Mega Mod

[Slowpoke]

A mod that attempts to fix all major balance problems. Tweaking will come later. Now available on browser as "The Mega Mod"

Also, big thanks to alpaca, for providing lots of really awesome code for me to take

NOTE:

V22 is out!

Due to all the changes in the patch, there will likely be several bugs. Also, note one of my more recent posts most of the changes.

NOTE: I am now accepting suggestions. I won't necessarily add what you like, but I will read and respond to all of them

A full list of all changes, now in an organized fashion (for ease of navigation, they are all spoilered. HOWEVER if you are new to mega mod, do read them all as some changes are not detailed in game)! Many of these highly impact gameplay.

Mods

Spoiler :

NOTE: Healing reduction is now separated and is now in the mod component "Remove Healing" on mod browser. It's recommended for those like me who like bloody wars Insta heal is still removed entirely from mega mod, though.

-4 buildings from economy mod are integrated: bakery, brewery, hunting lodge, and fishmonger. Note: brewery is nerfed to +2 happiness and bakery requires sugar not wheat now. Good stuff valkrionn!

No other mods are added at the moment due to technical annoyance but the following are highly recommended and tested to be compatible both balance-wise and technically:

Diplomacy mod by Gazebo
Tech overflow by smellmummy
Info Addict (actually this isn't tested )

New Units!

Spoiler :

-Caravans added! Basically, these are like mini-great engineers. You build them for 55 production and can use them to hurry buildings, and only buildings, for 45 production.

Resources:

Spoiler :

-Strategic resources amounts now are completely changed.
-Horses always have 2 horse units
-Iron always has 10
-Oil is now always 2. However, they are MUCH more likely to appear in deserts.
-Coal is now always 2, but are more common in hills
-Aluminum now has a single unit per resource, but it slightly more common in hills
-Uranium is also a single unit

A.I.

Spoiler :

-A.I.s now defend their cities. They used to have a single unit per city for defense, this is increased to FOUR. On prince and king, this might make the game a bit easier, but on higher difficulties the A.I. should become terrifying
-When about to be destroyed, A.I.s should now build only units.
-A.I.s should now no longer heal do to it's removal (untested)
-A.I. aggresively expand
-A.I. ignore ineffective Grand Strategies.

Happiness

Spoiler :

-"Very unhappy" now takes -20 happiness
-All nations function like India: 4 happiness per city, .5 per population.
-Monuments add +1 happiness
-Colosseums and circuses are cheaper but provide only 2 happiness
-Stadiums are more efficient

Combat

Spoiler :

--Unit Strengths are moderated. Teching up will provide less gains then they used to. This stops beelining lonsgwords and riflemen and watching cities explode.
-All ranged units now have indirect fire
-Electronics (mech infantry) now requires combustion
-Steel requires currency
-Dynamite requires scientific theory
-rifling requires chemistry
-Mech infantry cost 80 more than previously, and infantry cost 40 more than previously. You are much better off using all of your available strategic resources before foot soldiers.
-Gold to upgrade units further increased.
-Siege weapons do more damage to cities, less damage to everything else, and come with 50% defense vs ranged
-Terrain bonuses reduced across the board (grasslands now -10%), fortifying maxes out at +20% defense, down from 50%
-Unit HP increased to 12
-Anti-Mounted is now +200% not +100%
-City Hp is now 35

Social Policies

Spoiler :

General:

NEW:

In addition to making early branches more worthwhile and further decreasing late game policy costs, social policies NO LONGER HAVE PREREQS. You still need to open the branch mind you, but once opened all are available. This required a massive rebalance for obvious reasons, and here's the result (note, there might be a bug or two, so please report problems. Also policies with a * will likely be rebalanced depending on more testing):

TRADITION:

Branch: Now +1 food, +1 production
Legalism: As before, massive unhappiness lowering in capital
Landed Elite: As before, double growth in capital
*Monarchy: Functionality change. +12 gold in capital

LIBERTY:

