I was getting back into Civ IV a bit and was wondering about all the mods out there. I guess it's mostly about personal taste and choice, but which mods would you say have to be used? Which ones are used for PBEMs and PBs these days? Is it the RtR mod?
Just looking to play a couple of games in single player for now. For me Blue Marble was a must have.
Inspired by other recent contributors, I thought it would be nice to share a game I recently finished with the Sakkra.
I hope this is an interesting read, for the following reasons:
Gatling Lasers deployed extensively against the Alkari.
Didn't intentionally build factories on Poor Worlds (I built 3 on Aurora by accident, but they were later bombed away)
Didn't intentionally max out any planets (Nyarl, a far away star in the very backlines was settled very late and I forgot to turn off factory building)
Warp 1 transports past 2400
No spy hits until after 2410
No RC tech until after 2430, and no factories built to take advantage of this tech
Medium, Impossible, 5 Opponents.
1oom, fork compiled by RFS-81, enhanced version.
Classic+ AI.
Green Sakkra.
And here is the start:
The Yellow to the S and the Barren to the N are within 3 parsecs.
All the yellows near me are within 6 parsecs.
So we know where all AI are. This is going to be a wild map.
(I can share a starting save, but I don't know if it's compatible with other versions)
Quiet here lately so here's a bit of content. My gaming lately has been pinball games, real machines at home. I've set up a recording setup and a channel for it.
Here's one good (short) one, and there are several more on the channel if you want to watch some long form games. (Yeah I use a different name there, I'm stuck with T-hawk here since it goes forever back, but that's way too generic to use anywhere else.)
This is my first attempt at providing an AAR. I'll try my best, let's see if it's good enough!
First of all, I'm playing 1oom V1.11.7 (it's awesome!). I'll try and put the nitty-gritty details in a spoiler below, concerning the differences between it and the original.
(Got it on my second try! My first guess was <spoiler>.)
I play with most of the fixes on.
Important things:
No planetary trampoline. If you retreat, you must go to a different star system. (Can't effectively use an enemy's planet as your expeditionary rally point waiting until the fleet gets strong enough to actually fight!)
AI players set their rally points correctly. This was a major bug in MOO - AI players choose a weighted system to determine their staging point. This was absolutely messed up in MOO, now it works.
Can't use WAIT to reload specials. Not that I would in any case.
No need to design Scout2 - costs are correctly set.
Easier to request breaking an alliance than it is to have them go to war against an ally, the latter is properly calculated.
Quite a few I don't remember right now.
So New Game it is. Galaxy size: medium, difficulty: hard, opponents victims: 5, random race and banner. I spawn as white Silicoids. Every planet is a hostile planet (and not in the Bulrathi way, unfortunately), 40 BC/pop, a scrap heap instead of research, a clusterfuck of miniscule transports everywhere, go feel it, own it, love it!
First order of business after pressing Map and finding out what race I am is to rename "Randomia" to "Cryslon". This is my second game ever with the rocks, let's see how I can handle it. Go crush 'em!
I spawn in a corner, which is actually bad for the rocks. I think you want to be as close to the centre as possible from the get-go. Reason being, the unique way in which Silicoids expand (like a megaoctopus) is bound to bring them onto the borders and even into the heart of other empires. A lot of your colonies are going to end up being on the others' doorstep anyway. Therefore, the more planets available from the start, the better.
Three of the five yellows surrounding me are at least 7 parsecs away -> they can host ZE ENEMY.
Quite a collection of opponents. The Sakkra, being the Planetology specialists, and only growing 4x as fast as I'll be, might actually be trouble. Alkari special can make early brush wars very difficult. 'borgs and bears, ok. Psilons are psilons, and are always dangerous. Hoping for early Psilon contact and then making out with them.
5 planets scoutable initially, and probably 2 more after initial settlement. The two sub-4 distance planets are each 2 pcs away. Yellow and purple, however, I'm going to be sending my colony ship based on which planet (I'm hoping) is later on the planet list, so I'll get to see the other system's planet before having to make the decision to colonise or not. I believe I can afford this both because the two planets are so close and it doesn't take a horrendous amount of time to move between them, and also because we're the best expanders by far, we can afford the (likely) time loss. Unfortunately, that means sending my colship to the purple star (smaller planet likely, although much better chance of being rich), which is why I had to think this through in the first place.
One scout goes to the yellow 2pc, the other to the red to secure our way corewards. The northern middle yellow is closer to the one above it (7 pc) than to me should someone have spawned there.
That was a lot for an initial turn. Cryslon builds 4 scouts, and I, rather anxiously, press Next Turn.
