I made a mod.... sort of...

[Daftpanzer]

Hi, i dunno if anyone will be interested in yet another mod, but ive done a mod for civ ToT, if anyone would be willing to try it for a few turns or even look at the units file i would apprecitate any feedback:

download

This is a 185 kb zip, with only the rules, icons and units, so you can try it out however you want. I overwrote the files in the 'original' diorectory and it works fine.

This is my own version of civ that ive been working on, on-off, since civ2 came out 'back in the day ', the idea is the same, no events or other maps yet (i wanted to include alpha centauri like the expanded game but im having problems at the mo ). Its supposed to be like an alternate earth world, which evolves quite similar to earths history but in different ways and with similar but different units, not the historic ones like crusaders and elephants and stuff. Ive tried to have two types of artillery, one for destroying enemy units generally and expensive siege weapons that can get over walls right from the ancient age.

I made a biplane, fighter, and jet fighter unit instead of just the standard fighter, before you get any stealthy planes, ive done the same with tanks and other stuff. Ive got quite a few futuristic units in like hovertanks and big robots. Ive changed the tech tree quite a lot, only about 1/3 of the techs are unchanged.

This is basically how I think civ2 should be. Thanks for reading this, Id apprieciate any response, just cos I want to know if this is interesting enough to be worth making into a proper mod, or if its not

thanks for any reply!

[Gelvan]

Sounds definately interesting, the names of your wonders are very creative.

If you make the mod, than PLEASE don't forget to change the "describes.txt" so that we know why you renamed things, or what you had in mind when creating new units. Describe.txt is the best file to ensure the people understand what was in your mind, when creating a "new" wonder. one or two sentences will be sufficent - so you don't have to write novels

It seems you've put very much effort in balancing the units, that's great.

possible problems:
rules.txt
how many maps does it have? and why does howitzer have native transport ability?

[Daftpanzer]

hey thanks for taking a look at my effort!

I am working at the moment to have a 2nd map, like the AC scenario, but ive had problems with the events. I think i left terrain descriptions in for four planets.. oops.. I am trying to make it so that the teleporter bulding and the build teleport ability are enabled after someone lands a spaceship, but ive not managed it yet. So for now it just ends like normal with a spaceship, or at least it should...

I dont know why the howizter has that ability... (or the mobile atrillery i think i called it now)?? I think maybe i was experimenting and left it in accidentally

did you really mean it or are you joking when you say i took care in balancing the units? I tried to make most of the units sensible and balanced but some of the futuristic ones i put in i gave really high values compared to everything else, i think maybe that needs sorting out...

Anyway thanks very much and yeah I will get around to doing the describes.txt if i ever make this into a proper mod.

[Daftpanzer]

Ah i had a look at the wonder names again.. there pretty messed up now i think about it!!!

laprass's voyage lol, i think laprass was a pokemeon in the pokemon cartoon that i happened to be watching, i guess i was stuck for names... and dont ask me what an alpha hydrophon is, cos i have no idea!!! as for sacred temples of zlad, well i dont know about that one either! I cant believe i left all those in, oops... something else to fix...

[LDiCesare]

I downloaded and played a bit.
Well, it is a good start but.
You should include a readme. That is VERY important. Put in things like "this is a mod" "don't forget to get rid of those pesky .spr otherwise you won't see my nice unit graphics", etc.
You should provide a city.txt. Just copy the original one, but put it in the zip. English players won't see why you did that, but French will be happy to see the Spanish cities have a name instead of nothing.
Now the real stuff.
I stopped playing in 1040AD when I could build balloons, cavalries and such. I was in Democracy, too. Well, that seems a bit early. Particularly when you consider I started not far from the north pole, built 5 cities only in the whole time. I could build a heavy spearman long before guardsmen, which are weaker from all points of view. I could have switched to fundy at that point, even without building SoL... I am afraid the late game units will never be used if you can reach fundy this fast.
Caravans are far far far far far far too cheap. I mean, considering the boost in science and gold a trade route provides, 20 is far too small. Particularly considering you have arrows and shields almost verywhere.
I think a 10-cost unit would be useful to maintain order in the initial city (playing deity, you grow to size 2 before having built a unit which is wrong for happiness). Maybe make it obsolete with monarchy if you want to prevent people from using it to rushbuy incrementally too fast.
Explorers should be able to move even if enemy troops are near them. It is fine to have them very early in the game, but if they are blocked by a warrior, they are useless.

I'll try again, disabling the .spr this time, and try to get into modern ages.

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by Gelvan

If you make the mod, than PLEASE don't forget to change the "describes.txt" so that we know why you renamed things, or what you had in mind when creating new units. Describe.txt is the best file to ensure the people understand what was in your mind, when creating a "new" wonder. one or two sentences will be sufficent - so you don't have to write novels

Ah, a fan of describe files in mods/scenarios
Which are almost never created
I suppose people get to busy and dont bother, since you can play with out it.

