Mod Idea thread

[Recursive]

I have two question about this :

• Would the AI be able to use the action, and would it be able to know what to do with it (so that the civ doesn't become a player-only one) ?
• To give a unit, must you be in the territory of the civ you want to give it to ? If that's the case, making all Swiss units able to traverse rival territory would be the easiest solution (it's not as if they could be a threatening force, although having a Swiss army around your capital while Switzerland has a defensive pact with your biggest rival would be quite frightening).

No and yes, respectively.

 

[Asterix Rage]

To give a unit, must you be in the territory of the civ you want to give it to ? If that's the case, making all Swiss units able to traverse rival territory would be the easiest solution (it's not as if they could be a threatening force, although having a Swiss army around your capital while Switzerland has a defensive pact with your biggest rival would be quite frightening).

Gift unit with all promotions or not? It can make a big difference.

 

[InkAxis]

Well you can just make a custom mission (custom action the unit can do, can be done to any unit through lua), and then unit:kill() the unit and then init a new unit. You would be better able to control where and when you can gift a unit (just being adjacent to enemy territory). You would probably be able to store the promotions it has, and give those to the new unit, but I'm less sure about that. Enabling unit gifting in the DLL is a little different because then any civ will be able to do it.

 

[Hinin]

Happy April's Fool Day everyone ! To mark the occasion, here is a new wonky civ concept. Enjoy !

Spoiler Wyveria :

Wyveria (from the Monster Hunter franchise)

Leader - His Immenseness
Capital - Dundorma

UA - Tale of the Five

When attacking a unit whose Technology requirement hasn’t been met by you, gain additionnal XP and a portion of the Science cost of that Technology. If the Technology has already been researched, gain Production and Culture in the nearest City instead (bonuses scaling with Damages inflicted and Era).
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UU1 - Hunters (no replacement)

Unlocked at Philosophy

130 Production cost (increased by 50 at each new Era)
2 MP
15 CS

Preparation - Gain 5 base CS per new Era. +25 % CS against Units whose Technology requirement hasn’t been met by you.
Ignores Terrain cost
Has access to the Drill, Shock, Trailblazer and Survivalism promotion trees
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UNW - Hunter’s Guild (no replacement)

Unlocked at Guilds
135 Production (120 Gold), increased by your number of cities
Population requirement similar to East India Company

1 Civil Servant specialist
+1 XP for all Units per worked specialist in Empire (+25 XP max.)
Hunters can now airlift to or from any city you controle, and can paradrop up to 3 tiles away.
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Spoiler MUCfVP compatibility :

UU2 - Airfleet (replaces Zeppelin)

Unlocked at Navigation (instead of Steam Power)
350 Production cost (instead of 650)
22 RCS (instead of 25), 1 Range; 25 CS
3 MP

Hover
Targeting (when attacking, inflicts the “Spotted” plague, making the unit always visible and inflicting a -25 % CS malus when attacked for 2 turns)
___________________________________________________________

UB - Canteen (replaces Grocer)

+1 Food per 4 Pop, +1 Happiness

Carries over 15% Food of after City growth

When you kill a unit, gain 1 turn of WLTKD in the city

-1 Unhappiness from Poverty in City and -2 % War Weariness on Empire

Spoiler Peace Theme - To Those Alive :

Spoiler War Theme - Moonquake :

 

[KaoticKanine]

Not sure how receptive this idea would be, but a modmod I'd absolutely love to see for VP is one that incorporates Climate Change. Not just for some real-life accuracy, but I think it would add to the challenge of the game by making certain buildings and improvements have a negative impact come the Industrial Era: provoking increasingly deadly storms, causing droughts, and so on. And it could add some new things to diplomacy and WC by having new proposals that relate to climate change and, of course, influencing Civ relations based on how vulnerable a civ's home location is to CC and which civs are contributing the most to CC's development

 

[KaoticKanine]

While this isn't exactly a mod idea, something I'm really desiring as of late is a map that places Civs in the most ideal starting locations for their UAs and/or UI/UBs: Iroquois, Mayans, and Brazil in a huge swath of forest, Inca in a large/wide mountain range with hills galore (preferably without sheep next to the mountains), Songhai with an expansive river for optimal City Connections, Polynesia next to (if not in) a chain of islands that allow perfect Moai placement, Aztecs in a lake-rich region, India in a flood plains region, Shoshone in flat land, and Mongolia and Rome in locations full of horses and iron respectively, etc. And for Civs without terrain/resource dependency would spawn in locations most accurate to their real-life counterpart, such as Egypt next to a massive flood plain river and Indonesia in tropical islands.

