New Civ - Byzantium

[LeperColony]

Amra, you are a basileus among men (or women. or whatever). I really hope you hook up with the people who put the extra civs in the big mod packs, because this civ belongs in them all.

To get a jump on the expansion, have you given any thought to the Byzantine-specific building? Here are a few examples I think would work well.

Great Palace: The wealth of the Byzantine Imperial palaces was renowned throughout the world. The Bucoleon and the Blachernae were both overfilled with riches. The main effect was diplomatic, of course, serving to impress both foriengers and the Byzantines themselves with the power of the empire. In Civ that might be hard to reflect, so maybe a plain commerce bonus or happiness or something.

Theodosian Walls: The land walls of Constantinople saved Byzantine society on more than one occasion.

Orthodox Monastery: The Byzantines were nuts about monasteries, and founded a ton of them. Many of the best examples of Byzantine architecture that survive are monastic structures. These could give slightly increased cultural, scientific, or commercial benefits over standard the monastary.

Also, not to impress upon your kindness too far, but is the new file on the first page Sevo3 friendly?

 

[Chamaedrys]

I would prefer the palace or the walls. The walls make Constantinopel invincible untill the turks come up with canons. So the walls could have a high defense bonus against melee/cav but not against canons.

btw: could you please post a list with all working cmbinations of leaders and animations?

 

[LeperColony]

Well, not quite invincible. Pretenders are able to get in from time to time, because no matter how good the walls are, there are still the gates to worry about. Also, although the Theodosian Walls did make land-based assaults against Constantinople quite difficult, the seawalls were not nearly as impressive, as the Venecians would prove in 1204.

 

[Amra]

Amra, you are a basileus among men (or women. or whatever). I really hope you hook up with the people who put the extra civs in the big mod packs, because this civ belongs in them all.

Thanks for the kind words (glad you liked Basil ) and I have been working with Civ Gold on some LH's with them. Oh, and I am a guy... Middle-aged old fart with a wife & kids living in the Midwestern United States to be more precise.

Thanks, also, to you & Chamaedrys for the suggestions on unique buildings. I will start to make a list for this civ & all the ones in my modpack.

Also, not to impress upon your kindness too far, but is the new file on the first page Sevo3 friendly?

No, the file in post #1 is only for the stand-alone version of Byzantium. I will have to post a new download to add this civ to Sevomod 3.0c, I'll try to do so over the weekend and will post an announcement when it is done. BTW, I PM'd Sevo about adding this civ to his modpack and he indicated that he would do so in a future patch. Hopefully, he will remember & not get too busy.

could you please post a list with all working cmbinations of leaders and animations?

I'll try to compile one. I haven't really kept track. Just gone by trial & error each time I do a LH.

 

[Chamaedrys]

I found cool a site with lots of pics of byzantinique buildings.

http://www.byzantium1200.com

 

[Amra]

@LeperColony

Please see post #2 for a patch to add Byzantium v1.1 to Sevomod v3.0c

Enjoy.

 

[LeperColony]

Many thanks Amra!

 

[Amra]

Someone requested this, so I have added a modified Earth1000AD scenario to the Other Downloads section in post#2. It requires this mod to be loaded when playing.

Enjoy.

 

[Amazing Game]

@ Amra:

Greetings and Salutations:

Are you plannng to conform the Amazing Hyborians and Byzantium Civilizations with the WARLORDS expansion edition ???????????

I would love to add the Hyborians and Byzantium Civs to the 87 by 87 map of Europe I usually play on (13 other civs). If you want I can send you a copy once done ... will only take a couple of minutes (as u know).

...Anyways got to go now...vacation's almost over for me...Got to get back to my WARLORDS game...(WHICH IS AMAZING - SID: UR DA BEST !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Take care of urself and keep up da great work !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Remember ... just smile to the naysayers (jealous people) of your GREAT and equally AMAZING effort and work...

 

[Amra]

Are you plannng to conform the Amazing Hyborians and Byzantium Civilizations with the WARLORDS expansion edition ???????????

Yes, once I get Warlords. I usually try to wait until it is on sale so probably in a week or two I will get it and start updating my mods. I'll probably update my misc civ mods first as they will be easier and then jump into updating my modpack. That will take a lot more time. Also, as if I don't have enough to do, I'm going to continue helping Civ Gold with their next version. I hope I don't get burned out on Civ modding as, somewhere in the back of my mind, I still would love to do a Hyborian Age total conversion with map. That's way on the back burner, though.

I would love to add the Hyborians and Byzantium Civs to the 87 by 87 map of Europe I usually play on (13 other civs). If you want I can send you a copy once done ... will only take a couple of minutes (as u know).

Sure, PM me and I will try to add it in, time permitting.

 

[Amra]

Version 2.0 for Warlords has been posted on page 1. The new Unique Building is "Theodosian Walls" ( 45h cost, +60% defense & new Archer units receive City Garrison I promotion). Thanks to everyone who suggested unique buildings.

Also note that version 2.0 will only have one UU (Dromon) in it. I want to bring my individual civs in line with all the other retail civs. My modpack, as always, will have 2 UU's for Byzantium and all other civs.

Before you ask... No, I have not updated my modpack yet. That's gonna take a while.

 

[Amazing Game]

@ Amra:

Thanks for the quick release of the Byzantium Civ, as I am trying to put together 16 or 17 civs on a European Map which I have successfully been able to crop and edit with Notepad.

To this end, please accept my apologizes for not making my previous post more clear; I mean I was actually not asking for a map to be made by you- rather, I was volunteering my services for a map which I have been able to crop and edit using other maps people have made. Of course, when done, I will credit those creators. I was looking for your civs as they are more vanilla than others and "europe friendly"...

