Mars, Now

[Garett20]

"The Mars, the red planet. Potentially the new home of mankind. After years of failed missions, the humans begin to colonize the planet. Brave men, lionhearted women and mad scientists are looking towards a vague future. Will they succeed at building a new society? We'll see it. YOU'll see it!
The Mars. Now!"

Mars, Now
​

Mars, Now is a total conversion mod for Civ5 based on The_J's mod for BTS which in turn was based on a scenario from Civ2.

Mars, Now consists of at least:

• 15 playable civs
• Totally new units
• Totally new buildings
• Totally new tech-tree
• New Resources
• 3 new victories

Link to Civ4 thread: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=312246

This mod is, at the moment, a totally blank slate with production just starting now. All current Ideas/Functions are WIP's and are likely to change a lot before release.

Any feedback/help, is welcome.

All credit for idea's (unless otherwise noted) goes to The_J

 

[Garett20]

New Concepts
These are some things I want to add.

Evolution Tree: Instead of Culture social policies you have an evolution tree allowing you to gain certain bonuses from evolution, and eventually an evolution victory.

Craters: Various craters will appear throughout the game containing valuable resources, undiscovered metals, and, in some cases, even life!(Not going to be implemented until DLL. Graphics will not work)

Oxygen/Water: Colonists will require 1 Oxygen and 1 Water which you will not get back when they are destroyed/found city. Oxygen will be plentiful. Water can only be found in polar regions. Both can be requested from earth through a natural wonder.

Mercenaries: At the beginning of the game you will only be able to recruit mercenaries. Eventually you will be able to build your own units. More on this soon

CO2: Co2 will be represented by a simple integer. Various buildings/improvements will reduce the CO2 level. Certain buildings will increase the CO2 levels. The Space Mirror, a neccesity for people going for a terraforming victory, will greatly increase the CO2 level.

Dust Devils: Dust devils will roam across the map damaging any units caught in them.
Still trying to figure out how to do this.

Many more to come.

 

[Garett20]

Tech tree
Largely the same as the Civ 4 mod, with a little tweaking here and there.

 

[Garett20]

Civilizations

• African Union (AUSA Fictional)
• Canada (CSA)
• European Union (ESA)
• India (ISRO)
• Israel (ISA)
• Japan (JAXA)
• Jail Rock Inc.
• Korean Empire (KARI)
• Mars-Colonists
• United States of America (NASA)
• OPEC
• People's Republic of China (CNSA)
• Private Space Explorers(Fictional)
• Russian Federation (FKA)
• Mars Cult (fictional)
  Possibly more to come.

City-States

• Greece(ISARS)
• Thailand(GISTA)
• Peru(CONIDA)
• Mongolia(NRSC)
• Sweden(SNSB)
• Bangldesh(SPARRSO)
• Sri Lanka (SRSA)
• Ecuador (EXA)
• Australia (CSIRO)

Terrain

Spoiler :

 

[The_J]

Nice to see that you're trying your hands on the project .
I guess it will need much time, due to the modding problems in general and the specific problems (e.g. where to get the right graphics), but i hope it will be doable in a reasonable time.
Reskinning terrain should be possible, and restructuring the tech tree also, and with the GDR there's at least one usable unit -> the very much core can be done, and with some time the rest too.

Good luck mate .

 

[Garett20]

Thanks, I'll need it.

 

[Garett20]

 

[GeoModder]

Yes?

Critique of pure reason:

What do you mean by "evolution" as replacement of the SocPoc's? Genetic meddling? Biological changes? Nano stuff? All things mentioned?
The craters feature are new impactors that occur during gameplay? Will they be able to destroy established settlements?
Oxygen/Water: oxygen sure isn't too much of a problem. You only need a sort of collector able to separate atmospheric gases and store them. For polar water only, there's a distinct possibility that aquifiers exist deep under the bedrock of Mars.
What kind of buildings/improvements do you see reducing carbon dioxide? Nitrogen might be better use as a sparse resource on Mars. It's a necessity for a human-breathable atmosphere, and will compete as a necessary component of agricultural soil. And frankly I don't see a connection between a space mirror and co2. A space mirror can only adjust the amount of light the Martian surface receives, no the carbon level. Of course, more sunlight is better for agriculture and other flora too.

 

[Garett20]

Yes?

