What mod is good

[BobeBrown]

Hello, I started playing civilization again after couple years since CivIII.

I very bored with the game again and need more things to spice it up! I want something that adds more features to game, I dont want to play a mod that adds a lots of new units that are not really needed. I dont want mod that lags and very slow to play. Also dont want a mod that changes too much that its totally different game!

Forgive this, maybe the 100th thread about mods but its really hard to know what is what in the download center. There is no section that gives reviews about mods and says which ones are good and not.

Can anyone make suggestions of what mods are good and which to avoid maybe?

 

[Tamed]

I want to know this, too. A mod that is simple to install, can be used in multiplayer, and doesn't ruin the game. Just adds to it. Something like NextWar, but even more. (Not saying future only, just stuff like that.)

 

[LegionSteve]

Whatever else you do, you must definitely get the BUG mod. This doesn't change gameplay at all, it just has loads and loads of interface improvements. It's so good, I just can't play the game without it now.

Better AI is another good one, and does exactly what it says. Many fixes that were first done in Better AI have since made their way into the official patches, so that shows how good they are. I do find that the improved AI slows the game down a little though, but I think it's worth it, a more dangerous AI makes the game more fun.

I personally love the Quot Capita mod, which includes both of the above, but also includes loads of extra content, so may not be what you are looking for.


Tamed, if you want something like next war only more, definitely check out Quot Capita. You can find it in the Modpacks section. It comes with an installer and adds extra stuff throughout the game, but particularly in the future era. I don't know about multiplayer, never tried it. Some poeple have reported problems with multiplayer but some people say it works just fine, so you would just have to try it and see.

 

[Tamed]

So, Quot Capita and Fall From Heaven.. any other epic game addons? I don't mean to hijack the thread, merely trying to help the OP find mods along with myself. =D

 

[phungus420]

Mod in my sig sounds like what you are looking for.

 

[PieceOfMind]

PIG Mod is a very light mod. It could be described as a balance mod. Basically a few tweaks here and there so the game doesn't feel totally different (like most modpacks end up doing). It's still a work in progress though and I've got a lot of things on the drawing board for when I get around to it.

 

[phungus420]

...can be used in multiplayer

PieceOfMind's PIG mod will be stable in MP. Also so will FFH2, which is a great mod.

Unfortunately most of what I consider the "good" mods that aren't complete overhauls of the game (FFH2 is basically it's own game, same with Planetfall, both good mods, but they are entirely different then Civ4), or mostly BtS unaltered (PIG mod, and BUG are basically BtS with no changes except for some polishing) are based on the RevolutionDCM core, as such they are unstable in multiplayer. The next build of RevDCM has MP as it's main focus, but that is likely a month or two away at this point. I can't think of any high quality mods that expand gameplay without totally remaking the game, that are stable in MP, because all the mods that have such a focus use a RevDCM core.

 

[SirBackflip]

i have to agree that the BUG mods really tidy up the gameplay, i cant play without it anymore. it doesn't change the game, but as has been said, polishes and very VERY informative, pops up many messages about things newert players may well miss. (Y)

 

[kochman]

Hello, I started playing civilization again after couple years since CivIII.

I very bored with the game again and need more things to spice it up! I want something that adds more features to game, I dont want to play a mod that adds a lots of new units that are not really needed. I dont want mod that lags and very slow to play. Also dont want a mod that changes too much that its totally different game!

Forgive this, maybe the 100th thread about mods but its really hard to know what is what in the download center. There is no section that gives reviews about mods and says which ones are good and not.

Can anyone make suggestions of what mods are good and which to avoid maybe?

Good = Rhye's and Fall of Civilization (though it tends to bog down on average computers around 1700AD+ ...)

 

[BobeBrown]

I used Revolution mod and it was very slow! My friend suggested it as have you guys, but it take long time to play. I see some suggest that do not use Revolutiondxm and i look at those links right away! But what the reason that it is slow? Can i help speed it up someway on my computer?

I found Blue marble yesterday and i think that is excellent! But i really look for mod that give me more. Is there even any that speed game up, Like all the waiting is speeded up?

PS. Are there any modifications that add to the nuclear world of civilization?

 

[Gurgeh]

I too am finding the Revolutions mod really slow. To be fair I have chosen 50 players, but my PCs got 3Gigs RAM and I turned of PLE. Apart from this speed issue I think I like this mod. I hope it has those snazy future techs, like Mechs and so on.

 

[kochman]

I used Revolution mod and it was very slow! My friend suggested it as have you guys, but it take long time to play. I see some suggest that do not use Revolutiondxm and i look at those links right away! But what the reason that it is slow? Can i help speed it up someway on my computer?

I found Blue marble yesterday and i think that is excellent! But i really look for mod that give me more. Is there even any that speed game up, Like all the waiting is speeded up?

