Conspiramod: Development Thread

[ArbitraryGuy]

While I'm waiting for the SDK for my other little project (Throne and Altar), I've been working on this for fun... it's been a lot of fun so far . Let's say I've just read too many paranoid conspiracy websites...

Despription
This mod will present you with a different of taking over the world. World War II has just ended, and the Axis quest to take over the world has ended. Now various sinister and secretive cabals compete to dominate world affairs and enslave humanity for the purpose of their respective ancient and global adgends.

Modern armor and fighter jets are not their weapons. Continents not their battlefields. Rather, the conspirators will wage their silent war through assassins, UFOs, black helicopters, mad scientists, lawyers, bribed government officials, brainwashed minions, clones, secret fraternal organization members, bankers, and corrupt clergy to gain control of the groups and organizations needed to impliment their master plans.

In game turns this means that the previous (e.g. 33 degree Masons, Lawyers, Bankers) units will be the units to implement "combat" and take over groups/organizations and destroy enemy units. Instead of a "world map", the game board will be changed drastically an interconnected network of groups and organizations (i.e. "cities") that you must try and take control of. For example, there'll be groups to take control of like The Vatican, The White House, International Banking System, Academia, etc. Each group you control will give your cabal special powers (e.g. if you control "The White House" you can produce an "American President" unit). I'll put a screenie of what I mean up once I get the "terrain" done.

The Conspirators:

Left to right: Freemasons, Illuminati, Bilderberg Group, Club of Rome, Knights Templar, Majestic-12, RAND Corporation, Rosicurian Order, Skull & Bones, CIA, Trilateral Commission, International Communist Conspiracy

Tech Tree:
Link to Tech Tree
Your mad scientists will need to research the above techs to assist you in your plans for world domination. Note, the culminating tech is "The Master Plan"... this will allow each conspirator to build a unique "Super Weapon" to aid in their end game quest.

Unit Preview:

Thanks sharick for the 3D models!

Note: Nothing is final yet. I'm always looking for new and improved ideas, so if you have any ideas for anything (techs, civs, units, anything) please let me know.

Trust No One

 

[Shqype]

This is a great idea! Truly a unique and interesting mod. It looks very promising, and very fun too. Can you "clear" us for what the civs are?

 

[ArbitraryGuy]

This is a great idea! Truly a unique and interesting mod. It looks very promising, and very fun too. Can you "clear" us for what the civs are?

Thanks. I want to let people guess for a while then I'll list them . Conspiracy theory requires a lot of guesswork.

 

[Shqype]

The one on the far right is pretty easy, Communists of course!
The second one is either America, or the Almighty Dollar.
The fourth could be something like the World Health Organization, or NATO.

Those are my guesses

 

[ArbitraryGuy]

The one on the far right is pretty easy, Communists of course!

Yes, the godless International Communist Conspiracy!

 

[jlocke]

We've got the Masons on the far left,
maybe Majestic 12 is the 12,
the CIA logo is the light blue one
the one that says rand is probably the RAND Corperation
perhaps the green eye is the Illuminati
the Grey is probably Skull and Bones (Currently running the show over here in America)
I don't know about the red symbol on white, could it be the Priore of Scion? I'm not very familiar with them.


This is an AWESOME idea. I wish I could help modeling, but my computer cannot handle serious graphic editing. In fact, it can't even handle sound editing. In fact, it can't even handle the spyware the NSA keeps putting on my machine everytime i visit arabic-language sites.

 

[Belizan]

The Templars. Surely you know of all the Templar conspiracy theories.

 

[ArbitraryGuy]

Very good jlocke and Belizan... Masons, Illuminati, CIA, RAND Corporation, Illuminati, Skull & Bones, and Knights Templar!

Orange is Bilderberg Group. Red w. yellow globe is Club of Rome. Red rose on pink is Rosicurian Order. Second from the right is Trilateral Commision.

I'll post the civ names on the first post.

 

[Holistic]

Aw... no Triad nor Yakuza? Or SPECTRE for that matter.

Anyways, great idea! And, finally a mod where the RNG really is conspiring against you.

 

[ArbitraryGuy]

Aw... no Triad nor Yakuza? Or SPECTRE for that matter.

Anyways, great idea! And, finally a mod where the RNG really is conspiring against you.

Thanks for the idea... Triad will be a group to control. If you control them, you may produce powerful criminals.

 

[woodelf]

You always come up with the coolest stuff AG. Or is it AG?

