[WARLORDS MOD + SCENARIO] Legends of Ancient Arabia

[AbsintheRed]

You know, I think there’s a certain charm in having a Warlords mod out there. We have a lot of BTS mods (TAM; Dune Wars; Final Frontier Plus; Caveman2Cosmos; MongoosMod; etc. etc. etc.) but not that many Warlords mods — so it’s a nice change to have one.

If anyone feels differently, the game (except for the music files, which were lost) is available for download and can be modified by anyone, to be a BTS, “Vanilla” Civ4 — or even a Civ5 or Civ6 mod. Maybe someone will come forward and start the hard work of making a BTS port of this mod; anything is possible on the Internet.

Interesting that you mention those mods, I actually would have listed entirely different ones (apart from Dune Wars):
Realism Invictus, all RFC mods (in particular Dawn of Civillization, Sword of Islam, and RFC Europe of course ), History Rewritten, Legends of Revolution, Sengoku, some bigger Fall From Heaven mods. And of course K-Mod, but that's already included in some of the listed ones.
That's the biggest achievement of Civ IV modding, the huge number of superb quality mods, with most of them being very unique in one or more aspects.

On the topic of a BtS port:
The problem with this mod being Warlords only is that noone really plays with the first expansion anymore.
I think the overwhelming majority of players who stick to Civ IV is playing with BtS and the mods available there.
Not to mention the various problems from a technical point of view. I'm sure there are many smaller things as well, apart from things already listed in the thread: the worse AI in general, the messed up merchant functions, and most importantly the unbearable late-game turn types.
So I'm pretty sure LoAA would greatly benefit from the port. Probably a couple new players would pop up too.

 

[vktj]

Let me know when you find a volunteer to make a BTS port of Legenda of Ancient Arabia (also, could we please have this volunteer find some music for it while working on the port; we lost the old music). I am looking forward to seeing this done — asking someone to do a lot of work when we don’t pay them is not always successful — and I think it will make for an interesting take on this mod. This volunteer should post their progress here; I suggest that they call their mod LOAA-BTS.

Welcome to the world of open source economics: Since no one is getting paid to do the work, there is no motivation for anyone to do the work. Another rule of open source economics: You are not a customer of the product because you never paid for the product. This second rule also has a corollary: If you’re not paying for a product, you are the product. There’s a reason Google searches tend to point you to “go here to buy a product” pages — that’s how Google owns so much space in Mountain View and is able to pay thousands of programmers six figure salaries.

Back to LOAA, I am sure a BTS port would be in many ways an improvement, but it’s not interesting enough of an improvement for me to do. To be honest (TBH), I kind of enjoy playing a mod knowing I could be the only person in the world who plays it. Having more players of this mod isn’t something that matters to me (if it did, I wouldn’t port it to BTS; I would port it to Civilization VI)

 

[AbsintheRed]

Welcome to the world of open source economics

Welcome?
I'm here for quite a while, deeply involved.

Since no one is getting paid to do the work, there is no motivation for anyone to do the work.

So I also absolutely disagree with this. So much work had already been done on Civ IV I can't even measure it. Millions of work hours, definitely.
All the wonderful art, all the superb mods were/are done for free, driven by pure commitment to this wonderful game.
And many people are still involved in modding - some do it as a hobby, some because of attachment to some mods or Civ IV itself.
The point is, it's clear that there is still a great deal of motivation here, even after 10 years.

Another rule of open source economics: You are not a customer of the product because you never paid for the product. This second rule also has a corollary: If you’re not paying for a product, you are the product.

While the first part is obviously true, the second part is obviously not.
I have no idea how could your corollary be applied here, in case of modder-player relations.

 

[AbsintheRed]

Ohh and about LoAA:
Since it's an XML-only mod, it's actually only a couple hours of work to port it into BtS.
But if you say there is absolutely no demand for it then there is no point thinking about it, so I guess I agree.

 

[vktj]

So I also absolutely disagree with this. So much work had already been done on Civ IV I can't even measure it. Millions of work hours, definitely.

