Harry Potter Modpack ideas

Okay,

I am considering starting a new Harry Potter mod pack. Mainly because I think it would be kind-of fun and secondly because I haven't seen one on here.

I will probably start with creating new civilizations and leaders. Then probably into units. Then to techs and religions. My major problem is that I have no real exp with python. XML is not a difficulty for me nor is image editing. So I will be requiring help. If that is I even really decide to make the full mod and not just have new Civilizations.

Any new ideas would be greatly appriciated. Oh, and try to keep spoilers on the forums down to book 5 and under in consideration of those whom have not read book 6.

Here are some of my ideas.

Civilizations:

Ministry of Magic:
Leaders: Cornelius Fudge, Rufus Scrimgeour
Flag: Two wands crossed over a blue background
Unique Unit: Auror
Starting Techs: ??

Order of the Phoenix:
Leaders: Albus Dumbledore, Remus Lupin, Sirius Black (maybe even more. Is there any reason to limit it to 2?)
Flag: Red phoenix on a white background
Unique Unit: Agent of the OOTP
Starting Techs: ??

Dumbledore's Army:
Leaders: Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, Ron Weasley
Flag: Red lightning bolt on a white background
Unique Unit: DA faithful
Starting Techs: ??

Death Eaters:
Leaders: He Who Must Not Be Named (how cool of a title is that? Forget Lord Voldi-thingy, I want to be called He Who Must Not Be Named), Lucius Malfoy, Bellatrix Lestrang
Flag: Green dark mark on a black background
Unique Unit: Duh, Death Eaters
Starting Techs: ??

I am considering adding France and Bulgaria, but their leaders are never really named. I suppose I could use the school headmasters.

I would like to change the technology techs to include various forms of magic. Transfiguration, Astrology, Palmestry, Potions, Alchemy, etc.

I would also like to change the religions to be more areas of focus. JK Rowling kept religion out of her books for obvious reasons. I was considering things like the varius schools of magic. Dark Arts, Healing, Potions, Divination, etc.

As I said earlyer I will need help on alot of this as my Python abilities are none existant. I will probably release the first version with simply the changes to the civilizations. I know it is a bit of a copout, but hey, who hasn't wanted to see Lord Voldemort nuke London?

Thoughts? Comments? Flames?

This sounds pretty cool. I like your choices for civilizations and leaders. And "He who must not be named" made me laugh.

I think the starting techs should be different schools of magic, and each school branches into different levels, each level with different spells you can teach your units, and different city improvements you can add to your academy. The schools of magic would overlap a little bit, just like the normal Civ4 tech tree branches out from the starting Techs.

Well then this sounds neat.

Could you please post progress on this thread in %'s?

No problem. I will post in percentages as I go and when I have the first second ready to download I will start posting it in the mods section. Right now I would say I am about 5% done because I have just finished gathering pictures and preparing to start coding the civilizations. I think I will keep to the civilizations I have and compensate for the low number with I larger variety of leaders for each civ.

I think the starting techs should be different schools of magic, and each school branches into different levels, each level with different spells you can teach your units, and different city improvements you can add to your academy. The schools of magic would overlap a little bit, just like the normal Civ4 tech tree branches out from the starting Techs.

Click to expand...

I agree. I think what i will wind up doing is giving each section a pair of starting magical schools. Then each basic magic will lead to more and more complex magics as they go along. Of course just because you start with one groups of magics doesn't mean you can't branch out into other magics.

I am still trying to figure out what I am going to do with units. I thought about having a basic magic using unit. Then having the techs and wonders bring in different promotions and abilities. I don't know if that is possible to do though. I also thought about having specialized units. Like a unit being a transfiguration specialist and it evolves as techs change (kind of like how gunpowder units evolve).

Sounds ambitious and cool. Definitely keep the updates coming.

Alright, here are my pretty final ideas for Leaders and their Traits.

