I'm want to mod but theres a small problem with my idea. I want to have cities that move and act like units. I know this seems impossible, but looking at what some of what you all do (like gray fox, kael and the ffh team, TGA, ect) i think with a bit of help from the forum civver/modders i could possible bring my ideas into reality. Im going to download the sdk and fool around with that a bit and hopefull (after i refresh what i know about c++) will have some codes.

If you have any idea on how to make this work please help.... :thanx:

Edit: I decided to put down some basic ideas:
Concepts:
- City-States: All civs will be city states. In the book London was the only thing left to represent England (im guessing?) so what im thinking for right now is all of the civs will end up being city-states unless they make a permanent alliance with someone.
- Culture vs. Fuel : well because this is a Municipal-Darwinist word people invade your cultural boundaries (if they really existed lol) so im going to eliminate culture and replace it with fuel points. In the game workers will be replaced with engineers(?). Besides having the ability to help the mother city (and sacrificing itself to be used as fuel for that city) it could go out and collect various resources to use for fuel (cutting down, trees, retrieving the remains of old tech cities, harvesting coal and other natural resources).
- Some city specalists- Some of the specialists will be replaced or altered. Like the artist could produce +Happy faces or maybe we can have him do hard labor (^_^) and add +hammers (j/k). But im sure historian will be a specialist. If you can think of more or something to alter the please tell.
- Religion: I can't really remember what the religions were, but i do know some where like polytheistic.
- Undead: Will have some units that are living dead (o joy!)
- Barbs!: this is going to be one of the fun parts of the mod... the anti-traction league. The barbarian will be anti-tractionists. I'm not sure however if i should make them playable or barbian so tell me what you think.

Civs/Cities:

* Benghazi
* Chidanagaram
* Cittamotore
* Edinburgh
* Glasgow
* Gorky
* Gutak
* Jagdstadt Magdeburg
* Juggernautpur
* Kom Ombo
* London
* Manchester
* Montpelier
* Motoropolis
* Murnau
* Nizhny Novgorod
* Panzerstadt-Bayreuth
* Pandzerstadt-Linz
* Paris
* Prague
* Traktiongrad
* Xanne-Sandansky
* Zimbra

Raft Cities

* Brighton
* Grimsby (sunken)
* Marseilles
* Puerto Angeles

Ice Cities

* Anchorage
* Arkangel
* Breidhavik
* Kivitoo
* Wolverinehampton
* Reykjavík


Techs and Eras:

Rebirth:
Theme: Rise of post-60minWar Civilization
+ Fuel Mining: will allow Engineers to mine coal
+Botanical Adulteration: will allow Engineers to cut down forests
+Municipal Militia: will allow city to produce 3 national units: Municipal Police (alternate names: Social Police, Civil Police)
+ Reconnoiter: Can build Land Scouts
+Terra Firma Intensification: cities can get more fuel and food from land

Growth:
Theme: "Know that we have these moving towns, what next? " - Engineers at the traction lab of Traktiongrad
+Airfaring: Can begin to build airships and AirScouts
+International Linguestics: will allow specific culture buildings
+ Tier2 Expansion: will allow hamlets to become towns
+BioEngineering: prereq for Restless Silence: will city to produce suburban colonies (improvement)

Darwinism:
Theme: City Evolution

+Municuple Darwinism
+
+Tier3 Expansion: will allow towns to become Cities

Traction:
Theme: leading up to the traction golden age
+ Traction rail: Engineers can now lay down traction rails, which allows cities to move over land faster, but has the side effect of downgrading the land (grassland->plain->desert) Note* tile has to be deforested by a Engineer first
+ Airdocking : Allow access to the airdock (or should it be called the Air harbor or Airport ?)

Matalic:
Theme: "We've just triggered the golden age of Traction!" -Grand Council of Panzerstadt-Linz
+Tier3 Expansion: Will allow cites to become a metropolis -> allows access to other tiers (tier3+)
+ Lampits: Land-Sea units and allows acces to tier1 lampit dock
+ Air Infantry: Battle Airship
+ Restless Silence : Allows access to stalkers

Green:
Theme: Anti-Traction threat
+Enviromentalism: The begining of the anti-tractionist threat: can replant trees if civs have enviromentalism civic
+ Resettlement: will allow traction cities to settle in one place (hasn't been well developed yet)
+ Advanced Land infantry: Can build AdvLand Infantries

Future:
Theme: "What will the future hold for us...?" - Traction Union of the North Sea
+Traction Union
+ Old tech Revival (may be removed...)

Limited Access Techs:
Theme: Techs that can only be gained through finding them in old tech "goody huts" or sacrificing a historian or archeologist
+ Lasers: will allow founders access to laser infantry? Airships with laser promotion? MEDUSA?


Units:
+Traction City:

http://forums.civfanatics.com/uploads/87027/diediedie.JPG

Thanks to Chamaedrys for the city graphics :)

+Airship:

http://forums.civfanatics.com/downloads/blimb_DDk.jpg

Thanks agian to Chamaedrys for his amazing graphics :goodjob:

+Grimsby Lostboy: this will either be a slaveish unit that will be produced if grimsby attacks a city or a early scout
+Limpit(i forgot what the sea-land units they sailed in where called): will be a grimsby only unit that is like a pirate ship (o and grimsby will have the piracy trait). It can steal resources (maybe) from other cities and is invisible.
+Great Historian
+Great Archeologist
+Stalkers (i believe they were called):undead units for those evil militaristic cities
- Weather Units (Not sure if im going to actually use this or not): Units that are generated at sea during specific times of they year. Hurricans have the ability to attack raft cities... if its near a coast tile then it may generate a thunderstorm... which has a small chance of upgradeing a tile before it "disappears"

If i think of something else ill post an update :)

It is possible to move a city with Python, theoretically. First you could save all of the city's information in variables, then you create a new city on the tile you want to move it to, then you kill the city you wanted to move. Then you change the information of the new city to be a copy of the old city. (like add buildings, GPP, great specialists etc). You could trigger the movement of the city with a special unit.

Would be faster if you did the function for it in the SDK, and just called on it in the python code though (in CyCity.cpp/CvCity.cpp). And then in the python eventmanager;


def onUnitMovement():
if unit.getUnitType() == gc.getInfoTypeForString('UNIT_CITY_UNIT'):
pCity = function() #do a loop in the surrounding tiles to find the city,
#or save the last plot the unit moved from somewhere and fetch
#the city from that plot)
pCity.moveCity(pPlot)

!WARNING -- This is mockup code, it doesnt actually work this way
unless you change the SDK so it does.

I'm want to mod but theres a small problem with my idea. I want to have cities that move and act like units. I know this seems impossible, but looking at what some of what you all do (like gray fox, kael and the ffh team, TGA, ect) i think with a bit of help from the forum civver/modders i could possible bring my ideas into reality. Im going to download the sdk and fool around with that a bit and hopefull (after i refresh what i know about c++) will have some codes.

If you have any idea on how to make this work please help.... :thanx:

Civkid, I tried to do this a while ago and the task is daunting due to the amount of SDK code that you need to change... there are a lot of things that you need to keep in mind when doing this:

1) How are you going to keep cities from stacking?
2) You will need to rewrite the CityAI code so it keeps the plots that are being worked by citizens when the city moves.
3) How are you going to change the culture model of cities? Which brings up another point: you will need to recalculate the culture levels for each plot when a city moves.
4) When a city moves you will need to recalculate the trade network to see if the city that moved is still on the trade network or not. If it isn't then you will need to remove all the bonuses that it isn't connected too.
5) How are you going to handle sea based units that are at a city that moves away from the ocean's edge?
6) How will you handle the case when players set a rally point for units when the city moves? (yes, you can set rally points in Civ4)
7) You will need to rewrite the code that handles maintenance costs for cities in the case that the captial city moves, or a city with the forbidden palace or Versailles.

As you can see there are a lot of considerations to think about when trying to implement this idea... you should do a search on this board for similar threads since I remember posting a bigger list about this topic to someone else who was going to try.

Let me know if you need some clarifications on the items I listed above.

I'll try to find the previous thread where I posted my list of items for the other person who tried this idea out before.

EDIT:

Here's one of the posts: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=174278&highlight=cities

@Thelopez: These are really good points. Most of these i've been thinking about already and have started to solve.
1) How are you going to keep cities from stacking?
im still in the prosses of figureing this out...
2) You will need to rewrite the CityAI code so it keeps the plots that are being worked by citizens when the city moves.
Im willing to do this... and because im going to have a C++ class at my highschool when i go back in september ill have a some time. (and who needs a social life or lunch or while im at it sleep! j/k :) )
3) How are you going to change the culture model of cities? Which brings up another point: you will need to recalculate the culture levels for each plot when a city moves.
Good question. I solved this first. There wont be any culture :)! (or at least cutural boundries)This is one of my faviorit parts of the mod. Culture points will be replaced with "fuel" points which will determine how far, how fast, and if the city could move. You see the cities (which act as units and are mechanical) will have the ability to attack other cities and suburban colonies (which are like movable improvemnts) eliminating the necessity of cultural boundries. The cities that are attacked attacked will be used for fuel and in additon to that workers can cut down trees and harvest other resources to make fuel. Fuel is also used along with the natural land production points to creat buildings the will allow the city to advance.
These cities are based from the book mortal engines (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mortal_Engines). If you what to know more about the system look at the article on wiki about municipal darwinism (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Municipal_Darwinism).
4) When a city moves you will need to recalculate the trade network to see if the city that moved is still on the trade network or not. If it isn't then you will need to remove all the bonuses that it isn't connected too.
I'm still working on this too. But im also going to have a new trading system. (its hush-hush for right now :) )
5) How are you going to handle sea based units that are at a city that moves away from the ocean's edge?
Once again im working on this but i have some ideas. I just need to do the coding.
6) How will you handle the case when players set a rally point for units when the city moves? (yes, you can set rally points in Civ4)
Rally points?!? I've never actually thought about or used rally points so im not sure how that will work. Right now im thinking of haveing a outside-of-city-disk that will keep the units and follow the city at the same time (improvement acting as city part?).
7) You will need to rewrite the code that handles maintenance costs for cities in the case that the captial city moves, or a city with the forbidden palace or Versailles.
This shouldn't be that hard. Like i said im taking a c++ class and could use this as a project or something :)

If you would like to join me and creat a development team for this mod that would be great. Im a bit new but will a pit of practice and example i should be able to do this in reasonable time. :D

~CivKid~

ps. thanks for the link.

Edit: I like alot of the ideas from grey foxes "solar system cities" in his( or her?:blush: ) Interstellar Colonization mod. The main "city" (in his mod the star) would be at the center and around the main city (in my mod the mechanical traction city) will be various improvements (the planets in foxes mod) that pull in food, production, and fuel points (suburban colonies, engineering orbitals, agriculture units, etc in my mod). In foxes mod the planets are the places that keep the building. In my mod (if you've read the book you'd know cities have tiers) will have better living qualities depending on how many tiers it has. Tiers will also when gained will allow you to acces diffrent units and diffrent buildings. So in my mod the central citiy unit will be the main and only cityunit for the whole civilization. Note* there will be suburban colonies that will allow you to get more production and act as people holders for the main city. Of course this will change gameplay dramatically.

