This mod pack consists of a number of independent changes to the
Civ2 rules.txt to alter the technology tree in interesting ways.
GIF and sound files for the new units are also included.  This set
of changes is based in large measure on the "Early 21st Century" mod
pack created by Robert May, and would not exist without it.  I have
taken the liberty of quoting Robert's Readme file liberally throughout,
since he justified his changes so well that I can think of little to
add.

This package is organized as four sets of related changes, plus a
bunch of miscellaneous unrelated ones.  There are 31 ways in which
the various sets of changes can be combined, most of which are probably
uninteresting.  The changes.txt file catalogs all the changes in such a
way that you can, with the help of a good text editor, pick and choose
the changes you want to include.  Additionally, I've provided a subset
of pre-edited rules.txt files, for the most likely combinations.  All
combinations include the revised "near future" mods, which I presume
to be the likely reason for your interest in this package.

Rules1.txt:  Just the revised "near future" mods.
Rules3.txt:  "Near future" plus "mainline labor union".
Rules5.txt:  "Near future" plus miscellaneous changes.
Rules9.txt:  "Near future" plus "recolored civilizations".
Rules15.txt: All of the above.
Rules31.txt: All of the above, plus never-expiring Leonardo's
             workshop.
Rules.txt:   A copy of Rules15.txt, for those who'd like to try
             it without having to bother with a rename.

The file Units1.bmp supplies graphics for use with Rules1.txt,
Rules3.txt and Rules9.txt (or any combination of changes not
including the miscellaneous ones) while Units5.bmp applies to
the other rule combinations.  The Units.bmp in the distribution
is a copy of Units5.bmp.

Note that these changes require the Fantastic Worlds add-on due to
use of the extra Fantastic Worlds tech and unit slots.

Here are descriptions of the individual changes.

Near future

The basic idea of the "near future" changes is to extend the tech tree
a little into the future, delaying the technologies needed to build
interstellar spaceships and introducing plausible futuristic military
technologies, as well as more accurately representing the historical
development of aviation.

Robert's comments on the delay of the space race were as follows:

>
> SS Structural -- Requires Plastics. (Just because you can put a man on the
> Moon, does not mean you can build an interstellar spacecraft.)
>
> Artificial Habitats (X6) -- Requires Ecology and Artificial Intelligence.
> Allows SS Module.
>         You need to know how to live in a closed environment before building
> an interstellar spacecraft.
>
> Hypersonic Flight (X7) -- Requires Artificial Intelligence and Jet
> Propulsion. Allows Scramjet, SS Component.
>         You need to know how ramjets and scramjets work before building
> interstellar engines.
>

I went and altered this slightly.  I defined a new Interstellar Drive
tech (requires Hypersonic Flight and Quantum Theory) as the prerequisite
for SS Component.  I did this because the AI's tend to steal spaceship-
related technologies, and I didn't think they deserved to get the
offensive power of the scramjet at the same time.  And I redefined
Artificial Habitats to require Bionics rather than Artificial
Intelligence to decouple the techs needed for SS Component and SS
Module.  (The change also reflects the idea that man cannot merely
learn to live in a closed environment, but in fact must modify himself
for such environments.)

A full list of technologies added or changed is as follows:

1.  Quantum Theory.  Requires Atomic Theory and Chemistry.  Prerequisite
for the Laser and Interstellar Drive.  (I got the idea for this from an
uncredited mod pack called "Fantastic Worlds Extras".)

2.  Radar.  Requires Radio and Electronics.  Prerequisite for Jet
Propulsion.  Replaces the Stealth technology which, as Robert says,
"really does not allow for stealth capabilities".

3.  Jet Propulsion.  Requires Radar and Advanced Flight.  Prerequisite
for Control Systems.  Allows the Jet Fighter.

4.  Control Systems.  Requires Jet Propulsion and Miniaturization.
Prerequisite for Nuclear Power, Guided Munitions and Hypersonic Flight.
Allows the Jet Bomber.  (Unlike the original, this package leaves the
Howitzer as a result of Robotics, rather than making it depend on
Control Systems.)

