20th Century Great Works - 30 new GAs, 30 new GWs, 1 new GM!

GutFeeling

Chieftain
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20th Century Great Works

I'm proud to announce the release of my first mod, 20th Century Great Works!

It can be downloaded directly from CivFanatics here: DOWNLOAD
EDIT: That file is out of date -- three of the Great Works were of an incorrect size and caused errors. The current, fully functional version can be downloaded from the Steam Workshop here: DOWNLOAD

This mod greatly increases the number of Great Works in the game, with the theme being that each new Great Work is from the 20th Century (expect sequels focusing on earlier centuries in the future). Artists include Henri Matisse (above), Salvador Dali, Marcel Duchamp, and R. Crumb. Writers include Philip K. Dick, Kurt Vonnegut, H.P. Lovecraft, and Allen Ginsberg. Many others abound!

I hope you all enjoy the fruits of my research and labor! Feel free to comment and critique.
 
Wonderful! Especially that you have Kurt Vonnegut and Allen Ginsberg, both of whom I have met. GInsberg signed my copy of "Howl" - it is one of my prize possessions.
 
Great, perfect, cant say more.....
 
Thanks for the mod. I always like added variety. :)
Is it possible to use it in my already started game?
Thanks in advance. :)
 
To my knowledge, this mod will work perfectly well with an already-started game.

However, guys, I must sadly warn that there is a bug with this release. Three of my Great Artists -- Alice Neel, Oskar Kokoschka, and Henri Matisse -- produce Great Works that cause errors. I have remedied this and am on the cusp of releasing this mod to the Steam Workshop -- I have had unreliable Internet access until now due to travelling -- within the next day I will post a link to the fully functional mod.

EDIT: The main post has been updated with a new download link! Get it from the Steam Workshop here: DOWNLOAD
 
To my knowledge, this mod will work perfectly well with an already-started game.

However, guys, I must sadly warn that there is a bug with this release. Three of my Great Artists -- Alice Neel, Oskar Kokoschka, and Henri Matisse -- produce Great Works that cause errors. I have remedied this and am on the cusp of releasing this mod to the Steam Workshop -- I have had unreliable Internet access until now due to travelling -- within the next day I will post a link to the fully functional mod.

EDIT: The main post has been updated with a new download link! Get it from the Steam Workshop here: DOWNLOAD

Thanks for the update. :) Unfortunately I must say that my game crashes while loading when adding your mod. I'm not sure if something went wrong while downloading from Steam or so, but in any case it might not be save-game compatible. I guess I'll just use it in my next game then. Good things are worth waiting for. :old:
 
It came out of nowhere, and this mod is great! As much as I dislike a part of 20th century art, it surely deserves recognition in CiV. :)

Thank you! I'm not sure which part of 20th century art you're personally referring to, but you might notice that this mod doesn't include much abstract art. There's several movements that I didn't include a representation of. I found that from a gameplay perspective, abstract art felt really boring to get. You only get so many Great Works per playthrough, and getting something like a typical De Stijl piece or one of Rothko's fields of solid color feels like a letdown.

And I'm too unfamiliar with message boards to know how to quote cleaner in the same post. In response to your post: Thanks for letting me know about this issue. I'll investigate this. This is my first mod for Civ V and I guess I'm not familiar with what kinds of mods are compatible with existing saves. As this mod simply adds to the list of Great Artists, Writers, etcetera, I would have figured it would work simply. Glad to hear you'll still use the mod in your next game! I hope you enjoy the added variety; I feel like this mod adds quite a bit of it.
 
Thank you! I'm not sure which part of 20th century art you're personally referring to, but you might notice that this mod doesn't include much abstract art.

I really don't like the Dada movement, post-war abstract art and conceptualism (which still reigns supreme today). But that's just personal preference, and I have a few exceptions to the rule, which are...

You only get so many Great Works per playthrough, and getting something like a typical De Stijl piece or one of Rothko's fields of solid color feels like a letdown.

