If you choose to create a fantasy mod, maybe keep in mind that it wouldn't be too bad to attract other people to join as team members or partners.
There are actually tons of people who visit these forums, but most never take the time to make any posts. There is just so much out there to attract and distract peoples attention so I am afraid what we have is what we have, besides the new comers every now and then, but I could be wrong.
Other scenarios (inspired by "Warhammer" or "Warcraft" or "Lord of the Rings" or whatever) might attract a lot more people.
Yes, I've thought about Warcraft first as it would be a perfect setup plus I loved that game. But then, after being inspired by the Vikings I thought it would be cool to come up with something totally fresh. Perhaps tell a totally fresh story as well in the mod. But, a warcraft mod could be a good base for a mod like I am mentioning here.
Skilled experienced modders are really rare these days.
Many projects are run by 1 or 2 people only.
Thus in most of these projects there is
almost no progress.
Well, I alone could create such a mod, and as Long as I worked on it there would be progress, but I am not your average modder. That's how M:C came about for the most part. There is just so much code and graphics already available so for a person who can copy and paste most of the hard work is already done. It just takes time. Modding is a hobby so until I can no longer do it, or I find a better hobby then I'll be able to do it. I don't know what the future holds, I could be done with modding tomorrow you just never know what opportunities or events could transpire, but I am here at the moment. And I would say that goes for all of us.
I kind of really miss the old days, where at least a few projects would achieve to gather a reasonable team (with a core of experienced and skilled modders)
to create a mod of decent size and quality.
So, what are you saying ray, ready to form a team? We have like 4 to 5 active or semi active guys right now.
The beautiful thing of what Nightinggale is doing (I'm helping best I can too) is that the base for M:C is going to be extrememly user configurable. So, even if we do not all agree on an issue it can be set up so that different play styles can be activated with in game options or xml tags.
Then for any "official release" we can simply take a vote on what to put in and leave out. Mod mods can be created and in game text can be added to point out none "official" features.
What I am saying is, everybody wins!
Please
try to focus on your existing projects first before further spreading resources.
(Or if you are really convinced of this new projects abandon the other ones and focus on this one.)
Well, like I already stated. I have plans for M:C that I will bring to fruition. Besides, everything we add to M:C is adding to any thing we branch off from M:C so working on M:C is working on all my future mods
Sounds quite interesting.
But, before thinking of all the cool features to be implemented I would propose to make some thoughts about how to improve the AI - something which I think has been missed in recent mods.
They are all a bit different from each other but in the end they are all based on the same wrotten AI we've inhereted from the original Civ4/Civ4Col.
If you can point out any specific changes that should be made please point them out in the Suggestions forum perhaps. That will greatly help when we start looking into this.
What we should do to make such mods really is to recruit more people. We can offer maintained DLL and python meaning we can offer non-programmers the ability to make what will hopefully be a great game. I think there are plenty of people who would like to do that and have the skills, but they aren't trying because they think they need to write code as well. The question is how to access those people. We talked about that before.
One thing we could do is find people who are or have worked on similar mods and then just ask them directly. For M:C we should work out a more complete list of tasks that needs complete. We did really well on the Civics screen, so I am sure with effort we can complete the rest.
Maybe we should think about aiming for a release. Having activity on sourceforge wouldn't be bad. Given that we can add graphics to git now (sourceforge has unlimited server space) we should likely fill up col2071 with graphics as well. Showing two mods that different could be a showcase for getting attention.
That's were I would be no good. My time frame is crazy. I mod when I can and sometimes I have to sneak in a few turns or code when I have a few mins here and there. So, I just couldn't work with a dead line. To quote Blizzard, "It will be done, when it is done."
Aiming for a release would mean finishing up current loose ends like yield demands. Right now would likely be a good time to stop developing brand new features.
Well, I looked into the yield demands and I feel that this should just add a small part to the mod. Much like the Warehouse expansion is in vanilla. It is not critical just a cool part that gives a little extra gold. Currently in M:C this part is unfinished along with auto selling overflow so it does need finished up.
However, on issues like this I would say that we should summit our own version of the code, that we have play tested and feel is a good fit, then others can play test and give feedback, make suggestions, and such, until there is agreement. Then if there are still conflicting desires we simply make a vote(you can't vote unless you have play tested or submitted your own option), and the winner is part of the "official" mod, or we can come up with a compromise in case of a tie.
As mentioned, everyone is free to make their own Modmod, or we can add in game options to change play style.