Branch: Settlers train even faster
Citizenship: Buffed to 35% faster workers
*Collective Rule: Buffed to 75% towards first citizen
Representation: Buffed to +1 gold
*Meritocracy: Func Change: +3 gold in all cities

HONOR:

Branch: Buffed to 50% vs barbs and +1 prod in capital

PIETY:

Theocracy: Nerfed to -15% pop unhappiness
Mandate of Heaven: Buffed to 75% happiness to culture
Organized religion: Buffed to 33% faster golden ages
*Reformation: Buffed to 8 turn golden age.
Free religion: Func Change. Now gives +1 happy per temple

PATRONAGE:

Branch: Effectiveness doubled.
Philanthropy: Also doubled.
Aesthetics: Now min. influence is 29

COMMERCE:

Branch: +50 % gold in capital (Note: Due to synergy with monarchy, this are likely to be changed)
Trade Unions: -70% route gold
Merchant Navy: Nerfed. Now +2 production and +1 gold
Protectionism: Buffed to +2 happy per luxury (It felt weird having to buff a bottom policy after prereqs were gone.. but it was that bad)

RATIONALISM:

Branch: Buffed to 7 turn GA
Secularism: Nerfed to +1 science per specialist.
Humanism: Buffed? to +2 happiness per public school (+2 for universities was too much).
Scientific Revolution: Nerfed to 1 golden age and +1 science in all cities.

FREEDOM: No change

AUTOCRACY:

Just moved to medeival (Note: Yes this means total war is available unchanged without prereq)

ORDER:

Socialism: Buffed to -20%
United Front: Buffed to +300% worker speed. You might ask what the point of workers is when you've developed everything "fully"... but I'll leave that up to the imagination
Communism: Nerfed all the way to +3 prod per city

OLD:

-Policies are now slightly cheaper, and increased policy costs for building a lot of cities is halved.
-You CANNOT SAVE A POLICY. For that matter, you can't right click to end turn for any reason (so no skipping great library techs either).
-France nerfed to +1 culture per city. However, it goes obsolete from globalization.
-Utopia project now requires 6 filled branches (don't be an autocrat if you want cultural!)

Policy changes (Note: These are NOT supported by in game text descriptions, but they DO happen):

-Tradition: Now gives +2 gold in the capital as well.
-Legalismop unhappiness in capital even less (NOTE: due to everyone being india, this isn't a big deal).
-Landed Elite: Growth surplus DOUBLES (up frmo +33%) in capital
-Monarchy: Functionality change. Gold buying tiles no longer affected. Now gives +4 production in the capital (Rome would love this).

-Liberty: No change

-Honor: now +50% vs barbs. Good for germans

-Patronage: No change (NOTE: Eventually this will be changed, when I do diplomacy)

-Commerce: Buffed to +50% in captal
-Trade Unions: Buffed to -70% for road and railroad maintenance.
-Secularism: Nerfed to +1 science per specialist

-Autocracy: Now available in medeival era

Civilization Balance

Spoiler :

-China's GGs nerfed to +10% general power, down from +20
-German and Ottoman Unique abilities now have 100% chance of success
-France now is now only +1 culture per city, but lasts until globalization
-American's buy tile power increased to a 75% discount
-Aztec culture gains from kills doubled (needs verification)

Difficulties

Spoiler :

There are now several new difficulties. These are ONLY available in advanced setup (devs didn't support it for the main screen :/)

-PrincePlus: Halfway between prince and king
-KingPlus: Duh
-EmperorPlus: Duh
-ImmortalPlus: Duh
-DeityPlus: Halfway between deity and nightmare
-Nightmare: Nigh impossible. Try deity plus first
-Ludicrous: Added for the heck of it. Literally impossible without a cooked start.

