City Names mod for Sevomod

[Arkaeyn]

INSTALLATION: Simply unzip into your Sevomod\Assets\XML\Civilizations directory. I recommend you back up your previous version of the CIV4CivilizationInfos.xml file.

PREMISE: To have the theoretically possible situation that in any game of Civilization, all of the major cities in the history of the world have a chance, and only one chance, of appearing in play.


WHY?: I got sick of not seeing Kyiv, mostly. And I love history and am good at research. The project kind of snowballed from there. I am a dabbler in world history, and thus can recognize many famous city names, but I lack specialization in many cases. If you wish to help or submit your own list, by all means! Send my a private message or find my e-mail in the readme file.


WHY SEVOMOD?: This mod is currently designed only for use with Sevomod due to its use of several crucially important civs. A Vanilla version will be made available when Warlords is released and I know what the new civilizations would be. I believe that the following Civs should be added and will adapt this mod to fit my dream: Ottomans, Portuguese, Vikings, Byzantines, Ethiopians, Babylonians, Austrians. I'll also happily accept the Dutch, Zulu, Maya, Poles, Israelis, Sumerians and Koreans.


CHANGES TO SEVOMOD: While Sevomod adds all the Civs, except the Byzantines, which I want, it also adds several more that I tend to turn off: the Maasai, Albanians, Canadians, Celts, Cherokee, Aborigines, Scots, Iroquois, and Zulu. I won't be updating these Civs, but they are turned on for the downloadable version of this mod. If you turn them off as well, you'll find most of their important cities in the "Barbarian" list.

 

[Arkaeyn]

HISTORICAL METHODOLOGY: I wanted cities to belong to the civilizations they were most associated with, though geographically that might be problematic. Therefore, Alexandria was moved from Egypt to Greece, for example.

I also wanted to fill in the map of the world as much as possible before resorting to barbarian cities. Russia in Civ4 has a city name list attached to the borders of modern Russia. Since Kyiv is in the Ukraine, it wasn't a Russian city, despite being one of the three most important cities in Russian history! That in mind, I changed Russia from modern borders to Tsarist/Communist borders, and included cities like Kyiv and Minsk as well as central Asian cities like Almaty and Tblisi.

This process involved defining Civs by a certain time and place, usually their leaders. On the other hand, this meant removing certain cities from civs which really had no business having them. Teotihuacan, the second Aztec city, was razed and depopulated over 500 years before the Aztecs took power in Mexico! It's been moved to the Barbarian cities.

Colonialism also has reared its ugly head. Many cities, especially in Asia, were attached to Civs they weren't famous for, such as Goa for India, and Macau and Hong Kong for China. These cities were famous for becoming the ports of entry for Europeans into the exotic East. So I added them - and several other colonies, like Kingston and Montreal, to the proper European Civs. Eventually, I would like to create a system by which the game can recognize cities as being colonial (overseas) and name them accordingly. For now, around the 8th city or so in a list colonies start appearing.

I tend to play maps with each civ founding between 5-10 cities, so I've focused my efforts on the tops of each list.

"Barbarian" city names always annoyed me, as they were generally tribes, instead of the towns, camps, or cities which the barbarians came from. As such, I've changed it to important cities, historically or modern, which don't otherwise appear in the game. Some modern examples are Hanoi, Bangkok, or Florence, recent historical cities like Zanzibar and Bukhara, and ancient cities like Tula of the Toltecs and Hattusa of the Hittites.

By and large, I used Wikipedia to do this study. I also have a decent collection of books spanning world history, and have used those.


VERSION HISTORY:

0.3 further changes, started implementing cities with the same names in different civs (e.g. Cordoba). Notable changes from 0.2 to: Arabia, Egypt, Spain, Babylon, Rome, Greece, Persia, Israel and Turkey. This is likely the last version entirely in XML (see TODO list).

0.2 working version

0.1 basic changes. Didn't work (closed bracket issues)

 

[Arkaeyn]

WHAT'S CHANGED:
(by continent)


AMERICA


AMERICANS: Moderate amount of change. I changed the order so that the most important modern American cities would appear in order: NY, LA, Chicago, SF, Boston, Philly, DC. New York as the capital seems right to me - it is capital in finance and culture. DC may as well be the Forbidden Palace.

AZTEC: Moderate amount of change. Teotihuacan has been moved to the barbarian cities list. I scanned a bit of Aztec history and adjusted the order of some cities slightly, and included the seven cities of refugees from Aztlan, which start with Xochimilco.

INCA: Minor changes. Moved Quito well up on the list, and added a few more Incan conquests like Chan Chan.

