Hello everyone!
There are some great ideas here. I discovered the TAC mod only today, so I don't know much about it yet, but I have played the AoDII mod, which I really like.
My programming/modmaking skills are limited to changing some text and numbers in xml files, so I don't think I can be very useful in the technical stuff, but I have some ideas I can share. I hope my post won't be too boring or too long.
Diversity among Natives
In the original game, all natives function essentially in the same way, making them more or less interchangeable and a little dull. More diversity could be created by, for example:
- allowing them to build terrain improvements (many natives built farms and cleared forests, and the road network of the Incas is legendary)
- giving them bonuses for preferred terrains, for example giving Apache bonuses on plains, Mayas in jungles, and Incas in mountains. A disadvantage would be that these would only matter if the civ happens to be in the right climate.
- having certain native civs train certain specialists (Weaver for Incas, Blacksmith for Aztecs, Fur Trader for Inuit).
- Allowing advanced civs to manufacture certain goods themselves. This also makes trading with the natives more profitable, as they have more goods we want to buy (or steal).
Interaction with natives
The way Europeans and natives interact in the original is rather limited, as you either live side by side with them or you eradicate them. Possible alternatives include:
- Enslave them, creating enslaved natives as an alternative to converted ones
- Conquer them, as the Spanish did in Mexico. You gain control over their units and cities.
- Make them tributaries, taxing them in gold or goods, or forcing/prohibiting them to take declare war or make peace.
Of course, the above possibilities would greatly increase the amount of natives in your colonies. Nice events might be occasional rebellions when you treat them badly. Likewise, rebellions of African slaves could also be a nice addition if slavery is implemented, after all, that is how the French lost Haiti.
Also, more diplomatic options like alliances would be great, or asking them to help to defend your colonies.
Native attitude
- In both vanilla and AodII, by far the most important factor influencing native attitude is -way too much: "your way of life is threatening to ours." While this is realistic for natives close by, I was a little discouraged in one of my games when Sitting Bull was already Furious when I contacted him for the very first time.
- Perhaps close territorial expansion should matter more, and overall size of your civ less?
- Positive interaction with natives, like trading, should also decrease the threat level, as natives grow accustomed to the culture of the settlers.
Perhaps the native attitude should be more affected by definite events, positive (gifts, alliances, peace) and negative (war, land stealing, war with friends, enslavement), which are more measurable and easier to influence with gameplay choices than some obscure "threat."
Also, I find it very strange that natives don't object to you claiming their land when your borders expand. Perhaps the game could give you the same options as when you buy land to found a colony (buy, steal or leave)?
On another note, is it also possible to allow a colony to work the tiles newly acquired when borders expand?
Native civs
I really like the new civs of AoDII, the Zapotec, Guarani and Toltec (though the last one is an anachronism, and probably should be left out). Can they be implemented into this mod as well? Other additions I'd like are the Inuit, Algonquin and Haida.
Also, exploration can be made more perilous by creating independent native barbarians.
Fellow colonies
In the vanilla version, fellow europeans are nothing but a nuisance, taking land, founding fathers and goodies that otherwise would have been yours.
While this is of course fine, it would be nice if there were more reasons to not eradicate them after you've exchanged world maps with the guy who has the FF that reveals all burial grounds.
- Currently, the AI of fellow Europeans spends all the gold it has, which makes it impossible for you to sell anything to them. Could this be modified?
Also, diplomacy with the king is very limited in vanilla.
- I saw that in TAC the king can drag you into wars, which is great. Could we also do it the other way round, having the king forbid you to attack other colonies? Perhaps you could then try to convince the king to declare war by doing him favors.
- There should also be more ways to make the king happy, and this should result in bonuses. Perhaps we can make the king spontaneously send military, resources or gold to aid you when you've pleased him? A similar role can of course be played by the religious parent, of course
- Quite often, the fate of a colony was decided by treaties made in Europe. Perhaps we can have the king suddenly announcing that he sold one of your colonies to a rival? Perhaps you could then choose to refuse, angering the king, or try to bribe him out of it.
More resources
In AoDII, there is Coffee, gold and indigo, and I've seen that TAC features cacao and whale oil.
I think it would be a good idea to implement a large number of different resources. Right now, the game can become repetitive when you have a colony producing each kind of good, and there is little incentive to found new colonies except possibly for gun production, as more of the same good will only decrease its value in Europe.
If there are more different kinds, every one of them individually will be harder to obtain.
- This provides an incentive to found new colonies later in the game.
- It keeps the price of certain products high in Europe, so that trading with the homeland will remain profitable throughout the game.
- It also encourages you to seek out fellow Europeans who produce the good you lack, and lack the good you produce.
Another idea is creating different kinds of food, possibly cereals, meat and seafood. It doesn't matter much, of course, but I always feel a little silly when breeding horses by feeding them fish.
Possible ideas for new resources:
- chocolate, made from cacao
- indigo, to turn into dye
- spice
- gems
- jewelry, made from gold, silver and gems (Aztec goldsmiths created many beautiful things)
- coffee
- rubber
- cocaine
Religious wars
These could be randomly generated events, that create a great influx of colonists of one religion.
Religious parents
I like this idea. I think the Prussians could have Martin Luther, and the Dutch John Calvin, though of course, these are persons, not functions.
Also, the happiness of a colonist of a certain religion can maybe be linked to your relation with that colonists's religious parent.
I have no idea whether my ideas are useful, realistic, simple or complex, to be honest.
Don't feel obliged to address every one of them, I just hope some of them can be useful. The ideas so far are awesome!
