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

[Crossphazer]

New Patch

• Add Buyids from Aeons
  • No "Baghdad Period". Their core is always in Persia.
  • Daylami foot is a swordsman rather than heavy spearman.
  • Their primary language is Farsi rather than Arabic.
  • UHVs made easier
  • Some settler & war map tweaks.
• Remove 910-1000 respawn period for Persia.
• Change Arabian Ghazi from an early heavy swordsman, to a stronger (strength 7) Swordsman.
• Merchant Trade now (as intended) gives production bonus to Lighthouse.
• Boost defenders of barbarian Stettin on spawn.

 

[Lokki242]

I keep forgetting to mention this, but the current names for the Iroquois are backwards. Haudenosaunee is the specific name for their Six Nations Confederacy, while Iroquois refers to the larger language group. So their name at spawn of "Haudenosaunee Peoples" doesn't make any sense; it should be Iroquoian Peoples, and their default civ name should be the Haudenosaunee Confederacy rather than Iroquois Confederacy.

 

[Crossphazer]

I keep forgetting to mention this, but the current names for the Iroquois are backwards. Haudenosaunee is the specific name for their Six Nation Confederacy, while Iroquois refers to the larger language group. So their name of spawn of "Haudenosaunee Peoples" doesn't make any sense; it should be Iroquoian Peoples, and their default civ name should be the Haudenosaunee Confederacy rather than Iroquois Confederacy.

I (nor Rhye, nor Leoreth) don't use endonyms for any civ names unless it is absolutely unavoidable due to same-name conflicts like Egypt and Misr. "Peoples" names sometimes contain endonyms as a trade-off. This is a reflection of that style policy.

 

[Crossphazer]

Balancing patch mostly for the Middle East. Seljuks and Mongols should feel more like a tidal wave than armies that spawn out of nowhere.

New Patch

• Give siege units from conquest stacks the accuracy promotion
  • Does not apply to colonial conquerors (for now).
  • Macedonian Tyre siege no longer gets 2 extra catapults.
  • Roman conquerors also don't get this promotion (ballista is pretty powerful UU)
• Slight buff to Arabian starting units.
• Mobile guard production cost lowered to 90, from 95
• Extra harass unit for nomad conquest stacks.
• One less shock cav unit for nomand conquest stacks.
• Extra counter unit for conquest stacks.
• Shift Turkish tech priorities (encourage Nobility & Machinery for the units they give).
• Turks start with Engineering.
• Delay some Roman conquest events by a few turns.
• Cheaper research for Turks, but higher inflation.
• Turks have more starting gold.
• Arabia starts at war with Yemen
• Add conditional spawn for Ghurids (only if Arabia or Turks had conquered a city in the region)
• Arabia now flips San'a from Yemen on spawn.
• Reduce possible number of Anatolia/Armenia Turkish conqueror stacks from 5 to 4.
• Disable the conquest events for Mongolia against Persia and Iraq. Rely on their UP & their "first contact" troops.
• Mongols now flip Orduqent
• Mongol "first contact" troops, and free troops on city conquest (for AI), stop in 1370 rather than 1500.
• Mongols get free troops when flipping cities on birth.
• Add some regions to Mongol first contact troops, like Crimea and Volga.
• Constrain Seljuk conquerors to upper Persia.
• Reduce unit costs for Mongols.
• Drastically reduce unit costs for Turks.
• Give Turks some siege units at start.
• Move Turkish settler prefer for Qara Qorum tile rather than the tile 1 NW of it (to avoid it getting razed by Mongolian spawn).

 

[Lokki242]

I (nor Rhye, nor Leoreth) don't use endonyms for any civ names unless it is absolutely unavoidable due to same-name conflicts like Egypt and Misr. "Peoples" names sometimes contain endonyms as a trade-off. This is a reflection of that style policy.