PS. Are there any modifications that add to the nuclear world of civilization?

To speed up game:
1) turn graphics to low
2) turn audio to low
3) turn off all special animation, etc
4) get a better computer

 

[dennisg]

One word: BUG

 

[phungus420]

RevolutionDCM runs at about 1/2 the speed of default BtS. So if it's noticeably slow, the best thing to do is turn down the mapsize. My computer sucks, and I have to play on standard sized maps or smaller. I can play default BtS on large maps, and it's about equivalent speed.

Most of that slowdown in RevDCM is caused by BetterAI and the extra processing that takes, and some of the BUG stuff, namely Plot List Enhancements, though there is some other stuff in there that makes it a little slower then BetterAI and BUG, mainly a couple python callbacks. Thankfully the upcoming version (should be released in a few days) has been built for speed, and should play at about the same speed as standard BtS; this is mainly due to the inclusion of the CAR mod. Still though, if RevDCM is running too slow for you, that means your computer is old, and you're trying to play on too large of maps for your system. You'll also probably notice slowdown from BUG, but you can get rid of that by turning off plot list enhancements. You'll definatly think BetterAI is too slow. Most mods use BetterAI, so if that's an issue not much you can do but get more RAM or a better graphics card and play on a smaller map.

Of course all that assumes you're using RevolutionDCM, and not one of the mods that use it as a base. I can only vouch for the performance of LoR, and RevolutionDCM itself, as I know how RevDCM itself handles and LoR has been built with performance in mind. LoR is about the same speed as pure RevolutionDCM; this is because there are no added python functions (everything I've added is dll stuff) and most importantly all the art has polygon and texture sizes around where default BtS's are. Most mods aren't as rigerous about the optimization of the included art, and many mods have units running around with 10,000 polygons and 1012 size textures (BtS units hover around 1000 polys and none except the War Chariot go over 2K polys, and the standard texture size is 256). So if you're running a RevDCM merge and having these problems, you can try Pure RevolutionDCM or LoR. If you're talking about RevDCM pure and it's too slow for you, you can try waiting a few days for 2.6 to come out. 2.6 will noticeably speed up RevDCM, in testing it's about at the same level as BtS is. Also you might think about getting more RAM, Civ is an old game and if RevDCM is playing too slow for you, your computer likely needs an upgrade.

One word: BUG

BUG is just BtS with an improved interface. Read the OP, he's looking for a mod that adds some stuff, but not too much. I don't think a little Great Person bar is really expanding the gameplay. It's good, it's included in RevDCM for a reason, but it's BtS Unaltered Gameplay, ie it's just BtS with a new UI.

 

[Silu]

I found Blue marble yesterday and i think that is excellent! But i really look for mod that give me more. Is there even any that speed game up, Like all the waiting is speeded up?

There's a mod called CAR Mod, which claims it boosts speed by about 15% through avoiding recalculating nonchanged values by caching them. Sorry, too lazy to dig up a link Also, it obviously doesn't have any additional content and AFAIK doesn't work with other mods out of the box...

To speed up game:
<snip>
2) turn audio to low
<snip>

I'm pretty skeptical about that speeding up the game in any significant fashion

 

[phungus420]

There's a mod called CAR Mod, which claims it boosts speed by about 15% through avoiding recalculating nonchanged values by caching them. Sorry, too lazy to dig up a link Also, it obviously doesn't have any additional content and AFAIK doesn't work with other mods out of the box...

As I say above, it's merged in the latest version of BetterAI (version 0.81m), and will be included in RevDCM in a couple of days. At least a significant portion of it will. This is especially useful for BetterAI, as alot of the tricks used by CAR could be implemented to some of the new BBAI code to speed things up. If I remember correctly jdog was able to get a 30-40% reduction in turn time in BBAI in the latest build.

 

[Silu]

As I say above, it's merged in the latest version of BetterAI (version 0.81m), and will be included in RevDCM in a couple of days. At least a significant portion of it will. This is especially useful for BetterAI, as alot of the tricks used by CAR could be implemented to some of the new BBAI code to speed things up. If I remember correctly jdog was able to get a 30-40% reduction in turn time in BBAI in the latest build.

I must be going blind. I did read your post, saw about 27 acronyms but not the mention of CAR

Thanks for the dumbed-down shorter version

 

[Scoottr]

I've been playing History In The Making and liking it so far. Few additions, not huge revamps. Though the tech tree doesn'st seem to be accurate...I tried to build a couple of wonders that according to the tech tree should be available but were not (and I did check to see if other civs had already built them)

 

[echosfolly]

BAT 2.0 It contains BUG(which is a must have) most of Bluemarble and VD(graphic inhancment)
it contains everthing youve described with out changing any game rules

 

[Tamed]

So basically, Nextwar is the only true game modification that works in MP?