Modding progress / small talk

[Quintillus]

The purpose of this thread is to provide a general discussion topic for Civ-related topics you've been working on, and hopefully to stir up some discussion and interest in the process. I'm thinking of it kind of like a water cooler where you discuss work and ideas with others. And also as a place to discuss small progress, that might not raise to the threshold of justifying a bump on your project's main thread.

This is not meant to replace Meet the Modders (for life discussion outside of Civ) or Modding Q&A. Though I am curious what you all have been up to since last November.

I'll be posting a second post with the thoughts that lead to the idea for this thread (and didn't seem to quite fit the other two), and also as an example post.

 

[Quintillus]

Tonight I decided to implement some more code for reading SAV files. I hadn't worked on it since October, 2016, and who knows how long it'll be till I do again. But, progress was made, and I can now read in data about things like where Great Wonders were built and which civs have which techs. Mostly things you can already find out easily in-game, but still progress.

However, about 3/4 of the time was spent debugging a length difference due to what Steph refers to as Exotic Firaxis Programming - specifically, strategy maps. Of all the parts of the Civ file structures, I'm pretty sure I've spent more time debugging and working around them than any other one. But it still feels good to have a block of data read successfully, particularly knowing that strategy maps are now in the past. Or at least till the next time they show up... which hopefully will be soon enough that I think of them as a possible cause of the difficulties sooner.

I think the initial inspiration was getting some statistics on the number of cities per map by late game, to try to properly size the map for a potential playthrough (in other words, size it to have 400-450 cities).

 

[Blue Monkey]

When I can grab moments away from my fieldwork I keep chipping away at the (too many) projects I already have & finding more. A BBC article with a map got me thinking about an "urban scenario" like EFZI or SuperCiv. Except it's Tenochtitlan and environs with various faction groups of the Aztecs & maybe some Mayan diplomats struggling for control of the city. Need something to take advantage of all those beautiful units. I've also started tinkering around again with the "wuxia" terrain. Thinking about tech sequences for the steampunk scenarios. Then there's the pre-gunpowder India project that started as a Civ 2 project and still hadn't seen the light of day

Thinking about finishing up the graphics set for those who want to custom-build steampunk looking tech trees (with pipes instead of arrows) - of all the projects that's the closest to being ready to post.

Another thing I've wanted to do that would take time to sort out, but not a lot of creative effort is giving the Mughal Empire scenario by Rambuchan & Luddi a facelift. It's my favorite small-map historical scenario, and deserves a fresh look. I wouldn't change the scenario itself, just some of the graphics that people could optionally use with it. Put together a set collected from all the great Indian units that have been created since then, cities as well, and probably Ares terrain. Maybe even swap out the static leaderheads for some of the animated ones available now.

 

[Quintillus]

^That's exactly the sort of post I was hoping for with this thread! I'm glad to hear you have a lot of ideas for Civ projects. Isn't time always the limiting factor in realizing them?

I'm still making forward progress on SAV files, though today I hit what may prove to be a bit of a wall when parsing player information. At least an area that needs detailed and focused debugging. Too many consecutive 0's, and it's hard to figure out what's what. But there's a lot of interesting data there once I figure it out. Already starting to think about what could be done with it - either a mini-Civ-Assist for those stuck on the Windows Vista+/.NET issues, or (with more work, but more excitingly), possibly allowing some sort of event system. I'm thinking a good, fun proof-of-concept would be something like how Rhye's of Civilization for Civ IV, civs spawn at different times as the game goes on. Also thinking about possibly manipulating the diplomacy state data to allow, e.g. more finesse in control of when civs are at war. By manipulating truce times and won't-negotiate-due-to-recent-war times, more historic war statuses during scenarios such as Napoleonic times or WWII may be possible.

