[Beyond the Sword] Necro Cristi

[ash2107]

is anyone going to pick this up and finish it? it sounds awesome!

 

[KG999]

Hi all,

Here Chris, of Westwind, the musician Colin was mentioning some posts ago.

Sorry to read that Colin's work on this mod has ended, it was pleasant to play on it. I hope someone will keep on working on it!

Anyway I've finished working on some music for Necro Cristi, which you can download here :

http://www.westwind.fr/Sounds.rar

File is approximately 140Mb, and contains :
-2 new themes per civ
-4 ambient tracks
-5 drone tracks
-6 game tracks (including one which is a remix of all 16 civ themes)
-one new opening menu theme (with samples from the original one, and vocal samples from Johnny Cash and Boyd Rice)

Which makes a total lenght of about 2 hours.

As I don't know exactly how to implement them in the mod, except than playing them in an external player, if some good willing person could let me know how to have them played in-game in a specific order, that would be great.

 

[Kael]

Hi all,

Here Chris, of Westwind, the musician Colin was mentioning some posts ago.

Sorry to read that Colin's work on this mod has ended, it was pleasant to play on it. I hope someone will keep on working on it!

Anyway I've finished working on some music for Necro Cristi, which you can download here :

http://www.westwind.fr/Sounds.rar

File is approximately 140Mb, and contains :
-2 new themes per civ
-4 ambient tracks
-5 drone tracks
-6 game tracks (including one which is a remix of all 16 civ themes)
-one new opening menu theme (with samples from the original one, and vocal samples from Johnny Cash and Boyd Rice)

Which makes a total lenght of about 2 hours.

As I don't know exactly how to implement them in the mod, except than playing them in an external player, if some good willing person could let me know how to have them played in-game in a specific order, that would be great.

I can help you. Just PM me the preferable way to contact you, IM or a phone number and I'll contact you and walk you through the steps of getting your music integrated into the mod.

 

[Maniac]

That's some pretty cool music. Some would fit for Planetfall as well. A pity I don't know a site on which I can upload faster than 20 kilobyte/s.

 

[The_J]

That's some pretty cool music. Some would fit for Planetfall as well.

Thougt the same (also for my mod).
Some of the diplo-sounds, and all the soundtrack (beside the ambient sounds).

A pity I don't know a site on which I can upload faster than 20 kilobyte/s.

Is time a real problem?

 

[Ajidica]

Colin and KG999, I am working on a post-apocalyptic mod, would it be okay if I were to use the music you have in the mod, and in the case of KG999, made? I would give credit as to where the music came from. It fits the atmostphere well.

 

[Tokolosh]

I just picked up this mod and started playing it last night.

For the most part, I liked it a lot, the background was cool, the Civs were interesting, and there was some great potential in the idea. The music was spectacular as well.

I'm really sorry to hear that Colin has had to drop the project, and wanted to add my voice to those asking for this mod to be resurrected. I'd offer my help, but I'm not a programmer or a graphic artist, so I'm not sure what help I'd be.

I'll certainly keep watching the thread, though, as I'd love to see this one come back to life.

Cheers,

- Toko

 

[mechaerik]

Welcome to the Forums, Tokolosh.

 

[Korias]

In the spirit of the Mod, I'm going to do a little bit of thread-necromancy here. This was one of the first mods I ever played with, and while Colin has had to abandon the mod, I would like to see this through to completion. As such, I am going to pseudo-claim this mod and pick up where Colin left off.

Colin's left alot of the groundwork laid out already, following his ideas to bring this mod to a stable state. However, I'll be integrating some of his ideas with my own, such as redefining the civics as well as integrating the pre-generated roads and highways that came with the Fury Road modpack.

Unfortunately, I do this without Colin's (explicit) permission. According to my Computer, he has not logged in since Oct 27th, 2008, and I have no other way of contacting him outside of the Private Messaging system. I have, however, left him a note explaining my intentions and do hope that he understands and eventually does regain access to Civ4.

Colin, of course, will be accredited with the creation of the original mod, but now I suppose that I'm going to take the reins of Necro Cristi. For now, I'll keep the work here untill I have something of my own to show you all, when I shall create a new thread for it. Until then, feel free to send me ideas for Zombies, Map Scrpits, Civilizations, units, ect. This mod has so much potential, and I want to make that potential a reality.

 

[Kael]

Thats great to hear Korias, good luck!

 

[mechaerik]

In terms of the mod's status this means that anyone who wants to keep it alive should feel free to expand, edit and generally play around to their hearts content - just please credit me somewhere as I put a lot into it!

I would also recommend to anyone who decides to continue the project in a large scale way that you get in contact with the composer I mentioned a few posts back, as a unique industrial soundtrack would be awesome and he was prepared to donate a whole load of songs from his catalogue.

