Fiat Voluntas Tua
Let thy will be done
And I belheld when he had opened the sixth seal. and lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became as black as a sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood; and the stars of heaven fell unto the Earth.
The Revelation of Saint John the Divine.

Note: I have been planning this mod for quite a while now, and have drawn on almost every single one of my favorite bits of Sci-Fi, namely the show Farscape, the books A Canticle for Leibowitz, Lucifer's Hammer, and Ringworld. The mod is along the lines of Afterworld meets Civilization. Afterworld style combat, with buildings, religions, technologies, and civics. Currently I only have the units and techs done and am looking for feedback on everything that is not yet done. The mod is pre-alpha stage, but included is a small scenario I quick threw together to show what I envision the scenario to be.

Overview
During the Great Migrations following the discovery of the Marxoni drive, colonies from Earth spread out to the far corners of the universe. For a while, everything went according to the will of the Terran Empire, but you cannot expect the unexpected.
On the planet Selredor, the governor there revolted against the Terra, forming the Empire of Selredor. A bloody war ensued, with Selredor gaining its independance with the purpouse 'to keep the peace in the universe'. And that they did, for that they were called Peacekeepers. During one of their many wars with Terra, no Terran warfleets were spotted, and a reconissance cruiser was sent to investigate. What they found shocked them. Terra was a radioactive husk, with a great ring around it. The Peacekeeper cruiser sent down a scout party to the ruined capital, Salrash-Zrillr, to try and salvage what they can.

Factions
Empire of Selredor:Commonly called the Peacekeeper, their only interest in Salrash-Zrillr is to find out what caused Terra to become a radioactive husk, and what the Rings purpouse is. To that end, they will do whatever it takes.
Theme: Fururistic, high tech, and ruthless. Their soldiers have discipline that would make the Roman Legions look wimpy.

New Rome:New Rome originated immediatly after the Fall of the Cities and the Diluvium Ignis, the Flame Deluge in whick nuclear fire fell from the sky and consumed all. They say that the Deluge was God exacting his revenge for what they had become.
Theme: Religous fanatics and rebuilding.

National Security:The remnant of Terra's military, the numerous command centers lost contact with each other after the atomic airbursts from the Flame Deluge fried most of their systems. They are trying to maintain control over what little remains of Terra, and it is rumored that within their deepest databanks, computers still work that know what the Ring is. If that is true, they arent telling.
Theme: Para-military troops and remnants of a high-tech military.

Brotherhood of Foundationists:After seeing the devestation caused by the Diluvium Ignis and the Fall of the Cities, Armageddon wasn't finished when it stopped. They belive the Ring caused the Deluge, and are trying to reactivate it and end everything.
Theme: Hedonists and recklessness. If they die, it is only causing the inevitable.

Children of the Deluge:After seeing the complete desolation after the Diluvium Ignis and the Fall of the Cities, they believe it occured to allow humanity to redeem itself. To that end they are destroying all traces to pre-Deluge Terra.
Theme: Inquisition, book burnings, 'reset button'.

Order of Leibowitz:After seeing the devestation caused by the Diluvium Ignis, the Fall of the Cities, and the actions of the Children of the Deluge, they seek to preserve all knowledge that they can. They preserve it to show humanity that it can raise great cities, not scavenge in the ruins of fallen granduer.
Theme: Closest I have to steampunk stuff, but high tech steampunk.

Zombies!:After the nuclear airbursts scrambled the sophisticated AI neural interface many people had, it turned them into mindless, wandering, corpses.
Theme: Considering how many assets I was using from the zombie mod Necro Cristi, I had to pay homage in some way besides credits.

Technical notes: The mod, as I said before, is in complete pre-alpha stage. I need feedback and ideas badly though. I also need someone who knows alot about the AI if the AI will be completly lost here. The only 'coding' I have is DCM bombard (I know the AI can use that, they've attacked me enough) and the Afterworld ranged combat (which is just air combat). There are some rough edges that I still need to polish up on.
If someone could hack the unit turning python in Afterworld for me and merge it with DCM, I would be most greatful.

Credits: Dale, seZereth, Refar, Rabbit,White, Colin (maker of Necro Cristi where I pillaged most of the soundtrack from along with some ideas), the modding community, and Firaxis (Afterworld art assets).

I'll upload the mod and screenshots tomorrow. Where I am, its getting late.
Does anyone know a good free upload site? Even broken into the soundtrack and main mod, both are bigger than the 10mb allowed at the CFC upload database.
Screenshots are in post 5.

DL here with soundtrack!
http://files.filefront.com/FiatVoluntasTuarar/;13433845;/fileinfo.html
In the included rough scenario, (called LandingWarv1) you can play as either the Empire of Selredor or the Children of the Fallout. I would reccomend playing as the Empire of Selredor though. The Peacekeepers sent down a small scout party that got ambushed by the Children of the Fallout, so they sent down a full task force to drive the Children out of this area. Unite the task force with the remnants of the scout party, and conquer the Children's base.

Roadmap
>v2:Fix End of Turn crashing error
add in bonus's and apropriate improvements and other features
v3>add in buildings, civics, religions, and UU's
v4>final map and any new civs.

