I want a payoff in FfHII when my slaves (er, I mean, my citizens) create wonders for the glory of my rule.

So I'm doing something about it...attached is a sample set of wondermovies that I'm in the process of creating for the FfHII universe.

I'm keeping them somewhat simple because of the sheer number that needs to be done. I'm using a preformed template for the blending effects too.

Below is the list of the wonders, and the means to keep track of what needs to be done.
(85 total)

UPDATED LIST: 06/28/07

DONE
World Wonders
• Aquae Sucellus
• Bone Palace
• Caminus Aureus
• Catacomb Libralus
• Celestial Compass
• Council of Esus
• Crown of Akharien
• Form of the Titan
• Grand Menagerie
• Guild of Endeavors
• Hall of Kings
• Infernal Grimoire
• Mercurian Gate
• Mines of Gal-Dur
• Mokka's Cauldron
• Pact of the Nilhorn
• Prophecy of Ragnarok
• Purge the Unfaithful
• Ride of the Nine Kings
• Shrine of Sirona
• Soul Forge
• Syliven's Perfect Lyre
• Temple of Temporance
• The Dragon's Hoard
• The Eyes and Ears Network
• The Great Library
• The Great Lighthouse
• The Nexus
• Tomb of Sucellus
• Tower of Complacency
• Tower of Eyes
• Twisted Spire
• Yggdrasil

National Wonders
• Altar of the Luonnotar
• Altar of the Luonnotar (anointed)
• Altar of the Luonnotar (blessed)
• Altar of the Luonnotar (consecrated)
• Altar of the Luonnotar (divine)
• Altar of the Luonnotar (exalted)
• Altar of the Luonnotar (final)
• Bazaar of Mammon
• Forbidden Palace
• Heroic Epic
• National Epic
• Shrine of the Champion
• Tower of Alteration
• Tower of Divination
• Tower of Mastery
• Tower of Necromancy
• Tower of the Elements

Shrines
• Code of Junil
• Song of Autumn
• Stigmata on the Unborn
• Tablets of Bambur
• The Necronomicon
• Wyrmhold

Rituals
• Bane Divine
• Blood of the Phoenix
• Elegy of the Sheaim
• Genesis
• Glory Everlasting
• Hallowing of the Elohim
• Nature's Revolt
• Rites of Oghma

Palaces
• Amurite Palace
• Balseraphs Palace
• Bannor Palace
• Calabim Palace
• Clan of Embers Palace
• Doviello Palace
• Elohim Palace
• Grigori Palace
• Hippus Palace
• Illian Palace
• Infernal Palace
• Khazad Palace
• Kuriotate Palace
• Lanun Palace
• Ljosalfar Palace
• Luchuirp Palace
• Malakim Palace
• Mercurian Palace
• Sheaim Palace
• Sidar Palace
• Svartalfar Palace

Oh, and to keep some anticipation for this, I probably will not publicly post the rest of the files until the next update. Sorry 'bout that. (although Kael will have access to the files so I can polish them up to his liking.)

Yeah, I know I am evil...but that way players will be even more eager to download the next update. ;) Game companies do that all the time...

http://forums.civfanatics.com/uploads/10966/ffh2_samplewonders1.zip

I like the ones your showing so far. Will the description of what the wonder does automatically be under the movie? If not it would help if you added it.

Will the movies come with sound? They look very cool, but with no sound some of the mood is lost.

I like the way you're making them small. They're good, but if they doubled the download size of the mod they wouldn't be worth it. As it is they'll be a nice pat on the back for when you complete a wonder. I often fell that something is laking when you finish one, the videos should hit the spot.

Arggh! I've got no internet access at home right now!

Oh well, I'm sure I can wait 32 hours to see your work...

Err, how do you play the movie?

I like the ones your showing so far. Will the description of what the wonder does automatically be under the movie? If not it would help if you added it.
I figure it will be handled the same way as the normal Wonder movies...using localized text. That way they only need to be compiled once... (and it is timeconsuming to recompile them every time a change is made, if the ingame Wonder effects still need to be fine-tuned)


Will the movies come with sound? They look very cool, but with no sound some of the mood is lost.
Yes, sound will be in.


I like the way you're making them small. They're good, but if they doubled the download size of the mod they wouldn't be worth it.
The one problem is that there are a lot of Wonders...The filesize averages out to 2.5 - 3MB for each file too.

If there is a concern for the effect on the total size of the Mod...
A workaround may include limiting the number of videos included in the download to specific wonders. The fanbase can vote on which ones should have a video.

(My visual favorites so far... 'Eyes and Ears Network', 'Soul Forge', Forbidden Palace, 'Tomb of Sucellus' and 'Heroic Epic')

Actually, the creation of the videos was not that hard either once I had the template done - hence I went ahead and did 50 already.


As it is they'll be a nice pat on the back for when you complete a wonder. I often fell that something is laking when you finish one, the videos should hit the spot.
It is the one thing I miss while playing the Mod, given the history of the civ franchise.

Err, how do you play the movie?
They are set up in bik format (which is the format used in civ4 for the movies)

You need RadTools to view outside of the game platform (it's a free software download)

I can't wait to use these, I think it will add alot to the experince of the game. Thanks for all your work, Hex.:goodjob:

It's a nice idea, orewhever, the majority of the wonder art aren't made and are low in our priorities (we prefer to do units first and buldings after).