This is not just so I'm not resetting a billion times before finally getting a great starting location for a given Civ but so any of the AI also have good start locations. Never feels right when I see an AI Inca having spawned in flatland tundra, or Songhai in an area with little to no rivers, and so on. Like, even if the AI gets insane bonuses at higher difficulty, it'd still be preferable for them to spawn in terrain beneficial to their Civ. Would make winning against them all the more impressive, no? And with the civs spawning based on "historical terrain", well that's my nitpicky side lol Although Egypt does benefit from flood plains (being a Civ that leans towards Tall play).

I guess TSL kind of already accomplishes this desire, I know. But with the TSL map I use there are consistent "issues" that make me want to play on a normal map (City-States being a major one), and not all the starts are actually ideal for all Civs. Polynesia, for instance, has to contend with single-tile islands for the most part (and thus no place for the Moai), and Arabia's capital is mainly desert with no rivers; just two or three oasis' for food. Really bad for the definitive Tradition civ. The map or even map script I'm thinking of would address those issues while retaining the other benefits/flavor of TSL, if that makes sense.

 

[Valvts]

Anybody knows if there is a barbarian survival mod?

 

[Kim Dong Un]

Supreme Leader had some glorious intel arrive this morning! It appears that the prestigious being known as "The Hungry One", has implemented/enabled my long desired ability for early resource reveal upon specified tech discovery. The DPRK's vast quarries full of rich Uranium can now be opened for service, by as early as 12:01 AM starting on 4000 BC! How exciting, and what a glorious opportunity awaits for he and his followers! Praise be to The Hungry One!

While this isn't exactly a mod idea, something I'm really desiring as of late is a map that places Civs in the most ideal starting locations for their UAs and/or UI/UBs: Iroquois, Mayans, and Brazil in a huge swath of forest, Inca in a large/wide mountain range with hills galore (preferably without sheep next to the mountains), Songhai with an expansive river for optimal City Connections, Polynesia next to (if not in) a chain of islands that allow perfect Moai placement, Aztecs in a lake-rich region, India in a flood plains region, Shoshone in flat land, and Mongolia and Rome in locations full of horses and iron respectively, etc. And for Civs without terrain/resource dependency would spawn in locations most accurate to their real-life counterpart, such as Egypt next to a massive flood plain river and Indonesia in tropical islands.

This is not just so I'm not resetting a billion times before finally getting a great starting location for a given Civ but so any of the AI also have good start locations. Never feels right when I see an AI Inca having spawned in flatland tundra, or Songhai in an area with little to no rivers, and so on. Like, even if the AI gets insane bonuses at higher difficulty, it'd still be preferable for them to spawn in terrain beneficial to their Civ. Would make winning against them all the more impressive, no? And with the civs spawning based on "historical terrain", well that's my nitpicky side lol Although Egypt does benefit from flood plains (being a Civ that leans towards Tall play).

I guess TSL kind of already accomplishes this desire, I know. But with the TSL map I use there are consistent "issues" that make me want to play on a normal map (City-States being a major one), and not all the starts are actually ideal for all Civs. Polynesia, for instance, has to contend with single-tile islands for the most part (and thus no place for the Moai), and Arabia's capital is mainly desert with no rivers; just two or three oasis' for food. Really bad for the definitive Tradition civ. The map or even map script I'm thinking of would address those issues while retaining the other benefits/flavor of TSL, if that makes sense.

Isn't this what the civs' starting bias supposed to do in the first place?

 

[InkAxis]

Supreme Leader had some glorious intel arrive this morning! It appears that the prestigious being known as "The Hungry One", has implemented/enabled my long desired ability for early resource reveal upon specified tech discovery. The DPRK's vast quarries full of rich Uranium can now be opened for service, by as early as 12:01 AM starting on 4000 BC! How exciting, and what a glorious opportunity awaits for he and his followers! Praise be to The Hungry One!

If you want help making a mod, I would really recommend the VP discord: https://discord.gg/KbgmCRU
You can easily ask quick questions there and get answers much faster.

Isn't this what the civs' starting bias supposed to do in the first place?

We talked about this (on the discord coincidentally), I think what he means is that the map is generated based on what civs are in the game. So if there is a civ with a forest bias the game will make sure to generate a good forest start. Instead of instead of generating the map (independent of what civs are chosen) and just placing the civs.

 

[KaoticKanine]

We talked about this (on the discord coincidentally), I think what he means is that the map is generated based on what civs are in the game. So if there is a civ with a forest bias the game will make sure to generate a good forest start. Instead of instead of generating the map (independent of what civs are chosen) and just placing the civs.

Yes, this is what I mean. If what I understand about map generation in Civ 5 is accurate, it first creates a world based on the map's settings (both in code and from modifiers in Advanced Setup), randomly distributes all resources, and then places the Civs based on their start bias. Which all my experience with has been finicky at best, somehow managing to get Iroquois starts with very little forest if not starting next to a desert, among other things. And even then, start bias does not take into account strategic resources that given Civs could be highly dependent on, such as Rome and Japan needing Iron for their game-defining UUs and Mongolia needing Horses to be remotely effective.

