A Stargate Mod for Civ4 is needed

[ModSercherTex]

Hi, I am a big Stargate fan and I have been looking for a Stargate Mod for Civ4. I have found a lot of Stargate stuff for Civ3, like the Stargate SG-1: The Battle At Dakara Beta Mod and a hole lot of units meant for Stargate Civ3 Mods. I also found an unfinished Civ3 Mod (New Stargate Mod Atlantis, and SG1), but the closest thing I found for Civ4 was a scenario that only had the original members of SG-1 as civilization leaders.

So getting to the point of this thread I propose that we create one. I have set up this thread for people to deposit Mod/Scenario parts like units, buildings, maps, etc. Then we can combine them to create a hole Mod and/or Scenario out of them. You can also deposit completed Mods/Scenarios. I will organize the information as it comes in. I am new at this so most of the work will have to be dun by others until I get the hang of it. So tell your friends that like to create new Mods/Scenarios and try to get them to help. The more people working on this the better.

Before this thread even gets started I would like to thank all that contribute to it even if all they do is ask others to help. So thanks.

 

[ModSercherTex]

This is where the list will be and I will try to update it at least once a week. Also I will be giving credit to the people that submit stuff by adding their name next to what they added on the list.

Hear is a download link for some doable zipped pictures from the Web that may help.
(download Pictures.zip)

Mods

Scenarios

Ideas for Mods/Scenarios
1.) An all Goa'uld Scenario submitted by ModSercherTex
2.) Stargate SG-1 Series Scenario submitted on page 4 by Crayton

Units

Buildings/Cities

Maps

Tech Trees

Tech

Movies

Leader heads

Civilizations

Other Parts

Ideas for Parts
1.) Goa'uld leader heads' eyes glow submitted by snipperrabbit!!

 

[snipperrabbit!!]

I have an idea for how to make leaderheads' eyes glow. Needing further investigation right now.

 

[Crayton]

Thanks for doing the searching for me. I saw a lot of Civ3 stuff but couldn't find any for Civ4. I too think a basic mod/scenario needs to be created.

Here is an idea for a basic scenario. Most of this is brainstorming, which an idea needs at initial stages like this. (brain)Storm all over these ideas if you feel it needs to be done.

The map is a series of planets surrounded by space (graphically modified ocean) which can only be crossed by hyperspace ships. Most of these planets have a stargate. You start on Earth and the (major?) Goauld System Lords each start with a rough estimate of their strength in 1994 or 1997.

You control earth (7 cities or so representing regions) and have "Homeland Security Offices" in the city "America." The unit "SG Team" has the ability to travel to any undiscovered stargate on the map at random, however, it can only travel to Abydos and back until the Technology "DHD" (or something similar) is researched.

Only America (because of its Homeland Security Offices) can create an SG Team or any buildings or units requiring knowledge of aliens or alien technology. Homeland Security Offices can be built in another Earth city but completion runs the risk (25%?) of pandemonium and world war (simulated by half/most of the world becoming a 2nd Earth civilization, at war with yours). This is the closest I could come to replacing the IOA.

The goauld half of the game could function like a regicide game. Each system lord has a single Mothership that they occupy. Destruction of this ship destroys the Goauld Lord and his forces enter civil war with all other System Lords or immediately become absorbed into the existing System Lords' forces (or both, with some Jaffa becoming free).

The currency of the Goauld is Naquadah. As the Tauri (Earth) attempt to research technology, the Goauld divert their "gold" toward obtaining more "Naquadah" (like wealth or culture in the original game). Their main building for helping this in a Naquadah mining facility.

I like the idea of starting with a simple scenario on which we can build. How exactly a stargate functions (building, improvement, resource, new coded feature) is something that needs to be determined and I don't have an out-of-the-park idea for implementation.

The simple scenario can be Earth trying to destroy all system Lords and free the Jaffa. Scripted events like the rise of Anubis, the invasion of the Replicators, and the appearence of Origin can all be added later (and I look forward to getting to the point where they can be added).

A list of Ancient Wonders like the Superweapon at Dakara should also be brainstormed.

System Lords (major ones taken from lists supplied by wikipedia); a final list can be bigger, smaller, or completely different:
Ra
Anubis
Apophis
Osiris
Cronus
Ba'al
Nirrti
Yu

Other civilizations that may be included now or at a later time:
Asgard (probably put in early, representing the High Council in our galaxy)
Unas (functioning as another System Lord or as an indiginous race?)
Tok'ra (a friendly symbiotic civilization)
Ree'tou (this could be fun, but hard to justify inclusion without a role in the main plot)
Nox (same thing, I think some major role could be concocted; for now, we don't need thm)
Aschen (advanced humans, unable to research gate travel without Tauri)
Hebridians/Serrakin (ditto, except less trecherous)
Tollan (advanced humans, weary of sharing technology)
Langarans (Jonas Quinn's people, has naquadriah on the planet)
Pangarans (humans, developed Tretonin)
many other less developed societies common in the early seasons (not neccesary within game scope)

I have decent programming experience so most of what I wrote here I can implement. However (again), some of this needs to be brainstormed out and into a more cohesive idea. Please continue to post ideas.