5.  Nuclear Fission.  No longer allows the Manhattan Project, but
is required for Nuclear Warfare (q.v.).

6.  Rocketry.  To quote Robert, "It takes more than just rockets to
shoot down planes and fire across continents."  Therefore, Rocketry
now only allows the V-Weapon to be built, and is a prerequisite for
Guided Munitions, Nuclear Warfare and Space Travel.

7.  Guided Munitions.  Requires Rocketry and Control Systems, and
allows most of the original benefits of Rocketry:  Cruise Missile,
AEGIS Cruiser and SAM Battery.  A prerequisite for Smart Weapons.

8.  Nuclear Warfare.  "Requires Nuclear Fission and Rocketry. Allows
Nuclear Missiles. Allows Manhattan Project. In CivII once someone
has built the Manhattan Project all a civ has to do to get nuclear
weapons is discover Rocketry. In the game it is possible to discover
Rocketry without knowing about Nuclear Fission, so you can build
nukes w/o any knowledge of nuclear fission. I always thought this
was ridiculous hence this tech."

9.  Genetic Engineering.  Now requires Miniaturization (rather than
the Corporation) and Medicine.  Just to recognize that there are
certain technical prerequisites for genetic engineering that weren't
satisfied in the nineteenth century...

10. Bionics.  A new technology requiring Genetic Engineering and
Robotics.  A prerequisite of Artificial Habitats, allowing the
Cyborg unit to be built.

11. Nuclear Power.  Now depends on Control Systems (rather than
Electronics).  Allows the Nuclear Sub and Hovercraft to be built.
No longer a prerequisite for the Laser.

12. The Laser.  Now depends on Quantum Theory and Miniaturization.
No longer allows the SDI to be built.  (We have lasers today, we don't
have any SDI's.)

13. Superconductor.  Now allows the SDI improvement.  A prerequisite
for Artificial Intelligence, but no longer (directly) for Fusion Power.
Possibly the SDI should have to wait even longer, for Artificial
Intelligence, but just having it depend on Superconductor is painful
enough if you're facing Mongols with missiles...

14. Smart Weapons.  Requires Guided Munitions and Robotics.  Allows
Heavy Armor, Mobile Missiles, Cerberus and Missile Infantry to be
built.  Robert's pack made Heavy Armor separate, depending on an
Advanced Armor tech.  This is much more logical and reasonable,
but I unfortunately ran out of tech slots and had to remove the
Advanced Armor tech.

15. Artificial Intelligence.  Requires Computers and Superconductor.
A prerequisite for Hypersonic Flight and Fusion Power.  (I toyed
with having AI depend on Quantum Theory, which is arguably more
plausible than Superconductor, but in game terms Superconductor needs
to lead to something...)

16. Hypersonic Flight.  Requires Control Systems and Artificial
Intelligence.  Allows Scramjets to be built.

17. Fusion Power.  Requires Nuclear Power and AI.  I note that the
space race now does not depend on nuclear technology at all, which
makes it more plausible that a spaceship might be launched by a
civ which has not yet researched Fusion.  I eliminated Robert's
Hovertank (which Fusion Power allowed) because I ran out of unit slots
(and I must admit I never found it that plausible).  Besides, Smart
Weapons really give one all the firepower one could ever want.

18. Interstellar Drive.  Requires Hypersonic Flight and Quantum Theory.
See the comments at the start of this section.

19. Artificial Habitats.  Requires Environmentalism and Bionics.  See
the comments above.  (The "Ecology" tech referred to above is Robert's
renaming of "Environmentalism"; I didn't follow his lead here, and left
the Microprose name intact.)

20. Posthuman Evolution.  It used to be called Future Technology, but
I renamed it for philosophical reasons.  It requires Bionics and
Artificial Intelligence, each of which has the potential to redefine
our idea of what is human and what isn't.  (A more traditional Future
Technology would probably require Fusion Power and Smart Weapons.)