What sort of units are you looking for? Re-skins of Great People, stuff like that?

 

[ArbitraryGuy]

You always come up with the coolest stuff AG. Or is it AG?

What sort of units are you looking for? Re-skins of Great People, stuff like that?

Thanks

Alot of them can be reskins, but I think some will have to be new models. I don't have a complete list of needed units, yet. But some needed things will be the following: UFO, "Gray" Alien, Hippie, Banker, Lawyer, Freemason, Liberal Professor, Left-Wing Politician, Right-Wing Politician, Mobster, FBI Agent, Assassin, Pope, President, Black Helicopter, etc. If new models are ever made, a lot of those could be reskinned as well (e.g. the different kinds of lawyers, businessmen, politicians, etc). I don't care about animations, so the units should be easier to develop.

 

[jlocke]

I think it would be awesome to add some way for one group to use mind control to flip a unit's team, or elimate their attack capability or something like that. Since at least the Korean war, he great powers have employed mind control and hypnosis on prisoners and people like Sirhan Sirhan, when they need to take someone out.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mind_control
http://www.datafilter.com/mc/

 

[ArbitraryGuy]

I think it would be awesome to add some way for one group to use mind control to flip a unit's team, or elimate their attack capability or something like that. Since at least the Korean war, he great powers have employed mind control and hypnosis on prisoners and people like Sirhan Sirhan, when they need to take someone out.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mind_control
http://www.datafilter.com/mc/

I'd love to do that, but I'm not sure how the AI could handle it. Right now, Mind Controllers, Propaganda Teams, and Secret Police all get a bonus to "city" defense... i.e., it's harder to convert their "cities" to your side through your own forces of evil because their minions do your bidding no questions asked.

 

[Mewtarthio]

Shouldn't they also get, say, City Raider or perhaps the bombard ability (I presume that bombarding will be analogous to more subtle methods of persuasion).

 

[jlocke]

perhaps both the bombard, and perhaps the collateral damage techniques might be good mind control.
Or: maybe they could be able to take workers from other nations even when they are at peace.
I imagine you will have many types of spies, so maybe this can just be part of the spy abilities, with maybe a mind control tech on the tree.

 

[Padmewan]

Very cool idea! I love the idea of abstracting the game board to represent concepts (instititutions) rather than geography.

Will the board therefore need to be planned out like a regular boardgame? E.g. there are limited "land bridges" between some cities so that taking over Hollywood gives you access to other media but not paramilitary institutions?

How will you use the core engine? If each institution is represented by a city, does each city have access to different types of tiles around them to represent what they can "build"?

 

[Gunner]

Wow this is a really sweet idea AG! I just noticed this thread today. You never seem to stop coming up with amazing concepts.

 

[ArbitraryGuy]

@Mewtarthio & jlocke
Excellent ideas. Mind Controllers and Propaganda Teams will have Psi Ops abilities (read: "bombard") to reduce control (read: "defense") of groups. jlocke, you'll notice that there is already a mind control tech in the tech tree in the first post.

@Padmewan

Will the board therefore need to be planned out like a regular boardgame? E.g. there are limited "land bridges" between some cities so that taking over Hollywood gives you access to other media but not paramilitary institutions?

Exactly. Also, if I ever figure out how, there'll be a randomized version too.

How will you use the core engine? If each institution is represented by a city, does each city have access to different types of tiles around them to represent what they can "build"?

This is where it gets abstract... there's no real need for "terrain" that produces resources in the Civ4 sense. Thus, my current idea is to give each institution basic "food/shields/commerce" stats (through a "wonder" for each group, that will also give each group special abilities/bonuses). Additional "food/shields/commerce" yields will be increased through "buildings" such as PR Departments, Secret Labs, and Legal Departments. These are just ideas right now.

@Gunner

Wow this is a really sweet idea AG! I just noticed this thread today. You never seem to stop coming up with amazing concepts.

Thanks Gunner.

 

[ArbitraryGuy]

It will have an abstract, board-gamey feel. Thanks to sharick for providing the counters, I can mass produce the needed units... here's a quick look:

Units are: 33rd Degree Mason, Templar Knight, and Patsy (used to protect assassins/black ops from government units... anyone recognize him?).

Obviously, there are a few issues to be worked out...
1) Does anyone know how to change the default camera angle? For this mod it has to be more top-down.
2) Does anyone know how to make it so the units always face the same way(should be in XML)?

Thanks.