I do understand the logic for consistency's sake, but in the absence of any self-identifying Haudenosaunee members in the forum I really want to stress that yes, I understand the avoidance of endonyms for things like Deutschland, but in my experience as a historian in Canada(TM) members of the Six Nations generally really prefer the use of their correct name when possible, and we're all good ol' history lovers, it'll be fine. Besides, if AOE3 could do it with the remaster, I think it's okay. I know it's a borderline pointless gesture but I do think it is a meaningful one. However it is of course your mod to do with as you wish, just want to share my two cents.

Also been loving all the updates as of late. Beat Yemen and Vandals over the last bit! Yemen was a lot of fun, though conquering all of Ethiopia for UHV3 feels a lil crazy. Vandals were fun too but rather weird. The player navy at spawn has a rough go against even the 5-6 war galleys Rome already has. I managed to complete the gold and pillaging parts of UHV1 and 2 long before I took hold of the Maghreb (probably around 500?). In general I might suggest a higher requirement for the gold/pillaging parts of that goal, and more starting troops/ships. Also between them and the Anglo-Saxons representing looser tribal confederations, and the great implementation of the Haudenosaunee thus far, I think there's a lot of potential for a Siouan CIV, and maybe even Cherokee, Inuit, or something else in NA. 1SDANi's version of Inuit in their mod for the old map was a pretty fun game, and even filled the map in a fairly natural way--their biggest problem was collapse from economic strain due to many many cities and no infrastructure, and Christianity spreading to their cities before Euroepan arrival lol

Finally, I know a long while ago I also posted something a bit resistant to the Greek and China civ splits. I want to state now (as I realized months ago); I was wrong. The Greek ones work great. China as TWO bugged me, but adding Xia, Shu and the potential for a Jurchen/Manchu civ in the future was great IMO. Focusing more on the political/historic divisions for gameplay rather than some sort of inherent North-South division. Makes me almost start daydreaming about further divisions for India......

I am far too used to s***-posting on my own weird corner of the internet and feel like a rambling freak on forums these days, so apologies if I am in fact coming across as one, and thank you for your time.

 

[banzay13]

Something broke with Great Spy after recent patch that fixed it
It's not first time in game, with multiple GS born, but i was thinking it was coincidence

EDIT. My fault, it was old version of modmod, w|o GS patch, with it all work fine! Appologies!
EDIT2. In my downloaded version from 23/04/2025 06:30 CET (i'm not sure if this version already with fix or not), i can't chek on latest version, coz exception error while loading)

 

[banzay13]

Python:

Civilization(
    iOman,
    iGold=200,
    iStateReligion=iShia,
    iAdvancedStartPoints=60,
    lCivics=[iMonarchy, iSlavery, iMerchantTrade, iMonasticism, iTheocracy, iThalassocracy],
    techs=techs.column(8).without(iLimbProtection)
),

I was able to switch civic for free, but couldn't spend starting points and started with 300 gold. I switch with pop up message from another civ. Probably need reload game (completely) before switching, to reduce such errors

 

[Tao paï paï]

Does it exist a Python file I can modify easily to have again other difficulty levels in this mod ? I really want to play on Emperor or Paragon all those new civs, I know the game is not balanced for, but that’s exactly the point of harder difficulty levels.

 

[Crossphazer]

Does it exist a Python file I can modify easily to have again other difficulty levels in this mod ? I really want to play on Emperor or Paragon all those new civs, I know the game is not balanced for, but that’s exactly the point of harder difficulty levels.

...\Assets\XML\GameInfo\CIV4HandicapInfo.xml
There is only one difficulty in that file, you'd have to make your own difficulty modifiers.
If you change anything, only change the player modifiers (nerf them). If you change the AI modifiers enough (inflation, production rate, research rate, free units) it will completely screw up the timings of the game and the interactions between AI civs.

New Patch

• Ottomans no longer flip Trebizond on birth
• Replace 2 Ottoman Janissaries with 4 longbowmen at birth

 

[Crossphazer]

I was able to switch civic for free, but couldn't spend starting points and started with 300 gold. I switch with pop up message from another civ. Probably need reload game (completely) before switching, to reduce such errors

That sounds like a bug that could apply to DoC as well (not getting advance start points when switching from pop-up). You could try reproducing it in DoC and then bringing it up to Leoreth's attention if so.

