The best of all worlds...

[Locutus]

Funny timing, SMIFFGIG's...
No, don't worry, this mod is still alive, but until a few days ago dormant. Just a few days ago I found some time to work on my list of civs again and I've also make some major revisions to my unit/buildings/wonders lists and the advance tree. Unfortunately most of these ideas are in my head and not on paper (or rather, in a file), so I can't share them with you at the moment.

I've taken a lot of ideas discussed in this forum in the past few months and included them in my 'mental' design doc, but I still haven't gotten around to implementing any of it yet.


There is currently one thing I would like everyone's feedback on, I planned to post a seperate thread on this but I might as well post it here now: I need suggestions for city improvements and governments. I think I was to do some major revisions to the current buildings list and I want to add a bunch of extra governments (although these ideas are far from final yet). Especially ideas on more non-Westerncentric buildings/governements are welcome as my list is currently still too Western-centric IMHO...

Here's a list of buildings and governments I came up with myself. This is a result of copy-pasting and some brainstorming, a lot of these might not make it into the game but I at the moment I just need as many ideas as possible (selection of the best ones comes later) so I could very much use suggestions:

GOVERNMENTS:
Ancient: Tyranny, Dynasty, City State, Oligarchy, Monarchy
Classical: Ancient Republic, Tribunal Empire, Dictatorship, Democracy
Medieval: Shogunate, Caliphate, Monarchy, Theocracy, Khanate
Renaissance: Colonial Empire, Sultanate, Confederation, Republic
Industrial: Constitutional Monarchy, Federal Republic, ???, ???
Modern: Parliamentary Democracy, Fascism, Communism, ???
Information: Fundamentalism, Corporate Republic, Technocracy, Socialism
Genetic: Virtual Democracy, Ecotopia, ???, ???

CITY IMPROVEMENTS:
Happiness: Temple (Anc), Theatre (Cla), Mosque/Cathedral (Med), Concert Hall (Ren), Public Park (Ind), Movie Palace (Mod), Stadium (Inf), VR Amusement Park (Gen)
Gold: Bazaar (Anc), Agora (Cla), City Clock (Med), Bank (Ren), Brokerage (Ind), Airport (Mod), TV Station (Inf), E-Bank (Gen)
Science: Ziggurat (Anc), Library (Cla), University (Med), Publishing House (Ren), Public School (Ind), Computer Centre (Mod), Research Park (Inf), Orbital Laboratory (Gen)
Production: Work Camp (Anc), Forge (Cla), Mill (Med), ??? (Ren), Factory (Ind), Oil Refinery (Mod), Nuclear Plant (Inf), Fusion Plant (Gen)
Growth: Granary (Anc), Aquaduct (Cla), Hospital (Med), Warehouse (Ren), Food Silo (Ind), Sewer System (Mod), Filtration Plant (Inf), Arcology (Gen)
Defense: City Wall (Anc), Ballista Towers (Cla), Castle (Med), Bastion (Ren), Battlements (Ind), Flak Towers (Mod), Army Base (Inf), Forcefield (Gen)
Crime: Courthouse (Cla), Prison (Ind), Security Monitor (Gen)
Pollution: Public Transport (Ind), Recycling Centre (Mod), Eco-Transit (Inf), Matter Decompiler (Gen)
Other: Harbor (Anc), Barracks (Cla), Capital (Cla), SDI (Inf), Micro-Defense (Gen), Nanite Factory? (Gen), Gaia Computer (Gen), Power Satellite (Gen)

[SMIFFGIG]

Thats good news for me and good new for CTP2 in general

Nice to hear it Locutus

I can think of any right now, but dont worry ill work at it


Try looking a SMAC for genetic and diamond age governments if uve run out of ideas, im sure theres some you could use (how about Cyberneticism or something for diamond or genetic where the majority population are cyborgs ? )


Is it just me or have u not included alot of city improvements in the list uve made eg Beef Vat and Body exchange etc and in the government list why is there no diamond era ?

P.S Cant wait to play this mod . .. .. . . . im assuming it will contain many other mods as cradle and MM2 have done eg Goodmod, Diplomod and citymod etc.

[ToonGoon]

Glad to hear it's alive & kicking

Locutus

I am very excited to one day see this mod come to fruition. There are so many great minds working in so many directions I belive an all encomapssing hybrid of all/many of these ideas is fantastic.

I would love to help - if only to add ideas and suggestions....I am rather ignorant of SLIC but I do have a very good artistic side, but this may be unimportant at this point in the game.


Might I suggest "Guild Hall" or something along those lines as a possible Ren. Production improvement.

And, perhaps, a genetopia-type of government, in which efficiency/production and such would be quite high while happiness/loyalty would be low (genetic matching of people with jobs they were gentically suited for but neccessarily happy with).

I've rambled enough....

[Immortal Wombat]

but I do have a very good artistic side, but this may be unimportant at this point in the game.

Time for another desperate appeal methinks...

Units?

[ToonGoon]

An eery ephemeral voice from beyond tells me that units may be needed....

I could look into that. I am somewhat proficient at drawing by hand and (believe it or not) I've been called a wizard in PowerPoint of all things - I made an animated short with it. However, I have not done this sort of graphics work before but I'd love to give it a go - whether you use my stuff or not.