MAYA: Moderate changes, more to do. The "Mayans" are problematic, as they lasted for centuries in city-state form, with various leading states. Currently the order is Tikal, Copan, Palanque, Chichen Itza, Kanampul, Bonampak, and Mayapan. I really don't know enough about the Maya to organize this well.

OTHERS: Various European colonies have been added, such as Sao Paolo, Curacao, and Montreal. Considering adding L'Anse aux Meadows.

BARBARIANS: Teotihuacan and Nazca have been moved here from Aztecs and Incas. Also added a few famous Native American in the USA settlements, such as Mesa Verde and Little Big Horn. Suggestions for more welcome!


AFRICA


ABYSSINIA: Massive changes. I'm not sure where the original list from Sevomod came from, but it had some bizarre omissions, such as Gondar.

CARTHAGE: No changes, none appear necessary.

EGYPT: Major changes. Alexandria and Cairo can now be built by Egypt, or Greece or Arabia, respectively. After Thebes and Memphis, the whole list has been shuffled.

MALI: Minor changes. Found a list of tribute cities in Wikipedia and added them (starting with Koulikoro).

NGUNI: Major changes. Having the Nguni language group as a whole was problematic to research big cities, so I made it more Zulu-centric. Unfortunately, finding lists of major Zulu cities is, uh, difficult. This one needs work. (as of 0.3, I'm probably not going to update this, as Warlords is adding the Zulu)

OTHERS: A few colonies, such as Brazzaville, Cape Town, and Ceuta. Also gave the historically important city of Khartoum to the Arabs, but considering moving it to the "barbarians".

BARBARIANS: My methodology for this was problematic at times. I found a map with African capitals and added those. I added a few ancient trading ports, like Rhapta, and also Khartoum and Zanzibar. But this is incomplete, at best.


EUROPE


AUSTRIA: Major changes here. I took "Austria" to mean "Austria-Hungary at its height" which included several cities which don't elsewhere appear in Civ, including Venice, Prague, Belgrade, Budapest, and Sarajevo. Eastern Europe now exists in Civ!

ENGLAND: Moderate changes. Moved Manchester and Liverpool up, Hastings down. Included famous colonies such as Kingston, Cape Town, Simla, and Hong Kong.

FRANCE: Minor changes. Civ didn't give a lot of cities to the French, did they? Added a few on mainland France, like Calais. A few other colonies, like Montreal and Brazzaville.

GERMANY: Minor changes. Order got shifted slightly, and I moved a few historical towns up, such as Konigsberg and Magdeburg. I decided against adding German colonial possessions in Africa, though that might be changed.

NETHERLANDS: Minor changes. Added Belgian cities Antwerp and Brussels, and colonial possessions Curacao and Malacca.

POLAND: Minor changes. Included a few cities to make Poland more Poland-Lithuania, including Vilnius and Riga.

PORTUGAL: Moderate changes, more needed! Portugal is difficult, as it had a huge overseas empire with famous cities and very few in its home land. Sao Paolo, Rio, Macau, Goa, Ceuta...and Lisbon and Porto.

RUSSIA: Massive changes! Russia now includes the imperial possessions of Tsarist and Soviet Russia. Most importantly, this includes Kyiv, now third in the city list. Also non-ethnically Russian cities like Tbilisi, Yerevan, Baku, and Almaty, which might be moved to "Barbarian". In addition, I added Stalingrad, though as it's the only Soviet city spelling, I may change it to Volgograd.

SCOTLAND: No changes. Not sure any are necessary.

SPAIN: Moderate changes. Mostly colonies like Lima and Havana. Several historical Spanish cities, such as Cordoba and Toleda, also given to the Arabs.

VIKINGS: Moderate changes, more needed. I wanted to include the major cities of modern Scandinavia, such as Oslo, Copenhagen, Goteborg, and so on. But I also wanted to keep the Viking names. Honestly, I think I didn't do a good job. My Viking knowledge and reference materials are weak. Please help!

OTHERS: Greece and Rome included in the Ancient section.

BARBARIAN: A few cities. Monaco, Luxembourg, Dublin, Kells, Florence, Torino, Helsinki.

 

[Arkaeyn]

EAST ASIA


CHINA: Very minor changes. More probably necessary, but it looks pretty good. Added Ye and Hefei, and more historical cities can probably be added. Maybe I'll call the Three Kingdoms experts.

INDIA: Minor changes. I don't know much about Indian history, but the city list appears to be quite modern. I looked up Asoka to see what cities were big for him, and added a few of those. Moved Goa to the Portuguese, added Simla to the English.

JAPAN: Very minor changes. Why have Edo and Tokyo? They're the same city!

