Question for experienced modders: Are these concepts possible?

[I_batman]

Let me first state some qualifiers, to give people an idea of my mind set:

1. I am not thrilled with CIV IV with its current graphics and presentation, but there is little that can be done about that, and it appears some talented people are making changes now in that regard now anyway.

2. I have done a fair bit of coding, primarily in C, Perl, HTML, and started fooling with Python about 6 months ago. I am struggling to get the SDK to work, but hope to successfully slug through it soon, and plan on picking up a C++ book as soon as I do.
I am not a great coder, but can fight my way through most stuff with tenacity.

3. I have been playing CIV IV off and on for about 3 months, now that I have a computer powerful enough to play it.

Now, there are a number of things I would like to alter within the CIV IV game.
Clearly, having source code to work with allows so much flexibility.
But I am wondering if the following concepts can be truly implemented, without tearing the core code completely apart, and driving myself mad with the effort.
That is why I am asking people who have already tackled the C++ and Python code.

1. Can other resources be tracked like food and gold production are?
Case in point: Oil.
I would like to set it up that oil patches produce X units of oil/turn, and that is added to the storehouse of a civ.
In a perfect world, then certain improvements (eg. factories) and certain units (eg. tanks) would use Y amounts of oil/turn.
Same concepts could apply to say iron, coal, uranium.

2. Nuclear plants produce spent rods, and X number of spent rods allows you to process enough weapons grade uranium or plutonium to produce a nuclear weapon. Therefore a civ's nuclear arsenal is based on the nuclear production capability it has.

3. Buying and selling of weapons grade nuclear material is possible, to get around #2.

4. Military surface ships and subs, some aircraft, and a new improvement (SOSUS sonar nets), can detect subs, but the ability to see the sub each turn is a % chance, and each type of unit has varying abilities to "see" subs.

Conversely, certain types of subs are more stealthy than others, and would have an improved base chance of not being seen.

I imagine this might be handled through the promotions XML tags.

4. Drastically increasing the firepower of nukes. I believe a number of people are working along those lines now, but I would like to see an nuked area incapable of supporting food production for X number of turns, and any units that enter the affected area would be sickened, or possibly killed.
I would also like to code in nuclear clouds that would move with prevailing winds (another idea I have) much like certain CIV III scenarios had Plague clouds that moved.

5. Seasons introduced: affects food production, and movement, and has a negative HP affect on units fighting or moving in winter. (only in enemy territory)
The HP affect would be a percent/turn, say 1%.
So a modern armour unit with strength 40 would lose 0.4 strength every turn, while in enemy territory. And his movement rate cut by 50%, minimum of 1 tile/turn.

Napolean and Hilter's armies both learned a hard lesson of moving/fighting in Russia in the winter.

I am not asking anybody to build a modpack for these, just want to know of these concepts are indeed possible to code, and won't kill me in the process of doing so, given my "sort of OK" coding skills.

 

[Impaler[WrG]]

5 dosnt make sense unless their are winter/summer turns which concivably could happen in an extra era of the game. But as you mentioned hitler and Napolean I can see you want it much earlier in the game.

If attrition without a winter/summer destinction is enough to satisfy you then your in luck that can be done with a single XML change, under global defines set the heal rate to a negative value (recomend -5 to -10) for Enemy Territory.

 

[I_batman]

5 dosnt make sense unless their are winter/summer turns which concivably could happen in an extra era of the game. But as you mentioned hitler and Napolean I can see you want it much earlier in the game.

If attrition without a winter/summer destinction is enough to satisfy you then your in luck that can be done with a single XML change, under global defines set the heal rate to a negative value (recomend -5 to -10) for Enemy Territory.

Agreed that current turns in CIV IV span years or decades.
I envision a number of scenarios will be created that soon will have a turn representing a month, or weeks.

I have my own scenario in mind that would use all 5 concepts that I am looking at, and where one turn would represent a month.
Plus, there are a few really good Civ III scenarios that would be great to port over to Civ IV, but that process will take years.

I will check out the XML define you mention.

Thanks.

 

[Zurai]

5 is simple: there are alternate calendar settings (CALENDAR_DAYS, CALENDAR_WEEKS, CALENDAR_MONTHS, and CALENDAR_SEASONS) that can be used to set up seasonal events, which are simple to make in python.

 

[Padmewan]

2. Nuclear plants produce spent rods, and X number of spent rods allows you to process enough weapons grade uranium or plutonium to produce a nuclear weapon. Therefore a civ's nuclear arsenal is based on the nuclear production capability it has.

Point of information -- spent rods do NOT lead to weapons grade nuclear materials. "Depleted" uranium is useful in tank rounds because of its incredible density, but not for nuclear weaponry. Spent rods and refined raw radioactive materials are not fungible. (Though in your own mod, you can do whatever you want, of course)

 

[I_batman]

Point of information -- spent rods do NOT lead to weapons grade nuclear materials. "Depleted" uranium is useful in tank rounds because of its incredible density, but not for nuclear weaponry. Spent rods and refined raw radioactive materials are not fungible. (Though in your own mod, you can do whatever you want, of course)

I grabbed the following off the http://www.chemcases.com/nuclear/nc-13.htm site.
Sounds like fuel rods can be re-processed into weapons grade material.

" There are about 557 nuclear power reactors in the world and about 440 are operating in early 2005. These reactors have common elements that uranium oxide enriched to 3-4% 235U is fabricated into pellets then inserted into fuel rods. These rods are neutron emitters and, in close proximity with each other, begin a self-sustaining chain reaction releasing energy and producing new elements by the fission of the uranium and producing plutonium (239Pu) by nuclear chain reactions. These fuel rods generally can supply energy from the fission reaction for 1-3 years. They are then removed and replaced by new rods.

Spent fuel from nuclear reactors still contains considerable amounts of 235 U but now has generated significant 239Pu. After 3 years in a reactor, 1,000 lbs. of 3.3-percent-enriched uranium (967 lbs. 238 U and 33 lbs. 235U) contain 8 lbs. of 235U and 8.9 lbs. of plutonium isotopes along with 943 lbs. of 238U and assorted fission products. Separating the 235U and 239Pu from the other components of spent fuel significantly addresses two major concerns. It greatly reduces the long-lived radioactivity of the residue and it allows purified 235U and 239Pu to be used as reactor fuel. (Courtesy of the Uranium Information Center)

Three options are available for cooled spent fuel rods; they can remain at the sites from which they have been removed from service, be moved to a more permanent site for storage or they can be reprocessed to remove the uranium and plutonium. In either case, these fuel rods must cool in storage ponds near the reactor for several months in order to reduce their short-lived radioactivity and to allow them to dissipate their initial high thermal energy. Reprocessing involves chopping up the fuel rods and dissolving the pieces.

The plutonium and uranium are then removed and chemically separated. The byproducts of reprocessing, transuranic elements and fission products can be encapsulated in glass and disposed as waste. Gaseous diffusion or other processes can be used to enrich the uranium. The plutonium can be mixed with enriched uranium to make mixed oxide (MOX) reactor fuel. Purified plutonium can also be used for nuclear weapons. Great Britain and France have built large reprocessing plants to produce MOX fuel. They reprocess spent fuel not only from reactors in their respective countries, but also from reactors in other nations. "