The WASP Mod

[Jaroth]

Widely Altered and Standardized Play

UNDER DEVELOPMENT
​

9/28/10 UPDATE: If Civ 5 doesn't shape-up and get the patches it really needs in the near future, I'm going to come back to Civ 4 and continue working on this mod in full force. I have many features and changes within my old Excel file yet to be unveiled, some which further explain the changes made below.

With this mod, I seek to bring a slight new twist to the original game by rebalancing/altering its game mechanics. My design philosophy leans more towards minimalism; I don’t believe in adding tons of different units or giving a player 20 different religions to choose from in order to improve the game. I also favor gameplay and balance a bit more than realism. Though, I try whenever possible to make sure history reinforces the game. And of course, any gameplay changes that the AI cannot adapt to or understand are avoided.

This mod will also include other great mods that I use: Better AI and BUG. All modifications are done exclusively thru XML. Also, for everyone’s convenience, all modifications will be tagged with a “WASP” comment (along with the original code within the comment). Currently, all modifications assume a “Normal” game speed and a “Standard” map size. Though, that will change once everything is balanced under those conditions.

This mod is currently under development and still requires some testing and tinkering before I release it in its entirety. Also, a lot of my notes and spreadsheets are not in a clean, polished state yet. But when they are, I'll post them up for further critiques. I really want to complete this project before Civilization V comes out!

Here are some of the features of WASP:

General

Spoiler TEXT :

Victory:
Conquest, Domination, Space Race, and Time are the only possible victory conditions.
Back to the basic, old-civ style. Be either a warmonger and conquer the world... or a builder and blast off towards Alpha Centauri!
No more cheesy victories popping up. (Apostolic Palace and United Nations adjusted to suit.)

Obsolescence:
No buildings or wonders ever go obsolete!
Everything constructed will be useful throughout your civilization's history.
(Some buildings removed/altered to suit. Example: Stables are removed from game)

Culture:
All cities begin with an initial + 2 culture/turn. 60 culture is needed for first border pop.
(Cultural levels adjusted to suit.) (Creative trait also adjusted to suit.)
This allows you to focus on other things right away instead of investing time and hammers into a cultural building just to get that first border pop (like with the old, insignificant monument).
Takes a regular city 30 turns to "pop" their initial borders. A capital takes 10 turns.
The "30 turns" rule used was obtained by adding 10 (the number of turns of +1 culture once the monument is built) + 20 (avg. number of turns to build a 30 hammer monument in a new city)

Espionage:
Points become much more obtainable early on without using the commerce slider.
Build military/defensive/government flavored buildings to generate espionage. Similar to the way culture functions with entertainment/religious/educational buildings.

City Defense:
When no defensive structures are present, culture only adds a flat 25% defense obtained at level 3 culture.
Building Walls doubles it to 50%, building a Fortress doubles it to 100%, and building bunkers brings it to a final 150% (along with air/nuke defenses).
The advent of gunpowder units does not obsolete city defenses. Though, advanced siege units are more effective against older defenses.

Coastal Cities
All coast/ocean tiles begin with 2 food, 2 commerce. The lighthouse is removed from the game.
Allows coastal/island cities to grow right away off of water tiles if needed. The initial (and usually limited) hammers that these cities have available to them can be spent on more important buildings right away.

Trait Combos:
All leader trait combinations are represented! Three new leaders added to game.

Warlords:
Attaching Great Generals to a unit as a Warlord now simply grants the unit +100% Strength and free unit upgrades.
No more Warlord Medics... go out and kick some butt instead!

Corporations:
Greatly altered; see below for details...

Great People:
"Greatly" altered... now each great person can create a city improvement similar to the old spy and scientist.
For example, the old Scotland Yard (not very generic) seemed quirky as a city improvement by the Great Spy. Now, it is a more unique National Wonder that requires 6 Police Stations (the old Jail). Instead, Great Spies can create a more generic Secret Service to increase espionage production within a city.
Also, Ironworks is made into a more generic city improvement constructed by Great Engineers (similar to Academies). The new production flavored National Wonder is Leonardo's Workshop which requires 6 Workshops built within the city (The Workshop is a new production building that that gives you something to build between Forges and Factories).
Slightly altered free great people rewarded for reaching certain techs first.
see below for details...

Units:
Standardized strengths and abilities within each era group.
One example: Crossbowman removed from game. The Footman will take its place as a raiding unit and act as an upgrade to Swordsmen. Macemen will act exclusively as an upgrade to Axemen.
As a result, China's Cho-Ko-Nu will be removed from the game and be replaced by the Horseman.
More details to come...

