Calling all unit and leader modelers: Fictionalization is back, and needs help

[Omega124]

In a world
Where the greatest civ iv mod is out of commission
One dedicated mod team needs help
To turn this situation to fiction.​

In 2008, a user known as cfkane released a mod called Fictionalization IV, a mod which supposed a world in which history was exactly as fiction, from pop culture to historical mythology, said it was. King Arthur, Oedipus, and Dracula were no longer mere legends but historical leaders that have left undeniable marks on human history. They are joined by the likes of President Jack Ryan, or Big Brother, who in turn are also just as real as the preceding three.

The mod wasn't just filled with fictional leaders, however. It also reworked corporations, introduced Legendary Units (special national units which are civ specific, which are tied to the mythology of that civilization), expanded barbarian units, added alliances (special wonders that would unlock the ability to build powerful units) and hero units, and was just starting on national civ specific heroes when development ceased in 2009.

In 2011, a user named farsight created a modmod, in an attempt to finish cfkane's work. Unfortunately he only go so far by himself, and it was nowhere close to getting to how cfkane envisioned his mod would end up.

Perhaps this mod would have been lost to history, maybe even regarded as fiction, if it wasn't for a fateful conversation between Terran Empress (Terra) and myself last fall. Terra and I were both fans of the mod, although we both came into contact with it long after it ceased development. In both of our cases, we were especially enthralled by the concept of factionalized history, and what we would want to add to the lore of the mod (fiction has changed since 2009). We brought in more friends, and soon talks about what could have been turned to what will be. We even secured the help of farsight, who is generously giving support from his end, even if his modmod has been lost to server migration.

Serious development on the new iteration of Fictionalization has commenced, and while our team can handle the developmental side of things, there is one huge, huge problem. We don't have any artists on the team. We are all either programmers, overseers, or just just friends who want to lend ideas. One issue in fictionalization is, unfortunately, the abundance of reused or poor quality unit models. It really throws off immersion when Chinese loong, Godzilla, and barbarian dragons all share the same appearance, or how German übersoldaten use the same models as clone troopers. While we can certainly pull some assets from the database (with credit of course!), the reality is we need an in house unit modeler (or s, we could stand to have multiple) to fix a majority of the new units, and then some.

Likewise, we want to not just finish cfkane's work, but go beyond it. We're talking more civs, with more leaders. While we could continuously pilfer the database for substitutes as needed, one thing great about cfkane was that he made sure his leaders looked exactly like the source material said they should look. We will therefore need a leader head artist willing to work with us in making leader heads of fictional characters.

If either of these two positions are of an interest to you, or if you feel you have unique talents to bring to the table, or if you just want to lend help to the class, please enquire here to help! All I ask is that you check this subform out to familiarize yourself with the mod (I highly suggest going through the civlopedia thread in specific so you can get a feel for the tone of the mod). Once you are familiarized, come back here and post what position you are applying for and some examples of prior work if you have some. If you make a good case, I'll tell farsight to add you to the sg, where the real magic is going on in terms of coordination of work.

Other than that, thank you for your time and interest. If you have further questions, please feel free to ask. Although we work in an sg, we are pretty open about what we're doing; we have no surprises planned.

 

[mourndraken]

For a game that's going into it's second decade, CIV4 still has lots of appeal. Best game ever ! Unlike modern games, it never asks for my credit card ! I am looking at this modding project and could easily get inspired. I like the concept of this project and I know that farsight is a very capable modder. I really like the fact that there has been lots of effort already added to make this a total conversion of the basic game.

Obsessing over art is something I have always loved and was thrilled when my African Pharaoh leaderhead was discussed on modcast episode 4. I have textured a few LH a long time ago, but have not really gone into rigging models, etc. (i.e. My old PC wasn't modern enough, but my new laptop is more than capable !) My last input came with Pie's Ancient Europe and that mod has been awesome, but is almost finished.

Fictionalization has so many stories to play with and it would be fun to get involved with a new project. There is a huge amount of buildings, landscapes, leaderheads, and units that could find there way into Fictionalization. If you have a wish list, I would pick off one unit piece and start, just to show you guys that I'm ready !

 

[Omega124]

Wow, mourndraken, I've looked through all your work, and I have to say, I'm very impressed by all of it. I too really like you Piye LH; even if you didn't rig it, the texturing is pretty impressive if I can say so myself. With such an impressive resume, I'd be willing to accept you as is. However, if you want to start with a test, I'll give you an example of what we need for both a unit and a leaderhead.

For the unit, one example that is super glaring that really needs to be fixed asap is Godzilla. For a hero unit, the fact that he shares a model with both a LU and a babarian unit is pretty... weird, if I can say so myself. Checking the database, there is no Godzilla models for civ 4, which means this is exactly the kind of thing we need for an in house modeller to make. Below is the 1954 (color) theatrical poster, which is the most iconic version of Godzilla.

Spoiler :

I know starting you off with a non human might be a little unfair but seriously so many units use this one dragon model its pretty damn confusing.

