Immortal Babylon Photojournal (VP 9-6 w/ 4UC, EE, Expanded Wonders, and a bunch of other mods)

[Stalker0]

Just catching up on this photojournal. I do like seeing one with modmods, its a nice a way to get exposed to them without having to play them myself. Some of them I had never heard of so might give them a try one day.

 

[KaoticKanine]

Just catching up on this photojournal. I do like seeing one with modmods, its a nice a way to get exposed to them without having to play them myself. Some of them I had never heard of so might give them a try one day.

Glad you think so! And I do highly recommend you try out these mods lol If playing VP by itself gets boring, these will change up the experience

Unfortunately, I have very bad news for everyone watching this thread. I'm afraid that, in the middle of working on the next part of the Photojournal, my game unexpectedly crashed (I say 'unexpectedly' because the game hasn't crashed in so long even with the massive use of mods, so I wasn't prepared for it). And because I wasn't saving religiously, all my progress up to that point is gone. And it was quite a lot of progress...
So, as much as I hate to do this given what I've said since the beginning, I'm heavily considering retiring this photojournal. Getting back to that point is going to be a massive slog for me, and I can't deny I've gotten very bored of playing this particular game; Babylon is a good Civ, I'll definitely try them out again, but I went Tradition when it wasn't a good situation for it and there are other Civs I want to try out. I also want to do a new photojournal with a lot more mods, play on a different map and have that be my "photojournal map", and basically improve my style of photojournaling

With that said, would you all be okay with me posting what I got and we can call that the end of this photojournal? Or should I just suck it up and keep going, play to the very end despite this huge setback? I mean, despite my feelings on this game up to this point, I'm not going to abandon it if you all want to see how it ends. Leaving this game in that case, would be massively unprofessional of me lol

 

[CppMaster]

With that said, would you all be okay with me posting what I got and we can call that the end of this photojournal? Or should I just suck it up and keep going, play to the very end despite this huge setback? I mean, despite my feelings on this game up to this point, I'm not going to abandon it if you all want to see how it ends. Leaving this game in that case, would be massively unprofessional of me lol

If you feel like ending this photojournal to start a new one then by all means do it! If it bores you then quality of comments may suffers and you won't enjoy it anyway, so there is no point.
What civ do you plan to play next? Denmark maybe?
Btw, why haven't you used autosaves? Set it for every turn, so you don't lose progress.

 

[randomnub]

"R.E.D. Modpack"

my game unexpectedly crashed

RED in the late game leads to a stupid amount of lag and crashes in my experience, it uses so many resources. Shame. GG anyway.

 

[amateurgamer88]

If you don't enjoy it, just give this photojournal a proper finish. It's quite an uphill to come anyways so replaying the whole process can be discouraging. I look forward to your new photojournal though.

 

[KaoticKanine]

RED in the late game leads to a stupid amount of lag and crashes in my experience, it uses so many resources. Shame. GG anyway.

Ah dang And that's probably been what's causing my game's 'icons' to bug out. Man, that really sucks cause I want my Units to be ethnically accurate, but I guess I have to stop using R.E.D... But thanks for letting me know of that lol

If you feel like ending this photojournal to start a new one then by all means do it! If it bores you then quality of comments may suffers and you won't enjoy it anyway, so there is no point.

Thanks for the input Yeah, best to just move on from this and do a better job with the next one. I noticed that when writing for the next part of this photojournal, I was just jotting notes on the events that happened in certain turns, and it's just boring, especially compared to everyone else's. Only thing making this photojournal worth reading were my witty comments, but that in itself was losing edge as I lost interest in the game. So very well, I shall post what I got up to this point, retire this photojournal, and get to work on the next one

What civ do you plan to play next? Denmark maybe?

Denmark is very enticing He was the first, and so far only, Civ I had a successful Domination game as. Although, I'm thinking my next one will be the Iroquois, not only because the Civ is of great interest to me in this game and in real life, but because 4UCs gives them a UB that makes Diplomatic Victory VERY viable for them, and in that sense an Iroquois Photojournal would best show off how much 4UCs adds to Civs. Of course, 4UCs also vastly improves Denmark's Domination game... I'll think about those choices ;D In the meantime, anyone else can throw in a suggestion/request

Btw, why haven't you used autosaves? Set it for every turn, so you don't lose progress.

