How have you customized Civ 4?

[Common Sensei]

What tweaks and gameplay changes have you made to customize the game to your tastes? Here are a few of mine off the top of my head:

Navy SEAL replaced with Marine Corps, removed First Strike ability and replaced with +10% against Gunpowder Units, and +50% against Artillery and Mobile Artillery. I used Grave's graphic components gotten here: http://forums.civfanatics.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=7098

Added to Sefdom:
+2 to Farm, Pasture
-50% to growth rate for Cottages

Added to Police State:
+1 for Intelligence Agency
+1 for Courthouse

Added to Pacifism:
+50% War Weariness

Added Biology bonus to Plantations (+2 )

I wanted to play around with the civics a little more, but what I want to do requires SDK changes so are more involved. For example, I want to try things like having each Spy specialist to provide +1 under Police State (instead of the Intelligence Agency and Courthouse) and each Artist to provide +1 under Free Speech.

 

[Civfan333]

I don't like changing it besides, I don't know how.

 

[BENdage]

I've made quite a few changes to mine.

- Firstly I've reskinned a lot of units

- The Ironclad has been replaced with an ironclad frigate, its more expensive but is faster and can cross oceans, more like the ironclads of the european powers than an american civil war one.

- 4 new units. Bombard - to go between trebs and artillery. Dreadnought - fills a bit of a gap for industrial age naval units. Jet bomber - better than bomber, not as good as stealth, but longest range. Transport helicopter - weak air transport unit that can carry marines, to try and keep marines useful as I find they cant keep up in armoured warfare but marines are still heavily used in modern warfare.

- 1 new building - superhighways - 1 +5% per oil resource

- Some new techs to spread out the industrial era and allow new units to come in. Firearms - Musketmen come with this tech, whilst bombards come with gunpowder, the earliest gunpowder weapons were siege weapons, not handheld. Engineering works - doesnt allow anything at the mo, but represents the excellent industrial triumphs of the era (thinking of a crystal palace wonder, or a national wonder of some kind) Steam turbine - allows the dreadnought and keeps you in the industrial age for longer. Jet engines - After advanced flight, now allows the jet fighter and bomber. Logistics - allows the transport helicopter and superhighways.

And changes to the way that economic & production buildings work. Rather than a marketplace just giving a generic +25% , it now just gives the bonus, and +5% per happiness resource. The grocer now gives no extra cash, you get the health bonus, and get +2.5% per food resource. The supermarket now gives +10% per food resource, and +1 from all food resources to replace the existing health bonus.
Forges dont give any production bonus themselves, but again for each early production resource (ie Stone, marble, iron, copper, horses) you get +6% . Factories get +10% per late game production resource (ie. Copper, iron, aluminium) coal is delibertely excluded as its already represented by the power bonus from the coal plant

The aim of the economy changes is to make colonies a long way away worth it in some cases. If founding a city on a whole new island gets you access to dye for example, although that city may cost you 10 to maintain, every city with a marketplace gets +5% so overseas posessions for resources are worth having

 

[Slobadog]

I've only grasped XML editing and only partially.
Here is a list of changes i made.


Permenant changes:



1) Global warming probability reduced to zero.


2) Great Generals can now start golden ages


3) Installed my More Historical Civilopedia mod



Temporary changes that i only occasionally use:



1) Global warming probability changed from 0 to 1 percent



2) Navy Seals can do airdrops. airdrop range 5. 25% evasion chance.

3) Paratroopers airdrop range increased from 5 to 6

4) Bararys provide additional benefits. This includes 1 culture and 1 priest slot (Not free priest).


5) Cossacks now start with blitz



There are also further modding projects in the works.

 

[Wolfshanze]

1) Completely upgraded unit graphics... almost every nation gets it's own unique unit set (Germans look like Germans, French look French, Japanese look Japanese, etc, etc)... thanks to many unit makers on the forum.

