Hey everyone,
first off, although there is some frustration in my words below, this isn't simply a thread of complaints:
I'm an ocassional reader/poster here. I did lots of Civ II modding, and enjoyed it tremendously, even if it was nothing fancy, and just stored on my computer or my friends' computers.
I am wondering if there is a concensus on how easy/hard modding is with regards to Civ IV. AND WHETHER the decisions made (regarding modding) essentially discouraged many would-be modders from attempting to create scenarios/maps/mods. I know I fell into this camp. After attempting to create a map (and succeeding), I found it incredibly difficult to continue after placing cities and editing civ descriptions.
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Some stats:
Civ II: released in 1996, by 2001 there were over 800 maps/scenarios/mods archived. And there are over 400 stored in separate folders.
If we assume these two clusters are completely redundant that means there was an average of ~160 uploads/year (likely centered on specific release dates).
CivIV: released in 2005, more than a year later there are less than 50 files stored here at apolyton (including mods/scenarios/maps/graphics/other files
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I'd still like to try to do some modding, but I don't know all the programming language, and I think me using python would probably just end in failure. If there is some simple guide to using the SDK, I'd be interested in trying, but I really feel like the designers decided that the lay-user should just be ignored when it comes to modding. And I want to say that this really frustrates me. In other words, it seemed to me like there was a really steep learning curve that bordered on a vertical line.
I hope that Civ V might see some of the Civ II simplicity restored for the non-programmer user. Our scenarios/mods may not be as grand as someone who can program, but it keeps people into the game and it inspires othersr to be programers to be better at designing games.
if anyone has any suggestions regarding how a non-programmer can proceed, please give them. I haven't attempted to mod since early 2006.
thanks,
-Zen
first off, although there is some frustration in my words below, this isn't simply a thread of complaints:
I'm an ocassional reader/poster here. I did lots of Civ II modding, and enjoyed it tremendously, even if it was nothing fancy, and just stored on my computer or my friends' computers.
I am wondering if there is a concensus on how easy/hard modding is with regards to Civ IV. AND WHETHER the decisions made (regarding modding) essentially discouraged many would-be modders from attempting to create scenarios/maps/mods. I know I fell into this camp. After attempting to create a map (and succeeding), I found it incredibly difficult to continue after placing cities and editing civ descriptions.
--------
Some stats:
Civ II: released in 1996, by 2001 there were over 800 maps/scenarios/mods archived. And there are over 400 stored in separate folders.
If we assume these two clusters are completely redundant that means there was an average of ~160 uploads/year (likely centered on specific release dates).
CivIV: released in 2005, more than a year later there are less than 50 files stored here at apolyton (including mods/scenarios/maps/graphics/other files
--------
I'd still like to try to do some modding, but I don't know all the programming language, and I think me using python would probably just end in failure. If there is some simple guide to using the SDK, I'd be interested in trying, but I really feel like the designers decided that the lay-user should just be ignored when it comes to modding. And I want to say that this really frustrates me. In other words, it seemed to me like there was a really steep learning curve that bordered on a vertical line.
I hope that Civ V might see some of the Civ II simplicity restored for the non-programmer user. Our scenarios/mods may not be as grand as someone who can program, but it keeps people into the game and it inspires othersr to be programers to be better at designing games.
if anyone has any suggestions regarding how a non-programmer can proceed, please give them. I haven't attempted to mod since early 2006.
thanks,
-Zen
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