WesW
Creator of the Medmod
This thread is for the 5th incarnation of the Medieval mod series, which dates back to 1999. As the title states, this mod is for Warlords only (the expansion, not the profession). 
At present, the modpack only contains my own work, though I plan to add some of the other components available here once I decide, hopefully with your help, which ones would be most beneficial and compatible with my changes.
I would also greatly appreciate help with compiling the dll, since I don't yet know how to do that.
The mod is available at my Apolyton-hosted webpage, along with a link to an html version of the Installation readme.
For convienence, though, you can download the mod, only 1 meg, directly through this link.
Below is a copy of the Installation and Introductory readme, a copy of which is included in the mod, and will be installed in the mod's folder, along with the Excel spreadsheet which contains the detailed unit stats and comments.
Introduction and Installation Readme of
The Medieval modpack V, v1.0, for Civilization IV: Warlords
by Wes Whitaker
At present, this modpack features my Units mod, as well as specific changes to other aspects of the game which I feel will improve overall gameplay.
Installation: Simply unzip the mod into the My Games\Warlords\MODS folder.
To make this mod your default game, open up the CivilizationIV.ini file, located in My Games\Warlords, scroll down to line 134 or so, and replace the zero with “Medmod V”.
WesW’s Units mod: The aim of this mod is to add historical accuracy to the abilities and roles of the units of Civilization IV: Warlords, where needed, to add those unit types necessary to better represent modern warfare, and to fine-tune basic unit stats where necessary. The individual changes made are too numerous to list here, but the Excel spreadsheet which accompanies the mod lists the exact stats and abilities of all units in the game, as well as extensive notes which explain many of the individual changes made. I consider these notes to be crucial to a full understanding of my reasons for making many of these changes. Below I have listed the major changes made to various unit types, as well as the non-military changes I have made to the game.
Each era has a designated city attacker and defender.
Bonuses vs specific unit types have generally been reduced, to mollify the rock\paper\scissors setup that can make combat so frustrating.
Forests and Jungles no longer have an inherent defensive bonus, and for units which still receive the bonus, it has been reduced to 25%. (Non-spear melee units and skirmishing (rifled) gunpowder units are the only unit types which benefit from fighting in cover. Types which rely on cohesive formations, such as spearmen, suffer from the obstacles in their midst, mounted units are hindered by reduced mobility, and archers lack a clear field of fire.)
Hills give a standard 50% defensive bonus. (Almost all infantry units benefit significantly when fighting from a height advantage.)
Mounted units suffer a 25% penalty to city attack and city defense. (Defending and attacking city walls and structures removes the enhanced mobility of mounted units, thereby significantly reducing their effectiveness.)
Renaissance-era troops no longer ignore city walls. (These units only carried small arms, so artillery was still needed to batter down enemy defenses. Hopefully this will make Castles more useful, too.)
Naval units no longer receive collateral damage. (I never did understand the reasoning of how a battleship salvo could damage an entire fleet.)
The Aggressive leadership trait now gives a Combat I bonus to Armored units rather than Gunpowder types. (Since the new Protective trait affects Gunpowder units, this double bonus seemed a little too much. In addition, the benefit to Armor will help mitigate the loss of the Stable’s xp effect.)
Rocketry now requires both Artillery and Flight. Rifling has been removed. (This assures that Modern Inf. won’t appear until after both Artillery and Bombers are available, and usually quite some time after Infantry appear.)
Non-military changes:
Starting location rankings for the human player have been improved 50%. This means that you will have one of the very best starting locations of any civ. ( This should make for a more consistent game challenge, since the quality of starting locations seems to vary wildly in my games, and location means everything as far as being able to compete. I usually have to regenerate the map half a dozen times to get a location that I am happy with. Hopefully this change will eliminate that annoyance.)
Removing Forests only gives 2/3’rds of its original production bonus. Jungles now give half of the Forest’s bonus. (Reducing the Forest bonus should help dissuade players from chopping them down in the early game for their production bonus, while the addition of the Jungle bonus gives you an additional reward for the time invested in clearing them.)
Workshops no longer hurt food production. (If Forests don’t hurt it, why should workshops?) Chemistry add +1 prod.; Computers add another hammer (to represent the effects of the PC on the home office). Guilds no longer affects production.
Furthermore, Workshops may now be built upon Deserts. (If the Pyramids of Giza can be built upon the desert, why can’t workshops? In most instances, desert workshops will not be a practical choice until Computers, but at least now you have the option if you happen to have a Nile Valley situation.)
Quarries now gain +1 production from Railroads.
Space Race changes:
The Apollo Program now requires Future Tech 1. (All of my games have ended in a Space Race victory for someone, usually only a few turns after the last tech has been researched. Items such as the Internet and Modern Armor have practically no effect on the game since they appear so late. All spaceship parts will be available once the Program is built, so you can still rush to this victory fairly soon if you like, but hopefully this will lengthen the end-game somewhat.)
In addition, Spaceship Components now cost twice as much to build, again in order to lengthen out the endgame.