Here is a list of the units introduced or modified:

1.  Alpine Troops.  Now obsoleted by the Cyborg.

2.  Riflemen.  Obsoleted by Mechanized Infantry.  (I'm not sure this
is a good idea.  An advantage of not obsoleting Riflemen is that of
having a relatively cheap defensive unit forever.  Nevertheless, the
Mech Inf's 3 hit points make it far superior to Riflemen in every
way but cost.)

3.  Marines.  Now obsoleted by the Cyborg.

4.  Armor.  Now obsoleted by Heavy Armor.

5.  Fighter.  Now obsoleted by the Jet Fighter.

6.  Bomber.  Now obsoleted by the Jet Bomber.

7.  AEGIS Cruiser.  Now dependent on Guided Munitions.

8.  Battleship.  Now obsoleted by the Cerberus.

9.  Submarine.  Now obsoleted by the Nuclear Sub.

10. Transport.  Now obsoleted by the Hovercraft.

11. Cruise Missile.  Now dependent on Guided Munitions.

12. Nuclear Missile.  Now dependent on Nuclear Warfare.

13. The V-Weapon.  12/0/8.  A weaker (but more expensive) Cruise
Missile.  Dependent on Rocketry, obsoleted by the Cruise Missile.

14. The Cyborg, a bionic warrior.  Dependent on Bionics, obsoleting
Marines and Alpine Troops.  9/7/2 3h/1f.  Treats all terrain as roads,
can make amphibious attacks, sees 2 squares.  (The fact that the
Cyborg can make amphibious attacks without requiring the development
of Amphibious Warfare is admittedly a flaw.)  The Cyborg is derived
from a unit called Rambo I found in an uncredited mod collection
called rgrules1, but considerably modified by myself.

15. Nuclear Sub.  10/3/7 4h/2f.  Somewhat weaker than Robert's version.
Depends on Nuclear Power.

16. Jet Fighter.  The Stealth Fighter renamed.  Depends on Jet
Propulsion.

17. Jet Bomber.  The Stealth Bomber renamed.  Depends on Control
Systems.

18. Heavy Armor.  14/6/3 4h/1f.  Depends on Smart Weapons.  This is
a little stronger than Robert's unit.

19. Cerberus.  14/14/8 5h/2f.  Defense doubled against air units.
Depends on Smart Weapons.  (Robert calls this unit an AEGIS battleship.)

20. Mobile Missiles.  16/3/3 3h/3f.  Can attack air units.  Depends
on Smart Weapons.  I toned this down some, but it's still an amazing
weapon.

21. Missile Infantry.  7/10/2 3h/2f.  Requires Smart Weapons.  As Robert
(who called this unit Nova Infantry) sez, "This was a last minute addition
to give some defense to Heavy Armor, Hovertanks, Mobile Missiles and
Scramjets."  I took the name from R. Glen Cheek's "Large World" mod
pack.  I also added the ability to attack air units.

22. Scramjets.  16/8/20 3h/2f.  Requires Hypersonic Flight.  Another
devastating weapon.  I increased its cost (Robert made it cheaper than
a Jet Bomber) to try to compensate a little bit.  Robert had it
obsolete the Jet Fighter.  I changed this to preserve the Jet Fighter
as a less expensive (and non-unhappiness-producing) air defense unit.
I also made Hypersonic Flight depend on Control Systems rather than
Jet Propulsion to avoid the possibility that a civ would build Scramjets
without being able to build Jet Bombers.

Robert's Hovertank, Special Forces and Assault Troops were left out,
due to Civ2's limitations on the total numbers of units and
technologies.  (If you don't add the Balloon and the National Guard
described below, there's still room left for two of these units,
but the rearrangement of the tech tree left Special Forces and
Assault Troops without a home, and no obvious place to make one.)