 

[Crossphazer]

New Patch

• Mongolia: (ancient) Persian fallback language replaced with Farsi
• Proper adjectives (Norse, Danish, Norwegian, Scandinavia) for Norse depending on their situation.
• Caliphal title for most Sunni civs now also required "Empire" status, not just being a theocracy.
• "Song" dynasty name now automatically replaces Tang in 1000 if the previous requirements (paper & gunpowder techs) haven't been met yet.
• Turkestan rename to Uzbek if revived & post-Iran birth (as an alternative to other condition of reaching the Renaissance).
• Buyids can spawn if Persia is entirely independents/barbarians (in addition to check for Arabia as current or previous owner).
• Refine Turkic dynamic names
• Move Khitan barbarians (900-1180) more north and east and intensify them
• When not capitulated (vassal), or when master is in Global era or later, Iroquois use endonym as civ adjective.
• Add more Iroquois vassal names.
• Increase Mongols advanced start points.

 

[Lokki242]

Very appreciated

 

[robocon]

Hi Crossphazer, love your modmodmod,
Noob question: I've cloned the git repo, pulled main, and can play the game but I don't see the new civilizations (yemen, oman, vandals) from civ selection screen despite seeing the new content from the commit messages.
Is there a step I'm missing to enable them?

 

[Crossphazer]

Hi Crossphazer, love your modmodmod,
Noob question: I've cloned the git repo, pulled main, and can play the game but I don't see the new civilizations (yemen, oman, vandals) from civ selection screen despite seeing the new content from the commit messages.
Is there a step I'm missing to enable them?

None of the new civilizations, or those specific ones? For example, do you see, say, Armenia, Macedon, Shu and so on?

My first guess is that you need to make sure the name of the folder is "RFC Dawn of Civilization Cross Overhaul" and that the folder structure looks something like that in this screenshot (exact location will depend where BtS is installed):

Spoiler :

 

[robocon]

Thanks for the suggestions, resolved the issue -- it was cloned to two locations (git no longer tracked after I renamed it) and the game was pulling the old clone without the recent commits,
Mea culpa

 

[Crossphazer]

New Patch

• Arabia dynamic name tweaks
  • Rashidun name should not trigger after becoming Abbasid
• Better vassal names for Moors (Al-Andalus/Andalusia).
• Italian name for Damascus
• Add Alhambra wonder. Different from Aeons.
• Add La Mezquita model.
• Fix exception from dynamic name check

 

[Crossphazer]

New Patch

• Add several wondersfrom Aeons
  • Prophet's Mosque, Al Azhar, Ait Benhaddou, Itchan Kala, Narekavank, Iyanuwo, Ouadane Ksour, Tomb Of Askia, Osun Osogbo
  • Some requirements, costs or bonuses altered.
• Upgrade Gur e Amir model.
• Add the Achaemenid Necropolis, aka Naqsh-e Rostam
  • A Zoroastrian wonder. 100% increase to vassal trade income.
• Reduce amount of Iranian starting siege units.
• Increase city count threshold for "Empire" flag for Norse.
• Further increase attractiveness of York location for Anglo-Saxons

 

[Darnokthemage]

I still think a Gothic civ would add a lot of life in the late antiquity stage, and give compitition to both the franks, Byzantines and Vandals. I could either see it spawning in the balkans, and have invasion-stacks for italy and hispania, Or earlier ukraine, one.

Thinking core would be italy/spain/southern france, representing the visigoths and ostrogoths.

Would ofc make the spanish spawn later, or perhaps be dependant on moorish invasion existing. Would also give the franks an enemy to fight early on.

 

[robocon]

I've some feedback from playing a bunch of games as the new civs!

