[BTS 3.19] Bonus Modmod Map for Liambane's Earth 35 Civilizations MOD

[HipKick]

This ZIP has 4 files, includes my custom map, and requires Liambane's mod to play:

Liambane's Earth 35 thread is herehttp://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=248049:

View attachment Earth 35 Civ Hipkick Custom v2.1.zip (103.7 KB)

FILE 1: This is the custom map file.
Earth 35 Civ Hipkick Custom.CivBeyondSwordWBSave
(v.2.1) Aug 15, 2012

Instruction:
You need to place this file in the same folder as WBQuickSave.CivBeyondSwordWBSave .
But I don't know where your folder may be located. I have Windows 7 and the "Civ IV Complete Edition", which includes "Colonization." The game copied my modmod map to a folder located in c:-->Users-->(my user name)-->My Documents-->My Games-->Beyond the Sword-->Saves-->Worldbuilder . If you can't find yours, then I hope someone else can help.

FILE 2: This file normalizes capitalization issue. "Protestant cathedral" should now read "Protestant Cathedral."
ChooseReligions_CIV4GameText.xml

Instruction:
Replace file at Earth 35 Civs-->Assets-->Modules-->ChooseReligions

File 3: This file turns global warming off. (Optional).
GlobalDefines.xml
(I agree with the climate science. But the game implementation is awful. Better not to allow it.)

Instruction: Replace file in the Earth 35 Civs mod folder with this one.
It is under -->Assets-->XML

File 4: This file alters the Victory Conditions to increase likelihood of victory by Conquest by making other Victory conditions more difficult to attain. (Optional).
CIV4VictoryInfo.xml

Instruction: Replace file in the Earth 35 Civs mod folder with this one.
It is under -->Assets-->XML-->GameInfo

*** ***

EDIT NOTE: August 15, 2012

1. Minor river tweeks in Scandinavia.
2. Deleted river error that flows off Kamchatka in the Pacific.
3. Added an "Aleutian Island."

*** ***

EDIT NOTE: July 15, 2012

Finally, it's all done! I finished the inner Eurasia part of the map. I worked on it off and on for 5 months. With this latest update, I consider the map pretty much done. If you would like me to make some more changes, leave me a post at the end of this thread.

I started working on this modmod in February 2011. Today, on Sunday, July 15, 2012, I managed to finish it. Yay!

I redid Liambane's distorted-earth map using his map design ideas while implementing my own. I had two basic design goals. One was to redo the map so that playing most of the other (read non-Roman ) civs would be pretty fun. My other goal was to make the map itself more interesting to look at.

I hope I managed to reach my goals. And I hope you will enjoy this mod map for Liambane's Earth 35 mod.

I want to thank Liambane for the original mod.

 

[HipKick]

To do list Feb 13, 2012.

1. Increase size of Philippines, Java, Sumatra and improve Arabian and Egyptian terrain.

 

[HipKick]

Feb 13, 2012

It's only been a few hours but I have made Indonesian islands bigger and more productive. I also made minor changes to Egypt and Saudi Arabia.

 

[HipKick]

Feb 18, 2012

I am going to update this map at least one more time in following areas:
--Turkey
--Arabian Peninsula
--Siberia
--Mongolia
--Iran
--Caspian Sea
--Caucasus
--Egypt
--eastern Mediterranean shore

I also need to fix Gilgamesh starting condition. He can see Iran at start of game. Plus, he starts with pollution.

Also, I will put up images.

 

[HipKick]

heh heh...can someone tell me how to hide block quotes?

 

[HipKick]

Feb 22, 2012

v1.2

Ok. Massive changes.

Spoiler :

NAmerica
*Only minor changes.
*Swapped in a few iron bonuses at Washington to make AI USA more powerful for mid game. Seems to have worked. AI USA now more likely not only to survive but to declare war on neighbors and take cities in the mid game.
*Added trees at Mexico, California.

SAmerica
*Added 2 tile Atacama desert at Peru.
*Swapped mountains for hills to give Arawaks more hammer production.
*Swapped plains for hills at Brazil to increase hammer production in Amazon.
*Increased hammer production in other ways--more iron bonuses for instance.