Buildings

Spoiler :

-Courthouse costs only 80 hammers
-Buildings have 25% less cost and 50% less maintenance
-Forbidden palace is eliminated
-United Nations is eliminated
-Forge affected too many things it shouldn't, some with awful consequenced (caravans, workers, settlers, spaceship parts) so it is now simply a more powerful barracks till it's fixed

Wonder balance

Spoiler :

I felt early wonders were too cheap and had too little gain. They didn't feel like wonders, just really good buildings. Many effects AND costs are increased

-Stonehenge now costs 200, is +12 culture
-Great library increased to 180, now has +3 culture
-Pyramids now 250, workers are 75% faster
-Colossus is now 250, gold from oceans is now +2
-Oracle is now 200, culture is now +5
-Hanging gardens is now 400, happiness is now +6
-Great wall goes obsolete with dynamite
-Angkor wat is now 400 with +10 culture
-Notre dame is now 600 with +9 happiness
-Eiffel tower is now +12 happiness

City States:

Spoiler :

NOTE: If you are using diplomacy mod, bribes will be whatever they are in that mod

-Maritimes nerfed all the way down to 2 food in capital, one in cities regardless of era or alliance.
-Culture buffed
-Military buffed
-Bribe power massively reduced
-Quests more frequent

Specialists

Spoiler :

-Market and Workshop now have two specialist slots
-Scientists provide only 2 science and 2 GPP (down from 3 and 3)
-Marchants provide +3 gold
-Artists provide +2 culture
-Academy now provides +8 science
-Customs house: +12 gold
-Landmark: +10 culture
-Manufactory:+6 production
-Golden ages for specialists now start at 4 and all thereafter are 3 (down from 8 then 7,6,5,4,3)
-Great Sceintists can no longer be used for a free tech.

Gold

Spoiler :

Due to high city populations, gold needs some better control. I also had to figure out a way to make trade outposts useful again so I could take out that temperoray mines in grasslands crap. So...

-Bribes further increased in price
-Research agreements further increased
-Rush buy gold slightly decreased
-Trade routes reduced to .8, down from 1.25

Miscellaneous

Spoiler :

-Palace provide +5 science, and techs get more and more expensive as the eras progress
-City Growth is vastly linear. Note: It now slows a bit more on the high end than version 7.
-Create Wealth is now +60%
-Conquered cities can no longer be puppeted
-insta heal promotion removed
-Long term unit maintenance drastically reduced. Mind you, you will not notice much of a change until turn 120.
-Caravans can no longer be efficiently bought with gold (Big Ben/commerce caused an exploit).

 

[Slowpoke]

Okay there might be something wrong with the mod's sqls. Can anyone verify that, e.g., city walls cost 75 and libraries cost 60, and not 56 and 45 respectively?

 

[Ben-09]

This mod looks cool. I don't actually have civ 5, but hopefully this will fix the crippling balance issues.

 

[rf900]

Okay there might be something wrong with the mod's sqls. Can anyone verify that, e.g., city walls cost 75 and libraries cost 60, and not 56 and 45 respectively?

I haven't tried the mod yet, but the cost depends on the playing speed, and maybe even on difficulty and current era. The best way to do it is as you say, change the values by a percentage with SQL, then the game will apply the additional modifiers over your initial change.

 

[Slowpoke]

I found out the problem, although nobody seems to know the solution. Apparently if you have an earlier version number of my mod loaded, and download a newer one, it will run BOTH of them if one is enabled, causing a doubling of sql equations. Now this may only be a problem for me, when I build new solutions while testing my mod. When you download a new version of a mod from mod browser, is the old one replaced?

 

[Slowpoke]

Alright, sorry no new version this monday, on account of getting sick and then finding out I have a massive exam based on material I missed in class O.O Most of the new version of the mod is done, I just need some boring testing done before it's worth releasing.

Still, I'd like your guys' opinions on some of the stuff I'm trying out. Some of what's coming:

-I wanted to enphasize large cities rather than ICS, and several things were done to this end
-All leaders now have India's trait in addition to their own (So India's temporarily worthless)
-Growth is vastly linearized. It will soon not be uncommon to get cities size 20/30 and beyond
- Mines now can be made on non-hills (yes unrealistic, but sadly needed as a quick fix due to atrocious production yields


-Massive boosts to Great Person constructs.

