Fast Food Religion Mod

KingTux

Ruler of the Free World
Joined
May 30, 2003
Messages
253
Location
somewhere REALLY out there
I've reformatted this front post to make it easier for everyone to find what they'd like. This should be a great help to anyone who has gotten lost in it just because of how massive it was. All categories are bolded and what they have is hidden for convenience. This way you can find what you want faster. Anything that has been changed recently has been marked by *Revised* to make it easier for you to find what's been changed, and all screenshots have been redone so that they preview, but go full sized when clicked on, so that it's easier scrolling through this front post. Also, I encourage anyone intensely interested to look at my public notice.

Public notice to fanatics *Revised*

Spoiler :
As a notice to the community, I am no longer able to support this mod for a while, with August 2006 as the latest date that I'll be able to mod again. However, when this date occurs, I won't necessarily continue support for this project, as I'd like to move on to something else, preferably with lots and lots of code. So, at this point in time, anyone who would like to continue to improve this mod is invited to. I'm lurking around constantly and won't post much in the next half year or more, but will gladly put your changes on the front post here alongside 2.1 (for the sole reason that I won't be able to check to see what you've done). Eventually I will be back, and with an even better project.

I am currently studying an easy workload (18 credits, with only 6 of those credits being material that I don't already know extensively, and ) with 3 of those credits in studying world religions and their influence, and the other 3 being dedicated to balancing my eurocentric history education.


What religions are included: *Revised*

Spoiler :

1. McDonald's (replaces Christianity)
2. Burger King (replaces Islam)
3. Baskin Robbins (replaces Judaism)
4. Krispy Kreme (replaces Buddism)
5. Starbucks (replaces Hinduism)
6. KFC (replaces Confuscianism)
7. Taco Bell (replaces Taoism)

Note: Here's a second draft pick if anyone is interested in making it. They will be

1. Pizza Hut (Hinduism)
2. Wendy's (Christianity anyone?)
3. Subway (Confucianism)
4. Arby's (Islam)
5. Dunkin' Donuts (Buddism)
6. Dairy Queen (Judaism)
7. Chick-fil-A (Taoism)

If you think that there should be changes to this second draft list, or if you would like to do it, please feel free to post.


Complete Changelog: *Revised*

Spoiler :

v2.1 (8.44 MB)
- Made 1.52 compatible
- Finally added global religious icon support
- Added movies
- Cleaned up text to make it look less choppy in gameplay
- Removed art artifacts that aren't used by the game
- Added miscelaneous artwork missing from 2.0
- Tagged religious buildings to make them easier to recognize
- Art cleanups and miscellaneous testing
- Dropped penalties on buildings so that people wouldn't be confused. Besides, if people didn't read the changelog, I doubt that they would have noticed this
- Redid hindu sound files


v2.0 (4.65 MB)
- Fixed bug that's kept the mod unplayable since 1.0.1.
- Switched art rendering to the GIMP. Artwork should now look much crisper.
- Added shrine movies
- Added world religious overlay art (hard to describe, but it works)
- Added loading hints (done to keep myself sane by poking fun at stuff) and dwell-over hints
- Added diplomacy religious icons
- Added sounds for all religions
- Changed religious advisor religious icons after it hit me like a brick why they were that way
- Redid nearly all artwork so that it would look sharper and crisper in game
- Made priest icon
- Added religious conversion icons
- Added religious advisor art
- Added building Civilopedia art
- Added global religious icons
- Did first in-game test to ensure playability and integration

V1.5.1 (818 KB)
- Made 1.0.9 Compatible
- Changed Taco Bell Alpha layer (to make it look more like the real thing)
- Baskin Robbins logo (made it easier to read and see)

v1.5 (637 KB)
- Added Temple, Monestary, Cathedral, and Shrine building art
- Switched -5% Global health penalty from Cathedrals to Shrines (Made a mistake in determining which did what)

v1.1 (576 KB)
- Added Religious Civilopedia art (doesn't seem to use them. Will investigate what uses them, if used at all.)
- Added -1 health penalty to Temples, Monestary and Shrines.
- Gave -5% global health penalty to Cathedrals

v1.0.1 (276 KB)
- Changed text for missionaries and buildings which were left out of 1.0


v1.0 (272 KB)
- Started mod
- Added text to already created
- Added religious icons


Latest Version: *Revised*

Spoiler :

Full:

Fast Food 2.1 (8.44 MB)

Note: The CivFanatics link is now up.

