Modern Age 2: First Strike

MeteorPunch

#WINNING
Joined
Jan 19, 2005
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Location
TN-USA
for Civilization III Conquests 1.22



Modern Age 2 is what I would call an experimental and bare bones modern military scenario. It takes place at the present day 2010, and includes real life nations, leaders, units, etc. There are no techs to learn, buildings to build, resources to acquire, or future units to look forward to. Everything is, "as is," with economies and production already preset and balanced.

The subtitle "First Strike," is a reference to how the game play works. Each nation begins with a full compliment of units and able to start up a war (the whole point of the game) within the first few turns. However, for some it can certainly be better to wait a little and build a few units.

All the nations are not created equal, but everyone has a chance to win. I believe the smaller ones are actually more fun to play because of having a higher shield to city ratio. I would actually advise to not play as Russia for this reason - they have the 3rd best overall production, but it is spread over so many cities.

UNITED NATIONS:

There are 30 regular playable nations in the game and the remaining ones not included are all wrapped up in a large and unplayable "United Nations." Several things have been done to weaken this civ, without making them complete pushovers.

First of all they have no airlifting via airports, and no access to sea transports - if you are in South America, you will only face continental resistance. Islands are relatively heavily defended, because the units already on the isle are all you will face. Similarly, UN air units have extremely short ranges.

Overall the UN is split into 5 parts - South America, Eastern Europe, Middle East/Asia, Africa, and Islands, with Egypt, Russia, and Turkey acting as a stop gap. It's advisable to not attack the UN as one of these 3 nations early on.

IMPORTANT: The game is designed with the Aeon no-science system, which means that the science slider should be left at 50% at all times - moving it is cheating. Additionally there is a bug which will reset your tax slider to 50% after each turn if you move it - so even if you do move it, it resets back to where it should be every turn.

IMPORTANT: old information - This is a No-Raze patch mod, which means that captured cities will never be razed by the AI. To play this, there is a replacement Civ3Conquests.exe file included which must be used to replace the original one. Remember to create a backup copy of the original.

new information - You do NOT need to replace your Conquests.exe with the NoRaze-Patch to work. Just name it C3C_NoRaze.exe or similar, and put it in the same folder as the original exe. The game can be launched from that exe as well.

IMPORTANT: Some graphics configurations cannot handle the Space Victory Progress Screen (F10), so I've included a second .biq file with that victory disabled. Things such as a non-standard resolution or dual monitor setup will possibly cause a game freeze.

STUFF TO KNOW:
  • Cities do not flip ownership.
  • Movement along roads is 6 instead of 3.
  • Rioting in cities is quelled in 1 turn.
  • Mountains are impassable.
  • Airports are located in every city. Veteran sea and land units are only available in 2 cities from pre-placed small wonders.
  • Chance for air units to be intercepted is 75%.
  • Defensive bonuses are: fortified +50%, within a city +25%, within the capital +25% (additive).
  • Victory Conditions are: Conquest, Domination, Victory Point Scoring, and Space Race (which is achieved by capturing 10 important cities).
  • The AI likes to make demands more often than usual games. I can't turn this off, so just pay them, or take a risk because they bluff a lot.
  • Air units are very useful, however if yours aren't that great compared to your enemies, definitely take stock in land-based anti air and howitzers instead.
  • Sub bug: If the AI runs into an undefended sub it will start a war. Keep submarine units defended or in ports.
RANDOM STUFF:

There are a few dozen or so units I included which aren't available to any Civ. They were extras that can be used for whatever (sounds included).

KNOWN ISSUES:
  • Music hasn't been added and hearing any of Civ 3's music during this scenario is just wrong.
  • Advisers are sometimes from the wrong era.
LOADING TIMES:
  • Initial game start: 1-4 minutes (varies by Civ).
  • Game reload and in-between turns (minus any animations, attacks, etc.): ~35 seconds.
  • My computer is 6 years old, so I'm hoping it will be much faster for others.
DOWNLOAD:

Core Files: 265MB from Megaupload
BIQs: Modern Age 2 version 1.05 .zip file

FILE STRUCTURE:



CREDITS:

Aaglo
Aluminum
Ares de Borg
Balou
Bebro
Bjornlo
Gary Childress
Goldfool
Goodwin
JuuL
Kal-El
Kinboat
Kindred72
Kuratko
La Dav
LizardmenRule!
NavyDawg
Nemesis Rex
Ogedai the Mad
Orthanc
Ozymandius
Pounder
Ripptide
Rhodie
Smoking mirror
Sourboy
Steph
Tom2050
Utahjazz7
Vingrjoe
Vuldacon: helped with a custom unit. :)
Weasel Op
Wolfhart
Wyrmshadow: made most of the units - big thanks!
Yoda Power

SCREENSHOTS:
Spoiler :
Player Setup.


Chinese Start.


India advancing through Iran after taking Pakistan and Afghanistan.


Civilopedia entries.


 

Attachments

  • Modern Age 2 version 1.05.zip
    138.5 KB · Views: 1,762
downloaded....guess what!!!!

AWESOME SCENARIO oh man leaderheads and everything looks perfect ok im ready to go to war with...myself :)
 
Very nice, and congratulations! Two remarks:

1st, you do NOT need to replace your Conquests.exe with the NoRaze-Patch to work. Just name it C3C_NoRaze.exe or similar, and put it in the same folder as the original exe. The Game can be launched from that exe as well. I don't know how many times I've said that before...

