![Legends of Revolution ModMod, [starleaf] Overhaul](https://civfanatics-data.community.forum/resource_icons/32/32593.jpg?1764607736){kind=icon}
Recently I felt like I wanted to play Civ 4 again. So I started by getting the mod which I liked back then: Legends of Revolution. A mod which is good at expanding on the stock Civ 4 experience with updated units/tech and a new mechanic (probably also seen in other mods) that can cause empires to have internal conflict and reform themselves.
LoR: mod forum and download: https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/main-download-and-information.325253/
I saw updates or versions other players made and realized I too could easily fix up the early game units. Some buildings.. Some of the tech costs...
Something snapped and I reorganized the entire tech tree. Playing a few games, it's like the same tech tree, but it's different!
This mod mostly .xml text edits, the included .dll is by Chronis which is what I use but is optionable (puts a 5 happiness cap on monarchy military units and other changes)
I really diverge on your tech options on the renaissance onward. There's more to want than " how fast can I have cuirassier/cannon/rifle?" For example, factories are available on corporation with chemistry and replaceable parts which you can build with coal (or oil). The factories smell more than usual, and of course you can't power them until you have steampower + electricity (Forges obsolete with steam power but the electricity effect is increased). The tech medicine grants global health and hospitals now provide science and the same growth effect as the granary (35%/35%). Economics improves farms, chemistry improves mines, steel improves workshops etc... Some techs (civics) look like they're pulled earlier. On the other hand, certain units good at conquering an entire world, they might have 1 or 2 additional techs in the way. When possible I try to keep each column of tech looking like a particular century, and every prereq logical, and yet somehow there's still new paths. Science costs have been adjusted for balance and pacing where necessary, keeping in mind the total the original game had in each era and how much of it were the meta techs. However, I wanted to extend Renaissance/Industrial/Modern slightly which I did by about 10% to 15%, although your yields will really be bustling as you Industrialize.
With hunting you can build hunting camp improvement in any woods/jungle. If you're still tribalist civic they provide +1 hammer, and if still pagan +1 commerce, causing grassland forest by river to be 2/2/2 tiles. It is sort of viable to stay tribal for this at least since this society is more stable in LoR and I granted an espionage bonus. Lumbermills are available at Machinery, and Paper adds an additional commerce. Watermill sort of outdoes farm when it appears (but you can only watermill 1 side of a river), although serfdom enhances farm yields, although, you probably will still want to have Towns growing. Your forest chop bonus will grow as you tech to 70 per forest (assembly line) instead of 30.
Emancipation and war weariness effects are about 25% stronger (as far as I can tell). I standardized city distance maintenance on every map size within 1% and it's a bit higher. Your empire HAS to gather commerce to not get too unruly while expanding. I didn't mess with inflation (yet), not a big fan of that mechanic tbh. On emperor/immortal/diety default health is now 1 not 2, but fresh water health is increased to 3 from 2. But there's always forest health on the maps I get.
Food to grow every pop reduced by 2, but granary stores 35%. Your starter civic, despoticism, is quite overpowered tbh with 20% all city production. You gain an additional hammer per 5. Because of this, openers might be different, you can get 2nd pop in 7 turns with a floodplain, then work two forest hills to make 6 hammers per turn for a worker. 20% free production does make the rush build options 20% easier... and because most of my buildings are good to have there is a bit of a build everything syndrome? I have increased early building and unit costs, but it's no more than the power of this civic.
Very strong despoticism... Everyone has it though. The AI seems to know it's effective. Monarchy, in addition to the usual, gives 2 gold per specialist, and 10% overall gold (still hard to switch tho until great people/generals settled). All of the government civics are stronger (except rep, haven't thought of a buff yet, it was sort of the best one before imo). (Despoticism should probably be at 15%, a free hammer per 7. I initially would just had this civic increase citizen hammer, (can't be done in xml) so did this). Mount rushmore (national wonder for everyone) is switched to 40% hurry cost reduction, so you can rushmore. Statue of liberty has 20%. Gold buying is probably very very strong in modern age, but every nation can have Rushmore. Before I felt like gold buying you're either just doing it to win the game more. Or maybe it really is a close and risky game (rare?). Numbers could be adjusted on gameplay/balance feedback.
Improvements take more turns to build... so I hope you like building your land like I do! Although those forest camps are easy to build, forest chops well... they take 10 turns.. so you might want to use 2 workers. Every worker action, except road building, takes an even number of turns, so 2 workers work well together. Road takes 3 turns.
