The Dawn of Civilization mod for Civilization IV: Beyond the Sword, based on the popular Rhye's and Fall of Civilization mod.
Rhye's and Fall of Civilization is one of the most popular mods for Civilization IV: Beyond the Sword. Rhye's and Fall intends to turn Civilization into a history simulator: the game is played on a realistic map of the world, civilizations start at historically accurate dates, the AI is encouraged to behave historically, and players can win the games by completing their historical victory.
Dawn of Civilization started out as a RFC modmod making several changes suited to my personal preferences. But it has since grown way beyond that. With RFC not being in active development anymore, DoC has taken over to carry on its torch of providing historical BtS gameplay and now stands as its own full-fledged mod.
As the spiritual successor of Rhye's and Fall, Dawn of Civilization seeks to continue to improve upon its basic formula, and become an even better history simulator while also provide engaging and enjoyable gameplay.
For more information, you can also go to the main thread on the development forums.
If you just want to play, you only need to clone this repo into your mod folder (Beyond the Sword/Mods/) and rename it to "RFC Dawn of Civilization".
Alternate ways to get the mod:
The main goals of DoC are:
- Representing parts of the world not represented by RFC
- Improving on historical accuracy without sacrificing gameplay
- Offering new content in the form of civilizations and victory types
- Improving and optimizing existing RFC features
- Adjusting base game elements to better suit a historical mod
Rhye's and Fall was created more with the intention of taking the normal BtS content into a framework that makes it a historical simulator. Dawn of Civilization looks beyond that and tries to make an even better history simulator by including content beyond what BtS offered. This is most evident in the inclusion of additional civilizations, but also in many rule and mechanic changes.
In my opinion, a good historical simulator always also has to be a good game. This is why perfect historical accuracy isn't the goal of DoC - playing this game is about making interesting decisions and seeing their impact on the world. So instead of forced or scripted historical events, DoC tries to include events and mechanics that encourage developments along historical lines without making them a certainty. DoC also isn't a kitchen sink mod - every feature included has to serve a clear purpose in improving historicity or gameplay experience.
All of this shows in the following main features of Dawn of Civilization:
- Inclusion of Beyond the Sword civilizations that have been left out: Korea, Byzantium, Holy Rome
- Many new, completely playable civilizations: Harappa, Polynesia, Tamils, Tibet, Indonesia, Moors, Poland, Italy, Mughals, Thailand, Congo, Argentina, Brazil and Canada
- Certain civilizations can be reborn to create a completely new game experience: Persia returns as Iran, the Aztecs return as Mexico and the Maya return as Colombia
- Completely new tech tree covering 141 technologies over 7 eras
- Added 23 new and changed 17 existing buildings
- Added 20 new and redesigned several existing units
- Completely new selection of 42 civics from 6 categories
- You can play from 1700 AD in a new scenario
- Improved the interface in various ways by including the BUG mod
- You can play on Epic or Marathon game speed thanks to embryodead's RFC Epic/Marathon modmod
- Two new difficulty levels featuring stronger AI opponents
- Almost every already existing RFC civilization will experience an entirely different game due to changes in their UP, new UHV goals or general starting situation and environment
- Replaced Carthage with Phoenicia, starting in 1200 BC in the Levant
- Different spawn dates: India (1500 BC), Japan (525 AD), Netherlands (1580 AD) and Germany (1700 AD)
- New stability system with more transparent factors, gradual effects of instability, and improved performance
- Diplomatic institutions overhaul: new rules and resolutions for the Apostolic Palace and United Nations, extended and optimized Congress mechanics
- New religions: Zoroastrianism, Orthodoxy, Catholicism and Protestantism. Christianity is founded as the Orthodox faith, with Catholicism and Protestantism branching off through specific events (the Great Schism and the Reformation, respectively)
- New religious spread rules, with religions gradually spreading around their holy city depending on historical spread in various regions on the map. Owner state religion can influence which religions can appear, and religions can disappear when the owner state religion changes
- Improved colonization of Africa and Asia: building the Trading Company grants conquerors to certain civilizations, and Congresses can be used to settle empty territory
- You can win through a new victory type, the Unique Religious Victory. Different victory conditions exist depending on your state religion. Without a state religion, you can still win the Polytheism (Pantheon civic) and Secularism (Secularism civic) victories
- Various map changes to accomodate other additions. In particular, China, India, Scandinavia and Canada have been completely redone
- Cultural control spreads gradually to individual tiles
- Inclusion of the SuperSpies mod: Spies acquire experience and promotions, Great Spies are created from Spy experience in the same way Great Generals are
- Dynamic soundtrack based on your location and state religion
- New specialist and great person type: Statesman and Great Statesman
- Female Great People with appropriate graphics
- Many new leaderheads have been added for all civilizations to cover all eras
- Additional requirements for wonders, such as civics, resources and religions, to enocurage their historical placement
- The plague can't kill units anymore
- The AI receives help in many ways so it can better create historical empires, especially for Greece, Persia, Rome, Arabia and Mongolia
- Many small changes to improve balance and AI performance