Origins

Version 0.9

So What is it?

It's a mod that makes Colonization 2 feel a bit more like Colonization 1. All the old terrains and resources make their return, movement speeds are adjusted, and the game moves at a much slower pace.

What does that mean, exactly?

If you never played Colonization 1, there were some quite significant differences in the terrain and pacing. Plains terrain produced mostly food, while Prairie produced cotton, Marshes and Swamps were better for providing ore to your colony than sugar, and Sugar was produced on food-rich savannahs. In addition, yields were generally higher, and some extra resources existed, chief among them in importance being Prime Timber, which provided huge amounts of lumber to a colony.

The game was paced in a much more relaxed fashion, as production costs were about the same as Colonization 2, but in a 608 turn game. In Colonization 1 you almost always finished the game with plenty of time to spare, something many people have not found with the new game.

Ships and Scouts also moved quite a bit faster, with scouts (and dragoons) capable of moving 4 squares a turn.

I have done my best to replicate all of these aspects of the old game in this mod.

Why is it version 0.9? Is it playable?
There are two minor bugs which I want to fix before releasing Version 1.0, but neither make the game unplayable.
The first is that the Prime Timber resource does not clear the forest around where it is placed, so it may take a keen eye to spot, especially in Conifer forests.
The second is that changes in the XML that controls the cost of building buildings appear to have no effect on in game costs. Once this is fixed, the building costs in the mod will be the same as those of the Original Colonization.

Anything Else?

This is primarily a terrain mod, and it is built upon the amazing work done by Cold Fever in his Blue Marble mod. As such, it is made with Blue Marble users in mind, so I strongly recommend you install Blue Marble to enjoy this mod fully.
Download Here (http://forums.civfanatics.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=10752)

The Prime Timber resource model is the work of Rockinrodger, who originally designed it for World of Civilization and was gracious enough to allow me to use it here. Please visit the WoC team's site and have a look at their marvelous work:
http://woc.dreamhosters.com/

The mod is fully compatible with the unofficial patch put out by Dale and Snoopy as of version 1.03, and you can use the two together by copying the contents of their patch into the Origins mod folder.

There are two folders in the download, one which includes the speed changes, and which will include the building changes when they are complete. The terrain only folder contains only the game length changes and the changes to terrain. You can keep both in your mods folder, or use only one, as you prefer.

Regarding gamespeed, the Marathon version is 3 times the length of the original colonization, and so double the length of a standard Marathon game. I'd recommend you start at the Classic gamespeed, but if you really want to play for over 1800 turns, knock yourself out.

I hope you enjoy the mod. :)

Download Here (http://forums.civfanatics.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=10817)

Really wonderful!
I'm really excited to test your mod.

Thank you very much for this! You are the ones with Dale and Snoopy who will make me play Col2 again :D

Will we see the customs house implemented aswell?

Hopefully, but I don't consider that a priority, given that a custom hous mod already exists.

I want to make sure what I've got is bugfixed before I add new features. :)

Hopefully, but I don't consider that a priority, given that a custom hous mod already exists.

I want to make sure what I've got is bugfixed before I add new features. :)

yeah i tried adding it today but theres a lot of files that need merging :)

Two things:

1)Is it not possible to play a regular custom game with a mod installed? After loading this mod the "Play now" and "custom game" buttons are both greyed out. Basically can only play the Origins' Americans scenarios. I assume this is because it is not possible to make the game use your new terrains/ressources when scripting a new random map?

Any plan to release more maps, if that is the case?

2)Getting the following error when loading the mod (it restarts Colonization and goes through shows the error in the middle of the file check)

XML Error

Tag: GAMESPEED_NORMAL in Info class was incorrect
Current XML file is :xml\Gameinfo/CIV4ForceControlInfos.xml

It seems to load the mod fine anyway, but I thought I would let you know.

Ah, it looks like I forgot to include the file which controls which gamespeed is selected by default when you start a map. It shouldn't have any effect on the game, but if it stops the whole forcecontrolinfos xml file from loading, I don't know for certain.