Generally when deciding how much a thing might do for example I stick to 20%/25%/35%/50%/70%/100%. 1 for 5, 1 for 4, 1 for 3, 1 for 2, 2 for 3... I want to keep things clean like the original game! Understandably though, things are more complex in my version of LoR.
Units are redone, with more aggressive archers, but they are still more of an opener/softener unit. I feel like I made the game much more tactical, like a tactical strategy game. Archers no longer have city defense bonus but they have better power, and similar defending odds in cities. City culture defenses are 25/50/75/100/125 now. Spear and pike are the staple melee unit, but axe and mace are better in cities and forest. Cavalry sweep anything that is not a spear/pike that is not in defendable terrain. Muskets are actually really strong, but are weaker to archers (not weak enough to matter in 0.91). Siege units begin weaker, but are still important. Every attacker has base withdraw odds depending on their range/mobility relative to their contemporaries.
Even promotions is redone to offer a new take. Medic is more accessible for convenience and balance. Type promotions are strong at 30% (0.91). Some promotions are taken away or added to certain unitclasses for balance. For example, archer no longer has shock because they are already near the power of melee and don't.. have the shocking force like a cavalry unit would?
I basically edited everything tech/unit/building/civic/etc so we could be here all day. If you like install Legends of Revolution 0.9.9b, duplicate that folder, and paste my download's contents into it. The xml has the balance changes, the art folder removes the asphalt roads.
This mod-mod is not done. The Hagia Sophia has nothing special on it (not that different from vanilla tbh). But I worked on this enough and you can play complete and good games if you would like to.
My changes are only text file edits (for now!). For simplicity I will also include are Chronis' LOR Balance Tweak .dll since I use it
Original credit for the Legends of Revolution mod programming and artwork and original design go to others (quoting):
Phungus420
Wolfshanze
And those who he credits in his mod:
Refar, Elhoim, kodzi, Danrell, Hadrean, Snafusmith, Bernie, GeneralMatt, Houman, Zerver, asio, The Coyote and others
glider1 & jdog5000:
And those who he credits in his mod:
Moctezuma--creater or IDW, Ruff_Hi, Dale, Trojan Sheep, Solver, Dresden, Orion Veteran and others.
Chronis for LOR Balance Tweak
knoedelicious for making their version of the mod
LoR: mod forum and download: https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/main-download-and-information.325253/
I saw updates or versions other players made and realized I too could easily fix up the early game units. Some buildings.. Some of the tech costs...
Something snapped and I reorganized the entire tech tree. Playing a few games, it's like the same tech tree, but it's different!
This mod mostly .xml text edits, the included .dll is by Chronis which is what I use but is optionable (puts a 5 happiness cap on monarchy military units and other changes)
I really diverge on your tech options on the renaissance onward. There's more to want than " how fast can I have cuirassier/cannon/rifle?" For example, factories are available on corporation with chemistry and replaceable parts which you can build with coal (or oil). The factories smell more than usual, and of course you can't power them until you have steampower + electricity (Forges obsolete with steam power but the electricity effect is increased). The tech medicine grants global health and hospitals now provide science and the same growth effect as the granary (35%/35%). Economics improves farms, chemistry improves mines, steel improves workshops etc... Some techs (civics) look like they're pulled earlier. On the other hand, certain units good at conquering an entire world, they might have 1 or 2 additional techs in the way. When possible I try to keep each column of tech looking like a particular century, and every prereq logical, and yet somehow there's still new paths. Science costs have been adjusted for balance and pacing where necessary, keeping in mind the total the original game had in each era and how much of it were the meta techs. However, I wanted to extend Renaissance/Industrial/Modern slightly which I did by about 10% to 15%, although your yields will really be bustling as you Industrialize.
With hunting you can build hunting camp improvement in any woods/jungle. If you're still tribalist civic they provide +1 hammer, and if still pagan +1 commerce, causing grassland forest by river to be 2/2/2 tiles. It is sort of viable to stay tribal for this at least since this society is more stable in LoR and I granted an espionage bonus. Lumbermills are available at Machinery, and Paper adds an additional commerce. Watermill sort of outdoes farm when it appears (but you can only watermill 1 side of a river), although serfdom enhances farm yields, although, you probably will still want to have Towns growing. Your forest chop bonus will grow as you tech to 70 per forest (assembly line) instead of 30.