Update:

I changed almost everything, so an update version would be silly.



Screenshots: *Revised*

Spoiler :

Note: These mini screenshots can be enlarged by clicking on them. This was done for two reasons. One, it reduces bandwidth. Two, it makes this subsection much easier to navigate. Enjoy!

For 2.1:

Here's a screenshot that shows that I've made the Religious Advisor screen look much cleaner and a few of the text cleanups so as to make the dialogue much more bearable:




This screenshot shows off that I have truely fixed the other gamefont file, for all those unbelievers:


This screenshot shows off the new religion founding movies. NOTE: this could be changed later to make them look better in the game. It's not final at this point.


For 2.0:

This screenshot shows that resizing dark religious icons works. Taco Bell and Burger King probably will be enhanced in the future.


This screenshot shows that regular religious icons are resizeable in this instance. However, this seems to be the only Civilopedia part in which resized icons DO look good. As a side note, I dropped the higher resolution regular religious icons because I wanted it to look good everywhere.


And this screenshot shows that I still have a lot to learn about where some religious icons are. These ones are being very elusive and I hope they're not accidently hardcoded (It's hard to say as about half of the art seems to be orphaned,)


And this is another example of the previous screenshot.




Previous Versions:

Spoiler :
All previous versions have gone the way of the dinosaur and are no longer supported. However, if for some odd reason that you'd like to see one, PM me. I offer two choices: get the entire 1.0 branch or get 2.0. However, they are inferior to the current version and are not as exciting as the current verion. Check that one out first.


How to Install and Run This Mod:

Spoiler :
To install, extract the contents to your mods folder (by default, c:\Program Files\Firaxis Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4\Mods)

To run this mod, load up the game after installing it and click on the Advanced option. From here, click on Load A Mod. Choose Fast Food. The game will reload. From here, do things as you would normally.


What to do if you intend to use this mod to make your own: *Revised*

Spoiler :

1.a. Use the files from the game instead of mine.

This is what I did to start with. From messing around with the files, I found out what everything does. I chose the religious aspect, because I thought that it would have long spreading tentacles within the game that would eventually make me have to see what everything does to do it. I wanted to know because I didn't want to wait and see how things interacted once I'd be able to play Civ4. I'm not going to support it forever, as I'd like to move on at some point, and that I've got a professional career to think about. Anyways, you shouldn't be modding the Fast Food religion mod, you should be modding Civ4.

1.b. Use my files to see what can (and should) be changed. Be origional with your own creations.

I'd like to see some origionality. Maybe this sounds strange to anyone who just wants to throw one of these together over the weekend, but I really think that each of these mods should be able to have their own distinction with how the text interacts together. Everyone's got their own origional flair, and by not using your own text, the mods seem to feel second rate.

2. Only release what you've worked on.

So you've decided to work on your own mod and have yet to find out how things work. By doing it yourself, you'll find out ten times more than you would by just copying what I've done.

3. Test it out to make sure it works.

This can be very crucial. I consider myself to be very nitpicky on making sure that no errors can be found whatsoever in anything that I do. However, on rare occasions, I do make mistakes. When I do, I try to resolve them the instance that I notice them. That's why I'm taking so long in releasing 2.0. Now that I can test it in game, I want to make sure that everything does what I intend it to do.

