This mod makes the polar icecaps dynamic. Ice can occasionally grow and disappear, so that arctic passages can be open during one turn and closed during another.

The ice can be crossed by Workboats and Destroyers, but the high movement cost allows them to move only one tile a turn through ice.

With Combustion, Workboats and Destroyers will become able to break the ice. This will be useful for opening passages.

That is such a cool idea - good job!

awesome!

edit: message lenghtened to reach 10 letters.

I definatly like this idea... any known bugs yet?
*wants to merge it into Composite Mod*

Incredible idea. Any chance that icebergs can wander a bit as well?

I have had some problems with balancing - please tell me if there is too little or too much ice in the endgame.

I will also try to do land glaciers.

I will test it when I get home tonight :)

Sweet idea, gonna try this out tonight!

I'd love to include this mod in my mod, but it's nigh onto impossible to identify what changes you've made. Whatever editor you're using has just totally messed things up as far as a diff is concerned, introducing a zillion textual changes that have no semantic value.

Like changing <UnitClassUpgrades/>
to
Like changing <UnitClassUpgrades>
</UnitClassUpgrades>

and apparently encoding the CIV4GameTextInfos.xml into a different encoding.

Those of us who live and die by diffs are and will be overwhelmed by this problem. If I'm missing something, I'd love to know what it is.

--Kristine

I have used Open XML Editor by Dieter Köhler, mostly because that was the first one I found. Maybe you could suggest another editor?

I have used Open XML Editor by Dieter Köhler, mostly because that was the first one I found. Maybe you could suggest another editor?

:lol: Well, the only editors I use are vi and emacs, so they're probably not real acceptable suggestions, except I did use XMLWriter once to reformat the CIV4UnitInfos.xml file. As delivered from Firaxis, it contains no newlines. And I'm sorry if I came across a little strong. I do like the mod idea and would like to include it.

--Kristine

Very nice :-).

What happens if a unit (that cant break them) is on a tile that becomes icecap? Trapped? Dies? Nothing?


Now if someone made a forrest change mod, lite forest fires and more commonly spread.
And maybe same for dessert, grassland and other things :-).

I don't think AI will be able to use icebreakers competently. May be all ship should be able break ice after Combastion ?

What happens if a unit (that cant break them) is on a tile that becomes icecap? Trapped? Dies? Nothing?
Gotta try that. My guess would be that it would be able to get out if there is an adjacent open sea tile.

just a thought :
-subs should be able to go under the ice
-a promotion for naval units that allows them to break the ice (after Combustion ofcourse)

-subs should be able to go under the ice


Um this is already possible in the vanilla game :P

never tried it :) sry

A new version is coming up, including these changes:

* Some renamings to avoid confusion and increase realism. Ice (the feature) renamed to "Icecap". Ice (the base terrain) renamed to "Permafrost". Tundra renamed to "Moraine".
* Icecaps can grow on Permafrost and Moraine.
* Icecaps are passable by most ships, but the movement cost is high.
* Icecaps give zero food, production and commerce.
* Icecaps provide fresh water.
* Moraine gives 1 production.

I would recomed that Tundra remain Tundra, Ice on Water becomes "Pack Ice" or "Ice Sheet", Ice on land could be "Glacier".

A Moraine is a very specific localized feature created from bits of rock a Glacier breaks off and carries with it. At the Glaciers melt point the stones are droped in a pile that grows to become a hill/ridge. I would only call Ice Covered Hills Moraines, is it possible to do that?

Maybe till is a better translation of the landform I am referring to. (The Swedish word "morän" translates to both "moraine" and "till".) It consists of a mixture of rocks, rough gravel and clay, left from the Pleistocene ice age. Most of this land is covered by forest, because of the low evaporation and the hard labor needed for cultivation.

The Tundra in Civ 4 is very similar to the land I see outside my window, in a Stockholm suburb. The trees grow tall, but our forefathers had to struggle for centuries to clear away the rocks so they could grow some crops.

The Ice (land terrain, called Snow in the files) in Civ 4 is much like the real world tundra. You can walk on it, but no trees grow there, even less cereals, due to the permafrost. (I like cloudberries though...) The land is not economically productive at all, unless you find some valuable animals or minerals.

When the Ice (terrain feature) grows onto land, it becomes like a real world glacier. Only foolish adventurers would try to climb it.

Till is probably a better word for what you want. A moraine, lateral or terminal, is generally more like a hill of debris left either from glacial melt on the sides or terminus, or stuff that's just fallen off the glacier. You can look here (http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/Glossary/Glaciers/glacier_terminology.html) for more info.