Emancipation and war weariness effects are about 25% stronger (as far as I can tell). I standardized city distance maintenance on every map size within 1% and it's a bit higher. Your empire HAS to gather commerce to not get too unruly while expanding. I didn't mess with inflation (yet), not a big fan of that mechanic tbh. On emperor/immortal/diety default health is now 1 not 2, but fresh water health is increased to 3 from 2. But there's always forest health on the maps I get.
Food to grow every pop reduced by 2, but granary stores 35%. Your starter civic, despoticism, is quite overpowered tbh with 20% all city production. You gain an additional hammer per 5. Because of this, openers might be different, you can get 2nd pop in 7 turns with a floodplain, then work two forest hills to make 6 hammers per turn for a worker. 20% free production does make the rush build options 20% easier... and because most of my buildings are good to have there is a bit of a build everything syndrome? I have increased early building and unit costs, but it's no more than the power of this civic.
Very strong despoticism... Everyone has it though. The AI seems to know it's effective. Monarchy, in addition to the usual, gives 2 gold per specialist, and 10% overall gold (still hard to switch tho until great people/generals settled). All of the government civics are stronger (except rep, haven't thought of a buff yet, it was sort of the best one before imo). (Despoticism should probably be at 15%, a free hammer per 7. I initially would just had this civic increase citizen hammer, (can't be done in xml) so did this). Mount rushmore (national wonder for everyone) is switched to 40% hurry cost reduction, so you can rushmore. Statue of liberty has 20%. Gold buying is probably very very strong in modern age, but every nation can have Rushmore. Before I felt like gold buying you're either just doing it to win the game more. Or maybe it really is a close and risky game (rare?). Numbers could be adjusted on gameplay/balance feedback.
Improvements take more turns to build... so I hope you like building your land like I do! Although those forest camps are easy to build, forest chops well... they take 10 turns.. so you might want to use 2 workers. Every worker action, except road building, takes an even number of turns, so 2 workers work well together. Road takes 3 turns.
Generally when deciding how much a thing might do for example I stick to 20%/25%/35%/50%/70%/100%. 1 for 5, 1 for 4, 1 for 3, 1 for 2, 2 for 3... I want to keep things clean like the original game! Understandably though, things are more complex in my version of LoR.
Units are redone, with more aggressive archers, but they are still more of an opener/softener unit. I feel like I made the game much more tactical, like a tactical strategy game. Archers no longer have city defense bonus but they have better power, and similar defending odds in cities. City culture defenses are 25/50/75/100/125 now. Spear and pike are the staple melee unit, but axe and mace are better in cities and forest. Cavalry sweep anything that is not a spear/pike that is not in defendable terrain. Muskets are actually really strong, but are weaker to archers (not weak enough to matter in 0.91). Siege units begin weaker, but are still important. Every attacker has base withdraw odds depending on their range/mobility relative to their contemporaries.
Even promotions is redone to offer a new take. Medic is more accessible for convenience and balance. Type promotions are strong at 30% (0.91). Some promotions are taken away or added to certain unitclasses for balance. For example, archer no longer has shock because they are already near the power of melee and don't.. have the shocking force like a cavalry unit would?
I basically edited everything tech/unit/building/civic/etc so we could be here all day. If you like install Legends of Revolution 0.9.9b, duplicate that folder, and paste my download's contents into it. The xml has the balance changes, the art folder removes the asphalt roads.
This mod-mod is not done. The Hagia Sophia has nothing special on it (not that different from vanilla tbh). But I worked on this enough and you can play complete and good games if you would like to.
My changes are only text file edits (for now!). For simplicity I will also include are Chronis' LOR Balance Tweak .dll since I use it
Original credit for the Legends of Revolution mod programming and artwork and original design go to others (quoting):
Phungus420
Wolfshanze
And those who he credits in his mod:
Refar, Elhoim, kodzi, Danrell, Hadrean, Snafusmith, Bernie, GeneralMatt, Houman, Zerver, asio, The Coyote and others
glider1 & jdog5000:
And those who he credits in his mod:
Moctezuma--creater or IDW, Ruff_Hi, Dale, Trojan Sheep, Solver, Dresden, Orion Veteran and others.
Chronis for LOR Balance Tweak
knoedelicious for making their version of the mod
