[MOD] FexFX - Bigger & Longer

FexFX - Bigger & Longer v.05 -=FINAL=-
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This Mod adds two new game speeds and a new larger map size.
Game Speeds: FX-Grand(1000) and FX-Epic(875).
Map Size: FX-Huge
WARNING: The following map types DO NOT work with custom map sizes:
Great Plains, Highlands, Hub, Ice Age, Inland Sea, Lakes, Maze, Mirror, Oasis, Pangea, Ring, Team_Battleground, Terra, Tilted Axis, Wheel
The following map types should work without a problem:
Archipelago, Balanced, Continents, Custom Continents, Islands.

v.05 Notes
Investigation into further math errors revealed the source of several of my issues. Rather than counting the turns up myself I believed several of the posts I have seen in various forums which stated the number of turns in a Normal game to be 430 and an EPIC to be 640. In fact a Normal Game has 440 turns, and an Epic game has 660. As a result I have had to change some percentages listed below for accuracy. These changes may have been caused by the 1.09 patch.

Further testing revealed that Tech advancement being at 14% slower was just a little slower than intended (this slowness does not really show until towards the end.) Also Unit production was originally meant to be 1/6 (16%) faster and my math errors caused it to only be 1/7 (14%) faster. As a Result, FX-Epic has been rebalanced again in v.05 to meet original goals.

I can promise that this will be the final change to the FX-Epic length Game.
I also renamed the mod to include version number so that people involved in FX-Epic games would not be forced to choose between the new version and restarting their long game.

The New Mode offers Timeline equivalent speeds to everything except for production which has been sped up even further. This should make for truly massive battles involving insane numbers of units even if it takes more turns to get there.

Changes in v.05
. Renamed FX-Epic to FX-Epic(875).
. Research lowered to 219% to make for an even 10% slower relative to the Timeline.
. Training, production and building costs all adjusted to be 1/6 (16%) faster relative to the Timeline. All costs are now 166% of Normal.
. Inflation changed to be more in line with production costs.
. Adjusted Culture to slow down cultural expansion to avoid premature cultural victory. Cultural growth is now (189%) 5% faster relative to the Timeline. Was 7.5% faster.
. Adjusted great people one more time to bring them in line with production values.
. Adjusted Golden Age Percentage to match the Schema used in the original speeds.

Additions in v.05
. Added FX-Grand(1000) mode. 1000 Turns. Tech Speed at (250%) 10% slower, Production speeds (181%) 1/5 (20%) faster, and Cultural Growth (216%) 5% faster relative to the Timeline. Turn breakdown for FX-Grand(1000)is as follows:
- Ancient: 4000BC to 1000BC now lasts 250 turns.
- Classical: 1000BC to 500AD now lasts 150 turns.
- Medieval: 500AD to 1000AD now lasts 100 turns.
- Renaissance: 1000AD to 1500AD now lasts 125 turns.
- Industrial: 1500AD to 1850AD now lasts 175 turns.
- Modern: 1850AD to 1930AD now lasts 80 turns.
- Future: 1903AD to 2050AD still lasts for 120 turns.
. Renamed all Game lengths to include number of turns in parenthesis after the name:
- FX-Grand(1000)
- FX-Epic(875)
- Epic(660)
- Normal(440)
- Quick(320)

Changes in v.04
Testing revealed that Research, Barbarians, and inflation could all use a bit of tweaking.
. Research lowered to 232% rather than 255%, this works better and makes techs approximately 14% more expensive relative to the timeline.
. Barbarians and inflation changed to match Epic levels.
. Also adjusted the effectiveness of Great People to be more reasonable.

