Vicevirtuoso's Civilizations

Just wanted to pop in and say that you're awesome, and that playing as [REBELLION SPOILER] is so much fun. And that I've started dabbling into Civ5 modding myself as a result of discovering your work. Keep the awesome coming!

Thanks! If you need any help or advice on your mods, let me know.



Preview of the next Civ on the horizon (shows National College as the UB only due to how the Civilization Select screen works; that's not its actual UB):

Spoiler :
 
Fate/ series Civs have all been updated with new Lua-based uniques. The Paragon City Civ in the City of Heroes pack has also been updated, with updates to the other 4 soon to come.
 
I just wanted to post here and give my many thanks to you for making these civilizations.
I wasn't too much of a history buff, so most of the Civs didn't really appeal to me, but I was amazed and surprised at how creative you were at converting these anime and game series into civilizations.

Between these, and the various Touhou civs on the workshop, I've been having a renewed blast in the game. I'm also impressed with how the civs don't scream of being OP right off the bat. Thanks again for your contributions!

Thanks to seeing these, and the Touhou civs, I've been inspired to try my hand at making a new custom civ myself, based on the novel I just finished reading. That said, it will probably be quite a long time before anything happens, since I don't really know where to start, and am still trying to figure out how exactly to make one of these civs.

As an aside, are there any plans to create an accompanying Nanoha civ with Fate as its leader?
 
And I thought my thread was dead. Thanks for the compliments! If you have any questions about the creation of a Civ, let me know.

As an aside, are there any plans to create an accompanying Nanoha civ with Fate as its leader?


Not at this time. Nanoha is likely to be the only leader from her series I make. I'd rather move on to make a Sailor Moon or Pretty Cure Civ first :lol:
 
And I thought my thread was dead.

I've been waiting to see if you have any new ideas come out! I'm curious what other series you'd consider making civs for...

EDIT: Also, DarkScythe, I want to echo Vicevirtuoso in saying that if you need any help with getting started in making a civ, feel free to ask!
 
I'm curious what other series you'd consider making civs for...

Well, I'm honestly not sure if I'm going to go all the way through with this one, because I'm thinking about making a massive overhaul to the Madoka civpack. As in, "it will take months to finish" massive and possibly even "Beyond Earth will be out by the time it's finished" massive. But here's the icon. Considering your familiarity with Touhou, I'm sure you'll be able to figure out what this is gonna be, since it's gotten rather popular in the same circles.

Spoiler :
 
I'm glad I was able to breathe some life into this thread, then! I was surprised that no one had posted any thanks here in some time, and I figured it would be easier here than to make random comments on your individual steam workshop pages.

Slightly disappointing there won't be a civ for Fate, since she's my favorite character from the series, but it's understandable - considering she's so closely tied to Nanoha as it is, I have trouble figuring out how to make her different.

That teaser looks amusing, as well. I expect tons of naval play and abilities for coastal nations, then!

As well, many thanks for your offers of help! I may need to call on your collective wisdom at some point, although at the moment I'm still reading through the Modder's Guide linked in the sticky to try and figure out the first steps in getting this stuff working. I've also created a document to help me nail down the specific bonuses and vision I have for my new civ, but as I read more information, it seems I might have to scale back or change some of the items I had planned, since it seems like I may actually run into technical limitations or something.

I also don't want to clutter up this thread with my questions, so I may look into other avenues of contact when the time comes. Perhaps I'll make another thread, or send out some PM's, or try to poke you guys on Steam.
 
Well, I'm honestly not sure if I'm going to go all the way through with this one, because I'm thinking about making a massive overhaul to the Madoka civpack. As in, "it will take months to finish" massive and possibly even "Beyond Earth will be out by the time it's finished" massive. But here's the icon. Considering your familiarity with Touhou, I'm sure you'll be able to figure out what this is gonna be, since it's gotten rather popular in the same circles.

