The Naval Mod

OrionVeteran

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The Navy Mod for BTS 3.19

Download Here: http://forums.civfanatics.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=15501 New!

In Naval combat, the winner has a decisive victory, while the looser ends up as fish bait, as he watches his ship sink to the bottom of the sea. This mod adds over 20 new water units to meet the needs of Naval combat in Civ4. Most of the graphics are available in the downloads database, the rest I have either modified or created. I'd like to thank each of the respective graphic developers for their outstanding contributions to the Civ4 community. Without you, many mods, like this one, would not be possible. There are 3 new techs added to the tech tree: Piracy, Submarine Warfare and the Coast Guard. No SDK is required, but there are a couple of small Python functions included to provide the pirates with capture and loot capabilities. This mod was developed in part by request of Highwayhoss and is the next logical step after the Aviation mod. I'll let you guess what will be next. A lot of time was devoted to making the Navy mod historicaly accurate and realistic in terms of promotion flow and strategic capability. So, you will have much to consider in your strategic quest to rule the high seas.

1. 5 Merchant Ships have the capability to complete a naval trade mission in a foriegn city! You have one for each of the major eras: The Cog, the Carrack, the clipper, the Liberty and the Cargo ship. Yes! You get a lot of gold for a successful mission. However, there are dangers out there that can threaten the success of your naval trade missions -- Pirates! To conduct a naval merchant trade mission with another CIV, you must have an open borders agreement to enter their city. Entering a foriegn city is the only way to enable the Trade Merchant Button and execute the trade. Need more Gold? Send out a trade merchant ship to conduct trade with foriegn Civs.

2. 5 Pirate ships have the exclusive ability to capture or loot merchant ships. You have one for each of the major eras: The Dragon ship, the Barbary Corsair, the modified Privateer, the U-Boat, and the fast attack Assualt ship. These units have a hidden nationality that allows them to attack merchant ships, without declaring war. If you capture a merchant ship, you can use it for your own trade mission. Need more gold? Send out your pirate ships to capture or loot the enemy's merchant shipping.

3. 5 Pirate Hunter Ships can be used for "seek out and destroy" missions against Pirate ships. You have one for each of the major eras: The modified Trireme, The Sloop of War, The modified Frigate, the QShip and the Coast Guard Cutter. Each has a bonus against the respective Pirate ship for the current era. Tired of Pirate raids against your merchant ships? Send out a Pirate hunter to stop the raids.

4. 2 new Transport ships have the capability to transport units across water: The canoe, which can carry only one unit and the modern transport, renamed to the Amphibious Attack ship. The Amphibious Attack ship can carry 5 units. The canoe comes early in the game, while the Amphibious Attack ship becomes available very late in the tech tree. This makes a total of 5 transport ships, one for each major era, if you include the 3 transports that are already in the game: The Galley, the Galleon and the Transport.

5. 2 new destroyers are available to choose from: The early destroyer, which has the capability to hunt down Torpedo boats and U-Boats; and the Sensor Destroyer, which has a multitude of late game capabilities to combat threats from submarines and aircraft.

6. 3 new Cruisers are available to choose from: The Ironclad Frigate, the Early Cruiser and the Battle Cruiser; each with specific missions.

7. 3 new Battleships are available to choose from: The Ironclad Battleship, the Predreadnought and the Dreadnought. Each battleship brings in the strongest firepower to bear and are thus the strongest ships in their respective eras.

8. You have 2 new Submarines: The U-Boat and the Missile submarine. The standard submarine no longer has the capability to carry missiles. That mission is now reserved for the Missile Submarine, which becomes available with Stealth technology. These submarines are perfect for harrassing enemy ships.

9. You have the torpedo boat to bridge the gap between surface ships and submarines. They have a bonus when they attack capital ships.

10. You have a new and improved Icebreaker ship, with the capability to break ice and open up a path for Merchant shipping. The Icebreaker becomes available with the Coast Guard technology.

11. This mod looks into a lot of details for accuracy. For example, there are 3 general classes of "Man O War" ships in the age of sailing: The Sloop of War, The Frigate and the Ship of the Line. These were war ships as opposed to merchant ships.

___A. The Sloop of War is the least powerful, but the fastest of the 3 ships. The upgrade path leads to the destroyers and Submarines.

___B. The Frigate is more powerful than the Sloop, but is not much of a match going head to head against the Ship of the Line. The upgrade path leads to the Cruisers and the Coast Guard Cutter.

___C. The Ship of the Line was slower than the Frigate and the Sloop of War, but it had the most guns and was the most powerful of the 3 Man O War ships. The upgrade path leads to the Battleships.

The point here is that all three ships can claim to be of the same class of ship: The Man O War; but no one ship can lay claim to that title exclusively. Other Mods have incorrectly named ships as "Man Of War", which in reality is nothing more than a glorified Ship of the Line. These are minor accuracy details that I have chosen to maintain true to maritime history. Consequently, I have been developing this for weeks and this mod is now available in both standard and WoC/BUG formats.
 

