Caveman2Cosmos

[Argroww]

I've noticed there doesn't appear to be much discussion about mods here....perhaps that's left for civfanatics? Still I can get here from work and not to cf so here i post about my current favorite mod and I believe the most ambitious mod.

It's created by a team of modders but the original concept was by strategyonly i believe and I think it has links with the Rise of Mankind mod but is now so far beyond RoM that it's silly!

C2C follows the ideal that more is definately better and at version 22.1 is currently sits at about 417 techs, 500 units (I think) and over 1200 buildings and it incorporates many of the more useful UI and performance mods in effort to keep the game running smoothly.

So far I have played almost every version that's been released and I constantly see clear improvements and additions, generally i like the idea of more is better and being a builder/researcher type player this mod has kept single-player civ4 alive for me more than any other game I think I've ever played!!

However there are some little tweaks I'm not so sure about....for the most part the mod has tried to keep with a certain level of realism....certainly up until the genetic and future era....which to be honest has happened yet for us so I allow for a some flight of fancies!

But in the last couple of releases they are introducing "punk" techs, basically alternative technology paths that lead to unique units and buildings that have never existed for anyone but in imagination (I think)....on the other hand far from being any more game-breaking than any of the other additions.

I enjoy the Pre-historic era in which the game is made challenging by the lack of expansion (cannot build settlers and workers can only build 1 thing, then they are removed from the game) and also by the large quantity of animal units which can make map exploration particuarly tricky, it's only later in the pre-historic tech-tree that you get to build a "tribe" which is a limited settler, you can only have 1 at a time, in addition to this expansion is limited by penalties being applied to the number of cities you have depending upon which government civic you are using.

What also makes the game interesting is that culture is a 2-fold process partially governed by your initial choice of civ (American, European, ocenian ETC) and then later defined by techs and nearby resources which will then in turn give you your UBs and UUs....amongst other things, which can make games even more unique as you cannot guarantee what resources you will have near you and thus which culture you would take on.

Later they have a Galactic era planned with promises to be as game changing as the pre-historic era, but I believe it is being held back by what is inherintly possible with the civ4 engine, some of their ideas may not even be possible and thus get dumped, however the team being this wonderful mod seem commited to makign the mod as stable as possible and will do their best to nail down the cause of any CTD not caused by the MAF

If you like mods and haven't tried this one, I highly recommend it....and if you have tried it, please comment and add to what I've missed....the mod is so big that I've missed an awful lot of this first post!

[E_T]

Seems that the Free Gatherer (the early Worker Unit) that you get if your the first to research some early tech is broken, as it gives you two of them, one that is regular and one that is Named (like a Great Person).

[EDIT] That was with the V21 version, so not sure if the newest version fixed that. I couldn't find anything about a fix to that was done in the main C2C thread, but that doesn't mean that I wasn't addressed. [/edit]

[Argroww]

Yes...odd bugs do seem to creep in, in my current game of V22.1 the "hide buildings" option isn't working, I have it turned on so that I only see buildings that i can build....except that i can still see all of the buildings at the moment...need to check the patches section I think.

[E_T]

Confirmed, You still get the Two Free Gatherer's (instead of just one) if your the first to research the Gathering Tech, in the 22.1 version

[Argroww]

I did think it was odd when I got just the one gatherer and I was sure that I wasn't the first to get the tech.....mind you i did manage to get the Neaderthal wonder in my current game which I normally do not achieve....I'm also challenging myself a little more than I usually do and playing under the Noble difficulty.....although I can't help feeling that the AI just doesn't know how to best use the buildings that C2C offers. My usualy strategy is to build all of the production buildings, then food and after than what-ever makes sense to the situation I'm in. This often leads to my cities being production powerhouses and thus able to knock out buildings and units faster than the AI while the AI is still wallowing much further down the tech tree....however this is usually in an Eternity based game and on Chieftan difficulty. I'm now playing Snail, so I'm hoping that the gap wont be so big and the AI will give me a bit more of a challenge.

SO far in my 22.1 game I have got myself 3 cities all close to each-other (sometimes a lucky find in a goody hut may lead to a far-away city) and the (New) Canadian civ close to me....but not so close to be a constant threat, they did place some of their units on my land, but I built a few Atl-Atls (currently my strongest unit) and scared them off.

My first city also appears to be rapidly heading towards finding out how the new crime system operates, it's crime rate is rising faster than I expected and I've already discovered 2 or 3 techs that allow for certain crimes :-(.....not sure how the flamibility stuff work though, although there are building that have a flame increase/decrease function on them, nothing ever happens to suggest this is a problem. I've also spotted that some of the other "punk" techs have been fleshed out, assuming I can satisfy the culture requirements it may be interesting to see how those affect the game.

