"The Civil War" [for dummies] project

The American Civil War 1861-1865 (strategic level) for dummies
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1) Some details:

- The map is roughly of the same size as the board game "The Civil War" made by Victory Games, that is 58 wide x 40 high

-Weekly turns (aprox 200 turns total)

-There might not be any special units

-Nor will the map be exact geographically in every detail

-The idea is to make an scenario that resembles the ACW, giving it somewhat the feel of the grand strategic point of view but without having to spend six months doing research or 1000 hours trying to place every single river turn at the exact location of the map.

-Each side will have about 12-14 cities only (because I dislike those maps of previous scenarios of this war or any other war where the map is completely crowded and it takes like 1 hour to move each turn).

2) I need help:

2.1) How do I manage to prohibit the building of certain units (ie settler)
-I think I have fixed this temporarily by putting as requirement for settlers and some other units I
didn't want OIL, when there's none on the map.

2.2) How do I block the technology tree so that there is no further advancement past the Renaissance technologies?

2.3) Is there an easy way to make it possible for all units of each side to use the other's roads and / or railroads?

2.4) There's a confederate mod that I'm trying to use to get the leaderhead of Davis or Lee. I put it in the mods directory and put the path of the folder that contains the mod in the mod= inside the worldsave xml file but then the scenario gives an error. Anyone know how to use mods so I can try to use that one?
-I have managed to load this one

2.5) Victory conditions will be based on how many cities each side captures of the enemy's. So, how does one do to say, for example:

a) If the Union has captured 6 cities of the Confederacy, it wins. OR

b) if the union has captured Richmond plus another 3 cities of the Confederacy, it wins

2.6) How to disable: barbarians, city razing, new city construction?
--> Ok, I have added the following lines to the Begingame section of the xml file:
Option=GAMEOPTION_NO_CITY_RAZING
Option=GAMEOPTION_NO_CITY_FLIPPING
Option=GAMEOPTION_NO_BARBARIANS
Option=GAMEOPTION_ALWAYS_WAR
Hopefully this will do the trick for some issues. No city building I think i solved by disabling settlers.

3) First screenshot:
http://server2.ihostphotos.com/show.php?id=71643



4) Current state of development:
-Making map and placing cities
-Expected time of completion of first playtestable: 3 days.

Thanks in advance to anyone that can give me any replies or pointers.

New Issue:
I am playtesting the first version. While I was editing the scenario using the Worldbuilder I had problems already: When trying to put confederate units into the confederate cities, the cities would be destroyed. So I thought it was a bug and just put the initial military units of the confederate outside of their cities.
But when I've started playing solitaire with the confederate, when I go inside a confederate city, it acts as if it had just captured an enemy city! I can't understand what's going on because the city shows as 100% confederate and so does the unit I move into it.

PLEASE HEEEEEEEELP I cannot start solitaire playtesting with this probleeeeeeemmmmm!

OK-Seems to be solved, after tinkering with the Atwar=0 settings at beginning of XML file.
Also the confederate flag is showing now.

That calls for a new screenshot:

http://server4.ihostphotos.com/show.php?id=11578

CREDITS OF MATERIAL USED FOR THIS MOD/SCENARIO:

1) Confederate Civilization (Which I have modded further):

Wirklichkeit
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=148523&highlight=confederate

2) USA Flag:

Bad Ronald
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=136905

Put the scenario up for downloading as a BETA test here and see what happens.

AlCosta15 said:

Put the scenario up for downloading as a BETA test here and see what happens.

Click to expand...

Thanks for your interest. I intend to put it up soon. Right now I am getting a game crash because I guess I overdid my tinkering with the xml Unitinfos file. I have been putting as Bonus type requirement OIL for all the units I wanted to block but I think it might ot work for the special characters.

Also, to block advancing into the Industrial age, I have changed the pre-requisites of some of them, which might have screwed things up further.

Hopefully I might have something ready for tomorrow, although I don't see much interest here...

More info and screenshots now at:
http://usuarios.lycos.es/zaberintio/scenarios.html

Okay, I looked at. The map needs some work. Flordia is very fat and small when really it should be long and skinny. Also, you need a lot more cities. The map is very empty at the moment.

Heya. i never bother to post or even register, but when you mentioned 'not much interest' in this thread i decided to do so. I am familiar with Victory Games ACW. I bought it when it first came out and its a favorite boardgame. I have never edited or programmed anything but i do make paper boardgames. So lets chat....
What are you looking for in this mod? If you are just gonna make a quick map and try some fights on it you wont need much help. But are you hoping to get a feel of 1860s manuevre? (thats what i would like, I might help if i can.)
One thing to work out is retreat. if a unit is getting beat up it would be desireable for it to run away before it was eliminated. The promotion that allows for retreat from combat might help. But I am new to the game and I am not sure if it works for attackers only or defenders too. There likely is no way to make a 'reaction radius' like in Victory ACW.

Another is Supply. it was important have supply lines, and half the fun is trying to cut the other guy's line. There is no way to do that in Civ 4. Another is command/headquarters/leaders.