Finally, the Space Ladder now requires knowledge of Fusion.
At present, the modpack only contains my own work, though I plan to add some of the other components available here once I decide, hopefully with your help, which ones would be most beneficial and compatible with my changes.
I would also greatly appreciate help with compiling the dll, since I don't yet know how to do that.
The mod is available at my Apolyton-hosted webpage, along with a link to an html version of the Installation readme.
For convienence, though, you can download the mod, only 1 meg, directly through this link.
Below is a copy of the Installation and Introductory readme, a copy of which is included in the mod, and will be installed in the mod's folder, along with the Excel spreadsheet which contains the detailed unit stats and comments.
Introduction and Installation Readme of
The Medieval modpack V, v1.0, for Civilization IV: Warlords
by Wes Whitaker
At present, this modpack features my Units mod, as well as specific changes to other aspects of the game which I feel will improve overall gameplay.
Installation: Simply unzip the mod into the My Games\Warlords\MODS folder.
To make this mod your default game, open up the CivilizationIV.ini file, located in My Games\Warlords, scroll down to line 134 or so, and replace the zero with “Medmod V”.
WesW’s Units mod: The aim of this mod is to add historical accuracy to the abilities and roles of the units of Civilization IV: Warlords, where needed, to add those unit types necessary to better represent modern warfare, and to fine-tune basic unit stats where necessary. The individual changes made are too numerous to list here, but the Excel spreadsheet which accompanies the mod lists the exact stats and abilities of all units in the game, as well as extensive notes which explain many of the individual changes made. I consider these notes to be crucial to a full understanding of my reasons for making many of these changes. Below I have listed the major changes made to various unit types, as well as the non-military changes I have made to the game.
Each era has a designated city attacker and defender.
Bonuses vs specific unit types have generally been reduced, to mollify the rock\paper\scissors setup that can make combat so frustrating.
Forests and Jungles no longer have an inherent defensive bonus, and for units which still receive the bonus, it has been reduced to 25%. (Non-spear melee units and skirmishing (rifled) gunpowder units are the only unit types which benefit from fighting in cover. Types which rely on cohesive formations, such as spearmen, suffer from the obstacles in their midst, mounted units are hindered by reduced mobility, and archers lack a clear field of fire.)
Hills give a standard 50% defensive bonus. (Almost all infantry units benefit significantly when fighting from a height advantage.)
Mounted units suffer a 25% penalty to city attack and city defense. (Defending and attacking city walls and structures removes the enhanced mobility of mounted units, thereby significantly reducing their effectiveness.)
Renaissance-era troops no longer ignore city walls. (These units only carried small arms, so artillery was still needed to batter down enemy defenses. Hopefully this will make Castles more useful, too.)
Naval units no longer receive collateral damage. (I never did understand the reasoning of how a battleship salvo could damage an entire fleet.)
The Aggressive leadership trait now gives a Combat I bonus to Armored units rather than Gunpowder types. (Since the new Protective trait affects Gunpowder units, this double bonus seemed a little too much. In addition, the benefit to Armor will help mitigate the loss of the Stable’s xp effect.)
Rocketry now requires both Artillery and Flight. Rifling has been removed. (This assures that Modern Inf. won’t appear until after both Artillery and Bombers are available, and usually quite some time after Infantry appear.)
Non-military changes:
Starting location rankings for the human player have been improved 50%. This means that you will have one of the very best starting locations of any civ. ( This should make for a more consistent game challenge, since the quality of starting locations seems to vary wildly in my games, and location means everything as far as being able to compete. I usually have to regenerate the map half a dozen times to get a location that I am happy with. Hopefully this change will eliminate that annoyance.)
Removing Forests only gives 2/3’rds of its original production bonus. Jungles now give half of the Forest’s bonus. (Reducing the Forest bonus should help dissuade players from chopping them down in the early game for their production bonus, while the addition of the Jungle bonus gives you an additional reward for the time invested in clearing them.)
Workshops no longer hurt food production. (If Forests don’t hurt it, why should workshops?) Chemistry add +1 prod.; Computers add another hammer (to represent the effects of the PC on the home office). Guilds no longer affects production.
Furthermore, Workshops may now be built upon Deserts. (If the Pyramids of Giza can be built upon the desert, why can’t workshops? In most instances, desert workshops will not be a practical choice until Computers, but at least now you have the option if you happen to have a Nile Valley situation.)
Quarries now gain +1 production from Railroads.
Space Race changes:
The Apollo Program now requires Future Tech 1. (All of my games have ended in a Space Race victory for someone, usually only a few turns after the last tech has been researched. Items such as the Internet and Modern Armor have practically no effect on the game since they appear so late. All spaceship parts will be available once the Program is built, so you can still rush to this victory fairly soon if you like, but hopefully this will lengthen the end-game somewhat.)
In addition, Spaceship Components now cost twice as much to build, again in order to lengthen out the endgame.
Finally, the Space Ladder now requires knowledge of Fusion.
