Preview: Extended Mod (new original graphics, units, techs amd more)

EDIT 13.06.06:

Update version 0.85 uploaded. The link can be found at the end of the post.
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I’ve been doing this mod for quite a while, actually since Civ4 was released. It’s nothing else but adaptation to my personal taste, in other words how I would like to see this great game done by Firaxis- Many thanks to the developer for making this game so easy moddable.

Though to my opinion Civ4 is in some aspects better then its predecessors, some interesting features from the past have been abandoned for whatever reasons. I’m not a programmer so I can not make use of the SDK or even Python. So I concentrated mainly on what I can do: new graphics and changes within xml. The main idea was to extend the game, which means for me having possibility to stay in each Epoch for a bit longer time and making era units leave and fight longer. Something like Civ3 actually…

At the moment I’m doing tests for 1.61. But it looks like a never ending story- there is always something to change...

Some features:

-12 new technologies: Alchemy, Ancient Warfare, Christianity, Chivalry, Fortification, Ballistics, Cannon Tactics, Campaign Strategy, Blitzkrieg, Advanced Weapons, Amphibious War.

- 4 new buildings: City Statue, Stables, Alchemist’s Shop, Military Academy. They have new models and textures except City Statue, which is in progress. Some original buildings textures have been altered.

- new Wonder: Leonardo’s Workshop with new model. Other wonders have been tweaked

- new units: Battering Ram, Ancient Spearman, Man-at- Arms, Macedonian Phalangites, Landsknecht, Heavy Cavalry, Paladin, Cuirassier, Modern Infantry and others. Extra units Firaxis shipped with patches (Hypaspist, Templar Knight, Mobile SAM etc) have been added. Many units’ textures have been altered

- new strategic ressourse: saltpeter

-two new Civilizations: Macedonian and Sumerian

- Tech Tree has been reworked. Aside from the new technologies prerequests for many techs have been changed. In general it works now a bit more like Civ3, which was my intention.

- units balance has been tweaked. More advanced units are much more powerful, especially Industrial and Modern. But they are more expensive and cost additional gold to upkeep them.
Tech prerequests for many units have been changed. Notorious rock-scizor-paper principle was reworked as well to make units more specific and to add more strategy. Archers units get 100% bonus vs. Melee, Mounted units get 100% bonus vs. Archers, Spear units keep their 100% vs. Mounted, Sword units get City Attack bonus, Artillery gets 100% vs. Armoured Unites, Tanks get 100% vs. Infantry ad so on. Bombers can kill land and sea units.

- added new unique units to some Civs and changed some existing ones. Longbowman is now unique unit for England; War Elephant is unique for Sumerian, Horse Archer – for Mongolian, (Keshik is now a regular Horseman) and such

-Some minor visual changes, like cities scale has been increased up to something like 30%.

Here are some screens:

New buildings (original models and textures)

http://img66.imageshack.us/my.php?image=alchemistsshop7oj.jpg

http://img66.imageshack.us/my.php?image=leonardosworkshop4eq.jpg

http://img66.imageshack.us/my.php?image=militaryacademy9fy.jpg

http://img66.imageshack.us/my.php?image=stables9vq.jpg

New units: battering Ram (original model, textures and anims)

http://img397.imageshack.us/my.php?image=batteringram2bb.jpg

Some other new units (based on the Firaxis models with new textures):

http://img66.imageshack.us/my.php?image=units9rv.jpg
http://img397.imageshack.us/img397/2013/fregate6kl.jpg http://img397.imageshack.us/my.php?image=galleon2ii.jpg
http://img397.imageshack.us/my.php?image=heavycavalry9ed.jpg
http://img397.imageshack.us/my.php?image=manatarms6qs.jpg

What I’m planning to do:

-add more original graphics. With the tool for 3ds Max released by Firaxis it’s not a problem anymore. The problem is time- Making new units within Gamebryo engine is a real pain since one has to be concept artist, modeller, texture artist, animator, FX specialist and sound engineer at the same time. And this has never been possible in real, professional projects. I’m really looking for some cooperation here.

It would be great to add culture specific buildings as well. Mainly generic city buildings to make cities look more individual for each culture group. If some programmers here would found the way how to implement this I can make graphic part of this.

- tweaking gamer balance. At the moment it’s not perfect.

EDIT: I've finally uploaded mod:

Download link:
http://www.3ddownloads.com/Strategy/Civilization 4/Mods/Extended//Extended Mod.zip

EDIT 13.06.06:
Download link Update v.0.85:
http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads12/Update_V.0.85.zip

That looks really great.
I would love to borrow your Spearman for our Mod.

Nice Graphics !

If you want to share theese graphic, you should post a link to your mod in the unit graphic forum and in the graphic forum.

That's quite a bombshell for a first post! I dare you to follow up on this one.

Seriously, this looks cool. Keep us updated.

those graphics look very nice, seems like an extensive use of gloss and environmental light

i am focused on skins and involved into several projects, could you specify what converter to dds and what mipmap things you use and technical stuff like that ?!

seZereth said:

those graphics look very nice, seems like an extensive use of gloss and environmental light

i am focused on skins and involved into several projects, could you specify what converter to dds and what mipmap things you use and technical stuff like that ?!

Click to expand...

