Which mod for me to play?

[Long try]

I'm back to Civ4 after several years! Surely I've missed a lot of development, and I wasn't an active mod player to begin with. For this return, I have a few questions:
- Is Civ6 better or worse than Civ4? Do you recommend play that instead?
- If the answer is "no", then I'd like to look for the best mod or mod combination that has these characteristics, listed here by descending importance:

1. Must: allow further modding (perhaps manually) of civs & leaders.
2. Need to: have improved AI.
3. Desirable: is more balanced (example: traits), enable more than 18 civs on huge maps.
4. Nice if: include better music and/or graphics/play interface (I'm looking at font size).

Thank you!

 

[Snowygerry]

I play RI - it has 1, 2, 3b, 4b imho,

3a 4a is more a matter of taste.

Certainly continued work is being done, a new version came out just weeks ago.

Never played Civ 6, not 5 either - 4 is that good

 

[Long try]

Did you mean Realism Invictus? Sorry but I was so out of the loop, sometimes elaboration is needed.

 

[Snowygerry]

Yes - sorry should have included a link,

Realism Invictus

Realism Invictus 3.61 for Civilization 4: Beyond the Sword This is the final major release for the long-standing Civilization 4 Realism mod. Realism mod for Civilization 4 was among the first gameplay mods for the game, and is still going strong today. Realism Invictus is the new name we...

forums.civfanatics.com

As an added bonus the mod maker Walter Hawkwood is an active member here

 

[Archid]

I would say it depends on what you are looking for, heavily modded or improved base game also are you looking for one that you can expand with your own mods or a 'finished' mod that you will rely on other people to update.

The mod that I would suggest for an improved base game would be K-Mod as that has some of the best AI around, plus he has also improved some game features and added a lot of balance changes which many people seem to forget in his work. It is however no longer in development, but there are many mods and mod comps that use it as a base and if you want something as a base for your own modding I think it is probably one of the best for that as you can hook into his improved AI routines for your own work. His stuff is all in github as well.

https://forums.civfanatics.com/resources/k-mod-far-beyond-the-sword.16331/

As for Civ V and VI, I bought VI and played it for a while, but found the 1 unit per tile very frustrating and restricting and modding it is very limited compared to what you can do with IV. The graphics are pretty, but the modability and general gameplay I found off-putting and stopped playing it and moved on fairly quickly.

 

[<Nexus>]

- Is Civ6 better or worse than Civ4? Do you recommend play that instead?

Since it's a Civ4 section, it would be surprising to hear many saying Civ6 is better than Civ4 (or any other).
Now really: Civ4 has the best modability.
Also, whenever I see pics of Civ5 or 6 showing a giant map:

Spoiler :

That is medium in Civ4!

As for a mod for you to choose you can try mine for example:

Must: allow further modding (perhaps manually) of civs & leaders.

Chronicles of Mankind is a modmod of Rise of Mankind: A New Dawn 2 (mainly by 45°38'N-13°47'E and Vokarya )

that is a modmod of Rise of Mankind: A New Dawn (by Afforess)​

that is a modmod of Rise of Mankind (by Zappara)​

​

Need to: have improved AI.

Well, it's not a chess master but I'm satisfied with it.

Desirable: is more balanced (example: traits), enable more than 18 civs on huge maps.

Oh, I worked a lot and hard on balancing traits. Of course, they will never be perfect
Presently it has a limit of 50 civs but I plan to update MegaPack and enable 100civs too.

Nice if: include better music and/or graphics/play interface (I'm looking at font size).

See my more music link

Spoiler Screenshot :

This is on the largest map. Note, that Egypt has 58 cities alone. There are around 200+ cities on this map.

 

[Long try]

heavily modded or improved base game also are you looking for one that you can expand with your own mods or a 'finished' mod that you will rely on other people to update.

I think my sweet spot is something in-between heavily modded and improved base. I want something distinctive "Civ4" that I've known, not a shock when loading it for the 1st time. At the same time I want it equipped with the best assistance for a player, making both strategic planning and micromanaging fast, easy, and efficient (I usually left games unfinished before corporations because of the heavy workload. Also I dread the huge amount of info dumped on screen for many mods).
My further modding will be very simple addition of some civ & leader. I even plan to use existing graphics to represent these new units & buildings. So definitely on the side of relying on a finished mod.

Oh, I worked a lot and hard on balancing traits. Of course, they will never be perfect

What are some of the most notable changes?

 

[<Nexus>]

What are some of the most notable changes?

