Welcome to the thread of my first mod - The Industrial Age. I'll start with a screenshot and a few questions:

http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s193/Quintillus/SydneyOperaHouse.png

1. What's this mod about?

The idea for this mod was to make a CivIII game that started in the Industrial Ages instead of the Ancient Times. At the most basic level all that was necessary was setting the start age. But that results in crazy races for early wonders, superexpensive units early on, and about 150 turns of 50-turn research. Not all that exciting. So I got ideas on how to improve it, put them together, and, voila, it's an entire mod.

At this point I'm considering a tripartite mod, but only Part A is currently in the works:

Part A: The Half-Epic This is what I'm doing first - right now. It's based on my original idea to create a half-length Civ game spanning only the Industrial and Modern ages. The game starts in 1400 A.D. and lasts 270 turns. The tech tree bears a noticeable resemblance to the original Civ3 Industrial/Modern one, and indeed has many similar aspects. It's meant to be a similar experience to the epic game, only focused on the second half of the epic game.

In the future I may expand the mod, or add a scenario element to it.

What is different?

I'll start out with the basic differences that are essential to the mod:

*Start out at the beginning of the Industrial Age on the tech tree, in the year 1400 A.D. 270 turn game length.
*Still start with a Settler, Worker, and Scout. I've tried the late start feature of Civ4 with its multiple units to start with and wasn't a big fan of it. It just didn't have the same humble beginnings feel as an ancient start, and for the epic feel I thought that was necessary.
*Start with Monarchy as the government. It didn't make sense to have Despotism be the default.
*Lowered technology costs. This was essential, as 8/9 of the technology research costs come in the Industrial and Modern ages and 50-turn research for 150 turns of a 270 turn game just isn't exciting. I playtested with that enough to know :D! Currently overall costs for all Industrial/Modern techs is about 65% of the original - recognizing that although the game is only half the length, without the despotism penalty and with early railroads and city improvements research would go more quickly. Early industrial techs are most discounted; Modern ones are least discounted.

Different Civilization Set

http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s193/Quintillus/industrialAgeLeaderheads.png

At some point it struck me that it just didn't make a whole lot of sense having Sumeria and the Hittites in a game that started in the Industrial Age. So I replaced a bunch of civlizations:

Removed
Babylon
Sumeria
Hittites
Maya
Celts
Carthage
Byzantines

Added
Siam
Cherokee
Belgium
Mali
Ethiopia
Austria
Australia

Leader Changed
France: Joan d'Arc to Napoleon

I'm still looking for leaderheads for Shah Abbas of Persia (or another adequate Persian leader), Nasser of Egypt, and either Victor Emmanuel or Count de Cavour of Italy. The default Civ ones will work culturally, so if I can't find a good replacement that's OK, but they don't look like a whole lot like the name (especially Cleopatra)!

Screenshots coming up soon!

Wonders

I've only added one new regular building, but I replaced nearly all the Ancient/Medieval wonders with new Industrial/Modern ones. Some of these are in my thread in the Graphics Modpack section; in other cases I used ones already created and posted at CFC or haven't uploaded them yet. I'm still finishing up Civilopedia entries for a few of them but I've got their properties and images finalized unless I decide to change them.

This was perhaps my favorite part; it was cool to see new Wonders for the first time in years.

Industrial Tech Tree:

http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s193/Quintillus/techTreeIndustrialAge.png

Modern Tech Tree:

http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s193/Quintillus/techTreeModernAge.png

What is the size of the mod?

The mod is currently running at 122 MB (79 MB download).

I'm considering a "light" version without the leaderhead changes after I finish the initial one. Right now that would be running at about 8 MB, with a download somewhere less than that.

Where can I get the mod?

Download version 0.01 at http://files.filefront.com/Industrial+Agezip/;9951672;/fileinfo.html. It's 79 MB (122 MB unzipped).

I know the version number is low, but that's because it's the first one! It should be pretty close to its final form!

Known imperfections: need good Civilopedia entry for Keynesian Economics, "Citizen moods" Civilopedia entry uses the old Wonder names, Wonder costs are a bit off kilter, there's an extra "\" in the Broadway wonder description (:mad:), Austria uses Sumerian city names. I don't think there's anything that'll cause it to crash, but if you find something, definitely post about it!

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Credits
Leaderheads: R8XFT, Rita Poon, CivArmy s. 1994, jorde, Plotinus
Buildings: Straczynski, Kal-el, Rufus T. Firefly, SWalker
City Lists/Civilopedia: Mobilize, Sword_Of_Geddon, psycow87, Calgacus
Unit: MoscaTnT

The first beta download is now available for downloading. Feedback - even if you don't actually download it - is appreciated.

I see an easter egg...

Not my thing so won't be d'loading but that one thing almost made me want to. :)

Congratulations on your first mod. :)

Congratulations on your first mod.
Ditto.


Not my thing so won't be d'loading but that one thing almost made me want to. :)

You sir, are a dick. And coming from me, that's saying a lot. Why even bother writing anything if that's all you have to say.

You sir, are a dick. And coming from me, that's saying a lot. Why even bother writing anything if that's all you have to say.

*sigh* That did sound a little... short. I didn't mean to come across harsh, Quintillus. I meant it to be more, "It's lookin good. I support your effort even though I probably won't play, but that's just because it's not my thing." Sometimes communication just goes so wrong...