The Ancient Mediterranean MOD (TAM)

[HellboundHeathcliff]

That's the first I've heard of that problem. I'm afraid i don't have an answer for you.

 

[Blue Monkey]

I play the random map frequently; and trade techs after the first era all the time.

 

[HellboundHeathcliff]

IIRC, the first tier techs in each era are untradeable.

 

[Synergy67]

Hi I've been playing the version on Random map. Just wondered why after the end of the ancient age it is no longer possible to view or trade technology?

This baffled me too, until I dug through this thread and found out that techs cannot be traded for the first tier in the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th ages. This slows the game down by intent. I decided I can live with this additional challenge.

...

I love this mod and play it mostly to the exclusion of anything else at this point. But there are some highly frustrating aspects I want to comment upon. First, I think camels are overpowered. if Imaghen or Saba wind up on the map with me, they frequently end up dominating the world. Why? Camels are the earliest unit that can run 3 spaces, including in desert, and don't even require a resource to build. These civs build hordes and hordes of nothing but these camels and can decimate anyone they go to war with. It seems to make camels the most powerful weapon of the early times. I think they should run three in the desert only, if at all. Why not put a camels resource in the game? Rise and Rule uses a resource to enable camel riders.

The Huns are also are not infrequently overpowered at the very start with their mountain running horses. They typically decimate anyone they go to war with early on, sometimes eliminating one or more civs very early in the game. There is nothing you can build to match or defend against them. I think it and the camel rider need a weakness or a better possible response. As they are, they kick everything else's behind. Iron Working usually comes much too late to deal with these.

The Median Insidious Diplomacy is also truly insidious in that Media can reach out from far away and culturally flip a town while at war with me, even when that town has 6-8 units inside, a Cult Site, and a Temple. There seems to be absolutely nothing I can do about it to prevent it, which is so frustrating. Why would towns like this flip to the enemy's side during war?

I love this mod above any other (great job!), but these aspects have made it harder for me to enjoy consistently. They can cause fatal advantages over the rest of civilization in many games in which they appear. I have grown to shudder when I find I share the map with the Medes, Saba, or Imaghen.

 

[Synergy67]

Regarding the inquiry about optimal city spacing for this mod: since you spend most of the game with cities of size 4-8, I place most cities on water wherever possible, and usually something like two out and one diagonal from one another, but will vary this to place on lakes and rivers, since having a city of size 8, rather than 4, is a very big advantage and well worth tweaking your usual preference for placement. The AI will place cities per usual, at 3 plus one diagonal on average, and this wastes a lot of useful real estate. You can have a more compact, defendable empire with tighter placement.

I love the four movement of troops here too. This makes military maneuvers more fun and variable. With closer city placement, it only means all the more ability to get troops about quickly and safely.

 

[Synergy67]

Is anyone still playing this mod or watching this thread? Is anyone still working on the mod itself at all? Would anyone consider taking up some further tweaking of it?

I have another wish for this mod: military alliances come so late in the game, often much too late to stop one culture (like the Medes, Huns, Sabeans or Imagahen) from mopping up the world. This is so very frustrating. Ever since man made kingdoms and organized warfare, it was possible to form military alliances. This isn't some kind of invention that needs to be discovered. It should be available from Alphabet on. Once you can establish embassies, you ought to be able to negotiate common interests with a neighbor. Too much of the game is spent having to fight all your battles by your lonely self or watch a neighbor get crushed and not being able to rally the world to its defense.

 

[HellboundHeathcliff]

I haven't played civ3 in quite a while but i still watch the threads. Nobody is working on this mod but i'm sure thamis won't mind if you want to tweak it.

 

[Castlebuilder]

I continue to enjoy this mod and play it as a change of pace because of its different character. It would be interesting to see it tweaked.

 

[Ankenaton]

How are you doing Watorrey...thanks for still including my quote concerning what CivIII TAM is all about. To tell you the truth I prefer it to CivIV TAM as I find the full 3D distracting and the overall play as being less than satisfactory. Anyway it would be a pleasant sight indeed to see someone tweak and take this mod to the next level. Ankh.

 

[thamis]

After a long long time since Thamis and Watorrey thought TAM (CIV3) was completed, iron0037 (W. Campbell) took it upon himself to work on it, and to expand the final CIV3 version to almost double its size. Head over to the TAM website and get it!

THE ANCIENT MEDITERRANEAN 2.6
http://tam.arbolingo.com

*************************************************************
KNOWN PROBLEMS:

- C3C scenario barbarian activity BUG
*** The barbarian activity level will be set the same as your last random game. You can reset it by starting a dummy random game with the desired barbarian activity level and then starting TAM. The setting is then retained in the .sav file.

