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Iska's Empires Ascendant

Il Principe

If you like this mod, check out Il Principe, its leaner cousin.

Empires Ascendant

This is a beta, but I don't usually have any time or inclination to work on it, so updates will be sporadic. Please carefully read the documentation before posting that it doesn't work. This is a compilation of all my previously released and unreleased mods. It's intended to be be played with my other mod Stones to Stars, and is fully compatible. (It used to be somewhat independent, but now it's codependent.)

This is not compatible with Vox Populi, Rise to Power, or Extended User Interface.

This is a large mod that alters core game files and data and necessitates a cache refresh, clear it by deleting Documents\My Games\Civilization 5\cache\ & \moduserdata\, or you may experience severe game issues.

Manual Download (v74.1)[drive.google.com]

Features

- Governments, Authority, and Civic Policies and Tenets -
Civic Policies are a new type of a Policy that allow Civilizations to found Governments, determine its breakdown of Citizens' Social Classes, and gain other effects. Once you've founded a Government, you can begin to accumulate Authority, which can be spent on Civic Tenets, which grant powerful bonuses to your Civilization.

- Social Virtues and Prestige, and Dark, Dramatic, and Heroic Ages -
Golden Ages are now earned by accumulating Prestige, a new Yield obtained though the Social Virtues system. Heroic Ages grant powerful bonus effects to your Golden Ages, but are difficult to obtain. If your Civilization stops producing Science, it will fall into a Dark Age, leading to increased disloyalty among your Cities and Units and a temporary Culture penalty. Dramatic Ages can propel Civilizations into a Golden or Dark Age if they pull too far ahead.

- State Religions, Piety or Karma, and Holy Orders -
Civilizations can adopt State Religions after founding a Government, which allows them to convert Faith into Favor based on their current level of Piety or Karma. Favor can be spent to Hire Holy Orders or on other bonuses. Civilizations may eventually Secularize, converting all Favor into Nationalism.

- New Policies, Ideologies, and Nationalism -
Three new Social Policy Trees have been added, Grandeur, Knowledge, and Industry. In addition, all Policy Trees now have seven Policies instead of five, for a total of thirty-nine new Policies. Three new Ideologies have been added; Heritage, Spirit, and Neutrality. Civilizations can convert Culture to Nationalism after researching specific Technologies (or obtain it through other ways) to Nationalise Social Policies, granting duplicate effects.

- Corporations and Monopolies -
Control over more than half of the world's supply of a Resource gain a Monopoly over that Resource, which grant bonus Yields on tiles and allow the founding of Corporations, which spread Franchises over Trade routes and grant the controller of the Corporation bonus Gold.

- Currencies -
After having researched the Currencies Technology, Civilizations Mint a Currency which is then continuously Minted and spread along Trade Routes in their Cities. Players can purchase Currencies of any type that exist in their Cities, and spend them for bonuses specific to the Civilization which Minted the spent Currency.

- Mercenaries -
Military Units can be bought en masse from the Mercenaries Overview, providing an alternate sink for Gold and allowing Civilizations to field powerful Mercenary Armies.

- Just Wars (Cassus Belli) -
Players can now opt to declare either Surprise, Formal, or any of a number of Just (World, Ideological, Holy, Heroic, Territorial, Colonial, Protectorate, or Reconquest) Wars, which decrease Warmonger Penalties depending on their Type.

- Holy Wars -
Wars between Civilizations that have founded Religions become Holy Wars, granting bonus Units, Faith, and Favor. Civilizations following either Religion may enter the Holy War for the same bonuses.

- Civil Wars -
Civilizations that become too powerful and begin to snowball or whose Cities begin to become too Disloyal may become fractured from within, losing large chunks of their power in devastating Civil Wars.

- World Wars -
World Wars start between Civilizations that have adopted an Ideology after the World Congress has been founded. Civilizations engaged in World Wars gain Culture, Authority, and Nationalism, and gain the ability to train World War exclusive Units.

- Cold Wars -
Whenever two Civilizations that have denounced one another both complete construction of atomic weapons, both Civilizations enter into Cold War with each other, likely preventing further warfare. The Nuclear Overview is a new UI that shows how far along in Nuclear Development each Civilization is, and what Cold Wars they're engaged in.

- Vassalage and Diplomacy -
Civilizations on the brink of annihilation can be forced to Capitulate, or may become voluntary Vassals to greater military powers. Players can now ask other Civilization's Opinions of other other Civilizations, and can trade Maps and Technologies.

- Pantheons and Myths -
Instead of choosing a single Pantheon Belief, choose a Major Deity Belief and three additional Minor Deity or Ritual Beliefs to form a Pantheon before founding a Religion. The first Civilization on a continent to complete their Pantheon can choose a Myth Belief, shared by all Civilizations on that Continent.

- Plagues, Crimes, Festivals, Slaves, Emigration and Power -
Health and Disease, Crime (Violence, Theft, and Corruption), Prosperity and Poverty, and Loyalty and Disloyalty are new types of City Yields that increase the depth of City management and the importance of correct decision making when planning infrastructure. Slaves, Plagues, Pandemics, Festivals, Emigration, Revolutions, Colonies, Power, and Pollution are new additions to City mechanics that greatly influence their development over the course of the game.

- Great People -
Eight new Great People types have been added: Great Architects can create new Architect-Unique Wonders, Great Dignitaries can grant new unique Civic Tenets, and Great Doctors can help cure or innoculate against Plagues and Pandemics. Great Peformers can Culture bomb or create the Fairgrounds Improvement. Great Sculptors can create a new Type of Great Work, Great Sculptures, and Great Scientists can now create a new of Great Work, Inventions. There are three types of Great Recon Units; Great Scouts, Great Explorers, and Great Surveyors. Each are more adept at scouting distant terrain than their regular counterparts, and can be used to annex Tribes.

- Units and Cities -
Units may now stack (up to three military Units per Tile), and Cities can no longer perform ranged attacks and are substantially weaker. To remove this change, delete Documents\MODS\Iska's Empires Ascendant\Unit Stacks and Weaker Cities. Cities now start with only one Tile claimed, instead of six. This can be disabled in the advanced game options.

- Global Warming -
As you advance through the Eras, Pollution will affect your planet in devastating ways. As you begin to enter the late game, devastating consequences of planet change will occur; lose of resources, tiles, and population.

Credits

See the ingame popup at the beginning of every new game for credits list, changelog and technical help.