Anno Domini for Civ IV

[Rob (R8XFT)]

Hi everyone over here in Civ IV land. Back in 2006, I looked into converting Anno Domini for Civ IV, but went back to upgrade the Civ III version of the mod. At the time, there wasn't the variety of leaderheads and other art that there is now and Beyond the Sword hadn't come out. I've now completed the Civ III version of the game and am thinking about turning my attentions to a Civ IV version. For the uninitiated, it's a mod that goes from the dawn of time until around 1500AD; each civilization had some unique advances on the tech tree, that led to unique buildings, wonders, governments and flavour units. There are a few things I'd like to ask, though, before I embark on the task:

01. Would there be an appetite for such a mod? Would you download it and try it out?

02. If I go ahead, I thought I'd start out by selecting a handful of civs and doing a generic tech tree based on the Civ III version, giving each civ at least a unique building, wonder and unit, having this uploaded as version 0.1 and taking it from there. What do you think of this approach?

03. I had a website for the Civ III version, but let this demise recently, as I was thinking about this project and restarting the website for that. It held gameplay and historical information and had info relating to updates in the mod. Would this be something you'd visit if you played the mod?

 

[Shqype]

I say the more the merrier! It's good for players to have choices in which mods they play, so the more we have the greater variety and greater satisfaction for those interested.

I wasn't a part of this community during the CIV 3 days, so I can't comment on the mod (since I never played it); but if you've got the Illyrians in it, it's GOT to be good!

 

[C.Roland]

That's good news !

I will surely play it and I may contribute with some LH. There have been a lot of nice units that may serve you in the past month, but with the DB hack, some of them may have dissapeared.

 

[woodelf]

There's definitely more art available than before Rob. Bring it to Civ4.

 

[Rob (R8XFT)]

Thanks guys !!

In terms of the leaderhead artwork, I would like to escape the chance of people running into three or four Caesar lookalikes, which was the case before. I understand that you can now put heads onto different bodies - so it would be great to see, for example, FDR's head with, for example, Julius Caesar's body; he'd make a great Periander, I reckon.

On with the mod; I was thinking of changing the traits somewhat; rather than having "aggressive" and "protective" and the like, civs would have traits perculiar to that civilization. Here's what I mean (and the details below are intended as an example of what I'm talking about and may not be specifically what the Greek civs get):

01. All Greek civs have "Greek" as a trait, which allows +1 culture per city and an increase in the birth rate of great people by 50%.
02. Sparta also has "Spartan" as a trait, which means that all melee units get the Combat I and March.
03. In addition to the "Greek" trait, Corinth gets the "Corinthian" trait, which gets +1 commerce in squares which already have three commerce, plus double production speed of the courthouse.

Civs like Rome and Egypt may only have one trait (namely "Roman" and "Egyptian" surprisingly ), but that one trait would be as valuable as the two traits put together in the examples above.

Any thoughts?

 

[woodelf]

Those traits sound good.

I think you'll be pleased with the LH quality since you've been gone. Some amazing work has been done and most of the time you can't tell what it was based off of.

 

[Rob (R8XFT)]

One thought I've had was that if I did the traits exactly as I specified, there wouldn't be any variety if there were more than one leader for a civilization. Therefore, I'll rethink my approach, though at this stage I still feel there should still be an element of what I've put in above.

 

[woodelf]

I think those are good civ traits. You can pile leader traits on top of them as well, but make sure each leader gets their civ trait too.

 

[Donkey Puncher]

I myself would definitely look forward to playing it

 

[C.Roland]

About LH, we can now create 100% homemade from scratch LH. I'm working on some btw and one of than is an ancient female LH that will be a lot usefull for your mod because their isn't a lot of female LH in the main game, and most of the high quality custom LH are man.

Btw, if you have pictures of your civ3 AD leaders, it may help me to produce some leaders for civ4, do you still have your web site where I can find some of theese ?

 

[Rob (R8XFT)]

About LH, we can now create 100% homemade from scratch LH. I'm working on some btw and one of than is an ancient female LH that will be a lot usefull for your mod because their isn't a lot of female LH in the main game, and most of the high quality custom LH are man.

