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

[Crossphazer]

New Patch

• Remove Suebi barbarian city spawn from Spain in 500
• Nerf Spain culture mod, buff Portugal culture mod.
• Tweak Spanish settler map to encourage to settle the site of the now-removed barbarian city.
• Make Shu UHV tougher.
• Move Wu capital to future Nanjing.
• Move Vietnam (Nanyue) starting capital further south.
• Add rice south of the city of Wu, so that Moling and Wu can co-exist despite being 1 tile apart.
• Move Wu's fish further NE so that Kuaiji doesn't compete for it.
• Spawn barbarian Kuaiji sooner.
• Alter Shu's settler map so it founds a second city a bit further from Chengdu.
• Spawn Barbarian Thang Long before Vietnam spawns, so it can flip it.
• Add hurry units with gold to Bureaucracy.
• Extend the Shu respawn flip area to include Guizhou.
• More dynamic names for Celts, both before and after resurrection.
• Give Islamic Persian leaderhead the "Ya'qub ibn al-Layth" name rather than Abbas I

 

[CivEnthusiast]

As you approach working on the modern era, may suggest implementing the post-communist crisis from the original RFC. It was excluded from RFC DoC, but I think it works perfectly to represent the crisis that the post-soviet bloc nations faced after the switch from communism to democracy. It could especially work well for representing instability for Russia once they decide to switch away from communism in the very late game, triggering not only for all potentially conquered by then civilizations to secede but also making Russia to go unstable. Also may suggest the temporary instability to be hitting Russia once they change to communism and USSR, same with all the potentially conquered by Russian Empire nations to secede to represent Russian Empire disintegrating in a process

@Crossphazer My apologies, however I'd really like to see your personal elaboration on this. It's completely fine if it won't be implemented, I'm just trying to learn about your point of view here. Especially curious on the nations seceding part, even if to ignore the Post-Communist crisis aspect from the vanilla RFC in itself. Would seem logical to implement that as since you did implement the event such as Taiping Rebellion for China and overall fleshed out Chinese history mechanic with rebellions and splitting apart into North and South. Could be just releasable civilizations regaining independence upon the civic switch to communism and then from communism to democratic civics, with the instability not being too much necessary

 

[Tigranes]

I just did few autoruns to different dates and map looks absolutely beautiful and recognizable for the given era. Kudos, @Crossphazer , I am very impressed with all your hard work. There are only 2 oddities that I keep seeing for almost every run -- AI prefers Tianjin spot to Beijing for some reason and Jerusalem gets erased by Sea People more often than not .

 

[Crossphazer]

I just did few autoruns to different dates and map looks absolutely beautiful and recognizable for the given era. Kudos, @Crossphazer , I am very impressed with all your hard work. There are only 2 oddities that I keep seeing for almost every run -- AI prefers Tianjin spot to Beijing for some reason and Jerusalem gets erased by Sea People more often than not .

>AI prefers Tianjin spot to Beijing
This is intentional, although I probably need double check if the Mongolian and Qing era settler maps have Beijing as the preferred spot, in the somewhat likely event of the city getting razed by barbarians or Mongols over the centuries.

>Jerusalem gets erased by Sea People
I can probably fix this by pushing by Judaism's founding date, even if it's not so historical

@Crossphazer My apologies, however I'd really like to see your personal elaboration on this. It's completely fine if it won't be implemented, I'm just trying to learn about your point of view here. Especially curious on the nations seceding part, even if to ignore the Post-Communist crisis aspect from the vanilla RFC in itself. Would seem logical to implement that as since you did implement the event such as Taiping Rebellion for China and overall fleshed out Chinese history mechanic with rebellions and splitting apart into North and South. Could be just releasable civilizations regaining independence upon the civic switch to communism and then from communism to democratic civics, with the instability not being too much necessary

Late 20th century post-communist crisis is very far into the game so it's not something I'm thinking about right now. I need to evaluate tech progression in the 1900s and also fill some gaps like potentially an Australian civ, and evaluate all the post-colonial civ respawns, which likely need a bunch of polish.

