Through the Ages! (BTS)

seasnake

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Joined
Apr 21, 2006
Messages
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California, United States
Download Here:
http://www.filefactory.com/file/a0g25c9/n/Through_the_Ages_rar


This is a new mod called Through the Ages. Simply put, it's Civ IV with little changes to the basic gameplay, but it adds 6 civs, 3 wonders, 1 trait, 6 leaders for existing civs, new terrain art, 1 new resource, ethnic unit artstyle and city styles, a future citystyle, and all the Next War Technologies.

To play, simply download and unzip, and put the file Through the Ages into your Mods folder in BTS. Then, on the main menu, click "Advanced", "Load a Mod", "Through the Ages." Give it a minute and have fun!

I'll reserve the next two posts for screenshots and thank-yous.

FULL CHANGE LIST BELOW:

Spoiler :

ALL NEXT WAR UNITS, BUILDINGS, WONDERS, PROMOTIONS AND TECHS, WITH MINOR ALTERATION, HAVE BEEN PUT IN AND ADDED ON. HOWEVER, THE GAMEPLAY IS OTHERWISE THE SAME, THERE IS NO "MR. BIG" OR "THE LADY", YOU JUST CAN RESEARCH FARTHER THAN BEFORE AND PLAY INTO THE FUTURE. SPACE RACE IS NOW MISSION TO MARS. GAMES ARE A LITTLE LONGER.

ADDED MECHAERIKS' WAR PRIZES MOD, SHIPS HAVE A 20 PERCENT CHANCE OF TAKING A PRIZE IF THEY WIN A NAVAL COMBAT.

New Trait
Resourceful (Res)
+25 percent Espionage Points
-50 percent cost to promote units
+1 gold per trade route

Changes to Traits: Imperialistic doubles production of Customs House, Jail, and Intelligence Agency. Protective doubles production of Security Bureau. Expansive gives +3 health. Aggressive doubles production of the Stable.

6 New Civilizations
Gran Colombia
Leaders: Simon Bolivar (Imp, Res), San Martin (Org, Res)
UU: Libertador, replaces Cavalry. Has 2 first strikes and a bonus attacking cities
UB: Arsenal, replaces Jail. -15 percent cost to train military units
Apache
Leaders: Mangas Coloradas (Pro, Org)
UU: Mounted Warrior, Replaces Cuirassier. Only requires Gunpowder to train, higher withdrawal chance.
UB: Wickiup, replaces Granary. -20 percent war weariness, +1 happy with horse.
Iroquois
Leaders: Hiawatha (Ind, Phi)
UU: Mohawk Rifler, replaces Rifleman. 12 strength, 2 movement, starts with Guerilla I and Woodsman I.
UB: Longhouse, Replaces barracks. +1 health.
Italy
Leaders: Mussolini (Pro, Res) and Lorenzo di Medici (Cre, Res)
UU: Geonese Crossbowman, replaces Crossbowman. +50 percent against archer units.
UB: Patron House, replaces University. One free artist and engineer in city.
Polynesia
Leaders: Kamehameha (Cre/Cha)
UU: Koa, replaces Swordsman. No resources necessary, +50 against Melee units, no city attack bonus.
UB: Fishery, replaces Lighthouse. +1 health and +1 happiness
Hittites
Leaders: Mursili II (Agg, Res)
UU: Huluganni, replaces Chariot. +50 against mounted units, targets mounted units in a stack.
UB: Smelter, replaces Forge. +1 happiness for Iron, free shock promotion to melee units.

Changes to exisiting Civs: Native American's changed to Sioux, Totem Pole changed to Sacred Council (same effects), Vikings changed to Scandinavian Empire

6 new leaders for existing civs
Taizong (Fin, Res) for China
Hitler (Cha, Res) for Germany
Hirohito (Ind, Res) for Japan
Itzcoatl (Exp, Res) for Aztecs
Mandela (Spi, Res) for Zulu
Carlos V (Res, Phi) for Spain

Changed LHs: Shi Huang is Chinese Version, Montezuma, Julius and Ragnar have new Art, Shaka has visibile crown wreath, Gandhi's favorite civic is Pacifisim.

New Wonders:
Himeji Castle: Requires Feudalism, double income from pillaging, no enemy income for pillaging in your land
Sydney Opera House: Requires Mass Media, Harbor, and Coast. Inspires one random great person.
Pantheon: Requires Polytheism and Construction, +2 Espionage points per state religion building

New Building:
Refinery
+10 percent gold, -1 health, -2 happiness
Power with Oil, -2 health
Grants Refined Fuel promotion.

Changes to buildings: Scotland Yard Requires Printing Press, Russian Research Institute produces four espionage points, Castles don't obsolete until Steel and +2 happy with Serfdom, Academy requires writing, Nuclear Plant +2 happy with Police State, Walls +10 percent Espionage Defense.

