[BtS] "Extra"

[Jabie]

Where is 3.17i? The link in the first post points to 3.17g.

@monkeyboobs: There's a mod called Stone Age which may be what you are looking for.

 

[Lachlan]

You can find it in post 665 of this thread

@ Chiyu : i have an new idea, i see a technology called "galactic domination" : why not "wonder-stars" ?

It could take the name of Stars which would have a colonized world...

"Colonization of Déneb", "Colonization of Mizar", "Colonization of Arcturus", "Colonization of Albdébaran", " Colonization of Tau Ceti" which would representig galactic empire, a ist of twenty stars should be enough...

You could build these wonders only if you are on the civic allowed by galactic domination...

EDITED !

 

[PreLynMax]

The stone age idea was already though over and rejected way back when.
Still, I'm glad I'm not the only one.

Edit: I highly suggest you keep High Walls as is, since it makes much more sense to build castles over high walls instead of plain walls. Screw the sky high defense.

 

[monkeyboobs]

@monkeyboobs: There's a mod called Stone Age which may be what you are looking for.

I tried »Not Another Stone Age Mod«, but it isn't well balanced. What I'm looking for is a Stone Age addon, or better prologue?, for Extra mod, because I don't want to miss all its improvements in (then) mid and late game. If it won't happen it's still a fantastic mod. If it will... whoooooohooooohoooo!!!!!!

Every fullfilled wish causes another one and so on

 

[CHEESE!]

Have you got a complete change list?

 

[smeagolheart]

Post 662 seems to be it

 

[Chiyu]

Before I reply to all new posts, let me make an announcement. The development of Extra is coming to an end. The way I see it, almost all usable content - that doesn't affect the core gameplay too much - from the official Firaxis mods has been used and implemented.

Right now I am working on the final version. All existing bugs must be fixed in this version, plus a few more features will be added. For example, the Olympic Park from Rhye's and Fall (BtS), the Makurian/Nubian civ from Crossroads of the World (BtS) and some new technologies. There are still some things in the official mods that seem really interesting, but which I'm still having my doubts about. I'm leaving them up to debate. Input or advice would be appreciated.
A. For example, the 'hero' unit in Alexander's Conquests (Warlords). Should a hero unit be added, and if so, in what way?
B. Same with the Mongol Camp from Genghis Khan (Warlords). Could/should it be implemented?
C. The Greek Fire promotion from Genghis Khan (Warlords). Could it's effect (1 free strike I believe) be replaced with something else to make the promotion more original?


Also, I'm open for other suggestions of course. I ask of all Extra fans to take another good look at all official Vanilla/Warlords/BtS mods and see if there are still noteworthy features in there that haven't added to Extra yet.


When it's finished, this version will be the "core" version. I've already given some hints about what I will do afterwards. My plan is to make a number of add-ons for Extra. These add-ons will not neccessarily consist of firaxis stuff. Yet they will all have the same aim as the original Extra: adding extra content without altering or unbalancing the core gameplay too much.

I understand that some people would rather keep Extra in it's clean form (devoid of as any non-Firaxis content as possible) -- and that's what the next and final version of the "core" Extra will give them. It will be up to each player to decide whether to install a certain add-on or not.

The new add-ons will most likely have content like new leaders, new civilizations, new technologies (a Stone Age has been suggested), new buildings, new units, new civics etc. However, take note that I will never just randomly add 'stuff'. Every add-on will have it's own 'goals' and I will be very selective in adding content. Neither will I just 'merge' full mods or anything (I'll leave that task to others). I will always take small bits and put them together in my own way. The first thing I'm going to do is compile a pack of additional civs and leaders. More information about this will come soon.




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@Lachlan (1): I have no idea what "Play now" exactly does since I've never used that feature myself. Is there some file/script that 'decides' how your game will look like? In that case, I could edit that file so it takes the new resources into account .

@monkeyboobs: You're welcome. As for the ice age/stone age thing.. Well, something that goes that far beyond official content couldn't be added to the 'base' Extra. It is however very likely that an 'expanded past' and an 'expanded future' will find their way to Extra in one of the optional 'patches' that I will release in the future. About volcanos.. well, technically FfH: Age of Ice is an officially recognized mod, and it features volcanos next to mountains. If you like, I could add this volcano terrain type just to add some variety to the surface of the world map.

@Lachlan (2): Please elaborate on where you found these wonder stars. It seems like a nice idea to have some Future Era projects or wonders involving space.

@PreLynMax: About the High Walls... After testing it seemed that the High Wall were just too overpowered. You could barely take a city with High Walls. In any case, I would have to remove the additional bombardment bonus that it gives. Only then could I make them available to all cities. Still, I like the idea of players having to make the choice which city they want to give some extra defense. What do you think?

@CHEESE!: As soon as possible, I'm going to replace the version log at the first post with a complete feature list. The version history will be available in a readme text file.

 

[Sword_Of_Geddon]

Well Chiyu it has indeed been a long journey has it not?

Fun is not over yet though...

I worked on a pretty successful(but not the most popular) mod for civ3 for years, so if you need advise on add-ons that aren't huge mega-packs, I'm more than willing to led a hand.

On this next version you assembling for the final, core version, I'd add Avain's new VD mod he is working on(which also includes the ethnic citystyles mod), it promises to be very groundbreaking, and possibilbly the last version of it Avain creates.

 

[Jabie]

Right now I am working on the final version. All existing bugs must be fixed in this version, plus a few more features will be added. For example, the Olympic Park from Rhye's and Fall (BtS), the Makurian/Nubian civ from Crossroads of the World (BtS) and some new technologies. There are still some things in the official mods that seem really interesting, but which I'm still having my doubts about. I'm leaving them up to debate. Input or advice would be appreciated.

