Gaius Octavius
Deity
- Joined
- Jul 28, 2006
- Messages
- 4,016
Greetings, all. Ive been a regular visitor to this site for two years now and finally decided to open my first post with a modding idea.
Ever since I got Civ 4 I have wanted to create a mod that brings back civ-specific great people, as is done in Civ 3. Remember when you were warmongering as the Americans and youd get a message saying, Our victory has produced a great leader, Patton!?
Well, how many times have you played Civ 4 and seen something like, Isaac Newton has been born in Shanghai!? To me, this seems absurd, for if Isaac Newton had really been born in China he wouldn't be called Isaac Newton, but would have an appropriate Chinese name. The same goes for the rest of the civilizations.
I think that each civ should have its own specific great leaders, because this adds more unique flavor and variety to the game. I was really surprised that it was not carried over into Civ 4, given the trend toward more unique things, such as the unique buildings in Warlords. Ive also seen other people complain about this in different threads, but I have yet to find anyone who has actually done much about it.
Ive figured out a really simple way to mod this into the game by giving each civilization a UU for each great person. The game then replaces the standard great scientist, for example, with your civ specific version of it, e.g. English Great Scientist, which has its own unique name index. So now Isaac Newton will only be born in an English city. This does not change the game dynamics at all--all the unique great people are used exactly as the AI would normally use the regular great people. Best of all, it only requires you to alter three XML files, so even I, having no real previous experience, can do it. In fact, Ive already made a simple version and tested it, and it worked perfectly. Now the Americans can get Patton, the Romans get Virgil, Greece gets Plato, and so on.
But heres the one big downside: the civilopedia lists every single unit in the game, so doing it the way I have suggested means it will list every great person 19 times! (18 for each civ, plus the original.) With the new great general in Warlords, plus the addition of 6 new civs, this means there would be over 100 unnecessary listings! Needless to say, this is rather clunky.
So I have a few questions for everyone. In the first place, do you actually like this idea of returning to the Civ 3 format, or do you prefer the current way its handled in Civ 4? And does anyone know of a better way to do this, i.e., one that will not cause the civilopedia to list everything multiple times?
Lastly, if this mod goes through Im going to have to compile a list of great people for each civ, so Id like everyone to throw in their two cents' worth. Which people would you like to see included? Conquests is a great place to start, but alas we only had military and scientific leaders back then. (How ever did we manage?
)
Ever since I got Civ 4 I have wanted to create a mod that brings back civ-specific great people, as is done in Civ 3. Remember when you were warmongering as the Americans and youd get a message saying, Our victory has produced a great leader, Patton!?
Well, how many times have you played Civ 4 and seen something like, Isaac Newton has been born in Shanghai!? To me, this seems absurd, for if Isaac Newton had really been born in China he wouldn't be called Isaac Newton, but would have an appropriate Chinese name. The same goes for the rest of the civilizations.
I think that each civ should have its own specific great leaders, because this adds more unique flavor and variety to the game. I was really surprised that it was not carried over into Civ 4, given the trend toward more unique things, such as the unique buildings in Warlords. Ive also seen other people complain about this in different threads, but I have yet to find anyone who has actually done much about it.
Ive figured out a really simple way to mod this into the game by giving each civilization a UU for each great person. The game then replaces the standard great scientist, for example, with your civ specific version of it, e.g. English Great Scientist, which has its own unique name index. So now Isaac Newton will only be born in an English city. This does not change the game dynamics at all--all the unique great people are used exactly as the AI would normally use the regular great people. Best of all, it only requires you to alter three XML files, so even I, having no real previous experience, can do it. In fact, Ive already made a simple version and tested it, and it worked perfectly. Now the Americans can get Patton, the Romans get Virgil, Greece gets Plato, and so on.
But heres the one big downside: the civilopedia lists every single unit in the game, so doing it the way I have suggested means it will list every great person 19 times! (18 for each civ, plus the original.) With the new great general in Warlords, plus the addition of 6 new civs, this means there would be over 100 unnecessary listings! Needless to say, this is rather clunky.
So I have a few questions for everyone. In the first place, do you actually like this idea of returning to the Civ 3 format, or do you prefer the current way its handled in Civ 4? And does anyone know of a better way to do this, i.e., one that will not cause the civilopedia to list everything multiple times?
Lastly, if this mod goes through Im going to have to compile a list of great people for each civ, so Id like everyone to throw in their two cents' worth. Which people would you like to see included? Conquests is a great place to start, but alas we only had military and scientific leaders back then. (How ever did we manage?
)
In Warlords, there are 207 total names, although Joan of Arc is used as both a prophet and general.