New Units:
Special Forces: 28 strength, moves 2, starts with Amphibious and Commando, National Limit 5, can paradrop (7).
Floating Fortress: 20 strength, moves 7, can bombard city defenses, can carry five fighters. Requires Aquaculture.
Stealth Fighter: 100 percent chance interception, Range 12, 50 chance evasion, 16 city bombard. Requires Fiber Optics and Stealth.
Hover Gunship: Str. 30, +50 percent against armor, siege, and mech units. Requires Robotics.
Siege Mech: 45 Str. can only build three, 75 percent chance interception, 20 percent bombard per turn, 90 percent damage to attacked unit, 80 percent to other units in stack. Requires Fusion.

Changes to Units: Marines and Paratroopers upgrade to Special Forces, or Cyborgs. Explorers upgrade to Airships. Spies move 2. Great Generals can start golden ages. Jaguars have a first strike. Gallic Warriors +20 percent city attack. Caravels cannot enter rival territory without open borders. Grenadiers -10 hammers to build. Ballista Elephant does collateral damage to stacks. Gunships, Jet Fighters, Carriers, Mobile Sam and Mobile Artillery all upgrade to futuristic units. Workers upgrade to Clone workers.

New Promotion:
Refined Fuel. +1 movement to Armor, Naval units. +1 operation range to Air Units. Requires a refinery or future tech.

Changes to Techs: Divine Right grants a Great Prophet if your are the first to research it. Paper allows you to produce Espionage in cities.

New Terrain and Bonus:
Marsh: From colonization, +10 percent defense, +25 percent time to build improvements.
Titanium: Revealed by Scientific Method, +2 gold and +1 hammer with Mine. Required for Cyborgs, Siege Mechs, Dreadnoughts and Assault Mechs.

Other Changes: There are six unit and city styles: Middle East, South America, African, European, Asian, Greco Roman. Cities are diverse until Industrial era, units are diverse pre-gunpowder (including ships). New Futuristic city art thanks to Planetfall.
Terrain is from Colonization with Water changed as well. Looks pretty good and more realistic.
 
Here are three photos for consideration. The first has a list of all civilizationsm, including the six new ones: Italy, Iroquois, Apache, Hittite, Polynesia and Gran Colombia. The second is a picture of the Italy civ. The final is Hitler, with the new Resourceful Trait showing. Just a few of the leaders and things this expansion adds to your game.
 
Okay, an explanation here.

The first shot is Himeji Castle, one of three new wonders.

The second is a shot of the new terrains in the world, note the soft textures and changes to water. This is the colonization version of the world. Also note the classical artstyle for the Arab city. Finally, note the early and distinct Asian and Middle East units. From left to right it's an Asian Knight, a Middle East Swordsman, a Middle East Longbowman, an Asian Explorer, and the Asian and Middle East Trireme. Please also note the Marsh terrain near the Explorer.

The final is the same place in the future. Hirohito, a new leader for Japan, is attacking Babylon. Babylon is a futuristic city guarded by clones, but Japan has Assault Mechs, a Siege Mech and Hover Gunships. They also have a Floating Fortress parked nearby, with accompanying stealth fighters. Finally, note the Titanium resource, needed for some late-game units.
 
Thanks to the following individuals and teams:

Team Planetfall for the University Citystyle (now the Future!)
Diversica mod team for units and citystyles
Team NextWar
Dale for Hirohito
Ekmek for Mursili, Hitler, Mussolini, and the Venice Mod (which was used to make Italy)
Bernie for Nelson Mandela
C. Rolan for Lorenzo
TheLastOne for help finding resources (like Taizong of Tang and Kamehameha)
Walter Hawkwood for the Refinery and added Future Units from his EE2 units pack
Ambrox62 for the three man chariot
Bakuel for the Polynesia Units
Mechaerik for his War Prizes and Special Forces
Tsentom for his awesome wonders, Himeji Castle and Sydney Opera House and his Strategic Trait
IgorS for Itzcoatl
Mallin for Titanium
The_J for just answering questions
Chuggi for the better graphics and art

Thanks everyone! I hope you'll give this a try!
 
Mac BTS 3.19 Compatible ?

If it is not dll no problem for a mac version...
 
What about two or three Earth maps set ?

Yould could use Munch's Earth
 
To Lachlan: No longer pending, I finally said forget FileFront and I'm trying out FileFactory instead. It appears to be up and running, so enjoy!

I haven't added in an Earth Map. I plant to monitor this thread very closely for both bug reports and requests, and make a master list. I'm more than willing to make a new version if necessary.

I've never tried it on a Mac. I'm not sure what the difference would be, what I'd have to do to make it compatible. I included the DLL but I think you could delete that file and it would run fine using the default. I know of no changes to the DLL, I just threw it in their with the all the XML and Python so I would not lose anything.
 
I was really looking forward to seeing this new spliced intro movie, but it didn't play when I started a game with this mod, and when I opened up the folders I couldn't find a file for it either. Did it not make the initial release?
 
Um, sorry about that. Yeah, the mod doesn't load the movie when it starts so I deleted it to make it easier and quicker to download. It's the one thing I actually cut out of my included list! What I'll do is tomorrow afternoon I'll post it as a separate file on the same site and PM you the link. Apologies for the delay.
 