- AINoPatrol=0
*** This setting affects barbaian behavior. If you have added NoAIPatrol=1 *OR* not added the flag at all to your Conquests.ini file, the barbarians will mostly remain stationary. By adding AINoPatrol=0 the barbarians will roam around and be more dangerous which is much more interesting. They will also attack along other than the NW/SE axis at times. Basically, it restores the barbarian behavior close to or the same as PTW.

- Egypt still suffers some disease. (pedia updated)
- (the options must be checked on both tech and terrain for apparent *reduced* chance)

*************************************************************
CHANGES FROM TAM 2.5:

SCENARIO
- Changed titles to TAM 2.6
- Updated descriptions to include mention of iron0037
- Set start date to 4000 BC, effectively culling 80 turns (better timing on Emperor difficulty)
- Cultural and Conquest victories not on by default

CIV SPECIFIC TRAITS:
- Bravery produces 5 culture instead of 10
- Golden Fleece produces 8 culture instead of 10 and requires wool
- Library of Ninevah produces 8 culture instead of 10
- Hun Raider requires Horses
- Mycenae is now Hellas; new starting location and city names
- Reworked the Kolchi city names
- Saba cannot build Camel Cavalry (Camel Rider is better)
- Scythia, Huns, and Massagetae cannot build Heavy Cavalry (Horse Archer is better)
- Sea People can build Merchant Ship
- Alexander’s title is now King
- Porsenna’s title is now Minister
- Israeli leader name to Soloman instead of Saloman
- Massagetae build Phalanx instead of European Phalanx
- Kolchi are now a Mediterranean civilization
- Dacia, Germanic Tribes, and Goths are now European civilizations
- Tried (and failed) to make Roman’s more powerful:
- Republican Legionary available with Iron Working
- Republican Legionary costs 70
- Imperial Legionary attack increased to 20
- Praetorian Guard defense increased to 10
- Can no longer build Longswordman
- Set to build Workers and Wealth often

TECHS:
- Monotheism is now required to advance to Migration Age and can be traded
- Monotheism cancels effects of Cult Sites, Temples, Pantheon, and Temple of Zeus (tries to help civs that are lagging behind)
- Civilopedia states which technologies cannot be traded

MAPS:

Mediterranean Large:
- Deleted various wheat and cattle resources from Iberia for better balance
- Added two iron and one gold, moved Welsh copper per realistic resource locations
- Arabian desert expanded for better game balance with Saba
- Deleted barbarian camps on 1 tile islands
- Added tin near Carthage
- Turned a forest into a plain near Carthage for better city placement
- Added iron near Picts, Germanic Tribes, Goths, Egypt, Israel, Phoenicia, and in Alps
- Removed wines near Massagetae
- Added more desert and deleted 2 wheat near Massagetae
- Turned a mountain into a hill near Persia to allow irrigation to pass
- Expanded Pine Forest in Russia (instead of regular forest)
- Added Wool near Kolchi
- Placed Timber near Goths, Germans, Gallians, Dacia, and Huns
- Horses moved closer to Hun starting location
- Moved Russian swampland slightly
- Improved terrain quality arround Athens

IMPROVEMENTS:
- Pyramids no longer a Theocracy-specific wonder, 12 Culture, Temple in all cities, Cost 250, expires with Philosophy
- Great Library made obsolete by Representation
- Caravan House: Xian requires Decadence instead of Representation
- Caravan House: Anxi requires Standing Military

RESOURCES/Terrain/Worker Actions:

GOVERNMENTS:

DESPOTISM: Renamed Tribalism
CITY STATE: Unit support 0/2/2 as intended (was 0/1/1)
EMPIRE: Unit support reduced to 1/2/4, police limit 1, Corruption now Nuisance, Worker rate 150%, Standard Tile Bonus, Assimilation 3%
FEUDALISM: Unit support increased to 3/3/3, Corruption now Communal, Xenophobia removed, Assimilation 3%

LEADERHEADS:
- New Nubia set (ShiroKobbure)
- New Macedonia set (ShiroKobbure)
- New Hun set (ShiroKobbure)
- New Saba set (embryodead)
- New Troy set (embryodead)
- New Lydia set (R8XFT)
- New Gallia set (R8XFT)
- New Iberia set (R8XFT)
- New Dacia set (R8XFT)
- New Kolchi set (R8XFT)
- New Germanic Tribe set (R8XFT)
- New Israel set (R8XFT, great graphics but maybe not the best fit)
- New Etrusca set (R8XFT)
- New Goth set (R8XFT)
- New Massagetae set (R8XFT)
- New Scythia set (CivArmy)
- New Phoenicia set (CivArmy)
- New Sea People set (CivArmy)
- New Pict set (CivArmy)
- New Minoa set (CivArmy)
- Imazighen uses the standard Arab set
- Hittites uses a different Imperial/Migration Age set
- Briton uses a different Migration Age set