Wow. Great backstory. So the game takes place on Terra, not Selredor, right? And the tech tree is about recovery of lost knowledge or making do until then? Are the zombies playable or barbs? Do they have a leading class that can think? How are the Brotherhood and Children able to remain competitive? What do they have like stealth guys or something?

1>Correct, its taking place on Earth, not Selredor. I havent decided if any other planets remained loyal to Terra.
2>Tech tree is more about recovery of lost knowledge. The Peacekeepers use the same tech tree but with their own branch for their units.
3>Zombies are barbarians, so they arent playable. When I get around to it I'm going to give the the Animal AI because they arent conciously thinking, more like wandering around.
3>The Children are sort of like Josef Gobbels and Hitlers book burnings. They destroy everything they dont like, but keep the useful stuff (Hitler attaching Nazi Germany as the new German Reich.)
The Brotherhood is able to stay competative because every post-apoc story needs hedonists/bikers (but here minus the bikers) and because everything was destroyed. The suicide impulse would be pretty high after that. They are also a bit of a fringe group that broke off od New Rome.

Okay, I am getting this really weird crash. When I hit end turn, the game automaticly quits to desktop, and I mean automaticly, no black screen wait, nothing. It just goes from the game to the desktop, with no error or crashing messages. When I check the logs, they say everything is okay. I am running 3.17, and the only SDK/Python changes are DCM, which I didnt touch. Any ideas? I hope to have the mod uploaded soon.

On another note, here are some screenshots of the mod:
In the first screenshot, Peacekeeper Scout Groups are opening fire on enemy Survivors, while in the second, Land Cruisers are opening fire on more survivors(apologize for the poor screenshots).

Can't help you with the crash. Usually I find that a CTD will be the result of missing art. The easiest way to find that is to look at the units in WB (or buildings if its that). If you have a black button that's bad news. Pink is just a missing button. Black means missing art.

Using animal ai just makes the unit not enter cultural boundaries. You should use the lemming version of attack city.

Is that afterworld terrain?

You need more than 4 or 5 playable civs. How about adding one that is zombies led by mad scientists who have learned to control them? How about rebel Terra military groups, some general that seceded before the deluge? How about some peacefull but luddite types that just want to farm and build churches?

Crash>I dont think it would be an art issue as all unit buttons show art. What has me really confused is that there is no error message when the crash occurs.
Animal AI>Thanks, I'll do that.
Afterworld Terrain>Yep, its afterworld terrain.
Civs>I was wondering if there were enough. I'll probably have sort of 'lets return to where we were' society, but that will be on the back burner for now. I'll see about uploading it to a free site soon. It won't include the soundtrack though (Its over 100MB)

Feedback: :goodjob:.
Seems interesting and very dark, this is more like i expected NecroCristi to be :).

Crash: What was your last change?

Last change was adding on a new unit (Peacekeeper Gunship) but I had never checked before that, so it is quite possibly something else entirely.

DL is now out!!!! Check post 2 for link.

Ah, this is Afterworld ish. However, I notice units can stack (currently) unlike in Afterworld. Are you going to mix economics with the Afterworld approach or will it be pure dungeon crawl?

I got error messages for missing TerranCatapult and missing Boudica. Tried world builder and got stuck in it, couldn't get out but could still play the game. I don't know where some of these units came from, but here are some buttons if you need. Maybe they just aren't in yet. Of course these won't work as is until pasted into an atlas.

I would like to remove stacking, but still allow some units to stack (some forms of infantry). I will be mixing in some economics, but primarily dungeon crawl. About the Terran Catapult, I forgot to add in the unitclass infos. Just go into unit class and add in terran catapult. Boudica is refrenced because I remover her, but never got around to removing her from the diploinfos.
Did the game crash for you when you ended the turn? I'm thinking it might be due to something not working with DCM, so I'll check it and see if I have problem with maps in normal civ. I hope it isnt a problem on my comp, those really bug me.
What did you think of the soundtrack?

If this bug persists and I cant fix it, or it is only occuring on my comp, any ideas on what I should do next? I was thinking either a Final Frontier version of The Peacekeeper Wars, try this again, try this again on a larger scale, or do something completly different. (Likely early modern Europe)

Bughunting: Apparently the problem is with my mod, not BTS or DCM, but all that I changed was xml, no python or .dll. The problem isnt mousing over something because when I mouse over the endturn button, no crash, only when I hit end turn.
I did get something out of the init log, it says:
[1763.525] ERR: InitWinApp() failed, exiting
[1763.525] ERR: CIV Init FAILED, exiting

I really have not a clue what is happening, so if anyone could shed some light, I would be most greatful.

Thanks for the buttons, if I can get this fixed, I'll use them.

Buttons don't have to be pasted on an atlas; they can be used in 64x64 form.

My solo buttons never seem to work for me if I make them from scratch. I have to paste into something that already existed in Civ. Wrong kind of compression or something in the gimp plug in? Anyway I think there's a simple xml tag for stacking or maybe one of those python functions that's just a flag really. You could have economics that are relevant to a dungeon crawl. Have cities just be one big building "command base," sort of a tile filling tent, and make it possible to make improvements like "machine shop" if you draft some citizens, so they can make repairs or scavenge or something. Buildings would be improvements to the equipment in the tent. You could allow units to join a headquarters like Great Persons can become superspecialists...

You could also do a companion mod based off of FF that shows the background both before and after. And another one that is regular world map type that shows Earth's economic and technological recovery.