 

[Civinator]

These are my current Civ 3 projects:

Next update of CCM2:

Fixing errors, making the mainfile capable to support CCM1 and RARR


Update of CCM1 to CCM1.9 :

Making CCM1 playable with the CCM2 mainfile, not having the cityview of CCM2, but a better religious setting and a start with two settlers, this version is the base for the scenario CCM-Colonial Conquests


Next update of RARR:

Fixing errors, making RARR playable with the CCM2 mainfile


Storm over Europe (SOE) :

Big update of that WWII scenario with many new unit graphics, fixing the hitpoints of aircraft, improving the civilopedia and improving some settings of the scenario.



WW2 Global Gold :

The same that is done for SOE, as this scenario is based on the SOE graphics


Projects in the pipeline:

CCM-Colonial Conquests :

Scenario based on CCM, starting in 1480 on a worldmap and ending in 2030; may be there will be a second version starting short before WWI


Galactic Conquests :

A space mod, based on my Civ 2 ToT space mod GCM

 

[Bluemofia]

Kardashev 3 is still going on, it's just that work has been rather intense these past few months that I haven't been able to seriously work on it.

I've been working on fleshing out the civs instead, and working on backstories to them. Many of them are based (loosely) on various sci-fi civs (such as the Star Kingdom of Manticore in the Honorverse series), but modified in a way that is unique, and can work in conjunction with the other civilizations and the general rules of how space travel works.

I'll also need to rework the tech tree significantly as well, as the original idea was it being more interconnected, but as I am planning on introducing alien species with radically different playstyles (currently, the human civs play very similarly, where they are like normal Civ3 civs, but with one or two unique buildings, units, and techs), the tech tree needs to be more linear, with less (but not non-existent) interconnections, so that I can remove whole branches and replace it with others instead.

 

[Nathiri]

I hope to do more modding this latter part of the year. I do have two scenarios in progress. One is largely done, but I never got around to testing it. The second is what I am mostly excited about. It is an ancient epic mod that tries to make the game more challenging and interesting (isnt that all mods?.....). It has culture and unique civ traits and more ways to victory.

Ancient Era has always been my favourite time period.

For this epic mod, I am experimenting with tougher corruption and more growth restraints. Usually people go with less corruption, but I have some ideas of benefits it could bring to have this restraint.

 

[Kyriakos]

I am finishing up the second era of the new full five culture city sets...

 

[Theov]

I wish I could find time to finish my mod where I replace the mid east culture group with the africa culture group.

 

[Oni Ryuu]

This is everything I’m working on at the minute.

TLC (Mod, Solo)
Status: Nearly ready for initial testing

Spoiler Description :

This is a four era full history mod designed to improve single-player games.

TLC Mercantile (Mod, MP)
Status: Complete
This mod is fully playable. I would like to make some significant changes to the graphics eventually. I also want to reactivate the weather when I can get the .flc I need.

Spoiler Description :

This is a four era full history mod designed to improve multi-player games.

Civ3 Campaign (Campaign, Solo)
Status: Concept in development

Spoiler Description :

This series is based on the rules of my earlier TLC mods. Each campaign contains a set of scenarios featuring the major battles or theatres of war of a specific era. Oversized maps will allow for much greater detail and accuracy. Most scenarios will have limited production or none whatsoever.

Private Sector Procurement (Scenario, MP)
Status: Mod in development

Spoiler Description :

This is a modern start scenario with a shortened list of units based on my TLC rules.
Strategic resources have been changed to notable arms manufacturers.
All of the basic units are available without the need for resources.
Better versions of those units become accessible by acquiring contracts (strategic resources).

E.g. the UK could have three BAE Systems resources. Two could be traded to other nations. If the BAE resource is in range of a city it can build a BEA facility.​

Private industrial sites increase production.
No governments experience war weariness.
The game begins with many “housing” buildings that reduce unhappiness and provide rent (-3 maintenance). Strategic bombing could severely disrupt production.
The tech mostly addresses the standard units.
The ages are changed to unit categories Air Force, Army, Navy and Technical.
The majority of the tech is about researching components for units so have no immediate benefit.
Some (era-none) tech can be used to enhance the cultural, religious and geographical characteristics of each civ.