This topic interests me, as about a year ago i authored a VERY detailed describe file for the techs in Cullivans "seeds of greatness" (a mod style scenario) - not quite a novel - more like a historical thesis. I was hoping to start contirbuting to the civ2 scen community, and this was easier for me than writing a scen. Since then ive gotten busy, and the community seems to have dried up a bit with civ3 out.

TO see it go dl "seeds of greatness" its on several of the standard scenario sites, as well as cullivans own site. I think only cullivans own site has the updated addition with my describe file.

LOTM

[LDiCesare]

I had downloaded Seeds of Greatness and remember it having excellent descriptions, including too long texts for wonders (too big for the window, couldn't read the whole text in-game). The only thing I ask is actually a description of the scenario. For instance, seeds says it allows you to chose from these civs, spans this period, and everything is new in it, plus you should run a .bat first.
For Daftpanzer, a description like "No huts, more units in modern era, a few near future units, names of the governments" description would be enough.
As for the scenario, I point out one or two more things:
I don't know what Communism is. I saw it available when I made a revolution to switch to fundy but never realized it was a government change. Probably Unification? I wouldn't have researched meditation nor fundy had I known I had communism... Also, I feel fuedalism has the same problem as in civ1: it is a dead-end track. I get cavalry before I get feudalism, so armourites are useless, and the corresponding tech a total waste of time to pursue.

[Daftpanzer]

Thanks very much for your replies, i see that i havent really thought about making a balanced game that wont be too easy for players. Thanks for giving it a go, your views have given me a lot to think about.

Is fundamentalism really so useful to need putting back til later in the game? i suppose it could be one of the last techs to research and have some kind of genetically engineered soldier instead of fanatics... Ive never really used fundamentalism in civ games except once ive finished the tech tree...

Yeah i guess the units need changing quite a bit. E.g I should probably make that heavy spearmen and guardsmen into one unit. I wasnt too happy about those two units but i wanted one expensive 'elite' defender and one medieval style attacker/defender that had had something that made it useful as well as the musketeer, but i guess its not going to work.

I guess the heavy knight- type unit and pikemen equivalents need changing too. The armourite was supposed to be useful long before cavalry comes, so thats a fuk up... I know that some tech is a dead-end but what i was trying to do was have different tech options to follow not just one path straight to the high tech, so if you wanted you could concentrate on powerful ancient/medieval units or go straight for the advanced stuff, but i guess its not going to work so well...

Communism is called unification, I forgot that i need to describe the gov names tho, lol

I forgot to say about the sprites.. ive been playing without them by installing ToT with the spirtes then manually deleting the spr files so it auto reverts back to the units.bmp....

I didnt disable the huts on purpose, ive been trying to figure out why they dont appear. Is there something in the rules that disables them? ill check it out

Anyway thanks very much for giving it a go Ive got my own terrain and cities files but i didnt want to overload the zip. Hopefully i can sort it out and make something a bit more professional and fun to play and less messy

PS have u done any mods or anything? where do you go to dl ToT stuff? the seeds of greatness sounds interesting.

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by LDiCesare
I had downloaded Seeds of Greatness and remember it having excellent descriptions, including too long texts for wonders (too big for the window, couldn't read the whole text in-game). The only thing I ask is actually a description of the scenario. For instance, seeds says it allows you to chose from these civs, spans this period, and everything is new in it, plus you should run a .bat first.

For more on SOG, go to cullivan.com/civ/sceanrios

You will find updated scenario with expanded describe file, plus other stuff.

I did not make any changes to the wonder descriptions, nor did i attempt to summarize the scenario. Only provided info on techs, comparable in detail to Civ2 original game (well, maybe a bit more detailed) but somewhat more historical depth, if i say so myself.

LOTM

[Gelvan]

@LOTM
Cool, found your page at http://www.cullivan.com/civ/scenarios and saw that you've made a ToT version of SOG - thanks! tried to do it myself with the civconverter, but it did not work, so I'm grateful you did it!

The describes.txt is great! And the event files promise a big replayability.

@LDIcesare
I think the Problem with the .spr lies in the static.spr - if you kick this one out, It should work if the option "disable .spr" was enabled.. er.. disabled, ykwim - but I haven't tested it yet.

@Daftpanzer
well my "review" was only a glance at the rules.txt, so... but I'm sure this mod has a big potential and if you just playtest it and put some descriptions to the advances (why they are where they are and what they are if different from the main game).

I wish you success and fun! scenario making ist great and costs all your spare time *g*

[Daftpanzer]

Yep i spend quite a few hours on this but its definately fun! Somehow i find making stuff more fun that playing it.

I am still working on this and ive done quite a lot of changes, hopefully i can finish it sometime

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by Gelvan
@LOTM
Cool, found your page at http://www.cullivan.com/civ/scenarios and saw that you've made a ToT version of SOG - thanks! tried to do it myself with the civconverter, but it did not work, so I'm grateful you did it!

To clarify - I did NOT make the the TOT version of SOG. Paul Cullivan, original author of the scenario did. It helped with several things, most notably the fact that converting with civconverter you lost the huts, which play a big role in this scen.

The describes.txt is great! And the event files promise a big replayability.

I do take credit for the describe.txt. Thanks for you kind words.


LOTM