[modmodmod] SOI expanded

[Nizou]

Hello everyone,
Sorry for late answer, I had a lot of problem with my LAN card coupled with school and time missing :/
So, I'm still working on dictionnaries (Byzantine Greek almost finished, some city names places revised), and I'm trying to understand how city renaming works (after X year, the city has another name), maybe some advice ?


Also, I'm studying possibilities of the map reworking, actually I've done this :

Spoiler :

- Added Mersa Brega and Sidi Rafaa
- Revised some terrains and resources (removed grasslands, put plains & semi-deserts)

Is this actually good ? I would really make a balanced and interesting Lybia (maybe should we modify some resources & terrains ?)

Spoiler :

- Added some islands in Aegean and Ionian seas
- Deleted Dorylaion
- Moved Skoupoi
- Added Ohrid, Laodikeia, Nikaia, Ammochostos, Naxos, Myrina, Korypho, Zakynthos, Bouthroto & Euchaneia as Byzantine cities
-The three Independant cities at north will be Bulgaria (spawn in 750 ad like Abbasids : units at [no name] city with 1 settler, Plovdivy & Burgas could switch

> The 1st problem is that with all these cities, Byzantium is too instable from the 1st turn, I don't know how to imrpove that, maybe do like the Abbassids : not make full historical territory, let a part as Independant cities ?
Maybe add the earlier-removed markets ? At beginning Byzantium loses almost 200 gold per turn
> Also, how to make these new cities interesting ? I don't really know which resources should be added in order to make a powerful Byzantium but not overpowered :|


Some things to think about (I don't know yet how to work on) :
- Work on regions :
> Add Ionian Islands ; Cyclades ; North Aegean Islands ; maybe make better regions in Northern Greece (split Serbia, add Macedonia ?)
> Maybe make Kara Kum more interesting (less desert ; split into two regions : Kara Kum & Ustyurt (Plateau); https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khwarazm ) and foundable (historical region for Khwarezm & Timur ?), with some indpendant cities along the Caspian sea for example
> Make a more balanced Greece (I watched suggestions on this thread and topographied Greece, it gives me some ideas)
> Modify core, historical & more regions for some civs (and especially for future added civs)
- Modify settlement maps in order to match with this new map
- Make Nikaia and Salonica the 2nd capitals (I hesitate, and should we improve them ?)
- Look for adding others Crusades (maybe other civs, instead of Cyprus rebirth) & attacks along Meditternean sea (including Normans harrying Byzantium)
Is County of Tripoli interesting ? Maybe make Kingdom of Cyprus apart from Jerusalem ?
- Look for Battle of Manzikert, and Seljuk barbs (maybe instead of this help the civ to expand ?)
- Look for adding some civs :
* Mongols, for Ilkhanate+Golden horde+Chagatai instead of Barbs, 1223 AD switch or invade ? [historically Sogd and around conquest], long-lived enough to make a cool civ until 1345

Spoiler :

We said that some of these civs could be full civs, some research is needed
- Maybe make the respawned civs fully playable and without any link with their precessors
- Work on Northern Red sea (make more coastal cities foundables, add some ressources)


Things that we have already talked about earlier :
- Add Bulgaria (750 AD, core Bulgaria, spawning, maybe at war with Byzantium) ; Serbia (780 AD, core Serbia, spawning, maybe at war with Bulgaria &/or Byzantium) Venetians (1204 AD, core Thrace, switch ; we should make the Crusade bigger in order to make Constantinople defense really hard, and add invading boats around Crete, Northern Aegean Islands, Epirus, Cyprus, Ionian Islands, coastal Serbia)
Because Latin empire was really short-lived, merge Latin Empire & Venice could be better
- Make Byzantium shorten if Constantinople is taken : Thrace, Thessalia, Morea, Central Greece, Cyclades switch to Latins ; Lycia & Paphlagonia switch to Rum ; remaining Byzantine Despotate & Empire are merged into one post-Byzantine empire, core are Epirus, Asia, Bythnia, Trebizond (+ Pontus ?), other keep being historical, Contantinople retaking restablish original areas ; if not nothing happens
All this could upset original Byzantium rebirth at 1261, what could we do instead ?
- Work on Buyids, Portugueses, Bahmanids & Zengids
- Add Saffarids, Kara Koyunlu, Funj Sultanate (?)
- Put Jeddah and move Mekkah (what about Medina & surrounding ?)
- Add Siwa Oasis and an independant city at beginning (maybe add some resources + modify some terrains to make it interesting ?)
- Work on Nubia & surrounding (split Aksum province ? a lot of other things...)