 

[Tigranes]

We really need Chinese capital on the map though. Also Mongols relocate their capital there which is very realistic and in line with the main DoC. Delaying Jerusalem is not a very elegant solution, in my opinion. How about holy cities simply get immunity from being razed? I vaguely remember it was already the case with original RFC.

I am really rooting for Australian Civ! Now when we have potential South Africa, the only missing G20 country is Australia. And England always does such a lousy job in colonizing the land down under...

 

[Crossphazer]

Delaying Jerusalem is not a very elegant solution, in my opinion. How about holy cities simply get immunity from being razed? I vaguely remember it was already the case with original RFC.

Holy cities already have an immunity to being razed. The problem is that sometimes Judaism's founding date is after the Sea Peoples, which means the city can be razed before it becomes the Jewish holy city. That is why I will push the date further back in time even if it is not quite correct.

Alternatively I can try spawning another Jerusalem in the Iron Age, if there's nothing on that tile. I will have to play around with it.

 

[CivEnthusiast]

>AI prefers Tianjin spot to Beijing
This is intentional, although I probably need double check if the Mongolian and Qing era settler maps have Beijing as the preferred spot, in the somewhat likely event of the city getting razed by barbarians or Mongols over the centuries.

>Jerusalem gets erased by Sea People
I can probably fix this by pushing by Judaism's founding date, even if it's not so historical


Late 20th century post-communist crisis is very far into the game so it's not something I'm thinking about right now. I need to evaluate tech progression in the 1900s and also fill some gaps like potentially an Australian civ, and evaluate all the post-colonial civ respawns, which likely need a bunch of polish.

I understand, hence why when I originally mentioned it I specifically pointed out about you getting to that very late part into the game in the first place. Also, I'm implying the 1917 revolution as well by switching to communism as Russia, which is significantly earlier and is just exactly in roughly the same time frame as you said you're planning to work now for Australia, which is why I believed that there was a chance you could touch upon that eventually as well

 

[Crossphazer]

I understand, hence why when I originally mentioned it I specifically pointed out about you getting to that very late part into the game in the first place. Also, I'm implying the 1917 revolution as well by switching to communism as Russia, which is significantly earlier and is just exactly in roughly the same time frame as you said you're planning to work now for Australia, which is why I believed that there was a chance you could touch upon that eventually as well

I will probably do something about Marxism and the Cold War in a future large update.

New Patch

• More attempts at respawning Jerusalem
• Prevent Judaism from being founded unless Jerusalem exists; as a failsafe, found Judaism around 500 BC if still no Jerusalem.
• Further increase La Coruna founding priority to Spain.

 

[Tigranes]

Jerusalem situation was resolved as far as I can see! Thank you!

Berenice/East Libya should really pass to Eastern Roman Empire. Cyrenaica and Crete were united province even pre-Tetrarchy. So obviously during all the divisions they stayed together on the Eastern side.



I know, AI Polynesia was not to be played however can we please at least move the initial Settler (the one not inside Waka) from coastal Clam tile to Tonga capital island tile? Also, just for fun, do you happen to know what is exactly that prevents AI Polynesia from using those northern settlers to actually settle? It is such a shame AI cannot handle island empires ...

 

[Crossphazer]

Jerusalem situation was resolved as far as I can see! Thank you!

Berenice/East Libya should really pass to Eastern Roman Empire. Cyrenaica and Crete were united province even pre-Tetrarchy. So obviously during all the divisions they stayed together on the Eastern side.

View attachment 720189

I know, AI Polynesia was not to be played however can we please at least move the initial Settler (the one not inside Waka) from coastal Clam tile to Tonga capital island tile? Also, just for fun, do you happen to know what is exactly that prevents AI Polynesia from using those northern settlers to actually settle? It is such a shame AI cannot handle island empires ...
View attachment 720191

Agreed on Cyrene; I'm not particularly worried about AI Polynesia because I play with it disabled; I think it overcrowds the Pacific and has less of a valid justification for being a civ than the Iroquois or Swahili/Zulu civs, who are also at the borderline of what Civ IV mechanics can give justice to.

I don't mind having it as a playable human civ.