Edit 2: I looked at the link you provided. Sounds good but i think what im doing is a bit diffrent from his ideas. But we could learn from eachother as development continues.

@Thelopez: These are really good points. Most of these i've been thinking about already and have started to solve.

@Thelopez: These are really good points. Most of these i've been thinking about already and have started to solve.
Quote:
1) How are you going to keep cities from stacking?
im still in the prosses of figureing this out...


If you go the route of having cities be controlled by special units, you can modify the "CvUnit::canMoveInto".


Quote:
2) You will need to rewrite the CityAI code so it keeps the plots that are being worked by citizens when the city moves.
Im willing to do this... and because im going to have a C++ class at my highschool when i go back in september ill have a some time. (and who needs a social life or lunch or while im at it sleep! j/k )


I'm not sure you'd really need to keep the plots, since some of them wouldn't even be available any more. Wouldn't it make more sense to just pick up, move the city, and then recalculate the plots using the normal AI calculations at the new spot?


6) How will you handle the case when players set a rally point for units when the city moves? (yes, you can set rally points in Civ4)
Rally points?!? I've never actually thought about or used rally points so im not sure how that will work. Right now im thinking of haveing a outside-of-city-disk that will keep the units and follow the city at the same time (improvement acting as city part?).


That shouldn't even be a problem. All the rally point does is push a move mission to the unit once it's done training. It doesn't have anything to do with the starting point. If the city moves, this shouldn't affect the move mission, since the end position will stay the same.



Quote:
7) You will need to rewrite the code that handles maintenance costs for cities in the case that the captial city moves, or a city with the forbidden palace or Versailles.
This shouldn't be that hard. Like i said im taking a c++ class and could use this as a project or something


Might not be hard, but time-consuming. Good luck with that :P

if you go the route of having cities be controlled by special units, you can modify the "CvUnit::canMoveInto".

Yep!... it looks like we were thinking almost the same thing. In the book cities traded and went from city (here civ) to city by airship. So i was thinking of having special national units that specialize in trade (and some other things if neccessary). For oceanic trade ill have to have units that can move into the sea and over land (this comes from a bit of ideas from the 2nd and 3rd books in the series).

That shouldn't even be a problem. All the rally point does is push a move mission to the unit once it's done training. It doesn't have anything to do with the starting point. If the city moves, this shouldn't affect the move mission, since the end position will stay the same.
Actually it would be a problem because (what i've been tolded) when cities are moved from tile to tile they have to be erased and then recreated in the new tile. I think this would screw up the rally point location if this does happen. (although it may be possible to have the rally point move with the city and its location would be stored in an array for citiy info)

Might not be hard, but time-consuming. Good luck with that :P
Darn my human need for sleep!:mad: :D

Edit: if you'd like to join the team your welcome... can never have to many good programmers! (ok maybe thats not true but close enough :lol:)

Actually it would be a problem because (what i've been tolded) when cities are moved from tile to tile they have to be erased and then recreated in the new tile. I think this would screw up the rally point location if this does happen. (although it may be possible to have the rally point move with the city and its location would be stored in an array for citiy info)


Well, I'm assuming you have figured a way to get all the data from one city into the next (if the "city movement" is indeed going to be a delete one city and make a duplicate of it). The rally point is just one of the many pieces of data of the city that you would have to copy over. Once you have the issue of how the data is being copied, then your rally point issue is solved.

As soon as i hack the sdk ill be able to do this:)... but remember i said im new to modding and that most of what im discribing is what could be possible.(*Note: i have some experience with other languages(asm,basic,ti-calc basic, and python) so most of my ideas can be made into a reality if i work hard enough with the knowledge i have*)

As soon as i hack the sdk ill be able to do this:)... but remember i said im new to modding and that most of what im discribing is what could be possible.(*Note: i have some experience with other languages(asm,basic,ti-calc basic, and python) so most of my ideas can be made into a reality if i work hard enough with the knowledge i have*)

I like the way you think. Ideas first, code later. Makes the game much more interesting.

Good luck! Feel free to ask if you need any help.

Thanks... development is really high on my list. Next right under would be programming it and then the story (although i do have a writer already and a book to use for insperation and ideas :lol:)

(This thread doesnt actually mention mortal engines exept in your signature... but the rest of this post assumes this is basically what it is about lol)

This is brilliant news! I proposed a mortal engines mod ages ago but no-one sounded interested too much, and since i dont really knoe where to start when it comes to modding so nothing much happened...

Some questions:

So when did you start working on the mod?

Is your aim to focus soley on traction cities or to still allow stactic ones such as the anti-traction league and the Green Storm and shift the focus to the conflicts between them?

Are you actually going to have traction-factions (hehe) as such, or more city-states as per the books?

I probably have many more questions as well as suggestions... I am very geared up abut this mod, and although i have no mod experince ill be happy to help with input on concepts and development.

...Keep up the good work:goodjob:

Civkid, there is much to be discussed... If you have a thread devoted to the mod concept, could you point me to it? If not waste no time in creating one (I had one before but it was ignored lol)

Interesting questions. To answer your first question i started this mod 2 or 3 days ago. What i plan on having is both tractionist cities and anti-tractionist cities. And no... it would get really messy especially in the coding if i had traction unions... i plane on haveing massive citiy-states in the book. But if i can im going to try to allow them to make "allience" that will sort of make them into unions.

I would like to hear your other questions and suggestions... (although i can't take or answer all :) ) it would be helpful with development.

So how true to the books concepts are you going to go?
In the books, the land around the cities wasnt really worked at all, any farming was usually done on the decks of the cities... Building material would have been gained by driving over to a forest, mountain, scrapheap. or by 'eating' another city, and most of the work done by the cities 'jaws' without anybody leaving the city, since most people are disgusted by the idea of walking on the earth... Land units for traction cities would be extremley rare, exept as garrisons or as boarding crews to go on airships... Most combat revolves around airships.
And you need a good way of creating 'chases' between cities...

Since I havnt read the books, everything you two says makes this more interesting for me ;)

You should check the 'hungry city chronicles' wiki... Alot of cool stuff in them.
If this works itl be one hell of a unique mod.

well for the land im going to have "worker" units (or maybe ill call them engineers?) that will have the ability to lay tracts for the traction cities. And i would like to keep the idea of city eating cities. Like i said earlier there will be now culture and fuel will be put in its place. There will be now war or peace because its a darwinistic world. Only the strongest city will come out on the top.

A thought that i just had: if i can get (or steal :) ) so things from ffh i would like to use the explotions used for the flames to blow up mountian (behind the scens downgrading the terrain to hills ^_^). You can have workers go to mountians and destroy them for fuel points.... What does everyone thing about these? would that be too much or reasonable for this mod?

Ill upgrade the first post to show more ideas later,
~Civkid~

Edit: i just updated it so tell me what you think

Check out the FFH python code, thats how I started learning. It speeded up my learning speed dramatically.

Dont be afraid to steal code, or copy code. Give credit where credit is due though.

ok, thanks for the tip... ive looked at various files but not that many so ill get to that now.

It can be confusing at first. I suggest you read TGA's Civ4 Python tutorial too.

What i really need help with is the skd. I looked at the CvCity.h and CvCity.cpp files and all the codding is really intemidating. Does anyone (question targeted @ Grey Fox, TGA, or TheLopez) know where i can get help with the sdk at? I have the ideas i just don't really know where to start in the coding. When my friend comes back from camp im going get him to do most of the stories and entries for the xml so i have that covered... what i need help with is the codding and more specificly the skd (i know how to program in python and am some what familiar with doing that part).

Ooh another question, are you going to want a world map based on the conditions discribed in the book, or focus on random maps... Could be interesting designing the great hunting ground, and having Shan Gao (china) with the sheild wall (great wall!)... Lotsa fallout for america! :D

Try to do one of Kael's basic SDK changes.

Some things like exposing a function to python, or creating a new Yield, specialist value or such isnt that hard to do once you've done one similar thing.

What I usually do is search for a similar function. Like if I want to add Specialist +Health, I search for the specialist and copy the functions that are related to one of the other Specialist values. And when I'm done I search for Health and add so that the specialist health is added to the health calculations.

Once you have done something like that everything similar is pretty trivial.

Haha, for reference
History

Traction Cities were first formed by an engineer from London named Nicholas Quirke. After the devastation of the Sixty Minute War, the world collapsed into a post apocalyptic state, and immense geological upheaval (such as earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanoes and glaciers) threatened the world's surviving cities. In order to survive, urban areas were mobilised into vast vehicles that could evade dangerous areas. Naturally this required vast amounts of fuel, and as the earth became stripped of its natural resources, cities resorted to the practice of Municipal Darwinism and began to consume each other for energy.

The Traction Cities were soon opposed by the Anti-Traction League, based out of Central Asia, which sought to return the Earth to its former state and viewed the inhabitants of the cities as barbarians and savages. Conversely, the Traction Cities also view the Anti-Tractionists as barbarians.

The series takes place roughly 1000 years after London becomes the first Traction City, and it covers the rising tensions between the Traction Cities and the Anti-Traction League, eventually culminating in a war towards the end of the series.

Description

Traction Cities range in size from enormous metropolises (or Urbivores) with populations of millions, to tiny villages and hamlets propelled by small engines or even sails. Airships have become the most common method of transport in this new era, as they are the only way to travel between mobile destinations.

Larger cities are usually built on tiers similar to a wedding cake, with the poorer classes living on the lower tiers among the tracks and engines, and the higher classes living in mansions and villas at the top of the city.

Most cities are carnivourous, and have attachments called "Jaws" to catch prey and drag it into an area of the city called the Gut. Here the prey is stripped, melted down and used as fuel for the predator city. Its inhabitants are integrated into the population of the predator city, or, in less ethical cities, taken as slaves.

Not all cities are predatory, however; some (notably Anchorage and Airhaven) are peaceful and make a living by trading. Smaller towns and hamlets are also often peaceful and survive by trading or mining. Sometimes smaller towns meet in gatherings known as "trading clusters."

There are also aquatic equivalents of Traction Cities called Raft Cities which travel across the oceans hunting smaller raft suburbs and static island settlements. Notable Raft Cities include Puerto Angeles, Grimsby, Brighton and Marseille, most of which are coastal ports in the real world. Some smaller towns are amphibious, utilising inflatable air-tanks to float across water when neccesary.

Habitat

The most common area for Traction Cities to be found is Europe and Northern Asia, which is now a muddy wasteland called the 'Great Hunting Ground'. They are also prevalent in South America (now called Nuevo Maya), the Arctic (now called the Ice Wastes), India, the Sahara Desert, and Antarctica. North America has been reduced to a nuclear wasteland by the Sixty-Minute War and is known as the Dead Continent.

