The greatest Civ mod ever?

[Geraint94]

I absolutely love History Rewritten (version 1.24). I've been playing Civ games since 1994, and this mod is by far my favourite Civ game. I have been playing both single-player and multi-player games on this mod for years now, and I've been wanting to say thank you to Xyth for his brilliant innovations and corrections to the game mechanics for a while.

One of my favourite features in History Rewritten is the dissent and civil war mechanic. I'm not sure if this is even possible, but does anyone know if, for example, I could import the Minor Civs feature from RevDCM mod into History Rewritten, or would this require a lot of rewriting of code? I really like barb civs being able to settle and become minor civs, which in turn can become full civs. In Rise of Mankind - A New Dawn 2 it creates amazing, dynamic worlds, but I find this mod is unplayable for a number of reasons. History Rewritten is by far superior.

My dream would be to have a mod in which a map with a small number of starting civs, would be gradually and organically populated - first by barb cities in fertile areas, then by minor civs when the biggest barb cities reach a certain size etc. I've tried tweaking the numbers in civilwar.py to achieve this, but I have no coding knowledge or modding experience so it's tricky, and it doesn't quite achieve the effect I want.

Really what I love to see is a 'Rhye's and Fall'-style effect in HR with dramatic civil wars, breakaway regions, and newly formed revolutionary states that could eventually become the most powerful civ in the world. Mirroring real life events such as, the USA emerging from a small colony, or France and Spain emerging from the ruins of the Roman Empire.

Would be really grateful for any advice people might have!

Also, if anyone's interested in playing History Rewritten multiplayer, we're in the lobby most weekends on Zulan's server.

And deep respect to Xyth for creating what is, probably my favourite computer game.

Stay safe everyone, and thanks for reading!

TL/DR: is it possible to import individual components from other Mods (such as RevDCM) into History Rewritten? If not, any recommendations on tweaking the existing Civil War files to create a Rhye's & Fall style effect?

 

[rsab]

I've played since Civ 1, and I would absolutely agree this mod is the best Civilization game experience ever. I really love the dissent mechanics, the way Great Persons are spawned, and how religion is implemented. Those 3 new mechanics brings much more strategy and immersion to the vanilla game. This mod should be on top of the Civ's mods.

Said that, I never tried to play it in multiplayer, could you provide any clue about how to join to Zulan's server?
Thanks!

 

[NVP]

Long time lurker here! Fully agree with everything in this thread.

I only play HR 1.24 now and have since 2015ish. Can't play civ 5 or civ 6 - one unit per tile and general dumbing down ruined Civ a bit for me, but Xyth's mod made me love civ again.

Love how well thought out and smartly implemented this mod is. And very stable to play in multiplayer- much less buggy than vanilla BTS for example! Most mods just go out of synch in multiplayer, in my experience, but history rewritten runs immaculately.

It's now impossible for me to imagine civ4 without religious tenets for example. It's reasons like this that I can only play this mod and no other version of civ will stratch that itch - wouldn't want to give up my tenets! Or civil wars. Or new great people system. Or all the new civs and leaders and traits etc. So many new strategic layers to HR that are absent, or poorly implemented in other mods.
Xyth to head up the Civ 7/Civ 8 design team!?! Let's start a petition! He's absolutely nailed the basics and got that proper civ feel to it.

Don't think I'll bother with Civ VII if it's the same cartoonish gamey vibe like VI was. Hoping Xyth gets a second wind with the modding at some point and comes back to finish 1.25, because there were tons of exciting sounding features that I am looking forward to playing with, but 1.24 is virtually perfect already anyway!

re adding mod components, I dont think just adding files from RevDCM would work, because cities have stability and not dissent in Rev - different system to HR. I'm not 100% sure though

Also, if anyone's interested in playing History Rewritten multiplayer, we're in the lobby most weekends on Zulan's server.

I'd be interested in playing some multi. Do you play competitive games or teamer?

could you provide any clue about how to join to Zulan's server?
Thanks!

it won't let me post a link for some reason - even though the link is to another civfanatics page! but just google 'zulans server civ 4' and there are instructions how to set it up.

 

[Geraint94]

Thanks for the replies. Great to hear from some fellow HR fans!

the way Great Persons are spawned, and how religion is implemented. Those 3 new mechanics brings much more strategy and immersion to the vanilla game. This mod should be on top of the Civ's mods.

