Modules I play with

[OnmyojiOmn]

Not enough modmodding going on with LoR. These are the modules I play with, written by me but inspired by others in a few cases. Extract the zip to LoR\Assets\Modules and overwrite MLF_CIV4ModularLoadingControls.xml when prompted. Don't enable modular loading in LoR.ini, it should be left at 0. ImprovementBuildings has some Python files too, see below.

- BWFix: Slavery moved to Masonry, Copper revealed with Mining and enabled with Bronze Working. No change to chopping.

- DisabledClouds: hides the cloud overlay in globe view.

- FasterCamera: faster camera panning.

- IdleCities: "Idle" build option available from the start of the game, 25% production to research. The 25% is just to make the AI use it, but it helps a little.

- ImprovementBuildings: if a city is built on a resource tile, buildings providing the yield you'd get from the appropriate improvement are automatically placed in the city when tech and civic requirements are met. For example, if you have a riverside city on Rice and you're running Serfdom, that city would be given Farm (Rice), Farm (Irrigation), and Farm (Serfdom). In addition to installing the XML files, you need to place ImprovementBuildings.py in LoR\Assets\Python\Contrib and edit LoR\Assets\Config\init.xml like so:

<bug>
    ...
    <load mod="ImprovementBuildings"/>
</bug>

- KnightRebalance: earlier Knights, see this this post. Only the changes involving Archers, Composite Bowmen, and Knights are included. Composite Bowmen use the same artwork as Archers.

- RoadsAndRivers: high-res rivers and improved ancient-era roads.

- SpeedFix: vanilla game speeds are unplayably flawed, this rebalances Marathon speed for longer games and more action.

- StartingSettler: extra movement speed and vision range for the initial settler. Subsequent settlers are not changed.

- TerrainTextures: replaces LoR's grassland and plains textures with edited versions of the ones from Blue Marble Gold.

- WorkboatSpeed: halved speed for Work Boats, makes Galleys relevant for exploration.

 

[OnmyojiOmn]

Edit: there are some problems with this one that I can't really fix satisfactorily without SDK changes, so don't bother for now.

Here's an expansion for pagan religions in LoR. The Paganism religion is present in the starting cities of all civs that start the game with Mysticism. I've included missionaries, temples, monasteries, and the Pagan Fanum, which is the Pagan cathedral. No civ will ever have the benefit of founding the religion, so there's no shrine. You get the usual +1 happiness with Paganism as your state religion, but I left out the +1 culture for balance.

Currently the unit/building artwork is copied from Islam's, which will seem a little weird, but I don't think it's that important. Eventually I'll at least put in some building icons with the appropriate religion icon in the corner. Also, Paganism won't show up in the religion/corporation area of the city screen unless you enable Only Present Religions in BUG options, but that's a problem with any new religion. To install, extract the archive to LoR\Assets\Modules, move Paganism.py to LoR\Assets\Python\Contrib, then edit LoR\Assets\Config\init.xml as follows:

<bug>
    ...
    <load mod="Paganism"/>
</bug>

 

[comatosedragon]

A lot of these ideas seem very interesting. I especially like the BWFix, which I had already incorporated into my mod. The paganism idea seems neat too, I'm going to give these a try, hope you don't mind if I kype some/all of your ideas for use in my mod (credit given of course!)

 

[GoodGame]

I thought culture limits on workboat travel speed already made galleys useful for exploration. Basically you need Astronomy, or similar to use workboats to explore anymore.

 

[OnmyojiOmn]

Use anything you like, with or without credit.

Please at least try the game speed mod. It's not perfect, but I just can't stand the vanilla settings. I don't know why otherwise mod-friendly civ players are so hostile to speed changes.

 

[flitz]

Please at least try the game speed mod. It's not perfect, but I just can't stand the vanilla settings. I don't know why otherwise mod-friendly civ players are so hostile to speed changes.