Static settlements, most of which are aligned with the Anti-Traction League, are found across the mountains of Central and South-East Asia, Southern Africa and the Andes.

Australia's condition is never specified. It is notably the only continent in the series that is never mentioned.
Traction cities

* Benghazi
* Chidanagaram
* Cittamotore
* Edinburgh
* Glasgow
* Gorky
* Gutak
* Jagdstadt Magdeburg
* Juggernautpur
* Kom Ombo
* London
* Manchester
* Montpelier
* Motoropolis
* Murnau
* Nizhny Novgorod
* Panzerstadt-Bayreuth
* Pandzerstadt-Linz
* Panzerstadt-Winethur
* Panzerstadt-Weimar
* Paris
* Prague
* Traktiongrad
* Xanne-Sandansky
* Zimbra

Traction towns and suburbs

* Turnbridge Wheels
* Salthook
* Speedwell
* Stayns

Raft Cities

* Brighton
* Grimsby (sunken)
* Marseilles
* Puerto Angeles

Ice Cities

* Anchorage
* Arkangel
* Breidhavik
* Kivitoo
* Wolverinehampton
* Reykjavík

Mag-Lev Cities

* New London

Sounds cool.

Thanks for the list of cities.... i plan on using city-states so i think ill have to pick out 18(?) of them. I also think raft cities would be a good idea too.
To tell the truth im not focusing on the map just right now.... i need to get the dirty work done first before i can start working with the map.

Good luck with your mod, would be cool if you got the mobile city thing worked out. :)

Ice Cities

* Anchorage
* Arkangel
* Breidhavik
* Kivitoo
* Wolverinehampton
* Reykjavík


I would ike to have these types of cities but wouldn't cant make up my mind on the detials. I was thinking of limiting them to ice, sea, and tundrea tiles. But there are many problems with this:

1) Ice and tundrea tiles won't produce any :food: (limited :hammers: )
2) Maps don't have that much ice
3) Would mean that an airship would have to travel way to fare to trade with other cities.
4) Movement (?)

im still considering this. If i can't find a way to fix the problems (or if i find some more) then i may have to eliminate these cities :(

Don't forget to vote for the cities that will show in this mod at: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=182148

Ok... Ive been away in italy for a week... But guess what i was doing? I read the last book in the series, A Darkling Plain... Is good.

By the way, about the Ice city problem... I thought mabe you could have different types of wheel-ie things, and each city will start with a certain one, but can use others later; some can be combined but others cannot (ill group them into main and auxiliary, each city can have one of each)

Wheels(main): fast speed on grasslands and plains, either reduced or no speed on other terrain... Probably cannot cross rivers.

Tracks(main): Average speed on all land terrain, can cross rivers.

Rails(auxilliary): fast speed on ice and sea-ice, and i dont know how you could do this but probably hard to turn. Does not work on other terrain.

Flotation buoys(auxilliary): can be used to cross rivers without penalty, and also travel in shallow water.

City Raft/paddle wheels(main): can travel on all water tiles... and probably allows construction of more water units, but cannot be combined with any other source of propulsion.

Any thoughts? Like my ideas?

Thanks for the list of cities.... i plan on using city-states so i think ill have to pick out 18(?)
Note:there is a 32-civ mod, so thats not really a problem.

I'm want to mod but theres a small problem with my idea. I want to have cities that move and act like units. I know this seems impossible, but looking at what some of what you all do (like gray fox, kael and the ffh team, TGA, ect) i think with a bit of help from the forum civver/modders i could possible bring my ideas into reality. Im going to download the sdk and fool around with that a bit and hopefull (after i refresh what i know about c++) will have some codes.

If you have any idea on how to make this work please help.... :thanx:

Edit: I decided to put down some basic ideas:
Concepts:
- City-States: All civs will be city states. In the book London was the only thing left to represent England (im guessing?) so what im thinking for right now is all of the civs will end up being city-states unless they make a permanent alliance with someone.
- Culture vs. Fuel : well because this is a Municipal-Darwinist word people invade your cultural boundaries (if they really existed lol) so im going to eliminate culture and replace it with fuel points. In the game workers will be replaced with engineers(?). Besides having the ability to help the mother city (and sacrificing itself to be used as fuel for that city) it could go out and collect various resources to use for fuel (cutting down, trees, retrieving the remains of old tech cities, harvesting coal and other natural resources).
- Some city specalists- Some of the specialists will be replaced or altered. Like the artist could produce +Happy faces or maybe we can have him do hard labor (^_^) and add +hammers (j/k). But im sure historian will be a specialist. If you can think of more or something to alter the please tell.
- Religion: I can't really remember what the religions were, but i do know some where like polytheistic.
- Undead: Will have some units that are living dead (o joy!)
- Barbs!: this is going to be one of the fun parts of the mod... the anti-traction league. The barbarian will be anti-tractionists. I'm not sure however if i should make them playable or barbian so tell me what you think.

If i think of something else ill post an update :)

City-states bit: I dunno where you are from so i dont know if you would have heard of them but there are tons of former english cities in ME;
Brighton, Tunbridge wheels, Manchester, Grimsby, the list goes on... But obviously they all operate seperate from one another so they would be city states.
Specialists: Yeah i like historian... And I think it should provide points for a "great archaeologist" unit that could possibly be sacrificed on some resource to provide a random peice of old-tech; for instance parts required for building stalkers, Armageddon-like weapons such as MEDUSA or ODIN or mabe the "Childermass Engines" hehe
Barbs: I would like to see anti traction as playable... Or how bout this.. Anti-traction barbs, and the Green Storm; their more organised and agressive cousins as a playable faction.
But also, i think it would be a good idea for there to be smaller, barbarian traction cities roaming the map from the start; providing 'food' for the main cities in the earlier game and only later when these start to become scarce, will the cites be forced to turn on each other (they would still have the ability to beforehand obviously).

Ok psycadelic_magi... ive been out of town but im back and ready to answer your questions.

I have to say now i've read the books a year or 2 ago and i've got the 3rd one from a friend (and haven't gotten to read it yet because i have some school stuff i have to do) but later i plan on re-reading it (or mooching off of yours and my friends knowledge of the series).

This is what i've come up while i was away:

Techs and Eras:
Rebirth:
Theme: Rise of post-60minWar Civilization
+ Fuel Mining: will allow Engineers to mine coal
+Botanical Adulteration: will allow Engineers to cut down forests
+Municipal Militia: will allow city to produce 3 national units: Municipal Police (alternate names: Social Police, Civil Police)
+ Reconnoiter: Can build Land Scouts
+Terra Firma Intensification: cities can get more fuel and food from land

Growth:
Theme: "Know that we have these moving towns, what next? " - Engineers at the traction lab of Traktiongrad
+Airfaring: Can begin to build airships and AirScouts
+International Linguestics: will allow specific culture buildings
+ Tier2 Expansion: will allow hamlets to become towns
+BioEngineering: prereq for Restless Silence: will city to produce suburban colonies (improvement)

Darwinism:
Theme: City Evolution

+Municuple Darwinism
+
+Tier3 Expansion: will allow towns to become Cities

Traction:
Theme: leading up to the traction golden age
+ Traction rail: Engineers can now lay down traction rails, which allows cities to move over land faster, but has the side effect of downgrading the land (grassland->plain->desert) Note* tile has to be deforested by a Engineer first
+ Airdocking : Allow access to the airdock (or should it be called the Air harbor or Airport ?)

Matalic:
Theme: "We've just triggered the golden age of Traction!" [NEWLINE] -Grand Council of Panzerstadt-Linz
+Tier3 Expansion: Will allow cites to become a metropolis -> allows access to other tiers (tier3+)
+ Lampits: Land-Sea units and allows acces to tier1 lampit dock
+ Air Infantry: Battle Airship
+ Restless Silence : Allows access to stalkers

Green:
Theme: Anti-Traction threat
+Enviromentalism: The begining of the anti-tractionist threat: can replant trees if civs have enviromentalism civic
+ Resettlement: will allow traction cities to settle in one place (hasn't been well developed yet)
+ Advanced Land infantry: Can build AdvLand Infantries

Future:
Theme: "What will the future hold for us...?" - Traction Union of the North Sea
+Traction Union
+ Old tech Revival (may be removed...)

Limited Access Techs:
Theme: Techs that can only be gained through finding them in old tech "goody huts" or sacrificing a historian or archeologist
+ Lasers: will allow founders access to laser infantry? Airships with laser promotion? MEDUSA?

Units:
+Grimsby Lostboy: this will either be a slaveish unit that will be produced if grimsby attacks a city or a early scout
+Grimship(i forgot what the sea-land units they sailed in where called): will be a grimsby only unit that is like a pirate ship (o and grimsby will have the piracy trait). It can steal resources (maybe) from other cities and is invisible.
+Great Historian
+Great Archeologist
+Stalkers (i believe they were called):undead units for those evil militaristic cities :)

well tell me what you think
~Civkid~
Edit: i thought this was a really good pick of anna fang from the book (found it at deviantart):anna fang (http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/28391636/?qo=2&q=mortal+engines)

if anyone is interested in doing art.... it would be really helpful (not to mention cool) if someone could do a airship (if possible similar to the one in the pic in the link :) )

I have to say now though i read the books a year or 2 ago and i've got the 3rd one from a friend (and haven't gotten to read it yet because i have some school stuff i have to do) but later i play on re-reading it (or mooching off of yours and my friends knowledge of the series).

This is what i've come up while i was away:

Techs and Eras:
Rebirth:
Theme: Rise of post-60minWar Civilization
+ Fuel Mining: will allow Engineers to mine coal
+Botanical Adulteration: will allow Engineers to cut down forests
+Municipal Militia: will allow city to produce 3 national units: Municipal Police (alternate names: Social Police, Civil Police)
+ Reconnoiter: Can build Land Scouts
+Terra Firma Intensification: cities can get more fuel and food from land

Growth:
Theme: "Know that we have these moving towns, what next? " - Engineers at the traction lab of Traktiongrad
+Airfaring: Can begin to build airships and AirScouts
+International Linguestics: will allow specific culture buildings
+ Tier2 Expansion: will allow hamlets to become towns
+BioEngineering: prereq for Restless Silence: will city to produce suburban colonies (improvement)

Darwinism:
Theme: City Evolution

+Municuple Darwinism
+
+Tier3 Expansion: will allow towns to become Cities

Traction:
Theme: leading up to the traction golden age
+ Traction rail: Engineers can now lay down traction rails, which allows cities to move over land faster, but has the side effect of downgrading the land (grassland->plain->desert) Note* tile has to be deforested by a Engineer first
+ Airdocking : Allow access to the airdock (or should it be called the Air harbor or Airport ?)