Closest you could get to those two things might be to make a 'Army Headquarters' that would be a big radius healing unit. would give a feeling of organization where you wouldnt just have units all moving 'on their own' and it would 'supply' health especially important in enemy territory.

You mentioned trying to change the game code so both sides would be able to use roads in enemy territory. Would be cool if its possible. Otherwise, I advise that you make it simple. take all the roads out. have only railroads. Railroads would only move you..hmmm.. 5 squares.

If that is acceptable then yes, you want no settlers and no workers either. If something is pillaged its gone for the rest of the game. Now in your mod we can sweat a bit if the enemy is reaching around to cut our railroad. Makes it much more interesting.

Geography... i know you want to make it simple but to make your mod fun to play(for me at least) it will need to 'feel' right. I think it is MUCH more important for the map to 'feel' right than it is for the map to be perfect in scale or topography. Important places should be carefully included, larger than in real life but with the right strategic approaches.

Units... Again you want it simple but i think varieties gained from 'research' would be great. Cavalry, infantry, ships, or artillary each need two basic types, with one more midgame and maybe one more endgame if alot of research was done, which likely the Union could afford and confederates would have a rough time achieving.

Enough for now. i am tempted to volunteer to help you but i never touched a computer code in my life. i wouldnt know a python if it bit me!


Your obedient servant,
O.O. Howard

O.O. Howard said:

Closest you could get to those two things might be to make a 'Army Headquarters' that would be a big radius healing unit. would give a feeling of organization where you wouldnt just have units all moving 'on their own' and it would 'supply' health especially important in enemy territory.

You mentioned trying to change the game code so both sides would be able to use roads in enemy territory. Would be cool if its possible. Otherwise, I advise that you make it simple. take all the roads out. have only railroads. Railroads would only move you..hmmm.. 5 squares.

If that is acceptable then yes, you want no settlers and no workers either. If something is pillaged its gone for the rest of the game. Now in your mod we can sweat a bit if the enemy is reaching around to cut our railroad. Makes it much more interesting.

Click to expand...

A. There is a unit promotion that allows a unit to heal units in adjacent squares.(Medic II) Just give this to the appropriate units.
B. There is a unit promotion that allows a unit to use enemy roads.(Commando) Just give this to all units.
C. That might be a bit much. Perhaps it would be better to make an "Army Engineer" unit that was expensive and took a long time to build roads.

AlCosta15 said:

Okay, I looked at. The map needs some work. Flordia is very fat and small when really it should be long and skinny. Also, you need a lot more cities. The map is very empty at the moment.

Click to expand...

Thanks to all who have showed their interest.
You will get your 100% historically accurate super modded Civil War scenario from some of the programming experts here at Civ fanatics, no doubt. As you know there are many ways to make a simulation of any war. There are games like Axis and Allies that cover the entire World War, and also games such as World in Flames that cover the same war, but in a different style.
My intention is to make a game on the Civil War that is, above all, PLAYABLE. A relative quick, easy to play simulation that gives the feel of the entire campaign and its challenges, but always with playability as the overriding factor.

NUMBER OF CITIES:
Right now there's 14 cities on each side. You can see their position in this picture of the minimap:


http://server4.ihostphotos.com/show.php?id=12179


FLORIDA:
Artificially have made it smaller in length so as to fit into the map area. Doesn't affect playability.

O.O. Howard said:

Heya. i never bother to post or even register, but when you mentioned 'not much interest' in this thread i decided to do so. I am familiar with Victory Games ACW. I bought it when it first came out and its a favorite boardgame. I have never edited or programmed anything but i do make paper boardgames. So lets chat....
What are you looking for in this mod? If you are just gonna make a quick map and try some fights on it you wont need much help. But are you hoping to get a feel of 1860s manuevre? (thats what i would like, I might help if i can.)
One thing to work out is retreat. if a unit is getting beat up it would be desireable for it to run away before it was eliminated. The promotion that allows for retreat from combat might help. But I am new to the game and I am not sure if it works for attackers only or defenders too. There likely is no way to make a 'reaction radius' like in Victory ACW.

Another is Supply. it was important have supply lines, and half the fun is trying to cut the other guy's line. There is no way to do that in Civ 4. Another is command/headquarters/leaders.

Closest you could get to those two things might be to make a 'Army Headquarters' that would be a big radius healing unit. would give a feeling of organization where you wouldnt just have units all moving 'on their own' and it would 'supply' health especially important in enemy territory.

You mentioned trying to change the game code so both sides would be able to use roads in enemy territory. Would be cool if its possible. Otherwise, I advise that you make it simple. take all the roads out. have only railroads. Railroads would only move you..hmmm.. 5 squares.

If that is acceptable then yes, you want no settlers and no workers either. If something is pillaged its gone for the rest of the game. Now in your mod we can sweat a bit if the enemy is reaching around to cut our railroad. Makes it much more interesting.

Geography... i know you want to make it simple but to make your mod fun to play(for me at least) it will need to 'feel' right. I think it is MUCH more important for the map to 'feel' right than it is for the map to be perfect in scale or topography. Important places should be carefully included, larger than in real life but with the right strategic approaches.

