Best Expansion Mods

[salty mud]

After taking a break from Civ IV and trying out Civs V and VI, I find myself drawn back to this masterpiece. Not to say V and VI are bad games (with mods, anyway), but Civ IV, for me, is the definitive civilisation experience.

That said, I want to branch out and try some mods. I loved the Legends of Revolution mod but it's time to try something new. I'm currently dabbling with Realism Invictus and my first impression is: expansive. There is a LOT going on, compared to the base game. I love the idea of more intricacy and more detail in economy and history, but I'm not sure if this mod goes too far yet. And at 1500-2000 turns per game, it's not a small investment...

I'm also curious about Rise of Mankind: A New Dawn. Similar to LoR, this seems to be an unofficial expansion to BtS and massively builds on the base game. Does it compare favourably to RI?

In short, I returned to Civ IV because Civ V and VI just do not scratch that empire building itch. I just love founding, developing and specialising my cities, and the more in depth and rewarding this can be, the better. Which mods can best scratch my eternal itch?

 

[Louis the XIV]

The best expansion mod is either BUG or BAT but I don't like either of them. My favourite expansion mod is RevolutionDCM, but of course there are a lot of other expansion mods like Advanced Civ which just got its own Sub forum a couple of weeks ago. I have played Rise of mankind but I deleted it in the end because it took up too much space.
For historical mods I recommend looking in the RFC Subforum and you will find a lot of very very very very very good mods like The Sword of Islam, RFC Europe, or RFC Greek World.
But the BEST MOD of all the non expansion mods ever created is RFC Dawn of Civilization in my experience. Anyway there are tons of mods for everything so if you want to try out every mod for civ 4 then it will take you at least 100 years!

 

[lymond]

BUG/BAT are not expansion mods. They are UI mods and I'm not sure why you would not like them. They improve the game immensely. Many expansion mods include BUG components like RevDCM. Anyway, salty is already familiar with BUG.

I agree that RFC DoC is a worthy candidate to try out. It expands nicely on the originally RFC. I believe their are some era specific modmods too.

Have not played RoM:AND in many many years so don't have much input. But recall its a major expansion like RI and LoR. (Actually LoR is a bit more reserved as an expansion)

I'd throw PAE (Pie's Ancient Europe) in the ring here. It's really an excellent mod that is still actively updated/maintained by Pie. Yes, it's era specific but does so a great job portraying that era and adds a lot of nifty new stuff. Has several cool scenarios.

 

[Louis the XIV]

BUG/BAT are not expansion mods. They are UI mods and I'm not sure why you would not like them. They improve the game immensely.

I have tried installing BUG 2 times and the first time I had to uninstall CIV 4 BtS and the second time it became a part of BtS, luckily I had the uninstall file that time so I uninstalled it with no major problems.
Also I don't really like mods like BUG or RevDCM, I don't hate them I'm just more into era specific mods like you mentioned PAE is a great mod and one of my favorites because it's era specific.
What does UI stand for?

 

[salty mud]

UI is user interface. BAT and BUG just change how the game presents the information, so they are purely UI mods.

 

[lymond]

I have tried installing BUG 2 times and the first time I had to uninstall CIV 4 BtS and the second time it became a part of BtS, luckily I had the uninstall file that time so I uninstalled it with no major problems.

This doesn't provide much information that I can decipher. I'm gleaning from the "second time" comment that you installed BUG in Custom Assets. All you have to do is delete or rename(I do this) the "Custom Assets" folder to disable BUG if you want it inactive in order to play other mods. BUG/BULL is designed to be played with vanilla BTS or its components are incorporated into larger mods. BAT is BUG/BULL in a "standalone" (not Custom Assets) mod + graphic stuff.

Also I don't really like mods like BUG or RevDCM, I don't hate them I'm just more into era specific mods like you mentioned PAE is a great mod and one of my favorites because it's era specific.
What does UI stand for?

You just said RevDCM is your favorite mod.

 

[Louis the XIV]

You just said RevDCM is your favorite mod.

Yes, it is my favorite BtS expansion mod.
But as I said in the other comment I don't play a lot of expansion mods.

 

[Edmund Ironside]

There are so many great Civ 4 mods, I wish I had more time to try them all!

Expansion mods: Caveman 2 Cosmos is the obvious one. Though if you are finding Realism Invictus takes up too much time, then avoid this one! There is of course as previously mentioned Rise of Mankind: A New Dawn, & Realism Invictus, both are slightly more manageable in size then C2C. History Rewritten might be what you ae looking for, as though adding more civs and contents, you can still complete a game at the same rate as the base game, perhaps even faster if fast speed is chosen for game play. Another big expansion mod is Quot Capita: Majesty which adds lots of civs, units, and other contents.