Matalic:
Theme: "We've just triggered the golden age of Traction!" [NEWLINE] -Grand Council of Panzerstadt-Linz
+Tier3 Expansion: Will allow cites to become a metropolis -> allows access to other tiers (tier3+)
+ Lampits: Land-Sea units and allows acces to tier1 lampit dock
+ Air Infantry: Battle Airship
+ Restless Silence : Allows access to stalkers

Green:
Theme: Anti-Traction threat
+Enviromentalism: The begining of the anti-tractionist threat: can replant trees if civs have enviromentalism civic
+ Resettlement: will allow traction cities to settle in one place (hasn't been well developed yet)
+ Advanced Land infantry: Can build AdvLand Infantries

Future:
Theme: "What will the future hold for us...?" - Traction Union of the North Sea
+Traction Union
+ Old tech Revival (may be removed...)

Limited Access Techs:
Theme: Techs that can only be gained through finding them in old tech "goody huts" or sacrificing a historian or archeologist
+ Lasers: will allow founders access to laser infantry? Airships with laser promotion? MEDUSA?

Units:
+Grimsby Lostboy: this will either be a slaveish unit that will be produced if grimsby attacks a city or a early scout
+Grimship(i forgot what the sea-land units they sailed in where called): will be a grimsby only unit that is like a pirate ship (o and grimsby will have the piracy trait). It can steal resources (maybe) from other cities and is invisible.
+Great Historian
+Great Archeologist
+Stalkers (i believe they were called):undead units for those evil militaristic cities :)

well tell me what you think
~Civkid~
Edit: i thought this was a really good pick of anna fang from the book (found it at deviantart):anna fang (http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/28391636/?qo=2&q=mortal+engines)

if anyone is interested in doing art.... it would be really helpful (not to mention cool) if someone could do a airship (if possible similar to the one in the pic in the link :) )

Ok first- Yes I have read all 4 books (you know there's four right?) Btw, the last book actually sees the fall of the traction cities completley.

Ok techs- Rebirth... Are we assuming here that traction has already happened, so we start the game on 1 TE? (traction era).
Municipal police eh? I see a UU here- London's Beefeaters.
On land scouts- I think that land units should be kept extremeley scarce for TC's... Remember how disgusted everyone is in the book about travelling on the surface? I suppose in the early game its ok, but im thinking that the bigger your cities get, units travelling on land will expreience rising attrition damamge, Making air-transports essential.

Green- first off, you should note that the Anti-Traction league had existed the whole time the traction cities did... The faction that should emerge/rise to become a threat is the 'Green storm' a fanatical offshoot of it, lead by the ressurected stalker anna fang. I think it is understood that the TC's and the ATL were in a complete stalemate until this point.

On units: The grimship you are thinking of is called the Limpet (should look like a small rusty submarine probably) ...Im assuming this is also what you meant by lampit lol
Raptors(stalker birds) should be in.
It should be noted that by the third book heavier-than-air aircraft have been invented, but they sound like small, crappy biplanes and monoplanes described as being made of 'balsa wood' lol.

On airships- I sent some pics of airships i thought looked good to Woodelf, he said hed see what he could do.

On Municipal Darwinism: I think it is important in the mod to have exaustable resources, since this is the whole reason that cites turn to MD in the first place, and i think that when you eat a city, all its buildings and onboard resources etc should be converted into production (although not neccecarily the same amount of production required to build the consumed cities buildings in the first place) in the late game this should eventually be the only way for a TC to develop.

PS what do you think of my 'city propulsion' ideas a few posts above?
Oh and I asked the folks on the graphics mod section about wether it would be possible to create a modelled base for a city to be mounted on (I.e a chassis) notice how quiet the thread has been since then? lol

Ok first- Yes I have read all 4 books (you know there's four right?) Btw, the last book actually sees the fall of the traction cities completley.

:mad: how uncool... i havent read the others

Ok techs- Rebirth... Are we assuming here that traction has already happened, so we start the game on 1 TE? (traction era).
Municipal police eh? I see a UU here- London's Beefeaters.
On land scouts- I think that land units should be kept extremeley scarce for TC's... Remember how disgusted everyone is in the book about travelling on the surface? I suppose in the early game its ok, but im thinking that the bigger your cities get, units travelling on land will expreience rising attrition damamge, Making air-transports essential.

Well rebirth is about 100 years after the 60minWar and traction has been started but this era is like the era like in vanilla where you do some exploreing and resource hunting.

Green- first off, you should note that the Anti-Traction league had existed the whole time the traction cities did... The faction that should emerge/rise to become a threat is the 'Green storm' a fanatical offshoot of it, lead by the ressurected stalker anna fang. I think it is understood that the TC's and the ATL were in a complete stalemate until this point.

the Green era is just the era when enviromentalism spreads to the traction cities and some of the anti-traction/green storm civs become more agressive toward traction cities. During the Metalic era the traction cities will have a slightly better units and building then the anti-tractionists (this is when they build up defences and stuff) and then in the green era is basicly the anti-traction/green storm "matalic" era

On units: The grimship you are thinking of is called the Limpet (should look like a small rusty submarine probably) ...Im assuming this is also what you meant by lampit lol
Raptors(stalker birds) should be in.
It should be noted that by the third book heavier-than-air aircraft have been invented, but they sound like small, crappy biplanes and monoplanes described as being made of 'balsa wood' lol.

On airships- I sent some pics of airships i thought looked good to Woodelf, he said hed see what he could do.
yes thats what i was talking about.. the limpet. Im going to say that all of the raft cities have access to them but grimsby will have the best one. Raptors sound good too. It would be great if woodelf did a airship. Thanks for asking him.

On Municipal Darwinism: I think it is important in the mod to have exaustable resources, since this is the whole reason that cites turn to MD in the first place, and i think that when you eat a city, all its buildings and onboard resources etc should be converted into production (although not neccecarily the same amount of production required to build the consumed cities buildings in the first place) in the late game this should eventually be the only way for a TC to develop.


About resources: I haven't developed this all the way but what im thinking about now is having "resource gathering" units. resource tiles will have diffrent stages of existence. If a gathering unit comes and gathers a resource lets say... about 5 times, then the resource is removed from the map. When the gathering unit comes back to the city it will allow that city access to that resource. Also that city (if it and the city its trading with has a trade office (name?) ) will beable to send like merchant units to trade with the other city.

It may seem confusing now but when i work out the bugs itll be much better. Hopefully i can reconstruct trade. :)

For the buildings and etc being turning into production... it would be hard to do but... my origanle plan was to have the cities literaly act as units. if you attack a city that doesn't mean you destroy it (unless you have a higher strenght of course) but it will lose strenghth like units... the city can heal too. And i was also thinking if a city was attacked slaves would be produced. If i remember correctly in the story if a city was attacked and a few peopel were taken in too they would be turned into slaves. All of the other stuff gotten from the city would then be turned into fuel.

For grimsby i was going to add a lost boy unit... if grimsby attacks another city then they get a lost boy(slave). And one of their other national units lost boy (scout) could steal back some of the lost boys that were taken from their city during an attack. The lost boy, like many of the other grimsby units, will be invisable to most other civs.

PS what do you think of my 'city propulsion' ideas a few posts above?
Oh and I asked the folks on the graphics mod section about wether it would be possible to create a modelled base for a city to be mounted on (I.e a chassis) notice how quiet the thread has been since then? lol

I'm not sure about this... now that i think about it though it would make a good "national wonder" type "building". I was planing on having rails come with one of the techs. I dont think ive mentioned this before but all cities will have movement points so if a city builds say the bouys then they will get an extra movement point.

I do have a friend that is going to do a city graphic for me but if you what to ask around in the forum it would be cool too. I do need diffrent models for diffrent types of civs and city types.

~:king: Civkid~

oh and if anyone whats to do a bit of research that would be helpful too... i know very little about the cities (all except london, grimsby, and maybe anchorage).

Question:

What would be the best way to go? -> Using an "invisable" unit to represent the cities movment and strength... it would also have the buttons for attacking other cities, Using the SDK to edit the city, or us Python... Which one of these work the best when playing the mod?

Question:

What would be the best way to go? -> Using an "invisable" unit to represent the cities movment and strength... it would also have the buttons for attacking other cities, Using the SDK to edit the city, or us Python... Which one of these work the best when playing the mod?

By "invisible", do you mean that it would have an INVISIBLE_WHATEVER trait (like how the submarine has a INVISIBLE_SUBMARINE), or do you mean that the unit just would have no model? I'm assuming the second, because I don't think the first will help you out much.

This is a tough challenge, and I'm pretty sure that you're exploring unexplored ground. In Civcraft, I've made a city into a unit to give it HP (although I'm using a different attack and HP scheme, but it's a CvUnit anyway even though I don't let it attack). The actual unit model is just the empty.nif model (I've also removed all the extra little buildings, so the cities look "empty". The only graphics to the plot is literally just the culture coloring). However, because the cities don't move (although I plan on adding the functionality later in the project) I don't really have the same problem you're having.

What I plan on doing is making it so that there is a special order in the city that, when clicked on, "converts" the city into a unit. Basically, it will take the city off the map (but not destroy it, which I believe is possible. If not, I can just make a data structure to store all the data in myself). Then, it will make the actual unit movable. Then, the unit has a little mission icon where it can "settle" down and place it's city in the new spot.

Of course, it sounds like your cities will be more active, so for a player to have to click on the city, put it into moving mode, move the city, than settle it again would be annoying. This would also mean that your movement icons (and any other missions whose icons you'd want the cities unit's to have) wouldn't be visible in the city screen, and likewise, the city icons (building units, buildings, etc.) wouldn't be visible in the unit's screen.

So, I guess one thing to work around is the idea that you are probably going to have to eventually pick either the unit or the city to work as your "base", and all the orders (whether unit or city in nature) must be able to be done with that base. Thus, you need to be able to build units and buildings while still being able to right-click to move or hit fortify. I would recommend taking all the actions you want a city's unit to be able to do, and make them city orders. In the SDK, you can make your own city orders and define what they do. These can simply be a matter of getting the city's unit from the plot it's standing on, and calling the correct function (just like the mission would do).

You could do it the other way, putting all the city functions into the unit, but I think that there's less unit functions, and they're not as varied (unit's typically start and end with the same missions, where as the list of a city's orders grow over time when new unit and building's become available).

Doing it this way, you have two things you'll have to watch out for:

1.) When you select the unit, generally, you'll probably want it to select the city. I haven't tried this, but perhaps there's somewhere in the SDK where you can find out what unit has just been selected, and then call code to select the city for the player. This way, whenever they select the unit, control actually goes to the city. This would be seemless to the user, and make the user feel like the city IS the unit.

2.) When you have a city selected, right-clicking on a plot will not work. You can set up shop somewhere in an event handler to find out if a plot has been right clicked, then push a move_to mission of the unit who's city is selected (but you probably want to make sure that there aren't other things that a person would right-click on with the city selected. For example, I think you hit some buttons + right click to set a rally point).

