The Medieval Skeleton Mod

[Le Sage]

The Medieval Skeleton Mod​

The Medieval Skeleton Mod will cut out everything "Unmedieval" from Civilization 5 leave only three Eras (The Early, High and Late Middle Ages), add Medieval techs to these three and later on add proper units and buildings. The Medieval Skelton Mod will limit itself and concentrate on Western European History, but also include the Middle East. The mod will also change leaders and nations appropriately. Everything should be general enough and the greater development lines of the Middle Ages will be followed.

There will not be any maps, scenarios or extra shiny stuff added; just the basics of the Middle Ages.

The project will be seen as a modders resource, which other modders will be able to share and change to their own liking to create Medieval mods easily without having to cut out everything at first and start changing leaders. As such the Project Files will be made available too, although you'll be able to make your own mod dependable on the Skeleton in an easy way while modding. I will also be creating my own mods on it, so it will be of use for me personally.

I've been planning and thinking about this mod for a while and I thank Lazy Knight for the initial idea. I've been doing some initial work on it, but nothing to show off yet. This thread is for ideas and suggestions of what to include in a mod like this and what to exclude; techs, leaders, nations, units...? This thread is only for thinking right now, since there's been an interest in the idea and since it's all a bit sketchy right now. Please keep it coming.

 

[henryMCVII]

That sounds GREAT! I'm really looking forward to get this (since I totally failed in Civ5's modding - except map making). Until release I will move on and try your Hundred Years' War Mod.

Not sure, if this is placed right here. Anyway, while reading your Hundred Years' War thread...

The Hundred Years' War has no use though for the Caravel, since there is no interest in the sea beyond the coastal areas, but for a Medieval mod in general, it will be of great use. In a Perfect World, there would be several ship types in a mod like that, actually. All from the Viking Longboat to the Hanseatic Cogs.

... some simple idea jumped into my head: How about re-using existing artwork for several units? I mean... why not just scaling up and arrange new formations? Turn Fishing boats art work into... => a cogg?, barbarian longboats => viking longboat?, the embarked unit's ships => ancient: another kind of cogg? renissance: heavy late medieval warship? This kind of things. For land units this probably is not working that nice. Just my 2 ct's.

Thank you, for doing all this stuff.

 

[Putmalk]

Well this just looks fantastic! I have a scenario already made with the Middle Ages in mind, but this works wonders as well! (screenies to be added in a few)

Good luck with the mod! If it comes available, I will definitely be downloading it and testing it with my scenario!

As for ideas, I have this:

Units:

Spoiler :

Infantry Units:
1. Militia
2. Man-at-Arms
3. Longswordsman

Archery Units:
1. Archer
2. Crossbowman
3. Peltast

Cavalry Units:
1. Scout Cavalry
2. Light Cavalry
3. Knight
4. Cavalier

Siege Units:
1. Mangonel
2. Ballista
3. Trebuchet

Special Units:
1. Trade Ship
- Act as buildable Great Merchants. They move slow and provide less influence and gold than the real guys, but they definitely help a failing economy get back on their heels! They cannot start golden ages.
2. Supply Caravan
- Remove the Medic promotion and add them to these guys. These guys act as civilian units, and must be protected! They heal all units by +2 while in a two-tile radius of the caravan. Very expensive to train.
3. Captain
- Act as buildable Great Generals. They provide a +15% strength bonus to any unit within 1 tile away from them (Discipline promotion). They cannot start golden ages.

Technologies:

Spoiler :

Changes to the existing technology tree:
- Remove Steel. Steel wasn't invented until the 17th century in Europe.
- Chivalry goes in the Early Middle Ages
- Remove Civil Service. I don't really know what actual Civil Service was, but from what I've heard, it refers to a process of combining farms to help water production or something. I don't think it applies to Europe, though.
- Move Physics into Renaissance.
Additions:
- Feudalism
- Manorialism (In fact, if Manorialism gave access to a Palace-type unit, that would make sense as well. Manors dominated the Middle Ages)
- Defenses
- Recruitment (earliest military technology?)
- Chain Mail
- Early Siege
- Late Siege

I hope you like these ideas! All three of those special units I added in a now-retired mod I did before, so I can definitely help in implementing them easily.