...those ;) As much as I dislike abstract, I like Rothko - for the very sole reason that those paintings would look good up on my wall, and it's in staunch opposition to Pollock's abominations. But I understand that - from a player's point of view - you want to get a Great work that is Great at the first glance - and abstract art of any kind is, I agree, hard to digest when you have only a tiny moment in-game to watch it.

But the thumbnail of the mod (Lichtenstein) made me insta-subscribe, one of the only pop-art artists I admire. I've checked the mod folder - I thought you wouldn't include Malevich, but you did! Kudos.

The art discussion should be now over ;)
 
The art discussion should be now over ;)

Not realy, you great icon designer, pleace make more of this kind.
CiV needs more kind of various and you did a great job here so far.
 
I could totally continue this conversation (I like Dada and Pollock) but if it's over, okay. ;)

Anyway! I've updated this mod to v2.1. I added a new Great Artist - Wu Guanzhong - to bring the total up to 30 - I had originally miscounted and only included 29 artists in this mod. I fixed a spelling error in the title of Abanindranath Tagore's Great Work. Finally, I adjusted the color levels in the Grandma Moses Great Work to make it pop a bit more.

EDIT: Also, I want to outline future plans. I started selecting pieces a week or two back for a sequel called "19th Century Great Works" and discovered some pieces I'm really excited about. I have the half-crazy idea to release mods of 30 Artists/Writers for each century, going three or four centuries back -- I have selections in my Pictures folder going as far back as the 16th century. Then, I may compile my favorites from each century, with selections across all other centuries, into a massive mod adding 100 Artists and Writers and as close to that number in Musicians (when modding in sound is possible) as I can manage. If a way were discovered to make Great Works tied to certain eras (specifically, the Modern Era and beyond), I could easily hit 100 Musicians when rock music is factored in. It's too anachronistic to add in the way the system is currently designed. Currently, there's also a design flaw in the game when it comes to Great Works -- there just aren't enough of them, so it's possible to run out later in the game, especially in larger games -- so this mod would have a real practical purpose other than being an excuse for me to curate a bunch of collections of art.

I'm also starting to think of what Great Musicians I'd like to add to this mod when it becomes possible. Two that jump out in my mind are Igor Stravinsky (I don't think he's in the game) and Harry Partch. I also like "The Sinking of the Titanic" by Gavin Bryars. Are there any music nerds out there who know of composers I should look at?

Finally, I'd love to add spoken narration of the Great Writer quotes to this mod when it becomes possible, to really give it a layer of polish, but I haven't thought out the logistics of that yet. So anybody with the setup to do this well, and the time and interest to do this, who may be reading this, let me know!
 
I'm already looking forward to the next installments. :)
It's now working in my fresh game, as I noticed by a great work by Virginia Woolf, and its lack of voice-over. As nice as voice-over would be, I prefer it though over some that doesn't quiet fit in. If you manage to mod it into the game, I hope you'll either have one yourself, or find a fitting voice. :)
I also would love to have great works tied to specific eras, good luck in getting something like that integrated! :borg:
 
Not realy, you great icon designer, pleace make more of this kind.
CiV needs more kind of various and you did a great job here so far.

I didn't want to derail the thread with art discussion, which would quickly evolve into a flame fest based on everyone's preferences ;) It's better to talk about the mod itself.


Also, I want to outline future plans. I started selecting pieces a week or two back for a sequel called "19th Century Great Works" and discovered some pieces I'm really excited about. I have the half-crazy idea to release mods of 30 Artists/Writers for each century, going three or four centuries back -- I have selections in my Pictures folder going as far back as the 16th century. Then, I may compile my favorites from each century, with selections across all other centuries, into a massive mod adding 100 Artists and Writers and as close to that number in Musicians (when modding in sound is possible) as I can manage.

This is a great plan and I'm looking forward to it! There easily are that many artists that need acknowledgment in Civ. Just please don't forget to throw in a few Polish artists there, especially in the 19th century pack, there are some great paintings ;) Not that I am biased or anything :mischief:
 
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