Completely agree with all of this!

could you provide any clue about how to join to Zulan's server?

This is the link to Zulan's server: https://civ.zulan.net/ - although the instructions on how to set it up our best found on Civfanatics - it's not as complicated as it first seems. The simplest instructions are here in this post - https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/gamespy-substitute-server-project.534629/. You have to replace the 'hosts' file on Windows with the one included in the first post.

 

[Geraint94]

I'd be interested in playing some multi. Do you play competitive games or teamer?

In the past, we've played just normal competitive games, over many sessions. Tend to think playing on slower game speeds, with larger map settings makes for a better more in-depth game, with real definition to the eras.

Maybe we could try and organise a History Rewritten game out of this forum thread?

What does everyone think makes for the ultimate settings in a HR game?

 

[Geraint94]

Said that, I never tried to play it in multiplayer, could you provide any clue about how to join to Zulan's server?
Thanks!

it won't let me post a link for some reason - even though the link is to another civfanatics page! but just google 'zulans server civ 4' and there are instructions how to set it up.

Yup! Just realised my reply with the details for Zulan's server is 'awaiting moderator approval'. If you can find the Civ Fanatics thread, 'Gamespy Substitute Server Project' - that'll tell you everything you need to know.

 

[NVP]

Maybe we could try and organise a History Rewritten game out of this forum thread?

Would love to play a real epic long-form history rewritten game! I've always wanted to, but only really played long games with 2 or 3 people. Hard to get everyone online together at the same time. I played a PITBOSS civ game years ago, but can't host one myself because i think you need a permanently online connection? but that would be the best way to do it. People can log on and play their turn any time within a 24 hour window, or 16 hour or whatever.

 

[rsab]

If you can find the Civ Fanatics thread, 'Gamespy Substitute Server Project' - that'll tell you everything you need to know.

Never read about that. I will take a look.

Maybe we could try and organise a History Rewritten game out of this forum thread?

I would be absolutely IN on arranging a multiplayer HR game.

 

[Geraint94]

Excellent news!

What days and times are best for everyone?

I live in the UK. Evenings/weekends are best for me.

 

[rsab]

I live in Spain, we are only 1hour away on time zone.
I've never played on multiplayer. How are you used to do that? Play the whole game in a single long session? Or play some shorter sessions of 2-4 hours.

 

[Geraint94]

I've never played on multiplayer. How are you used to do that? Play the whole game in a single long session? Or play some shorter sessions of 2-4 hours.

Sorry for the slow response, busy couple of days. I find that games played over several sessions work best, allowing more time to explore each era and experience the full stretch of time.

What are you preferred settings? I think the most balanced speed for HR is Saga - but that involves a pretty long game, maybe 100+ hours, so understand this might not be for everyone!

 

[rsab]

What are you preferred settings? I think the most balanced speed for HR is Saga - but that involves a pretty long game, maybe 100+ hours, so understand this might not be for everyone!

I play mostly on Marathon and Epic Speed. I also enjoy Saga, but for my first multiplayer game could be too much. Also reducing speed makes easier to keep players on the game and avoid quiting, isn't it?

And I'm also used to play with "Fewer religioncs" option, I like the race for getting a religion. But really don't care if we play with the normal setting for number of religions.

For the others settings, I really like all of them. Actually I randomize them. The kind of terrain, the number of natural wonders, the sea level... I really enjoy the feeling to explore an unknown map.

 

[Felis catus]

Another long time lurker here.

I've been wanting to say thank you to Xyth for his brilliant innovations and corrections to the game mechanics

Love how well thought out and smartly implemented this mod is.

Fully agreed. Thank you, Xyth

By the way, does anyone know the way to widen the foreign advisor screen to display all the foreign civics and tenets in v1.24? Which part of which file do I have to modify?

 

[tramwajg]

I really like barb civs being able to settle and become minor civs, which in turn can become full civs. In Rise of Mankind - A New Dawn 2 it creates amazing, dynamic worlds, but I find this mod is unplayable for a number of reasons. History Rewritten is by far superior.

My dream would be to have a mod in which a map with a small number of starting civs, would be gradually and organically populated - first by barb cities in fertile areas, then by minor civs when the biggest barb cities reach a certain size etc.

