[MOD] Ansible's MetaMod

Ansible

Chieftain
Joined
Feb 1, 2006
Messages
40
Ansible's MetaMod v0.55

Download URL: MetaMod v0.55.zip

1. Overview
MetaMod focuses on enhancing the existing Civ IV singleplayer gameplay, without making radical changes to it. Multiplayer will work, but it isn't the focus. Basically, I'm going to stay away from modifications that can't be used effectively by the AI - mods like Air transport units, Tree planting, Building deletion, etc.

MetaMod will comprise of quality user community mods as well as a few custom additions and tweaks. Each new unit should be distinguishable from other units - each will have a unique model or skin, icons, civopedia entries, etc.

I'm also going to leave as much of the existing gameplay intact as possible. A given unit or building should be the same here as it was in the original game, with the exception of unit upgrades. I may make a few other exceptions where the original version is seriously lacking in some way. (e.g. The Ironclad... in the original game oil based navies are available two techs later.)

2. Summary
  • 2 new technologies
  • 1 modifed technology
  • Increased technology cost
  • 12 new units
  • 6 modified units
  • Resource tweaks
  • Misc fixes

3. Mod Details
3.1 Building Changes
3.1.1 Modified Buildings
  • Bunker: Permits 1 'Soldier' specialist
  • Castle: Permits 1 'Soldier' specialist
  • Drydock: Permits 1 'Soldier' specialist
  • Nuclear Power Plant: requires 'Nuclear Reactor' instead of 'Fission'
  • Walls: Permits 1 'Soldier' specialist

3.1.2 New Buildings
  • Military Academy: +2 XP, +%25 unit production

3.2 Technologies Changes
3.2.1 Modified Technologies
  • Flight: requires 'Basic Flight' instead of 'Physics'
  • increased cost of classical technologies by %10
  • increased cost of medieval technologies by %15
  • increased cost of renaissance technologies by %20
  • increased cost of industrial technologies by %30
  • increased cost of modern technologies by %35
  • increased cost of future technologies by %40

3.2.2 New Technologies
  • Basic Flight: Enables Biplane
  • Nuclear Reactor: Enables 'Nuclear Carrier', 'Nuclear Submarine', 'Nuclear Power Plant'

3.3 Unit Changes
3.3.1 Modified Units
  • Battleship: Removed 'Uranium' bonus
  • Carrier: Removed 'Uranium' bonus
  • Destroyer: Removed 'Uranium' bonus
  • Ironclad: Removed 'Steel' tech requirement
  • Submarine: Removed 'Uranium' bonus
  • Transport: Removed 'Uranium' bonus
(Changes to unit upgrade paths not listed)

3.3.2 New Units
  • Biplane
    Cost: 80
    Strength: 9
    Range: 4
    Requirements (Technology): Basic Flight
    Requirements (Resource): None
    Special: Bomb (-5%), Intercept (%40)
    Upgrade: Fighter
  • Cataphract
    Cost: 60
    Strength: 6
    Movement: 2
    Requirements (Technology): Bronze Working, Horseback Riding
    Requirements (Resource): Horses and (Copper or Iron)
    Special: None
    Upgrade: Knight
  • Crusader
    Cost: 60
    Strength: 8
    Movement: 1
    Requirements (Technology): Monarchy, Theology
    Requirements (Resource): Iron
    Special: +10% City Attack
    Upgrade: None
  • Great General
    Cost: N/A
    Strength: 0
    Movement: 2
    Requirements (Technology): None
    Requirements (Resource): None
    Special: Golden Age, Miltary Academy, Technology, Great General Specialist
    Upgrade: None
  • Hypaspist
    Cost: 30
    Strength: 4
    Movement: 1
    Requirements (Technology): Bronze Working
    Requirements (Resource): Copper or Iron
    Special: +25% City Strength, +25% Hill Defense
    Upgrade: Maceman
  • Mobile Artillery
    Cost: 200
    Strength: 20
    Movement: 2
    Requirements (Technology): Artillery, Computers, Industrialism
    Requirements (Resource): Oil
    Special: Bomb (%30), Collateral (%100), Withdraw (%30)
    Upgrade: None
  • Mobile SAM
    Cost: 200
    Strength: 24
    Movement: 2
    Range: 2
    Requirements (Technology): Computers, Industrialism, Rocketry
    Requirements (Resource): Oil
    Special: Defend only, +25% vs Helicopter, Intercept (%60)
    Upgrade: None
  • Nuclear Carrier
    Cost: 250
    Strength: 24
    Movement: 6
    Requirements (Technology): Nuclear Reactor, Flight
    Requirements (Resource): Uranium
    Special: 6 Cargo (Fighter), Starts with Sentry I
    Upgrade: None
  • Nuclear Submarine
    Cost: 225
    Strength: 28
    Movement: 6
    Requirements (Technology): Combustion, Nuclear Reactor, Radio
    Requirements (Resource): Uranium
    Special: 2 Cargo (Special), Explore Rival Territory, 1 First Strike, Invisible, Move through Impassable, See Submarine, Withdraw (%60)
    Upgrade: None
  • Steam Destroyer
    Cost: 190
    Strength: 26
    Movement: 4
    Requirements (Technology): Combustion
    Requirements (Resource): Coal
    Special: Bomb (-5%), Intercept (%25), See submarine
    Upgrade: None
  • Steam Transport
    Cost: 110
    Strength: 14
    Movement: 4
    Requirements (Technology): Combustion
    Requirements (Resource): Coal
    Special: 4 Cargo (Land)
    Upgrade: None
  • Tank Mark V
    Cost: 140
    Strength: 20
    Movement: 2
    Requirements (Technology): Industrialism, Scientific Method
    Requirements (Resource): Iron
    Special: No defense bonus, Starts with Pinch
    Upgrade: Tank

