Getting Started

[Thalassicus]

Yeah, it's compatible. They're focusing primarily on bug-fixes right now, and I didn't see anything that should conflict with balancing done in the mods. They did implement two balance changes in the core game I had in the mods, so I'll be removing those from the mods. (Wealth, Engineers)

Thanks for the feedback, I've decided to consolidate a few things into 2 mods: Terrain (which does only terrain improvements) and Cities (which does buildings, wonders, and specialists). In each individual mod folder the changes will still be in separate XML files so you can easily alter or remove changes.

As a result, I'll be moving the Granary, Harbor and Research Lab changes to the Cities mod, since those deal more with internal city development than worker improvements.

 

[Zeppelin4]

What happen to the Grocer? The building now is called Butcher? I have been using your mods so long I don't recall if that was what it use to be called.

 

[Perkus]

In Balance - City Development (v 4), the readme.html file doesn't mention the increase to Bananas, which the .XML is still adding.

 

[Thalassicus]

@Zepplin4
The Grocer/Butcher was moved from Terrain Improvements (now focused solely on worker and great person improvements) to City Development (focused on internal development of buildings, wonders, specialists). Sorry for the confusion. I focused these mods a little in their tasks, which is why I moved a few things. (The reason it used to be in Terrain Improvements was because it once was the Rancid Resources component a few weeks ago.)

You can check for changes like this in any of three places:

• Update log on the website.
• Version history in the threads.
• Readme.html file included with each mod.

@Perkus
The buff to Bananas was moved to the improvement, which would technically put it in the Terrain Improvements mod, but is more closely related to the other food-resource buffs included on the Butcher. There's overlap between the mods... so I wasn't quite sure which one to put it in, and ended up leaving it alongside the Butcher changes for consistency with the other food resource buffs.

 

[Zeppelin4]

I read your notes and the thread involved and I see my confusion. The original building is the Granary and not Grocer. See how mods can confuse you.

Not that my opinion matters but I'm not a big fan of the name Butcher. How about Smokehouse? If I wanted to rename it how would I go about it?

 

[Thalassicus]

Renaming it is easy. Open this file in notepad or whatever you want:

C:\<username>\Documents\My Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 5\MODS\Balance - City Development (v 4)\Balance - Buildings.xml

Then do a find-replace, replacing "Butcher" with "Smokehouse". Also update the Civlopedia entry I created. This is near the bottom of the XML file:

<Where Tag="TXT_KEY_CIV5_BUILDINGS_GRANARY_TEXT" />
<Set Text="An ancient trade, whose duties may date back to the domestication of livestock. A butcher is a person who may slaughter animals, dress their flesh, sell their meat or any combination of these three tasks. They may prepare standard cuts of meat, poultry, fish and shellfish for sale in retail or wholesale food establishments. A butcher may be employed by supermarkets, grocery stores, butcher shops and fish markets or may be self-employed. Today, many parts of the world offer trade certifications for butchers." />

I usually just piece together things from Wikipedia entries, so you could change it to something like:

<Where Tag="TXT_KEY_CIV5_BUILDINGS_GRANARY_TEXT" />
<Set Text="A smokehouse is a building where meat or fish is cured with smoke, often for groups or communities of people. Food preservation occurs by salt curing and extended cold smoking for two weeks or longer. The use of slightly warmed, dry air from a very slow hardwood fire ensures the proper drying of meats. The finished product might be stored in the building, sometimes for a year or more. [NEWLINE][NEWLINE]Smokehouses are often secured to prevent animals and thieves from accessing the food. Traditionally, a smokehouse is a small enclosed outbuilding often with a vent, a single entrance, no windows, and frequently has a gabled or pyramid style roof. Communal and commercial smokehouses are larger than those that serve a single residence or estate./>

Smokehouse is actually a rather nice name too... any other opinions on the subject? I think either name fits, I could change it or include both options in the mod.

 

[Zeppelin4]

I like your write up on the Smokehouse. I vote for the change. I would also like to thank you for your website for it makes it easy to keep up with the changes.

 

[Tred]

I didn't realize until I checked your website (through the link you posted above) that you frequently update your mod components. Can we install the latest version and continue a saved game (that used your now-outdated mod) with it?

 

[Tred]

Thal, are there any components of CCMAT that you personally do not like? Since that comprehensive mod includes yours and some others you have recommended, I'm wondering whether it might be better to use it. Any thoughts?

 

[Brannock]

Thalassicus, the download link says "added October 19th" but your version history has some mods that were updated after October 19th. Is the download link hosted on CivFanatics.com up-to-date?

Also, I vote for Smokehouse over Butcher.

 

[Thalassicus]

@Zeppelin4
Glad it helps, it does take quite a bit of time to keep the website, each mod thread, this one etc. up to date with information.


@Tred
Yes, new versions should be savegame compatible. I alternate between modding and playing. To my knowledge there should be no major save-game issues since the changes are all relatively close to vanilla gameplay.

Each mod you use is really up to personal preferences, the recommended mods list is actually mods I think people put good effort into (and I've played with at some point in the past) that would be fully compatible with the mods I do. They're all good, but I personally don't use tree growth or resource discovery anymore because of how carefully balanced zones of the map are in CiV in regards to resources. I tried active city defense but ended up going without it for now because the AI won't be able to know how to use it until we get c++ access. That's one reason I do use Tech Diffusion, since it's automatic.

