BTS - with mod Realism:Invictus ver. 3.5 Screenshots from my game

[migalhone]

Since I started this thread 2½ years ago, my way of playing this game with its [BtS] expansion - and as time has passed new releases of the RealismInvictus mod on top of this - has changed quite a bit.

Therefore I think it's time to write, what direction my own varity of this has gone.


First of all. I'm doing my best to make my games realistic. Not geographical or historical - but still something, that "smells" in that direction.

Therefore: Water sustains all (life).
With no or very limited access to water, then life is not existing or is very challenged.
As you can see below, plains gives no food unless it have access to fresh water (rivers or lakes size 9 or lower). Even grassland gives only 1 food if covered with jungle - even with access to fresh water. However bonus still gives what (I think) a bonus should, nomatter where it is placed.


View attachment 643275

More is, that the nature can change rapidly, because some features (forrest, jungle, savanna and scrub) spreads very fast on "my" worlds. I did learn much myself about how do this by trying it (again and again) but at last found the "main-key" to understand the concept in an old thread here: https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/forest-growth-and-the-roads.295749/ . But features can also disappear again(!).

Natural disasters (events) are now really destructive. Fx will a forrestfire (or a savanna- or scrubfire) most often destoy the feature. Eventually routes and improvements are most often also destroyed by the fire. Minecollapses destroy the mine and the route - and often reduce the pop in the nearby city with 1 or 2. It's not possible anymore to use gold to avoid a disaster. I'm not finish with this sub-project yet, so more will be added over time. You can find some screenshots/info here in the RI-forum: https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/realism-invictus.411799/page-436



When I start a new game, I do consider what era I want the game to end in. How do I do that?

Well I'm using Excel to calculate how "fast" the time should pass, so I'm changing a little in the CIV4GameSpeedInfo.xml file, section <GameTurnInfo>, values of <iMonthIncrement> and <iTurnsPerIncrement>) so it "fits" to my taste.
Second I'm changing in the py-coding, Walter H added to the CvEventManager.py, that control a tech-penalty preventing nations (both the human and the AI-nations) for getting too far ahead of the other.

You can see the actual sections for my current game below. The game is set to end latest in year 1810 and have most focus on the medival and reneaissance eras.
Era 0 is ancient, era 1 is classical, era 2 is medieval, era 3 is renaissance, era 4 is industrial, era 5 is modern. There is no era 6 (future time). The value of TechInfo.setAheadOfTime is in %, so 300 make it take 3 times longer than it normally would take.

Spoiler :

Turn number and speed:
<GameSpeedInfo>
<Type>GAMESPEED_EPIC</Type>
<Description>TXT_KEY_GAMESPEED_EPIC</Description>
......
<GameTurnInfos>
<GameTurnInfo>
<iMonthIncrement>120</iMonthIncrement>
<iTurnsPerIncrement>200</iTurnsPerIncrement>
</GameTurnInfo>
<GameTurnInfo>
<iMonthIncrement>60</iMonthIncrement>
<iTurnsPerIncrement>250</iTurnsPerIncrement>
</GameTurnInfo>
<GameTurnInfo>
<iMonthIncrement>48</iMonthIncrement>
<iTurnsPerIncrement>150</iTurnsPerIncrement>
</GameTurnInfo>
<GameTurnInfo>
<iMonthIncrement>36</iMonthIncrement>
<iTurnsPerIncrement>150</iTurnsPerIncrement>
</GameTurnInfo>
<GameTurnInfo>
<iMonthIncrement>24</iMonthIncrement>
<iTurnsPerIncrement>260</iTurnsPerIncrement>
</GameTurnInfo>
<GameTurnInfo>
<iMonthIncrement>12</iMonthIncrement>
<iTurnsPerIncrement>545</iTurnsPerIncrement>
</GameTurnInfo>
<GameTurnInfo>
<iMonthIncrement>6</iMonthIncrement>
<iTurnsPerIncrement>520</iTurnsPerIncrement>
</GameTurnInfo>
<GameTurnInfo>
<iMonthIncrement>3</iMonthIncrement>
<iTurnsPerIncrement>520</iTurnsPerIncrement>
</GameTurnInfo>
<GameTurnInfo>
<iMonthIncrement>1</iMonthIncrement>
<iTurnsPerIncrement>660</iTurnsPerIncrement>
</GameTurnInfo>
</GameTurnInfos>