You’re right of course...I should have used the word “tedium”. I don’t find the work I have done on map scripts nor the work I did to get LOAA to work with map scripts (as well as fixing a few gameplay bugs; e.g. the windmill bug and the ongoing issue with Arabian Merchants being a game breaker) “work” .... I consider it “fun.” But I can see why someone else would call it “work.”

Here is what I meant to say: Since there is no money exchanging hands, there is little motivating someone to make a BTS port of LOAA. To wit, people have been asking for a BTS port of LOAA since 2007, yet, here we are in 2017 and no one has done that work, or should I say “tedious task.”

Ohh and about LoAA:
Since it's an XML-only mod, it's actually only a couple hours of work to port it into BtS.
But if you say there is absolutely no demand for it then there is no point thinking about it, so I guess I agree.

For anyone and everyone reading this thread, you have my blessing, and I am sure Gordon Farrell’s blessing, to make a Beyond the Sword (BTS) port of LOAA. If it really only takes a few hours to do, it shouldn’t be too hard to find someone to do it; I would love to see it done. I just don’t consider that project “fun” and am unwilling to expend the effort to make it so at this point in my life.

 

[vktj]

My play testing indicates that the 60gp Arabian Merchants give just enough gold to stop a midgame economic crush after the first conquest wave at noble difficulty and marathon speed. With a combination of a cottage economy, specialist economy (which needs special buildings), and the Arabian Merchants, I can do an early midgame conquest of about half the Arabian Caulixtla map and not go bankrupt doing so.

 

[vktj]

I have confirmed that it’s possible to win this patched version of Legends of Ancient Arabia at “Noble” difficulty; the scoring system is broken (it incorrectly says you are a “Dan Quayle” leader), but I was able to win a Marathon speed game at Noble difficulty by using the 60gp each Arabian Merchants to make the economic issues manageable until I had the technology in place to build wealth (playing the Hijazi on the Arabian Caulixtla map included with the mod). Reports of players winning at Prince or higher difficulties would be appreciated; I am curious what the highest winnable difficulty level is.

Attached is an updated version of the mod with this patch. Use 7zip at http://7-zip.org to unzip this file; install instructions are included. For reference, here is the older 2013 version of the game (where the only difference is how Arabian Merchants are handled; in the older version, the merchants give you 600 gold, but the player is only allowed three for the entire game): https://forums.civfanatics.com/thre...of-ancient-arabia.249649/page-5#post-12124577

I think this makes for a good game. Now, if someone else would make a BTS port or add some Arabian music to this mod, I am sure it would improve it, but this version is fun for me to play, and hopefully other people to play, from time to time.

 

[vktj]

In the 2018 update, I have fixed a bug where huge maps would have more than nine players. Since Legends of Ancient Arabia only has nine playable tribes, this resulted in tribes being duplicated. This update now has a CIV4WorldInfo.xml file which limits the player count on huge maps.

@AbsintheRed I am hoping you or someone else will make a Beyond the Sword port for this game.

 

[Rathvilly]

This is a real gem - played original today - excellent work went into this ...

 

[vktj]

Here is a 2018 update for my extra large map of the ArabiaCaulixtla map included with my revision to this mod. Changes from the 2014 map:

• Seven resources were not marked in the older map: 2xCamels, 1xPig, 1xIron, 1xCopper, 1xWheat, and 1xAmber
• The tribal huts are now marked with rainbow colored stars
• The image now includes a minimap with a list of tribes as well as their starting locations marked
• The background is now an attractive texture, instead of just being flat blue
  
• The image is now a 3:2 image, suitable for printing at print shops which make posters

This image is public domain, in so much as it is possible to make a screenshot (actually, a montage of over 100 screenshots) of a commercial video game public domain.

 

[vktj]

For 2019, I have created a medium-to-high resolution version of the Arabia Caulixtla map included with my version of Legends of Ancient Arabia. This version does not have quite as much resolution as the 2018 map, and it does not show the resources, but it does shows the entire map, and is a more seamless map.