Historical simulation mods: Dawn of Civilization is the big one here (and my personal favorite Civ 4 mod). As mentioned by others, if you like this there are several other Rhye's and Fall mods covering periods of time in more details which are well worth checking out, such as RFC Greek World, Sword of Islam, RFC Europe, RFC Asia, etc. For more modern stuff, Road to War which I haven't tried yet looks pretty good.

AI mods: K-Mod is probably the best known AI improvement mod. A more recent one which I have heard good things about is Advanced Civ. If you want better AI and more contents then there is Dawn of the Overlords.

Total Overhaul mods: Dune, Middle Earth, and Star Trek are good if those areas are of interest. Plus of course there is Fall from Heaven and all its mods, Though knowing which of the FFH mods to try can be pretty overwhelming I have found!

 

[Louis the XIV]

I just remembered! If you ever want a mod that adds civs try out CIV GOLD which adds about 400 new civs and around 600 leaders and every civ has a unique building and unit. I also found a dll that lets up to 100 civs so it's pretty useful for that mod.

 

[lymond]

Master of Mana is the FFH modmod I'd go with. I expands on the original in quite some details while improving on its flaws. I believe it is in fact standalone now...and still gets attention

 

[Louis the XIV]

This doesn't provide much information that I can decipher. I'm gleaning from the "second time" comment that you installed BUG in Custom Assets. All you have to do is delete or rename(I do this) the "Custom Assets" folder to disable BUG if you want it inactive in order to play other mods. BUG/BULL is designed to be played with vanilla BTS or its components are incorporated into larger mods. BAT is BUG/BULL in a "standalone" (not Custom Assets) mod + graphic stuff.

I realized what the problem is! I just reinstalled BUG so I can merge it with one of my mods and I saw the option "Load BUG mod whenever BTS is opened" that was the first problem. The second problem was that last time I installed it in the Custom Assets folder, now I installed it in the mods folder!
Now I can finally play some BUG without feeling that I messed with some of the original files!

 

[lymond]

I realized what the problem is! I just reinstalled BUG so I can merge it with one of my mods and I saw the option "Load BUG mod whenever BTS is opened" that was the first problem. The second problem was that last time I installed it in the Custom Assets folder, now I installed it in the mods folder!
Now I can finally play some BUG without feeling that I messed with some of the original files!

Hmmmm....sorry but you appear to have completely missed the point of my post.....and you have completely misunderstood the Custom Assets folder.

 

[Louis the XIV]

Hmmmm....sorry but you appear to have completely missed the point of my post.....and you have completely misunderstood the Custom Assets folder.

Yeah I don't really get the Custom Assets folder. I once dropped in a civilizationinfos.xml file that adds a new civ but nothing happened.

 

[lymond]

Yeah I don't really get the Custom Assets folder. I once dropped in a civilizationinfos.xml file that adds a new civ but nothing happened.

I'll try to explain it to the best of my ability from experience, but with the caveat that there are certainly things I'm not erudite on with respect to modding in general.

Think of the Custom Assets folder as a like a temporary folder. The folder is completely disposable. If you delete the CA folder the game simply generates a new folder the next time you load the game. So basically, there is no harm in what you add to or modify in CA. You may not get the results you want but if it doesn't work out, you can simply delete the folder rather than doing an unnecessary reinstall of the game.

Files that you drop into CA will supersede the original vanilla asset located in the normal location, such that any modifications that were applied take precedence over vanilla. If you wish to revert back to vanilla simply delete CA folder, or rename the folder if you want to keep the modification available but disabled for now (you can rename that folder back to the normal naming convention to enable the modifications). That logic applies to having BUG/BULL installed in Custom Assets. Install BULL/BULL and rename the folder to something like "Custom Assets-BUG", which will disable it. Rename back if you want it active.

Modifications applied to CA do not need to be loaded as a mod. They are simply present when you load the game normally. (This assumes you are not loading any "standalone" mods, many of which are set to ignore custom assets anyway in that mod's config file)

In other words, generally think of CA modifications as working directly with the game exclusive of "standalone" mods.

"Standalone" mods refers to mods that are installed in the Mods folder and must be loaded. BUG has an install with that option, as well, as you've already figured out. You can install BUG both ways and at the same time, though the installs are mutually exclusive.

"Standalone" mods like RevDCM have incorporated and tailored components of BUG to work with the mod. Many other big mods have done the same.

