FFH 2 and Civ 5

[paincave]

Now that there are official announcements for Civ 5 this fall, I was curious if there are plans to move FFH2 to the new game.

Is FFH2 going to make it to Civ 5 with the original creators involvement?

Has the dev team made the alpha available to Kael and the team?

Is the new 3d environment, hex system, etc. going to make porting a lot more challenging?

My old men gaming group loves FFH2 (playing a lot of Orbis right now) and would be heart broken if our favorite mod doesn't make it to the next game intact.

Thanks for any info.

 

[Morkonan]

AFAIK, Kael and Co have said they won't be porting FFH2 over to Civ5. But, that doesn't mean none will. IIRC, a few people have shown interest in doing so but, that's today.. not Civ5 release day. So, we'll have to wait and see.

I'd love to see it ported to the new Civ5. That would be outstanding. If it is not, it will definitely make an effect on my decision to purchase Civ5.

How could I have Civ 5 without FFH2? Impossible! So, it's definitely in the interest of the devs to, perhaps, make some sort of official effort...

As it stands right now, I'll continue playing Civ IV until I have a reason to buy Civ 5. One of those reasons is - Does it have an FFH2 mod?

Of significant note: Any port of FFH2 over to Civ 5 needs to have a Kael-Stamp on it. If it doesn't qualify for his Seal of Approval, it's not "Official" in my opinon. He's done such a good job with Captaining the Civ IV FFH2 ship that any similar endeavor with Civ5 needs to have his official chop on it as being "Approved."

 

[Vrenir]

At this point, I don't think that anybody has enough information to answer that question. A lot probably depends on how similar the new game engine and programming is, because I imagine that would determine how big a project a conversion would be.

I'm sure that many (including myself) would love to see FFH and some other major mods like Planetfall make the crossover, but you're talking a complete rebuild project using new game elements after it took them years to get this far on the CivIV version. That's a lot to commit to, especially without knowing what exactly is different.

I'll guess that even those of us with CivV will have to wait at least half a year to get any really fine mods coming in. Until then, and possibly for much longer, we will still boot up CivIV in order to play FFH.

 

[Morkonan]

...I'll guess that even those of us with CivV will have to wait at least half a year to get any really fine mods coming in. Until then, and possibly for much longer, we will still boot up CivIV in order to play FFH.

Absolutely. I'll still be playing FFH2 long after Civ 5 comes out. If I have to, I'll learn enough to fix the remaining bugs myself if they're not already fixed by then.

A damn fine mod... Deserves to be ported over to Civ 5. Definitely...

 

[Kael]

Sorry, I have no answers for you. Feel free to speculate wildly.

 

[Morkonan]

LOL

<hands out sets of thumbscrews>

Start turning the cranks guys...

 

[TheCowSaysMoooo]

Haha. That was a truly awesome post, Kael.

Truly.

 

[paincave]

Sorry, I have no answers for you. Feel free to speculate wildly.

That is not a 'no'.

If I was going to wildly speculate I would say that you and your team have been working with 2k closely for the past year and have a FFH 2 mod that will release with the retail version of the game. There will also be a FFH 2 'special edition' of the game that includes a soundtrack, behind the scenes development footage, and a cape.

That's right I said a cape.

 

[Morkonan]

...That's right I said a cape.

I came this close to spewing Diet Coke all over my keyboard while reading that. Thanks.

So, I wonder if the Cape will be real cloth like the old cloth Map included with Ultima Online? !!

 

[nzk13]

And, the game will be autographed with the signatures of the entire ffh team (Kael!!!, woodelf, wilboman, etc.).

 

[Niveras]

I suspect that any attempt to port FFH2 to Civ5 will fall short. I think the interest, especially from viable coders, would be too small when people would have the original to play, and would prefer the Next Thing. Especially from the coders themselves, who would prefer to realize their own vision rather than rehash someone else's.

That's not to say FFH won't have an influence on the next generation of mods, but it will depend on what mechanics are available to use - and what tricks other modders develop that you can port into the mod to make a particular mechanic work.

A mod like FFH only comes around once in a while, usually as a result of a great many random factors that tend not to last into a new generation. Best not expect it, only to be disappointed when it doesn't bear fruit.

 

[paincave]

I suspect that any attempt to port FFH2 to Civ5 will fall short.

I appreciate your statement and I have tempered my expectation for the port but I think with the lore of the world being fully realized what is left is the heavy lifting of features, bugs, ascetics, and balance.

It is not an easy task but at least the work would be cut out for anyone with the time and energy.

IMHO I think the ModModders can carry the torch with some help from the original team.

 

[Valkrionn]

I suspect that any attempt to port FFH2 to Civ5 will fall short. I think the interest, especially from viable coders, would be too small when people would have the original to play, and would prefer the Next Thing. Especially from the coders themselves, who would prefer to realize their own vision rather than rehash someone else's.

That's not to say FFH won't have an influence on the next generation of mods, but it will depend on what mechanics are available to use - and what tricks other modders develop that you can port into the mod to make a particular mechanic work.

A mod like FFH only comes around once in a while, usually as a result of a great many random factors that tend not to last into a new generation. Best not expect it, only to be disappointed when it doesn't bear fruit.

Well said; There's some discussion about it now, but honestly, noone should really expect any FfH3 unless Kael states that he will do it. Other modders may be interested, or they may not; It all depends on what mechanics are available in the game, how it works, and what their own ideas are.

 

[nzk13]

Well, Valkrionn, if Kael isn't doing it it'll probably be you.

 

[Valkrionn]

Well, Valkrionn, if Kael isn't doing it it'll probably be you.

Whut? Nowhere in my post did I imply that I would, nor did I intend to.

 

[nzk13]

I know that, but trust me, you probably will, by popular opinion.

 

[Valkrionn]

Popular opinion won't impact what I end up doing, honestly; May be better off pinning your hopes on Ahwaric or Sephi. Or the FF team.

 

[Skyre Noktis]

Bit early to be discussing this yet, isn't it? Either way, a 'port' is a bad idea, assuming Civ V is substantially different to Civ IV. FfH3 all the way, baby!

 

[Tasunke]

any FFH 3 would need to be fully re-realised from the Ground Up, at least from a Mechanics Perspective. Lets play Civ 5 for a couple weeks (at least) to see what features they make use of to get the new Ideas rolling.

We have the Lore, so thats at least something to work with.

Its quite possible that a Complex psuedo-history/quest mod like Fallen Ages would work better on Civ 5 than Civ 4, although I think such an endeavor would be better realised by doing much of the coding from the ground up ... at least assuming that Civ5 will be somewhat revolutionary (either for the better or worse).

Theoretically I would like a Total-War esque system, however Sans the "two games in one" aspect, perhaps some sort of Hearts of Iron hybrid with Civ and Sims

 

[Skyre Noktis]

Lets play Civ 5 for a couple weeks (at least) to see what features they make use of to get the new Ideas rolling.

No point planning anything until we know what's changing. All we so far are very vague things about combat and diplomacy being 'better'. Oh, and hexes.

Actually, the main feeling I'm getting from the screenshots so far is disappointment that the terrain looks so much like Civ 4 and there's no elevation, basically scuppering my hopes of a decent Alpha Centauri mod from day one.