[SNEAK PEEK] GraveMod (a NEW ModPack for Warlords on the way!)

[Lachlan]

Keep Working Man ! Like Johnnie Walker !

Sincerelly i'm attired by your mod ...

 

[Vrenir]

I can't tell you how excited I am about this mod. It looks like it will be exactly what I've been looking for (more details that really enhance gameplay such as civics and religion expansions). I do, however, have a couple of suggestions.

1) I was slightly disappointed to see that Norse Myth was not one of the ancient religions added. It would make more sense to me if you combined Greek and Roman religions into the Greco-Roman Pantheon, since they are remarkably similar in all but the deities' personalities. I would kind of like to see some sort of animism represented for use with new civilizations in say North America in the future. My only other suggestion for religion is that you don't make the ancient ones programmed to fade. Limiting their spreadability is one thing, but it seems that there wasn't really anything inherantly weaker about the Egyptian or Aztec faith that caused them to die out. Rather, invasions and other factors led to their extinction. If you want to really enhance the religious selection, you should make sure that you don't stack the deck. If Rome can take over the world, they shouldn't necessarily need to convert from what they started with.

2) Even though Saddam looks great, I'm not sure that he's the best representation for a second Arab leader. I mean, he's not exactly popular, nor was he really as significant as some others have been in the past. He's fine if there isn't another option though, because more leaders are just great.

3) Israel is a great choice to include, but I'd point out that your leaders currently don't represent a lot of diversity in abilities. Having David or Solomon is a must, but for the second leader how about Hezekiah (could use the Solomon image) or Joshua (a Hannibal reskin could work here I think). Hezekiah would be Spiritual and Protective, a combination that I don't think we've met so far. Joshua would be Spiritual and Aggressive, another interesting combination to enter the mix. Either would be a nice compliment to the more economically geared David or Solomon.

Those are the three main suggestion areas I had. Other than that, I was wondering if you might take some other of the most historically significant Civ Gold / Sevomod civilizations and add them. I'm not a huge fan of all the minor factions, but it's nice to have Aborigines in Australia and a few more people in Africa and North America.

Anyway, excellent work so far. I'm really looking forward to trying this someday. Thanks for all the effort.

 

[Grave]

1) I was slightly disappointed to see that Norse Myth was not one of the ancient religions added. It would make more sense to me if you combined Greek and Roman religions into the Greco-Roman Pantheon, since they are remarkably similar in all but the deities' personalities.

You know, I was actually thinking the same thing. When I originally started working on the religions, Roman & Greek were one in the same. Then I split them into different religions. I was (and still am) considering combining Roman/Greek religions back together and I still am considering adding Norse Mythology. I just didn't want *too* many religions. I read somewhere that the developers put 7 in the game because it was an optimum setting when you consider culture bonus, happiness, etc. I didn't want to flood the game with too many religions and end up unbalancing it. But if I merge the Roman/Greek mythos together, I could add Norse no problem.

I would kind of like to see some sort of animism represented for use with new civilizations in say North America in the future.

Well, I'll cross that bridge when the time comes.

My only other suggestion for religion is that you don't make the ancient ones programmed to fade. Limiting their spreadability is one thing, but it seems that there wasn't really anything inherantly weaker about the Egyptian or Aztec faith that caused them to die out. Rather, invasions and other factors led to their extinction. If you want to really enhance the religious selection, you should make sure that you don't stack the deck. If Rome can take over the world, they shouldn't necessarily need to convert from what they started with.

The trick is making the "Ancient Religions" differ from "World Religions". If I made the Ancient Religions have Missionaries, Cathedrals, Global Commerce, etc... they would no different than Islam, Hinduism, etc. What I want to do is give access to the Ancient Religions early on, and the trade off for that would be slower spread, no Catherdals, no Missionaries, etc. I'm still playing around with the Religions for now though. I'm taking a break from them so I can focus on the other things, then I'll go back to Religions and finish them off.

2) Even though Saddam looks great, I'm not sure that he's the best representation for a second Arab leader. I mean, he's not exactly popular, nor was he really as significant as some others have been in the past. He's fine if there isn't another option though, because more leaders are just great.

I chose Saddam for the Arabic civ for two reasons:

1) I didn't think it was fair for certain civs to have 3 Leaders, and others with just one.

2) I really like how the Saddam LH looks.

He doesn't exactly represent the Arabic Empire as a whole... but then again, Hitler doesn't represent Germany as a whole either, and I added him, too. Think of it this way. These despotic new Leaders represent the "darkside" of their culture.

