[Mod] LumpRules: Balanced religions, faster navy, Barbarian city names

LumpRules v1.3, 18th Oct 2006
by lumpthing/lumpkin,

Balanced religions, faster naval units and proper barbarian city names.

Designed for Civ IV v1.61 patch


Download this mini-mod here


I appreciate all feedback on how the changes work out in your game: specifically, who founds which religions when, and how well each religion expands.



Installation
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Extract to: …CustomAssets\XML\

-or-

To add to a specific mod: …Program Files\Firaxis Games\Sid Meier’s Civilization 4\Mods\[YourMod]\Assets\XML\

email me if you need more specific instructions: n AT nholz DOT com




Changes in Version 1.3
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Files edited to be compatible with latest patch.
Missionary costs adjusted so that the difference between the religions is not so great


Changes in Version 1.2
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Monasteries are never obsolete.
Organized Religion no longer allows missionaries to be built without monasteries.
French translations of all text changes
Alternate barbarian city names used in all language versions (same name in each language though)



Changes in Version 1.1
------------
Hindu Temple changed to Hindu Mandir
Hindu Mandir changed to Great Mandir
Navy speeds now increased by 50% rather than 100%. I thought they were a little too fast.
Meditation and Monotheism have had all characteristics switched (including tech tree position)





Full Mod Features (latest version)
------------

There's no need to read any of the following secion to play the mod. It's just there for people who want to know eactly what has changed and what the reasoning behind the changes is.



1. Naval speeds increased

In the original rules sea travel is frustratingly slow compared to land travel. I don't think this is either realistic or fun so I've increased all naval unit speeds by 50% (rounding up).

Modded File
...XML\Units\CIV4UnitInfos.xml (also affected by religion changes)



2. Proper barbarian city names

In the originally rules the barbarian city names are the nameds of tribes rather than cities (Goths, Arawaks etc.). This doesn't make any sense to me so I've changed them all to actual city names. The names are mostly historical (the only criteria being that they were not part of any in-game civilization's homeland and were founded before the modern age) but some have been drawn from fiction.

Modded File
...XML\Text\CIV4TextInfos_Cities.xml



3. Balanced Religions

In my games I have found that the two early religions, Buddhism and Hinduism, tend to dominate the entire game. This mod is an attempt to improve the gameplay by giving the later religions a fighting chance. I have also changed the required technology for four of the religions so that they are more likely to appear at historically accurate times.

To this end I have divided the religions into two ancient religions, Judaism and Hindusiam, which appear very early, three classical religions, Buddhism, Confucianism and Taoism and two medieval religions, Christianity and Islam, which normally appear last. The ancient religions spread slowly (whether naturally or through missionaries), the classical ones spread normally and the medieval religions spread very fast.

I think this also makes sense from a historical perspective. Judaism and Hinduism don't have proselytising traditions so it makes sense they spread the slowest. In the real world they have not spread much outside of the ethnic groups which founded them. Buddhism, Confucianism and Taoism wouldn't really be called evangelical either. However they did feature travelling teachers eager to spread the influence of their philosophy/religion, so it makes sense that they spread more easily. Finally, Christianity and Islam both make a concerted part to spread the faith and both have been very successful in doing so. Therefore it makes sense that they spread fastest in the game.

In this mod Judaism and Hinduism appear very early (requiring 130-150 research points at standard speed respectively), Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism are likely to appear around the same time at (requiring between 400, 510 and 560 research points) and Christianity and Islam will tend to appear significantly later (requiring 1160 and 2660 research points respectively). This brings them closer to their real-world founding dates:

Circa 1800 BC: Judaism
Circa 1500 BC: Hinduism
Circa 500 BC: Buddhism
Circa 500 BC: Confucianism
Circa 350 BC: Taoism
Circa 30 AD: Christianity
Circa 600 AD: Islam

I have also given four religious buildings more realistic names and renamed the civic Paganism to Informal Religion. This last change was done because it doesn't make sense that a civilization can have a religion like Judaism as it's state religion and have the religious policy of Paganism.