One so far unmentioned difference between Robert's version of the next
century and my own is that I completely redefined the weights the AI
uses in evaluating what technology to research.  Robert's weights for
his technologies were generally considerably higher than the weights
for earlier similar technology.  I considered this a flaw and corrected
it.

I should also say a word about icons and sound files.  I used most of
Robert's icons, and all of his sounds, so here's what he has to say
about them.

> Unit graphics: The Heavy Armor icon is from an early version of Steve Strayer's
> Fascist Patch. The Mobile Missiles is from CivII Conflicts in Civilization
> Alien Invasion scenario.  The Cerebus icon is modified from the jhunits.gif
> from norreh@advant.com. The Hovercraft icon is from the Star Wars units
> collection found at the UCivII site. The Assault Troopers, Nuclear Sub,
> and Scramjet are from the unit collections Mike McCart had at Civ2 Heaven.
>
> Thanks to John Conners for the following unit graphics suggestions. The
> Hovertank is from Jeff Head's Hightech mod, the V-Weapon is from the Fascist
> Patch, teh Nova Infantry is from CivII Fantastic Worlds Iceworld scenario,
> and the Special Forces icon is one he modified from an unknown source.

My only changes to Robert's graphics were to replace the Nuclear Sub and
Missile Infantry icons.  The Nuclear Sub icon I took from the Fantastic
Worlds Iceworld scenario, and the Missile Infantry icon from the "Large
World" mod pack.

The Cyborg graphic is the Marsman icon from the Civ2: Fantastic Worlds
Mars Now scenario.

Mainline Labor Union

Many people, including myself, consider the treatment of Labor Union
in the Civ2 tech tree as a serious deficiency.  Labor Union is
depicted as an outgrowth of Guerrilla Warfare, for heaven's sake!
It confers Mechanized Infantry, though the connection is certainly
hard to see.  The net effect is that this fine defensive unit is
rarely built just because it comes from such an out-of-the-way (and
otherwise useless) branch of the tech tree.

I tried to fix this by rearranging the technologies to put Labor
Union in a more mainline position.  I made Labor Union depend on
Democracy and the Corporation, and then made it a pre-requisite for
Communism and Mass Production.  Finally, I made Mechanized Infantry
a result of achieving Mass Production.  Making Democracy a prerequisite
for Mass Production in this way had ramifications elsewhere in the tech
tree.  Notably, Recycling depended on Mass Production and Democracy,
which I changed to Mass Production and Sanitation.  (OK, this is not
ideal, but think about it.  If a civ has not yet gotten the idea of
cleaning up its own waste, what are its chances of thinking up
recycling?)  Similarly, since Espionage depended on Communism and
Democracy, I changed it to Communism and Conscription.

One other related change I made was to add a new defensive National
Guard unit, dependent on Mass Production.  The National Guard has
stats of 0/5/1 3h/1f, and is quite inexpensive.  The purpose is to
provide a cheap yet effective defensive unit for the late game,
something a city can build quickly to protect itself against barbarians.
It was inspired by the Militia unit in the "Large World" mod pack.
For the icon I used the Mechanized Infantry icon from a mod pack called
"d11units" by Darudy (Nathan Daren).  I made the National Guard a "no
support under Fundamentalism" unit, which partially compensates for
my change (see Miscellaneous Changes below) of Fanatics from a
defensive to an offensive unit.

I note that Robert's early 21st century mods increase the Mechanized
Infantry stats to 7/7/3.  Robert offered no justification for this,
and since the Mech Inf's 3 hit points already make it quite powerful,
I left its stats unchanged.

I consider the Mainstream Labor Union change to have been completely
successful.  One interesting (and I think beneficial) but unexpected
result is a delay in the ability to build the U.N., due to the slightly
longer path to Communism.

Miscellaneous Changes

Here are some changes I like that are unrelated to everything else,
one major and the others not.

