The Troquelet
Conscious
- Joined
- Apr 15, 2002
- Messages
- 1,950
THE TOTAL REALISM MOD
Hi! This is my first modpack and I have no idea how to actually upload the file to CivFanatics, so Ive just grouped the changes Ive made by tab. You can do the same in fifteen minutes. By each change is a comment or two explaining the reason.
I also have no idea how to make unit animations! If there are any existing animations, that would be cool. Ive noticed a bunch of really good ones on this forum already - the talent is way better than Firaxis....
Anyway, this mod fixes some minor discrepancies with workers, governments, etc, but the main focus is to make the AI play more aggressively, to balance some of the weaker units, to make combat especially early on more realistic, and to totally redo the naval aspect of the game, which is terrible as of 1.17
.
On to the mod!
CIVILIZATION ADVANCES
Construction enables bridges, not Engineering. Any empire that has the workforce to build a forty-mile aqueduct can build a dinky bridge across the Po or the Nile.
COMBAT EXPERIENCE
Conscripts have 1 HP not 2. Elites have 6 HP not 5. This makes conscripts less useful to deter too much drafting (although they can be promoted!). Elites are now discernibly better than Vets. Only problem - barbs are now a pushover. Solution, put them at Raging
!
GENERAL SETTINGS
Movement along roads is now 4:1, not 3:1. This helps larger empires defend cohesively.
Golden Ages now last 25 turns, not 20. Golden Ages are supposed to be a time of supremacy of the civ. Twenty-five turns is enough for a civ to measurably pull ahead of the herd production and tech-wise, twenty is too small.
The Barbarian Sea Unit is a Buccaneer, not a Trireme. Now seagoing Barbarians are actually dangerous.
GOVERNMENTS
Republic now supports 0 units per town, 2 units per city, and 3 per metropolis. Medieval Republics such as the Genoans and the Venetians were actually very warlike countries. Small towns wont support a military, but sizable cities will (metropoli also will if you choose to stay in Republic up till modern times).
IMPROVEMENTS AND WONDERS
Barracks and Colosseums now reduce War-Weariness. Obviously, a populace which is used to the sight of marching soldiers and thinking of blood and gore as entertainment is less likely to be rioting than one which spends its free time drinking tea.
Cathedrals and Banks now reduce Corruption. There could be cases made against this realism-wise, but generally its still a good idea.
WORKER JOBS
Clear pollution takes 12 turns to clean, not 24. Twenty-four is just too long. By the modern age, I could support any amount of workers without feeling a strain, and clean up all pollution if I took the time to move all my workers. So why should I be forced to move twenty or so just to clean up pollution?
UNITS
Here the most extensive changes have been made. I have revised names, statistics, AI strategies used, and in some cases changed UUs to other units.
Note: The Man-O-War and the F-15 both suffer from two problems; they render the English/Americans weaker because they do not have a relevantly strong UU, and they cannot start a GA with their unit. Therefore both UUs have been changed to ones that can start a GA easily. Where an asterisk * has been added, that unit should have both Offense and Defense checked in the AI Strategies box just to the right of the ADM stat box.
(Zulu) IMPI (2-2-2)*
The historical Shaka of the Zulu was able to carve out a significant empire with these units. Their strategy is not mobile defense as the CivPedia would suggest, but mobile offense like Jaguar Warriors. The AI will now use them offensively as well.
(Babylonian) BOWMAN (JAVELIN 3-0-2)
If the Babs were famous for their bowman, they were equally famous for their javelin-throwers, thus the UU change. These replace regular archers, and are mobile and lethal attackers. However, they have no defense because their only weapon is their javelin.
LONGBOWMAN (5-1-1) [50 shields]
Longbowmen easily defeated knights and men-at-arms at Agincourt :arrow:, so theres no reason for them to have an equal attack for less defense. This change actually makes the Archer upgrade line useful. If you dont have horses, Longbows are the way to go. To compensate the Longbowman now costs 50, not 40, shields.
(French) MUSKETEER (3-4-1)*
No change has been made to the stats, but the AI has been told to sometimes attack with them - after all, they can beat Spearmen and Pikemen, and the AI doesnt usually upgrade quickly.
RIFLEMAN/INFANTRY/MECHANIZED INFANTRY *
Again, no changes, but both Riflemen and Infantry (and later, Mech Infantry) will now attack from time to time. Riflemen have as good an attack as Knights, and Infantry have an attack equal to Cavalry. Mech Infantry are almost equal to Tanks. This makes invasions much more difficult, because conscripts literally swamp your units.
