This probably sounds like another dumb question, but is it possible to simply remove an improvement? Say I really need to get rid of a mine due to pollution/unhappiness/dissent, how do I do that if there are no other build options available (like 'building pasture will remove the camp')? I would love just a generic 'unbuild/destroy/remove' option on any tile for any improvement by any worker.
If I played more warlike games, I could also see the benefit of being able to destroy/remove roads or other improvements in order to prevent pillaging in certain circumstances. Or maybe just to reduce the risk of attack by removing desirability. Scorched earth policies by civ's towards their own resources in the face of invasion threat is definitely a historic and often successful tactic (think Russia/USSR).
I really hope you do find a way of including triads, crime, other nonstate actors. I just really don't enjoy playing warlike games, but 'war by other means' seems a lot more fun and still certainly realistic. Having options for conflict even in 'always peace' games would be fantastic. I personally find building and maintaining military units tedious, as I do the battles themselves. I completely understand and agree with the idea that military research was integral to tech advancement in certain key ways, but I'd still love to have a complex game with all kinds of competition that doesn't actually involve wars and battles. That's why I think spies and pirates are key and if anything should be enhanced.
Still sticking with resource depletion/land degradation/climate issues from my post in the 1.22 thread:
There are cultures and civilizations that have invested huge amounts of effort in increasing land and resource productivity in ways that are sustainable and even an improvement on the natural endowment. Since some of them didn't end up conquering the world like the Romans I guess they are 'minor' lol, but since this is a game where we are rewriting history, why not provide some of those options?
If you haven't already heard of it, 'terra preta' is a fascinating topic; ancient amazonians basically created their own almost endlessly fertile soils from biochar and other enhancements like broken pottery. A very long time ago and before modern chemistry lol!
Planting trees, soil conservation and fertility enhancement, terracing, aquaculture, these are all things that have a very ancient history as I'm sure you already know. Even in major civ's like China, with its ducks/fish/rice paddy development that spread all over Asia. Those enhanced environments still provide to this day, thousands of years later. Why can't we add those techs and improvements early in the game? Not every culture did it like the those in the mediterranean. Imagine if Bali had expanded and grown into power lol, talk about an amazing built environment that has provided sustainable resources for an extremely long time
In the real world of course, destruction caused by civilization seems 'normal' and inevitable, but in the game I'd love to see a balanced way of allowing other options a chance at success. Say for example: playing as one of the ancient mediterranean cultures but having the tech options/ability to plant forest, build soil fertility with biochar, and integrate aquaculture in their terrain along with irrigation and qanats. Perhaps the degradation/depletion/collapse scenarios of our real world might turn out differently. And say the AI plays those civ's the 'normal' way, what if a nearby culture grows 'smart' and is able to overtake those civ's? I'd love to win out by creating terra preta and planting forest over my territories, turning the middle east into a real land of milk and honey lol
I imagine that providing balance is one of the more difficult things to create in the game, especially when modding. But is there a way to add, right from the beginning, ways of development that have costs and benefits that compete in a fair way with the old standby's of mining/quarries/chopping/cottages? I guess I'm saying I really think there should be a strategic pathway to get from forest/resource preservation and enhancement techs I hope to see to the too late techs of preserves/parks/environmentalism stuff through all the eras in a sustainable and successful way that makes it a viable option, if you want to play that way.
Maybe tweaking the AI so that it too thinks those options are attractive might be a real challenge. Or maybe that isn't so important; maybe the AI will still have the advantage playing the traditional way while the human player that tries to build towards sustainability will be taking a risk and adding difficulty but with potentially great payoffs after just a bit of a slower start.
I've done well so far with cities built on camps and pastures late into the game lol, so I'm
very happy that those are viable options in the way you've created the game so far; I'm still figuring out how to transition those improvements into later techs and eras with new improvements in a way that doesn't just create the inevitable pollution/unhealthiness/unhappiness that I've been avoiding. Maybe that's partly why I tend to stop playing as we get into the industrial era.
Jungle camp (part of some other mods): please add it!! I understand why you've decided jungle clearance needs to be where it is in the tech tree with bronze etc, but if I play a civ in an area of much jungle, like Khmer lol, I'm way way behind when in reality many ancient civ's grew incredibly well in jungle/tropical/wet environments. And just to confirm: you did remove the jungle health penalty, right? I seem to remember seeing something about that. Definitely a dumb and euro-centric aspect of the game that should be dumped.
