (where a "royal marriage" historically meant the joining of empires), then a marriage might create a "permanent alliance" or an instant vassalage based on score. Of course, there is the reality that by the time permanent alliances come into the fore, most would not be in a monarchy.

Also, I wonder if you could just simply "combine" empires...instead of a "permanent alliance", it is a true joining, ala Austria-Hungary before the First World War under the Hapsburg dynasty. Maybe only if the empires are on the same continent. Or maybe if on a different continent, an instant vassalage.

I have lots of ideas, just not a lot of time to experiment with the coding!

Overall, I do think that more potential "game changing" events would be a fun thing to add. Think about what has happened historically in China where a premonition, event, etc., caused major political and social change.

Another would be an event that caused the "personality" of the leader to change in mid-game...more than likely to become more militant. That could be interesting...maybe a revolution or governmental change all of a sudden changes the leadership traits.

Another thought would be a random event that created an advanced breakthrough in the ability to build either gunpower units, armored units or air units. So, a random event in the middle ages that goes along the lines of "So and so invented a lighter than air ship that has become the rage of the world. This so called "Zeppelin" will revolutionize how people are transported"....and then you can build airships without the requisite technology. Now I am getting really out there....

Thing is, I don't want to add anything that's too game-breaking. We'll see.

I've tested this a bit now and so far I've not encountered any gamestopping problems... or any other problems.
In fact, it's going extremely smooth.

I'm going to try and upload this "little" mod so that you can use this in any future endeavors, or to play it right away.

edit: well, that didn't work. Anyway, it's not hard to do: just put all the files of both mods together in their appropriate directories, and add the dll-file from the Revolutions modpack. Tadaa, mod is operational.

I've tested this a bit now and so far I've not encountered any gamestopping problems... or any other problems.
In fact, it's going extremely smooth.

I'm going to try and upload this "little" mod so that you can use this in any future endeavors, or to play it right away.

edit: well, that didn't work. Anyway, it's not hard to do: just put all the files of both mods together in their appropriate directories, and add the dll-file from the Revolutions modpack. Tadaa, mod is operational.

Yeah, it's too big to upload to CFC (at least, not without some sort of special permission).

No worries, I can integrate it myself and upload it to my file-sharing server if need be.

Wow. That's an idea. Let me think over the implications...it has the potential to be game-breaking, but if done right it could be cool.


if there's a way to undo permanent alliances via event it would be a great idea.

I have integrated Dale's Combat mod into this mod and it seems to work after some quick testing.

I've put the files for download here (26,3 MB):
Download NextCombat (JKP1887's NextWar Mod + Dale's Combat) (http://www.netline-services.de/download/NextCombat.zip)

Hope this is ok with everyone.

One thing I've noticed since the merge, though I encountered an instance of it the first time I played your mod is that the units don't get obsoleted when they should.

The first time I encountered it the Caravel remained buildable until battleships became available.
In the current game I'm noticing the same "staying-power" of obsolete classes despite the advent of Riflemen. The units in question are the maceman, the Roman UU, The Crossbowman and Longbowman. IIRC, all of these units should disappear from the building list once Riflemen arrive. Musketmen, the gunpowderunit you'd expect in the list of stayers disappears as normal.

Like I said, this might be because of the merge or it might be something that has appeared in your own mod and made worse by the merge. I don't know and I'm afraid I don't know enough to actually find out (though I'll most assuredly take a better look tomorrow). Luckily it's not a gamestopping issue, it just adds silly buildoptions :p Something to take a look it in case you'd go ahead with the merger yourself.
The other aspect of the merge (the Revolutions) is working beautifully. It's a very dynamic playingfield out there. The empires that manage their stability have the edge but the danger of being dragged into a big conflagration is always there.

One thing I've noticed since the merge, though I encountered an instance of it the first time I played your mod is that the units don't get obsoleted when they should.

The first time I encountered it the Caravel remained buildable until battleships became available.
In the current game I'm noticing the same "staying-power" of obsolete classes despite the advent of Riflemen. The units in question are the maceman, the Roman UU, The Crossbowman and Longbowman. IIRC, all of these units should disappear from the building list once Riflemen arrive. Musketmen, the gunpowderunit you'd expect in the list of stayers disappears as normal.