Cheers
There are some great ideas here. I discovered the TAC mod only today, so I don't know much about it yet, but I have played the AoDII mod, which I really like.
My programming/modmaking skills are limited to changing some text and numbers in xml files, so I don't think I can be very useful in the technical stuff, but I have some ideas I can share. I hope my post won't be too boring or too long.

Diversity among Natives
In the original game, all natives function essentially in the same way, making them more or less interchangeable and a little dull. More diversity could be created by, for example:
- allowing them to build terrain improvements (many natives built farms and cleared forests, and the road network of the Incas is legendary)
- giving them bonuses for preferred terrains, for example giving Apache bonuses on plains, Mayas in jungles, and Incas in mountains. A disadvantage would be that these would only matter if the civ happens to be in the right climate.
- having certain native civs train certain specialists (Weaver for Incas, Blacksmith for Aztecs, Fur Trader for Inuit).
- Allowing advanced civs to manufacture certain goods themselves. This also makes trading with the natives more profitable, as they have more goods we want to buy (or steal).
Interaction with natives
The way Europeans and natives interact in the original is rather limited, as you either live side by side with them or you eradicate them. Possible alternatives include:
- Enslave them, creating enslaved natives as an alternative to converted ones
- Conquer them, as the Spanish did in Mexico. You gain control over their units and cities.
- Make them tributaries, taxing them in gold or goods, or forcing/prohibiting them to take declare war or make peace.
Of course, the above possibilities would greatly increase the amount of natives in your colonies. Nice events might be occasional rebellions when you treat them badly. Likewise, rebellions of African slaves could also be a nice addition if slavery is implemented, after all, that is how the French lost Haiti.
Also, more diplomatic options like alliances would be great, or asking them to help to defend your colonies.
Native attitude
- In both vanilla and AodII, by far the most important factor influencing native attitude is -way too much: "your way of life is threatening to ours." While this is realistic for natives close by, I was a little discouraged in one of my games when Sitting Bull was already Furious when I contacted him for the very first time.
- Perhaps close territorial expansion should matter more, and overall size of your civ less?
- Positive interaction with natives, like trading, should also decrease the threat level, as natives grow accustomed to the culture of the settlers.
Perhaps the native attitude should be more affected by definite events, positive (gifts, alliances, peace) and negative (war, land stealing, war with friends, enslavement), which are more measurable and easier to influence with gameplay choices than some obscure "threat."
Also, I find it very strange that natives don't object to you claiming their land when your borders expand. Perhaps the game could give you the same options as when you buy land to found a colony (buy, steal or leave)?
On another note, is it also possible to allow a colony to work the tiles newly acquired when borders expand?
Native civs
I really like the new civs of AoDII, the Zapotec, Guarani and Toltec (though the last one is an anachronism, and probably should be left out). Can they be implemented into this mod as well? Other additions I'd like are the Inuit, Algonquin and Haida.
Also, exploration can be made more perilous by creating independent native barbarians.
Fellow colonies
In the vanilla version, fellow europeans are nothing but a nuisance, taking land, founding fathers and goodies that otherwise would have been yours.
While this is of course fine, it would be nice if there were more reasons to not eradicate them after you've exchanged world maps with the guy who has the FF that reveals all burial grounds.
- Currently, the AI of fellow Europeans spends all the gold it has, which makes it impossible for you to sell anything to them. Could this be modified?
Also, diplomacy with the king is very limited in vanilla.
- I saw that in TAC the king can drag you into wars, which is great. Could we also do it the other way round, having the king forbid you to attack other colonies? Perhaps you could then try to convince the king to declare war by doing him favors.
- There should also be more ways to make the king happy, and this should result in bonuses. Perhaps we can make the king spontaneously send military, resources or gold to aid you when you've pleased him? A similar role can of course be played by the religious parent, of course
- Quite often, the fate of a colony was decided by treaties made in Europe. Perhaps we can have the king suddenly announcing that he sold one of your colonies to a rival? Perhaps you could then choose to refuse, angering the king, or try to bribe him out of it.
More resources
In AoDII, there is Coffee, gold and indigo, and I've seen that TAC features cacao and whale oil.
I think it would be a good idea to implement a large number of different resources. Right now, the game can become repetitive when you have a colony producing each kind of good, and there is little incentive to found new colonies except possibly for gun production, as more of the same good will only decrease its value in Europe.
If there are more different kinds, every one of them individually will be harder to obtain.
- This provides an incentive to found new colonies later in the game.
- It keeps the price of certain products high in Europe, so that trading with the homeland will remain profitable throughout the game.
- It also encourages you to seek out fellow Europeans who produce the good you lack, and lack the good you produce.
Another idea is creating different kinds of food, possibly cereals, meat and seafood. It doesn't matter much, of course, but I always feel a little silly when breeding horses by feeding them fish.
Possible ideas for new resources:
- chocolate, made from cacao
- indigo, to turn into dye
- spice
- gems
- jewelry, made from gold, silver and gems (Aztec goldsmiths created many beautiful things)
- coffee
- rubber
- cocaine
Religious wars
These could be randomly generated events, that create a great influx of colonists of one religion.
Religious parents
I like this idea. I think the Prussians could have Martin Luther, and the Dutch John Calvin, though of course, these are persons, not functions.
Also, the happiness of a colonist of a certain religion can maybe be linked to your relation with that colonists's religious parent.
I have no idea whether my ideas are useful, realistic, simple or complex, to be honest.

Cheers