Rhye's and Fall of Civilization

Rhye's and Fall of Civilization is a "fan scenario" (mod) for the 2005 computer game Sid Meier's Civilization IV. It is an 'Earth simulator' that uses a variety of scripted events to mirror history much more closely than a typical game of Civilization. The name of the scenario references its core feature&mdash;the dynamic "Rise and Fall" of civilizations through time&mdash;and its creator, Gabriel "Rhye" Trovato.

A version of the scenario was included in the second official expansion pack, Civilization IV: Beyond the Sword. It is the second most popular Civilization IV mod (after Fall from Heaven 2) by number of downloads on Civilization Fanatics Center, a large Civilization fan website.

Development
Rhye's of Fall of Civilization built upon Gabriele Trovato's earlier mods for Civilization II and Civilization III, especially Rhye's of Civilization which also sought greater historical accuracy. The popularity of these prompted Civilization IV developers Firaxis to invite him to contribute content for inclusion in the game upon its release. The result was two maps ("Earth" and "Ice Age Earth" ) and two historical scenarios ("Earth 1000 AD" and "Greek World" ).

The first alpha version of Rhye's and Fall of Civilization, then called "Rhye's Catapult", was released on 26 April 2006, featuring an elaborated Earth map and the "Rise and Fall" mechanism. With the release of the first official Civilization IV expansion, Warlords the mod was forked into two versions: one incorporating the new Warlords content and one that remained compatible with 'vanilla' Civilization IV. A third fork was made with the release of the second expansion for the same reason. The Beyond the Sword version of Rhye's and Fall of Civilization was one of the three user-created scenarios that shipped with the official Firaxis expansion (along with Fall from Heaven and Road to War). Development of all three forks has continued concurrently, with new features being incorporated into all as far as possible.

As of May 2010 there are two 'variants' of Rhye's and Fall of Civilization, which alter the core gameplay in some way. The first, RFC MP, was released on 21 October 2007 and enables multiplayer games of Rhye's and Fall of Civilization over the internet, LAN or locally in hotseat mode. In order to make this possible, several gameplay features had to be disabled. The second variant, RFC RAND, was released on 28 July 2008. It is similar to regular Rhye's and Fall of Civilization but is played on a randomised map of various sizes, climates and "Earth likeness". Other parameters are also randomised, such as which civilizations will appear in the game and when and where they will "spawn". The variant is intended to provide "something halfway between RFC and standard Civ", but the reaction to it has been mixed.

'Modmods'
The popularity of the core mod has led to the development of adjustments and variants by individuals other than the author himself, dubbed "modmods". One of the earliest was 'RFC Epic', which increased the number of turns in a game. Others range from collections of minor bugfixes and/or cosmetic changes to substantial "total conversions" like RFC Europe which transplants the gameplay mechanisms of Rhye's and Fall of Civilization into a new scenario portraying medieval Europe.

Setting
Rhye's and Fall of Civilization is set on Earth and is designed to mirror a historical Earth as closely as possible. A player can start the game in either 3000 BC or 600 AD. If players start as an ancient power, such as the Roman Empire, the game is designed to simulate the historical collapse of these empires into newer states. For instance, if Rome breaks apart sometime between 400-800 AD, France, Germany, Spain and England might rise from Rome's remnants. A British Empire established during the Middle Ages, if expanding in North America, will have most of its North American territories become the United States of America in 1775-1776 AD.

World History
Players can also "change history" and play a nation to an end that did not occur in the real world. Germany, for instance, is capable of winning World War II and controlling most of Europe. The United States and Russia may also engage in World War III. Middle Eastern nations, such as Persia and Egypt become very aggressive in the 20th century part of the game and start wars for little or no apparent reason. A fanatical Middle Eastern nation with nuclear weapons is also a very real possibility. Each civilization also gets a passive power based on its history. For example, Russia has a power, called "General Winter", that makes enemy units inside its borders take a small amount of damage, while England has a power that gives its naval units two extra first strike chances that's called "The Power of the Royal Navy".

Country stability
One of the main features of Rhye's and Fall of Civilization is the game's ability to monitor the stability of national governments, taking into account war, disease, corruption, invasion, and other factors which might influence the fall of a nation. If a "major power" controlled by the AI in the game becomes extremely unstable, the territory held by the nation will break apart into several independent nations. These smaller countries take the place of the barbarian nations, although do not normally attack major nations unless attacked first. However, when a human player collapses all cities but his capital, and sometimes another city, collapses into independent nations. Usually, other countries near the cities that declared independence may send their army over to conquer them.

The New World
Rhye's and Fall of Civilization is also designed to simulate the drastic impact that the arrival of Europeans had in the New World. Upon sailing any unit for Europe to America, the player is instantly granted several military units. American civilizations, such as the Aztecs and the Mayans, typically immediately become vassals to such colonial powers, including Spain, France, Britain and Portugal. British expansion in North America usually comes to an end when the territory changes to that of America in 1776 AD although it is possible for Britain to maintain a presence in Canada.

Africa can also be explored but without instant free units. The African continent contains major nations such as Egypt, Ethiopia and the Mali Empire. The "deeper" into Africa a player explores encounters small tribal villages inhabited by native units which act the same as barbarians.

Unique Historical Victories
Besides the typical victory conditions in the game, every civilization has another victory option - Unique Historical Victories. These usually include two historical achievements that the nation managed, and another one that the country attempted. For example,Rome's Unique Historical Victory is to own 5 barracks, 5 aqueducts, and 5 amphitheatres on or before 450 AD, emulate (at least) the reaches of the Western Roman Empire by 450 AD, and never lose any city to barbarians by 1000 AD. Upon completing two Unique Historical Victories, a Triumphal Arch is built in the capital, and a new golden age starts.

Rise and fall of nations
In Rhye's and Fall of Civilization, not every country starts at the same time. In the 3000 BC starting scenario, only Egypt, Babylon, China and India are initially present; in the 600 AD start, only China, Japan, the Vikings and Arabia are initially present. Other nations such as Rome, Spain and Turkey appear later in the game (at 750 BC, 720 AD and 1280 AD respectively).

Reception
The inclusion of fan scenarios in Beyond the Sword was well-received by critics. Rhye's and Fall of Civilization was singled out for prais by several reviewers. Tom Chick of Yahoo! Games called it "one of the most exciting and robust mods you'll ever see for a game", while GameSpot's Andrew Park said it "provided a fresh new coat of paint to the core Civilization gameplay". A review of 'Civilization IV: Beyond the Sword also praised Rhye's and Fall for being superior to the official Firaxis game mods.