Promotions:
Most promotions altered. Many now give a meaningful bonus right from the beginning instead of having to level up towards it. (Great news for Protective)
For example: City Raider is now "Raider" and has 4 levels, each gives a bonus of +25% city attack. City Garrison is now "Defender" and is similar. Drill now has 4 levels that each give +1 first strike and +25% less damage suffered from collateral damage. Combat remains at 5 levels, each giving 10% strength (Combat 6 removed). Medic has 4 levels, each giving +5 health to units within the same tile. No more healing units in adjacent tiles. No more March promotion (not final though).

Resources:
All resources standardized and balanced. No more Clams giving a bonus of 3 food and Fish giving 4 food... rice giving a bonus of 2 food and corn giving 3 food. Now all will give a total bonus of 4 food. (+1 intial, +3 improved)
A resource gives a bonus of either hammers, food, or commerce exclusively. Cow provideds only food; Horses provide only hammers, Ivory provides only commerce, etc.
Commerce resources balanced with food/hammer resources using a 2:1 ratio. Now commerce resources give a total bonus of 8 (+2 initial, +6 improved)
All commerce resources that used to spawn in large "clusters" (like Silk, Fur, etc.) will now only spawn 1 in its area like other types.
Also, Whale will spawn more like Fish and will not be restricted to polar regions.
More details to come...

Improvements:
Some alterations made; more details to come...

Land Tiles:
Adjusted and rebalanced.
For example, Jungle tiles won't be as punishing and will provide some hammers when cut down (though, cutting them will take 2-3 times as long as forests)
Deserts will provide 1 hammer; still not very useful since a citizen can produce 1 hammer anyway but makes desert hills equivalent to plains hills.
More details to come...

Civics:
Slightly adjusted and rebalanced.
All civics now have a standard Medium upkeep.
All civics will hopefully be useful and represented under certain conditions.
For example, Emancipation will no longer cause unhappiness to other civs not using it and force them to acquire/use it, instead it will give a bonus to great people generation along with its double cottage/hamlet/village growth. (since now your emancipated population can also prove their greatness and contribute to society as well)
Another example is that Pacifism now gives +25% building production when your state religion is present in a city (Similar to how Organized Religion used to function) but also gives you double war weariness suffered (instead of +1 gold per military unit). Doesn't penalize you so much for having a standing army to defend yourself against the madmen on your planet, but represents a pacifist nation by generating more unhappiness when you're involved in wars.
More details to come...

Global Warming:
Nuisance; removed from game.

Random Events:
Nuisance; removed from game. (Recommended)
(If desired and enabled, be wary of incompatible events with this mod.)

Golden Ages:
Duration increased to 10 turns instead of 8.

To be continued...

Leader Traits

Spoiler LEADER TRAITS :

Spoiler LEADER TRAITS MATRIX :

Spoiler TEXT :

Aggressive:
This trait has been altered to better represent aggressive play; favoring war over diplomacy. Land units are enhanced with City Raider I (+25% City Attack) along with the new Marauder (triple pillage yields) to promote even more aggression and harassment to neighbors. Cheaper Barracks help to ensure that more cities are training experienced soldiers.

Imperialistic:
This trait keeps its Great General bonus but loses its bonus to Settlers (which I felt could be more fitting elsewhere). It gains the Combat I promotion (+10% Strength) to its land units to represent the supremacy of the empire’s soldiers. They’re also enhanced with the new Authority promotion (-75% chance of city revolt) to represent the empire’s authoritative control over the new territories it holds within its vice-like grip.

Charismatic:
This trait has been slightly altered. It keeps its bonus of requiring 25% less experience for unit promotions to represent the enthusiasm of the motivational leader’s soldiers. This ability is also combined with a 50% discount to unit upgrades (Which goes nicely with higher-leveled units you want to keep around). Both of them are under a promotion which is now called Morale. Along with this is the default +1 happiness per city along with a new discount to the new and improved Monument (which reduces war weariness), a fitting improvement for a nationalistic civilization.

Protective:
Even though this trait looks familiar, it’s much more tenacious. Walls remain at a discount and are much more effective now since they never grow obsolete (They also cost 80 now, which makes the discount more significant). The Castle is removed since the promotions are much more effective now. The same promotions remain but now give better bonuses since all promotions have gone thru an overhaul. City Defender I (+25% City Defense) and Drill I (+1 First Strike and -25% Collateral Damage Suffered) are also not only granted to archer and gunpowder units, but to all land units as well.

Expansive:
When I think of this trait, I see large populations needing to branch out and expand to new territories. Cheap Granaries and a nice +3 Health bonus help support the notion of fast growth and large populations. Cheap Settlers help to quickly expand out and settle in new territories as if a “Manifest Destiny” were instilled in the people. Bonuses to Workers and Harbors are removed.

