I'm keeping an eye on this one looks promising and civ5 was my main civ till i bought civ4 ultimate last week (i know i'm a moron)
Nothing wrong with Civ4! There are some fantastic mods. Probably some of the deepest mods out there. Modders have managed to do a lot with that one.

Here is a teaser of what I've been up to. There are four Mesopotamian civilizations that share uniques. So basically I'm grouping some civs together. Egypt will be grouped with Nubia and share some things with Rome and Greece. I'm also creating unique techs that they share. These techs are locked to other civilizations. As you can see in the image Egypt's techs appear empty but they're not. They're loaded with wonders. My goal is to share everything that makes each civilization special. I'm not holding back. Hopefully I'm not getting in over my head :please:
Spoiler Teaser :

SOM 1 9-25.jpg
SOM 2 9-25.jpg

 
This looks incredible, almost like a new game. I can't wait to play the next beta.
 
I meant i'm a moron for not playing civ 4 sooner, but i then checked my cd folder and i've literally got civ 4 complete edition in there on disc! i think i tripped out thinking civ 3 was civ 4 ... i now realise i played civ4 for like 5 years :D ffs my dumb ass needs instituting in a hospital ward somewhere.
 
This looks incredible, almost like a new game. I can't wait to play the next beta.
Thanks! I’ve had a lot of ideas bouncing around in my head for years. I got side tracked by Civ6 for a while but unfortunately I can’t do everything I want it. The 3D art is a speed bump and I experience stability problems with big mods. Civ5 on the other hand has the best art style and it’s easier to mod in my opinion. Creating this has been an evolving process. I’ve experimented with different ideas and now I think I’ve settled on something that works and makes sense. When I have a working version through the end of the Ancient era I will release it. Still have a lot to do.
 
I decided to release what I've created so far for feedback. This is a very, very early Alpha version. Seems stable enough. I still have tons to do and lots more to add.
File is too large to post on this site. Link will take you to Dropbox.
>>>>>>>>>Newest Alpha<<<<<<<<<<<<

Features
  • Lithic and Ancient eras
  • Tech tree is designed to be more like a historical timeline to force historical accurate progression and minimize beelines
  • Lots and lots of new buildings, units, wonders, improvements
  • Fleshed out civilizations include Sumer, Akkad, Assyria, Babylon, Egypt, Nubia, Hyksos
  • New leader scenes using historical imagery
  • Unique techs that contain unique wonders that are shared by relevant civilizations, etc.
  • Base game ancient era civilizations are available to play but not fleshed out yet.
  • Recommend using Enhanced User Interface
  • Recommend using Standard speed and Prince difficulty. It is not balanced for any other speed yet.
If I think of anything else I will post it. Like I said, this is far from finished.
Have fun!!
 
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After some blood, sweat and tears I managed to detail every change that is in Alpha 1.00. Also included credits to other modders. Please see first post for changes.
 
Played my first games on alpha, Nubia, Sumerian (only until late Bronze Age) and Hyksos. My first game as Nubia I felt the pacing of the game was off as I spent 200 turns in prehistoric and 50 in ancient. I then halved tech cost for prehistoric era techs and increased ancient eras costs for the next two games.

Nubia is incredibly strong with archers and pitata able to kill armies much larger than theirs. Was able to kill three other civs with 5 pitata and a khopesh. Also Nubia had access to all of egypts uniques.

As Sumerian I noticed that some city states would be brought to 0 health by one barbarian archer and couldn’t kill the archer due to city attack range, personally I would revert this change as barbarians are quite strong in prehistoric due to mammoths. I captured one of the weak city states and got happiness at -5 the rebels just kept coming after that but they only spawned at the capital, not the occupied city. It would be cool if dead civs would get units to take back cities if a player’s happiness got two low. Pacing was much better tech wise as I shaved 100 turns off prehistoric and increased ancient eras turns by 20 due to my new tech costs.

