Civ-Specific Advisor Leaderheads

[MadmanOfALeader]

I have an idea for a mod where every civ has its own set of advisors: Domestic (also in charge of finance and civics), military, science, and culture (also in charge of religion). Although they don't all necessary have to look like famous people (they're named simply "Domestic/Military/Science/Culture" advisor so as not to be named after Great People), it's nice to put in those easter eggs...

I've already got part of list of people I'd like to have in my roster.

America

Domestic: That Condy lookalike from Revolution, probably.
Military: We have a good George S. Patton LH
Culture: Elvis Presley
Science: Sid Meier in a lab coat (as a homage to Civ III)

England

Domestic: ???
Military: ???
Culture: John Lennon
Science: ???

Germany

Domestic: I don't know, really... I'm thinking David Hasselhoff as kind of a joke.
Military: That good Erwin Rommel LH from Dutchking
Culture: ???
Science: Albert Einstein

And I can't resist this... for a custom Hebrew civ, the Domestic Advisor should be... Barbra Streisand!

For a Japanese Civ, the Cultural Advisor should be a generic female J-Pop singer... you get the idea of what that looks like.

 

[NikNaks]

I think, before we get carried away with these ideas, we need to see if someone can get a leaderhead to appear as an advisor.

 

[MadmanOfALeader]

I think, before we get carried away with these ideas, we need to see if someone can get a leaderhead to appear as an advisor.

Should be possible considering Sid is in the tutorial.

 

[Gaius Octavius]

A still shot of the leaderhead is likely a better solution. This was part of the WoL project's goals, but they never completed it.

 

[MadmanOfALeader]

Is there a way to change the menus and the boxes that appear when city improvements are built so that the leaderhead fits?

By the way, I changed my mind about Streisand... I'll make her my cultural advisor and put in that John Muir LH by Ekmek. It's not gonna actually be him but he looks REALLY Jewish.

 

[Jeckel]

Puting a Leader head box on a screen is as easy as anything else in Civ4 Screens.

VOID addLeaderheadGFC(STRING szName, INT eWho, INT eInitAttitude, INT iX, INT iY, INT iWidth, INT iHeight, WidgetType eWidget, INT iData1, INT iData2)
void ( string szName, int eWho, int eInitAttitude, int iX, int iY, int iWidth, int iHeight, WidgetTypes eWidget, int iData1, int iData2 )

It would just be a matter of reorganizing all the Screens you want to display one on.

 

[MadmanOfALeader]

Puting a Leader head box on a screen is as easy as anything else in Civ4 Screens.

VOID addLeaderheadGFC(STRING szName, INT eWho, INT eInitAttitude, INT iX, INT iY, INT iWidth, INT iHeight, WidgetType eWidget, INT iData1, INT iData2)
void ( string szName, int eWho, int eInitAttitude, int iX, int iY, int iWidth, int iHeight, WidgetTypes eWidget, int iData1, int iData2 )

It would just be a matter of reorganizing all the Screens you want to display one on.

That's excellent.

So how do we make those leaderheads Civ and Advisor-specific.

For example, how do we set certain events to trigger the appearance of the Cultural advisor, whether you want Elvis for America or Lennon for the English?

 

[Gaius Octavius]

Since the only person who will see the advisor screen is the (or in multiplayer, a) human player, all you have to do is check to see what civilization that player is and voila.

 

[MadmanOfALeader]

We need to define which events will trigger which leaderheads.

 

[Gaius Octavius]

You know, there might be an easy way to do this within the leaderhead box framework.

We could create a bunch of still leaderheads (or animated, whatever you wish) and only define them in the art XML, but not in the actual leaderhead XML. Even if we had to do both, we could just hide the extra leaderheads in the Civilopedia using bGraphicalOnly, so that's never an issue. Then we rewrite the screen code as Jeckel said, and there you have it.

The advantage is that you could have custom still leaderheads or 3D ones, depending on your own needs. You could even do it by era, so early America has a Paul Revere military advisor and modern America gets Patton.

 

[MadmanOfALeader]

The leaderheads should be animated [I suggested this idea because somebody made Erwin Rommel]. As for era-specification, I don't agree it should be done. Bismarck doesn't become Hitler throughout the game, so why should the leaderheads change?

The famous people referenced are really just easter eggs. We don't really need them in the Civilopedia. Like I said, a lot of them are really going to be just concepts, like the J-Pop artist for Japan.

So what advisors do you guys suggest for each Civ?

Well, I'm thinking Leon Trotsky for Russia's military advisor... and a roster of sexy females for the Ottomans (a la Suleiman's Harem).

 

[MadmanOfALeader]

I've thought of some more...

How could I forget Aristotle as the Greek's Science Advisor?

For Rome, have Cicero as the Domestic Advisor and Mark Antony as the Military advisor.

For the Dutch, either Rembrandt or Van Gogh as a Cultural advisor... Rembrandt's probably a better artist but Van Gogh's more fun to watch with his bandaged ear...

 

[MadmanOfALeader]

Is anybody working on this mod idea?

And I meant Archimedes, not Aristotle as the scientific advisor for Greece.

 

[Gaius Octavius]

Since you requested animated leaderheads, I would not count on it. Having to make four or five different animated advisors for 34 civilizations will take quite a lot of work. Perhaps someone is up to it, but it will take time.

 

[neutral_leader]

Even without artwork being prepped, I think many of us would appreciate simply having the code hacked up as a modcomp.

 

[Jeckel]

Besides the artwork, this isn't the kind of change that could just be posted in a code block or even just whipped up real quick to post as an example mod. Moving around all the different Advisor Screens to have a LeaderHead box isn't hard, but it would be time consuming.

You might find some one to do it for you, but your best bet is to start learning python and see what you can do yourself. We're always happy to answer questions, but not many modders lack projects of their own.

 

[MadmanOfALeader]

I was only asking for a template. After that's done, we can get leaderhead makers to prepare them.

Remember, I suggested this because Rommel and Zhukov were available as LHs.

 

[Jeckel]

O, well thats easy.

\Sid Meier's Civilization 4\Assets\Python\Screens\CvAdvisorScreen.py

I think that is used in the Tutorial to show Sid's Leader in a LeaderHead box, but either way it is an example of how to add a LeaderHead box to a Screen.