More Luxuries

cannabis ? i for one doesnt need that in civ....but what about rice ?

i really think rice is needed in Civ...but no mod added rice by now.....
 
Mine adds rice, but I'm looking for someone to make a model for it (right now it looks like sugar).
 
there is a rice mod. Amer-Asian Resource pack or sth like this.
 
there is a rice mod. Amer-Asian Resource pack or sth like this.

have you the link ?

@Skaz881

i never did trees or plants models or textures,so i couldnt help you here....
but i hope you'll find someone....is Horem really out of Civ-Modding ?
 
thanks !
 
I don't know if he's gone gone, he just hasn't been on since the end of April. Given the time of year it's possible he's involved in college exams.
 
Congrats on getting Coral to work! Since you have yet to polish them completely, plus with your ideas for the 3rd-luxury handling and Pets for the Militaristic states (both of which are really cool), how long do you think it'd take to have everything completed and the next version released? And also, you had three "under development" things in the OP, did you ever get those worked out for the new version?

Thanks! I really can't give a very accurate date when I'll have everything finished, since I work on things rather sporadically when I decide to spend some free time on them.

Though, I can tell you this: I'm happy with Coral right now and it's pretty much finished, I just have to incorporate it into the script. Lapis Lazuli should be cake as mined luxuries are really easy. I also still have to design the Lapis icon. Once these two are finished, I'll release a new version which utilizes them.

Then, I'll finish-up the CS luxury icons and finish tweaking the city-states themselves and balancing each of the five trait totals. I'll release this as a "More Luxuries Deluxe" or something -- a separate mod.

Also, I haven't updated that front page since the last update, but yes I'm still planning on implementing them.

On the topic of the CS weight affecting how many luxuries appear per city-state, you could theoretically have any number of CS luxuries and it wouldn't affect balance so much, as only a maximum of three could appear per CS-type in any given game. Something to keep in mind for later revisions, as three is good for the first release of the idea, and you can expand the number as time goes on, with the game handling the balance through your mechanics the same way it does with the Major luxuries and the extras just being in the pool to provide more diversity to draw from between games.

Personally, I’m not a fan of doing something just for the sake of diversity, unless there’s a really good reason to do so. Especially for something like CS luxuries, which aren’t even viewed on the terrain or discovered like others -- a majority of the time you’re just viewing a little fonticon and maybe its text.

Though, that's why I'm also going to code it so that it's very moddable for others. Then, they can go nuts and add all the types they want and do whatever they want with them.

(I have a list of more luxury proposals to write-up that I haven't gotten to actually writing yet, maybe they'll spark some interest later on like the others have)

Yes, you’ve been very quiet! I've had to come up with these on my own, haha… ;) Kidding aside, I think I’ve finalized the sets of CS luxuries now, or at least I’m extremely close to it. Also, you don’t need to describe your reasoning behind each one, unless you really think it needs it; you can simply list the titles.

...Yeah, I can't really say I think adding "cannabis" is really a good idea. There's already wine and incense; that's probably enough drugs in the game. (which is why, incidentally, the game got an E10+ rating and not, say, just E - for "Drug Reference") Same goes for opium, beer and liquor. I can just imagine... starting a game surrounded by wine, incense, coffee (if you consider caffeine a drug), tea, cannabis, tobacco and opium, and being allied with CSs that provide you with beer and liquor. That would be an interesting game... for your citizens :crazyeye:

Nice, so “Drug Reference” is already listed next to the rating… I think I’ll include some mushrooms, cocaine, and even some good ol’ peyote! Maybe even a strategic steroid resource, hmm… There’s never enough drugs, Wimp! Hmm, I wonder if “suggestive themes” already covers resources like slaves and prostitutes too. :D

Other than that, the new ideas sound good, except for Yogurt... and vinegar? :confused: I can't think of any place that really excels in producing vinegar (well, maybe Germany, but Wittenberg isn't a mercantile CS) or yogurt. And it wouldn't make sense to make a yogurt plantation. :lol:

Oh, you’re referring to that initial list, haha. Yeah, I didn't intend on using a great majority of them (I have even more listed in my personal file). They were only there to maybe spark another idea from anybody that might be reading it, and get folks thinking in different directions. No, it wouldn't make sense to make a yogurt plantation, I agree. Before you point out some others, I’ll add that an octopus or shoe plantation wouldn't make much sense either. ;)



cannabis ? i for one doesnt need that in civ....but what about rice ?

i really think rice is needed in Civ...but no mod added rice by now.....