RESULT
The American AI civs seem balanced now. I don't get the sense that any AI civ consistently dominates or whithers against rivals game after game.

Oceania
*Minor changes, mostly to increase hammer production.

RESULT
*The Aboriginals are not much of a factor in my map. AI Japan tends to be the one which destroys this AI civ in late mid game.
*Australians actually do send large invading armies by sea in mid game. But they tend not to destroy the Aboriginals.
*The Aboriginals are actually fun to play because their unique warrior replacement unit is an excellent early game rusher.

WEurope
*Massive increase in mid game hammer production. Swapped in a sea of iron bonuses. Europe had become too feable against the massive AI Asian and African armies.
*Now, Vikings and England have 3-4 naval production cities in mid game.
*AI Germany is more of a factor in the mid game, although Berlin still has to wait for coal to become fully unleashed.
*AI Rome is now more dangerous.
*France gets a goody hut to try to increase its survival rate. (More on this below)
*Carpathian Basin/Poland provides more hammers.
*Massive redrawing of river system
*Massive alterations to British islands/Iceland.

RESULT
France has an excellent starting location. The problem is that its neighbors use their natural sea borders to amass armies directed towards the center of Europe. AI Vikings tend not to invade AI England until late mid game, if ever. It seems even more rare for AI England to invade AI Vikings. So AI England tends to invade its near neighbor, France. AI Spain is almost never invaded by sea by other AI civs. So Spain tends to invade its neighbor, France. In previous maps going back to Liambane's original, AI Rome tended to be weak. But with this latest update, Rome is now able to invade Carthage and other Europeans. The sum result is that France tends to be ganged up by its neighbors. So I gave France a goody hut as consolation.

Balkans/Anatolia
*Massive changes. Swapped in iron and copper bonuses.
*Byzantines get 3 huts: 1 at "Crete," 1 at Greece, and 1 at Turkey.
*Anatolia is thicker now and can accomodate 3 naval production cities.
*Replaced some fish bonuses with flood plains to get Byzantines to start military production sooner.

RESULT
AI Byzantines tends to be stupid. It does not take advantage of its excellent starting position. May have to give it a fishing boat for start of game in next update.

Levant/Mesopotamia/Egypt/Arabian Peninsula/Iran/southern Caspian/southern Caucasus/Afghanistan/Pakistan/India
*As promised, I have made massive alterations to this region. It no longer resembles the orginal map much.
*The Adana-Levant-Suez region is expanded, has food bonuses, is filled with iron bonuses and can now accomodate up to 2 naval production cities.
*Hills with trees are closer to Sumer to increase hammer production and mitigate flood plain pollution.
*Swapped in copper bonuses at Sumer to increase early game power.
*Added hills with trees at Egypt for same reasons.
*Both Sumer and Egypt begin with a settler-warrior-worker combination to increase their early productivity and to more quickly mitigate pollution.
*Swapped in iron and fish bonuses in Arabian Peninsula to increase mid game power. Arabs simply are not a military factor in this game. Hopefully, this will help.
*Western Iran is more productive and can now accomodate two productive cities at Tehran and Bushehr. Bushehr is now a useful port city in the Persian Gulf.
*Mazandaran is now a tile wide and 2 tiles long. It has rivers, rice bonuses, and flood plains on grassland terrain.
**I have yet to redraw northern and eastern Caspian regions.
*Eastern Iran blends into Afghanistan. This region is full of mountain passes, hills, deserts, and rivers. It provides travel bottlenecks and is much more useful for AI India's defense than AI Sumer's as tha latter tends not to settle it.
*Pakistan's Indus valley is rich with food and hammer production.
*India is now even longer southward for more food and hammer production.
*The increased productivity of the Caucasus helps expand the Orient region.
*I left Liambane's eccentric Nile path as is.