Like I said, this might be because of the merge or it might be something that has appeared in your own mod and made worse by the merge. I don't know and I'm afraid I don't know enough to actually find out (though I'll most assuredly take a better look tomorrow). Luckily it's not a gamestopping issue, it just adds silly buildoptions :p Something to take a look it in case you'd go ahead with the merger yourself.
The other aspect of the merge (the Revolutions) is working beautifully. It's a very dynamic playingfield out there. The empires that manage their stability have the edge but the danger of being dragged into a big conflagration is always there.

Sorry -- just want to make sure I understood you: did you notice this in the my plain NextWar mod, or only in the merged mod with Dale's Combat Mod?

Sorry -- just want to make sure I understood you: did you notice this in the my plain NextWar mod, or only in the merged mod with Dale's Combat Mod?


If it's the former, can you please provide a save file?

Also -- I checked the XML files, and the units in NextWar all upgrade as they do in the Vanilla game -- Crossbowmen to Rifles, etc. And there's no SDK mods in my NextWar mod, so what you see in the XMLs is what you get.

If it's the former, can you please provide a save file?

Also -- I checked the XML files, and the units in NextWar all upgrade as they do in the Vanilla game -- Crossbowmen to Rifles, etc. And there's no SDK mods in my NextWar mod, so what you see in the XMLs is what you get.

Thebiggest instance I noticed in the merge between your mod and that of Jdog (Revolution) I whipped up.
--> saves enough, but I won't let you solve problems I probably created :p

The first time I encountered when playing an older version of your mod, namely the corvette that stayed available long past its sell-by date.
--> Sadly no saves of that anymore :(

But like I mentioned: none of it is gamebreaking, it just means that certain build-options remain available long past the time they make sense.
It's also something that might come up when/if you yourself would make the mergers. A heads-up if you like.

edit: problem is that I don't know what causes it, it shouldn't even happen since nothing in the relevant file was changed.

"Corvette"? You mean the Caravel? That is available until submarines, IIRC, to allow the player a unit that can carry spies and such to enter a foreign civ's waters without Open Borders...

"Corvette"? You mean the Caravel? That is available until submarines, IIRC, to allow the player a unit that can carry spies and such to enter a foreign civ's waters without Open Borders...


yeah, caravel of course.
and that explains the issue then. :p

yeah, caravel of course.
and that explains the issue then. :p

If I get some time, I'll merge JKP/NextWar and Revolutions myself this weekend and see if that makes a difference for you.

Just an FYI: I'm planning on doing one more update, adding one NextWar-specific event (Slip and Fall), bringing it up to date with the rest of JKP1187's Events, and making what will probably be the last substantive change, adding revised python code for resource depletion. I've had a chance to playtest several games, and everything seems to work well. So if anyone sees any niggling problems, please let me know. Thanks!

Hi,

Big fan of your work...I am looking forward to your upcomming update with one request: Can we have the depleted resource function as an option for those of us that do not want this feature?

Thanks.

-ATG

Possibly. It looks like an on/off switch for this feature won't be that difficult to implement, the problem is that it will require an SDK mod (which I've tried to avoid doing.) Let me look into it. The key will be me getting my hands on the appropriate compiler.

For whatever it's worth, I am intent on improving the resource depletion code from what was originally in NextWar -- my goal is to keep it from happening until later in the game, and to keep it relatively rare.

I want to make the feature so that it provides some spice in the late game, not make it a huge headache for the player, with resources disappearing left and right. If I can't do that to my satisfaction, I will leave it out.

Coming towards the end of a 50+ hours, marathon, huge world game with a friend using your Mod. It makes for a very fun game. Well done. We'll wait until you release your mod merged with Dale's latest combat mod before starting a new one. I've never played the Revolutions mod, but it seems interesting. Are you planning on eventually merging all three?

My 2 cents:

- We agree that the arcologies and domes should be double the cost.

- The biological warheads should be more effective

- Maybe the clone units should cost less hammers to build

- You should be able to build as many Dreadnought and Mech units as you wish. If this makes them overpowered, their hammer cost could be increased.

- The amount needed for a cultural victory should be increased to match the delayed space race. For example, from 150,000 per city (in Marathon) to 200,000.