Anyway, if its a dungeon crawl, there need to be clear objectives. Maybe there are and I haven't played far enough in.

The buildings will be sort of like what you described, once of course I get this bug fixed. If I do do a FF scenario, it would just be the before though. In the tenative story I have laid out, the peacekeepers do eventualy manage to find what they are looking for, then completley subjugate the place, adding it to their empire. If I can't get the issue resolved, I'll be making a FF mod.
As to dungeon crawl, there will be some objectives (eg: rescue a comp from the Children, stop the Brotherhood from reactivating the ring, ect..) It will be more free form than you average dungeoun crawler.

Did you also get the end turn crash?

I've been thinking. I've talked to primordial stew about finishing up his Escape from Zombie Island mod, and if it is finished, I could make this into a modmod of that. I'd likely have to cut a civ or two, but I'd then have a relativly stable base. I'm going to go into planning of an FF mod of the Peacekeeper War, showing the revolt of the Empire of Selredor, its expansion, clashes with Terra and some other colonies, and ending just before this mod starts. Feedback? Since the mod would take place over a long time, there will be plenty of tech development.

I've thought it over, and I'm going to start on a FF mod based on The Peacekeeper Wars up until the nuclear armageddon of Earth. Any ideas on new civs? I have the Empire of Selredor, Imperial Terra, and possibly I could scavenge a few more factions from Farscape. If you offer ideas and such, you'll likely see yourself as a GP.
Note: The civ idea must be predominatly XML, as I have no knowledge of Python.
Note: I'd prefer there to be no aliens, hybridized humans are fine with a good reason. My reasoning behind this is that the universe is really, really, really, really, (x10) big. Even our own galaxy is a couple million light years across, IIRC. Very few sci-fi stories take place outside of our galactic arm even. I don't want to sound picky, but I don't want this to turn into a 'Star Trek-esque/Star Wars-esque' mod.

I took a short look: Lots to do, but it's interesting :).

If i had ideas, i would write them here, but sadly :(.


Maybe i'm stupid, but what's FF (besides Fall Further)?


Did you also get the end turn crash?


I got it, but i don't know why.

I had the log activated, and i've looked into it.
The interesting files are attached (2 different crashes).

FF is Final Frontier, the space mod that shipped with Beyond the Sword.
I'll take a look at the logs, although it is likely they wont make much sense to me.
Close as I can tell, the pedia python doesnt like the C++, which is odd considering I didnt touch either. I don't think the quechua is the problem as it isnt in the game, and for audio, I dont think audio can crash the game. Regardless, I'll come back to this mod later. It was primarily to show me that I actualy can make something interesting (my last mod won the 'Epic Fail' award). Are there any interesting (non-python requireing) factions you would like to see in the FF mod? (No aliens)

Just to show that some work is being done on the FF mod (I have spring break next week so I should get alot done barring essays and BTS being petulant)

For what I hope to have the mod into video, follow this link (go from 1:43 to 3:21)
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1366364400451467719

Revised Backstory:
After the invention of the Marxoni Drive in 2200 which allowed superluminal travel, the Empire of Terra experianced a period of boundless expansion. To manege the Empire, local systems elected officials to represent them at court and manege the province. When the planet Selredor revolted against the Empire of Terra, forming the Empire of Selredor, the many of the provinces declared themselves independant from Terra in response to the weaking control from Terra and the increasingly corrupt court. After sweaping aside the local Terran defenses, Selredor met the full brunt of the Terran Armada. They pulled back, and made a temporary truce with Terra. With the mission to 'Keep the peace' they begin annexing neighboring systems to increase their power for the inevitable conflict with Terra. In response to this, Imperial Terra declares war on the Empire of Selredor, now commonly called Peacekeepers. The battlelines are set, and the planets of man wait on the edge, not wishing to see the galaxy consumed by war.

Themes: I am using alot from the show Farscape, the Dominic Flandry series by Poul Anderson, and numerous other sources. I'm staying away from aliens because the universe is REALLY big, aliens would likely not run into us.

Faction: Empire of Terra
Leader: Emperor Hans Molitor
Themes: Efficient, well run empire and navy.
Backstory: The Empire is in its 'Indian Summer', and is trying to re-establish its hegemony over all humans. They would succed, except for the Peacekeepers trying to stop them.

Faction: Empire of Selredor/Peacekeepers
Leader: Commandant Dhurka
Themes: Powerful but small navy, ruthless, lack of starting infrastructure(decimated by war).
Backstory: Summed up in overview

Faction: Esteel
Leader: Johan Karrlson
Themes: Bording ships, mining colonies, start in a strategic location.
Backstory: Founded as mining colonies, they eventualy became a self-sufficient territory. Unfortunaltly, their planets have the resources needed for the Terran and PK (Peacekeeper) war machines, and they are perched right along the border.

Faction: The Adventists
Leader: The Divine, the Eternal.
Themes: Exiled Psionics. Vengeful.
Backstory: Exiled from Terran space for unorthodox use of mind-enhancing drugs and cybernetic implants, they have returned with a vengence, although for now, all they can do is look threatening as the PsiTech is more wishful thinking than military assets. The small size of their navy however, doesnt mean they are a pushover.