Spoiler :

It took me a moment to figure it out! The icon looked vaguely familiar, and judging from the naval structures on the kanji I had a guess what it could be... but from DarkScythe's comment I'm guessing it'll be one or more civs related to a certain game with moe anthropomorphizations of warships? :p That's actually a really cool idea, as I've always kind of neglected the naval warfare aspect of the game. I'm not terribly familiar with the game itself, though, so I'm not sure who you might choose as a leader...

EDIT: Now that I think about it, I want to make a Blue Steel civilization. The Fleet of the Fog lends itself to the concept really well...

As for breathing life into the thread, I never quite know what to post in these threads. X3 I'm all for brainstorming ideas during the development process, but as vicevirtuoso tends to post completed civs there never feels like much I can say other than to be amazed at his creativity and coding skill!

As for making a new civ, you can either use PMs or Steam to discuss ideas and figure out exactly what is possible with the limitations of Civ (particularly for a starting modder), or start up a new thread in the general discussion area. Good luck!
 
One hangup I've had about making the Kantai Empire is that...well, I haven't actually played the game yet and know everything I do about it just from its fanworks. :crazyeye:

The process you have to go through to actually get an account registered for the game is a chore-and-a-half. You have to register via proxy, then the game's staff posts a "registration lottery" announcement on Twitter, and if you are selected, you then have to use your "lottery ticket" within a certain timeframe. Considering this timeframe is around 4 to 5 AM where I live, it's kind of a bad idea to try to do it while you're taking classes. Maybe I should just wait for the Vita game?

But anyway.

DarkScythe said:
I also don't want to clutter up this thread with my questions

This thread kinda needs a little clutter if you ask me. :lol:
Post what your ideas are and I'll tell you how feasible they are without a DLL mod.

bouncymischa said:
I'm all for brainstorming ideas during the development process, but as vicevirtuoso tends to post completed civs there never feels like much I can say other than to be amazed at his creativity and coding skill!

I kinda do have a tendency to come up with ideas and just do them without fishing for feedback too much. Although, last time I tried that (Miku), the thread just fell through the cracks without any response.



Well, how about I share what I'm planning for my Madoka modpack (note that it is now a modpack instead of a civpack)? It's probably going to be about a month before I even get this to an alpha stage due to finals (and a trip to a con the week afterward), but hopefully I can get something testable up sooner.

  • PMMM Civs will, like in R.E.D., have unique models even for standard units. They will be converted from SaibotLieh's Civ 4 female unit mods, such as this one. I could really use help with this, actually. This will take some serious time if I were to convert all of them myself!
  • Great Magical Girls will now be obtained by all Civilizations -- PMMM, Firaxis, and other mods' Civs! Demon Homura is the sole exception, but she'll be compensated for that drawback.
  • Great Magical Girls will be massively overhauled and have a Skill Map, from which skills can be purchased with Skill Points which are separate from Experience Level. This will completely replace the regular Promotion system, and Level will instead be used as a prerequisite for some skills.
  • Great Magical Girls will have Soul Gems that must be cleaned with Grief Seeds. Barbarians will be replaced with Witches!
  • Great Magical Girls can build relationships with other Great Magical Girls, much like in Battle Pentagram. This will make them stronger in combat when fighting together. But be careful not to let one see their best friend turn into a Witch...
  • Ultimate Madoka and Demon Homura will be overhauled to fit the new system, with traits and uniques designed around the system.
  • Two new Civs:
    • Kaoru and Umika of The Pleiades Saints (they both represent a single leader together, like TPangolin's Truong Sisters)
    • Oriko and Kirika of Shirome (same as above). Someone else said they were going to make an Oriko Civ a good while back, but I never heard anything further about it. So...
  • Rebalance of the other PMMM Civs, including actual UUs! No more of that "every UU is the Incubator" crap.
 
That sounds like a mess trying to get into the game. A friend of mine is playing it, but I never tried to get into it; mostly because I have way too many other things to be doing. I could probably ask her about it next time I get the chance, though.

Also, sweet Jesus, that looks less like an update and more like a revamp-from-scratch.
Unique unit models sounds awesome, especially if they can be animated, but I don't know how I'd feel about having access to those GMG's in non-PMMM civs. Would that not unbalance pretty much every civ? I would imagine they are balanced based on what was intended for them, without getting any extra stuff.