 

[PsiCorps]

Hi guys, i'm a Stargate fan too but, wouldn't using BTS - Final Frontier be a better starting point for this. Use the Airport, which already moves units around a map, and add a randomiser so destination is unknown, until you've been there once and have the address. The SG units could be Espionage units and you have regular military units that you use to protect new gates on unoccupied/low tech planets.
I'm busy working on a B5 mod at the moment but i will follow your developements as i see them and chip in what ideas, good or bad, i come up with.
Good luck with this.

 

[Crayton]

Thanks PsiCorps. I just purchased BtS so I'm back on the forums. Some of what you discussed (Final Frontier, Espionage) have passed through my head. I won't be able to actually get to BtS until the end of the week when my computer and I are reunited. After then I will probably do some experimentations. I recently got the new SG movie, hence the resurgence in interest in both Civ and SG.

 

[ModSercherTex]

Ya Guies I have Beyond the Sword too and I think it is the perfict platform for a Stargate Mod/Senario. I just hapined to have started this thread before I found out about BtS. But I will still post ideas for stuff in both.

 

[keldath]

heil to the sg-1 team!

im a fan of sg too.....

i think, if you gonna be sirious about this project,

the first thing you should start on,

is making unit graphics,
once youll have that, the rest is easy,
and im sure once people will see that you have a pack of units, youll get many volounteers helping you with the structure of the mod, like me for instance,

if there was enough sci fi units in the site,
we would have seen alot of these sci fi mods , like b5 ans star trek along with star wars,

the main draw back - lack of unit models.

 

[Donkey Puncher]

love that Teal'c

 

[Aranor]

Dual made a Stargate SG1 civ for Vanilla 1.64 civ.

 

[Crayton]

Okay, so here is some code that allows your civilization to explore a new, random city. This will go in CvEventManager under onTechAcquired.

cCount = 0

if (iTechType == gc.getInfoTypeForString('TECH_EXPLORATION') or 1 == 0):
        for iCiv in range(gc.getMAX_CIV_PLAYERS() + 1):
                for iCity in range(gc.getPlayer(iCiv).getNumCities()):
                        if not(gc.getPlayer(iCiv).getCity(iCity).isRevealed(iPlayer, True)):
                                cCount = cCount + 1

        cCount = gc.getGame().getSorenRandNum(cCount,'pick City')
    
        for iCiv in range(gc.getMAX_CIV_PLAYERS() + 1):
                for iCity in range(gc.getPlayer(iCiv).getNumCities()):
                        if not(gc.getPlayer(iCiv).getCity(iCity).isRevealed(iPlayer, True)):
                                if (cCount == 0):
                                        gc.getPlayer(iCiv).getCity(iCity).setRevealed(iPlayer, True)
                                        gc.getPlayer(iCiv).getCity(iCity).plot().setRevealed(iPlayer, True, False, iCiv)
                                        gc.getTeam(gc.getPlayer(iPlayer).getTeam()).meet(iCiv,True)
                                cCount = cCount - 1

The Technology TECH_EXPLORATION is a technology that can be researched multiple times (like Future Tech), enabling the player to visit multiple cities. The "1 == 0" is something I put in so I can test future code (random bonuses associated with native civs) without specifically researching TECH_EXPLORATION.

EDIT:
Hopefully with a decent map (small planets) and an airlift function that allows transport to foreign stargates (SDK anyone?), a basic mod can be begun.

Fleshing out a Technology Tree and Units (major XML stuff) would be the first projects tackled; and as keldath said graphics (not me) will help bring in serious programmers (not me either).

 

[Digger412]

Wow...I was just happy that someone is finally doing something about a Civ4 SG mod, but now that I look at the date and see that this took place like two months ago, I'm starting to wonder where everyone went...Please, don't let this mod die...

 

[Shylock]

I was thinking we could make a Stargate a resource you find at random on a map. Anyone with the Stargate has to make an SGC national wonder to start reaping benefits from it. The gate could spawned hoards of enemies as long as there is no Iris on it (and even then you could put a chance there that someone screws up and it happens anyway). Stargate missions can be done like espionage missions but they cost gold.

One of the missions could yield techs not available to other civs for example. The stargate could also provide bonuses in the city it is in.

The existence of the Stargate can be chosen to be kept secret or made public knowledge. Keeping it secret will only work as long as the city with the SGC is never captured by an enemy force. If it is made public other civs will want a piece of the technology pie and they might become more aggressive.