Faction: Imperium of Man
Leader: Emperor Shaddam IV
Themes: See Terra
Backstory: During the height of the Terran Empire, the empire was split into two administrative units, and during the Selredan Revolution they declared their independance and annexed all planets in their sector that didnt submit to them.

Faction: Veneria
Leader: Robin of the Coven
Themes: MErchant empire, retrofitted warships
Backstory: Sitting astride the borders of the Imperium, the Empire, the PK, and Esteel, they serve as traders, despite numerous commerce wars with Esteel. They seek to remain neutral in the comming war, and act that may be hard when they protest when their ships are siezed for traveling in enemy space. After all, they remind Veneria, to be neutral is to be impartial.

Faction: ARM (Amalgamated Regional Militia)
Leader: Lucas Launcelot Garner or Gil Hamilton
Themes: Pirates, early Terran ships.
Backstory: They are the planets that eiter revolted during the Selredan Revolution or just fell our of the Imperial view. To avoid being swallowed up by the Peacekeepers and the Imperium, they allied and found pirating to be a very effective form of an economy.

Faction: The Gaians
Leader: Cirroco Jones
Themes: Nature movements, green. Early terran ships, later Adventist ones.
Backstory: Sent out of Terra by an earlier Emperor to get them out of his hair, they are one of the oddest empires. Allied but hating Terra, with many of their 'Green' activities turning from a no-impact style of living to more of a running through the trees sacrificing the odd goat, which puts them at odds with the rest of man. They hate high technology, but see spacecraft as good evil.

Notes: If you can geuss where some of the more obscure refrences are from and why it would be ironic to see Cirroco Jones ruling Gaea, you get to be featured in a pedia entry.
If anyone wishes to make art from the movie clip, I would appreciate it, but it isnt a formal request.

Just to show some progress it being made, here are some screenshots. Currently I have to leaders and Civs done (leaders are using generic FF traits) and I have the basic units done. Still need to add in UU's, trade ships, religion specific ships, and so on. If anyone has any ideas for religions, buildings, techs, ect, ect, please let me know. I should have the rudimentary tech tree out by late friday/saturday. Also, if anyone has any knowledge of python, please look here:
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=315466

Sorry for being behind on the techs and stuff, I got preoccupied by an awsome mod for Medieval Total War 2, Broken Cresent. It focus's on the middle east from 1174-1400 CE.

Once again, if anyone has any knowledge of python, please check out the above post. If there is interest, I can upload the xml files for people to take a look at. Also, please offer any comments/question you may have.

Also, if you think there arent that many unit above, I still havent gotten around to UUs, religous units, or corp based units. I despretly need ideas for religions and corps, currently all my corps are comming from Dune.

Well, back in the late eightees I played an RPG called "Paranoia." It involved life in an underground warren in the future, when a mad computer system has taken over the world and keeps everyone underground. There are all these "secret societies" with different attitudes toward the situation.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paranoia_(role-playing_game)

