SCENARIO: Age of Imperialism; 1895-1924, Deluxe Version

[El Justo]

Angelle,

it would take some eagle-eye work in the editor w/ first setting aside the two civs and then allocating all of the unit builds. tough and tedious work although not impossible

to anyone who replaces gfx in the AoI folder - i could care less if you do...however, know that you will have to do some rearranging...and it all may produce unpredicatable results unless you know the files real well. again, i shed no tears whatsoever. but i ain't really up to helping people get things swapped out sorry!

[Hikaro Takayama]

El Justo: I spent 5 years making an entire mod almost completely by myself... I think I can handle a simple terrain swap. (especially considering I've made/helped make a few mods to Snoopy's terrain set myself)

Note 2: when I say "simple" I mean "simple as compared to building a mod from the ground up".

I was figuring on using Are's mountains for the Impassable Mountains (they had a nice himalayey look to them)....

[Vuldacon]

Hikaro Takayama... Regarding AoI game Terrain Graphics, you or anyone can do as you please, however, to make a statement that you have decided to change it without actually having the game to see the graphics is hasty.
Many of the enlarged images that El Justo has uploaded cause the images to appear blurry to an extent from enlarging them. That is not the actual appearance when playing the game.

I remade and adjusted all terrain and that includes the water color terrain remaining in the game. It is far different than other AoI versions.

There is no "blurriness" at all I adjusted all terrain not only to blend together but it all has High contrast and color that I set to not only look appealing but show Units and Resources with crystal clarity.
Since you understand how to make and MOD terrain, then you must know that you cannot simply drop in any other terrain files without having to alter all other terrain files as well as all other graphics seen against it. IF not, you will have ugly lines for all tiles and each terrain type will not blend with any others. Trees, Roads, Railroads and all graphics seen against the terrain would also need to be changed to fit any new terrain change.

If you notice, I even made the Game Buttons and Window frames with hues that go with the terrain in a more pleasing manner. Everything was very scrutinized to look good alone and even better together in a very synergistic way.

The water color terrain that remains was intentionally left in but adjusted for far better contrast from this more softened look coupled with the high contrast, rich colored Trees, Roads, Railroads etc... See the Pine Forest against the Adjusted Water Color grassland or ther Resources against the various Terrain for example.

The Impassible Mountains were made to stand out enough to show a necessary and distinct difference for the player but also made to blend in and fit the over all terrain in a natural way to prevent it from appearing distracting or as something added that does not fit the Game.

AoI Deluxe has been radically remade across the board. All I ask is that players at least take a look at it before deciding out of assumption to change it

Here is a normal size Game Screen Shot to show contrast and the synergistic nature of the combined and adjusted Terrain.
Remember that no Screen Dhot can depict exactly what the actual game Graphics look like while playing the game.

[Leobon]

Don't you kind of think it's a bad idea to have a graphic for the world map to have statues that block off a couple centimeters of the map itself? When I look at the minimap I'd like to actually see the minimap and not have complete black zones.

[Vuldacon]

Originally Posted by Leobon

Don't you kind of think it's a bad idea to have a graphic for the world map to have statues that block off a couple centimeters of the map itself? When I look at the minimap I'd like to actually see the minimap and not have complete black zones.

You assume too much without having facts.
Nothing is blocked out by those images... see the backgrounds behind those images? The actual mini map window shows all the same as any mini map in any CIV Game.

[ChaosArbiter]

I think he means the arms pointing into the map itself - the right-side one goes into Russian territory and the fingers bracket a city.

[Vuldacon]

ChaosArbiter... he said "statues that block off a couple centimeters of the map" and he was referring to the Left and Right sides but as for the arms and fingers... you are kidding me right?
The mini map is not a static map and anyway, those small arms and fingers do not cause any problems

[Hikaro Takayama]

Vuldacon: Again, nothing personal, but IMHO, Warpstorm's Watercolor terrain, and all variant's thereof, are the UGLIEST terrain graphics, BAR-NONE, including the default Firaxis Terrain, and nothing pisses me off more than the way that scenario and mod designers seem to just LOVE using that visual abomination.