Don’t worry, Cannabis won’t be making it into the main version. My initial luxury target was 30 and still is. Lapis Lazuli is a definite (need more non-plantation resources) and after the surprise of getting Coral to work, I’m pretty much done (and very happy). Also, I’m keeping Perfume after all as a major civ luxury on the terrain, plus I still couldn't get Ebony to work with a more fitting improvement, so that’s out again.

Like I said, though, I’m very happy with the two new inclusions, Lapis and Coral, since now there’s 6 new plantation resources and 4 new non-plantation resources added (a water one, nonetheless!) all together. Especially since criticism I often read is that the mod introduces too many new plantation resources.

Also, on my spreadsheet it creates nice totals of 8 “open” terrain resources (plus incense -- which is a little different), 8 forest/jungle resources, now 8 hill resources (not including marble, which doesn't count), and now 4 water resources. The stars are aligned… haha.

Though, for the stoned fanatics out there, I’ll still create a supplementary mod which will introduce cannabis, for fun. It’ll be even better this way, because I’ll treat it like a special resource (similar to marble) and distribute it throughout the entire map. It’ll probably be more fun to see it that way then to only see it a few games, and even fewer games to actually have it in your region to utilize it.
 
Here's a preview of Coral:

Spoiler :
coral%2520luxury%2520preview%25202.png


Also, I think these will be the resources for city-states:

Spoiler :
citystate%2520luxury%2520mod%25206.png
 
Nice coral. Are you planning to add some buildings connected to these resources to make more sophisticated luxury goods?
 
so you have no no plans to make rice ?
 
Thanks, guys!

I may still need to add a little more polish, but here's a preview of Lapis Lazuli:

Spoiler :

lapis.png


lapis%2520preview%25201.png




I decided not to go with the Egyptian scarab symbol which includes the large wings and the Sun. They were too dominant, even when changed to gold instead of rainbow, and the lapis wasn't the focus -- especially at the smaller icon size. So, I went with another version which is more of an amulet or the top of a ring (I saw some images of treasure from Tut's tomb). I may still add in the legs so it's a bit more apparent what the lapis is representing (and maybe even adjust them so they're slightly smaller, again, so the main part can be as large as possible and focused on), I'll play around with it.

For the terrain, I "might" make it a slight bit lighter.. though, I'm not sure yet and I have to make some comparisons to some example images. Or maybe I'll just tweak the color of some of the veins to more of a gray-blue/light-blue with a small hint of yellow-orange. I may also tweak the "stain" on underneath from an orangish color to more of a gray-blue one. I used iron as the base for all of this and removed most of its gloss.
 
Nice work here, Barathor. I've been a fan of your work for some time.

I like the coral implementation (finally, more sea resources aside from fish, fish and more fish), however I am curious as to why you chose to depict coral in its 'finished state,' rather than as a natural piece, like this: Coral Picture

I only mention because, of all the wonderful icons you've made for your resources, it is the only one where I was not able to immediately identify what it was supposed to represent.

Edit: Also, if you are still thinking about sea resources, have you considered simply splitting up 'fish' into a couple of different types of fish? Sure, fish are a 'bonus resource,' however if you split the category into multiple types you could have some non-luxury fish and other luxury fish. For example, you could have something like Cod, which provides food (as a bonus resource), whereas Tuna could provide gold (and be a luxury fish), and so on. You could also make lake-specific fish (such as salmon or bass) to give Lakes additional bonus resource value (currently they are woefully underpowered for all but the Aztecs). Some things to consider.

Cheers,
G
 
Nice work here, Barathor. I've been a fan of your work for some time.

I like the coral implementation (finally, more sea resources aside from fish, fish and more fish), however I am curious as to why you chose to depict coral in its 'finished state,' rather than as a natural piece, like this: Coral Picture

I only mention because, of all the wonderful icons you've made for your resources, it is the only one where I was not able to immediately identify what it was supposed to represent.

Edit: Also, if you are still thinking about sea resources, have you considered simply splitting up 'fish' into a couple of different types of fish? Sure, fish are a 'bonus resource,' however if you split the category into multiple types you could have some non-luxury fish and other luxury fish. For example, you could have something like Cod, which provides food (as a bonus resource), whereas Tuna could provide gold (and be a luxury fish), and so on. You could also make lake-specific fish (such as salmon or bass) to give Lakes additional bonus resource value (currently they are woefully underpowered for all but the Aztecs). Some things to consider.