Hence I'd like a mod or map script that essentially generates maps based on the selected (be it manually or randomly) Civs, crafting the terrain and distributing resources accordingly. That way terrain-dependent Civs don't have to worry about map generation screwing them over despite start bias (and this extends to the AI, who often spawn in very unfavorable terrain), Civs dependent on certain strategics don't have to worry about being barren of such crucial material, and Civs that don't necessarily depend on terrain but highly benefit from them (Aztecs with lakes, India with flood plains, etc.) can expect to have a good start. Maybe also have City-State-centric Civs spawn next to groups of CS', but I guess that'd be pushing things (if only because I imagine City-State placement is its own thing that can be a pain to deal with).

 

[Kim Dong Un]

If you want help making a mod, I would really recommend the VP discord: https://discord.gg/KbgmCRU
You can easily ask quick questions there and get answers much faster.

Yes I'm aware, and I'm positive that I'll end up having to use it while getting help with lua especially. I'm just grateful because I'd previously inquired to Hungry on the forums months ago, and he was fortunately able to now get it implemented. It was a big unknown to me for a while, but now that I have confirmation I'll hopefully have some motivation to get at it.

We talked about this (on the discord coincidentally), I think what he means is that the map is generated based on what civs are in the game. So if there is a civ with a forest bias the game will make sure to generate a good forest start. Instead of instead of generating the map (independent of what civs are chosen) and just placing the civs.

Ahh, I see. That would definitely be neat.

 

[Hinin]

Idea for a Scotland mod

Spoiler Scotland kit :

Leader - Robert I Bruce / Roibert a Briuis

UA - Arbroath Declaration

When being declared War on or Liberating a City for the first time, gain Influence with all friendly CStates and gain Culture and spawn a Melee Unit with additionnal XP in Capital, scaling with era. +5 % Production to Units and +1 Great Diplomat point in Capital per Declaration of Friendship or Defensive Pact (max. : +25 % and +10 GDp respectively).
________________________________________________________________________________________

UU1 - Schiltron (replaces Pikeman)
Unlocked at Steel
135 Production cost (instead of 120)
2 MP

20 CS (instead of 17)
Formation I
Drill I
Bhonnaich (+25 max HP ; inflicts 15 additionnal damages when attacked in melee)
________________________________________________________________________________________

UI - Dun Cinneadh
Unlocked at Physics
Construction time : 800
Must be built on resources (improves it) ; no UI adjacency allowed
+50 % CS when defending and +2 CS to the City working it (max. : +10 CS)

+1 ///
+1 Gold to adjacent Mines and Lumbermills
+1 Culture to adjacent Fishing Boats and Pastures
+1 Production to adjacent Farms
+1 Science to adjacent Villages

Tech bonuses :

• +1 / at Architecture
• +2 at Fertilizer
  
• +1 / at Flight

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UU2 - Birlinn (replaces Galleass)
Unlocked at Physics (instead of Guilds)
160 Production cost (instead of 175)
4 MP

15 CS (instead of 14)
22 RCS (instead of 24)
Range 1

Island Raider (-10 % RCS/CS to hostile Units within two tiles ; 60% chance to withdraw before Melee Attack)
Supply
Medic I
Cannot Melee Attack
Cannot traverse Ocean tiles
Can move after Attack

Removed : Naval Inaccuracy
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UNW - Great Seal Registers (replaces Printing Press)
Unlocked at Civil Service (instead of Printing Press)
Requires a Chancery in City
125 Production cost (increasing with number of Cities you own)
Population requirement slightly decreased (increasing with number of Cities you own)

+3 / +2 (instead of +1 )
+1 GDiplomat point
+2 Paper (instead of +1)
2 Civil Servant specialists (instead of 1)
+20 % Production of Diplomatic Units in this City
All Diplomatic Units receive the Literacy promotion
1 less Unhappiness from specialists in City
+1 Gold per friendly and +1 Science per allied City State.

When you unlock a Policy or Liberate a City for the first time, units you own gain +10 % CS for 15 turns.

Music themes :

• Peace - Mary Young and Fair, Grace O'Malley Quartet
• War - Robert the Bruce, David Chas

 

[Kim Dong Un]

Aside from Iroquois' Sachem's Council (Scrivener), does anyone know of any other unique buildings/replacements related to the Chancery?

I was just poking around with some other ideas in the case any plan B, C, etc., was needed for Best Korea, and I was intrigued by the "Propaganda Ministry" that's in the other kit. I initially chose to exclude this while coming up with my own idea (Mansu Hill Monument), and I probably won't stray from my plans, but I'm just curious how'd it'd fare if I tweaked it to my own liking for VP. As it stands, the original creator had it as a Zoo replacement, but if I were to use it I'd be looking at trying to squeeze it into the earlier part of the game. It's not a perfect match -- as I understand it, chanceries have had quite a few varying roles/purposes throughout time, but some are designated to technically function as a public records office, so I thought that might be enough of a connection -- I'm interested to hear any opinions from any of the more history savvy players as to why / why not this would be a good idea.