Tech-penalty:
CyGame().setAheadOfTimeEra(0)
if (gc.getGame().getGameTurnYear() < -2000):
for iTech in xrange(gc.getNumTechInfos()):
TechInfo = gc.getTechInfo(iTech)
if TechInfo.getEra() == 1:
TechInfo.setAheadOfTime(300)
elif TechInfo.getEra() == 2:
TechInfo.setAheadOfTime(400)
elif TechInfo.getEra() == 3:
TechInfo.setAheadOfTime(400)
elif TechInfo.getEra() == 4:
TechInfo.setAheadOfTime(800)
elif TechInfo.getEra() == 5:
TechInfo.setAheadOfTime(800)
if (gc.getGame().getGameTurnYear() > -2001):
CyGame().setAheadOfTimeEra(1)
for iTech in xrange(gc.getNumTechInfos()):
TechInfo = gc.getTechInfo(iTech)
if TechInfo.getEra() == 1:
TechInfo.setAheadOfTime(250)
elif TechInfo.getEra() == 2:
TechInfo.setAheadOfTime(600)
elif TechInfo.getEra() == 3:
TechInfo.setAheadOfTime(600)
elif TechInfo.getEra() == 4:
TechInfo.setAheadOfTime(800)
elif TechInfo.getEra() == 5:
TechInfo.setAheadOfTime(800)
if (gc.getGame().getGameTurnYear() > -1101):
CyGame().setAheadOfTimeEra(2)
for iTech in xrange(gc.getNumTechInfos()):
TechInfo = gc.getTechInfo(iTech)
if TechInfo.getEra() == 1:
TechInfo.setAheadOfTime(200)
elif TechInfo.getEra() == 2:
TechInfo.setAheadOfTime(600)
elif TechInfo.getEra() == 3:
TechInfo.setAheadOfTime(600)
elif TechInfo.getEra() == 4:
TechInfo.setAheadOfTime(800)
elif TechInfo.getEra() == 5:
TechInfo.setAheadOfTime(800)
if (gc.getGame().getGameTurnYear() > 0):
CyGame().setAheadOfTimeEra(3)
for iTech in xrange(gc.getNumTechInfos()):
TechInfo = gc.getTechInfo(iTech)
if TechInfo.getEra() == 1:
TechInfo.setAheadOfTime(100)
elif TechInfo.getEra() == 2:
TechInfo.setAheadOfTime(500)
elif TechInfo.getEra() == 3:
TechInfo.setAheadOfTime(600)
elif TechInfo.getEra() == 4:
TechInfo.setAheadOfTime(800)
elif TechInfo.getEra() == 5:
TechInfo.setAheadOfTime(800)
if (gc.getGame().getGameTurnYear() > 400):
CyGame().setAheadOfTimeEra(4)
for iTech in xrange(gc.getNumTechInfos()):
TechInfo = gc.getTechInfo(iTech)
if TechInfo.getEra() == 1:
TechInfo.setAheadOfTime(0)
elif TechInfo.getEra() == 2:
TechInfo.setAheadOfTime(400)
elif TechInfo.getEra() == 3:
TechInfo.setAheadOfTime(600)
elif TechInfo.getEra() == 4:
TechInfo.setAheadOfTime(800)
elif TechInfo.getEra() == 5:
TechInfo.setAheadOfTime(800)
if (gc.getGame().getGameTurnYear() > 600):
CyGame().setAheadOfTimeEra(5)
for iTech in xrange(gc.getNumTechInfos()):
TechInfo = gc.getTechInfo(iTech)
if TechInfo.getEra() == 1:
TechInfo.setAheadOfTime(0)
elif TechInfo.getEra() == 2:
TechInfo.setAheadOfTime(200)
elif TechInfo.getEra() == 3:
TechInfo.setAheadOfTime(500)
elif TechInfo.getEra() == 4:
TechInfo.setAheadOfTime(800)
elif TechInfo.getEra() == 5:
TechInfo.setAheadOfTime(800)
if (gc.getGame().getGameTurnYear() > 1000):
CyGame().setAheadOfTimeEra(6)
for iTech in xrange(gc.getNumTechInfos()):
TechInfo = gc.getTechInfo(iTech)
if TechInfo.getEra() == 1:
TechInfo.setAheadOfTime(0)
elif TechInfo.getEra() == 2:
TechInfo.setAheadOfTime(100)
elif TechInfo.getEra() == 3:
TechInfo.setAheadOfTime(500)
elif TechInfo.getEra() == 4:
TechInfo.setAheadOfTime(800)
elif TechInfo.getEra() == 5:
TechInfo.setAheadOfTime(800)
if (gc.getGame().getGameTurnYear() > 1400):
CyGame().setAheadOfTimeEra(7)
for iTech in xrange(gc.getNumTechInfos()):
TechInfo = gc.getTechInfo(iTech)
if TechInfo.getEra() == 1:
TechInfo.setAheadOfTime(0)
elif TechInfo.getEra() == 2:
TechInfo.setAheadOfTime(0)
elif TechInfo.getEra() == 3:
TechInfo.setAheadOfTime(500)
elif TechInfo.getEra() == 4:
TechInfo.setAheadOfTime(800)
elif TechInfo.getEra() == 5:
TechInfo.setAheadOfTime(800)
if (gc.getGame().getGameTurnYear() > 1500):
CyGame().setAheadOfTimeEra(8)
for iTech in xrange(gc.getNumTechInfos()):
TechInfo = gc.getTechInfo(iTech)
if TechInfo.getEra() == 1:
TechInfo.setAheadOfTime(0)
elif TechInfo.getEra() == 2:
TechInfo.setAheadOfTime(0)
elif TechInfo.getEra() == 3:
TechInfo.setAheadOfTime(350)
elif TechInfo.getEra() == 4:
TechInfo.setAheadOfTime(800)
elif TechInfo.getEra() == 5:
TechInfo.setAheadOfTime(800)
if (gc.getGame().getGameTurnYear() > 1600):
CyGame().setAheadOfTimeEra(9)
for iTech in xrange(gc.getNumTechInfos()):
TechInfo = gc.getTechInfo(iTech)
if TechInfo.getEra() == 1:
TechInfo.setAheadOfTime(0)
elif TechInfo.getEra() == 2:
TechInfo.setAheadOfTime(0)
elif TechInfo.getEra() == 3:
TechInfo.setAheadOfTime(200)
elif TechInfo.getEra() == 4:
TechInfo.setAheadOfTime(800)
elif TechInfo.getEra() == 5:
TechInfo.setAheadOfTime(800)
if (gc.getGame().getGameTurnYear() > 1700):
CyGame().setAheadOfTimeEra(10)
for iTech in xrange(gc.getNumTechInfos()):
TechInfo = gc.getTechInfo(iTech)
if TechInfo.getEra() == 1:
TechInfo.setAheadOfTime(0)
elif TechInfo.getEra() == 2:
TechInfo.setAheadOfTime(0)
elif TechInfo.getEra() == 3:
TechInfo.setAheadOfTime(100)
elif TechInfo.getEra() == 4:
TechInfo.setAheadOfTime(800)
elif TechInfo.getEra() == 5:
TechInfo.setAheadOfTime(800)

