Modding as part of a group

[maconnolly]

I may be getting ahead of myself, but I've had a long-standing ambition to get 'into' modding Civilization. Primarily, I think there is a lot of room for extra flavour in terms of new civilizations and the flavour that brings with it. I've realised that ambition, to a limited degree, over the last month or two.

That relatively-brief journey of learning and discovery has led me to realise a few things:

1. I have a strong desire to continue my learning and content-creation journey.
2. The skillset required to produce an 'all-in' mod comprising a new Civilization, with its respective Leader, Unique Items and Abilities, is broad and wide-ranging. At least to achieve the level of quality that can stand alongside the various base-game and community mods that already exist.

Broadly speaking, I think there are four main 'parts' to building an immersive, cohesive Custom Civilization mod:

• Imagination/Research/Historical Knowledge: An all-encompassing part of the process that, essentially, theorises the building blocks of the Custom Civilization - including who will lead it (Leader), how it will differ from other civilizations (Unique Items and Abilities) and stitching everything together into a cohesive 'offering' (including regional flavour). In my process, all of this happens prior to going anywhere near the modding tools - it's mapped out prior to creating any actual custom content. It does, however, lean on an understanding of the game mechanics - because there is little point in designing abilities, for example, that have no relevant mechanic in-game.
  
  
• Code-based implementation: With an understanding of what you plan to add to the game, so begins the journey of building that functionality. For me, that occurs entirely in ModBuddy, via the use of a template I have stitched together from different sources (which, admittedly, used two other templates as a loose base, but evolved beyond that after I started searching for and asking my own questions on these forums). As I am not blessed with a photographic-memory-esque knowledge of the game's existing code, this process is often very iterative and also includes doing a lot of base-game lookup and reference - so alongside ModBuddy, I will often have my own notes and be in-and-out of the base-game files a lot. Considering the functionality only, it is entirely possible to craft all elements of a custom civilization without ever opening the Asset Editor or, indeed, any graphic-editing software. Obviously, look-and-feel-wise, it'll be awful (and, arguably, barely playable as a result). But it will work.
  
  
• Visual representation: Making it look pretty. I think it is fair to say that this is the area that allows for the quickest breaking of immersion; though it is the least required to have a 'working thing'. My own temperature gauge of modders also makes me think that this is the area where there are a smaller number 'experts', but also that the threshold of what is acceptable varies the most. What do I mean by that? Well, I think there is an acceptance amongst non-experts that there is a level to which their graphical expertise will allow them to go and, in most cases, those who learn to implement code-based functions are OK with that. It's a guess, but I imagine the vast majority of those graphically-capable were already graphically-capable before they learnt to mod. They then bolted on their ability to create code-based content on top. These all-round experts, I think, are few and far between and, whilst we salute them and think they are amazing, many of us also recognise we are not them and will unlikely ever be them.
  
  
• Playtesters: A critical part of the process to ensure something 'fits' properly alongside existing game content is testing the new content. Within the setting of an actual game. From start to finish. Speaking from personal experience, this is a very difficult test to conduct for the modder(s). Not least of all - for me personally - because by the time I've got everything functioning and looking acceptable, I am sick of the sight of that custom civilization and I would rather turn my attention to another idea I might have. The good news? The requirement to be a good playtester is relatively easy to meet - you just need people who play the game, who are willing to critique honestly. The only specialist commitment here is the commitment to provide feedback, whatever form that takes.

So, what was the point of all of that theory/opinion/word-count? Well, I mentioned I've started to develop mods and I'm early on in my journey. I get the sense that there is a willing community of people, perhaps in similar positions, who have ideas/ambitions/goals that might be beyond them if they work as a one-man-band. I, personally, know that I have stronger suits (Imagination/Research/Historical Knowledge and Code-based implementation) and weaker suits (some Visuals and Playtesting) and I'd be interested in, somehow, 'working as a group' to realise my ambitions/ideas and make them a final, finished product. I accept there should be no 'take' without some 'give', though, which is why I am - and will continue - to try and help with any element of modding that others might be struggling with.

I'm not asking for handouts, here, by way of help - the desire, willingness and capability to commit man-hours is all there. I have a 'flexible' end-goal in mind - which is to create a 'pack' of playable, custom civilizations that breathe new life into the game for me and a group I play with. If, along the way, I can become part of an online community, where we all build together and leverage one another's skills to achieve all of our goals, all the better.