Khazars: human can deal with it, but AI is currently pummeled by barbs, and acting more like the historical role of Kiev / Poland (buffering western europe) than master of the steppes, since they use all their hammers to fight the barbs.
- eg when I played Rus (Kiev), Khazars were my meatshield
- one solution can be to have a similar UP / mechanic as the turks, but with some variation to differentiate the two (eg perhaps Khazars at perpetual peace with barbs unless conquering a barb city)

Wu & Shu-Han:
- Qin has a large core and historical area, but Wu & Shu-Han don't have most of china proper even as historical areas. I think realistically if Shu-Han / Wu were to unify China instead of Wei, they would have similar territorial ambitions
- can add more gameplay variation like more Indochina / Tibet focus for Shu, Phillipines conquest area for Wu etc
- perhaps we can shrink Wu's core but expand its historical area to at least cover northern China
- Shu-Han's re-spawn during the 3 kingdoms era has Nanman archers and other weak units, compared to Crossbows etc for Wu (and Wei tends to be advanced as well)
- I think perhaps because of lack of iron access? but makes Shu entirely uncompetitive and much weaker than historically
- perhaps we can temporarily add Iron to Shu spawn area just for 3 kingdoms as a hack, or otherwise make its spawn units stronger
- Shu can also use a more "modern" UU, from searching online I've found:

• "Flying Army" (飞军 / fei jun): Light, highly mobile infantry, especially used by generals like Zhao Yun.
• Mountain Troops: Because Shu was based in mountainous Sichuan, they specialized in rugged terrain fighting — ambushes, narrow passes, defensive warfare.

- Shu and Wu's UBs are also quite weak:
- I recall in base DoC Wu's taixue had 3 scientist slots and 1 statesmen, if that's exessive, perhaps just 3 scientists
- Wu also was more river-trade / naval focused, so can potentially base UB on that instead if not Taixue
- Shu's patronized confucian academy similarly just adds 1 statesmen, perhaps one of the below may be better, some focusing on Shu-Han period, some on Sichuan area advantages overall
- Forge ("Wuzhuge Workshop"), market ("Shu Brocade Workshop (蜀錦坊)"), or mountain-themed ("Cliffside Fortress (山崖城堡)", Daoist Mountain Shrine (山中道觀))

Vietnam:
- love the earlier start, but if played by human, the 150% tech rate is quite a nerf compared to contemporaneous neighboring civs who have ~120-130, and if you lose the Chinese shore, you have a similar territory to Khmer but Khmer has a much better tech rate
- to keep Nanyue weak, but Vietnam competitive, perhaps reset the modifiers when "losing the Chinese shore" conditions are met (better for AI) or after a certain time (more interesting for players)

 

[robocon]

As for new civs, I think Manchus will also be a good addition to spice things up in East Asia and prevent Korea / Japan from easily expanding into Manchuria,
- also to keep Chinese AI / player busy instead of just chilling after 3 Kingdoms and Mongols

History:
- Sushen = mythical-early contact with Shang → Mohe = real organized tribes during Tang → Jurchens = warlords and founders of Jin (can replace some barbs then) → Manchus = final synthesis and Qing founders.

Spawn:
- suggest later-Tang spawn, giving them more time to conquer north China before getting wrecked by mongols
- Tang should be weakened by Yellow-turban-like barb spawns representing An Lushan rebellion in 755
- at historical time of invasions, gets conquerers representing Jin
- AI should get collapsed by mongols, leaving independent / barbs in Manchuria
- Humans can fight mongols off or just chill in Manchuria

UA:
Qing focused UA can be something boosting tributary-trade, as Qing trade was highly regulated

UU:
- Jin can have access to Oghuz as another expert horse-archer civ
- Qing Eight Banners Cavalry (replaces Knight or Cavalry)

UB:
Jin Fortress (replaces Castle)
or Qing Imperial Examination Hall (replaces Courthouse)

eg UHV:
- Jin: Control Manchuria and North China by (sometime before mongol spawn)
- Qing: Historical max territory: Mongolia, Tibet, Xinjiang, Taiwan by (reasonable time)
- All under heaven: Some population % goal, settled great people goal, tributaries goal etc