According to that era, I choose what nations I would like to have in the game and who should lead them. As I wrote, the setup is neither geographically nor historically correct, but I still have some preferences.

If I play with nations from many part of the world and with big oceans, I choose a round x-wrapped map. If I play with nations from one or a few continents, I choose a flat map.

The nations are chosen among those, who normally would be present during the time period(s) on which I have the most focus. All nations are placed on the playing map relatively close to their real position on todays (or yesterdays) world, so England always will be close to US/Scotland/Scandinavia/Celts/Nederland/France and/or Spain when the game start.

Leaders are - if possible - choosen from the eras/centuries, where I have my "focus" for a specific game. Due to that I (often) have to choose the gameoption "Unrestricted Leaders" to find a suitable one for each nation. In my current game, I think I have done so quite well as all leaders lived and ruled a nation somewhere between year 900-950 and year 1300/1350. Not all did rule the nation I "gave" them, but then they ruled a nation/region/stronghold/castle nearby.

I only had to "grap" the leader of Finland "out of the blue", because Finland only "comes" with one leader (Carl Mannerheim) and I didn't like to use a WW2-leader here. When I'm finish with this post, I'll "present" some of the leaders for you.


.
To be cont. tomorrow

Is there some sort of online Civilopedia where we can see all the civ/leader combinations? Or do i have to install the mod to check ingame?