I'll get a fix up with that file included later tonight, and I hope that will resolve your issue.

It seems I edited my post as you posted yours.

You're right it all works fine (and the marathon speed is selected by default, and I guess you wanted classic instead).

I'd still really like to know if the one scenario is the only one playable with your mod at this time or if there is a way to get a random map with different settings (such as Huge instead of Large etc...).

Thanks!

It seems I edited my post as you posted yours.

You're right it all works fine (and the marathon speed is selected by default, and I guess you wanted classic instead).

I'd still really like to know if the one scenario is the only one playable with your mod at this time or if there is a way to get a random map with different settings (such as Huge instead of Large etc...).

Thanks!

At the moment only the classic map is available. I'd like to make Custom Games possible, but before I can do that I need to get a mapscript that will generate the new terrains, and before I can do that I need to learn Python.

After bugfixing, this is probably my highest priority. I want to play on random maps as much everyone else, but I reckon it'll probably take me longer to do than it did to make the rest of the mod.

Thanks for the clarification. It is a great mod as is already so thanks for that too :)

It might make sense to add a note about this in the readme or the download description on this site - I reckon this question will come up more often than anything else.

Also - there are a few map scripts sprouting up already, if you were willing to partner up with one of those guys.

Sorry for spamming your thread, but I just noticed another bug. When starting the game via "custom scenario" the game will crash if you select "Marathon". It works fine on the "classic" setting.

This is with the full mod (not the terrain only) loaded. Marathon games seem to start fine if I do this via the "Play scenario" route.

I guess this might be related to the missing file you mentioned above.

This isn't really related to your mod (which I haven't tried out yet), but I did notice something in your screenshot: your HUD background is semi-transparent.. How did you do that?

This isn't really related to your mod (which I haven't tried out yet), but I did notice something in your screenshot: your HUD background is semi-transparent.. How did you do that?

Blue Marble. If you do try out the mod, make sure you get it.

Hell, get it anyway, it's awesome.;)

Actually, I am using Blue Marble, but I didn't decide to install the menu changes; just the terrain and the leaderheads..

I'll see if I can install the menu graphics then! :D Thanks for the help!

Version 0.9.1
- Added GlobalDefines.xml to the mod, to fix an XML load error.

That should fix the bug you found brisos. If it doesn't, let me know ASAP and I'll do the other fix I was going to try.

Hey!

I am trying to create a map with your resources without actually using the built-in world builder. I am doing this so I can play on a map I do not know the shape of. Python scripting is a bit too much of a headache for me so I am going for an excel script that modifies existing WBsave files. I hope you are ok with me using your mod for this since it is for personal use only.

I ran into some design issues. I want my map to be as close to Col1 maps as possible and I was hoping your memory of the game was fresher than mine:

1)Do you have a clear idea of what bonuses (tobacco, cotton etc...) should be available to what terrain? For example I believe cotton bonuses should not be available on anything but plains, right? I do not remember how Col1 did it exactly. I am not sure about tobacco, bananas, minerals etc...

2)Should resources such as tobacco be available on a grassland that already has a forest feature? I seem to remember you could, in Col1, clear a forest and reveal and underlying bonus resource, but I could be wrong.

3)When you made your map(s) did you have a clear idea of the balance between all the terrains/features/bonuses? Should plains/grass/savannah/prairie be appearing in the same amount? Or are Savannah and Prairie supposed to be more rare?

4)I believe there were some rules about how all the 4 terrains were spread. The Savannahs and Grasslands were together whereas PRairies and Plains were in their own area. Prairies and Plains were also close to deserts. In other words you never found plains in the middle of a bunch of Savannahs - is that correct?

I played my first complete game of Col2 (french, Explorer level) with your mod on your origins map and it was just great fun :)
The only problems were a crash (i found that it comes from the Snoopy/Dale mod 1.04, i rolled back on 1.03 and it worked fine), the bad behaviour of AI opponents, a common problem in vanilla Col2, and all the remaining missing point from Col1.
But the great graphics and animation, the much more interesting combat system makes the overall interest nearly equal to Col1, thanks to your additional mod and bug fixes from Snoopy/Dale of course.