Are SoIX_Maps.txt & SoIX_CityNameManager.txt useful or we can delete them ? Because another .py files do already this :|
What about additionnal Companies ? I didn't see anything of them (and in the Company GUI, they are out)

I think I said all what I had to say ^^ Any ideas, suggestions, or something else to say ?
I'm preparing the sourceForge project (with a SVN because of all things to do), it will come in some days, with additionnal files : changelog and futures projects

 

[caphyre]

Why Libyan cities don't flip to Fatimids?

 

[Nizou]

Spoiler :

As Wikipedia and others sources said, Lybia wasn't core of Fatimids, that's why in SoI it's only historical region (normally) ̂ ̂

 

[cmakk1012]

The 1st problem is that with all these cities, Byzantium is too instable from the 1st turn, I don't know how to imrpove that, maybe do like the Abbassids : not make full historical territory, let a part as Independant cities ?

Around 750 a lot of the Byzantine countryside was very lawless, especially in the areas where the Slavs migrated in Europe, so some of those cities could be independent.

Maybe add the earlier-removed markets ? At beginning Byzantium loses almost 200 gold per turn

Yeah, probably best to have Byzantium’s financial situation be the same as it is in base game, where you can run 10-20% Science and later 30-50%

Add Bulgaria (750 AD, core Bulgaria, spawning, maybe at war with Byzantium) ; Serbia (780 AD, core Serbia, spawning, maybe at war with Bulgaria &/or Byzantium) Venetians (1204 AD, core Thrace, switch ; we should make the Crusade bigger in order to make Constantinople defense really hard, and add invading boats around Crete, Northern Aegean Islands, Epirus, Cyprus, Ionian Islands, coastal Serbia)

You’ll want to buff Bulgaria’s territory with at least a few resources then.

Is there even room for Serbia on the map?

The Crusade doesn’t need to be quite that large, but it should be able to take Constantinople if it were the AI controlling it and the islands, with the rest flipping to new civs of Constantinople is taken

Make Byzantium shorten if Constantinople is taken : Thrace, Thessalia, Morea, Central Greece, Cyclades switch to Latins ; Lycia & Paphlagonia switch to Rum ; remaining Byzantine Despotate & Empire are merged into one post-Byzantine empire, core are Epirus, Asia, Bythnia, Trebizond (+ Pontus ?), other keep being historical, Contantinople retaking restablish original areas ; if not nothing happens

Yeah, sounds good.

 

[SanJose]

After adding Lybia+Greece need first balanced many UHV and RV requirements % of land or religion

 

[Nizou]

I'm actually writing a .txt file with all the projects for SoIXR, the problem is that I'll have to make a SF project because I'm not a big modder, I have a lot of things to learn, so I write my ideas, and after some people will work on the new mod (I have to make a SVN to make the work easier ̂ ̂ )

The 4th Crusade has only 7-8 (asI remember) of units as Independants (I don't remember exactly the units, but I know that I defend easily Constantinople with 5 marksman), so maybe grow up to 15 units ?

Obviously, the map extension resources aren't balanced (we saw this from the beginning of SoIX), so drastic changes are unavoidable
With my map rework (cities replacing, not yet added lakes, resources, hills & mountains), there's a cool spawning place :

Spoiler :

https://www.timemaps.com/history/greece-750ad/
With these two maps, I have idea of some independant cities :
Skoupoi & Ochrida
Maybe Aegean & Ionian Islands

I read that AtlantyMartnen has already modified UHV with map % (i'm not on my gaming PC, so I can't be sure)

 

[SanJose]

Athens, Thessalonik and probably Larissa - stay, other converted to village and town improvement or fort with culture [like Sengoku mod]
Mersa Brega post WWII city xD

 

[Nizou]

Indeed, Mersa Brega is ahistoric and not very interesting (surrounded by desert), so 3 lybian cities are good
If we remove most of cities in Balkan, there will be a lack of interest for Balkanic civs (Serbia, Bulgaria, Venetian & Byzantium), I think my try is pretty balanced (not fully), and when there will be more hills, mountains, resources & water (rivers & lakes), the more accurate Greece could be cool (make cultured forts only for Greece isn't very useful)

 

[SanJose]

If we remove most of cities in Balkan, there will be a lack of interest for Balkanic civs (Serbia, Bulgaria, Venetian & Byzantium), I think my try is pretty balanced (not fully), and when there will be more hills, mountains, resources & water (rivers & lakes), the more accurate Greece could be cool (make cultured forts only for Greece isn't very useful)

common method spawn new indie cities with + appearance additional resources
new quests/UHV for human player
association western land with companies and mercenaries

 

[Nizou]

Where can I find companies & mercenaries ? I have no idea of the file I have to work on. So I understand that you spotted a problem with the map extension (new regions aren't assiociated with companies & mercenaries), I'll verify this when I'll be on my gaming PC
In which file can I find the indie cities spawning ? I think make 2-3 cities spawning for Serbia/Bulgaria is interesting
I didn't see any suggest for Serbia, Bulgaria, Latins UHV (and RV ?), I'll wait for them (it not the first priority to add civs)
Also, I want to work on the regions (add some regions, rename them, modify numbers ...), where do I find this ?

