[submod] Cross' Overhaul: 17 New Civs, Shia Religion, Civics Rework, Crusades and Much More!

[Tigranes]

Oh ok, sorry, I did not realize that transition mechanism is already in place. I guess, I am just used for every civ to have a re-birth and I did not find Xia in Python list that you have provided. We have Shu being reborn during Five Dynasties and 10 kingdoms period, and I thought we could extend Xia the same curtesy. Liao dynasty comes to mind.

Speaking of China, is there any way to prevent Wu from spawning as Qin? Like being solid on stability? Or they will appear regardless?

Also, could you please take a look at what is defined as a South China in the modmod? Currently it includes Vietnamese capital and 2 more tiles South in a rectangular fashion. It feels unfair to Indochina...

Anyways, Leoreth have lately introduced literally game changing rework of AI city attack logic, and it can change a lot in terms of how you balance things and how the map looks like in 1867. Looking forward for you to apply the changes to this mod.

 

[Crossphazer]

Speaking of China, is there any way to prevent Wu from spawning as Qin? Like being solid on stability? Or they will appear regardless?

Wu is an independence civ, like Argentina or Brazil. It won't spawn if civ owners of its territory are Solid stability.

Also, could you please take a look at what is defined as a South China in the modmod? Currently it includes Vietnamese capital and 2 more tiles South in a rectangular fashion. It feels unfair to Indochina...

The topmost part of Vietnam was part of many iterations of Chinese empires. That's why it is categorized as such, and used in certain UHVs.

New Patch

Tested on several autoplays. I think Incans might be having conquistadors trigger less often on them. Might be just flukes. Something I'll keep an eye on for next patch.

Progress to 1580 was looking good. Can't comment on 1867, but not much changed that would affect it.

• Merge Leoreth's changes (below)
• Push Minoan spawn to 2600 BC
• Give Minoans more techs, advance start points, starting gold.
• Sea Peoples should no longer spawn in the Adriatic.
• Add 10 more turns to the ancient age.
  • Some turns had been shaved off the ancient age in a previous patch; they are being added back in.
• Add 10 more turns to the classical age (in the time 500 BC - 1 AD). The period was still feeling too rushed on Epic.
• Shift Armenian and Roman tech priorities slightly.
• Adjust Illyrian Daorson city spawn garrison.
• Give Hittites an extra settler, to populate western Anatolia.
• Change Phrygian barbarians to close invaders.
• Give Phrygian barbarians a catapult.
• Make Minoan city raze goal by 1100 BC rather than 1000 BC.
  • The timing matters a lot, since the pressure from the Sea peoples is mostly gone after 1100 BC.
  • Yes, it means it lines up even less with the Iliad, but in gameplay turns it is brutally difficult otherwise.
  • The goal is by 1000 BC for those who can accomplish it earlier.
• City names for Tjaru city.
• Make Korea start as Confucian rather than Buddhist
• Slight buff to Kushan starting units.
• Nerf some Korean modifiers.
• Nerf some Vietnamese modifiers.
• Add names for Seleucia Pieria
• Tweak Spanish settler map values for new world.
• Reduce city maintenance income for France slightly.
• Disable Lydian indy city spawn.
• Adjust inflation offset to the additional number of turns.
• Slightly lower priority of Exploration tech for some European civs (they don't need to beeline for it)
• Slightly reduce Roman preference for Politics tech.
• Reduce Java's starting gold and advanced start points.
• Make Le Loi even less likely to capitulate. This should favour Nanyue being completely conquered by Qin, rather than becoming a long-lived vassal.
• Slightly reduce Le Loi build unit probability.
• Make Nanyue version of Vietnam start in southeastern China, with future Hanoi being a barbarian spawn, for the revival period.
  • Indie Hanoi (Thang Long) doesn't spawn if human player is Vietnam
  • Give human Vietnam an extra settler and a few extra defenders.
• Phoenicians have Celtic and Latin as subsequent fallback languages.
  • They already had Greek as a 2nd language
• Slightly nerf Armenian research.
• Tweak Parthia tech priorities.