(Indian) WAR ELEPHANT (5-2-2)
The elephant was a shock trooper, just like cataphracts or Panzers were in other ages. It was NOT meant to hold ground, like knights that could dismount and become men-at-arms. The same elephants that could punch through a phalanx could also be routed by a determined attack from archers (!) and flee the battlefield. I would make the elephant appear earlier, as a contemporary to the Hoplite, not the Pikeman, but this would be unbalancing.
SAMURAI *
Another oversight at Firaxis! This thing has as a better defense than the Pikemen it attacks, but the AI never uses it as a defensive unit? If youre Japanese, theres no sense in the Spearmen chain until you hit Riflemen: Samurai will serve just as well.
(Some totally changed UUs)
(American) MINUTEMAN (4-3-1) [50 shields] [all terrain as road] *
The Minuteman is a cheap defender that replaces Musketmen - the lost defense from trained Musketmen like contemporary British redcoats is more than made up for by the guerrilla movement and the hardy offense. A well-rounded unit. The AI will use it as offence AND defense, so beware!
(English) MEN-AT-ARMS (1-5-1) [60 shields] (Doesnt upgrade from or to anything)
The English just love units with hyphens in them! I was going to make a Welsh longbow, but adding anything to the existing Longbow would be unbalancing. The Men-at-Arms does NOT replace the Knight although it becomes available with Chivalry. Instead the English have two Chivalry units to build: the existing Knight, or this tough defender. The AI uses it as defense, and it is literally invincible except to a combined onslaught from Longbowmen and Knights. To discourage them from replacing Musketmen, they are slightly more expensive and MAAs are nonupgradable and a dead-end unit.
(The Naval Units are totally overhauled - especially movement! Now you can cross
Marlas Pacific without your units being obsolete on arrival! The stats are (ADM) L [C], where L is carrying capacity, and C is the cost in shields. After that comes the tech used. Note: I have not changed the bombardment values for any ship. Before the new name is the former name)
[Galley] TRIREME (1-1-3) 2 [30] Map Making [Upgrade to Caravel]
No changes except a cooler name. Sinks in Sea/Ocean.
CARAVEL (2-1-3) 3 [40] Astronomy [Upgrade to Galleon]
More offense, less defense. This thing is shark bait compared to the...
[Privateer] BUCCANEER (5-1-5) 0 [50] Astronomy [Hidden Nationality]
These pirates are faster, meaner, appear sooner and obsolete later. With the new naval model, if you dont protect your transport it WILL be eaten. This ship is usable up until Ironclads! (PS - I know players will be more likely to use this ship to go looking for New Worlds because of the better movement. Oh well: after all the Vikings DID discover America first!)
[Frigate] BRIG (5-3-6) 0 [60] Magnetism
Heres the thing to chase pirates away with.
GALLEON (3-2-4) 4 [60] Magnetism [Upgrade to Transport]
Note that Buccaneers are still a threat, even to this ship.
IRONCLAD (8-6-6) 0 [80] Steam Power
End of the Age of Sail.
TRANSPORT (4-6-7) 8 [100] Steel
Perfect for inter-continent warfare, but too fragile and slow to be risked unprotected.
[Destroyer] DREADNOUGHT (10-6-8) 0 [100] Steel [Upgrade to Battleship]
A WWI type battleship, and a prelude to Battleships.
SUBMARINE (20-1-11) 0 [120] Mass Production [Sub, Can See Subs] U-G to N. Sub
The silent killer, but easily killed by another Sub or a Cruiser. Nearly twice as fast as a Transport.
[Aeg. Cru.] CRUISER (15-10-11) 0 [120] Mass Production [Can see Subs]
A sub-hunter.
CARRIER (4-15-7) 8 planes [160] Mass Production
Has a sizable defense, but still vulnerable and slow.
BATTLESHIP (25-15-9) 0 [180] Mass Production
Rules the seas.
NUCLEAR SUBMARINE (25-1-15) 1 Nuke [250] Fission
The fastest thing on earth. Can sometimes sink Battleships.
New Units
This a list of the units not represented in the Civ repertoire as far as I know, in the game or on this forum.
Babylonian Javelin-Thrower
American Minuteman
English Men-At-Arms
Dreadnought
[Note: I am not sure about using the MAAs for the English. From my research I have found that they were used by the French as much if not more; also, the new MMA tends to unbalance the English. Should I keep the old stats for Longbowman and make the new Longbow a Welsh Longbow? Does anyone else have ideas for English UUs? I had an idea to use Scottish Schiltroms, a sort of pikeman phalanx, but that isnt a well-known unit and it doesnt come from the real Golden Age of the English...]