AI opponents are too weaks, and they create too much congress bell. So I was forced to go revolution early in 1660s because the english colony was already at 80% of revolutionary feeling. I finally won the game, even if the King's REF outnumbered my army by 1:4. English went revolutionnary also but were completely crushed by their King.

I love most of the Col1 aspects you bring back in Col2. The different terrain types, the building cost and naval unit moves. However, Col2 bring so much new changes and remove interesting parts of the original game.
The ones i noticed:

Indians relation is less interesting then in Col1 I think. They were often asking you for something. THe missionary system had more effects than just bringing a new source of population.

The help of an enemy King during Revolution was really a great dramatic moment in Col1, too bad they removed it.

The horse production is useless in Col2. Horses are very cheap in Europe, and price never increase. Whereas it is much more complex to get horses in America than in Col1. You have to build 2 buildings (stable than ranch), and put specialists in it to produce a correct amount of horses, while you had only one building without worker need in Col1.

The fact you can't remove a colony.

Col1 aspect should come back with changes:
Fountain of Youth was very fun (especially for the music), but too unbalanced. Maybe a much reduced one with only one to three various people coming from Europe.

Col1 aspect I don't miss:
The custom house was too much unbalanced, i would like however that the current storage extension could sell even the boycotted products. It should simulate in some way that we can sell any goods in a "black market" at 50% of europe price without tax, to any Europe countries, not only our King's empire.
The combat system was horrible, and forced to use the outlaw "reload and play" method.
The market prices in Europe were lowering too fast, and too low.

I Hope I will have some times to help you and other modders bring back the other lost aspects of Col1.
Anyway, Col2 has already become really fun, many thanks!

I also noted that the Wheat resource (resource of plains) was not present in your mod, Is it intentionnal ?

There is a custom house mod coming along. You can find a thread for it in the mods sections.

For the horse production thing I think the main drag is the use of food. It takes a huge amount and a few dozen horses is just not worth losing an extra colon.

The AI is absolutely ridiculous. In my first game by 1690 one of the indian tribes attacked the english. They had had no war before and got decimated..

For a lot of the problems you list (with which I agree), there are mods out there balancing it. There is an REF mod that reduces the increase of the king's fleet. It makes producing bells less of a disadvantage. http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=292708&page=2 - But I don't know if it is compatible with Reveilled's mod.

Well I finally managed to get a working script in Excel's VBA. I still can't figure out the answers to my questions above, so I am not sure the terrains are being placed as they should. But aside from %age of appearance, I think the script is sound.

If you are ever interested I would love having someone else's opinion on the modified maps. I have a couple so far and cannot tell if they are any good.

Really great mod, I love it... all the good old memories from Col coming back thanks to you :)

I hope you learn Python fast and bring also back interventional forces and the fountain of youth, that would just be awesome. Also the offers from European Kings to deliver Veterans for Cash.

I tried and managed to get both this and the customhouse mod together:

1. Copy the 'CvGameCoreDLL' Folder from Customhousemod (from now on 'CH') into the origins folder.
2. Copy the Python folder and CvGameCore.dll from CH\Assets to Origins\Assets
3. Copy the the folders 'Buildings'*, 'Civilizations' and the 'GlobalDefines.xml' from CH\Assets\XML to Origins\Assets\XML
4. Copy 'Civ4HandicapInfo.xml' from CH\Assets\XML\Gameinfo to Origins\Assets\XML\Gameinfo
5. Copy 'CIV4GameText_Colonization_Strategy.xml' and 'CIV4GameText_Colonization_Pedia.xml' from CH\Assets\XML\Text to Origins\Assets\XML\Text

Thats for the copy part of it... all you have to do now is edit 'CIV4GameText_Colonization_Objects.xml' in Origins\Assets\XML\Text and 'CIV4ArtDefines_Building.xml' in Origins\Assets\XML\Art, according to the changes the CH mod did (ie, the custom house entry in these files)

Hope I got it all, worked fine for me :)

* In your Mod, there is a folder named 'Building' in the Origins\Assets\XML\ Folder, containing the CIV4BuildingInfos.xml
Is this a typo, shouldn't it be 'Buildings'? At least in the customhousemod (and the original game files) this xml is in the folder Buildings... I'm no modder so I don't know anything, and it works just fine but still...

