Recommended baseline/vanilla BTS mods?

[kazapp]

Hi,

The most highly regarded mods all transform the game almost completely (Fall from Heaven, Rise of Mankind, etc etc etc). Truckloads of new stuff, significantly changing the way the game plays and feels.

Then there's other popular mods that doesn't have quite that scope, but still try hard to offer "a lot", as if offering 100 new civilizations or whatever is more desirable than just offering 6. In my mind, a good highly curated set of hand-picked features looks much more desirable than "everything plus plus".

So. I'm currently interested mods (and modpacks) that just extend the base BTS game ***very slightly***.

On the other hand, I'm not interested in building my own experience by adding individual bits and pieces, like a mod that adds just one (1) new leader here, a single new unique unit there. That makes me worry nobody has spent any time ensuring those bits and pieces work well together.

Are there any good ones that still hew closely to the "original" (but still Beyond the Sword) experience?

To give you an idea of what might interest me:
- a mod that adds maybe half a dozen well-crafted new civilizations, with a variety of leaders and reasonably balanced UUs/UBs
- a mod that adds a single new leader to each of the existing civilizations, to provide a bit of variety. For example, a second leader that is EXP/IMP so you don't have to play Portugal, say.
- a mod that adds a second Unique Unit to each existing civilization, while not changing anything else. Preferably adding mid-game UUs to those that have early-game ones, and adding early-game UUs to those that have late-game ones.
- The same with Unique Buildings - a mod that restraints itself to adding a second UB to each of the existing civs and not falling for the temptation to keep adding stuff.
- a mod that makes a very small set of tweaks to the BtS base game: maybe adding one or two new base units to cover perceived gaps in the base game, maybe tweaks the stats of another couple of units, maybe even adds one or two new resources to fight over.

In short, a mod that provides mild seasoning for when you still want to play a recognizably BtS game, when you aren't looking to get overwhelmed by the mod offering basically a new game.

I'm trying to sift through the mods, but it seems all the attention went to the mods that go big, with lots of stuff and lots of changes. Where are the measured mods that collect a small hand-picked set of things and then stops there?

Thanks

 

[lymond]

Legends of Revolution, I'd say this mod may be the closest approximation of what you are asking for. I have played this mod some in the past. It was quite popular at one point, but has not been worked on in years. Still, it is quite fleshed out. It's too bad some did not keep it going with tweaks and updates, like BUG stuff.

(It does incorporate the Revolutions mod component - also used by many other bigger modpacks, buut revolution stuff can be turned off in settings. I believe BUG actually comes by virtue of the rev components, but that is, ofc, every nice to have. And some other components are optional too.)

That's the closest mod I can think of. Your initial read-thru of it the features may seem like a lot at first but much of that can be turned off (RevDMC stuff). Some core LoR features as well can be too, but it mostly plays like BTS with a little more stuff.


You may want to ask over in C&C. Sound like what you really need is the BAT mod combined with something like Civ Gold.

 

[Petromax]

You might like Civ4 Reimagined and Advanced Civ

 

[Noble Zarkon]

The most highly regarded mods all transform the game almost completely

In short, a mod that provides mild seasoning for when you still want to play a recognizably BtS game, when you aren't looking to get overwhelmed by the mod offering basically a new game.

You've had some good answers above.

I would disagree with your first sentence actually - I think the most popular Mods are BUG/BULL/BUFFY which don't change the underlying game at all (or very little). There have been other mods like K-Mod which have their fans but haven't really taken off because they don't change enough to transform the game but also change enough to not feel like BTS!

 

[kazapp]

Yes, BUG/BULL/BUFFY are probably used much much more than any such mod, precisely because they offer the vanilla experience, just better. I should have qualified my sentence to only discuss "popular mods that actually change/expand the starting options without overhauling the gameplay"

Thanks all. You're confirming what I've suspected all along - there was and is next to zero interest in just small additions. Every mod creator wanted to go big. Somewhat of a shame, though I can't really blame them.

Still, I would have thought someone would have slapped together a "here's a dozen new civs and leaders that I personally recommend, keeping things 99% original game but just with more starting options" mod pack... that then gained at least some traction. (I mean, of course there will have been dozens of such mods, but ones people never paid any attention to.) My ideal would have been one "starting options extension mod with no/few gameplay changes" that everybody agreed was really good.

 

[kazapp]

You might like Civ4 Reimagined and Advanced Civ

I checked out the link for Civ4 Reimagined, but it was quickly apparent it makes a truckload of changes, which is specifically what I don't want. It even changes the graphics and AI. Soo much not the BtS game with just some new leaders or whatnot.. Advanced Civ. The same. A deluge of changes and tweaks right there in the first post. I'm sorry but I don't see how anyone could make those suggestions if they read my initial post.

I basically want to play BtS but with a few more starting options. For instance, too often I find that an interesting leader-civ combo is geared towards a coastal start. Or has deeply uninteresting uniques that enter the game so late as to be practically a non-entity. How about a Zulu leader with financial? Or a Maya leader without? BtS leaves sooo many leader-civ combos unexplored...

I briefly played with the unrestricted leaders option, but I really need a "unrestricted leader but only for the player" option. I really need the AI playing the "correct" leaders for each civ; meeting Emperor Ghandi of the Mongols just takes me out of it, while me myself playing that would be okay. So if I turn that option on I also found myself having to add in the AI civs manually. That's too big of a hassle. So I thought "how about asking CivFanatics if there's a more leaders mod" so I can keep restricted leaders on, and still play, say, Egypt without having to select a Spiritual leader, or play an EXP/IMP leader that doesn't lead Portugal?

In the same vein, I was curious - "is there a mod that adds a single ancient military unit, or tweaks the stats of the Spearman" (or something) to spice up the early game - without changing anything else?

Apparently not. That is, I'm sure some exists, but nothing that received any form of attention...

 

[Petromax]

I checked out the link for Civ4 Reimagined, but it was quickly apparent it makes a truckload of changes, which is specifically what I don't want.

Ok, sorry. Those two are very conservative among the mods I've tried. It would be nice if there were a mod with only some high quality civ/unit additions.

 

[Thrasybulos]

So if I turn that option on I also found myself having to add in the AI civs manually. That's too big of a hassle.

People are funny sometimes.
The time it took you to post those messages and check out mods could have been used instead to set up dozens (and more probably hundreds) of games with a manual selection of leaders.

There are quite a few easy options to get what you'd want (simple XML mod, saving the game as a worldbuilder file and editing your leader, ...) but that'd be waaay too much hassle if a coupla clicks already are.

 

[kazapp]

People are funny sometimes.
The time it took you to post those messages

No, if you had told me there exists a well-received mod that does to starting civ/leader options what BtS did, i.e. adding 10 new civilizations and 16 new leaders (including the 10 for the new civs) that would have been very fast.

If you told me there's a highly regarded mod that adds a light spice to the early game by tweaking the Spearman stat, adds a single new medieval unit, and maybe adds a single new resource revealed by an early tech, that too would have been very fast.

If you had told me you recommend a mod that adds the "unrestricted leaders for the player only" option to the custom settings screen, that would also have been better than me manually fiddling before playing each game.

 

[civac]

Close to Home has two new leaders and balance changes. Is that too minimal?

 

[Fippy]

Close to Home has two new leaders and balance changes. Is that too minimal?

Only good for MP imo..
stuff like PHI giving 150% bonus is hilarious in SP.