[MOD] Ansible's MetaMod

[Ansible]

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)

 

[Zuul]

Please list the stats of the changed and new units .

 

[diskurs]

looks like alot of work you did for the com! so thx alot, im gonna try it asap.

 

[Ansible]

Please list the stats of the changed and new units .

Zuul: All the stats for the new units are listed in the top post now.

-Ansible

 

[rebel5555]

Welcome to the forum and thanks for this great mod. I'll play it right away!

 

[oldbone]

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...

 

[Ansible]

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?

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...

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

 

[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

 

[oldbone]

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

 

[Ansible]

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