Are there any mods to make Civ2 look like Civ1?

Less technologies means less to research, but also less to exchange with other civilizations. In a test run, with 6 opponents, it is true, twentieth century came about century earlier than it would in real life. It will take some guess work to modify research speed accordingly.
 
And then, yes, another thing, shouldn't the units be in light grey, since white is already used for a national color?
The more I look into this, the more possible little improvements there is.
 
Was the same over in the opensource Civ2 rebuild thread.. you're like a broken record Curt :lol::lol::lol:

We all know ToT is superior for making big mods/scenarios and allows for more of everything. Especially with ToTPP.

However more people out there have MGE, plus as disgusting and despicable as it may seem.. some people just like pushing MGE's limits for fun.. just the way it is. ;)

Plus in this case the existing mod by John Valdez that we're all playing around with here was for FW/MGE.

Yeah it could be converted to ToT but who's gonna do that for this and every other new and old MGE scenario spoken about on this forum? You? Cause Catfish doesn't anymore, Gapetit seems to be slowing down and talking of retirement after doing it for years and years, and I sure as hell aint gonna do it lol! That converter program is a nightmare to use haha!

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It wouldn't actually be that much work, that's were Curt ist absolutely right. It's only about the units' backgrounds, a bit of copy & paste in the text files, plus setting flags for unique units. No big deal, but still a waste as nobody would really play a Civ1mod for Civ2 over and over again. So, yeah, it's just a fun project, I think. And by the way: neither Blake nor I are very familiar with TOT. I've made a TOT-mod once - but that was so many years ago that I would have to re-learn everything from scratch. MGE is plain and simple, that's like my home route - I can drive it drunk, blind and hands free.
Dunno much about Kasius' plans, though. It's his project now and we just assist. None of us is a veteran Civ2 modder, I assume. So if someone wants to lend us a helping hand with the conversion into TOT, I guess no one would reject it.
 
Don't forget the scenario file John's modpack is built around as it doesn't work without it! In fact because of that perhaps he should never have originally called it a Civ1 modpack as it's more of a Civ1 total conversion scenario lol.

I think Kasius said a few posts back that he was stepping back too so I guess that means this little collaboration has run its course anyway. Was fun though haha.

Once I've released my MGE scenarios over the next few months my last Civ2 scenario will be a ToT one as it is the only way to truly realise my dreams of a multi world Master of Magic scenario. Should be a fun way to say goodbye to the Civ2 modding scene before moving on to my Civ3 plans.

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Yeah, we know it and was suggested two or three times before. But TOT ist so... well, it's TOT! Let me put it like that: TOT is the cold-hearted, stone-faced twin sister of the girl you're really secretly in love with.

In other words, you perhaps have not kept abreast of what developments have been going on in CIV2 for ten years.

As someone who has made scenarios for almost 20 years, I can tell you ToT is superior on all fronts.

Live in the comfort zone of MGE if you want. It's woefully limited.
 
True, but then I'm a limited guy overall, too. I guess that's why such a comfort zone suits me fine.

No offense, I appreciate that you have been into TOT for more than two decades. But we all weren't, it's as easy as that. We have just started returning to Civ2 for some fun. I've personally made like one TOT-mod and two MGE-scenarios in all that time. That's not much and therefore almost irrelevant.

And I just do it for the fun element of designing, that's why I'm cool with MGE and don't really need TOT, which seems to me like a never-ending story due to the unfinished patch. Therefore, when I use TOT, it's always the vanilla version - and that one isn't superior to anything for sure.

See, I don't want to argue or start a fight or anything - there are so few of us left, that this would be really unnecessary and annoying. We're MGE-guys, you're the TOT-guy. Sounds fine and fair enough to me. So, either you give us a helping hand or it will remain exclusively MGE it seems.
 
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I though I was done with the modpack, too. It was fun. This version that you can pick up here on this topic pretty much works.
But then today I sort of repacked all of it into version 1.2, which works without having to install and uninstall things. Like Civ1 total conversion scenario Blake mentioned, that gave me the idea.
I'll attach this version here, I think it's quite ready for a release as well.

So, it's easier and faster to start a game on Earth this way, through scenario. Or some other scenario. This is a fun project, like said, so, instead of converting this mod to Curt Sibling's favorite version of Civilization, Test of Time, I have converted 6 scenarios the other way around, into Civ1 mod. :lol:

Here are a couple of historic scenarios adapted to civ1 rules.

 

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I though I was done with the modpack, too. It was fun. This version that you can pick up here on this topic pretty much works.
But then today I sort of repacked all of it into version 1.2, which works without having to install and uninstall things. Like Civ1 total conversion scenario Blake mentioned, that gave me the idea.
I'll attach this version here, I think it's quite ready for a release as well.

So, it's easier and faster to start a game on Earth this way, through scenario. Or some other scenario. This is a fun project, like said, so, instead of converting this mod to Curt Sibling's favorite version of Civilization, Test of Time, I have converted 6 scenarios the other way around, into Civ1 mod. :lol:

Here are a couple of historic scenarios adapted to civ1 rules.


That is SUPER cool Kasius. Is nice seeing my graphics on those scenarios too!

I also just saw your other new graphics modpack in the downloads section where's you've changed all the dlls, heralds (to animating Diplomacy faces using the techniques Metropolis discovered while making our Heroes of Might & Magic 2 Civ2 mod) and intro movie to Civ1 stuff.. looks awesome!

As someone who has made scenarios for almost 20 years, I can tell you ToT is superior on all fronts.

Live in the comfort zone of MGE if you want. It's woefully limited.

