Not Happy with Civ V? Try These Mods!

[Sneaks]

This was inspired by a post talking about what elements people would love to see back in Civ V.

Follow the links below for screenshots of the mods in action. In each case, make sure to check any compatibility issues.
Here is a list of mods that improve or alter Civ V for the better:

UI Mods - Visual Candy
InfoAddict by robk- Historical Graphs, a World Factbook, and those interconnecting Global Relations charts you love from IV. The best of the best for UI.
Resource Info Panel by ArgentumStudios - An info panel displaying current resource information for your civilization, similar to the city and unit lists in the info panel.
CivWillard by Onni - INCREDIBLE tools for managing City-States, Diplomacy, Trade, and Cities. A must have for any micromanagers or information hounds.
Mod List by Whys and Kael - Lists all installed mods
Notification Options and Improved Events by alpaca and Sneaks - Allows you to turn on/off any notifications in game, and adds a few more.
Regiment and Ethnic Diversity by Gedemon - Rescales units to more realistic sizes, and adds tons of new custom skins so civilizations feel different.

Core Mods - Significant Gameplay Rule Changes
Thal's Balance Mods - a series of UI and rule changes meant to create a more fun and balanced game, appealing to builders and warmongers alike.
PlayWithMe by alpaca - a Balance mod that adds several new mechanics including city maintenance and no unit upgrading.
Procylon's Call to Power Project by Decimatus - A massive game overhaul that adds hundreds of units, buildings, and techs and replaces social policies with governments and (religion soon).

Game Tweaks - Small fixes
What Would Gandhi Do by Sneaks - AI Rebalancing mod. Removes AI happiness bonuses and fixes several diplomacy problems.

New Features - Adds something new to the game
Cultural Diffusion by Gedemon - Allows for tile flipping similar to Civ IV
Mercenaries by Gedemon - Purchase units from friendly City States.
Cultural Capitals by Moaf - culture cities now compete for various bonuses
Have Fun Cheat Engine by Deep Blue - Allows you to cheat your butt off
City-State Diplomacy Mod by Gazebo - Creates a set of diplomatic units needed to gain CS influence. No longer can you just buy them off.

This is just a short and incomplete list of the awesome things modders are doing to improve the Civilization V experience. So, if you try and enjoy any of these, or have comments or constructive criticism, let their authors know. We mod because we want to make this game enjoyable. Your feedback helps.

 

[eraofdiversion]

Some of these won't even download for me, others won't install once downloaded. I feel like this game is kicking me in the nuts every time I try to play it.

 

[Sneaks]

Some of these won't even download for me, others won't install once downloaded. I feel like this game is kicking me in the nuts every time I try to play it.

Mod Browser can certainly be a pain. If you have an issue with a mod, let that mod author know. We tend to be really nice people, and will gladly walk you step by step through any problems you might have on the install.

 

[SuperJay]

Thanks for collecting this list and providing the links, Sneaks. I'm thinking I might fire up the game again when the next patch rolls out, and it'll be handy to refer to this thread for the key mods to improve the game.

+5 Pepsi Points for you, sir.

 

[Sneaks]

You're welcome. I find that even core games that I dislike can soon become favorites with the right set of mods. I hope others will also give them a shot.

 

[noncognosco]

This is a great list. But...how many will still be functional after the patch?

 

[Zyxpsilon]

Please, Flag (Sticky!!!) this already.

 

[Zyxpsilon]

This is a great list. But...how many will still be functional after the patch?

Given reasonable re-editing time by modders... 100% of them, if we're lucky.

 

[Sneaks]

This is a great list. But...how many will still be functional after the patch?

Probably all of them within a day or two.

 

[noncognosco]

Probably all of them within a day or two.

Sweet!

 

[eraofdiversion]

I finally got the mod browser working! Thal's balance mod, and the Cultural Diffusion mod sound very interesting! I really miss the culture warring from civ 4.

 

[Txurce]

I finally got the mod browser working! Thal's balance mod, and the Cultural Diffusion mod sound very interesting! I really miss the culture warring from civ 4.

What Would Gandhi Do? really transforms the game into a much more sane one.

You'll also note that many of the mods (like Thal's) in turn recommend other mods that also make the game much more interesting. For example, Thal recommends Afforess' Tech Diffusion, which eventually gifts backward civs (including yours) the techs that most everyone else has long since researched. Alpaca also has a very useful stand-alone UI tool that identifies all new culturally-gained tiles.

 

[JLoZeppeli]

A lot od these mods are still alpha or early beta... I think is better a list of full finished mods, at least that need only to be tweaked after next patch....

 

[Txurce]

A lot od these mods are still alpha or early beta... I think is better a list of full finished mods, at least that need only to be tweaked after next patch....

Most of these mods are fully functional. Some of them also have beta versions, on which more recent improvements are being tested.

 

[Sneaks]

Many mods are listed as beta mainly because their authors are continuously improving them. It also means that your feedback can directly shape the mod. As txurce said, all of these mods are a finished state quality but are constantly being improved and rebalanced

 

[Vegetius7]

The thing about the many mods on the browser through the game is you generally have no idea what is going to work with what. There are so many that often do the same thing (general idea anyways) and others that adjust other things in game.

For example, Thal's balance mod will not work with the Economy mod nor the Big balance economy mod. I've also had several not work with the Larger scale mod (which I find irreplaceable..considering it sorta stops the AI from spamming cities every 2 hexes). So it's really picking the right ones you like, installing, then for the next few hours figuring out what works with what after CTD after CTD. I find it somewhat a frustrating enterprise and sorta turns me off to the game.

However, when I do find a setup that works, there's little things that aren't exactly entertaing for gameplay. For example, it takes me 36 turns to build a "smokehouse" on marathon speed. However, it takes me 24 turns to reserach "Iron Working"....does that sound right? (And I am using Thal's balance mods) Now granted that city had only a level 3 population..lol, but still. Anyways, thanks for posting up the mods on the thread, I'll take a look into them.

 

[Txurce]

The thing about the many mods on the browser through the game is you generally have no idea what is going to work with what. There are so many that often do the same thing (general idea anyways) and others that adjust other things in game.

For example, Thal's balance mod will not work with the Economy mod nor the Big balance economy mod.

As a rule, the core mods (or modpacks) are not meant to work with each other. You choose the one that most appeals to you. I know that all of the other mods mentioned work with Thal's. They may work with Alpaca's or Decimatus'. Learning them takes a little time, although much less than learning the vanilla game. And you may well encounter a bump here and there. The value gained is incomparably more than the hassle, as far as I'm concerned.

 

[Bob_]

cool, thanks for that list

 

[Vegetius7]

Indeed, unfortunatly I've found that out through trial and error. Don't ge me wrong though, I wouldn't go back to vanilla, no matter how frustrated I was/am with the trial and error method. Currently the mod setup I have works quite nice (core being Thals and the Larger Scale mod). My only issue is with the building build times vs research speed, which still seems way outta wack. Although I'm looking into changing that myself here. There used to be a mod that adjusted the speeds on marathon, actually added an entire new game speed called "more marathon" I forget the name of the mod itself, but being a core mod it doesnt work with Thal's, and also I think it was not updated from the last patch.

 

[Sneaks]

Actually, adding gamespeeds would be easy to do in a way that could work just fine with Thal's. I'll try to look into it for you.