Cradle of Civilisation (Scenario, MP)
Status: Concept in development

Spoiler Description :

It is the time of the ancient city states (roughly 500BC). Strategic resources have been replaced by a set of unique civilization resources placed beneath each nation’s capital. Each city state also has its own unique set of units in addition to their standard unit variants. Every unique unit is available to all civilisations and upgrades from the weakest unit to the strongest irrespective of race.

E.g. Athens has a cheaper, weaker Spearman and an Athenian Hoplite that has a higher cost and stats. If you captured Sparta, the superior Laconic (Spartan) Hoplite would replace your own in the build menu.​

Acquiring other civilization’s resources is a major part of the game.
You can also acquire victory point locations like Mount Olympus or the temple complex at Delphi.

Starship Troopers (Campaign, Solo)
Status: Concept in development

Spoiler Description :

This is a Starship Troopers themed campaign covering multiple planet/environment types with some unique units for each. Human and bug only, no skinnys.

Points of Interest
You’ll start well equipped but undermanned.
You won’t be able to settle any new cities.
Your troops are irreplaceable, the AI’s aren’t
All explosives are nukes

Usual Missions
Rescue and recovery missions (capture the princess)
Target elimination (mass regicide)
Reach and hold location (victory location)

Units Guide
Command Mech
Battle Mech
Scout Mech
MI Marines
MI Combat Engineers

Queen (king)
Brain Bug
Warrior Bugs (infantry)
Hopper (VTOL air support)
Jungle Spider (light armour)
Tanker (flame armour)
Cliff Mite (sniper)
Worker

Equipment
Grenades
Missiles
Assault rifle
Sniper rifle
Gatling gun

Zombie Outbreak (Scenario, Solo)
Status: Concept in development

Spoiler Description :

This is more of a mini-game with the map based on a modern metropolis. You start the game with a few types of zombies that enslave to another zombie class (to promote diversity and prevent losing a class). The human side only has police to start with but will gain access to military units later into the game. The zombie side can’t construct buildings or units so can only grow through attacking the humans. Use the few zombies you have to cause the greatest outbreak you can for victory points.

Zombie survival (Scenario, MP)
Status: Concept in development

Spoiler Description :

There are 31 players in total. You can play as an independent settlement, as a member of one of the two coalitions or as the remnants of the army. The zombie hoard is nationless and occupies most of the map. Food production is equal to consumption so you’ll need to find survivors to help defend your group and grow your settlements. A specialist citizen will be required to consume the centre tile’s food.
Military equipment is scattered across the map and needs to be made operational by upgrading it. The standard slave unit will be the flag unit, supplies.

The Clear Road command (Build Road) can only be used on Road Terrain. The Road Terrain improvement and Road Terrain tile look pretty much the same. The terrain tile has things blocking the way and the terrain improvement shows a clear road.
Wheeled units will be restricted to ‘cleared roads’ and open terrain.
Civilian units don’t require maintenance

Have preplaced zombie-only buildings that auto-produce a zombie class. These buildings don’t cost maintenance and can’t be rebuilt.

Units
Civilians 2M, 2HP
Infantry 3M, 3HP
Tanks 9M, 4HP
Zombies 1M, 1-10HP
Cars 12M, 2HP

Terrain
Main Road (Tundra) 1 & no wheeled unit
Road (Grassland) 1
Suburbs (Planes) 2
Fields (Desert) 2
River (Flood Plain) 3 & no wheeled unit
Rubble (Forrest) 6
Barricade (Pine Forrest) 6 & no wheeled unit
City 1 (Hills) 3 & no wheeled unit
City 2 (Mountain) 3 & no wheeled unit
Chemical Plant (Volcano) 3 & no wheeled unit
Fire Damage (Marsh) 3 & no wheeled unit
Carnage (Jungle) 2