Cause I'm a complete noob and didn't think to utilize that feature Definitely going to use that from now on

If you don't enjoy it, just give this photojournal a proper finish. It's quite an uphill to come anyways so replaying the whole process can be discouraging. I look forward to your new photojournal though.

Understood, and thanks Working on the regrettably final update now, then I'll decide which Civ to tackle next

 

[CppMaster]

Ah dang And that's probably been what's causing my game's 'icons' to bug out. Man, that really sucks cause I want my Units to be ethnically accurate, but I guess I have to stop using R.E.D... But thanks for letting me know of that lol

Me, as reader, I don't really care about models, I just focus on icons of units anyway, because it's way clearer. Does it make a difference to any other viewer?

 

[amateurgamer88]

Me, as reader, I don't really care about models, I just focus on icons of units anyway, because it's way clearer. Does it make a difference to any other viewer?

I'm here for the story. I don't even pay attention to the models. xD

 

[KaoticKanine]

Me, as reader, I don't really care about models, I just focus on icons of units anyway, because it's way clearer. Does it make a difference to any other viewer?

That's true! Models are barely noticeable when viewed from a screenshot, so R.E.D. is just unnecessary stress to the PC lol

With that, here is the next, and unfortunately last part, of my ill-fated Babylon Photojournal...

Spoiler :

Turn 165
-At the suggestion of others, I make a beeline for Compass in order to get Harbor, with which I can trade with the ‘tech leader’, in this case the Mayans

-I form an Academy on top of the Lapis Lazuili, not daring to make the mistake of placing GPIs on pure Desert tiles and since this Lapis is within reach of Akkad

Turn 169

-My spy manages to steal technology from Elizabeth, and I decide to go with Machinery for Crossbowman, as well as Ironworks, which will really help with Production and catching up on Science

Turn 170
-Great Merchant is born in Babylon and I move it to the Grassland Tile between Babylon and Dur-Kurgerer, which I’ve already built a road on

Turn 171

-First Congress of Palenque begins and I put all 2 of my votes to Sanctioning England. While this does hinder my land trade, at the end of the day it will do more damage to England than to me. Besides, I’m not too concerned about Islam being the World Religion (which is viable to fail anyway) or Sanctioning Assyria

Turn 172
-The Sanction of England, and all other proposals, had failed. I swear, every game I have as of late, none of the proposals ever get passed lol

Turn 173
-WHAT THE-!? ARABIA IS MAKING A PROPOSAL TO BAN LAPIS LAZULI! MY SOLE MONOPOLY! Why?! I didn’t do anything to him. Well, I now hope to the Babylonian Gods that the Sanction against Arabia passes, cause I can only cast my votes to ‘Nay’ the Luxury Ban

Turn 176

-Out of the blue, but not completely unexpected, England declares war on me and makes a move for Nippur. Luckily, I already got two Knights and a Crossbowman up there, so I should be able to hold that spot

-Unlocked my next Policy Branch. After some deliberation, I decide to go with Viralvoid’s advice and went with Statecraft. Right now my City-State game is poor, being too focused on building buildings to create Diplomatic Units, but the boost to Spies and Trade Routes will be serious help in catching up on Science

Turn 177
-Great Diplomat is born in Babylon, as if on queue from getting Statecraft. Unfortunately, England’s territory blocks all access to the few City-States on this continent, and me being at war with her means I can’t safely move this guy to any of them. At this point, I start thinking of taking Canterbury not only so I can actually ally with the three City-States up here, regardless of what Alexander thinks, but to remove a military threat to my presence up there

Turn 182

-England’s forces start zeroing in on Akkad now. Fortunately, a Castle has already been built, but those Naval Units have me worried

Turn 185
-War with England is going more smoothly now, managing to take out a few of her Units and defend my cities

