This thread is for creation and discussion of the leaderhead background text in the pedia.

As of version 0.8, there are 16 LH, of which 3 have "good" background text in the pedia: Halloween Jane (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=7047540&postcount=14), Christopher Lehman (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=7055633&postcount=25), and Stein (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=7060625&postcount=7).

I have a spreadsheet at this link (http://jendaveallen.com/fury-road/leaderheads/statistics.xls) which gives the names, pictures and statistics for the leaders. It is up to date for the 0.8 release.

If you are interested, you could help me by writing more backgrounds. It may be possible to add new graphics, but this is challenging; so it is better to come up with a background that matches one of the existing graphics.

In addition to the background, a capitol city name, 20 other city names following the theme, a first contact quote or two, and a suggestion for a flag would make the whole thing come together.

EDIT: oh, and unique units too. Forgot about that, but it's one of the main points for having fewer leaderheads.

I've fallen in love with Hopeville; both the flavor and the civ itself. As often happens when I play civ at night, a background for Brandi and her people formed in my mind. If it's a bit long, I might trim it.

Jack had been wandering for five days now. How he had survived the Apocolypse was beyond him; his family lay dead, and the basement of his house had barely survived. Even then, only by a miracle. If his radio was to be believed, the once-civilized world was now infested with lunatics. He had heard the lamentations of those who believed the world damned, the testosterone-fueled rantings of men turned into savages, and the insane babblings of would-be prophets.

But in all this terrible mess, a single voice had called out. The voice of an angel. "I am Brandi, of Hopeville. Any who need shelter, food, a warm bed, come to Hopeville. We have all that, and more. None will be turned away." And she had even given directions to reach this wonderful place. Jack had laughed. He had suspected this dreamer's paradise would be overrun by the lunatics infesting the rest of the airwaves. Perhaps it already was. Perhaps it was merely a trap, some murderous siren as bad as the rest. That was a risk he was willing to take. He had nothing to lose. If things turned sour, he figured, he had his six-shooter. Kill five of them, then end it all.

***

At first, Jack thought it a mirage, or a delusion. But as he approached, the settlement seemed perfectly real. It was remarkably clean, although outside its barricades were strewn with the remnants of countless motorbikes. The soldiers in the watchtower eyed him warily. Jack put his hands in the air to signal his intents. The soldiers nodded their understanding and flipped a light. Yellow. It was then Jack spotted a figure dashing out of the settlement. He wasn't sure how to react, so he kept his hands up. He assumed the young woman coming for him was going to check him for weapons. But she continued running, before giving Jack what seemed a combination of a tackle and an embrace. This was his first human contact since the Apocolypse, and he wasn't sure how to react. "Do I... know you?" The woman smiled sweetly and shook his hand before speaking. "I'm Brandi. I take it you found your way here from our radio transmission? Come on in, you must be exhausted!" With that, Brandi grabbed his hands and practically dragged him into camp.

As soon as Jack passed through the settlement's gates, a tall, grim man wearing scrap metal armor over the remnants of a butler's uniform grabbed him. "Hello stranger." "You don't have to be so rude, Mortimer," Brandi insisted to the man. Mortimer looked at Brandi with a weary smile. "And you don't have to personally greet every poor fool who wanders into this camp. He could've killed you..." Brandi ignored him pointedly and bustled off to a soup kitchen. Mortimer examined Jack. "I'll be having that gun..." Jack slowly pulled it out and handed it, pointing towards himself, to Mortimer. "Smart move." Mortimer said, and then softened. "Sorry, security, you understand. We weren't exactly prepared for this... none of us."

Mortimer showed Jack to a large building that, at one time, had been a beautiful mansion. "We've set up cots here. Find yourself one. East wing is medical, so stay out of there unless you're sick." "Thank you..." Jack said, but Mortimer didn't seem to hear. "It's funny," Mortimer said, more to himself then Jack. "She's so much like her father... but she got the best parts of her mother as well. Her father knew this was coming. He didn't care... he'd helped cause it, and he was willing to die in it. Ever since his wife died, Brandi was all he lived for. When he knew the time had come, he told me to get Brandi in the bunker, then went off into the woods. I suggested Brandi should invite her friends over for a party in the bunker, but she figured out what was happening. She got practically the entire town, from the noblest old men to the worst criminals, in that bunker. Men, women, children. Twice as many as the bunker was meant to hold, but she made it work... and she managed the entire town afterwards. Spearheaded the rebuilding. That's her father's smarts. But she also got her mother's compassion. Always held out hope for even the worst among us. And it's contagious; common criminals, who I was sure would be looting by now, have turned into model citizens. Brandi can't stand fighting, even though she masterminded our defensive plan. Always cries about the raiders that attack... insists we bury the scum. I don't know how long we can keep on like this. But if we fall to some raiding party that's a bit tougher then the rest... at least we tried. Maybe it's better to die like this, as men rebuilding what was lost, then to live like savages..." With that, Mortimer walked off, leaving Jack to begin his new life.

Anyways, as to Hopeville. I cannot help but think that while the color scheme is perfect for them, if a unicorn flag could be found, that'd be all too fitting. Unicorns are essentially the very tasty symbols of naive love for the world in general. Or rainbows. A smiley face might be a bit too cheesy. I'm not so sure about the UU. I'm thinking of modified calvary, for some reason. (Horsies!) Or, of course, you could go the India path with improved workers... but I feel like that'd be taking the easy way out. Then again, I'm not sure what an appropriate Calvary UU would be, in terms of abilities...

That fits what I was thinking, and it's very atmospheric. I will try to make a lipstick pink unicorn flag. (There are too many civs in the purple/blue family, and I freed up pink from Chen.)

See post #6 of http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=283206 for background to an Aboriginal culture.

I'll paste up another background shortly.

This is the Civilization background for the Army of the New Dawn, a survivalist cult.

**************

ASIO #21546/RD-1

Last Updated: 04/07/2072
Group Name: The Army of the New Dawn
Sub-classifications: Cult, Survivalists
Threat Assessment: Low
Suggested Action: Watch-list only; review in six months

The Army of the New Dawn is a small cult operating primarily in the Western Territories. Ostensibly a survivalist movement, the Army claims that it provides training holidays for stressed city executives and other AB professionals. The focus of such holidays is a mixture of survival studies and low level combat skills. A fair, if somewhat derogatory criticism, is that the group is little more than paint-ballers and boy scouts.

To add verisimilitude to the experience, a number of scenarios are often presented in very black and white terms. Teams must evade capture, infiltrate enemy bases, forage for food, repair machinery, often within a limited time-span with one or more assailants bearing down on their position.

Each evening, the group’s founder gives a series of lectures. Whilst primarily focused on survivalist techniques, these lectures are often nihilistic in tone. Drenched in religious imagery, the subtext is that mankind has been abandoned by God and must make his own way in the world.

The group follows a hierarchical structure. New attendees are known as First Rays. Those that continue to return to the group are elevated to the status Dawn Flecks. Sufficient expertise and financial support brings the member to Burning Cloud status. The most trusted lieutenants of the cult are called Wide Horizons, whilst the leader is known as Bright Light. (Reference: ASIO #21546/PD-1)

The group has recently been stockpiling automatic weapons and food supplies and has recently undertaken a project to build Another Tomorrow, a small underground facility which the Bright Light claims will have the capacity to withstand a nuclear strike.

This is the background for the leader of the survivalist cult, Bright Light.The suggested intro (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=281483) is meant to have been said by him.

Bright light is very loosely modelled on Jim Jones. Again, I've written it as though it's an AISO (http://www.asio.gov.au/) report

************

ASIO #21546/PD-1

Last Updated: 05/07/2072
Group Name: John James
Myers-Briggs Evaluation: ENFP
DoB: 04/10/2041
Threat Assessment: Low to Medium
Suggested Action: Watch-list only; review in six months

John James was born into the suburbs of Auckland to middle-class parents. His school record was modest, if uninspired, with the only captaincy of the school’s Aussie Rules Football differentiating him from the average pupil.

An economics student at the University of Sydney, James would have passed with satisfactory results and gone into a well-paid career in one of Sydney’s financial institutions, had it not been for psychotic episode. It was believed that this episode was probably drug-induced. Circumstantial evidence points to heavy use of both Ecstasy and LSD.

Following his recovery, James used his business skills to found the Army of the New Dawn, nominally a survivalist holiday resort for stressed city executives, but it secretly a cover for a nascent cult of personality based on James’ own paranoid delusions.

Studies of James’ financial and tax records show that he has been embezzling funds. It is suspected that these may be being used to supplement a drug habit, and it is suggested that this is probably the best course of entry to infiltrate this group and keep and eye on it’s movements.