[E_T]

Do you want to try to set up a PBEM game or maybe even a pitboss game?

[Argroww]

Suunds like fun....problem is that v22.1 appears to have the infinite turn bug for me, I applied the latest DLL which got me past that one....but then it dit it again a few turns later. Which is a shame as V21 was stable (or was for as long as I was able to play it, almost to the industrial era).

My last few attempts at MPing with mods have often resulted in OOS errors :-(, might be interesting to see how it works in a PBEM game.....mind you at the rate they bring out new versions I wonder how far we'd manage to play before having to upgrade to the latest version!

[E_T]

If doing a PBEM or Pitboss, you would have to keep the same version (unless Completely compatible for previous version saves), throughout the whole game. And If it is compatable, would have to have everyone playing upgrade all at once.

And another thing, I've noticed that to really get the flavor of this Mod, that you should run your game at a slower than normal speed. But for a PBEM/Pitboss game, would need to run at Normal turn speed (or would literally take forever). Would that be a problem?

[Argroww]

All fair points, I do prefer a longer game, but as you say PBEM makes it long enough as it is!

Well so far v21 has been the most stable for me, unless you want to wait for the next version (after 22.1)....although no guarantee that will be stable either

What other game settings do you normally go for?

[Argroww]

Turns out that I was being hit by a known bug in C2C in which the AI doesn't know what to do when you set a time limit and it wants to put an extra unit on that tile, basically it keeps trying...

So when you're ready E_T, I have version 22.1 with the latest DLL patch....never done a PBEM or Pitboss game before

[E_T]

the latest DLL isn't part of the 22.1 set?

[Argroww]

It isn't.......but it IS a newer file, which is odd. Hasn't caused any problems yet, but if you want to go for a clean install of 22.1 that's fine.....although I will admit I'm loath to leave my SP game, as I'm playing on Noble I'm having a harder time and the AI isn't just keeping up, it's surpassed me....but i do seem to be catching up with the 1 AI on my continent.

I think I got hampered by the new crime mechanism, My capital is rife with crime!

[Nugog]

So apart from the main game do I need the extra leaderheads and movies?

[E_T]

So apart from the main game do I need the extra leaderheads and movies?

I didn't install them in mine. They are just eye candy extras, IMHO and won't have them in a PBEM/Pitboss Game.

It isn't.......but it IS a newer file, which is odd. Hasn't caused any problems yet, but if you want to go for a clean install of 22.1 that's fine.....although I will admit I'm loath to leave my SP game, as I'm playing on Noble I'm having a harder time and the AI isn't just keeping up, it's surpassed me....but i do seem to be catching up with the 1 AI on my continent.

I think I got hampered by the new crime mechanism, My capital is rife with crime!

could you post that DLL or a link to the download for it?

Would like to try to get a 3 to 4 (or more if interest) player game with 5 to 6 AI's, for a total of 9-10 Civs on a large Map. Also looking to have all of the Leader/Civs be Limited to the American Continental Civs/Leaders. Seeing that C2C has an expanded selection of Civs/Leaders, there is enough to have this limit and still have a fair selection to choose from (I'm partial to one of the two different Iroquios Leaders), but there is also some Crow, Souix(sp) & Native American.

But if only the two of us, them a standard map with 6 total civs. As this is still a"new game" for me, Should go with Noble or less difficulty.

Also, I like the C2C map scripts, too

[Argroww]

Oooh....large map? hmmmm.....I'll give it a go but whilst I have a better laptop than I used to then I tend to get CTDs on large maps......although that may have been problems in the code to be honest with the older versions.

Noble is fine, I'm playing on SP and Noble is sufficient challenge....in fact the AI is doing better than me at the moment :-(

The DLL is in the patches section on the C2C project area of CFC....I'll get a link to it later but cannot while I'm at work :-(.

All american civs? we could do, there's certainly enoguh space for potential cultural differences, and it may reduce the cahnce that each of us would have out own "set" of cultures.....but the more human players we involve, the less I think that would be a good idea.

I'm playing as Australia in my current game and still have found a tech with a unique culture for the Oceanian type culture!

[Beta]

Where does one go to get the mod? CFC?

[E_T]

yep, let me find a link to the mod...

[E_T]

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=288570

This is the main thread for the Mod, don't know where that DLL patch is located, though

[Argroww]

It's here:

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=434712

Always the one at the end....although not sure if it is right as it says patch for v22 and we're on 22.1, but I'm sure the date on the patch file is newer than the one in the mod.

I'm starting to think we shouldn't limit players to american civs only, seems like we're getting the interest of many that haven't even played C2C.....believe me it's a very different experience to normal BtS

[E_T]

K, let's see what people think then about civ choices. That is, if they are interested...