uberdubersoldat
Chieftain
- Joined
- Sep 29, 2010
- Messages
- 66
If you don't know what hexagonal chess is, see the wiki link: hexagonal chess
Also some software to play it: http://www.hexagonalchess.com/ which I still have yet to try
Ideas for Ancient units/pieces:
Pawn: Spearman
Knight: Knight
Bishop: Longbowman
Rook: Trebuchet
Queen: Longswordsman
King: Medieval Great General
Alternate piece set using Modern units:
Pawn: Infantry
Knight: Paratrooper
Bishop: Mechanized Infantry
Rook: Modern Tank
Queen: Attack Helicopter
King: Modern Great General
I want to see if I can create a mod that would simulate this board game using the world of CiV. It would be from what I understand a scenario on top of a custom mod. It would need a custom map for the board and it would be two players. Some thoughts on this are as follows.
I would need to code in behavior for the game such as:
1) The inability for a player to put his own king in check
2) The inability for a unit to defend itself. When you move a chess piece to attack, it wins 100% of the time. But I would still like to have the animations. I guess set the defense of every unit to 0 while the attack is at 100?
3) The starting position for each player needs to be fixed
4) There are no actual cities in this, and the objective would be to kill the great general (King). It would need a victory type dependent on this unit
5) Creating custom movement for each piece. The Knight for example can only move in L patterns, the Bishop only diagonally, the Rook in lines etc...
6) Making the entire board viewable by each player. I could just set the sight radius for each player's kings to like 100 or something.
7) The map would need to limit the pieces to stay on the board. On the map I guess I could just surround it by Mountains, but then I would need to mod the Helicopter to disable mountain passage. I could make the board an island simultaneously disabling each player from having the ability to embark etc. This would all be in line with (5) and limiting how each piece can move.
8) Giving the great general the ability to attack a unit. Currently I dont think there are any built in animations for this unit type. My idea would involve the closest ranged/melee unit slaughtering the enemy that the King piece is attacking. Once dead he just moves in over the dead body of his fallen foe. The only issue I see here is triggering how all near units attack, and coding in this concept. If none of that is possible I could see what other unit would be suitable to be designated as the King Piece. I don't think the Settler is appropriate since the unit should be able to defend/attack etc. I could also look at involving nukes/missiles with the king. Any time the king attacks, a nuke is launched from outside the viewable area to destroy whatever is in the way of the king and this would be his "attack"
9) Coding/Implementing different starting positions. Such as this
10) Coding the different rule sets for the different starting types.
11) Implementing some kind of tutorial or hint suggestions because obviously not everyone knows how to play chess
12) Coding in upgrades for when a pawn reaches the back file of his opponent. I could create custom upgrade options for each unit, the ability for the pawn to upgrade into either a Knight/Bishop/Rook/Queen.
13) Other things I have undoubtedly forgotten
I could also entertain adding things to the Hexagonal Chess ruleset to make a hybrid CiV/Chess game. Adding things such as probability on attack, so that not every battle is victorious. This could entertain features of the map like hills/rivers that would add to defensive bonuses. I'm not sure how I could incorporate cities into the game, but maybe have each player with a city at their King's starting location or something. All of this however would deviate from the standard chess game and would be things I'd visit only after I get a complete and working mod put together. The plus side of CiV stylized Hexagonal Chess would be the variety you could derive from things such as different leader choices, or upgrading units and similar things.
I have modded games before, and making the custom map is the easy part of this idea. I made this thread because this is the first time I'd be modding CiV, and also obviously for discussion on the topic. I am unfamiliar with the Mod process within this game, and would need direction on learning how to code the issues I outlined above. I will post more info after I have explored making the custom map in world builder and also researched how I begin modding all these different things to make this work.
If this ever comes to fruition I would undoubtedly need a 2nd person to test against too. So, any comments/suggestions would be appreciated
EDIT: things I realiize after making the thread that will need coding:
14) one move per turn
15) a notification your king is in check
16) once a king is in check you have to prevent check mate
17) edit the loading screen for the map/mod to include gameplay rules/objectives etc
18) enable the mod to know when a draw has occured: when a player cannot move anything
19) mod the diplomacy menu so a player can offer a draw, ask for an undo or request extra time
20) make sure the turn timer built into the game works as needed, to allowed timed matches
21) some way to output the piece move history, ie Kh1f1 etc etc, perhaps via notifications, and each player can just check the notification log to see entire history
22) always make sure white moves first as per chess rules
23) a lot of these things might be more easily modded if I code the individual board tiles. Since each tile hexagon will have a unique name [ex A1-L11]. In this way I might be able to restrict movement easier. I could create new tile types like 100 different tundras.