 

[SanJose]

Where can I find companies & mercenaries ? I have no idea of the file I have to work on. So I understand that you spotted a problem with the map extension (new regions aren't assiociated with companies & mercenaries), I'll verify this when I'll be on my gaming PC
In which file can I find the indie cities spawning ? I think make 2-3 cities spawning for Serbia/Bulgaria is interesting
I didn't see any suggest for Serbia, Bulgaria, Latins UHV (and RV ?), I'll wait for them (it not the first priority to add civs)
Also, I want to work on the regions (add some regions, rename them, modify numbers ...), where do I find this ?

cities - \Sid Meier's Civilization IV Beyond the Sword\Beyond the Sword\Mods\The Sword of Islam\code\Assets\Python\barb.py
other in same folder

 

[Nizou]

Thx, I have some additionnal work ̂ ̂

 

[Nizou]

I'm actually working on regions in Consts.py, I've added some regions (until n°134) and modified core, normal & broader regions of Byzantium, Ottomans, Rum (and minor changes for others civilizations). But I can't find where is the option for displaying name (for example, rUpperEgypt -> Upper Egypt) and the "pan"-region (Anatolia), advice ?
After, I will set companies for new regions

 

[Edmund Ironside]

Are SoIX_Maps.txt & SoIX_CityNameManager.txt useful or we can delete them ? Because another .py files do already this :|

I wouldn't delete them unless you are sure they don't do anything.

Out of the new civ suggestions the Bulgars and Venetian/Latin ones are probably best. I don't think there would be room for the Serbians as well.

 

[Nizou]

While I was listing the different civilizations I aim to add, I saw that some of them had Zoroastrianism or Buddhism as State Religion in reality. Is that actually possible to do this in the game or we have to add the required features ?
Also, I'm doing two files who explain the differents projects for the improving of SoIXR (maybe should I create the SVN now just for these two files ̂ ̂ )
I've played a game and deleted SoIX_Maps.txt & SoIX_CityNameManager.txt : nothing happened. I think they're useless (earlier in this thread, someone gave these files to AtlantaMarty in order to correct some errors, maybe he used that and forgot to delete them after ?).
Don't worry, there's enough place to put Serbia (I've modified Balkan regions) and also, both Serbia and Bulgaria have conquer the other, so it's not a problem.
Byzantines are so overpowered now ̂ ̂ I've tried to play Ottomans (however, in Emir difficulty because I'm not a PGM) and they were so hard to conquer (usually in this difficulty I can easily conquer civilizations on which I spawn), they really need rivals in the Balkans

 

[Nizou]

Sadly I have to say that I've lost 1/3 of my data on my USB key, including SoIXR folder :'(
I'm actually trying to recover a maximum of files, but I think I will lose a lot of time to recover/remake all project modifications I've made (the save of my key I've found actually is too old, horsehockey)
I'll prevent when this problem will be fixed

 

[Edmund Ironside]

Sadly I have to say that I've lost 1/3 of my data on my USB key, including SoIXR folder :'(
I'm actually trying to recover a maximum of files, but I think I will lose a lot of time to recover/remake all project modifications I've made (the save of my key I've found actually is too old, ****)
I'll prevent when this problem will be fixed

Sad times.

Well I look forward to eventually seeing all the stuff you have worked on for this mod.

 

[Nizou]

Happily, I've written a lot on this thread, so all ideas I have aren't lost
I have "only" to remodify source files ̂ ̂
Maybe not now, but I'll continue the project later

 

[Nizou]

So, as you could guess, I've lost all modified files.
But we have a lot of informations here and I remember what I've done before, so redo the modifications shouldn't be hard.
Just, can you create a SVN on SF for SoIXR please ? I have a displaying issue on Firefox and I'm forced to go on Chrome in order to access SF correctly. And the SVN could prevent from losing data, and together I think we can do better things ̂ ̂

 

[Nizou]

Hey guys, I didn't expected that : NotePad asked me to recover the greek dictionnarty I've done
It's one thing less to redo

EDIT : I'll take a pause of Civ modding, below is the Medieval Greek dictionnary (with additionnal names because I had tried to improve the city name map)
And here remaining modifications of the City Names map (not all, it's an old file) :
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1cfv0C6CpxZGP8rf_7QduS-x_-xT0TP9LfoddxAYPPe8