Call for help: artists and designer for the biggest epic ever

I'm working on my expanded game system, and I hope it will be redy for beta test this week.

This system allows to have more than 4 eras, and also to have parameters from different parts (general settings, races mostly, but also terrain and worker job) change with each era.

It is also possible to change the scenario search folder with the era, but also with the civilization you are playing.

The graphics of the interface may be different if you play with Rome from what they are if you play with Japan! And they can also change when you advance era.

Now that the tool is almost finished, it is time to use it to make a mod.

I plan to redo my mod following these principles. But it's a huge task, difficult to tackle alone. For instance, I plan to have 24 eras at the end, with 20 civs.

So if some of you are interested by this, I'd be glad to get some help.

What do I need:
- Artists to make interface, icons, mines, irrigation, etc civ specific and/or era specific
- Writer to help with the civpedia
- Designers to help define what changes with each era and how. This could include more buildings and civ specific tech tree, as I could have more than 256 buildings.
- I notably need some help to find the name of civilization, leaders, etc for each era.

I can help you with an ancient+medieval mod. More than 4 eras - Do you mean city sets with this ?
Can you program the streets under the terrain ???

H.Balck

This is using civIII engine, so there is no street.

We are still limited to 5 culture groups, but there could be more than 4 eras for each city set.

I could help with civilization names and leaders. Just provide me the era names and I'll start it.

You can check this page for the start.

http://stephane.f.david.free.fr/CivMod/All_LandUnits_Era_1.htm

The game will start in 2200 BC and end in 2000 AD ultimately.

You have all the civilizations I plan to have in the end.

And the first 8 eras.

Early Bronze Age
Late Bronze Age
Early Iron Age
Late Bronze Age
Barbarian Invasions
Early middle ages
High middle ages
Late middle ages

The expanded system allows adding era later, so we can just focus on the first 8, and we can add the other later.

These are just the generic names. In fact, when you play, you will see in the science editor, and when you get era change splash screen, something specific to the civilization you are playing.

For instance, if you play has Greece, the ages will appear as
- Mycenean period
- Achaean period
- Classical period
- Macedonian period
etc.
The eras are mostly guideline. The goal is to find historical periods for each civ, which are roughly corresponding to the generic period. But it doesn't have to be absolutly equivalent.

For each era, we need, for each civ
- Name of the era
- Name of the civ itself, with adjectives, etc
- Name of the leader.
- A picture usable as a flag. I don't plan to use actual leaderheads, just static flags, as it will be probably to difficult to find leaderheads for everything
- A splash screen
- Names for military leaders and scientists. We don't need many for each era.
- Traits for the civ in this era.
- Prefererred and shunned government for this era.
- We could also have specific interface graphics or button.

I think the best would be to make a Excel spreadsheet for the design of this.

I'll get started then. I'll go through the countries in the order you set them in you webpage (Britain, France, Germany, Hellas, Iberia,...).

I'm not quite sure how good I'd be at interface, but I think I can give it a shot! I'd love to help you! And if I'm rubbish at it, sorry.

A small precision. Although the names change with each era, it is not mandatory.
We can for instance have "Rome" from early bronze age to barbarian invasion, then "Ostrogoth", then "Siculo-normans", then "Italians".

Also, I'm using extensively Sandris unit lines. So the civilization shall reflect it (ex: for the name of the Chinese civilization, they should match the existing units).

Eras for the Celts:
Bell-Beaker culture (2400 – 1800 BC) Early Bronze Age
Urnfield culture (1300–700 BC) Late Bronze Age
Hallstatt culture (700–450 BC) Early Iron Age
La Tene (450 - 50 BC) Late Iron Age

BTW - you have only the units for La Tene periode , not the typical units for the early periodes !

H.Balck

Eras for the Germans:
North Bronze Age (1800–500 BC) Bronze Age
Jastorf Culture (600-0 BC) Early Iron Age
Elbgermanic Culture (0–300 AD) Late Iron Age

H.Balck

Eras for the Slaves:
Bell-Beaker culture ? (2400 – 1800 BC) Early Bronze Age
Lausitz culture (1300–500 BC) Late Bronze Age
Belogrudovka / Cernoles Culture (600-400 BC) Early Iron Age
Zarubincy culture (200 BC–200 AD) Late Iron Age

H.Balck

Eras for the Romans:
Remedello culture (...) Early Bronze Age
Terramare culture (1700-1150 BC) Late Bronze Age
Villanovan culture (950 - 500 BC) Early Iron Age
Roman culture (500 BC -270 AD) Late Iron Age

Eras for the Iberians:
Atlantian Bronze Age
Tartessos Culture
...
...

Eras for the nomadic:
Andronowo culture (2300–1000)
Scythic culture
Early Sarmatian culture
Late Sarmatian culture

Yang Liu said:

Eras for the Celts:
Bell-Beaker culture (2400 – 1800 BC) Early Bronze Age
Urnfield culture (1300–700 BC) Late Bronze Age
Hallstatt culture (700–450 BC) Early Iron Age
La Tene (450 - 50 BC) Late Iron Age

BTW - you have only the units for La Tene periode , not the typical units for the early periodes !

H.Balck

Click to expand...

That's why it is not necessary to be extreamly precise. As I said, I'm following Sandris unit lines, so there may be some "holes" inside.

For instance, we could just have a civilization named "Celts" for the Early bronze age to Early iron age, and then name them Gauls in the Late Iron age.

We have to do some compromise to use what we have available, while keeping the possibility to expand it later if we can.

Eras for Brittania
Atlantian Bronze Age
Wessex Culture
La Tene

For instance, we could just have a civilization named "Celts" for the Early bronze age to Early iron age, and then name them Gauls in the Late Iron age.

Click to expand...

We can not speak "Celts" for Bronze Age people in France ! Thats not correct. Celts is an Art term of Greek and Roman authors.

H.Balck

We have to give names which can be understood by most players.

When you select your civ in the scenario screen, what should be the names for each civ in the first era?

We cannot call all of them La Tène for instance.

I'm speaking of the name of the civ here, not the name of the era.

For example, I imagine we can have a "Celt" civilization for France in the Early Bronze Age, Late Bronze Age, but with the era named Bell-Beaker culture, Urnfield culture, and then a "Gaul" civilization for France in the Early Iron Age and Late Iron age, with with era named Hallstadt and La Tène.

Or we could also keep plain Early Bronze Age, Late Bronze Age, etc for civ which are too difficult to identify, and use a more specific names for civ such as Egypt.

Another example with Egypt: it will simply be named Egypt, there is no reason to change the name.
But the name of the first era will be Old Kingdom.

I don't imagine to name the civilization "Old Kingdom". It should remain Egypt because it is easier to identify.

If you need some info on the East Asia side of things, send a PM.

Well, if you can fill in the info listed in post #5 for China, Japan and India, it would be nice.