Preview: Extended Mod (new original graphics, units, techs amd more)

[ganart]

Very cool your buildings are so incredibly "Firaxian" I would sware you worked for them on the original game.

Also I had an idea for Leonardos Workshop, I have read that in Civ 3 this gave you a reduction in Unit upgrad costs and several other people have crated versions that give a Science bost, I havent even checked what you did with it so sorry if this is something you already did. I think it would be most apropriately reflect the "Renisance" nature by giving you one free Specialist of each type, that would be a lot like the GreatLibrary which people already like quite a bit but its occuring much later in the tec tree. The combined GPP output would be considerable basicaly guaranteeing some good GP out of that City.

Gnart: check this thread for ways to see the options CivFanatics has for uploading larger files
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=153618

Thanks for your feed back, Impaler. No, I do not work for Firaxis of course. (I’m working in computer graphics professionally though). I did try to keep “firaxian” style of art, glad that you noticed it.

I was also willing to make Leonardos Workshop like in Civ3, but there is no way to make building reduce units upgrade cost through xml files. At least I have not figured out. So for now it gives units free experience points, makes land units production 25% faster and boosts the chance of the Great Scientist’s appearance. Getting free specialists is an interesting idea, have to test it.

Thanks for the link, I’ve checked it before and as I already said emailed to Thunderfall regarding uploading. But till now I have not got anything from him. I think I should look for another possibility to upload file.

 

[Impaler[WrG]]

I was thinking of trying to make a mod for changing upgrade Costs, I think a Wonder called the "Colt Armory" has existed before in Civ and that would be a nice wonder to hold the cost cutting effect.

 

[ganart]

I've uploaded file to 3dDownload.com. Download link can be found in my first post.

 

[Impaler[WrG]]

Boy this is extensive, I realy like the new Tecnologies they fleshout some parts of the tree that were feeling sparse. I do think they have too many Pre-requisites (this is the civ3 style you spoke of I guess). Also the fact almost every unit requires a structure (Barracks, Stable, Castle, Factory) seems a bit harsh. I would loosen that a bit if I were you with only the most advanced units requiring facilities. I'm glad to see you did Rubber and Saltpeter I have been waiting for thouse a long time.

Overall a very impressive Mod

Seeing as of how your so good a building Graphics I would recomend you consentrate in that area. Their are some nice wonder Ideas that could use some graphics.

Sphinx
Maoi (Easter Island Statues)
Great Zimbabwa
Temple of the Sun & Moon
Nazka Lines
Serpent Mound
TerraCota Army

 

[Public_Enemy]

Great Mod, really! What about a full french translation?

 

[ganart]

Boy this is extensive, I realy like the new Tecnologies they fleshout some parts of the tree that were feeling sparse. I do think they have too many Pre-requisites (this is the civ3 style you spoke of I guess). Also the fact almost every unit requires a structure (Barracks, Stable, Castle, Factory) seems a bit harsh. I would loosen that a bit if I were you with only the most advanced units requiring facilities. I'm glad to see you did Rubber and Saltpeter I have been waiting for thouse a long time.

Overall a very impressive Mod

Seeing as of how your so good a building Graphics I would recomend you consentrate in that area. Their are some nice wonder Ideas that could use some graphics.

Sphinx
Maoi (Easter Island Statues)
Great Zimbabwa
Temple of the Sun & Moon
Nazka Lines
Serpent Mound
TerraCota Army

Thanks for your feedback. Yes, this is what I mean the Civ3 style, you guess right. I realize that it might look like a bit of overkill, but this my personal view of the game and I like it. But feel free to adjust this mod to your personal taste, removing those pre-requisites you don't like is not a big deal

I will now concentrate mainly on new graphics of course. More significant changes of the gameplay would require programming skills which I don't have. Adding new Wonders you suggested is an interesting idea, I can make new graphics for them. The problem is giving those new wonders interesting bonuses which are limited within the core gameplay.

 

[ganart]

Great Mod, really! What about a full french translation?

Thank you Public_Enemy. Sorry, I don't speak French so I cannot do much about that

As I said texts are of the less priority for me. I have not made even German version I prefer game's original language.