Everything else feels like turning the GMG's into a sort of RPG, lol. Not too sure how I feel about that yet, but it sounds interesting, if a bit confusing to learn.

I thought every UU being an Incubator made sense, since they are in contact with every magical girl. Not sure what else could be associated with each character, but sounds pretty cool nonetheless; more variety is always great.

As for my ideas, I'm still trying to refine them based on information about the modding system as I continue reading.

Thus far, a few things still puzzle me; notably, how exactly the unique unit/buildings system works alongside the overrides, and if changes to resource and improvement yields affect everyone, or only the civ that updates/replaces those values.
As well, I'm debating whether having a building replace the Palace, or having it as an additional free building in the Capital is a better choice, or if there's really no difference.

There are also a few things I haven't been able to find in the stock XML files, so I'm unsure if those are values that can be modified. These include things such as Specialists' Food consumption, Faith costs for acquiring Great Prophets, etc. and the City-State influence bonuses from a Great Merchant's Trade Mission.

Finally, I also realize that I am absolutely atrocious at artwork of any kind. :(
 
One hangup I've had about making the Kantai Empire is that...well, I haven't actually played the game yet and know everything I do about it just from its fanworks. :crazyeye:

The process you have to go through to actually get an account registered for the game is a chore-and-a-half. You have to register via proxy, then the game's staff posts a "registration lottery" announcement on Twitter, and if you are selected, you then have to use your "lottery ticket" within a certain timeframe. Considering this timeframe is around 4 to 5 AM where I live, it's kind of a bad idea to try to do it while you're taking classes. Maybe I should just wait for the Vita game?

That's what I've heard. I know a number of my friends play it, but the difficulty of getting into the game has so far put my off of it. (I suppose I can play Moe Moe Nijitaisen for my anthropomorphic military vehicle fix? :3)

Well, how about I share what I'm planning for my Madoka modpack (note that it is now a modpack instead of a civpack)? It's probably going to be about a month before I even get this to an alpha stage due to finals (and a trip to a con the week afterward), but hopefully I can get something testable up sooner.

That's a really impressive and extensive list of changes... I can see why it's a modpack, and why it'll take you forever to get it done. :p On the other hand, will you keep the old civs around? Modpacks tend to be rather self-contained, and it's amusing to have the Madoka civs pop up in regular (modded) games... Although I guess you did say that GMGs could appear in non-Madoka civs, so I guess it's not a standalone modpack (like, say, Faerun or Ea).

I'm still amused at the thought of my scientific civs, like the Transhumanists or Yumemi's civs ending up with magical girls...

Also, sweet Jesus, that looks less like an update and more like a revamp-from-scratch.

There are modpacks like that -- as I mentioned, both the Faerun modpack and the Chronicles of Ea modpack are pretty much revamped games with a fantasy feel. :p
 
I don't know how I'd feel about having access to those GMG's in non-PMMM civs. Would that not unbalance pretty much every civ? I would imagine they are balanced based on what was intended for them, without getting any extra stuff.

Can't really be unbalanced if everyone has it, though. It's honestly a lot more unbalanced as it is now, with only UMadoka having them -- it's pretty much the best UA out of the bunch and is still incredibly powerful even after I nerfed the GMGs.

Note that any kind of unique from Firaxis Civs will be adjusted to fit the system if it affects Great People (Babylon, Sweden, Maya, China, Austria). I'm also going to try to include a catch-all for any more modded Civs the player might use, in case any of their uniques affect Great Person generation. Though if the Civ uses a Lua script, that's impossible.

Everything else feels like turning the GMG's into a sort of RPG, lol. Not too sure how I feel about that yet, but it sounds interesting, if a bit confusing to learn.

Wait until you see the details, once I determine what can and cannot be done...

I thought every UU being an Incubator made sense, since they are in contact with every magical girl. Not sure what else could be associated with each character, but sounds pretty cool nonetheless; more variety is always great.