2) Filled-in the massive naval hole in the industrial age between Frigates and WWII destroyers... now have ocean-going Ironcloads, Pre-Dreadnoughts, Dreadnoughts and-on to WWII modern units.

3) Broke-down naval units into distinct ages... "Age of Sail", "Ironclad Age", "Pre-Dreadnought Age", "Dreadnought Age", "Modern Age", "Nuclear Age"... units from one age get a combat bonus when fighting vessels from a previous age... reducing the chances of more modern ships losing to really old ones.

4) Added naval promotions of damage control and gunnery control, which work like "March" and "Blitz" but for naval units... just available at more appropriate times for Pre-Dreadnought and newer warships.

5) Added WWI units to the game, including WWI fighters, bombers, tanks.

6) Changed game to be playable with 40-civs at a time if you want (thanks to LtBob)

7) Changed "Global Warming" to spread "Fallout" instead of "Desert" tiles. (thanks to LtBob)

8) No more 100 years of Airships causing destruction unchecked... Airships come only with the combination of Physics AND Combustion! WWI Biplane fighters come quickly on the heal of Airships with my changes.

9) Added leaders Hitler for Germany and Hirohito for Japan.

10) Probably a few more changes I'm forgetting about, but I did all this to make me happy with the game... oh... and then... Made my changes I liked available to everyone else (if you want to try them)... see "Wolfshanze Mod" in my sig-line.

 

[EnlightenmentHK]

Would you like to install Total Realism Warlords Gold version 2.2? Yes.

All the modification necessary.

Best additions in the mod:

More Civ specific units, graphics, and buildings. Enhanced leadership traits. New and better Civics. Actual differences between religious. Extended and much improved early eras. Great Generals build quite interesting military doctrines rather than simply settling for experience bonuses. More unit variation and bonuses/penalties against various types and eras of units. Improved and expanded espionage. (although not quite as much as BTS, which revamped that concept pretty thoroughly)

Its in need of some AI tweaks and late game alterations, but on the whole its a hell of alot better than vanilla Warlords and still a substantial improvement over BTS.

 

[Common Sensei]

Would you like to install Total Realism Warlords Gold version 2.2? Yes.

All the modification necessary.

Best additions in the mod:

More Civ specific units, graphics, and buildings. Enhanced leadership traits. New and better Civics. Actual differences between religious. Extended and much improved early eras. Great Generals build quite interesting military doctrines rather than simply settling for experience bonuses. More unit variation and bonuses/penalties against various types and eras of units. Improved and expanded espionage. (although not quite as much as BTS, which revamped that concept pretty thoroughly)

Its in need of some AI tweaks and late game alterations, but on the whole its a hell of alot better than vanilla Warlords and still a substantial improvement over BTS.

Cool and all, but that's more akin to a "complete overhaul mod" than tweaking. I'd be just as prone to tweak things I see in that mod that I don't agree with as much as the standard product.

 

[JujuLautre]

- BUG Mod
- free great prophet to divine right
- returned the BTS conquistador to its previous state
- flanking attack to previous-age siege unit (cuirassiers and cavalry flank cannons, cats and trebs, gunships flank everything)
- 6 strength to jaguar, without city attack bonus (since the recent thread)
- explorers are not draftable
- I'm sure I forget something

 

[Common Sensei]

- BUG Mod
- free great prophet to divine right
- returned the BTS conquistador to its previous state
- flanking attack to previous-age siege unit (cuirassiers and cavalry flank cannons, cats and trebs, gunships flank everything)
- 6 strength to jaguar, without city attack bonus (since the recent thread)
- explorers and not draftable
- I'm sure I forget something

I like these. What is "explorers and not draftable" though?

 

[digitCruncher]

Ive only done one tweak:

Global warming produces tundra instead of desert (riverside 'global warming' can make +1 +1 , or -1 +6 (+1 with US), or -2 +1 , +3 (+1 with state property,and +1 with caste system)

It means a city can survive, especially if its riverside, even if there is tons of nukes flying everywhere

As soon as I learn how to add units, Im going to add (or modify) 4 units, if the AI can adjust:

Bombard: 8 , 1 , +50% vs. cities, req. Gunpowder and enginneering (?). Upgrades from trebuchet and catapult, and is a gunpowder unit.