Again, sorry to have left you with the impression that I wanted you to do all the work.

Take care ...
Keep up the great work...

 

[Amra]

To this end, please accept my apologizes for not making my previous post more clear; I mean I was actually not asking for a map to be made by you- rather, I was volunteering my services for a map which I have been able to crop and edit using other maps people have made. Of course, when done, I will credit those creators. I was looking for your civs as they are more vanilla than others and "europe friendly"...

Again, sorry to have left you with the impression that I wanted you to do all the work.

Whoops, I guess I was confused. Of course, please feel free to add Byzantium.

 

[Cuivienen]

Just lurking, and I noticed that someone again chose Theodora over the obvious female leader for Byzantium: Irene, the only woman to rule the Byzantine Empire (or Rome and any of its succesor states).

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irene_(empress))

 

[LeperColony]

Just lurking, and I noticed that someone again chose Theodora over the obvious female leader for Byzantium: Irene, the only woman to rule the Byzantine Empire (or Rome and any of its succesor states).

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irene_(empress))

That's not exactly true. Byzantine succession gives several examples of female government, and even of de jure reigning empresses.

Martina was appointed regent in 641 by the dying emperor Heraclius for his son Heraclonas.

Zoe Carbonopsina (Coal eyes) ruled as regent for her son Constantine VII Prophyogenitus (Born in the purple) in the tenth century.

In 1042, after a popular revolt overthrew the emperor Michael VI, the nieces of Basil II Zoe and Theodora ruled and reigned. Zoe had been empress since her uncle's death in 1025, and the throne had passed through her to her two husbands, Romanus III Argyrus and Michael VI. It was her dynastic claims that secured the position of her husbands, and once they had both departed from the scene, she and her sister ruled and reigned in their own rights.

I agree that Irene or Zoe would have been better choiced from a historical standpoint, but there is little doubt that Theodora had a lot of influence over Justinian and the administration (she even managed to get her choice elected Patriarch, starting a major church schism Justinian would have been much better off without). This has been discussed before, and since it is a relatively matter, I am happy enough with Theodora.

By the way Amra, many thanks for the speedy warlord-compatable update. I haven't picked up the expansion yet, but now that Sevo and your Byzantines work with the expansion, it looks like I'll have to get on it. Not to nitpick though, but the walls look a little weak when compared to the special buidlings of the other societies.

 

[Amra]

By the way Amra, many thanks for the speedy warlord-compatable update. I haven't picked up the expansion yet, but now that Sevo and your Byzantines work with the expansion, it looks like I'll have to get on it. Not to nitpick though, but the walls look a little weak when compared to the special buidlings of the other societies.

I was afraid of overpowering the walls so I tried to keep it simple. I would welcome some suggestions for tweaking them.

Are you sure that Sevomod works with Warlords. I think version 3.1 is the last version he did for Vanilla civ4 and that he is going to be working on a Warlords version but has not done so yet. You might want to verify that before spending the $30 to play Sevomod with Warlords.

 

[LeperColony]

I was afraid of overpowering the walls so I tried to keep it simple. I would welcome some suggestions for tweaking them.

Are you sure that Sevomod works with Warlords. I think version 3.1 is the last version he did for Vanilla civ4 and that he is going to be working on a Warlords version but has not done so yet. You might want to verify that before spending the $30 to play Sevomod with Warlords.

Thanks for the sevo catch, I think you're right.

Regarding the walls, I understand your balance concern, and I admit that game mechanics aren't exactly my strong suit. But the Theodosian Walls are obsoleteable whereas all the other special buildings have effects that last all the way through the game (although a few require resources discovered later).

The promotion to archers is useless once archers are passed, which isn't too late in the game. Likewise, the defensive bonus falls away once gunpowder comes.

Some things I might look at are:

Setting it so the walls still protect against gunpowder units. Much is made about the Turkish artillery and their super canon, and they were impressive to be sure, but Constantinople by that time (1453) had only 4,983 defenders, and still they held out for almost two months against a huge army (as much as 100,000) and the most sophisticated seige weapons then known. A more populous Constantinople might never have fallen, short of starvation.

Adding a healing bonus to units in the city.

Adding a culture bonus

Or something. I'm sure it is probably fine as is, I trust your judgment after all, but at first glance it just didn't seem to measure up to the abilities that have been listed thus far for the other civs.

 

[Greek Stud]

I'm hopeful that someone will put together a leaderhead for "Constantine the Great"

All other Byzantine Emperors lived to prove themselves better than his legacy.

 

[Mo_Jo]

Hi Amra,
When I loaded Byz 2.0 into Worlords, Theodora is great but Basil looks like an Inca. Am I doing something wrong that you know of?
Cheers
Mo_Jo

 

[Amra]

Hi Amra,
When I loaded Byz 2.0 into Worlords, Theodora is great but Basil looks like an Inca. Am I doing something wrong that you know of?
Cheers
Mo_Jo

Do either of the new leaderheads look changed (like the pictures in post #1) or do they both look like Isabella & Huayna but with different backgrounds and animations?

If it is the latter, that may be a problem with your video card not displying the correct (shader) version of the LHs. Byzantium is in my modpack and I have run into this problem with my modpack too. I think I may have a fix thanks to some help from Sevo.

IF you are having the problem I described, then try downloading this fix and extracting it to your Warlords\Mods folder. It will only replace one file (CIV4ArtDefines_Leaderhead.xml) and add two new ones.

[EDIT] See post#1 for version 2.1 which should fix this problem.

Please let me know if this works (you're my Guinea Pig). I would like to post a fix for my modpack if it does.