-Second World Congress occurs and I spend my two votes to try and prevent the Lapis ban from happening. I can only hope the other Civs vote against it too, and Sanction Arabia while they’re at it

Turn 186
-Fortunately, all WC Proposals failed, so my Lapis are still valuable. Hilariously though, it only failed because I was the only one who actually voted to it lol

Turn 190
-Tragically lost my Knight and Catapult, but there was nothing I could do…

-On the bright side, I’m finally able to complete another Wonder: University of Sankore. Highly beneficial for achieving that Science Victory (Sorry about the icon of the Wonder being messed up. Seems excessive use of Mods makes the game’s graphics get all weird. I have no idea how to fix this beyond getting a better graphics card, which I can’t hope to afford)

Turn 194
-England peaces out with me and I get to work on preparing Borsippa and Nippur for the inevitable next war. I also waste no time in sending my Great Diplomat to Jerusalem, since it’s a Friendly CS and will remain my ally for a long while

Turn 195
-Astronomy finishes researching and I’m finally able to send my Cargo Ships to Maya and Arabia’s coastal cities, which each have +53 Science. Needless to say, this is a very lucrative deal

-Jerusalem has been allied and now I’m getting 18 more Faith. Just gotta hope Alexander doesn’t declare war on me for that lol

Turn 195

-Evidently Arabia had become Influential over me, and Harun decides to laugh at me for it. What a jerk

Turn 196

-Pacal, you too…? Whateva. I’ll beat all you motherflippers in Science soon enough!

Turn 202
-Completely out of nowhere, the game crashes… And I didn’t save religiously, so all my progress just went kapoot...

Again, I heavily apologize for ending this photojournal this way This most certainly wasn't planned. But I will take this whole experience and make a much better attempt next time. There will be more mods, a different map that's interesting, handle the whole photojournal bit a lot better, and making sure game Auto-Saves each turn cause MAH GAWD...! *Ahem* Anywho, thank you all for taking the time to read this, give me advice, and I'll see you all soon with a brand new photojournal

 

[Viralvoid]

Ah dang And that's probably been what's causing my game's 'icons' to bug out. Man, that really sucks cause I want my Units to be ethnically accurate, but I guess I have to stop using R.E.D... But thanks for letting me know of that lol

tbh, I prefer seeing things in strategic view, but I'm not saying you have to.
It was sad that your game crashed, I wanted to see the outcome of the game

 

[chicorbeef]

That's true! Models are barely noticeable when viewed from a screenshot, so R.E.D. is just unnecessary stress to the PC lol

With that, here is the next, and unfortunately last part, of my ill-fated Babylon Photojournal...

Spoiler :

Turn 165
-At the suggestion of others, I make a beeline for Compass in order to get Harbor, with which I can trade with the ‘tech leader’, in this case the Mayans

-I form an Academy on top of the Lapis Lazuili, not daring to make the mistake of placing GPIs on pure Desert tiles and since this Lapis is within reach of Akkad

Turn 169
View attachment 503723
-My spy manages to steal technology from Elizabeth, and I decide to go with Machinery for Crossbowman, as well as Ironworks, which will really help with Production and catching up on Science

Turn 170
-Great Merchant is born in Babylon and I move it to the Grassland Tile between Babylon and Dur-Kurgerer, which I’ve already built a road on

Turn 171
View attachment 503725
-First Congress of Palenque begins and I put all 2 of my votes to Sanctioning England. While this does hinder my land trade, at the end of the day it will do more damage to England than to me. Besides, I’m not too concerned about Islam being the World Religion (which is viable to fail anyway) or Sanctioning Assyria

Turn 172
-The Sanction of England, and all other proposals, had failed. I swear, every game I have as of late, none of the proposals ever get passed lol

Turn 173
-WHAT THE-!? ARABIA IS MAKING A PROPOSAL TO BAN LAPIS LAZULI! MY SOLE MONOPOLY! Why?! I didn’t do anything to him. Well, I now hope to the Babylonian Gods that the Sanction against Arabia passes, cause I can only cast my votes to ‘Nay’ the Luxury Ban

