The Arsenal Award: For The Most Outstanding Quantity of Units - Wyrmshadow
No unit artist has been as prolific a unit maker during the last ten years, nor has a unit maker made such a wide variety of quality units – ranging from basic soldiers to ships and planes to armies to a Cavorite Sphere. He is also a teacher, having made some excellent tutorial videos he posted on You Tube.
Michelangelo Award: Best Unit Refiner -
Vuldacon
Vuldacon is one of our most fastidious unit makers and modders, and his work always has both the undeniable precision of the perfectionist, and the heart of the artist. He is also a master of palettes and shadows, and has helped more than one unit maker - both new and veteran - to complete a difficult unit or to make a problem unit better.
John Ball Award: For providing special attention to Settlers & Workers - Plotinus
The most often used and often seen units in any civilization game are the workers, and Plotinus has managed to produce a virtual united nations of workers for us to download and use. Along with the workers are settlers for each civ, and each is made to be both historically accurate and artistically superb.
JS Bach Award: Best Added Sounds For Units - Ares de Borg
Ares'
Symphony of Destruction Sound Thread is just the tip of the iceberg of useful unit sounds that Ares has provided to and for all sorts of unit makers. His Unit-Sound collaborations with Wyrmshadow also earned a nomination in the 'Collaborations' category of the Decade Awards.
Alt.Universe Award: To the Harry Turtledove alt WW1 & WWII Unit sets by Wyrmshadow
Made painstakingly accurate to the famed Harry Turtledove books, these units by Wyrmshadow defy categories and eras yet are rendered in such stunning detail that they look as if they have very real counterparts in the real world. A true tour de force.
Darwin's Voyage Award: To the godfather of scenarios -
Rocoteh
Rocoteh, best known for his
WW2 Global Scenario, is honored here for his early understanding of and teaching of Civ3 game mechanics - in the words of one juror, "he put this stuff on the map". The Jury cites this "very, very nice person" for his sharing of his knowledge of "the inner workings of the files, workarounds" and more to forum members. Adds the nominating jury member: "He was surely my inspiration to make scenarios. Something to be said from that, I think."
Lindbergh Award: Best Neglected Area Units [Between The Wars Aircraft] - TopGun
As TopGun notes on the opening post of his
Aircraft Works thread, since he's been a regular poster in the C&C forum, “Quite a few things have changed, but quite a few different things have not changed at all.” One of the things that has not changed is the consistent quality and historic accuracy of his aircraft, which are as beautiful in-game as they are functional.
Historian's Award: For Outstanding Historical Accuracy in a Scenario/Mod - Age of Imperialism; 1895-1924, Deluxe Version by El Justo
It's enough of a miracle to find an accurate tech tree in many scenarios; in El Justo's meticulously researched Age of Imperialism the difficult task of recreating the complex economic, diplomatic and military world of the Victorian – Edwardian age is achieved with beneficial results for both the gameplay and the player. From the accuracy of the units to the completeness of the Civilopedia, to the complex balance of world powers, to the exploitation of colonial outposts, AOI has enough packed into both gameplay and atmosphere to delight historical scenario fans and CivFanatics alike.
Forum Agora Award: Outstanding Supporting Member of the C&C Forum – Ozymandias
Ozymandias holds a unique status among C&C veterans; he has not, to our knowledge, posted a single creation of his own to the database. He is, however, listed in the database - if you look hard enough, you'll find the words "suggested by Ozymandias", "at the request of Ozymandias", or "from an idea that Ozymandias had" repeated in post after post. Because Ozy is there - has always been there, over and over with the right answer, or often, just the right question. Always in the right place, and always helpful. Ozy also has a huge private archive of units and graphics, and his database renewal project gave second life to dozens of units that would have been lost to the ages. It is true that his association with Wyrmshadow reminds some of us of Peter Parker's ability to get all of those exclusive pics of Spiderman, but any comparison is just ridiculous conjecture, of course.
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The Crusade Award: Career Modder - Rob (R8XFT)
Some would argue that, of all that Rob has created, that the Tech Tree for his
Anno Domini Mod was his true masterpiece. It was an elegant example of intelligent modding that felt more like an evolutionary step up from Civ3 than simply another scenario for it. Years later, Anno Domini II has its own
website, and remains the benchmark for simplicity and economy of modding combined with entertaining and engaging gameplay. Rob continues his quest to perfect his mod, having glimpsed the grail already, and we wish him favorable winds, so long as he keeps his girl Boudicca around.
Da Vinci Award: Personal Craftsmanship -
Pounder
If you joined the C&C forum in the last couple of years, it's an even bet that one of your first downloads was something from Pounder's Library or his famously link-packed signature. Pounder's collection is the swiss-army-knife of terrain overlays, including everything from walls to rivers to roads to cities to railroads to railroads and roads, to his award-winning
Fitted Irrigation and much much more. Often, Pounder's work is so damn useful that it's taken nearly for granted, but everyone should take another look: each of those exquisite little miniatures is the work of a master craftsman.