(Note: BUG/BULL installed in Custom Assets is great for forum games as the save is compatible with or without a mod. Many who play games on the forum like in S&T have this installation)

As for you attempt with placing your modified civilizationinfos.xml file in Custom Assets, well there may be more to it than what you did initially. Code is connected to code elsewhere so there be more steps in the process. Not sure if compiling is necessary with xml code. You'd have to ask an actual modder.

 

[Louis the XIV]

Thanks for explaining how the CA folder works.

 

[s.bernbaum]

Another reason that your xml modification may not have worked is that the path has to match the path in the game folder or it will be ignored. You need to look in the game file and find the path for the civilization xmls. So, for your modified civilizationinfos.xml file, you need to create the following folders inside CustomAssets and then put your modified file in the last one.
In the game folder the path is: Assets/XML/Civilizations/civilizationinfos.xml
So to replace the civilizationsinfo.xml file, the path would be: CustomAssets/XML/Civilizations/civilizationinfos.xml
CustomAssets corresponds to the Assets folder in the main game folder.

Also unless you don't want the civilization info that comes with the game, all that is in the original needs to be in the one in CustomAssets. So, if you are only adding one civilization to those that already exist, for example, you would copy the civilizationinfos.xml from the game folder to CustomAssets/XML/Civilizations/. Then you would use your favorite text program to add your new info to the copy in CustomAssets. If you are using a civilizationinfos.xml that someone else has already modified, you can just put that in CustomAssets/XML/Civilizations/ instead of making the copy.

 

[<Nexus>]

I'm also curious about Rise of Mankind: A New Dawn. Similar to LoR, this seems to be an unofficial expansion to BtS and massively builds on the base game. Does it compare favourably to RI?

IMO AND2 is much better then RI. Of course it's greatly a matter of taste which is better but AND2 is very stable, polished and relatively bug free.

You can also try my modmod for AND2: Chronicles of Mankind. It adds a lot of extra stuff for deeper gameplay.

About C2C I have mixed feelings: It's amazing how much it's devs have achieved from a programming point of view. But from a design perspective it lack focus IMO. It has stuff that simply kill the atmosphere for me.

I just remembered! If you ever want a mod that adds civs try out CIV GOLD which adds about 400 new civs and around 600 leaders and every civ has a unique building and unit. I also found a dll that lets up to 100 civs so it's pretty useful for that mod.

IIRC CIV GOLD is only around 100 extra civs (still remarkable number).
BTW AND2 and CoM comes with two dlls: one is limited to 50 civs and the other to 100.
AND MegaPack adds 100+ civs and extra leaders. More Music adds hours of additional music (around 1-2 hours for each era) to give the game some more immersive atmosphere. Both addons are compatible with AND2 and CoM.

 

[salty mud]

IMO AND2 is much better then RI. Of course it's greatly a matter of taste which is better but AND2 is very stable, polished and relatively bug free.

You can also try my modmod for AND2: Chronicles of Mankind. It adds a lot of extra stuff for deeper gameplay.

About C2C I have mixed feelings: It's amazing how much it's devs have achieved from a programming point of view. But from a design perspective it lack focus IMO. It has stuff that simply kill the atmosphere for me.


IIRC CIV GOLD is only around 100 extra civs (still remarkable number).
BTW AND2 and CoM comes with two dlls: one is limited to 50 civs and the other to 100.
AND MegaPack adds 100+ civs and extra leaders. More Music adds hours of additional music (around 1-2 hours for each era) to give the game some more immersive atmosphere. Both addons are compatible with AND2 and CoM.

Thanks for the post. My main queries with RoM is that, like RI, games take a massive commitment (1800 turns! ) and I've heard the AI is pretty poor. I'm not sure if it is a bit too much of a deviation from Civ IV for my taste like RI is. My favourite mod thus far has been Legends of Revolution with its "third expansion" mantra.

 

[<Nexus>]

Thanks for the post. My main queries with RoM is that, like RI, games take a massive commitment (1800 turns! ) and I've heard the AI is pretty poor. I'm not sure if it is a bit too much of a deviation from Civ IV for my taste like RI is. My favourite mod thus far has been Legends of Revolution with its "third expansion" mantra.

The devs of AND2 had a very strict aim: It should be easy to learn it. If you know how to play BtS, you will quickly understand AND2 also.
About game length: You know it depends on your settings, don't you? A Normal speed game is far-far less than 1800 turn

 

[Louis the XIV]

My favorite part in RoM was the future railroads, I forgot the name of that improvement, but it looked really cool.