Hi! This is my first modpack and I have no idea how to actually upload the file to CivFanatics, so Ive just grouped the changes Ive made by tab. You can do the same in fifteen minutes. By each change is a comment or two explaining the reason.
I also have no idea how to make unit animations! If there are any existing animations, that would be cool. Ive noticed a bunch of really good ones on this forum already - the talent is way better than Firaxis....
Anyway, this mod fixes some minor discrepancies with workers, governments, etc, but the main focus is to make the AI play more aggressively, to balance some of the weaker units, to make combat especially early on more realistic, and to totally redo the naval aspect of the game, which is terrible as of 1.17
.On to the mod!
CIVILIZATION ADVANCES
Construction enables bridges, not Engineering. Any empire that has the workforce to build a forty-mile aqueduct can build a dinky bridge across the Po or the Nile.
COMBAT EXPERIENCE
Conscripts have 1 HP not 2. Elites have 6 HP not 5. This makes conscripts less useful to deter too much drafting (although they can be promoted!). Elites are now discernibly better than Vets. Only problem - barbs are now a pushover. Solution, put them at Raging
! GENERAL SETTINGS
Movement along roads is now 4:1, not 3:1. This helps larger empires defend cohesively.
Golden Ages now last 25 turns, not 20. Golden Ages are supposed to be a time of supremacy of the civ. Twenty-five turns is enough for a civ to measurably pull ahead of the herd production and tech-wise, twenty is too small.
The Barbarian Sea Unit is a Buccaneer, not a Trireme. Now seagoing Barbarians are actually dangerous.
GOVERNMENTS
Republic now supports 0 units per town, 2 units per city, and 3 per metropolis. Medieval Republics such as the Genoans and the Venetians were actually very warlike countries. Small towns wont support a military, but sizable cities will (metropoli also will if you choose to stay in Republic up till modern times).
IMPROVEMENTS AND WONDERS
Barracks and Colosseums now reduce War-Weariness. Obviously, a populace which is used to the sight of marching soldiers and thinking of blood and gore as entertainment is less likely to be rioting than one which spends its free time drinking tea.
Cathedrals and Banks now reduce Corruption. There could be cases made against this realism-wise, but generally its still a good idea.
WORKER JOBS
Clear pollution takes 12 turns to clean, not 24. Twenty-four is just too long. By the modern age, I could support any amount of workers without feeling a strain, and clean up all pollution if I took the time to move all my workers. So why should I be forced to move twenty or so just to clean up pollution?
UNITS
Here the most extensive changes have been made. I have revised names, statistics, AI strategies used, and in some cases changed UUs to other units.
Note: The Man-O-War and the F-15 both suffer from two problems; they render the English/Americans weaker because they do not have a relevantly strong UU, and they cannot start a GA with their unit. Therefore both UUs have been changed to ones that can start a GA easily. Where an asterisk * has been added, that unit should have both Offense and Defense checked in the AI Strategies box just to the right of the ADM stat box.
(Zulu) IMPI (2-2-2)*
The historical Shaka of the Zulu was able to carve out a significant empire with these units. Their strategy is not mobile defense as the CivPedia would suggest, but mobile offense like Jaguar Warriors. The AI will now use them offensively as well.
(Babylonian) BOWMAN (JAVELIN 3-0-2)
If the Babs were famous for their bowman, they were equally famous for their javelin-throwers, thus the UU change. These replace regular archers, and are mobile and lethal attackers. However, they have no defense because their only weapon is their javelin.
LONGBOWMAN (5-1-1) [50 shields]
Longbowmen easily defeated knights and men-at-arms at Agincourt :arrow:, so theres no reason for them to have an equal attack for less defense. This change actually makes the Archer upgrade line useful. If you dont have horses, Longbows are the way to go. To compensate the Longbowman now costs 50, not 40, shields.
(French) MUSKETEER (3-4-1)*
No change has been made to the stats, but the AI has been told to sometimes attack with them - after all, they can beat Spearmen and Pikemen, and the AI doesnt usually upgrade quickly.
RIFLEMAN/INFANTRY/MECHANIZED INFANTRY *
Again, no changes, but both Riflemen and Infantry (and later, Mech Infantry) will now attack from time to time. Riflemen have as good an attack as Knights, and Infantry have an attack equal to Cavalry. Mech Infantry are almost equal to Tanks. This makes invasions much more difficult, because conscripts literally swamp your units.