Ironclad: 16 , 3 , Gunpowder ship that can bombard at the same rate as a frigate (-8% per turn?). Requires Steam Power, Steel, Iron, Coal. (A ship that is stronger than a ship-of-the-line. Seriously, ironclads are almost WEAKER than Ship-of-the-lines in almost every way (except being slightly cheaper, and better vs. Ship-of-the-lines (but they are just as strong vs. Frigates!!). But Ironclads are MUCH slower, can only travel on coast, and are very late for thier usage.

Modern Privateer (They exist in the real world, so why they stop in the late medieval / early reinnecance?): 30 , 5 (The same speed as a battleship, maybe -1), hidden nationality, Requires Oil or Uranium, Iron or Aluminium, Industrialism, Combustion (if required). -50% defence vs. Submarines)

Strike Force: (Upgrades from Paratroopers). 32 , Paradrop Range: 10, Can evade interception (40% Chance), Requires Composites, Advanced Flight. (Its a fast unit that is better than a gunship vs. gunpowder units, but still has a small weakness vs. SAM infantry, and Mobile SAM)

If the AI can't use these units, I will delete them.

I will also, eventually do these things:

* Explorers are not draftable (ATM they are, so releasing a colony before Gunpowder will draft Explorers, to 'defend' the empire.

* A new specialist (entertainer), gives +1.5 . Hope that the AI learns how to use them >.<. This will mean that the Happiness will be like it was in previous Civilisations. It will need balancing, however.

 

[JujuLautre]

I like these. What is "explorers and not draftable" though?

It means that I wrote "and" instead of "are"

As digitCruncher just said, it's a colony-related problem; I never encountered it yet, but just in case...

 

[Walliard]

All I've done is removed the random early barbarian horde event.

 

[Common Sensei]

Almost forgot:

Airships require Physics and Combustion

 

[cthom]

it never dawned on me till now that i could do some of these things myself. finding the time though...

 

[DrewBledsoe]

In Warlords....sheesh, almost the only things that were "out of the box" were the title screens So much that I couldn't even write it all down, I'd have to go through a list of side by side files to compare.

In BTS, I vowed to change nothing (with warlords I spent as much time tweaking in the end, as playing, which probably was a bad idea). At the moment solely playing Grave's HiTM mod, which does most of the stuff I tried, and a lot more!! Give it a spin if you want a change. Its basically as good as a new expansion pack on its own

 

[DMOC]

if i had the time, changing the weak praetorians to 10 strength

 

[Aristos]

BUG.
Bhuric's.

Without these, the game is not Civ.

Amazing work by those people.

 

[Enoch Root]

Changed castles and citadels so they become available with Feudalism and expire with Liberalism.

I have no idea whatsoever of XML editing or programming, so when I saw it worked I felt like some kind of incredibly skilled hacker.

I am now struggling with it to make catapults upgradeable to trebuchets.

 

[paydro]

"Modern Privateer (They exist in the real world, so why they stop in the late medieval / early reinnecance?): 30 , 5 (The same speed as a battleship, maybe -1), hidden nationality, Requires Oil or Uranium, Iron or Aluminium, Industrialism, Combustion (if required). -50% defence vs. Submarines)"

Wait, what? There are unmarked destroyers rolling around in the oceans? Asian pirates use quick, small ships and attack unarmed crews, they don't sink opposing ships of war. They're definitely not used in the way Privateers were to conduct anonymous wars.

 

[Wolfshanze]

The only thing a modern privateer should have a chance of knocking off is an unescorted transport... give it the strength of the transport with a 50% bonus against transports... if it were any stronger, it wouldn't be right... no way should it be able to take on other warships or bombard cities.