 

[Le Sage]

henryMCVII: Yeah! I never thougth of that. Barbarian ships can be reused as well to produce the Viking Longboat at least. Nice idea. I did work with unit formations in the Hundred Years' War a bit and I thought it was fun and easy, so I will do that here as well.

Putmalk: Excellent. What kind of a scenario is it?

On another issue. The game speeds will be set accordingly in the Skeleton Mod as well. This, so that the ages won't fly past and you'll end up in the 21st century or something. This is something that will need experimenting to get right though for the different speeds; Epic and marathon and those. In the Hundred Years' War I set four turns per year, but I can easily adjust that for all the four different speeds.

 

[Putmalk]

henryMCVII: Yeah! I never thougth of that. Barbarian ships can be reused as well to produce the Viking Longboat at least. Nice idea. I did work with unit formations in the Hundred Years' War a bit and I thought it was fun and easy, so I will do that here as well.

Putmalk: Excellent. What kind of a scenario is it?

On another issue. The game speeds will be set accordingly in the Skeleton Mod as well. This, so that the ages won't fly past and you'll end up in the 21st century or something. This is something that will need experimenting to get right though for the different speeds; Epic and marathon and those. In the Hundred Years' War I set four turns per year, but I can easily adjust that for all the four different speeds.

It's supposed to be a 1000 A.D scenario, focusing on Western European powers, and the Muslim world. I'll upload some screenshots of finished parts, the screenies only depict France, Iberia, and England, but you can see the finished map shape in the mini-map.

 

[Le Sage]

I like your ideas, Putmalk. Let me develop a few thoughts.

I was actually thinking about renaming the Longswordsman unit into the Man-at-arms, but I think something called Man-at-arms should be placed earlier in the Middle Ages than those heavily armoured infantrymen we get with Vanilla Civ. I'd really like another title for the Longswordsmen though.

I like your techs too. Manorialism should definitely be in. Feudalism will develop early, but I think Chivalry should come in the High Middle Ages, since it really concerns the knightly ideals and morals and so forth. Chain Mail and perhaps different armour types or systems is good. At the beginning of the Middle Ages the riders were hardly armoured, while at the end of it they looked like Giant Death Robots each and every one of them. the techonogical advance in armour was immense and impressive.

Religious techs will also be many. Techs referring to Monastic life (the monasteries were the centres of education and intellectual debate in the Middle Ages) and the strong Church will be imperative. This will give all the culture and happiness buildings. Castle or walls building types should also be reflected. From the square towers of the Early Middle Ages to the round during the very late. That brings me to gunpowder, which is a must at the very end too. And the bombard unit.

And yes! Steel is the most laughable tech in Civilization 5. What were they thinking setting it at the Middle Ages!?

Oh. By the way. In the version of the Tech Tree I've designed so far, I've started the entire Tree with the tech "Serfdom" and ended it with the tech "Renaissance". The first is great because it reminds of Agriculture, which starts vanilla. Renaissance is like Future Tech, which repeats to the End of Days.

 

[Lazy Knight]

Some added thoughts from here:

Technologies & Policies:

They were the same thing in Civ VI, now technical/scientific advance and advance of society are somewhat seperated. I think Civ V itself does not stick to this seperation quite well. E.g. Chivalry is in my opinion not a tech, but would fit very nice as a Policy branch.

From what I understand, the most striking trends in Medieval ages were Feudalism and Piety and everything that goes with them (serfdom, manorialism, chivalry for the first, crusades, divine right, monasteries, sacral buildings for the second) and I think it is these things that we should cover with the Policy system rather than the Tech Tree. (Currently, the Policy system lacks relevance apart from the cultural victory, which is a pity). Also striking is the division of people into 3 classes: Clerus, Nobility and the common folks.
We could redesign the policy trees to give the player the choice to support one of these groups with choosing a tree, Nobility (including Knights) boosting military and "land" economy, Clerus boosting happiness, culture and science, and the common folks boosting "city" economy and science (we're talking about the founding era of most modern cities after all), maybe only available from high-medieval era.

so, initial proposals for some policy branches:

Serfdom - Increases Farm output, Chivalry - gives nasty promotions, Vassallage - reduces army upkeep

divine right - Increases , Sacral Architecture - increases wonder , Scholarship - for monk/priest specialist (merge artists and scientists?)

Guilds - extra / for engineers / artists, City-alliances - increased trade route yield

and so on.