 

[vktj]

I have also, for 2019, have created a new map for Legends of Ancient Arabia: Amira. The map is available in three sizes (Medium for a normal speed game, Large for an Epic game, and Huge for a marathon game) and is attached. (Edit: Rename maps)

 

[oioi23]

Wow just found this It looks great. But is there anyway to play this with just BtS, I don’t have warlords on its own
Hmm, actually what would be needed to be done to port it over because I would be happy to try it

 

[Louis the XIV]

This looks really interesting and I would download except that the download link isn't working!
Please can someone send me this mod or fix the download link!

 

[vktj]

I have a 7-zip compressed fully playable version of Legends of Ancient Arabia which can be downloaded: Download Legends of Ancient Arabia It has everything the original had except for the music, and it fixes a number of bugs in the original (the Arabian Merchants are no longer game-breaking powerful, for starters, the mod now supports random maps and has its own make-desert-map map scripts, and other bugs like the windmill bug the original had have been fixed).

 

[Louis the XIV]

Thanks

 

[vktj]

2021 update: No changes (Actually, I’ve made a lot of changes, see the next post), except to say I currently do not recommend playing the mod at “Quick” speed.

The problem is that the “Quick” speed results in really long drawn out wars which actually slow down the game. The advantage of the higher tech units is that they are a lot cheaper but only slightly stronger than the opening/mid game units. At the “quick” speed, the expensive opening/mid game units can be built almost as quickly as the endgame cheap more powerful units, so it becomes a long war of attrition.

At slower speeds (epic/marathon, haven’t tested “normal” speed), the end game units get built about two or three times quickly as the opening/midgame units, so one can win by sheer numbers of units, but that advantage is a lot less pronounced at the quick game speed.

Edit After another round, I think the ArabianCaulixtla scenario works best at “Epic” speed.

The game is enjoyable at marathon, but games last longer (about 12-16 hours playing time); at “Epic” speed, the game can be won after about eight hours of playing time. The pace is nice with a good opening expansion (where research is funded by Arabian merchants), followed by a series of wars in the midgame with my superior units as I become a war monger to get more territory. The wars are not dragged out; they have a decisive result within a reasonable period of time. The game can either end with war mongering until everyone else submits or is removed from the map, but after getting just under half the mainland, I prefer a more quiet end game where I explore and colonize the far off islands and build up my spaceship (“merchant empire”). The pacing is a little slower here; the endgame might work better if the space ship parts (“merchant empire” trade routes) were cheaper.

Edit 2 Actually, after playing games without the spaceship (“merchant empire”), I think the LOAA spaceship is, if anything, a little too cheap. The spaceship is cheap enough that one can usually win making the spaceship before another player is able to win via conquest or domination. The spaceship is actually cheap enough to encourage one to go for a peaceful endgame instead of war mongering non-stop, and playing without the spaceship victory results in a very different game.

Regardless, an epic speed game on the ArabianCaulixtla map is an enjoyable, if long (8+ hours, across multiple sessions) game.

Edit 3 Another bug: One can train the Shariff Faris without needing iron, even though the unit uses steel swords.

Edit 4 Attaching two versions of the “Arabia Caulixtla” map I usually play. The first file is the original 2012 version of the map. In Rev2, I have given the Lakhmas (Spiritual + Charismatic) a better start (swapped with the Omanis), and have fixed an issue where the Hadhramawt tribe didn’t have a river near their start.

This file is 7-zip compressed; go to https://7-zip.org to get a decompressor; https://www.7-zip.org/download.html has decompressors for Linux and Max OS X. Once Decompressed, place these files in one’s “PublicMaps” directory.

 

[vktj]

OK, I have made a 2021 update to Legends of Ancient Arabia. It’s a pretty big change:

• Four static maps added: Amira (in three sizes, so three maps), and a revision to the Arabian Caulixtla map (we keep the original too) which makes the Lakhmids easier to play (and makes sure that King Yadail has a river to build farms with).
  