4. Make screenshots if you can play Civ4.

This was what made my mod slow to catch on. The fact is that if you want people to play it, you're going to have to release screenshots. This wasn't too big of a priority of my own when I couldn't play it myself. I basically thought that there wasn't a reason of why someone else shouldn't be able to and that they should have to wait to be able to do this.

5. Never consider modding a religion out a "weekend project".

Civ4 is HUGE! You wouldn't believe how HUGE it is. Even for replacing minor stuff, there's usually a lot of artwork involved. You can at least expect to spend a couple of weeks putting together all the artwork. Just remember that it's going to take a little work to get what you want done.

6. If you have any questions, consult the religion addition guide that I made, make a thread to try to get help, and if that doesn't resolve it, PM me.

Consult here first. I know it's long and not a short read, but I hope that I covered it extensively enough there to be able to answer nearly any questions that I could get. Come January 1st, I will no longer be able to look at Civ4 files, so to help others out, I decided to do a guide. Consult this first, but if you have a question that it doesn't resolve, PM me and I will try to help you the best I can through memory.
 
Moderator Action: Yes, please provide details of what it is we are downloading. I, for one, won't download anything I don't know anything about.
Thanks.


[EDIT] Thanks for clarifying. :)
 
Religions:
Burger King
McDonald's
Taco Bell
Pizza Hut
Wendy's
KFC
?
 
Also, how do you install this mod. Does it override the original files. Is there a guide to installing mods on these forums?
 
Sorry about the confusion guys. This started out in another thread, as an idea, but then turned into a mod. I was pressed for time when I posted it here and needed to leave extremely quick at 5 or so Saturday, so I apologize for any confusion this might have caused. Also, with as fast as it was put together, I've already thought of some minor mistakes or improvements that can be done. A new version will be posted shortly.

EDIT: Posted. See the top of the thread.
 
Thankyou so much for this mod. First test was Custom Game as the Spanish. It loaded without a glitch!

As always, I start learning the techs that give me religions. By about 960AD I had founded all of them and was spreading the word of Macdonald's and KFc like wildfire. It was hilarious, I sent a Missionary to spread the word to the French, who I had Open Borders with at the time, and 14 turns later it reaches Paris and spreads the word about Bic Macs and Fires!

I have no real complains, as I was too busy laughing each time I founded them. Madrid was the Holy City of the World! Here's a few suggestions:

1. Have a look around for ideas and instructions on making the videos used when you found a religion. Somehow I don't think that bread and wine are linked to Macdonald's... Even simple ones where you show a static picture of a Bic Mac for example would be alright.

2. Have a go at changing the approporiate units and buildings, escpecially the Holy Buildings. Some research to where the first franchised store was run would help. Graphics are not a bother to me, just names.

3. Change the "You have founded ~religion~" to "You have franchised ~religion~". It just makes more sense.

4. Some research into which franchise was made first could help you to place them with the right tech.

5. If possible, fiddle with the appropriate sounds. If you can, get the tunes used on the TV ads and find a way to make them work in the game. It would be funny to hear the tunes everytime a city or civ converts to that franchise. :)

All in all, a great mod to play with. I apologise if any of my suggestions sound harsh, they aren't meant to be. I would happily test any future versions for you. Or, if you want, you could tell me to shut up and stop nitpicking your great ideas.
 
I also intend to change "Great Prophet" to "Promotional Campaign", "Great CEO", or "Great Product". Also, renaming temples to their business names, and naming missionaries "PR Representitives". I haven't quite worked that out yet, but I will.

I'd also like to change Civilopedia icons to pictures of the restaurants. However, that may not come too quickly. Ultimately, I'd like it to be seamless, but I'm not great at doing movies (I also don't know how at the moment, and, if it's the way I think it is, I won't be able to do it... You MAY have to request this from someone who has the $1500 software or so to do these). Maybe I can find the sounds online by visiting corporate sites or such. Thanks for the feedback. Maybe another update will be posted later this week/next week.
 