Is there a primer for unit creation around here? I think there used to be one for CIV2. I assume the best bet is the use of PhotoShop. Yes? I can look for a demo copy since I don't have access to any great graphics programs right now.

Any suggested units to start with?

Happy to be aboard!

[Immortal Wombat]

Wow. I'm glad you're willing to give it a go. Making units properly animated is quite tough, so it'll probably take a while, but if you're willing and able, then you'll be loved around here

Photoshop or Painshop Pro are the most commonly used. You'll need to get the spritetool from the database. Though I don't know which one, CtP or CtP2 or the Directory. Its around somewhere I think, and Harlan wrote out a set of instructions about how to do alpha channels and stuff.

Any other questions, especially PSP, we can help you with

Which units?
At the moment, I'm inclined to jump at any excuse to get a couple of fantasy sprites for hex's LOTR scenario, but I don't think a balrog sprite would get much mileage after that...

Locutus'll say a crossbowman for sure. I suppose that's as good as any.

Good luck

[Locutus]

I planned on looking at SMAC and ST games and the like for future stuff but haven't gotten around to it yet. Thanks for the idea anyway. Cyberneticism and Genetopia or similar things are good ideas

Guilds were more a Medieval thing so I'm not sure how much I like that. However, I did actually consider making Mill a Rennaissance building and Guild (or Guild Hall or whatever) a Medieval one. This because mills as power source for production processes arose in Europe only in late Medieval times and drastically increated in importance in the 'proto-industrial' times, even though the invention itself and its application in agriculture was much older (the earliest mill-like applicatons go back as far as ancient Egypt). Your suggestion strengthens my conviction that this may be a good idea...

ToonGoon,
It would indeed be great if you could do some graphics work

Ah yes, my empire for a crossbowman!

[Pedrunn]

Locutus, I know numerous ideas about religion and culture has been dicussed in thei thread but unfortunetly i did not followed. So Could you make a synthesis of the best ideas discussed. I want to see how much can i implement in my religion code.

-Thanks in advance

[Locutus]

Actually, I had already started to write a special chapter about religion for my design doc, to distill useful ideas from this and other threads and to figure out exactly what I want myself. I will publish it when I'm done, which will probably be next week, after my exams (and after my Internet access is (hopefully) restored)...

[Pedrunn]

Not a problem me and mapfi cant wait to see what is in this chapter

[SMIFFGIG]

i cant wait till this mod comes out keep us updated on whats going on ....... plz

[Locutus]

Sure, I will. I made a revised version of the design doc, will post that as soon as the religion chapter is done. For now (at those rare moments when I actually have time) I am dividing my time between thinking out the various concepts of the mod on the one hand and making civ/city name entries on the other hand. The latter may not seem a very important part of the mod, but I thoroughly enjoy doing it and always hate how the existing mod IMNSHO have such poor city lists (not nearly as poor as the original game but as a history-buff I've always thought I could do better ). The idea of making better city lists (and wonders) was born long before the idea of this whole mod, it really started out with 3 files and evolved into a full-flegded mod from there

[Locutus]

BTW, did any of the European guys see 'Pyramids, Mummies and Tombs' on Discovery Channel yesterday or today? It was almost scary how many of the wonders from my wonder list, especially the 'less obvious' ones, were discussed on that show, almost as if the creator had consulted my lists before making that program: Yonaguni, Great Pyramid, Nubian Defuffa, Tower of Babel, Great Wall, Qin's Tomb, Teotihuacan, Chichen Itza, Sun and Moon Pyramids of the Moche, Nan Madol, Borobudur, Angkor Wat, Madurai's Meenakshi, Eiffel Tower. I must be on the right track

[SMIFFGIG]

Lol, no i didnt see it locutus, i havent got sky



Anyway, u talk about city names. Well ive been thinking of an idea for that, which would be very historically accurate.

Example one:

"Instanbul" formely known as "Constantinople" which was formely know as "Byzantine"

London - Londonium etc.

How about abit of SLIC code that through history changes city names on specific years (as where true to real life history)

I dont know the dates in which Instanbul in this case had all these changes of name but ill make them up


4000BC (Byzantines) first city Byzantium (capitol)
1000AD SLIC changes name to Constantinople
1900AD SLIC changes name to Istanbul

I know the dates are wrong, but you get the idea.
This could be used for alot of city names for the civilizations and would add a nice little bit of history to each city (if you know what i mean) and it would be historicaly correct.

Anyway tell me what u think of the idea

P.S.
A nice little Message Box saying "Christ is born" at 0AD would be cool as well (im not religous but i think it would still be significant as a part of history)


SMIFFGIG

smiff-giggany to all whom in which need know

[Locutus]

The city name thing is a good idea but it has been brought up a gazillion times before: it can't be done. SLIC can do a lot, but not this.

The closest thing to it is just to create city lists that are as historically accurate as possible, which is what I'm very busy with right now (and have been for the past months, whenever I had the time and inclination)

Originally posted by SMIFFGIG's A nice little Message Box saying "Christ is born" at 0AD would be cool as well (im not religous but i think it would still be significant as a part of history)

You guys ruining all my surprises I do indeed plan on doing something like that, with messages for other important historic events as well.