I think this means he's fine with you continuing it.

Although that's great to hear; i never downloaded NC, but it sounds cool, and i'd love to see it reborn.

 

[Korias]

Thats great to hear Korias, good luck!

Thanks. Getting the thumbs up from one of the most influential modders out there is a huge boost of confidence as I start to tinker with the infection system. FfH has been an absolutely HUGE influence on the way I play, and the number of unique mechanics in it prove that its possible to do some absolutely amazing things within the game, so the sky's the limit.

I think this means he's fine with you continuing it.

Although that's great to hear; i never downloaded NC, but it sounds cool, and i'd love to see it reborn.

Well, I wasnt too sure if he was OK with somebody literaly just jumping in where he left off, But its good to know. And thanks, feel free to pitch in ideas about, well, anything really. There's alot of room to explore in this genre and I want to pull from all the different levels of the culture- Such as multiple zombie types, ranging from the Romero-style crawlers to the 28 Days Later runners, to The Zombie Hunters berserkers and basilisk zombie types. I hope to have something out soon, most likely minor fixes to the zombies themselves and the infection system.


Current Changes for the release
Tech
The ability to chop forests is being moved to the Reclamation tech.
Zombies
Zombie workers do not get captured if killed.
Zombie cities spawn far more frequently than before.
Fix'd Text key for Immunisation I, II, and III.
Zombies are set to City Defense, rather than City Attack (To simulate the large number of zombies in the ruined cities) A second, near-identical zombie type will have the City Attack AI so that the player must still defend against them.

 

[Khai]

It would be interesting to have a civ based off a nuclear submarine that survived the attack. Maybe a mobile base of sorts? Would be hard to balance though...zombies don't float very well right?

 

[davidlallen]

Hello, I am the author of Fury Road. The code to add highways and ruins is embedded into the pangaea mapscript. It makes some pretty strong assumptions about cities being "connectible" which is true on a pangaea map and not so true on any other map type. I haven't looked at the code I wrote in almost a year. But if you want to incorporate it into other mapscripts, and you'd like some help figuring it out, let me know.

 

[arkham4269]

I would will recommend (again) and idea I came up with for the Fury Road mod and that would be a version of the FfH Armageddon Counter that would track Safety/Security and that certain types of buildings or civics couldn't be used till it can be risked.

 

[Korias]

Hello, I am the author of Fury Road. The code to add highways and ruins is embedded into the pangaea mapscript. It makes some pretty strong assumptions about cities being "connectible" which is true on a pangaea map and not so true on any other map type. I haven't looked at the code I wrote in almost a year. But if you want to incorporate it into other mapscripts, and you'd like some help figuring it out, let me know.

Ah! Well, that's useful to know. I'm a fan of the Planet Generator 0.68 script due to it allowing Size-Overrides, but Fury Road is set to always play Pangaea. I have played it before (New Australia), and was incredibly impressed with what I saw. I do plan on introducing some late-game improvements like you did with the Ruined Air Field or Nuclear Silo, and I think I understand how I could escape the assumptions for connectivity. I'll go back and grab any updates I might have missed, but most likely there shouldnt be too much of an issue with city connection if I tone down the number of tiles that are given the highway improvement- the world isnt as Mad Max-ish as yours is, with everything having been refitted for the new era. Instead, the world, as far as I can see, never had a chance to adequately fight the plague, allowing nature to grow over the asphault and concrete.


@Khali: Hmmm. Perhaps. As a civ, they could be played from the start as akin to the FfH's Lanun civ, with a specific tech that gives them a resource avaliable only to them, or more akin to the Mercurians where they come in midway through the game. What other ideas about this civ do you have in mind? What is their culture like, more akin to Fallout's Vault-tec corporation or perhaps a more military one?

@Arkham: Can you explain more? What buildings would be allowed at different points along the counter?

 

[arkham4269]

Well off the top of my head, I think I argued that when society breaks down, people tend to want to chuck certain 'niceties' of civilization, even when they probably shouldn't. I've argued that when the chips are down, people will choose "Order" over "Law" in the phrase "law and order" - So things like due process, habeus corpus and the like don't seem as important when your brain is in imminent danger of becoming zombie chow.

However, many folks will take advantage of that. You can see that in the Mad Max series and in the Walking Dead comic. With the breakdown, many folks will use the excuse of the zombies to become dictators and the like. Those who resist are either suppressed or told, "Look around! Can we afford morals right now?"

Plus, a lot of it is just simple. Can you afford the division of labor to create a arena? Or a university?

So my idea was that unlike the AC which starts at zero and gets higher toward 100, the Security Counter (SC) would start at zero but really sort of be -50 with 0 being a point between Chaos and Order.

Factors that would raise the SC would be things like number of cites, cities with defensive improvements, current number of zombies, current number of 'special zombies' as well as cultural/scientific improvements and civs w/certain civics.

Basically if you have a civ that has the slavery civic and conquest, this civ isn't promoting safety. Yet if you have a few civs that have gotten up to something akin to city states and athenian democracy, you have an opening for trade and peaceful co-existance.

Hmmm, I'm going to have to do some digging for my older posts since I know I wrote this out a lot more. I'm glad you are conversant with FfH/FF/Orbis since the prior mod owner had never played it and thus didn't know a lot of the tricks that came from those mods.

 

[Deon]

I was thinking of some counter for "contamination" or something. I.e. with high enough counter cities with unhealth would spawn zombies and there will be some other nasty events. I'd be careful with counters though - a lot of OOS and CtD problems may appear .

 

[arkham4269]

Well since this is in a sense a 'new' mod, I think it's time to bring up some old ideas.

First off, there is the basic zombie. Zombies infect who they bite, but I don't think units that survive a zombie attack should have a chance of becoming zombies since I'm sure the survivors have learned by the start of the game to kill anyone bitten by a zombie.

So, I'm not sure how it can be done, or if it can be done, but while a individual zombie unit may not have a large attack strength, there needs to be a way to boost it's lethality. I mean in normal Civ, a unit takes damage and then slowly 'regenerates' - well some of that 'regeneration' comes from previously wounded healing up and returning to duty. Yet in the zombie apocalypse, unless you are wounded by stepping in a gopher hole in the battle a wound is as a kill. So maybe the healing rate of units needs to be slowed way, way down. Anyway, I could go on about this, but I think we all can hash this out.

Secondly, specialty zombies: are we going to have them? I'm sure we can steal things like the hunter, tank, smoker, boomer and witch from Left 4 Dead. I'm sure there are other games that have specialty zombies as well.

Thirdly, at some point mankind gets the upper hand and the zombies become less of a threat and so each civ will start to look at other Civs as their primary enemy. I would think that for game play, instead of 'general' civilizations based on nationality, we should perhaps have civs sort of like Fury Road in that their 'nationality' is based on their leader.

In this I mean every group of survivors will probably center around a initial leader that sets the tone for their faction. Whether s/he Survivalist, Despot, Democrat (not the party; one wedded to democracy), Idealist, Green or what have you, each civ should have some sort of goal.

To start with, I think right off the bat, the initial factions should mimic those of Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri. I think it gives a good mix. Plus, I would suggest that each faction has a G/N/E leader like the Orbis Mod has.

Personally I don't like how most Civ games just end up a bitter slugfest toward endgame which is why I like FfH in that you have more special victories. Especially in a game like this with the zombies literally eating up most of the time till midgame, it would be hard to win a lot of the classical victory conditions like conquest. So I think each civ should also have a civ specific victory a la the Rhyse of Mankind mod.

And finally a note about alignments. I think they need to be seen in the sense of the game and not a value judgement on any real world beliefs. To me, especially in the sense of affecting the Safety Counter (if used) a 'evil' act or faction is one which a person today would consider such, regardless of it's actual 'worth' in context of the game. I mean being a despot who has his people take slaves would be consider evil by today's standard. Yet in game terms, it may be his civ that wins over a high-minded civ that ends up not producing enough troops and becomes zombie chow.

Anyway, the point is while the above despot might survive against the zombie, in relation to other human factions, there will be problems. Autocratic Generalissimos tend not to do to well with neutral merchants and high-minded humanitarians. I don't know, maybe we need to change G/N/E to something less emotive and more to something socio-political. Right now I can't think of anything. Something else to discuss.

 

[Korias]

Well since this is in a sense a 'new' mod, I think it's time to bring up some old ideas.

More or less. I do plan on building off of the original mod and improving that first. Alot of work has already been done and its got many ideas that I personally enjoy, especially the flavor.

First off, there is the basic zombie. Zombies infect who they bite, but I don't think units that survive a zombie attack should have a chance of becoming zombies since I'm sure the survivors have learned by the start of the game to kill anyone bitten by a zombie.

Thats not a guarantee, but I do agree. However, in some examples of the genre, its possible to survive being bitten if proper medication is given. Other times, genetics allow you to overcome the virus, as seen in 28 Days Later or the Biohazard/RE series.

So, I'm not sure how it can be done, or if it can be done, but while a individual zombie unit may not have a large attack strength, there needs to be a way to boost it's lethality. I mean in normal Civ, a unit takes damage and then slowly 'regenerates' - well some of that 'regeneration' comes from previously wounded healing up and returning to duty. Yet in the zombie apocalypse, unless you are wounded by stepping in a gopher hole in the battle a wound is as a kill. So maybe the healing rate of units needs to be slowed way, way down. Anyway, I could go on about this, but I think we all can hash this out.

There are a few options as far as the lethality is concerned. On medium graphics, units display as multiple individuals. This means that the ones that are not shown after combat could be considered dead, whether bitten or not. The unit itself doesnt have to die, and as the unit regenerates health, the new individuals can be assumed as re-inforcements or conscripts.

Another way is to take alook at the Diseased promotion from FfH that limits healing rates and increase the malus. That way, you start taking damage over time and eventually die. It could also leave you weakened, therefore reducing combat effectiveness. It would be a harsh penalty for players if they just built a new unit only to have it die five tiles away.

Secondly, specialty zombies: are we going to have them? I'm sure we can steal things like the hunter, tank, smoker, boomer and witch from Left 4 Dead. I'm sure there are other games that have specialty zombies as well.

Yes, we are. The Tank, Runners and Hunters, Crawlers, Spitters, and other zombie types will mutate as time goes on.

Thirdly, at some point mankind gets the upper hand and the zombies become less of a threat and so each civ will start to look at other Civs as their primary enemy. I would think that for game play, instead of 'general' civilizations based on nationality, we should perhaps have civs sort of like Fury Road in that their 'nationality' is based on their leader.

Well, there is a Retro-viral Solution tech. Colin may have planned to create a "Tech" victory in that the first person to complete this tech would have the been given either an incredibly powerful boost or won the game. I would like to elaborate further on this, instead making it some sort of Team Project, or FfH ritual, or some sort of wonder that would be game shaking to whoever completed it.

However, I'm not too keen on the civs being as similar to Fury Road's system. I like the civs that are in place- they have potential. I would like to add more, and make generalizations to some (Particular the Zanzibars). But there are many civs that I wish to keep because they already work and are actually fun to play.

In this I mean every group of survivors will probably center around a initial leader that sets the tone for their faction. Whether s/he Survivalist, Despot, Democrat (not the party; one wedded to democracy), Idealist, Green or what have you, each civ should have some sort of goal.

To start with, I think right off the bat, the initial factions should mimic those of Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri. I think it gives a good mix. Plus, I would suggest that each faction has a G/N/E leader like the Orbis Mod has.
And finally a note about alignments. I think they need to be seen in the sense of the game and not a value judgement on any real world beliefs. To me, especially in the sense of affecting the Safety Counter (if used) a 'evil' act or faction is one which a person today would consider such, regardless of it's actual 'worth' in context of the game. I mean being a despot who has his people take slaves would be consider evil by today's standard. Yet in game terms, it may be his civ that wins over a high-minded civ that ends up not producing enough troops and becomes zombie chow.

Anyway, the point is while the above despot might survive against the zombie, in relation to other human factions, there will be problems. Autocratic Generalissimos tend not to do to well with neutral merchants and high-minded humanitarians. I don't know, maybe we need to change G/N/E to something less emotive and more to something socio-political. Right now I can't think of anything. Something else to discuss.

More leaders is ALWAYS a good thing. Please feel free to suggest ideas about these. I'm not familiar with SMAC, but I'll look into it. I'm not sure about the G/N/E that Orbis has, because certain factions could have a significantly darket tinge to them. If we decide to use the Security Counter, we could replace the alginments as such with the Lawful-Chaotic scale or even some type of Authoritarian scale, with similar bents to raise or lower the counter. However, I do want to avoid overusing FfH mechanics and I think that we need to be judicious in deciding how to implement a feature. The ideas of the scale limiting buildings wouldnt work when it comes to the civs: Less millitant civs would be shafted if the counter gets too high, and more militant civs wont have the abilities they need to work effectively if its too low.

I'd rather tie a counter feature with the zombies themselves, as a sort of Endangerment level. The higher it rises, the more zombies there are. Civs that benefit from endangering others, like the Conquest-Slavers, raise the counter while the City-states lower it.

Personally I don't like how most Civ games just end up a bitter slugfest toward endgame which is why I like FfH in that you have more special victories. Especially in a game like this with the zombies literally eating up most of the time till midgame, it would be hard to win a lot of the classical victory conditions like conquest. So I think each civ should also have a civ specific victory a la the Rhyse of Mankind mod.

I agree, but I really dont want to shoe-horn specific ways of playing. I do want the zombies to be a definitve threat, a legitimate danger to the world. I suppose that there could be various techniques with dealing with the zombies, such as the New Atlanteans Retroviral solution, or the Homeland Security's goal to cleanse the plague.

Once more I implore everyone for ideas, whether they be for Civs, units, features, anything.