I see the artists and/or XML-modder(s) for the non-Firaxis citystyles aren't included in your Thank You list...
 
I tried the mod with my mac, regularized two xml files, deleted dll and works perfectly ;) I signalized your mod to Mac Community...
 
To Lachlan: I'm very glad to hear it. Sorry I've been pretty busy the last week and couldn't respond earlier. Which XML files did you regularize? I might be able to cut them or make your changes part of the mod.

To Geo-Modder: Will correct. Like I think I said, I tried to get everyone but I've been hacking and slashing at this thing for so long it can be easy to forget who gave what. I'll amend the list.

I didn't use the XML for the unitstyles or citystyles, I went in and basically did something a lot more laborious because I only wanted a few pieces of the content. So I just took the artwork I wanted and then modded it in by playing with XML. Needless to say, hilarity ensued as I kept making invisible walls or other things, but I got there in the end.

It is compatible with 3.19, and maybe I'm wrong but I think you can't go down in versions with mods.
 
Support for the mod: Here's a better version of the Pantheon Wonder I found in the Temple Pack on this site.

Just go to the folder assets/art/structures/city improvements, delete the folder "Pantheon" and unzip this file there instead. Looks a lot better.
 
since this is your first mod I just want to congratulate you for doing a good work on this mod, but there is not alot of features on this one... try much harder and make your mod more bigger... what I expect from this mod when I look at the title is a good old historical accurate from our past to the present... all the way from stone age to now.
 
To TheDarkedOne:

Thank you for your kind feedback.

The title, Through the Ages, is to highlight the addition of future age to the game, with future city styles, units, techs, etc. It was to merge in the Next War assets while not impacting gameplay, you simply continue what you started at the stone age to the future age. I apologize for any misconceptions it may have caused.

Everything else is more of an expansion, with few changes to actual gameplay. I just enjoy having these extra things in my gameplay and thought that maybe others would like it as well. I really like Civ IV as it is, but I felt there were some more units, civs, etc. that could make the game even better. I also felt that some of the traits/buildings/units in civ needed small adjustment, so I made the changes I made.

I'm currently working on another expansion, which would add one more trait, 6 more civs, 12 more leaders and a few small tweaks (like a bigger Map option).
 
I see, but what I really like on the major mods that i play like Planetfall and Fall from Heaven is that they have a dynamic system in there mods, like the Apocalypse system from Fall from Heaven where it be a bit peaceful from 0 and the world goes to hell at 100. It will be nice if there was one that deals with global warming and cooling, for those that like to play a game that deals with Environmentalism vs Industrialism. although you said your mod is more of an expansion pack, but it will be very nice if you make something awesome like those major mods out there and gain more fame and more ability.
 
I see, but what I really like on the major mods that i play like Planetfall and Fall from Heaven is that they have a dynamic system in there mods, like the Apocalypse system from Fall from Heaven where it be a bit peaceful from 0 and the world goes to hell at 100. It will be nice if there was one that deals with global warming and cooling, for those that like to play a game that deals with Environmentalism vs Industrialism. although you said your mod is more of an expansion pack, but it will be very nice if you make something awesome like those major mods out there and gain more fame and more ability.

Dont forget that Civ4BTS 3.19 Mac is already released and should not fair if they could't play mod because of modified .dll, example i just deleted the only one .dll of this mod and it ran no problem on a Mac with readapting a few "windows xml" into "mac xml"...

Thats all ;)

Passing from PC to Mac has permitted me to return to essentials of Civ 4 BTS 3.19 Vanilla gameplay, i realized that mods are nice but made too big changes from the no-mods civ4

I suggest to Seasnake to add also BAT 2.1, but never at great never BULL since it has modified dll...

A "few" judiciously added stuff is add that kilotons of stuff not well imbricated...
 
To TheDarkedOne: Don't get me wrong, I love those mods/scenarios too. But I don't really think of myself as a modder, to be honest, who can create new things. I've just found some things that I really like, and figured out how to add a few things to make the original gameplay more enjoyable to me and wanted to share it. This way you can play the game and have more civ options, more leaders, and some extra things like more diverse early units.

Honestly though, I don't want my expansions to feel like a Mod at all, I want them to feel like playing Civ. Just with some extras.

To Lachlan: I appreciate the suggestion. I'm pretty picky, though, and I don't want everything in my gameplay that BAT would bring, maybe BUG would be a better fit (if it doesn't modify the DLL, don't know yet). I've purposely have avoiding trying to give every civ its own artstyles, I just wanted broader flavor styles to cover areas (asia, africa, middle east, etc.). This is because I'm adding new civilizations and don't want to make or search for 40 Hittite units. I might consider expanding the ethnic diversity to all person units and sailing ships, and not doing things like armor units, fighters or siege equipment. This is because I honestly doubt there are 6 types of Ironclad or Catapult in the forums, and I want to be consistent.
 
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