The Song of the Moon

The Song of the Moon is a comprehensive mod for Civ IV, detailing the colonisation and exploration of Earth's largest natural satellite - Luna.
Play as one of fifteen civilisations in three categories - the intrepid Space Agencies, rebellious independent colonies, or the scheming multinational corporations.
Colonise the moon with biodomes and bunkers, defend your colonies with laser infantry and prism turrets, explore the moon with scouts and rovers, and improve the land with glasshouses and boreholes!

The latest release of the Song of the Moon includes complete XML and comprehensive artwork changes, including the first of a long line of entirely new 3D models for Civ IV.

Download here: Song of the Moon version 0.23A Now compatible with patch 1.61!

---IMPORTANT!---​

+ You'll need WinRAR to open the download file. Go to post 3 for a link.
+ Once you've downloaded it, place the Moon_Map.py file into your 'Public Maps' folder.
+ READ THE SotM FAQ in post #2. It'll cover most queries about the game.
+ The game has not been played or tested with the latest patch for CivIV. Anyone who can confirm whether it works or doesn't will earn our gratitude!

--- + ---​

The team wishes to thank Harbaal, Falkonite and The Great Apple for their help, as well as the intrepid testers of the previous version. Thanks also to the general modding community for their help and continued interest and support.

We hope you enjoy playing - but please bear in mind that this mod is still in its Alpha version, and while the crippling bugs have all been eradicated, some minor glitches and errors may remain. Also, we are aware that individual computers may experience errors that are not apparent on other machines. While we have tried to give this a long and gruelling playtesting period, we can't guarantee that this will work 100% on 100% of computers. Simply download the *.rar and extract it into your root mods folder. Good luck!

I'm reserving this post for help files, readmes and FAQs we write.

Scroll down for Woodelf's installation FAQ, which I/we shall add to substantially and post as a file. Similarly, I shall write a very basic readme file. For more information (at least the core statistics) refer to the Civilopedia. Backstory, leader biographies and civ. descriptions are coming in a series of planned updates.

EDIT : Here's a basic FAQ txt. We'll add to it as more questions come in.
EDIT 08/04/06 : The FAQ has been updated to reflect the changes and additions in the 0.22A patch.

I'll take this one too.

EDIT 08/04/06 : Here's a hyperlink to a free download mirror for a trial version of WinRAR. It will enable you to open the download and extract the files: WinRAR link

All your post are belong to us. Resistance futile is.

Great! Now we need playtesting and feedback. I'll be setting up another thread like before. Nice screenies JBG.

WORKING LINK compatible with patch 1.61 found here.

I think we need a basic FAQ. There are a lot of things we know and take for granted that people who are new to this Mod or new to mods in general might have trouble with.

1 - Installing. Download from the link, extract with Winrar (or equivalent) into your CivIV/Mods/ folder.
2 - Take the Moon_Map script and put it into your Public Maps folder.
3 - When starting a game make sure you select Moon_Map from the Map options. Peaks and Dust Sea settings can also be changed.
4 - Have fun. I'm sure the FAQ needs more, but I'm at work and not playing...

Hi guys!
I've downloaded this and begin testing.
I'll use this thread to report bugs/glitches as i stumble upon them providing hopely a good layout for the bug reports

BUG - GLITCHES

Ai doesn't build enough engineer to work the terrain-Reported

Automated engineers not working properly-Reported by Entsuropi
Reported on -23/02 17.40 GMT +1 Time

''The engineers were bugged - on automated, they all went and stood at the edge of my empire in a single stack, even when there was plenty of cities not roaded, resources not mined/roaded etc.'