- I would like to see both the Space Elevator and the Manhattan Project made into national wonders. Don't know if the AI would use them though.

- It has always seemed unrealistic to me that in Civ you can start to build the spaceship before you have the technology to finish it. I would like to see all the space parts (and the Space Elevator) moved up to the "Future Tech" tech. I realize that this makes the game even longer, but to me that's not a bad thing.

- Bring back the stealth fighter from CivIII! It would be nice to have some futuristic aircraft and armor to accompany the Mechs and Cyborgs, though I realize that it's tricky adding new unit graphics.

- As if you haven't done enough, I would love to see Macsbug's "M.A.D. Nukes" Mod added to the soup. I think it would really compliment the game. Then I'd like to see all that merged with Genghis Kai's "Giant Earth Map" Mod, but that's because I'm insane. In the meantime, we're eagerly awaiting your merge with Dale's latest Combat Mod!

Thanks for the feedback. I'm glad you are enjoying the mod. Regarding the cultural victory, I agree that it needs to be delayed a little to make the space race more viable. This will be tweaked in the final build. Right now, I'm more interested in tweaking iCulturePercent in GameSpeedInfos rather than messing around with the bottom line culture victory value. (I tried doing it earlier, but I messed up the XML. In my working copy right now, I think I fixed the errors.)


I would like to see Manhattan as a National Project, not wonder. Unfortunately, there's no easy way to do it as a project, and if you do it as a nat'l wonder, then that civ can't build nukes if the city containing the wonder is lost. So I dont like that solution very much. I also think that the Space Elevator should remain a world wonder, just because it seems to work well in the game as such. That said, it would be very simple for you to edit these on your own. All you need to do is change one value in one of the XML files and Space Elevator will be a nat'l wonder, for instance.


I'd love to include a modern stealth fighter, as well as a B-52 style jet bomber. But my art skill is zero. There's also the matter of making sure the units balance well with the rest of the units. My goal here is just to present a totally stable platform that any civ player could jump in and use.... But once I have the official build where i want it to be, I may very well do a few extra mods on the side.


I'm trying to be conservative in what I change, too....like the Assault mech and Dreadnought cap. I'm keeping that in, just b/c I figure there must be a reason it was there in the first place, and I havent heard a compelling reason to remove it. (Though I am open to arguments.). Again, though, this is an easy XML change for the home modder. :)


Regarding bio-weapons, what is it that you don't like about them? What would you change about them?


Again, thanks!

Oh - sorry if formatting in that last post is bad. I am posting from my Blackberry b/c we dont have Internet hooked up at work yet!

Oh, and to answer your last question, it probably is simple to merge Revolutions + DCM, but it would DEFINITELY require SDK merging. So I'm not in a position to do it until I become more comfortable with the SDK.

On the other hand, merging NextWar with DCM *or* Revolutions will not be a problem at all. Just requires merging of folders, and maybe a few XMLs.

Well, just finished a game on Emperor merged with the Revolution Mod.....I didn't win, but had a respectible result. From about 1800 on, the world was in constant war and revolution, and despite having a strong military, have 4 nations take their turn against me finally knocked me out of the game. At one point, they were lined up like at a drive thru taking shots at my "maginot line" city and finally taking it out. A few observations:

1. Agree with the thought of stretching out both the cultural victories and the space race victory. Yakob (space race and my main nemesis) and Mansa Musa (culture) were light years ahead of everybody at the end. I was 2 turns away from having the tech for assault mech and may have been able to turn the game had I had another 10 or so turns. Such is life.

2. Merging with the Revolution mod toward the end of the game caused just constant war. Not sure if it was because I was playing on Terra and by the time the good weapons came about, everybody already hated everyone else. Also, started with 8 civs, ended up with 23, and at one point 26 were on the board. It was a crazy game.

3. Something I thought I would never see...two civs that formed a permanent alliance later becoming the vassals of another civ.

I've been very happy with the "not just next war" mod, and I think with the right tweaks to Revolutions, could be a VERY choice mod. I'm going to experiment with revolutions for my next game to see if I can tone down the war just a little bit. Plus, not starting on a Terra, and not going from 8 to 26 might help as well!

