CCM1 (epic mod)

[Civinator]

Welcome to CCM and thank you for your interest in this non-commercial mod!

Please don´t forget, that this is a public betatest. Therefore not all of the many new concepts are working perfectly and the civilopedia attached to that mod isn´t completely ready. The AI sometimes still has problems with the path finding of wheeled units. Your experiences and reports are needed for fixing bugs and errors and to find the best conditions for the different world-sizes, governments and overall-gameplay.

CCM Concept

CCM stands for Civ Conquest Mod, is only playable with Civ 3 Conquests (C3C) and was constructed around Civ Complete. It is a modification of the Civ 3 epic game, starting at 4.000 BC and ending in the Atomic Age of mankind. Most of my modification ideas (like strengthening the AI) are realised in CCM, but the mod would never have been what it is without the help, feedback, work and great ideas of many civers all around the globe. Thank you all very, very much.

A special big thank you to rhodie, who is working on the civilopedia and especially to Vuldacon, who did a lot of the graphics work in CCM. Another big thank you to the prebetatesters BadKharma, Recon1591, rhodie, MarineCorps, moosezilla and TheRat for finding tons of errors and to my friend El Justo for his always welcome overall-advise.

CCM was also helped by Soren Johnson´s skilful analysis of Civ III gaming elements at the end of the handbook for Civ IV. In that sense:
The end of Civ IV is the start of Civ III CCM.

CCM Modification Index
1. ICS-tactic (Infinite City Sprawl) stopped.
2. Religious implementation is improved.
3. New Great Cultural Persons.
4. Advanced Automatic Unit production.
5. Waste and Corruption are considerably reduced.
6. Pollution has been virtually eliminated.
7. New Multiple Leaders.
8. Short Bloody Revolution.
9. New Government settings.
10. CCM Movement Rules
11. AI-Routine for Land Artillery improved
12. New Trading Possibilities for Random Maps
13. Improved Workers.
14. Better use of Diplomats and Spies
15. Enhanced Technical Trees.

More explanations about these concepts can be found in the CCM civilopedia done by rhodie and the following posts at the CivForum:

http://www.civforum.de/showthread.php?90564-CCM-Betatest-(epic-mod)&p=5938640&viewfull=1#post5938640
http://www.civforum.de/showthread.php?90564-CCM-Betatest-(epic-mod)&p=5938715&viewfull=1#post5938715
http://www.civforum.de/showthread.php?90564-CCM-Betatest-(epic-mod)&p=5938757&viewfull=1#post5938757

Here is the downloading-link to the new CCM- Mainfile (729 MB zipped) and the new CCM Betatest-biq v.1.8. Attention here a new CCM Betatest-biq v.1.8 was uploaded 06-04-2014, fixing some errors !

http://www.civforum.de/showthread.php?90564-CCM-Betatest-(epic-mod)


Patch for downloads after 17-03-2014 and before 30-03-2014 adding three ships to the units folder (not needed for downloads after 30-03-2014)


Here is the link to the CCM (epic mod) preview thread with tons of screenshots (starting with the new spacerace victory that is the motiv for the CCM titlescreen):

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=291104


Requirements:
- Civilization 3: Conquests version 1.22 or Civilization 3: Complete
- 1,7 GB disk space

Installation:
1. Download the CCM main file at the SOC-Site.
You can choose between the winrar version and the winzip-version of the CCM mainfile, depending on your zip-program. You only need one download of the mainfile.
2. Download the CCM-biq at the SOC-Site.
Again you can choose here between the winrar and the winzip version of the CCM-biq.
3. Unzip the CCM main-file file directly to your Conquests\Scenarios folder (usually C:\Program Files\Infogrames Interactive\Civilization III\Conquests\Scenarios)
4. Unzip the CCM-biq directly to your Conquests\Scenarios folder


If all is installed properly, your files should look like this:

Credits

Mod design:
Blue Lion/Civinator
Units:
aaglo, Aluminium, Ares de Borg, Balou, BeBro, Bjornlo, Delta_Strife, Gary Childress, gwendoline, Kinboat, odintheking, Orthanc, Plotinus, Ripptide, Sandris, ShiroKobbure, TopGun, utahjazz7, vingrjoe, W.i.n.t.e.r., Wotan49, Wyrmshadow, Yang Liu
Leaderheads:
ccm01, CivArmy s. 1994, embryodead, jorde, Piernik, Plotinus, R8XFT, Rita Poon, ShiroKobbure, Vuldacon, Blue Lion/Civinator
Terrain:
Sn00py, Ares de Borg, Balthasar, Goldfool, Pounder, CrackedCrystal, Racc00n, Rick FGS, Vuldacon, Blue Lion/Civinator;
Cities:
Aion, Sn00py, RedAlert
Improvements, Wonders, Wonder Splashes and Flags:
aaglo, ArbitraryGuy, Ares de Borg, Bjornlo, georgestow, Harlan, Heretic_Cata, Kyriakos, Lusikka755, mrtn, Plotinus, R8XFT, ronning, Rufus T. Firefly, Spincrus, SWalker, Ukas, varwnos, NeoT, Blue Lion / Civinator
Tech Icons:
BeBro, embryodead, Kal-el, Keroro, mrtn, ronning, Rufus T. Firefly, Storm Grunt, utahjazz7, Yoda Power, Blue Lion/Civinator
Interfaces(modified):
Telgar, AnthonyBoscia, konradregula
Civ 2 graphics (mainly used for resource-cities and unit32):
BeBro, kobayashi, fairline, Curt Sibling and lots of unknown other artists

If you find a piece of your work in the mod and you are not on the list, please let me know and I'll do my best to fix it.