I've tried this one and for me they work, though they don't build everything

Auto exploring not working ?-Reported by Entsuropi
Reported on -23/02 17.40 GMT +1 Time

'Units told to explore also got bugged and just stood still, maybe the map confuses them ''

For me it works though not perfectly

Terran Type too confusing - -Reported by Entsuropi
Reported on -23/02 17.40 GMT +1 Time

The terrain types are very hard to grasp unless you put in the resource overlay, more distinct terrain is advisable

Civpedia entry missing/incomplete - -Work in Progress
Reported on -23/02 17.40 GMT +1 Time

Many entry are missing and/or incomplete .
It has been worked on

Ai build only bunker dome - -Work in Progress

Sid tips not updated (vanilla ones) - -Work in Progress


Entry are the ones from the vanilla civ.. a bit confusing.

PICKING FACTION SCREEN - -Acknowledged


Here is an example with nasa,as you can see you can't select other factions

Surprise promotion- Work in Progress

Bug confirmed about many 2nd level promotion, it is being adressed.

You can build more than one Super-Turret - -Work in Progress

Too many Super Generals? --Reported

Artillery with some problems - -Work in Progress

Ai doesn't build refineries/other buildings - -Reported


IDEAS - FEEDBACK - SUGGESTION - SMALL COMPLAINT

Rampaging Barbarian - -Work in Progress

Not sure if this is intentional or not, i noticed the number of barbarians is significantly more than on Vanilla (similar to Fall from Heaven).
Playing on prince on a regular map once i hit 4 colony i had waves of 4-5 barbarians attacking me every 2-3 turns.
Just reporting it the game is *still* playable

Possible rework of the tech tree - -Reported

- The ai doesn't prioritize enough Glass working - Automation - Simple electrolysis.. the structure you need to improve the land basically.

My suggestion is to change the techtree a bit and make
Glass working a first tech (so you can research it straight away)
Electronics and alloys prerequisite for simple electrolysis
Simple electrolysis prerequisite for automation

Domes FAQ-Work in Progress

I found out the hard way you can build only one dome in a given colony.
Though not top line priority a civipedia entry stating it would be greatly appreciated - now included in the faqs

Tech Tree a little confusing- -Work in Progress

Even this one it's not so fundamental and i'm just reporting it, the tech depandencies (arrow) most of the time are not shown/incomplete

Options to vary resource density on the map script- -Reported by Entsuropi

There may be too many resources on the map (small map tried)
It would be best if you can pick how many of them you want to have

-----------------

-Updated with 1 bug Now i'm trying my first game with the Trojan Union
I'll keep you posted for my issues

-Updated with 3 little issue suggestion

-Updated again

Maybe we can alter Python screens for that? Honestly, I never went to that screen, but that's because I knew who they all were.
Thanks for the initial feedback.

That might be because of your screen resolution. Try upping it to 1280*1024 and see what happens. We normally go via the custom game menu rather than the other ones. Thanks for the feedback.

acantoni said:

Hi guys!
I've downloaded this and begin testing.
I'll use this thread to report bugs/glitches as i stumble upon them providing hopely a good layout for the bug reports

01 - PICKING FACTION SCREEN - NOT FIXED
Reported on -23/02 13.10 GMT +1 Time

I'm running at 1024*768 in single player when you pick your faction (after dust sea secting) there are issues due to some very long presidend/faction name which enlarge the window so much you can't scroll the other faction.
Only solution is to hit the back button


Here is an example with nasa,as you can see you can't select other factions

This appy to :
Nasa (both)
Asian space (2nd leader) and though you can't see the names of the faction you can still select them
OsCE (both)

Click to expand...

I had the same problem with the screens.

Honestly, I hope that's our biggest problem!

Played my first 100 turn or so , it has lot of potential (it's praticaly a totally new game like Fall for Heaven)!
Please keep up the good work !!! D
For now *very* impressed with what you've done so far considering is an alpha only.