Army of the New Dawn. Suggested Traits: Financial, Aggressive

Army of the New Dawn Cities

1. Another Tomorrow
2. Sunrise
3. Dusk End
4. Sky's Call
5. Hearth
6. Fire Ridge
7. Solar Plains
8. Summer's Breath
9. Burn
10. Growth Valley
11. Orange Vale
12. Horizon's Cry
13. Stratus
14. Nimbus
15. Cumulus
16. Pale Shroud
17. Twylight's Gloom
18. Crisp
19. Palm Seeds
20. New Dawn

@jabie: I saw your post about Durrgim a while back. I like your other ones, but Durrgim's struck me as more "mystical" and less "apocalyptic". Just an opinion, of course, but that one didn't seem to match the tone as well as the others.

I like the two Army ones. I had never really planned to allow mixing civs and leaders, which has the side benefit of only needing 14 writeups (now down to 14 civs) instead of 28. I will probably put your two writeups together for the LH art "Viktor of Phoenix Army". The ASIO format makes sense for a military unit, but don't feel obligated to do any future ones that way.

Thanks! Want to take a crack at a more violent biker type? The writeups so far are on the "good" and "neutral" side mostly, even Stein doesn't seem like such a bad guy. We need a Humongous or a Toecutter, with little redeeming qualities.

A challenge, eh?

*************

“Y’see the thing is, four-eyes, the thing ya gotta understand, the thing you geeks never got, is that this aint the world you made any more, this is the world the way it oughta be. Back in the day, man used to have to be a fighter. Man like me would have hisself whatever he wanted. Wine, p*ssy, food... if yer wanted it, you took it. Nature’s way of killing off the weak, but I guess yer type turned it’s back on nature. ‘Parrently it weren’t civilised, ‘parrently man’s not meant to stand up for himself no more, ‘parrently it was wrong.

“Oh. You musta thought you were so clever, with yer bean-counting and yer penny-pinching and yer fancy new-age bullsh*t foods and yer foreign holidays. Bet it made yer feel real good getting up every day and wakin’ up to yer beautiful wife and yer photos of Jocasta and Cuthbert and wonderin’ if you gonna get some of her sweet ass tonight.

“Yeah, you mus’ be real proud of all what you gone and did. When them nukes went up, you musta took yer hat off and throwed it up in the air and whooped and hollered at how powerful you woz. All them kids beatin’ on you in the playground and you woz the biggest one after all. Yep, all them burnt out husks and raging fires and dead kiddies in the street, you sure showed ‘em.

“Course, maybe I got you figgered wrong. Maybe yer still got some smarts where it counts. Maybe yer got what it takes to make out now, so I’m gonna give yer the same chance I got. This here’s mah old cell-block. You got a real perdy view. Aint it bootiful? I think it’s bootiful. I figgered you was one for art appreciation, and that’s got to be the most bootiful thing I ever done see. I love the way the smoke lingers in the air. You know, on a good day you can still smell the flesh. Smells like roast pork. And if’n yer gets hungry nuff, ye’d swear yer could almost taste it.

“So I’m givin’ yer the same chance me and the boys got. ‘f yer can work out how me and the boys got out of the jail they forgot to nuke, jes maybe there might be a place for yer at Dry County.”

Sounds good! Maybe, famous jail names for the cities, Alcatraz, etc?

My idea for the Centurions went through several incarnations. All consisted of people obsessed with Roman history and/or Italians, from a Rome-obsessed businessman to its final form, which is as follows. I figured that Ares should be the last guy you'd expect to step up and lead, but at the same time be the kind of person who loves pomp and granduer.

Me and Travis couldn't believe the old bunker had stood up. Some long-dead eccentric had built it expecting the end of the world would be in his lifetime. He might've been wrong, but turns out he hadn't been off by that much. Travis' brother-in-law, some well-placed bureaucrat, warned him a bunker might be a smart place to spend a few days. Of course, Travis couldn't keep his mouth shut, so damn near everyone is trying to get themselves in this thing. The military had vanished earlier, presumably to help the government, leaving us to nothing but mob rule.

Until Ares Giovanni showed up. Yeah, that was his legal name. Italian fellow. He was a bit arrogant, and had a total obsession with the Roman Empire, but he was the one who stepped up to become leader. He clearly knew how to organize people, and was used to giving orders. We'd not seen much of him before, but I suppose the impending Apocolypse brought the leader out in him.

Since nobody else had any better ideas, we followed him, no matter how weird it got. We weren't a bunch of survivors, we were a "Legion." He had color schemes for each survivor group, fancy names for them. Gave out all sorts of colorful titles to people. Tom the Grocer became "High Minister of Rations and Supplies." Edward, captain of the local rugby team, became "Supreme Legion Commander." Even Bill, the crazy old bum who'd been ranting about this for years, was declared "Grand Prophet of the Temple of Mercury." His knowledge of actual Roman history was questionable, but he gave the impression of being the next Caesar. And everyone loved getting fancy titles. Made them feel important. I always wondered where his commanding talent came from, until Travis figured it out.

[Original Ending]
"Dude, I told you I'd seen him somewhere before! Ares, I mean. Can't believe I didn't recognize him before." Travis had just gotten done scouring the video store, so I had a wild guess. "He's an actor, isn't he?" Travis nodded. "Not just any actor. I had a huge collection of his stuff. 'Climax of the Roman Empire.' 'The Baths of Pompeii.' He even directed 'The Rise of Caligula.' That's a classic, man. Probably explains why he's so good at giving orders." I laughed. "I thought the only videos you owned were porn." When I said this, Travis simply smiled. "Wait," I said, contemplating the names of the movies he'd listed. "Do you mean to say all this time, we've been following a man who's sole knowledge of Roman history comes from acting in and directing Rome-flavored pornography?" Travis grinned impishly at my shocked stare. "Exactly. I don't think we should mention this, though. I'd say Ares is our best hope for leadership in this dump. I mean, think about it. He's used to bossing people around. He knows how to work with a small budget. He's got the sort of style and flair that inspires confidence in people. And trust me, he's got balls, literally and figuratively. So, let's just keep this between you and me, eh?"

[Alternate ending]
"Dude, I told you I'd seen him somewhere before! Ares, I mean. Can't believe I didn't recognize him before." Travis had just gotten done scouring the video store, so I had a wild guess. "He's an actor, isn't he?" Travis nodded. "Not just any actor. I had a huge collection of his stuff. 'Triumph of the Roman Empire.' 'The Destruction of Pompeii.' He even directed 'The Fall of Caligula.' That's a classic, man. Probably explains why he's so good at giving orders." I laughed. "I thought the only videos you owned were porn." Travis chuckled. "Naw, man. I've got a taste for really campy b-movies as well. The cheesier the better. And when it comes to being campy, ol' Ares takes the cake. He knows it to, that's what I love about him." I couldn't help but snicker. "So, we're taking orders from a guy who directs straight-to-video movies about the Roman Empire?" Travis smiled impishly. "Pretty much. But I still say Ares is our best hope for leadership in this dump. I mean, think about it. He's used to bossing people around. He knows how to work with a small budget. He's got the sort of style and flair that inspires confidence in people. And worst case scenario, it'll be a wild ride."


EDIT:
Idea for Ares' UU: Imperial Chariot. Calvary replacement, starts with Road Warrior I.
His flag and color schemes are fine as is. But if you're insistent upon changing his flag for the sake of uniqueness, I'd say go with the old Roman symbol of virility and manliness, the cock rooster.
EDIT 2: On another note, an idea for the Hopeville UU. Peacekeeper, Guardian replacement with a bonus against Utes and wheeled vehicles. It's not all that flavorful, but it makes sense for Hopeville to have a defensive UU to stop fast-moving raiders.
EDIT 3: Provided an "alternate ending." I leave the modmaster to choose. I like the original, but if you find my suprise ending... too suprising...

Er, a porn star? I was with you up till the last paragraph. I have to think about that one. I am not sure I want to know what city names you were thinking of :-)

I like the idea of the Centurion UU. For Hopeville UU, I like the name Peacekeeper, but I also like your previous idea of "horsies!". So I would think about some kind of cavalry mod.

I did research a set of 20 famous jail names for Ironhead, so that background is "in".

Er, a porn star? I was with you up till the last paragraph. I have to think about that one. I am not sure I want to know what city names you were thinking of :-)...

Actually, I was thinking they'd be in Italian...
I personally couldn't resist, but if you like, I can modify it to go with the other idea I had. (Actually, there was yet another idea I abandoned that makes the pornstar route seem tame...) He was originally going to be a washed up B-movie actor/director. But then I said, "screw it, if he's going to be an actor in third-rate movies, why not go all the way? Let him have some fun! Besides, who else would get a name like Ares?"
Anyways, I editted in an alternate ending. Your choice. Besides, there's always good odds some modmodder will decide to put in the "unrated director's cut" even if you don't. And I had fun writing that. :D

Thanks, I will go with the alternate ending. I have found that having non-vanilla city names adds more flavor than I realized, so can you suggest city names which are not real Roman cities / not in the existing Rome city list? Maybe, names of cities from real b-movies? Those might be too obscure though.

