codepoet/volt/+chaos New Civs Collection

[codepoet]

Hello all.

Over the last couple weeks or so I start creating my first mods. I've been uploading them to Steam... but I thought I'd make them available here.
I like to make history based civs, where there unique abilities are representative of the history. Feedback is always welcome, especially if I can use it to improve the quality of the mod.

About the thread title: Here on the forums I am codepoet. In Steam I am +ChAoS. All my mods say they're authored by Voltaic. Guess I didn't anticipate needing a consistent name in all three places

Attachments and descriptions of my new Civs follow...


Acknowledgements
- I'd like to thank Kael for the excellent guide, it really jump-started the process for me.


Current Projects
Was thinking about a Zulu mod, but I see there's already a nice one here :]
So nothing at the moment...


On deck
I got a number of great suggestions for expanding my Olympic Games Wonder Mod. They'll likely require learning some LUA to complete... sounds fun :]

 

[codepoet]

Scotland
- Adds the Scottish civilization
- Renames cities for the Celts to separate out what is clearly Scottish.

Scotland:
Leader: James VI

Unique Trait: All units move faster in hills. All Melee, Mounted and Gun units receive the Promotion Rise of the Clans. This promotion grants a 10% defense bonus within a 20 hex radius of the capital.

Unique Unit: Highlander. Pikeman replacement that starts with the Highlander promotion: 10% defense bonus within a 20 hex radius of the capital (stacks with Rise of the Clans) and heals 25 HP after destroying an enemy. Lacks the bonus vs. Mounted units, but upgrades to Musket.

Unique Building: Caisteal. Replaces the Castle. Walls are not required to build. Increases land unit experience by +15 and also provides a science specialist in addition to standard Castle protection for a city.

Celtic Civilization changes:
Removed the following cities from the Celtic city list: Edinburgh, Douglas, Glasgow, Inverness, Aberdeen, Stirling, Dundee
Added the following cities to the end of the Celtic city list: Kinsdale, Derry, Dundalk, Wexford, Bantry, Castlebar, Donegal
I had changes for renaming the "Pictish Warrior" to the "Celtic Warrior"... because the Picts were the people of northern Scotland, but the Picts clearly are Celts as well... and my mod is more focused on Scotland under the Stewart kings and queens.

Some rationale for this mod:
Not all Scots are Celts. Scots are a mix of Viking, Pictish, Angle AND Celt. Different history, different heritage and therfore a different culture. Besides... I really think of Scotland as a separate and distinguishable people from Ireland. Picts are a Celtic tribe, but Scotland's history is strongly influenced by Roman, Viking, Norse and of course English invaders...

Also... there is another Scotland mod. It's not been updated since G&K and unfortunately appears not to work. I also tried incorporating the Unit graphics that mod had, but was not successful with it.

Version 2 changes: Changes Scotland trait from units ignoring terrain cost to all units move faster in hills.


Kingdom of Israel
Leader: King David

Unique Trait: The Lord is My Shepherd - Pastures and Specialist Improvements provide +2 Faith.

Unique Unit: Gibborim - Replaces the Scout. As effective as a Warrior in combat, begins with the Drill Promotion and is upgradable to a Swordsman.

Unique Building: City Walls. Israel's City Walls provide +1 Faith and -10% espionage in addition to the standard benefits of walls.

Notes:
- Requires Gods and Kings Expansion.
- The leader scene uses Darius.
- The Descriptions and Histories included are taken from Wiki pages for the most part.
- This mod is operating under the idea of ancient Israel... not modern Israel.
- This is my second mod. I'm curious to see feedback in particular regarding whether you think the unique trait/building and unit combo are balanced.

Version 2 Change: Removes the Jerusalem City-State


The Akkadians
Leader: Sargon (Sarru-kin) [legitimate king]

Unique Trait: Sharing of the Table - All melee units start with the Shock Promotion and Akkad begins the game with a free Gardener (Unique Unit). The Akkadian Empire also begins with the technology Akkadian Administration, which allows building the Court of the Magistrates. This National Wonder requires a Stele in the city where it is built, adds one happiness, a Great Engineer slot and provides a 10% reduction to unhappiness across the empire. Cost to build this National Wonder increases as the number of cities in the empire increases.

Unique Building: Stele. The Akkadian Stele replaces the monument and provides new melee units with the Promotion "Stele of the Vultures": Enemy units receive -10% Combat Strength when adjacent to any unit with this promotion.

Unique Unit: Gardener. A slightly less expensive Worker, representative of Sargon's allies when first crowned.

Notes:
- Requires Gods and Kings Expansion.
- The leader scene uses Darius. Babylon would probably look more appropriate, but this removes a dependency.
- The Descriptions and Histories included are taken from Wiki pages for the most part.

Version 2 Changes:
This version revamps the Akkadian Empire much. The Vulture Warrior unique unit is gone, and added is a Unique National Wonder. The first version's free granary and added happiness in the Stele combined for an overpowered early expansion. This version is designed to force the player to carefully balance early expansion with stopping to build a powerful early National Wonder.

Thanks: to JNR for the feedback and ideas

 

[codepoet]

Reserved again

 

[codepoet]

Reserved

 

[janboruta]

I've been playing a fair bit of time as Israel and I totally love how the game turns into searching for possible pastures to gain as much faith as possible. And because the player is kinda forced to build walls in every city, this makes for a super defensive civ.

And I'm glad you revamped the Akkadians into a truly unique civ. The previous version was too similar to Sumer mods out there, which also focused on Vulture unit and food. Going to test them right away.

About Scotland: I posted a comment the other day in the Steam Workshop page. Maybe I won't play with them as much as with your other civs, but I'm going to leave them always activated, for the altered city lists of Celts and Scotland

Good job and looking forward to your new releases!

EDIT:

I wrote this in the Steam Workshop, but I wanted to make sure it reaches you.

Could you change Israel's capital name from Jerusalem to something like Yerushalaim? It conflicts with Jerusalem religious city-state and the latter (which is always settled later) gets a random name from another civ's city list. Today it became Tver from Russia

 

[codepoet]

I've been playing a fair bit of time as Israel and I totally love how the game turns into searching for possible pastures to gain as much faith as possible. And because the player is kinda forced to build walls in every city, this makes for a super defensive civ.

And I'm glad you revamped the Akkadians into a truly unique civ. The previous version was too similar to Sumer mods out there, which also focused on Vulture unit and food. Going to test them right away.

About Scotland: I posted a comment the other day in the Steam Workshop page. Maybe I won't play with them as much as with your other civs, but I'm going to leave them always activated, for the altered city lists of Celts and Scotland

Good job and looking forward to your new releases!

EDIT:

I wrote this in the Steam Workshop, but I wanted to make sure it reaches you.

Could you change Israel's capital name from Jerusalem to something like Yerushalaim? It conflicts with Jerusalem religious city-state and the latter (which is always settled later) gets a random name from another civ's city list. Today it became Tver from Russia

Thanks for the feedback.
Thanks for finding the issue with the CityState naming... I'll resolve it this evening. Probably by just removing Jerusalem from the list of available city-states :]

 

[codepoet]

Ok - updated the Israel mod so that it will remove the Jerusalem City-State while this mod is active.

Thanks