Hi, your mod is a nice idea. There are too many aspects of the original that have been lost and could be included while keeping the balance of the game. I haven't played too much yet to see what is really missing and what should be change, although I follow peoples comments in the forum and it appears there is work to do ;)

Anyway, I did a couple of small mods to change the gameplay a bit of Civ4 and was looking forward to to something similar with Colonization. So I can make changes to the C++ files in case you want to make a modification that is not achievable with the XML and Python alone if you need.

I still need to play a bit more to see how to get closer to the original.

Found a couple things that I think are bugs with terrains/bonuses

1)Timber bonus does not add any wood per turn unless the forest it is on is on a grassland or a savannah. If there is a Timber on a Forest on a Plain, Prairie, Tundra, Swamp, or Marsh the wood/turn is the default forest amount (5 I think).

2)Same problem with furs. Furs only add furs per turn on plains. Tundras, grassland etc... don't get the bonus.

3)same type of problem with Deers. Deers only add the 2 food per turn on Tundras and Prairies. All the other terrains stay on the default value of 2 food if there is a forest on it (except for Plain which is 4 by default and stays at 4 if a deer is on it).

I assume this is a bug. Some of these combos are probably not supposed to work, but I am pretty sure some of them should. The furs should work on Tundra's forests, for example.

Hey everyone, got called away for the weekend. IRL issues. Feh.:rolleyes:

I also noted that the Wheat resource (resource of plains) was not present in your mod, Is it intentionnal ?

Eh, no. There should be plenty of wheat in the Great Plains, and one in Bolivia.:confused:

In your Mod, there is a folder named 'Building' in the Origins\Assets\XML\ Folder, containing the CIV4BuildingInfos.xml
Is this a typo, shouldn't it be 'Buildings'? At least in the customhousemod (and the original game files) this xml is in the folder Buildings... I'm no modder so I don't know anything, and it works just fine but still...

Ah ha! You've found the solution to one of my two major bugs, I think. Thank you.

Regarding the Custom House stuff, I'm glad you found a way to put the two together, but I'll need fmiricale's permission before I think about adding it to the mod.

Found a couple things that I think are bugs with terrains/bonuses

1)Timber bonus does not add any wood per turn unless the forest it is on is on a grassland or a savannah. If there is a Timber on a Forest on a Plain, Prairie, Tundra, Swamp, or Marsh the wood/turn is the default forest amount (5 I think).

2)Same problem with furs. Furs only add furs per turn on plains. Tundras, grassland etc... don't get the bonus.

3)same type of problem with Deers. Deers only add the 2 food per turn on Tundras and Prairies. All the other terrains stay on the default value of 2 food if there is a forest on it (except for Plain which is 4 by default and stays at 4 if a deer is on it).

I assume this is a bug. Some of these combos are probably not supposed to work, but I am pretty sure some of them should. The furs should work on Tundra's forests, for example.

It's all deliberate, of sorts. In the original Colonization, these were indeed the only terrains you could get these resources on.

It's like that in my mod because when I finally get the resources randomised (which I'll have done by Wednesday, when I have some free time), it will ensure a distribution similar to the original game's maps. If I can't get results like I want, I'll probably edit it out.

Eh, no. There should be plenty of wheat in the Great Plains, and one in Bolivia.:confused:
.

Sorry, i think there are no problems in fact. I thought it was corns but maybe it's just a translation problem (I use the french version). Anyway corn or wheat it's not a problem.

Reveilled -

There is still a problem with loading your mod and the unofficial patch (103 or 104 doesn't seem to matter). The global define XML file that you said you added seems to be present. But the patch also has a globaldefines XML file.

