In anticipation of the upcoming Brave New World expansion pack for Sid Meier's Civilization V, I've been working on some mod projects.

Today, I published a small resource mod called "Copper Buff" that improves the effectiveness of the copper resource in the game. Currently, copper is a fairly weak luxury resource, since it doesn't get buffed by any buildings in the game. This mod adjusts the Forge and Mint buildings to provide a bonus towards nearby copper as follows:

• Forge: +1 Production from copper worked by the city.
• Mint: +1 Gold from copper worked by the city.

Both buildings can be constructed in a city if copper is present within the city's borders.

Forge and Mint improve nearby copper.

The mod can be downloaded from Civilization V's in-game mod browser by searching for "copper buff", or through Steam by visiting MegaBearsFan's Workshop (http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=144822605).

Now that Gods & Kings has rearranged the tech tree, I decided I would revisit my old Code of Law mod and update it for the new expansion. That updated version is now uploaded onto the Steam Workshop.

The primary intent of this mod is to move the Courthouse building away from Mathematics so that players do not gain access to the building that nullifies unhappiness from city occupation at the same time that they unlock the first siege weapon. This way, overly-aggressive players who beeline to Iron Working and/or Mathematics so they can capture cities will have to take a minor detour through the culture and science path of the tech tree in order to be able to annex those cities and start using them as unit-farms.

Earlier today, I uploaded my newest mod for Sid Meier's Civilization V onto the Steam Workshop.

This new mod is titled "Fat Man and Little Boy". The effects of the mod are as follows:

Completing the Manhattan Project now grants a free Atomic Bomb unit in the city that built the project. The unit will be received regardless of whether the player has access to Uranium (usually required to build an Atomic Bomb). In addition, the first player to complete the Manhattan Project will be given two free Atomic Bombs, which are appropriately named "Fat Man" and "Little Boy".

One of the biggest side effects of EA's insistence of releasing its NCAA Football games more than a month ahead of the start of the season is that its rosters tend to be out of date. First off, no real names can be used due to NCAA rules, but EA provides a handy roster-share feature that allows fans to upload named rosters to share with other players. I usually get my roster from Operation Sports. But the great guys at Operation Sports can only do so much. Updating the rosters for big-name schools like Alabama, Florida, and LSU is pretty easy. The little schools are a bit more of a problem. So I've taken it upon myself to make some corrections to Operation Sports' rosters for my alma mater, UNLV.

First and foremost, I went through each position and made sure that the players listed match what is on the most up-to-date versions of the team's depth chart and roster. This required moving a few players around, since they've changed positions. Other players were renamed and completely revised since those players have since left the team. I also took the liberty of making spelling corrections on some players' names (such as Maika Mataele and Ron Scoggins), updating redshirt statuses that were incorrect, updating the High School and Home State of most players (using the names of the closest town whenever I couldn't find a match), and also updating the faces and equipment of starters.

Earlier today, I published my first real mod for Sid Meier's Civilization V. As you may recall, I had previously uploaded a mod as an April Fools joke. But this new one is for real!

The mod is titled "Code of Laws (Version A)(v. 1)".

As the title indicates, this mod's primary function is to add a new technology to the game, called "Code of Law", and to move the Courthouse building into that technology.

My primary purpose for doing this was to deepen the Classical Era of the tech tree. As it stands, the Classical Era of the game's tech tree is only one technology deep. This means that era goes by exceedingly fast! I've seen players and AI tech to the Medieval Era as early as 1000 B.C. in some games.

UPDATE (August 8, 2012): Mod no longer available

This mod is no longer available since Civilization V has switched to using the Steam Workshop for mods. I plan to eventually upload an updated version of this mod, and will update this post if/when that happens.

UPDATE (October 15, 2012): Updated Code of Law mod now available on Steam Workshop

A new version of this mod designed for Gods & Kings was just released on the Steam Workshop. This version is only compatible with the Gods & Kings expansion, and does not work on the base Civilization V game. I apologize for the inconvenience.

UPDATE (October 18, 2012): Update to Vanilla version now on Steam Workshop

Due to a request by Steam user The Octopus Creating New Worlds, I went ahead and published an update to the original version of the mod (for the base game) onto the Steam Workshop.