[WIP] Extended Modern Era and Near Future Warfare

meteora 888

Chieftain
Joined
Oct 31, 2011
Messages
20
Location
Montreal, Canada
Mod Project: Extended Modern Era and Near-Future Warfare

This mod project aims to extend the late-game play, mainly by expending the Tech Tree and adding new units. It will only be compatible with G&K.

The Tech Tree
EDIT: Now with units and icons for my new techs!
Spoiler :
eme_nfw_tech_tree_by_meteora888-d5gojxt.png

Approximate dates – Renaissance: 1500-1750 – Industrial: 1750-1918 – Modern: 1918-1945 – Information: 1945-2025
The Tech Tree is left untouched until the Renaissance Era: the first half of the Industrial Era is added to it while the Industrial Era completely absorbs the Modern Era. The Atomic Era Is renamed Modern Era and a Future Era is added after the Information Era. Many new techs are added (including Telegraph, a Vanilla Tech that was dropped for G&K) and most techs are reorganized to be more historically accurate. The Future Era only includes near-to-far futuristic technologies. Also, the fact that there is the same number of Eras makes it possible to keep the exact same Espionage system.


New units
Many units are added to the late-game. However, the Great War infantry is dropped; it is because it is too short-lived and the infantry didn't evolve very much between the two World Wars. The Triplane, Great War Bomber and Landship are still here despite the fact that they get obsolete even faster because they are a remarkable addition to the art of Civilization V and because the concept for Fighters, Bombers and Tanks was significantly improved before and during World War II. A few Modern-Era units are added, but most additions are from the near-future, to better reflect the (probable) reality in games that can continue as far as the XXVth century. The Giant Death Robot is in a shallow grave and is forever banished from this world.
• Triere, Galleon, Transport Ship and Assault Ship: They would replace the Embarkation ability by allowing land units to be loaded in it, but it is not likely that they would be included in this mod because it requires to teach the AI how to use it, and they would be meaningless if the Embarkation ability still exists. Plus, there's already a mod with Amphibious Assault Ships that doesn't teach the AI how to use it. However, it would be fully compatible with this mod. While the previous units are basic troop transports, the Assault Ship has some additional buffs, like allowing to land without losing your movement points, allowing Paradrop, etc. It has however a much higher cost, so basic Transport Ships would remain available.
• Dreadnought: an early Battleship, similar to the Ironclad but larger, that would fire its many guns in a Frigate-like fashion, but with a different, more modern sound. It is slow, but can enter Ocean tiles. I know that dreadnoughts IRL are the desing of modern battleships (such as the Iowa-class battleship on which the Battleship model is based), but since every ship of that period can be called ironclads, I needed an another name for this early battleship. The desing of the Dreadnought unit is in fact based on early battleships that were later called pre-dreadnought. If you want to learn about pre-dreadnought and battleships in general: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pre-dreadnought
• Fighter-Bomber: based on the Republic P-47 Thunderbolt, it strikes ground units with its autocannons and unguided rockets. It is pretty resistant to anti-aircraft artillery and city defense, but vulnerable to Fighters.
• Special Forces: they are an upgrade for the Paratrooper of the WWII era. They are stronger than the Mechanized Infantry (except when engaging armor) and they have many interesting promotions, but they cost a lot. They also have the Air Assault ability, which is basically Paradrop with a chopper and without losing the ability to attack.
• Snipers: an improvement for Machineguns. Again, the purpose of the light ranged unit changes completely: they are long-distance infantry killers. They are completely useless when attacking cities, ships or armor, but they can engage helicopters and other vehicles with some success since they are equipped with anti-material rifles.
• Multirole Fighter: the improvement for the Fighter-Bomber. The mesh is based on the F/A-18 Super Hornet. They are very potent when attacking ground units and cities with missiles and guided bombs, but they aren't very good at interception.
• Interceptor Aircraft: it replaces the Jet Fighter. Unlike the Multirole Fighter, it is a dedicated Interceptor. It is deadly to Bombers and other Fighters and has an impressive range, but cannot attack land units. It often kills other aircraft during Air Sweep missions. The mesh is based on the F-15 Eagle.
• Supercarrier: a very large Carrier with angled deck, able to carry as much as 8 airplanes (except Stealth Bomber).
• Stealth Fighter: the mesh is the one use for the Jet Fighter, but with a darker texture (because stealthy aircrafts are black, aren't they?) It is improved from the Interceptor Aircraft, but it has very good ground attack capabilities.
• Combat Drone: a low-cost alternative to the Stealth Fighter for ground attack. It is unable to intercept other aircrafts and is extremely vulnerable to them.
• Railgun: the latest Siege unit. It accelerates depleted uranium slugs at extreme velocities with strong electromagnets. The Railgun shots are deadly to armor, ships, helicopters and vehicles, but not very much to infantry or cities. It has a range of 4, but is completely unable to use indirect fire. The Rocket Artillery remains as an option for these cases.
• Armored Mecha: a four-legged tank, like those in Call of Duty: Black Ops 2. They replace the GDR, and are much less over-powered.
• Tiltrotor: the successor to the Helicopter Gunship. It is a mix of the Hornet, Falcon and Sparrowhawk from the Halo games and the Scorpions from James Cameron's Avatar. They are the ultimate tank killer and are very effective against other land units, using light railguns and autocannons to defeat them. They are even faster than the Helicopter Gunship they replace and they have a large sight radius, making them ideal for reconnaissance.
• Air Defense Laser: a vehicle with a mounted laser system. It is an improvement of the Mobile SAM. It also has a chance of intercepting Cruise Missiles.


