Hey everyone, I had a small idea that is slowly developing into a larger one. I brought it up in the ideas thread, and was suggested to make a dedicated thread. A fair warning: if I end up being the only one to work on this, it'll be mediocre; I only have experience with xml. In that case, it will probably be a modmod, but if others show interest and hop in, they can integrate it into the svn.
As for the expansion itself, there are a few generic things I want to outline before moving on to details. Firstly, I want to introduce uses for resources that currently don't have much/any use. Secondly, I want to introduce some new resources for resource/refinement. That brings me to my third idea, expanding refinement chains, and introducing chains where there were none, where I believe there should be.
I don't have everything planned yet, but I do have some examples. As I come up with new ideas, I will begin to work onbthe xml, and update this thread (and perhaps organize it). The first example I shared in the ideas thread. Currently, gunpowder units only require sulfur. I am planning on doing a couple of things here. First of all, irl, traditional (i.e non-modern) gunpowder was made with niter, sulfur, and charcoal. From what I've read, sulfur is extremely common irl, so I was going to replace sulfur with niter. Something like a gunpowder workshop would be needed for producing gunpowder, which would be needed for gunpowder units. The workshop itself would require niter and charcoal.
Modern gunpowder units (i.e those with repeating rifles) would require smokeless powder. This would also require a workshop; which itself would require niter, charcoal, and nitrocellulose. This resource would be made with another building, using cotton and nitrogenous waste (which would be provided by the animal and crop farm buildings already in game). I was thinking of perhaps making an and/or list for the cellulose in nitrocellulose; traditionally, cotton has been used for the source of cellulose, but other plants high in cellulose, like hemp, could work in theory. I'd like to here from the community on this; otherwise I'll only use cotton.
Currently, there is a building ingame, very early on, that provides hematite ore, with no use. Hematite has been used for millennia to create cave paintings with the well-known red pigment it creates. Hematite could then be used for the dye maker, or perhaps as a requirement for cave paintings, including the Lascaux wonder (which, IIRC, currently requires dye instead). Hematite is also the most abundant iron ore in the world, making up for a lot of iron production. It could be used to make iron ingots with iron working, but there would either have to be a malus for using it instead of iron (which I would rename magnetite, the ore richest in iron), or a bonus for using magnetite (like extra production from smelter and/or smith).
There is more I have thought about, but this post is getting lengthy, and my lunch break is wearing thin. I welcome all advice, suggestions, and other constructive criticism. If you have any ideas, or an opinion on one of the decisions I've yet to make (like the potential bonus for using iron/magnetite instead of hematite), please provide your input.
As for the expansion itself, there are a few generic things I want to outline before moving on to details. Firstly, I want to introduce uses for resources that currently don't have much/any use. Secondly, I want to introduce some new resources for resource/refinement. That brings me to my third idea, expanding refinement chains, and introducing chains where there were none, where I believe there should be.
I don't have everything planned yet, but I do have some examples. As I come up with new ideas, I will begin to work onbthe xml, and update this thread (and perhaps organize it). The first example I shared in the ideas thread. Currently, gunpowder units only require sulfur. I am planning on doing a couple of things here. First of all, irl, traditional (i.e non-modern) gunpowder was made with niter, sulfur, and charcoal. From what I've read, sulfur is extremely common irl, so I was going to replace sulfur with niter. Something like a gunpowder workshop would be needed for producing gunpowder, which would be needed for gunpowder units. The workshop itself would require niter and charcoal.
Modern gunpowder units (i.e those with repeating rifles) would require smokeless powder. This would also require a workshop; which itself would require niter, charcoal, and nitrocellulose. This resource would be made with another building, using cotton and nitrogenous waste (which would be provided by the animal and crop farm buildings already in game). I was thinking of perhaps making an and/or list for the cellulose in nitrocellulose; traditionally, cotton has been used for the source of cellulose, but other plants high in cellulose, like hemp, could work in theory. I'd like to here from the community on this; otherwise I'll only use cotton.
Currently, there is a building ingame, very early on, that provides hematite ore, with no use. Hematite has been used for millennia to create cave paintings with the well-known red pigment it creates. Hematite could then be used for the dye maker, or perhaps as a requirement for cave paintings, including the Lascaux wonder (which, IIRC, currently requires dye instead). Hematite is also the most abundant iron ore in the world, making up for a lot of iron production. It could be used to make iron ingots with iron working, but there would either have to be a malus for using it instead of iron (which I would rename magnetite, the ore richest in iron), or a bonus for using magnetite (like extra production from smelter and/or smith).
There is more I have thought about, but this post is getting lengthy, and my lunch break is wearing thin. I welcome all advice, suggestions, and other constructive criticism. If you have any ideas, or an opinion on one of the decisions I've yet to make (like the potential bonus for using iron/magnetite instead of hematite), please provide your input.