• Map script overhaul: We now only include one map script with Ancient Arabia, optimized to make Arabian games, and put the other map scripts in a separate archive as bonus files.
• Clean up: The “copy of” files the original LOAA had have been removed.
• Bug fix: Since we can just build Arabian Merchants (Great Merchants), the Merchant specialist no longer contributes to an Arabian Merchant being made. Instead, it slightly contributes to making an ancient artisan, and contributes more money (to better help during the midgame economic crush)
• The original LOAA is too heavily weighted towards making Great Prophets (“Ancient Visionary”), so some game opening wonders now make other types of Great people: Stonehenge/Sacred Dolmen now generates Great engineers, Oracle/Soothsayer now generates Great scientists, and Angkor Wat/Rock Monument generates Great artists.
• I have made Arabian Merchants generate twice as much money (i.e. 20% instead of 10% of the money they make in the original LOAA) as they did in the 2017-2018 nerf of this unit. While it is overpowered in the original LOAA, have it be more powerful than before to better help during the midgame economic crush.

The point of these changes is to give the player better Great people, and to make managing the economy in the early midgame somewhat easier, and to make it easier to use a map script which is very likely to generate a playable single player game.

To install, obtain the 7-zip program at 7-zip.org, then place the “Ancient Arabia” directory in the folder where Warlords (not Beyond The Sword) mods are located.

Spoiler Play Testing Report :

Play Testing Report

I tested playing the Lakhmids in the rev2 Arabian Caulixtla map, at epic speed in a game without the spaceship/merchant empire. In the fairly early midgame, the economy feels easier to control. Between the Arabian merchants generating more income and the merchant specialists also generating more money, it’s noticeably easier to keep income up. Also: The Great people are more useful, and indirectly keep the economy more under control. I have not hit the point in the early midgame where I’m winning the wars but my economy is falling apart without any way to stop bleeding money the way I have at Noble difficulty with earlier versions of LOAA.

I was able to make it through a very long midgame war without my economy falling apart. While there were times when I was bleeding money, even with research paused, once I annihilated the nation/tribe which started a war then refused peace with me, it was a couple turns after he was off the map that I made peace with his former vassal, then without war wariness holding me back, I could stop bleeding money by having a bunch of merchant specialists in my cities.

In the later midgame, four different nations declared war against me because I was getting too powerful. I was able to beat all of them until they by and large declared peace; to keep things economically viable during this extended war and its war weariness, I ended up sacking all of the cities I conquered to keep expenses under control. With each nation declaring peace, my war weariness went down.

In the endgame, the one remaining enemy became a vassal and their master declared war on me, but war weariness was low enough at this point I could take over cities again. Finally, peace, once I found and conquered that master’s final island, and an endgame where I just get enough land to win at domination.

I have put so many warlords in my capital, new units made there have +4 strength and can use enemy roads. No one dares declaring war against me any more.

I used my galleons/dhows to colonize distant islands, which gave me more land to help make a domination victory. One of my towns next to the desert had a cultural expansion, clinching the domination victory.

Time spent: 13 hours, 10 minutes.

Score: Dan Quayle (this is a bug in LOAA: Its scoring system gives us an artificially low score)

 

[vktj]

I have just finished a marathon game with the ArabianCaulixtlaRev2 map, playing the Lakhmid empire. I disabled the spaceship/merchant empire victory and won with domination. ArabianCaulixtla is really a little too small for a marathon game; there isn’t enough land to explore and cultivate while getting enough city growth and technology before it’s possible to win the game, and the slow city growth makes the endgame very long, when all of the hostile tribes have been eliminated, and it’s a matter of dropping settlers and slowly waiting for enough culture before getting 60% of all land.

It took 16 hours and 30 minutes of playing time and over a month of real time to finish the game.

Also, while I’ve noted this in the very quiet Civ4 map scripts forum, I’ve created another Perfect World variant map script for Arabian games. Instead of tweaking the generator engine, I’ve kept it mostly as is (except replacing the random number generator engine and fixing some bugs in Perfect World: Bonus resource bugs, player placement issues, bugs with mountains at the coast, etc.). To make maps suitable for Arabian games, I am running a script on my Raspberry Pi [1] to generate a large number of fixed seed maps. About 1 map in 300 or 400 has an continent suitable for an Arabian adventure (no snow, little tundra, 40% or more desert, not too close to the poles); I have made a list about nearly 100 of these maps and put them in the script. It can use a larger continent, a smaller continent, any Arabian adventure, any possible Perfect World map (most not suitable for Arabian games), or a single fixed seed map (medium sized) for debugging or for people who want to play the same homefield map multiple times.