--Kristine

Till and Moraine are both glacier-deposited, what you're probably looking for is Taiga. Tundra is the near-uninhabitable permafrost between the ice cap and northern tree line. Taiga is the subartic, often forest-covered climate between the permafrost and temperate zone across North America and Eurasia.

Tundra
http://www.blueplanetbiomes.org/images/tundra_location_map001.gif

Taiga
http://www.blueplanetbiomes.org/images/taiga_location_map001.gif

www.blueplanetbiomes.org/taiga.htm (http://www.blueplanetbiomes.org/taiga.htm)

So it could be "Ice" - the feature, "Tundra" - permafrost, and "Taiga" - greyish terrain.

For Glaciers, is it possible to add new terrain features? The current Ice feature doesn't look so good on land, since it's graphically designed to rest subsurface in water. If it's possible to add a new Glacier terrain feature that has a Z-axis shift upwards, that'd look pretty cool.

I could use the word Taiga, but it is actually the word for the forest, not the soil or landform. Does not matter much though, because most of this terrain is covered by forest, and will be because it will not be very exploited during the game.

so, how is this mod developing? :)

*bump*

This mod is very interesting. I'm definitely going to use it in my next game. Althoough I have never been close to either of the poles. I've always been in the equatorial region.

Can't believe it, an eco-feature mod I missed. ;)

But it seems the creator has abandonned it? :(

I am not sure how to develop this mod further.

I am thinking of making a Maritime mod, including changes of several other parameters for oceans and naval units.

Perhaps if naval units were actually killed when they bumped into this moving ice, then that would make a better gameplay. IRL, most early polar explorers were trapped and died. That way, caravels on terra shouldn't be able to get a circumavigation bonus through a northern passage, unless they get lucky.

I would definitely make all wooden vessels sink when contacted by ice. For modern ones, they could get trapped (zero movement) for as long as the ice stands.

Maybe we could make an animal unit called "blizzard" that appears in ice squares and kills units?

How about a random event that let the ice advance? :D New Ice Age anyone?

Of course, it should have a check that cities are not "covered" so to speak after a certain age.

Btw, is it possible to code that an improvement of a tile is not destroyed when the tile changes? Like grassland becoming tundra (or taiga in this mod I suppose) because of the glaciers closing in towards the equador, but the improvement "survives" that tile-change?

Terrain features will not grow on improved land, so that is a good way to hold back the ice.

Will this mod fit 1.61?

Very useful for me, it always seem that every time I'm near the poles I have to go around the ice which takes about 12+ turns. Now I just need to break it.

I would love to see you make an maritime mod. I play alot of isle scenarios and find alot missing when it comes to the naval aspect of it. I would definetly download it. Maybe have helicopters/transport planes that can drop sensor buoys to keep an eye out for them subs sorta thing. I would also like to see battleships being able to devastate land squares again. Anyways. I would really like to see what you come up with. Thanks

I think sensor buoys would best be modelled as sea units. These units would have zero maintenance cost, movement rate of 1 and the ability to see submarines.

Any thoughts of bringing this into BtS?

This mod should be simple to reconstruct, but I'll wait until the next patch. BtS is too buggy now.

Cool mod, but since I'm playing BtS now, I'll wait until you update it to use it (or until the maritime mod comes out). Just a thought, perhaps you could use some of the coding that FfH2's Age of Ice scenario has, that's with Beyond the Sword?

I converted this to modular for the World of Civ mod. Great mod

Any thoughts of bringing this into BtS?

Ice Breaker for BTS v3.13

Your prayers have finally been answered. I have created a BTS 3.13 version of the Ice Breaker Mod. This is another modest creation that gives the late workboat unit the following capabilities:

1. Workboat can break ice, which allows it to travel or pass through what would normally be impassible ice.

2. Workboat can remove Ice after 5 turns. This capability is extremely useful, as you can remove ice to open up a passage way for other water units. An open passage saves travel time by reducing the number of turns to reach your destination.

3. Workboat cannot enter the ocean until Astronomy.

4. Workboat cannot pass through or remove Ice until Combustion.

You can use this BTS mod freely, but when you do, please give me credit. It took me several days to convert the mod and figure out how to make everything work correctly. :)

Very Respectfully,

Orion Veteran :cool:

I'm doing well. How are you doing today kazy?

Is this mod compatible with Warlords? I just looked through all three pages of this thread and couldn't find any mention of it. It's a very cool idea. :cool: