Minimalist Mod

seasnake

seasnake

Conquistador
Joined
Apr 21, 2006
Messages
1,892
Location
California, United States
Hi there, I've put together a Mod I call the minimalist mod. It's goal is to improve balance while adding little to alter gameplay. This is more in the character of a large patch than anything else.

I've put together one version and put it on Steam. Now based on some of that feedback I'm almost ready to release version 2.0. I'm hoping to get some feedback here before release and then I'll update this post with a link.

In the spoiler tag is the entire change list. If you're willing, please take a moment to read and consider and comment on some of the changes you notice.

I have tried to give credit to every mod that I have incorporated. For example, leugi's synagogue belief is a new belief I've included because after the changes to Cathedral's in Brave New World I felt there was a gap that his mod fulfilled.

Thank your for your time and consideration.

Spoiler :

Change List (UA changes are only additions to the currently-existing UA unless otherwise noted)

Civilizations:
1) Brazil -- UA change = Now named "Order and Progress" with plantations having +1 gold and +1 production, UU change = Pracinhas cheaper to build/buy than regular infantry.
2) Mongolia -- UA change = receive a free Khan after researching Horseback Riding, name changed to "Terror of the Horde"
3) Russia -- UA change = coal is now doubled as well
4) The Huns -- UA change = Have their own city list (thank you Zorgulon!) and gain 3 influence per turn with city states they could demand tribute from.
5) India -- UA change = Workers build improvements 33% faster, name change to The Urban-Rural Dichotomy
6) France -- UA change = Free Great Writer after researching Education and +1 gold from city connections.
7) Netherlands -- UI change = Polders provide 2 culture after researching Railroads.
8) England -- UA change = Receive Free Great Admiral after researching Compass.
9) Denmark -- UA change = name change to Wrath of the Norsemen, all Gunpowder units start with Altitude Training to honor the now-extinct Ski Infantry, UU change = Ski Infantry replaced by Stave Church (thank you James Barrows!).
10) Japan -- UU change = Samurai now strong as Musketmen, upgrade to Riflemen, have unique promotion that allows them to earn culture per kill, but can no longer build Fishing Boats (thank you Barathor!).
11) Ottomans -- UA improvement = -25% unhappiness from number of cities.
12) Byzantium -- UA change = free great prophet after researching Theolgoy.
13) Polynesia -- UA change = Atolls provide +1 Food.
14) Assyria -- UA change = Units pay just one movement point to move along rivers
15) Venice -- UU change = Great Galleass cost reduced to be like a normal Galleass, UA change = can trespass in city state land without angering city state.
16) Carthage -- UU change = Quinqueremes can create fishing boat improvements.
17) Iroquois -- UB change = Longhouse requires no maintenance
18) Celts -- UB change = No longer build Celeidh Hall, now have new UI = Motte and Bailey Fort, a new improvement that damages nearby enemies and gives gold/culture bonuses after researching Flight and Archaeology (cannot be build touching one another). (thanks Bloublou!).
19) America -- UA change = Settlers now have +1 movement and sight and ignore terrain costs.
20) Spain -- Several Natural Wonder changes: Lake Victoria is now a Lake Tile (thanks you Calypso!), Solomon's Mines are gone (effect of +6 Hammers is given to Grand Mesa), El Dorado is gone (Kilimanjaro now produces +6 culture), Fountain of Youth and Cerro de Potosi appear as often as any other Natural Wonder (Fountain of Youth provides +8 Happiness, no promotions, and is renamed Angel Falls), Krakatoa, GBR, and Gibraltar all appear closer to workable land (thank you Barathor!).

Random:
New follower belief:
Synagogues = Can build synagogues with give +3 culture, +2 Faith and +1 Happiness (like Cathedrals did in GnK). (Thanks Leugi!).

Other UA name changes:
Egypt now "Children of the Nile", Babylon now "Chaldean Scribes", Aztecs now "Xochiyaoyotl" (their word for the 'flower wars' were tribes would fight to gain victims worthy of sacrifice), Austria now "Hapsburg Monarchy."

Social Policies:
(again note: these are in addition to the current effects unless otherwise noted)

Honor:
Discipline: Double production of Barracks and Walls
Military Tradition: +4 happy, +4 culture from Heroic Epic
Military Caste: Oligarchy's effect added
Professional Army: 50 percent discount to upgrade, +50% production of armories, arsenals, castles, and military academies.

Tradition:
Oligarchy: +2 happy, +2 gold from palace, +10 % tourism in capital.

Piety:
Religious tolerance: +1 happy from libraries, public schools and universities.
Reformation: +2 science from temples.
Organized Religion: Extra faith from temples increased to +2. d
Mandate of Heaven: Contabularies and Police Stations +2 Faith, 25 % purchase discount (note, missionaries and inquisitor base price is cheaper, too).
Finisher: +1 Faith from every Great Work.

Exploration:
Naval Tradition: +1 production, +1 food from Fishing Boats
Treasure Fleet: +3 gold from Customs Houses
Finisher: Free archaelogist.

Finally, Brandenburg Gate is the Autocracy wonder and has Prora's old effect (doesn't require coast to build), Prora is gone (thank you LastSword!).


DOWNLOAD THE FINAL VERSION HERE!

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=233144889&searchtext=
 
I very much approve of the general idea. The changes to some of the weaker civilisation are reasonable and plausible. I would do some things differently. You add a lot of things but only take away some of the worst (oh ski infantry, how I hate thee!) which is not minimalistic design in my book. Take away more! Especially liberty pillage heal and exponential beaker overflow (if possible). There are some issues that require a more thorough approach to keep the design minimalist.

First of all the first 4 social policy trees need an overhaul. Piety and honor are much too narrow in their use and not even that strong in the perfect case. They do not have to be as useful, but as of now it is really bad. My estimate is that tradition is opened in like 75% of games, liberty in 30% honor in 5% and piety in 2%. I would like 40% / 40% / 20% / 20% while at the same time having distinct differences between the different policy trees and keeping an elegant design. To achieve that goal I would do social policies in the following way. You might not agree with me on this point or feel that these changes are too substantial. In that case I hope that you will find some of the ideas useful


Piety

Wonder: Great Mosque of Djenne

Opener: Build shrines in half the time. Shrines provide +1 faith.
Generally useful, encourages early expansion. Better than liberty opener if it helps you get the right pantheon (e.g. desert folklore). Probably worse in the long run as the culture helps with border expansion. By gathering all the bonii in the same policy you get a faste start on your religion.

Religous Tolerance: Cities benefits from an additional pantheon belief. 75 culture when a missionary or prophet spread your religion to a city with another religion.
Piety needs some culture and religous tolerance is generally not useful, though occasionally good (say if someone took desert faith from you). This also provides something to do with excess faith.

Organized religion: Build temples in half the time. Temples provide +1 faith. + 25% gold in cities with a temple.
Makes temples decent. Good if you make a shrine+temple religion. If you have a special temple building you can stop at this point. This is a lot of gold later on.

Righteousness: -10% unhappiness from population. + 1 population in each city.
Piety need happiness. This scales well and balances the per city happiness of religion. The free population gives a nice descision about waiting for mroe expensove pops or getting it into play as soon as possible

Cult of Saints: (Requires Righteouness)
+ 15% Wonder Production. Holy sites give +3 gold, +3 culture.
It makes sense to gather the bonii from holy sites in the same policy. It might be worthwhile to plant some prophets with this bonus. The bonus to wonders is thematic and a significant boost for most strategies.

Reformation: (requires Cult of Saints)
No change except the required policies. Having to take policies just to get a new one is not fun so I put it after the generally useful policies.

Finisher: + 15 % faith generation
Rewards the players for creating a good religion, useful for purchasing great people later on.

Honor

Wonder: Statue of Zeus. + 1 happiness in all puppets/occupied cities.
We need more bonii for owning yuor opponents cities cities and less that help to capture cities

Opener: Culture per killed unit
The old opener was horrible except in the very beginning which made it so hard to just do a little bit of honor

Discipline: All melee/gunpowder have +15% strength when adjacent to another unit.

Military tradition (requires Discipline): as before except requirement

Warrior code: +15% production for land units.

Military Caste (requires Warrior Code): as before except requirement.

Professional Army (requires military caste): as before.

Finisher: Gold per killed unit. Purchase GG with faith

It is more generally useful without the production being limited to melee units and culture to barbarians. It also seemed logical to put production boost in the general purpose right side and discipline in the combat oriented left side. The bonus to the Statue of Zeus makes it easier to profit from early conquest, provided that you take the time to actually build the statue. There are no extra great generals but the civilisation will probably earn them quickly anyway and if they really awnat they can purchase them with faith.


Liberty

Wonder: Hanging Gardens

Opener: 3 culture in capital city. Border expansion.

Urban Improvement: Free aqueduct in the first three cities.

Call of the City (requires urban improvement): +15% population growth.

Leisure: 1 Great person point of every sort in every city.

Representation (requires Leisure and Urban Improvement): - 15% unhappiness from population.

Patriotism: (requires representation) Free garrisons, units start with + 5 xp.

Finisher: ”Free” great person

As an historian it has annoyed me that liberty premiers wide and tradition tall while the opposite should be case. Virtually all large states before until the last 250 years were traditionalist monarchies. Liberty is focused on city life and city states were the republican tradition lived on since antiquity. Tradition is focused on the capital and a broad empire.

Tradition

Wonder: Pyramids, - 33 % tile improvement rate. 2 Free workers.
Setting the maximum discount at 33% is important. This breaks the 1 turn liberty pillage/heal combo at 50% without making the improvement unimportant.

Opener: 1 Culture per city.

Serfdom: Free worker. 1 Prod per city.

Feodalism: Settlers cost – 50%. 1 Food per city.

Monarchy (requires serfdom and feodalism): as before

Viceroys (requires monarchy): 1 Happiness per city.

Centralisation (requires monarchy): Each city you found will increase the culture cost by -33%, each city you found will increase science cost by - 20%.

Finishers: National Wonders can be built just by having the prequisite building in that city. Great engineers can be purchased with faith.
 
Place it somewhere for users that cannot use Steam, please.
 
seasnake said:
Sorry, don't know how to do that. I think Civ V requires Steam, doesn't it, so you already use it every time you open the game anyway? So I'm not sure that I can get around it.
Click to expand...

I meant I don't like using it for downloading mods.
 
Nope. Mac users cannot use Steam workshop at all.
 
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