Anti-Mutant: A hate group who hates mutants above and beyond the social norm. They attack registered, and even 'suspected' mutants in dark corridors with lead pipes and funball bats. Their members are constantly trying to ferret out the mutant menace that hides among us, and a good percentage are even more paranoid than the average citizen. Ironically, many of them are actually mutants themselves, but remain unregistered.
Communists: This secret society was formed based on the theory that, if the Computer hates Communism so much, then there must be something to it. Their knowledge of historical Communism is poor, leading to Alpha Complex Communists adopting stereotypical Russian accents and clothing. Further confusion about Communism leads to Alpha Complex Communists carrying pictures of Groucho Marx and listening to the 'revolutionary' songs of John Lennon.
Computer Phreaks: Composed of hackers, crackers, computer geeks, and computer game addicts, the Computer Phreaks practice programming in secret — and try to show off how very l33t they are. This can be a very dangerous hobby in Alpha. The line between 'hacker extraordinaire' and 'terminated traitor' is a fine one.
Corpore Metal: Corpore Metal members believes that humans are inferior and outdated. Machines are the wave of the future. CorpMets are obsessed with attaining the perfection of 'bothood', going as far as intentional self-maiming to obtain cybernetic replacements. This secret society, unsurprisingly, also has a large number of rogue bot members.
Death Leopard: Their motto is "live fast, die young, and leave a beautiful set of 6 corpses." Death Leopard is into loud music, explosions, and parties. They are not so much a coherent secret society as a collection of gangs. There are frequent wars within the society, but they will usually band together to deal with outside threats — if only to get back to settling their turf wars in peace.
First Church of Christ Computer Programmer (FCCC-P) (also referred to as The Assemblers of God in some editions): They believe that the Computer is God. They have their own hymns, services, and worship, and obey the Computer much more than the average Alpha Complex citizen. While secret society membership is still against the law, the FCCC-P is generally ignored, or only given a punitive slap-on-the-wrist. There are interfactional conflicts between different sects of the church, and even simple differences in interpretation can lead to bloodshed.
Frankenstein Destroyers: Luddite in faction, this society believes that robots are the cause of all mankind's problems. Some blanket this hate to all technology, but the society is mainly focused on destroying the shiny, soulless AI menace.
Free Enterprise: In earlier editions Free Enterprise represents capitalists in The Computer's more communist society. With the increasing amount of authorized capitalism in Paranoia XP, Free Enterprise has become a pseudo-mafia organization, sometimes adopting stereotypical Italian accents. Free Enterprise runs the Infrared markets in Alpha Complex.
Humanists: The Humanists are aware of just how flawed Alpha Complex is ...at least to some degree. They realize the Computer is insane, and strive to make Alpha Complex a better place for people. They do this by installing hidden backdoor codes in The Computer, reprogramming rogue bots to serve humanity, and planning for the day when they rise up and restore power to the people. That day is just around the corner — and has been for centuries; the Humanists never seem to get much done, as the society is bogged down by process, meetings, and committees.
Illuminati: The Illuminati is a secretive organization whose goals are so well hidden that most members don't know them. No one knows what the goals of this society are, or even how it goes about them. Members may be given orders as simple as 'deliver this', or 'kill him/her', or as unfathomable as 'Take the cap off the pen in the briefing room XLJ11, and dispose of it down the trash chute in X corridor'. Most Illuminati also pose as members of another secret society, in order to keep their true society a secret.
Mystics: Supposedly founded by those seeking enlightenment, the Mystics focus on recreational drug use. Another example of an un-society, there is no grand Mystic goal. Some limit themselves to their own personal visions, while others try to drug food or water supplies to try to enlighten as many as possible.
Pro Tech: Pro Tech members enjoy high technology. They research new technology and steal research by others. Pro-techers can sometimes be identified by the sheer number of beeping nifty gadgets they tend to carry.
Psion: Psion is the pro-mutant group. They believe mutants are superior beings. Heavily run by the 'Controls', a separated and hidden network of telepathic mutants, Psions seeks to pave the way for a better, brighter (mutant-run) future.
PURGE: PURGE is an active terrorist organization seeking to violently overthrow The Computer. They have no real ideology about what comes after; they just want the Computer destroyed. In previous editions, PURGE was as slapstick as all the others. In XP, particularly Straight-style games, PURGE is a terrorist organization, out to destroy the hated Computer no matter how many innocents are lost in the fight.
Romantics: Enticed by the forbidden lore of the "Old Reckoning" (the days before Alpha Complex and the Computer), the Romantics scavenge what details about the past they can. However, due to the suppression of this information, their information is rather flawed, and different sects focus on different aspects of the past.
Sierra Club (referred to as Seal Club in some editions): The Computer restricts leaving Alpha Complex to Green clearance and above, and then only for good reasons. So, aside from Troubleshooters who may be sent into the great Outdoors, almost no one in Alpha Complex has seen so much as a blade of grass. This great mystique has led to the formation of the Sierra Club, devoted to sneaking out. Some want to escape forever, while others try to bring the wonders of nature to the less fortunate inside.

I have always thought these would be great religions for a mod.

Thanks. I hope to have the xml files uploaded by sunday. I'll be very minimalistic, just units (not even all of them), techs, leaders, civs, and maybe religions. If you have any knowledge of python, please look the the tread on the previos page in post 19 (IIRC) about the FF pedia and how they handel buildings. Ive looked through the files, but it makes no sense to me.

I'll upload it later tomorrow, you'll still have to do some messing with the files to put it in as since it is still unplayable alpha itl just be the changed XML files and the diplomusic and main menu music. I still have to clean a few things up. Besides religion, everything else I'll be doing will require me to start doing python work, and I'm not looking forward to that, as the last time I tried python work it sort of failed.

Besides religion, everything else I'll be doing will require me to start doing python work, and I'm not looking forward to that, as the last time I tried python work it sort of failed.

If you don't try, you can't have success.
It is a good idea to begin with merging some of tsentom's wonders, and changing them a bit, to get some more experience.

I would help you with your problem, but i never had a look at the FF pedia screens.

I managed to fix the FF tech pedia, I just copied over the BTS tech pedia python file. Any ideas for wonders, buildings, new promotions, other religions, corps (If I can get corps working again and so they arent all from Dune). My ideas for religion are:
>Orange Christianity:
Source-Dune
Theme-Generic Judeo-Christian monothesic religion.
>Buddislam:
Source-Dune
Theme-Wisdom/Philosophy faith and gives XP bonus
>Humanism:
Source-None
Theme-believe that we are the dominant/highest force in the universe, cultural buildings and faster ship build times
>Cult of the Warrior:
Source-Farscape inspired
Theme-worships the warriors as they are the protector. unique ships, faster build times, free XP

And thats about it.
Corporations:
>Special Corps:
Source-The Stainless Steel Rat
Themes-allows construction of advanced spy ships and good espionage
>CHOAM:
Source-Dune
Themes-Produces numerous exotic resources(some on map), consumes many types of resources.
>The Spacing Guild:
Source-Dune
Themes-Consumes Melange(on map res), can build navigators, navigators can build foldspace lanes.
>Bene Gesserit Sisterhood:
Source-Dune
Themes-consumes???, allows revrend mothers and Bene Gesserit Temples, excells in culture.
>(possible) Bene Tleiliaxu
Source-Dune
Themes-large amounts of anger, can build Gholas, can be sacked to add production. Can build Face Dancer (rare), can flip enemy cities (like Loki from FfH)

EDIT: I can sort of muddle my way through python, but half the stuff is a mystery to me.
EDIT2: I did the math, even stripped down, the mod is nearly too big right now to fit on the CFC dl database, so I'm going to polish it up a bit, then upload it to filefront, expect it later this week. It'l have religions (if they don't have a python req) some UU's, more tech quotes and such(I enjoy doing that stuff), and fix a few things in python. (no new coding, jsut changing stuff to make sure the barbs spawn ships.)
EDIT3: I have proof that nothing goes my way, I was planning on figuring out how to dl the google movie in the overview post to try and turn it into a bik, but for some reason google video can't find the movie, and that was the one place I managed to find the first part that has the piece that I want. This always happens. Blech.