UNITS:
- New unit Corsair with Navigation, 7(10)/5/8, cost 60, Hidden Nationality
- All naval movement rates doubled except Coracle
- Everyone can build Curraghs now
- New Spearman graphics
- New African Spearman graphics
- New African Archer graphics
- New Horseman graphics
- New Light Cavalry graphics
- New Phalanx graphics
- New Peltast graphics (Sandris)
- New Camel Rider graphics (Sandris)
- New Tribal Warrior graphics
- European Phalanx and Germanic Spearman graphics swapped

MISC:
- New ruined city graphics (Pounder)
- New “American” city graphics (Varwnos)
- New Mediterranean city graphics in Age of Migration (Varwnos)
- New European city graphics in Age of Migration (Varwnos)

FILES:
- lots

 

[T.A JONES]

Cool! good to finnaly add this to my mod mantel place. I hear the refined resource based space race 'Anno' used derived from this classic.

Seein how it was a artist's touch up not realy an overhauled rendition Im hoping some time was allotted for filling in some pedia info that pertaining by way of UNit/improvement/resource etc discription entires. This was a time In history Im most intrested learning more about.

Thanks guys. Next we need a Rise nRule total update. Whos taking?

 

[HellboundHeathcliff]

Glad to see TAM has once again been updated. I can appreciate all the work that went into it

Edit: Guess i'll have to update my sig and website

 

[againsttheflow]

Great news! I too apreciate all the work put in but *meakly* is there no 2.6 patch we can download w/o having to do the whole thing? Also, is the IBT time greatly increased?

 

[Kyriakos]

Hey Thamis, which sets of mine did you use? (great btw)

 

[HellboundHeathcliff]

Great news! I too apreciate all the work put in but *meakly* is there no 2.6 patch we can download w/o having to do the whole thing? Also, is the IBT time greatly increased?

The size is mostly due to all the new leaderheads so there won't be a 'patch'. The IBT should be about the same as before.

 

[thamis]

Hey Thamis, which sets of mine did you use? (great btw)

No idea... iron0037 did this.

 

[Virote_Considon]

@Var: Mongolian, English, One of your Byzantine ones (can't find which one, ATM )

 

[Kyriakos]

Ah, ty Virote

 

[iron0037]

Hi everyone, I'm Will, the person that put together version 2.6. Sorry for the delays on responding; I'm stuck in a business conference all week. I'm a long-time lurker, rare mod publisher. The only other item of mine you'll find on civfanatics is a Colonization map. My thanks again go out to thamis for allowing me to post this new version. I hope that everyone enjoys it. I welcome any feedback you guys have.

@T.A Jones
Sorry, I didn't enhance much in the way of Civilopedia description entries. I did fix game-related statements when I saw errors or a need for clarification, but that's all.

@againsttheflow
A patch is an interesting idea, one that hadn't occurred to me. I suppose it possible, though it would rather tricky to ensure I did it correctly (such a thing is outside my realm of expertise). watorrey makes a good point in that a lot of what I did involved graphical enhancements. That would make for a large patch even if I tried to build one.

@Varwnos
I'll elaborate on virote's comments (thanks btw). The raider civs of the north (Huns, Scythians, and Massagetae) all use your Mongol set. The Mediterranean city set uses I believe your red Serbian? set during the Migration Age. I don't have my home PC here to double check. European cities use your English set during the Migration Age. As an aside, that was a pain to meld into my magenta-background pcx file . I hope it comes out ok; I didn't get a chance to verify it or the Med set was integrated properly. The Mongol set is awesome though!

 

[againsttheflow]

So he finally comes out of hiding. If this version really does double the game size then a patch isn't worth it I guess.

On the Romans: have you considered giving them low agression, as in 2 or 1? It's possible that this might be the secret to rendering them more powerful--in other games I've noticed that builder AI tend to do really well if they make it to the late game. They have a strong infrasructure (not unlike the Romans) and will be more aggresive (or at least fight in more wars) as the game goes on. Given the nature of this mod it wouldn't be inaccurate to have the Romans staying fairly peaceful till late game. Just something to cosider, the AI will still probably not make them the conquorers they were, for that you need human intellect.

Thanks for doing this btw!