I downloaded it but there was no readme to the speedfix. Is the fix like described above only for marathon or for the other speed settings as well ? And what amount of change does it do ?

 

[OnmyojiOmn]

Sorry about the late reply. I stopped playing, so I don't check back often. The speed fix replaces the settings for Marathon, so choose that speed. I didn't just add a new speed because modular XML has problems with that. The settings keep times for units, buildings, and improvements close to normal but increase tech cost to 540% of normal speed IIRC. There are other minor changes, like number of turns per year.

It sounds like a crazy hack, but it feels pretty good in-game. You have time to make use of every unit upgrade before it becomes obsolete, and lots of stuff can happen between important techs, like Optics and Astronomy. More improvements and buildings built balances out the longer tech times. Settlers cost the same as on Marathon (300%).

 

[civgenius]

OnmyojiOmn: Cool speedfix, just one problem. The years are going too fast! It's almost 800AD and most civs don't even have horseback riding! I love the tech speed, though, but is there any way to use the worldbuilder or something else to set back the date, but keep everyone's techs and other stuff so I can keep playing the game I started?

 

[OnmyojiOmn]

What other techs do they have? I wouldn't be surprised if the AI just avoids Horseback Riding, because it's so bad.

 

[civgenius]

Actually, I just conquered the french, who still only had warriors and chariots. The most advanced unit for most civs is horsemen and swordsmen, and the date is 2000 years ahead of the tech level!

These are ALL of my techs! And I have a large empire with monasteries and libraries.

The date is 980 AD.

Spoiler Screenshot :

I actually think that this mod makes the game much more enjoyable, and it would be better if you could keep everything the same, just slow down the clock.

 

[OnmyojiOmn]

Research falling behind is unavoidable unless you mess with the turn count, which I haven't done because that seems like a chore. The research problem doesn't bother me much because the displayed date is only cosmetic and I never play to the end date anyway. I play on noble difficulty, and in my games the AI is on swordsmen/horsemen a little before 1AD. I can't see much of what's going on in your screenshot, but to be honest your tech rate is horrendous because you're so overextended. Keep in mind that civs get a bonus to research based on how many of the other civs they've met also have that tech, so your backwards empire isn't helping.

One problem with making techs more expensive is that the AI doesn't prioritize the way a human would. It doesn't know to research something better than warriors ASAP, it seems bad at teching its way out of a hole, and these shortcomings are exacerbated by expensive techs.

Here are some updates.

- SpeedFix: minor changes to costs on marathon, and new changes to epic speed that are similar to my marathon settings but toned down. The AI now starts with Archery on noble and higher difficulties. I still haven't extended the turn count, but I did take out some strange but very minor changes to turn counts that crept in at some point, so now dates will be just like vanilla.

- IdleCities: Idle build order is now +25% gold instead of production. This module is really important if you use SpeedFix because cities will often not have anything useful to build and the gold is very useful for supporting a large empire before Currency.

- FasterCamera: even faster than before, now double vanilla scroll speed.

- SEFix: a new module meant to reduce the importance of the Pyramids to a specialist economy. All specialists now give you one extra research or gold depending on the type of specialist (e.g. +1 research for scientists, +1 gold for merchants), and the Representation civic now adds two research per specialist instead of three.

- ImprovedRoads: same as the road texture from the RoadsAndRivers module I posted before, but this needs to be unzipped to Mods\LoR. I had to do it this way because certain road segments weren't using the texture. I guarantee that once you see this texture in-game you will hate vanilla roads.

 

[OnmyojiOmn]

For what it's worth, I've played several games on marathon up to the 1500s, and in most of them tech progress catches up to the date after lagging in the classical era. I see Optics and colonization happening in the late 1400s, etc. On the other hand, I've had a couple games where progress lagged to a ridiculous degree. In the game I was playing today, I had the AI ask me for Pottery in like 800AD. Then, a bunch of turns after that, someone asked me for Agriculture and I ragequit.