Units... Again you want it simple but i think varieties gained from 'research' would be great. Cavalry, infantry, ships, or artillary each need two basic types, with one more midgame and maybe one more endgame if alot of research was done, which likely the Union could afford and confederates would have a rough time achieving.

Enough for now. i am tempted to volunteer to help you but i never touched a computer code in my life. i wouldnt know a python if it bit me!


Your obedient servant,
O.O. Howard

Click to expand...

RETREAT:
Unfortunately the Civ retreat bonus that some units have (ie, cavalry) is only when they attack, not when attacked.

QUICK MAP AND SOME FIGHTS: Yes, the map and game is intended to be a playable streamlined depiction of the war. This is as much because of my own lñimited technical ability and time availability as well as because it's the kind of game that I prefer versus the super-detailed ones that in the end are too cumbersome to play (if not, have a look at some of the Civil War scenarios made for Civ III by others).

SUPPLY: For now the only thing that resembles supply will be the inclusion or not of units with high medical abilities to heal units in their same or adjacent square.

RAILROADS AND ROADS: I think for now I will not include railroads. Since each turn represents a week (there's going to be close to 200 turns total) I think that railroads would make manouvre too fast. Also including the railroad technology has other unwanted implications.

WORKERS (REPAIR): I do include them. Not so much with the objective of repairing broken roads, but because they are necessary to bolster the economy of each sides cities; otherwise production is much slower. But they offer the extra advantage that they can be destroyed by enemy units, representing labour that is victim of enemy raids.

SETTLERS: None are included. There is no new city building.

MAP FEELING RIGHT: I know what you mean. The Victory Game map was and is beautiful and precise. I have used it as inspiration for scale, positioning of cities, and terrain features. But feeling right is quite subjective and my only hope is that some people will feel OK with my simplified version. In anycase we may tweak things a bit if need be after the first release (soon to be once a couple of issues I'll mention below are solved).

UNITS: A the moment only these units are supposed to be available: Fusilier Cavalry, Cannon, Berkley Rifle (Confederate cannon), scout and grenadier. more could be added in the future, depending if appropriate mods come out (the Berkley Rifle comes from somebody else's "Confederate Civ mod" for example).

AngryPants said:

A. There is a unit promotion that allows a unit to heal units in adjacent squares.(Medic II) Just give this to the appropriate units.
B. There is a unit promotion that allows a unit to use enemy roads.(Commando) Just give this to all units.
C. That might be a bit much. Perhaps it would be better to make an "Army Engineer" unit that was expensive and took a long time to build roads.

Click to expand...

As you will soon from the way the game plays, there is quite a lot of unit movement going on at least at the beginning, so static big army blocks don't really have much sense.
But I am thinking of giving this Medic II and Commando bonus to SOME of the initial confederate units of the confederate side (raider bonus), if those bonuses can be given on their own (that is, these bonuses don't include all the previous ones).

After playing around with the almost finished first version the need to use enemy roads doesn't really matter that much, because raiding and destruction of enemy roads and resources occurs anyway even if units move slower, since it happens in many places at once.

PROBLEM ISSUES REMAINING BEFORE PUBLISHING FIRST RELEASE:

1) Main issue: SAVE FILES NOT WORKING:After playing the first year of the war (April to December 1861) I saved the game with the intention of continuing later on, but when trying to reload the saved game it doesn't work as the SAVE is a strange 0 byte file that doesn't work. Same thing happened with the auto-save files, they are all 0 byte useless files.
This is a bug? It surely doesn't happen with some of the mods that come with the game (American Revolution) so it has to do with my scenario itself. I wonder if anybody knows anything about this.

2) Secondary Issues: Still haven't managed to block certain technologies. But at least i think I have managed to block certain unwanted units that come as a result of those techs (blocking of units has been done almost exclusively by putting as pre-requisite for those units that OIL is available, something that never happens as there is no OIL on the map at all!)

3) Minor issues: American flag shows with an overall bluish color.

Thanks again for your interest and any help on these issues is appreciated. As for addressing the other issues, I think that after you get to try out the first release we will all be in a better position to see what changes could be done, if any.

1.Where did you save the mod?
If you saved it under "My Mods" in Custom Assests, the save file won't work. Instead, save it under Civ 4\Mods Folder.

AlCosta15 said:

1.Where did you save the mod?
If you saved it under "My Mods" in Custom Assests, the save file won't work. Instead, save it under Civ 4\Mods Folder.

Click to expand...

The mod is in the ...\Firaxis Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4\mods directory.

The save files go into the ...Documents and Settings\A\My Document\My Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4\Saves\single.

What changes are need?

Hmm, sounds right. Must be a bug.

Hi I offer you now for download version 1.0 at:

http://usuarios.lycos.es/zaberintio/scenarios.html

It's a rar file that includes a readme with installation instructions. It should be fully playable although the save problem is still unresolved. the main objective is that it is FUN.

You should make a new thread in "Completed Scenarios" with this in it.

I have my friend, I have:
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=155979

Yeah, but I posted before you did that. Anyway, Nice Job!

if any of you were interested, a Civil War Mod is alive and well. I could use some help, especially with reference and research.