 

[TheBirdMan]

You will need the mod and start a game. From there you can check the updated Civilopedia. From there you can see the playable nations and the derivative and minor nations (normally not playable). And all leaders.

 

[TheBirdMan]

Game started with 24 AIs. Seems like I managed to give all a good starting area and by now all have at least 2 cities (just checked via WorldBuilder).

I'll start showing one of the finest portraits in this game. Myself. Österreichischer Herzog Frederick II Babenberg.

Der nächste ist mein lieber "Freund" Herr Frederick II Hohenstaufen. Seine Hauptstadt liegt weit im Westen - und damit bin ich sehr zufrieden. Ohh Entschuldigung:
The next one is my dear "friend" Sir Frederick II Hohenstaufen. His capital is far to the west - and I'm quite happy with that. The longer the better as he has this nasty habbit to attack each and everyone.

Then we have the ruler of Venice. He loves a good deal - but is very stingy and close-minded. Ugly guy in my opinion. Lives somewhere southwest of my beautiful duchy.

Last but not least we have the Greek king, John II KOmnenos. Love pomp, splendor and a good party. Unfortunately professes a different faith than most. He is orthodox - at least in theory. Lives south of me.

 

[TheBirdMan]

Orthodoxy is one of the religions in the RI mod. It is disabled - but it's easy to enable it........

 

[TheBirdMan]

I've never seen this before - as far as I remember...

An actual blockade of small towns just in front of my area and far away from own territory.

I can't see any opportunity to expand without having to go to war with my German neighbor.

Damn, I didn't expect that......

 

[TheBirdMan]

The germans will hate me for this the rest of this game......

 

[TheBirdMan]

As anyone would expect - trees do not grow into heaven.

The germans declared on me later on. Arrived without a warning (I didn't see them) with 17 units on my doorstep. With only 7 defenders, the choice was rather easy for me. Retreat a.s.a.p.

I managed to get most out of the woods and gathered with more troops in a nearby city. With enough troops I was able to stop the german army and from here I could start a long-term attrition of the enemy troops. As more and more enemies got injured, I finally launched a full attack and killed all the remaining enemies, But the total cost in men was pretty high. However not as high as the germans. After the battle, the ratio changed from 1.1 to 1.7 in my favour. I lost my city, but that is acceptable as I also got a peacetreaty. I do not expect to "see" a hostile german army the next many turns - but I'll keep a good eye to their military power ratio.

So now I'm able to expand more in the area north and northeast of the germans - and east of the Scandinavians

 

[TheBirdMan]

Speaking of the Scandinavians:

Their leader Birger Jarl. Like wars and not afraid of any. As time has passed since he gained power, he became less politician and more a seafarer (those who follows and read the R:I forum knows what I have done).

And the Dutch leader. Hmmmm, I'm not sure what to say here. But if his courtpainter had been mine, he would have been fired - and then sent to the Vikings (as I call them) as hostage for a good lasting peace.

Leader of Poland - a nation on the eastside of the water. He ask who I am..... such a fool - he will learn i due time.

And finally one from a land far-far in the west-southwest. If he found me (my scout) or my scout found him - I do not know. And I do not care. At least not now.

More to come later.

 

[TheBirdMan]

As for the science-speed. All I can write at this moment is, that I'm very satisfied with what I can see.

At game-year 318AD only 8 nations are able to choose Guilds as their "target", but only 4 have actual started this. There might be one more as I still need to get info of the last AI. All I know is, that this nation is the one with the highest cultural score.

At year 3 BC, the time-ahead penalty for discovering sciences from the classic era still was 200% and 600% for the medival era. Now some 320 years later, the time-ahead penalty is reduced to 100% and 500%. This is exactly how I want it to be.
Besides, can any of "my readers" imagine how it is to play many-many turns with spear- and bowmen - and actually have to train many and use them in larger stacks?! Well I can assure you, it gives a complete new "feeling" playing here in the earliest eras (if some missed the actual settings of game- and sciencespeed for this game, take a look at my post from 2nd Nov).


Below a few screenshots more about this:

 

[TheBirdMan]

But now I'll continue with my presentation of the leaders in this game. Next 4 are:


Leader of France. Not the most lucky leader. His neighbors doesn't like him much.

Leader of Nubia (south of Egypt - and "very" south of my nation). Became in real life Emperor of Ethiopia.

