Mars Mod Thread 1: Planning

[heardie]

Well someone had to make one eventually

This project to be hosted at my soon to be website, http://www.trakoria.f2s.com/index.php which is currently being re-re-re-designed

Will not actually start the mod yet, it is my opinion that you need to know a game backwards to know what to mod, and therefore I need more time. However this thread is for ideas. Throw them in; units, civs, citizens, techs, anything. This is an ambitious mod: everything will attempted to be changed, over the course of about 1.5 years I am thinking long-term here

So shoot and post all ideas.

And a few questions from me:
1. If you place folders in the scenario directory can you overwrite exisiting files?
2. Is there any game out there that uses futuristic modern units and it is knowon of a way to extract them? For example AOE2 has many middle-age units that can be extracted, but not modern-age units. CTP has modern ages units, but there is no un-spriter. What about Empire Earth?

[heardie]

C'mon. Anyone?

[Lemmy]

ok... lemme see here.
when does the game start, in the near future i presume?
how about that colony pod from SMAC as a settler, or something like that.
there's low gravity on mars, so aircraft would have an increased range.
Wasn't the 8-range limit hardcoded?
The map should have very little food, unless farms or something like arew build on them.

i have more ideas, but first i have got some questions:
does global warming raise sea levels, and can you modify global warming effects, like turning off that grasslands turn into plains.

personally i don't think you can make a total conversion, too many things are hardcoded.

[ElitePersian]

good, i was hoping someone would start working on a mars mod. Wont it be kinda hard to mod civ3 that much? mod-makers are having a tough time as it is. Guess we'll have to wait for firaxis to provide us with some more tools!

[ElitePersian]

here's a suggestion: a unit that pollutes the surface to heat up the planet - this is what scientists are considering when we send humans to mars. Perhaps you can give a worker the option of terrraforming land (if that's possible), and make a new animation for the unit. once the temperature climate rises, it becomes easier to produce food or whatever.

[ElitePersian]

water/ice will be a strategic resource! LOL

[Lemmy]

Originally posted by ElitePersian
here's a suggestion: a unit that pollutes the surface to heat up the planet - this is what scientists are considering when we send humans to mars. Perhaps you can give a worker the option of terrraforming land (if that's possible), and make a new animation for the unit. once the temperature climate rises, it becomes easier to produce food or whatever.

i was almost thinking the same thing, is sea level rise due to global warming in civ3, you could have a building that produces a lot of pollution, then after while seas would start to form, but now that i think of it, this would only be possible in smac, where you have elevation.

[heardie]

Yes, currently the game probably could not be done that well. But I have faith in an improved editor. For know I will concentrate on the graphics.

water/ice will be a strategic resource!

Heres the deal: Often realsim will have to be sacrificed for gameplay. I think that we need water/oceans to make it a good game

here's a suggestion: a unit that pollutes the surface to heat up the planet - this is what scientists are considering when we send humans to mars. Perhaps you can give a worker the option of terrraforming land (if that's possible), and make a new animation for the unit. once the temperature climate rises, it becomes easier to produce food or whatever.

Probably not possible yet, but I like the idea

Also the first unit will not be a colony pod, I figure enough will be stolen from SMAC as it is, the settler unit is simply known as the colonist.

[Gromit]

i was almost thinking the same thing, is sea level rise due to global warming in civ3, you could have a building that produces a lot of pollution, then after while seas would start to form, but now that i think of it, this would only be possible in smac, where you have elevation.

On that note, global warming in all civ games changes one kind of terrain into another. Has anyone polluted the map enough to change more than three or four squares before they win/lose? If so how far does global warming go in civ3?

I remember playing a game of Civ1 (on chieftan level) where I discovered that global warming was actually a GOOD thing, since it allowed mega stonkingly huge cities. I'll explain Eventually, ALL terrain becomes jungle or swamp. Clear them and you have beautiful virgin (mostly bonus I might add)
grassland. Not only that but the AI has no
idea whats going on and practically stops developing.

They seem to have improved the game some what since then though I guess.

[mfauzi]

Hmm... wouldn't the planes get less lift or need more trust since the air is much thinner? Plus CO2 poisoning, you'll need some technology just to walk outside safely

Anyway, for ideas, you should read the Red Mars, Green Mars and Blue Mars (they're a trilogy) by Kim Stanley Robinson. They're great, the author really thinks ahead of his time.