UMadoka, DHomura, Pleiades, and Shirome are still being worked on since theirs will tie into the GMG system. But for the others, here are the current plans.

  • Madoka: Rosebow Infantry (replaces CompBow) -- +25% vs. Witches, lower production and maintenance cost.
  • Homura: Clockstopper (replaces Infantry) -- more expensive to build. Can use "Stop Time" which sets all directly adjacent units' movement to 0 for one turn (including your own units!). Stop Time is only usable once per unit.
  • Mami: Tiro Musketeer (replaces Rifleman) -- may use "Tiro Finale" to deal ranged damage to one unit and 1/3 of that damage to all enemy units adjacent to the target. Using this ability reduces defense by 20% until next turn. The old "Tiro Finale Infantry" will be deleted as well and replaced with a UB.
  • Sayaka: Cutlass Conductor (replaces Swordsman) -- each XP level it gains grants it a Harmony point. If it is garrisoned in a city and has at least 1 Harmony point, it will lose 1 Harmony point and the city gains +100% Tourism from Great Works that turn. Obsoletes with Rifling and upgrades directly to a Rifleman.
  • Kyouko: Chain Lancer (replaces Lancer) -- Can be bought with Faith even without a specific belief. Loses the penalty attacking Cities, and if it captures a City, all of your Cities gain Food equal to the city's population prior to capture.
  • Nagisa: Bubble Bomber (replaces Great War Bomber) -- does not require Oil. Gains +50% vs. Cities and Fortified Units.

Thus far, a few things still puzzle me; notably, how exactly the unique unit/buildings system works alongside the overrides, and if changes to resource and improvement yields affect everyone, or only the civ that updates/replaces those values.
As well, I'm debating whether having a building replace the Palace, or having it as an additional free building in the Capital is a better choice, or if there's really no difference.

Every standard building or unit belongs to a BuildingClass or UnitClass. All uniques which replace a standard building/unit also belong to that building's Class. A Civ can only build the default unit/building of a Class unless they have an entry in the appropriate overrides table. So to make a UU/UB, make sure it belongs to the Class of the building it replaces, and then make sure it is added to the Civ's override table.

If you change the yields in the Improvements or Resources tables, it will affect all Civs. To make it affect only one Civ, you would need to edit the appropriate table in Traits instead.

I wouldn't recommend replacing the Palace. Add a new dummy building if you need to.

There are also a few things I haven't been able to find in the stock XML files, so I'm unsure if those are values that can be modified. These include things such as Specialists' Food consumption, Faith costs for acquiring Great Prophets, etc. and the City-State influence bonuses from a Great Merchant's Trade Mission.

I haven't looked into changing any of those. You could do the first thing with a dummy policy. I don't think you can adjust the Great Prophet Faith on a per-Civ basis, though. And I don't know from where the Great Merchant influence bonus is determined, though I do know that the amount of Gold you get is defined in the Units table for the Merchant itself.

Finally, I also realize that I am absolutely atrocious at artwork of any kind. :(

Join the club.
 
On the other hand, will you keep the old civs around? Modpacks tend to be rather self-contained, and it's amusing to have the Madoka civs pop up in regular (modded) games... Although I guess you did say that GMGs could appear in non-Madoka civs, so I guess it's not a standalone modpack (like, say, Faerun or Ea).

This won't be a total conversion; while the GMG system will be extensive, it will also be designed to integrate with the rest of the game and other mods. In fact, I will be implementing some built-in "modmods" that expand the mod if another mod is loaded. For example, if City-State Diplomacy is loaded, there will be a new "Diplomatic" Magical Girl spawned from Great Diplomats.

I will keep the old Rebellion Civpack around, mostly for G&K compatibility. The new modpack will be for BNW only; I'm not gonna have the patience to keep this up for multiple expansions.
 
Will every civ have those GMG's regardless of whether any PMMM civs are in the game?
I'm planning on using Great Merchants with my civ, so that was why I was asking about possible imbalance - I wasn't sure how it'd affect the civ.

Those new UU's do sound pretty nice, though it feels like Sayaka has the short end of the stick there, unless your city has a ton of Great Works.

