North American Colonization Mod

hamtastic

Hamburglar
Joined
Jan 8, 2006
Messages
360
Location
Seattle, WA
This is version .1 of North American Mod and is my first attempt at modding. The mod is intended to allow the experience of several different periods of history in North America. Currently, the period of focus is from 1763-1910ish, although modifications to the later portion of this time period are currently behind mods to the earlier portion. I currently do not know how to do much in the way of Python, SDK, or graphics, although I'd be willing to learn if someone can tell me why I should. The mod is for vanilla only. I will not be able to make a warlords version, as I do not have warlords.

I owe a lot to the graphics I've taken from the forums and from other people's mods. (and I hope no one minds – I try to give credit. Obviously, if anyone minds the inclusion of something they created, I'll take it out).

I have screenshots littered throughout the various spoilers below.

Civilizations:

- Includes all standard Civ4 civs in the modpack at the moment. Most do not appear on the included scenarios
- Other civs (not on all maps):
o Iceland
o Confederate
o California
o Texas
o First peoples of North America

Spoiler :
Civ4ScreenShot0002.JPG


Civics:

- Hopefully made more accurate to the time period (screenshot below)

Spoiler :
Civ4ScreenShot0000.JPG


Techs:

- No new techs at the moment, although some reorganization and a change in some costs and effects of techs
- Changed the catch-up bonus, which leads to a rather different feel for tech race. Do you really want to spend all that money to be the first to a tech when that makes it SOOO much easier for everyone else to get it? Also helps some civs catch up to others.

Units:
- Unique units from the Civs I've added are all included
- Weakened some gunpowder units which I hope will make it a bit more interesting. Grenadiers can now bombard city walls slowly
- Added mounted muskets
Spoiler :
Civ4ScreenShot0004.JPG



Buildings:

- Some new buildings (water tower replaces aqueduct, and there's a new graphic for church – not sure if it's working at the moment, unfortunately, and I changed the effect of the library some). I'd like to add more in the future.
Spoiler :
Civ4ScreenShot0003.JPG




Included scenarios:
- Two scenarios that are identical in set-up except for the game speed they're intended for. They both start at 1763, with one set to have a turn last one season. I would suggest playing this one at epic speed, or perhaps even marathon. The other is set to have one turn last a year. I suggest playing this at quick speed. I have no idea how well these speeds work, but I hope they do.
- In the scenarios, you can choose to play as a number of Native American civs, the U.S., or two colonial powers: England and Spain.

Miscellaneous screenshot:
Spoiler :

Civ4ScreenShot0001.JPG



Future plans:

Spoiler :
- At least one more scenario, starting ~ 1845, which will include Texas, California, and the Confederacy. I will likely also use Canada and Mexico instead of England and Spain, but I still need to add those Civs to the modpack
- Government civic changes. I can't think of alternatives to the existing government civics, but I'd like some. Suggestions welcome
- More units, better balance
- Work on late game techs
- New music, particularly for railroad era
- More buildings related to railroads
- Get rid of wonders or at least make names appropriate. I'm open to suggestions here.

Credits:

Spoiler :
Icelandic Civ: john0452
Confederate Civ: Wirklichkeit
First Peoples Civs: wyz_sub10
California Civ: SoCalian
Texas Civ: Tachtician_Zhao
North America map: jam4865 (heavily edited by me - river fixes, coast changes, changes in resources)
USA map: jam4865
Cotton, tobacco: CivMore
Mounted muskets: rabbit, white
Building Civic Prereqs: TheLopez
Water tower: woodelf
Wild west church: woodelf
Manifest destiny button: ohcrapitsnico
Colonial Empire button: ohcrapitsnico
Water tower button: ohcrapitsnico
Wage labor button: ohcrapitsnico
Hereditary rule button: dj_anion
Catholic and Protestant buttons: headserf (end of isolation mod)
White House: rabbit, white
Religion buttons (and some code): arbitrarygunner


Download here: http://forums.civfanatics.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=4027 :)
 
FUTURE PLANS:

- new building graphics for bank
- new government civics: suggested by mike6426. Not sure about effects yet.
- new graphics = new units: new grenadiers + russian infantry will be put in as some different types of units.



- new scenario - near times of civil war


- things you suggest to me!

I can use the most help with the 1850-1900 part of the tech tree and unit suggestions. I just don't know so much about that.

Tentative release date for an update: March 31st
 
You should provide screen shots. But I am going to test it out since I love this era of history and let you know what I think.
 
For those who already downloaded: the artdefines file that I sent out earlier was crappy. I've fixed it in the new download. If you don't want to re-download the whole thing, I'm attaching the offending file here. Just drop it into the North America Mod\Assets\XML\Art folder (after unzipping it, of course).

http://forums.civfanatics.com/uploads/79246/CIV4ArtDefines_Building.zip


@jberke23: Thanks. Any comments or suggestions are very welcome. I'm no expert on this stage of history, so if city placements or relative strengths are bad, I'd love to hear about it.
 
A very welcome mod IMO. I'll be eager to see how this one comes along. Don't forget Deadwood!!!! ;)
 
Looks very interesting i'll try it :)
 
nice man. Could you post the thread for the map?
 
If I ever get back into 3d modeling I'd most likely create buildings for this timeframe. No promises, but maybe I will now that they might actually get used. :)

And the Gem saloon should be the palace. ;)
 
I think there's a Wild West bank finished as well. Killamike (sp) was working on it last year.
 
Anyone have any suggestions for changes? I know it's been downloaded a bunch. ;) So tell me what I can do to make it better. Any suggestions for the first row of civics will help also.

I suppose if I don't get too many suggestions for the underlying mod I'll just start work on the second scenario, which will be more civil-war era focused.

@woodelf: thanks for pointing it out. I plan to include it for next version.
 
Hey Hamtastic

Sounds fun, but I seem to have a problem getting it to run. Should I throw the entire file in the mods folder....or should I throw the maps in public maps? Or is there something else I am missing?
 
Oh hey. Sorry about that. I guess I forgot to include instructions. :blush:

Extract the folder into your Mods folder (the one in C:/program files/firaxis games/ etc../mods, not the one in customassets).

You can then just double click on one of the maps that's included, which will cause the mod to get loaded automatically.

If you prefer to load the mod separately, put the maps in your publicmaps folder and they will then show up when you try to play a scenario after loading the mod in-game. Hope that helps.
 
I loaded the files in the mod folder....I even tried with the maps in the maps folder...but no luck. I have the 1.61 version and noticed you talk about a vanilla version. Is it possible that the mod is incompatible with 1.61?
 
The civics could start with Economic rule, then going to local rule, to Ntatehood, then, finally, Nation

I am not good at balancing but the civics could have:
Eco; increase in gold, food, and hammers with higher unhappiness and unhealthy
Local; increase in hammers (higher than Eco) and distance cost with decrease in gold and food
State; increase in food (higher than Eco) and distance cost (less than local) with decrease in gold (less than local)
Nation; increase in happiness, gold, and number of cities cost

These are just trying to be realistic. If they would not work (I play on easier difficulties) ignore this post.
 
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