Hope that gives you some ideas. The moveable-city idea sounds really intersting, I'd love to see it come through!

Doing it this way, you have two things you'll have to watch out for:

1.) When you select the unit, generally, you'll probably want it to select the city. I haven't tried this, but perhaps there's somewhere in the SDK where you can find out what unit has just been selected, and then call code to select the city for the player. This way, whenever they select the unit, control actually goes to the city. This would be seemless to the user, and make the user feel like the city IS the unit.

2.) When you have a city selected, right-clicking on a plot will not work. You can set up shop somewhere in an event handler to find out if a plot has been right clicked, then push a move_to mission of the unit who's city is selected (but you probably want to make sure that there aren't other things that a person would right-click on with the city selected. For example, I think you hit some buttons + right click to set a rally point).

Hope that gives you some ideas. The moveable-city idea sounds really intersting, I'd love to see it come through!

Ok thanks for this... based on what you said im thinking of taking out all of the city buildings. You said in your mod you have a "city" with just the cultural border showing... for this i could have the city "invisalbe" and place a unit with the city graphic (like maybe a tier 1 city graphic and then have an upgrade button to give it another tier or somthing) on the plot that's were the city would be. This way (if i find out how to solve that click-unit-to-get-cityscreen problem) i can use "spells" (like your spell mod you have or the ones from ffh) to move the city or to attack another city (it would also make attack animation easier too).

ty

~:goodjob: Civkid~

Edit: Im still not sure about saving data though (how would i do this?) but for destroying the city i think theres a function called "kill()" in the city sdk file (haven't checked python yet)

Edit2: I think i can also get the city (which would mean the whole civ) to be distoryed if the "invisible" unit is destoryed

Ok thanks for this... based on what you said im thinking of taking out all of the city buildings. You said in your mod you have a "city" with just the cultural border showing... for this i could have the city "invisalbe" and place a unit with the city graphic (like maybe a tier 1 city graphic and then have an upgrade button to give it another tier or somthing) on the plot that's were the city would be. This way (if i find out how to solve that click-unit-to-get-cityscreen problem) i can use "spells" (like your spell mod you have or the ones from ffh) to move the city or to attack another city (it would also make attack animation easier too).

ty

~:goodjob: Civkid~


Yeah, that sounds like a good idea, it would def. help with the animations. Cities would kinda all look the same, but it's a pretty unnoticable thing.


Edit: Im still not sure about saving data though (how would i do this?) but for destroying the city i think theres a function called "kill()" in the city sdk file (haven't checked python yet)


Destroying the city is the easy part. Taking a city and moving it to another plot might be tough. I bet, though, that if you set a city to an invalid map coordinate (like how units start at coordinate points -34232625 or something before being moved to their actual starting location) you can effectively take it off the screen, so long as you can make sure that the game doesn't try to draw it or do any of the updates on it (which can probably be done by returning early out of specfici CvCity functions).

If that doesn't work, there are probably a dozen other ways to save the data from the city, even if it means making a whole new city object, writing a copy constructor to copy all the data over to it, and deleting the old city. Then, when putting it in it's new place, making a new city, copy all the old cities saved data back into it, then deleting the temporary saved copy of the city.
[/QUOTE]


Edit2: I think i can also get the city (which would mean the whole civ) to be distoryed if the "invisible" unit is destoryed

Yup, that one's no problem. I was able to accomplish this by checking whenever a unit dies if the unit is really the embodyment of a building (in Civcraft, a city is really just one "building"). If it was, then destroy the city that was in it's plot.

I also need to find out how to add in fuel... the tiles are supposed to produce fuel and fuel can be gained with resources and special units. keal told me about a mod that has magic as a plot yeild but i haven't look through it yet.

This will effect whither or not the city can move. I'm also considering removing culture (if thats not to hard) and replaceing fuel yeild in the place were culture was displayed.

For the saving... would it be best to save it into an array or dictionary using python or should make a log that "saves" the stuff and recalls it later(would this work?)

I also need to find out how to add in fuel... the tiles are supposed to produce fuel and fuel can be gained with resources and special units. keal told me about a mod that has magic as a plot yeild but i haven't look through it yet.

This will effect whither or not the city can move. I'm also considering removing culture (if thats not to hard) and replaceing fuel yeild in the place were culture was displayed.

For the saving... would it be best to save it into an array or dictionary using python or should make a log that "saves" the stuff and recalls it later(would this work?)


If you want to save things to a specific plot, I'd suggest you take a look at sdToolkit.

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=146130&highlight=sdToolkit

It allows you to save values to specific plots, so you don't need to make a huge data structure to save all the individual plot values in.

Not sure how the fuel would work exactly, but I would imagine you would be having a limited amount on each plot that the city uses up when it moves onto/off of it? If so, sdToolkit is probably your best bet. If you need fuel to be "regained", you'd probably do something so that at the end of each turn, you go to every plot and add a bit to that plot's amount.

The sdToolkit allows you to store all that into the plot's script data, meaning it will be stored with game saves as well. And, it allows you to add information to plots / units / cities etc. without having to do anything in the SDK.

Cool thanks:goodjob: ... this would be helpfull. (It works for gp points, commerce, gold, an stuff like that too right?)

Cool thanks:goodjob: ... this would be helpfull. (It works for gp points, commerce, gold, an stuff like that too right?)

Well, the idea isn't that it changes stuff already in the game, rather it allows you to add new items. If you want to change how the stuff in the game already works, you'll probably need to be editting the SDK.

Well, the idea isn't that it changes stuff already in the game, rather it allows you to add new items. If you want to change how the stuff in the game already works, you'll probably need to be editting the SDK.

Hmmm... maybe i misunderstude what you where saying... sd toolkit saves the plot location and other data into a file for the game. An as long as they're predefined in the sdk (i think) then i can save the values and then recall them after the city is destroyed...

Hmmm... maybe i misunderstude what you where saying... sd toolkit saves the plot location and other data into a file for the game. An as long as they're predefined in the sdk (i think) then i can save the values and then recall them after the city is destroyed...

Yup, you do misunderstand me :P


For each unit, city, and plot, there is a variable called the script data. This is just a string that is supposed to be used for people who want to put some sort of data into the unit, but don't want to mod the SDK.

What sdToolkit does is allows you to easily create multiple different kinds of data variables, then it converts those into strings and places them into the script data. It has nothing to do with any of the pre-existing data of the plot (the X, Y, improvements, etc.). It allows you to store new data that you are making up.

Say you are using it on a plot to store how many fuel "resources" there are there. At the beginning of the game you can go to each plot and add to it an integer variable for how many resources are there by default. Then, perhaps every turn, you go to every plot, and just change this value.

You're not changing anything to do with the normal values that the plot object contains, you're just making your own piece of data that stays attached to that plot.

If you were to make data and attach it to a city, it stays with the city object. If the city is destroyed, then the data is destroyed.

The other way of doing what the toolkit allows you to do is:

1.) Modify the sdk and make new variables for each new piece of data you want to add to the city (or plot, or unit, etc.), or
2.) Make a whole new data type in python and have it store all the values for all the plot (unit, city...) within it (probably a dictionary). Whenever you want the value, you search the dictionary for your object (iX and iY value for a plot would probably be the key).

Ok... i understand.

I'll probably end up using the sd toolkit for the fuel and then a dictionary for the data saving...



def SaveCityData(data):
cityData = {
FUEL_AMOUNT : fuel,
CITY_BUILDINGS: buildings,
CITY_PRODUCTION: Production
...
}
...



Something similar to that (that was psudo-code) ill just define the function add call it to save the data in an dictionary... then kill the city... then reload the data.

first post has been updated...

are you going to have the "doomsday" weapons? (Odin, Medusa, maybe invent a few)

well i was thinking about it and ill deside in the later version... but for the first release im going to say no..

Im thinking of doing a scenario for the mod to that would be semi-Rpg-ish that would follow the story... it may include medusa. But for right now im still thinking about it.

@Gerikes

I played your mod over the week end and i thought it was really helpful. I need to dl the source (have you released it yet?) and then see how it works. I like how you added in mineral, gas, and pop as a resource (?). And i also like the way you changed combate... that would also be helpful with city combat.:goodjob: Great Job :)

New graphics (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=4375026&postcount=1) by Chamaedrys. Includes the traction city and the airship :D

You must tell me if I can help, I wanted to start this mod a couple of months back but there was no interest. Unfortunately I lack in civ 4 modding skills (something I hope to change soon) but I've got lots of ideas if you need any.

cool... i've been really bussy currently so i have a small bit of time every week after homework to program. It would be nice if you could do a bit of reseach on some of the cities and pm/email them to me along with any ideas you may have (actually ideas would be good for the forum :) ).

Look at my sig for the link to the python tutorial and im sure you could find a lot of stuff on other modding stuff at the civ4/civ4mod wiki.

ps. sorry for answering so late -> my internet was down for a bit :(

cool... i've been really bussy currently so i have a small bit of time every week after homework to program. It would be nice if you could do a bit of reseach on some of the cities and pm/email them to me along with any ideas you may have (actually ideas would be good for the forum ).

Well research I can do :) and I'm certainly not short on ideas ;). But I feel some of them would change your mod too much ( I was planning on setting the story in the anti-tractionist - tractionist war :sad: ). So I'll suggest some of my more realistic and useful ideas:).

And as for the modding I could learn but I wouldn't hold your breath; as I'm certainly not a programmer:rolleyes:.

PS. Sorry for my late reply, the amounts of homework I've been getting recently is a joke.

Cool that would be helpfull...


And as for the modding I could learn but I wouldn't hold your breath; as I'm certainly not a programmer:rolleyes:.


programming isn't really as hard as it seems... its learning how to use the sdk, thats not as easy. But once you learn it then you should be able to easily mod the code. If your doing stuff with python its even more easier. look at my sig for a good tutorial for python.


PS. Sorry for my late reply, the amounts of homework I've been getting recently is a joke.

sorry for what reply??? :hmm:

BTW... im going to update the first page today with the new city graphics :)

London is not the only english city!
Manchester, Brighton, Grimsby, Wolverinehampton (wolverhampton) and Tunbridge wheels (tunbridge wells) are all places in england


By the way, Manchester is supposed to be the biggest traction city in the world

London is not the only english city!
Manchester, Brighton, Grimsby, Wolverinehampton (wolverhampton) and Tunbridge wheels (tunbridge wells) are all places in england


By the way, Manchester is supposed to be the biggest traction city in the world

O yea... i know that know. After i did a bit of research (like not enough to do any stories or anything) i found out some of the nationalities of the cities.

Most are english and german but there is one egytian, one islandic, and one (or maybe it was two) from russia.

