Please dont take the first post as a dig at you (or anyone else who is working on a SMAC mod for that matter).
I know. But you're not the first person to make this sort of thing; a lot of people seem to equate "no files posted" to "no progress made", and decide to offer suggestions. In many mods' cases (and I'm not just talking about SMAC here), the creators are far beyond the point of the typical "idea" post. I can't speak for the others, but I'd been planning my mod since Civ4 came out and only a few things had to change to match the new reality of Civ 5.
On the bright side, assets are fairly portable. So if person A makes an Alpha Centauri mod in a certain style, and person B doesn't like it, he can make his own mod and use many of the same graphics and such. We'll probably end up with a bunch of similar mods as a result.
As I said, I still haven't seen anything posted as an overhaul mod (SMAC-themed or otherwise - I was hoping for a supermod to be out by now, a la FfHII!)
The reason for that isn't one of free time, per se. The bigger issue is that, at present, we have no way to create many of the art assets needed. What's the point of making a mod involving angels, demons, etc., if you can't actually make a unit that looks like an angel or a demon?
Likewise, the schema in the XML files have a lot of unused stubs for abilities. Some of these work, some don't, but we don't currently have access to all of the files we'd need if we wanted to add many of the new abilities people have asked for.
So for now, many of the "content" mods simply use placeholders, both in terms of artwork (recycling the artwork from the unique units to represent the new units) and abilities (giving a unit or building a certain ability in lieu of the one you really want). Some have gone ahead and posted their results anyway, others are waiting until the full software package is released.
For instance, take the mindworms. There's simply no way, as far as I can tell, to create a true "Psi" combat system at present. So for now, I just made them a new unit type with its own set of counterpromotions. And without a graphic that looks anything like mindworms, it's not really the kind of thing you want to release to the public.
I do feel there is a definate buzz about Civ V demanding something SMAC-esque though (though this could also be said for civ IV).
Yes, definitely. I actually had made an early version of this mod back in Civ 4, but I was never happy enough with how it had turned out to post it. (The fact that the various expansions broke it also hurt a bit.) SMAC was a very popular game, and to this day there are still quite a few features that other world domination games haven't included. Civ 5 is the first Civ game that I felt had enough functionality to actually make a decent attempt at this theme, so I'm giving it a go.
There are a few headaches, though; in Civ 4 you had wonder movies, which made it easy to integrate SMAC's great movies. Civ 5 doesn't use those any more, which is a real shame, so I'm waiting to see whether someone adds that ability.
I shall look forward to having a go at your mod though Spatzimaus, especially if there is an option to begin at the future tech phase!
Thankfully, that option is now integral to Civ 5's game design. As near as I can tell, you can start at any era (unless you specifically set an Era to NOT be used as a starting point).
But to be clear, my mod is actually two mods. The first, Crazy Spatz's Long Mod, is a general gameplay mod designed to make it more likely that a game starting in the Ancient Era is still competitive in the industrial/modern eras. This is essential if you want to have any future-era mod, since what's the point of adding all of that content if people will never reach it? If they do get that far, it's usually because they were stringing along a helpless foe just to see what a Giant Death Robot looks like or something, and that's no fun. Sure, you can start the game in the modern era, but I want it to still be possible to play a game that starts at Agriculture and that still makes it that far. (I was actually going to post a working verson of the Long Mod this weekend as well.)
Bonus. I haven't yet seen anything substantial produced, and so I got to doing some thinking on how it could/would work, and started making some notes. Im running this post for the moment as a brainstorming/notepad/design document, updating as ideas come, suggestions are made or found. Im not designing a direct 'port', but would like to capture some of the flavour of SMAC in this design.