Worker Jobs
Clear Road (Build Road)
Remove Obstacle (Clear Forrest)
Clear Area (Clear Wetlands)
Block Road (Plant Forrest)

The Salvation of Gaia (RPG Scenario, Solo)
Status: Mod in development, suspended

Spoiler Description :

Introduction
Evil has reigned for many years and drained Gaia of her strength. The sprites (wardens of the life stream) have been enslaved by the darkness to feed the growing power of our chthonic overlord. You must send your ambitious band of plucky do-gooders to singlehandedly save the world from this plague of monsters and their unholy masters. Failure will lead to the inevitable starvation of our people and ultimately the death of all life.

Notes
Cities are renamed to manna springs
Citizens are now rescued sprites (twinkling lights) that supply you with experience
There are several characters of different classes; Soldiers, Mages, Summoners, Summoned Beasts, Pack Mules and a Sprite Assistant.
You acquire team mates as you explore the map. They need to be sent off to be healed (upgraded) or carried until you reach an appropriate manna spring to become useable
Mobile AI units can’t use equipment so will be fairly basic
Immobile AI units (bosses) can have summons and other interesting equipment comparable to the player.
All found equipment (proto units) should be a foot unit so it can be transported by your pack mule. Summons excluded.
All characters will need a minimum of 10 HP or they’ll be slaughtered in the first outing.
The main characters need an unarmed attack value so they can capture equipment.
Cities are doted throughout the maze as checkpoints for healing and upgrading.
Most cities are defended by a boss/mini boss.
There is an allied AI player that you can buy skills from at inflated prices.
Money is used to represent experience (pure manna) and shields (crude manna)Experience is gained by acquiring checkpoints.
Experience can be used to develop new skills (tech) or improve items and characters.
Zero corruption
No war weariness
Most checkpoints have 1 or 2 sprites; boss checkpoints may have 5 or 6
Larger opponents can have manna units (Population cost)
Goodie huts are chests that can yield Start Unit 2 (Manna Unit), Pure Manna (cash) or a trap
The player’s civ needs to be expansionist to reduce goodie hut traps
Bonus resources are manna concentrations with a combination of manna types
Characters can teleport to another room by using telepads disguised to suit the graphics.
You need to capture Airfield (in neutral territory) to take the ‘key unit’ (removes forest) and airdrop it onto the door (forest) to open the way.
Your Sprite Assistant can directly unlock Fairy Doors but it will take several turns from your busiest unit.
Enemy radar towers need to be destroyed to remove the summon bonus from a boss.
Required food is reduced to 1 (can’t exceed pop 1 if required food is 0)
Will need bonus resources to feed the lesser sprites and provide pure & crude manna
Will need 1 specialist citizen (big sprite) for every city, to produce pure & crude manna and cap the population

Characters
Soldier - loads foot + T-missile
Mage - loads T-missile
Summoner - loads aircraft
Pack Mule - loads foot
Cart - loads mech
Sprite Assistant - (No combat stats, Nationless, invisible, Can absorb Manna, Rebase to any city, all terrain as road)
Roaming Enemies - can attack, bombard and withdraw
Static Enemies - can bombard
Wall Creatures (Naval Enemies) - can bombard and withdraw
Bosses - can only defend so need other units to support them.
Keys -
Manna Unit - (Flag unit that looks like twinkling, luminous wisps)
Equipment -

Terrain
Grassland needs to be dominated by adjacent terrain graphics so it can blend in.

