Possible Future Direction (personal view)

Thunderbrd said:

Hasn't been for a while but could be re-sparked at some point. I THINK CF would have to add you.

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I think primem0ver move to CivV with this project.

I haven't really moved it anywere specific. I did post on Civ V forum for the same reason I stopped playing Civ (before I knew that Civ V isn't any better performance wise) but the project has hit some major slow downs and sometimes I just need to "play" games rather than talk about them. I abandoned Civ entirely because I am sick of turns taking forever.

I really long to play again. Civ really needs to update their code to use multiple processors. I hope they do that with Civ VI. Otherwise I will probably end up going several more years not playing my favorite game.

Meanwhile, I have at least temporarily started working on the GeoRealism project again with hopes that Civ VI will be playable. I am re-writing the code in C++ (using the Qt platform) so that I can easily port to the new Civ game if it ends up being worthy of play.

Good to see you again Prime! I would bet you have the skills to help us get our turn times going faster. Would be helpful. I know I was also disappointed you gave up on the GeoRealism project here but I do understand.

primem0ver said:

I really long to play again. Civ really needs to update their code to use multiple processors. I hope they do that with Civ VI. Otherwise I will probably end up going several more years not playing my favorite game.

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The big problem is that the exe is not their code and that is what would need to change to support multiple cpus etc.

I missed this thread before.

One thing i'am sure about is that with all the time that went into modding Civ4 to create C2C it would have been possible to create a standalone game.

Things changed a bit in the last years Visual Studio and the major engines like Unity3d or Unreal are basically free now. There are a few more decent open source engines around so writing the whole engine from scratch is definitely not necessary anymore. But the biggest issue would be the asset creation. It would take at least a few really good 3d modelers and artists to make all the graphical elements. The same goes for audio effects and music. It's not possible to just convert all our current assets to whatever format would be used because e.g. manny 3d models and textures are just modified versions of the original Civ4 assets. So it would be necessary to create them all from scratch. The same goes for the C++ or Python code.

So it would be a huge project but at some point moving from the very old Civ4 will be necessary.

Ah, here's a blast from the past. It looked like such a great idea, and the technical description on Koshling's blog indicates that it would truly be a flexible system that would allow things not possible or feasible with the Civ 4 engine. Too bad it didn't happen (or did it?). I too have fantasized about starting a new game from scratch, but I'm realistic enough about what I can do. There's a reason that these games take years and big teams to produce.

Well, if I didn't already have a business that I am trying to get off the ground, and if I knew a few more people who were interested in this, and if I could raise some money on Kickstarter, and ...

pepper2000 said:

There's a reason that these games take years and big teams to produce.

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Yes they do but with all the man hours which went into C2C and maybe some help from other modders it would have been possible to create a decent Civ4 clone.

We started a discussion group on this on Sourceforge. Did you guys want in on that?

We started a discussion group on this on Sourceforge. Did you guys want in on that?

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I would be very interested to see what discussions have occurred, though I should be honest and say that it is very unlikely that I could do any serious work on such a project.

Then again, didn't I say that about C2C modding?

pepper2000 said:

I would be very interested to see what discussions have occurred, though I should be honest and say that it is very unlikely that I could do any serious work on such a project.

Then again, didn't I say that about C2C modding?

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You'll have to pm Civ Fuerher or whatever his name is and the way he spells it. He posted a few times in this thread. He controls the forum for this. Wasn't much discussion before we kinda tapered off but Prime joined us for a moment there.

primem0ver said:

I could not avoid this discussion after seeing Koshlings ideas and posts on maps. It appears that Laskaris has already beat me to some of the punch in proposing a spherical map. I will make it clear that like Laskaris, I am a map fetishist. I also am in the "Hex" camp with a slight twist.

Keep in mind that the GeoRealism project is actually a spinoff of an earlier project to create a world "evolution" simulator that I started several years ago and have temporarily abandoned. It is one of my life long goals. If we decide to go the hex tile route, I think my project has a LOT to offer in the way of a start on a usable system (though currently it has its challenges to be overcome). It can be used as a primary or an underlying grid. I can release the source code for that project if it is desired and I am going to spend the next couple posts presenting it.

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Did you ever make much further headway with this?

Thunderbrd said:

Did you ever make much further headway with this?

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It has been a long time since I worked on it but a few years ago I managed to reboot the project combining a .NET UI/Interface with a true C++ algorithm so that I could develop the part that would be implemented into the game entirely in C++ (it was all in C# before). It will be easy to move the code to the game if I ever get it working. I checked out the code a few days ago as I still want more realistic maps . I don't know if I am going to go into as much depth as I was originally planning but I still think a realistic map building algorithm is possible that also makes "personalized maps" with all those place names much more accurate (assigning words such as "bay" to a true bay rather than a coastal curve for example).

primem0ver said:

It has been a long time since I worked on it but a few years ago I managed to reboot the project combining a .NET UI/Interface with a true C++ algorithm so that I could develop the part that would be implemented into the game entirely in C++ (it was all in C# before). It will be easy to move the code to the game if I ever get it working. I checked out the code a few days ago as I still want more realistic maps . I don't know if I am going to go into as much depth as I was originally planning but I still think a realistic map building algorithm is possible that also makes "personalized maps" with all those place names much more accurate (assigning words such as "bay" to a true bay rather than a coastal curve for example).

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Very cool!