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I was initially discouraged by the editor in Civ4 (being spoiled by the very user friendly one in Civ3), and hadn't seriously considered doing any real modding of Civ4. However, I've been studying the XML files for some AI tweaks I was working on and I think that I might be able to make a pretty interesting mod with just the elements I understand. I will need a little help, but don't worry, I'm not one of those 'I have a great idea for a mod and I just need people to do the XML, scripting, art, mapping, and everything else' guys. I think I'll be able to handle it all except for art and scripting.
My idea for a mod is one starting decades after a major war where all the WMDs got heavy use. The world is recovering from a nuclear winter, but the glaciers have only retreated as far as their maximum extent during the last Ice Age. The lower water levels have made much of the world that was once fertile and green into arid deserts and tundra, and most of the remaining green lands are uninhabitable due to radiation.
Over 99% of the population was wiped out in the first years after the war, and those that survived have been wandering in small nomadic bands for a couple of generations - earlier attempts to build permanent settlements were hindered by bioweapons that devastated any population concentrations until those with resistance became the majority. People can now build cities without bioengineered plagues from the past striking, and you are the leader of one of the first new civilizations.
Growth and technological advancement will be MUCH slower than in vanilla Civ, at least at first. Very little good land is left, and finding a city site with 10 or more workable tiles will be rare. There will be a new tech tree to represent mans attempt to re-learn lost technologies.
This will be more than just Civ with a really bad map. though. Remnants of modern technology still exist. There will be multiple types of ruins that will be treated as strategic resources, places where guns and engines can be harvested, as long as the civilization has the technology to repair these devices (it will be a long time before they can build their own). Most of these ruins will be in areas that are heavily radiated, so civilizations will have to develop techniques to survive in those areas with drastically reduced technology if they want to make use of them, and building units with these salvaged items will be much slower than building units with equipment you can manufacture yourself to model the difficulty in finding and repairing the gear.
Besides the ruins that act as strategic resources, there will be a few old military bases and isolated communities that will serve the same role as tribal huts in vanilla civilization. Entering these could be very risky, as some of them will have hostile natives who are equipped with powerful weaponry...entering a base might get you more population, technology, or money, or it might spawn a hostile unit of modern armor which will wreak havoc on your primitive forces. Maintenance on modern units that are not created with salvaged resources will be very high, so if lucky scouting gets you some nice modern units early in the game, you probably won't be able to afford them unless you have a strong economy.
Eventually your technology level might approach that of times before the war. You will be able to clean up the radiation in some of the better locations, and there will be a third wave of expansion (the second will be when civs start building primitive sailing ships). Weapons of mass destruction may see use again and start a new dark age, but if the world is lucky one ruler may be able to avoid past mistakes and build a better world out of the ruins of the old.
OK, here's the features I plan on doing...
New units - there will be much recycling of existing units, but there will be new 'Primitive with Advanced Tech' units that can be created. I can't do new unit art, but I don't really care about graphic changes, I'm interested in the gameplay. I also have plans for new unique special units that have combinations of abilities not seen in vanilla Civ.
New tech tree - I will probably need a little guidance or a good tutorial, but I think I'll be able to do this one myself, as it's not going to be a very big one - few techs with high research costs. Civilizations will be able to learn to use advanced technology a long time before they can build it, but it will still take time to get to that point.
New Civics - I plan on reworking the civic system, but this is a little lower on the priority list as the existing one should work fine, it just has a bit too much emphasis on religion for my vision.
New resources - I'm planning on three new ones - Engine Ruins (cities with lots of salvagable motor vehicles and industrial equipment), Weapon Ruins (cities or bases with stockpiles of guns and other weaponry), and Knowledge Ruins (cities with surviving libraries and other sources of knowledge, which can speed research and the building of some city improvements).
New leaders - I'm going to re-use existing graphics, but create new unique leaders using what I've learned from tweaking the AI on existing leaders.
New map - I'm going to start with an edited Earth map. This is one part where I'll need a little help - I need a good Earth map which is Standard sized. I don't want to use the Huge one that comes with the game because a Huge map allows you to fit in more cities - I want civilizations to only find room for a few city sites until they can start colonizing islands or reclaiming radiated zones. I want North America to only have space for 2 or 3 decent cities at first, and I'd have to make too much of the terrain unusable for that to work on a large map. Once I have a map base to work from, I'll do the rest. I'd like to eventually include a random map option, but I don't know enough about map scripting to make one that would work - I'd need one far more uninhabitable than the Arid, Rocky, or Cold scripts, and I'd want it to add radiation to most of the coasts and more fertile regions.
Now, here's the stuff I will need help with...I would really like for the terrain to change slowly over the course of the game as the world warms up again. I'd have this work like global warming except it would be terrain types like Tundra, Ice, and Desert changing into better terrain. I don't know how to do this and will probably need someone who can do Python scripting.
I would also like to have some unique art eventually, though this is a lower priority.