I think I'm starting to understand the Unit/BuildingClasses and their individual entries now. I assume if I create a new UB that replaces something else, I can just give my civ an override to use it, and no one else will have access to it. However, I'm still confused as to what happens when I create an entirely new building that doesn't replace anything else -- I assume I need a new BuildingClass, but then how do I prevent everyone else from building it? Set the default to nothing, and override in my civ with the intended building?

As well, I wanted to modify the Great Merchant, as well as a specific resource/improvement yield, but as these are available to all players, I didn't quite know how to go about modifying them to be exclusive to one civ without trying to just make a 'unique' version of each of those. Am I misunderstanding stuff here?

Why would you not recommend replacing the Palace? I haven't quite figured out what the ramifications are for when you lose your Capital, but I assume the Palace (and its associated bonuses) are automatically built and relocated for you, whereas a free building I provide might not, or might not even be rebuildable? (I only wish to give the player one of this unique building, in their Capital, wherever it may be.)

Also, I found some stuff relating to Religion (and possibly a global production modifier I want to mess with) but they are in the GlobalDefines file.. I assume I cannot change this without impacting every civilization?

At the moment, I've started work on the basic skeleton of the civ in ModBuddy, following some guides, and leaving some of these tougher issues for when I've done more research.

EDIT:
Missed the dummy policy thing. I'm not sure what this is or how to go about it, but I will look into this.
 
I think I'm starting to understand the Unit/BuildingClasses and their individual entries now. I assume if I create a new UB that replaces something else, I can just give my civ an override to use it, and no one else will have access to it. However, I'm still confused as to what happens when I create an entirely new building that doesn't replace anything else -- I assume I need a new BuildingClass, but then how do I prevent everyone else from building it? Set the default to nothing, and override in my civ with the intended building?

I suspect I'd be better off just leaving Vicevirtuoso to answer your questions, as I suspect he's clever enough to suggest solutions I'd never think of. :p But with regards to entirely new buildings, normally if you add a new building to the game everyone can build it. However, if you want to make a new building only your civ can build, you can make the default building unbuildable and invisible, and give your civ a UB version of that building that can actually be built.
 
Will every civ have those GMG's regardless of whether any PMMM civs are in the game?
I'm planning on using Great Merchants with my civ, so that was why I was asking about possible imbalance - I wasn't sure how it'd affect the civ.

If the new mod is loaded, then Civs will get GMGs even if none of the PMMM Civs are on the map. New Great People replacements will work fine, as long as they replace one of the default types of Great People.

Those new UU's do sound pretty nice, though it feels like Sayaka has the short end of the stick there, unless your city has a ton of Great Works.

If you don't have a ton of Great Works as Sayaka, you might be losing the game. :p

I think I'm starting to understand the Unit/BuildingClasses and their individual entries now. I assume if I create a new UB that replaces something else, I can just give my civ an override to use it, and no one else will have access to it. However, I'm still confused as to what happens when I create an entirely new building that doesn't replace anything else -- I assume I need a new BuildingClass, but then how do I prevent everyone else from building it? Set the default to nothing, and override in my civ with the intended building?

Yeah, you nailed it.

As well, I wanted to modify the Great Merchant, as well as a specific resource/improvement yield, but as these are available to all players, I didn't quite know how to go about modifying them to be exclusive to one civ without trying to just make a 'unique' version of each of those. Am I misunderstanding stuff here?

Probably the best thing for me to do here is to ask you exactly what you intend your Civ's UA/UU/etc to do. Word it like you want it to appear in-game.

Why would you not recommend replacing the Palace? I haven't quite figured out what the ramifications are for when you lose your Capital, but I assume the Palace (and its associated bonuses) are automatically built and relocated for you, whereas a free building I provide might not, or might not even be rebuildable? (I only wish to give the player one of this unique building, in their Capital, wherever it may be.)

Mostly because you have to change the XML of the Palace to ensure compatibility between BNW and G&K.