[fezick31]

Perhaps we could create a mod based loosely on the Red Mars, Green Mars, Blue Mars trilogy. That series went heavily into the development of a unique martian culture, and also was written in depth to include technologies and such. Some ideas:

Civilizations:

Orginal colonists
Miners
Religious Outcasts
Colonists from major nations (USA,China, Russia, and EU)
Social outcasts (convicts)
Pro-Terraform scientists
Eco Scientists (against terraforming)
Corporations
Feral groups


Technologies:

Non-combustion engines (not enough O2 on mars)
Martian flight (the air on mars is 5% the thickness of Earth. Terran airplanes would have a tough time of it.)
Advanced Polymers
Martian Ecology
Regolith Processing (an early tech on par with pottery)
Genetic Engineering (would allow farming on mars)
Advanced Genetic Engineering (would allow longevity treatment small wonder)
Advanced Plastics (would allow bubble cites)
Advanced Robotics (workers replaced by robotic Formers)
Fusion (faster spacecraft, power plants)
Advanced Space Flight (would allow the mining of asteroids, maybe a +X production to al cities connected to the space elevator)

Units:

Air Ship
Rovers
Colonists (settler)
Worker
Former (advanced Worker)
Ultralight
Glider
Space Plane
Infantry
Attack Satelite
Terrorists (not getting back on the off topic discussion in this thread, i'm thinking of small groups of eco-terrorists who destroy equipment - these could replace barbarians, or not)
Sailboat
Powerboat
Cruiser
Submarine


Wonders:

Space elevator
Longevity Treatment
Martian Councel (major wonder)
Phobos base (major wonder)
Deimos base (major wonder)
Earth Trade route


Maps:

In order to simluate the terraforming of mars, we could utilize a system I saw once in WW2 scenario that simulated seasons. Whenever a secific level of poluttion is reached (this is assuming an events options is included at some point), the game can save itself,and then reopen with a new map. The way this was done was to report unit, city, and civ information in some sort of file, and then recreate everything in what was a new scenario. In this way, we could make several maps with different sea levels.


Those are just some of my ideas. It would also be nice to have some very accurate maps. It would really enhance the play.

[ElitePersian]

well you cant help but stealing ideas from SMAC, we are basically trying to re-create SMAC here with the civ3 tools.

[heardie]

Originally posted by ElitePersian
well you cant help but stealing ideas from SMAC, we are basically trying to re-create SMAC here with the civ3 tools.

Not steal...borrow and build upon. It is not a re-creation of SMAC, Civ3 and SMAC have totally different engines that would make this impoossible. Re-creating SMAC in Civ 3 I would not like as a goal, this mod is planning on being an entirly new game.

[heardie]

Originally posted by fezick31
Perhaps we could create a mod based loosely on the Red Mars, Green Mars, Blue Mars trilogy. That series went heavily into the development of a unique martian culture, and also was written in depth to include technologies and such. Some ideas:

Civilizations:

Orginal colonists
Miners
Religious Outcasts
Colonists from major nations (USA,China, Russia, and EU)
Social outcasts (convicts)
Pro-Terraform scientists
Eco Scientists (against terraforming)
Corporations
Feral groups


Technologies:

Non-combustion engines (not enough O2 on mars)
Martian flight (the air on mars is 5% the thickness of Earth. Terran airplanes would have a tough time of it.)
Advanced Polymers
Martian Ecology
Regolith Processing (an early tech on par with pottery)
Genetic Engineering (would allow farming on mars)
Advanced Genetic Engineering (would allow longevity treatment small wonder)
Advanced Plastics (would allow bubble cites)
Advanced Robotics (workers replaced by robotic Formers)
Fusion (faster spacecraft, power plants)
Advanced Space Flight (would allow the mining of asteroids, maybe a +X production to al cities connected to the space elevator)

Units:

Air Ship
Rovers
Colonists (settler)
Worker
Former (advanced Worker)
Ultralight
Glider
Space Plane
Infantry
Attack Satelite
Terrorists (not getting back on the off topic discussion in this thread, i'm thinking of small groups of eco-terrorists who destroy equipment - these could replace barbarians, or not)
Sailboat
Powerboat
Cruiser
Submarine


Wonders:

Space elevator
Longevity Treatment
Martian Councel (major wonder)
Phobos base (major wonder)
Deimos base (major wonder)
Earth Trade route


Maps:

In order to simluate the terraforming of mars, we could utilize a system I saw once in WW2 scenario that simulated seasons. Whenever a secific level of poluttion is reached (this is assuming an events options is included at some point), the game can save itself,and then reopen with a new map. The way this was done was to report unit, city, and civ information in some sort of file, and then recreate everything in what was a new scenario. In this way, we could make several maps with different sea levels.


Those are just some of my ideas. It would also be nice to have some very accurate maps. It would really enhance the play.

Inspired post. However, map-making is my weak point. I would love someone maps, but no, not me.

[mfauzi]

Wow, you really kow your stuff about the trilogy. I've only finish the first book, which I find interesting. I've began Green Mars but got too busy to finish it. Anyway, there's lots we can get from there.

Anyway, about the map, I think there's lots of mar's maps out there we can base on. Maybe if we just get somebody to do a real good map for us (somebody made a real good map for earth. Why not mars?