Amazon Civilization

[4lexander]

Downloaded, but I won't play it soon.

When I'll do I'll give feedback.

Anyway this is surely a great mod!!!

 

[SaibotLieh]

Downloaded, but I won't play it soon.

When I'll do I'll give feedback.

Anyway this is surely a great mod!!!

Thanks, I hope you'll like it.

 

[luckylavs]

SaibotLieh,

I was actually working on designing my own Amazon civilization from scratch, but in the middle of my progress, I noticed you released your own version of this civ....

Instead of continuing to create my own Amazon civilization, I decided to dedicate my energies trying to build/improve upon what you have already created here. (Which is already excellent, I might add...)

Some of my changes to your civ include:

-I have renamed all of the Amazon units, giving them more distinct/exciting sounding names
-I have changed the XML files so that Great people are now generated with female names...
(It was quite strange having a female Great Artist named Leonardo Da Vinci...)
-I have replaced about five of your in-game units with better models.
-I have created a new Amazon Flag. Actually the old one (bow and arrows) is great too. But I thought I would share my flag contribution as well...
-I have assembled a "Leaderhead Pack" to go with this Amazon civ.
-I have edited DiplomacyInfos to have unique in-game text prompts by the various Amazon leaders
-I had created my own pedia entry for the Amazons Civ (which in my version, was based upon South American amazons as opposed to the ancient Amazons of Greece). Also, a pedia entry for what was to be my Amazon leader...

What still needs to be done:

Some of the unit buttons could use a little polish. Especially because I changed the models of five of the units, so some of the buttons no longer correspond with how the units actually appear. Just curious: How did you go about making your unit buttons?

I know how to make unit buttons in general, but I'm curious if you are using software or some other method to arrange the graphics on the buttons in a specific way. It seems like you have arranged a picture of a woman on the right side, and then placed a weapon on the left side. Are you drawing these weapons/faces in yourself, are you using some kind of 3D modeling software, or have you simply lifted these images from somewhere else (like some other video game)?

The reason I ask is because if I attempt to draw in a button image for the new units, it may look incongruous with the buttons you have already designed... Although I suppose I could capture the video cache while I'm in CIV IV, open it in photoshop and grab a relevant section of the face, scale it down, while superimposing a weapon on the left hand side of the image...

Thanks in advance

 

[SaibotLieh]

SaibotLieh,

I was actually working on designing my own Amazon civilization from scratch, but in the middle of my progress, I noticed you released your own version of this civ....

Instead of continuing to create my own Amazon civilization, I decided to dedicate my energies trying to build/improve upon what you have already created here. (Which is already excellent, I might add...)

Some of my changes to your civ include:

-I have renamed all of the Amazon units, giving them more distinct/exciting sounding names
-I have changed the XML files so that Great people are now generated with female names...
(It was quite strange having a female Great Artist named Leonardo Da Vinci...)
-I have replaced about five of your in-game units with better models.
-I have created a new Amazon Flag. Actually the old one (bow and arrows) is great too. But I thought I would share my flag contribution as well...
-I have assembled a "Leaderhead Pack" to go with this Amazon civ.
-I have edited DiplomacyInfos to have unique in-game text prompts by the various Amazon leaders
-I had created my own pedia entry for the Amazons Civ (which in my version, was based upon South American amazons as opposed to the ancient Amazons of Greece). Also, a pedia entry for what was to be my Amazon leader...

I like this. Variety is a good thing and I'm always happy if people get inspired by my work. I'm looking forward to your completed civilization.

By the way, if your are still in the need for some names for the female great people, you might want to look at the thread of my Female Great People ModComp. There you can find a list of names for each profession.

What still needs to be done:

Some of the unit buttons could use a little polish. Especially because I changed the models of five of the units, so some of the buttons no longer correspond with how the units actually appear. Just curious: How did you go about making your unit buttons?

I know how to make unit buttons in general, but I'm curious if you are using software or some other method to arrange the graphics on the buttons in a specific way. It seems like you have arranged a picture of a woman on the right side, and then placed a weapon on the left side. Are you drawing these weapons/faces in yourself, are you using some kind of 3D modeling software, or have you simply lifted these images from somewhere else (like some other video game)?

The reason I ask is because if I attempt to draw in a button image for the new units, it may look incongruous with the buttons you have already designed... Although I suppose I could capture the video cache while I'm in CIV IV, open it in photoshop and grab a relevant section of the face, scale it down, while superimposing a weapon on the left hand side of the image...

Thanks in advance

I'm using Photoshop for all my 2D work. Since I'm not very good at 2D artwork, I'm using already existing stuff. For a button, I normally copied the weapon and other stuff I want to use from the male button and pasted it as a new layer into a button template that can be found here. Then I search for a image of a fitting woman. Naturally tons of images can be found in the internet. For example, just google for "female <nationality>" or "<nationality> woman". Also this side has a lot of usable images. From this image, I copy the parts I want to use and paste them as another layer into the template and resized of course (to get good quality, it helps to decrease the size in 50% steps with the use of the sharping filter after about half of the steps). For example, for the archer button I used this image:

Spoiler :

The rest is playing around with brightness, contrast and color of the female image parts. Also using the erasier tool with about 25% to 50% strength can help to smoothen the transition between the different layers.

If you want to make buttons out of the 3D models I would recommand to use NifSkope for it. With that program you can choose the angle, the zoom and the animation freely. Alternatively you can use the free camera mod in Civ4.

 

[luckylavs]

Perfect.

