Thomas' War

Team Match

Above is The Rough Conceptual Sketch I made of the type of Game I wished to play: Four Teams on Four Continents.

I paired myself with Isabella and let The Other Teams fall where they may. Isabella did her job and Built up an Army, protecting me, while I Built Wonders (nearly all in The Mod, up to Steam Power & Cannons) and Founded All The Religions.

Thus, I feel like I experienced much of what The Mod has to offer.

From there, I started to Play a War Monger Wheel Map. But as outputting Log Files is part of my perceived value added (as I don't want to expend the bandwidth on Games Saves, at this point), I decided I'd rather return to The BUG Mod.

Thomas' War Mod Deleted!

Thomas' War Pros & Cons

The above is a Screen Shot of The City Screen in Thomas' War. Make of it what you will.

PRO: The Two Bald Headed Specialists are Doctors. They provide +1 Food among other things. Very Nice.

CON: The brown color is hard on my eyes.

PRO: Lots of New Wonders.

CON: Many of those New Wonders have minimal to no effect. One provided Crusaders (in theory) now and then. But I only ever got the one Unit. So, it was a very expensive Crusader.

PRO: Many New Units, like the aforementioned Crusader.

CON: I never felt the need to Build a Lawyer, Diplomat, or other Special Function Unit.

PRO: Many New Religions.

CON: Those New Religions are not incorporated in any meaningful way, being Aesthetic Alternatives should one play with The Choose Religion Option Enabled. I was looking forward to Running a Monk Economy with a Dozen Odd Religions. Booyah!

CON: I did not have The Appropriate Graphics Package; or so, I presume. Wetland Tiles appeared as Bright Pink Primary Blotches of Color, for which I did not care.

PRO: Many New Early Game Technologies.

PRO: Many New Late Game Technologies.

CON: That Middle Era (Cannons to Infantry) seemed to be lacking any New Technologies.

CON: The AI seems pretty much the same. So, there is precious little chance I am going to make it to The Late Game. I may not be great. But I'm pretty good. Though, this last is a function of How I Tweak The Settings. So, I'll take it as a personal failing, as well.

CON: No Logging. Ironically, this was the death blow for me, as I want Output... something to publish. But for some reason, Game Saves seem a bit excessive (i.e. weigh too much, are too large): 560KB is more than I want to Serve Up (on my Website) for an Uninteresting, Uninspired, and Uneventful Game. Even if this last complaint is all on me. Still, I want Log Files.

CON: No BUG Features. I did not search for many. But in addition to Logging (for The Second War Monger Game), I wanted to pull-up The City Placement Planner Tool and could not. Nor could I access Messaging, which makes for convenient reminders.

CON: I like Choosing My Maps, to the point of cheating. Regeneration of Maps was not enabled, causing needless frustration and grief.

And that's what I can come up with off the cuff.

But like I said (have I said this, well, if not, please, let me reiterate), none of this would have mattered (so, Thomas' War has its good points and bad), if I could output a Log. But I can't. And I want to.

Here, let me try to explain. Posting Logs allows me to feel (however self-delusionally) that my Game Play might matter, that some future Researcher or AI may wish to follow along. Thus, I Output Content, which just so happens to be a Very Important Concept to me... just look at the rest of my site. I mean, it's not that My Play is Important. But somebody's (and/or somebodies') might be. And I'll do what I can to throw my hat into that ring.

Got it?

Anyway, that's off the cuff.

As follows (if anything does) consists of extracts from My In Game Notes and further reflections as came to me over time.

But at the moment, I'm Playing CIV: BAT Mod v 4.1, if you must know.

CON: Minimal Civpedia Entries. For instance, Leader Traits (and there are plenty of new ones in Thomas' War) are not explained in depth anywhere that I could find. And having decided to Play a Certain Trait, I was unable to easily find a list of Leaders who had that Trait.

And in truth, I would prefer to be able to build my Civilization and Leader Combination up from scratch: Two Traits, One Unique Unit, One Unique Building, Two Starting Techs. Sure, it may be unbalanced. But isn't that just another way of saying some of the available options are better (sometimes, much better) than the others?

CON: The Preferred Game Settings (The Mod self-proclaims it has not been optimized for all Custom Game Settings) are not highlighted (or otherwise indicated) in The Custom Game Setting Screen. Sure, it's minor. But I never had access to either Tobacco or Cotton (assuming the later is the correct Resource) and this may of had something to do with The Map Scripts used.

PRO: A Leader who is both Philosophical & Industrious!

This is not Thomas' Mod specific. But I think I would tend to give Technological Type Discounts (say, 10% off a certain type of Technology: Scientific, Religious, Artistic, etcetera) rather than giving Starting Techs... or perhaps, a Tech Discount Bonus, as well. In other words, Techs are labelled with Flavours (this is already part of The Game and is used to determine which Tech a Great Person can Bulb next); and a discount in The Researching of Certain Flavours seems like a viable Mod Concept.

Also, as long as I am talking about Non Thomas' War Mod desires, I would like a lot more Consistency & Control in World Creation: Control Fat Cross Resources, Tile Types, etcetera. For fairness, points could be used... and not necessarily the same Point Total (Hammers, Food, & Commerce) for everyone. I mean, if I want to play a Stone/Gold Start, I should be able to do so without crawling into MapBuilder or Hitting Regenerate 100+ Times.

CON: Too many of my opponents started on Islands. It's crippling. And I blame (attribute this to) The Mod, as I believe I was using The Recommended Settings... or thereabouts.

CON: In these Mods with Endless Civilizations, I find keeping track of my opponents more difficult. I know Monty. Whereas, this guy I never heard of before... well, I've never heard of him before.

CON: Vassals are not grouped with Controlling Civilization on The Scoreboard in the lower right corner of The Map Screen.

CON: Resource Brokering is not allowed. Though, I doubt this is specific to Thomas' War.

And with those last few PRO/CON entries, I may have made reading The In Game Notes a bit redundant.