Brad Wardell is to become modder of Civ5

[Willem]

GalCiv2 ToA was so flawed in fact, that the game wasn't even worth playing on anything larger than a uber-small map (AI would not build or do anything at all, on something like 33-50% of all planets on the map). We created a thread and sent countless emails to Stardock, even with SAVE games attached; and their reply was... we don't see anything wrong... our reply was; a blind guy could see the problems we just explained to you.

Then the civ's not expanding problem.. they just sit there, doing nothing That was introduced into ToA... they actually added a game-breaking bug. The fact that difficulty levels were even in the game was stupid, the game was so flawed, hardest levels could be beat with ease on larger maps.

But, what is Brad's specialty?

Great job...

So, Brad... fine with releasing broken games and then not even fixing them.. same as Bethesda, broken almost unplayable console port of Fallout 3, C3C had more flaws than PTW (they call them features), the examples are endless.

It's almost pathetic how they act like they are 'pro-consumer'... then they give you the middle finger and piss on you (with the courtesy of calling it rain) by not fixing their broken games.

I really don't understand why they left the game the way it was. They were so good at improving and fixing the first two versions, but by Twilight they just seem to have given up. There's been no new patches for ages now, and the one they do have causes the game to crash occasionally. While doing nothing for the more serious problem in the AI. I'm really sorry I wasted my money on the Ultimate Edition, I should have just left it at Gold.

 

[Draginol]

I'm pretty happy with Galactic Civilizations II: Twilight of the Arnor. I certainly don't think it's broken but YMMV.

Anyway, I'm not "retiring" after Elemental ships but taking some time off so I can get back into modding which is something I really enjoy.

I am very curious regarding whether Civ V is using LUA (someone said that was the rumor). I'm hoping it is using Python as that is what Elemental is using for modding as well.

I also do plan on doing more updates to GalCiv II: Twilight of the Arnor in the future as well but obviously been busy on other projects in the meantime.

 

[Willem]

I'm pretty happy with Galactic Civilizations II: Twilight of the Arnor. I certainly don't think it's broken but YMMV.

There are some serious problems with the AI in Twilight. It was alot better in Dark Avatar. One example, races that research Planetary Invasion but not Space Weapons even though they may be at war with someone.

 

[cephalo]

I am very curious regarding whether Civ V is using LUA (someone said that was the rumor). I'm hoping it is using Python as that is what Elemental is using for modding as well.

If you guys haven't done too much in Python yet, you might consider LUA as well. I haven't actually used LUA myself, but I have seen that Python is really, really slow. I hear LUA is faster and I wouldn't know how much, but I don't have to tell you that speed is a big plus for gaming.

Python's advantage is that it theres a library for almost everything, and in web applications where CPU time isn't really the bottleneck, you can save alot of time by using other people's code. For games though, I dont think it's ideal.

 

[civ_king]

Lua is smaller, faster and has better multithreading

 

[Draginol]

I'm more in the camp of having the modding be rich and relatively easy and assign developers to provide more and more APIs written in C++.

I've worked quite a bit with LUA and it is significantly faster than Python. The problem is that I've seen people try to pretty much write games (including doing pathfinding and everything) virtually in LUA.

While that sounds great on paper, I've found LUA to be limiting (and at times a real pain) when trying to access other libraries. YMMV of course. But I definitely prefer python for modding. I just wouldn't try to implement Astar with it.

 

[civ_king]

Since there is going to be lots of C++ and have a specialized library, do you think it will work?

 

[Draginol]

I think Lua will be fine in Civ V. I would just prefer it be Python.

As soon as you use scripting (whether it be Lua or Python) you're in a different realm of performance.

My preference is to ask the developers to provide DLL libraries with APIs that we modders can tap into.

I wouldn't expect, for instance, to have to write my own FindNearestEnemyHex() in Lua. I'd expect that to be an API written in C++ that I could just call.

Civ IV had a very rich library of calls we could use to mod the game in both small and big ways. Incidentally, Python 3 is pretty powerful imo.

 

[Dale]

I think Lua will be fine in Civ V. I would just prefer it be Python.

