[BTS Module] Great Ones

Great Ones Mod; A Lovecraftian Civilization
Modular Civilization
Version 0.5
by Crezth

Details: Once about two years back I discovered someone had made a mod for Vanilla civ: Lovecraftian Civilization with Nyarlathotep as the leader! By itself simply another mod, but with the release of BTS I felt inspired to, in effect, recreate the civ in Module form. Naturally a lot of the things are different (I have since lost said mod), but the basic idea is the same: a civilization modeled after Lovecraftian mythology.

Features-
Great Elder Empire - Itself complete with two dozen city names taken from various spots in Lovecraftian mythology. From Kadath to Dunwich, familiar city names ahoy.
Cthulhu Leader - Nyarlathotep as a leader was an interesting idea, but Cthulhu has one thing old Nya lacks - name recognition. Cthulhu is Protective/Aggressive.
Shoggoth UU - A unique unit which replaces the knight, the Shoggoth has a strategy all its own.
Asylum UB - Replaces the Library, offering happiness, science and culture. Liable to change in future editions.
Partially Finished Civilopedia - A lot of empty (or broken) Civilopedia entries for this Great Ones Mod.

Ideas-
More leaders - Such as Nyarlathotep, Yog-sothoth, etc. For future editions; Cthulhu is fine for now.
More UU - There are so many UUs which have the potential to be added.
Finished Civilopedia - Assuming I get around to it.

Current Version is - 0.5

Instructions: Unzip the Great Ones.Zip, and put the Great Ones folder (the one with the assets) into your Civilization 4/Beyond the Sword/Mods folder, and run it normally after launching Beyond the Sword. Or you can extract the Module and put it in another Mod.

Changes for v.0.5

Added Great Ones
Added Cthulhu
Added Shoggoth UU
Added Asylum UB
Added diplomacy text for Cthulhu
Civilopedia started


Download file here: http://forums.civfanatics.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=7072


Credits: To Kael, for I took the Tar Demon to make the Shoggoth. To the original creator of the mod, Tactician Zhou. To H.P. Lovecraft and the Lovecraftians for creating the Lovecraftian Mythology. To strategyonly and quueg for XML files, for they proved to be the frame of reference.

Screenshots

this was my absolute favorite civ for vanilla.

i'm very fired up about it being modular

I'm glad to see at least one person is psyched about this. It's what make it all worth it. ^^

you should give strategyonly credit for using his xml files...you've could at least removed his name from the xml files...

made by strategyonly with notepad...

Haw! Really? I guess I should. I used Quueg's files in the Confederacy mod, and I guess strategyonly's XML files were involved.

I've added credits for both of them.

Fhatgn!
By my next game the stars will be right!

You should redo this MODULAR and make each units separate(use it as a learning curve), that way later you can pick and choose which units you want, without alot of deleting other stuff from LOTS of area. Just my opinion. Other than that looks ok, will give it a try and will probably making alot of changes using this also, LOL.

strategyonly said:

You should redo this MODULAR and make each units separate(use it as a learning curve), that way later you can pick and choose which units you want, without alot of deleting other stuff from LOTS of area. Just my opinion. Other than that looks ok, will give it a try and will probably making alot of changes using this also, LOL.

Click to expand...

Er, thanks, I guess, though I didn't quite get that.

Crezth said:

Er, thanks, I guess, though I didn't quite get that.

Click to expand...

Meaning, if i want to just use the tar demon, i will have to delete items from the ArtDefines area, the civinfo area, etc, but if separate you just need to edit the civinfo and poof done. It just makes things alot easier, i guess, and i thought you needed something more to get the cities you included to work correctly??
I went thru all the era's and the cities didnt change to your type?? I havent gotten into that area yet, but i need to, so if you can research that, would be unappreciated.

Ah, yeah, I'll make the units independently addable/subtractable.

And the type cities I have I don't intend to work just yet. It's work which I'm unfamiliar with at this stage, but I left the models/art in anyway. They're going to work eventually.

