Modding ciV

[Halam]

You know guys, ever since I heard leaders were going to finally be able to speak to us, this idea has been running through my head. How customized leaderheads are going to be. I know a simple solution is just leaving the other characher's voice (I guess...) But, for example, if we want to make a female japanese leader, it would be strange to leave it with toku's voice.

So, this thread is to come up with nice solutions to that and also share your doubts when it comes to modding this game that is soon to come

 

[AriochIV]

Unless you've got your own recording studio and people who can read lines without sound like idiots, I think the best answer is to remove the audio portion of the diplomacy section. It's optional anyway, since we'll be relying on the subtitles to tell what the vast majority of them are saying anyway.

The new leader animation diplomacy feature has got to be the biggest tripping point with would-be modders. It's going to be almost impossible to achieve quality custom leaders without a ton of expertise, time, and money.

 

[johny smith]

First I would do is just drop the voices completely. There is no way I am going to find someone to speak Sumerian. I think the voice thing is a waste of time that could been spent better on other things.

 

[Disgustipated]

I happen to speak Sumerian actually.

You could just have them all speak English (or whatever your native language is). I played some NWN modules that actually had pretty good voice acting from the general population. You don't need a professional studio to voice act. It helps, however, if you don't have too nerdy of a voice.

But yes, leaving out the audio is probably best. Or maybe just play their national anthem (if they have one) in the background.

 

[johny smith]

I happen to speak Sumerian actually.

You could just have them all speak English (or whatever your native language is). I played some NWN modules that actually had pretty good voice acting from the general population. You don't need a professional studio to voice act. It helps, however, if you don't have too nerdy of a voice.

But yes, leaving out the audio is probably best. Or maybe just play their national anthem (if they have one) in the background.

If you are serious I am impressed. But regardless I would think no one would know how it sounded. I mean they can just have guesses. There are still arguments over how Roman Latin really sounded. The Catholic church has what they say and others argue it is wrong. I wonder what they used for Egypt and Babylon? I hope not Arabic.

But please correct me if I am wrong because it would be neat indeed if someone would be able to recreate the language.

 

[Halam]

You guys have all made a point. It would be really difficult to recreate the languages of certain civilizations. And just as Johnny has said, it would be very Neat.

Something I was thinking about was that the developers will have to work together with the community to make it a more pleasurable experience. Things got a bit complicated with the new features for leaders, so it would be nice if the developing team could provide packs with different types of stuff (Voices, Tutorials, etcetera).

 

[Calouste]

If you are serious I am impressed. But regardless I would think no one would know how it sounded. I mean they can just have guesses. There are still arguments over how Roman Latin really sounded. The Catholic church has what they say and others argue it is wrong. I wonder what they used for Egypt and Babylon? I hope not Arabic.

But please correct me if I am wrong because it would be neat indeed if someone would be able to recreate the language.

Probably Coptic for Egypt, although with only 300 speakers worldwide it might have been a tad difficult to find someone for the recordings.

Another issue with modding seems to be the ability. In Civ4 you could just clump two traits together and you were done. In Civ5 you will have to spend quite some time to create an ability that is unique, flavorsome and balanced.

 

[The_J]

That will probably be even more complicated.
In Civ4, if you wanted to create a new trait, you looked through the XMLs, and reassigned the given things to new traits and you used left over tags, which the devs didn't use.
In Civ5, if you create a new "trait", you'll probably directly see where it comes from, because there are no overlaps, and probably also nothing unused.
You'll see, that someone is 50% india, 25% rome and 25% iroquis, and that could be kinda lame.

Unless you've got your own recording studio and people who can read lines without sound like idiots, I think the best answer is to remove the audio portion of the diplomacy section.

Probably right .
But it will be an interesting experience for the modders to get the voices done, if they can do it themselves.

 

[AriochIV]

Yep, that's true... creating a custom civilization special ability could be a challenge if they don't have robust ways of definiting them in scripts or xml.

 

[Ajidica]

As long as they have the option to use static leaderheads, I'm happy.

 

[Jarlaxe Baenre]

But it will be an interesting experience for the modders to get the voices done, if they can do it themselves.

That's easy. Open up a sound thing, figure out how to say it, and record it. Then adjust the pitch and other important things until it sounds like them. They'll probably just have a sound file for the talking.

 

[Afforess]

I felt a sudden chill go down my spine at the though of adding civs requiring SDK changes. How would the community ever cope if something as simple as that creates mods that are, inherently, incompatible and cannot be loaded at the same time. Every member who wants just a couple of specific new civs would have to find someone willing to merge the code, even though the mods already exist!

This would lead to a logistical nightmare. Please tell me that special effects are implemented in Lua and therefore can be merged by a system of modular loading.

Who Cares? Modding in new Civilizations is the least interesting part of mods. Give me BUG, or RevDCM any day.

 

[johny smith]

Who Cares? Modding in new Civilizations is the least interesting part of mods. Give me BUG, or RevDCM any day.

Give me the tooth fairy while you are at it. Reality is that is going to be the first thing the majority of people are going to try and mod.

 

[2K Greg]

Give me the tooth fairy while you are at it. Reality is that is going to be the first thing the majority of people are going to try and mod.

What nation would the tooth fairy be the leader of?

 

[johny smith]

What nation would the tooth fairy be the leader of?

Now that my friend is the real question. The tooth fairy has been really ignored. Don't you think they would get a some type of bonus to production?

 

[Afforess]

Give me the tooth fairy while you are at it. Reality is that is going to be the first thing the majority of people are going to try and mod.

Fine by me... less competition.

I agree, and most 'serious' modders would, but a quick look at download statistics show that adding an odd unit/civilization/leader is what a lot of people want. Sometimes, you just want more content; if you're perfectly happy with the game features as it is, but just want more of it to play with.

Really? Most Civ packs have under 1k downloads. BUG has 200k. RevDCM-based mods add up to nearly 150k. FFH has even more than those two...

 

[Calouste]

Now that my friend is the real question. The tooth fairy has been really ignored. Don't you think they would get a some type of bonus to production?

The tooth fairy would give a bonus to gold obviously.

 

[The_J]

That's easy. Open up a sound thing, figure out how to say it, and record it. Then adjust the pitch and other important things until it sounds like them. They'll probably just have a sound file for the talking.

Didn't mean technically .
If you look at the thread of the artists, especially at the leaderheads, there are often discussions about if something is historically accurate, talks about the background of the leaders and their personalities, and so on.
I'd expect the same for the voices, and additionally i'm sure, that someone would read something professional about voice acting, to improve the quality. That could be interesting.

Really? Most Civ packs have under 1k downloads. BUG has 200k. RevDCM-based mods add up to nearly 150k. FFH has even more than those two...

That's just because big packs are more interesting than smaller pieces.
It's somehow the same like the DLC <-> Addons discussion.

 

[Windsor]

Lead designer of Civ4 Soren Johnson and Derek Paxton from FFH2 talks about modding strategy games on Three Moves Ahead episode 76

At least semi-related to Civ5 modding

 

[Dale]

Who Cares? Modding in new Civilizations is the least interesting part of mods. Give me BUG, or RevDCM any day.

That is the most elitist thing I've read in weeks. Some of the simplest mods are the best. Also remember that a big mod is made up of what? Many simple mods. It's the simple mods that form the building blocks of the complex mods.