Also, I found some stuff relating to Religion (and possibly a global production modifier I want to mess with) but they are in the GlobalDefines file.. I assume I cannot change this without impacting every civilization?

Correct. GlobalDefines affects everyone equally.


EDIT:
Missed the dummy policy thing. I'm not sure what this is or how to go about it, but I will look into this.

You make a social policy which is not actually tied to a policy tree, and therefore will not show up in the social policy selection screen. Then, using a very easy Lua script, you set your Civ to obtain it for free at the start of the game. This enables UAs which utilize effects normally only available to social policies, like the aforementioned Specialist Food consumption modifier, or a combat bonus which lasts a specific number of turns.
 
bouncymischa: Sounds like you're advocating for creating a secondary UB which is set to invisible and has a huge production cost, or is otherwise unbuildable set as default? Is this any different from simply setting the default building of a new class to nothing or null, or simply a blank? Can this even be done without the game freaking out?

I'm intending for this civ to be BNW-only, so I am not thinking about providing backwards-compatibility with G&K or Vanilla at the moment. Though it IS possible, one of the biggest points I'm drawing on are the trade routes introduced in BNW. In that way, I don't think I'd need to make variations of the Palace for different versions, although I'll keep that in mind if I do decide to alter the civ to be backwards-compatible.

Thanks for the explanation for that dummy policy! That sounds very interesting, and probably something I will have to do; I had thought all policies had to be assigned a branch, or something.

As for an explanation of the UA/UU/UB, I'm still working it out currently. I've got a bunch of things down for each that I would like to see happen ideally, but it's changing as I'm running into limitations in one area or another. I can probably send you a link to the Google Document that I'm working it through on.

With regard to the items I mentioned specifically, I wanted to have this civ's Great Merchants provide more gold and influence with their trade missions, but I want all other civs to stay with the standard GM. I wasn't sure if I could simply (re-)define a Great Merchant in the XML for this civ, and if it'd then apply to just this civ, or if it'd suddenly update the GM's for every civ.

For the resource and improvement stuff, I had wanted to create a situation where only a specific resource (in my case, Wheat) gains a bonus food, but when it additionally has a specific improvement on it (a Farm) it would gain another bonus food. However, I want the tile to lose the bonus if there was any other type of improvement on it (Academy, Manufactory, Fort, etc.) I also wanted to provide a small extra happiness boost with a specific luxury resource, but I'm also unsure if that'd be exclusive to my civ or not.

Sorry if it's not clear enough; I will send you a link to my Google Document via PM once I've cleaned it up a bit so that it's presentable. (Also didn't want to tease what civ it is just yet, though I might have dropped enough clues as it is, lol.) :p
 
With regard to the items I mentioned specifically, I wanted to have this civ's Great Merchants provide more gold and influence with their trade missions, but I want all other civs to stay with the standard GM. I wasn't sure if I could simply (re-)define a Great Merchant in the XML for this civ, and if it'd then apply to just this civ, or if it'd suddenly update the GM's for every civ.

I decided to go digging about in the XML for what makes the Merchant of Venice tick. All you have to do, if you're making it a UU, is copy from the Great Merchant and then give it a promotion with <TradeMissionInfluenceModifier> and <TradeMissionGoldModifier>.

If it's part of the UA instead, you can use a simple Lua script to give regular Merchants the promotion if they're owned by your Civ.

For the resource and improvement stuff, I had wanted to create a situation where only a specific resource (in my case, Wheat) gains a bonus food, but when it additionally has a specific improvement on it (a Farm) it would gain another bonus food. However, I want the tile to lose the bonus if there was any other type of improvement on it (Academy, Manufactory, Fort, etc.) I also wanted to provide a small extra happiness boost with a specific luxury resource, but I'm also unsure if that'd be exclusive to my civ or not.

Let me make sure I understand how you want this to work. Wheat tiles on Plains are typically +2F+1P. You want it to be +3F+1P by default for this Civ, then, if a Farm is built, it gets the bonus from the Farm and then an additional +1, making it +5F+1P without Granaries, Civil Service, or Fertilizer. Right?
 
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