 

[Crossphazer]

New Patch

• When dividing the Roman empire, use Milan rather than Rome as the center-point of the WRE
  • This gives Cyrenaica to Byzantium

 

[Tigranes]

With 8 African civs all alive on American birth -- Africa is no longer an Indy continent! This gives me so much joy, honestly. Even Zimbabwe, while being the last in list, almost controls the UHV required 2% of World's territory!

Anyone can guess how did the Mameluk Galleass end up in the lake Rukwa?

 

[Landyn Linhares]

Could the second wave of european imperialization be reimplemented? Like the scramble for africa and france taking vietnam

With the addition of all these new African civs and the event being very significant in their histories i think it would be good

 

[Tigranes]

Since AI doesn't know how to use Slaves other than as slow workers, could we make the city to benefit from them in the same way when you settle them but for the case of the slave simply parked in the city? I have witnessed many parked slaves after AI will pay a pretty penny to buy them from me.

 

[Crossphazer]

Could the second wave of european imperialization be reimplemented? Like the scramble for africa and france taking vietnam

With the addition of all these new African civs and the event being very significant in their histories i think it would be good

It already exists. There is a second colonial wave already implemented, and Congresses often award colonies or African-held cities.

 

[Crossphazer]

Since AI doesn't know how to use Slaves other than as slow workers, could we make the city to benefit from them in the same way when you settle them but for the case of the slave simply parked in the city? I have witnessed many parked slaves after AI will pay a pretty penny to buy them from me.

It'll be fixed when I change slaves to just be slower workers (can build all the things workers can) and get rid of the slave mine/plantation. I'll probably lower the capture percentage as well, it looks like there are too many slaves around in the Renaissance era onwards.

 

[Tigranes]

But settling Slaves is very useful. It's the only way to get some low population colony to build anything. I agree about improvements but there has to be some elegant and comprehensive method to represent both ancient and colony slavery better. For starters, slaves need to escape and revolt. They must be coveted for valid economic reasons. Simply being a slow Worker is not enough.

 

[Crossphazer]

But settling Slaves is very useful

I'm going to keep the settling slaves feature, just not the mines and plantation.

slaves need to escape and revolt

Historically irrelevant except for edge cases like Haiti. The anger malus from settling a slave is sufficient.

Simply being a slow Worker is not enough.

If I make any further changes it will be to be able to sacrifice slaves to get a one time production boost, like in RFC Classical World. But I won't make that change right away.

 

[Tigranes]

I'm going to keep the settling slaves feature, just not the mines and plantation.

Thank you! But can you think of any clever hack to force AI to settle slaves in their cities? Maybe give them great person tag? I feel like cheating when Philip comes to offer 150 gold for a Slave that will be kept parked in Madrid when all the tiles in Spain are improved. If all fails, perhaps purchased Slaves can be forcefully settled up to the happiness cap in the colony and those captured can be used to improve tiles?

 

[Crossphazer]

Thank you! But can you think of any clever hack to force AI to settle slaves in their cities? Maybe give them great person tag? I feel like cheating when Philip comes to offer 150 gold for a Slave that will be kept parked in Madrid when all the tiles in Spain are improved. If all fails, perhaps purchased Slaves can be forcefully settled up to the happiness cap in the colony and those captured can be used to improve tiles?

They probably are right to not settle them, since 1 unhappy for 2 hammers is only a good deal when it comes to smaller cities that are only getting established, or really production poor cities. Colonialism will buff their output in an upcoming patch, so they might get more use when settled.

Speaking of patches I am currently working on a big patch to do 3 things:

1. Changes to slavery (no slave mine/plantation, slaves can make all improvements, settled slave buff under colonialism).
2. Implement Marxism and the ideological cold war (it will still need future patches to add a lot of missing leaderheads for the communist/capitalist sides)
3. Balance (lower) tech costs for industrial techs and beyond (after about 1700 the global tech rate is too slow)

It will be the first time I give attention to the late 19th and 20th centuries, and so it is a lengthy process to test. I always test balance from 3000 BC to ensure a consistent experience from beginning to end.