***** it, once again I am getting the bloody end of turn exit problem. The logs give me no help, I went back until the only changes were XML, and it is still crashing. All it says in the logs in InitWinApp failed. Once again, I have to abandon a mod, and one that was showing promiss to. If any one wants, I an upload it, but I doubt anyone can find anything wrong with it.

Don't give up, and load it up.

And next time, make some backups of your files.

I'm going to take a bit of a break from it for a while. In about a week or two I'll start hunting from base FF to see where the problem happened. I'm inclined to belive the problem is with the techs, as I tested the end turn thing before adding techs to see if it worked and it worked fine. I have made a mod that added techs back for warlords, but did anything change with BTS? Anyhow, I'm going to be looking at both yours and Tholishs sci-fi mods, to see if I like where its going. I prefer helping on a mod to leading it, though.

I'm inclined to belive the problem is with the techs, as I tested the end turn thing before adding techs to see if it worked and it worked fine. I have made a mod that added techs back for warlords, but did anything change with BTS?


I don't know, what has changed, but there are some variables in the GlobalDefines.xml for the techs, which restrict some things.

Anyhow, I'm going to be looking at both yours and Tholishs sci-fi mods, to see if I like where its going. I prefer helping on a mod to leading it, though.

Be my guest :).

I got your mod working, and it looks cool. You might want to ask around for mars terrain. Perhaps if I find a tutorial, I could try making photorealistic mars terrain. It shouldnt be that hard.
Thanks for the globaldefines lead, I'll check it out. Regardless, I'll be redoing the units and the techs, and possibly add in another civ or two. Main reason is that I rushed through the planning phase.
Also, any tips for making the tech tree? The easiest way for me to do it is on notebook paper, but the tree always ends up being short and squished.

After looking at global defines and globaldefinesalt, I noteced a few things:
>They are different files.
>In the alt file, there is a tag called this:USE_MODDERS_PLAYEROPTION_1. I saw it refrenced in python, any ideas what it does?
>in the Globaldefines file, there are limits on prereqs and such. I'll check to see if I have any of that. Seems a really strange thing to add, unless done with their dynamic tech tree. Seems odd that is would crash the game.

I got your mod working, and it looks cool. You might want to ask around for mars terrain. Perhaps if I find a tutorial, I could try making photorealistic mars terrain. It shouldnt be that hard.

It it looks good...


Thanks for the globaldefines lead, I'll check it out. Regardless, I'll be redoing the units and the techs, and possibly add in another civ or two. Main reason is that I rushed through the planning phase.

Not only you :D.


Also, any tips for making the tech tree? The easiest way for me to do it is on notebook paper, but the tree always ends up being short and squished.


I have no good tips, my planing was more random.
I took together some names (tried to get enough to replace the whole civ4 tech tree), which i thought could fit, and then just with pen+paper...


After looking at global defines and globaldefinesalt, I noteced a few things:
>They are different files.

What :confused:?


>In the alt file, there is a tag called this:USE_MODDERS_PLAYEROPTION_1. I saw it refrenced in python, any ideas what it does?

I think, it doesn't do anything.
You can't just add new options without sdk work, so this is maybe a "gift" to the modders, that they have some options to use, without doing it.


>in the Globaldefines file, there are limits on prereqs and such. I'll check to see if I have any of that. Seems a really strange thing to add, unless done with their dynamic tech tree. Seems odd that is would crash the game.

Yes, it's a bit strange.
Maybe the game would be slowed down without this restrictions?
I don't know.

I find it odd that the 2 global defines are different sizes, the one located here:
C:\Program Files\Firaxis Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4\Beyond the Sword\Assets\XML
is 49 KB, while the global defines located here:
C:\Program Files\Firaxis Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4\Beyond the Sword\Mods\The Peacekeeper Wars\Assets\XML
is only 7KB. Definitly not the same file. As far as I can tell, the Alt one deals mainly with the camera. I wonder, could I copy over an entry into the alt one, and still have it work? Hmmm. Theres no schema as far as I can tell for them. After doing a bit mor hunting, I do think that the prereq limits for techs are to help with the dynamic tech tree. Why they would also have it for units and buildings is beyond me.

I tried increasing the prereqtech limit, didn't work. Blech. Does Global defines even apply in a mod?

I find it odd that the 2 global defines are different sizes, the one located here:

The GlobalDefinesAlt is a GlobalDefines with only changed values. You can only have one (iirc), and you can copy every entry from the normal to the Alt file.


I tried increasing the prereqtech limit, didn't work. Blech. Does Global defines even apply in a mod?

Sure, i have one in my mod, and it works.
What didn't work?