New update:
- Caravel and Carrack also require Gunpowder
- added Capes in the Pacific Coast of Central America
- added Ice near Cape Hoorn
- conquistadors spawn closer to their target's core
- conquistadors focus more on targeting native cities after their target's collapse
- adjusted unit composition of conquistador armies
- improved AI routines for UNITAI_EXPLORE_SEA to explore coasts more thoroughly and attempt circumnavigation and finding new continents
- UNITAI_ATTACK_CITY units no longer get stuck in a city by trying and failing to find units to defend it
- improved AI threat evaluation from enemy units to account for the fact that they need to defend their own cities
- upgraded Caravels use UNITAI_EXPLORE_SEA
- moved Spanish starting location 1N
- helped Spain get its initial Caravel
- weakened Spanish conquerors against the Moors --> already adjusted in my submod
- adjusted Spanish and Portuguese technology preferences
- Inca deprioritize building ships
- free AI colonist spawns only occur after an Amerindian civilization has been contacted
- selected settler location for peaceful trading company spawns are prioritized by settler map value
- updated the changelog

New update:
- updated credits
- you cannot demand to found a city in your own territory during a congress
- aligned requirements for slave trade and use
- Viet Cong can enter Jungle and Rainforest
- fixed button and displayed model for Zamburak
- Natives cannot receive techs that are not yet discovered by Amerindian civilizations
- removed recently added additional ice neat Cape Hoorn again
- further improved sea exploration AI
- removed stability penalty between Manorialism and Merchant Trade
- corrected Conditional Spawns civilopedia section to reflect changed conditions for Aztecs and Thailand
- removed leftover fishing boats in the 1700 AD scenario
- replaced Portuguese Lagos with Portuguese Sao Tome and Native Edo in the 1700 AD scenario

 

[Tigranes]

Great update!
So does it mean I have no way to score my UHV2 if Vietnam capitulated to me long time ago? I have to own their capital directly ? And, as per vanila BTS rules, there is no way to release capitulated vassal! Do you think it should be that way?

The topmost part of Vietnam was part of many iterations of Chinese empires. That's why it is categorized as such, and used in certain UHVs

Edit: Thanks to being very demanding I was able to cause Vietnamese rebellion! But still, in my opinion, the Master should always be able to cut loose their vassal. And human player should be able to become AI vassal for some role playing. Tatar yoke for human Russia on the spawn for example.

 

[Crossphazer]

New Patch

• Buff AI Timurid starting units.
  • They lose ground to Ghurids too often.
• Increase production cost of units for Ghurids
• Add Luxor to Swedish and Norse name lists.
• Fix typo in Norse name for Benghazi.

 

[Tigranes]

China 3 Kingdoms is very enjoyable and kind of crazy. Look at all those yellow turban rebels! I only wish some other iconic rebellions, like An Lushan, could be also implemented at some point!

 

[Maggy_domain]

I don't have a save with me right now, but i tried a portugal game yesterday and upon initializing Lisbon started with Xia UB in it. Somehow I couldn't remove it with the WorldBuilder. Strange behavior

 

[Crossphazer]

China 3 Kingdoms is very enjoyable and kind of crazy. Look at all those yellow turban rebels! I only wish some other iconic rebellions, like An Lushan, could be also implemented at some point!

I have to be careful about rebellions, since there are thousands of rebellions throughout history, but they're very difficult to represent in the mechanics and timescale of civ4. The Yellow Turban rebellion's historical importance, and the fact that China has fewer neighbouring civs than in the Middle East or Europe means that it was implemented, but I don't think I'll be implementing rebellions more generally.

Edit:
How is it 56AD in that screenshot? Wu doesn't spawn until 200 AD. Something isn't right. What game speed are you playing on? (Epic is the only one that is thoroughly supported)

I don't have a save with me right now, but i tried a portugal game yesterday and upon initializing Lisbon started with Xia UB in it. Somehow I couldn't remove it with the WorldBuilder. Strange behavior

Good catch. Fixed that bug.