Grassland, LM Grassland = monster blocking floor type (No wheeled units)
Plains, LM plains = Floor type (Outside)
Desert, Flood Plain, LM Desert = Floor type (Inside Building)
Tundra = Floor type (Cave)
Hills = high ground (Cave only)
LM Hills = high ground (Outside only)
Mountains = impassable floor type (Cave only) stalactite & Stalagmite (Stalagmite is more common)
Snow Capped Mountains = impassable floor type (Boss Building only) Column
LM Mountains = impassable floor type
Forrest, Pine Forrest, LM Forrest = Locked door (Cave, Outside, Inside Building only)
Jungle = = Fairy door (Cave only)
Marsh = Fairy door (Inside Building only)
Volcano = unpredictable volcanic vent (Boss Terrain only)
Coast = walls

Coast + Grassland = (Requires detailed explanation)
Coast + Plains = Outside Wall of Trees
Coast + Desert = Building Walls
Coast + Tundra = Cave Walls

Sea, LM Sea = Tall Trees (Dead space) impassable filler for outside
Ocean = Black (Dead space) impassable filler for inside and caves

Door Terrain
A Foot unit called “Old Key” is a proto unit that can be placed on any traversable tile. The “Old Key” needs to be taken to the desired city so it can be upgraded into a “Key” unit. This immobile and unloadable “Key” is airdropped onto the blocking tile (Forrest) to clear it the following turn.

Buildings
Buildings can’t be built or destroyed. The enemy and allied civs can only do Capitalisation.
‘Veteran air units’ & ‘Veteran ground units’ = Upgrade and heals all units (auto built for every city)
Battlefield medicine (starting building)
Capitalisation = purify manna

 

[Quintillus]

Lots of interesting ideas and projects! Several of which I had not heard of before. I hope others are hearing new ideas too!

 

[Oni Ryuu]

I forgot to mention another mod idea that I had put on hold.

2nd Front (Scenario, MP Only)
Status: Concept in development, suspended

Spoiler Description :

This is a 720 x 100 tile WW1 trench warfare map.
Both the X & Y axis wrap to make an unbroken line of frontline defences, simulating a much larger conflict.
No buildings can improve your cities’ culture. All city borders start and remain at their pre-set levels.
Cities are strongholds placed in ideal locations to command the area around them.
A separate .biq would be needed for 2, 3 or 4 player games. All/ both players have to fight on two fronts.
The game doesn’t have any naval terrain types but does have a land terrain called River that’s impassable by wheeled units. This will allow us to change the build road command to build a bridge for fighting and transport vehicles. Infantry can cross on boats and use the bridge.
The terrain defence bonuses are emphasised to force players to work with the topography instead of keeping neat lines.

 

[Oni Ryuu]

I’ve just developed a key feature in my Private Sector mod. Players are now dependent on the international trade of products just to survive. I’m not talking about Luxury resources but actual products with defined values (subject to market forces).

E.g. Volkswagen can produce a VW Car unit worth 6 Flag units and Huawei Technologies can produce a TV worth 2 Flag units.
You can exchange 3 TVs for 1 VW Car, exchange the equivalent value in production units or simply negotiate the price and buy the products with cash as each ship arrives.​

I’m considering having from 40 to 200 products depending on how enthusiastic I am.
Here's the link

I’m pretty excited.

 

[CorvusFortis]

I haven't been around for a while but I plan to return in August and do some work on current project. Battle for Armageddon in "almost ready" state for several months. There are a lot of trifles that I'm not happy with. WH40k and Conversions project lie unudated too - I'll try to fix it till the end of the summer. However, they are still several critical problems with WH40k mode - I'm still thinking what can be done by my own.
Finally, I'm working (still entirely on paper) on a new fantasy mod - one of the reasons I converted Nightbringer some time ago.
In short - I'm still alive and around.

 

[Oni Ryuu]

I’m going to include a simplified version of the Export Merchandise system for the TLC Mercantile mod. Goods units alone won’t generate the global peacetime traffic I want. The point is for each player to have a vulnerable merchant navy stretched across the map. This will also increase the practicality of piracy.

Block the sea-lane (with nationless vessels) and demand that they beach a portion of their cargo or you’ll sink the lot.

There’s always more scope for evil.

“You have something on your back – my knife. Ha ha ha.”

 

[Oni Ryuu]

I’ve added the new merchandise trading feature and it seems to be totally bug-free.