RESULT
*AI India is now even more powerful. Afghan mountains and its passes provide natural chokepoints on its western border which can be easily reached by India via Khyber Pass.
*AI Egypt now prefers to create its own Israel instead of a Suez Canal. If you want to enjoy the benefits of Suez, you will have to either (1) destroy Egypt and raze its Israel and resettle at Suez or (2) destroy Egypt and keep its Israel, with its buildings and city improvements and build a fort canal at Suez. You can build a Suez on one of 2 squares: on a desert hill with an iron bonus and adjacent river or on a plain hill with iron bonus and river adjacent; "Israel" is a plain hill with a copper bonus and river adjacent.
*Egypt is now a more powerful military presence. It's increased power comes at the expense of the Arabs and Ethiopians. The Ethipians may be weaker than on older maps, but it benefits from the natural defense of Somalia's coastlines, which guards its rear, and the general highland terrain of eastern Africa which seems to dissuade an invasion by the Maasai. This allows Ethiopia to amass its armies on Egypt's borders at the smooth floodplains of the upper Nile.
*I haven't tested the map enough to tell whether the AI Arabs have been helped at all by the increased food and hammer production.
*AI Sumer is generally more powerful now than in the past. Unfortunately, being situated at the crossroads of Afro-Eurasia means that it almost always gets invaded by just about everyone at the same time--sometimes even the Aussies come over. Starting next to the much more powerful India does not help.
*Now, it is easier for both Sumer and Byzantium to settle the northern Caucasus and Black Sea. This weakens Russia. (More on Russia below)
*I like that the Anatolia, Persian Gulf, and Levant can now provide more naval building opportunity for Sumerians, Egyptians, and Byzantines.

Carthage
*More food and hammer production.

RESULT
AI Carthage is worse with the added bonuses. Oh well. A human player can benefit at least... :/

Sub-Sahara
*Massive changes.
*More rivers.
*More hammer and food production.

RESULT
*I gave AI Maasai better chance to survive, but it does not seem to help. It has same problem as AI France. Because AI Zulu has a natural sea border guarding its rear, it can amass its armies at AI Maasai borders and invade with full force. The AI Maasai has to defend from AI Mali in the west, AI Egypt and AI Ethiopia in the north, and AI Zulu in the south. This makes defense and expansion difficult for AI Maasai.
*AI Zulu and AI Mali seem to be the winner in my latest tweak. But I like that AI Egypt is now more threatening.

Southeast Asia
*Java gets more hammer production.
*Some minor terrain changes.

RESULT
*AI Japan and AI Khmer now dominate islands.
*India tends to settle western Sumatra.
*Depending on my tweaks, AI Khmer can be very strong or pretty strong. With this update, it is just pretty strong. Interestingly, increased power of the Khmer comes at the expense of AI Chinese power. This is because India has a natural chokepoint to its east which keeps AI Khmer out of the subcontinent. This means that if AI Khmer expands into the continent, it expands into productive southern China, leaving AI China less productive Gobi and Manchuria to expand into.

Korea/Japan
*More hammer production. AI Japan is more powerful mid game.

RESULT
*AI China tends to destroy AI Korea still.
*AI Japan is not as threatening as I would like.

China
*China is massively redone.
*It is wider.
*There is no chokepoint between China and Khmer civs.
*China starts with 2 cities, each with one warrior. This was the only way to ensure that Khmer does not tend to destroy China.
*Northern China has many copper bonus swapped in. Southern China has many iron bonus swapped in.

RESULT
*AI China is now more powerful and aggressive. But I need more tests to see what the benefits really are for AI China.

TO DO LIST
*Continue to tweak the regions mentioned above.
*I will massively redo inner Eurasia. By inner Eurasia, I mean the tiles from Finland/Poland/Romania to the Pacific.
*At this time, Lenin, Ablay, and Genghis are not much factors in the game. I think I am going to give each civ 2 cities to start the game with, like with China.

 

[HipKick]

Feb 22, 2012

v1.3

*Japan starts with 2 cities plus 2 fishing boats terrain improvements.
*Byzantium gets "Cyprus" "peninsula" and starts with 3 fishing boats improvements.
*Korea starts with 3 fishing boats improvements.

I want AI Korea and AI Byzantium to start military production sooner. Fish bonus slows down military production. I also want Japan to declare war earlier in the game. Japan tends to expand into Pacific islands and wastelands in northeast Asia before invading.

I will upload new map in a few minutes.