24) Remove aluminum and other resource requirement for units
25) Remove gold upkeep requirement for units
26) Remove happiness stat, or negate any effects from having any unhappiness
27) Once all of that is done I can eliminate the need for a city on the map, and thus remove any ability to research/produce. Without cities culture will not fluctuate and mess up the tiled board
28) Remove all techs so units can't embark etc
Also some software to play it: http://www.hexagonalchess.com/ which I still have yet to try
Ideas for Ancient units/pieces:
Pawn: Spearman
Knight: Knight
Bishop: Longbowman
Rook: Trebuchet
Queen: Longswordsman
King: Medieval Great General
Alternate piece set using Modern units:
Pawn: Infantry
Knight: Paratrooper
Bishop: Mechanized Infantry
Rook: Modern Tank
Queen: Attack Helicopter
King: Modern Great General
I want to see if I can create a mod that would simulate this board game using the world of CiV. It would be from what I understand a scenario on top of a custom mod. It would need a custom map for the board and it would be two players. Some thoughts on this are as follows.
I would need to code in behavior for the game such as:
1) The inability for a player to put his own king in check
2) The inability for a unit to defend itself. When you move a chess piece to attack, it wins 100% of the time. But I would still like to have the animations. I guess set the defense of every unit to 0 while the attack is at 100?
3) The starting position for each player needs to be fixed
4) There are no actual cities in this, and the objective would be to kill the great general (King). It would need a victory type dependent on this unit
5) Creating custom movement for each piece. The Knight for example can only move in L patterns, the Bishop only diagonally, the Rook in lines etc...
6) Making the entire board viewable by each player. I could just set the sight radius for each player's kings to like 100 or something.
7) The map would need to limit the pieces to stay on the board. On the map I guess I could just surround it by Mountains, but then I would need to mod the Helicopter to disable mountain passage. I could make the board an island simultaneously disabling each player from having the ability to embark etc. This would all be in line with (5) and limiting how each piece can move.
8) Giving the great general the ability to attack a unit. Currently I dont think there are any built in animations for this unit type. My idea would involve the closest ranged/melee unit slaughtering the enemy that the King piece is attacking. Once dead he just moves in over the dead body of his fallen foe. The only issue I see here is triggering how all near units attack, and coding in this concept. If none of that is possible I could see what other unit would be suitable to be designated as the King Piece. I don't think the Settler is appropriate since the unit should be able to defend/attack etc. I could also look at involving nukes/missiles with the king. Any time the king attacks, a nuke is launched from outside the viewable area to destroy whatever is in the way of the king and this would be his "attack"
9) Coding/Implementing different starting positions. Such as this
10) Coding the different rule sets for the different starting types.
11) Implementing some kind of tutorial or hint suggestions because obviously not everyone knows how to play chess
12) Coding in upgrades for when a pawn reaches the back file of his opponent. I could create custom upgrade options for each unit, the ability for the pawn to upgrade into either a Knight/Bishop/Rook/Queen.
13) Other things I have undoubtedly forgotten
I could also entertain adding things to the Hexagonal Chess ruleset to make a hybrid CiV/Chess game. Adding things such as probability on attack, so that not every battle is victorious. This could entertain features of the map like hills/rivers that would add to defensive bonuses. I'm not sure how I could incorporate cities into the game, but maybe have each player with a city at their King's starting location or something. All of this however would deviate from the standard chess game and would be things I'd visit only after I get a complete and working mod put together. The plus side of CiV stylized Hexagonal Chess would be the variety you could derive from things such as different leader choices, or upgrading units and similar things.
I have modded games before, and making the custom map is the easy part of this idea. I made this thread because this is the first time I'd be modding CiV, and also obviously for discussion on the topic. I am unfamiliar with the Mod process within this game, and would need direction on learning how to code the issues I outlined above. I will post more info after I have explored making the custom map in world builder and also researched how I begin modding all these different things to make this work.
If this ever comes to fruition I would undoubtedly need a 2nd person to test against too. So, any comments/suggestions would be appreciated
EDIT: things I realiize after making the thread that will need coding:
14) one move per turn
15) a notification your king is in check
16) once a king is in check you have to prevent check mate
17) edit the loading screen for the map/mod to include gameplay rules/objectives etc
18) enable the mod to know when a draw has occured: when a player cannot move anything
19) mod the diplomacy menu so a player can offer a draw, ask for an undo or request extra time
20) make sure the turn timer built into the game works as needed, to allowed timed matches
21) some way to output the piece move history, ie Kh1f1 etc etc, perhaps via notifications, and each player can just check the notification log to see entire history
22) always make sure white moves first as per chess rules
23) a lot of these things might be more easily modded if I code the individual board tiles. Since each tile hexagon will have a unique name [ex A1-L11]. In this way I might be able to restrict movement easier. I could create new tile types like 100 different tundras.
24) Remove aluminum and other resource requirement for units
25) Remove gold upkeep requirement for units
26) Remove happiness stat, or negate any effects from having any unhappiness
27) Once all of that is done I can eliminate the need for a city on the map, and thus remove any ability to research/produce. Without cities culture will not fluctuate and mess up the tiled board
28) Remove all techs so units can't embark etc