I will weave in those female great names from your Female Great Persons modcomp---
recreate some of the unit buttons (I have already fixed the LHs today), clean up the Diplomacy text a bit more, then I need to write a readme file explaining how to install it.

After that, it should be ready to go. I'm thinking by the end of the week it will be ready.

But I probably should test it on someone else's box before it releasing it to the public...
Saibotlieh, would you like to be the first person to test it?

Because at its core, this is basically your mod, with polish on it... perhaps you might even consider releasing this one as an updated version of what you have previously posted.

In a week it should be ready

Thanks

 

[SaibotLieh]

Perfect.

I will weave in those female great names from your Female Great Persons modcomp---
recreate some of the unit buttons (I have already fixed the LHs today), clean up the Diplomacy text a bit more, then I need to write a readme file explaining how to install it.

After that, it should be ready to go. I'm thinking by the end of the week it will be ready.

But I probably should test it on someone else's box before it releasing it to the public...
Saibotlieh, would you like to be the first person to test it?

Because at its core, this is basically your mod, with polish on it... perhaps you might even consider releasing this one as an updated version of what you have previously posted.

In a week it should be ready

Thanks

Sure thing, send it to me. I can't promise to make a complete check, but I'll definitely take a look at it.

I think the one who should release this civ is you, since you made some major changes after all. But I won't complain about a reference to my civ.

 

[luckylavs]

#1.) Even though I have officially finished editing all of the leader-specific diplomacy text in DiplomacyInfos, it now appears I have more work: I must also edit the generic diplomacy text as well...

The problem was that my leader-specific text was designed to make the Amazons mean, tough, and warlike--but the generic computer AI text was having them say things like: "Let's all hold hands and sing Kumbayah in honor of our lasting friendship" -- totally ruining the overall vibe I was going for. (I have no idea why Sid Meier put this 60's hippie stuff in the game as the default text -- IMHO, it's kind of lame, in any civ game)

#2.) I must also rename the units yet again. I had named some of them "Amazon __" such as "Amazon Scout." But I noticed the game uses the predefined civ adjective in some of the in-game messages. So I was seeing things like:
"A Amazonian Amazon Scout has been sighted..."

Anyway, not the biggest problems in the world but will delay the project nonetheless.

 

[SaibotLieh]

#1.) Even though I have officially finished editing all of the leader-specific diplomacy text in DiplomacyInfos, it now appears I have more work: I must also edit the generic diplomacy text as well...

The problem was that my leader-specific text was designed to make the Amazons mean, tough, and warlike--but the generic computer AI text was having them say things like: "Let's all hold hands and sing Kumbayah in honor of our lasting friendship" -- totally ruining the overall vibe I was going for. (I have no idea why Sid Meier put this 60's hippie stuff in the game as the default text -- IMHO, it's kind of lame, in any civ game)

#2.) I must also rename the units yet again. I had named some of them "Amazon __" such as "Amazon Scout." But I noticed the game uses the predefined civ adjective in some of the in-game messages. So I was seeing things like:
"A Amazonian Amazon Scout has been sighted..."

Anyway, not the biggest problems in the world but will delay the project nonetheless.

No worries. Just take your time.

 

[luckylavs]

The project is ready!! It needs to be tested now. Saibotlieh, can you send me an e-mail to:

joeprivate[at]live[dot]com]

Just put "from Saibotlieh"

Then I will reply to your email, sending you a zip file of the mod. It just goes in ...[CIVIV BASE DIR]/Beyond the Sword/Mods/

Thanks in advance!!

LuckyLavs

 

[Yoshiegg737]

Will the public get to see this?

 

[luckylavs]

I couldn't post this file to this civfanatics board because it is over the 10 meg limit. I uploaded the file to mediafire hosting and tried to link it on here. Let me know if anyone is able to actually download it. Compressed, it is 37 megs. (something like 154 megs uncompressed).

This is actually my first mod for CivIV and my first time posting a file...

Once I have confirmation that the download works for someone, I will start a new thread for it.

To access the file, click on my name: luckylavs. It should be accessible from there.

Thanks, and Enjoy

LuckyLavs

 

[Yoshiegg737]

It's in the moderation queue, so I guess it shouldn't be long until it can be downloaded

 

[luckylavs]

Hmmm it is still there today though. Someone I talked to earlier believes I need to have 25 posts on civfanatics before it will let anyone download my files. I'm not sure why that is the case, but I suppose it wouldn't hurt trying it out. Although it seems like a lot of needless posting...

 

[luckylavs]

And I feel kind of foolish because I just spent the last half hour giving people feedback on their leaderheads. Only to find out that "comments" do not count toward my 25 post total...

 

[luckylavs]

Anyway, this should be my 25th post so if the rumors are in fact true, then there will be no more "moderation queue." Free and clear!!

 

[AbsintheRed]

Actually you need 30 posts
Check the new members section: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=422889
But the moderation queue only lasts a couple days anyway

 

[SaibotLieh]

And I think it only helps for new entries, not the one that are already uploaded. Anyhow, I think it should be available any day soon now.

 

[luckylavs]

(Sigh) Another day of "moderation queue"... Just when I thought I had escaped... I should be keeping a diary for each day I've been stuck here...

 

[luckylavs]

Better yet, if the rumors are in fact true--perhaps if I post a total 30 messages I will finally be free and clear of the queues that bind me?

 

[luckylavs]

We are almost to the end of this... Bear with me. This is my 29th post. If the rumors are in fact true, my next post will make it work. Otherwise it was all just a mirage in the endless desert of moderation queue...