Victory Conditions:

Domination Victory can be kept as it is obviously, but the others must recalibrated. I like the Idea by rf900

Addded tech Renaissance that gives the project New World. This ties to scientific victory, emulating the voyage by Cristopher Columbus and discovery of the New World.

but I think it could be broadened a bit, the medieval ages did not end with one event, rather one could have the player build Christopher Columbus Expidition, Gutenbergs Printing Press, and some gunpowder thing and combine them to win.

As for the cultural victory, It would propably be OK to remove it from the game, but we have to give the social policies enough oomph to be tempting still. Or we'll leave it as it is and call the Utopia-Project "Reformation"


Economy - Cities and Country:

More than ever, people live in the countryside rather than in cities in the middle ages. Civ is propably the wrong game to represent this in any way, yet one could at least consider reflecting this with increased focus on improvements. Villages, Monasteries and Castles come to my mind immediatly. Can acces to these be tied to policies rather than technologies? I don't know.


Buildings and Units:

Putmalk did a good start there. I don't understand how you could miss the spearman though! I don't see any fault in going for Spearman / Axeman / Swordsman and maybe heavy versions of these, if gameplay permits. I don't think the Peltast fits the era, maybe we'd be better of with two versions of archer and crossbowmen.

As for buildings, many of them are unfitting in their name, but necessary in their function. Some suggestions:
Monument - Chapel, Temple - Church, Opera House - Cathedral (I guess one could come up with something less boring)
Colisseum - Tavern, Theatre - Tourney-Place, Stadium - Theatre
Library and University are ok, as are Market and Bank.


Okay, enough for tonight, I hope you liked reading!

 

[henryMCVII]

Another idea, do you think about renaming/changing Ressources? It adds some medieval flavour and strategicial depth.

strategic R. Oil, Uranium and Aluminium can stay in, if they just use different names (or/and - in more improved versions - new artwork). Something like... aluminium turns to copper, oil to ... lets say to some kind of lumber (for ships, trebuchets or whatever). Uranium may become lead or ropes or leather ... I think, more (strategic) ressources making the game more interisting - just 3 of them seems to be a bit less.

luxury R.Some Luxuries may change as well. For example Civ5's Sugar plantation feels a bit missplaced in medieval times - and in Europe. So how about "Salt" instead? Dig Salt via Saline/Mine/Quarry instead of Plantation. Every history book shows more ressources like linnen, cloth, wool, wax... Anyway I would prefer replacing existing R's over adding new ones. My personal favs to be in are Wool (just using Sheep artwork), Salt and the Lumber from abouve.

 

[Putmalk]

Some added thoughts from here:

Technologies & Policies:

They were the same thing in Civ VI, now technical/scientific advance and advance of society are somewhat seperated. I think Civ V itself does not stick to this seperation quite well. E.g. Chivalry is in my opinion not a tech, but would fit very nice as a Policy branch.

From what I understand, the most striking trends in Medieval ages were Feudalism and Piety and everything that goes with them (serfdom, manorialism, chivalry for the first, crusades, divine right, monasteries, sacral buildings for the second) and I think it is these things that we should cover with the Policy system rather than the Tech Tree. (Currently, the Policy system lacks relevance apart from the cultural victory, which is a pity). Also striking is the division of people into 3 classes: Clerus, Nobility and the common folks.
We could redesign the policy trees to give the player the choice to support one of these groups with choosing a tree, Nobility (including Knights) boosting military and "land" economy, Clerus boosting happiness, culture and science, and the common folks boosting "city" economy and science (we're talking about the founding era of most modern cities after all), maybe only available from high-medieval era.

so, initial proposals for some policy branches:

Serfdom - Increases Farm output, Chivalry - gives nasty promotions, Vassallage - reduces army upkeep

divine right - Increases , Sacral Architecture - increases wonder , Scholarship - for monk/priest specialist (merge artists and scientists?)

Guilds - extra / for engineers / artists, City-alliances - increased trade route yield

and so on.


Victory Conditions:

Domination Victory can be kept as it is obviously, but the others must recalibrated. I like the Idea by rf900

but I think it could be broadened a bit, the medieval ages did not end with one event, rather one could have the player build Christopher Columbus Expidition, Gutenbergs Printing Press, and some gunpowder thing and combine them to win.