Crezth said:

Ah, yeah, I'll make the units independently addable/subtractable.

And the type cities I have I don't intend to work just yet. It's work which I'm unfamiliar with at this stage, but I left the models/art in anyway. They're going to work eventually.

Click to expand...

Great news then, and if you can figure out the citiy stuff let me know, i want the other cities stuff added as well, veil, rune, order, etc. Keep up the good work, and more pls.

I'll definitely keep up the work. I plan to release v.1.0 by the end of the month, just in time for the front page. That means unique units, civilopedia, new leaders and city art all intact.

Thanks for your support. This is the first mod I've ever released, and it's good to get it going.

If you could mod Ramses to have jet black skin and glowing red eyes, he could make a decent Nyarlathotep.

I hate it when people just change the hair color of a leader and call him/her a different name. Just use a static picture of Cthulhu, instead.

I agree with the original modder that Nyarlathotep (Agg/Phi, perhaps) really should be the leader, rather than Cthulhu, though I see no reason why you couldn't make two choices. For a more whimsical leader, you might consider H.P. Lovecraft himself. I would suggest Prot/Cre and working from the personality of Tokugawa. Lovecraft was an infamous hermit and racist, and Tokugawa fits that quite well. What values did you use for Cthulhu's AI? You should probably make him attack anyone at the drop of a hat. Using Isabella and Montezuma as a base would probably work.

Do you think Unknown Kadath would be better than Kadath? The novella itself (Dreamquest of Unknown Kadath) seems to prefer the latter, but Kadath works, too.

A scenario seems like a better choice than a civilization, because trading technologies with Cthulhu seems a bit... odd. Maybe I'll get around to that some day.

I'd argue really that the entire Great Ones thing in and of itself has no centralized leader, and it makes for a lot of leeway. But I picked Cthulhu, even though Nyarlathotep makes just as if not more sense, because he has the best association. Nyarlathotep will likely be included in a later addition.

I did consider briefly the inclusion of HP Lovecraft but dismissed it early on. To see someone else bring it up has revived the idea... I'd consider it. But on that note,

whimsy is definitely the purpose of the entire mod, despite its content. Should Shoggoth really be the UU? Some sort of Deep Ones would make more sense. Should the Asylum be the UB? Not really. But the Civ is really based on the entire Mythos as a whole. That's why Arkham is a city, for example. It certainly wasn't a Great One city to be sure, but it's part of the Cthulhu Mythos.

On that note, I considered including something like a "Miskatonic U."-based building as an additional/alternate UB replacing the University. Because it's fun.

On the subject of Unknown Kadath... I did debate that internally but the original modder stuck with Kadath. I suppose from the Deep One's point of view Kadath wasn't all that Unknown, and so I stuck with it.

I think I used Boudica for Cthulhu, but I planned to tweak his personality anyway. By the next version he'll altogether be much more aggressive.

Finally, a scenario would be very fun, and if you plan to make that I'd be glad to assist in any way I could. But I repeat, the purpose of this mod was whimsy and fun, based off of these Mythos. Trading techs with Cthulhu is *supposed* to feel odd because that's a fun feeling. In my opinion anyway.

Glad to see all the feedback btw.

I'm excited about this, it looks great. In my opinion it's cool to just include all things from the Mythos into a whole package, even thought theres lots of animosity between the different Mythos fractions. Asylum UB is a great idea, as well as some kind of Miskatonic U. The UU should be some kind of iconic mythos creature like Deep Ones or Shoggoths.

Just my quick two cents, keep up the great work!

Should be another update within the week. Look for: a new UU, a new UB, and a (more) completed Civilopedia.

I love this mod, and can't wait to see the next update.
Here's hoping for Nyarlathotep, and maybe someday a 3D Cthulhu leaderhead.

I'd suggest Shubby as a leader too, maybe. Simply because we've -all- wanted to play as a giant tentacled amorphous blob. ...Besides Louis XIV.

Do you suppose Hammurabi could look like Cthulhu with that god-awful of beard of his?
It would probably just look really fake.