Changes to existing units and techs
• Technology costs are adjusted to make the game as long as a normal game, but with a longer late-game period.
• Units that were underused are buffed or otherwise modified to give them an important role. From now on, building Fighters, Marines and Missile Cruisers shall be useful.
• The Privateer and Caravel now upgrade to the Ironclad, and the Ironclad upgrades to the Destroyer, which comes a little bit later. Does anyone really use the Ironclad in the normal game? Also, Its the same principle for the Dreadnought: an intermediary unit between the Frigate and the Battleship.
• The Battleship is again the strongest direct-combat unit in the game. It is slightly slower than the rest of the modern fleet (despite being among the faster in the last era) and its brute force becomes less important when Missile Cruisers can send up to 3 missiles to the enemy AND attack with their cannons. Also, Missile Cruisers now cannot see Submarines and need Aluminum. The Battleship then keeps some usefulness until the end while some people may choose to scrap them.
• The "Manufacturing" tech in the late Renaissance Era refers to the textile industry that began to flourish just before the Industrial Revolution, at the same moment than the Agricultural Revolution in England (symbolized by the Fertilizer technology).
• The Marine is almost as strong as the Mechanized Infantry and has even better naval promotions and perks, making it viable during the Future era.
• The Guided Missile is now called the "Cruise Missile". I don't think it could lead to confusion with the Missile Cruiser and it is more accurate, since all missiles are guided (an unguided missile is called a rocket).
• The Gatling gun in the late Renaissance Era? It is not as unlikely as it may seem, as it appeared roughly at the same time as modern cavalry. Just look at the wheels: it's definitely not an Industrial Era design.
• The Machinegun would be stronger, but inflict less damage to tanks, so it can remain viable until the sniper appears. It is also more realistic: during WWI, machinegun nests were devastating to infantry. It is what leaded to the trench war, until the first tanks were able to punch trough enemy lines and pave the way for infantry, replacing the vulnerable cavalry.
• Fighter units are stronger when attacking ground units, while Bombers (except the Stealth Bomber) are only effective against cities, to better reflect the reality of close air support and make Carriers more useful.
Carriers now carry 4 aircrafts, but no Bombers. Supercarriers can carry Bombers, but no Stealth Bombers.
• Since people don't seem to think the same way as I do about the GDR,:huh: a small plugin should be released to include it.


Other changes
• The Bomb shelter now only protects garrisoned units (not including aircrafts and ships). Seriously, how could nuclear shelters protect millions of people? It's just insane.

Art
I need many images, sounds and 3D models for this mod. I have ideas for the design of all of them and images are not really a problem. I'm still an amateur when it comes to 3D modeling, but it is not a big issue. What could make the project take very, very long, is the importing process. Even though there are very good and detailed tutorials available, I keep making infuriating errors. If someone could give me a hand for this part, it would be greatly appreciated. And credited of course:D!
 
(Sigh)... First time testing, and NOTHING happens :sad:. The mod loads, the game starts, but the mod has no effect at all while it should completely reorganise the tech tree. I did add actions to tell the mod tu update the database, but somehow it doesn't work :undecide:. Can anyone point me out? I guess it's a very, very stupid and simple error (my main reference is Kael's guide to Modding, I know it's kinda outdated...)
 
Good mod, but the Hyperdrive comes far too early to be scientifically correct.

@meteora 888: I think the reason it doesn't work is because it was not built in modbuddy.
 
I think the reason it doesn't work is because it was not built in modbuddy.

It was built in ModBuddy. How can you build modinfo files without it? :confused:

Also, with the discovery of the Higgs boson and possibly faster-than-light particles at the CERN, hyperspace travel may be closer than we think...
 