As for leaderheads, there is really a lot of leaders we want to add into the game. What new civs and leaders we want to add is probably our most discussed part of the mod. Right now, we're doing a "what we need" mentality, though. We're focusing on making the new civs, so we want to add one leader, a uu, and ub for each civ. Fortunately, since most of the civs we're adding are just BtS and warlord civs that were never ported over, we can use their current uus and ubs and a placeholder leader.

The only "new" civs we're adding from scratch are Canada, Amazonia, Dixie (American South, also representing althist in general), and a sort of United Earth/Federation/Whatever you want to call it civ (to represent science fiction in general). For Canada, we're using a parody of Harper (Steven Abootman, from South Park), so we're going to just use a Harper LH we found for convenience. SaibotLieh is being super nice and letting us use his completed Amazon civ for our mod, which solves that issue completely. This leaves Dixie and United Earth.

For Dixie, the only confirmed leader we have is Jake Featherston, from the TL-191 series. While he may be a character from a novel series, he does have a consistent fanon appearance, which I'll post some examples in a spoiler.

Spoiler :

For United Earth, we have three leaders planned. The one with the most consistent apperance, however, would be Jonathan Archer, from Star Trek Enterprise. Again, some images to establish basic apperance:

Spoiler :

Units or LH, we can use all the help we can get. This includes other people. The more help we can get, the better

 

[Nightinggale]

You just write a thread about wanting people and they show up. I have always considered getting new people to be much harder than that

I got kind of interested in this mod and decided to test it. However when I try to download, all I can find is dead links. Do you a new link, or preferably a git server or similar?

Sadly I can't make 3D models either. However I still suspect I can contribute. Use my makefile and you can have asserts while playing at near release speed. I have lost count of how many bugs I have found and fixed this way. Ever since I got that approach working I have considered it the standard way to mod if the goal is to get a stable mod. It's also able to compile faster (using all CPU cores instead of just one), profile (useful for optimization) and a great tool for finding infinite loops.

Although we work in an sg, we are pretty open about what we're doing; we have no surprises planned.

In that case, why don't you have the discussion in public?

 

[Omega124]

Ah right, a download link would be good whoops I got too excited

This is the download ink for the final state of cfkane's original mod, or version 6.0. As stated before, the 2011 edits are lost to time, although we will restore them eventually. As per edits we've done since, we have three programmers doing three different things at once and right now we're focusing on getting each individual component done before bringing them together. Also Terra, who is supposed to be one setting up the github, is apparently having issues getting one running (this is, I think, everyone's first collaborative work on the initial team so we aren't used to this aspect). If you have experience doing that, that would be fantastic if you could set one up.

As per sg vs thread, blame farsight on that, not me. I didn't make it.

EDIT: I remember now actually. It's so we can have multiple threads, one for each individual subtopic. It's theoretically a much easier way to organize and discuss topics. However in practice we still mostly communicate one to one on steam or other chat programs because it ends up being far faster.

 

[Nightinggale]

Sure I can set up a git server in no time as I have done so multiple times already. However GitHub has a 1 GB limit for free projects. Sourceforge on the other hand use the limit "reasonable", which seems to be unlimited for mod usage, even graphic heavy ones. Considering that the compressed download is already more than 600 MB, I would highly recommend sourceforge.

Should I start a new project called "Fictionalization IV" on sourceforge?

 

[Omega124]

Yeah, yeah, that'd be great :3

 

[mourndraken]

ok that Godzilla is going to be a superstar. Have you considered using static LH images to fill out the mod until the art can be created ? That way, you wont be held up while 3D models are getting composed in 3DS mAX. Speaking of dinosaurs, I'm kind of one myself. I have no idea what a git or a sg does. I'm FTP capable .

 

[Terran Empress]

I've considerd using 2d images in the civs as place holders while waiting for the 3d assets yes, I just haven't been working on the mod because I don't want to either have me go through the trouble of merging or force thor to.

 

[Nightinggale]

The new git server: https://sourceforge.net/p/fictionalization-iv/code/ref/master/
I will set up file properties and then add the files from the rar file. After that I will set up makefile and project files to work out of the box before I push the change to the server. Keeping upload delay in mind as well, you will likely not actually see anything on the git server before tomorrow.

I would need sourceforge usernames to give write permission. Otherwise I will be the sole modder.

I'm kind of one myself. I have no idea what a git or a sg does. I'm FTP capable .

sg = secret group (that's my guess). It's kind of like a subforum, but only the person starting it can invite other people to read what is written.

Git is source control. To say it simple, it's a kind of file server. The mod directory is being watched and if you click "commit" you create a snapshot (called a revision). You can view any revision, which makes it a file history/log system, where you can see each line change. Very useful for plain text change (like source code or xml), less efficient for images and it is brilliant to track down bugs in something, which used to work. After all it can recall every single line change in the change, which introduced the bug.

It can also upload the revisions to the central server. This action is called push.