KOREA: No changes, I don't know much about Korea and its history. At all.

MONGOLS: Major changes! The Mongols are problematic, as they had one of the greatest civilizations in history in terms of military might and sheer size...but very few cities of their own. Karakorum, Sarai, and...well, that's about it. So the rest are cities which they conquered. In some cases they destroyed the cities immediately after conquest, such as Urgench, but these cities aren't elsewhere in the game, so I added them. Also added a few Chinese cities which Genghis captured.

OTHER: Various European colonies have been moved or added, like Hong Kong, Goa, Jakarta. Major Central Asian cities have been generally given to Russia or Persia.

BARBARIANS: Lots of major cities in Asia weren't attached to specific Civs. This includes Saigon and Hanoi, Bangkok, Manila (maybe American), Singapore, Melbourne and Sydney (maybe English), Bukhara, and several others.


MIDDLE EAST/MEDITERRANEAN

ARABIA: Major changes. I decided to make the Arabs representative of the Caliphates - Ummayads, Abassids, and Fatimids. After Mecca and Medina, I have the four capitals: Damascus, Baghdad, Cordoba, and Cairo. Also included Jerusalem, if the Israelis aren't in the game.

BABYLON: Minor changes. The main problem with Babylon is that it overlaps almost perfectly with Sumeria. Since Sumeria had precedence, if I noticed a city name used with them, I gave it to Sumeria. So Uruk to Sumeria, pretty much.

GREECE: Moderate changes. Okay, I can't tell you how annoyed I got with Thermopylae being the third city of Greece. It was a battle! Corinth, Syracuse, Mytilene, have all been moved up, and Alexandria has been added.

ISRAEL: One change - I made the capital the modern spelling of Jerusalem, in order for it to match the Roman and Arabian version of the most famous city in the world.

PERSIA: Moderate changes. I looked at Persia as Persia through the millenia, not simply the BCE empire destroyed by Alexander. Adding the Sassanids, the Savanids, Persia, and Iran changes things, like adding Tehran and Ctesiphon. I also made Susa the capital, as it appeared to be the most consistent capital of ancient Persia.

PHOENICIA: Moderate changes. A lack of historical information about what, exactly, "Phoenicia" was makes this very problematic. I changed the order slightly, and added Tripoli. Modernized some of the names as well.

ROME: Major changes! Other than the Mongols, the Romans are probably the most difficult, largely because the Byzantines aren't also included. First came major Italian cities which were also major Roman cities, like Mediolanum, Neapolis, and Ravenna. Cities that the Romans used far more than others got included, unless they became important other cities (like the French cities Lugdunum/Lyons and Massilia/Marseille). This includes Perganum and Antioch. Also added Jerusalem.

SUMERIA: Moderate changes. I basically looked up Sumeria on Wikipedia and adjusted these names accordingly, and took from the Babylonians where need be.

TURKEY: Minor changes, could be much much more. Turkey is difficult to pin down as to what it should be. Attaturk makes it look like modern Turkey. Mehmed II, Ottoman Turkey at its height. The problem starts with its capital - should it be Constantinople or Istanbul? I went with Constantinople, because without the Byzantines, it made more sense. Other than that, though, I tended to stick with modern Turkey, because Ottoman Turkey would be roughly as large and problematic than the broadest interpretation of the Arab civ.

OTHERS: You kidding? I'm not making this area MORE complex.

BARBARIANS: See above, though with a few exceptions, such as Hittite and Assyrian cities.

 

[Arkaeyn]

TODO LIST:

v0.5 In the near future, I would like to adapt the list to include more cities with the same name. I'd also like to take advantage of the Python which allows for name changing upon conquest (see the Greek World mod).

v1.0 The tricky bit is going to be combining them. In such a situation, I'd like Rome and France to both be able to form Massilia/Marseilles, but only one of them, and then the other, if it conquers it, to successfully change the name. This is trickier than it appears, because the naming is done in XML, but the renaming is done in Python.

v2.0 One of the problems with decided on the order of names is that there are usually at least two directions you could go: historical or modern. Occasionally, the game has leaders in each case. No better example of this can be found than the Americans, with Revolutionary-era George Washington and modern Roosevelt. If a way can be found for city names to be based on leaders, instead of on civilizations, then this opens up the chance for city naming conventients to be more consistent. Here's what I'm looking for:


AMERICA - Washington historical (Boston, Philly, NY), Roosevelt (NY, LA, Chicago)

ARABIA - Saladin Caliphate-era, the Arab empires (Damascus, Baghdad, Cairo), earlier ruler [Abu Bakr] Arabian peninsula names (Mecca, Medina, Sana'a)

CHINA - Qin Shi Quang historical (Chang'an, Luoyang), Mao Zedong modern (Beijing, Shanghai)

EGYPT - modern/Arab ruler [Nasser? Baibars?]