- 2301 -
Cryslon actually builds 5 scouts, they begin spreading out, including the purple my colship is headed towards. The two extras remain in Cryslon orbit, as they'll have to go on very different paths depending on which planet I'll colonise.
Cryslon will produce 1 more scout (for itself), and we're on to factories!
- 2302 -
Seidon, a P90T (Poor) is at the yellow, and Escalon, 35E at the purple. So much for hoping for an UR (and thus, a two-turn gg)
Rerouting colony ship (ETA 4 turns at Seidon), because we're the Silicoids, what we need is population, and because in general I want to grab the planets from least to most hostile for obvious reasons.
Two scouts embark towards the middle northern yellow to save time. Let me tell you right here that I DESPISE scouting, find it an absolute chore, and I'm genuinely not having fun while doing it. I understand it is a very necessary and well-built system, and thus swallow the bitter pill.
I drop a few tears pebbles over Cryslon's growth rate (41/100).
- 2303 -
Press Next Turn.
- 2304 -
Cryslon's now on full factory construction, press Next turn.
- 2305 -
Middle northern yellow is Paranar 100T, red is Darrian 50E, the green to the south is Willow, 10R. Will still have to check the two stars out to the north, but it looks like expansion choices are going to be very straightforward.
- 2306 -
P Seidon founded. My convention is to precede planet names with R, RR, P, PP, and A where applicable. A major advantage of this approach is that those three letters look almost exactly the same in the game's typeset.
Send out two scouts to the stars that have come within range.
P Seidon goes full Eco slider and will remain like that for a long long long time.
And now, it is time for the million BC (1 QC?) question. How many do I send to P Seidon? Relevant question: do I need to max out Cryslon above all else or do I need overall maximum growth? It's the former, we don't need tech to expand right now and won't need any for a reasonable time. We can colonise 3 more planets before needing range.
Therefore, I'm going to send the part of the population above 34 (the least required to be on top of the curve, I always round up in these cases) and THAT'S IT. P planets have no Eco penalty in addition to what I already have, so I think that's fine. 13 transports it is, putting Cryslon at 34p/52f. When factory construction outstrips growth in the Silicoid way, which it soon will, it's just the worst feeling - it's a very vivid memory of my one and only rocks game.
Note to self as I just thought of it: even though we don't NEED tech, I will want to pick up T+10 (guaranteed tech) as soon as reasonably possible.
- 2307 -
Press Next turn. With all available willpower, do not send pop to P Seidon.
- 2308 -
Silicoid growth rate, just the way I like it foam foam kill, exhibit A.
Silicoid growth rate, just the way I like it foam foam kill, exhibit B.
Since Seidon's Eco growth isn't going anywhere for a while, I rethink my decision and will spend this turn and the next researching at Cryslon, and then feeding P Seidon's whopping 6RP into it for fun and profit. Cryslon can spare 22 BC for research this turn after building max facts, for a total of 28.
- Sorry for the perhaps excruciating detail, however, there are so many decision already in the early game that can have serious butterfly effects. I want to outline my train of thought, in the hopes that it can open discussion.
- 2309 -
T+10 costs 170 because we suck at pretty much everything that requires thought. For example, the environment.
Uncolonised! The Paranar-Anraq direction will be fantastic for early expansion. All these yellows, and not a sniff of blood yet.
Cryslon builds the 2 facts after its +1 growth, and can spare 68 RP, for 74 this turn, 106 RP so far for next turn, with interest.
- 2310 -
Cryslon starts spending its spare on a colony ship, RELOCated to Paranar 4pc. P Seidon pours its endless resources (7!!!) into planetology (127 RP for the curious.)
If you change SpellMysticSurge.CAS to the following, it will no longer be exploitable/game disrupting with permanent changes such as adamantium weapon, etc. It also adds a few more changes so tweak it how you want. This is the one I'm currently using and I'm finding it better than the stock one.