Pull is to fetch all changes pushed by other people. On pull, it also merge changes into the files, which avoids a great hassle if more than one person changed the same file and it nearly completely removes the risk of introducing bugs due to merge errors (a real danger if done by hand).

In short: it's a tool to allow multiple people to work on the same files without really spending time joining the work as well as keeping a log of who did what.

This is what most modders need to know about it in order to use it. I recommend smartGIT as client as my experience tells me it has the least technical issues and people with no git history appears to figure out how to use it.

I keep wanting to write a "modders guide to git" to explain why all modders should use it, even in one man projects and how to use it explained with screenshots. The only thing I have done is in Medieval Conquest's wiki, where I have added guides to get started with git, how to compile and set up the compiler. It isn't perfect and Fictionalization will not be a complete copy paste of this. Most noteworthy is submodules as it is highly unlikely that anything but M:C will use those.

 

[Omega124]

Sg means social group. It can in fact be set to public but in our case it's set to private. It's probably because we just want to be able to regulate who gets in. We have pretty lax standards, as you can see, but some modicum of control is nessecairly so we don't get flooded by people who aren't contributing. After all, that can be what this thread is for later on: public discussion.

 

[Dumanios]

Oh boy, this looks like it'll be nice.

If there's one thing I'd suggest, maybe some sort of alien civ, akin to the Race or Martians.

 

[Nightinggale]

Ok, files added to git. That is, except the FPK files. Due to the nature of how git handles file changes and file history, all files should be unpacked. Unpacking, moving files into position and then verifying it is done correctly isn't a 2 minute task and I decided that it isn't part of setting up the server. Instead it is adding files to an existing server and all modders should be able to do that.

I didn't add any project files either as it turned out that no custom DLL code is included. I can still set up project files for Makefile 2.5 if you want, but you would have to add the source code first and decide of which code to use as base.

 

[Omega124]

Oh boy, this looks like it'll be nice.

If there's one thing I'd suggest, maybe some sort of alien civ, akin to the Race or Martians.

I believe there is a war of the worlds event where Martians are spawned like barbarian invasion event in bts. I'm weary on doing a full alien civ, since that means a whole new unit graphics needed for every individual unit.

As for nightingale, I'm not a programmer I'll defer that aspect to someone more knowledgeable on that subject than me (Thor or farsight)

 

[Terran Empress]

I would need sourceforge usernames to give write permission. Otherwise I will be the sole modder.

Ok cool I just made a sourceforge account, my username is marauderm

thanks man

 

[Omega124]

I don't have access to a computer. Until likely may >_>

I'll make an account when I can do more than just advertise and direct workflow.

 

[Nightinggale]

I just realized something. From a security point of view, this setup is totally flawed. Anybody can show up here and say "I'm part of the team" and get write permission. I think it would be best if I can verify the claim somehow, like if I could join the social group where we know impostors can't show up.

I know it sounds unintentionally hostile towards Terran Empress, but not having noticed that account name made me think of the core principle of the issue. Some years ago I had an account on a private svn server. Somebody gained access to it, who shouldn't have and he corrupted the server to a state where after a month of recovery, it was declared lost and we had to start a new one, meaning the entire history was lost. Also while studying to become an engineer, I aced "Internet Security" (can't remember the full title offhand. It was what we called it). It wouldn't look good on me if I make a blunder in something as simple as providing access to people without even checking if they should have access.

 

[Omega124]

Yeah ok but I clearly mentioned Terra in the OP. lets not witch hunt my best friend ok?

 

[Nightinggale]

Yeah ok but I clearly mentioned Terra in the OP. lets not witch hunt my best friend ok?

But witchhunting is so much fun

I admit I screwed up there. I read the entire thread and then forgot most of it while concentrating on setting up the project and git . I added Terra, but that doesn't fix the underlying problem in me not knowing who to add.

I could promote somebody to be allowed to add more users. However doing that means promoting to admin, which involves access to all settings. This mean it will have to be somebody with enough insights to not delete the git server by accident or anything like that. I learned the hard way that ill intentions aren't needed in order to break stuff. One guy managed to commit to the wrong branch, which made it affect the wrong mod. I forked the git server and ensured that he no longer had write access to anything he wasn't allowed to change and the reply was "thank you". Protecting people against their own unskilled semi random clicks seems to be an issue as well as protecting against ill intentions.

 

[mourndraken]

You know what would be cool, if you would have to chose between like 3 superheros for each nation, like for america you could have, superman, captain america, or Iron man, but you can only have one at any given time. another thing that would be awesome is if each super hero was actually skined to look like their hero, i was actually fairly disappointed to see kratos not skinned. But it is a great mod and i am hoping for more updates and more content if you did not stop working on it.

EDIT: i was thinking some warhammer 40k factions would be an interesting add on, granted it takes place 40,000 years in the future, and the only faction that would work best would be the Imperium of man which was founded at around 30,000 ad, although the immortal emperor of the Imperium has existed since 8000 BC,but hey its just a suggestion keep it in mind.