Since Heretic_Cata is going to let me play fantasy mod-maker in his thread, Ill make some reckless suggestions to King Coltrane:
The nomad modification sounds really neat. Heres a suggestion for putting it at the center of a new mod and pushing it really far.
Start with the idea that some civs (such as the Ottomans, the Arabs, and the Mongols) were nomadic until recent centuries, and then survived and prospered by basically taking over large parts of other civs (the old Byzantine and Persian lands; China; India). Then use the nomad idea to try to model this.
Create a pre-made map with pre-set civ locations. Most of these would start next to rivers. Call these
riverine civs. Call the ones that do not start near a river
nomad civs.
Start all players in Anarchy but give them quick access to two government forms. Semi-Nomadic Tribe is instantly available and works as you describe: Insane levels of corruption, and the ability to build and use a fairly cheap small wonder (Nomadic Tradition) that auto-produces special Horsemen with the enslavement ability. (I say Horsemen so that it will be useful on Large and Huge maps.) Despotism, meanwhile, is only available after researching two or three other techs.
Limit cities so that they require a river or an aqueduct to grow beyond 5 citizens. And set Settlers to cost 5 citizens. Thus, only cities by a river or an aqueduct can produce Settlers.
The riverine civs, then, would be in a position to switch to Despotism and onto the standard civ development track fairly early; they would also build cities but probably be fairly limited in geographic extent because of the crippling cost of expanding; and unless there were a lot of rivers around, they probably wouldnt undergo serious expansion until Aqueducts were available, near the end of the Ancient Era.
By contrast, the nomad civs would have to rely upon enslavement to expand.
In addition, give the nomad civs a special (religious-like) trait: Steppe Tradition. This civ-specific tech gives a sequential series of other techs that would only be available to civs with that trait. So Steppe Tradition >> Horse Warrior >> Horse Archer >> Mameluke >> Keshik. Each would give the ability to build a cheap small wonder that (only under Semi-Nomadic Tribe) would auto-produce increasingly powerful horsed units, ending in a wonder that builds a Keshik that is modestly more powerful than Cavalry. None of these units would have enslavement power. And the very first tech in this branch would also shut down the Nomadic Tradition wonder.
Each of these techs would be enormously expensive to research; ideally, they should timed so that, if only these techs were researched, Keshik would only realistically be available when the most advanced riverine civs are nearing the end of the Middle Ages. However, all of these techs derived from Steppe Tradition would, technically, be Ancient Age. But the last unit in the tree would go obsolete with the acquisition of Metallurgy.
This means that a nomadic civ would have a choice at the outset.
First, it could try to compete with the riverine civs. To do this, it would avoid the Steppe Tradition line and keep its military units that let it enslave units and convert them to settlers, and then use these settlers to populate the prairie. Necessity and opportunity would probably force it to build a geographically farflung empire of small cities and move to a research-friendly government. Only such an empire could keep up with trade-heavy riverine civs in the research race.
Alternately, it could develop the extreme Steppe Tradition. This would involve researching
only the techs in the Steppe Tradition tree. These would allow it to remain militarily viable, even as a single city, throughout the Ancient and Middle Ages,
even if it never discovered or acquired any other techs.
However, it would only be assured of survival in the later ages, probably, by acting as a parasite upon nearby civs: Terrorizing a riverine civ by pillaging its land and capturing one or two cities and using them to extort techs in the peace negotiations; using the money to quick-build additional units or improvements; letting the captured cities lapse back to the victimized civ; and then repeating the process after the peace treaty had expired. Only when it had caught up to the other civs in the tech race and/or reached the end of Steppe Tradition by reaching Metallurgy would it pay to move to the Ottoman strategy of permanently incorporating the cities of another civ (or two), by conquering and holding most or all of its cities. (Call this the bodysnatcher strategy: By gradually acquiring a civs techs, then violently incorporating the body of its victim, even to the point, perhaps of abandoning its own original city and setting its new capital in the old civs capital, it becomes its victim.) It could then compete with other civs on an equal footing.
Now, I have no idea if this is doable with the AI. From the initial tests, it sounds like the AI could handle the first nomad strategy. I dont know if there is a way to make the second strategy attractive to the AI (unless, maybe, there is a way to make those techs attractive to civs with the Militaristic+Expansionist trait). And I cant see that it could play it intelligently; it requires a human mind to see the possibilities. But an AI civ that pursued the Steppe tech would probably be a nasty neighbor to have.
I have no idea if any of what I wrote makes sense or is even remotely doable
I'll think about that, but if i'll make it upgrade to anything else it would be the rifleman or smthing around that part. Occultism had quite a "golden age" in the late XIX century (in france at least ...).
:
And it's just the casing that's buildable without the Space Program right ?
Large map, an almost all-tundra island with space for 5-6 cities!
Great news. 
Thank you. 