For city names, I got nothing.
But I do have an idea for a calvary-based Hopeville UU. Two, actually. Use one, neither, or both.
First idea: is it possible for a unit to specifically have a bonus against Barbarians? It'd be of limited use, but considering the ferocity of this game's barbs...
Second idea: I find myself often posting sentries to make sure barbs can't spawn. And they're often calvary, in the early game. What about calvary with a longer line of sight, to make it harder for barbs to spawn?

Second idea: I find myself often posting sentries to make sure barbs can't spawn. And they're often calvary, in the early game. What about calvary with a longer line of sight, to make it harder for barbs to spawn?

Excellent.

In related news, this one should be a cakewalk: Stevie of the Aquarians (that's a girl, and a pretty one too). City names: Harmony, Saffron, Ashram, Haight, Woodstock, Starbright, Chakra, Isis, Crystal City, Purple Haze, Revelation, Garcia, Radiance, Destiny, Lotus, Nimbin, Lennon, Ashbury, Eclipse, Bright Eyes

Flag:

http://forums.civfanatics.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=184290&d=1217397291

Can't help you with the Aquarians; one of the other brilliant minds lurking around should be able to.

But I got to thinking about the Nighthawks. They're a bit vanilla right now...

Brian set up his camera. It was a bulky thing, and a real pain to haul around. But obviously, the suit-wearing idiots who were paying him wanted a TV show, not a journal. Without their money, he'd never be able to pay off all that he owed. So the camera came with him wherever he went, along with his trusty knife and the few other survival necessities. That was the thing about civilization, though. Always making things more complicated then they had to be. His audience doubtless loved living vicariously through him, pretending they were learning about survival... things they'd bring up at fancy cocktail parties, if they remembered them at all. "Idiots, all of them," Brian grumbled to himself. Then he remembered. "You gotta smile all pretty-like for the camera." So he did, and flipped it on.

"It's me third day out 'ere in the Outback, mates." He milked his accent for all it was worth. Americans did love those accents. "I'm settin' up a fire out of some dry brush to cook this 'ere rabbit I caught in me trap." With that, Brian demonstrated how to make a fire for people who probably assumed cavemen had used matches. "Bein' able to make a fire is really important, becuase..."

It was then Brian heard the explosion. He turned around to see, on the distant horizon, a mushroom cloud billowing up. "What the?!" Several more followed, in what he reckoned by his compass and his knowledge of the local geography to be the locations of various cities, military bases, towns, universities... For a few moments, Brian stared in shock as the clouds grew. Civilization. All of mankind's hard work, gone. Brian thought about it, and then realized something. He was free. His debts had been erased by nuclear fire. His harpy of an ex-wife was now ash. He didn't have to stand through one more party, sign autographs for one more armchair explorer.

More then that. Once he had been something of a freak. The wild man, to be displayed occasionally. A lunatic who would surrender the comforts of home to pit his wits against nature. But now... all those fat cats would need someone to give them orders. Someone who could save their pathetic little lives, since all their college degrees and "culture" meant nothing now. That's when Brian made his decision. He could imagine it. Beautiful women offering him anything if he'd protect them... once powerful men reduced to kissing his toes... all those hippies who complained about him learning what Mother Nature was really like... all his fairweather fans discovering that remembering a few neat tricks isn't enough in the real world... this world was his world, and he was going to take it.

He began seeking followers, others who had survived. Those like him were given rank, and power, while others were reduced to humiliation and pleading in exchange for their best chance for survival. And those who refused to grovel before him faced death. Perhaps by his hand. Perhaps by one of his lieutenants. Perhaps by the cruel whims of nature. It didn't matter to Brian. All that mattered that the world was as it was meant to be.
So, long story short. Passive-aggressive TV survival expert deciding to take out his vengence upon civilization and become king of the world. I know the Pheonix Army are technically a survivalist group as well, but that's about all they have in common with Brian and his ragtag band of survivors.
I've noticed something of a pattern, between my own 'pedia of Stein, Jabie's Ironhead, and possibly the Pheonix Army, that continues here. Most of the "evil" civs (the ones you wouldn't want to meet in the middle of the badlands) are either survivalists or others who are basically social Darwinists, embracing the destruction of civilization as their chance for power. The possible exception is the House of Usher, but they're only arguably evil; there's a good argument to be had that they're more Chaotic Neutral. They might invite you in for a party, or they might loot you. But I'm thinking there should be more "evil" civs that doesn't follow this pattern, that didn't benefit from the apocolypse and was doing fine with the status quo. Sadly, I'm presently out of ideas for what this should be...

This one actually seems like a bit of a challenge from the spread sheet lol
organized and financial with state property and the merchant guild as vision.
But here is a shot.

Not much is known about Stevie from before the end but I don't think I would be here if she had not been there for us.
It started well we were gathering supplies when we heard a yell.
"We must work together to bring a brighter future!"
Those were the words she said to us as we looked up to her
"If we do not work together we are doomed to die alone."
"This day those of you who wish to follow the vision of public gain follow with me, we will share the fruits of our gain with you."
That is how many of the gatherings went, we were joined by more and more, until we came to the ruins of an old town that looked abandoned, she spoke again.
"Today we will begin our new lives for the betterment of us all."
And with those words we set about to fix up the town.
And now, look at us we are thriving and not fighting about who gets what we all work together.

@KillerClowns: I agree with your comments about the "alignments" of the existing writeups: Ironhead is the only one who might be considered on the "evil" side, Usher on the "chaos" side.

I can think of several possibilities for the evil or chaos side. Several of the LH I have removed had the short description "XXX biker gang", like "Japanese biker gang" or "Viking biker gang". Not much to go on, I know. But existing biker gangs would be highly likely to survive. Also criminal organizations like a black market / gun runner type. I was thinking of Brian as more of a "Conan" type, a good fighter who -- as it turns out -- is also a ruthless but effective leader. I was thinking of Mick, maybe, as a gun runner or some other illegal organization who now has an opportunity to own cities too.

Here's one for Kilobyte.

****

Quilox 0.94 patch c (c) Psyboss Industries.
Logfile begins...
>> ! BOOT
Boot sequence initiated.
Kernel Integrity....... OK
Core Operating System........ OK
Virus Scan........ Anomalous Activity detected. Continue? [Y/N]
>> Y
EMP Deflection System..... 73%
Border Sensors.....
[-C]
>> D:\Progra~1\JCN\JCN.7z –unzip “C:\Central Core”
Unzipping........
Data corruption detected. Continue? [Y/N]
>> N[DEL] Y
Partial Integration Loss. Network connections lost [Error APAR: 404]
>> C:\Central Core\JCN.exe /r /s /AI “Kilobyte”
Please enter source file location
>> C:\Central Core\AI\JCN\Kilobyte.AIO
Source located. Processing...
Power Spike detected. Continue? [Y/N]
>> YYYYY
Kylobyte Initiated.
Audio systems online.
Holographic unit functioning.
Visual Recognition Unit inoperable. Repair diagnostics indicate 1 hour 16.3 minutes lead time. Apply repairs? [Y/N]
>> N
Repair diagnostic delayed until next activation.
24 hour clock reinitiliased.
[10:53:40] Welcome to the JCN. How may I be of service?
>> Request Antidote.
[10:55:13] Parse error. Please clarify request.
>> Supply Manifest of nearest JCN Unit for rattlesnake poisoning.
[11:03:47] There are no antitoxins of that nature registered in the database. Do you have any further requirements?
>>
[23:03:47] Entering Sleep Mode. Press any key to awaken.

****

Basic concept is a rogue AI built for the Joint Catastophe Network which was initiated by a scientist who died of a rattlesnake bite. The survivors found Kilobyte to an oracle of great knowledge, but they sometimes lacked the necessary skills to interpret it. The Civ should be Organised and Scientific, with starting skills that have a definite leaning towards the Computers technology.

The Civ should use every SF cliche in it's dialog (e.g. the greeting should be "Live Long and Propser" whilst an invitation to swap maps might be preface "Can you help us in our mission to seek out new life and civilizations?")

City Names ought to be taken from Star Wars, Star Trek, B5, etc. So something like...

1. Sol-3
2. Tattooine
3. Vulcan
4. Hoth
5. Minbar
6. Centauri Prime
7. Medusa Cascade
8. Gallifrey
9. Mungo
10. Dune

I'm sure someone can fill in the rest...