ENGLAND - Elizabeth medieval/renaissance/early colonial (North America, Victoria/Churchill modern/later colonial (Africa and Asia)

GERMANY - Frederick historical, Bismark modern/colonial, [Charlemagne?] medieval?

GREECE - Alexander imperial (include Seleucids and Ptolemaics), [Pericles/Lysander?] local Greece and colonies

INDIA - Gandhi modern, Asoka historical

MONGOL - Ghenghis Khan west, Kublai east? Kublai Chinese?

PERSIA - Cyrus Achaemenid empire, [Khosrau I?] Sassanid

ROME - Julius/Augustus western, [Constantine?/Justinian?] Eastern (or we need the Byzantines!!). Or, Scipio Afrianus (Italian) Caesars (Imperial)

RUSSIA - Catherine/Peter Tsarist, Stalin Bolshevik

TURKEY - Mehmed historical, Attaturk modern

VIKINGS (Scandanivians?) - Ragnar Lodbrok/Canute historical, [Gustavus Adolphus?] modern??


v3.0 City names based on terrain and distance. For example, the first city the Americans found after their capital is close. Call it Philadelphia. Then they found a city far away on a coast. Call it Los Angeles. Then a city on another continent/island: Honolulu.

This appears to be feasible, but will require greater coding skill than I have, therefore it's the last on the TODO list.

 

[Shqype]

The people which lived on the original soil of Western Civilization are not a "good playable civilization" for you?

In spiritual sphere, in possessing or creating values never have Albanians had any reason to envy or covet others, much less have they any for such today.
The Albanians are the creators and bearers of one of humankind’s fundamental languages, a language that has its unshakable place among a dozen or so of the main languages of the world.

One of the first European Christian countries, Albania has consequently been the original soil of the Western European civilization.
From the great hymn of Christianity “Te Deum” written by an Albanian Archbishop over fifteen hundreds years ago, to the teacher of Western civilization George Kastriot, the most sublime and renowned character in the world not only of Albanians, but of all Balkan peoples as well, described as “the Athlete of Christ”, to the Albanian nun Mother Teresa, the most famous Albanian women in today’s world, the proof of civilization passes through like a brilliant thread, so much and so persistently denied by the ill-wishers of Albanian nation.

 

[Arkaeyn]

(reserved)

 

[Arkaeyn]

The people which lived on the original soil of Western Civilization are not a "good playable civilization" for you?

Not for me, no. Maybe for you, and that's fine by me. But the Albanians never set up a empire worthy of being called a superpower, or great power, unlike all the other Civs.

 

[Shqype]

Not for me, no. Maybe for you, and that's fine by me. But the Albanians never set up a empire worthy of being called a superpower, or great power, unlike all the other Civs.

Could it be that they did, but you're simply ignorant to the history?

 

[Arkaeyn]

Could it be that they did, but you're simply ignorant to the history?

It could be. Prove it to me - show me where the Albanians were a superpower. All I can see is that they were a moderately successful resistance to the Ottomons for a time, before being eventually conquered.

 

[Shqype]

When were the Vikings a superpower? "Superpower" is a very subjective term, also, and you do not really define it.

The Albanian resistance to the Ottomans under Gjergj Kastrioti was not moderately successful, it was extremely successful, and had a profound effect on European Christian history.

Before the Roman invasion the Illyrians had kingdoms which made up a majority of the Balkans. Under Dardanian king Bardhyli the Illyrian kingdom reached its zenith when he united the kingdoms of Illyria, Mollossia/Epirus, and Macedonia. When they were brought in under the Roman Empire, they still contributed many warriors and rulers (like the "Illyrian Dynasty" of Roman emperors). Above all, the Albanians are a civilization that has been in their location since the beginning and has endured throughout the ages. Isn't that what civilization is about?

Take the Indians, for example. When was India at its height? Wasn't it during their ancient days? But, regardless of which foreign power occupied them, they still endured and are still alive and kicking to this day.

 

[Arkaeyn]

Point-by-point: The Vikings were a superpower for a few hundred years around the first millenium. Viking military and political power extended throughout Europe, from England to Sicily to Russia to the Byzantine empire and its Varangian guard! Being able to exert economic, political, military, and cultural power beyond a country's own borders makes it a great power, if not a superpower. Most every civilization in Civ clearly accomplished that.