Cheers,
G

Thanks, Gazebo!

I'm not quite sure what you mean by "finished state", but I think I have an idea. I guess it would help best by explaining how I created it.

In order to create Coral, I had to really "hack" Pearls because I don't really know how to manipulate the placements, frequency, or orientation of each piece of the graphic.

So, my coral graphic is actually still the clams of the original Pearl luxury, only it has the red coral graphic and an alpha layer is applied to make the rest transparent.

Problems faced were:

1) The coral couldn't be too intricate or small, otherwise they just look like red blobs in the water and are hard to distinguish.

old:
original%2520coral%2520graphics.png


new:
new%2520coral%2520graphics.png


2) The coral graphics couldn't be too tall and had to be within the area of each of the original clam graphics, or else it would just get cut out.

clam%2520graphics.png


clam%2520overlay.png


3) The clams are randomly oriented, so you can't have images of coral with a base and branching up and out or they wouldn't look right on the map and would look sideways or upside down. So, I had to get more of a universal one, or more of a top down view (again, that was also not too intricate and had thick simple branches). So, I found this image of a drawer/cabinet handle, and just made different manipulations to it, haha:

red-coral-knob.png



Another problem faced was that the coral reef didn't look "full" enough, so again, I tried to hack things.

I took the base terrain texture and placed some fake texture images of additional coral:

coral%2520reef.png


But, it doesn't appear as vividly and comes out quite dark. But, that's also kind of good, because it helps keep the main coral distinct and avoids a red blobby mess again.

Another problem which drove me crazy for a short while was that a very faint square box of light would appear over the resource when I placed it during tests. I finally found out that it was the lighting layer ("spec", whatever that stands for) of the decal effect usually placed on top and disabled it, which doesn't really take anything away from the graphics overall.

So, I figured, all of this was better than nothing and also that the coral is at such a small size it won't be as noticeable. I'll continue to polish it and make somes tweaks. Perhaps, I'll make some of them a little more fuller. I also have some of them slightly more pinkish orange, but maybe I'll make them more distinct.

Another test I can try is to see if the clams really are placed randomly, like other resources. If they're mostly just static, I can create a test texture layer of bold different colors then mark where each clam gets located and how it's oriented. Then, I can create coral that has more of a base and place them correctly as an overlay on the original clam graphics.

- - - - - - - -

A cool idea that I'll keep in mind... especially the part about lakes; very interesting! I never thought about that.
 
Thanks, Gazebo!

I'm not quite sure what you mean by "finished state", but I think I have an idea.

I think he's meaning the icon you used to represent coral -- the necklace doesn't seem to immediately imply "coral". On the other hand, don't pretty much all of the luxury icons show the finished good? (Wine, gold rings, silver cup, etc.)

That said, a rather fascinating look into all of the work you have to do to make these fantastic images!
 
Very thorough, Barathor! I was asking about the icon (rather than the resource graphic), but I'm glad you revealed your 'how-to' for that as well! Is both inspiring and daunting. :)

Since natural wonders like the Great Barrier Reef are not 'resources' per se, I assume you weren't able to extract graphical elements from it? Seems like, if you were hoping to increase the 'fullness' of the coral reef, grabbing elements from that wonder might be a potential avenue. Again, 3D modeling is not what I do, I'm just curious.

Keep up the good fight,
G
 
... oh. haha... :blush:

Now I get what you're saying. Yeah, I usually try to show a product of the material when I can instead of its natural state, unless the natural state is more recognizable or iconic. Perhaps, I'll try another one to represent coral better and see how it comes out.

I'll take a look at the GBR, but I don't think I'd be able to utilize any of it and it may be beyond what I can do.
 
... oh. haha... :blush:

Now I get what you're saying. Yeah, I usually try to show a product of the material when I can instead of its natural state, unless the natural state is more recognizable or iconic. Perhaps, I'll try another one to represent coral better and see how it comes out.

I'll take a look at the GBR, but I don't think I'd be able to utilize any of it and it may be beyond what I can do.

Sounds good. It is a good icon, don't get me wrong - it just isn't my favorite of the ones you've done. :D

I think the actual 3D model you have is top-notch as-is. No sense gilding the coral, as it were.
G
 
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