Industrious:
Cheap Forges remain. Bonuses to Wonders are removed to avoid balance issues when combined with the Philosophical trait. Also, it helps alleviate the urge that you must pursue and build wonders to benefit from this trait (even though it was also nice with National Wonders). Instead, an additional hammer bonus is given to tiles of 3 or more hammers. Also, it seems more fitting to give this trait cheap Workers to represent its driven, hard-working population.

Organized:
This trait now represents a leader who is methodical and masterminding. The discount to civic upkeep remains (also, all civics have a medium upkeep value now) to represent an efficiently ran kingdom, as well as the fitting bonus to Courthouses. Though now, this trait also receives a 50% bonus to espionage. It will be a bit more difficult to infiltrate and spy on this leader’s nation under his watchful eye… which doesn’t only dissuade corruption within, but also gazes upon his neighbors’ activities outside.

Financial:
This trait has been given back its bonus to Bank production. But now, instead of the bonus to commerce on land tiles, this trait receives an extra 50% commerce from its trade routes instead. I feel this better represents a nation who favors trade with others to increase its wealth. You’ll want to make good relationships with trading partners to maximize your commercial gains (Trade route values are calculated a little bit differently… less possible trade routes obtainable). This also lessens the urge to relentlessly cottage spam and gives you the freedom to add other land improvements if desired.

Creative:
This trait keeps its bonus to Theatre production but loses its bonus to Stadiums (Colosseums) and Libraries. Instead of a flat +2 culture per city, it gives a bonus of 50% which helps push back neighboring borders throughout the whole game. It also helps border pop a little bit sooner than other non-creative civs. Also, this trait gains a nice +1 happiness bonus per city as well, since I believe a cultured nation full of luxuries and entertainment should have happy people!

Philosophical:
This trait remains unchanged. Seems fine to me.

Spiritual:
This trait also remains unchanged. Note: The bonus to Temple production can apply to multiple temples within one city. It makes this production bonus somewhat similar to having a bonus to a few different buildings.

New Leaders

Spoiler NEW LEADERS :

Crazy Horse of the Sioux (Aggressive + Protective)

Johan de Witt of the Netherlands (Financial + Philosophical)

Philip II of Spain (Imperialistic + Expansive)

Civilizations

Spoiler TEXT :

Native Americans:
Renamed to Sioux.
Totem Pole will remain as their unique building even though it relates more to Northwestern tribes. Though, tribes near the great plains that settled in an area were said to have had some form of totem poles.
(possible new unique building: Teepee; replace the Barracks; same function as the old Totem Pole)

To be continued...

Buildings

Spoiler BUILDINGS :

Spoiler TEXT :

To be continued...

Great People

Spoiler GREAT PEOPLE :

Spoiler TEXT :

Balance:
Basically, I gave each yield a rough value and adjusted the great people to suit.
A settled great person is equal to 3 times a specialist citizen.
1 = 2 = 4 = 4 = 8 = 8

Abilities:
All great people can either start a golden age, bulb a tech, settle in a city, or construct a special city improvement.
Other abilities are removed.
In addition, Prophets can create a Holy Shrine and Merchants can create a Corporation Headquarters.

To be continued...

Corporations

Spoiler NEW CORPORATION LOGOS :

Spoiler TEXT :

General: Corporations have been greatly altered.
All corporations produce extra gold per resource - nothing else. Somewhat like spreading religions, it's mostly about obtaining wealth.
There are no competing corporations; all use a set of 3 unique resources.
No corporations use strategic war resources that are difficult to obtain thru trade like oil, uranium, iron, horses, etc.
All corporations are available earlier (and at the same time) with the discovery of Corporations (duh!)
All corporations are founded by a Great Merchant only.
No more fees to spread a branch to a city. (possibly)

Removed from game:
Standard Ethanol Co.
Creative Constructions Inc.
Aluminum Inc.
Mining Inc.

Existing Corporations:
Cereal Mills Co. (wheat, rice, corn)
Civilized Jewelers Inc. (gems, gold, silver)
Sid’s Sushi Co. (clam, crab, fish)… rice removed

New Corporations:
Soren’s Sangria Co. (banana, wine, sugar)
Glamorous Garments Inc. (silk, fur, sheep)
Savory Steaks Inc. (cow, deer, pig)
Surreal Sculptors Inc. (ivory, stone, marble)

More To Come...
Units
Wonders
Civics
Technology
Promotions
Terrain
Improvements
Resources
Cultural Levels
Bombard/Defense System
Trade Route Mechanics
Graphics

 

[Jaroth]

Updates

APR 14: Added new icons for WASP corporations.