A. For example, the 'hero' unit in Alexander's Conquests (Warlords). Should a hero unit be added, and if so, in what way?

Not too sure how to make this work.

B. Same with the Mongol Camp from Genghis Khan (Warlords). Could/should it be implemented?

Possibly as a Barbarian only option. Come to think of it, playing as the Barbarians might be an option too.

C. The Greek Fire promotion from Genghis Khan (Warlords). Could it's effect (1 free strike I believe) be replaced with something else to make the promotion more original?

Bombard ability? 5% per turn.

Also, I'm open for other suggestions of course. I ask of all Extra fans to take another good look at all official Vanilla/Warlords/BtS mods and see if there are still noteworthy features in there that haven't added to Extra yet.

The music. I tried to add some myself into the folders but that didn't work. I then tried to hack the XML both AudioDefines and Audio2DScripts, but didn't meet with any luck. Any clues?

I understand that some people would rather keep Extra in it's clean form (devoid of as any non-Firaxis content as possible) -- and that's what the next and final version of the "core" Extra will give them. It will be up to each player to decide whether to install a certain add-on or not.

Yep, that's definitely the appeal for me.

Thanks

Thanks for all your hard work.

 

[smeagolheart]

@ Chiyu: About the Mongol Camp from Genghis Khan, I was thinking about implenting it in my own mod as a kind of random event type thing maybe. It would go like this: As a random event, the camp would spawn somewhere uninhabited and not in cultural borders, and it would be up to the player (or AI) to deal with the barbarians or let the camp build up barbarians and attack ya.

Kinda true to history I guess.

 

[ZachScape]

Since the mod contains all Firaxis made stuff... is there any reason that downloading this will slow down my computer. I have BtS and Warlords, so does that mean I'm actually downloading everything for a second time, or is this just rearranging the files I currently own and turn it into a mod.

 

[mamba]

Given that the mod download is about 330 mb, I leave it to you to figure out whether you download some stuff you already have or rearrange what is on your HD already

Seriously, it is a new download, no mod should rearrange existing stuff - ever.

 

[ZachScape]

OK, that was as if you said "What's six times 4 at the base of eight" to a second grader. I don't know what is big in computer terms.
Though, I did understand the answer to my second question . Thank you
But basically, how big is the mod compared to the size of Beyond the Sword?

 

[mamba]

I didn't realize there was another question in there besides the 'second' one

Well, BtS without the mods it comes with is 660 mb, Extra is 330 mb packed which turns into 700 mb unzipped. So I'd say it is about equal size as BtS, but of course that is in addition to what is in BtS already, so it doubles the size of regular BtS.

In general, mods at 300 mb packed zip are pretty large. As far as mods go this is one of the larger ones (except for a handful of mods which exceed 3xx mb, everything else is either similar in size or smaller, with most being smaller).

Whether it slows down your PC is mostly up to your PC, it should not slow you down initially, maybe during the endgame (modern times) - unless you have a rather weak PC with little RAM. You should have 2 gigs and then be fine imo.

 

[ZachScape]

Well, I just found out what my Drive C can support. My computer is the family computer, but I mostly go on it. It says I have 184.4 total. 43.4 free space. My computer is a couple years old, and when sister and mom do go on it, they say my name is slow (even though I just looked and my Firaxis games is just under 3 GB. So what's your diagnosis... doc?(The closest thing I found to a doctor, lol).

*Damn, forgot the question mark in my first post.

 

[mamba]

If I were you, I'd just download it and give it a try and find out for yourself. There is no real hard boundary for PCs which can or cannot run a mod. Apart form the PC your experience will also depend on the number of civs and the size of the map etc.

So as long as you have no issues with regular civ and 2 GB RAM, I'd say you should be ok.

Note while CIV may be 3 GB, you never load all of it at the same time, much of it is in mods which come with the game.

 

[ZachScape]

Thanks Mamba. I'll try it over break. I have never downloaded a mod before, (except for RFC patches and RFC RAND). You were a lot of help!

 

[smeagolheart]

This was the first mod I ever played and I loved it, I downloaded a few other mods and found their additions/alterations took the base game too far for my taste from the base "Civilization 4 experience".

You can't go wrong with this mod since it focuses on stuff that Firaxis coded or endorsed. And it's fun

 

[Sword_Of_Geddon]

I think that if mods gets too big, that leads to the MAF problem..

 

[Lachlan]

@Lachlan (1): I have no idea what "Play now" exactly does since I've never used that feature myself. Is there some file/script that 'decides' how your game will look like? In that case, I could edit that file so it takes the new resources into account .

@Lachlan (2): Please elaborate on where you found these wonder stars. It seems like a nice idea to have some Future Era projects or wonders involving space.

Answer [1] : in fact its because i would use perfectworld.py mapscript. On Perfect World mapscript i have doubts...

Answer [2] : the idea is to prolongate game to 3000 AD
"Stars Wonders" meant to have wonders called "Colonization of..."...

Wonder which permit launching a starship to Alpha Centauri should be renammed "Supremacy on the Galaxy", prerequistes should be to have at least 6 of 20Wonders-Star-Systems by example, making that you could have several competitors for "Supremacy on the Galaxy"...
"Supremacy on the Galaxy can be former Appolo Program by permitting to build spaceship parts...

"Apollo Program" should be prerequiste for building the 30 'colonization star systems wonders', of course 6 would be sufficient to build the final wonder called "Supremacy on the Galaxy"...

After for costs should be necessary to have this, i have a few ideas but i dont know...
Maibye at expensive costs ?