As for the cultural victory, It would propably be OK to remove it from the game, but we have to give the social policies enough oomph to be tempting still. Or we'll leave it as it is and call the Utopia-Project "Reformation"


Economy - Cities and Country:

More than ever, people live in the countryside rather than in cities in the middle ages. Civ is propably the wrong game to represent this in any way, yet one could at least consider reflecting this with increased focus on improvements. Villages, Monasteries and Castles come to my mind immediatly. Can acces to these be tied to policies rather than technologies? I don't know.


Buildings and Units:

Putmalk did a good start there. I don't understand how you could miss the spearman though! I don't see any fault in going for Spearman / Axeman / Swordsman and maybe heavy versions of these, if gameplay permits. I don't think the Peltast fits the era, maybe we'd be better of with two versions of archer and crossbowmen.

As for buildings, many of them are unfitting in their name, but necessary in their function. Some suggestions:
Monument - Chapel, Temple - Church, Opera House - Cathedral (I guess one could come up with something less boring)
Colisseum - Tavern, Theatre - Tourney-Place, Stadium - Theatre
Library and University are ok, as are Market and Bank.


Okay, enough for tonight, I hope you liked reading!

Spearman/Pikeman completely slipped my mind. >.<

I should've said Skirmishers instead of Peltasts.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Javelin_(weapon)#Anglo-Saxons

 

[Le Sage]

Lazy Knight: Yeah. I was thinking about the Social Policies earlier on. I think manorialism suits the Policies really well. We can then have branches under that opening up which takes the player all the way from the old Roman Slavery (Early) all the way to the Free Peasantry (Late) and in this way the player king can select the amount of freedom for his peasants with all the variations that indeed existed. In parts of Russia serfdom and that form of slavery wasn't abolished until the 19th century.

Also, there should indeed be Branches for Religious and Vassalage functions as well. In this way, the player can design a Medieval system of state with a strong or weak church or strong or weak nobility. A branch for Economic policies would also be fundamental; allowing the player to set different aspects of economic life in his kingdom (this must be more tied to the towns and cities, since I'm talking about Manorialism already there, so call this the second economic branch); all the way from the old village Fairs to the first actual companies. There is Mercantilism and the Hansa to be described as well, but these may not have a place in the Social Policies. We'll see. Guilds would have a place in that economic branch.

Though I think Serfdom as an institution and a Civilization "advance" suits the Tech tree real well and serves great as a beginning of the Medieval Era. I think Chivalry does too. But these are just my first impressions and I'm going on feeling. I'm not sure on Feudalism. It might be best baked into the Social Policies along with Vassalage AND the creation of the first nation states with strong Monarchies (now to find some flashy word for that phenomenon).

The victory conditions will need an overhaul, no doubt. I too especially like the combination rf900 is talking about, of different projects like the Gutenberg Press and Columbus into one should be interesting to create and play! It will probably be possible to create different VC's as well, so let the imagination flow on this front.

henryMCVII: There must indeed be some reorganizing of the resources. I will cut things that are unmedieval; like Uranium and so on, and we'll add stuff later as we see fit. We might have to make some kind of represenation of the trade with China and the East as well, since those Caravan Routes were so important during the Crusades at least. I also wonder if Marco Polo's Voyage should be a world wonder or what? It was in Civilization 2. Aaah, the memories.

Putmalk: Yes. Let us not forget the poor Spearman I use the Pikeman in my Hundred Years' War with great effect. I think they look kinda good too!

 

[Le Sage]

Before I go to bed. I've changed my mind about the tech tree. Serfdom isn't a technology; somehow I will place that in the Policies as Lazy Knight suggests. The Tech Tree in this mod should only be concerned with real technologies, I think.

I haven't chosen which technology to begin the Middle Ages as yet though. I'd like something agricultural. The Mouldboard Plough would be suitable, but it sure doesn't sound cool. Later on there are exciting things to place though; Arabic Numbers, Paper, the Spinning Wheel, Plate Armour, Cannons, the University and Spurs to name a few.

Just for coolness' sake I could begin the entire thing with the Stirrup! All the ideas I have!

 

[Putmalk]

Before I go to bed. I've changed my mind about the tech tree. Serfdom isn't a technology; somehow I will place that in the Policies as Lazy Knight suggests. The Tech Tree in this mod should only be concerned with real technologies, I think.

