Anno Domini update

[Antiochus VII]

Meroe lasted from the 6th century B.C. to the 4th century A.D, I think it would do fine for a Nubian civ. I'd love to see Axum back in too...

Question(s) though - is one of the new tribes 'Thrace?' (which would still be well within the new time limits) - and are there no Arab states/tribes of any type (e.g. Palmyra or the Nabataeans which might be a nice change from what seems like a LOT of Germans?)

 

[T.A JONES]

Here's another thought; how about being really specific with this mod and dating it between 500BC and 500AD, covering an important thousand years in history? To qualify for inclusion, civs must have been active during this time. That would arguably give the mod focus on a specific time-frame and make more sense of the civs that actually are there....and I can have my British civs back! The four eras would cover roughly 250 years each. Any comments?

Just wanted to say with this idea I think your on the right track for a improved sequel. No easy task, but like the last guy who quoted this staement, I agree an expanded tech tree combined with reconstruction for a more defined flow in certain periods will definatly add more enjoyment to this title. ( I mean you use the most favored period of play and blow it up for maxuim pleasure, who woudn't love it )

EDIT: Hey three pages already! your on fire man. this place missed you, but I guess it shows

 

[Mirc]

Personally, I don't find Bulgars to fit very good here, but I think it deserves more than Aegina, which I haven't heard before reading that article.

 

[Partizanac]

I still don't get it!! I can take many of the civs from your new list and tell you that slavic civilization can replace them! but hey its your mode!

 

[Mirc]

EDIT: Hey three pages already! your on fire man. this place missed you, but I guess it shows

Exactly, I was surprised to see this too!

 

[T.A JONES]

I remember playing Another 4 era ,tech loaded, mod that kind of froze a period of time and really focused on mounted units then went anlong for a bit and redid this approach for another miltary unit. Circulation of units went from common to rare ( like rarest being a small cult of knights that a great wonder could incorporate into you nation by unit spwning per turn basis) anyway, Using the small wonder, great wonder and resource specific distribution this type of idea makes for great flavour, original artwork and stuff.

It kind of acts like making reps for subsiduraries to who would later add up to a greater nation. Using the availbilty scale I mentioned for unit growth you can determine how big of a part they played in history or there size based in number of turns per spawn .

 

[Blue Monkey]

Here's some poser images of leaderheads I've done for the Civ IV version (all static at the moment, but I have poser files for them all, so they can be easily converted into Civ III leaderheads).

I've always admired your leaderheads. I'd especially like to see row 7: 4th (from left) and row 8: 5 in C3 versions. Others I'd like to see converted are row 1: 1, row 2: 1 & 4, row 3: 4 & 5, row 4: 3 & 4, row 5: 2,5,6 , & row 6: 5 & 6.

... other criticisms included having civs outside the Mediterranean/European area. ...Obviously, if Assyria, Babylon and the Hittites were part of the mod, I'd be looking to merge the Roman and Greek culture groups and leave one free to represent the fertile crescent.

I've an interest in playing civs that seem to alays end up on the periphery of others' mods. It would be nice to see an "Indo-European" group that would include civs like Persia and Scythia, etc. as an alternative approach to the typical "middle-eastern" grouping.

....I think I'll be making all civs horse riders in the new version, rather than specifying some as camel or elephant riders. In fact, if elephant tactics were used, it could allow this as an additional unit for the civs to have rather than being either/or.

A mod that allowed for the tactical differences of using elephants rather than treating them as a "flavored" cavalry would be very nice.

...how about being really specific with this mod and dating it between 500BC and 500AD, covering an important thousand years in history? To qualify for inclusion, civs must have been active during this time.

The Kushan Empire would be an outstanding addition to this mod that meets all the above criteria; one of the leaderheads I mentioned could do well for it; they would add to the Indo-European group; elephants were an important part of their army; and they could easily stand in for Porus and the other Indian kings that stopped Alexander's eastern advance.

 

[T.A JONES]

A mod that allowed for the tactical differences of using elephants rather than treating them as a "flavored" cavalry would be very nice.

Ya it would. Mybe have them clear brush n jungle faster then workers, if possible. Or indroduce them first to jungle/swamp clearing so only they can do it not workers, for a limited time of course.

 

[odintheking]

Woo! Rob's back. I don't know if I like the 500-500 thing, though. Won't it miss out on alot of the ancient units that made the first one so awesome?

 

[Rob (R8XFT)]

Woo! Rob's back. I don't know if I like the 500-500 thing, though. Won't it miss out on alot of the ancient units that made the first one so awesome?

Not necessarily; they could arguably still be used in this time period.

The Kushan Empire would be an outstanding addition to this mod that meets all the above criteria

I thought about the Kushan and actually did a still image of the Kushan last time around:

I suppose he looks a lot like the Darius leaderhead graphic in the block of 60 that I previewed on page one.

I've an interest in playing civs that seem to always end up on the periphery of others' mods. It would be nice to see an "Indo-European" group that would include civs like Persia and Scythia, etc. as an alternative approach to the typical "middle-eastern" grouping.

I share that interest. I think it's nice to play the smaller tribes for a change .

Ya it would. Mybe have them clear brush n jungle faster then workers, if possible. Or indroduce them first to jungle/swamp clearing so only they can do it not workers, for a limited time of course.

Neat idea!!

People have commented that this is a popular thread so far - just to compare, I did five animated leaderheads for Civ IV and uploaded them about 14 hours ago. Seven takers so far; bearing in mind that LHs are still scarce in Civ IV, it makes me feel that the Civ IV community are not ready for me yet....or the other way round!! If I'm going to do a mod, I might as well do one that'll actually be used by more than a handful of players.