Out of the CCMAT mods list, here's what I use. It's really up to personal preference, all the ones in CCMAT are good mods but I just like using these:


XML mods
- AI tweaks - Battle AI (v 4) by Elvince
- Balance - Combined
- Barbarian and Ranged XP Mod (v 1) by RikkiA
- Gradual Research
- Obsolete Promotions (modded to be just non-UU promotions)
- R.E.D modpack (dev 2) by Gedemon
- Satellites Reveal Map (v 2) by magus424
- Unofficial Patch

Integrated Lua mods
- All Promotions description tooltip (v 6) by Gilestiel
- Bigger Worlds (v 3) by Zappara
- Copasetic UI Tweaks (v 3) by copasetic, mindwarper
- CsebMod - Extended Plot MouseOver Popup (v 2) by csebal
- Emigration by killmeplease (modded to factor in culture and some other things (that will be in v 2)
- Great People Info (v 2) by BlakeTheGreat
- Improved Demographics (v 3) by Albert "Einstein" Dunberg
- InfoAddict (v 2) by robk
- More Information - Top Panel (v 2) by gairne
- More Unit Information (v 1) by nk
- Tech Diffusion (v 2) by Afforess
( might use Random Events (v 6) by ArbogLi once we have a way to control the events to some extent, I really liked that part of BTS )

If you like the concept of everything in CCMAT, then use it, what matters is what you find fun. I do update rather frequently though, and big combined packs will generally lag a little behind their individual components, so it's somewhat of a convenience vs update tradeoff.

The biggest advantage of a pack like CCMAT is you don't have to worry about merging user interface Lua mods, which are sadly not as modular as UI mods for other games (like WoW).


@Brannock
The download link is up to date. "Added on" is a creation date for the mod's page there, not the "updated on" date. It's odd it doesn't have an "updated on" date... I'll include one in my post there. Thank you for your question.

 

[Stalker0]

I would leave embarkation with optics and not move it to sailing. Sailing already gives a decent benefit, and optics can be acquired quickly enough if you want to beeline to embarkation.

 

[Tred]

Thanks, Thal, for the thorough, informative response.

 

[Perkus]

I would leave embarkation with optics and not move it to sailing. Sailing already gives a decent benefit, and optics can be acquired quickly enough if you want to beeline to embarkation.

Agreed, I'm playing Suleiman on a fairly watery map (not Archipelagos though, just Small Continents), and embarkation came at about the right time. I did notice the AI was really lagging far behind me, though, in hitting the coasts...

 

[mindwarper]

Hello Thal,

I've updated the Compatibility - InGame.xml MOD to include all MODS that I use and know of that use the InGame.xml file...

Readme info:

Spoiler :

Added in readme file the information for:

• Mod List
• More Unit Information
• Strategic View Turn Switcher

InGame.xml information:

Spoiler :

	<!-- Mods -->
		<!-- Advanced City Defense Mod - Start -->
		<LuaContext FileName="BuildingEffects"	 ID="BuildingEffects"	Hidden="True" />
		<!-- Advanced City Defense Mod - End -->
		<!-- Tree Growth Mod - Start -->
		<LuaContext FileName="TreeGrowth"			 ID="TreeGrowth"			Hidden="True" />
		<!-- Tree Growth Mod - End -->
		<!--More Unit Info mod, start, nk 10/04/2010 -->
		<LuaContext FileName="UnitOverview"	 ID="UnitOverview" Hidden="True" />
		<!-- More Unit Info mod, end -->
		<!-- Strategic View Turn Switcher - Start -->
		<LuaContext FileName="TurnSwitcher"	 ID="TurnSwitcher"	Hidden="True" />
		<!-- Strategic View Turn Switcher - End -->
		<!-- Mod List - Added by Kael 09/17/2010 - 2nd try mindwarper 10/03/2010 - Start --> 
		<LuaContext FileName="Lua/ModList"																	  ID="ModList"								Hidden="True" /> 
		<!-- Mod List - End -->
		<!-- Other Mods -->
		<LuaContext FileName="Emigration"			ID="Emigration"			Hidden="True" />
		<LuaContext FileName="StringUtils"			ID="StringUtils"		Hidden="True" />
		<LuaContext FileName="TechDiffusion"		ID="TechDiffusion"		Hidden="True" />
		<LuaContext FileName="InfoAddictScreen"		 ID="InfoAddictScreen"	Hidden="True" />
	<!-- End Mods -->

File is attached below, of course yopu can incorporate it in your future release(s)...

 

[Thalassicus]

I left Embarkation as-is, and moved it to the units balance mod.

@mindwarper
Thanks! I'll update it tomorrow.

 

[mindwarper]

I left Embarkation as-is, and moved it to the units balance mod.

@mindwarper
Thanks! I'll update it tomorrow.

You are very welcome...
Always to help keep up the good standard you started
Hope that I did not forget anything or so...

 

[Vanchelon]

Hmm, so I installed your latest pack (listed as updated today/yesterday, downloaded from link on your site), and upon starting a new game I get, in the top middle of the screen, a notice saying (also no victory screen listed under the usual tab)
"Major Civs to Destroy: 11"
"Turns Left: 100"
Seems like the game suddenly thinks Im playing the demo with a 100 turn limit?
I don't get it in an unmodded regular game, so something in this latest update screwed something up, for me atleast
I got the same issue starting with domination only, or domination + time. (Marathon speed)

So incase you got an idea of what might have caused this...

Great work thus far with the pack though! I enjoyed it pre-patch and came back to enjoy it some more post-patch, but alas...

 

[Thalassicus]

Are you using any other mods? I noticed the "Mongol Scenario" included with the Mongol DLC causes issues if active when attempting to start a normal game.

With these mods installed everything works alright:

 

[Vanchelon]

Are you using any other mods? I noticed the "Mongol Scenario" included with the Mongol DLC causes issues if active when attempting to start a normal game.

With these mods installed everything works alright:

Yep, seems I accidentally activated it when activating the rest, didn't expect the mongol DLC to be listed as a mod, when the babylon civ wasn't + I also noticed it had a seperate entry under "Custom Game"

Problem solved, thanks