European Middle Ages Mod Resurrection

I have also noticed that the Tatars tend to be extremely weak throughout the game. Maybe something to look at.
 
Hey everybody!

Just an update from me - I have been working on the building xml, and though it is rather slow-going, I am pleased to say it is coming along nicely. I hope to have something to show to you guys sometime soon.

@Head Serf - As you are the primary code architect, I was wondering if you would mind if I broke the buildings text into multiple text files instead of putting it all in GameTextInfos_Medieval. What I would like to do is create the following files:
GameText_Civilopedia_Buildings
GameText_Medieval_Strategy
GameTextInfos_Medieval_Buildings

If this is acceptable to you, I will create the files, and move any applicable existing text from GameTextInfos_Medieval to the new files.

If you would prefer to have everything in one file, that is fine by me, I just thought I'd ask. :)

-Laina
 
I don´t know lately the progress of this mod, but, I was planing to make a version of a Middle Ages/Renaissent Mod.
One of the things that I put enphasis on was the unit classes tha you have. I divide ground units in 7 categories: Melee (Maceman, Swords), Ranged (Archer, Xbows) Polearmas (Spearman, Pike) Heavy Calvary (Knights), Light Calvary (Horse Archers), Guns (Musket, Arquebuser) and Siege (Catapults, Trebs). This alows to created a better balance between units. In terms of naval units there are things to consider: 1 is there si only 2 types: Naval Power and Naval Cargo. The second is that the length of the mod do not allows to go futher than Carracks, around 1500. If you go deeper, you can have Caravel. But the mod ends there, so you need to balance that.
 
mmm, well guys, sorry to break the tread of thought, but being VERY excitied to try this brilliant work. When I load up the mod it exits the window then a error message saying Civ4 warlords had unexpectedly quit. I got the 2.08 patch and extracted the files to the mod section and everything is there.

Any ideas?
 
By the way, I'm loving this new version. Things are coming around nicely. I'm working on a new scenario for all of Europe, and it's working out very well.

In the Autoplay games I've done, there is invariably a spaceship victory, usually either Silk Road or Hanseatic. These two victory types may be a little too easy... they usually come about 1350 AD or so, at the default mod speed and difficulty. This may be related to the fact that their techs come rather earlier than the final tech for the New World Victory. Anyhow, the costs may have to be tweaked, and additional higher techs considered for prerequisites for some of the modules/components (as well as certain building prereq/resources needed that have been previously mentioned). I'm certain this will come about with further playtesting, and consideration.

Looking good, so far.
 
Hi Everyone!

I'm working on toning down the gold / trade route bonuses, and I'm thinking that maybe the Hansa Memberships would be more effective as world wonders, rather than national wonders.

With all the Hansa Members (6), plus the Contact Nat'l Wonders (3), 9 out of 14 of our national wonders are economy-related, and they all provide extra trade routes.

If we made the Hansa Members world wonders, we could better spread those extra trade routes, and create some competition for the memberships. Any thoughts?

Also, to diversify our Nat'l Wonders, I would like to bring back the Oxford University and Wall Street (as Medici Bank). They were both Middle Ages institutions, and normally play a key role in a city specialization strategy.

Does anyone have any ideas for any other nat'l wonders? I am thinking about "medievalizing" West Point, and perhaps Ironworks - any ideas?

-Laina
 
Speaking to the Hansa Members first:

I totally understand why making them true wonders is a good idea. It makes them somewhat unique, and gets away from the cookie-cutter wonder that National Wonders in such large numbers become... that being said, I have inferred that Headserf's philosophy is that Wonders be restricted to true wonders, actual physical structures emblematic of great works. In that vain, he removed such Wonders as the Magna Carta. He'll correct me if I'm wrong in my supposition. I'm not certain if I'm of the same opinion on this... I wish the Projects were more flexible as to their effects as I think they're use for Hansa Memberships and such would be more effective and realistic than either National Wonders of Wonders in representing the idea of league membership.

Possibily the Hansa Memberships could be a mix of National and true Wonders. As I mentioned before, they should be spread across more techs, and have differing effects and resource requirements. The resource requirements could differ according to the area of trade each Hansa Memberships are said to represent... for instance there could be Banking Hansa, Textile Hansa, various commodity Hansa (salt, beeswax, amber, furs, gold/silver, grains, etc.- all goods, trade in which, the various Hansa members indulged in). Banking Hansa would require gold/silver resource and Banking Tech and act like Wall Street Wonder. Flemish Textiles would require sheep, and generate cloth (similar to the way Broadway generates Hits). These could be a mix of National and True Wonders depending on the monopoly status of the particular business... Flemish Textiles were a longstanding monopoly, so they could be a true wonder. There were a lot of Guildhalls and generic Hansa members as well, and they could better be represented by a National Wonder that comes with Guilds tech... they could vary in resource requirements to show the diverse trades of the various Hansa.