Turn 176
View attachment 503726
-Out of the blue, but not completely unexpected, England declares war on me and makes a move for Nippur. Luckily, I already got two Knights and a Crossbowman up there, so I should be able to hold that spot

-Unlocked my next Policy Branch. After some deliberation, I decide to go with Viralvoid’s advice and went with Statecraft. Right now my City-State game is poor, being too focused on building buildings to create Diplomatic Units, but the boost to Spies and Trade Routes will be serious help in catching up on Science

Turn 177
-Great Diplomat is born in Babylon, as if on queue from getting Statecraft. Unfortunately, England’s territory blocks all access to the few City-States on this continent, and me being at war with her means I can’t safely move this guy to any of them. At this point, I start thinking of taking Canterbury not only so I can actually ally with the three City-States up here, regardless of what Alexander thinks, but to remove a military threat to my presence up there

Turn 182
View attachment 503727
-England’s forces start zeroing in on Akkad now. Fortunately, a Castle has already been built, but those Naval Units have me worried

Turn 185
-War with England is going more smoothly now, managing to take out a few of her Units and defend my cities
View attachment 503728
-Second World Congress occurs and I spend my two votes to try and prevent the Lapis ban from happening. I can only hope the other Civs vote against it too, and Sanction Arabia while they’re at it

Turn 186
-Fortunately, all WC Proposals failed, so my Lapis are still valuable. Hilariously though, it only failed because I was the only one who actually voted to it lol

Turn 190
-Tragically lost my Knight and Catapult, but there was nothing I could do…
View attachment 503729
-On the bright side, I’m finally able to complete another Wonder: University of Sankore. Highly beneficial for achieving that Science Victory (Sorry about the icon of the Wonder being messed up. Seems excessive use of Mods makes the game’s graphics get all weird. I have no idea how to fix this beyond getting a better graphics card, which I can’t hope to afford)

Turn 194
-England peaces out with me and I get to work on preparing Borsippa and Nippur for the inevitable next war. I also waste no time in sending my Great Diplomat to Jerusalem, since it’s a Friendly CS and will remain my ally for a long while

Turn 195
-Astronomy finishes researching and I’m finally able to send my Cargo Ships to Maya and Arabia’s coastal cities, which each have +53 Science. Needless to say, this is a very lucrative deal

-Jerusalem has been allied and now I’m getting 18 more Faith. Just gotta hope Alexander doesn’t declare war on me for that lol

Turn 195
View attachment 503730
-Evidently Arabia had become Influential over me, and Harun decides to laugh at me for it. What a jerk

Turn 196
View attachment 503731
-Pacal, you too…? Whateva. I’ll beat all you motherflippers in Science soon enough!

Turn 202
-Completely out of nowhere, the game crashes… And I didn’t save religiously, so all my progress just went kapoot...

Again, I heavily apologize for ending this photojournal this way This most certainly wasn't planned. But I will take this whole experience and make a much better attempt next time. There will be more mods, a different map that's interesting, handle the whole photojournal bit a lot better, and making sure game Auto-Saves each turn cause MAH GAWD...! *Ahem* Anywho, thank you all for taking the time to read this, give me advice, and I'll see you all soon with a brand new photojournal

Don't autosaves happen every 10 turns by default? So shouldn't you have a save of Turn 200? Or did you just have them disabled?

Either way, this was definitely an interesting (shaky at times, but definitely interesting throughout) game that would have been a joy to see in the late game. Hopefully you learned some things from this game and your next one will be even better!

 

[Almonds]

This JUST happened to me last night with Byzantine! I decided to replay it from the 8 turns I lost but it did kill about an hour of playing. SET YOUR AUTOSAVES TO EVERY 1 TURN! I can't believe that even after playing like a hundred games of civ that I never changed this in the Options menu.

 

[KaoticKanine]

tbh, I prefer seeing things in strategic view, but I'm not saying you have to.
It was sad that your game crashed, I wanted to see the outcome of the game

Yeah T_T My most deepest apologies for that. I sincerely wanted to finish this game majorly because you wanted to see the outcome... Well I promise you this: next time, I ain't leaving, even if a crash occurs!

