Good mods

[jahsoldier]

Hi all,

Just wondering what mods people use as a matter of course these days, I've been away from the game for a while and I'm looking forward to seeing what's come in since I've been gone

Nothing too funky or game-changing, at the moment I'm just looking for anything that gives cosmetic (eg improved/more diverse unit appearances) or functional improvements, like InfoAddict/in-game clock sort of things.

If there are any game-changing balance mods that you consider essential, or if there are any excellent scenarios or maps I should try out, please give them a shout!

Thanks in advance

 

[Babri]

Thal Balance Mod : Obviously for balance. A must have, give it a try.
CSD : Changes CS system. Now u have to put effort to get them instead of bribing them. Winning Diplo victory now needs more strategy.
RED Mod : I don't use it but it is surely a good mod. Individual units now have formations. All human & mounted units are smaller but more in number etc. It doesn't change gameplay, only cosmetic changes.

 

[jahsoldier]

Thanks, I think I used Thal's mod back in the day and it was superb, like playing a whole new game.

I'd really like to try out some scenario mods, particularly if they have scripted events like in previous Civs. Been really enjoying the 1066 scenario that comes with with the Denmark DLC, but I can't help feeling it could have done with some more detail.

 

[waynester10]

I really like some of the mods that have been made for Civ5. I haven't tried Thals balance mod. May try it sometime. But I've found on my system that whenever I play with ANY mod, the game ends up freezing up so I can't finish. It happens with the Viking/England scenario also. I have to play the game without mods in order to finish. I've tried a number of things to get around this but can't. I have a pretty good machine. So I wish the game were stable enough to use mods and it really work right. But the game is not that stable with mods. This is not the modders fault.

Mods I like are 1) the Religions and Corporations mod, 2) the no nukes mod, and 3) various mods for additional Wonders like Plato's Academy, Solomon's temple, the Parthenon. I tried the Amphibious Assault craft mod recently. It is something really needed in the game. But I couldn't get it to work. My units would not go into it. I think nuclear weapons make an unfair advantage really, though the graphics are cool. I think its more fair to play without that advantage. The Religions and corporations mod adds a number of buildings that help with Happiness points, I think this is really needed.

 

[jahsoldier]

Anyone got any more? CSD and Thals are the balls by the way, I would definitely recommend them to anyone who is getting tired of the vanilla game.

Any good scenario-type mods, since I've been having a lot of fun with them lately.

 

[ezzlar]

Is there a Rhyes mod yet? Will there be?

 

[Ddude97]

There is supposedly work done on the map, but without the the SDK he can't continue. Check his site at rhye.civfanatics.net (in his sig)

 

[Babri]

Is there a Rhyes mod yet? Will there be?

Check this. I hope that it will come after some time.

 

[civnoob13]

building made fun adds new buildings, wonders and techs into the game, which IMHO makes the game far better.

 

[CaptainKapow]

I use InfoAddict and SmoothPack.

InfoAddict gives you access to a LOT of info so you can directly and quickly compare army sizes, numbers of social policies, technologies, cities, gold, population, etc between yourself and discovered rivals.

SmoothPack has amazing changes to the UI that really speed up the gameplay.
Biggest deals:
- Hovering over a city now shows you what tiles it's working (too awesome, don't have to click on a city to make sure it's working what you want).
- The top bar UI is changed to show number of turns remaining for technology and social policies. I love this as well as that's the info I want at a glance, not my base science and culture.
- Also adds a luxuries mouse over to the top bar that shows you what luxuries you have and which you have in excess and how many.
- changes the promotions system so that upgrades are changed when ranged units are promoted to melee and vice versa. Basically it converts them to suitable promos if possible. Shock becomes Accuracy, Drill becomes Barrage, +Range becomes +Movement, Logistics becomes Blitz. (This is how it should be implemented in the game anyways imo).

I highly recommend either of these mods, especially SmoothPack to anyone and everyone.

 

[Thormodr]

Check this. I hope that it will come after some time.

He'll have to wait for the source code to be released and that likely won't be for at least 6 months. They need to finalize the game first before working on releasing the code.

I would be very interested in seeing RoC done again as the cIV version was excellent. Likely won't be done anytime soon though.

