I am trying to get back into the game after a long absence. The last time I played I made my own mods (and I generally remember how to tweak here and there so I am not at a complete loss on how to do things).

However, this time around my time is much more limited so I am looking for things other people have already made/tried out so I can go in and just enjoy the game. I am looking for two things in particular (they need not be both in one mod, but if they are then wonderful).

First I would like a mod which really fleshes out the tech tree, not only for the times that the game already covers but also for future technologies and units (maybe some large robot armies, futuristic ships/aircraft and the such). I dont want an entirely sci-fi experience (as i plan on playing from ancient times all the way to the far future).

Secondly I was wondering if there was a scenario out there in which the player and computer opponents each only started with a few cities and barbarians occupied the vast majority of the cities on the map. I played a mod like this a long time ago on an older version of civ and it was very enjoyable (it was some kind of fantasy scenario but it was fun conquering barbarian cities with impunity and then trying to save yourself from an enemy you cant simply get off your back with a cease fire/peace treaty).

Thanks in advance for any help given ^_^

-Ex0dus

Try Far Horizons Reduxe, In completed modpacks, I'm playing Medieval European Mod which is excellent.

WELCOME TO THE FORUM ,ExOdus!

For your first requirement I would remind: The Balancer Reloaded

For the second: I can not remind me exactly here ,but I guess that "TAM" has maps where you are surrounded by Barbarians.
You can try google for "Barb Flood" (3 bics) (Yeah ! Vanilla !)

Bye
General 666

the best mods in my opinion are

Middle-earth: Lord of the Mods (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=252286)
Warhammer Fantasy Mod 2.5 (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=197452)
Medieval European Mod II (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=218602)

Ex0dus, for top one of your post: An epic mod with a future era with mechs and so on, that´s definitely: The Balancer Reloaded as mentioned by General 666.

Concerning top 2 the problem is, that in Civ 3 Barbarians can´t hold cities (if not using a special patch done by Skyer2 and than there are alot of other problems). So it must be a mod, where a normal (or more normal) civs are set as barbarians.

Thanks everyone for your suggestions, I will definitely be trying these out as I read up more on them. As far as the "barbarian" civilization goes, is there a way to set up a civilization like that (to where nobody can negotiate with them and they are locked into perpetual war with every other civ?).

Once again, thanks everyone for helping out and making me feel welcome ^_^

-Ex0dus

Thanks everyone for your suggestions, I will definitely be trying these out as I read up more on them. As far as the "barbarian" civilization goes, is there a way to set up a civilization like that (to where nobody can negotiate with them and they are locked into perpetual war with every other civ?).

Once again, thanks everyone for helping out and making me feel welcome ^_^

-Ex0dus

I am not sure if this is what you are looking for, but it is something that I use for testing combat value changes, using the Conquests editor. I use it with the archipelago setting, so what would happen on a continent or Pangaea setting, I have no idea.

I open the editor, and set it to Custom Map, Custom Scenario, and Custom Rules. Then I generate a map, archipelago, normally standard to huge or larger, standard climate, 4 billion years, and Raging Barbarians. Once I have a map that I like, I go to the toolbar and choose the "Set Active Player" button. Rome appears first, so I will use Rome for my example. Choosing the Active Player button activates the Set Unit and Set City buttons. I then choose the island that I want to locate my non-AI player civ on, and choose the Set City button to position some cities at likely spots, making sure that the cities or metropolises have either water supplies or an aqueduct, set population and culture, and add any additional buildings that I would like to have there. I then choose the Set Unit button, and start adding whatever units that I would like to the cities and map. You can preposition any tech level unit that you wish, and it will be active for the entire game. In the case of the sample map, I added riflemen, infantry, tanks, cavalry, artillery, destroyers, privateers, and ironclads. All units added are Regular, but if you wish to make it a bit nastier, you can set individual units to Veteran or Elite, or easier and downgrade them to Conscript.

I have not run this in debug mode to see exactly what the AI does with the units, but from prior testing, it does not build more units. but is aggressive with the units that it has. In addition to this, to make things more difficult overall, I set the Barbarians to raging, and on the sample map, the units are rifleman, cavalry, and ironclad, so that you know you have had a fight when you run into them.

Once I am finished, and have set as many opponents of that nature as I wish, I then edit the scenario settings, and remove the preset civilizations from the playable civilization list. Effectively, they are now much more potent barbarians, defending their own area.

See attached sample map for the way that I set it up. As I said, I do not know how far the units would wander on a larger island or Pangaea map. This is the closest that I have come to what you are looking for.

Yes, locked war is possible as well. Not sure of the settings in the editor, however.