I will add descriptions later of course, but at the moment I concentrate on the new graphics. I will post an update soon.

 

[Impaler[WrG]]

Adding new Wonders you suggested is an interesting idea, I can make new graphics for them. The problem is giving those new wonders interesting bonuses which are limited within the core gameplay.

I agree new wonders need to be Unique and not simply rehashed usages of the existing wonders. When ever possible whole new mechanics should be created to give the wonders more flavor and Uniqueness and make them more reflective of the culture that spawned them. I see great potential for colaboration between us, you make the Art and I will program new XML atributes that will give them cool effects.

I found a nice little page with 100 Wonders, half are inapropriate (Natural things like GrandCanyon or whole Cities or Cruises to Alaska and the like) but their are still quite a lot of nice potential wonders, let your creativity take you ware it will, we can thinkup effects for the Wonder later.

100 Wonders http://www.hillmanwonders.com/

Some I liked...

Bagan Temple
Temple of Karnak (could be the Shrine for Pharoh religion)
Potala Palace
Petra
St. Peters Basicila
Borobudur
Alhambra Fortress
Louvre Museum (Graphic for this will obviosly be that Glass Pyrimid in from of the building as that is what everyone sees when they think of it)
Temple of the Emerald Buddha
Golden Temple (would be Shrine for Sikh religion)
Meenakshi
Mezquita of Cordoba
Umayyad Mosque (aparently 4th Holiest site of Islam)
Golden Pavilion
Abu Simbel
Shwedagon Stupa
Leaning Tower of Pisa
Mont-St-Michel
Marrakesh (one of the few that has a logical Commerce connection)
Burj Al Arab (had never heard of it before but the picture looked very cool and its modern)
Neuschwanstein Castle
Chambord Chateau

Some other random thoughts and ideas...

Big Ben Clocktower
Sydny Opera House
Crist Redeamer Statue of Rio de Janeiro
the Kiyomizu Temple (would be nice to have a Japaneese Wonder)

 

[ganart]

Impaler, thanks for the link. I will think what Wonders with interesting graphic can be done. Unfortunately Civ4 graphic engine is at least 3-5 years behind the modern standards so not everything can be implemented.

Cooperation would be great of course. But do you think it's possible to add new bonuses just within XML editing? My impression is that Python or even SDK programming required but I'm not a programmer. Can you code in Python or C+?

 

[Impaler[WrG]]

I am great in C++, I'm a noob at Python. You can do almost anything once you have the sourcecode, you cant change the graphic engine or the exe thats all. I tend to avoid the Python layer and instead go for XML/C++

With a modified Schema and apropirate reading/writing added to the Source you can add any concivable tag or data in the XML and have it create some effect in the game. The raw data or new functions can be exported to Python as well. For example I already added a tag to Buildings which gives them a localized change to the output of Specialists and added a tag in Traits which gives a modifier to the number of votes you have in the U.N. I am currently working to allow Leader to have their own Unique Units.

 

[Ploeperpengel]

Very nice units and buildings. May I borrow some for Warhammer?

 

[Propunk]

Really impressive, man! The units, technologies and buildings are just great! However, I got a problem when playing today. My trebuchets appeared as red bubbles, without the action buttons on the screen bottom. Any ideas why? Once again, congrats!!!

 

[ganart]

Very nice units and buildings. May I borrow some for Warhammer?

Sure, feel free to use grahics you need. I'll be adding more soon

 

[ganart]

Really impressive, man! The units, technologies and buildings are just great! However, I got a problem when playing today. My trebuchets appeared as red bubbles, without the action buttons on the screen bottom. Any ideas why? Once again, congrats!!!

Thanks for feedback, Propunk. But have you read readme? I quote:

"!!!IMPORTANT!!!
After installing the Mod download Trebuchet model made by Sharick and place it in Extended Mod/Assets/Art/Units/… folder. That’s all! All other entries in corresponding xml files have been done. Otherwise you will not see it in game! I did not include it since the graphic is not mine and I have not got any replay from the author regarding the permission.

Download link:
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=163985"

That's what you need to do and then trebuchet will appear in game properly.