Keep up the good work.

Well, just finished a game on Emperor merged with the Revolution Mod.....I didn't win, but had a respectible result. From about 1800 on, the world was in constant war and revolution, and despite having a strong military, have 4 nations take their turn against me finally knocked me out of the game. At one point, they were lined up like at a drive thru taking shots at my "maginot line" city and finally taking it out. A few observations:

1. Agree with the thought of stretching out both the cultural victories and the space race victory. Yakob (space race and my main nemesis) and Mansa Musa (culture) were light years ahead of everybody at the end. I was 2 turns away from having the tech for assault mech and may have been able to turn the game had I had another 10 or so turns. Such is life.

2. Merging with the Revolution mod toward the end of the game caused just constant war. Not sure if it was because I was playing on Terra and by the time the good weapons came about, everybody already hated everyone else. Also, started with 8 civs, ended up with 23, and at one point 26 were on the board. It was a crazy game.

3. Something I thought I would never see...two civs that formed a permanent alliance later becoming the vassals of another civ.

I've been very happy with the "not just next war" mod, and I think with the right tweaks to Revolutions, could be a VERY choice mod. I'm going to experiment with revolutions for my next game to see if I can tone down the war just a little bit. Plus, not starting on a Terra, and not going from 8 to 26 might help as well!

Keep up the good work.

That's cool. The next update (hopefully within a week,) will definitely have a modification to the culture calculations. I'm not sure what could be done to stretch out the space race, other than maybe tech costs....do you think this is necessary? I recently got a space race win on Prince level with the spaceship reaching AC in about 2073. Not an outrageous time -- although that build both increased culture costs by 5% and reduced tech costs by 3%. I may just eliminate the reduction in tech cost altogether for the final build.

Also, almost all of my playtesting is on normal speed/standard maps, so you guys playing on the large/huge maps and epic/marathon, I definitely need/appreciate your feedback.

Just so you know, I am always going to keep the 'vanilla' JKP/NextWar mod updated and separate from any combo mods, although there will be separate downloads for JKP/NextWar+Revolutions and JKP/NextWar+DCM. (And hopefully a granddaddy mod with all three.)

That's cool. The next update (hopefully within a week,) will definitely have a modification to the culture calculations. I'm not sure what could be done to stretch out the space race, other than maybe tech costs....do you think this is necessary? I recently got a space race win on Prince level with the spaceship reaching AC in about 2073. Not an outrageous time -- although that build both increased culture costs by 5% and reduced tech costs by 3%. I may just eliminate the reduction in tech cost altogether for the final build.

The problem I have with the Space Race as it is implemented in Civ 4 is based on a conversation I had with one of the lead engineers at the JPL who said we are in the neighborhood of 14-16 generations away until the human ability to effectively explore outside of our current solar system will be reached. This would place the date in approximately in the 2250 range (assuming just under 20 years per generation).

I saw one of the posters say that waiting for the future techs before really being able to start on the Space Race could effectively slow down the winning, and although I like that idea, in the end, I think it disadvantages certain civilizations who are always going for the Space victory.

I recall an early Civ4 mod that had a more balanced end-score....where you had all of the events of "victory", but the game didn't end until the end with the highest score winning. As a result, you could have one civ focus on space race, one on culture, one on military, etc., and in the end, it is balance that wins. I really just don't like how I am incented to sack cities that are about to achieve legendary culture or the capital where a spaceship is launched..... in the name of victory.

I suppose turning off all victory conditions but time may solve this, but then it doesn't allow for spaceship launch, etc. IMO that should be a huge bonus, esp. if you were first to land, but not the only criteria for victory. Same with culture, diplomacy, etc.

I will say that I have had a lot more fun playing this mod than others, I do like the mix of the modern and future units and the balance to the game that brings.

I would suggest looking into Sevo's Mastery victory condition mod to bridge the gap....and maybe some tweaking with the scoring since the game now will go a lot longer.

The problem I have with the Space Race as it is implemented in Civ 4 is based on a conversation I had with one of the lead engineers at the JPL who said we are in the neighborhood of 14-16 generations away until the human ability to effectively explore outside of our current solar system will be reached. This would place the date in approximately in the 2250 range (assuming just under 20 years per generation).

