thegreekweegee
Warlord
- Joined
- Mar 20, 2013
- Messages
- 292
Ever since I grabbed my copy of Civilization 4 Complete Edition and decided to fire up the Final Frontier mod, I immediately fell in love with it. The concept of being able to build your own intergalactic empire and rule the galaxy under your fist was a concept that especially appealed to me, and it still does today. And when I discovered this modmod, I was pleased immensely, as it showed that other people cared too about this mod, even if it were a minor addition to the base game.
Although I have discovered another, more complete game that delivered more and did it better in some aspects (Stardock's Galactic Civilizations 2), it fails to capture the charm of Final Frontier, which has its own little quirks and unique charm. Not saying FF's better than GC2, just stating my input on comparing these 2.
But although GC2 has better lore combined with a more complete game, and although it has a damn good modding community, it lags behind in one aspect: customizability depth. For a few examples of what Civilization 4 can do even those years, look no further than 3 mods: Fall from Heaven 2, Realism Invictus, and Caveman 2 Cosmos.
Let's start with Fall from Heaven 2. This mod is the most popular of civ4, and for good reason, as it transforms the base game into a dark fantasy world with enough depth to make your head spin. And let's not talk about the numerous, numerous modmods that it spawned, chief among them being Master of Mana, which expands to the Mana system and makes so many minor changes, it's as unrecognisable compared to Fall from Heaven as Fall from Heaven is to the base game.
Secondly, we have Realism Invictus, which is what happens when a group of people get dissatisfied with the game's historical accuracy and decide to improve things... a lot. Starting out as Total Realism for Civ4, it eventually blossomed after 8 (correct me if I'm wrong) years of continuous, uninterrupted work into a masterpiece. I even helped out a little bit with tweaks and such; it was very little help compared to their efforts, but anything to help it march on should not be ignored.
Finally, we got Caveman 2 Cosmos. Caveman 2 Cosmos is... a colossal-sized mod crammed with more stuff than I can count. Yet it works. Without major hiccups. Although I have problems with it, as it just crams too much with little care about playability, I do have to admire those people who are willing to tie it all up together and make it run at a doable speed and accomplish it with a good degree of success.
Now, why did I go in such a tirade about mentioning those 3 mods? Because it's a shame watching as this mod's dead in the water for over a year, with no improvement on sight, where it could have blossomed into a damn good mod the likes of Fall from Heaven, dare I say. And it's a sad, but good example of what often happens for mods of this scope: the modders lose interest, or they hit a dead end, or maybe life just drags them away and they barely have time anymore. All understandable reasons, really.
This brings me to the main point of this message. I wonder if it were possible for this modmod to get a kickstart and start being developed again by breathing new life on it through new ideas or game mechanics, for example. If it helps, I can drop a few I've been brewing in my mind, offer any input here and there. But I find it sad that this modmod's left to gether dust for a year with no visible progress down the road.
Let's hope at least this modmod's not quite dead yet.
Although I have discovered another, more complete game that delivered more and did it better in some aspects (Stardock's Galactic Civilizations 2), it fails to capture the charm of Final Frontier, which has its own little quirks and unique charm. Not saying FF's better than GC2, just stating my input on comparing these 2.
But although GC2 has better lore combined with a more complete game, and although it has a damn good modding community, it lags behind in one aspect: customizability depth. For a few examples of what Civilization 4 can do even those years, look no further than 3 mods: Fall from Heaven 2, Realism Invictus, and Caveman 2 Cosmos.
Let's start with Fall from Heaven 2. This mod is the most popular of civ4, and for good reason, as it transforms the base game into a dark fantasy world with enough depth to make your head spin. And let's not talk about the numerous, numerous modmods that it spawned, chief among them being Master of Mana, which expands to the Mana system and makes so many minor changes, it's as unrecognisable compared to Fall from Heaven as Fall from Heaven is to the base game.
Secondly, we have Realism Invictus, which is what happens when a group of people get dissatisfied with the game's historical accuracy and decide to improve things... a lot. Starting out as Total Realism for Civ4, it eventually blossomed after 8 (correct me if I'm wrong) years of continuous, uninterrupted work into a masterpiece. I even helped out a little bit with tweaks and such; it was very little help compared to their efforts, but anything to help it march on should not be ignored.
Finally, we got Caveman 2 Cosmos. Caveman 2 Cosmos is... a colossal-sized mod crammed with more stuff than I can count. Yet it works. Without major hiccups. Although I have problems with it, as it just crams too much with little care about playability, I do have to admire those people who are willing to tie it all up together and make it run at a doable speed and accomplish it with a good degree of success.
Now, why did I go in such a tirade about mentioning those 3 mods? Because it's a shame watching as this mod's dead in the water for over a year, with no improvement on sight, where it could have blossomed into a damn good mod the likes of Fall from Heaven, dare I say. And it's a sad, but good example of what often happens for mods of this scope: the modders lose interest, or they hit a dead end, or maybe life just drags them away and they barely have time anymore. All understandable reasons, really.
This brings me to the main point of this message. I wonder if it were possible for this modmod to get a kickstart and start being developed again by breathing new life on it through new ideas or game mechanics, for example. If it helps, I can drop a few I've been brewing in my mind, offer any input here and there. But I find it sad that this modmod's left to gether dust for a year with no visible progress down the road.
Let's hope at least this modmod's not quite dead yet.