Academy is now +8 (used to be 5)
Customs house is +12 gold (used to be 4)
Landmark is 15 cult (used to be 4)
Production thingy is +6 hammers (used to be 3)

-Iron is always 10 (basically infinite), horses are always 2. This imo gave a very nice spread of cavalry to foot soldier ratio.

-Culture expansion massively increased. As far as expanding, a Monument alone is adequate

-Steel now requires currency. A non-sensical, yet neede, prereq for gameplay reasons imo

-Forbidden Palace eliminated.

-Used to be +5 sci in palace, +20% tech costs. Now sci is still +5 but only techs past ancient era are now +20% cost.

-Unit maintenance back to normal (used to be halved)

-Workers cost only 50 (down from 70)

-Also it was discovered that the peace offerings were bugged in the last version, and had no change. I actually still don't know what to do to get it to work. Strangely, I have yet to find a runaway civ in my mod tho.

 

[Clement]

-Culture expansion massively increased. As far as expanding, a Monument alone is adequate

good idea to help players like me that like a few large cities, should stop those pesky AI leaders from setting up a city right next to mine, forbidden palace gone is a good one too.

Sorry to hear you got sick, get well soon and good luck with that exam

 

[Slowpoke]

Well I'm better now And version 3 is now officially complete!

 

[Terrance888]

Iron is always 10 (basically infinite), horses are always 2. This imo gave a very nice spread of cavalry to foot soldier ratio.

Maybe instead have: Iron 5-8, Horses 1-3. Then you can have Seige take up multiple resources (say 4) to keep them balanced.

Make a New India Trait! "Monsoon" All coastal farm tiles get + 1 food and/or+1 Commerance.

 

[Slowpoke]

Maybe instead have: Iron 5-8, Horses 1-3. Then you can have Seige take up multiple resources (say 4) to keep them balanced.

Make a New India Trait! "Monsoon" All coastal farm tiles get + 1 food and/or+1 Commerance.

I'm going to stay away from lowering iron, as the next version is putting some heavy duty military changes that will require large armies, but monsoon sounds pretty interesting! If not that exact change, I'll make something similar when I get to civ balance (version 6 or so).

 

[Slowpoke]

Version 4 is up! Finally organized the changes.

Now that I've got the basic stuff down, I think I'm going to move to social policies next.

 

[Pappy55]

Time to sound stupid but where is the link to download the mega mod?

 

[Slowpoke]

Oh, I just put it in mod browser. Should be under game rules.

 

[Clement]

Hey Slowpoke, just wanted to say thank you for the mega mod, i always have a tough time fighting the Ai on it, makes it less easy and more fun, harsh but fair

Especially like the forbidden palace gone among other changes, pity about the culture and diplo victories not working but with the next patch who knows, maybe they will be worth going for again, anyhoo thank you for your hard work, yours and a few other mods make civ a much more fun game.

 

[Slowpoke]

My next version is actually going to focus on SPs and cultural victory, so thankfully that will be changed but the version will probably take a while to get published.

But yeah, diplomatic is pretty screwed up for now I can only really hope the next patch, which is diplomacy related, will fix it.

 

[Seek]

Don't know if you guys have seen the City-State Diplomacy mod, but it fixes the diplo win. AI has higher priority for CS alliance too, so the player doesn't end up with all the CSs (at least not without a *lot* of effort). Note, I am not sure if it's incompatible with this mod. See my sig for link..

 

[Slowpoke]

I'll check it out If it's not compatible, do you mind if I.. er.. steal some of the parts that are?

 

[Seek]

I'll check it out If it's not compatible, do you mind if I.. er.. steal some of the parts that are?

I didn't create it, I'm just a supporter and collaborator. I'm pretty sure Gazebo would be open to the idea as long as he's credited.

 

[Gazebo]

I'll check it out If it's not compatible, do you mind if I.. er.. steal some of the parts that are?

Try it out and see if it is compatible- I'd prefer if it stayed intact, however if need be we can pick it apart. Let me know what interests you.
G

 

[Slowpoke]

Version 5 is out!

NEW: Culture, social policies, and several new sets of difficulties.

Next up: Civ balances, and after that diplomacy (We'll talk once I get here Gazebo )