[BTS] Dragon Age Mod

[The_Jackal]

Hello, I am The Jackal as you all can see. I have recently completed the game Dragon Age for the Xbox 360 and decided that the creation of a mod for this game would be relatively easy. The only challenges I foresee might be some advanced programming that I cannot do, art, and what ever other little problems arise. I already began compiling some of the data necessary for the mod.
I could use the help of
-A person who can make artwork for the mod and create units (animated art)
-A person who can script well, well has some experience
-A person knowledgable about Civ or Dragon Age
-Idea people
-People who have any of these talents or more
If there is some expression of interest I will add some of my ideas and what I have done.

[PPQ_Purple]

Well, if you are going to do this I suggest you start with Fall From Heaven 2 as a base.
They already have spells and other magical/mystical components worked out.

This said, it would be interesting if you could get this going. I might sign up if other people do.

[Inspector Javert]

I might be able to come up with a few dieas but modding them in I can't do...

[The_Jackal]

Alright, well tomorrow I will throw out my ideas. If I can't find a solid support I may just create the mod for myself. I really need someone who can do the art b/c I cannot do that. The FfH 2 as a base would be a great idea. I may need to ask for their permission though.

[The_Jackal]

Alright, for all interested hear are my ideas so far, this is probably the unorthadox style of telling them, but who cares:
-Civs (So Far)
-Ferelden
-Antiva
-Tevinter Imperium
-Orlais
-Dwarven Empire
-Haven
-Seheron
-Anderfels
-Rivain
-Nevarra
-Par Volen
-Free Marches (Minor Civ)
-Blight (Contact with the blight or from the blight to other nations will be disabled)
-New Leaders
-New Civics and Two Civic Categories replaced
-Different Religions (Maker, Cult of Andraste,...)
-New Units
ex.
-Basic Spellcaster
-Blood Mage
-Champion
-Some nations with more than 1 unique unit
ex.
-Dwarves
-Legionnary of the Dead
-Dwarven Berserkers
-Religion Specific Units
ex.
-Cult of Andraste
-uu: Cultist Reaver
-Maker (Couldn't think of a better name)
-uu: Templar
-1 or more new resources
-Lyrium (only 1 so far)
-New Tech Tree
-Some old techs with new techs like
-Primal Worship
-Basic Mining
-Primitive Spellcasting
-Arcane Mastery
-New Buildings
-Chantry (Religion Specific)
-Grey Warden Recruiting Center
-New Wonders
-Circle Tower
-Fort Weisshaupt
-Thedas
-Fight through blights, rival nations, and much more!

[Inspector Javert]

Well here's my suggestion for dealing with the Darkspawn, instead of having a constant blight just have darkspawn spawn randomly like barbs in the Vanilla version and only have any real number show up during a Blight, just have a random event occur that spawns a huge number of Darkspawn and an archdemon.

It might also be a good idea to break up the Civs along races and perhaps even further (IE Humans divide into Redclif, Waking Sea etc.)

Thats what I've heard on the road anyway...

[Shiggs713]

my suggestion is to get really well organized, get everything planned and worked out and make this mod for civ5. Seriously unless you can crank this out fairly quick, and its really good, it won't get much use in light of the fact civ5 will be out before long. Maybe do a simplified version for civ4 so you can get acquainted with some modding tools and get some modding experience. Also it is very good to know a little bit of everything unless you have a whole team of individuals. At least learn the basics for making buttons and flags, and editing the xml entries... stuff like that, but no guarantees that civ5 is going to be the same.

[The_Jackal]

Alright, those suggestions sound good. I will probably try to the mod quick to have a mod to play and to gain experience.

[Le Sage]

I think you're wrong, Shiggs. There will still be a substantial market for Civ IV mods even WHEN Civ 5 is out. I used to mod Morrowind back in the days, and we all thought it was going to die when Oblivion came. We were wrong. Morrowind modding is still today going quite strong. People aren't going to stop playing CivIV just because of the fiver, and modding is not going to die. Look at Civ III. People are still creating units and mods for the III that make me jealous!

I think you should do your mod right now as far as you want to take it, Jackal. I seriously do. And then when Civ 5 comes, you can make a second version for that, a Dragon Age II Mod. There's not going to be much knowledge about in the first phase when Civ 5 is out either. With CivIV you have a massive database of modding knowledge to tap into and, I certainly speak for my own self when I say that it is invaluable.

Do your mod. Do it as a learning experience, if nothing else. I myself am not ending or diminishing my modding just because Civ 5 is expected in autumn. I am putting in second gear. But I will be modding Civ5 too. You might expect Fairy Tale II and The Hundred Years War II in a years' time or something.

[Shiggs713]

well sure people will still play it... if you make this for civ4, maybe 1000 people or so might try it out, if you make a even a mediocre mod for civ5, probably 10,000 people will download it eventually, if you release it quick enough. Thats pretty much all the older mods have on some of the newer mods... fan base. Hell my mod is a prime example... back when this forum was actually full of people, and I began modding, the fan frenzy was amazing. I never even released anything other than an alpha or beta release and I got like 4200 downloads. The mod content I'm producing now is 10x better quality in every way than before, and I see stuff like 18 downloads in a week, not hundreds like it used to be, and like it will be again with civ5.

[Le Sage]

Yes, that is quite correct, Shiggs. The mod downloads of tens of thousands are not possible with Civ IV anymore.

However, neither you nor me mod this game because it's tremendously popular or because we expect to get famous and have 300.000 downloads. If that's the entry point to modding, well, then I am a superfailure. Those who mod because they believe it will make their work be "recognized", make them famous or whatever, can give up right now.

Modding is a lot of sweaty work and the rewards are small. I hardly even get comments on my mods. And still I sit here and spend hours on it every day. And why?

There are other dimensions to modding. I see it as taking a small part in the greatest computergame series ever, I see it as an artform and I mod because I want the game to behave like I personally want it to. Download numbers are secondary, believe it or not. Those are pretty much my own entry points.

You have the ideas, Jackal, so go right ahead and realize them. Civ 5 is coming up in a years' time and the fan base for Civilization will be enormous again as we all move on to that game. In the meantime, do your duty for CivIV. The real crack-core-civ-players are still here. No matter whether CivIV is considered fashionable or not.

[PPQ_Purple]

For the blight I suggest using the same mechanics as for the Demon civ in FFH.
Have each bad event (raising cities, blood magic usage ect.) increse a global counter and once that counter reaches a certain level the blight spawns.

[Eagle_eye]

I could help with the artwork. Just don't expect a Da Vinci

[civ_king]

Fall Further is probably a better base than Fall from Heaven with the buyable promotions and new mechanics doable