The big change of this set is that I modified Fundamentalism to be
available earlier, dependent on Monotheism and Leadership.  The idea
came from the rgrules1 pack, which in fact allowed it amazingly early,
dependent only on Monotheism and Gunpowder.  This is quite sensible,
historically; fundamentalism/theocracy has been with us a lot longer
than riflemen, and one need look no further than the Islamic conquest
of most of the civilized world in the eighth century to be reminded
of this.  Civ2's powerful Crusader unit can be regarded as a nod in
that direction.  Still, I felt it would be interesting and possibly
more realistic to allow Fundamentalism to be discovered earlier, even
if not quite so early as Gunpowder.

In association with the above, I modified the Fanatics unit to be
slightly more powerful (5/5 instead of 4/4), but I also modified them
to be 1h/2f rather than 2h/1f.  This makes Fanatics more variable,
i.e., more likely to either fold immediately or overpower their
opposition.  This struck me as a change that makes Fanatics a better
unit for human wave attacks, and better simulates the unpredictability
of using untrained but supremely motivated cannon fodder.  In association
with this, I also reclassified the Fanatics as an offensive rather than
a defensive unit for the AI.

Due to the potential earlier use of Fundamentalism, I wanted to
change the sound of Fanatics from the machine-gun to the rifle shot.
Unfortunately, Civ2 insists on using the same sound for Fanatics,
Marines and Paratroopers.  Since Marines *need* their machine guns, I
solved this by replacing the machine-gun sound with the rifle shot, and
trading the Marines slot with the Hovercraft slot so I could give the
Marines their own sound effect.  Since the Hovercraft cannot attack,
this worked well.  (It also changed the Paratrooper sound, but that's
OK, since I actually prefer the rifle shot for Paratroopers.)  To make
this change yourself, you must rename the mchnguns5.wav file in the
distributed Sound directory to mchnguns.wav.

For all this trouble to set it up, I have to admit that I find the
results of early Fundamentalism to be not very interesting.  The AI
seldom chooses to go Fundamentalist early enough to get the most out
of the Fanatics unit, and the improved Fanatics don't seem (to me
anyway) to be useful enough to make early Fundamentalism more viable
for the human player.  Still, your mileage may vary.

The other miscellaneous changes are far less elaborate, to wit:

I added a Balloon unit, dependent on the Chemistry tech.  I got this
from the rgrules1 mods, and I really like it.  The AI makes quite good
use of this unit, against which there is no defense until the invention
of Flight.  The Balloon graphic is from the Overlay mod pack, by
Joachim Flaemig.

I altered the Transport to arrive with Electricity rather than with
Industrialization.  Though I'm no military historian, it always seemed
to me that bringing in the Transport simultaneously with Industrial-
ization was a mistake.  A bonus of this change is that, unless you've
been stealing or trading techs, when you get the Transport, you'll
already have Galleons (via Magnetism), and Leonardo's Workshop will
upgrade all your ships correctly.

I altered Amphibious Warfare to depend on Machine Tools rather than
Tactics.  This was just from a feeling that Marines (and their machine
guns) were a tad more advanced than Cavalry/Alpine Troops.

Robert recommends making Dragoons 6/2/2 rather than 5/2/2.  I'm not
convinced this is a good idea, but I've put it in here for now.

Finally, I altered the weights the AI assigns to development of
Miniaturization and Computers.  The near future mods make these
techs even more critical, so I think this is only fair.

Notes on Leonardo's Workshop

Some players, including myself, like to modify Leonardo's Workshop to
never expire.  This can make the game more fun (at least, when the
wonder belongs to you).  However, certain upgrades are so transforming
that they hardly seem reasonable.  The changes.txt file includes a set
of changes which are recommended if you use a never-expiring workshop,
which modifies when certain units become obsolete to prevent their
upgrade.  These changes are:

Riflemen only become obsolete with Smart Weapons, preventing their
upgrade to Mech Inf.  (They will get upgraded to Missile Infantry if
you haven't replaced them by then...)

Balloons become obsolete with Radar rather than Advanced Flight.  This
keeps balloons from turning into bombers in the air with negative
movement remaining (which actually does no harm, but looks really
weird).

