1492: Global Colonization. Mod development

[KJ Jansson]

"1492: Global Colonization. Resource Pack" is available here.
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Here I present first screens from new mod "1492: Global Colonization".

All the world will be available for colonization. A very detailed Earth map of extra-huge size with Wrap option is used a map.

Map parameters are following:

BeginMap
	grid width=210
	grid height=90
	top latitude=90
	bottom latitude=-90
	wrap X=1
	wrap Y=0
	world size=WORLDSIZE_HUGE
	climate=CLIMATE_TEMPERATE
	sealevel=SEALEVEL_HIGH
	num plots written=18900
	num signs written=0
	Randomize Resources=false
EndMap

Let's consider some features. As example I took England

Turn 1:
Two point are visible for the player:
- English ship with two colonists located somewhere in Atlantic ocean
- London and "Europe entrance point" near London



Turn 4:
The ship discovers the New World.



Turn 5:
Jamestown is the first British colony is New World. The ship returns to London.



Turn 12:
The ship is near London and "Europe entrance square".



Turn 14:
Now the ship disappers in London.



The same turn, "Europa" screen. After one turn the ship will berth in London.



Turn 15:
The ship is in London, boards a colonist and sails in New World.



After 1 turn the ship will be near London again.



Turn 16:
The ship with a colonist on the way In New World.



Turn 26:
Jamestown as a final point of our trip....

 

[drjest2000]

In a word Woot! I LOVE this idea! I am looking forward to this mod already!

 

[TC01]

Might I suggest using the Home Cities on Map modcomp for Mare Nostrum? Then instead of having to make a Europe entrance square right next to London, London itself can be the entrance square.

We're using (and updating it) in Westward Ho, or we will be in the future.

 

[KJ Jansson]

Might I suggest using the Home Cities on Map modcomp for Mare Nostrum? Then instead of having to make a Europe entrance square right next to London, London itself can be the entrance square.

We're using (and updating it) in Westward Ho, or we will be in the future.

Well, you can use London as "Europe entrance point". Your ship will enter London. However, the problems appear when you try to return in New World.

As I see from my experiments you must have at least one "Europe entrance point" outside of your HomeCity independently on the terrain type (ocean, grass, etc). Thus, both ships and diligances could be used for trade and colonists transportation.

Last feature is very important for civilizations that use both naval and land type of colonizations like Russia (Siberia colonization) or Sweden (East campaign).

 

[Chibiabos]

Will this allow for the possibility of not merely fighting off your mother kingdom in the WoI but actually invading and conquering them?

 

[KJ Jansson]

Will this allow for the possibility of not merely fighting off your mother kingdom in the WoI but actually invading and conquering them?

I don't think that such operations are possible at all. However, during WoI all King's ships travelling to attack your settlements in New World should be visible. It means you could attack them in Atlantic.

The general idea of this mod is to colonize not only America, but also Africa, Austarlia, some regions like Siberia in Asia. That is all the world except Europe.

 

[Androrc the Orc]

This is a great idea

I was beginning to try to do something like that sometime ago, enabling diplomacy for european civs and such, but never got really far.

 

[KJ Jansson]

1492: Global Colonization. Mod development

I. Resources.

List of Goods and Materials:



A very draft version of modified Europe screen with new set of tradable resources.



And city screen:

 

[drjest2000]

This looks exactly like the "dream list" of tradeable goods I have been hoping for! Thank you! I look forward to the first release with great anticipation.

I am approaching completion of the giant Col Gold mod which will inter-weave with your work, I hope =)

 

[i_diavolorosso]

Wow, that's a lot of goods!
Good luck with your progress!

 

[KJ Jansson]

This looks exactly like the "dream list" of tradeable goods I have been hoping for! Thank you! I look forward to the first release with great anticipation.

I am approaching completion of the giant Col Gold mod which will inter-weave with your work, I hope =)

I hope I could finish this part of work, however now I'm just in the beginning of a very long way. Of course, when my mod will be ready, I'll publish it and you could absolutely freely include full or any part of my mod in your mods. This rule will be valid for everybody, of course. Source codes will be published as a separate file because they are interesting only for mod-makers.

To my opinion, New World is a source of new resources for Europe. Therefore such resources as cocoa, tea, spices, gems, ebony, ivory, silver and gold must be added only for trade. I plan no post-processing of such resources in New World's colonies.

Next point is strategic materials: lumber and stone. They are required to construct buildings. At least Fortress made only from wood looks a little bit funny. All high grade buildings (Cityhall, Printing Press, Newspaper etc.) in the city will require both lumber and mainly stone to be build.

No changes for tobacco resource. This is a raw material for cigars.

No changes for furs at the moment. This is a raw material for coat production.

"Cotton" term as a raw material for cloth should be extended. "Cloth" could be produced not only from cotton, but also from wool, flax, etc.

Serious changes made for "sugar" resource. First of all "sugar" remains a raw material for "rum" production, however as you see from icons on last screens "rum" term exchanged on "alcohol". Moreover the icon for "sugar" contains many additional components. It means that "alcohol" could be produced not only from sugar, but also from "food" (apples, wheat, rice, etc.). Especially for this purposes I entered in the game new profession "Bootlegger" who can prepare home-made alcohol from food resources.

Here the screen:



Distiller shelter, Distiller house, and Rum factory could be used by both units "Master distiller" and "Bootlegger" at the same time.

Drugs or medical herbs will be absolutely required when illness and epidemic features will be included in the game. Theoretically it's possibly to do by the same way as I entered weather features in mod "Model: Mortally Dangerous Colonization". Here new buildings in the city like Drugstore and Hospital will be also very useful.

Incense resource could be interesting for the religious part of the game. Some quantity of incense will be necessary to convert native, or just a presence of incense in the city increases somehow the generation of crosses. This is just possible variants how incense could be used.