Seeing that SS of yours does nothing to change my opinion one iota... It's still that fuzzy, washed out style that I absolutely abhor about Warpstorm's terrain (and which gives me headaches and/or makes me think I need to get glasses), so I'm going to be replacing the terrain with some combination of Snoopy's and Ares' terrain....

....Especially since I have some of Pounder's mods to Snoopy's that make distinguishing between Coastal, Sea and Ocean tiles easier.

Again, this is my opinion.... I have similar views about Macintosh Computers and would rather use a hacked TI-81 calculator than any form of Mac, regardless of what Mac fanboys say about how great they are. I'm sorry if this upsets you, but it's nothing personal against you, only Warpstorm for creating that abomination in the first place.

EDIT: I will admit that you're alterations are vastly superior to Warpstorm's original terrain, but it still has that awful water-color wash look that I absolutely hate, even in real life art...

[Leobon]

Originally Posted by Vuldacon

You assume too much without having facts.
Nothing is blocked out by those images... see the backgrounds behind those images? The actual mini map window shows all the same as any mini map in any CIV Game.

The facts are that I can see the minimap because the minimap has been posted in a picture you took, no less. I'm assuming you are getting defensive because you made the minimap yourself:



Above the red lines are statues which cut out entire portions of the map. I can't even see the majority of New Zealand. There will be islands in the south Pacific I won't be able to see, the last third of New Guinea can't be seen... Having a cool minimap graphic seems like a good idea, but visibility of the actual minimap is paramount.

It just makes absolutely no sense why a graphic would be designed that makes it so you can't see the entire minimap. I don't know about anyone else, but I don't want to have to manually scroll to New Zealand to check if it's still British, or scroll to New Guinea to see who has taken it just because I've got this minimap graphic that forms blindspots.

--------

Those mountains look nice but the hills look like a blurred bunch of blobs...

[Vuldacon]

OK... Leobon, I realize you are just 13 years old and believe you know all but you are mistaken about your posted assumptions.

Rather than argue your youthful, sarcastic and antagonistic posts I will simply post a screen shot comparison of the Original CIV III mini map set up in AoI and the one that is now in it so you can compare them.

[wolf_brother]

Gentlemen, gentlemen, please, let us stop this pointless bickering.

Vuldacon, El Justo, and the rest of the AoI v4 team have already made their views clear about what is and is not going into the final cut for when v4 is finally posted. If you don't like something about the game, be it graphics or gameplay related, than change it. Posting about your intentions to do so however, especially in the thread about the project, before the actual release, is pointless - even more so by the fact that the team has already made it clear that there will be no more modifications to mod, and that version 4.0 is the last version. If you're going to change something, than do it, and enjoy what for you is a better quality gaming experience. But there's no reason to purposefully put up Vuldacon, El Justo et all's backs; that is only going to upset them and turn this entire thread and release into a ball of negativity and name-calling - on both sides. I think we can all agree that all-in-all this is a superb and fine addition to all of our modding collections, and something we'll spend countless hours enjoying.

[Leobon]

Originally Posted by Vuldacon

OK... Leobon, I realize you are just 13 years old and believe you know all but you are mistaken about your posted assumptions.

Rather than argue your youthful, sarcastic and antagonistic posts I will simply post a screen shot comparison of the Original CIV III mini map set up in AoI and the one that is now in it so you can compare them.

Hey, there's no need to personally insult me. I have not insulted you nor actually said a single thing that was a personal attack. All I said in two posts were how a minimap graphic was blocking off sight to the map itself. It was entirely inappropriate of you to make a comment generalizing my age simply because I critiqued something you made.

I like this scenario a great deal, and I play it often. I don't need to get that kind of offensive response to remarks I've made explaining why I don't like a minimap graphic...

