making a new mod...question about eliminating techs

[Copernicus]

Hi,
I'm trying my hand at making a mod, and I ran into a couple of questions:

1.) Can I prevent advancement beyond the first age?
2.) Can I change the way the years per turn are structured?


The rest of the message is lengthy and is just about the mod:

The mod will be set in Europe/Middle East/North Africa and will allow you to play as the:
Romans, Greeks, Vikings, Egyptians, Ostrogoths, Visigoths, Celts, Scythians, Babylonians, Persians or Carthaginians.

The goal is to produce a mod in which each civ or two has a unique challenge. It's also for those who like to fight ancient wars and are disappointed when knights come along (like my girlfriend).
I don't have the time to create new animations and such, but the new civs have new uus:

Celts - Highlander - like the Legionary.
Scythians - Horselord - like Mounted Warrior.
Carthaginians - Elephant Cavalry - like Mounted warrior, uses India's graphics.
Ostrogoths - O. Raider - Impi.
Visigoths - V. Raider - Jaguar Warrior.
Vikings - Pillager - Caravel with bombard (and no one else can do better than galleys).


Each civs starting position presents a unique challenge:

Most of Northern Europe at the time (5000 yrs ago) was forested. So the Ostrogoths, Visigoths, and Scythians have oodles of good land, but lots of work to make it usable.

The Vikings and Celts are stuck with no room to expand until they get boats.

The Carthaginians have a terrible location except for 1 or 2 cities and lots of trade goods.

The Egyptians have a great location for a couple of cities, but desert all around.

The Babylonians and Persians have the most fertile land, but start out in spitting distance from each other.

The Greeks and Romans, historical "winners" in the region, have the easiest paths - relative isolation on a peninsula, followed by easy expansion out of their homeland.

Most of the mod is done, I just need to do some playtesting.

Anyway, sorry for my first post being so long.

Thanks
copernicus

 

[Shaitan]

Yes, you can revamp the entire tech tree. You need to keep progression through 4 ages but those ages can be anything you want (stone, bronze, iron, and dark might be good for your mod). I'm currently doing the same thing for the British Isles mod. I've added techs such as irrigation, road building and wood cutting and the worker jobs those represent are tied to them. Cattle are a strategic resource that appear when the new tech "domestication" is learned. There are loads of simple techs and fillers to put in there.

You need to adjust the cost of the later era techs lower as there won't be universities to help with research.

Where are the Celts in your mod? For the time period 5000 BC the Celts were in Indo-Europe.

 

[Copernicus]

Thanks Shaitan.

Yeah, I realize the Celts don't really belong on the British Isles at the time, but I didn't know who was there. I like the challenge of starting there. If you have a better name of who was there, I'd use it.

The revamped tech tree is a good idea. I'll need to add an even more primitive form of seafaring.

 

[Ed O'War]

I don't think it's presently possible to alter the way the years pass for each turn (maybe this will be fixed in a patch sometime). You can alter the labels BC/AD by changing the labels.txt file, but the years will still pass in the same increments as a standard game.

 

[Shaitan]

Originally posted by Copernicus
Thanks Shaitan.

Yeah, I realize the Celts don't really belong on the British Isles at the time, but I didn't know who was there. I like the challenge of starting there. If you have a better name of who was there, I'd use it.

The Picts and several other distinct tribes were there before the Celts and are thought by some to be the the originators of the Megaliths (standing stones). There is evidence of a people inhabiting the isles before the Picts as well. I'd go with the Picts in the Isles as they are fairly well known and the other tribes have only the names given them by the Roman invaders.

To find the proper starting position for the Celts, make a triangle with Italy and Greece at the base. The Celts will be at the top of the triangle. Also, the Celts were the originators of iron use in Europe. This vast superiority in arms allowed them to conquer the majority of modern Germany and France and sack Rome twice.