One more thought on this issue: I think it is great and appropriate that civ's start experiencing so much more dissent and revolution as they get more developed in the 'normal' way in HR. I'm always behind the AI because I'm building camps and pastures, but I have a chance to catch up when the other civ's start breaking apart and fighting civil wars because of unhealth/unhappiness/dissent. Perfect! This works even in 'always peace' games. I do end up having to fight rebellious barbarian cities on my borders but that is something to be expected and I was really happy to see that still occurred in my 'peace only' games. I would hope you don't alter the way dissent and revolution take place now, even if the AI suffers a bit more than I do because I work to prevent both in a smarter way lol
About modules: Platyping creates so much cool stuff. I'm just unclear on how exactly to add them to my game, meaning History Rewritten, as it is the only way I play now lol. For example, his Bad People mod, I'd love to just pop that into my HR games. Where would I put that folder so it loads into HR, or is that even possible? How about other modules?
Speaking of other mods: I recently spent the far too many frustrated hours required to get a Wine version of the PC CivIV working on my computer, solely to be able to try out some of the big fancy mods that won't work on a mac (most of them lol). There are definitely some things that are very cool that I would love to see be incorporated into HR.
Have you already posted here a sort of detailed look at what aspects of the HR mod can and can't be added, given the limitations of the coding (the dll stuff)? I would hate to post some suggestions without already having some idea of what is possible and what isn't. I already suspect that many of the screen/advisor/automation options may not be possible, bummer lol. But I'll risk the threat of sounding dumb by posting ideas that have come to mind over the last couple of weeks.
Rise of Manking: A New Dawn has quite a few things that sound very intriguing, although it crashes so often that I have yet to actually play it much. The Diplomacy stuff (embassies etc) sound great; useable mountains with appropriate techs sound excellent and certainly would be historic (Inca, Tibet etc developed in mountains and tundra), could those abilities be added to existing techs in your tree?; additional spy missions like assassination etc.; building a fort/unit on a resource tile outside city boundaries in order to claim and use it (wow would that be so fantastic on these worlds where so many resources are in areas that simply won't sustain a city, I sure get a lot of desert planets lol); additional trading options; lots and lots of the future tech tree stuff (I rarely play any game to that era but I would if it included some of that lol).
That mod's fixed border options sound interesting, however since building culture to expand borders is such a MAJOR way I play the game, I'm not sure how it would change if certain kinds of fixed borders and cultural diffusion were altered in a significant way. If you want to post in more detail your thoughts on how you see making changes in cultural/tech diffusion in future editions, it would be something I would love to read lol.
PieAncientEurope also has a lot of things I find interesting, especially since it is mostly ancient to Renaissance games that I play. Unfortunately much of the text in the mod is very confusing so I have yet to figure out exactly how some of those interesting options work lol! I don't blame the modders, I'm sure it is all very clear in the original german, but perhaps translation doesn't seem to be something everyone is eager to rush in and help out with
Have you had luck playing this mod on your mac using the mac civIV version? It always crashes for me.
I can't remember exactly which mod (it could be several of them), but plagues and spreading diseases were a significant factor. I think that would be a great addition, especially along trading routes and affected by open/closed borders.
I also like that in PAE there are a LOT more animals and they stick around a lot longer. That would be especially nice if a civ followed a strategy of environmental preservation, as I discussed above. Why not have a way to play that takes viable animal populations very late into the game, for hunting and just for the pleasure of seeing them run around lol? You could create improvements like hunting preserves and animal preserves even into the future era.
I think sending missionaries through closed borders should be an option. Some cultures hunted them to prevent religion spread, but perhaps most cultures have not had much luck in preventing surreptitious missionaries. Making these options more complex would be great and interesting, the interaction of missionaries and borders and diplomacy. Say for example, one option would be to have missionaries act like spies through closed borders, with calculated chances of success and failure and a variety of missions. Another option would be to have formal missionary missions, like trading missions, to civ's with open borders.
I like that in PAE's mod, you send trading missions through closed borders, so you have contact but not other civ's trampling all through your territory. Missionaries could do something similar, by initiative or even by invitation from the other civ.
I noticed in an older thread that you said you had upped the value/chances for finding resources on generic terrain plots as you build generic improvements. I would love to see that upped even just a bit more. I'm saying that because I've been playing games using the World option and finding that most of my continents are dry and forests/savannas are rare, along with resources needed to expand. Lots of deserts. Deserts with key resources but no way to support a city to get access to them lol
Growth and development are very difficult if I'm not lucky enough to start on one of the green patches. More reason to add the environmental enhancing techs and improvements mentioned above lol
Okay, long enough for now. Apologies, but I hope you take it all as enthusiasm and respect for the huge amount of quality work you've put into this mod.
(Warning: Bad idea. bad EN.)