3.4 Wonder Changes
3.4.1 Modified Wonders
  • Chichen Itza: Generates 'Great General' GPP
  • Kremlin: Generates 'Great General' GPP
  • Heroic Epic: Generates 'Great General' GPP
  • Mount Rushmore: Generates 'Great General' GPP
  • West Point: Generates 'Great General' GPP, Permits 3 'Soldier' specialists

3.5 Gameplay Changes
  • reduced frequency of oil resource (from 1.5/player to 1.0/player)
  • all air units can now kill
  • new city specialist 'Soldier'
  • restart air patrol on load game fix

4. Installation
Simply unzip to your mods folder.

5. Known Bugs
  • The new techologies don't have proper arrows drawn on the tech tree.
  • Increased tech cost lengthens game and delays space victory, time limit should be disabled

6. Changelog
v0.55
  • added Mobile Artillery unit
  • added Mobile SAM unit
  • Oil resource prevalence tweaks
  • Soldier specialist allocation changes
  • Adjusted mid to late era technology costs
v0.5
  • initial version

7. Credits/Imported mods
  • 12monkeys (restart air patrol fix)
  • Exavier's Composite Mod (Basic Flight technology, Mobile Artillery graphic, Mobile SAM graphic)
  • Lost Units mod (Biplane, Cataphract, Crusader, Hypaspist, Tank Mark V)
  • Realism mod (Nuclear Carrier, Nuclear Reactor Technology, Nuclear Submarine)
  • Snaitf's Great General mod
(If anyone is missing, please let me know)
 
looks like alot of work you did for the com! so thx alot, im gonna try it asap.
 
Welcome to the forum and thanks for this great mod. I'll play it right away!
 
Only played till about 500 AD so far... but played 3 games. My thoughts:

You added in some lost units -- why not some lost wonders? :)

Seems my cities LOVE to make soldier specialists... pretty much right away. The AI loves it too -- I see them generating great generals very often.

I LOVE that you made oil scarcer (can't wait to see how it affects the economy).

Stable mod -- will test in multiplayer this weekend...
 
oldbone said:
You added in some lost units -- why not some lost wonders? :)
I'm being fairly careful about what I include in the mod - I don't want to unbalance gameplay too much. I have considered throwing some of the Lost Wonders in though, but I haven't got around to it. Any favourites?

oldbone said:
Seems my cities LOVE to make soldier specialists... pretty much right away. The AI loves it too -- I see them generating great generals very often.
Ya, I've noticed that too... I may remove the Soldier specialist from one of the buildings...

oldbone said:
I LOVE that you made oil scarcer (can't wait to see how it affects the economy).
Ya! That (and the tech slow down) was the reason I started on this mod. Why have all these different resources when everyone always has access to them? I may reduce the rate down a bit further (it's 1/player + 1 per N number of map tiles... I might just make it 1/player

-Ansible
 
I've published a minor update to the mod, v0.55. It includes a couple new late game units, mid to late era techology cost changes, and other tweaks. The download link is at the top of the thread

-Ansible
 
Played a game over the weekend with a friend. Std map, Archipalego, Marathon, 4 teams of 2.

The mod is stable and faster than most other mods. We got through rifling and Scientific method before we had to stop. We were blessed with the 2 best islands and were first in score the whole way. When oil appeared, we only had 1 each, and it was in the water! So, we geared up for war to take some land-based pockets from our rivals. The under-abundance of oil was GREAT.

The pace of the game is great, as are the added units and Great General stuff.

Other things that are out there that I think can help this mod:
- The UN mod where ANY civic can be made the world civic
- Any mod that re-balances the 'Noble' difficulty level to be more 'fair' for the AI (I've seen a few)
- Maybe look at some of the civic mods and see if any are considered 'balanced'. Most of us hate that only the top level civics are viable end-game. Would be good if they were all viable based on your game, conditions, etc.
- An expanded list of promotions
 
oldbone said:
When oil appeared, we only had 1 each, and it was in the water! So, we geared up for war to take some land-based pockets from our rivals. The under-abundance of oil was GREAT.
Glad you like the resource changes :) v0.55 actually has slightly less Oil per map than v0.5 does (not sure what version you played). With v0.55 there should be exactly 1 of: Aluminum, Oil, and Uranium per starting player. This usually works out well as by end game, one or two players have been eliminated.

Other things that are out there that I think can help this mod:
- The UN mod where ANY civic can be made the world civic
- Any mod that re-balances the 'Noble' difficulty level to be more 'fair' for the AI (I've seen a few)
- Maybe look at some of the civic mods and see if any are considered 'balanced'. Most of us hate that only the top level civics are viable end-game. Would be good if they were all viable based on your game, conditions, etc.
- An expanded list of promotions

I'll definitely add a bunch of promotions from Zuul's expanded promotions mod to the next version. The UN mod should be ok too (as long as the AI can use it too).

What does rebalancing the Noble difficulty do exactly? Can't you just play on a harder difficultly to make it easier for the AI?

-Ansible
 
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