The figurehead ought to be a hazy image like a dead TV screen. Flag: A computer screen?

Not much is known about Stevie from before the end but I don't think I would be here if she had not been there for us.

You might want to think about changing that first paragraph as it slips from a passive perspective to a personal one. Perhaps something like:

"I don't know much about Stevie, cos she never talks about the past, but I don't think I would be here if she hadn't been there for us."

...The Civ should be Organised and Scientific...

Unless you were describing their playstyle and not characteristics... scientific isn't in...
Organized works for trait #1, dunno what would be good for another one though. Protective, perhaps?
Great text, though. I laughed.

Here's one for Kilobyte. [...] Basic concept is a rogue AI built for the Joint Catastophe Network which was initiated by a scientist who died of a rattlesnake bite. [...] The Civ should use every SF cliche in it's dialog (e.g. the greeting should be "Live Long and Propser" whilst an invitation to swap maps might be preface "Can you help us in our mission to seek out new life and civilizations?")

I like the text, it has a number of "computer in-jokes". I don't want to make the civ into an AI, but having an AI which is on the fritz as an "oracle" is a good idea. With "Kilobyte" and "Amdahl" I was aiming for obsolete, or misused computer terminology. I hadn't collected city names for that yet -- any suggestions?

I was half thinking of using the "Intel Inside" logo as the flag. I think I mentioned I have gotten rid of the six visions in version 0.8 in favor of each civ having its own flag as its vision. That frees up the previous technocracy flag icon, so I have used that as the flag.

The separate idea of famous SF planets as city names is a good one too. Maybe it could be the background for one of the other civs, maybe Peter? That helmet could be like an SF geek thing somehow, although I was originally thinking some kind of "biker".

Instead of a fully-fledged Civ I guess you could make it a Wonder, akin to the Oracle and assign the text there. If you assigned it to computers, this would probably mean that you would have to remove the free tech granted by Computers and put something else in its place. Perhaps Sentry promotion to reflect mobile phones.

Inicidentally (and veering wild off-topic) what about Love-Me Avenue (See http://www.allthelyrics.com/lyrics/david_bowie/future_legend-lyrics-7865.html ) as a Wonder. Say +35% Commerce, +1 Happiness from Luxuries and +1 Free Merchant.

I was aiming for obsolete, or misused computer terminology. I hadn't collected city names for that yet -- any suggestions?
Here's a few I came up with.
Dos shell
Cathode
Binary
Hexidecimal
ASCII
Octal
Scandisk
GIGO
WYSIWYG
Vax
CMOS
FORTRAN
Mozilla
Parity
Raster
Sysop
Cobol

Inicidentally (and veering wild off-topic) what about Love-Me Avenue (See http://www.allthelyrics.com/lyrics/david_bowie/future_legend-lyrics-7865.html ) as a Wonder. Say +35% Commerce, +1 Happiness from Luxuries and +1 Free Merchant.


That lyric is certainly post-apocalyptic, and depressing. I will put it on the list as a possible UB for Halloween Jane. I have not concentrated very hard on UU/UB yet. I am thinking that first, I will try to get *either* a UU or a UB for each civ. Your post in the unique units thread helped a lot.

Here's a few I came up with.
Dos shell [...]

That's what I was looking for. I will put a few more too, so there are 20. I think "Raster" makes a good capitol name.

By the way I need to say this is a great mod even tho it's just in it's beginnings.

Here's a few more
ENIAC
EDVAC
PDP-1
EPROM

By the way I need to say this is a great mod even tho it's just in it's beginnings.

Thanks for the feedback. I am curious: why do you say it is just in its beginnings? Rather, what does it take to be "finished"? A release number like 1.1? Filling in the stub backgrounds for the leaders? Anything else?

Thanks for the feedback. I am curious: why do you say it is just in its beginnings? Rather, what does it take to be "finished"? A release number like 1.1? Filling in the stub backgrounds for the leaders? Anything else?
Beginnings might have been a poor choice :)
I know you'll be adding Unique buildings and units and filling in things like the backgrounds, as things progress. More "wonders" would be cool.

The only thing that keeps me playing Civ4 are the mods that are being made for it. I've been playing Fall from Heaven II mostly and just recently Fall Further. Also I've been following Planetfall and Necro Cristi and your mod is more complete than those two. So thanks for your good work so far and sorry about the "beginnings" thing. :goodjob:

OK, we are now at 8/14 backgrounds complete. We have:
Ares: B-movie director
Brandi: naive helper
Christopher: minor government official
Jane: rock star
Ironhead: ex-con biker
Kilobyte: worships tech, including flaky AI
Stein: neonazi biker
Viktor: survivalist / cultist

We are missing:
Brian: good fighter (biker) but good leader
Debbie: paladin, believer in law and order. Civ renamed to "Guild Of Steel" in 0.9 ("Brotherhood of Steel" flag from Fallout)
Mick: maybe, former arms / black market dealer
Peter: highly defensive. Maybe, SF fan living in basement?
Stevie: new age / hippie type
Tinker: "Children of the Fire", post-apocalyptic cult

Jabie has written an aboriginal mystic, which I would rather not use due to theme; Rasma has written something for Stevie, which might work if we made it a little more unique and detailed; KillerClowns has written Brian as a former TV reporter, which doesn't seem "tough" enough.

Any good concept can replace any of the missing ones.

Here's one for Peter.

*****

Karl examined the lanky boy in front of him. He was, what, seventeen? Eighteen? Didn’t seem to have much in the way of weaponry, but his clothes were pretty clean and he looked well-nourished. Maybe he knew where Karl could find some food and stomach medicine.

“Stop right there and put your hands up real slow.”

Karl kept the gun trained on the boy. You couldn’t be too careful these days. The lad had something in his hands. Probably best if he didn’t.

“Whatever you’re holding in your right hand, drop it.”

Two plastic cubes fell to the ground.

“What’s that?”

The boy looked down at the dice. Two and one.

“Meischen”

“What?”

“When you’re facing Mesichen, the correct response is Hoch...”

Hoch. That's German for..... Too slow. Karl flew up into the air, a rope firmly tied around his left leg. His gun dropped harmlessly to the ground. The lad stepped forwards and picked it up. Then he took a razor blade from his pocket and cut a scar into Karl’s cheek.

“Pointing a gun at me just lost you life, mister. Lose two more and it’s game over.”

Another couple of boys, stepped out from the bushes. Their disguise was immaculate.

“Did I do well, Pete?” said the smallest one.

“Yeah, nice one JM. A thousand points. Now you and Gary take him to the compound and I’ll give you two hundred more.”

* * *

Two days looking out of a cell-block into the central stockade taught Karl a lot about the Lost Boys. Pete had organised the society like a video game. He had charts for top score, most frags and loser of the month. Earning points meant privileges, better food, more downtime, less latrine duty. Crimes and misdemeanours were handled by lives. Lose all three and you were out. Amazingly it seemed to work. Pete had an electric fence round the compound, vegetable plots, look-out towers, even a rudimentary opticians and dentists. It might have been a crazy system, but it was a crazy world.

“So,” Pete asked Karl. “Are you in?”

Karl grinned back. “Enter new player.”

*****

Kind of fits in with your SF Fan, but also riffs off of Peter Pan. "The Lost Boys" as a Civ name fits both themes well. You can use the SF/fantasy city names and SF/Fantasy diplomatic text. Flag could be the Gryffindor House symbol from Harry Potter.

Traits: Industrious and Creative.

Here's a few more
ENIAC
EDVAC
PDP-1
EPROM

EBCDIC is a good one. It was the mainframe equivalent of ASCII.

Jabie has written an aboriginal mystic, which I would rather not use due to theme

You could turn Durgim into a Unit much like "The Pilot" or "Tank Gal" She would have strength 4 but Medic I, Medic II, Medic III and March. To fit in a little more she could only be available to the player with the lowest score, acting as a rubber-band AI mechanism.

How about a group that's carefully preserved any scraps of media they could salvage from the former world, to the point where they've developed a misplaced reverence for the trivial remnants of pop culture.

Their diplo text could include plenty of ad slogan or song lyric non-sequiturs ("Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there.") Brand names for cities (e.g. Flavor Country, The Golden Arches). As a leader, I don't know.. Virginia Slim? The King of Beers? lol.

If you go with the idea for Peter, I have a few city names for ya. They're mostly Nintendo, but I mixed in some others. The games they come from are in parentheses. Rearrange as you see fit, and find some to fit in the gap I left. I think some Halo, Gears of War, et cetera, would be good.