 

[darkedone02]

this mod is good, i was having fun with no errors at all. Conquering Asoka's armys and trying to form an alliance with Washington and Alaxander, then end up wining with a space race victory. There are some things that i wish you can add on this mod is that i want some custom music in this game, yeah you heard me saying this lots of times though but really, i want to see and hear creative things from this mod if you want it to be the best. I also like to see some more civilizations that we can play and a custom campaign that don't have a lot of civilizations.

 

[Ploeperpengel]

Sure, feel free to use grahics you need. I'll be adding more soon

Thx. I'll keep an eye on this thread

 

[Brave Sir Robin]

ganart
have dnl ,no problem ,as almost every one here has said the new units & graphics look incredible
I do have a question however.
having read the read me before playing I noticed that only the capital can make settlers ?! I began playing anyway and also found the settlers cost is also tripled ?!
These changes clearly are what you intended so could you please
explain your reasoning ?
I dont want to come off as a whiner ,because i do realize the work involved in making a mod ,and if I personally dont care for changes someone makes, I don't have to play that mod.
I do however like many of the changes made ,but the setter change is such a radical change to game play. I may choose to make XML
changes to these two items and play any way
sorry to complain, looking forward to hearing your thoughts

 

[ganart]

ganart
These changes clearly are what you intended so could you please
explain your reasoning ?
I dont want to come off as a whiner ,because i do realize the work involved in making a mod ,and if I personally dont care for changes someone makes, I don't have to play that mod.
I do however like many of the changes made ,but the setter change is such a radical change to game play. I may choose to make XML
changes to these two items and play any way
sorry to complain, looking forward to hearing your thoughts

Sir Robin, I’ve been doing this mod for my personal taste which is not everyone taste.
My intention was to slow down expansion in the early stage of the game and to encourage some military activity in this stage. Despite the fact that in Civ4 Firaxis tried to stop AI from cranking out settlers like a hell with their new maintains system, to my opinion AI still produces too many cities in the early game. And this stifles its economy. Frankly I’m not very happy about this maintains system so I decided to try this way. From another hand I added City Hall building which reduces maintains costs the same way as Courthouse does. So it’s harder to produce settlers but easier to maintain bigger Empire now if you managed to build more cities or if you go on conquest early in the game.

I’m not saying this decision was any perfect. I can’t play hundreds games to be sure the balance is OK. I’m waiting for feedback from other players. From the games I played so far it seems acceptable to me. But I need to play more games to decide if I change this or not. And to my opinion it’s absolutely OK if you find some changes don’t fit your playing preferences. In this case feel free to make any changes you want. That’s why Firaxis made this game so easy to mod.

Hope this explains you the reasons I had in mind making this changes.

 

[ganart]

this mod is good, i was having fun with no errors at all. Conquering Asoka's armys and trying to form an alliance with Washington and Alaxander, then end up wining with a space race victory. There are some things that i wish you can add on this mod is that i want some custom music in this game, yeah you heard me saying this lots of times though but really, i want to see and hear creative things from this mod if you want it to be the best. I also like to see some more civilizations that we can play and a custom campaign that don't have a lot of civilizations.

Unfortunately I can’t compose music myself . And music composed by someone else is a subject of copyright as you know. So I can’t promise you adding custom music, sorry. I’m working in graphic so I know what copyright is

As to new civs and leaders I’ll probably add more in future. Though making a totally new leaderhead is a LOT of work, so I can’t promise I’ll do that. Further we would need more interesting traits and features to make those new Civs really unique. Looks like with the Warlord expansion it might be easier.

New scenarios would be of course great but you know, I’m making this mod on my own and it’s really hard to find time for all aspects.

 

[Ploeperpengel]

this mod is good, i was having fun with no errors at all. Conquering Asoka's armys and trying to form an alliance with Washington and Alaxander, then end up wining with a space race victory. There are some things that i wish you can add on this mod is that i want some custom music in this game, yeah you heard me saying this lots of times though but really, i want to see and hear creative things from this mod if you want it to be the best. I also like to see some more civilizations that we can play and a custom campaign that don't have a lot of civilizations.

Why don't you just take this tool and insert the music you want to hear for the mod yourself? -And then relieve us all of your complaining?
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=4098689&postcount=1