Atrius said:
... If you can, get the tunes ... It would be funny to hear the tunes everytime a city or civ converts to that franchise.

Ding fries are done!






(google it)
 
I've done some minor text improvements. When it's uploaded, I'll have it at the top of the page. (BTW, when the franchises were founded wasn't a consideration that I made when I fist made this. It still isn't that important to me. It's more of the humor with me.)

EDIT: Weakciv, were you refering to this? Maybe I can find an WAV of it or so. It seems too long to use, but it could always be cut down.
 
Pounder said:
Could you post a preview of the graphics.

Sure thing, I plan to take some screenies to post up here. I will have a look at the files and see what I can do to add some more details to it, with permission from KingTux of course.
 
That would be great Atrius! As I posted above, I don't have the game working, so this is my way of having fun with it.

Now, on to my thoughts that kept me up half the night:

For version 1.1, -1 health will be added to temples (they will be renamed to stuff like "Taco Bell Express" or so), monestaries, and cathedrals. The national wonders for religion will have a -5% global health (I thought that -70% for having all of them was a little harsh, -35% is livable, I think), so that it can accurately portray fast food's effects on society (and be a little humorous about it too). Also, I'm thinking of editing the building icons.

For version 1.5, there may be a little more text editing, along with the pictures for the civilopedia

Version 2.0 will have a cash register replace the bell sound, and have these sounds correspond to each "religion"

Ideally:
McDonalds- "Would you like fries with that?"
Burger King - ?
Baskin Robbins- exaggerated cow (or a cat's meow, in case the cows ever unionize and demand $5.25 an hour ($7.50 in California) granted to workers underneath the minimum wage law of 1997. Union breakers would employ Siamese cats to replace the workforce for 10 cents an hour where 50 cats (75 in California) could easily outperform one cow. This would incite riots in Washington that would bring in PETA, the ACLU, and the obscurely known Bovine Beterment Coalition (made that up). They then rename "whole milk" to "freedom milk", "skim milk" to "freedom" (to attract the 12 to 26 core demographic who believe it's better for them, and because of the "hip" name) and rotten milk to "freedom curds". The rioting would prompt the FBI, the USDA, and the NRA to investigate the matter, and top cow leaders would be assasinated. The rest of them are swept up underneath the patriot act and held indefinately. This would balance the unequivocable economic suppy and demand of milk and, inevitably, bring prices down.)
4. Krispy Kreme- Homer Simpson's "Mmm... Donuts."
5. Starbucks- ?
6. KFC- An exagerated chicken squak
7. Taco Bell- "¡Aye, Chihuahua!" (Origionally thought of "Yo quiero Taco Bell", but I thought this would be funnier)

If I get to 2.0 before 1.5, it will still be called 2.0, because I consider the sounds to be a huge undertaking, and 1.5 would then be called 2.1. Just as a side note, the cow story is longer, as I kept adding to it and laughing my head off about it. I just made it short enough so that people might not get lost in world affairs.
 
OK, thanks for the support KingTux. I had a look at your files, but I couldn't find anything that resembles where you change the text. I will be honoured to test any newer versions you release.

My XML skills are poor, so I will continue to research before I have a go at changing a few aspects.
 
I have a new version to post, but the upload page seems to be laggy, so I'll post the full version soon, bur right now, you'll only be able to get the update version. It's got some art improvements and some tech tree icons (552 KB. Soon it should be in the megabytes...). The update is 392 KB. Next week, I should have the game working, and some screenshots might be in order, but I'm planning on doing yet another version between now and then. I'm continually finding more and more about what I can do for the religions. However, this learning curve could go a lot faster by actually being able to play it. After about 2.0 or so on my projected timeline, I expect some slow downs, as I'm going to do some art by hand, which could be VERY time consuming.