I haven't chosen which technology to begin the Middle Ages as yet though. I'd like something agricultural. The Mouldboard Plough would be suitable, but it sure doesn't sound cool. Later on there are exciting things to place though; Arabic Numbers, Paper, the Spinning Wheel, Plate Armour, Cannons, the University and Spurs to name a few.

Just for coolness' sake I could begin the entire thing with the Stirrup! All the ideas I have!

Manorialism. Reason being: It was the most essential development in feudal society. It organized all the manors, and it happened early in the Middle Ages.

 

[Le Sage]

Yeah, but Manorialism really is a Social Policy, innit. Like Serfdom, the Monarchy and the Strong Clergy and stuff like that. It is systems of rule and state that make up the way the kingdom is run by government.

Things that should be represented in the tech tree are inventions of real things that people used in their every day life; like the stirrup, paper or plate armour. This way, we can also get a longer (and certainly more interesting) Tech Tree and probably also the most interesting and exciting Social Policies Tree ever in Civ5! I don't see a problem with placing Feudalism, Manorialism, Chivalry, Serfdom and those in the Tech Tree, but since these are indeed Social systems within the states and societies of the Middle Ages, I think they can be represented as a whole in the Social Policies Tree from the start and never have an entry in the Tech Tree.

Manorialism must be available from early on in the Middle Ages, though, like Warrior Code and all those other early social policies we get in Vanilla. The Social Policies are a new addition to Civilization and I've not really gotten my head around to thinking its way as yet, but I think I get it now.

On the other side, I find it a bit sad moving all those well-known Medieval things like manorialism, Serfdom and chivalry and Feudalism off into the Social Policies Tree, since they would indeed sound flashy in the Tech Tree, but if we're going to have it proper, this is the way it should be. Firaxis themselves haven't set very strong borders for it either. They've put in things like Civil Service and such that indeed would be best placed in the Social Policies. So maybe mixing in some of the most well-known Medieval tendencies and indeed discoveries (Serfdom, Chivalry and why not The Crusades (or perhaps that should be named Holy War) coming to mind), would only do the game and balance good.

I won't have time to start the mod for real until next week. As of now, I've only been experimenting and gathering ideas, and everything which will be made, will be very much changeable as I will also supply the raw project files for download, so if there's something some of you aren't happy with - you will easily be able to change it easily. I need to set the standards though, as quick as possible, so we have at least something to go from. So what I need now are the very basics of the philosophy of the mod. All the units and such stuff will come later.

 

[Lazy Knight]

Here we go. I made up a first Idea of the social policy tree, to say it like lemmy: Note this is WIP and not a complete tree, it is likely to change massively before release

Spoiler :

Early Middle Ages

Manorialism (focussing on "land" economy)

• Self-sufficiency: +1/farm
• Serfdom: +1 /farm
• Landed Elite: Cost of Purchasing land tiles reduced (= Monarchy from Tradition)
• *Insert cool name*: Settlers build 25% faster (=Citizenship from Liberty)

Feudalism (focussing on military)

• Vassalage: Reduces Military unit upkeep (=Autocracy bonus)
• Fealty: +15% combat strength for units adjacent to friendly units (= discipline from Honour)
• *Insert cool name*: +33% combat strength in friendly territory (=Oligarchy from Tradition)
• *Insert cool name*: double Combat experience (= Military Tradition from Honour)
• Garrisons: Decreases unhappiness by 1 for each Garrisonned City (= some Honour Bonus)

Monasticism (focusses on Monasteries, the Clerus, Science/Happiness/Culture)

• Medicine: +, + (building or specialists or specialist type)
• Scholarship: +
• Ikonic Art: + + (building or specialists or specialist type)
• Philosophy: +

High Middle Ages

Year and Day (focusses on "city" economy, think Freedom): Reduces Unhappiness / Specialist to one (=Freedom Bonus)
Maybe this tree abolishes Manorialsm - tough choice

• Money-Economy: -50% food used by specialists (= Civil Society from Freedom) (They buy their own food)
• Founding of Cities: Newly founded Cities start with 2 population (= collective Rule from Liberty)
• Citizenship: +1 / city (=Vanilla)
• Guilds: +1 / Specialist (= Statue of Liberty Bonus)
• City Council:

Chivalry (focusses on Military and Culture/Happiness): Spawns a great General (= Warrior's Code from Honour)

• Courtly Love: Something with
• Squires
• Crusade: +33% attack Bonus for 20 turns (= Total War from Autocracy) (fits Piety better namewise)

Monarchy(focusses on City states and the Capitol (=tradition & Patronage)

• Marriage Alliances: Causes City State relation to drop slower (= Patronage bonus)
• Succession:
• Nobility: +2 :c5food/turn in the capitol, +33% growth in the capitol (=Tradition bonus and Landed Elite bonus)
• Royal Court: City States yield 33% of the they produce for themselves (=Scholasticism from Patronage)
• Regalia:

Piety (focusses on happiness, culture): +3 , 50% of excess happiness is added to culture pool (=buffed vanilla and Mandate from Heaven)

• Sacral Architecture: +33% for wonder construction (=Aristocracy from Tradition)
• Divine Right: Reduces in cities by 25% (= toned down Police State from Autocracy)
• Theocracy: -20% by in non-occupied cities (=Vanilla)
• Pilgrimage: -25% Happiness needed for Golden Age, +1 from culture building (=Organised Religion from Vanilla + bonus)
• Persecution:

Late Middle Ages

Mercantilism (focusses on Gold, think Commerce)
This should maybe abolish Monasticism

• Tolls: Reduces Road Upkeep (=some Comemerce bonus)
• Orient Trade: +10 , -10 (think: Gets Spices and Silk from Orient trade, if that can be implemented, even better!)
• Trading Alliances / Hansa: +1 Happiness / Luxury Ressource (= some Commerce bonus)

Reformation (no idea what this does, but it sounds cool and should abolish Piety, propably Science/Culture focus): The Empire Immediatly Enters a golden Age (=Reformation from Piety and Rationalism bonus)

This leaves room for 2 more trees. To keep track, there are 2 branches for Clerus, 4 branches for Nobility, and 2 branches for common folk. 2 branches focus on Military, 3 branches focus on economy.


Of course this needs a lot more flesh to the bones, people more creative than me are welcome to supply ideas, gameplay effects will come later.

Oh, and if you are looking for some inspiration on the tech tree, I would suggest firing up this mod for Civ IV:BTS and have a look:
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=373155

Edit: Updated with some more stuff

 

[rf900]

Could you edit the first post with the techs and policies, maybe also units so we can give specific feedback and start with something in common.

One question, would you have the game play only during medieval era? If so we need to have nearly as much techs as vanilla game has and also it would be good to create 10 new policies.

Here are some items that I have in my mod:

Order changed to Scholarism (for Medieval Era)
Scholarism gives a culture and science spread. Adopting Scholarism will give +3 Culture per Wonder and +10% Science while empire is happy.
-Laicism: +10% Science and +10% Culture increase in Capital.
-Magisterism: 1 free Tech.
-Equilibrium: +1 Culture and +1 Science per specialist.
-Nationalism: same. 25% attack bonus when fighting in friendly territory.
-United Front: same. Other players' Influence with City-States decreases 33% more per turn than usual.


Autocracy changed to Imperialism (for Medieval Era)
Imperialism is best for large, sprawling empires, increasing the strength of the empire based on the number of Cities it contains. Adopting Order will increase the Production rate when constructing Buildings by 25%.
-Curfew: Same bonuses as Police State. Unhappiness in Occupied Cities reduced by 50%.
-Slavery: Same bonuses as Fascism. Quantity of Strategic Resources produced by the empire increased by 100%.
-Total War: same. For 20 turns, all Military Units receive a 33% attack bonus.
-Militarism: same. Gold cost of purchasing units reduced by 33%.
-Populism: same. Wounded Military Units inflict 25% more damage than normal.


Monarchy>Divine Right (diplo/rel/hap)
-Forbidden Palace (wonder) (same)
-Jousting (+2 , PROMOTION_DRILL_1)

-Embassy -10 policy cost, can only be built in capital,
-Holy Wars wonder PROMOTION_FOREIGN_LANDS, great general+2

Feudalism>Guilds (prod/money)
-Windmill (same)
-Recruit/Vassal (unit) low cost, slow moving, causes unhappiness

-Grocer (+2 , +1 per 2 population, +1 certain resources)
-Taj Mahal (wonder) (same)

Paper>Scientific Method (science)
-College (+3 +3 )
-The Porcelain Tower (wonder) (same)

-Laboratory (+100% , -2 ) not working
-Alchemist Dream (wonder) (+500, +5/turn)

Music>Drama (culture/rel)
-True Legends (wonder) (1 free tech) 4

-Theatre (+2, +2)
-Sistine Chapel (wonder) (same)

 

[Le Sage]

This is how work on this mod will go forward.

