I've mentioned it in passing a couple times in the civ4 forums, but this is a better place where I can talk about it in more depth. I started working on my own Civ style game in 2002. However there was a long period in there where I didn't work on it at all, and I'm just one guy with very limited skills so don't expect too much 
Mostly I just have very strong ideas about what I'd like to see in Civ, like most people that post here, and if I'm ever going to see them come to life I've got to do it myself. In that spirit, I welcome input from the community in a lot of areas, but there's some stuff that is going to be done my way because this is my baby
The game is essentially a cross between Civ and another game called Capitalism that most people will probably never have heard of. Basically it was a game set in the modern era where you could build mines to get resources, farms to raise crops and livestock, factories to build components and finished products, department stores to sell the products, and research labs to improve the products compared to the competition. The object was just to make the most money. It came down to massive micromanagement with a singular goal so it wasn't that great to play repeatedly, but I always thought it would provide the basis for a great civ game.
The challenge is in translating a game that occurs in a short time period with a limited scope and entirely from a US perspective into a Civ game. And myself being of an entirely US perspective as well hopefully the forum can help me out with that part at least. You can guess from the Capitalism roots that the game is going to have more of a builder slant to it.
As of now the game has a working graphics engine, map generator, basic city functionality, and the beginings of an interface. Here's a screenshot:
Some of the things you'll be able to pick up from it are that:
a) My graphics skills leave something to be desired
b) The map is grayscale.
c) Cities occupy multiple tiles
d) Lots of Civs, they might be right next to, which will actually be something you'll want
e) No units, at least in the way you are used to seeing them in Civ
b) is related to a), I'm drawing these out in pencil and scanning them in, but also so that I can have more Civ colors without them getting lost in the map. All the graphics are just in bmps, so it will be very easy to mod the graphics should someone with more talent than me in this area chose to do so. And if anyone is interesting in coming on board in that capacity I'd love to hear from you.
I will not talk too much about the other points at this point, I'd like to focus on what's next to be implemented as I'm hoping to tap into the ideas and knowledge of the forum. I need to translate the resource, manufacturing, and technology of Capitalism into something that develops over the course of millenia. In the game you started knowing how to make everything, you just had a low tech level in all areas. The nice thing was that it was open ended. You might start with a tech level in bread of 1, and at the time the highest level was 100, so your tech was 1% of what was possible. Then you'd research and maybe end up at 150. Now you were at 100%, and the guy who is at 100 is now 66%, and so on. The nice thing is that you never hit the end of the tech tree. The problem is how do you make it so that discoveries are made.
What I'm thinking is that all but a few techs will start with negative levels. If the level is negative you don't have it. The value will be hidden from you and each game it will have a little bit of a random factor to it. There's also the possibility to have some of the later techs easier to get on a Civ by Civ basis, and you won't know you had an advantage there until it happens. I'd also like to have it that you can't directly research the techs you don't know. A leader can't just say I think we ought to invent tanks now and your researchers go out and invent it for you. It just doesn't work that way. Discoveries happen out of necessity and by accident. So I'd like to come up with a system where the player can influence the direction of research but doesn't know exactly what will come out of it.
The other thing I'd like input on is on exactly what resources, crops, and products ought to be in the game. I've put together a table on what was in Capitalism here. Obviously this needs a lot of work. There's a lot of resources and crops missing, and a lot of trivial products. Copper for one thing, kind of hard to make electronic circuits out of steel
In Capitalism each tile had a rainfall amount (dry, moderate, or plentiful) and climate (cold, cool, warm, hot). Each crop had characteristics it grew best in, if you tried to grow it somewhere else you got a lower quality. Livestock could be raised in any climate.
In Froxiv I've done a similar thing with rainfall and climate, except I have rainfall on a scale of 0-9, 0 being desert. I have climate as Polar, Cold, Temperate, Tropical, Equatorial. I would like to really fill things out in terms of each zone, and make it so both crops and livestock can only be raised in the appropriate zones. I really need help in this area.
