Coming back to Civ - Gods & Kings? Essential mods?

Hey, I've not played Civ for ages but feel like picking it up again and figured I' have some catching up to do - the length of all the patch notes suggests lots has changed!

Main question is whether to get Gods and Kings? Is it like how with Warlords and BtS there was no point playing vanilla Civ IV any more?

Also are there any obvious must-have mods that make no sense not to have? Again I'm thinking back to the IV days with the unofficial patches, or maybe late game extenders?

I didn't really play much Civ IV, but I can say that G&K DRAMATICALLY improves the game. There's far more depth, a ton of balance and bug fixes, and it's far more replayable. To give you an idea, I bought CiV on launch day and played 225 hours in the two or so years before G&K. I've played 225 hours since G&K came out 3 months ago. There's no reason to play Vanilla if you can get G&K (FYI, you can get it for $22.50 on greenmangaming right now).
As for must have mods, there aren't a ton, but I really like the culture diffusion and NiGHTS mods. Firaxis just released the source code with the latest patch, so a ton of new mods should pop up soon.

Yes definitely G&K extension is a must have ^^
And about mods --> http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=95991219

Cheers, picked up G&K. Between G&K, the patches and time since last played this feels like an all-new game.

Can we still not edit games in progress like with the worldbuilder in Civ IV??? This is very annoying, how do you experiment?

you can use Civilization V SDK if you use Steam you'll find it under tools in the library tab

Or the ingame editor mod by donquiche http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=77002777

I put a mod in my sig which I can´t play without. And yes you should get G&K, Vanilla is more like a testrun compared to the expansion.

aselnor said:

Or the ingame editor mod by donquiche http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=77002777

Click to expand...

cheers for this!

King_Course said:

I put a mod in my sig which I can´t play without. And yes you should get G&K, Vanilla is more like a testrun compared to the expansion.

Click to expand...

aselnor said:

Or the ingame editor mod by donquiche http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=77002777

Click to expand...

Thanks guys. These are both awesome!

InfoAddict
&
UI - Trade Opportunities.

After that, learn to do modest modding yourself and tweak things to what YOU prefer. For instance my personal mod does the following ...

General Defines:
Min City Range =4 (3)

--Handicap--
AI: same as in VEM
Prince level:
Happiness =12 (9)
Barbarian & AIBarbarian bonuses =0 (40, 60)
AIUnitUpgradePercent =80 (50)
ProductionFreeUnitsPopulationPercent =20 (50)

AIPerEraModifier =3

Units:
Battleship & Stealth Bomber cost 500 (375, 425), extra maintenance of 1
GDR costs 600 (425), extra maintenance of 1
Nucs cannot be hurried, extra maintenance of 1

Promotions:
Drill_1 (for closed terrain) requires Shock_1; Barrage_1 requries Accuracy_1. For realism's sake.