Yeah, rf900. This will provide a skeleton for Medieval mods. All the Roman Techs and Giant Death Robots will be gone with the wind and Ancient and Renaissance and Modern Ages happily replaced with lovely Early, High and Late middle Ages! The mission is to produce a skeleton mod to which the end user only has to add his own scenario at the least to create his own medieval mod. He shouldn't have to start cutting out Giant Death Robots and Fighter Jets. It should be completely open and the project files will be supplied so any modder can do anything with it!

I will do this myself, at least to start off with, and then I'll submit my work and anyone interested in adding or changing may do so and we'll put together a common mod, make it Official and publish it for the public to use! All involved in creating the xml or other aspects of the work will be equally credited, and this along with any people making useful suggestions. Thinking is often the hardest work. I am prepared to do it all by myself if noone else is interested.

I am busy IRL right now (we're moving to a new flat! Yay!) and I won't have time to get this started before next week at the earliest, although I've done some experimenting already. I think it's best if I do a first draft of the Tech Tree the first thing I do, then try to organize the Social Policies.

I will probably be offline quite a lot during the weekend and in the beginning of next week since I won't have a reliable internet connection. I will have the Tech Tree up next week, therefore, and then start on the Social Policies. Then, and only after I've done the tech tree, can we start reorganizing stuff, rename, move and seriously discuss detailed aspects of it. My starting point is to make the Tech tree only concerned with proper techs and the Social Policies touch upon the philosophical aspects of state rule, in the way Lazy Knight has already mentioned.

Both your lists here below will come in handy, Lazy Knight and rf900. I'll make use of your ideas! Keep ideas and suggestions coming. It can only help me.

 

[Craig_Sutter]

At the outset, I'll tell you I don't have civ 5... however, I have worked on mods like EMA (European Middle Ages mod) with others quite extensively. I was most interested in the ships... I'm attaching a visual file with some of the naval developments we used in EMA.

http://forums.civfanatics.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=142543&d=1163727426

It has some of the ideas in ema.

Otherwise, here is a link to some ema discussion>

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?p=4770936&highlight=naval#post4770936

 

[Babri]

And yes! Steel is the most laughable tech in Civilization 5. What were they thinking setting it at the Middle Ages!?

Steel was certainly used in medieval ages. Although it was no match to modern steel but still it was steel.
I found some information about steel on Wikipedia.

Spoiler :

Ancient steel

Steel was known in antiquity, and may have been produced by managing bloomeries, iron-smelting facilities, where the bloom contained carbon.[16]

The earliest known production of steel is a piece of ironware excavated from an archaeological site in Anatolia (Kaman-Kalehoyuk) and is about 4,000 years old. Other ancient steel comes from East Africa, dating back to 1400 BC. In the 4th century BC steel weapons like the Falcata were produced in the Iberian Peninsula, while Noric steel was used by the Roman military. The Chinese of the Warring States (403–221 BC) had quench-hardened steel, while Chinese of the Han Dynasty (202 BC – 220 AD) created steel by melting together wrought iron with cast iron, gaining an ultimate product of a carbon-intermediate steel by the 1st century AD. The Haya people of East Africa discovered a type of high-heat blast furnace which allowed them to forge carbon steel at 3,275 °F (1,802 °C) nearly 2,000 years ago. This ability was not duplicated until centuries later in Europe during the Industrial Revolution.

