ModCast Episode 58: "When You Believe In Magic"

[DanQ]

Sweet, sweet fantasy. The fifty-eighth episode of ModCast is now netcasting. Entitled "When You Believe In Magic" with a runtime of 48m45s, features regular co-hosts Rob "Rob (R8XFT)" Riley, Jan "Janboruta" Boruta and Scott "AlphaShard" Dirk and returning guest co-host "FramedArchitect".

The summary of topics is as follows:

- 02m09s | Modding Spotlight
In the deep of the "Faerun" modification for Civilization V and its Brave New World expansion pack by "FramedArchitect".
- 19m30s | Code Corner
Emergence, popualarity and revisions for the "Health & Plague" mod is followed by emergence of "Reforestation" and distate and outlook for "Global Warming" mods (30m05s) and the deceptively simple background for the "Move Capital mod, all all by "FramedArchitect" for CivV (36m07s).
- 38m05s | Cartography Room
Hopes and wishes for an increased interest in scenarios within, and as a representation otherwise of, Civilization V modding.

ModCast is the first spin-off of the Civ strategy-centric PolyCast; fellow sibling RevCast focuses on Civilization: Revolution, SCivCast on Civ social gaming and TurnCast on Civ multiplay.

 

[AW Arcaeca]

Meh. My personal opinion is that it wasn't as interesting as usual - but then, I've never played Fearun (really fantasy mods in general), or indeed - please don't hit me - have even heard of the mod until now. But that's just me.
But I liked the banter at the very end.

 

[JFD]

Isn't it spelled "Arcanum"?

I mean "Faerun"?

 

[DanQ]

Meh. My personal opinion is that it wasn't as interesting as usual - but then, I've never played Fearun (really fantasy mods in general), or indeed - please don't hit me - have even heard of the mod until now. But that's just me.

Given that you don't play fantasy mods in general, the fact that you hadn't heard of Faerun -- or find this episode as interesting as others that have not focused on such mods -- does not come as a surprise. I appreciate your giving it a listen still though!

But I liked the banter at the very end.

Isn't it spelled "Arcanum"?

I mean "Faerun"?

Whoops, good catch -- corrected.

Hope you enjoyed the listen.

 

[Rob (R8XFT)]

We made a conscious effort to have a fantasy theme; whilst none of the co-host are particularly fantasy fans, we were aware that there's a large fanbase for such mods in the community, hence wanted to include it for them. Framed Architect was a great guest to have and we also talked about his modcomps which aren't fantasy-based.

 

[tsf4]

Thought this edition of ModCast was great! I think fantasy mods do not seem to get much love from the overall Civ5 community, so I was excited to listen to this one. Personally, I spend most of my time spent on Civ 5 by playing two great wonders of the modding world, Anno Domini and Faerun.

Ever since I first picked up Civ5, Rob's AD has been one of my favorites, and I have enjoyed seeing it grow and develop. Dungeons and Dragons have been an interest of mine for the past few years, since I enjoy history and the way history is modeled in the many settings of D&D, including my favorite, the Forgotten Realms of Faerun.

My first experience with Framed's "total conversion" mod was back in the early days of the mod when it was still largely a beta, and I left myself a mental note that this one would be good to follow as it grows and becomes a more complete mod.

Of course, Paradox and their host of titles (Hearts of Iron III, Europa Universalis III/IV, and Crusader Kings II) drew me away from Civ 5 mods for some time. But now, after graduating college, I have dived back into the wonder that is the Civ 5 modding world and found that I love both AD and Faerun extremely well, and want to give a shout out to you guys of how great these are.

 

[GPuzzle]

An Eberron mod would be a wonderful thing.

 

[DanQ]

... we also talked about [Framed Architect's] modcomps which aren't fantasy-based.

Indeed!

Thought this edition of ModCast was great!

Hope you enjoyed the episode as well, GP.

 

[FramedArchitect]

I hope you will be able to put together the originally scheduled show on unit creation. Nomad or What and Civitar have done a great job on that front; Faerun units are largely due to their efforts.

Thanks again for inviting me on.

Best, FA

 

[Nomad or What]

I hope you will be able to put together the originally scheduled show on unit creation. Nomad or What and Civitar have done a great job on that front; Faerun units are largely due to their efforts.

Thanks again for inviting me on.

Best, FA

I appreciate the sentiment FA! To be honest, I struggled for over two years before I ever developed my first unit. In 2012, CiV unit creation (particularly custom units) was tremendously buggy and unpredictable; it was simply so frustrating that I almost gave up hope! But thanks to all of the amazingly talented developers out there that worked through the kinks, fantasy unit creation is now almost as virtually limitless as Civ IV was. Kudos to all of their efforts, such as lemmy101, CaptainBinky, and Deliverator (and many others not explicitly mentioned); without the development of NexusBuddy in its present version, as well as numerous other breakthroughs, my paltry contributions would have been impossible.

So now that many of the obstacles have been overcome, unit creation (for me anyways) is mainly about pushing the envelope of what can be done with custom sounds, effects, and animations. Most of that credit goes to others that have provided the basics so that I could apply them in unique ways to the units I create. Uniqueness is the essence of fantasy modding; apart from the human element of base CiV, there is very little in a fantasy mod that identifies with CiV in vanilla form. That, I think, is the greatest challenge with developing fantasy mods if you want a world with heroes, magic, and fantastical beasts. FramedArchitect's Faerun and other mods are a constant inspiration for me to try to match with custom unit-making what has been done with Lua, SQL, and XML in their respective mods.

I hope that the development of fantasy and sci-fi modding continues to have a promising future. Civitar and I are collaborating on a fantasy mod of our own that will have some aspects of Kael's legendary Fall from Heaven mod - in addition to his own Warhammer mod - but I am taking it easy during the summer (the weather is just too nice to stay inside!), so it likely won't happen until the end of the year.

 

[AaronElWhite]

Really bummed that I can't find this podcast on iTunes.

Just discovered you and would love to listen on the go and at work. Do you have any plans to put these on iTunes in the future?

 

[DanQ]

Really bummed that I can't find this podcast on iTunes. [..] Do you have any plans to put these on iTunes in the future?

I have been unsuccessful in getting ModCast re-listed on iTunes for more than three years -- it had been removed due to a technical issue long since resolved. That said, you can manually add a feed to your account and manage it from there then. In doing so, use the address below:

http://civcomm.civfanatics.com/polycast/ModCastOnly.xml

Just discovered you and would love to listen on the go and at work.