I liked how in Civ 2 you could just look at the map and see if a tile was Coastal or Ocean. It's really hard (at least for me) to distinguish the two in Civ 4 - so here's a really easy mod. Just edit or copy to a Mod directory this file:
C:\SteamLibrary\SteamApps\common\Sid Meier's Civilization IV Beyond the Sword\Beyond the Sword\Assets\XML\Misc\CIV4WaterPlaneInfos
or whatever the path is in your installation....
Search for the second instance of this line:
<MaterialAlpha>0.5</MaterialAlpha>
and just change the 5 to a 0.
The ocean tiles will now be much darker.
Also, if you're having problems distinguishing between roads and railroads I'd suggest these two:
http://forums.civfanatics.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=13619
http://forums.civfanatics.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=8822
I wasn't too keen at first on brown roads but they've grown on me.
C:\SteamLibrary\SteamApps\common\Sid Meier's Civilization IV Beyond the Sword\Beyond the Sword\Assets\XML\Misc\CIV4WaterPlaneInfos
or whatever the path is in your installation....
Search for the second instance of this line:
<MaterialAlpha>0.5</MaterialAlpha>
and just change the 5 to a 0.
The ocean tiles will now be much darker.
Also, if you're having problems distinguishing between roads and railroads I'd suggest these two:
http://forums.civfanatics.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=13619
http://forums.civfanatics.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=8822
I wasn't too keen at first on brown roads but they've grown on me.