Modification of Civ IV for educational research

[Jchippett]

Hi everyone,
I am a teacher of social studies in Nunavut, which is in Arctic Canada. I am currently pursuing my masters thesis and will be doing research utilizing Civ 4 in a classroom of entirely Inuit students. The problem is that I would like to modify the perameters of the game and I am not at all familiar with modding. I would very much appreciate any help the expert modders on this page could offer me. If anyone has any interest in helping me out with this project, please let me know.

[Egbert]

Can you expand on that. What would you like to modify?
Some basic changes, to a particular game, can be made in Worldbuilder such as adding cities, units and resources as well as modifying the map tiles and starting techs for each civilisation.
If you wish to make bigger changes to the game rules you will probably need to fiddle around with the Python scripting.

[wodan11]

There's an in-between category of changes, also. Some things in WB (e.g., you can make a map of a specific historical region you want to show your class, complete with the appropriate cities or whatever). Then, some things you can do with a simple text editor in XML changes (you can edit unit class abilities / promotions etc.) Beyond that, Bd is correct you need to work in Python.

[Jchippett]

Hi,
Thanks for your replies. Just to give a bit of further background, I teach a grade 11 social studies courses that deal with fairly abstract concepts that are difficult to grasp for students who have never left this tiny isolated community. I am not trying to teach history through the game but instead trying to teach these concepts behind civics, etc. For that reason I am trying to create a version of the game that is close to the Arctic world they know. I have managed to play around with this in the beginning setting changes but I am thinking that using the world builder may be able to do this. I am also looking to change gameplay components if it is possible. For instance, is it possible to remove the ability to battle with neighbouring nations and instead work through only diplomatic routes, at least for a certain amount of time in the beginning? I have played these games for years but I have not really delved into the game deeply. Again, I thank you for your help thus far and any advice you have for me in the future.

[wodan11]

When you start the game, you might be able to use the custom game startup screen, and put all players on the same Team. That will force them to be at peace for the whole game. You'll have to have at least one AI (computer) player (so that the game doesn't automatically say "you win!" on the first turn), but you can put it with a single settler on an island far away on the corner of the map on an isolated island.

Good luck with your project!

[Egbert]

You can turn off the conquest and domination victory conditions but that would not stop players declaring war on one another. The only way to stop war is to set the game up so every civ is human controlled, turn off the barbarians and bang any students head against a wall if he declares war.

Edit. Cross post with wodan11. Yeah, try Wodan's suggestion. I didn't think of that.