Critique of pure reason:

What do you mean by "evolution" as replacement of the SocPoc's? Genetic meddling? Biological changes? Nano stuff? All things mentioned?
The craters feature are new impactors that occur during gameplay? Will they be able to destroy established settlements?
Oxygen/Water: oxygen sure isn't too much of a problem. You only need a sort of collector able to separate atmospheric gases and store them. For polar water only, there's a distinct possibility that aquifiers exist deep under the bedrock of Mars.
What kind of buildings/improvements do you see reducing carbon dioxide? Nitrogen might be better use as a sparse resource on Mars. It's a necessity for a human-breathable atmosphere, and will compete as a necessary component of agricultural soil. And frankly I don't see a connection between a space mirror and co2. A space mirror can only adjust the amount of light the Martian surface receives, no the carbon level. Of course, more sunlight is better for agriculture and other flora too.

1. Basically getting the science to genetically alter yourself to better suit the conditions on Mars

2.Yes Craters may destroy cities

3.I'm considering making an improvement which you can build anywhere which has a 15% chance of discovering water.

4. I saw a documentary where a current scientist has designed a machine which draws in carbon dioxide and neutralizes it with water mixed with some chemical I can't remember the name of.

5.The connection between a space mirror and CO2 is that it would melt the ice caps, Releasing liquid water and CO2

 

[Garett20]

Terrain Updated

 

[The_J]

Terrain Updated

You must have messed something up with the images, they don't show up for me.

 

[Garett20]

Weird they show up fine for me. re-uploaded

 

[The_J]

Fixed them in the 4th post for you.

And that looks really nice , congrats to the first step .

 

[Garett20]

Thanks!

 

[christos200]

i have some questions:

1) in which year does te player starts?

2) will the player be able to speak to earth leaders? (like People's Republic of China asks for help china or if china declares war on russia you have to attack Russian Federation.)

3) what the new victory conditions are?

 

[Garett20]

i have some questions:

1) in which year does te player starts?

2) will the player be able to speak to earth leaders? (like People's Republic of China asks for help china or if china declares war on russia you have to attack Russian Federation.)

3) what the new victory conditions are?

1) 2117

2) Definetly going to have it, I just don't know how I'm going to impliment it.

3)Terraforming and Evolution victories. Terraforming will be won by getting the CO2 level low enough, and the oxygen level low enough. Evolution victory is the same as cultural. And a third which I forgot to update is independence victory, which is like old school cultural victory but with independence points(which need a better name)

 

[Garett20]

 

[royal62184]

I love sci-fi mods like this but for the love god I wish we could do layered maps. One for earth one for mars and a third plane traveling between the two. They accomplished this in Civ II: Test of Time and i've been hoping for it ever since. Sigh . Best of luck with your mod. I'll definitely play it.

 

[Garett20]

Thanks!

 

[Civ Fuehrer]

I must confess I never played The_J's Mars, Now mod for Civ IV but I always kept tabs on it out of interest. This mod version is a nice carry-over with the new ideas to keep things fresh.

@royal62184
Multi-layered maps are nearly impossible nowadays. It came out to be just as I had predicted. In Civ 2, the single map didn't take up very much RAM or processing speed at all so the expansion added that when the computers got better. In Civ 3, the greater detailed maps made the game run smoothly but at a more demanding rate. Sure it would have been possible to do it in 3 but only the best of the computers at that time would have been able to run such a thing. With 4, the new 3D engine hogged nearly all the memory of the computer it ran on and made multi-layered maps impossible with a few optimizations with BTS and not that many computer advancements, implementing such a thing would make most computers run too hot. Finally in 5 the multi-threading capabilities along with the different running versions (DirectX 9, 10, 11) might allow for the return of multi-layering maps in a future expansion after a big amount of optimization. As it is now, the single map on the biggest size taxes even the fastest of computers late-game heavily along with a limited amount of tiles that the game is capable of rendering, again, hogging all the memory of your computer like in 4.

@Garett20
The function capability of communicating to earth would be possible, but would take a very long time to implement. You may or may not be aware of the mod that I'm currently programming called The Ascent of Mankind. It's a planetary mod that would allow micromanagement to distant planets. As it happens one of the planned future installments of ATOM is to include aliens and the capability to conduct diplomacy with other races across the galaxy. I just thought you would like to know that such a thing as to conduct diplomacy with other planets(or in this case with Earth) will be in store for mod development when I get around to it which will probably be in a couple years.