 

[Tank_Guy#3]

Downloading it immediately.

 

[JSnider]

Great .. been waiting for this one .. now to set aside the game started on another mod and get this up and running. Thanx for the mod and the work

 

[general-jcl]

Just great mod! Thank you Civinator
Very impressive- So much goodies I will test it

 

[WildWeazel]

Downloading, and saving for later. I can't wait to try this out. I've been looking forward to it ever since we both started our mod preview threads around the same time. Obviously you're far ahead of me- I'm still not finished implementing the ancient era!
Like I said before, I'm surprised by how many similar ideas we had, and also by how much you managed to do with it.

 

[JSnider]

Hi .. was cking the rules and noticed that a large number of the bldgs have reduce pop/bldg pollution ck'd. Not sure if intentional as didn't make sense (to me) for say AA and barracks (dem) to name a couple to do this. Still going through the rules before playing. Will probably apply the rule set to a world map and go at it tomorrow. Best

 

[WildWeazel]

Pics or it didn't happen:

Spoiler large image :

 

[Ozymandias]

This is the first mod I've been really excited about d/l-ing in a LONG time ...

,

Oz

 

[wolf_brother]

DL'd right away, I've played a few quick games, no more than 150 turns in.

My initial reaction is that this game need a guide, or tutorial. Its very, very different from the standard game, and from most mods out there. I've spent a lot of time simply scratching my head trying to understand exactly what the methodology behind the construction of this thing was, what the original play-testers know that I don't.

tl;dr - this mod is very, very complicated.

 

[T.A JONES]

Alright!!! I can't say how long Ive been waiting for this one. Im pumped to load er up. OH, and Ill give some rightous feedback in lategame . My Cedarmill rig will play this like a breeze

 

[ThERat]

I am going to wait a bit but plan to organize a succession game with this mod pretty soon.

I hope people will like the mod just as I did. It's quite a deviation from the usual settling craze. Tactics are now far more important.

 

[Civinator]

Thank you all for your kind words. But please don´t forget, that there is a reason, why CCM at present is in a public betatest and not in a normal release-version. Even in the last phase of the prebeta-testing of CCM, we had situations with freezes and in two times with crashes, that we couldn´t explain. This mod is pushing the programming of C3C to the edges in a lot of ways. So, please be aware, that in your CCM games freezes and crashes can occure again and we must find the reasons for it to have a stable version of CCM. Here CCM needs the help of everyone of you to become the game, that a lot of you at present think it still is.

My initial reaction is that this game need a guide, or tutorial.

CCM has a guide.

Again here is the link for the CCM Information Sector at the SOC-Site:
http://www.stormoverciv.org/forums/showthread.php?t=559

Additionally you have the CCM civilopedia and a link to an explanation of the new concepts of CCM even in the starting text of CCM. Weasel Op made a screenshot of it some posts above.

The problem at present is, that the CCM-Information Sector and the Civilopedia at present are only trustable at about 85 % due to changes in the settings of CCM after these passages were written and both must and will be updated. You can find updates of the civilopedia in the CCM Download Sector and you can replace the civilopedia text and continue your current games without problems. I will inform you when new versions of the civilopedia are available for the download.

Its very, very different from the standard game, and from most mods out there. I've spent a lot of time simply scratching my head trying to understand exactly what the methodology behind the construction of this thing was, what the original play-testers know that I don't. tl;dr - this mod is very, very complicated.

Yes, this mod in a lot of cases pushes the possibilities of Civ 3 to its present limits (may be here Steph´s editor will set new borders in the future). Frequently I had the impression that it is a new kind of Civ (and if CCM would be more stable I would say a better kind of Civ).

At least to the end of era 2, CCM can deal with the biggest mapsizes and 31 starting civs even on average pcs without any problems in AI-turntimes. I mostly played with these settings on a 2,66 MHZ pc with only 256 Ram. When reaching era 3, a lot of civs should have been "thrown out" of the game or otherwise AI-turntimes will rise significantly.

The starting phase with 31 civs in CCM is tougher than in games you normally are used to. The reason are the AI-enslavers that can conquer your cities without declaring war to you. The human player is not able to do the same due to limitations in the programming of C3C. The enslavers of a human player can conquer cities only after declaring war on the other civ.

If a civ in your neighbourhood finishes Stonehenge or the Temple of Baalbek, you soon will have a serious problem. The prophets autoproduced in these GWs in the ancient era can become a real pain.