As soon as you use scripting (whether it be Lua or Python) you're in a different realm of performance.

My preference is to ask the developers to provide DLL libraries with APIs that we modders can tap into.

I wouldn't expect, for instance, to have to write my own FindNearestEnemyHex() in Lua. I'd expect that to be an API written in C++ that I could just call.

Civ IV had a very rich library of calls we could use to mod the game in both small and big ways. Incidentally, Python 3 is pretty powerful imo.

Firaxis have said as well as XML and Lua, will have access to the code for the gameplay DLL (SDK) so I believe that might be what you're looking for.

 

[cephalo]

Firaxis have said as well as XML and Lua, will have access to the code for the gameplay DLL (SDK) so I believe that might be what you're looking for.

Actually that's what I'm looking for in Elemental as well... *nudge nudge*

 

[trickofthehand]

I think Lua will be fine in Civ V. I would just prefer it be Python.

As soon as you use scripting (whether it be Lua or Python) you're in a different realm of performance.

My preference is to ask the developers to provide DLL libraries with APIs that we modders can tap into.

I wouldn't expect, for instance, to have to write my own FindNearestEnemyHex() in Lua. I'd expect that to be an API written in C++ that I could just call.

Civ IV had a very rich library of calls we could use to mod the game in both small and big ways. Incidentally, Python 3 is pretty powerful imo.

.

I have no idea what you're talking about, just wanted to get your attention so you can tell the powers that be to put in a ing ship queue for each planet's stardock so that the larger maps are actually playable and you don't spend 60% of your turn time zooming into individual docks to change ship type.

Yes I know about governors (I think that's what they were called), but if I want to build Ship A, Ship A, Ship D, Ship B, Ship A, Ship C; then I don't want to have to constantly zoom into individual starports to change what ship to build next, nor do I want to change ALL starports at once.

Thanks for your time, other than that I enjoy GalCiv II and think CiV could learn a lot from the way technology is applied to units, economy and manufacturing in the form of bonuses.

Moderator Action: please do not use foul language
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[Magma]

Or maybe make a Firaxis-Stardock joint operation for GC3.

Would be sickly brilliant. Just gief that game to be honest. O.o

 

[Shurdus]

Cool! Brad is a nice and very creative guy, and I am sure anything he may release will be well thought through and nice to play.

Brad has already he will mod elemental into a remake of one of the very first RPG games he ever played, so in the end it will not be like elemental at all, it will be a whole new game that uses the elemental engine and all the tools that are provided with elemental. All this is done to show new users what can be done with a bit of creativity and a bit of time, and all of this can be done with the tools that SD provide.

In the end I am sure not many users will pressure Brad to do anything since he probably will not make mods that alter the game slightly like BUG - he created the game from scratch, altering and tweaking will be a passed station for him. Instead he will make more completely different mods, and I am sure we will see some true quality. Hurray for Brad!

 

[warpstorm]

.
I have no idea what you're talking about, just wanted to get your attention so you can tell the powers that be

Brad/Draginol/FrogBoy is the powers that be at Stardock. Besides being the owner of the company, he did the design and some of the programming for GC2.

 

[trickofthehand]

Brad/Draginol/FrogBoy is the powers that be at Stardock. Besides being the owner of the company, he did the design and some of the programming for GC2.

Good then lets hope he puts in a queue system for ship building after reading this post. Playing galciv games on the larger maps is a strain and you're constantly having to zoom in to stardocks to change what they build. Unless you only build 1 type of ship, constantly. That's fun, right?

Also the combat mechanics are kind of crap and overly simplistic. But that's another female dog altogether (you can't cuss even though the forum automatically changes it to smiley faces... this makes sense how?)

Still a fun game, and a leading contender vs Civ imo. I actually think it does a lot of things right that Civ doesn't.

 

[Shurdus]

Elemental will come this fall. It will sure kick some behind and I pre-ordered it. Actually I am curious wether I will like Elemental or Civ V more. I guess it will be Civ V being a civ man and all, but Elemental will very likely be way better than GalCiv.