If anyone is interested in helping or would like to make suggestions, feel free. I don't have much time to work on it except on the weekends but I am serious about doing most of the heavy lifting on this, I really only need help for a few specific things but if anyone would like to help with more, it could probably be finished faster.
Thanks!
My idea for a mod is one starting decades after a major war where all the WMDs got heavy use. The world is recovering from a nuclear winter, but the glaciers have only retreated as far as their maximum extent during the last Ice Age. The lower water levels have made much of the world that was once fertile and green into arid deserts and tundra, and most of the remaining green lands are uninhabitable due to radiation.
Over 99% of the population was wiped out in the first years after the war, and those that survived have been wandering in small nomadic bands for a couple of generations - earlier attempts to build permanent settlements were hindered by bioweapons that devastated any population concentrations until those with resistance became the majority. People can now build cities without bioengineered plagues from the past striking, and you are the leader of one of the first new civilizations.
Growth and technological advancement will be MUCH slower than in vanilla Civ, at least at first. Very little good land is left, and finding a city site with 10 or more workable tiles will be rare. There will be a new tech tree to represent mans attempt to re-learn lost technologies.
This will be more than just Civ with a really bad map. though. Remnants of modern technology still exist. There will be multiple types of ruins that will be treated as strategic resources, places where guns and engines can be harvested, as long as the civilization has the technology to repair these devices (it will be a long time before they can build their own). Most of these ruins will be in areas that are heavily radiated, so civilizations will have to develop techniques to survive in those areas with drastically reduced technology if they want to make use of them, and building units with these salvaged items will be much slower than building units with equipment you can manufacture yourself to model the difficulty in finding and repairing the gear.
Besides the ruins that act as strategic resources, there will be a few old military bases and isolated communities that will serve the same role as tribal huts in vanilla civilization. Entering these could be very risky, as some of them will have hostile natives who are equipped with powerful weaponry...entering a base might get you more population, technology, or money, or it might spawn a hostile unit of modern armor which will wreak havoc on your primitive forces. Maintenance on modern units that are not created with salvaged resources will be very high, so if lucky scouting gets you some nice modern units early in the game, you probably won't be able to afford them unless you have a strong economy.
Eventually your technology level might approach that of times before the war. You will be able to clean up the radiation in some of the better locations, and there will be a third wave of expansion (the second will be when civs start building primitive sailing ships). Weapons of mass destruction may see use again and start a new dark age, but if the world is lucky one ruler may be able to avoid past mistakes and build a better world out of the ruins of the old.
OK, here's the features I plan on doing...
New units - there will be much recycling of existing units, but there will be new 'Primitive with Advanced Tech' units that can be created. I can't do new unit art, but I don't really care about graphic changes, I'm interested in the gameplay. I also have plans for new unique special units that have combinations of abilities not seen in vanilla Civ.
New tech tree - I will probably need a little guidance or a good tutorial, but I think I'll be able to do this one myself, as it's not going to be a very big one - few techs with high research costs. Civilizations will be able to learn to use advanced technology a long time before they can build it, but it will still take time to get to that point.
New Civics - I plan on reworking the civic system, but this is a little lower on the priority list as the existing one should work fine, it just has a bit too much emphasis on religion for my vision.
New resources - I'm planning on three new ones - Engine Ruins (cities with lots of salvagable motor vehicles and industrial equipment), Weapon Ruins (cities or bases with stockpiles of guns and other weaponry), and Knowledge Ruins (cities with surviving libraries and other sources of knowledge, which can speed research and the building of some city improvements).
New leaders - I'm going to re-use existing graphics, but create new unique leaders using what I've learned from tweaking the AI on existing leaders.
New map - I'm going to start with an edited Earth map. This is one part where I'll need a little help - I need a good Earth map which is Standard sized. I don't want to use the Huge one that comes with the game because a Huge map allows you to fit in more cities - I want civilizations to only find room for a few city sites until they can start colonizing islands or reclaiming radiated zones. I want North America to only have space for 2 or 3 decent cities at first, and I'd have to make too much of the terrain unusable for that to work on a large map. Once I have a map base to work from, I'll do the rest. I'd like to eventually include a random map option, but I don't know enough about map scripting to make one that would work - I'd need one far more uninhabitable than the Arid, Rocky, or Cold scripts, and I'd want it to add radiation to most of the coasts and more fertile regions.
Now, here's the stuff I will need help with...I would really like for the terrain to change slowly over the course of the game as the world warms up again. I'd have this work like global warming except it would be terrain types like Tundra, Ice, and Desert changing into better terrain. I don't know how to do this and will probably need someone who can do Python scripting.
I would also like to have some unique art eventually, though this is a lower priority.
If anyone is interested in helping or would like to make suggestions, feel free. I don't have much time to work on it except on the weekends but I am serious about doing most of the heavy lifting on this, I really only need help for a few specific things but if anyone would like to help with more, it could probably be finished faster.
Thanks!
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