Attached.

[1] Yes, Python2 on a 64-bit ARM processor is 100% compatible with Civ4’s older Python2 running on an x86 processor in 32-bit/386 mode. The reason Python3 happened is because the Python developers were determined to keep as much as possible 100% compatibility for all Python2 scripts with each new Python2 release.

 

[vktj]

Another bugfix. When Gordon Farrell made this mod, he modified the Biology tech (“Underground Canals”) to not give farms a +1 crop yield, while still allowing one to build an unirrigated farm. The problem is that an unirrigated farm without a bonus crop yield from biology is useless: Without irrigation, it doesn’t have the +1 food bonus, and without a tech food yield bonus, all the farm does is change how the square looks without affecting gameplay.

I do not think this was Gordon’s intention. I think, based on the fact Underground Canals allows farms without irrigation and also without the biology tech’s food bonus, his intention was to have unirrigated farms always give you a food bonus.

That in mind, I’ve updated the CIV4ImprovementInfos.xml file to do just that. TECH_HUNTING is a tech all of the Arabian tribes start with, so we always have it; we have TECH_HUNTING always give farms a +1 food bonus, while having no bonus from irrigation (perhaps we can make irrigation give us a commerce/money bonus, but I think I’ve already solved the midgame economic crush bug by making merchants give 60% more gold than before, and not completely gimping the Arabian Merchant mechanic)

Here is the patch:

--- CIV4ImprovementInfos.xml.orig       2021-12-06 04:27:48.830104000 -0800
+++ CIV4ImprovementInfos.xml    2021-12-06 05:17:58.608548600 -0800
@@ -176,7 +176,7 @@
                                <iYield>0</iYield>
                        </PrereqNatureYields>
                        <IrrigatedYieldChange>
-                               <iYield>1</iYield>
+                               <iYield>0</iYield>
                                <iYield>0</iYield>
                                <iYield>0</iYield>
                        </IrrigatedYieldChange>
@@ -228,7 +228,15 @@
                        <ImprovementUpgrade/>
                        <TechYieldChanges>
                                <TechYieldChange>
-                                       <PrereqTech>TECH_ECOLOGY</PrereqTech>
+                                       <PrereqTech>TECH_HUNTING</PrereqTech>
+                                       <TechYields>
+                                               <iYield>1</iYield>
+                                               <iYield>0</iYield>
+                                               <iYield>0</iYield>
+                                       </TechYields>
+                               </TechYieldChange>
+                               <TechYieldChange>
+                                       <PrereqTech>TECH_DEMOCRACY</PrereqTech>
                                        <TechYields>
                                                <iYield>1</iYield>
                                                <iYield>0</iYield>

If one looks at the above code, it’s a pretty small change. TECH_HUNTING is the tech all the Arabian tribes get; TECH_DEMOCRACY (Called “Kosmopolites” in the game) is the tech all of the non-Arabian NPCs in the Ancient Arabia scenario get.

Another thing: the improvement is given to the farm when the farm is built, so saved games will be broken. Just be sure to start a new game before applying this patch.

I’ll make this part of the 2022 release, but I need to test it first. Basic testing shows it does what it’s supposed to, but hopefully the AI will continue to build farms. So far, I’m not seeing the AI build farms — this might result in needing to play one difficulty level higher (e.g. if one plays at Noble, one may need to play at Prince)

Edit: It looks like the AI still builds farms, but not as vigorously as before. I will trade the AI playing possibly more poorly for a bug previously in the game being fixed (“Underground canals” doing nothing useful, despite being a quite expensive tech).

Edit 2: The AI almost never builds farms. This means the 2022 version of LOAA will add a note, directions for trading working underground canals with an AI that builds farms (I’ll include both versions of the file), and suggest playing on a higher difficulty (considering how long a noble victory is, I don’t think the problem with this mod is that it’s too easy to beat the AI).