If anything, it would allow DPRK to also play into a Diplo victory. What a sight that would be to behold: watching as the world succumbs to the word of the Glorious One...

 

[pineappledan]

China 4UC has a unique chancery.
Phoenicia also has a unique GDiplomat and a Unique scrivener.

 

[InkAxis]

Thematically, fits much better than a zoo. A police station could also work though I understand that's much later. But then again, is NK an early game civ?

Leader - Robert I Bruce / Roibert a Briuis

UA - Arbroath Declaration

When being declared War on or Liberating a City for the first time, gain Influence with all friendly CStates and gain Culture and spawn a Melee Unit with additionnal XP in Capital, scaling with era. +5 % Production to Units and +10% Great Diplomat generation per Declaration of Friendship or Defensive Pact (max. : +25 % and +50 % respectively).

I like this kit. I do think it can be a bit swingy, especially for liberation. Some games AI will declare war on you a lot, and other games they won't. Would feel bad to miss out on your UA, but then again I can't think of a workaround.

 

[Hinin]

I like this kit. I do think it can be a bit swingy, especially for liberation. Some games AI will declare war on you a lot, and other games they won't. Would feel bad to miss out on your UA, but then again I can't think of a workaround.

Obviously, any kit that relies on AI behaviour is bound to be swingy. That said, Recursive work made such a thing a bit less problematic : AIs now can be manipulated / understood more reliably (in a good way), and knowing each personality helps a lot here (playing the diplomacy game more than usual in general). Plus, early game there are most often one or two AIs that can become friendly quite quickly if you aren't near them, and that can already be a nice bonus.

All of this aside, that is why the UCs are meant to be reliable (even the UNW can provide you good value). The base UCs (Schiltron and UI) are very much centered around a "slow and steady" gameplan, and the Birlinn can provide value in a variety of ways.

Edit : Some tweaks have been done to the UA, UI, UU2 and UWN.

 

[Kim Dong Un]

Thematically, fits much better than a zoo. A police station could also work though I understand that's much later. But then again, is NK an early game civ?

Yeah the Police station is too late, and the core power is already coming late with Juche Tower so I would prefer the other UB to arrive earlier for balance. I was simply just weighing over all the options again, as someone previously questioned the decision to have both UB's as NW replacements, not that I think it's really an issue. Coincidentally, Hinin just proposed a Printing Press replacement for the Scotland concept, and that would probably also work, but then I end up with 2 NW UB's again... plus I'd rather not steal his thunder. I also ironically overlooked the usage of China's Examination Hall, though I guess having 'matching' 4UB's might bring added flavour, considering they're Supreme Leader's closest ally.

All-in-all, I'm pretty content with my initial plans, but it's always fun brainstorming ideas. I was hopeful that it wouldn't be looked at by the community as too much of a stretch, just in case I plan to incorporate it. I'd say I got my answer(s), so thank you for the responses.

 

[InkAxis]

is too late

Is there a reason you want early stuff?

 

[Milae]

2 Mod ideas I have but not the time/ability to do them:

1. AI Military moves Mod. Before you click 'end turn' there is a 'MAKE MOVES' button which means all of your military units are moved by the AI. I know this might be really annoying but it also does make your lategame turns wayyy faster and it removes probably the biggest difference between human and AI players in terms of skill so you could massively reduce AI bonuses and still have a competitive game. I tried to figure how to do this but couldn't and I messaged Ilteroi but he hasn't been online for a while so I'm pretty stuck.

2. VP tutorial. The way I could see this working would be a fixed version of VP with it's own installer where the first time you reach each Milestone in the game you get a popup giving an explanation and some advice about it that you would click through before continuing. I could code the triggers for these popups and even write the advice but I don't know how to actually make a popup, I'm guessing it's all LUA stuff. This would probably take a decent amount of time though and I'm not sure how many new players there are that would actually use it. But perhaps doing this as a group project could be fun if others are interested.

 

[Kim Dong Un]

Is there a reason you want early stuff?

I think it's general consensus that the later a UC arrives, the less value -- and subsequently, fun -- it brings. Plus, the rest of the kit is already back-heavy with the Juche/Koksan + 2 remaining Supreme Leaders, so it'd be nice to spread some of the power out. I realize that there's no historical basis for the chancery idea, but ultimately I'm prioritizing fun game-play; this is DPRK we're talking about here, so there will be much role-play and imagination involved. Also, this 2nd UB (either Mansu or Propaganda) will be the 4UC, so people playing default VP won't even have this extra early building.