(Indian) WAR ELEPHANT (5-2-2)
The elephant was a shock trooper, just like cataphracts or Panzers were in other ages. It was NOT meant to hold ground, like knights that could dismount and become men-at-arms. The same elephants that could punch through a phalanx could also be routed by a determined attack from archers (!) and flee the battlefield. I would make the elephant appear earlier, as a contemporary to the Hoplite, not the Pikeman, but this would be unbalancing.
SAMURAI *
Another oversight at Firaxis! This thing has as a better defense than the Pikemen it attacks, but the AI never uses it as a defensive unit? If youre Japanese, theres no sense in the Spearmen chain until you hit Riflemen: Samurai will serve just as well.
(Some totally changed UUs)
(American) MINUTEMAN (4-3-1) [50 shields] [all terrain as road] *
The Minuteman is a cheap defender that replaces Musketmen - the lost defense from trained Musketmen like contemporary British redcoats is more than made up for by the guerrilla movement and the hardy offense. A well-rounded unit. The AI will use it as offence AND defense, so beware!
(English) MEN-AT-ARMS (1-5-1) [60 shields] (Doesnt upgrade from or to anything)
The English just love units with hyphens in them! I was going to make a Welsh longbow, but adding anything to the existing Longbow would be unbalancing. The Men-at-Arms does NOT replace the Knight although it becomes available with Chivalry. Instead the English have two Chivalry units to build: the existing Knight, or this tough defender. The AI uses it as defense, and it is literally invincible except to a combined onslaught from Longbowmen and Knights. To discourage them from replacing Musketmen, they are slightly more expensive and MAAs are nonupgradable and a dead-end unit.
(The Naval Units are totally overhauled - especially movement! Now you can cross
Marlas Pacific without your units being obsolete on arrival! The stats are (ADM) L [C], where L is carrying capacity, and C is the cost in shields. After that comes the tech used. Note: I have not changed the bombardment values for any ship. Before the new name is the former name)
[Galley] TRIREME (1-1-3) 2 [30] Map Making [Upgrade to Caravel]
No changes except a cooler name. Sinks in Sea/Ocean.
CARAVEL (2-1-3) 3 [40] Astronomy [Upgrade to Galleon]
More offense, less defense. This thing is shark bait compared to the...
[Privateer] BUCCANEER (5-1-5) 0 [50] Astronomy [Hidden Nationality]
These pirates are faster, meaner, appear sooner and obsolete later. With the new naval model, if you dont protect your transport it WILL be eaten. This ship is usable up until Ironclads! (PS - I know players will be more likely to use this ship to go looking for New Worlds because of the better movement. Oh well: after all the Vikings DID discover America first!)
[Frigate] BRIG (5-3-6) 0 [60] Magnetism
Heres the thing to chase pirates away with.
GALLEON (3-2-4) 4 [60] Magnetism [Upgrade to Transport]
Note that Buccaneers are still a threat, even to this ship.
IRONCLAD (8-6-6) 0 [80] Steam Power
End of the Age of Sail.
TRANSPORT (4-6-7) 8 [100] Steel
Perfect for inter-continent warfare, but too fragile and slow to be risked unprotected.
[Destroyer] DREADNOUGHT (10-6-8) 0 [100] Steel [Upgrade to Battleship]
A WWI type battleship, and a prelude to Battleships.
SUBMARINE (20-1-11) 0 [120] Mass Production [Sub, Can See Subs] U-G to N. Sub
The silent killer, but easily killed by another Sub or a Cruiser. Nearly twice as fast as a Transport.
[Aeg. Cru.] CRUISER (15-10-11) 0 [120] Mass Production [Can see Subs]
A sub-hunter.
CARRIER (4-15-7) 8 planes [160] Mass Production
Has a sizable defense, but still vulnerable and slow.
BATTLESHIP (25-15-9) 0 [180] Mass Production
Rules the seas.
NUCLEAR SUBMARINE (25-1-15) 1 Nuke [250] Fission
The fastest thing on earth. Can sometimes sink Battleships.
New Units
This a list of the units not represented in the Civ repertoire as far as I know, in the game or on this forum.
Babylonian Javelin-Thrower
American Minuteman
English Men-At-Arms
Dreadnought
[Note: I am not sure about using the MAAs for the English. From my research I have found that they were used by the French as much if not more; also, the new MMA tends to unbalance the English. Should I keep the old stats for Longbowman and make the new Longbow a Welsh Longbow? Does anyone else have ideas for English UUs? I had an idea to use Scottish Schiltroms, a sort of pikeman phalanx, but that isnt a well-known unit and it doesnt come from the real Golden Age of the English...]