At my first attempt at Hyksos I didn’t have stone at my start so I didn’t get enough production to keep up with barbarians or the ai. Also tried multiple times to get cradle of mankind on different starts but it seems impossible. On my successful attempt I did quite well and enjoyed the game but i noticed that in all my games building cost was too high relative to production. I had plenty of faith and culture buildings I just didn’t build because there wasn’t enough production to build them all even in my capital! I was production leader in all 3 games but even then it wasn’t enough. Please cut the cost of building by at least a third or maybe half and let me know if you want my modified tech costs.

Overall a very fun mod so far and I look forward to the later eras so much!!!!
 
Played my first games on alpha, Nubia, Sumerian (only until late Bronze Age) and Hyksos. My first game as Nubia I felt the pacing of the game was off as I spent 200 turns in prehistoric and 50 in ancient. I then halved tech cost for prehistoric era techs and increased ancient eras costs for the next two games.

Nubia is incredibly strong with archers and pitata able to kill armies much larger than theirs. Was able to kill three other civs with 5 pitata and a khopesh. Also Nubia had access to all of egypts uniques.

As Sumerian I noticed that some city states would be brought to 0 health by one barbarian archer and couldn’t kill the archer due to city attack range, personally I would revert this change as barbarians are quite strong in prehistoric due to mammoths. I captured one of the weak city states and got happiness at -5 the rebels just kept coming after that but they only spawned at the capital, not the occupied city. It would be cool if dead civs would get units to take back cities if a player’s happiness got two low. Pacing was much better tech wise as I shaved 100 turns off prehistoric and increased ancient eras turns by 20 due to my new tech costs.

At my first attempt at Hyksos I didn’t have stone at my start so I didn’t get enough production to keep up with barbarians or the ai. Also tried multiple times to get cradle of mankind on different starts but it seems impossible. On my successful attempt I did quite well and enjoyed the game but i noticed that in all my games building cost was too high relative to production. I had plenty of faith and culture buildings I just didn’t build because there wasn’t enough production to build them all even in my capital! I was production leader in all 3 games but even then it wasn’t enough. Please cut the cost of building by at least a third or maybe half and let me know if you want my modified tech costs.

Overall a very fun mod so far and I look forward to the later eras so much!!!!
Thanks for the feedback! I intentionally balanced the pacing of the prehistoric era to feel long. Would much rather have the Ancient era feel longer . I know this is only Standard speed so it’s been difficult for me gauge the pacing. I prefer Marathon because I like long games but I chose standard speed to speed up testing. Standard speed always feels too fast for me.

I noticed the issues with the city states. I need to come up with a solution. Increasing city range is the last thing I want to do. I would rather give them free units or something. I had to give city states a unique palace to boost their happiness. The AI happiness adjustments didn’t seem to apply to city states for some reason. I can always add extra city defense to their palace as a solution.

Prehistoric expansion is meant to be punishing. Were you still having happiness issues in the Ancient era? My goal is for empire stability to be challenging. One thing I really like about Civ6 is loyalty. And civilizations in history really struggled with this.

I noticed the building cost issue. It’s really easy to over compensate when balancing yields. I might nudge Production up a little.
 
Were you still having happiness issues in the Ancient era
It was in the early ancient era. The problem was that once I was unhappy I was stuck in deadlock versing the barbarians and couldn't get happiness to bring me back to -4. I had to go back to an old autosave because I couldn't progress even after 30 turns.
I might nudge Production up a little.
Don't! I mean it. The time to build units and wonders was perfect in my games. Instead just reduce the production cost of buildings. This means that units and wonders will be the same time to build but buildings will be quicker.
I can always add extra city defense to their palace as a solution
Perhaps give the city state palace an extra range to city attack so that they can fight back. It means that other cities will still easier to capture.
I intentionally balanced the pacing of the prehistoric era to feel long
I'm a quick player so it felt there was too little content compared to how long it took to get each tech. This is especially true due to a lack of expansion.
 
