The concept at the core of this MOD is the shift of the time frame of the game from Ancient-Medieval-Industrial-Modern to Paleolithic-Neolithic-Ancient-Classical.
The most prominent changes are the available technologies and other tech-related issues.
The most important is the necessity of researching the jobs performed by workers. The players begins knowing practically nothing except how to build settlers, braves (a 1.1 unit), scouts and wealth. Most worker jobs are researched at the end of the Paleolithic and the beginning of the Neolithic, but some are available only in the Classical Age.
Terrain stats are also changed. To compensate for the inability to build roads, most terrains give one tax even without them. The open terrains (grassland, plains...) still receive the +1 bonus when a road is built.
Terrain bonuses also have to be researched. As such, the landscape suffers slight changes as the game evolves. Most productions bonuses are researched in the Paleolithic, most luxuries are researched in the Neolithic.
Building numbers are greatly diminished, as lots of buildings were removed and none added. The number of wonders is also quite reduced and there are only seven Great Wonders.
The number of units wasn't so severely reduced as I used the civ-specific units to make up for removed units.
The graphics are poorer than the original game as I made no new graphics, I merely extended the use of the few i saw fitted for this MOD. Also, there is a problem with the asian walled cities, they appear with a pink square around them, I don't understand why... Something similar happens with the leaders faces, but in black...
Civilizations are greatly altered. There are six new civilizations: Vicking, Turkey (some may notice the striking resemblance between the Sultan Suleyminiye of the Turks and the Tzarin Katheryna of Russia...), Israel (Abraham is still Abraham, just not the same Abraham), Britannia (as in britons, as in celt), Mali and Phoenicia. Other civilizations had their city names altered to more faithful versions. I'm quite proud of the egyptian names, the true names ancient egyptians gave their cities, and the iroquois names, all names of north american indian tribes. Other civilizations are not so well portraied, but I did the best I could.
There are still things to modify. Namely, most texts, like the one in the beginning of games (don't let it fool you, you don't have knowledge of irrigation, mining and road-building) or in civilopedia. I'll get to those when I have the time.
Also, the game crashes every now and then. I don't understand why.
http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads/xerxes.zip contains a .sav file and a .txt with an error message. If you can figure out what went wrong there, please let me know...
I hope you all enjoy this MOD.
Seileach