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I am curious how you are going to keep this basically ocean based. Even on mapscripts where you can include alot of ocean, most civs stay land-based primary especially if they share an island or continent with another.

Do you intend to have a map scripts with many islands and small, but numerous continents?

In the games of civ I play (and even many of the mods here), I always neglect my navy since it usually costs so much to build and maintain the ships. In addition, the sight range of most ships (usually 2 or 3 squares) isnt far enough to stop an armada of troops ships looking to drop soldiers on your shores, especially when said troop ships have 4 or five moves.

Another thing to keep in mind..what is to stop a civ from stacking ships on top of one another to make the naval stack of doom? If I send out a merchant ship with a couple of battleships as escort, the mission may go slower, but it will get there since pirates wont be strong enough to kill the escorts.

A way you could counter the high strength ships is to have added upkeep costs for them. This makes you use pirate hunters and/or lesser ships as escorts which gives the pirates a chance.

Some else you can do, concerning the pirate ships. Make then quick builds, but as they gain experience and levels, have their upkeep cost go up. You better believe the best pirates kept their ships top of the line as they gained wealth. This way, the pirates can swarm their stronger counterparts and those that survive gain notoriety in their own right.

You may also want to have more city inprovements and maybe tile improvements for coast and ocean tiles. You want more ships, they will need more food and hammers out of water tiles.

Just some thoughts. Look forward to seeing how this comes out. I miss a good water war.
 
Thank you OrionVeteran!!! :goodjob: I like the way you organized the naval units in a logical manner. This is something I always wanted to see in Civ4.
 
I am curious how you are going to keep this basically ocean based. Even on mapscripts where you can include alot of ocean, most civs stay land-based primary especially if they share an island or continent with another.

Do you intend to have a map scripts with many islands and small, but numerous continents?

Yes. These units are ideal for a huge map scenario that has each Civ start out on their own land mass and must cross over water to reach each of the other civs. I use Smartmap to create the map structure I desire.

In the games of civ I play (and even many of the mods here), I always neglect my navy since it usually costs so much to build and maintain the ships.

Hint: A navy might be a bit more affordable if you send out your merchant ships to conduct trade missions.

In addition, the sight range of most ships (usually 2 or 3 squares) isnt far enough to stop an armada of troops ships looking to drop soldiers on your shores, especially when said troop ships have 4 or five moves.

A strong Navy can be decisive. I'd rather have peace through strength, rather than risk war from a position of weakness.

Another thing to keep in mind..what is to stop a civ from stacking ships on top of one another to make the naval stack of doom? If I send out a merchant ship with a couple of battleships as escort, the mission may go slower, but it will get there since pirates wont be strong enough to kill the escorts.

As with everything in Civ, if you decide to tie up one or more battleships with escort duty, that is a choice you must make.

A way you could counter the high strength ships is to have added upkeep costs for them. This makes you use pirate hunters and/or lesser ships as escorts which gives the pirates a chance.

Believe it or not, I have been contemplating this idea.

Some else you can do, concerning the pirate ships. Make then quick builds, but as they gain experience and levels, have their upkeep cost go up. You better believe the best pirates kept their ships top of the line as they gained wealth. This way, the pirates can swarm their stronger counterparts and those that survive gain notoriety in their own right.

Not sure how to do that except through a python mod. I will think about that one for a while.

You may also want to have more city inprovements and maybe tile improvements for coast and ocean tiles. You want more ships, they will need more food and hammers out of water tiles.

Please provide specific examples of city and water tile improvements you would recommend.
 
Thank you OrionVeteran!!! :goodjob: I like the way you organized the naval units in a logical manner. This is something I always wanted to see in Civ4.

You are welcome. I think the merchant trade missions and piracy add a lot of spice to the game. Trade missions yield a lot of gold and can't be ignored. Thus, the gold rush creates an opportunity for pirate raids. This inturn, calls for a strong Navy to fend off piracy. Funny how one mission can change everything in Civ4. :)
 
You are welcome. I think the merchant trade missions and piracy add a lot of spice to the game. Trade missions yield a lot of gold and can't be ignored. Thus, the gold rush creates an opportunity for pirate raids. This inturn, calls for a strong Navy to fend off piracy. Funny how one mission can change everything in Civ4. :)
Exactly....also don't forget how being able to control the seas can be a strong force multiplier.
 
Please provide specific examples of city and water tile improvements you would recommend.[/QUOTE]

Only ones I can think of right off is maybe:

Water Improvements

Fishing Fleet - +2 food
Hidden Cove - +2 commerce
Offshore Platform - +2 hammers

(not sure what you could do through all the eras, but should give some ideas)

City Improvements:

Undersea Drilling Rig - +1 hammer per water tile
Lumber Guild - +20% hammers
Shanty Village - +2 hammer per population point
Smuggler's Den - +20% commerce

Specialist:

Adjust engineer specialist to give more hammers
Great Engineer as a super specialist gives more hammers as well.
 