To balance out the major bonuses you get you could have plenty of events that could totally destroy you. You could also have the possiblity that the Goa'uld or even Ori come and invade you without using the gate.

Origin could be a religion if they are discovered.

 

[Digger412]

Okay, those are some great ideas. There might be an "Armageddon" event, like 1%. Also, maybe you could have a chance to discover a new civilization through the gate, and maybe you could colonize with it, like Atlantis. Say you ran into the Goa'uld, they could start a war through the gate, like you said kinda. On the other hand, if you find someone like the Ancients, Asgard, etc. you could get profits like resources, new techs, etc. There would also be a chance of failure, and that would make you lose the personnel and it would cause some citizens to get mad temporarily. Some of the techs could probably be Energy Weapons (omg, I just thought about it...that'd be like...woah..that really enables a ton of things o.O), Long Range Communications, ZPM's (like a 0.00000000000000001% chance...na, probably like 0.05%..), Iris, Space Flight (X-301/302/303/etc.), maybe new medicinal techs...good idea about the public/private, wouldn't have thought of that.

 

[Zorg27]

Just bookmarked topic.

I think Final Frontier can be a nice solution.

Some civs (like Tauri) can have the logic of Kuriotates from Fall from Heaven mod: "The Kuriotates can only build 3 true cities. These super cities can work all plots within 3 tiles of the city instead of the nromal 2. All other cities in the Kuriotate empire are only Settlements which have no production, or cost any maintenance."

My 2 cents

 

[Crayton]

Okay, this is what I have so far. To play, save this in your Mods folder, load the mod, and start the scenario called "Stargate - Goa'ulds"

After starting you may notice that the interface is missing and all you see is the cities and terrain. I do not know why this is (help?) but to fix I have found that if you Alt-Tab out of CivIV, resave a python script for this scenario (like Stargate.py), Alt-Tab back into the game, allow the game to "reload python modules", Alt-Tab out, and the Alt-Tab back into the game the interface will return. I may have over-explained this part here.

What this is is a map of the galaxy with 6 different Goa'uld Lords (Apophis, Nirrti, Cronus, Heur-ur, Ba'al, and Yu) ruling their own domains and four distant "galaxies" (Ida, Pegasus, Ori, unknown other) sectioned off in the corners of the map. There so far are no victory conditions and gameplay itself is rather limited.

Simple Fixes needed:
1. military units should not automatically take a city when gating in
2. decide if gating units should lose 1 (or all) move(s)
3. currently all cities have "stargates" so make a stargate a building in select cities
4. determine how to get the System Lords to actively use their forces to wage war against each other
5. make discovering a new planet the result of particular technology not all technology
6. generate ideas to include on many different planets (hire Tok'ra spies, trade for secrets of Tretonin, make contact with the Asgard, etc...)
7. eliminate that silly startup hiccup
8. a simple gate graphic for the unit action of gating to a new planet

Complex Fixes needed:
1. generate comprehensive tech tree
2. update civilization and leader files for this scenario
3. generate unit list and balances
4. generate buildings, improvements, resources, and wonders
5. determine a rudimentary (and then more complex) event list
6. code a plethora of SG missions (explore, ferment goa'uld resistance, sabotage mothership, etc...)
7. simple leaderhead graphics and unit reskins

For right now we can consider the scope of the 10 seasons of TV that were created but I would like to hold off on including game stuff related to the Ori, Atlantis, Anubis, and perhaps even the Replicators, until we can generate a somewhat working game. Once that happens we should not have too much trouble adding the remainder of the television content and more to the Stargate universe.

 

[Zorg27]

Tested with Beyond The Sword and works.
Tested with Civilization4 (clean) 1.6 and doesn't work.

 

[Zorg27]

to fix I have found that if you Alt-Tab out of CivIV, resave a python script for this scenario (like Stargate.py), Alt-Tab back into the game, allow the game to "reload python modules", Alt-Tab out, and the Alt-Tab back into the game the interface will return

Have no idea to do this, how can I resave python script and reload python modules?

 

[Crayton]

Have no idea to do this, how can I resave python script and reload python modules?

If it works for you then maybe it is only my computer. Perhaps I altered some SDK files. To resave a python script open it up in notepad or IDLE and go to "File" and "Save As" and save the file as itself. What this does is tells the game that it needs to look at the "new" python files to make sure it is up-to-date. For some reason (and again, it may be just my computer) I need the game to recheck the python files after loading the new mod.

Did you have a chance to build a unit and send it through the Stargate to a different planet, yet?

EDIT: it may be that this mod is currently my default and when I start Civ IV it goes directly here.

 

[Popcornlord]

I found an easier way. Press Ctrl-O (for the options menu) and change the screen resolution. after that you can change it back. Almost always works for me.