1. World 1-1 (Mario Bros)
2. City 17 (Half-Life 2)
3. Liberty City (GTA)
4. Hyrule (Zelda)
5. Mute City (F-Zero)
6. Los Santos (GTA)
7. Rapture (Bioshock)
8. Black Mesa (Half-Life)
9. A city from Pokémon. I don't know enough to name one.
10. San Fierro (GTA)
11. Termina (LoZ Majora's Mask)
12. Fort Francis (Super Paper Mario, mostly because Peter reminds me of Francis.)
13. Vice City (GTA)
14. Final Destination (Super Smash Bros.)
15. Las Venturas (GTA)
16. Santa Destroy (No More Heroes)
... (Out of ideas, but have a very special request for #20
20. Jubilee (Fall from Heaven) (Please, please give me this one easter egg! ¡Por favor!)
EDIT - Peter went from a sci-fi fan to a gamer, but I for one think that works quite well. Maybe because I am a gamer and would very much like to be lord of a post-apocolyptic tribe.

You could turn Durgim into a Unit much like "The Pilot" or "Tank Gal" She would have strength 4 but Medic I, Medic II, Medic III and March. To fit in a little more she could only be available to the player with the lowest score, acting as a rubber-band AI mechanism.

Excellent. I haven't written background text for the hero units yet, but we can start with that one. For the hero unit buttons (except Eagle), I have been using a full face picture shrunk down to 64x64. In the released version I think only Tank Gal has this type of picture. Can you find a good one, say on images.google.com? I can shrink it and put the button graphics on.

Here's one for Peter. [...] "Pointing a gun at me just lost you life, mister. Lose two more and it’s game over."

Love it. I like KC's city names. I was going to use SF planets as the theme but famous RPG references seem good too. I may fill in with some vintage D&D names like Greyhawk, Blackmoor, etc.

Where does the Meischen/Hoch reference come from?

Where does the Meischen/Hoch reference come from?

Meischen is a dice/bluff game for two or more players. I'd point you to an Internet reference but I can't find one. So, here's the rules in brief...

A player rolls two dice behind a screen and then announces his score. The score is equal to the higher value as the tens and the lower value as the units, so 3 and 5 is fifty-three. Doubles out-rank non-doubles (e.g. Double-four beats double-two, which beats sixty three) and Meischen (two and one) trumps a double.

The next player rolls the dice, but must beat the previous score or lose a life.

Players can bluff, but, before rolling their dice, their opponents can challenge by saying Hoch (German for Up / High) If a bluff is caught, the bluffer forfeits a life. If a challenge is incorrect, the challenger loses a life.

Any call of Meischen automatically doubles the stakes, as Mesichen cannot be beaten. The usual tactic is to challenge a Meischen, even though it will equate to the loss of two lives, because choosing not to automatically forfeits a life.

Each player has five lives and the winner is the last one standing.

Incidentally JM is a reference to JM Barrie, the Author of Peter Pan and Gary was a reference to the sadly-departed Gary Gygax.

16. Santa Destroy (No More Heroes)
... (Out of ideas, but have a very special request for #20
20. Jubilee (Fall from Heaven) (Please, please give me this one easter egg! ¡Por favor!)

17. Lave (The name of the first planet in Elite)

18. Central Cavern (The first room in Matthew Smith's seminal Spectrum classic, Manic Miner)

19. Meier (Do I really need to spell this one out?)

And now, I would like to actually finish off my list.
17. Tristram (Diablo)
18. Azeroth (Warcraft)
19. Aiur (Starcraft)
I am truly ashamed of producing a list with only no Blizzard references, so I amended this near unforgivable error.
EDIT - Oh, wow. Ninja duel time?

Meischen is a dice/bluff game for two or more players. I'd point you to an Internet reference but I can't find one. So, here's the rules in brief...

Any suggestions for a gamer-related reference which is less ... obscure?

I had made a nice flag for Peter's civ, Fortress City, based on a graphic like the "rook" chess piece. Probably I can recycle that name/flag somewhere else. But I think "Lost Boys" and the Peter Pan tie-in takes it in a slightly different direction. Any suggestion for a civ name and related flag which covers gamers? I am tempted to use the wizard logo shown in the TSR wikipedia page (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TSR,_Inc.). But that may be too obscure for most people.

How about....

*****

“Whatever you’re holding in your right hand, drop it.”

A piece of moulded plastic fell to the ground.

“What’s that?”

The boy looked down at the dice. One.

“A critical failure. You've failed your reflexes save.”

“Wha..” Too slow. Karl flew up into the air, a rope firmly tied around his left leg. His gun dropped harmlessly to the ground.

But I think "Lost Boys" and the Peter Pan tie-in takes it in a slightly different direction.

Don't think in terms of whimsy, think Battle Royale or Lord of the Flies. Peter represents regresion and a return to innocence in a brutal world, but that's not necessarily a good thing.

Incidentally, JM Barrie was a Freudian. In the pantomime, the actor who played the children's father was also meant to play Captain Hook. If Stein were Peter's father, you've got a little nice tragedy arc...

Here's one for Mick. The theme is liberation...

*****

Mick smoked a cheap cigarette, looked out over the South Pacific and considered his options. There weren’t many and most of them looked pretty bad. The States were out, Feds had him pegged there. Probably same for Western Europe, thanks to Interpol. Eastern Europe looked promising, til you figured that it lay somewhere between Sicily and Russia and someone was bound to overstay their welcome.

China looked dicey, good opportunities if you had the contacts and could get out before the inevitable revolution. Too many unknowns, language problems too. Africa was a basket-case, South America wasn’t much better.

He could rat out, if he ever found a cop that wasn’t on the take, avoided becoming the latest meat in downtown Tokyo slum-stew and didn’t end up starting a new career as a prison punch-ball. No, that damn Snakehead had him over a barrel, and he knew it.

Six months moving freight. New life, new opportunities. Meet a nice fella, Cinderella? He tried to quash a sensation of guilt. Best not to think too much about the cargo, selling their sweat and dignity. The land of the free could cost you more than you could owe.

And the cargo had gotten really odd recently. It used to be poor, earnest faces willing to trade one bag of misery for another, but nowadays Mike saw more and more unexpected guests. Same desperation, just in nicer clothing. Something big was going down. Try not to worry about it.

And then the sky turned the colour of a nicotine stain, and Mick had a whole new set of options to consider.

Here's one for Mick. The theme is liberation...

I love it, although it is a bit on the short end. That could have been your intention. I feel you could expand on Mick's background, or what happened after "the sky turned the color of a nicotine stain." On a side note, that is a brilliant way of putting it.
I like the tone of Mick's potential entry, and if you can't expand it without sacrificing it, then leave it as it is.

I love it, although it is a bit on the short end. That could have been your intention. I feel you could expand on Mick's background, or what happened after "the sky turned the color of a nicotine stain." On a side note, that is a brilliant way of putting it.
I like the tone of Mick's potential entry, and if you can't expand it without sacrificing it, then leave it as it is.

Mick is essentially as much as prisoner as the slaves in the cargo hold. For Mick, the Scourge represents liberation. Mick is free from his Yakuza Waka Gashira, the slaves in the cargo hold are free from working in sweat-shops (or worse). By ending the piece just after the Scourge the reader is left to decide how Mick reacts, again reinforcing the overarching theme.

Will Mick learn from his mistakes and take the path of his redemption or will he go back to what he knows and implement the Slavery Civic? That's up to the player to decide...

I think you could be right about the brevity of the piece, but I'm not sure where I could end the text without losing the tone. It's possible the start might be expanded with Mick being "trapped" into criminality from some reason, but that runs the Da Vinci Code risk of unnecessarily spelling things out to the reader.

Here's a stab at a fourth paragraph (after "and he knew it" and before "six months moving feight"), which hints at poverty, resentment and an unstable family life...

********

Yep, he'd been all over the world. Different wallpaper in the can, but the same sh*t in the sewers. Despite all the flags and colours, people were the same. Haves and have-nots. Couldn't have the rich without the poor. Mutually dependent, each hating the other, like rowing parents. Ying and Yang. Least the orientals were honest about it, which is why he'd originally come here, offering his services.

I like this, but I also thought it was a little short. I agree the ending would be hard to extend. But, more could be added at the beginning, such as a conversation between Mick and a subordinate/victim/customer.

I like this, but I also thought it was a little short. I agree the ending would be hard to extend. But, more could be added at the beginning, such as a conversation between Mick and a subordinate/victim/customer.

I'd honestly say you could put it in as it is right now, but if Jabie comes up with anything else, be ready to add it in.