We could also get away from calling them Hansa Member wonders, and rather have certain wonders produce the Hansa Member resource. For instance, we could create wonders such as Medici Bank and/or Jakob Fuggers Merchant Bank, and have each produce a Hansa Member resource. Similarly, Hansas represented by National Wonders could be called Baltic Salt Trade, or Scandanavian Fur Trading Cartel, etc. and produce the Hansa Membership resource in addition to whatever subsiduary effects you wish to use for that particular Hansa wonder.

All the above has the effect of removing the Hansa Memberships idea from being a cookie cutter one, and makes them unique and more distinct, even in the case of National Wonders.

As for the Oxford and Medici Bank National Wonders, I am all for inclusion of the former... it makes sense, although keeping Oxford as a true Wonder and adding an additional "Royal University" National Wonder with differing effects would also work.

I'd make Medici Bank a true wonder, with the addition of a second one, Jacob Fugger's Bank. You could have it act like Wall Street with added effects... Each could, for instance, produce Hansa Membership resources, and in the case of the Medici Bank, some resource that enhances building of Silk Road components, too. Another thought is that the Medici Bank could produce another resource, "Florins", which would be a tradeable resource similar to Broadway hits. Likewise, Jacob Fugger could produce "Guilders". These would require gold or silver to be produced. Fugger might give a free bank in each city, as a possible benefit.

All I've said above could be equally applied to the other spaceship victory components. The same ideas of making the components, or prerequisite wonders unique and differentiated in effects could be incorporated in these as well.

Finally, as I've previously mentioned, the Hansa Diet and Syndic should be moved to representation. I think some of the Hansa Wonders should be in other techs like preservation (salt trade), Banking, Pilotage (north sea trade), Representation (free cities could chose to be Hansa Members). These could be required prerequisites in addition to Guilds.

As well, all Hansa Members should require a Guildhall as a building prereq. Or a Bank in the case of a Bank Hansa.

School of Navigation (aka Henry the Navigator's School) could be a National Wonder. I've previously mentioned Cinque Ports (or Royal Navy) as a possible national wonder (a naval "westpoint", requiring 5 dockyards). I suppose "Royal Army" could be a Westpoint type national wonder - or "New Model Army"? although that comes 100 years too late. Anyhow, such a wonder should come with Professional Warfare.

No ideas for ironworks.

That's my 2 cents, anyhow. I could flush out the ideas more if they're acceptable.
 
I've some ideas for religious based national wonders... I'll describe them in this and the next post...

Oracle...

This is not the Vanilla Civ version. In history there are many special places that are associated with various pagan religions. The Saxons had a special tree (torn down by Charlemagne), others had sacred stone circles, or special woods... the Oracle represents centres of worship for pagan pantheons within a specific culture.

This is a National Wonder. It requires the state religion to be Pagan. Effects are as per Stonehenge except Sacred Site, not Obelisk, is in every city. It would require Mysticism Tech and a Sacred Site.
 
The following National Wonders are religious based buildings. Each requires a certain religion be the state religion, and produces special units in limited numbers (as per missionaries).

Berserker Hall (or Jomsviking Hall)... requires Pagan be the state religion. Requires 3 sacred sites (pagan temples?). Allows production of limited number (5?) of Berserker units. Berserkers as Swordsman type units that can be built in the city of this wonder in limited numbers when the religion is Pagan. They revert to Swordsman when the state religion is not pagan. They are obsolete with the same tech as swordsman becomes obsolete, and upgrade to footknight. Should have increase strength, but decreased defense...

Represent fanatic Pagan warrior, exemplified by Berserker, but also seen in various pagan warrior cults such as Dervishes, or other sacred warrior bands.

Order Chapterhouse... represents centre for particular Crusader Order. Available with Monastic Order Tech. Orthodox and Catholic versions require appropriate religion be state religion. Require monastery buildings (5). Allows production of Order Knights and Order Footknights in limited number (5?). They are obsolete with same techs as Knight and Footknight, and upgrade similarly.

