Who are bored with base BTS?

[Manco Capac]

Who are those who can't look back BTS without being disgusted by the sheer repetitiveness and they prolong the lifetime through mods?

And those who are close-minded and stuck with eternal original BTS, what keeps you to play with that so long?

Discuss.

 

[Lone Wolf]

Most of my civ4 activity is in mods, specifically in popular-with-lightish-crowd-but-unpopular-with-strategists RFC-DoC and in actually-quite-popular-with-hardcore-players-at-realms-beyond FFH.

I haven't really played stock BTS for so long, but these two mods spoiled me (BTS seems to generic compared too them, even though BTS with K-mod is the game with the most respectable AI I ever came across - I wonder why it isn't more popular).

 

[Lennier]

I just got CiV 3 years ago (and BtS 2 years ago), and haven't played all the leaders yet so I'm still doing base BtS (w/ BUG, of course.)

 

[fantsu]

I could say that I'm purist, and I like unmodded BtS 'till the end.
I don't even like BUG or BAT or anything like that either.

 

[Pepo]

I play it with mods,but i don't have problems to play it without

 

[gps]

Seems there's an option for me missing between both extremes. I have no problems playing mods (especially RFC is great) but I also have no problem playing unmodded BTS (or Warlords or even Vanilla). As I am still not able to beat Deity level while only half awake there's still a lot of substance for me in the unmodded base package.

 

[Little Faith]

Not liking the BUG mod is an opinion I don't understand. BUG is a godsend for noob and veteran alike.

Anyway, two mods I have sort of been following are Dune Wars and History Rewritten.

Dune Wars is a wonderful translation of the Dune universe into Civ4 terms. It's unfortunately in a bit of development limbo as most of the original developers have bowed out of the project due to IRL. How spice is enabled is mildly genius and make advancing your cultural borders beyond your BFC's valuable. Water takes food's place as the resource needed to grow your population and it's a bit more of a hassle to get hold of in reasonable quantities. The civs (or rather houses) are very differentiated, yet not too unbalanced with one notable exception.
Main problems are: Fremen and the Mahdi religion allow for a powerful early aggressive play. Probably too powerful.
There is an espionage overhaul that is rather ambitious but halfway implemented and not well tested. Download folkets unofficial patch.
One or two great wonders that give science or espionage based on the amount of spice resources you control are obviously overpowered.

History Rewritten is an interesting mod to watch. Still under development. Author seem to be genuinely interested in the gameplay side of things. Doesn't stray too far from the Civ4 base rules (it cannot because it targets the mac and as such is a pure python affair). Of OP stuff some of the traits seem a little iffy (Diplomatic, Aggressive), the tech tree might have a few bottlenecks though the author seems committed to fix these. There's not any problematic great wonders or UU's/UB's I can think of. (In fact unmodded BtS might be worse in that regard).
One idiosyncrasy is his hostility to early game deforestation so you'll have to wait a bit before you can get your chop on.

 

[Chakram Bearer]

I'm in the middle as well. Even though I mostly play without mods (except BUG), I ocasionally enjoy a game of Rhye's and Fall or Fall From Heaven.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

I play 25 civ huge maps with improved AI, and I consider that pretty much unmodded. But I also play other games so it isn't like all BtS all the time.

 

[pomthom]

Only one year so too young to cheat on BTS

 

[Lone Wolf]

so too young to cheat on BTS

"Mods" and "cheating" are two different things

 

[Seraiel]

EQM (Elite Quattromaster = HoF title for having played virtually every possible game, so every leader, every map, every victory type etc. ) keeps me playing.

Mods don't interest me, never did, probably never will, HoF rocks.

 

[pomthom]

"Mods" and "cheating" are two different things

Cheating as in "infidelity", not "game cheats"

 

[georgjorge]

Between working and raising a child, I find myself with precious little time and energy left for playing. When I do, I prefer something for which I don't have to learn the rules all over again (I played the Caveman2Cosmos mod for some time, but ultimately got too confused). So stock BTS it is for me.

I'm wondering myself what keeps the BTS experience still fresh and exciting as I surely must have played over two hundred games (not that much right now, but lots of it when I was unemployed). These forums are a big part of the appeal the games has right now for me, as there's always some new information to gain (after all these years!) or some new map to try and beat.

 

[nfw]

Haven't played base BTS since I discovered LOR.

 

[Lone Wolf]

Cheating as in "infidelity", not "game cheats"

Got it

 

[Robert FIN]

I use BUG and BlueMarble. Which option should I choose then?

 

[Lennier]

I'd say "I ain't play heretical mods; long life stock BTS" as BUG is canonical and BlueMarble is just eye-candy, not heresy.

 

[ZeekLTK]

I'm wondering myself what keeps the BTS experience still fresh and exciting as I surely must have played over two hundred games (not that much right now, but lots of it when I was unemployed). These forums are a big part of the appeal the games has right now for me, as there's always some new information to gain (after all these years!) or some new map to try and beat.

What keeps it fresh and exciting is that there are so many different options and things that can happen every time you play.

Just starting on a new random map and exploring the world is enough to keep coming back IMO.

And with different maps, you get different games.

In one game you might have tons of room to expand and have to worry about how you are going to afford your empire. In the next game maybe the AI boxes you in early and you only get a few cities, so you have to worry about how you can get more land.

In one game you might have plenty of resources and be able to build whatever you want. In the next game maybe all the good resources are in someone else's land so you have to scheme how to get them.

In one game you might find yourself in barren tundra and have to work on growing your cities all game. The next game you might find yourself with tons of flood plains and have to figure out how to keep your population from growing too fast.

In one game you might have to work on building your economy while the next game you need to work on building your army.

There are just so many possibilities and challenges that it never gets old.

I just played a game recently where I started out in a tundra region, yet had access to like 10 fur resources by the time I expanded and settled my permanent borders. There were virtually no other fur resources anywhere else in the world, so I had a monopoly on trade. That was very interesting, I've never been in that situation before. I was basically able to run 100% research the entire game because virtually every civ was paying me gold per/turn for fur. I've had this game for a long time and that was a first for me!

 

[The Diocletian]

RFC: Dawn of Civilization is all I play anymore. I shudder to think what horrible gameplay mistakes I'd make if I tried to pick up a vanilla game. I'm rusty, to say the least. (though I was never very good in the first place.)