APR 11: Released 3 new leaderheads early. They still need tweaking though. Civliopedia text needs to be refined.

APR 05: WASP mod announced.

 

[Jaroth]

Currently Under Development

Adjusting Leaderhead infos; especially for the new leaders.

Introducing the flavor "Espionage" to Leaderhead flavors and Technology flavors.

Adjusting flavors of new/existing buildings if needed.

 

[Jaroth]

[reserved for future use once again]

 

[Jaroth]

[reserved for future use one more time]

 

[SwordOfJustice]

Looks fantastic. Suits my taste in Civ mods: minimalist and carefully thought out.

Cheers,
Sword

 

[Highwayhoss]

Looks very promising, definitely worth keeping an eye on.

 

[topsecret]

Cool

 

[Highwayhoss]

So when will we actually see this mod?

 

[Jaroth]

Thanks guys!

Highwayhoss:
Sorry, right now my schedule is a little crazy. But after May 15th I'll be able to kick this project back into overdrive and get things done (Ugh... architecture school ). I really enjoy developing this mod and I'm glad others have expressed interest in it too!

Lately, I've been working on it whenever I get a chance to. So I'll give you an update of what I'm currently doing.

Right now, I'm working on the LeaderHeadInfos file. The new leader models are up and running beautifully in the game (along with the new button graphics) but I don't want to just copy other leaders' AI's for them (not totally anyway).

Philip II is using Isabella's attributes currently, though I plan on making him a little more aggressive and a little less of a religious fanatic as compared to Isabella. His flavors will be Military 5 Religion 2.

Johan de Witt is using Willem van Oranje's attributes currently, though I plan on making him more of a "tech'ing" leader. His flavors will be Gold 5 and Science 2.

Crazy Horse is using Tokugawa's attributes currently, though he will not be as much of a isolationist as Toku. Crazy Horse will be distrustful of outsiders and will not welcome them so easily at first, but will be loyal to friends who prove themselves. He also won't be afraid to war. I think his flavor will be Military 10, so he favors building both offensive buildings like the Barracks and defensive structures like the Wall (both of which he gets production bonuses for with his traits).

I've created a pretty vast spreadsheet of all the unique leaderhead data so I can easily compare and view things thru sorting/hiding columns. I've found some things within the existing leaderheads that I feel need adjusting too; especially the ones with new leader trait combos.

I'm going to tone down Tokugawa a bit so he "plays nice" a little more and can keep up in the tech race and be competative. On the other side of the spectrum, Mansa is gonna chill out a little more with the crazy tech trading, so that games with him included won't have tech's dispersed as quickly among everybody.

Another example is that Ghandi will toughen up a little more and produce more units to defend himself. He'll maintain his calm demeanor but won't get steamrolled so easily by others. His iBuildUnitProb of 15 used to be alone at the bottom. Now it'll be a healthy 25.

The new standard will have 4 tiers of values for iBuildUnitProb: 25, 30, 35, 40. Ghandi, Hatty, Elizabeth, etc will be among the lowest tier at 25. Genghis, Ragnar, Shaka, etc will be among the highest tier at 40.

Others will be adjusted too. Like Qin, who likes to start "limited" wars and harrass, yet his iBuildUnitProb sucks at only 20. Or Brennus and Boudica who are only at 30... what kind of horde is that?

Another example is Shaka. Strangely, he has a rather high limited war value (remember, lower is better) for such a warmonger. The other big shots like Ragnar, Genghis, and Monty have total/limited war values of 50/40 respectively. Yet Shaka's is 50/160. That's a shame since his UU, the Impi, is so good at harrassing and pillaging! That'll change, and Shaka will be 50/40 as well; watch out!

I also corrected the alphabetial order of the leader list and put Ragnar in front of Ramesses.

I also want to introduce the flavor "Espionage" into some leader flavors (mainly the Organized ones), as seen in the building info files. That means I'll also be adding an Espionage flavor to technologies, which will also allow Great Spies to "bulb" techs. Stalin will be one of the leaders to use this new flavor and will probably be Production 5 Espionage 2.

I added all the flavor values to my technology spreadsheet to tinker with and to see where to add espionage in. I have to be careful though, and really see how the code will affect the lightbulbing order of the Great Spies thru its flavor values and placement within the file.

I'll continue to post updates as I go along and very much welcome feedback/suggestions!!

I'll also post up the new leaders for use as soon as I adjust their CIV4LeaderheadInfos.

 

[Jaroth]

Here is an early release of the 3 new leaders for anybody to use/edit however they like!

Download

 

[katipunero]

awaiting with interest