I'm probably putting 10 or so hours towards it a week at the moment. Some art that I'm looking at may take me 30-50 hours to hand make similar quality art. However, after the first, it SHOULD only take 2 or 3 hours for any similar artwork. At the moment, I don't really have to hand make anything on their massive scale, and I'm able to take most of the art from the web. I expect a complete stop on developement come January, then a huge boost come August or so, due to specific circunmstantial college adjustments that I expect to happen. Hopefully, I'll leave this project in fairly good status. When I do come back then, I expect to be doing some python scripting (entirely capable at the moment, but not too much time), 3D modeling (I am average, as in I'm not near professional standards, but it doesn't look like crap either. I currently don't have the tools to do so, but might get them later) and doing a much more ambitious project, to be revealed later at my own leisure, with a couple megabyte PDF file outlining my goals with that mod.

Anyways, I apologise for not getting the full yet, but this should be enough to give feedback on some of my recent changes. I'd like to know:

-How well the tech tree icons blend in (I already know that Burger King and Baskin Robbins look like crap. I'm going to put better ones in possibly this week, provided that I can find what I want. Personnally, I think the Starbucks one looks awesome, but if you guys don't like it, I've got an alternative lined up)?
-How does the cash register sound do for a substitute for the religion conversion sound?
- What do you think of my Confusion, Buddist, and Taoist sounds (subject to change, some of them need a LOT of work, but sound really isn't my thing)? Does the Buddist Dink that I included play during the founding of that religion? I found artwork similar to the era changing artwork. Is this what is used?
- How well does -1 health to Temples and Monestaries balance?
- How does the -5% Global Health to Cathedrals balance?
-Should I do similar penalties to Shrines?
- Is there any text that I have missed (besides holy city. I left that alone because everyone seems to like it that way) in the text area? Is there any improvements that I can make to them?
- How well do my religious icons blend in? I'm continually improving upon my alpha layering. At some point or other, I've replaced alphas for 6 of the 7 religions after I've noticed through much trial and error exactly how I think they look (white has been terrible for visibility if transparancies for me). Are they significantly better? Is there anything that still needs to be improved (like Taco Bell. I'm kind of concerned about how that looks)?
- Is there anything that I haven't mentioned yet in previous posts that could be done (no 3d at the moment. I MIGHT tackle skins if I get a little more confident with them, but I don't want to try them if I can't see how it will look ahead of time. So, don't expect to see any skins until after/when 2.0 comes out.)? Is there anything that can be done to make the mod smoother? What do you like about this mod?

Any input would be very much appreciated.
 

Attachments

  • Fast Food 1.1 update.zip
    391.7 KB · Views: 238
I'll try to have a good look this afternoon, after all my appointments (the one bad thing about having only two/three days off a week). I am also making a mod at the moment, so I'll get back to you on my thoughts as soon as I can.
 
I have finally put up the full 1.1 version. Feel free to help yourself. I honestly don't know how many people are following this mod, as I'm not posting in-game screenshots, but if you're playing it, feel free to post your own. It's going to be at least one more version before I can do it personally, so if you have your own, you might be able to bring this mod more attention.

I've recently considered doing the movies, but I'm going to explain my mistrusts with doing so:

The religion movies within Civ4 consist of 3 parts: the NIF (3D model), the DDS (skin), and the music (I think this is the Dink. Feedback will help me know for sure). All other movies are called from BIK files, with nothing else even close to this. It seems that the "movie" is called in /assets/xml/art/CIV4ArtDefines_Movie.xml. The sound comes from /assets/xml/audio/AudioDefines.xml, and this file makes me think that I've got my ordinary religion sounds mixed up with my Dinks. Most likely, I think that maybe I can make a BIK and then define it like the rest of the movies, and be alright. However, Because they're the only movies within the game that use this logic, I'm not entirely certain that this is what I need. So, for now, I think I'll leave this untouched until I can see for myself exactly what's going on. If anyone has considered doing them, this should explain what you need to know. I hope that explaination helps whomever would like to know.
 
Top Bottom