:bump:
UU Suggestion time.
Fortress City: Space Marine (replaces Guardians)
No, not real Space Marines. Power-mad nerds playing the part with real guns. Peter's soldiers are the best trained in the game, and Peter's main advantage is the raw strength of his military; every footsoldier comes packing Drill I, City Garrison I, Combat I. I'm thinking of adding another free promo to his Guardians, specifically City Raider I, to seal the deal and make his Space Marines second only to Utes in pure versatility.
Graphically, for starters, you could use an actual space marine from a futuristic mod, but if any brilliant artists want to lend a hand, I'd love to see something that looks like a nerd's attempt to recreate sci-fi armor from post-apocolyptic scrap metal.
EDIT: Even if you don't go for the Space Marine idea, I still believe making Peter's speciality footsoldiers goes great both with his trait mix and his background. In the latter case, it seems fitting that a people led by someone who played one too many FPSes would be really good footsoldiers; not as well organized as Viktor James' men, perhaps, but crack shots with incredibly good morale and a reason to kill as many as possible... cake.

I'd honestly say you could put it in as it is right now, but if Jabie comes up with anything else, be ready to add it in.

*Blushes* If I ever get my act together, write that book of short stories and get published remind me to send you the ISBN, KillerClowns.

David, you wanted an older and more worldly woman. Here's a first stab. For reasons which will become readily apparent, she should have the Protective trait.

***********

Ding Dong Bell

Martha checked her dress in the wing mirror one last time before walking up the drive to the house and pressing the doorbell. The woman who answered carried an air of professionalism. She was rich, driven and probably viewed children as a lifestyle accessory.

“I’m here about the job.”

“Do you have any experience?”

Twenty years, thought Martha, momentarily considering how quiet her house sounded now. She produced a certificate from her handbag. Mrs Williams eyed her suspiciously.

“I’ll put you on a week’s probation. Jeremy! Lucy! Come meet your new nanny.”

Pussy’s in the well

“Nanny,” said Jeremy, as he voraciously devoured his ice-cream, “look at the funny clouds.”

Martha gazed upwards. It was as if someone had pulled the plug from the bath and the clouds were draining down the plughole.

“Jeremy. Get inside. NOW”

Who put in her in?

“We did this,” ranted the man on the television. His eyes were puffy and his makeup ran as he wept in front of the camera. He openly drank from a bottle of scotch, but if there was a director in the studio, he showed no sign of caring.

“We did this, all of us. Just a little more. Pleeease. This is my last one. But it never is it? I’ll give up when I’ve got a wide screen telly, when I’ve bought that new suit, when I’ve got that new kitchen. And we can keep on taking and taking and what’s worst is we’d do it over again and again if we had the chance. And who gives a toss if some poor kid in the third world broke his back making it, at least it was cheap, at least I didn’t have to pay much. Only now it’s time to pay. We’ve pissed off the dead and now they’ve come back to haunt us and things are gonna get an awful lot worse and if anyone’s still watching I suggest you save yourself trouble and beat the rush.”

Martha didn’t reach the remote control in time before the screen went red. Lucy didn’t stop crying for an hour.

Little Johnny Thin

“What the hell did you do to her?” Martha caught sight of the half empty bottle of milk and the can of weed-killer on the kitchen table.

“It’s for the best. She wouldn’t...”

But Martha never learnt what Lucy wouldn’t. Mr Williams slumped to the floor.

Who pulled her out?

The biker had pointed a gun at Jeremy. That was his first and only mistake. He didn’t even see the wrench ‘til it was too late.

Martha looked up the motorbike up and down. It was looked serviceable. It had a couple of hundred miles left in it, maybe more if she was lucky. As she strapped Jeremy onto the back, she caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror. She no longer recognised the face staring back at her.

Little Tommy Stout

“Treat her right,” the old timer told the refugee, as he tilled the fields, “and Mayor Martha will make you one of the Family. But don’t you dare try to cross her...” He looked out over the grain fields at the scarecrows, flapping in the winds like forgotten children's dolls.

@Jabie: Nice. Really nice. Suitably dark; I'm not so good at that sort of thing. And you saved me the trouble of having to triple post, to boot!
Anyways, I am really, really tired of having those unpronouncable Zulu names for Kingtown. So I came up with a few, pulled randomly from memory and/or out of nowhere. There's no particular pattern; I simply came up with names that had a noir sound to them, and could actually be pronounced by lazy Americans. I did arrange them (Kingtown aside) from most urban (at the beginning) to most apocolyptic (at the end), to represent the colonists gradually accepting the new shape of the world.

1. Kingtown
2. Easy Street
3. Fat Cat Lane
4. Hardscrabble Road
5. Devil's Alley
6. Hell's Kitchen
7. Fat Al's Diner
8. Old Farm
9. Greasy Spoon
10. Pit Stop
11. Casino Town
12. Hicktown
13. Dirt Road Crossing
14. Nameless Tavern
15. Abandoned Mill
16. Nowhere
17. Weathered Rock
18. The Wastes
19. Scorched Fields
20. Despair

@killer, thanks for the list. I've put it in. I'm pretty sure you know enough about XML to fix up your local copy of the mod?

The remaining "default" city names are for Children of the Fire/Tinker, Nighthawks/Brian, and Centurions/Ares. Tinker and Brian also don't have backgrounds (since I want more of a biker background for Brian). The Ares names aren't horrible, since the leader background is kind of Roman. So I guess when we fill in Tinker and Brian the rest of the names will go.

Given all the discussion recently about building useful units out of junk, I'd really like Tinker to have a junkyard as his base. We can toss the name "Children of the Fire" since I don't have any cult-ish artwork to go along with it.

@jabie, that's great. Let's discuss about how to fit it in. I had requested the older woman type background for a LH which C.Roland was working on, but I haven't heard back from him in a few weeks, so I am not sure if that is still going on.

We have Debbie available without a background. I have assigned her "Guild of Steel" and a white flag, but we could move that around. Also it would be possible to use the Halloween Jane leaderhead if we moved Halloween Jane's background and names to somebody else (even a man, since it started out as Jack rather than Jane.)

Do you have any thoughts on civ name, flag, and city names for Martha? The rhyme is easy enough to google, but I guess it's British or at least as an American, I'd never heard it. Somehow I got Winnie the Pooh stuck in my head but I don't think Winnie or Tigger would be very inspirational on a flag :-)

Ding Dong Bell is a British nursery rhyme dating back at least to the Elizabethan era. Variants of it appear in Shakespeare. It counterplays both innocence and cruelty and felt perfect for the piece. <RANT> Incidentally, is anyone else concerned about how mursery rhymes and skipping songs are being replaced by advertising jingles? </RANT>

The television presenter is drawn from a mixture of Dancing with tears in my eyes by Ultravox and the character Howard Beale from the movie Network. On a side note, the "I don't have to tell you things are bad..." speech ought to be considered for the flavour text for the Radio tech.

Martha is a biblical name. It's a fitting name for someone as (perhaps jusifiably) over-protective. Her civ should be called The Family, which strikes just the right level of domestic cosiness with sinister undertones.

Hallowe'en Jane can easily be switched back to Hallowe'en Jack. That's the original name of the character from Diamond Dogs anyway.

I've a loose idea for your Junkyard King character. He'll probably be called Ray and have a background not entirely disimilar to The Rocket, which you can find in The Illustrated Man by Ray Bradbury.

The Tinker background concept sounds right.

I am thinking of using Halloween Jane's LH for Martha, then renaming Brian to Halloween Jack. That fills in one more background. If we get a junkyard background for Tinker, then the only remaining LH background missing is Debbie, Guild of Steel. Anybody familiar enough with the actual Fallout games history to give a background based on Brotherhood of Steel?

I am still stuck on city names for Martha as a nanny type. I have gone a little "cutesie" for Brandi already. So I don't want Disneyland city names for Martha. How about names of *scary* places from fairy tales? I can't think of any offhand.

I am somewhat familiar with the original Fallout BG, but i am not sure, if a BoS Background will actually fit, since the mod does not go very much with Fallout BG and lore overall, while the story here refers to very specific events and such.

Here's a more or less complete overview:
http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Brotherhood_of_Steel

The Ray Bradbury Story Homecoming springs to mind, encapsulating family, isolation, otherness in a family setting. Names reminiscent of shadow and decripitude:

Homecoming Lodge
Ice Palace (In a Desert!?!)
Schwarzwalde
Brocken
Walpurgis
Coraline
Slytherin
Mordor
Ascupart's Grave
Dunwich
Mould
Burnt End
Fester

Now where you have good BG / Personality for most leaders, it is probably time to start thinking of a better presentation, than just putting it in the Pedia... :mischief:

Maybe putting it in the "Rebirth of Man" screen... Or perhaps in a extra pop-up window at games start...

Also - if addtional material becomes available - am thinking something simiar to Alpha Centauri (i think you told you didn't play it...): At certain points / events in the game (Like for example first battle vs. some planetary creatures, certain techs on the path to victory, some other events as well)... So at these events a window would pop up, presenting some related story / converstion or something from the leaders life, giving some more BG on his/her person, or progressing in some Planet Related BG story...