Release Version: v.03
This mod adds two things:
1) FX-Huge Map size. This map size is 126.8% larger than Huge. It has a defined size of 36x23 which is a grid 144x92 in the game for a total of 13,248 tiles in game. This was the largest size I could run with 100% stability on my PC.
(Windows XP, 2.8gz Prescott P4, 1GB PC3200 RAM, Radeon 800XL Platinum)

2) FX-Epic game mode. This mode is 875 turns long. I have tried to maintain the Timeline by rebalancing the timeline while also making things just a hair cheaper relative to the timeline. To understand what I mean by "relative to the Timeline" It is important to note that the Timeline for an FX-Epic is now 198.8% longer than a Normal game. However, if I made everything universally cost 198.8% more than standard, the ONLY change to the feel of the game would be that it takes more than twice as long to play. Instead, in an effort to change the epic feel of the game a bit, I did two things, First I increased the Tech costs by 25% relative to the Timeline meaning that the Costs are now 219% of normal, and Second I decreased the cost of almost everything else to 86% relative to the timeline meaning that Costs are now 175% of normal. While this does mean that it will take you longer to produce or build anything than in a Normal or Huge game, it also means that relative to the timeline you will be able to produce roughly one seventh more units and improvements within the timeline. This means that wars should be bigger as well as longer. Conflicts will be truly epic! The timeline now breaks down as follows:
. Ancient: 4000BC to 1000BC now lasts 150 turns.
. Classical: 1000BC to 500AD now lasts 150 turns.
. Medieval: 500AD to 1000AD now lasts 100 turns.
. Renaissance: 1000AD to 1500AD now lasts 100 turns.
. Industrial: 1500AD to 1850AD now lasts 175 turns.
. Modern: 1850AD to 1930AD now lasts 80 turns.
. Future: 1903AD to 2050AD still lasts for 120 turns.
My reasoning behind these was a little more than purely mathematical. With a tech speed of 255% and a Game Speed of 198.8% and a production speed 1/7 higher, the Industrial revolution will finally have some real weight! The early mechanized units will now get a decent amount of play time and won’t feel like so much of a pit-stop on the way to modern armor! I toyed with making the end game longer and extending the timeline out, but realized that this was pointless since simply turning off the TIME victory condition already accomplishes this.

To Install:
Simply unpack the “FexFX - Bigger & Longer” folder in its entirety to your MOD folder located in: My Documents\My Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4\MODS.

To Use:
Launch Civilization 4, go to the Advanced Menu.
Select Load a MOD.
Choose “FexFX - Bigger & Longer” from the listed MODs.
You will be notified that the game will restart to utilize the MOD.


FILE REMOVED - NEW VERSION AVAILABLE IN ANOTHER THREAD
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=150408

 

FexFX - Bigger & Longer v.04
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Changes in v.04
Testing revealed that Research, Barbarians, and inflation could all use a bit of tweaking.
. Research lowered to 232% rather than 255%, this works better and makes techs approximately 14% more expensive relative to the timeline.
. Barbarians and inflation changed to match Epic levels.
. Also adjusted the effectiveness of Great People to be more reasonable.

 

sounds good...but where is the download?

 

Attached to the second post.

Edit: Now back on the first post...

 

I'm counting 875. I'll try and play this soon, epic is my favorite form of the game, but unfortunately the game is still unstable for me just on huge.

Any more specific design changes coming along?

 

Buh...what...How...
Okay I have no idea how it ended up being 875 turns...
Where did I lose 125 turns...
See, I spent hours trying to shoehorn it into the original eras...and I must haev screwed my turn ratios as a result...
that explains why the research felt so off in v.03!!!
I will have to work on rebalancing this out to 1000 turns...
Shouldn't be too hard...
I have corrected the readme and corrected my above posts and moved the download to the first post in the thread.
Watch for version .05 soon...

 

Do you know how to play this mod with the lost wonders/units mods at the same time. I have tried coping folders without any luck.

 

It should work alright with the lost wonders/units combo. I think they don't overlap in any file, so if you just place everything into one folder it should work. I think...

 

Please elaborate.

 

The original version of the mod had modified the Great people to be inline with what I THOUGHT was the correct percentage. As a result they were offering too much a a boost to production, als o they were appearing too often.

I am testing v.05 right now, and I think it may be the final version of this mod as my next mod is going to be a bit more ambitious...I will likely post v.05 in the next few days.

 

How do you balance it so that in the early game you don't run out of buildings to build and arn't forced into building units?