I'll always edit my first post for the thing i found out while replaying also here so that you don't have to check 1000 post to see the thing i found out (or verify from others)

*Editing the first post with some stuff i've noticed*

01 - Rampaging Barbarian - Reported
Reported on -23/02 14.35 GMT +1 Time

Not sure if this is intentional or not, i noticed the number of barbarians is significantly more than on Vanilla (similar to Fall from Heaven).
Playing on prince on a regular map once i hit 4 colony i had waves of 4-5 barbarians attacking me every 2-3 turns.
Just reporting it the game is *still* playable

02 - Domes - Reported , add civipedia entry
Reported on -23/02 14.35 GMT +1 Time

I found out the hard way you can build only one dome in a given colony.
Though not top line priority a civipedia entry stating it would be greatly appreciated

03 - Tech Tree a little confusing- Reported
Reported on -23/02 14.35 GMT +1 Time

Even this one it's not so fundamental and i'm just reporting it, the tech depandencies (arrow) most of the time are not shown/incomplete

Thanks for your feedback. After testing, I've found that I experience the same leaderhead selection problem.

It's to do with the length of the Civilisation name - if it's longer than a certain width then it stretches the box to fit, rather than simply inserting a line break. I'll discuss with Belizan (our resident python guru) whether its possible to change this. In the mean time, I suggest using the 'go back' button in the bottom left, or alternatively the 'custom' game option.

The idea with domes is that a city can EITHER have a biodome OR bunkers. The whole point is that of choice - and we are trying to tailor things very carefully so that the AI doesn't have all its cities as bunkers. We are also going to give them prerequisites and make the decision even more important as we progress.

And the tech tree is slowly being upgraded with each successive build. But so long as there are no crippling errors, that's actually quite good.

About barbarians....Hopefully they will be removed soon and replaced by meteorites or impact debris. Or at least lessened. They do come in waves.

The first era tech tree shouldn't need too many arrows. I set up the prereqs directly to the left of the next tech in most cases. For some reason when I simplified it, the naturally occurring arrows disappeared! I have yet to polish the 2nd era or beyond.

And please keep up the feedback. After the last release and subsequent English language discussion this is wonderful!

Thanks to you for your effort

Leaderhead : Fine I've already labeled it as 'acknowledge' is a cosmetic issue not so important.. hope you'll fix it in time

Domed : indeed the idea is fine ! what i pointed out is that in the civipedia / building queue wasn't clear you can have only one of those .
As before it's not a game-break issue you just have to know you can't build more than one dome (which make sense!)
BTW : Great graphic for the domestic dome!

Barbarian : Fine ! I'll put it as acknowledge aswell and Work In Progress

Tech : Understood! In fact i experienced the same thing hope you'll fix it in the next release (i'll put it as acknowledge and WIP)

01 - Surprise promotion - Low Priority- Reported
Reported on -23/02 15.35 GMT +1 Time

With my heroic Lunar Marines with Advanced Training - Combat 1 - Combat 2
i had another promotion (exp 10) and i could pick up *both* Surprise 1 ( +25% heavy) and Surprise 2 ( +50% heavy).
I of course picked up Surprise 2 .

Please could you check if it is correct? I guess you should have surprise 1 in order to pick surprise 2

The Dome and Bunker will eventually be available later I think or be upgradable. They were put in quickly and I don't think anyone did and pedia stuff with them.

The promotion thing I fixed last night, but never got it sent out for this release. You can't do "And" that I could find, only "or" and I mistakenly put Combat2 or Surprise1 for Surprise2. Obviously if you get Combat2 you can skip Surprise1! It's that way for Formations, Shock, and Surprise. Consider it a freebie. For now...

When you say 'can only have one' do you mean only one per city, or only one per game? Because if it's only one per game then we need to look into it.

I think he means one or the other. Either the Bunker or the Biodome.

It confused me at first too. Maybe add it to the FAQ?

Jbg : One per city (as it was supposed to)
To make it more clear the dome works as intended only 'problem' is missing civipedia entry specifying you can build only one type per colony

A little new bug, missing entry for black_white
I'm attaching the screen for it

Another thing for the FAQ. Some of the civics are TXT_KEY entries that we haven't gotten around to edit. Trust me, it used to be much worse. At least there are none with the techs! Cheap Plug....