It was in the early ancient era. The problem was that once I was unhappy I was stuck in deadlock versing the barbarians and couldn't get happiness to bring me back to -4. I had to go back to an old autosave because I couldn't progress even after 30 turns.

Don't! I mean it. The time to build units and wonders was perfect in my games. Instead just reduce the production cost of buildings. This means that units and wonders will be the same time to build but buildings will be quicker.

Perhaps give the city state palace an extra range to city attack so that they can fight back. It means that other cities will still easier to capture.

I'm a quick player so it felt there was too little content compared to how long it took to get each tech. This is especially true due to a lack of expansion.
I try to find a good balance for building production vs tech pacing. The problem with increasing production costs too much is running out of things to build. I would rather be somewhat behind on building construction than way ahead. For instance, playing Caveman2Cosmos in Civ4 I'm popping out buildings endlessly. They have that balanced so that just as you run out of buildings to build, tech pacing reveals new ones. Civ6 on the other hand I'm always so far behind on production in the early game that it spoils the immersion. But I find Civ5 base game pace actually pretty good so I'm trying to balance using that as a model. This mod isn't meant to be played quickly but I will work to get the balance right.

My last couple of play throughs I found myself with too much happiness in the Ancient era. I'm afraid of making it too easy. Are you playing on Standard speed? I haven't tested this on any other speed.

I already nerfed the Pitati archers. Lowered their combat strength to match the composite bowman. The promotion should be plenty and still might make the unit OP.

I'll take into consideration everything you have found
 
I just saw the coming soon for 1.001, looking forward. Just a couple of ideas. 1 if possible add 4-6 new techs from iron age onward(with new buildings and stuff) as the classical age is far too short. 2 Carthage should be in a different group than Greece-roman perhaps phoenician culture with tyre/sidon.
 
I just saw the coming soon for 1.001, looking forward. Just a couple of ideas. 1 if possible add 4-6 new techs from iron age onward(with new buildings and stuff) as the classical age is far too short. 2 Carthage should be in a different group than Greece-roman perhaps phoenician culture with tyre/sidon.
I have a list of buildings that I still haven't added to the Ancient Era yet and I need to add them in a way that makes sense. I'm adding techs on an as needed basis. My rule is I don't add a tech until I fill them up. Tech costs are actually determining the length of the eras.

The reason why I mixed Carthage with Greco-Roman is to create more competition with the wonders. Carthage and Phoenicia are really the same thing in terms of uniques. Just from some of the reading I have done it seems that Carthage's culture is more inter-connected with the Greco-Roman world than with anything else. They are a bit of an odd ball.

In regards to culture groups, I wasn't planning on creating too many. My original purpose for them was to have smaller scale wonder races (But this has evolved into shared uniques as well). I never cared much for everyone in the world sharing wonders. My tentative list of culture groups includes; Greco-Roman, India with some neighboring cultures, East Asia (China, Mongolia and Japan), Southeast Asia possibly including Polynesia, Northern Europe, Indigenous North America, Mesoamerica, Mesopotamia. I don't want to get too crazy if I can help it.
 
Any update on the mod?
Assembled a mod pack. Im still finalizing what components i want. Using Whoward's DLL as the base. For compatibility reasons his mods work best.

I began implementing my own changes and it's keeps growing. I'm making separate components to speed up the modding process. My current focus is growth and that's mostly done. I'm starting on production changes. Then science, happiness, etc. It's in in a state where I can't really share it. Been doing play testing myself. When I'm satisfied with my changes I'll post them. But right now things have been very experimental.

I've added Farmers to spread agriculture and I'm happy with how it's turning out. Lot's of buildings. I'm thinking about starting the prehistoric era later around 20,000 BC just the sake of realism. People didn't settle before then.

Taking a break at the moment. My brain was getting fried. I plan on getting back to it after the holidays.
 
Assembled a mod pack. Im still finalizing what components i want. Using Whoward's DLL as the base. For compatibility reasons his mods work best.