Talking about Egypt - here is their leader. Ready to go to war against anyone, whos army is weaker than his (therefore I'm still in peace with him even he do not like me at all).

And last for today. The English leader. Here I'm using an older screenshot, simply because I like the text under the picture more than the usual greeting.

 

[need my speed]

I'm a bit confused why you more or less only show us pictures of leaders that you meet - that is the least interesting thing you could show us, in my opinion?

 

[TheBirdMan]

I'm a relative passive player, loves to build and I seldom declare war against any. I need a really strong "feeling" against a neighbor to do that. As a result, you will often find me with a rather low tech-%, but with many cities and often many troops.

But this doesn't answer your un-written question. So what kind of screenshots would you like me to post?

Something like this ( a little village of mine and a close shot of the units)

.

 

[need my speed]

That's a cute screenshot, actually - but not necessarily, no, I figured you were going to tell us a story of how your civilisation progressed, the story that you have in your head as you play the game, basically. I know that in recent years, this storytelling is virtually absent on this forum though, sadly replaced by Let's Play videos that I'll never watch, but I always thoroughly enjoyed reading through such threads. Varying from, for example, the King of the World series, to this more recent example, to the absolutely spectacularly story - it's way beyond describing a game, it's a vertiable storybook indeed - Pax Romana (this is such a treasure trove if you ever feel bored, by the way!). Maybe I just have the wrong idea of what you're trying to do here!

 

[TheBirdMan]

Ok. got it.

So let's start here (though I will continue to present all leaders during the comming days).

2 turns ago happend what I had hoped for. A religion "just for me" did spread from somewhere in the south. I did convert - and I do expect this will change the attitude from many of my "collegues" towards me.....

Now if the religion had been Islam, that could have been fine too - IF I had added tobacco and coffee to give happy faces from taverns and wine/alcohol angry and/or unhealthy faces.
I did "turn" this in the RI forum, but it did not give any applause among either the "audience" or from our court painter.

 

[need my speed]

Exactly! Now we got a small glimpse into what happens, your thoughts on it, your ideas for the future, the things that this mod provides, et cetera, et cetera.

 

[AspiringScholar]

The thing about sharing screenshots of leaders which seems odd to me is that the image does precious little to communicate meaningful information about the game more efficiently than just text, whereas a screenshot of the map in wartime or something with a tooltip showing promotions or stack details (or a screenshot of a tech tree, or of the foreign advisors, etc.), does present this info more concisely than trying to write it all down.

It's all up to what you want to do though. I personally find the immersion factor to take care of itself from the beauty of the game's artwork and content and is always there as some kind of a layer over the play itself, which to me comes from thinking about the interesting strategic scenarios that present themselves over the course of the game. In that regard to me, screenshots which capture the most information relevant to the strategy are the most interesting and helpful in following along someone's game.

 

[Revolutionist_8]

It's been quite some time since I last played with RI, but damn these screenshots bring back my desire to reinstall it again

 

[TheBirdMan]

I'm bringing the leader screenshots partly to show what kind of game I'm playing - I wouldn't choose those if I wanted a game with focus on the WW1/WW2 era (just look back into this thread and then you will see) - nor would I take any of those leaders if (or more likely - WHEN) I choose to take a game with focus on Europe from start to say 400-600AD. I already have a "good guess" how I shall have to manipulate the game- and techspeed. Reason why I do it this way is simple. I know how to do it - but I do not know how to put up a scenario. Besides it do not take many turns before you can see if your choices are good or bad. If bad - well change the input and restart..... simple as that.

 

[TheBirdMan]

Fortunately I did not empty the recycle bin for older screenshots from an earlier "version" of the game I'm playing.

Here you can see.... well many might know just by looking at their standarts - but it's a spanish city under attack from the portugeese with a dutch army waiting on a hill-top. And a spanish revolting peasant.

I took the screenshot because it was interesting - but deleted it when I restarted the game. Just this also show, how complex this mod makes the game. And you can also see from this and others "shots", that it isn't easy for a socalled human as I to get past the initial 2-3 eras. At least not the way I'm playing.

 

[TheBirdMan]

This quest might give me the upperhand against one of my 2 most "insistent" enemies - the Vikings (or Scandinavians). But what to choose?

I did choose Drill 1, since that one gave most units an upgrade. It might have been a mistake - but I guess I'll never know for sure.