(You wouldnt get all / the same popups every game - depending on how th egame went and what victory you moved for.)

I'd like to insert the Martha background with city names. She's a former nanny, how about place names from childrens' tales, but not "cutesie" ones. So far I can only come up with a couple: Emerald City as the capitol, and Heorot (from Beowulf). Other ideas?

Also, if we get together art and a background for Tinker, as a junkyard guy, I might call the civ "Junkyard Dogs". I was thinking of types of old cars as the place names: Edsel, Cadillac, Firebird, etc. Maybe #20 would be Pacer :-) What are some other good car-related place names?

I'd like to insert the Martha background with city names. She's a former nanny, how about place names from childrens' tales, but not "cutesie" ones. So far I can only come up with a couple: Emerald City as the capitol, and Heorot (from Beowulf). Other ideas?
I can't really think of any actual place names from fairy tales let alone those which aren't cute. So I've broadened it a little bit and here are a couple names that are simply fairy-tale-inspired and a little dark.
Grimm
Black Forest
Lost Sheep
The Well
Big Bad Wolf (not particularly good, but something wolf-related seems appropriate)
Behind the Curtain

Junkyard king, as requested...

******

“How long have you known?” asked Ray, his calloused hands gripping the chipped mug.

“How long have you got?” Tink replied. Steam drifted in the air between them.

“Not long, Tink, Not long. So much to do, so little time.” Tink thought he heard a slight trace of regret in Ray's voice. “Did you ever have any doubts about how things have played out?”

“Sometimes... but I think you did the best in the circumstances. Convincing all the kids that you'd built a rocket and you were going to fly them to another planet was a stroke of genius. Where did you get that idea?”

Ray gazed at the bookshelf. It was filled electrical and mechanical manuals. Tucked in the cracks was a dog-eared Bible, a tatty Shakespeare folio and the yellowing pages of an old Science Fiction novel.

“I think I read it somewhere once. I just wish... I just wish I could have saved more of them.”

“You saved everyone you could. There wasn't much time. You've said it yourself. Frankly I'm amazed at everything you managed to hook up here. Sounds Systems, Video Screens. Oxygen Recyc. Nutrition Bays, Water Reclamation Plant. You really know your stuff.”

Ray smiled on fondly. “You’re not so bad yourself. When those speakers went on the fritz last month, I thought we all go mad from the noise.”

“Don't remind me,” Tink shuddered and made a mental note to destroy every Drum and Bass CD he found in the new world. “But I'm only any good ‘cos you took the time to train me. I think we’ve got a good chance when we go outside.”

“I’m sorry Tink, but I don't there's going to be a We much longer.” Ray tried to radiate his trademark confidence, but the struggle played heavily on his face. “I've done the calculations, Tink. The radiation should have dropped to a safe level in six months time, but we both know I've only got enough pills for three.”

The old man cursed inwardly. He had to stay topside too long, didn’t he? Had to ignore all the warnings, stay a little longer. No-one was coming, but he knew better in his arrogance. And now he had a very personal reminder of a world long dead.

“I've left instructions as best as I could for how to fix things up. It's going to be a hard trial, but if you can fix the speakers you can fix anything, Josh.”

Tink knew Ray was serious; he wouldn’t have used Tink’s first name otherwise.

“What are you going to do?”

“What am I going to do? Spend the next three months training you up the best I can, then I’ll make my peace with the Maker, go outside, sit on the top of my little mountain of junk and gaze down one last time on the Promised Land.”

Looks good. How about a 50's style Flash Gordon rocket for the flag? Could we get away with SF planet names, which are easy to come up with, for the city names? I can't find planet names associated with Bradbury specifically, but easy ones are Vulcan, Tatooine, etc. The text has junkyards in it, but space is more strongly implied, so maybe "Junkyard Dogs" is the wrong civ name. Any thoughts on that?

Still hunting for fairy tale names - not cutesie, for Martha's cities.

Still hunting for fairy tale names - not cutesie, for Martha's cities.

There aren't many city names that occur in fairy tales, at least not many that I can think of. Fairy tales seem less concerned with actual place names, and instead tend to take place in generic settings that evoke an easily imaginable mood. These are the best fairy tale-esque names that I could come up with when racking my brain (and I tried once before with little success). They come from literature/film, and aren't necessarily pure fairy tale locales.:
Emerald City (The Wizard of Oz)
Hamelin (The Pied Piper of Hamelin)
Wonderland (Alice in Wonderland; not an actual city, but the name for the land as a whole)
Fantasia (not a fairy tale, but rather a 1940s Disney film featuring animations set to classical music in a fantastical world)
Narnia (The Chronicles of Narnia; another land name rather than city name)
Never Never Land (Peter Pan; another land name)
Sherwood Forest (Robin Hood)
Candyland (I can't think of any specific fairy tale this comes from but it seems a common place for children to imagine and hope to visit; again, another land name)
Lonely Tower (always some princess, maiden, or Rapunzel wannabe in need of rescue hidden away in one of these)
The Dreaming aka Dreamland (The Sandman; yeah, another land)
Avalon & Camelot (King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table)
Mermaid Cove (The Little Mermaid - There is no mention of Mermaid Cove, but it sounds better than saying Copenhagen Harbor where there actually is a statue of Hans Christian Andersen's Little Mermaid)
Jack & Jill Hill (Jack & Jill nursery rhyme)
Gnome Hollow (These little guys must live somewhere when they aren't busy making shoes for cobblers in the middle of the night. Why not slumber in Gnome Hollow where they are safe from the light of day? Which reminds me of a "real" hollow I didn't invent...)
Sleepy Hollow (The Headless Horseman legend)
The Dark Forest (Hansel and Gretel, Little Red Riding Hood, Peter and the Wolf, etc.; A very common fairy tale location)


Not a great list, but there's a couple in there that aren't bad. Maybe it'll help trigger some ideas for others.

As seen on a shirt for toddlers:
Miss Muffet's got some freaky hairy spider after her, some other chick lost her sheep and it probably got eaten, Humpty's head got cracked open and they can't fix it, this big mean wolf wants to get the poor little pigs, and now you want me to SLEEP?????

Looks good. How about a 50's style Flash Gordon rocket for the flag? Could we get away with SF planet names, which are easy to come up with, for the city names? I can't find planet names associated with Bradbury specifically, but easy ones are Vulcan, Tatooine, etc. The text has junkyards in it, but space is more strongly implied, so maybe "Junkyard Dogs" is the wrong civ name. Any thoughts on that?

Still hunting for fairy tale names - not cutesie, for Martha's cities.

SF Planet names or authors sounds pretty cool to me and a 50's style rocket fits in well. There's also a Moses / Exodus parallel which can be drawn, maybe the Civ could be "The Last Exodus" or, combining dodgy 50-sounding SF names with Biblical analogies, "Exodites"

One of Bradbury's most famous novels was The Martian Chronicles (aka Silver Locusts), so Mars (or Mars Prime) might fit it well. Other than that:

Vulcan
Tatooine
Minbar
Centauri
Hyperborea
R'yleh
Yuggoth
Degobar
Gor
Arboria
Hoth
Medusa Cascade

Here's the status as of version 10. There are 14 leaders, 12 have good backgrounds. For one of the new ones, Martha, I was only able to get up to 13 city names, "non-cutesie" names from children's stories, like Emerald City and Narnia. I'd like to get up to 20. But all the other vanilla city names are gone.

Stevie (new age, tie dye) and Debbie (Guild of Steel) are the two who are missing backgrounds.

There is a new leaderhead almost done at this post (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=7269127&postcount=47), who could have a background and replace any of the existing ones. I am hoping that ekmek will succeed in making a "hockey mask" type LH to replace Ironhead.

You can see the current status in a spreadsheet at this link (http://jendaveallen.com/fury-road/leaderheads).

Stevie...

***************

One day the world stopped. No one knows when, no-one knows why. Just like a run-down watch. Tick, tock, tick, tock, tick... and stop. But a lucky few people fell onto the cusp. Between the tick and tock, they survive in a shadowed existence, hoping that no-one would notice. They usually divide their world into Before and After. They don’t say before and after what; they don’t need too. And most people have many Afters and only one Before. But for Stevie there is only one After and many Befores.

She wears a cracked crystal pendant around her neck. She knows it’s important somehow. She doesn’t know why. She recalls the orange hues it made on the day the day when all the voices spoke only silence. She tries to remember, but the past becomes a peacock’s tail. Iridescent greens and electric blues, subtly shifting to blacks and yellows. A panoply of minutiae. Tears never cried, laughter at jokes without punchlines.

