(Currently titled)
JohnnyW's Epic Reality Mod
I have a grand vision for this mod that probably isn't possible until the main code is released. Even then I am only decent at XML currently so it be a difficult road even then. These are a list of my concerns of vanilla and my ideas for this mod that I would hope to implement. They are in no particular order (and may overlap slightly):
1) Make the eras longer and seem more important. I don't like how the classical era is almost non-existant in many games (that I play at least). I have several goals with this:
1a) Make the tech tree more robust with techs so each era has more discoveries and feels more important.
-this would increase the number of beakers required to get through the era and should also make military units viable over a longer period of time.
1b) Slow down research rates.
-this would approach the issue from the opposite angle and would make choosing a tech more of an investment (which should promote more planning).
2) Make tied to drastically less. I don't like this mechanic as the guiding principle for science. Science is advanced by great minds, creativity and curiosity, not by having a giant mob. Possible solutions (still debating)
2a) Allow science specialists earlier, but less powerful.
-this would force early decisions on whether to grow or focus on science. This is my favorite solution of the group, but without any other changes this would promote ICS moreso than now. Other changes would be necessary (see below).
2b) Each city grants a flat and buildings give .
-flat science/city also promotes ICS.
2c) Have tied directly to .
-I don't like this solution and I don't want to directly replicate a slider mechanic.
3) Change the meaning of placing a city and how to avoid ICS. This combines many ideas, but this is what I would like to address: I want building a new city to always be an okay decision unless placed in a bad spot. I want smart planning to give more benefits than mindless gridding. To do this several things would ened to eb addressed:
3a) Make it so not every city is profitable out of the gate unless placed well.
-Could give cities a maintenance cost.
-Could alter mechanics so a new city provides 0 (because it's not tied to population, etc).
3b) Make the city tile yields less favorable.
-Without relying on the base yields from a city, smarter placement is needed to ensure that the city becomes profitable.
4) Rework the happiness system. Right now it has almost no link to its concept.
4a) Reimplement local happiness in a meaningful way.
-Make production and WLTKD tied to local happiness.
4b) Remove global penalty for cities.
-A silly mechanic used to prevent ICS that should be addressed in a different way.
5) Make luxuries and resources more meaningful. Right now luxury = +5 and bonus resources are sometimes roadblocks for other improvements.
4a) Add more luxury/resource dependant buildings, or perhaps even units.
4b) Improve yields of 'bonus' resources.
4c) Allow different types of improvements to be built on bonus resources (which would allow specialization at the cost of losing the full potential yield of the tile).
6) Change maintenance so that a worker =/= tank. Ideally I'd like maintenance to be something I could define by the individual unit, but I could settle for being able to base it on combat strength. IDK if either is possible.
7) Reimplement changeable Civics. Governments change, and unchangeable social policies don't make much sense, especially when you have various different government types all at once.
8) Add a new system for culture. I like the idea of SPs, but not their implementation. Reworking them to a cultural values system seems more appropriate. These values would be what your empire holds as guiding principles for their interactions, changing various aspects of your empire.
-example: the value of "Courage" would increase military strength of your units somehow and the value of "Cleanliness" would increase city health; which brings me to my next point:
9) Reimplement health. It's silly that they removed this mechanic.
10) Implement crime. Crime is a very real part of society, and I think it should be reflected in the game. Crime would only be a minor factor unless you ignored it completely and grew big cities. It would allow for building like a Courthouse and values like Justice to have an impact though.
9a) Crime would reduce happiness as well as output of the local city.
9b) Order would negate the penalty of crime, but not the penalty. Special buildings/wonders/policies would be needed to address this.
-They would reduce crime or remove the penalty. Unsure how I'd like to implement it atm.
11) Reimplement religion. I feel religion is too important to neglect.
11a) I do not want the Civ4 religious system of racing to research a religion. It was a silly mechanic.
11b) I want religion to affect AI diplomacy to a great extent if the nation values religion over other 'flavors'.
12) Address production output and rates. Building is too slow.
13) Address the problem of the AI using 1upt. This will be difficult.
14) Possibly rework the tech tree into an 'Innovation' or 'Ideas' tree. Not everything you research in civ is a "technology." To represent this I would like to break down Ideas to use more than 1 type of resource towards their discovery. 'Innovation points' would be like the old beakers - generally good for every Idea. would then help towards Ideas, but be more effective when researching a scientific Idea. Same thing with using to boost the research of a cultural Idea (these seem to be a lot rarer so this wouldn't make overpowered relative to since it would be used for 2 types of 'research').
I know this is a very ambitious project, and I don't expect much of this to be implemented before the main code is released. I will be working on the doable aspects before then. I don't know when I will have a version for release as I want it to be more than just minor tweaks when I do.
Also, I am willing to hear suggestions for further improvements/ideas. Thanks!