Artisan's goods. This is absolutely new product.

Artisan goods are the handiwork of the natives in small villages across the World. Far from the European civilization, these native artisans create remarkable works of art as they balance a traditional social structure and way of living with the forces of modernity. Artisan's goods are made from silver, gold, ivory, ebony and many other rare or even unknown to Europeans valuable materials. Rich Europeans pay an exorbitant price for artisans goods from the New World. Natives are ready to exchange their artisan's produced goods on European products mainly guns, alcohol, horses, tools.

I guess "artisan's goods" must be used instead money during trading with natives. Absolutely crazy when natives have European money before their first contact with European civilization. And here rather expensive "Artisan's goods" could be a good equivalent to money for natives. Natives will exchange their "artisan's goods" on guns, alcohol, etc. on marketplaces that are proposed by Viscos in "New building for native". How to realize this idea in source codes - this is a question I have no answer at the moment. Any help will be GREATLY appreciated.

"Slaves". This new tradable product. Partially slaves already appear in Kailric's "Privateers, Pirates, and Buccaneers" mod. The "slaves" must be included especially when we play on World map where African continent is one of place for European colonization. How exactly it will be done, I don't know jet, too.

 

[blue-army]

I thought of a slave mechanic a while back, but due to my limited modding skill was unable to implement it.
my idea was to have slaves a resource on terrain. slaves are not part of a specific terrain, and are represented by the tribal village graphic. a new colonist called a slave trader could be made.

 

[Androrc the Orc]

Have you managed to make it so European civilizations can expand, it's AI to function well and such properly? IMO this would be the most essential part, since it would make the Earth map viable.

 

[Pfeffersack]

This mods idea seems very promising, reminds be of Imperialism II Good luck with the further development!

 

[KJ Jansson]

New distribution of mineral resources.



Now all plain terrains have no mineral resources at all. Both hills and peaks are the sources of raw mineral resources (stone, ore, silver, gold, mineral gems).

Stone is a new and strategically important building material required to constact both military and higher level buildings.



The stone can be carried on the hills (+1 stone), on peaks (+3) and from stone deposits.



A Quarry (see photo) can be build on any of hills, peaks or stone deposits that give additionally +2 stone. "Stonecutter" is a new profession in the game.



You can buy stonecutter in Europe.



Ore can be found in ore deposits (+4), on hills and peaks (+2). The ore distribution on hills and peaks is contradict to elementary logic and my knowlegde of the geology, however I enforced to leave +2 ore on hills and peaks because the ore is absolutely required for tools and guns production.

Silver, gold and mineral gems could be found only in silver, gold and gems deposites, correspondingly. The peaks give no more +1 silver. The player must search the deposites of silver, gold or mineral gems, then constract the mine (+1 silver, +1 gold or +1 gems) and then buy in Europe the specialist (Silver, Gold or Gemstones miner). (photo Gemstone Miner.jpg)

 

[Crime Doesn't Pay]

How close is this mod to completion?

 

[KJ Jansson]

How close is this mod to completion?

Well, it's depend what you mean as "completion".

The mod is absolutely playable now, however a part of new resources just added in the source codes and are visible on the game screens. Practically each new resource is required a new specialist (with new profession) who will gather this resource. I finished "Stone cutter", "Gemstones Miner" and practically with "Pearls Hunter" professions. Comparing to gemstones and pearls that are just a valuable goods ("source of money"), the stone is strategically important material. Stone is required for new building construction as you see from the first page of rather long Table

Plus a new resource distribution system should be created. I already changed this system for mineral resources (stone, silver, gold, gemstones and partially for ore). To my opinion something similar should be done for other resources like "food", tea, cocoa, spices, etc. At least I will change the current system that according to CIV4TerrainInfos.xml gives for instance

			<Type>[COLOR="Red"][B]TERRAIN_MARSH[/B][/COLOR]</Type>
			<Description>TXT_KEY_TERRAIN_MARSH</Description>
			<Civilopedia>TXT_KEY_TERRAIN_MARSH_PEDIA</Civilopedia>
			<ArtDefineTag>ART_DEF_TERRAIN_MARSH</ArtDefineTag>
			<Yields>
				<YieldIntegerPair>
					<YieldType>YIELD_FOOD</YieldType>
					<iValue>2</iValue>
				</YieldIntegerPair>
				<YieldIntegerPair>
					<YieldType>[COLOR="Red"][B]YIELD_SUGAR[/B][/COLOR]</YieldType>
					<iValue>3</iValue>
				</YieldIntegerPair>
			</Yields>
			<RiverYieldIncreases>
				<YieldIntegerPair>
					<YieldType>YIELD_FOOD</YieldType>
					<iValue>1</iValue>
				</YieldIntegerPair>
				<YieldIntegerPair>
					<YieldType>YIELD_SUGAR</YieldType>
					<iValue>1</iValue>
				</YieldIntegerPair>
			</RiverYieldIncreases>

+3 Sugar in MARSH! ....!!! Such and similar "strange" points I plan to exclude from "1492: Global Colonization" mod.

I would be very glad to listen some ideas and proposals concerning new resources distribution system.

 

[Pasha fr Russia]

Why gems are so cheap?
Excuse me kabjans,
I hsve BAN on our forum.

 

[KJ Jansson]

Why gems are so cheap?

I didn't changed the prices of new resources in Europe. Of course, all prices of all goods on European market will be rebalanced as it was done in my previous mods.

To my opinion the gemstones price should be on the same level as gold price or even higher. Here we have to take into account the ratio between gold and gemstone veins available on the map. More rare material will have higher price on European market.

 

[Androrc the Orc]

Pretty good

What changes have you made so far? And when do you expect to release the first version of the mod?