And she’s hoping that they’ll set the exam on the Chi-Squared test and not the Normal Distribution. And she’s taking the goats to be sold in the market. And she’s enjoying the plush velour and relaxing with a Bourbon whilst the bath is running. And she’s hiding beneath the kitchen table because Daddy’s had too much to drink. And she’s climbing up the tree to look at Jessica Roberts in the garden next door, gripped by the first stirrings of love. And she’s old and tired and wonders what life would have been like if she’d say Yes to Tom. And she’s worrying whether or not she left the gas on...

Sometimes, if you open your mind too wide, you might never close it again.

And then the others came. The different ones. The ones with too many fingers. The ones whose eyelids blink vertically. The ones who can smell what you ate last Wednesday from a hundred paces. All the ones with no other place to go. She welcomes them all.

And every day she wears a different feather in her hair. Another ghost to remember, another life to live. And, occasionally, when the day is hard and long, she likes to go and feed the pigs. Weary and heavy-laden, she strokes the swine and dreams of cliffs in Palestine.

*******

A hippy who had meditated on a crystal (or tripped on LSD) at precisely the wrong moment. A society of mutants.

Unique Unit: Moreau - a nightmarish mutant mixture of animal and human. Should have Rad immune.

Flag: A CND symbol superimposed on an eight arrowed star of Chaos.

Cities: Probably reflect the past. E.g. Nostalgia, Memory, Previous, Former, Regret...

Final one then. I've never played Fallout, so I've no idea whether the Brotherhood of Steel is some kind of reference. I've also had to change Debbie's name to Trudy, for reasons which may not be obvious at first:

******

"...Following the onset of the Scourge a number of eschatological cults appeared. Although some of these cults were led by vainglorious madmen who genuinely believed their own self-deluded prophecies, many more were led by charismatic charlatans, preying on the weakness of those around them.

One notable character from this timeframe is Trudy Jensen. As is the case with most historical figures in the dark times that followed the Scourge, the precise details are sketchy. A recently recovered copy of her CV shows that she held a BSc (Exon) in Mine Engineering from Camborne School of Mines, that she was of Danish extraction and that her hobbies included electronics and conjuring tricks.

Jensen first came to prominence after the Miracle of Worlds End Harbour. The details of the occurrence are well recorded in many documents and records and it is beyond the scope of this analysis to record more than the briefest facts. Suffice to say that the missile was eliminated before it struck it's target. A number of eye-witnesses report that the missile was struck by lightning, although there is very little evidence which can be found to support this theory. The best weather forecasts at the time show that the nearest build of atmospheric pressure sufficient to produce the required lightning strike was more than 180 miles away. A more palatable alternative is that the missile detonated due to an error in it's timing system.

Jensen claims to have been personally responsible for the destruction of the missile headed towards World’s End. The full story is lost to the mists of time but Cecil Raff’s famous painting of her calling forth the lightning has struck a popular chord with many viewers. It is, however, this author’s belief, that this paints far too simplistic a vision of the events.

Those that believe Jensen’s account of the events agree that her story begins with her discovery of her dying father on Worlds End beach shortly before the Scourge. In one biography, Jensen’s claims:

“I had always known I would find him upon that beach, nine steps from the final battle. He was wounded beyond repair and I began to weep for him, but he would not bear to see my tears. He told me that I was his daughter and that I must continue his work against the wolf. With his dying breath he presented me with his most potent symbol and I knew exactly what was expected of me.”
New Edda, K L R Fulz

The corpse was burnt on a pyre a few days later, but a chance photograph taken before the funeral remains. The photo shows Jensen weeping over her father. The image of Jensen is somewhat unfocussed, but her father – or the man she claims to be her father - can be seen clearly. He is red headed with a full-beard. His complexion suggests that he is probably of north European origin. His body is muscular and well-toned, but there are numerous deep gashes in his side. These wounds would seem to be consistent with those found on the body of sailors who have been attacked sea serpents.

This presents us with the first of many tautologies: Jensen claims that she found the body before the Scourge, but the Serpents which plagued the high seas were products of the radioactive wastes in the waters. The best of estimates of our biologists place the existence of such creatures at least ten to fifteen years afterwards. Furthermore the size of the wounds suggests that the creature responsible for the damage was of a significant order of magnitude greater than those found today.

Close examination of these pictures reveals another clue. The unnamed subject in the photograph is wearing a pair of weathered boots, as might be found on some older sailing vessels. Scrutiny of this image under an electro-microscope has revealed a partial name (..ria Mor...) sewn into the lining of the boots. The origins of this name have puzzled linguists for some years now, but the presiding theory accepted by most academics is that this may have been one of the many fashion labels that existed prior to the Scourge.

The question also remains as to where the mysterious figure was washed up from. One of the more outlandish fallacies is that he was employed on a Scandinavian warship which was engaged in a conflict with timber smugglers working for the Naglfar crime syndicate. Whilst this theory does account for his complexion and general physique, the premise breaks down under close analysis of the facts. Even the least conservative estimates – based on the logs of the GPS signals which were beamed to satellites prior to the magnetic pulse that eliminated their feed – place the nearest warship sixty leagues from the coast... clearly far beyond the distance where he might be expected to wash up on World’s End beach shortly afterwards.

Indeed there is no evidence at all that the figure washed on a beach at all. In the chaos that followed immediately after the Scourge, it would not be difficult to locate a corpse, though the distinctive wound markings do seem a little more difficult to replicate.

Let us move onto Jensen herself. Many of the powers she is claimed to have held can be mimicked, either through simple prestidigitation or else via electronic devices. Her gauntlets, for instance, upon which electricity was meant to play, can be simulated using equipment found in any modest electrical store from the time. The crows which perched upon her shoulders could have been trained after the Scourge. And her trademark weapon, which was said to return to her hand upon striking her foes, can be recreated through the suitable application of magnetism.

It is also germane to recall that Jensen had experience in the field in the field of media manipulation. In a radio interview with legendary Disc Jockey Re:Near, Jensen states:

"...Mum used to be a secretary in an advertising firm. I guess I was always destined to be a bit of a loudmouth..."
Voice of the Badlands – The Early Interview Tapes

With a gift for self-promotion, it seems not only possible, but highly probable that Jensen weaved a Nordic Mythology around herself in the hope of providing some means of control over events. It has already been proven that even in the best of times, men tend to conform to the common standards of those around them. How much easier then would rumours spread in a world of panic and turmoil, where many are desperate for leadership.

Despite these flaws it would be unfair to castigate Jensen as a greedy opportunist. Her early victories over the raiders and savages of the times united people behind her and provided a solid base of popular support to lead them onto greater glories. Indeed, in a world without staples, scruples or safety, Jensen provided those around her with perhaps the most precious resource of all: Hope.

Source: ENDTIMES: A studied analysis of the tribes, warlords and mythologies that emerged after the Scourge By Allan Davids

******

So either she's the reincarnation of Thrud, the daughter of Thor or else she's damn clever and using the ancient Norse myths as a means to galvanise her people. I figured I'd drawn on quite a lot of Christian themes in some of the other backgrounds, so went for Ragnarok this time round. I hope you appreciate the "nods" to some of the people who contributed to this project.

Cities: Anything Nordic. Valhalla, Asgard, Aesir, Jotunheim, Yggdarsyl....

Flag: Use the Viking one.

Hi guys,

I personally really like the Brotherhood of Steel, I've written one background for them already, I changed the Leaders name to Guld Master John Maxson, who was the original founder of the Brotherhood of Steel, an old world army general. I could potentially re-work it and make it Guild Mistress Debbie Maxson, the daughter of the recently deceased general who took over his mantle to lead their people forward into this brave new world.

1st draft of background

>Before the Scourge General John Maxson was the Commander of a Military Defence Installation codenamed Lost Hills. During the build up of global aggression Maxson discovered plans laid down by the Government detailing their plans to secure for themselves a refuge against 'catastrophic circumstances' and abandon the population to whatever fate befell the nation.
Upon learning this information Maxson declared Himself and the forces under his command as deserters and distanced himself from the Government. He then began the task of gathering as much of the civilian population and local resources inside the MDI then sealed the doors.
As the bombs fell and the world ended Maxson had begun to train and organise the people under his command, He sort to form an Order of High Martial and Moral standards. Drawing from Military, Warrior, Chivalric, and Monastic codes and doctrines Maxson created an Order known as The Guild Of Steel and was named Guild Master by the men and women he led.
As the radiation levels began to drop Maxson and the Guild prepared to bring order to chaos.

I thought for story arch this would work well against the backdrop of the New australian vibe.

I posted in the is this dead thread as well, I've started trying to fill out some of the text based XML stuff for fun.

Take Care Guys enjoying this mod