That's fantastic news! I'd love to know exactly how to create 100% home made from scratch LHs - I'd certainly be interested in doing some myself; I started out in Civ III as a LH maker and that's one of the things that interests me most.

Btw, if you have pictures of your civ3 AD leaders, it may help me to produce some leaders for civ4, do you still have your web site where I can find some of theese ?

The website is no more; I'm considering restarting it if the Civ IV version of Anno Domini takes off. However, here's a selection of leaderheads I created for the Civ III version:

 

[C.Roland]

That's fantastic news! I'd love to know exactly how to create 100% home made from scratch LHs - I'd certainly be interested in doing some myself; I started out in Civ III as a LH maker and that's one of the things that interests me most.

The main things you have to know is how to export it. Check the tutorial that I made with Ploeper for it. Before, you'll need to create your leader and rig it to an existing armature. If you want custom animations, it's possible, but there is no tutorial on it now.

The website is no more; I'm considering restarting it if the Civ IV version of Anno Domini takes off. However, here's a selection of leaderheads I created for the Civ III version:

Website would be a good Idea. I would like to have a list of the civs you want to include. Also, I would like to now what geography is it covered. I know the time scale, but I don't know where the map stop.

 

[tjedge1]

I would be most interested in a Civ 4 version since I no longer own Civ3 and I was lured away to World of Warcrack for a year and now I'm slowing trying to return to Civ, but I only have Vanillia 4 so far. I'm guessing this version would be for the latest expansion?

 

[woodelf]

Grab BtS tjedge1 and start a fantasy mod!

 

[Rob (R8XFT)]

The main things you have to know is how to export it. Check the tutorial that I made with Ploeper for it. Before, you'll need to create your leader and rig it to an existing armature. If you want custom animations, it's possible, but there is no tutorial on it now.

I've got 3dsMax8 and need to learn it properly. I've got a couple of tutorial books coming from Amazon; also I do also have the facility to export Poser models and a program that significantly reduces the polygon count, so if I can put all that together and rig it to an existing armature, I'll be glad. I thought I was close when I tried it 18 months ago, but I'll see what I can do now .

Website would be a good Idea. I would like to have a list of the civs you want to include. Also, I would like to now what geography is it covered. I know the time scale, but I don't know where the map stop.

The civs will cover Europe, the Mediterranean and India. It will include Babylon and the fertile crescent civs; also it will have Asian civs such as the Yamato and Shilla.

I would be most interested in a Civ 4 version since I no longer own Civ3 and I was lured away to World of Warcrack for a year and now I'm slowing trying to return to Civ, but I only have Vanillia 4 so far. I'm guessing this version would be for the latest expansion?

Hey - nice to see you!! Yes, it will be for the latest expansion. I got mine from direct2drive, so I don't even need to have the CD ROM in the drive.

Up the Patriots!

Grab BtS tjedge1 and start a fantasy mod!

Grab tjedge1 for help and suggestions with this mod I'd say !

 

[C.Roland]

Here are some Leaders that you may found useful for your mod. I think you can have a nice start with those.


Europe

http://forums.civfanatics.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=7914 – Norse/Germanic/Gothic generic leader. Still look a bit like Brennus, but not to much.

http://forums.civfanatics.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=8236 – Vlad III the Impaler.
Still look a bit like Justinian however.

http://forums.civfanatics.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=8719 – Robert the Bruce. Still look like Napoleon, but I doubt that Napo will be used in the mod. The beard look a bit strange however.

http://forums.civfanatics.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=8720 – Teres I of Thrace

http://forums.civfanatics.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=7784 – Laurenzo Medicis.
Maybe too modern for the mod, but he’s there.

http://forums.civfanatics.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=4633 – Nevski or any male medieval leader.

http://forums.civfanatics.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=4659 – Joan of Arc, or any medieval female leader.

http://forums.civfanatics.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=7763 – Charles Quint. Maybe too modern for the mod, but he’s there.

http://forums.civfanatics.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=8907 - Originally, it’s Aigimios, but can be used for someone else. However, the Pericles helmet is used again.

http://forums.civfanatics.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=6806 _ Svatioslav 1 of Kiev

http://forums.civfanatics.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=8901 – Marcus Aurelius, or an other roman emperor

http://forums.civfanatics.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=8812 – Constantine

http://forums.civfanatics.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=8789 – Ivan the terrible, but can be used for someone else. Look a lot like the Tamerlan LH however.

http://forums.civfanatics.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=2549 – Jan III Sobiesky, but can be used for someone else.

http://forums.civfanatics.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=8769 – If you need a pope

http://forums.civfanatics.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=8727 Amphianax of Lycia. However, we recognize the Pericles’ helmet.