: Input - TU is the target unit's ID :
LOOP {
R=RND(33)+1;
: Bad
:
if (R=1) THEN { SETCOMBATENCHANTMENTFLAG TU,EncStasisCombat,ABase,1; }
if (R=2) THEN { SETCOMBATENCHANTMENTFLAG TU,EncWarpAttack,ABase,1; }
if (R=3) THEN { SETCOMBATENCHANTMENTFLAG TU,EncWarpDefense,ABase,1; }
if (R=4) THEN { SETCOMBATENCHANTMENTFLAG TU,EncWarpResist,ABase,1; }
if (R=5) THEN { SETCOMBATENCHANTMENTFLAG TU,EncShatter,ABase,1; }
if (R=6) THEN { SETCOMBATENCHANTMENTFLAG TU,EncWeakness,ABase,1; }
if (R=7) THEN { SETCOMBATENCHANTMENTFLAG TU,EncMindStorm,ABase,1; }
: Good
:
if (R=8) THEN { SETCOMBATENCHANTMENTFLAG TU,EncDiscipline,ABase,1; }
if (R=9) THEN { SETCOMBATENCHANTMENTFLAG TU,EncHaste,ABase,1; }
if (R=10) THEN { SETCOMBATENCHANTMENTFLAG TU,EncResistElements,ABase,1; }
if (R=11) THEN { SETCOMBATENCHANTMENTFLAG TU,EncLandLink,ABase,1; }
if (R=12) THEN { SETCOMBATENCHANTMENTFLAG TU,EncElementalArmor,ABase,1; }
if (R=13) THEN { SETCOMBATENCHANTMENTFLAG TU,EncIronSkin,ABase,1; }
if (R=14) THEN { SETCOMBATENCHANTMENTFLAG TU,EncRegeneration,ABase,1; }
if (R=15) THEN { SETCOMBATENCHANTMENTFLAG TU,EncResistMagic,ABase,1; }
if (R=16) THEN { SETCOMBATENCHANTMENTFLAG TU,EncGuardianWind,ABase,1; }
if (R=17) THEN { SETCOMBATENCHANTMENTFLAG TU,EncSpellLock,ABase,1; }
if (R=18) THEN { SETCOMBATENCHANTMENTFLAG TU,EncFlight,ABase,1; }
if (R=19) THEN { SETCOMBATENCHANTMENTFLAG TU,EncMagicImmunity,ABase,1; }
if (R=20) THEN { SETCOMBATENCHANTMENTFLAG TU,EncFlameBlade,ABase,1; }
if (R=21) THEN { SETCOMBATENCHANTMENTFLAG TU,EncImmolation,ABase,1; }
if (R=22) THEN { SETCOMBATENCHANTMENTFLAG TU,EncEndurance,ABase,1; }
if (R=23) THEN { SETCOMBATENCHANTMENTFLAG TU,EncHolyArmor,ABase,1; }
if (R=24) THEN { SETCOMBATENCHANTMENTFLAG TU,EncHolyWeapon,ABase,1; }
if (R=25) THEN { SETCOMBATENCHANTMENTFLAG TU,EncHeroism,ABase,1; }
if (R=26) THEN { SETCOMBATENCHANTMENTFLAG TU,EncTrueSight,ABase,1; }
if (R=27) THEN { SETCOMBATENCHANTMENTFLAG TU,EncLionHeart,ABase,1; }
if (R=28) THEN { SETCOMBATENCHANTMENTFLAG TU,EncInvulnerability,ABase,1; }
if (R=29) THEN { SETCOMBATENCHANTMENTFLAG TU,EncCloakofFear,ABase,1; }
if (R=30) THEN { SETCOMBATENCHANTMENTFLAG TU,EncWraithForm,ABase,1; }
if (R=31) THEN { SETCOMBATENCHANTMENTFLAG TU,EncInvisibility,ABase,1; }
if (R=32) THEN { SETCOMBATENCHANTMENTFLAG TU,EncFocusMagic,ABase,1; }
if (R=33) THEN { SETCOMBATENCHANTMENTFLAG TU,EncBless,ABase,1; }
} ENDLP (RND(100)>=70);
Anyways, I don't usually do songs where you can see the performers because you should be reading not watching, but whatever I guess people can choose for this thread. This is a local band I just encountered this year at my local historical society. All songs will be from them this thread even if I have to repeat songs from past games, although they have quite a few unique ones, its just if I can find their version on youtube or not. This will obviously be my capital song. They do have a more professional version on youtube, but I like the little jokes they insert in their live performances.
Its looking like king of the hill. Before Scooter made the suggestion hadn't meant this to be a king of the hill game, but as I stated in set up thread if not this map then when? Also, give a pretty clear way for game to end. Might increase phil rating just because the obvious thing to do is take the barb city and bomb it with a great artist. We still have to set how long you need to hold said city, but still that is the most obvious way to hold it. I'm not big into phil, but I do plan on NOT taking org as it seems like sadly snake won. I've done org a lot and kind of want to go back to my roots and pick a fin leader, but shall see.
Civs NOT Zulu. I've been zulu a lot recently. I'm half tempted to go newly nerfed America, because I'm pretty sure its still good, but will see.
Mjmd proposed the game idea back in April 2025, Tarkeel was the last signup (of six !) last month and now we still wait for all players to finish the voting spreadsheet.
And someone needs to modify the map.
So let's see if we can get the leader selection starting next week.
Honestly didnt think this would get moving... seeing as how i am currently awaiting to see if i get to keep my job or not (management is being a pita) i guess this gives me something to do.
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