Probably true, (although if we REALLY threw caution and budgeting to the wind, a starship powered with nuclear pulse propulsion could be constructed with off-the-shelf technology today.) Alas, this is one of the concessions to artistic license that has always been there in the Civilization world...the only real way around it would be to continue the game to 2300 or 2500 with Call to Power-esque futuristic units comprising a significant portion of the game. That traditionally hasn't been what Civ is about.

I'll check out Sevo's Mastery when I get a chance.

Hey -- this is a general call out for help from artistic people. I need some help creating four *.dds buttons for use to represent the four new Unit Classes that were introduced in NextWar:

BioWar Units
Clone Units
Dreadnought Units
Assault Mech Units

Right now, these buttons are just using placeholders borrowed from currently-existing unit classes (Armor and Cavalry, I think.) I guess they never got around to generating appropriate buttons for the mod.

Anyway, my artistic skill is about zero, so if anyone can come up with something, that would be awesome.

For BioWar, I'm sure it would just be the usual bio symbol (akin to the anti-bio promotion, except without the red circle & slash). I think that a silhouette of the Assault Mech unit would be good (if possible).

I'm not sure what to use for Clones or Dreadnought (though I think these symbols shouldn't be silhouettes, but rather some distinctive icon (like the ones from SMAC.)

Anyway, would appreciate any help that could be provided on this!

I created these for my mod, not great, but imo better than reusing some icons as is done in Next War.

http://forums.civfanatics.com/uploads/124601/NW_Units.png

If you are interested in them, let me know.

I'll check out Sevo's Mastery when I get a chance.

There were good ideas with that one, not sure if there is a off the shelf version for BTS.

Incidentally, I did like the new Stalin music as well. :goodjob:

I started a duel game just to test a few things with Revolution....I think I just need to tweak that for my personal preferences.

In my earlier game (8 civs that spawned to 26), the spaceship arrived in 2064....not too bad.

Best "random event" was inventing Banana Splits in the 2050s. Very nice.

I created these for my mod, not great, but imo better than reusing some icons as is done in Next War.

http://forums.civfanatics.com/uploads/124601/NW_Units.png

If you are interested in them, let me know.

Yes, these look great. May I use them?

Sure, if you don't have my mod, tell me and I'll upload a zip with them ;)

Sure, if you don't have my mod, tell me and I'll upload a zip with them ;)

Yes, can you please upload them? Thanks.

Here (http://forums.civfanatics.com/uploads/124601/NextWar_Buttons.zip) they are :)

I think I'm heading toward the final build for this. I want to play one last full game, so I may not get around to uploading this until the weekend, maybe a little later. This is the list of anticipated changes for JKP/NextWar 1.05:

1.) The biggest change is going to be the resource depletion code.
The resource depletion check will be done periodically (not every turn) and even then the odds are going to be low that any given resource will be exhausted (along the lines of 1:1000). Resources cannot be depleted unless the civ has the enabling tech for that resource (e.g., Iron requires Iron Working). Also, civs running Environmentalism will have a lower chance that any resources will be depleted.

If/when I figure out how to do it, I will make this an optional feature (either by editing the Civilization4.ini file, an XML file, or by a button on the Custom Game screen at startup.) Don't count on it immediately, though.

2.) There will also be one new random event -- Slip and Fall -- starring everyone's favorite unit, the Assault Mech.

3.) iCulturePercent will be increased by 5% to compensate for the 5% additional turns in the game. I was going back and forth over whether or not I should reduce iTechPercent a little (in other words, making techs slightly cheaper -- say 1% - 3% across-the-board). What are people's thoughts on this?

4.) Arcologies will require both Hydroponics AND Composites to be built now. (This is a 'realism' concession -- it just seems that modern building materials would be needed to build an arcology.)

5.) Mamba's Unit Category icons will be added.

Once this is complete, I will get around to merging this mod with jdog's Revolution and Dale's Combat Mod (whenever Dale puts out a final version of DCM, that is.)

Final build? Will you stop updating the mod after that?

