Dickinson College Real 1492 Historical Mod

The Dickinson College 1492 historical scenario with research by Patrick Schlee, coding by Edwin Padilla, and advised by Professor Webb is an exciting way to explore the different forces at play which allowed for the colonization of the continent in the 1880s. Extensive research was done to make the game as accurate as possible the notes for which you can at the link, bit.ly / 1xa9dnA. Based on Conquest of the New World and originally done for a college project, 1492 lets you experience the “Conquest” in far more realistic terms. The game includes a map of Western Europe, North and West Africa, the Caribbean, Mesoamerica and South America, with the Americas altered slightly to fit in a Huge map size. Each civ has a realistic depiction for that time period. Instead of making it so that the American civs have barely any technology or defensive fortifications, 1492 provides them with an informed estimate of what they had at the time. The point, in general, is to balance the game far more around actual civilization-crafting rather than just attempting to conquer people presented as being far less developed than they were in reality.
All civs included are playable, including the two new ones, and numerous city-states were created and added just for this. Other important aspects including the role of religion and the Atlantic slave trade are also included. The map is based on a combination of historic and contemporary maps showing the geography, era-specific borders, resources and production locations. Resources, besides a few discrepancies noted in the readme, are balanced and located where they were in real life. It’s also designed with certain historical events in mind, particularly wars in Italy, Portuguese invasions of Morocco, and constant competition between England, France, and Spain.

Here’s the list of features:
- 13 Playable Civs: Songhai, Morocco, Spain, Portugal, England, Netherlands, France, Venice, Quiche Maya, Incans, Aztecs, and custom civs the Tarascan Empire and the Papal State.
- significantly larger but geographically reasonably accurate representation of the Americas for larger competition.
- Atlantic Slave Trade option: through getting Open Borders with an African civ or an alliance with an African city-state, players can activate a significant boost to their colonial productivity.
- Play from 1492 to 1715, for a total of 446 turns!
- Atlantic ocean adapted to make travel lengthy while maintaining playability.
- New policy trees for the era: Renaissance, Monarchy, Reformation and Counter-Reformation, all with notable bonuses.
- Civ-specific religions, including Catholicism, Islam, Cult of Tlaloc etc.
- Experience the Reformation or start the Counter-Reformation
- 26 new city states covering Italy, Africa, and the Americas
- 2 new playable civs and leaders: Pope Alexander VI de Borgia of the Papal State, and Cazonci Zuangua of the Tarascan Empire.
- New units/buildings for those new civs: Pirinda Guards, Frontier Walls, Swiss Guards, and Franciscan Monastery

For those interested in the research behind the mod, a ReadMe file with citations is available here, https://docs.google.com/document/d/1g6PJcAcXz9nG7fzqZYuwWFFobaqhJu2zIE7pQQ-JNvI/edit?usp=sharing

Players interested in research based historical mods may want to also check out our mod on the colonization of Africa, http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=538103

Important
-The map is huge and the scenario will not run on many machines. We created and tested on machine with 8 GB of RAM and an Intel i5 processor. Computers with 4 GB or RAM and one year older could not load the game. If the game doesn’t load or is very slow, first try lowering the graphics in the Options area of Civ V.
-Requires Civ V Complete Edition or BNW, G&K, and Isabella and Pachacuti's Incan Empire DLC.
- After downloading from CivFanatics or Steam, be sure the entire mod folder is in your \Documents\My Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 5\MODS directory and you'll need to copy the map from the map folder to \Documents\My Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 5\Maps. You need to have both to play the full scenario.
-Once you start playing, save and reload the game. This will prevent a known bug where the user is not given the dialogue box after conquering a city with the option to create a puppet, http://forums.2k.com/showthread.php?178936-No-option-to-puppet-cities-post-patch

 

First off, my compliments on a job which obviously required quite a bit of work. That said, the scenario in its current state may need some wore work. I've played Portugal for 40 turns and noticed the following.

Porta Delgado starts with 3 pop, but can only support 2 (it has no Lighthouse). It also has virtually no production, as the isle consist of only 2 Plains tiles and has no sea resources; this can easily be fixed by making one or both Hills tiles.

About 35 turns into the game I made an African city state my ally, thereby triggering the Slave Trade event. I clicked Yes, but the same screen popped up next turn, the turn after that, etc. (I did not at this point have an American colony.)

The Aztecs seem a bit overpowered: their empire was actually virtually landlocked, except on the Pacific coast. Within a couple of turn after meeting the Mayans, they were conquered by the Aztecs. Exit Mayans.

I realize some ahistorical adaptions had to be made, but a note on the Netherlands only becoming independent after 1580 might be helpful. Also, even after that date, the Southern Netherlands remained in Spanish hands.

Finally, I played the scenario on a 60 GB PC and it played very well.

 

I take your point about Portugal. I'll speak with the students and repost. The Maya were already verging on collapse, so that may very well be intentional. The slave trade sounds like a bug. If you wouldn't mind sending us your saved game where it repeats each turn, that would be a big help. My email is bryantt@dickinson.edu

 

I would if I could locate it. (It's not in My Documents/My Games/SM Civ 5/Saves.)

 

OK, no problem. We'll test today and get back to you.

 

Agent327, thanks again for writing. We just uploaded a new map with version 6 with your suggestions. We weren't able to replicate the slave trade problem, and you mentioned a dated link in your post on Steam, so I'm guessing you had an older version. Update with the link here or on Steam. You'll be able to tell you have the new version if there is fish off of Porta Delgada.

After some discussion, we're going to leave the Aztecs. I know they look very powerful, but the historical numbers back it up. Cortes was able to defeat them due to variables not present in the game, and this is part of what our students learn from playing the scenario. One major factor was disease, but even more important way Montezuma's belief that he would be presented with a sign of the coming doom of the empire. He saw the arrival of Cortes as this sign. Otherwise he could have easily destroyed his party. He was also considerably stronger than his neighbors, so he would have had the ability to expand had chose to do so.

If you're interested in reading more about it, there's an article on Escapist Magazine about an earlier mod we did in Civ IV that discusses the same scenario.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/art.../issues/issue_203/6097-Don-t-Knock-the-Aztecs

Let me know if the mod still has any bugs for you.

 

Are the civs identical to the ones in - game?

 

For future reference, there's a ModdedSaves folder.

 

Thanks, DoctorMcGann.

Natan35, the Papal State and Tarascans (north of the Aztecs in modern day Mexico) are new custom civs.

 

But you said that England and France are in the game: Do they have the same unique units, buildings, etc. As in the normal game?
Oh, i realized that my computer isn't strong enough
Can you add a smaller map?

 

I'm sorry, Natan. I know it's a huge map, but there's no way that I know of to shrink the map without recreating everything, and the student project is over.

 

Oh well... its not the first time students make scenarios for the game, and hopefully its not the last.

 

My game loads and all civs have random start positions. Anyone know why!!!!!!!

 

Figured it out