I liked rise of mankind in far past, however nowadays I can say that caveman2cosmos is the best: https://forums.civfanatics.com/forums/civ4-caveman-2-cosmos.449/ there are many changes that make it much more playable than earlier versions, it is the most enjoyable experience ever in civ4, I learned so much about history and geography from there. Minor civs are included there, and in addition it is possible to choose "barbarian world" option which will add one barb city for every starting civilization, and "neanderthal cities" which will add even more barbarians to map, these are randomly appearing on map and then can emerge to minor civs. Game begins in 200 000 BC, prehistory era alone has more techs than whole tech tree in standard game, and finishes in travelling further than observable universe, lovely

 

[Leoreth]

It's considered impolite to promote a different mod in another mod's subforum.

 

[Geraint94]

reducing speed makes easier to keep players on the game and avoid quiting, isn't it?

Yes, this makes sense. Perhaps we could play a game on Normal or Epic speed?

Fewer religions - completely agree here.

I like the sound of your randomised map settings. I’m a big fan of the HR World map, it creates diverse worlds with epic deserts, realistic mountain ranges, huge tundras etc. Definitely with you - exploration is a big part of the game’s enjoyment. It’s one of the reasons that I love the Ancient era.

When would be your preferred time to start a game? I personally prefer evenings, either week day or weekend, but could play in the morning/ afternoon too at the weekend. I’m pretty flexible though, so can work around what works best for everyone else.

Would be good to try and get maybe 6 or 7 players on a Standard size map, with an old world start? Say, with 1 or 2 4-5 hour sessions a week?

Any other HR fans out there up for joining?

 

[Geraint94]

By the way, does anyone know the way to widen the foreign advisor screen to display all the foreign civics and tenets in v1.24? Which part of which file do I have to modify?

Not entirely sure on this one, I’m afraid.

Don’t have much experience tinkering with the files - just played with the dissent mechanics once or twice. I would like to learn more about modding though, and how everything works.

 

[rsab]

I play mostly on Marathon and Epic Speed. I also enjoy Saga

Ok, here I said wrong, I relally wanted to say I play mostly Epic and Saga, and sometimes Marathon. I was confused about which one was slower or faster.

I like the sound of your randomised map settings. I’m a big fan of the HR World map

Ok, what I do is create a lot of games (maybe 20-25). For each one I chose different setups, it could be World-Continents-Mixed... map, could be Standard-Large-Smal size, could be Emperor or Immortal difficulty, could be Epic-Marathon-Saga speed, could be with Ragging barbarians or without them, sometimes I add 6 AI players and sometimes no one.... And of course random civs. So later when I randomely chose one of those saves I won't know what kind of map I'm playing (won't know if there will be a new world or not, or the level of difficult, or if ragging barbarians or not...). I really enjoy that feeling to be adaptative to the world I'm discovering. I attach some examples of Initial saves, maybe those are useful to somebody.

Would be good to try and get maybe 6 or 7 players on a Standard size map, with an old world start? Say, with 1 or 2 4-5 hour sessions a week?

That sounds good to me. Standard map on Epic or Normal speed. For me the sessions better on weekends, also tuesday for me is a free day. Let's see if more people would join.

Note: not a native english speaker, I hope everything is understandable enough

 

[NVP]

Nice. I'm in on a multiplayer game. Weekends sounds good - perhaps we could aim for one 4-hour session per week, on a saturday evening? I'm in the UK.

I'm a fan of giant maps in single player - the bigger the better - but in multiplayer it would slow the flow down a lot. Maybe play a game on normal size/normal speed first? Might only take 10-15 hours or so to play, and then perhaps we could aim for an epic game on a larger map if the first one is successful!

I like rsab's suggestion of randomising the starting setup so that we don't necessarily know the map details. That could be interesting. Maybe if there are, say, 5 of us playing, we could all choose a setup, and then pick one at random?

 

[rsab]

perhaps we could aim for one 4-hour session per week, on a saturday evening? I'm in the UK

Sounds good to me

Maybe play a game on normal size/normal speed first? Might only take 10-15 hours or so to play, and then perhaps we could aim for an epic game on a larger map if the first one is successful!

Great. To get introduced on multiplayer Normal size-Normal Speed sounds good to me.

Maybe if there are, say, 5 of us playing, we could all choose a setup, and then pick one at random?

Sounds good me.

Everything sounds good to me ;-)