Yes yes.. we know.. we know lol.

More colours, better videos, more terrain slots, more unit slots, more city slots, more techs, larger cells, more worlds, advanced events, more cfg txt customization options, and then even more of all that stuff with ToTPP installed (which I have). It's great it's wonderful, now please excuse us while we continue modding MGE. :lol:

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Hey, there's only one thing you still could do that came to my mind! There are a lot of unused slots, right? What about leaving the existing ones completely to the barbarians and painting their frames red to make them look more aggressive? We could just copy the civs' units into the empty slots.
There are only two downsides I can think of:
1. Bribed barbarian units will keep their red frame even if part of a civ.
2. All the scenarios above would turn useless if not adjusted - so this is only a thing you could try out in the mod.

Edit: Ah, no. That's a horsehockey idea as you gain units from the huts, too. Those would all be red-framed. So I think the work is done and final!
 
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Yes yes.. we know.. WE KNOW lol.

More colours, better videos, more terrain slots, more unit slots, more city slots, more techs, larger cells, more worlds, advanced events, more cfg txt customization options, and then even more of all that stuff with ToTPP installed (which I have). It's great it's wonderful, now please excuse us while we continue modding MGE. :lol:

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Please be at peace, dude.

It's all good. I guess some people (in plaid shirts) also like to revel in outdated vinyl LPs. :) Jokes aside, I do like the nostalgia vibe going on in the mod.
Once you get this mod up and running, it can be converted to ToT, and taken to an impressive level of quality. Until then, good luck on the development.
 
Please be at peace, dude.

It's all good. I guess some people (in plaid shirts) also like to revel in outdated vinyl LPs. :) Jokes aside, I do like the nostalgia vibe going on in the mod.
Once you get this mod up and running, it can be converted to ToT, and taken to an impressive level of quality. Until then, good luck on the development.

All good mate, I'm just kidding around and not taking it too seriously. I was more worried about you gettin fired up about all this as I still remember when you tore into someone in my Master of Magic ToT thread back in 2018 for them trashing ToT haha! I learned a long time ago that you don't speak ill of ToT around here unless you're ready to throw down, because Curt is always watching and ready to pounce lol! :lol:

ToT with ToTPP is superior in almost every way (only thing still missing is support for my beloved cheesy Grand Council lol) but as others here have alluded to MGE is just easier to mod thanks to it's built in (in-game) editing tools, simpler txt cfg files and it's visual limitations (simpler GUI and smaller sprites with less colours) making it quicker and far less scary to mod. If you look at the creators of all the ToT mods here and on other sites you see a lot of famous names repeated through them as nearly all the ToT modders were veteran modders who cut their teeth for years in FW/MGE (presumably yourself included) making the transition to ToT much easier and probably quite exciting. As an experienced ToT modder you see all MGEs limitations and think "yuck!", but those limits are EXACTLY what makes it appealing to new modders, or even experienced ones looking to do a quick project that doesn't blow out (more scripting + more settings + more pixels + more colours + more cells = more work, which sometimes can be a different kind of "yuck" lol!).

Therefore I personally think for any new modders or returning modders (eg I took a 20 year break and forgot everything lol) it's better to have a play with MGE first, start with the in-game editors, then move on to playing around with the txt cfg files and figure out how it all works. Once you're ready to creatively go beyond MGE's limits then the step up to ToT is far less intimidating. As that's pretty much what I've done eg. in 2018 started playing around with some existing MGE mods to get a feel for things, engaged the community to learn more, and now soon after I've released my experimental MGE scenarios I'll be making the jump up to ToT for that Master of Magic scenario. However even then I'll probably still be using existing sprites and visual assets made by others as while I'm confident in my pixel art abilities for MGE I'm not with ToT (or Civ3 for that matter) as the higher cell resolution and colours means people expect a higher quality look that I don't think I could deliver on. I have great respect for all the ToT and Civ3 artists.

I'm also a member of the Doom modding community (I created Star Trek Doom and Quest for Glory 4 Hexen) which is still a very healthy and thriving scene. So why on earth are people still making mods for Doom 1 & 2 after 25 years when there's all these new wizbang 3D realistic Doom games around? Because it's low colour pixel art and the map & asset editors are simple/easy, and it's quite fun/addictive pushing the limits and doing things that people didn't think were possible in the engine 20 years ago. Point of all this rambling.. sometimes limits are a good thing, especially if you're just getting started and trying to learn how everything works lol!

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And MGE looks like a windows 98 presentation. That is where the mods come in, Axx.
I don't think anyone uses MGE or ToT in any of the original, unmodded capacity.

If you want to see what can be done with CIV2 today, here you go:

https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/fairline-tot-scenario-graphics.438520/page-6


I assume you're referring to the latest picture from Fairline there as yeah that is the kind of ToT stuff I was talking about that is so friggin awesome but also scares off other people (especially new modders) from trying lol! The art quality in ToT scenarios is so darn good.. WAY beyond my abilities..

Ironically I was literally testing Jesus's original Conquest of Mexico scenario in preparation for my huge Civ video series just yesterday so this upgraded conversion is super cool news. ToT is getting it's own episode in my video series separate from MGE so I need to keep an eye on all these upgraded conversions and build a tribute list for when the time comes. Straight 1:1 conversions are of less interest to me but conversions like this one where all the art gets redone are of huge interest (eg I recently stumbled across Catfish's upgraded ToT conversion of Blackclove's Dungeon Heroes of Beckhorn scenario and nearly fell out of my chair lol) as I'll definitely be wanting to cover them in my videos.

 
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