The Explorer now becomes obsolete with Space Flight rather than with
Guerrilla Warfare.  This causes them to be upgraded into Astronauts
rather than into Partisans! :-)

And finally, Cavalry become obsolete with Mass Production, not Mobile
Warfare, so that the mind-bending upgrade to Armor never occurs.  (This
does have the side-effect that if you research Mass Production before
Mobile Warfare, you lose the ability to produce Cavalry before getting
the ability to produce Armor.  Since Mechanized Infantry is also a
more effective attack unit than Cavalry, that doesn't upset me all that
much...)

You may prefer not to make these changes.  Those of us who play with
an eternal Workshop know the thrill of the moment when all our horses
turn into tanks.  Nevertheless, I recommend them as a worthwhile
concession to the reality of paradigm shifts like the invention of
Mobile Warfare and Advanced Flight.

One other note about Leonardo's Workshop.  When I first tried the
near future changes with a perpetual Leonardo's, I found that when
I discovered Smart Weapons, my Armor units were all upgraded to
Mobile Missiles, not to Heavy Armor as I intended.  I found that if
I put Heavy Armor later in the units list, Armor would upgrade
correctly.  Nothing else I tried seemed to help.  (I'm sure that
I could force the upgrade I wanted by making Heavy Armor depend on
something other than Smart Weapons but, as you know, I'd run out of
tech slots by this point!)  So if you play with a never-expiring
Workshop, be sure to keep these two units in the same order in the
list.  I note that the game is not consistent, in the sense that if
you are *building* an Armor unit when you discover Smart Weapons, the
production orders will be upgraded to Mobile Missiles, not to Heavy
Armor.  While unfortunate, this is not a serious problem, as the player
has the power to alter the orders before the unit is built, an option
not available when units are upgraded by Leonardo.

Originally, I also tried to make Mobile Missiles obsolete the
Howitzer.  But the same problem occurs, the Howitzer upgrades to
whichever of Heavy Armor and Mobile Missiles appears last in the list
of units.  Since Mobile Missiles has a somewhat different character
than the Howitzer, it seemed best to solve this by just not letting
the Howitzer become obsolete.  It's still a very nice weapon, and
it's much cheaper than Mobile Missiles as well.

Recolored Civilizations

This change has nothing to do with anything else in this package.
Simply put, I've never been happy with the arrangement of the original
civilizations into triads, which prevents certain civilizations from
appearing together in a game.  For instance, the French and the Germans
have always been rivals, but if you play either one, you can't go
head to head with the other.

I was recently inspired to develop a new coloring of the civs, such
that each triad contains one ancient, one medieval/colonial and one
modern civ.  (Some civs, of course, fit into several periods, and two,
the Chinese and the Indians, fit into all three.  This was definitely
a factor in making this scheme work.)  Further, in many cases there
are fanciful historical analogies between the individual components of
a triad, e.g., compare the Pax Romana with the Pax Americana or the
empire of Alexander with the empire of Genghis.  I leave the discovery
of these analogies as an exercise to interested players.

When using this altered list of civilizations, it often happens that
when I start a game the Civ2 random number generator selects a set of
mostly contemporaneous civilizations.  Since I often think of Civ2
as "SimHistory", I find this increases my own enjoyment of the game
substantially.

It is widely noted that certain of the AI civilizations are real wimps.
The ones usually named are the Babylonians, the Indians and the
Americans.  When I recolored the civs, I took the liberty of
redefining these civs to be more aggressive, while still distinct
from the other civs.  This seems to have worked.  In particular, the
redefined Americans seem to be very serious opponents.  While making
this change, I also observed that the Egyptians and the Chinese have
exactly the same characteristics.  In the name of variety, I toughened
up the Egyptians as well.

Conclusion

I hope you find some or all of the mods in this package useful and
amusing.  Please send fan mail or constructive criticism to Alan Beale
(biljir@pobox.com).

And once again, special thanks to Robert May for making all this
possible!