I don't think im goin do the traction suburbs...

ok i have time to do a bit of modding at the moment and i think i need help with some of the xml:
<UnitArtInfo>
<Type>ART_DEF_UNIT_CITY_TRACTION</Type>
<fScale>0.8</fScale>
<fInterfaceScale>1.0</fInterfaceScale>
<NIF>Art/Units/tractioncity_land/traction_city.nif</NIF>
<KFM>Art/Units/tractioncity_land/ </KFM> <!-- what do i put here? -->
<SHADERNIF>Art/Units/Explorer/Explorer_FX.nif</SHADERNIF>
<ShadowDef>
<ShadowNIF>Art/Units/01_UnitShadows/UnitShadow.nif</ShadowNIF>
<ShadowAttachNode>BIP Pelvis</ShadowAttachNode>
<fShadowScale>1.0</fShadowScale>
</ShadowDef>
<fBattleDistance>0.35</fBattleDistance>
<fRangedDeathTime>0.31</fRangedDeathTime>
<bActAsRanged>0</bActAsRanged>
<TrainSound>AS2D_UNIT_BUILD_UNIT</TrainSound>
<AudioRunSounds>
<AudioRunTypeLoop/>
<AudioRunTypeEnd/>
</AudioRunSounds>
</UnitArtInfo>

I copyed the explore art difine and was editing it so it would be the traction city art... but i don't know what most of these do. For the art i have 1 nif files, 9 TGA files, and 1 blender file. I don't know where to put these too.

A blender file? Oops! You wont need it.:blush:

I sugguest to copy the entry of the mech. Inf. cause I compare and animate my model with that file, so you'll have to make less changes here.

The fscale determins the size of the unit in the game.
The finterfacescale the size in the civilopedia. I think it could be reduced a bit.

the <NIF> and <SHADERNIF> tag should point to the .nif file.

this looks good: <NIF>Art/Units/tractioncity_land/traction_city.nif</NIF>

The <KFM> tag should point at the .kfm file (animations) of the unit. The traction city uses Mech. Inf. animations. If you have copied the entry of the mech. Inf, it can stay as it is, otherwise copy n paste this tag from the mech inf. entry.;)

The .tga files store the texture of the unit. Keep them in the same folder as the .nif file. DON'T RENAME THE TGA.

happy modding

Chamaedrys:D

ok i finaly tried what you said above today and i got these errors:

Trackback(most resent call last)

file ' CvScreensInterface', line 520, in leftMouseDown
File 'CvWorldBuilderScreen', line 221, in leftMouseDown
File 'cvWorldBuilderScreen', line 507, in placeObject

RuntimeError unidentifiable C++ exeption

Heres the code i put in the xml for the units:



<UnitInfo>
<Class>UNITCLASS_TRACTION_CITY</Class>
<Type>UNIT_TRACTION_CITY</Type>
<UniqueNames></UniqueNames>
<Special>NONE</Special>
<Capture>NONE</Capture>
<Combat>UNITCOMBAT_ARMOR</Combat>
<Domain>DOMAIN_LAND</Domain>
<DefaultUnitAI>UNITAI_ATTACK</DefaultUnitAI>
<Invisible>NONE</Invisible>
<SeeInvisible>NONE</SeeInvisible>
<Description>TXT_KEY_UNIT_GREAT_ENGINEER</Description>
<Civilopedia>TXT_KEY_CONCEPT_GREAT_PEOPLE_PEDIA</Civilopedia>
<Strategy>TXT_KEY_UNIT_GREAT_ENGINEER_STRATEGY</Strategy>
<Advisor>ADVISOR_GROWTH</Advisor>
<bAnimal>0</bAnimal>
<bFood>0</bFood>
<bNoBadGoodies>0</bNoBadGoodies>
<bOnlyDefensive>0</bOnlyDefensive>
<bNoCapture>0</bNoCapture>
<bRivalTerritory>0</bRivalTerritory>
<bMilitaryHappiness>0</bMilitaryHappiness>
<bMilitarySupport>0</bMilitarySupport>
<bMilitaryProduction>0</bMilitaryProduction>
<bPillage>0</bPillage>
<bSabotage>0</bSabotage>
<bDestroy>0</bDestroy>
<bStealPlans>0</bStealPlans>
<bInvestigate>0</bInvestigate>
<bCounterSpy>0</bCounterSpy>
<bFound>0</bFound>
<bGoldenAge>1</bGoldenAge>
<bInvisible>0</bInvisible>
<bFirstStrikeImmune>0</bFirstStrikeImmune>
<bNoDefensiveBonus>0</bNoDefensiveBonus>
<bIgnoreBuildingDefense>0</bIgnoreBuildingDefense>
<bCanMoveImpassable>0</bCanMoveImpassable>
<bFlatMovementCost>0</bFlatMovementCost>
<bIgnoreTerrainCost>0</bIgnoreTerrainCost>
<bNukeImmune>0</bNukeImmune>
<bPrereqBonuses>0</bPrereqBonuses>
<bPrereqReligion>0</bPrereqReligion>
<bMechanized>0</bMechanized>
<UnitClassUpgrades/>
<UnitAIs></UnitAIs>
<NotUnitAIs/>
<Builds/>
<ReligionSpreads/>
<GreatPeoples></GreatPeoples>
<Buildings/>
<ForceBuildings/>
<HolyCity>NONE</HolyCity>
<ReligionType>NONE</ReligionType>
<StateReligion>NONE</StateReligion>
<PrereqReligion>NONE</PrereqReligion>
<PrereqBuilding>NONE</PrereqBuilding>
<PrereqTech>NONE</PrereqTech>
<TechTypes/>
<BonusType>NONE</BonusType>
<PrereqBonuses/>
<ProductionTraits/>
<Flavors></Flavors>
<iAIWeight>0</iAIWeight>
<iCost>-1</iCost>
<iHurryCostModifier>0</iHurryCostModifier>
<iMinAreaSize>-1</iMinAreaSize>
<iMoves>2</iMoves>
<iAirRange>0</iAirRange>
<iNukeRange>-1</iNukeRange>
<iWorkRate>0</iWorkRate>
<iBaseDiscover>1000</iBaseDiscover>
<iDiscoverMultiplier>2</iDiscoverMultiplier>
<iBaseHurry>500</iBaseHurry>
<iHurryMultiplier>20</iHurryMultiplier>
<iBaseTrade>0</iBaseTrade>
<iTradeMultiplier>0</iTradeMultiplier>
<iGreatWorkCulture>0</iGreatWorkCulture>
<TerrainImpassables/>
<FeatureImpassables/>
<iCombat>0</iCombat>
<iAirCombat>0</iAirCombat>
<iAirCombatLimit>0</iAirCombatLimit>
<iXPValueAttack>0</iXPValueAttack>
<iXPValueDefense>0</iXPValueDefense>
<iFirstStrikes>0</iFirstStrikes>
<iChanceFirstStrikes>0</iChanceFirstStrikes>
<iInterceptionProbability>0</iInterceptionProbability>
<iEvasionProbability>0</iEvasionProbability>
<iWithdrawalProb>0</iWithdrawalProb>
<iCollateralDamage>0</iCollateralDamage>
<iCollateralDamageLimit>0</iCollateralDamageLimit>
<iCollateralDamageMaxUnits>0</iCollateralDamageMaxUnits>
<iCityAttack>0</iCityAttack>
<iCityDefense>0</iCityDefense>
<iAnimalCombat>0</iAnimalCombat>
<iHillsDefense>0</iHillsDefense>
<TerrainNatives/>
<FeatureNatives/>
<TerrainDefenses/>
<FeatureDefenses/>
<UnitClassAttackMods/>
<UnitClassDefenseMods/>
<UnitCombatMods/>
<DomainMods/>
<BonusProductionModifiers/>
<iBombRate>0</iBombRate>
<iBombardRate>0</iBombardRate>
<SpecialCargo>NONE</SpecialCargo>
<DomainCargo>NONE</DomainCargo>
<iCargo>0</iCargo>
<iConscription>0</iConscription>
<iCultureGarrison>0</iCultureGarrison>
<iExtraCost>0</iExtraCost>
<iAsset>1</iAsset>
<iPower>0</iPower>
<UnitMeshGroups>
<iGroupSize>1</iGroupSize>
<fMaxSpeed>1.25</fMaxSpeed>
<iMeleeWaveSize>1</iMeleeWaveSize>
<iRangedWaveSize>1</iRangedWaveSize>
<UnitMeshGroup>
<iRequired>1</iRequired>
<EarlyArtDefineTag>ART_DEF_UNIT_TRACTIONCITY</EarlyArtDefineTag>
</UnitMeshGroup>
</UnitMeshGroups>
<Button>,Art/Interface/Buttons/Units/GreatEngineer.dds,Art/Interface/Buttons/Unit_Resource_Atlas.dds,2,8</Button>
<HotKey/>
<bAltDown>0</bAltDown>
<bShiftDown>0</bShiftDown>
<bCtrlDown>0</bCtrlDown>
<iHotKeyPriority>0</iHotKeyPriority>
<FreePromotions/>
</UnitInfo>




<UnitArtInfo>
<Type>ART_DEF_UNIT_TRACTION_CITY</Type>
<fScale>0.8</fScale>
<fInterfaceScale>1.0</fInterfaceScale>
<NIF>Art/Units/Traction_City/traction_city.nif</NIF>
<KFM>Art/Units/MechanizedInfantry/MechanizedInfantry.kfm</KFM>
<SHADERNIF>Art/Units/Traction_City/traction_city.nif</SHADERNIF>
<ShadowDef>
<ShadowNIF>Art/Units/01_UnitShadows/UnitShadow.nif</ShadowNIF>
<ShadowAttachNode>BIP Pelvis</ShadowAttachNode>
<fShadowScale>0.9</fShadowScale>
</ShadowDef>
<fBattleDistance>0.35</fBattleDistance>
<fRangedDeathTime>0.31</fRangedDeathTime>
<bActAsRanged>0</bActAsRanged>
<TrainSound>AS2D_UNIT_BUILD_UNIT</TrainSound>
<AudioRunSounds>
<AudioRunTypeLoop/>
<AudioRunTypeEnd/>
</AudioRunSounds>
</UnitArtInfo>



Thanks for any help :)
~Civkid~

:eek:

You have made the unit unbuildable (icost -1) and gave it some GP values. But that should NOT be a problem.
I think there's something wrong in python or sdk.

*I have no experience with python or sdk:confused: *

:eek:

You have made the unit unbuildable (icost -1) and gave it some GP values. But that should NOT be a problem.

Oh :blush: i didn't realize that...

I think there's something wrong in python or sdk.

*I have no experience with python or sdk *
Oct 11, 2006 09:31 PM

I haven't added in any of the python stuff yet... but i've started to work on it. I just wsnted to see if i could add in a unit. Hopefully what you pointed out above will work

ty,

~Civkid~

Sorry I haven't posted for a while with my research, but my internet's been playing up; (and it's damn hard to find stuff about mortal engines and the other books:blush:)

I've finally finished (sort of i need to put in info from book into it) :blush:. Also take note that the info on the cities is from real life as info in the book is vague (which is reflected on some of my city notes unfortunately). Another apology for the lack of punctuation, and complete disregard of grammar in my notes :blush:.