If you're a modder - or someone interested in modding - but are wondering what the skills are you need, or concerned that perhaps you don't have every skill, I'd encourage a reply here with details of what you're aiming to do, what you can do and you think you'd like help with learning/done for you. Perhaps between us we can fit the pieces of the puzzle together and all become better - and more productive - modders for it.

 

[Shirotora Kenshin]

quick and short reply by me, cause not much time at the moment:

Well said! I for one always asked myself why in the Civ Modding Community seems (at least for me) so many one-man-mods, and only a small amount of mods where they collaborate to achieve their goals. it seems like that for me. I understand that everyone has their own visions and goals, but for me still there is much potential for larger mods, but they require a team of course. Anyway, learning from eachother and helping eachother is always a great thing.

 

[maconnolly]

quick and short reply by me, cause not much time at the moment

It is nonetheless appreciated - I expected the topic to pass by unnoticed, especially with the length of the post. To receive a reply within a few hours is encouraging!

Well said! I for one always asked myself why in the Civ Modding Community seems (at least for me) so many one-man-mods, and only a small amount of mods where they collaborate to achieve their goals. it seems like that for me. I understand that everyone has their own visions and goals, but for me still there is much potential for larger mods, but they require a team of course. Anyway, learning from eachother and helping eachother is always a great thing.

It's an interesting dynamic - I've only really been 'close' enough to the modding scene to have an opinion on it since Civilization V; but it seems to me there was a bit of a cycle.

Certainly, there were small 'teams' that produced some of the really strong content. I think of CIVITAS as an example, where it was clearly multiple people each bringing their strengths to the table. Perhaps, now, a small number extremely talented all-rounders emerged and, as a result, created most of the high-quality civilization 'flavour' (in terms of new Civilizations/Leaders). People like Sukritact, Gedemon and Merrick spring to mind. There's no doubt that there's other extremely talented individuals out there - perhaps focusing more on gameplay mods (Infixo is a great example), that don't necessarily have a huge amount of artwork/civilization-based flavour. I think it's also tangible that those extremely talented all-rounders built their masterpieces and maybe reached the peak of their output - I suspect they were happy with their existing set of mods and primarily now revisit those to ensure continued forward-compatibility, or whatever.

I think my point is that many of us mere mortals find there is a level at which we become overwhelmed - or, rather, discouraged - when going it alone. So yes, a call-to-arms for the newest wave of modders to come together and keep creating content. And, selfishly, help plug the gaps in my skillset, in return for my gratitude and contributions to your own mods.

 

[Shirotora Kenshin]

Just to mention it: CIVITAS is creating great content, no doubt. What i meant to say was that teams for larger projects seems to not exist. Total Conversions, we have only Gedemon‘s Project and Anno Domini as far as i know, both were/are a one man show. There seems to be no interest in creating a large project, and thats ok, but also...i would say „interesting“ to see. Coming from Skyrim and Total War Modding, there was usually a few teams creating really large projects. This seems to not exist in the Civilization Modding Community.

But anyway. I think the actual topic here is that there are hopefully some new wave modders want to learn and help eachother.

If there is something you think i could be useful, then tell me. I would like to help with my strengths (Graphics) and maybe receive some help for my weaknesses (Lua for instance) just a offer, of course

 

[bcbarrett]

I'd be interested in helping out. I always have grand view on what I want to achieve...and I don't particularly care much for adding new civilizations, so I think we differ there. I'd rather see things like expanding the potential of districts, adding new infrastructure elements, the kinds of things that impact the way you play and the decisions you make.

I wrote a big long thing a while back about improving "Autonomy and Realism" (https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/idea-autonomy-and-realism-mod-package.647043/). But I got no support, which doesn't surprise me because I bet most people opened the thread, saw a wall of text, and immediately hit the back button.

Like I said...I always have a grand view of what I want to achieve. For something a little more down to earth, I just posted an idea for a Railyard that I'd like to see get implemented. (https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/railyard-district.661479/)

Anyway, I don't know how I can help, but I'm in a similar boat as you. I'd like to start modding civ, but just don't really know how to break into it. My job is basically software, so coding in LUA is no problem for me...I just need to know how to not break the game while I do it...lol.