new ANT scenario

[biru biru]

helllo! i am a new/novice scenario builder. I am working on a scenario called 'ant'. This post is an official request for help with graphics, either help tracking down previous art or help with original art. This scenario will require new units, city improvements, people, and cities. I think terrain should be fine with art archived on this site.

I have already had a couple of people show some interest!

I am not an artist, but am pretty proud of my first ant:




Here is a unit roster based on current tech tree (subject to further brainstorming/input , absolutely)
ant (warrior)
workers 1 (settler)
workes 2 (engineer)
queen (paradropping settler)
large queen (paradropping engineer)
soldiers 1
soldiers 2
exotic sodiers
foragers
trade unit
leaf-raft
poison ants
co-ordinated ants
nest police
tiny ants
brood guards
drones
flying ants
slaver-ants
underwater ants
killer ants
jurassic ants
mass attack (nuclear)
spider
ant -lion (nearly invisible, move 0, no shield?)
grasshopper.

2 units finished, thanks valmont for the first one!

Any and all help, and ideas much appreciated. new scenarios and tools on this site have re-inspired my civ II play.

Yours truly,
birubiru

PS. I don't speak Japanese, I just live here

[valmont]

The ant looks great!!

But there are a couple things you need to be careful of with unit graphics.

First, the purple of the original units.gif background has become dithered. In the background you must use ONLY the EXACT magenta and purple colors designated as transparent [FF00FF and 875387]. Second, the graphic should not extend into either of the triangular purple areas at the bottom of the square; nothing in this area will be seen on the screen.

[Broken_Erika]

Move the ant farther up and it should be fine

[biru biru]

thanks guys. will test unit w/ new details.

[valmont]

Personally I love the idea of paradropping settler.

Some questions, and a thought.

Q1: how are you planning to treat terrain?

Q2: how many tribes will there be?

Q3: do you really need all those different types of ant units?

Thought: if you cut down the number of ant units, you could split the ants into 2 tribes, red and black. Then you could give their units different strengths/weaknesses. Whatever those might be - I know nothing about ants. Anyway it might add some interest. (I think someone had this idea long long ago, but never developed it?)

[biru biru]

Cool, Valmont, glad your still in. thanks for the input!

so far, map is done, using graphics archived on this site. Defense and movement modifications are unchanged, but the "zoom" of the map has changed;
barren (desert), wet (swamp), wooded (forest), rough (hills), very rough (mountains), weedy (jungle), teeming (w/ life) (grassland, reserved for engineer transformation). map is maximum, with a large "river" running through it. So far, most units are move 2, alpine, essentially negating terrain movement ('cause they're ants). Alpine is set to 1/2.

I'm still ahead of you on tribes; finished is 6 tribes and one barbarian civ to serve as home for spiders, etc. Weaver ants, Leaf-cutter ants, Fire ants, Bulldog ants, Army ants, etc. I really like the idea of different tribes having different strengths, but for game play imy instinct is to go with more tribes than two. further discussion? (theoretically, all 6 tribes could get some unique benefits, beyond starting techs, etc?)

Nope, don't need all the units. but tech tree is complete and replaces all of the original techs, so this scenario should replace at least the major units. Anyway, ants are cool about diversity, so the more the merrier. If you are concerned about the number of units b/c you are an artist interested in the challenge of ant art... me too. honestly, change the color and its a new unit. my priority is to finish the scenario with "decent" pics.

Thanks for the props on paradropping settlers. Im real fond of it too. the basis, of course, is that queens get a single flight, and where they land is where they build a new nest. excerpt from scenario intro (written, but not input) "as a gentlepersons rule, workers should not be used to build new cities, as this was not their intent, but the 'paradrop' function of queens makes them much better colonizers anyway..."

Most of my information, and pictures for art, has come from quick surfing on the net for info about ants, or entimology. Not a science project though, still a civ project. Also, if the people are still around that tried this before, please through me a bone. I am committed to completing this project!

cheers!
br

[biru biru]

uh, throw me a bone. p.s. i'm an English teacher.

[biru biru]

new "people". This version lost some of it's colors during a saving format challenge. anyway, looks better on my computer. (not a lot better... )

Question: how do i load these graphics into the game? probably answered elsewhere, but it's late...

[biru biru]

PS that's a heart (entertainer), a honey-drop (tax collector) and a DNA strand (scientist).

[biru biru]

people are in the game, no need to waste a question.

[jim panse]

Looks excellent so far! Got more information on the civs/basic game concepts for us?

[biru biru]

uh, Valmont raised the idea of different tribes having different abilities. As of now, 6 civs, named after famous ant species around the world, play the same tree for the same units (it would be cool to have a couple of special units reserved for each civ, but im not sure how to do that yet)

You start the game with two queens, found your first nest, and play a full tech-tree game w/ slightly accelerated research. Map is very large, units movement 2, alpine. win by eliminating other species or completing 'mass migration' project to another continent (is there a way to disable the spaceship graphics/ view spaceships function? i haven't tried yet though...)

Civ advances represent genetic evolution of your species, much like in the fantastic worlds dinasaur scenario.

Large barbarian horde in the middle of the map, home for spiders and other tough, barbarian-only insects.

possibly one or two simple events. I was thinking catch a very fast, non-aggressive barbarian grasshopper to spur an event. only an idea right now.

That's were I'm at concept-wise. Still open to ideas, feedback, insights, brainstorming.

So far, a map with terrain from this site, techs, some altered RULES and GAME parameters, people finished, and a couple units. I haven't rushed home at the end of the day like this since... the first time I installed civ II.

[biru biru]

Question (please help)

i have some nice little wav files for the units, but they are set to station:2 and 16-bit. I need to change them to mono, 8-bit, i think. How can i do this?

[Harry Tuttle]

" Blaze Audio RipEditBurn " - Free 30 day trial.

[biru biru]

That did it! thanks for the tip Mr. Tuttle.