Playing without Gods and Kings

[Darkslide]

Hi,

I recently got back into Civ 5, bought Brave New World, enjoyed the enhanced base game for a bit and then went looking for more. I really wanted to play this mod so I tried it out hoping it would work with just BNW (since it basically includes all the G&K features other than the civs). Of course I quickly noticed some obvious (missing textures) and less obvious (missing units) issues.

But after digging into the SQL a bit and figuring out how things work, it seems to me that all of can be solved to make it playable some way or another. The biggest issue is really easy: half the ranged cavalry line is missing because the newly created units are templated off UNIT_HUN_HORSE_ARCHER, which is a civ not in BNW. Just changing that to UNIT_MONGOLIAN_KESHIK (which is in BNW) makes it work perfectly fine. I think that change has no other ill effect (it's just the base template for the unit, cost and strength and all that gets overridden later anyway).

Some other units are using graphical assets that are missing, but replacing those with others makes them work: I made my Tercio look like a Landsknecht, Dromon like a Galley, the War Elephant like the Siamese version and the Zeppelin like a Triplane. It looks a little weird but it is playable, and I gave them different flags than the "standard" units with those models to tell them apart. (There's also an issue with the Celtic pantheons being available to all civs but those can just be deleted to solve that.)

Has anyone ever tried this before? Are there any weird known gotchas that I'm still going to run into? I have played a game halfway into Renaissance right now and for now it looks like I've shaken out all the remaining issues... nothing else seems weird or missing anymore and I'm having a blast playing it.

Also, is there any interest in me making these hacks available for others? I think almost everyone who got into Civ 5 late never bought G&K because all the changes are basically part of BNW already, so I would assume more people might be in my situation (paying $30 for a few extra civs in a 10 year old game is a somewhat tall order). I thought maybe I could upload a .patch file somewhere and link it from a comment on the Wiki install page so others could try it when they look at the mod's requirements? Or would you rather people don't play it at all instead of playing a weird looking and potentially subtly broken version? (If there is interest, I think it might even be possible to integrate this into the main mod... would just have to guard all the SQL additions with WHERE NOT EXISTS (SELECT some thing that only exists when G&K is loaded).)

edit: Attached my changes below for posterity just in case anyone is interested. Extract these two files into the Community Balance Overhaul mod directory (usually "My Documents/my games/Sid Meier's Civilization 5/MODS/(2) Community Balance Overhaul"). Then you need to edit "(2) Community Balance Overhaul (v ??).modinfo" (e.g. with Notepad) to add both <File> (import="0", don't need md5) and <UpdateDatabase> tags for both files. Make sure no_GnK_adjustments_pre.sql is the *first* and no_GnK_adjustments_post.sql is the *last* <UpdateDatabase> tag in the whole list.

 

[vyyt]

I think most "new" people bought the complete edition of Civ5. I haven't checked recently, but can't you get the G&K for like 2-3 USD these days? You are right that 30 USD for the few additions would be a bit too much. Although VP is so good, the that I'd gladly pay 100 USD. I will save on Civ6 and its DLCs anyway and most probably on Civ7 too - yes, I think VP is this good.

Edit: I think you should also buy the Ancient Wonders DLC. It will probably work without it, but 2-3 wonders will be missing or will be in the game, but without any graphics or something like that.

 

[telelavoro]

You can get the gold edition for €5 on kinguin, I'm sure other sites have similar offers

 

[Darkslide]

> I haven't checked recently, but can't you get the G&K for like 2-3 USD these days? You are right that 30 USD for the few additions would be a bit too much.

It's $30 on Steam when not on sale (sounds like you may get it for less elsewhere, but I don't know what that Kinguin site is... looks somewhat sketchy to me).

> Edit: I think you should also buy the Ancient Wonders DLC. It will probably work without it, but 2-3 wonders will be missing or will be in the game, but without any graphics or something like that.

Yeah, looks like you're right, I'm missing two wonders (Statue of Zeus seems to come with BNW, strangely enough, but the Mausoleum and Temple of Artemis are missing). But I mean that's just as if I was playing the normal game without that DLC, it doesn't fundamentally change the game. I'm just trying to get the mod to work at all, not to cheat myself into DLC content I didn't buy (I don't have the GnK civs either, after all, with or without mod).

 

[JamesNinelives]

It's $30 on Steam when not on sale

That's bizarre. But then I can't say I haven't found other oddities when buying things on Steam individually (it often seems to cost unreasonably more).

Just to check, are you able to get a cheaper price for buying the Complete bundle on Steam? If you own the base game and some expansions you might be able to get more content for less money that way.