ModCast #1: The Personification of Evil

[Locutus]

Apolyton Civilization Site is proud to announce that the PolyCast podcast family is expanding with a new show. The flagship show PolyCast is old enough to be a toddler so we figured it's time to give it a little brother, and we're calling it ModCast.

This new show, which will still fall under the greater PolyCast banner and be released bi-weekly in an alternating schedule with PolyCast itself, will be looking at modding of the Civilization series, with a strong focus on Civilization IV. The panelists will be composed of four veteran modders: former PC panelist and Desert War co-creator Wouter "Locutus" Snijders, Second Revolution creator and Road to War artist Tony "GarretSidzaka" Kiehl, MXMLL co-creator and CCCP team leader Kenneth "Impaler[WrG]" Ferland and last but not least Better Ship Scale creator and Age of Decadence artist Oscar "Elhoim" Velzi.

They will discuss everything that's happening in the modding community: news, forum discussions and new releases of artwork, scenarios, Python and SDK mods and more. They'll also spotlight bigger modding projects and interview the people behind them, as well as of course respond to listener feedback, whether through forums, mail or voicemail/VOIP.

Episodes, RSS feeds and contact info can be found on the PolyCast website (with one-click subscription links for iTunes and the like coming soon) and you can discuss the show on our Community forum. The first episode titled The Personification of Evil is now available.

[Locutus]

Summary of topics:

- 00m57s | News
  Detailed discussion about ModCast: what will it be, how did it come about and who's making it? Includes a big announcement by Kenneth. Finally (at 19m22s), we discuss the Firaxis modding contest for Civ4.

- 26m16s | Artist Sketchpad
  We talk about Tony's Realistic George Bush leaderhead and a Necromancer unit for Civilization III by Plotinus.

- 35m09s | Code Corner
  Focused on the first release of Dales Combat Mod for Beyond the Sword, which include the Civ Customiser, Scorched Earth and Bombing Missions SDK component mods. (Please mind that two major updates were released between our recording and this episode's release, some of the things discussed are already out of date.)

[Locutus]

Mind you that some of the logos on the site that point to iTunes, PodCast Alley, etc don´t work yet, they take a while to get through the verification process (the rest of the site design is also still a bit in flux for that matter). They´ll be fixed between now and the second episode though. The default feed that most of you already use will have both PolyCast AND ModCast episodes on it, so if you want to get both shows you don´t have to do anything anyway.

However, if you only want to subscribe to one show and can´t wait for iTunes to approve our new feeds, in iTunes go to Advanced > Subscribe to podcast... and enter one of the following URLs:

http://polycast.apolyton.net/PolyCastOnly.xml

http://polycast.apolyton.net/ModCastOnly.xml

(I.e. the links that our RSS buttons also already point to.)

That'll do the exact same thing as subscribing to our feed once it's available in the iTunes store or using our soon-to-come one-click subscribe buttons, just a little faster

[DanQ]

Other than not mentioning my cameo in your Summary of Topics , yeah the arrival of MC! It's off to a good start.

[GarretSidzaka]

It's gonna be a cool secret

[Dale]

w00t!

DCM got analyzed! BTW, there's a lot more features in DCM than talked about in MC now. Been two updates since that was recorded.

[Lancer]

While I one day expect to become a very great modder I don't currently have the tech skills to start the show. I click on the Big 'MODCAST', but nothing happens.

[Locutus]

Originally posted by Lancer
While I one day expect to become a very great modder I don't currently have the tech skills to start the show. I click on the Big 'MODCAST', but nothing happens.

Well, the easiest low-tech way is to just go to http://polycast.apolyton.net and hit the 'play' button for this episode (see image).

Another way, if you have a media player that supports it (easiest way to find out is to try it), you can click the "Stream This Episode" link: it'll ask you to download and run a very small file and once you open that it'll start playing in your default media player -- that way you don't have to keep the site open while you listen.

If that doesn't work, the episode title "Episode 01: The Personification of Evil" is a link that'll let you download the whole MP3 (right-click and Save As). Takes a bit longer before you can start listening but works on pretty much every computer.

[DrSpike]

Nice idea.

But (no offense) I do wonder if it will be hard to find fortnightly material after the first few shows. You should review this after a month or two.

[Lancer]

Thanks Lucutus

[Elhoim]

Yay! It's out!

[DanQ]

Originally posted by DrSpike
But (no offense)

None taken.

I do wonder if it will be hard to find fortnightly material after the first few shows. You should review this after a month or two.

I take it you're referring to the website (and not the RSS feed(s))? There will be an archive page (or more) for both PC and MC.

[DrSpike]

Re: ModCast #1: The Personification of Evil

No, I was referring to this:

Originally posted by Locutus

This new show, which will still fall under the greater PolyCast banner and be released bi-weekly in an alternating schedule with PolyCast itself, will be looking at modding of the Civilization series,

It's clear that the first few shows can cover valuable ground, like the best mods, a look at tweaking settings from the expert, upcoming plans etc

But if the show is to continue on an equal footing to PolyCast then it needs ongoing material - and material that wont cannibalise the existing show. I think you will need to keep an eye on this.

[Locutus]

Oh, you have no idea. I don't think you go much to CFC, do you? They have more activity in their Creation forums than we in all of our Civ4 forums combined. And on top of that there's a couple of other small sites dedicated solely to modding like Civ United and Civ4 Files. I'm not the slightest bit worried about running out of topics anytime soon, at least as long as the level of modding activity stays anywhere close to where it is now -- based on the pilots I'm pretty confident we could fill an hour a fortnight on new releases alone, never mind other segments.

[DrSpike]

Lots of activity within the mod community doesn't mean lots of downloads - average people have to want to listen to the podcast. I can see that happening (at least to the same degree as PolyCast) to start with but remain unconvinced after a couple of months in.

And I'm only suggesting you need to keep an eye on it.