If utilised properly, trade will account for as little as a quarter to as much as half of your GDP. This should make it so isolationism will simply cause stagnation.

 

[Kyriakos]

My 5 new medieval sets have been uploaded:

https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/five-culture-medieval-sets.634617/

 

[Oni Ryuu]

I had a scenario idea that I doubted would get much interest, one based on environmentalism. I don’t intent to make the mod so, if anyone wants the idea, feel free.

All industrial buildings auto produce a specific industrial waste unit. Industrial waste units (e.g. slag) require maintenance and can’t be disbanded. This waste is upgraded at a reasonable cost to units that can then be disbanded.

The idea is that you can’t simply ignore the waste building up in your cities. You have to compromise between maximising your productivity and the recycling cost of your waste.

EDIT: I found some old notes about some of the buildings.

Nuclear Power Plant

• X maintenance
• Requires Uranium
• Produces Plutonium unit every X turns

Reactors 1-4

• X maintenance
• +25% production
• Requires Nuclear Power Plant
• Requires previous Reactor
• Produces Nuclear Waste unit every X turns

The Nuclear Waste units will be more expensive to upgrade than average but they're produced much less frequently. Plutonium units can upgrade to a nuclear weapon. You can even rig it so that Plutonium units are the only way for a player to have nuclear weapons.

By building or selling Reactors, you can regulate each city’s production precisely. Some of the other production enhancing improvements have a similar system to balance productivity with running costs.

 

[Meteor Man]

Good to see ya'll so active. Beautiful city sets once again, Kyriakos. I wish I was making a scenario that could utilize them. (Though perhaps I can use those Byzantine city graphics for my Rome mod that has been sitting idle for a year now.)

I'm basically done with v1.7 of Star Wars TMA, I'm currently trying to reduce turn times as much as possible. These are the efforts I've made, thanks to the multiple threads on CFC concerning turn times:

1. did away with air/sea trade entirely
2. disallowed MPPs
3. disallowed tech trading
4. removed go to/explore orders for immobile units
5. moved the scenario and .biq to the /Conquests folder (this has little to no effect for me, sorry Civinator.)

What else could be done to reduce turn times besides reducing the number of units and reducing building maintenance? Right now the first three turns take ~80 seconds between turns. Any help is much appreciated.


In other news, this post has me thinking about the possibilities of making the factions in SWTMA more distinct. Work for the near future. Blue Monkey's ideas in particular have me very interested:

Victory condition diversity: don't even know if this one is possible to this extent. Have victory points that only one tribe can use. give another the "capture the princess" way. A third the space race.

A relatively simple idea that isn't very well thought out yet - a tribe with identical civ colors and similar unit types to the barbarians. Easy builds but limited techs. Keep the player guessing if they are attacking true barbarians or starting a war. Idk about this part, Blue Monkey lol but perhaps a Pirate civ

 

[Kyriakos]

Good to see ya'll so active. Beautiful city sets once again, Kyriakos. I wish I was making a scenario that could utilize them. (Though perhaps I can use those Byzantine city graphics for my Rome mod that has been sitting idle for a year now.)

I'm basically done with v1.7 of Star Wars TMA, I'm currently trying to reduce turn times as much as possible. These are the efforts I've made, thanks to the multiple threads on CFC concerning turn times:

1. did away with air/sea trade entirely
2. disallowed MPPs
3. disallowed tech trading
4. removed go to/explore orders for immobile units
5. moved the scenario and .biq to the /Conquests folder (this has little to no effect for me, sorry Civinator.)

What else could be done to reduce turn times besides reducing the number of units and reducing building maintenance? Right now the first three turns take ~80 seconds between turns. Any help is much appreciated.


In other news, this post has me thinking about the possibilities of making the factions in SWTMA more distinct. Work for the near future. Blue Monkey's ideas in particular have me very interested:

Thanks

There is also the 5 ancient culture set, which may be of more use to your scenario:

https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/five-culture-ancient-sets.629287/