If the Albanian resistance was "extremely successful" then why was Albania ruled by the Ottomans for hundreds of years? I'm very confused here. And if resistance - not even successful! to a superpower is all that is needed to be in Civilization, then I'm proud to announce the addition of several hundred new civs, from Vietnam to Ireland to the Philippines to the Basques to the Palestinians.

And no, even if your claim that Illyria is now Albania in direct continuity is true (unlikely, given the various invasions, especially Slavic), that is NOT what Civilization is about. Civilization is about various empires which rise, conquer, fall. You are right about the Indians - they stand out dramatically from everything else in Civ in that they were rarely aggressive, although the addition of Asoka changes that dynamic.

But this is besides the point. I dont think the Albanians fit. You apparently do. And that is fine. You can turn them on. I can turn them off.

 

[Shqype]

The resistance under Kastrioti was successful for 25 years; it prevented the Ottoman conquest of Rome and Italy and earned him the title "Athleta Christi" by the Roman Catholic Popes. After his death the Albanians digressed without his genius leadership and were conquered for 12 years after his death. His resistance was extremely successful, but obviously sometime after he died his men could not withstand the might and resources of Mehmet the Conqueror alone.

Illyria; Arbnia; Albania... same people, different name. Were the Indians always called Indians? Were the Chinese always called Chinese? No... as far as I know the term 'Chinese' is derived from one of the dynasties, but the people are still the same. It's granted that there is no 'pure' "race" in the world, and especially a people that were the first in the Balkans have a long history to mix with others (like Greeks, Thracians, Romans, Slavs, Turks, etc). But that's true wherever you go. Still, one can claim that there are mountainous areas of Albania that have not mixed with invaders and have been impervious to 2 milleniums of armed invasion. Visitors to Albania from abroad have observed this, and their Illyrian descent is recognizable in their culture, customs, and language.

In the end you can do what you want, whether your judgements are wrong or right.

 

[Arkaeyn]

In the next version I'll probably turn all the Sevomod civs back on - I won't personally update the cities, but the Sevomod city list is generally more coherent than the original Civ.

 

[Wyz_sub10]

Hi Arkaeyn,

Just so you know, for the Iroquois, the latter 20 or so names in the list are the names of tribal villages.

For the Nguni, most of the cities listed (save maybe 8-12) are either historic Zulu villages or current cities/villages in high Zulu ethnic areas (mostly in KwaZulu-Natal).

 

[Rabbit, White]

Canada (Montreal in French, Vancouver and Toronto in "Barbarian)

I see. So not only is Canada not worthy enough of a Civilization but Toronto is just a bunch of Barabrians, eh?!

Just kidding
This is an interesting mod, if highly subjective one .

Btw, in regards to scripting city names to use the terrain, you should talk to TheLopez, he might be able to help you out.

 

[TheLopez]

Btw, in regards to scripting city names to use the terrain, you should talk to TheLopez, he might be able to help you out.

Why me WR? What did I ever do to you?

 

[Arkaeyn]

Wyz, when I looked up the Zulu/Nguni cities (using mostly Wikipedia, since I don't have my African history book on me, sadly) they seemed to generally be cities founded by whites after the Zulu defeat. So I generally left them out. But honestly, if I take out the Albanians et al, there's no real reason for me to keep the Zulu other than nostalgia for Civs past. Both Mali and Ethiopia provide better sub-Saharan "empires".

White Rabbit, yeah, pretty much every Torontoan I've met doesn't bathe and tries to burn my house down. Or I called them "Barbarian" in quotes for a reason. Sure, the mod is subjective, but consider that the original Civ4 list was hardly objective - I'm just up front about what I'm doing. The designers gave no reason for ignoring, say, Kyiv.

(side note: in the main Civ4 forum I'm canvassing people for opinions on specific civs, currently Arabia.

TheLopez, since you're the clear expert on scripting, how feasible is a script which uses other criteria (mostly distance) to determine which city name is used?

 

[Sevo]

This is an interesting idea you've got going here. I tend to agree that the vanilla city order is a little odd at times. If the Sevomod Civs are an improvement its thanks to Shqype and Wyz_sub10; they did a great job with the civ backgrounds and whatnot for our CivGold mod which was pretty much ported directly to Sevomod (Gotta keep an eye on that Shyqpe--he's fierce about defending his albanians! )

Anyway, nice work here. Hopefully this rounds out nicely and you can incorporate some of the distance/island/geographic modifiers. Great idea.

 

[TheLopez]

TheLopez, since you're the clear expert on scripting, how feasible is a script which uses other criteria (mostly distance) to determine which city name is used?

When you say distance, what do you mean by that? Distance from what?