Anno Domini for Civ IV

[Jet]

As you may have heard, Firaxis switched the leaderheads for Qin and Kublai so that the historical accuracy is reversed, because they wanted Kublai to look more warlike. If you use the "Kublai" graphic for Qin, it would be nice to see someone get it right.

 

[Rob (R8XFT)]

I didn't know that! However, I'm using the Kublai leaderhead (reskinned) for Sumeria and I don't want to have any appear more than once in the game. Perhaps I'll change things around in the future once we can make animated leaderheads of our own .

 

[Rob (R8XFT)]

The website has been updated - Khan Kouber of the Bulgars is in for starters and I've just touched up a couple of pieces of artwork. I aim to put in the full tech tree next week, then we can see where we are in terms of UBs and UUs.

There's a total of 91 leaders in the game with 63 playable civilizations. This allows for exactly one each of every two-trait combination of the 14 traits available. However, this has led to some combinations being "forced" on the leaders due to me running out of options as time went on. In order to address this - and leave space for expansion in the future (although 63 civs is enough to be going on with for now ), I aim to introduce further traits. At the moment, the 14 traits comprise the original 11 in warlords (with "industrious" renamed to "builder"). We then have "industrious" (+1 hammer in every space creating 3 hammers), "agricultural" (+1 food in every space creating 3 food) and "seafaring" (free flanking I and navigation I for all ships).

Here's some thoughts to other traits :
"Mobile" (no terrain movement costs for mounted units and chariots - or at least reduced costs)
"Woodsman" (free Woodsman I and Woodsman II upgrades for all melee units)
"Guerilla" (free Guerilla I and Guerilla II upgrades for all archery units)
"Raider" (free City Raider I and City Raider II upgrades for all melee units)

I'd also like to change "Spiritual" to have an actual religious effect other than no anarchy - like priests can enter rival territory without the need for any access agreement. I'd use the no anarchy for another trait - perhaps "Stable."

I've yet to allocate cheap buildings to all the traits - that will come as I do the tech tree and decide what goes where. Also, I want to keep to exactly two traits per civ.

Any thoughts - and what do you think of the website so far?

 

[woodelf]

On first glance I can barely read the writing against that dark wood. Admittedly my computer room has a nice window in it, but the glare isn't bad right now. Can you either lighten the wood or change the color of the writing to stand out some?

I'll have some thoughts on traits later on.

edit - Finally a member of the 7000 club!

 

[Jet]

I'd prefer to browse the civs on a single compact page, with small thumbnails for the leaderheads. They could be clickable for a larger portrait.

To balance the traits (in the absence of building bonuses) I'd suggest something like Expansive +4 Health, Agricultural +1F on 4+ F, Industrious +1H on 4+ H, and Raider free CR I only.

I think Financial +1C on 3+ C is right. But in vanilla yields have relative value like (opinion varies) 1 food = 1.5 hammers = 3 commerce. There are many 3 food tiles (flood plains, especially). But I think that after improvements there are more 4H tiles than 4F tiles, so that making both Agr and Ind trigger on 4+ would be all right.

It's possible that Agricultural +1F on 4+F would still be too strong if you retain a Biology-like tech, but I don't know.

An alternative to +Health for Expansive could be an automatic +X% food retention on pop growth (like a Granary; implemented as a free building - easy to implement.)

 

[Rob (R8XFT)]

Thanks for the responses guys and some good ideas Jet. I'll look to changing the colour to white for the writing on the front page, but on the inner pages I'll keep black as it's against a light colour. I'm not going to change the civs to a single page though; I prefer the format I have. The website builder I have limits the amount of info going with each picture if you do that format as well; there's going to be more details for each civ on those pages as the mod builds up.

 

[Rob (R8XFT)]

Just a quick update - the welcome page now has a white font as requested; Viriato of the Iberians and Hiram of Phoenicia have been added.

 

[woodelf]

Much better Rob.

 

[Rob (R8XFT)]

To update you on my progress, the mod has taken a change in its development. Although I'm currently working on the tech tree, I've really got into Civ IV leaderhead modulating. I say that because I've got as far as reskinning and making some minor adjustments in NifSkope. That said, here are two new animated leaders : Calcagus (Picts) and Aquluqa (Nubia). I'm not using Hatshepsut for Egypt anymore, as I don't want to have leaderheads who look very much the same. I believe Calcagus looks sufficiently different to Julius Caesar (the base leaderhead for the model) so he can be used.



Modding leaderheads is coming on in leaps and bounds within the community. I'm trying to learn how to import items into NifSkope and add them to the leaderhead - such as the Spartan helmet for Agis. Again, this is another leaderhead which will look completely different to its parent due to the fact it will have the helmet and a beard - between them covering most of the face. I hope to do the same with a Saxon helmet (the "Coppergate helmet" style).

I know some people who have contributed to this thread don't mind if the leaderhead is static or animated - but I'd really like animated leaderheads. I guess it also brings some sense into the mod - i.e. start off with fewer civs and build it up/evolve over time.

 

[woodelf]

They look good Rob. It's good to see the community solving another problem.

 

[C.Roland]

I use NifViewer to add the spartan LH. You should use it to, it easier like this. There are a way to add it via nifskope but It's really simple with the nifviewer. If do not know how it work you can see Rabbit White Tutorial.

An other way to make leader looks differents is to use other animation from other leaders.