New Patch

• Jerusalem starts out as barbarian city
  • This is so the Hyksos don't attack it when they spawn.
• Change Egypt UHV1 date from -900 to -1500 (it was pretty easy to achieve on a recent test run).
• Swap XML positions of bronzeworks and forge to fix building bug.

 

[Tigranes]

Edit:
How is it 56AD in that screenshot? Wu doesn't spawn until 200 AD. Something isn't right. What game speed are you playing on? (Epic is the only one that is thoroughly supported)

I only play Epic/Monarch and yes, turns got wacky after I have applied your turns-in-era changes mid-game. Fresh starts do not result in those kind of behaviours.

 

[Crossphazer]

Played and won a UHV as Egypt. Game was fun with a lot more going on than vanilla DoC due to retooled Sea Peoples, Hyksos, Assyrian and Persian invasions. UHV1 and UHV3 were too easy in their timings, so I made them a bit harder, without being too strict.

New Patch

• Antiokheia -> Ugarit for ancient Egyptian.
• Make Egypt UHV3 slightly harder.
  • More culture required and by -200 instead of -100
• Fix typo in condition which was supposed to validate that Assyria owned Levant before conquest of Egypt event

Edit:
merge from upstream:

New update:
- improved AI evaluation of civic trade route effects
- Redistribution: changed to high upkeep, -50% trade yield

Note: this update breaks savegame compatibility.

I then changed Redistribution back to medium upkeep, although kept the -50% trade penalty.

 

[Tigranes]

iChinaS : [(910, 1550), (1850, 1920)]

Would you please consider including dynamic name Taiwan and extending 1920 to 2020 to represent Republic of China, please? This overhaul started with the concept that Chinese history is too complex to be represent by just one civ and, so we got South China civ to represent various historical entities. It is only fitting to use it to represent our modern day Taiwan and opportunities for island nation to exist and even, potentially, take over the Yellow River China.

 

[Crossphazer]

Would you please consider including dynamic name Taiwan and extending 1920 to 2020 to represent Republic of China, please? This overhaul started with the concept that Chinese history is too complex to be represent by just one civ and, so we got South China civ to represent various historical entities. It is only fitting to use it to represent our modern day Taiwan and opportunities for island nation to exist and even, potentially, take over the Yellow River China.

If RoC is reduced to Taiwan in a war with another China civ, that's fine, but there's no sense in respawning it as a single island later on.

 

[Crossphazer]

New Patch

• Alter Shushan spawn date so it isn't blocked by Ur's culture
• Nerf Assyria's extra AI starting units.
• Make Tyre spawn as barbarian rather than independent.
  • We don't want Tyre (Sur) and Jerusalem to raze each other.
• Give Parthia one extra archer at spawn.
• Give AI Kushans 1 less extra Horseman UU at spawn.
• Fix Azov/Azak/Tanais dynamic name being mapped to the wrong map name

 

[Crossphazer]

Synchronization with upstream:

New update:
- adjusted rivers in Siberia
- added semidesert in Dzungaria
- adjusted terrain in the American North Pacific
- improved Cyrenaica
- corrected region boundary between Maghreb and Egypt
- added Baltics and Swahili Coast to Protestant regions
- added Russia and Volga regions

Was a bit of a pain to merge the region changes, but it's done.
Some of these changes I had already made on my end.

 

[Crossphazer]

New Patch

• Babylonia starts with depotism civic
• Xia less likely to build Ishtar Gate.
• Extend Babylonian UHV3 to -660 from -700

 

[Tigranes]

Increasing an Espionage output during Isolationism feels counter-intuitive. You literally shut the door to outside world and don't keep up with geopolitics, like in Edo Japan. You focus inward, and espionage is mostly about meddling with others. Instead, the following effects can feel natural and offer some compensation for the lost trade: (1) increased espionage costs for all nations to conduct mission in Isolationist civ (2) culture pressure from neighbors and effects of foreign cultures already present diminish by 50% (can be very useful to prevent foreign revolts) (3) no foreign religion and corporations spread (4) city centers get one extra commerce and Palace output doubles.