I added buildings/units exclusive to each trait to make them more balanced and more fun. A few examples:
Creative: I always found this trait meh. Too weak, too boring, too useless. So I added the Muse national wonder. +5, +100% and can turn 1 citizen into Artist. You can have only one of it at any given time but you can move it from one city to another, like Palace.
Organized: Another one that felt weak. It can build Governor: -20% maintenance in city and reduces crime as well (my mod has a simple Crime mechanic).
Spiritual: No Anarchy axed, was too powerful. Free Devout promotion for Recon, Archery, Melee and Mounted unit. Each religion has a unique promotion and these require either Devout or Lead by Warlord. Building: Prelacy -50% Anarchy length, +1 from Priest in every city, can turn 2 citizens into Priests.
Deceiver: trait for espionage. Unlocks Courtesan unit that is a special spy unit with her own promotions.
etc.

 

[Long try]

IIRC, Spiritual's no anarchy is used to comply to AI's request to switch civics and then jump back just a few turns later, right? Other than this, I don't really is why it's too powerful...

 

[<Nexus>]

I don't really is why it's too powerful...

My mod has 13 civic categories. Sure, with the few civics of BtS it's not that powerful, in CoM, it was overpowered.

Read more about my mod here:

Chronicles of Mankind

Chronicles of Mankind (modmod of Rise of Mankind: A New Dawn 2)

forums.civfanatics.com

 

[PPQ_Purple]

IIRC, Spiritual's no anarchy is used to comply to AI's request to switch civics and then jump back just a few turns later, right? Other than this, I don't really is why it's too powerful...

Basically if you are a hyper power player playing at the cutting edge of the games skill level AND you play with really fast game speeds than every turn matters and anarchy can really hurt.

At least that is what I have been told. For the rest of us that does not really matter in any significant way.

 

[Long try]

My mod has 13 civic categories. Sure, with the few civics of BtS it's not that powerful, in CoM, it was overpowered.

Holy grenade, it might be the "shock" that I mentioned above. Most of what I've known will become obsolete when I press F3, because the majority of things there will be completely new. I read in the RI link that there are a total of 3000(!) units, which will completely overwhelm me when I try to devise any invasion or defense tactic, since virtually every troop I'll encounter on the field is a novel unknown.

I'm slowly getting the hang of the picture here. I think my need is leaning a bit toward an improved base mod. I envision that most changes of gameplay will be about small tweaks of existing mechanisms, not introducing big bunches of everything. 1 big disadvantage of heavy mods is that with so many variations and flavors, it's hard to ask for an advice on play tips, and discussions will be extremely hard to reach a consensus. As a returner, I intend to seek that frequently on the forum.
IMO, ideally the mod would work like BTS & Warlord themselves. When I think about it, BTS patched bugs and tweaked mechanisms, and added a bit more content in aspects of gameplay. The key is moderation (no pun intended), where they introduced stuff gradually, in small amount. Even then, some additions, like Corporations, were considered game-breaking. Most importantly, if someone who has only played Vanilla jumps to BTS, he can continue without much difficulty. So, as a former BTS player, I'd want the new mod just 1 level, or at most 2, above BTS.

 

[<Nexus>]

Than you need ADVCiv. Most improvements are about the AI AFAIK.

 

[keldath]

ADVciv mod.

my Mod also - Dawn of the overlords

or any of the wonderful mods suggested here.

 

[Long try]

Thanks! Would you help me add the extra music and a civ on top of ADVciv to create a tailored mod for me? I did try that kind of primitive modding before, but years of inactive caused me to forget most of the how-to.

 

[<Nexus>]

Adding more music should be easy:

1. Download MoreMusic
2. Extract it to your chosen mod's directory
3. Go to Assets/Modules directory. You should see a directory called MoreMusic
4. Download and extract attached civ4_audio_xml_injector.rar to Modules directory
5. Remove the ERA_TRANSHUMAN entry from CIV4EraInfos in Assets\Modules\MoreMusic\XML, for ADVCiv has no Transhuman era to my knowledge
6. Run civ4_audio_xml_injector.exe
7. Enable MoreMusic in MLF_CIV4ModularLoadingControls.xml

 

[f1rpo]

Might be worth mentioning that AdvCiv doesn't contain modules and therefore has modular loading disabled through its INI file. This should ony be a matter of toggling ModularLoading to 1 in AdvCiv.ini.

 

[Hafenguy]

Legends of Revolution considers itself as the inoficial extension of BTS. It is not overwhelming and adds a stability System.
Maybe that is worth a try.
I dont know whether it's modable or not.

Of you are german speaking than could the BASE Mod ne a good option too. It adds more techs, units, buildings etc.

 

[<Nexus>]

Legends of Revolution considers itself as the unofficial extension of BTS.

Many mods do that

 

[Hafenguy]

I know.
Just wanted to point out that LOR is not overwhelming and just adds some features to BTS.