So I still get the same error message. Are we supposed to install your mod and then copy the patch OVER it? Or should we go the other way around? Or are there some files that we need to overwrite and some we should not?

If both mods have a GlobalDefinesAlt.xml file then you need to combine the contents of both files into one file.

Awesome mod dude, I'm downloading it now and going to play a game. :band:

Reveilled -

There is still a problem with loading your mod and the unofficial patch (103 or 104 doesn't seem to matter). The global define XML file that you said you added seems to be present. But the patch also has a globaldefines XML file.

So I still get the same error message. Are we supposed to install your mod and then copy the patch OVER it? Or should we go the other way around? Or are there some files that we need to overwrite and some we should not?

I'd like to keep the mod and the patch completely compatible without the requirement to merge for as long as possible.

There's another way to fix the problem without the globaldefines XML, so I'll make that change along with the rest of the update I'm working on.

Played a game and must say I love this mod. I changed the name of BuildingInfos to BuildingsInfos and, as near as I can tell, the building cost seem to be different then the default.

I must say I'm loving the mod overall, and the Prime Timber in peticular. :goodjob:

Just realized something. If the error message says:

Tag: GAMESPEED_NORMAL in Info class was incorrect
Current XML file is :xml\Gameinfo/CIV4ForceControlInfos.xml

Could that be coming from the fact that you renamed the "normal" speed to "classic"?

Patch 1.04 has NORMAL in the global defines. I feel it cannot be so simple but I must ask : can I just go ahead and rename the NORMAL to CLASSIC to fix the problem?

When I overwrite the patch with your mod it is all good. The error only happens when I put your mod first and overwrite it with the patch (which is the way we are supposed to do it I think).

I'd like to keep the mod and the patch completely compatible without the requirement to merge for as long as possible.

Im an idiot but I cant seem to make them work together .....

Im an idiot but I cant seem to make them work together .....

A bit more info about what you mean would help troubleshooting I think. Some tips that might help:

1)You cannot load 2 different mods. To have Origins and the Patchmod work together you must combine the files into one folder, making it technically 1 mod. This works fine as long as the 2 mods that you "merge" do not modify the same files in different ways. This is different from the "merging" they are discussing above. They are talking about combining the code of all the files that both mods modified.

2)Install origins normally. You get an Origins folder under your MODS folder. Then unrar the patchmod files on your desktop. You get a PAtchmod folder. Inside that Patchmod folder you have an Assets folder, a DLL file etc... Take those and copy them into the ORIGINS folder. You will be asked if you want to overwrite. Do so.

Be warned that when you do it this way you will get an error message when you go and LOAD the origins mod. I believe the mod will work just fine except at the marathon speed. I don't understand much but I think the error simply is about how some variables were declared in the two mods. Since they are declared with different names, the game does not know how to handle it.

If you just decompress the patchmod folder directly it in the origins folder, it won't do anything. If you put your patchmod folder in your MODS folder, then you get a Patchmod mod.

That did the trick :) Thanks for trouble!

Anything new going on around here? :)

Pure awesome sauce! I cant wait for version 1.0.

Awesome Mod ! Is there a mapscript out there for this already ?

Awesome Mod ! Is there a mapscript out there for this already ?

I've just terminated to add the new terrains from origins mod in the mapscript FaireWheather by cephalo (FaireWheather.py for Colonization (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=293491)).

It's a first attempt, so it's far from perfect, but at least you should have all the terrains.

Here it is in attachment (copy it in PublicMaps folder)

I'm having a great time playing this mod but I do miss the Portugesse from the AOEII mod. Perhaps if you have time a larger map including North America, Central American and the top part of South America with Natives in their historical locations would be the icing on the cake!

A bit more info about what you mean would help troubleshooting I think. Some tips that might help:

1)You cannot load 2 different mods. To have Origins and the Patchmod work together you must combine the files into one folder, making it technically 1 mod. This works fine as long as the 2 mods that you "merge" do not modify the same files in different ways. This is different from the "merging" they are discussing above. They are talking about combining the code of all the files that both mods modified.

