Alt History Questions

[lastofthelight]

Heya!

This mod is very interesting. To be honest, though I've had civ 4 since it first came out, I never even read your mod description before, as I saw the name "Cavemen" and assumed it was just a prehistoric mod. BOY WAS I MISSING OUT! Great, amazing work. There are a wide variety of fun Civ 4 mods, as we all know, which change it to a great deal and add fun - but a ton of work has gone into your mod, and it really deserves more recognition up there with FFH 2. Good job guys.

Two questions.

1. Is there more information about which alternate histories are currently in the mod and which are planned? (It seems from the threads you are still very actively working on it.)

2. With all of the alternate histories/tech/etc - I was a bit surprised to find no Amazonian culture, alternate history, or civ. Certainly, a female uprising may not be as interesting as some of the amazing stuff you currently have in... but it is a recurring myth/theme across ancient history. Was there any particular reason why?

3. Perhaps I just missed it - but is there a central online manual for your mod, akin to the old FFH/TAM/Ryhe online manuals?

4. HOLY COW HOW DID YOU IMPLEMENT ALL THIS STUFF?

5. This might actually be in there (I have not played it enough to see, these are just my first impressions - I'm the sort to play the first hour of a civ game over and over again for hours) - but I read somewhere that the ancient greeks/romans could easily have had steam power if they had not been so tied to slavery, that the technological prequisites were well within their grasp, and they even had toy steam engines. With all of your alt history stuff, you didn't by any chance think of this, did you?

I apologize if all of this has been mentioned a billion times before.


Really, I would like to congratulate you on contributing to my 'why would I want to play crap like Civ 5: Brave New World when the civ 4 modders have done waaaaaaaaaaay more work for free?' attitude.

 

[Faustmouse]

Welcome to C2C!

Alt timelines are handled as "Punk" techs. They are just one tech that unlocks some units/buildings that are ahead of it's time. Like a Steam Tank, a Da Vinci Tank (and even a Plane) etc. It's best to look ingame for them and see what they do.

Currently, there are:

-Megafauna Domestication
-Clockpunk
-Steampunk
-Dieselpunk
-Atompunk (including Retrospace)
-Biopunk
-Cyberpunk

I think Nanopunk was just implented yesterday or today, but only as a tech with no content right know. There are more Punks discussed and might be added.
Despite the Transhuman Era got A LOT buildings and techs last month, it still needs a lot of work. Not to mention the Galactic Era...

 

[Hydromancerx]

@lastofthelight

1. Here are links to the threads ...

- Alt-Timelines (General)
- Megafauna Domestication
- Sandalpunk
- Ancient Golden Age
- Clockpunk
- Steampunk
- Dieselpunk
- Atompunk/Retro Future
- Post Apocalypse
- Biopunk
- Cyberpunk

2. Cultures are done differently than normal Civ4 in that they are obtained by wonders and give a culture resource. Amazons (European and not South American) could possibly be added as a culture. There are a LOT of cultures to choose from and we have so many to still do.

3. Just the in game Civpedia at the moment. Also you may want to check the link in my signature for useful information.

4. We have a great team of talented people who works very hard.

5. This was considered and I still have not figured out a proper name for such an alternative timeline tech. Some say it should be called "Sandalpunk" or even "Bronzepunk", but I am not sure.

6. Yup. I don't even own Civ5. There was no need for me to get it when I have C2C.

 

[Dancing Hoskuld]

2. There is some evidence that the Amazon myth is just pointing back to a golden age where women ruled before they decided it was boring and let men do it. OK, matriarchal societies seem to have been more common before nations became multi city in structure.

5. I would go for Waterpunk since many of the advances were based on water wheel technology. This would not show up as units but as buildings and increased yields so some people would think it a waste of effort. Basically the reason it was not used much was that it put the slaves out of work and so they had time to think of revolting. There is te example in Toledo, Spain (iirc) where they added 6 grain mills to their aqueduct because they did not have enough slaves to grind the flour for the daily bread. Other Romans also used water power to turn lathes when making columns for buildings. So yes there is plenty of evidence for pre-industral revolution happening in Roman times.

As to steam power, that is just a short step up from water power and yes they were using it in toys and religious contexts.

 

[Athmos]

Is there a way to deactivate the alternate histories ?

 

[Dancing Hoskuld]

Is there a way to deactivate the alternate histories ?

Yes. In the modules folder edit MLF_CIV4ModularLoadingControls.XML in notepad or equivalent. Find Alt_Timelines and change the 1 in the line below to a 0 (zero). The techs will still show in the tech tree and you can still study them. They will just give nothing.

 

[Athmos]

OK great ! thank you.

 

[lastofthelight]

I think I noticed a bug. I am using the 'last public download' version - I noticed that I can get Megafauna Domestication, have big cats ... but -still- not have access to the regular feline domestication trained animals/buildings, as those require bricks, from the ancient era. I don't think thats intended, otherwise whats the point of having feline domestication? And, it doesn't make much sense to have bricks be related to cats at all. I would think something relating to food storage would be more realistic .... perhaps the Rats pest, or something, except that might be too randomn, and would also be out of the prehistoric era. Thats not the only question/oddity I've noticed, but I'd like to try and keep on topic to my original thread, at least until I know what the etiquette here is, or the best place to address minor non-specific questions.

 

[Dancing Hoskuld]

I think I noticed a bug. I am using the 'last public download' version - I noticed that I can get Megafauna Domestication, have big cats ... but -still- not have access to the regular feline domestication trained animals/buildings, as those require bricks, from the ancient era. I don't think thats intended, otherwise whats the point of having feline domestication? And, it doesn't make much sense to have bricks be related to cats at all. I would think something relating to food storage would be more realistic .... perhaps the Rats pest, or something, except that might be too randomn, and would also be out of the prehistoric era. Thats not the only question/oddity I've noticed, but I'd like to try and keep on topic to my original thread, at least until I know what the etiquette here is, or the best place to address minor non-specific questions.

It requires a facility where you can breed them ie the Big Cat Enclosure of the Governor's Menagerie or Zoo. The menagerie requires bricks. The alternative was metal bars which is much later or nothing which was much to early.

 

[Gatsby]

5. This was considered and I still have not figured out a proper name for such an alternative timeline tech. Some say it should be called "Sandalpunk" or even "Bronzepunk", but I am not sure.

Graecopunk?