2nd, you will want to do an upgrade soon. Believe me, there are many new units on the way... ;)
 
Fun scenario so far. I started a game with Venezuela on the medium difficulty. Was planning to build my forces for a while then take on the UN, however, they deleared war on me when I tried to plant a spy so I ended up fighting on the 3rd turn I think. Didn't play that long but have taken like 8 or so cities from the UN. Doesn't seem too challenging so far on Medium.

Some things I noted:

- 3 out of 4 of Venezuela's starting cities start the game with starvation and drop down a few population points before stabilising. Is this intentional as it's a poor country?

- Already it seems a little strange that I will never be able to update my equipment. I mean if Venezuela was set on conquering a lot of territory it might want to upgrade to third generation MBTs. Have you thought about adding some techs for that? Nations such as the US with all the latest technology could just be given all the techs.

- Why did you decide not to have military alliances and mutual protection packs? Slows the game down? Doesn't work well?

- Wouldn't it make more sense to have no monarchs unless they really are the leader of a nation? I mean I know QEII is technically the head of the British armed forces but the PM is the one who really calls the shots. I'm not sure on Iran but I'd tend to go with Ahmadinejad not the Ayatollah. Your call though of course.

Anyway it's a lot of fun to play! It's pretty cool having the real leaders. Great not having to worry about improvements etc and really being able to focus on military expansion. Reminds me of playing risk somehow.

Cheers,

Nick
 
1st, you do NOT need to replace your Conquests.exe with the NoRaze-Patch to work. Just name it C3C_NoRaze.exe or similar, and put it in the same folder as the original exe. The Game can be launched from that exe as well. I don't know how many times I've said that before...
Good to know. :)

2nd, you will want to do an upgrade soon. Believe me, there are many new units on the way... ;)
Those units look so great. I actually ended up uploading the mod 3 times because Wyrmshadow kept releasing great new stuff. :lol:

Not sure though if I want to update this one, or start over with a more traditional base game. Right now I'm thinking larger map, techs, and a larger time line: 1900-2020, 1950-2020, or 1990-2020.

Fun scenario so far. I started a game with Venezuela on the medium difficulty. Was planning to build my forces for a while then take on the UN, however, they declared war on me when I tried to plant a spy so I ended up fighting on the 3rd turn I think. Didn't play that long but have taken like 8 or so cities from the UN. Doesn't seem too challenging so far on Medium.
Yeah the medium difficulty is probably too easy...which makes things boring. If you're a "Civ Vet," it may be best to play on hard and in the future a new harder difficulty will be added. I'm currently stuck with using 3 difficulties because of a bug.

- 3 out of 4 of Venezuela's starting cities start the game with starvation and drop down a few population points before stabilising. Is this intentional as it's a poor country?
I didn't try to mimic real population sizes, because it has almost no effect on the game other than, "well that's cool, the city sizes are correct," but I think it could be done though with a lot of effort. Most cities simply start at Pop 10 and start dropping or gaining quickly.

- Already it seems a little strange that I will never be able to update my equipment. I mean if Venezuela was set on conquering a lot of territory it might want to upgrade to third generation MBTs. Have you thought about adding some techs for that? Nations such as the US with all the latest technology could just be given all the techs.
Venezuela really uses T-72 and AMX-30 tanks, so that's what is available. I think it helps make playing different nations more interesting because you have to use different tactics depending on what is available. I tried to start everyone with the best, most up to date equipment, though using old, "outdated" stuff builds character. :D

- Why did you decide not to have military alliances and mutual protection packs? Slows the game down? Doesn't work well?
It actually worked terribly. Within 5-10 turns with alliances every single civ would become at war with each other due to 2 nations making deals. This was chaotic and civs that make less gold had another thing to worry about.

Right now wars are pretty frequent, especially at the start (thanks sub bug! :cringe: ).

- Wouldn't it make more sense to have no monarchs unless they really are the leader of a nation? I mean I know QEII is technically the head of the British armed forces but the PM is the one who really calls the shots. I'm not sure on Iran but I'd tend to go with Ahmadinejad not the Ayatollah. Your call though of course.
Yeah UK's David Cameron or Iran's Ahmadinejad would both work. Although I'm really happy how the Ayatollah's leader head came out:


Anyway it's a lot of fun to play! It's pretty cool having the real leaders. Great not having to worry about improvements etc and really being able to focus on military expansion. Reminds me of playing risk somehow.
I agree it's like a board game. That's one reason I didn't want to use rail originally - to make unit positions really important. Although after playing as Russia a bit I added the railroad network after trying to defend my east coast versus Japan who attacked me at the very start of the game. Large empires and nations would have suffered too much without rail, yet not every city is within close range of rail, so there's still some planning needed.
 
Yeah I agree with above, 1900 - 2020 is too broad, much too broad. Your talking about incorporation both world wars here!

I'd say 1990 - 2020 should about cover it. Just after the Soviet Union collapse and into the near future.
 
megaupload says: file is temporarily not available. Will check in few hours again whether the problem was solved on their side...
 
This looks pretty good. However, I'm surprised Indonesia's not independent, as it is definitely a growing power. If it were me, I'd swap it for Sweden(which is officially neutral) or something.

Also, although Shimon Perez is the Israeli President, it's the Prime Minister, Binyamin Netanyahu who calls the shots
 
Played a game as Venezuela, fought a war against the UN and took Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador and most of Chile from them. Then I fought a war against Brazil, took 3 or 4 cities, including Brasilia, and got my first leader.

India is present in South America, the USA took Malaga and I got Cape Town from Brazilian peace treaties.
 
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