I have an idea that you could effectively "break down" buildings into two or more kinds. So instead of a barracks giving +4 exp to land units, you could split it into two buildings, same price as a barracks.
1) Training yard +2 exp
2) Barracks +2 exp

Or, to split it up even more -- instead of giving +4 exp to land units, have it give +4 exp to each type of land unit. +4 to archer, +4 to melee, +4 to mounted, and +4 to muskettypes.
1) Archery Range
2) Barracks
3) Stables
4) Firing Range

These are just a few of my ideas.

 

The ideas you have put forth are actually what I am planning to do for a future mod which will seek to make a 6050 turn game. One year per turn.

For this mod however nothing so ambitious.

The main goal of this mod was to give you mroe time to build and use your military units. The original Epic version of the game allowed little time for combat to the point where on a huge map with several opponents a conquest victory was nearly impossible within the timline.

This Mod makes this possible, as well as making wars bigger and more epic.

 

Barring major complaints or extreme feedback, v.05 is the final Version of Bigger & Longer.

I am going to begin tinkering with my next Mod as well as playing this mod for a while.

Testing proved to me that everythign now feels balanced, although as pondered by an above post, you WILL be left eventually with nothing to build but units...This should not happen too often too early, but when it does I suggest you consider goign to war...war with this sort of time to play out is GLORIOUS! Especially when played on a Huge or FX-HUGE map!!

The changes are noted above, and the file is attached to the original post!
Enjoy!

 

FexFX,

This is a very good Mod.
Looking forward to see more projects from you.

Great work!!!

Rocoteh

 

Thank You, Your feedback is appreciated.
I'd like to hear from the first person to complete an FX-Grand(1000) game on an FX-Huge map to see how things went towards the end!

I havent played one through all the way to the end yet....I wanted to get this mod out there first!

 

With Regards to my next MOD, I am working on a mod which by necessity would add many new Techs, Buildings and units to the game to keep things from getting dull in the insane time periods being considered.

I am thinking the game will have 3 speeds:
~2000 Turns
~4000 Turns
6050 Turns!!

I have just begun by teaching myself everything involvedin adding a new tech and a new Building related to that tech(with the exceptions of the graphics end of things), and I have run into a small concern...

Languages...
I am using Google to Translate into all of the languages, but I am certain that using Google to translate will end up leaving my mod sounding mentally challenged in the 4 languages other than English...

Does anyone have any reccomendations for this?

Should I simply use English as all of the languages?
Use Google?

One friend suggested I put a disclaimer in front of every Civlopedia entry in French, German, Italian and Spanish saying: "Warning these entries were translated from English Using Google."

 

FexFx,

Sounds like a very interesting project!
I would focus on English.

I have worked with scenario-creation for 3 years now and believe
me its much more time-consuming then one can think!

Thus a multi-language project will consume time that you want
for more crucial aspects of the mod.

Rocoteh

 

I'd just not translate them , but if you're going to do it then I'd skip the per-entry disclaimer. Note it in a "readme" and in your forum posts, perhaps even in each respective language, but don't clutter up the xml files with such an unnecessary repetition.

 

Hmmm, Good points, I think I will just skip the Multi-Language idea...
Next question then...should I just Duplicate the English text for each Language, or leave the other languages BLANK...which I dont think would look so nice.

In other news, I have successfully 100% integrated a new Tech and a new Building into the game, using the tech as a new prereq to an existing tech, and making the building obsolete with the discovery of that tech. Also it is now the only building in the game which stops giving its +1 Culture bonus once its obsolete...They put functionality in the game for that, but never once used it!

Now, just 100 or so more techs, and buildings and units and religions and wonders, and such and it will be all ready to balance...

ROFL...
This is gonna be fun!
This game ROCKS!

 

FexFx,

I would just duplicate the English text for each language.

Very good news on the new tech and the new building.

With regard to new units I think its best just to rename standard
units and give them new stats instead of waiting for custom units.

Many of the early CIV III scenarios were done that way.

Looking forward to follow how this project evolves.

Rocoteh