 

[Crossphazer]

Increasing an Espionage output during Isolationism feels counter-intuitive. You literally shut the door to outside world and don't keep up with geopolitics, like in Edo Japan. You focus inward, and espionage is mostly about meddling with others. Instead, the following effects can feel natural and offer some compensation for the lost trade: (1) increased espionage costs for all nations to conduct mission in Isolationist civ (2) culture pressure from neighbors and effects of foreign cultures already present diminish by 50% (can be very useful to prevent foreign revolts) (3) no foreign religion and corporations spread (4) city centers get one extra commerce and Palace output doubles.

I agree that something has to be done with Isolationism and you are on the right track. I will look at the civic in context of all the other civic options and alter it.

 

[soul-breathing]

Since the map is bigger than DoC before v1.17, will it be more balanced to add 1 mobility to all units? It seems cost to many turns to move from a faraway place.

 

[Crossphazer]

Since the map is bigger than DoC before v1.17, will it be more balanced to add 1 mobility to all units? It seems cost to many turns to move from a faraway place.

Giving all units 1 extra movement range has major ramifications on the AI, line of sight, the utility of certain geographical features for defense, and the timings of many civ spawns or free conqueror armies.

It is not a change I am opposed to; after all, units in RFC Classical World had one extra move, and that worked out fine. However, I would have to have a compelling balance or gameplay reason to make this change, especially since it will cause another divergence with the mainline version of Leoreth. At the moment, the state of the game in terms of balance and gameplay is pretty good, so I would rather be spending time fixing bugs, oversights, polishing some of the newly added civs, rebalancing UHVs that have been affected by other changes, play testing as many civs as possible to validate that the UHV is possible, fun and thematic, and so on.

 

[Crossphazer]

New Patch
Intended to make Isolationism more thematic. A few other civics were altered in the process, as some civic bonuses were shuffled around.
A new type of civic bonus was implemented: increased emergence of Great Spy, i.e. greater rate of EXP generation for the Great Spy.

Civic Changes:
State Party:
One party reduces regionalism and differences in regional regulations that would increase upkeep. Focus on espionage for both internal and foreign matters.

• removed num cities maintenance modifier -100%
• added city distance maintenance modifier -50%
• added Great Spy Emergence 100%
• removed 2 espionage per specialist bonus
• added 20% extra espionage points generated

Hegemony: replace double build rate of Jail with double build rate of Post Office (land empires are known for patronizing the postal/courier system)

Isolationism:
Reworked. Here are all the properties, including any that existed prior:

• Medium upkeep
• No foreign trade
  • obvious
• No foreign companies
  • obvious
• -10% science penalty
  • less exposure to foreign innovations
• 2 happiness is largest cities
  • reduced unrest from potentially disruptive foreign ideas
• Num cities maintenance modifier -25%
  • easier internal governance from focus on internal affairs, and less shakeups caused by foreign relations & trade
• +1 food from artist, merchant, statesman
  • isolationism benefits certain specialists by shielding them from foreign competition
• Double build rate for constabulary, jail, security bureau
  • internal security forces

Colonialism : upkeep changed from medium to low

Multilateralism
Bonuses to reflect international intelligence cooperation (and operations).

• 1 extra espionage per specialist
• double build rate for Intelligence Agency

Patch Notes:

• Add "Great Spy Emergence" civic modifier
• Alter civics: State Party, Hegemony, Isolationism, Colonialism, Multilateralism
• Ras -> Belgrade dynamic name in many languages

 

[Crossphazer]

New Patch

• Buff Xia modifiers
• Give Xia extra worker and 50 extra gold at spawn.
• Dynamic vassal names for Xia like with other Chinese civs
• Add Persian dynamic name for Attaleia (same as Hittites, Parha).
• Persia as vassal of Rome is now called Persis, rather than Parthia
• "Macedonia" province name for vassal of Rome.