Cities (normal):
* Benghazi port libya administrative and commercial centre, Manufactures include processed food, beverages, textiles, and cement, major culture centre,
* Chidanagaram: I really haven’t a clue with this one
* Cittamotore (cittamore,chittamore)? I have no idea if this cities exist but I recall playing a scenario as India, with chittamore being my economic powerhouse.
* Edinburgh: cultural centre, relatively small city, Edinburgh is Scotland's administrative, financial, legal, medical, and insurance center, and the city has become an important nuclear and electronics research center. The port imports grain, fertilizer, petroleum, minerals, wood pulp, cement, fruit, and vegetables. Edinburgh is a large brewing center, has a thriving publishing industry, and produces great quantities of high-grade paper. There are metalworks and rubber and engineering works. Other industries are distilling; the manufacture of glassware, drugs, and chemicals; and shipbuilding. The Waverly railway station is the second largest in Great Britain. Tourism is of major importance.
* Glasgow: a major port, an industrial center bigger than Edinburgh but smaller than most large cities, Once known for its large shipyards, metalworks, and engineering works, Glasgow's manufactured products now include electronic equipment, computers, chemicals, carpets, textiles, tobacco, and machine tools. Printing, engineering, and tourism are also important,
* Gorky: presuming Gorky is named after the town Gorki in Russia, industrial, small, possibly referring to Nizhny Novgorod
* Gutak: afghan, little info available
* Jagdstadt Magdeburg: half size of Edinburgh, port, railroad junction, trading settlement
* Juggernautpur: (jaipur) Indian, walled, named the pink city due to the colour of it’s buildings. Jaipur has lots of historical buildings. Jaipur was planned by Vidhyadhar Bhattacharya, a Bengali architect, in a grid system with wide straight avenues, roads, streets and lanes and uniform rows of shops on either side of the main bazaars, all arranged in nine rectangular city sectors (chokris). The city itself is an attractive creation worthy of universal admiration. The main industry is tourism.
* Kom Ombo: Ombos in Egypt? Ancient temple complex, agricultural,
* London: trade centre, It is the political, industrial, cultural, and financial centre of the country., large city of 7 million (14 times larger than Edinburgh) apparently…, lots of museums and cultural presence, first underground railway, commercial centre, It exports manufactured goods and imports petroleum, tea, wool, raw sugar, timber, butter, metals, and meat. Consumer goods, clothing, precision instruments, jewelry, and stationery are produced, but manufacturing has lost a number of jobs in the once-dominant textile, furniture, printing, and chemical-processing industries as firms have moved outside the area. Engineering and scientific research are also important to the economy, as is tourism,
* Manchester: Greater Manchester is densely populated and highly industrialized, in the book it’s rich and much larger than many other cities, highly industrial
* Montpelier: near the Mediterranean coast. It is a great commercial center. Its industries, many of them recently developed, include food processing, salt working, textile milling, printing, and the manufacture of metal items and chemicals. Tourism, improved by the development of the nearby coast, is a major industry. Montpellier's population increased dramatically during the 1960s, due in part to an influx of refugees from Algeria, The city is also the seat of agricultural and military schools and of an international wine festival.
* Motoropolis: looks like you’re free to run riot with this one
* Murnau: A town of 12,000, train hub.
* Nizhny Novgorod: formally named Gorky, administrative center of the Volga district, it is one of the chief industrial cities of Russia. Heavy machinery, steel, chemicals, and textiles are produced. The city is the site of one of the largest automobile factories in Russia.
* Panzerstadt-Bayreuth: (Bayreuth) Manufactures include machinery, textiles, chemicals, pianos, porcelain, and glassware, cultural and industrial centre,
* Pandzerstadt-Linz: (linz) major port on the Danube River. It is a commercial and industrial center and a rail junction. Manufactures include iron and steel, machinery, electrical equipment, glass, furniture, beverages, shoes, rubber, tobacco products, and textiles.
* Paris: commercial, cultural, and industrial center. It is now the financial, commercial, transportation, artistic, and intellectual centre of France.
* Prague: a leading cultural and commercial center, Prague is the country's major economic and cultural centre, famous for its music, literature, and architecture
* Traktiongrad: looks like you’re free to run riot with this one too
* Xanne-Sandansky: well sandansky is a Bulgarian town which is a farming town
* Zimbra: sounds African couldn’t find any info that it even exists


Cities (raft):
* Brighton: tourism is the major source of income, light fishing,
* Grimsby (sunken): It is a major fishing port and has varied industries. Population: 87,500. has an extensive commercial trade in fish, coal, grain, and timber as well as an important frozen food industry. Other production includes rayon, titanium oxide, and chemicals. A college of technology is located there.
* Marseilles: Today it is an industrial center and a major seaport.
* Puerto Angeles: I presume this is meant to be angeles on Puerto rico, not a lot of info on this I think it’s a pretty generic carribean/Mexican city (correct me if I’m wrong)


Cities (ice):
* Anchorage: Seaport, largest city (pop., 2000: 260,283), and chief commercial centre of Alaska, one of the nation's key defense centers, Anchorage is also the headquarters for the major oil and gas companies in Alaska.
* Arkangel: leading Russian port, is a major timber-exporting port and has extensive shipbuilding facilities, a fishing centre
* Breidhavik: Iceland population of 42 small fishing community
* Kivitoo: small Canadian town
* Wolverinehampton: It is a highly industrialized city, products include automobiles, hardware, rayon, tires, and chemicals
* Reykjavík: It’s a major fishing port and having half the industrial strength of the country (iceland)



Techs:
Heavier than air flight
Stalkers
Sabotage
Ancient tech
Various engine/armour/city upgrades (you could use the upgraded building mod component by thelopez (?) to achieve this)


Units:
saboteur
Green storm fanatic
Green storm stalker
Green storm stalker bird
Anti-tractionist soldier
Anti-tractionist rocket artillery
Tractionist soldier
plane


Anti-tractionists:
I personally think it would be fun playing as them but might be hard to implement as a civ; however in the end it's your choice.

Religion:
Cleo, Quirke(and other city gods), Christianity was mentioned but is a minor religion, I’ll have to reread to find others

City specialists:

Engineer (hammer + beaker),
Merchant(gold),
Navigator(?),
Scientist (beakers),
Historian (happy faces + gold),
these would have to be play tested as to how much of each they give out


Culture vs. fuel:
I agree with your ideas on this completely. I also think that when a city attacks and kills another you can choose to capture it (not too sure about that one) or harvest it and gain 75% of it’s population and resources/luxuries/food/hammers/gold.

Suburbs:
Suburbs can be built (but are extremely expensive) and some are pre built at the start.

Random ideas:
Promotions/buildings? (nets, snout guns, tracks/wheels/runners/raft, algae farms, extra tiers, armor plating, labour camps, air harbour, runway(?), old tech market, bigger more powerful engines, more efficient equipment, better navigating equipment, bridge (for navigators))
City upgrades (rocket nets, snout guns, tracks/wheels/runners/raft (allwith different attributes: not able to travel through hills/sea/tundra etc.) extra tiers, armor plating)
City eating (how would this happen?)
Food hammers gold production this would make you able to produce your own food, hammers and gold regardless of the terrain you’re on (algae farms for food, labour camps for production, air harbour (?) for gold) (I’m not too sure about this idea it would need to be playtested)
Pirate cities (like Tunbridge wheels(barbarian?))
python events(?): Marseilles


And the file (if you want it) is here. (http://forums.civfanatics.com/uploads/60554/mortal_engines_ideas.zip)

Wow.. this is amazing. This is really helpful. What i need now is probably a lot of help with the programing... i thought that i would be able to do a lot this year but i've been really bussy and can't do as much as i thought that i could. If anyone thinks they can do some xml or something then post and ill try to organize it.


Another apology for the lack of punctuation, and complete disregard of grammar in my notes .

no probelm :) i do it sometimes myself.

Well seeing as I have a bit of free time now I guess I could help. However I will begin toying around with the main game, using tutorials, and see how I do first :).

The thing thats on the top of my list is getting some stuff in python programed:

- A movement fucntion is needed. The only way i can see this happening is using the "spells" like in FFH.

- A function that would cause the city unit token to move when you "cast" the movement "spell"

- A way to store the amount of fuel a city has -> probably using SDtoolkit (i think thats what its called... feel free to correct me if im wrong on the name)

- A "spell" for eating other cities

I like a lot of your ideas... but for the one about the pirate traction cities... im planing on having that souly for grimsby. Uncle and the lost boys will me sort of the pirate/paracite civ.

I could try these, well to work them out, tomorrow. No promises though:D.

EDIT: Could you tell me what you have completed first before we duplicate anything? As I will probably be working on simple stuff first

I could try these, well to work them out, tomorrow. No promises though:D.

EDIT: Could you tell me what you have completed first before we duplicate anything? As I will probably be working on simple stuff first

Well curently i have a few xml files that i tried to edit to make the civs... ill post those later and thats about it. Most of my free time has been devoted to learning japanese and chinese and some free time to playing FFH and that takes up a lot so i haven't been doing that much.

Well I think I'll start of by looking at mod components and other mods for things that can be used. Then I'll go make changes to a few xml files:D.

EDIT: I've just looked through the mod components forum and come up with these:

• Sniper mod -TheLopez**
• Enhanced foreign advisor -TheLopez
• Enhanced military advisor –TheLopez
• Enhanced Civilopedia Index and user page –SimCutie
• Mastery victory –Sevo
• Plagues –Stardog13 (might want to wait for later version)
• Inquisition mod –TheLopez*
• JZoC mod –Jeckel (need to wait until it works with units)
• Building Resource Converter mod –TheLopez (this could be used to convert old tech into weapons etc., coal/wood/oil into fuel, deckplates and other bits of city into raw materials.) *
• Route Pillage mod –TheLopez (The anti-tractionists are going to hate this one…)*
• Multi-Building unit requirement –TheLopez
• JRandom names mod –Jeckel
• Mercenaries mod –TheLopez**
• Great doctor –TheLopez
• Upgradeable buildings –TheLopez
• Dale’s combat mods –Dale**
• Always war mod –RogerBacon
• Unit Statistics –Teg navanis**
• Promotions and perks –Zuul**
• Assassin mod –RogerBacon**

* I’m not too sure whether you’ll want use these or how difficult/big the workload these components will require.

** I’m not too sure how units are going to be used in this game so you may want to check these to see what you want to do with them.

get warlords and use the moving barbarian camp as a city but change the texture so it looks different .

The problem is the camp isnt a city its just a unit that produces more units, and really isnt much help, still requires a lot of other additions

get warlords and use the moving barbarian camp as a city but change the texture so it looks different .