Modders Award: Definitive Mod -
Kal-El and the DyP team
On the old Double Your Pleasure website, Kal-El wrote that the purpose behind the mod was “to create a game that followed the development of human civilization more closely than the original Civ3.” To accomplish this, he said, he “deliberately made early expansion more difficult and slowed down city growth for the first half of the Ancient Age.” What Kal-El and the DyP team actually did was revolutionize the tech tree with nearly 100 new technologies, over 60 new units, 50 new wonders and 45 new improvements. The Mod was released in 2002, and everyone fell immediately in love with it, especially the team at Firaxis, who liked it enough to include it with the release, later that year, of the CivIII Play the World expansion. It was the first time that fan-created content had been included with a major game release, and while there was some criticism – a reviewer from
Gamespot was upset that there was no documentation or graphics for DyP included in the release – it was nevertheless a major milestone for CivIII and for the modding community in general.
Oracle Award: Founding Father -
Kinboat
In April, 2002 Kinboat posted his first thread, a request for a Mortar unit. In that post he says, “First off I'm astounded by the quality of the unit animations on this site... I thought the animated units would be the death of Civ customization, I was wrong.” He went on to say, “I can't seem to make anything worthwhile myself ....” Wrong again, in our opinion. Between the time of that first thread post, and the time of his last post, Kinboat, working initially with POVray and later with Poser and 3ds Max, created some of the most iconic and useful units ever made. Most importantly, Kinboat gave us the
Human Model for Poser, known in the forums as Kinboat's Paperdoll, which has been the basis of hundreds of great units, including all of Plotinus' human units.
Hannibal Award: For Refusing To Take No For An Answer -
Steph
From The Book of Steph, Part I: And in those times, Steph went to the Mountaintop and spoke to Firaxis and said, “Let the source code be released!” And after a few rumbles that could have been thunder, but was likely just a desk-jocky clearing his throat, Firaxis demurred. Then Steph went to 2K Games and, raising his voice to the heavens said again, “Let the source code be released!” This time there was no weather event, but he did receive a nice form letter. Then Steph went to BitCaster Games and said again, “Let us see the Source Code!” But BitCasters could not, and showed Steph a confidentiality agreement. But Steph was not deterred, and continues to this day to try to lead his people to the promised land...
Golden Horde Award: Pioneered C&C Multi-Units -
Kryten
Early in the life of the CivIII C&C forum, Kryton asked a question that changed the game forever afterward. He asked,"how would you like Civ3 to look like this?"; and showed us this image:
Kryten's "visual experiment", as he called it, has since spawned a sub-forum and special database category for multi-units, and dozens of M-units, and the M-unit has been adopted as a staple in both CivIV and CivV. Not many ideas have had such far-reaching impact on the game, and Kryten is rightly recognized for having started it all.
Edison Award: Most Beneficial Utilities, part 1 -
Moeniir
When, at the end of November, 2001 Moeniir posted the first 'build' of FLICster, he
wrote, “I've never done anything with graphics programing or graphics file formats before. So If I screwed up, sorry. Also, I'm no artist or mod maker, so I haven't really put this thing thru its paces. Sorry there too.” Since then, FLICster has been “put thru its paces” tens of thousands of times, and is widely considered the most useful utility ever made for CivIII modding.
Einstein Award: Most Beneficial Utilities -
Steph
Book of Steph, Part 2: And throughout the time of these events, Steph toiled to improve CivIII, and produced great things, including his
Storyboard Builder (SBB), a
Civilopedia Editor , an improved
Civ III Editor, and finally, an
Expanded CivIII Editor, which did many miraculous things, including the editing of saved games. And the people rejoiced and sang
chanson Françaises.
Caesar Award: Outstanding C3C Mod Design -
El-Justo
Some Mods have so many moving and interlocking parts that by the time they're released, they're little more than a mash-up. You can't say that about any of El Justo's mods, particularly his mods
Age of Imperialism Deluxe and
The Cold War Deluxe 1950-1991. Each element of these mods is carefully chosen to evoke the eras these mods are set in, the Civilopedia and other text fully backs it all up, and the gameplay is cleverly designed and beautifully balanced. If they weren't mods we'd put them on the wall and brag about having them.
Copernicus Award: Most Innovative Modder -
Civinator
All that you need to know about why Civinator, C&C's 'Blue Lion', is receiving this award can be discovered from downloading and playing his epic
CCM Mod. It's packed full of innovations and tricks, many of which have been previewed in posts, threads and tutorials that he's posted over the last half-decade. From his first C&C thread, 'Invisible Cities', to his latest creation, Civinator has continued to awe and amaze us with really clever ideas.