I used Nvidia dds plugin for PS, which was I’m sure used by Firaxis as well. This plugin is free. They did not specified what conversion exactly they used but standard DXT5 conversion and mipmap generations work fine as far as I can tell.

There is no way to alter already existing .nif files, so for those only vanilla gloss files can be used. They work fine with default ingame ambient light so it is actually not necessary to worry about additional stuff. For new models I used Civ4 shader provided by Firaxis (which is quite specific) and no ambient light. If you need other technical info just email me.

your units look amazing

I am very interested in your mod now!

I never liked sevomod after they made such drastic gameplay changes (hint hint: mounted units cant capture cities!).

But i would love it if you could also add some new civics. Good work so far. You have done the best retexturing job i have ever seen.

I am definitly going to download your mod when its done but i want to give you some advice.

Can you please add the sids tips, new icons, and civilopedia text for all the new buildings/units.

I really hate it when mod makers dont do that. Especially for the civilopedia text.

All you need to know is how to copy and paste for that!

Xanikk999 said:

I am definitly going to download your mod when its done but i want to give you some advice.

Can you please add the sids tips, new icons, and civilopedia text for all the new buildings/units.

I really hate it when mod makers dont do that. Especially for the civilopedia text.

All you need to know is how to copy and paste for that!

Click to expand...

New units/ buildings have of course new icons. What is really missing is what you're asking for – text. Frankly it has never been important to me. But that’s my taste and I realize that people may have different preferences. From another hand English is not my mother tongue

But I would like to include those texts of course. If you could assist providing materials or links I can use just with “cut and paste” would be great. I’ll give you full credit of course.

ganart said:

New units/ buildings have of course new icons. What is really missing is what you're asking for – text. Frankly it has never been important to me. But that’s my taste and I realize that people may have different preferences. From another hand English is not my mother tongue

But I would like to include those texts of course. If you could assist providing materials or links I can use just with “cut and paste” would be great. I’ll give you full credit of course.

Click to expand...

I dont know of any off hand.

But if you wanted to get any text for anything just get it from wikipedia.

If you added a building called solar power plant for example, just type in solar power plant in wikipedia and copy and paste!

This is considered plagiurism but who cares really?

Xanikk999 said:

I dont know of any off hand.

But if you wanted to get any text for anything just get it from wikipedia.

If you added a building called solar power plant for example, just type in solar power plant in wikipedia and copy and paste!

This is considered plagiurism but who cares really?

Click to expand...

Well I'll see what I can do about it. You're probably right, some texts should be added anyway.

It looks very promising. I like the way you have provided more enhancements for the early eras. So many mods just add modern armaments that I find add little to the fun of the game.

A request perhaps? I'd like more resources -- as in Amra's mod or Greenmod.

Indeed, this looks great. I especially like the buildings you made, excellent work I would also urge you to share those with us, I'm sure mods like FFH and Warhammer FB could use some fresh architecture, of course that's your prerogative.

Great work

superb work ganart.
As Rabbit, White, I do hope that you will share your work with the other civfanatics that don't have your skills with texturing (like me for example )

onedreamer said:

superb work ganart.
As Rabbit, White, I do hope that you will share your work with the other civfanatics that don't have your skills with texturing (like me for example )

Click to expand...

Rabbit said:

Indeed, this looks great. I especially like the buildings you made, excellent work I would also urge you to share those with us, I'm sure mods like FFH and Warhammer FB could use some fresh architecture, of course that's your prerogative.

Great work

Click to expand...

Sure I’ll share graphics and other stuff. I will upload the mod soon. I’m cleaning right now some xml files, things like .kfm references. I hope tomorrow or the day after tomorrow it will be ready.

What about the Mod now? Is there a chance, that it will be available this weekend?

Well, it took longer then I expected but it's ready now to be uploaded. The minor problem is that as far as I understand file size is limited to 5 MB. I posted a message to Thunderfall regarding instruction but have not got any reply yet.

In the meantime I added a new building- City Hall and Era specific graphics for the Palace.

http://img469.imageshack.us/my.php?image=cityhall8ab.jpg

http://img469.imageshack.us/my.php?image=palace2cp.jpg

ganart said:

Well, it took longer then I expected but it's ready now to be uploaded. The minor problem is that as far as I understand file size is limited to 5 MB. I posted a message to Thunderfall regarding instruction but have not got any reply yet.

In the meantime I added a new building- City Hall and Era specific graphics for the Palace.

http://img469.imageshack.us/my.php?image=cityhall8ab.jpg

http://img469.imageshack.us/my.php?image=palace2cp.jpg

Click to expand...

These are awesome. Btw, if you're using imageshack you should post thumbnails instead of just links.

Very cool your buildings are so incredibly "Firaxian" I would sware you worked for them on the original game.

Also I had an idea for Leonardos Workshop, I have read that in Civ 3 this gave you a reduction in Unit upgrad costs and several other people have crated versions that give a Science bost, I havent even checked what you did with it so sorry if this is something you already did. I think it would be most apropriately reflect the "Renisance" nature by giving you one free Specialist of each type, that would be a lot like the GreatLibrary which people already like quite a bit but its occuring much later in the tec tree. The combined GPP output would be considerable basicaly guaranteeing some good GP out of that City.

Gnart: check this thread for ways to see the options CivFanatics has for uploading larger files
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=153618