So in CCM at the start never -never!- neglect the defense of your cities. The AI proofed, that it uses its enslavers and holy men effectively. Use the surrounding terrain of your cities for the defense and be aware that enslavers can´t cross mountains, volcanoes and marshes. The enslaver is a unit, that nearly all CCM prebetatesters first learned to hate and than learned to love.

When starting a game with less than 31 civs, have a look at the proportions in the number of civs of the same religious groups, as otherwise the game can become unbalanced. The quest of the different worldreligions is an important and interesting part of CCM - but only if you have rivals.

Hi .. was cking the rules and noticed that a large number of the bldgs have reduce pop/bldg pollution ck'd.

CCM has a different concept about pollution. Pollution is replaced by unhappiness. So in CCM everything was done I was aware to stop the pollution you are used from normal Civ 3.

 

[mythusmage]

Prophets can conquer cities? Had I but known. (I used mine to recruit monks, and I've still got a few roaming around converting warriors and archers and the stray spearman or two.)

 

[georgestow]

Hey,
I downloaded this almost as soon as you released it and I've got a few comments:
1. I LOVE IT! This is actually truly great mod.
2. Are some civs meant to have no unique units and no wonders specific to them, when some have masses? For example, I'm playing as the Austro-Hungarians, and according to the civilopedia, they have no unique unit. However, the Americans seem to have quite a few wonders unique to their civ.

My Progress:
Playing as the Austro-Hungarians, in the 141st turn now. Currently at war with the Koreans, I'm second highest on victory points, highest on world ranking (out of the 12 civs-including myself-I've encountered). Am cleverly making my cities have Christian communities, Muslim communities and Hebrew communities by using the Hagia Sofia AND the Dome of the Rock.

 

[Optional]

I only managed a couple of dozen turns sofar; is the weekend nearly there?
The little bit I've seen is very smooth. Noticed a small inconsistency, or at least that's how it looks to me: I built the Royal Stables, which auto produces a Training Chariot every 7 turns.
Prerequisite of the Royal Stables: The Wheel;
Prerequisite of the Training Chariot: The Wheel + horses.
The Training Chariot gets still produced, even when you don't have the horses. Then the Civilopedia tells you to upgrade your Training Chariot to a real Chariot. I couldn't do that, because I wasn't logged on to horses.
Not a real problem, it won't spoil anybody's pleasure, but just the king of little thingy that you might like to hear about, if this is still public beta. Probably the Royal Stables should have horses as a prerequisite as well, because then the given information makes sense.

My initial reaction is that this game need a guide, or tutorial.

A mod is often a deceptive thing. You start it up and it feels familiar, but a bit into the game you get this uncanny feeling that you don't know this game at all. I often find it a bit frustrating playing a mod, because I have a problem getting used to how different a mod is from the regular game.
Probably I would appreciate mods more if I could get it somehow into my head that I'm not playing Civ, but a new game. Maybe that's your problem a bit as well, don't know though. The original game took me quite a while to get my head round as well.

 

[Ares de Borg]

Congratulations!

 

[Gojira54]

DL'ing now!!

 

[Virote_Considon]

Wohoo! I've been looking foreword to this one!

I just hope my damned university connection holds long enough for me to download this!

 

[Civinator]

Again, thank you very much for your kind words.

Are some civs meant to have no unique units and no wonders specific to them, when some have masses? For example, I'm playing as the Austro-Hungarians, and according to the civilopedia, they have no unique unit. However, the Americans seem to have quite a few wonders unique to their civ.

In CCM there are no unique units triggering Golden Ages. Otherwise most civs in CCM have units that were used by these civs (sometimes they share these units with other civs that also used these units). Per example Austria has access to the very good Panther tanks (also they share these tanks with Germany) , one of the best WW2 tanks in CCM. Austria also has the Austrian WW 1 Infantry, which is better than average (and so on).

Am cleverly making my cities have Christian communities, Muslim communities and Hebrew communities by using the Hagia Sofia AND the Dome of the Rock.

This can be useful when you reach the Industrial Age and want to construct different kinds of industry that spread a lot of unhappiness that can be balanced with that additional happiness.

Noticed a small inconsistency, or at least that's how it looks to me: I built the Royal Stables, which auto produces a Training Chariot every 7 turns. Prerequisite of the Royal Stables: The Wheel;
Prerequisite of the Training Chariot: The Wheel + horses.
The Training Chariot gets still produced, even when you don't have the horses. Then the Civilopedia tells you to upgrade your Training Chariot to a real Chariot. I couldn't do that, because I wasn't logged on to horses.

This is an error in the setting that will be fixed with the next version of the biq. Optional, thank you for reporting it.

 

[mythusmage]

Civinator,

The Austrians in World War I had one of the worst armies of the major powers. How bad? The Russians walked all over them. They only stopped the Italians in 1915 due to a combination of rugged mountains, and bad Italian generals.

Austrian alpine troops were another matter. They and their Italian counterparts fought a vicious war in the Italian Alps and the Austrian Tyrol. So you may want to give the Austro-Hungarians the Austrian Mountain Infantry instead.

BTW, I'm rather fond of the Ranger from Balancer Reloaded. Any way you could adapt it to CCM?