I see no reason why missionaries shouldn't be available in the modern era, so monasteries now never become obsolete. I have also removed Organized Religion's bonus of allowing missionaries to be built without monasteries, since I think the civic is powerful enough without this bonus and because I don't think it makes sense for Organized Religion to discourage the building of monasteries.

Finally, I have switched the characteristics of Monotheism and Meditation. The change is clear in the tech tree.


The religions now stand as follows:

Judaism
Required Technology: Monotheism (Monotheism and Meditation have swapped all chracteristics on the tech tree). Having moved Buddhism to the classical era I didn't want to leave Judaism with Monotheism since that would result in the founder of Hinduism being likely to monopolise both ancient religions. As it is, Hinduism and Judaism are almost certain to be founded by different civs, enhancing gameplay.
Natural spread: 50 (was 100)
Maximum number of missionaries: 1 (was 3)
Missionary cost: 50 (was 40)
No Free Missionary on founding (no change)
Jewish Temple renamed Jewish Synagogue
Jewish Synagogue renamed Great Synagogue

Hinduism
Required Technology: Polytheism (no change)
Natural spread: 50 (was 100)
Maximum number of missionaries: 1 (was 3)
Missionary cost: 50 (was 40)
No Free Missionary on founding (no change)
Hindu Temple renamed Hindu Mandir
Hindu Mandir renamed Great Mandir

Buddhism
Required Technology: Monotheism (was Meditation). This is to make Buddhism appear at a more historically accurate time. It also makes sense that Buddhism comes with a tech that follows on from Hinduism's tech, given that Buddhism grew out of Hinduism. I know that Buddhism has nothing to do with monotheism historically so maybe I'll modify the tech tree as well at some point.
Natural spread: 100 (no change)
Maximum number of missionaries: 3 (no change)
Missionary cost: 40 (no change)
Free Missionary on founding (was none)

Confucianism
Required Technology: Alphabet (was Code of Laws). This is to make Confucianism appear at an appropriate time and to make it less likely that the religions will be monopolised by a single civ. Possibly it makes Alphabet too powerful a tech to discover first since it also allows tech trading; but I couldn't find a suitable alternative.
Natural spread: 100 (no change)
Maximum number of missionaries: 3 (no change)
Missionary cost: 40 (no change)
Free Missionary on founding (no change)

Taoism
Required Technology: Mathematics (was Philosophy). This is make Confucianism appear at an appropriate time.
Natural spread: 100 (no change)
Maximum number of missionaries: 3 (no change)
Missionary cost: 40 (no change)
Free Missionary on founding (no change)

Christianity
Required Technology: Theology (no change)
Natural spread: 150 (was 100)
Maximum number of missionaries: 5 (was 3)
Missionary cost: 30 (was 40)
Free Missionary on founding (no change)

Islam
Required Technology: Divine Right (no change)
Natural spread: 150 (was 100)
Maximum number of missionaries: 5 (was 3)
Missionary cost: 30 (was 40)
Islamic Temple renamed Islamic Mosque
Islamic Mosque renamed Great Mosque
Free Missionary on founding (no change)


Modded Files
...XML\Units\CIV4UnitInfos.xml (also affected by naval speed changes)
...XML\Units\CIV4UnitClassInfos.xml
...XML\GameInfo\CIV4ReligionInfo.xml
...XML\GameInfo\CIV4CivicInfos.xml
...XML\Text\CIV4GameTextInfos_Objects.xml
...XML\Technologies\CIV4TechInfos.xml
...XML\Buildings\CIV4SpecialBuildingInfos.xml

Why was this thread created here? Shouldn't it belong in the Civ4 - Completed Modpacks section instead?

Well the description for this forum is "Mod components or simple modifications should be posted here". I figured mine was a simple mod but I suppose it's subjective. Some guidelines would be helpful.

Wow I am impressed, will definitely dl and play.

Thanks! I hope you like it

Everything is very good, except the tech. Monotheism gives Buddhism and Meditation gives Judaism? That doesn't make sense. Other than that, great mod.

Thanks Dida

Yeah I'm aware of the tech problem. I may switch the techs around a bit but I'm not sure what the effect on the in-game tech tree view will be. At least at the moment it is accurate. I do intend to sort it out at some point though.