Don't autosaves happen every 10 turns by default? So shouldn't you have a save of Turn 200? Or did you just have them disabled?

Either way, this was definitely an interesting (shaky at times, but definitely interesting throughout) game that would have been a joy to see in the late game. Hopefully you learned some things from this game and your next one will be even better!

Yeah, Auto Saves are active by default, however mine was at a maximum of 10 Auto Saves, so even if it was active, it wouldn't have saved my game up to that point

I most certainly have learned things from this game, and will ensure that my next photojournal doesn't falter like this one did lol To start, the first Policy Branch will be decided by the Civ I'm playing, and the environment (so this time I don't go Tradition in an environment that calls for Authority or Progress)

This JUST happened to me last night with Byzantine! I decided to replay it from the 8 turns I lost but it did kill about an hour of playing. SET YOUR AUTOSAVES TO EVERY 1 TURN! I can't believe that even after playing like a hundred games of civ that I never changed this in the Options menu.

Oh dang, seriously? :O Dang crashes lol Though at least you only lost 8 turns. I lost 30+ turns... In response, I've set up my Auto Save so it saves every 5 turns, with a maximum of 500. But is that even enough?

On another note, what settings do you all recommend for my next photojournal, and all subsequent ones? Like, I'm thinking of enabling Ancient Ruins in my next one mainly because the AI is liable to give their Pathfinders "Treasure Hunter", when they can't benefit from it whatsoever. And of course there's the Shoshone, whose UA directly utilizes the Ruins (and 4UCs gives the Mayan's Pathfinders a bonus from Ruins). But would that be okay with you guys or no?

 

[chicorbeef]

Yeah, Auto Saves are active by default, however mine was at a maximum of 10 Auto Saves, so even if it was active, it wouldn't have saved my game up to that point

My max autosaves are at 5 but it keeps the last 5 turns (mine are set for every turn), not the first 5.

Just in case, try going into Sid Meier's Civilization V folder---->ModdedSaves----->single (or whatever it says here, I don't know for your set of mods)---->auto and try and find your autosave there.

 

[KaoticKanine]

My max autosaves are at 5 but it keeps the last 5 turns (mine are set for every turn), not the first 5.

Just in case, try going into Sid Meier's Civilization V folder---->ModdedSaves----->single (or whatever it says here, I don't know for your set of mods)---->auto and try and find your autosave there.

Oh my god... I'm such a freaking idiot The game actually has been auto saved! Latest one was Turn 201 even, so I only really lost 1 turn...

My greatest apologies everyone I seriously thought that I lost all progress up to that point, no thanks to Auto Saves not making themselves very apparent. Though I still don't really want to continue this photojournal, due to no longer having interest in this map and the lack of newly implemented mods
But how about this for a compromise; Babylon Photojournal is still done, BUT I'll play to the end when I feel like it, and once I reach late-game, I'll take screenshots and make one final "chapter" to show those screenshots and reveal what went down. This way, I don't have to slow down to take screenshot till late-game, thus allowing me to just focus on getting to that point, and you all get to see the outcome of my... Shaky plays lol

 

[chicorbeef]

Oh my god... I'm such a freaking idiot The game actually has been auto saved! Latest one was Turn 201 even, so I only really lost 1 turn...

My greatest apologies everyone I seriously thought that I lost all progress up to that point, no thanks to Auto Saves not making themselves very apparent. Though I still don't really want to continue this photojournal, due to no longer having interest in this map and the lack of newly implemented mods
But how about this for a compromise; Babylon Photojournal is still done, BUT I'll play to the end when I feel like it, and once I reach late-game, I'll take screenshots and make one final "chapter" to show those screenshots and reveal what went down. This way, I don't have to slow down to take screenshot till late-game, thus allowing me to just focus on getting to that point, and you all get to see the outcome of my... Shaky plays lol

Haha that's awesome!

Anyway I don't want you to feel pressured to continue the photjournal if you don't want to. If the game still interests you then play it. Otherwise don't.