Muslim equivalent to Chapterhouse. Requires Islam be state religion. Available with Monastic Orders. Requires 5 islamic monasteries. Produces knight/footknight crusader equivalents (mudjahadeem?) and upgrades same way.

Again, should this be acceptable I'd work on this in more detail.
 
I played three complete games of v0.5 on Prince level as the Byzantines, English, and Turks. All games ended with the "spaceship victory", where by "spaceship" I mean either New World, Hanseatic League, or Silk Road. I won one game, and lost two (caveat: in one of the games I lost I was only 1 turn away from completing the requirements for a Silk Route victory).

Based on my observations during those games, here are some suggestions that might help improve gameplay.

* Lower the requirement for domination victory. Maybe change the threshhold from 35% pop & 51% land area to something that would be achievable, such as 20% pop & 20% land area. With current settings, a military victory is impossible and all civilizations race to complete a "spaceship".

* Tech research times should be slightly slower. For example, during my first game, when I completed all techs there were approximately 90 turns left in the game.

* Some of the techs allowing construction of spaceship components should be at the very end of the tech tree. I won a Hanseatic League victory as the Turks just a few turns after discovering the tech allowing me to build the Janissary unique unit. I never even got to use a Janissary in combat because the game ended too soon.

* The AI is relatively dumb and tries to build all three spaceship wonders simultaneously. The human Player has a big advantage because he will focus all his production effort on just one spaceship. Would it be possible to restrict who can build which type of spaceship? For example, the Spanish and the western european civilizations would only be able to build the New World components, Italy and central european civilizations would only be able to build the Hanseatic League, and Byzantium and the Arab nations would only be able to build the Silk Road. This would force the AI to focus its efforts.

* The map is quite big and with land units moving only two tiles per turn it took say 14 turns for my units to cross from one side of my empire to the other, even on roads. How about adding a tech called "forced march" or "improved roads" or something along those lines which will add one extra tile movement to all land units on roads?

* Likewise, perhaps the movement rate of all ships could be increased by 1 from the beginning of the game. I was playing as the Byzantines and saw that the English had almost completed the spaceship, but I did not have enough time to load my army onto ships and sail all the way to England. (I did, however, wipe out the Italian States because they had also almost completed a spaceship). This kind of gets back to my idea about a military (domination) victory being impossible with current settings, because the Player does not have the time or the mobility to attack every AI civilization that has almost finished its spaceship.

Overall, this is a great mod and I really enjoyed it.
 
I have an idea to give civs a bit more variety, why not translate their diplomacy into their native language? And then have the English translation under it.
 
Good points, Gringoestaban. Nice to hear from someone who's been playing the mod scenario to completion.

Domination Victory requirements... perhaps, instead of lowering them as drastically as you say, we should try to do it more incrementally... 25%/34% perhaps.

I totally agree with the tech research times... I rejigged the game speeds in the last version, so the games are slightly longer at each speed than in Vanilla Civ. I still like the idea of running out of research before game end so that the units/buildings at the game's end have some playing time, but 50 turns is better (and there really ought to be future tech included, that gives some benefits).

I think some reconfiguring of the Spaceship Victories will occur. It would be nice if there could be a geographic aspect to it. Don't think this is possible... except possibily in Python. The Space Elevator in Vanilla has a latitude requirement... maybe that can be used to differentiate Hanseatic and silk road building sites. Or is someone knows Python, it might be possible to restrict buildings to a grid (a building might require map coordinates within a certain grid such as xplot=20 to 40 and yplot=25 to 30). I'm not a programmer though. Restricting building by Civ is possible, and may have to be considered if the AI continues to have trouble... but perhaps using tech flavors in a constructive manner may also help.

Perhaps the extra land moves might be done by promotions, rather than giving all units extra movement. If all units have extra moves, how does that affect the mounted/unmounted unit mix? Does an extra movement change the combat dynamic? Someone more familiar with the game might know this.

I did the ship movement. They can certainly be increased. If anyone wants me to redo the movements, I'll figure out new values. It isn't just as simple as increasing each by one movement point, as the movements have been carefully choreographed between Sailing Class and Galley Class vessels and the 2 movement point cost for coastal and one for ocean tiles. I'll do the reworking of movement if everyone thinks it is needed.

Head Serf, let me know what you think about changing the naval movement values, and with your go ahead, and a general consensus, I'll rework them...

That's all from me for now.
 
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