RHYE’S OF CIVILIZATION HERITAGE
Rhye’s and Fall of Civilization is officially follow-up to “Rhye’s Civilization – the fastest loading mod”, which was widely known as one of the most popular modpacks for Civilization III, with more than 25,000 downloads, available in two versions: “basic” and “expanded”.
The basic version aimed at making a realistic and historically correct Civilization III based on an Earth map, without pre-placed cities. The expanded version expanded the game in every sense, correcting any inaccuracy and making a sort of “Civ 3 ½” out of it.
So, Rhye’s and Fall of Civilization is the sequel of the basic Rhye’s of Civ, and this means that its aim is not a whole remake of Civilization IV, but just an adjustment to follow closely the development of civilizations on the Earth. This mod, thanks to the great flexibility of Civ4, is really what we wished Rhye’s of
Civilization would be, given a decent editor.
And the stuff added in the “expanded” version? Fortunately Civ4 is a much better game than Civ3, so it won't need as much rebalancing. But as it offers amazing modability, it would be a shame not to take advantage of it to add new aspects to the game. As a result, some "expanded" features are always in the works at any given time, but they normally have rather low priority.
Rhye’s Civilization was also known as “the fastest loading mod”…is this mod that fast?
The answer is yes, in comparison to other Earth maps.
Generally Earth maps are insanely big to achieve a decent detail, and an increment in map size leads to great increase of area, with huge increase of loading times and allocated memory; some are smaller, but can’t handle many civs because so many of them are concentrated in a small area such as Europe.
So, this map, with (as you will see below) an enlarged Europe, offers the best compromise. Loading times are further reduced by limiting the number of civilizations around at the same time through the dynamic rise and fall
mechanisms (see proper chapter).