 

[Valbuena]

I really like some of the mods that have been made for Civ5. I haven't tried Thals balance mod. May try it sometime. But I've found on my system that whenever I play with ANY mod, the game ends up freezing up so I can't finish. It happens with the Viking/England scenario also. I have to play the game without mods in order to finish. I've tried a number of things to get around this but can't. I have a pretty good machine. So I wish the game were stable enough to use mods and it really work right. But the game is not that stable with mods. This is not the modders fault.

this happens to me too! i usually i have like 5 mods enabled so maybe the more mods you have in a game makes it crash more?

 

[Spatzimaus]

this happens to me too! i usually i have like 5 mods enabled so maybe the more mods you have in a game makes it crash more?

There are several different factors that contribute to crashes. Some that have been identified so far:

> Using the DX10/11 executable can create a game where the game "hangs"; you'll still hear sounds playing in the background, but the image will freeze. This does not happen with the DX9 executable, and it doesn't seem to happen to everyone, which implies it's a driver/card compatibility issue.

> If any mod has turned on "Reload Landmark System", the game will crash often. This'll happen primarily when moving a unit a long distance (especially naval units), where a large number of hexes would need to refresh their graphics at once. It also causes crashes when you attempt to place a new improvement over an old one, for instance if a coal popped up underneath a trading post and you tried to replace it with a mine.
Since this flag doesn't actually seem to do anything at the moment, it's safe to turn off.

> Mod incompatibilities. Especially common if you're using mods you found on the Mod Browser that haven't been updated in months; many older mods did things like edit InGame.xml, and so are incompatible with each other, or are somehow incompatible with changes the core game has undergone in recent patches. As long as the mods in question are being kept up-to-date by their creators, this generally isn't a problem unless you're trying to run two mods that change the same Lua code or something.

That's not to say that there can't be other causes, but running in DX9 with a set of mods that don't have that flag turned on and that I KNOW have no incompatibilities, I get no crashes at all.

------------------

As to the OP, go over to the Creation&Customization forum and look for the active mods that have large numbers of replies; it's a pretty good way to judge whether a mod is being kept up-to-date. There are about a dozen or so active mods in the Modpacks subforum (not counting Thalassicus' mods which have their own forum), and most of those include significant changes to how the game plays. Obviously, I prefer my own (linked below), but quite a few of the mods posted over there are good to use.
I can't give as much advice on scenarios or custom maps, as I never use those, but it shouldn't be too hard to see which ones are still active.

 

[Valbuena]

There are several different factors that contribute to crashes. Some that have been identified so far:

> Using the DX10/11 executable can create a game where the game "hangs"; you'll still hear sounds playing in the background, but the image will freeze. This does not happen with the DX9 executable, and it doesn't seem to happen to everyone, which implies it's a driver/card compatibility issue.

> Mod incompatibilities. Especially common if you're using mods you found on the Mod Browser that haven't been updated in months; many older mods did things like edit InGame.xml, and so are incompatible with each other, or are somehow incompatible with changes the core game has undergone in recent patches. As long as the mods in question are being kept up-to-date by their creators, this generally isn't a problem unless you're trying to run two mods that change the same Lua code or something.

That's not to say that there can't be other causes, but running in DX9 with a set of mods that don't have that flag turned on and that I KNOW have no incompatibilities, I get no crashes at all.

darn it i like to play in dx10 mode and i use old mods too >_> grr

 

[Kevin J]

I use InfoAddict and SmoothPack.

InfoAddict gives you access to a LOT of info so you can directly and quickly compare army sizes, numbers of social policies, technologies, cities, gold, population, etc between yourself and discovered rivals.

SmoothPack has amazing changes to the UI that really speed up the gameplay.
Biggest deals:
- Hovering over a city now shows you what tiles it's working (too awesome, don't have to click on a city to make sure it's working what you want).
- The top bar UI is changed to show number of turns remaining for technology and social policies. I love this as well as that's the info I want at a glance, not my base science and culture.
- Also adds a luxuries mouse over to the top bar that shows you what luxuries you have and which you have in excess and how many.
- changes the promotions system so that upgrades are changed when ranged units are promoted to melee and vice versa. Basically it converts them to suitable promos if possible. Shock becomes Accuracy, Drill becomes Barrage, +Range becomes +Movement, Logistics becomes Blitz. (This is how it should be implemented in the game anyways imo).

I highly recommend either of these mods, especially SmoothPack to anyone and everyone.

Smoothpack does sound interesting. Very minimal gameplay changes with what looks like some neat UI changes - that hover over city thing sounds interesting. I'm going to try that one out.