[El Justo]

nice remarks wolf_brother. thanks for sharing

just trying to get some 11th hour testing in and looking for specifics, epspecially w/ Ivan.

one last remark - the orginal, base interface we're using needed some general adjustments over the course of the last 6 months. thus the mini map and countless other things were adjusted over this time. now, keep in mind, as Vuldacon rightly pointed out, the default civ3 interface minimap is off too. so we're talkin' 'bout 2 or 3 pixels here. i'll leave it at that and i hope this issue is put to bed

[Leobon]

Originally Posted by El Justo

nice remarks wolf_brother. thanks for sharing

just trying to get some 11th hour testing in and looking for specifics, epspecially w/ Ivan.

one last remark - the orginal, base interface we're using needed some general adjustments over the course of the last 6 months. thus the mini map and countless other things were adjusted over this time. now, keep in mind, as Vuldacon rightly pointed out, the default civ3 interface minimap is off too. so we're talkin' 'bout 2 or 3 pixels here. i'll leave it at that and i hope this issue is put to bed

I'm curious to a great deal about the role Scandinavia now has... I'm guessing on a fundamental level, things won't be too different, but I am curious: what kind of unit will Scandinavia build in its Antilles colony? Does Scandinavia have Overseas, or maybe Danish Infantry build everywhere, kind of like the Japanese Infantry? And, just curious about unit run-down for Scandinavia in general. Just like Hikaro has stated, I myself am very eager to go Viking.

I have another question, this time about Russia. How has the Siberian problem been resolved? And I mean barbarians... I know you mentioned (I think you mentioned) that barbarians were set to nothing, and through a trick, disabled... but I'm not familiar with specifics. I'm just a bit concerned they will spawn in Siberia, because it has been an issue where enemy nations rampage throughout Siberia once war with Russia is declared, and all their armies are up there.

I know people have talked a lot about the Siberian problem, but just wanted a bit of clarification.

Can't wait for the release.

[tom2050]

My Holy Goodness... If I had no common sense, I would have thought that this was all a bunch of jokes being thrown at them. First off, Firaxsis map doesn't fit perfect in the original graphic that came with the game, if you click the map... then you can see what it does. There is nothing that can be done about this, and new graphics must conform close to the original setup. I have created a new interface border as well, and that is how the map is.

There is a large difference between constructive critiscism, and leaving comments that straight up rip the creators hard work is bad.

It is a safe bet to say that there is someone that absolutely hates or hated some graphic somewhere, but writing a whole post about it is going too far.

I'm appalled that this even happened.

Vuldacon, your work and graphics are top notch in all aspects. Dedicated to Excellence sums your work up perfectly.

Tom

[Klyden]

Scandinavia is a more interesting position to play in 4.0 imo because of several changes. First, Denmark is not attached to the mainland anymore. You want it, invade it. This also means the Dannish infantry unit can only be built there. For the rest of European Scandinavia, you have to have a line of communcation back to Stockholm or Oslo in order to build regular Swedish (balanced) or Norwegian (more attack oriented) infantry. The light cav unit may be built any where and overseas, you can build sentry type units to start the game with a low end infantry unit available very early in the third era. Iceland will get a defense unit in the middle of the game that can only be built in Iceland. Most of the navy is of the generic variety except for the coastal battleships and there are a lot to choose from. Airforce wise, they get export versions of various aircraft from the German line. Early in the game features "cultural wars" with Germany along the borders trying to get as much territory as possible. The position is not big, but I have seen it cause plenty of trouble for whoever is getting attacked (usually Russia). It is also pretty stout for its size from an economic standpoint of view and having the cultural traits of industrious and scientific don't hurt either.

For Russia, the "start a standard game without barbarians and then save it and quit" trick works great. We have had no barbarian issues at all (as in there is nothing that pops at all in game). This was also an issue in Canada as well.

[Hikaro Takayama]

Hmmm.... I dunno, but my primary goal as Scandinavia is to liberate Finland/Karelia, plus Murmansk (Romanov on Murman), whenever the opportunity arises.... Once I expand a little bit, who knows, maybe "liberate" "Vinland" from British rule or take the historical path of raiding Ireland and Scotland....

Just like my Boer game, I'll just have to play it and see.

[wolf_brother]

Originally Posted by Klyden

Scandinavia is a more interesting position to play in 4.0 imo because of several changes. First, Denmark is not attached to the mainland anymore. You want it, invade it.

Hmmm-wha????
Just curious, as that seems such a major change, what was the thought-process behind such an alteration?

[TsarNikolai]

Originally Posted by Klyden

First, Denmark is not attached to the mainland anymore.

Are you serious? Could we have a shot of this?

[West 36]

I'm guessing that with Copenhagen being on an island, they put it on an island. Culture probably flows over the Danish peninsula where there may be infrastructure already, maybe resources, but this makes sense, I think.