I was refering to changing the one in the main BTS directory, sorry for the confusion. It didnt solve the crashing problem unfortunalty. I asked the Star Trek mod creator if I have to do anything special, and he said you didn't have to, so evedently I'm doing something wrong. Once I make the new techinfos XML (watch me be worng about the cause) I'll upload it to see if I'm doing something wrong.

After thinking about it more, it may also be missing art causing the crash. GlobalDefines just has a whole bunch of stuff, most of which can safely be ignored. GlobalDefinesAlt is a file a mod can have containing just the defines modified by the mod, though mods can include their own copy of GlobalDefines as well (each will load fine, but GlobalDefinesAlt is easier to see what's changed).

I don' t think it is a problem with the tech art (all art I'm using is default FF art, no changing of art paths) becasue I'm using both the default FF button art, and I didn't even switch the buttons around, so some techs have buttons completly irrelevant to the tech. If I were missing a button or had a bad one, it would be pink or black in the pedia right? Although the part I find odd is that the game defaults/crashs to desktop when I hit endturn, not when I select a tech.

Regardless, I'm starting over to now do better saving and testing of it.

I currently have finished the civs and religions, all is good so far. Next up is the tech tree.*scared* I'm planning on between 50-60 techs, although I could certiantly see more coming. The basic trees will be:
>Superluminal travel, leading to Wormhole technology.
>Advanced Weapons
>Economy
>Cultural Development
>semi-existant civics tree. (melds with the others alot)

The early tree will be based on Gauss and primitive plasma cannons, primitive DS (defense screen) fields, and generic economic and cultural stuff. Middle part will be based on Wormhole theory, fusion cannons, DS fields, and other stuff. The late part will be based on Wormhole travel and weapons, more powerful plasma, gauss, and fusion cannons, and such.
(I am also putting this here for my refrence)

Comments?

(Arrg, anyway to get rid of the butterfly on the topic bar?)

1. Comment: Picture of the civics + religions!

2. comment: Pay attention, that your techs are not to similar, but also, that they are not too "far away" from most people.
But that's only my opinion.

I don't have the civics in yet, but I'll show a picture of the CHOAM pedia entry (only one I have done), and civs if you wish, but I dont have any pedias or new art yet. The 'early' part of the tech tree is done, 32 tech! almost 2/3 of the whole FF tech tree! I'll test out the new techs now. If the next post you here from me is a combination of self-imposed censoring, despair, and uploading of an XML file, you can imagine what happened.


MAJOR EDIT!!!: :band:!!! The error isnt appearing! Now I just keep this version as a base, and whenever the current version gets shot to hell, I keep this as a base. Here is a screenshot of CHOAM(sorry for some of my typos, its was getting late where I lived when I wrote it so I quick slammed it out.

Wow, that's good stuff. Backstory to spare, and original rather than derivative. So you're doing the civilopedia first and then making the mod to match it? And this is basically an FF mod mod? What Python and DLL type mod comps are you planning to include? When will you have an Alpha?

Your imagination and writing are great, so I think its wise that you decided to stick to a safer path modding wise than to try to make this huge thing that crashes.

Once you have that base you can diverge and stick your neck out, just like you say, keeping that version as a starting point. I have learned that creating a whole mod and then testing it is a bad idea because you don't know what went wrong and have done all this work. You have to make small changes and then test them, as you indicate you are doing when you say you think adding techs caused a crash. But to test you have to have something you can stand to play. Basing it on an existing mod as you are with FF is a good idea.

What I do is I keep a copy on my desktop and another in the mods folder. I testplay, taking notes, then modify the version on my desktop according to my notes, then copy that version into the mods folder, and I then save a third copy of it in a second folder with a new version name. FutureMod001, FutureMod002, etc...Eventually I delete old versions I know I am safely beyond ever having to go back to. The problem is that using this procedure I am focused on improving my own playing experience, but I know my game so fixing up the Civilopedia is low priority. However, I have always felt that over the course of development, things would change, so it would be most efficient to document what has been created rather than either be bound to the documentation or constantly revising it.

There are some points where you can't really make small incremental changes, but have to change a whole lot of interconnected stuff all at once. I like to START with an entire tech tree and assign almost everything in standard civ a prereq of a disabled tech, so its out of the way. That's a huge jump all at once, but it gets an empty mod with a tech tree that you then put stuff in by making it how you want it and then changing it to a tech in the tree. Then you fill up the tree. But that first step is huge, a whole tech tree and disabling everything.

Incidently, I had an idea for a galactic type mod. All the terrain is space black, but rather than systems like in FF, stars are untradable bonuses and you colonize them by building an improvement, various types of Star Colonies with different kinds of focus. Cities are "Starbases," sort of provincial miltary and government hubs. The various star types (Red Giant, White Dwarf, etc...) can only occur where there is a Nebula or Oort feature, and these can be chopped. Roads (trade lanes) are built by "Merchant Fleet" units that sacrifice to build them, ie they are built and they become the many ships moving back and forth carrying cargo that make up what the lane really is. Most ships are smaller, and are in little fleet formations. Air mission type units would only come with advanced warp technology, since they can jump from place to place. There are also features out there like Pulsars and Quark stars and such that have exotic bonuses.

Incidently, not to beat a dead horse, but GlobalDefines has a schema, but not in BtS, which is essentially a mod of Vanilla, and thus only includes what has changed. CIV4GlobalDefinesSchema is in the Vanilla XML.