 

[Rob (R8XFT)]

Thanks guys. I'll give the nifviewer a go and see what I come up with. I've had a look at the rabbit,white tutorial, so thanks for pointing me in the right direction. Hector is previewed below; he's based on Augustus (I guess you'd have spotted that !!) with Hannibal's beard, Stalin's actions and some retexturing I did. Oh, and I popped in a rendering of an ancient courtyard as the background. If I can get a Trojan helmet on him (you'll still see the face), he'll look even less like Augustus.

 

[woodelf]

These teaser pics are killing me Rob. I'm craving at least an Alpha version.

 

[Rob (R8XFT)]

These teaser pics are killing me Rob. I'm craving at least an Alpha version.

The hype's working then ....

 

[Rob (R8XFT)]

I use NifViewer to add the spartan LH. You should use it to, it easier like this. There are a way to add it via nifskope but It's really simple with the nifviewer. If do not know how it work you can see Rabbit White Tutorial.

An other way to make leader looks differents is to use other animation from other leaders.

I'm presuming by the nifviewer, you're speaking about the CivIV scene viewer that comes with the 3dsmax tools? If you are, then I only see the "Cheshire cat" view in there, so it's trickier to add things like helmets, as you can't see what you're doing. If it's a different program to the one with the 3dsmax tools, please can you point out where I can get it please?

 

[Prestidigitator]

Don't worry, he Roland meant the NifViewer which comes with the 3Ds Max plug-ins. .

I personally found it easier to add the assets for Hammurabi using the NifViewer, it's tricky the first time you try using it, but after that it's second nature!

 

[C.Roland]

I'm presuming by the nifviewer, you're speaking about the CivIV scene viewer that comes with the 3dsmax tools? If you are, then I only see the "Cheshire cat" view in there, so it's trickier to add things like helmets, as you can't see what you're doing. If it's a different program to the one with the 3dsmax tools, please can you point out where I can get it please?

Yeah ! Nif viewer are the same thing than the scene viewer.

Sorry I'm a bit confused what is the "Cheshire cat" view ?

 

[Rob (R8XFT)]

Yeah ! Nif viewer are the same thing than the scene viewer.

Sorry I'm a bit confused what is the "Cheshire cat" view ?

The "Cheshire cat" view is where you only see the eyes and teeth. It was a regular phrase used when the game first came out, as before they fixed it, people (like me) only saw the eyes and grin of the leader, not the complete leaderhead.

However, I realised that I'd not got the most up-to-date version of the viewer; now that I have, I can see the complete leader.

One question though; people have been saying that they can take the laurels off Alexander, for example, or the crown off Isabella; I can't see how this is possible as they appear to be part of the whole head/body mesh - i.e. they seem to me to be fixed on. Can this be done, and if so, how? I'd really like to get hold of the following:

• Hatshepsut without her crown
• Isabella without the crown
• Bismark without the hat

Also, people have been saying that they can chop one half of a leader and put it onto another? Again, if that's possible, it'd be great to get any male leader's head onto Julius/Augustus/Alexander/Brennus/Ragnar's body (particularly industrial/modern leaders that won't be seen elsewhere in Anno Domini) and any (especially industrial/modern) female leader's head onto Hatshepsut's body. Can this be done? If so, could there be a thread set up where we could download new base models to work from?

 

[Saketh]

The "Cheshire cat" view is where you only see the eyes and teeth. It was a regular phrase used when the game first came out, as before they fixed it, people (like me) only saw the eyes and grin of the leader, not the complete leaderhead.

However, I realised that I'd not got the most up-to-date version of the viewer; now that I have, I can see the complete leader.

One question though; people have been saying that they can take the laurels off Alexander, for example, or the crown off Isabella; I can't see how this is possible as they appear to be part of the whole head/body mesh - i.e. they seem to me to be fixed on. Can this be done, and if so, how? I'd really like to get hold of the following:

• Hatshepsut without her crown
• Isabella without the crown
• Bismark without the hat

Also, people have been saying that they can chop one half of a leader and put it onto another? Again, if that's possible, it'd be great to get any male leader's head onto Julius/Augustus/Alexander/Brennus/Ragnar's body (particularly industrial/modern leaders that won't be seen elsewhere in Anno Domini) and any (especially industrial/modern) female leader's head onto Hatshepsut's body. Can this be done? If so, could there be a thread set up where we could download new base models to work from?

It's simple to make the model - it's difficult to change the NIF file to match Civ specifications.

Let's say you're using Blender. Just import the model, slice it up, make sure the bones are intact, and export. Here's the problem: the export format that the NIF scripts use is different from the one Civ requires. That is, if you open up your new NIF file and the regular NIF file in NifSkope, the 'Ni' values will be organized differently. Manual reorganization of these is required to properly load models in-game. Manual reorganization is also extremely tedious and boring.

Adding objects is much easier than deleting them, most of the time. When you delete an object, you can't be sure that you're not deleting an important bone dependency.

 

[Plotinus]

[digression] I imagine that before they make any game, the Firaxis developers all sit down in a boardroom somewhere and ask: "What staggeringly obscure file types, incomprehensible scripts, and other bizarre things can we use to make this game unnecessarily hard to mod?" Pcxs and flcs in CivIII, unusual Nif file structure in Civ IV - I think they do it deliberately! [/digression]