It was built in ModBuddy. How can you build modinfo files without it? :confused:

Also, with the discovery of the Higgs boson and possibly faster-than-light particles at the CERN, hyperspace travel may be closer than we think...

No, the faster-than-light particles have been refuted. The hyperdrive however, is a possibility (look at the Wikipedia page on the Alcubierre warp drive). It would, however, be based on general relativity not particle physics. I used to think that it would be possible in the next millenium, but in light of recent research small-scale varieties may be tested within the century. I do believe, however, that it will not be safe and large enough for interstellar colonization to work with it for at least a few hundred years. Galactic empires will take even longer to build, and may themselves last for only a few thousand years.
 
I finally got something to partially work: the Dreadnought unit I added for testing. I found its entry in Civilopedia, but it's not visible in the tech tree.

I guess the main problem is my tech tree file. For some reason, it doesn't do anything, its just the plain old G&K tech tree when I test it. I must be doing it completely wrong. Here is the file, edited by myself:
View attachment 332688
***Yes, it was originaly a XML file, the forum just doesn't allow to attach them***
I didn't edited flavors and perequisites yet, but it shouldn't prevent techs from displaying in the right place and with the right names... Also, all my text is in a separate file. Here's a version I created with Indie Stone Visual Tech Tree Editor... I doesn't work either:
View attachment 332689
Again, it does nothing. When I test it, it's just the normal G&K tech tree. Can anyone point me out? I find no documentation about editing manually the tech tree, the Editor doesn't work either, and it might as well be something with ModBuddy that I don't understand.
 
I like the sound of it, but I think more ground and naval units would be in order. It sounds like you're building good additions to the air units, but perhaps expanding on the other elements would add some more depth to it.

By building one or two more levels of ground units (like hover tanks), you can justify keeping the GDR (under a less ridiculous name). Civ 5 and G&K are really lacking in future era MODS and I think it would be a shame to scrap the one actual future unit that they have already.
 
GDR? Overpowered? Perhaps the situation completley changes with the extended tech tree, but is it really all that much? A: It's only 1/2 stronger than, say, base modern armor. B: It comes at the point where you really ought to be going for the Sci Victory C: Worst of all, that uranium could be much better spent on nukes that wipe out entire armies, as opposed to a unit that's only 1/2 stronger than it's closest rival. I'm used to hearing complaints of the GDR being underpowered.
 
Hover tank? That's an AWESOME idea. :drool: However, I don't have ideas about how to make it look "human" (the only ones that I can picture in my mind are from Star Wars...) All new units are based on actual military developement that we are likely to see on the battlefield in 15-30 years from now. If the new Future Era is set to be around 2025-2040, the Black Ops II-like mecha seems more appropriate. And I don't want to go too far into the future so... no hover tank for now.:( But I'll keep that in mind, if I decide to create a far-future era (in this mod or a separate one).

If I mostly expend air units, it is because I feel that they are not useful enough, especially fighters. Unlike any other units, you don't even need to build any to achieve a domination victory. In real life modern warfare, gaining air superiority and tactical air strikes are crucial to victory. In Civilization, fighters are too fragile and weak to be used in that way, and bombers are unrealistically resiliant. When a fighter or a SAM engages a bomber, it's usually a one-hit-kill in reality. And I don't expend air units really that much: in vanilla, there are bombers and fighters. In this mod, there will be bombers, ground attack aircrafts (the new Fighter-Bomber, Multirole Fighter and Combat Drone) and fighters (Interceptor Aircrafts and Stealth Fighter fall into this category).

In my opinion, there are already enough ground units. Most people don't use all of them; the Paratroopers and Marines from G&K, as well as Mobile SAMs and even Helicopter Gunships are not super useful. As I understood by reading on this forum, most people will almost only build Mech. Infantry, Modern Armor and Artillery since other units have very limited roles. Instead of creating new units, I will buff existing units so they will have an important role. If I added more ground units categories, they would be likely to be ignored, no matter how cool they would look. And concerning naval units, pretty much every real life role is already well depicted in vanilla, so there's little to add. The Missile Cruiser is another units that people often ignore since it comes too late in G&K, even if it's ultra-poweful. Since this mod solves this problem by adding a longer future era, it's like a new naval unit.;)

Finally, Giant Death Robots ARE overpowered (IMO, again) The argument about the fact that by the time you get to build them you should go for a science victory would be irrelevent in this mod since victory would be set to happen around the late Future Era... Also, It is a fact that using Uranium for nukes is a better strtegy. But the AI dosen't comprehend this, and even a single GDR can easily pin down a large part of your military (I hate how they can deal impossible amounts of damage to aircrafts :mad:) If you really want them, I guess I will kake a small plugin to include it... in a way that it remains a not-so-useful, awesome (?) but impratical unit.
 
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