Part of the beauty of this thread is the lists of civs !! Here's the latest, taking into account your comments:

01. Anglo-Saxons
02. Armenia
03. Athens
04. Axum
05. Brigantia
06. Bulgars
07. Carthage
08. Corinth
09. Coritani
10. Dacia
11. Egypt
12. Eire
13. Etrusca
14. Gauls
15. Goths
16. Iberii
17. Iceni
18. Illyria
19. Kushan
20. Macedonia
21. Marcomanni
22. Meroe
23. Nabatea
24. Thrace
25. Parthia
26. Persia
27. Picts
28. Rome
29. Scythia
30. Sparta
31. Thrace

Culture groups:
European
Indo/Persian
Mediterranean
North African
...which leaves a culture group free!! So either I could split the Mediterranean between Greek and Roman - though that would only have (possibly) Rome and Thrace in it. An alternative I'd like is to have a separate group for the British tribes; after all, there's five in that group if you include Eire and the Picts.

I'm sure you'll feel free to comment on the latest list!! Are there any civs in there that should be replaced with others? Have I dropped important civs? Post your message right here!!

 

[Rob (R8XFT)]

I've had an idea that will allow me to still be flavour-orientated and not have quite so many flavour techs to deal with! The main reason behind the flavour techs was to have flavour buildings and wonders, as they can't be limited to certain civs any other way, like units can. Each civ is allocated two free advances at the beginning of the game which are non-tradable and linked to each of their two traits. Each advance allows the civ to build in each city a building that has a basic effect - something like +1 culture. However, that building is a pre-requisite for other later buildings. Therefore, for example, Fortification would allow all civs to build walls, but only allow those cities with the basic "protective" building to build Hadrian's wall (which in Anno Domini is the equivalent to the Great Wall).
Perhaps the basic building could have it's effects expire at the end of era one so that it's a "starter for ten" that doesn't become unbalanced? I take it that even though it would be expired, it could still be used as a prerequisite throughout the mod?

 

[Mithadan]

Um, me being simply overwhelemed by some of the higher quality leaderheads that you might convert into Civ3 leaderheads, I can't really think of anything else to do right now except .

Oh, and welcome back to the fold, big guy.

 

[Stormrage]

Where be them Alans and Vandals and all those nice axe-people, eh?

 

[Blue Monkey]

1) Love that Kushan LH. If you decide to do that civ I can point you at a lot of good info.

2) Split Euro group into Celts & Germanics.

3) Are your flavor-related ideas in any way similar to TAM's culture specific minor wonder?

4) My idea re Elephants was not as a worker but as a military unit: Crushing attack (compensate by making them expensive), weak defense (easily routed + they needed light defenders accompanying to keep them from having their legs cut), fast (but not as fast as cavalry).

 

[Antiochus VII]

I really like the current civ list - the Sarmatians would be a possible inclusion but the Scythians and Bulgars have the area/niche fairly well covered already.

On the building idea, I have more questions than suggestions, but maybe they'll be helpful.
1) Would having the effects expire give the AI problems in terms of building it later? Would having them expire be necessary at all if each civs buildings were essentially balanced?
2)And if one civ took another civ's city with the improvement, could it then build the other civs buildings there? This might be a nice effect to allow one culture to absorb another's assets through conquest (e.g. Persia conquering Phoenicia and getting naval assets thereby, but only in the conquered region)

Edit - one last thought - would a Berber or Numidian civ be different/applicable enough to warrant inclusion?

 

[aaglo]

There are some fine looking new leader-ladies there (or atleast I think they're new)...

 

[NavyDawg]

R8XFT, this thread got over 50 hits in one day. I think that tells you what Civ community you really belong to. I love AD and would be very happy to get another version. I like the civ list and how you've picked the timeframe. Good luck with this!

 

[Stazro]

Two comments:

1. on the elephant-thing:
Id love to see the elephants as an own tactical unit, rather than beeing a flavor-cavalry and i think it could be a good idea to give elephants the ability to clear jungle.
But: There are three types of elephants: Asian, North African Wood-Elephant (extincted) and the African Elephant.
Only the asian elephant should be able to clear jungle, because only in india were elephants used to do this.
To train the huge african elephant isnt even possible, so this one shouldnt be in the game (e.g. Elephants in south africa are ok for ivory, but not as prerequisite for units).
The difference could be:
Asian Elephant has more hit-points (due to its higher mass) and better a-d value, moves 1. African Wood-Elephant has movement 2 and fast movement through forest and perhaps even hills/mountains (these are the ones Hannibal took over the alps).
I think War-Elephants really can be a devastating unit, but should be very, very expensive.

If you dont do it, i will include it in my mod which will be released... uhm ... maybe in 2012 or 13

2. Civ-List:
You didnt want to include Vandals and Carthage, because they would have a almost equal city-list. The same thing it is with Parthia and Persia: The Parthians were Nomads who founded an empire within Persia after they defeated the Seleukid Greeks who ruled Persia before.
Parthians could be seen as a persian Rulers-Dynasty, like in later times the sassanids, who on their part dispersed the parthians.
So: Perhaps Parthia should be no own Civ, but there could be some nomadic Horse-units in the persian tech-tree to represent their Rule and influence on culture and warfare in Persia.

Thats it for now

 

[Partizanac]

R8XFT hey from your new list:
24. Thrace
31. Thrace

 

[Mirc]

Split Euro group into Celts & Germanics.

But this would let outside Bulgars, Macedonians, Thrace, and Dacia.