 

[HipKick]

Forgot to mention that I enlarged Taiwan. It is now 5 tiles big. Two hills, 3 flatlands. All 5 tiles have river adjacent. All 5 tiles have floodplain. Sugar, rice, fruits on flatland. Aluminum on hills. West coast has oil deposits. There are also clams, crabs, and fish. There is one goody hut on it.

 

[HipKick]

Feb 24, 2012

v1.4

Minor update. This is not the massive "inner-Eurasian" redraw.

*Fixed bonus at France. Replaced fish bonus east of Paris with wheat.
*"Israel/southern Levant is now a better site to found a city than Suez as the former provides more food production than latter. Suez Canal should be built with fort improvement.
*Russia begins with Moscow and Kiev. Each city has a warrior garrison.
*Kazakhs begin with Astana and Tashkent. Each city has a warrior garrison.
*Mongols begin with Karakorum, Hohhot, and Xanadu.
**Karakorum-Hohhot-Xanadu wall off Manchuria from Korean and China.
**Xanadu's placement at lip of Korean peninsula means that Korea is now the only civ without easy expansion opportunity.
**Since China begins with Beijing and Shanghai and Japan begins with Kyoto and Tokyo, this makes 7 highly productive and dangerous cities in the Asian northeast.
**I don't know what this will do to AI gameplay, but I think this is the map I will play on until I am satisfied enough to start redoing inner Eurasia.
**Even though AI Korea starts in a dangerous situation, human players should benefit from what seems to me favorable rush opportunities.

 

[Liambane]

Glad to see you improve my mod. Thanks for the good words you said on it!
Im happy too seeing im not the only one that keep prefer and play CIV IV instead of CIV V!
Your job was good for what i read. You did great.

 

[stgelven]

i am agree with you! civ IV is still alive!
In part du to good work made by people like you who has mad good mods on civ IV.

 

[HipKick]

i am agree with you! civ IV is still alive!
In part du to good work made by people like you who has mad good mods on civ IV.

I apologize for not replying sooner. Civ IV is my favorite Civ yet. If you get a chance to try this map, please tell me what you think. Thanks.

 

[HipKick]

Glad to see you improve my mod. Thanks for the good words you said on it!
Im happy too seeing im not the only one that keep prefer and play CIV IV instead of CIV V!
Your job was good for what i read. You did great.

Ah. Thank you!

While I was working on this map, I learned that making a nice-looking fun map is difficult. Because of my difficulty with modding your map, I came to be impressed with the amount of work I suspect you put into your original map.

Your effort made mine easier. Thank you for your troubles.

If you get a chance to play my map, please tell me what you think.

 

[HipKick]

How long do uploaded files stay in moderation queue?

 

[HipKick]

Heh, I hope someone can get my updated files out of moderation queue, please.

 

[tim hicks]

HI , thanks to both you and Liam for their work on the mod and this new map. All CIV'4 geeks will appreciate your hard work. I'm looking forward to trying the new map.

 

[HipKick]

Go ahead and post pics of your progress on my map here if you would care to make the effort. I'd be interested in hearing about your experiences on my map.

My impression is that on my map it would be easier for England to conquer the eastern US seaboard, Canada, Australia, and the Caribbean islands than on Liam's map. But it would be typically more difficult for England to conquer India or South Africa on my map.

 

[Civilai Khan]

Helleo
I enjoy this mod by Playing Deity Japan.
Chinese power is so strong that I can enjoy this game.
So I need long bow man as soon as possible.

In real history, Japan use long bow when 元寇 is happened.

When I am playing, I feel that points.

1.Cilivizations has owm religious (like Japan, Viking, Egyptian) should have own religious when starting game.

And I want to add Monglian Empire to Tengrism.

Or I want more making religious techs.

2.Many Europian countries are very weak and that is trouble.

Using not this mod but only Earth35, Viking can access silver after Viking gets mining.
But Using this mod, Viking needs bronze working to access silver, so starting condition is ress powerfull.
I think some gold and silver mines don't need forest.

3.I think Bismarck should make the first city which he can access a silver mine.
About Earth 35, He usually destoroyed by surrounding civilizations.
And I think Germany needs not Bismarck but strongest leader, Frederich2.

 

[MrCivilization]

Does anyone have Earth 35 Civilizations Mod v2.5 they can link for download? Main link is down again.