Phew, that's a long post.
-Leuf
Mostly I just have very strong ideas about what I'd like to see in Civ, like most people that post here, and if I'm ever going to see them come to life I've got to do it myself. In that spirit, I welcome input from the community in a lot of areas, but there's some stuff that is going to be done my way because this is my baby The game is essentially a cross between Civ and another game called Capitalism that most people will probably never have heard of. Basically it was a game set in the modern era where you could build mines to get resources, farms to raise crops and livestock, factories to build components and finished products, department stores to sell the products, and research labs to improve the products compared to the competition. The object was just to make the most money. It came down to massive micromanagement with a singular goal so it wasn't that great to play repeatedly, but I always thought it would provide the basis for a great civ game.
The challenge is in translating a game that occurs in a short time period with a limited scope and entirely from a US perspective into a Civ game. And myself being of an entirely US perspective as well hopefully the forum can help me out with that part at least. You can guess from the Capitalism roots that the game is going to have more of a builder slant to it.
As of now the game has a working graphics engine, map generator, basic city functionality, and the beginings of an interface. Here's a screenshot:
Some of the things you'll be able to pick up from it are that:
a) My graphics skills leave something to be desired
b) The map is grayscale.
c) Cities occupy multiple tiles
d) Lots of Civs, they might be right next to, which will actually be something you'll want
e) No units, at least in the way you are used to seeing them in Civ
b) is related to a), I'm drawing these out in pencil and scanning them in, but also so that I can have more Civ colors without them getting lost in the map. All the graphics are just in bmps, so it will be very easy to mod the graphics should someone with more talent than me in this area chose to do so. And if anyone is interesting in coming on board in that capacity I'd love to hear from you.
I will not talk too much about the other points at this point, I'd like to focus on what's next to be implemented as I'm hoping to tap into the ideas and knowledge of the forum. I need to translate the resource, manufacturing, and technology of Capitalism into something that develops over the course of millenia. In the game you started knowing how to make everything, you just had a low tech level in all areas. The nice thing was that it was open ended. You might start with a tech level in bread of 1, and at the time the highest level was 100, so your tech was 1% of what was possible. Then you'd research and maybe end up at 150. Now you were at 100%, and the guy who is at 100 is now 66%, and so on. The nice thing is that you never hit the end of the tech tree. The problem is how do you make it so that discoveries are made.
What I'm thinking is that all but a few techs will start with negative levels. If the level is negative you don't have it. The value will be hidden from you and each game it will have a little bit of a random factor to it. There's also the possibility to have some of the later techs easier to get on a Civ by Civ basis, and you won't know you had an advantage there until it happens. I'd also like to have it that you can't directly research the techs you don't know. A leader can't just say I think we ought to invent tanks now and your researchers go out and invent it for you. It just doesn't work that way. Discoveries happen out of necessity and by accident. So I'd like to come up with a system where the player can influence the direction of research but doesn't know exactly what will come out of it.
The other thing I'd like input on is on exactly what resources, crops, and products ought to be in the game. I've put together a table on what was in Capitalism here. Obviously this needs a lot of work. There's a lot of resources and crops missing, and a lot of trivial products. Copper for one thing, kind of hard to make electronic circuits out of steel
In Capitalism each tile had a rainfall amount (dry, moderate, or plentiful) and climate (cold, cool, warm, hot). Each crop had characteristics it grew best in, if you tried to grow it somewhere else you got a lower quality. Livestock could be raised in any climate.
In Froxiv I've done a similar thing with rainfall and climate, except I have rainfall on a scale of 0-9, 0 being desert. I have climate as Polar, Cold, Temperate, Tropical, Equatorial. I would like to really fill things out in terms of each zone, and make it so both crops and livestock can only be raised in the appropriate zones. I really need help in this area.
Phew, that's a long post.
-Leuf