2)Install origins normally. You get an Origins folder under your MODS folder. Then unrar the patchmod files on your desktop. You get a PAtchmod folder. Inside that Patchmod folder you have an Assets folder, a DLL file etc... Take those and copy them into the ORIGINS folder. You will be asked if you want to overwrite. Do so.

Sorry, but what is "unrar"?

unrar as oppossed to unzip. In other words extracting files from a program that has an .rar extention because that was the program used to compress it. Many people use rar because you get better compression rates.

I was thinking of making a mod like this, you've done well.
Is the plan to eventually completely mod this game to be like col1? Or will you stop after you get all terrain and mapping done (ie v1.0 or just a little further)?

My original thoughts when considering doing this, was to also change as much of the art as possible back into the original designs.

I've just terminated to add the new terrains from origins mod in the mapscript FaireWheather by cephalo (FaireWheather.py for Colonization (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=293491)).

It's a first attempt, so it's far from perfect, but at least you should have all the terrains.

Here it is in attachment (copy it in PublicMaps folder)

Really Cool Mapscript, archeide ! I love to play this mod with that :)

I've just terminated to add the new terrains from origins mod in the mapscript FaireWheather by cephalo (FaireWheather.py for Colonization (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=293491)).

It's a first attempt, so it's far from perfect, but at least you should have all the terrains.

Here it is in attachment (copy it in PublicMaps folder)

Features and bonuses too or just terrains in this mapscript?

Any word on an updated version? I still find this more playable/fun than AODII but I wish the Portuguese could added along with REF fix from Snoopy/Dale patchmod

If Portugal is added... it's not origin anymore ;)

I have to agree, Portugal was not in Col1. Maybe start a new mod based on Origins that you can add new stuff into. I know I am totally indifferent on the whole Portugal issue, but I know lots of people love being able to play a mod that puts the game numbers back to what they were in Col1. Just my 2 cents. :king:

Then perhaps a map that didn't include Brazil (since there are no Portuguese to settle there) and had a larger eastern seaboard.

Well it wouldn't make much sense to have a Western Hemisphere map with a big whole where brazil would be. Its not about what real world nation settle what part of the Americas. Its about wanting to play a remake of Col1, not a remake of Col1 with Portagal added.

I have loaded this mod and it seems to work ok, apart from one glitch. There is no sugar. All the former sugarr terrain is now ore, and where it shows as being sugar, you can only get ore. You can still get free citizens to train with Indians as sugar planters, but you can't plant sugar. It says it exists, but it doesn't really.

Either this is a flaw in the mod, or something has gone wrong with my installation. It seems to work fine in every other respect and I would like it, but I do have a sweet tooth! Does anyone have any ideas why this is happening?

well, you can get sugar from the new terrain savanna ..

Thank you for your efforts Reveilled. Really a great mod, I play with it already .. and I am looking forward for next versions.

Did you adjust the production numbers as the old Col?

BTW I'll come back to you for suggestions :)

well, you can get sugar from the new terrain savanna ..

Why new? Wasn't this already in the old Col?

Well the maps I seem to get don't have any savannah & I only found one tile which had the large Sugar sign (i.e. a rich resource tile), but it actually produced ore instead. I can't seem to get any maps with sugar on them at all.

I can't seem to get this patch to work - I use Vista. When this patch is correctly installed with the PatchMod one are the Start game and Custom game things supposed to be greyed out or not ? If they are supposed to be greyed out then I guess I installed them right but I thought you could play a real game and not just scenarios with this mod. I am using Patchmod 1.07 & Origins 0.9a.

Thanks for any help

Is there any way to put the population point building requirement on some buildings as was the case in Col 1?

After updating to the latest patch (1.01) I had some trouble loading this mod at the xml parsing stage. One of the files was missing a tag so it didn't pass the xml schema check. I added the tag and attatched the updated file to this post for anyone interested.

The file is located in \Mods\Origins\Assets\XML\GameInfo\