Yea and im not really planing on getting warlords anytime soon (or ever). IMO FFH is way much better then warlords and id rather play that (because is free and just gets better and better).

Edit: BTW, anyone else up to being part of the programming team besides matteo773?
@ Matteo773: im going to look at the proposed mod-components you posted and see what i like. I'll post what i think when im able to do a bit more planing and organizing

Ok so this is what i think about the list provided:

• Sniper mod -TheLopez : does this mod add in sniper units or does it add in sniper promotions? If promotions then it could be used to customize cities. Instead of having all of the cities the same we will have a bit of differences.
• Enhanced foreign advisor -TheLopez : a good thing to have
• Enhanced military advisor –TheLopez : ditto
• Enhanced Civilopedia Index and user page –SimCutie : ditto that ditto
• Mastery victory –Sevo : i haven't really been looking at the victories at the moment and im going to focus more on getting the cities to move, finding out how to add fuel and working on combate
• Plagues –Stardog13 (might want to wait for later version) : i don't really like this one
• Inquisition mod –TheLopez : i haven't really looked into religion. I think ill leave that alone untill i get the things im focusing on right now done.
• JZoC mod –Jeckel (need to wait until it works with units) : I dont really see why this would be used in this mod.
• Building Resource Converter mod –TheLopez (this could be used to convert old tech into weapons etc., coal/wood/oil into fuel, deckplates and other bits of city into raw materials.) : Yea this is one of my favorite theLopez mod components. I can easilly put this to good use. It maybe a good way to make fuel too.
• Route Pillage mod –TheLopez (The anti-tractionists are going to hate this one…) : yea i'm going not going to focuse on this at the moment and im not really sure this would work out. Im going to think about this for a bit.
• Multi-Building unit requirement –TheLopez : I can't really say anthing for this right now. I don't have any buildings yet.
• JRandom names mod –Jeckel : maybe... i can probably but it to use.
• Mercenaries mod –TheLopez :
• Great doctor –TheLopez : i haven't decided this would work out or not. Would the medical practices of the old times still exist or will such studies be lost?
• Upgradeable buildings –TheLopez : sounds cool and could be put to use
• Dale’s combat mods –Dale : didn't really see anything i could use
• Always war mod –RogerBacon : I think there may be an alternitive to using this one. Besides in this mod nobody isn't at war technically. It's municiple darwinism, survival of the best city. Technically there is no war. I guess you can count Antitranction vs Tranctionist as war but that will be taken care of in later versions.
• Unit Statistics –Teg navanis : still considering
• Promotions and perks –Zuul : I like this one and it could be really helpful
• Assassin mod –RogerBacon : i'll have to wait till i start working more with the units to make a disicion here.

does this mod add in sniper units or does it add in sniper promotions?

It adds both and a building but I think it shouldn't be too hard to remove the units and the building.

i haven't decided this would work out or not. Would the medical practices of the old times still exist or will such studies be lost?

Well I guess that with the ability to make stalkers they would know quite a bit about the human body. I don't recall the books ever mentioning anything about doctors of any kind. Although General Naga did have his legs replaced. I would say that they are probably quite advanced. If it were up to me I'd say pre-penicillin but I would imagine there would be some form of anestethic; no matter how crude.

I think I agree with you there now that I look at them again. I'm not too sure what I'm going to do next... I may look for possible unit graphics.

P.S. I just remembered the third book (?) mentioning that the green storm had airships with armoured envelopes and gondolas; so there might be a couple more units to look for...

Hello, I found out about this project and I was intreuged. I do not actually have Civ IV but my knowlage of these books is great so if you have any questions on these books, or anything, please do not hesitate to ask. I'll keep looking on this thread, and I'll answer any questions and post ideas.

Could you post links for all mortal engines related topics?

And is this mod for Civ II or Civ IV?

A few Ideas

Instead of countries, you have a city.

From this city you can build:

Airships
Troopers (armed men)
Unique Unit- If you want a list, please just ask
Suburbs- Increases Economy, and acts as a second city
Predator Suburbs- Giant fighting fortresses, like tanks oly very strong, and acts as a second city- can only train military units

City Upgrades-
Fortress
Anti-Rocket Netting
Anti Air Batteries
Snout Gun Batteries
Rotating Jaws (or something similar)- make a city gain more from a catch
Engine Upgrades- Increases speed
Factories- Makes money
Algae Vats- Produces food
Air Harbour- Makes money, required to build airships
Plate Armour


Resouces- Iron, lifting gas ect

A city moves to a resource and an option of 'prospect or mine' is put up the city then spends a number of turns on that tile, gathering the resource. Once this recource is aqquired, then the city can build things that require that resource.


Possible nations-

All the cities (remember there are south american cities)
Anti Traction Leauge
Green Storm
Mountain of the Moon people (can't remember their names)

Super Weapons:
ODIN
MEDUSA
possibly some others, some more are mentioned. Take a look in A Darkling Plain

The Anti Traction leauge could be just like a normal nation, with cities and such. Capital is Tenjing

Most of its units are Airships, as the Anti Traction League don't have stalkers, also could have stealthy spy people and infantry

Green Storm- The supirior nation to the anti traction leugue, has airships, stalkers, rocket infantry (the people who crawl under traction cities) and anti city artillery. Can entrench their units.

Builds windmills and stalker plants.

Those are a few of my ideas

hello Direktor Tharma. To answer your questions... this mod is going to be for civ4 and this is pretty much the only thread for mortal engines. There was another but it didn't really get as far as this one. Most of the things you've mentioned above are already set to be in the mod. The only things we need at the moment is a group of skilled programers to help me out with the python. I've been really bussy with school and another mod that im part of so time is limited. But this mod is still growing and will eventually released.

Help would be great. It would be great if you could help out with creating stories and civpedia entries for our units, civs, and buildings.

Welcome to civfanatics :goodjob:

alright, how should i go about making civopedia entries. And do you want a list of the unique city units
also, paehaps there should be hero people, eg vaentine, anna fang or naga.

Atm, what were focousing on is getting some of the programming stuff solved. I havne't really thought much about the units and buildings. If you what to suggest some the i could review them and see which ones are good or would be better for later or something. As for heros i think we should wait till later to do more with heros. Do you know how to edit xml files? If so you could speed things up by writing any pedia enties into the xml files for the mod and then posting them. If not then just post your storys or descriptions and then we can add them in. For the enties they're basicly stories or descriptions units, civs (cities), leaders, etc. I would also suggest getting civ4 especially if you what to beta test :D

thanks for the help :)

its okay.
unfortunatly i dont know anything about any kind of computer coding, but i would be more than happy to help in any way possible. I can post some civilopedia entries for you to add.
Should i start by doing the cities?

i haven't decided this would work out or not. Would the medical practices of the old times still exist or will such studies be lost?

In the last book, on Peripatetiapolis tom is on a medical ward with tubes inserted into his arms, and a machine above him which examines him. The machine seems to be made from stalker bits and stuff, so perhaps its an old tech technology.

its okay.
unfortunatly i dont know anything about any kind of computer coding, but i would be more than happy to help in any way possible. I can post some civilopedia entries for you to add.
Should i start by doing the cities?

That would be cool. I also need to start thinking about the leaders and what types of characteristics they may have.

if you like i could do magnus crome and adlai browne (manchesters mayor)

First of all, welcome Direktor Tharma and thanks 'cos we need all the help we can get:). And I've spent a little while looking for units and... I couldn't find ANY. So instead I've written little descriptions of the units to see if you guys agree or not.


+Grimsby Lostboy: this will either be a slaveish unit that will be produced if grimsby attacks a city or a early scout
+Limpit(i forgot what the sea-land units they sailed in where called): will be a grimsby only unit that is like a pirate ship (o and grimsby will have the piracy trait). It can steal resources (maybe) from other cities and is invisible.
+Great Historian
+Great Archeologist
+Stalkers (i believe they were called):undead units for those evil militaristic cities
+Weather Units (Not sure if im going to actually use this or not): Units that are generated at sea during specific times of they year. Hurricans have the ability to attack raft cities... if its near a coast tile then it may generate a thunderstorm... which has a small chance of upgradeing a tile before it "disappears"+saboteur - I thought the current spy wouldn't be too bad for this...
+Green storm fanatic - I'm not altogether sure what they should be armed with (I don't think they automatic rifles yet?) so maybe a rifle? And they should have a green unifrom of course:D.
+Green storm stalker - Sinister looking machines that look that they were put together in arush
+Green storm stalker bird - Just a bird with green eyes :D
+Anti-tractionist soldier - probably less well equipped than a green storn fanatic.
+Anti-tractionist rocket artillery - This would probably be similar to the H'wacha in construction but with better rockets
+Tractionist soldier - Quite similar to the other soldiers (?)
+plane - Well they had all sorts of heavier than air aircraft in the last books biplanes, gyrocopters, triplanes and planes with a ww2 style layout.

@matteo773: yea those sound good
@Direktor Tharma:yea that would be good. When your done ill try to update the first post to show the current leaders

@matteo remember to include airships, and i belive that the zagwans had those kite things
Also, there were air desroyers which i kind of imagine as a large flying zeppelin with multiple gun emplacements and stuff.
my email is irose92@hotmail.co.uk
i can send you some art stuff if you like.

How about this for crome,
Magnus Crome
Lord Mayor of London and head of the guild of engineers.

Cold, strict and ambitious he started off his career as a young apprentice engineer, when he read forcasts of a dark future where there was no place for traction cities, as the resources would run out. He then made it his life ambition to prove them wrong. Moving his way up the ranks of the engineers untill he became the head engineer was not enough. He achieved his final goal when he became Lord Mayor of London. But when he became Lord Mayor he didn't renounce his position as head of engineers but instead retained it. He is the first Lord Mayor in London's history to be the head of guild as well.

When he became Lord Mayor he introduce strict new laws, including recycling and heavy tax. He ordered the turning over of many parks for algae farms and set up new experimental departments in the Deep Gut. But he didn't stop there, he had greater plans for London, including Resserected Men and Old-Tech Super Weapons.

Tell me if we should add anything

i can send you some art stuff if you like.

Real art on mortal engines!?!?!?!?!? Where did you get it!?!?!? It's so hard to find anything on google about it!!!

My email is <edit> so if you could send me the artwork I will add it to the rather empty folder containing my mortal engines stuff....

And that entry looks great.

well, the only art i can think of is the suff on the front covers. what do you think of my infor?

here are a few unique units i could think of
Manchester- Manchester Civic Guard- armed with guns, swords: Red Uniform
Airhaven- Airhaven Town Militia- Armed with crossbows: Blue Uniform
Brighton- Brighton Militia- Very Fancy Red Uniform
London- Beefeaters- Red armour, armed with rifels (possibly like the beefeaters at the tower of london)
Murnau- Soldiers- Rifels, swords- all men

I'll have a quick look in the units section for them :D.

Well, after several quick searches all I could find is this: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=154044
Which could work at a push.