No -- when Firaxis releases a new patch, or if there are bugs to be fixed, or if I decide/am convinced that something else needs to be changed, I will definitely update it. There may yet be a few tweaks to make (new Random Events, or adding an 'off' switch for the resource depletion code.) But I just mean that this is going to be the official, 1.0, non-Beta version of the mod.

I like the changes you're adding. Tieing Enviromentalism into the resource depletion is a good idea.

The only thing I'd like to bring up again before you finish your final build is the biological warheads. They're more expensive than the guided missiles, have a much weaker strength, come later in the game, can be intercepted, and you need to build a polluting building to even make them! The only thing they have over guilded missiles is the collatoral damage, which would be useful if they're strength wasn't 14.
It seems like they're main use is to reduce the population in a city, but they don't seem to do this very well (if at all). Also, the civilopedia says that there is a chance of a plague spreading every time they are used. Is this true, or just civilobabble?
I really want to like this unit, and have gone through the trouble of building and using them in a couple of NextWar games, but they always end up being useless. At the very least, I'd like to see their strength increased to make up for their shortcomings.

Hmm. Those are good points.

I will look into this. Won't happen for the next update, but I'll see what can be done.

The bit about the plague in the 'Pedia may just be babble -- I didn't see anything about bio missiles in CvEventManager.py, which is where I'd assume that code, if it existed, would reside, since that's also the file with the code for the arcology - shielding - adv. shielding replacement, the resource depletion code, the "world crack like an egg b/c you used too many nukes" code, and the Partisans random event trigger code.

The 'pedia also says something to the effect that if Mind Control Centers are destroyed, unhappiness increases above and beyond what it was before, but I haven't seen any code concerning THAT, either.

I may just remove the offending 'pedia entries.

Updated to v. 1.11. See first post for download link.

Key changes:

1.) Added resource depletion code.
2.) Nanoids now available promotion for Armor, Gunships, Naval Units.
3.) New icons for NextWar unit classes (thanks Mamba)
4.) Added civilopedia entry for NextWar changes and rules under "Beyond the Sword Concepts".
5.) Arcology now requires both Hydroponics and Composites.
6.) Culture costs now increased by 5% for all game speeds -- to match the fact that there are now 5% more game turns.
7.) Added new random event "Slip and Fall".
8.) Updated with new random events from JKP1187's Random Events v. 1.08 (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=251885)


Constructive feedback appreciated -- especially on whether or not culture/tech is balanced properly and whether or not the new resource depletion code works properly. (It looked good to me, but would appreciate positive/negative feedback.)

There are one or two minor tweaks that may be made (I will see what I can do about bio weapons, for instance.)

I'm having a problem with this mod that I don't have with the vanilla patched BTS.
Certain, but not all, XML tags for text are being shown instead of the text that they supposedly point to. See the screenshots for details.
3 Screenshots in a ZIP file (http://forums.civfanatics.com/uploads/80858/Civ4ScreenShot.zip)
I am running Japanese Vista 64. I get XML parser errors if I don't change the regional settings to US English, but in that case, all XML text tags display instead of the text they refer to. When running BTS after changing the regional setting to US English, I don't get these errors, so it is unusual for me to get XML text tag errors in only a few places.
I searched around the XML text files in the mod assets, but I couldn't see any missing or open tags.
If you look at the screen captures I attached, maybe you can tell which file is the source of the error judging from the tags that are getting displayed instead of text.
Thanks.

Hmm. I am not getting this error in my copy.

The files you're looking for are:

CIV4GameText_BTS.xml

and

CIV4NewConceptInfos.xml

There should be a copy of NewConceptInfos.XML in Assets/XML/Text for the mod, because that's where I put the new Civilopedia entry under CONCEPT_NEXTWAR -- the text for the entry resides in Civ4GameText_BTS_Fixed.xml. On the other hand, I did not include CIV4GameText_BTS.xml in the mod because I didn't change anything in that file.

All of these files are supposed to reside in the Text folder under XML. Perhaps one of them was moved?

Are you using a graphics/skin mod of some kind? Maybe that's interfering with something....

I have been playing just standard BTS with Bhruic's patch and Lt.Bob's 40 Civ mod for awhile now, but have been looking for something new, but not overly changed.

I am really interested in this mod and the revolutions mod and was just wondering if a merged download has been made available or do I need to do so myself at this point.