Perhaps it would be enough just to rename the techs, instead of changing the techtree.

The problem with that is means changing the audio quotes and civilopedia entry but that might not be too hard. I'll look into it some time.

Okay, tech tree is now adjusted. Meditation and Monotheism have switched places so that Buddhism and Judaism are now founded with the appropriate technology. The tech tree and pedia entries reflect this change.

Very, very good idea! I think this would be complimneted well by the addition of more religions (more early religions for different civs to get before the heavy expansion religions come into play - Shinto, Zorastrainism, Jainism etc). I simply love the idea of Christianity and Islam entering the world stage and then dominanting (as has really happened). Bravo!

Thanks for the encouragement Landstander! I'd love to add new religions but I'm not sure it's possible to have more than seven.

Has anyone come across any mods that manage this without deleting one of the originals?

Have you considered renaming Mathematics to something else or inserting a new tech for Daoism? I know that Mathematics is really too important to miss but founding Daoism with Mathematics seems even more absurd than with philosophy (arguably a Greek invention if defined in a strict sense). Although number systems figure prominently in the Daodejing and to some extent in the Zhuangzi, I wouldn't say mathematics is the foundation of the religion. As to what would be appropriate, that is hard to say. It appears that meditation and taiji like exercises were very important to proto-Daoist movements and yet meditation is already taken while Taiji seems a bit strange to put in such a generalized tech tree. Any thoughts on what might be appropriate? Although it's kind of problematic I think Pantheism might be a reasonable choice.

edit:

btw looks like a great mod, I know Daoism is hard to work with since it is very hard to pin down what "Daoism" is...as a matter of fact, in any kind of religious sense, Daoism could be said to have started with the Yellow Turbans and Celestial Masters in the 3rd century CE...if you want to know more about these movements just ask.

Yeah I know Daoism coming with Maths makes no sense. I did it because I wanted it to appear at roughly the same time as Confucianism, didn't want it to appear with a military tech-line and didn't want to create a new tech. I can't see any tech of the same era that is actually relevant to Doaism.

I'm afraid I'm not keen on creating a new tech as this could be unbalancing and I don't know how the AI will react.

Hmm, well if you have any thoughts let me know.

Here's a list of potential founding techs with the total number of science points required to discover them (if the civilization starts with no techs at all).

Iron working 370
Horse riding 390
Monotheism 400, LumpRules: renamed meditation, founds Buddhism
Monarchy 490
Mathematics 510, LumpRules: founds Taoism
Alphabet 560, LumpRules: Confucianism

To fit with mod these three mid-spread religions must be founded by one of these techs. I suppose you could trace Taoism to earlier founding date and make it a low-spread ancient religion, but I think it's better to have Taoism spreading the same as Confucianism, as happened historically.

I like that religionbalanceidea of yours, that problem kinda bugged me ever since. Maybe you could help us inventing something similar for the religions in our mod? That could be very useful, indeed.

Well in Warhammer the religions are all civ-specific aren't they? So it would seem to me to better to have each religion start with its corresponding civ, leaving no later religions in need of bolstering.

What about adding the new Pantheism tech and just making it very low cost? I'm not sure if you can do that but it would probably fix that problem. I have a tech quote you could use if you're interested.

lumpthing said:

Well in Warhammer the religions are all civ-specific aren't they? So it would seem to me to better to have each religion start with its corresponding civ, leaving no later religions in need of bolstering.

Click to expand...

That fits for some but not chaos, and in the mod it will be more variable, i.e. it will be possible for highelves to be turned chaotic, this is also because we have some civs in which aren't defined by GW very well, i.e. Cathay, Nippon etc., which would be excluded from religions then. So what we're gonna do is make the religions more like real ones and as such we'll need to balance them. Help on this would be appreciated. Any ideas you have post in our thread.

WiegrafFolles: I don't really like the idea of a tech that is just there to give a new religion: it would be useless to all except the first civ to discover it.

Ploeperpengal: I'll play the new Beta version to see what the latest take on religion is and then get back to you on the warhammer thread.