NervousTwitch
Chieftain
Hey guys! I only just registered today (Just finished my post in the welcome thread).
As I explained there, I'm thinking about doing some modding, and have completed my first. I've spent about 4 days tweaking and prodding it and scouring xml files for obscure errors and such. I'm not very fast it seems, but its been an interesting process.
So anyway.
I started off after my first single player game, to look at the various mods available. Thalassicus' stuff has been really great, but I really like options, so have spent alot of time with the various civilization mods. The first of which I played being, Emerald_Knights Confederate States mod.
When I finally read Kael's Modding Guide pdf, I thought I'd give making a civilization a go myself and decided to make my own Confederate States mod.
Unfortunately for me, I am sometimes a bit of a completionist, and couldn't stop myself until I'd done practically everything. About the only thing I haven't altered is the Dawn of Man audio and I was tempted to even do that!
So yes, I have a completely reworked Confederate States civilization. My main concerns lie in balancing. I feel like it might be a tad overpowered right now. But I can't bring myself to change anything, as I'll not be able to stop myself.
It's also worth mentioning that I am pretty disappointed by the games allowable modifiers for things like traits and unit promotions. There were a couple of things I wanted to do, but am unable to because I can't define those things, I've made the best approximation I can, but would want to update if the things I wanted to achieve ever become available.
So here is what I've given them.
A unique Trait called 'Southern Pride'. It provides double resources from Cotton and Sugar plantations, units receive a 20% combat bonus in friendly territory and Units can move faster along rivers. (I felt that giving only 2 of those 3 things as was my initial intention would be too situational to be overly useful, so even though I thought all 3 was too much, I couldn't only choose 2.)
A unique unit called 'Stonewall Brigade'. It replaces the Rifleman, has the same base stats, but has a custom promotions called 'Defensive Fire' which gives a 25% combat bonus on defense and when attacking wounded units. (My initial intention was to give them a promotion making them do more damage when they themselves are wounded, and a bonus to their fortification defense, but again it that's impossible right now).
A unique building called 'Farmers' Market'. It replaces the market and provides a 35% gold bonus aswell as giving +1 gold and production to all plantations except banana. (Again, I feel its a bit much, but if you started near no plantation, this would be totally useless, so i felt it needed at least some additional bonus. Also I hate the name, but could not for the life of me think of anything better that fit with the theme).
My very first thought for the trait was to provide double quantities and +1gold and production from plantations of all kinds, but I just could not get that to work right, so I eventually gave up. This led me to split the bonus, so they got the double quantities (eventually I decided having it for all wasn't thematically correct and probably ridiculously overpowering) and I gave the gold and production bonuses to a unique building they could construct which replaced the market.
Once I had done that, my trait seemed too weak on its own, double cotton and sugar, so I buffed it with a 20% bonus to unit strength in friendly territory, which felt right to me thematically, but again I thought was a little too situational. So I eventually also gave the river movement bonus trait too. Overall I feel it might be too powerful a trait. But I think thematically at least, it fits.
I also have replaced and added alot of text for all of the things I added, new art (except for the unit and building) and a custom colour scheme (which is basically Red and grey, but I went and defined my own grey which apparently is the exact grey of the confederate uniform
).
I really would like lots of advice, critique and criticism. I'm uploading the mod to the online mod system now, so it should be searchable by 'Confederate States' or my username (which on Gamespy is NervousTwitching). I've also attached it directly to this post (the zip reduced it from 7mb down to 800kb, crazy!)
I hope you all like it too, of course!
As I explained there, I'm thinking about doing some modding, and have completed my first. I've spent about 4 days tweaking and prodding it and scouring xml files for obscure errors and such. I'm not very fast it seems, but its been an interesting process.
So anyway.
I started off after my first single player game, to look at the various mods available. Thalassicus' stuff has been really great, but I really like options, so have spent alot of time with the various civilization mods. The first of which I played being, Emerald_Knights Confederate States mod.
When I finally read Kael's Modding Guide pdf, I thought I'd give making a civilization a go myself and decided to make my own Confederate States mod.
Unfortunately for me, I am sometimes a bit of a completionist, and couldn't stop myself until I'd done practically everything. About the only thing I haven't altered is the Dawn of Man audio and I was tempted to even do that!
So yes, I have a completely reworked Confederate States civilization. My main concerns lie in balancing. I feel like it might be a tad overpowered right now. But I can't bring myself to change anything, as I'll not be able to stop myself.
It's also worth mentioning that I am pretty disappointed by the games allowable modifiers for things like traits and unit promotions. There were a couple of things I wanted to do, but am unable to because I can't define those things, I've made the best approximation I can, but would want to update if the things I wanted to achieve ever become available.
So here is what I've given them.
A unique Trait called 'Southern Pride'. It provides double resources from Cotton and Sugar plantations, units receive a 20% combat bonus in friendly territory and Units can move faster along rivers. (I felt that giving only 2 of those 3 things as was my initial intention would be too situational to be overly useful, so even though I thought all 3 was too much, I couldn't only choose 2.)
A unique unit called 'Stonewall Brigade'. It replaces the Rifleman, has the same base stats, but has a custom promotions called 'Defensive Fire' which gives a 25% combat bonus on defense and when attacking wounded units. (My initial intention was to give them a promotion making them do more damage when they themselves are wounded, and a bonus to their fortification defense, but again it that's impossible right now).
A unique building called 'Farmers' Market'. It replaces the market and provides a 35% gold bonus aswell as giving +1 gold and production to all plantations except banana. (Again, I feel its a bit much, but if you started near no plantation, this would be totally useless, so i felt it needed at least some additional bonus. Also I hate the name, but could not for the life of me think of anything better that fit with the theme).
My very first thought for the trait was to provide double quantities and +1gold and production from plantations of all kinds, but I just could not get that to work right, so I eventually gave up. This led me to split the bonus, so they got the double quantities (eventually I decided having it for all wasn't thematically correct and probably ridiculously overpowering) and I gave the gold and production bonuses to a unique building they could construct which replaced the market.
Once I had done that, my trait seemed too weak on its own, double cotton and sugar, so I buffed it with a 20% bonus to unit strength in friendly territory, which felt right to me thematically, but again I thought was a little too situational. So I eventually also gave the river movement bonus trait too. Overall I feel it might be too powerful a trait. But I think thematically at least, it fits.
I also have replaced and added alot of text for all of the things I added, new art (except for the unit and building) and a custom colour scheme (which is basically Red and grey, but I went and defined my own grey which apparently is the exact grey of the confederate uniform
).I really would like lots of advice, critique and criticism. I'm uploading the mod to the online mod system now, so it should be searchable by 'Confederate States' or my username (which on Gamespy is NervousTwitching). I've also attached it directly to this post (the zip reduced it from 7mb down to 800kb, crazy!)
I hope you all like it too, of course!