I have a suggestion for merchant ships; in addition to the trade mission, they could also be configured to act as a lesser version of a Great Engineer, rushing production of buildings and wonders in coastal cities. Basically the ship is bringing in materials and workers to help; it would be handy for accelerating development of coastal cities and isolated colonies.
 
Due to the law of diminishing returns, I'm not sure I should change anything; as the downloads have been heavy and there have been no reports of any bugs. You should also know that before I released this mod, I removed 10 ships! I think the mod is left with a near perfect mix of additions.
 
Just curious....is this mod simply the vanilla game in terms of land, air units plus the new naval settings?

Is it possible for you to merge the Naval and Air Mods that you have together? I'm planning to try them both, but they may work well together.

If so, how can I merge them into one game?
 
Just curious....is this mod simply the vanilla game in terms of land, air units plus the new naval settings?

Is it possible for you to merge the Naval and Air Mods that you have together? I'm planning to try them both, but they may work well together.

If so, how can I merge them into one game?

It is the BTS 3.19 version (all XML) and a little added python code to make the pirate capture and loot functions work. You can merge both together, but you must be careful with the WoC version. The CIV4UnitInfos.xml file has changes for both mods in one file. The promotions won't work right unless you have the 3 copies of the file: One for the Naval mod, the Aviation mod and one for your base mod. If you use the standard version, it's just a straight merge using the WinMerge application. I know it works because I have almost every one of my mod packs and components running together in my new upgrade for Grand Inquisitions -- planned release is Christmas. Its over 235 MB and growing.
 
If you use the standard version, it's just a straight merge using the WinMerge application.

What do I merge into what if all I want to deal with is the standard version? (I'm on a Mac, so I'm going to have to find a tool to help with that somewhere...)

I thought the whole point of "Load a Mod" was to make it simple to try out a mod, but it doesn't seem to be that easy after all. :confused:
 
What do I merge into what if all I want to deal with is the standard version? (I'm on a Mac, so I'm going to have to find a tool to help with that somewhere...)

I thought the whole point of "Load a Mod" was to make it simple to try out a mod, but it doesn't seem to be that easy after all. :confused:

True. The standard version is much harder to merge than the WoC version. The Winmerge application allows you to compare the differences between two files line by line. Not sure if it works with a Mac. If not, there are other comarison applications that you should be able to download from the internet. A comparator makes file merging really easy, as opposed to doing it manually. Doing it manually runs the risk of missing something, which is all it takes to mess up a merge. So my advice is get a good Mac file comparator.
 
I play Huge Archipelago maps with 7-10 AI all the time. This Mod goes perfectly with how I play. You Must have Good Navies to eXpand and survive.

JosEPh :D
 
True. The standard version is much harder to merge than the WoC version. The Winmerge application allows you to compare the differences between two files line by line. Not sure if it works with a Mac. If not, there are other comarison applications that you should be able to download from the internet. A comparator makes file merging really easy, as opposed to doing it manually. Doing it manually runs the risk of missing something, which is all it takes to mess up a merge. So my advice is get a good Mac file comparator.

I have installed File Merge (which is one of those optional installs for techies) and had a quick look at comparing your tech XML with the standard BTS XML, so I was able to confirm that it does what it says on the box.

You didn't answer my question, though... Which files do I have to merge? All of them? Some of them? One of them?

Why can't I simply replace the existing files by the way? The test comparison I did showed two differences, both clearly marked "Naval Mod", so it seems that an overwrite would be OK.

I really don't want to flail around in the dark and mess things up. I'm sure that once I've gone through this process once, it'll all be clear: you're just in the unfortunate position of playing teacher to a noobie! Sorry 'bout that.
 
I have installed File Merge (which is one of those optional installs for techies) and had a quick look at comparing your tech XML with the standard BTS XML, so I was able to confirm that it does what it says on the box.

You didn't answer my question, though... Which files do I have to merge? All of them? Some of them? One of them?

Why can't I simply replace the existing files by the way? The test comparison I did showed two differences, both clearly marked "Naval Mod", so it seems that an overwrite would be OK.

I really don't want to flail around in the dark and mess things up. I'm sure that once I've gone through this process once, it'll all be clear: you're just in the unfortunate position of playing teacher to a noobie! Sorry 'bout that.

You want to make sure you do not modify any of your default BTS files, as this mod needs to remain in the following folder:

C:\Program Files\Firaxis Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4\Beyond the Sword\Mods\

If you have other mods you are using, then you need to merge only the files that both mods use. If this is the only mod you are using, then no merging is required for the XML; only the Python files will need to be merged. There are several tutorials on these forums which talk about how to merge a mod. Please take the time to read them, as they can be very helpful.
 
Sorry, but I have decided to give up on this mod. It just does not work on a Mac. If someone comes along who has got it implemented on a Mac, I'll be more than happy to give it another go. Ecstatic, in fact.
 
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