For some wonders, you may be able to complete the video just by reading the pedia, but some may wait for the final art.

Maybe the best wonders should be included automatically but the rest should be an optional download.
The nice thing about an optional download is that then you only need to download them once, instead of every time a new version comes out. However with an optional download not everyone my get them, even if they would want them.

It's a nice idea, orewhever, the majority of the wonder art aren't made and are low in our priorities (we prefer to do units first and buldings after).

For some wonders, you may be able to complete the video just by reading the pedia, but some may wait for the final art.
The way I see it, your (and Sez's) plate is already full with the units and buildings. So you might as well have me do the artwork for this aspect of the game.

...and it is why I decided to get a jump on it. It becomes one less thing to deal with in the grand scheme of things.

...and I really miss those wonder movies. It's all about ingame atmosphere. ;)

Sounds great. :thumbsup:

Maybe the best wonders should be included automatically but the rest should be an optional download.
The nice thing about an optional download is that then you only need to download them once, instead of every time a new version comes out. However with an optional download not everyone my get them, even if they would want them.
One other thing you could do is make the movies a static, unblended pic, converted into a bik movie. This would make filesizes much smaller - though not as visually nice...

Then make the actual videos available as an separate add-on. There would not be any coding change needed between the two versions, because the bik videos would simply overwrite the bik pictures.

We wanted to do static wonder splashes about a year ago, but we never got very far. I wish you well hex.

Where do we need to save these to in order to use them in-game? Are they supported in 0.22?

Are they supported in 0.22?

No, unless there is a special patch for it. They will be probably in 0.23

They are set up in bik format (which is the format used in civ4 for the movies)

You need RadTools to view outside of the game platform (it's a free software download)

Thanks Hex and great work!

I like your idea Hex, I'm in total agreement, not having a movie after a Wonder is created is a bit of a let-down once you've made them. I haven't seen them yet (unfortunately) but I look forward to seeing them (assuming they are included in future versions).

As far as contributing more than a slight bit of support, I'm in the camp that supports music with the Wonders, although I agree that optional downloads should be included.

Really nice job! Keep it up, I've also been missing the movies (and even more so since they haven't worked before I stopped playing vanilla - now they do but I usually only play FfH :P ).

Just about done with them... World, National and Shrines are finished.

I have the following to do.

Bane Divine
Elegy of the Sheaim
Hallowing of the Elohim
Rites of Oghma

I need some thoughts/suggestions, since the wiki entries are somewhat sparse for these wonders.

And I still may end up doing the civ-specific palaces - though I may just go with a generic palace for the whole group.

I'm shooting to have this all wrapped up in a week or less. I still have to fiddle with musictracks and convert files from Quicktime to bik.

And I still may end up doing the civ-specific palaces - though I may just go with a generic palace for the whole group.

I already see ppl moving their capital just to see your movies :)

FFH is getting better and better each day.

Are you an offitial member of the team now?

_Valis;5609387']Are you an offitial member of the team now?
Ask Kael... :lol: :lol:

_Valis;5609387']I already see ppl moving their capital just to see your movies :)
I guess this means I gotta do the civ-specific palaces ;)

I have the following to do.

Bane Divine
Elegy of the Sheaim
Hallowing of the Elohim
Rites of Oghma

I need some thoughts/suggestions, since the wiki entries are somewhat sparse for these wonders.How about starting with a scene where a group of mages is standing at some sacred/powerful place (like Stonehenge or something evil/good looking), chanting, invoking "streams of mana" (blue energy lines floating around or whatever) and then there's maybe kind of an explosion of the energy for the Rites of Oghma symbolizing the spread of more mana.

Elegy of the Sheaim could be a human sacrifice (take an elf! ;) ) and Hallowing of the Elohim some withe priests chanting/praying in a huge cathedral/temple. Bane Divine... well, maybe some mage on top of a mountain casting a flash towards the sky or through the sky in all directions (symbolizing the cut of connection). Hm, I think I like the individual ideas more than the one mentioned first.

This may be asking too much, but movies for the Armageddon events would be nifty...

One movie for the first one of every great person! :crazyeye:

Just kidding! :D Keep up the good slideshows!

I watched your sample movies. Very nice to have something to watch, when you make it to a wonder, but like someone else mentioned already: You really like theses lights from above, don't you? ;-)

How about starting with a scene...
Thanks for the suggestions, they helped a lot. I was able to work those ideas into the remaining rituals in a simpler form (since I am sticking with a single image per video)

And I can report that all videos are done!!! 85 total...

Global Wonders
National Wonders
Shrines
Rituals
ALL civ-specific palaces

minus the musictracks, which I still have to drop in.

Probably sometime this weekend... ;)

congrats :goodjob: i realy look forward to seeing them.

Files done and uploaded to Kael...

and a taste of the final product!
Heroic Epic

http://forums.civfanatics.com/uploads/10966/ffh2_heroic_06_30.zip

Nice touch, thar Rohirrim music :D
Can't wait to see the rest!

How about starting with a scene where a group of mages is standing at some sacred/powerful place (like Stonehenge or something evil/good looking), chanting, invoking "streams of mana" (blue energy lines floating around or whatever) and then there's maybe kind of an explosion of the energy for the Rites of Oghma symbolizing the spread of more mana.


Sounds a lot like the last minute or so of this Arcanum clip (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=geXbfEOy4sk). Though I guess with the giant hole opening up, it'd probably be better suited for the Hellfire step.