Ministry of Magic:
Cornelius Fudge (Org, IW)
Rufus Scrimgeour (Org, BM)
Bartemius Crouch Sr. (BM, IL)
Dolores Umbridge (Evil B#$@) uhh (IL, Dur)
Kingsley Shacklebolt (Cre, Org)
Percy Weasley (Int, A Massive Git) I mean (Int, Org)
Flag: Two wands crossed over a blue background
Unique Unit: Auror
Starting Techs: ??

Order of the Phoenix:
Albus Dumbledore (Insp, Int)
Remus Lupin (Int, Dur)
Sirius Black (Dur, Int)
Arthur Weasley (Int, Cre)
Molly Weasley (Cre, Dur)
Nymphadora Tonks (Cre, Int)
Minerva McGonagall (Int, Org)
Rubeus Hagrid (Dur, Cre)
Alastor Moody (BM, Org)
Mundungus Fletcher (IW, Cre)
Flag: Red phoenix on a white background
Unique Unit: Agent of the OOTP
Starting Techs: ??

Dumbledore's Army:
Harry Potter (Insp, Cre)
Hermione Granger (Int, Org)
Ron Weasley (Cre, Insp)
Nevelle Longbottom (Cre, Int)
Luna Lovegood (not coming up with this one)
Ginny Weasley (BM, Int)
Flag: Red lightning bolt on a white background
Unique Unit: DA faithful
Starting Techs: ??

Death Eaters:
He Who Must Not Be Named (IL, Insp)
Lucius Malfoy (IW, Int)
Narcissa Malfoy (IW, Cre)
Bellatrix Lestrang (Int, BM)
Rabastan Lestrang (Int, IW)
Fenrir Greyback (BM, Cre)
Bartemius Crouch Jr. (Cre, BM)
Peter Pettigrew (cowardly git)
Flag: Green dark mark on a black background
Unique Unit: Duh, Death Eaters
Starting Techs: ??

Traits:
Inspirational (Insp)
+50% VIP Birth Rate
+25% Production Speed of Wonders
Intelligent (Int)
+25% Tech Research Rate
Double Production Speed of University and Library (for now)
Organized (Org)
-50% Civic Upkeep
Double Production Speed of Lighthouse & Courthouse (for now)
Independently Wealthy (IW)
+1Gold for each Specialist in a City
Double Production Speed of Banks & Markets (for now)
Creative (Cre)
+2 Culture per City
Double Production Speed of Theaters and Coliseums (for now)
Durable (Dur)
+2 Health per City
Double Production Speed of Granery and Hospitals (for now)
Battle Minded (BM)
Free Promotion (Combat I)
Double Production Speed of Barracks and Drydocks (for now)
Iron Leader (IL)
No Anarchy
+10% Production Speed of City Improvements

Some of that will probably change. I may drop some of the Leaders. I know some of the Traits are lame. I am going to be working on those as I go. The Buildings will be changing when I start modding the City Improvments, but for now I will just put them in as listed above.

My first thought was: "Duh.. Harry Potter mod? How lousy would that be?". Yet ive read your post and like your ideas.

Ill second it, first.. I need to get my hands on CIV IV.

Wouldn't it make slightly more sense to have different civilizations be different houses? I.e. Gryffindor, Ravenclaw etc. (and perhaps Durmstrang and Beauxwhatever as well)?

I too thought that this would be a corny idea when I saw the thread, but it does look pretty cool. If you can finish it

I thought about houses. It might be a fun side project, but the main "war" of the books was never really between the houses. Thanks for the input though.

It will probably take me quite a bit of time to finish the whole mod. The Civilizations will probably be out pretty soon as that is just a bit of xml and graphics. In terms of Civics, Religions, Units, and City Improvments . . . that is going to take some more time. I work full time and am a full time junior at university as well (Anthropology if you are wondering my major), so I don't have a whole lot of free time. I also like to see my girlfriend, friends, family, and the sun every once in a while. These things get in the way of modding .

Like I said: Civilizations, Leaders, Traits, out soon. The rest of the mods may take some time. Anyone who wants to help with the units, tech etc is more than welcome. Just drop me an email.

ohh and 10% finished on Civilizations, Leaders etc.