I began implementing my own changes and it's keeps growing. I'm making separate components to speed up the modding process. My current focus is growth and that's mostly done. I'm starting on production changes. Then science, happiness, etc. It's in in a state where I can't really share it. Been doing play testing myself. When I'm satisfied with my changes I'll post them. But right now things have been very experimental.

I've added Farmers to spread agriculture and I'm happy with how it's turning out. Lot's of buildings. I'm thinking about starting the prehistoric era later around 20,000 BC just the sake of realism. People didn't settle before then.

Taking a break at the moment. My brain was getting fried. I plan on getting back to it after the holidays.
Thats great news, by assembled a mod pack, do you mean you've added other mods or you're nearly done with you're first version of the mod. I prefer a 20,000 BC start but Im not a huge fan of prehistoric in general so dont listen to me. Enjoy the holidays and I can't wait to play it.
 
I’m playing on a Huge map with Epic speed on a Perfect World mapscript as Hyksos

1. I think removing the option of giving +1 population from nomadic huts would be a good idea. Adding additional population in the Lithic Era seems like a bad idea.
2. Defense on all flat land tiles should be 0, just like grasslands, because there’s a clear line of sight. Hills should have a lower defense than forest, but higher than flat land tiles, say +15. A -15% defense penalty for Marsh seems irrational to me. It’s realistically just as defensible as forest or maybe hills to me.
3. I hated when Civ4 added animals as a concept, so naturally I don’t like seeing them here either. If you want to give unique units to the barbarians, do that, because that’s fine, but seeing a Barbarian Wolf for example, attacking my city is just so silly & completely throws immersion out the window.
4. Hunters are able to explore far too much terrain early on, so I’d recommend dropping the defense from 5 to 1 or 2. They’ll die often then & exploration should be slowed. The only other options I see are either limiting how far from the city a unit can travel (there’s a Civ4 mod that did this, I think the option was called Limited Movement), or implementing some sort of Tile Attrition that damages the units so they absolutely have to return to your territory to heal periodically. Maybe both.
5. Adding the concept of gaining experience by exploring (from Vox Populi) would be nice, I’m missing that. It gives you another reason to go out & explore, instead of going total-turtle in your one city early on, which is too beneficial. It would also go well in combination with #4 above, in that if the Hunter is able to gain enough experience, it could be promoted to the point where it’s defense is enough to survive longer stretches outside of your territory.
6. Getting free Gatherers from nomadic huts also seems like a bad idea, as they can do so little early in the game that they’re likely useless units.
7. Maybe break the Lithic era up into Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic & Chalcolithic eras. This would allow a player to better start where they’d prefer. Also, there should be a direct jump from Paleolithic to later “Lithic” eras, so that those that do start in the Paleolithic can entirely bypass eras, at the cost of massive research costs, of course – in certain start situations, I’d think the cost would be worth it.
8. Shamans should be available a bit earlier
9. Workers should be available a bit later
10. Being able to purchase a portion of buildings/wonders is another feature I’m missing from Vox Populi.
11. Forest Garden doesn’t show a tile graphic after being built.
12. Overall, I’d suggest that every building & wonder have at least one terrain or resource requirement.
13. In the city screen, it says each citizen consumes 2 food, but it’s actually 3
14. I think Civ5 & all it’s mods, usually combine forest/jungle defense bonuses with hills & Saga of Man is apparently not doing that, which seems weird to me.
15. Trade routes should come earlier. These things happened way earlier than most people think.
16. Reduce Archer’s attack radius to 1
17. Reduce the cost of a canoe to that of a scout, as it’s basically a scouting boat, in fact, most early stuff to build seems over priced to me & should all be about 270 gold
18. At this point in my gameplay, I’m thinking you might want to consider making this mod off of Vox Populi. I’ve been playing that mod for so long, as have so many others, that I feel like I’m missing a lot of those elements (as I’m sure others would also feel).
 
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