Wootz steel and Damascus steel

Evidence of the earliest production of high carbon steel in the Indian Subcontinent was found in Samanalawewa area in Sri Lanka. Wootz steel was produced in India by about 300 BC. Along with their original methods of forging steel, the Chinese had also adopted the production methods of creating Wootz steel, an idea imported into China from India by the 5th century AD. In Sri Lanka, this early steel-making method employed the unique use of a wind furnace, blown by the monsoon winds, that was capable of producing high-carbon steel. Also known as Damascus steel, wootz is famous for its durability and ability to hold an edge. It was originally created from a number of different materials including various trace elements. It was essentially a complicated alloy with iron as its main component. Recent studies have suggested that carbon nanotubes were included in its structure, which might explain some of its legendary qualities, though given the technology available at that time, they were produced by chance rather than by design. Natural wind was used where the soil containing iron was heated up with the use of wood. The ancient Sinhalese managed to extract a ton of steel for every 2 tons of soil[citation needed], a remarkable feat at the time. One such furnace was found in Samanalawewa and archaeologists were able to produce steel as the ancients did long ago.

Crucible steel, formed by slowly heating and cooling pure iron and carbon (typically in the form of charcoal) in a crucible, was produced in Merv by the 9th to 10th century AD.[25] In the 11th century, there is evidence of the production of steel in Song China using two techniques: a "berganesque" method that produced inferior, inhomogeneous steel and a precursor to the modern Bessemer process that utilized partial decarbonization via repeated forging under a cold blast.

 

[Lazy Knight]

I haven't chosen which technology to begin the Middle Ages as yet though. I'd like something agricultural. The Mouldboard Plough would be suitable, but it sure doesn't sound cool. Later on there are exciting things to place though; Arabic Numbers, Paper, the Spinning Wheel, Plate Armour, Cannons, the University and Spurs to name a few.

Just for coolness' sake I could begin the entire thing with the Stirrup! All the ideas I have!

Is there a reason the tech tree has to start with one tech? I don't think so. Take the plough, the stirrup, masonry and whatever else it is you want

P.S. I've updated the post above with more social policy details.

 

[Putmalk]

Steel was certainly used in medieval ages. Although it was no match to modern steel but still it was steel.
I found some information about steel on Wikipedia.

Spoiler :

Ancient steel

Steel was known in antiquity, and may have been produced by managing bloomeries, iron-smelting facilities, where the bloom contained carbon.[16]

The earliest known production of steel is a piece of ironware excavated from an archaeological site in Anatolia (Kaman-Kalehoyuk) and is about 4,000 years old. Other ancient steel comes from East Africa, dating back to 1400 BC. In the 4th century BC steel weapons like the Falcata were produced in the Iberian Peninsula, while Noric steel was used by the Roman military. The Chinese of the Warring States (403–221 BC) had quench-hardened steel, while Chinese of the Han Dynasty (202 BC – 220 AD) created steel by melting together wrought iron with cast iron, gaining an ultimate product of a carbon-intermediate steel by the 1st century AD. The Haya people of East Africa discovered a type of high-heat blast furnace which allowed them to forge carbon steel at 3,275 °F (1,802 °C) nearly 2,000 years ago. This ability was not duplicated until centuries later in Europe during the Industrial Revolution.

Wootz steel and Damascus steel

Evidence of the earliest production of high carbon steel in the Indian Subcontinent was found in Samanalawewa area in Sri Lanka. Wootz steel was produced in India by about 300 BC. Along with their original methods of forging steel, the Chinese had also adopted the production methods of creating Wootz steel, an idea imported into China from India by the 5th century AD. In Sri Lanka, this early steel-making method employed the unique use of a wind furnace, blown by the monsoon winds, that was capable of producing high-carbon steel. Also known as Damascus steel, wootz is famous for its durability and ability to hold an edge. It was originally created from a number of different materials including various trace elements. It was essentially a complicated alloy with iron as its main component. Recent studies have suggested that carbon nanotubes were included in its structure, which might explain some of its legendary qualities, though given the technology available at that time, they were produced by chance rather than by design. Natural wind was used where the soil containing iron was heated up with the use of wood. The ancient Sinhalese managed to extract a ton of steel for every 2 tons of soil[citation needed], a remarkable feat at the time. One such furnace was found in Samanalawewa and archaeologists were able to produce steel as the ancients did long ago.

Crucible steel, formed by slowly heating and cooling pure iron and carbon (typically in the form of charcoal) in a crucible, was produced in Merv by the 9th to 10th century AD.[25] In the 11th century, there is evidence of the production of steel in Song China using two techniques: a "berganesque" method that produced inferior, inhomogeneous steel and a precursor to the modern Bessemer process that utilized partial decarbonization via repeated forging under a cold blast.

He said the mod was about the European Middle Ages. Steel has no place being here.