Great Idea

I would be willing to help if you need it

You rock Civmansam. Once I start to hit techs, units etc, I will be almost definatly be calling on your help.

10% Completion of Phase 1 (civs)


P.S. Yeah, I changed the Ministry of Magic's Flag. The two wand thing just looked like an X in the game.

Heh, didn't think about the war-angle. OK, to actually give some useful input, here's an idea on how to handle units in your Potter-mod. Don't know how much modding it would require, though.

Basically, there'd be a limited number of witches and wizards in the beginning, and instead of producing more, the players would produce spells, potions and stuff like that, which would act much like airplanes currently do, but with a very limited action radius. The witches/wizards would be able to carry a certain number of spells/potions (number and kinds perhaps determined by promotions?) to be used in duels or whatever.

New witches and wizards would be produced by a a neutral civ, Hogwarts (in peace with all other civs), in four bases named after the houses. Every X number of turns, the houses might produce a "Graduate" (much like a Great Person currently), and depending on which type of Graduate is spawned -- e.g. Prospective Death Eater, member of Dumbledore's Army, Bureaucrat and so forth -- the unit would be auto-gifted to the corresponding civ.

The percentage chances of which type of Graduate is spawned would vary between the houses. This could either be done by using the Great Person-system and have different improvements in the houses give particular kinds of GP-points, or maybe just use python. Obviously, the chance of other houses than Slytherin to produce a Death Eater would be quite low (but not non-existant). In order to "balance" this, "Graduate" units could be much like a treasure units (from Civ3) and would need to be transported to the civ's HQ to be "initiated" and an actually useful unit.

<scratches chin>
Hmmm
That is a really good idea Holistic. I haven't really given that much thought to units yet. I like the idea of having one neutral place producing the units. I have no idea how I would do it, but it is a really cool idea.

Maybe, each opposing civ could have their own unit generator. Hmmm...

Well I think it would be awesome as long as you follow the book
Oh yeah you could have wonders like hogwartz school and Gringotts Wizard bank and you could change wall street to diagon alley and you could have ministry of magic for pentagon and # 13 grimmauld place and the riddle house

for this it would be useful to have like a map of the harry potter world and all that i could help with it im moderatly good at XML not at python and im full of ideas (as you can tell)

Hi,

And I have figured out how to keep the Civilizations at war on first contact with player, although I am unable to get the GUI of first contact out of the way.

I would be happy to share that code in some time.

<professor farnsworth voice>
Great news everyone!
</professor farnsworth voice>

My Civilizations and Traits are almost ready for a Delta (not quite a Beta) release. All that I have left to do is set the civilization colors and the Civilopedia info. Also my Traits are giving me some flak.

not_quite_nice:
Your ideas are very much welcome. I still have not solidified what I am going to do about units, city improvements, and wonders. Feel free to throw out anything you come up with (within reason, of course, this is a family forum).

gautam:
Hit me. While peace is a possibility between some of the civ's, Death Eaters are friends to no one. Or are they? I think I will have that optional. It might make for a fun game to have He Who Must Not Be Named to team up with Harry Potter to take out the Ministry of Magic.



Which reminds me. I used pictures of the movie actors where-ever possible. Mainly because they did a pretty good job casting, and because I don't have to worry about copyrights when the pictures are public use. For some of the Leaders I used art that I have found running around. I have not been able to find decent pictures for Dolores Umbridge or Mundungus Fletcher. If anybodt knows where I can find one, please let me know.

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA <deep breath> HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Finally got it to load with no errors (I accidentally deleted the Barbarians from my leader file)

Only things left is to put in the pedia junk and sort out why my traits arn't working. I might just go ahead and put it up after the pedia stuff is in.

ok well if you would like some help with xml i got it just pm me

Ok, this is going to sound lame I know. My mod pack has been delayed for a bit. Why? Cause I am a dork and completely overlooked the Diplomacy texting. Everything else is done. Traits work. Civilizations rock. Diplomacy errors and occasional crashing driving me nuts. <long sigh> Alright, give me some time to put togather the Diplomacy stuff and then I will release it.