Asia – Middle East - Africa


http://forums.civfanatics.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=8560 – Hiram of Tyre

http://forums.civfanatics.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=8503 – Middle Eastern LH

http://forums.civfanatics.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=8916 – It’s originally Akbar, but can be used for someone else.

http://forums.civfanatics.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=8245 – It is fantasy, but maybe it can be used somewhere.

http://forums.civfanatics.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=8918- maybe it can be useful?

http://www.civfanatics.ru/forum/index.php?showtopic=6918 – Tamerlan

http://forums.civfanatics.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=8696 – Still look like Isabella, but I don’t know if Isabella is too modern for the mod. This is suppose to be Scheherazade, but it can be used for someone else. Who… I don’t know !

http://forums.civfanatics.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=3311 – Massina, but look a lot like Augustus




Also, you may check civ gold LH : http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=267216

And Arma mod :
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?p=6612302


If you choose some of these I think you’ll have a nice base. I have some others “recycled” (that mean they are based on original leaders) and others “made from nothing” ancient LH that will be released in the next weeks.

 

[Rob (R8XFT)]

Thanks for looking through those. I've already downloaded a few mods, such as Amra's and Civ Gold to see what's available. What I aim to avoid is using the same base twice unless the two examples look completely different. Vlad, for example, looks too much like Justinian, who will be in the mod, but there's another version of Justinian as an African leader, who looks a lot different, so he might be in. Looking through the original Firaxis leaderheads, there's about 20 of them that can go straight in the mod, plus others, like Isabella and Elizabeth, who can be used somewhere - Elizabeth probably as Teuta (as in the aforementioned mods) and I might use Isabella in the Scheherazade guise as the Queen of Sheba (but with a different background) and still be able to use the Dido that was based on her, as it looks a lot different to Scheherazade.

I'll start looking at which civs are included initially at the weekend .

 

[Shqype]

Rob, as I'm sure you know, neither Isabella or Elizabeth look like Teuta, but Garret released a new Teuta not too long ago based on Isabella instead of Elizabeth. A brand new LH would be ideal, based on the statue of her that we do have, but until then if you prefer to use an animated LH then Garret's would probably be the best option.

 

[Virote_Considon]

On with the mod; I was thinking of changing the traits somewhat; rather than having "aggressive" and "protective" and the like, civs would have traits perculiar to that civilization. Here's what I mean (and the details below are intended as an example of what I'm talking about and may not be specifically what the Greek civs get):

01. All Greek civs have "Greek" as a trait, which allows +1 culture per city and an increase in the birth rate of great people by 50%.
02. Sparta also has "Spartan" as a trait, which means that all melee units get the Combat I and March.
03. In addition to the "Greek" trait, Corinth gets the "Corinthian" trait, which gets +1 commerce in squares which already have three commerce, plus double production speed of the courthouse.

Civs like Rome and Egypt may only have one trait (namely "Roman" and "Egyptian" surprisingly ), but that one trait would be as valuable as the two traits put together in the examples above.

Any thoughts?

One place you may want to look into is Rhye's and Fall of Civilization- each civilization there has their own trait, rather than the "regular" trait setup. For example, Russia's trait is that invading troops may(will?) take damage if they end their turn in Russian territorial borders, and Egypt has access to a couple of civics early

 

[Rob (R8XFT)]

One place you may want to look into is Rhye's and Fall of Civilization- each civilization there has their own trait, rather than the "regular" trait setup. For example, Russia's trait is that invading troops may(will?) take damage if they end their turn in Russian territorial borders, and Egypt has access to a couple of civics early

Thanks for that - I'll check it out .