What are some of the most fun mods to use?

Hey guys, I'm a long time lurker of the site who finally joined so I could vent about the most recent Civ release. Anyways, I've decided to go back to playing BTS for now. I've played it for quite a while, but I've never used any mods. I was wondering if some of you guys could recommend me some of your favorite mods, and maybe tell me a little bit about them. There are so many mods out there that I don't even know where to begin. Thanks.

 

The only mods that I have used are BUG and Blue Marble. Blue Marble changes the terrain to look more "realistic". Although it is very popular, I don't like it and removed it from my game. BUG (BTS Unmodified Gameplay) adds enormously to the interface. All the information that you have to go searching for with the normal interface is displayed for you. For example, the city that will generate the next Great Person and how many turns until then is displayed in a bar at the top, just like research. There are also many additions to the unit displays. (I only use a couple, using too many of them makes selecting a unit more difficult because it shrinks the "hot spot".) The various screens are augmented. You can have all kinds of info displayed on the domestic advisor screen and you configure it as you like it. There are some things that I like better in vanilla than in BTS but with BUG installed, I only play BTS. Definitely install BUG!

 

If you like history and world maps, definitely give RFC (Rhye's and Fall of Civilization) a try. It has its own subforum as well with guides to playing the various Civs (some of the guides are outdated, however). There is a learning curve because, although similar to BTS, there are several changes that can give problems if you don't know about them. I highly recommend it, however.

 

I second s.bernbaum's suggestion, BUG is great and it doesn't change the game but makes it easier and faster to get information in game.

If you're feeling adventurous you could give Fall From Heaven 2 a try. It is a bit complicated at first but it's a real treat once you get how it works. Gameplay wise it's fantastic and it feels like playing a different game (fantasy setting, magic and all that) while retaining the elements that make Civ 4 what it is.

 

Could someone post a link to this BUG mod? I just did about 1/2 hour of searching and can not find it.

 

I really liked RoM 2, it's got great interface, better AI, revolution option, many new tecs, and units, and a transhuman era. There are many options you can toggle on or off, like ranged archer attacks for one. You should try it if you haven't already.

 

FFH2 is one of the best mods for anything, ever, and is completely worth playing. It could easily be a standalone game and perhaps better than regular civ4 (though they are just different in setting an everything, of course; at any rate it's a perfect extension of the 4X concept)

 

BUG and Blue Marble for standard gameplay

As mentioned, Rhys and Fall of Civilization is a good change of pace. The interesting thing about RFC is that the game has unique victory conditions for each civ that function as a puzzle of sort. Some of them are quite challenging and may require different strategies than usual.

Fall from Heaven 2 I played non-stop years ago. Great fun in a fantasy setting. The mod includes quite a few scenarios that link up to form an overall story in that world. The "Fairy Tale" mod is a newer fantay mod that is pretty good.

Rise and Mankind, Legends of the Revolution and Quot Capita are 3 very large and somewhat similar in scope mods that expand on the regular gameplay significantly in almost every aspect. I've played all three and they have a lot of content - new civs, graphics, tech trees, units, etc. Note however that some of these large scale mods can be rather memory intensive and can crash later in the game - MAF errors. Play no higher than standard maps.


Mods Forum

Bug Forum

 

Ah. I've been looking very closely at the RoM mod. Looks fantastic and exactly what I enjoy; super-complex, many more options, expended techs, civics, units, buildings, wonders, just a very juicy idea.

But you say I can't play on huge maps at marathon speed? Too bad. I do not like the smaller maps and quicker speeds at all. What is an MAF error?

 

Thanks a lot for the suggestions. I'll try some of them out when I get out of work tomorrow.

 

MAF error is Memory Allocation Failure error. It usually means there is too much demand on memory or that memory is not being handled properly. There is an error in the memory handling routine in CIV that is buried deep and has never been fixed. It will generate this error in large late games, especially if your memory is borderline in size to run CIV. If you get the error, you can reload the last save and usually play for quite a while before it happens again, which it probably will. I have Autosave set to save on every turn for this reason.

 

Ok, thanks for the info. My current comp is a late-model compaq presario w/2.3 GHz, 2.00 GB RAM, and 64 bit operating system. Do you (or anyone who is qualified to assess it) think that the RoM mod would create difficulties while running huge maps at marathon speed?

 

FFH2 is excellent and a perfect way to reinvent this game. As stated, it could well be a standalone game and the original developer (Kael) was just recently hired to Stardock to salvage their Elemental: War of Magic that sucked on release. If anyone can fix that, it's Kael. Anyhow, FFH2 and some of the modmods to it are just simply awesome.

As far as regular civ goes, I play with BUG and couldn't even think of going without. It has the interface the game should have and is just so informative and helpful that once you try it, you can't go without.

 

Great thread, I was just considering posting the same thing. I am a long time Civ player that was excited for V. Since that looks to be a debacle, I started looking here. I have ordered BTS and it will arrive this Friday. Can't believe I was never aware of all of this before.

Thanks to all the respondents for the good information.

 

Peregrine - Honestly, I don't think it matters. I have 4GB ram and I still get errors. 2GB is sufficient and my understanding is that CIV doesn't really utilize more RAM unless told to do so. One of the mods threads - I think Quot Capita - has a link to a work around for the MAF error that involves make some change to the executable. It's a little over my head though so I never tried it.

So anyway, you will still receive MAF errors at some point in the game. It doesn't matter how advance your rig is. I eventually get them on standard size games. It really boils down to how patient you are. I recommend just trying out one of the big mods and see if you can deal with reloading now and then.

 

Legends of the Revolution is what I like best.

 

I like Huge maps at Marathon speed too but that is something that can get pretty hairy with the bigger mods. What Lymond says is correct, the MAFs are a pain so enabling autosave at every turn is an option other than that playing anything larger than Large maps may cause problems in the end game (depending on your computer). I have a fairly decent computer but I had to switch to large maps to avoid such issues (and still deal with potential crashes when nearing the end of particularly long games).

That's why big mods may be a problem. Quot Capita is a very good mod but it will cause such problems on larger maps.

There are other mods that are worth looking at like the PIG mod (Probably Improved Gameplay) which features gameplay changes but isn't huge resource wise, there is also an Epic/Marathon version of the RFC (pretty good if you like a slower game).

Rise From Erebus is a mod mod for Fall From Heaven 2 but it's a bit greedy so larger maps may cause the same problems as bigger mods (like Quot Capita). Still it's definitely worth playing if you like Fall From Heaven.

If you're looking for something different (more historic), there is The Sword of Islam mod (more of a scenario but it's quite fun) and The History of Three Kingdoms mod which introduces some interesting changes in game play.

 

Backing the BUG mod.

 

Welcome to the forums!

You'll have a lot of fun with it. I think it's the best game around. Have a look at the scenarios as well when it arrives.

 

History in the Making.

Doesn't overload the game with too much new stuff. I really like how resources are not visible until you discover the tech. I feel more like I am exploring in that manner.

I've seen where the AI doesn't know how to use many of the additions to the mod Rise of Mankind and the human player gets an advantage as a result, plus if I have to scroll down to see all the effects of a given Civic...it is just too much.