Ah, this is the mod you were talking about...

I managed to fix the FF tech pedia, I just copied over the BTS tech pedia python file.

Is that all that's needed to edit the Civpedia?:confused: (I've been wanting to edit that for MOO2Civ, but haven't been able to so far.)

Anyway, looks promising.:thumbsup:

@Jeelen: Thats all you have to do. I was a bit surprised when it worked. It was just a shot in the dark.
@Tholish:
>Currently I have no dll or python mods giving as FF relies heavy on python, and that I know nothing of python (I can sort of muddle my way through it) I didnt include any. Also, there werent any that seemed pressing.
>Acutaly, I am keeping my backups on my extra drive. As to the pedias though, I do a few to show what they will be like, or if I happen to get a good idea for one. However since most of the pedias wont change much, I don't see any danger in obsolescense.
>As for fleets, I planning on having them be smaller than the 'Star Wars' esque battles, becasue in the whole Farscape universe, there was only one huge battle shown, and that was the end finale between Peacekeepers and Scarrans. It will be more based on capital ships with lighter craft protecting them. The capitals will have the function on 'fleet breakers' where since they have blitz and collateral damage, they will try and weaken the fleet to allow the rest through. They will have stats so as not to overly risk them.
>With the tech tree, I'm adding it by 'eras', but keeping the original so I don't mess up buildinginfos. Also, I'm building the tech tree first (I used to do the units first) which is making it alot easier as I don't have to make it 'fit'. I want to make it a more leasurly game (which sounds odd when talking about a war mod) but the pace of FF felt to fast. The techs just whipped by and you didn't have enough time to enjoy your new battleship before all your enemies got the next level PDS and made any assault costly. (30p unit that can be built anywhere will likely win in a city if attacked by a 225p unit that can't be built anywhere.)

@Jeelen: Thats all you have to do. I was a bit surprised when it worked. It was just a shot in the dark.

Cool! I had asked deanej (on account of his FF mod Star Trek), but got none the wiser. (All I got to do now is come up with lots of MoO tech quotes...) Eh... what exactly do you mean by the "BTS tech pedia python file"? (I can't find any tech pedia file in the BtS\Python folder...)

BTW, I am curious how this mod will turn out.;)

It's Python/Screens/CvPediaTech.py. You can remove the mod version of it altogether and it will use the BtS version (there's really no reason to have a copy of a file that hasn't changed in you mod folder).

Ah, I see - thanks.;) (I only want to edit it, not to remove it.)

A sligtly premature question, but for the soundtrack, what do you guys think about adding some classical music such as Raphsody in Blue, Tschaikvskies 1812, and some of the stuff from Colonization like Wellingtons Victory? I feel it will add a nice counterpoint to the 'future' tracks. I also tend to view this future as having some Victorian/Napoleonic overtures. Yea, Nay, or something else entirely.
The main menu track is already Aaron Coplands Fanfare for the Common Man.

Small delay in getting alpha out, I had another crash with the techinfos, so I have to default to a back up, not that bad though, its fairly recent. Now that I know the problem comes from techinfos, does something in there cause it or does a non-visible error that I make cause it?

For soundtrack I think you should use music and performances that are GNU or public domain. I found this website where a bunch of good free music can be found. I tried to use an MP3 from one of them for my FutureMod but haven't got it working yet.

http://www.goingware.com/tips/legal-downloads.html#intro

A lot of the links there arent that good but some are. This one is some sort of techno stuff that is good for a sci fi mod. I am using "Intergalactic."

http://www.ektoplazm.com/

The one I downloaded blatantly said, "Here's a copy of the GNU, you have permission to use this for any non commercial purpose."
Here's another randomly chosen one, with titles like "Space Cherokee" and "Fractal Philosophy."

http://www.kahvi.org/

I'm probably going to end up using the default future age soundtrack with a few of my additions, such as Raphsody in Blue and Tscaikovskys 1812. Thanks for the links, I'll likely end up using them once I start enlarging the soundtrack.

EDIT: I got the mid era tech tree done, progress is really coming along. Any ideas for civics and buildings? Considering my tech tree is about 2 times bigger than the FF one, I'll need about a half more buildings. (There wont be quite as many production bonus's though and more will be single system ones.) If anyone is interested, here is the openings menu, Fanfare for the Common Man by Aaron Copland.

EDIT2:I got the mid era units in. I will likely have to go back and refit costs, stats and so on. Same with the costs for the techs, I haven't changed them from the tehc copied from, so most of the techs are at 500r.

The mod is comming along, I finished up the tech tree and the units, I still need to set the unitai to something relevent (eg: for frigates I still have to ai set to defence), clean things up, and then I'll release it as an alpha in a week or two. For the initial release, buildings and civics will be identical to normal FF, I'll just be replacing techs.

I tried to download from your first link but it seems to be broken? :confused:

Oh, thats for the broken version of a different mod, Filefront probably got rid of it becasue nobody dled it for a while. I'm currently working on a different mod, but am using this thread for planning as the mod isnt yet alpha release. I'll create a new thread once people have something to dl.

Go on, i want to see, what you've done :).

The new mod is released (sort of, I havent uploaded it yet, I'll do so tomorrow). It is the sci-fi one I have been working on. follow the link in my sig.