Thanks

Updated to v. 1.11. See first post for download link.

Key changes:

1.) Added resource depletion code.
2.) Nanoids now available promotion for Armor, Gunships, Naval Units.
3.) New icons for NextWar unit classes (thanks Mamba)
4.) Added civilopedia entry for NextWar changes and rules under "Beyond the Sword Concepts".
5.) Arcology now requires both Hydroponics and Composites.
6.) Culture costs now increased by 5% for all game speeds -- to match the fact that there are now 5% more game turns.
7.) Added new random event "Slip and Fall".
8.) Updated with new random events from JKP1187's Random Events v. 1.08 (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=251885)


Constructive feedback appreciated -- especially on whether or not culture/tech is balanced properly and whether or not the new resource depletion code works properly. (It looked good to me, but would appreciate positive/negative feedback.)

There are one or two minor tweaks that may be made (I will see what I can do about bio weapons, for instance.)

:goodjob:

JKP -- Going to launch a new game soon. Will focus on what you are looking for.

Possibly. It looks like an on/off switch for this feature won't be that difficult to implement, the problem is that it will require an SDK mod (which I've tried to avoid doing.) Let me look into it. The key will be me getting my hands on the appropriate compiler.

For whatever it's worth, I am intent on improving the resource depletion code from what was originally in NextWar -- my goal is to keep it from happening until later in the game, and to keep it relatively rare.

I want to make the feature so that it provides some spice in the late game, not make it a huge headache for the player, with resources disappearing left and right. If I can't do that to my satisfaction, I will leave it out.

Would simply remarking out ("##") the relevant sections of code in CvEventManager.py remove the depletion event from the mod without breaking the game?

Hmm. I am not getting this error in my copy.

The files you're looking for are:

CIV4GameText_BTS.xml

and

CIV4NewConceptInfos.xml

There should be a copy of NewConceptInfos.XML in Assets/XML/Text for the mod, because that's where I put the new Civilopedia entry under CONCEPT_NEXTWAR -- the text for the entry resides in Civ4GameText_BTS_Fixed.xml. On the other hand, I did not include CIV4GameText_BTS.xml in the mod because I didn't change anything in that file.

All of these files are supposed to reside in the Text folder under XML. Perhaps one of them was moved?

Are you using a graphics/skin mod of some kind? Maybe that's interfering with something....

I'm getting the same error as Armandeus - text strings throughout the game are replaced with XML code. This can be seen as early as the Custom Game->Options screen (where, for example, "Choose Religion" is shown as "TXT_KEY_GAME_OPTION_PICK_RELIGION". Similar text appears throughout the game. It's playable, but annoying.

I am running english windows XP with a patched, otherwise unmodified BTS install. I don't have Warlords installed.

I also don't have the file you mentioned (CIV4NewConceptInfos.xml) in the folder you specify under the MOD. Maybe it was not included in the zip?

Nice mod, otherwise.

Sorry -- wrong folder. NewConceptInfos should be in the "BASIC INFOS" folder, not "TEXT".

Is there anyone NOT having this text glitch?

NewConceptInfos.XML is in the basicinfos folder as you describe.

The only graphical mod I am using is Blue Marble with CivScale.

Would simply remarking out ("##") the relevant sections of code in CvEventManager.py remove the depletion event from the mod without breaking the game?

Yes. Note that there are two sections -- one at the end, the other toward the beginning of CVEventManager tha twill have to be commented-out.

JK, I had the same text glitch, I fixed it by merging

CIV4GameText_Objects_BTS

with the original from BTS V3.13.

JK, I had the same text glitch, I fixed it by merging

CIV4GameText_Objects_BTS

with the original from BTS V3.13.

Thanks for the tip - this worked for me, and I learned how to do something new in the process. I attached the merged file in case others are having the same problem - although I am sure JK will want to check and make sure it is correct.

Thanks for the help! I will check it out and add it in when I get a chance.

Problem confirmed and fix by richarnd confirmed. I will upload a version with the fixed XML shortly.

Sorry about that -- apparently I kept editing the XMLs in my "Working" folder and forgot to add them to the "FINAL" folder that gets zipped and uploaded, so everything looked okay when I loaded it from my desktop computer.