3) Israel is a great choice to include, but I'd point out that your leaders currently don't represent a lot of diversity in abilities. Having David or Solomon is a must, but for the second leader how about Hezekiah (could use the Solomon image) or Joshua (a Hannibal reskin could work here I think).

Good point... and I'll take it under consideration. My main objective today was getting the new LH's up and running without errors. Now that I got them working properly, now is the time I'll go back and fine tune them. I'll have to do some research on Hezekiah and Joshua, as I don't know much about them.

Those are the three main suggestion areas I had. Other than that, I was wondering if you might take some other of the most historically significant Civ Gold / Sevomod civilizations and add them. I'm not a huge fan of all the minor factions, but it's nice to have Aborigines in Australia and a few more people in Africa and North America.

The main thing that drives me to add (or not add) new civs to the game is the uniqueness of the Leaderheads. The thing I look for is when the re-skin hardly resembles the original LH it was based off of (Hirohito, for example). If I can find some really unique LH's, I'll add them.

For example, I really like the Romanian Civ that's floating out there, and I would certainly add them if there was a really killer looking Vlad Tepes LH (no pun intended there...


But thanks for the interest in my mod. I've been working on this project for 2+ months now, and I certainly hope it will all be worth it in the end!

 

[Vrenir]

Thanks for your fast response. I definitely understand what you mean by the religious spread thing, and I agree with the no missionaries, cathedrals thing. I think that sustaining one of the old religions should be harder when faced with a missionary faith like Christianity or Islam. I just don't want it to be untenable. I want to have my Egyptians with their dogmatic loyalty to Ra crush the heathen Confucists.

As far as Leaderheads go, I completely agree. I love leaderheads that make you pause and think, where did that one come from? Yours are currently up to a high standard. I think that others you could consider under this rule are: CIV GOLD - Basil II (Byzantine), the male Pelopanysian guy, the Nubian guy, the Ethiopian retexture of the China guy, the Pakistani Washington (don't know where else he could be used, but he's a brilliant retex), and possibly one of the retextured Julius (Massai or Iroqois). From ELSEWHERE - Masinissa (could be a good Constantine to go with Bazil II for Byzantinum), possibly Hector from Ano Domini (a second Greek?), and John III Sobieski. There may be others that I haven't seen, and I'm not sure where all of these could go( they certainly don't need to retain their current IDs) but I figured that it might be nice to compile a list of resources.

To help out with the Hezekiah, Joshua thing:
Hezekiah was king of Judah during the Assyrian invasions. Under his reign, Judah braved these assaults even in spite of a prolonged siege of Jerusalem, the end of which is Biblically attributed to Divine intervention. While Hezekiah lived, Judah survived the foriegn onslaught that took out the neighboring nation of Israel. He was also viewed as one of the most pious kings in the national history and oversaw a series of religious reforms.
Joshua was the young successor of Moses, leading Israel into Canaan after their desert wanderings. Under his leadership, many battles were fought against the native peoples and cities such as Jericho were overcome. The land was divided up and given to the twelve tribes.

 

[Grave]

Thanks for your fast response. I definitely understand what you mean by the religious spread thing, and I agree with the no missionaries, cathedrals thing. I think that sustaining one of the old religions should be harder when faced with a missionary faith like Christianity or Islam. I just don't want it to be untenable. I want to have my Egyptians with their dogmatic loyalty to Ra crush the heathen Confucists.

When I get back to working on the Religions... I'll think about this.

As far as Leaderheads go, I completely agree. I love leaderheads that make you pause and think, where did that one come from? Yours are currently up to a high standard. I think that others you could consider under this rule are: CIV GOLD - Basil II (Byzantine), the male Pelopanysian guy, the Nubian guy, the Ethiopian retexture of the China guy, the Pakistani Washington (don't know where else he could be used, but he's a brilliant retex), and possibly one of the retextured Julius (Massai or Iroqois). From ELSEWHERE - Masinissa (could be a good Constantine to go with Bazil II for Byzantinum), possibly Hector from Ano Domini (a second Greek?), and John III Sobieski. There may be others that I haven't seen, and I'm not sure where all of these could go( they certainly don't need to retain their current IDs) but I figured that it might be nice to compile a list of resources.

I do like Basil II. And I may still add the Romanians, still have to check it out. I'll look into these after I work out the Religion issues.

To help out with the Hezekiah, Joshua thing:
Hezekiah was king of Judah during the Assyrian invasions. Under his reign, Judah braved these assaults even in spite of a prolonged siege of Jerusalem, the end of which is Biblically attributed to Divine intervention. While Hezekiah lived, Judah survived the foriegn onslaught that took out the neighboring nation of Israel. He was also viewed as one of the most pious kings in the national history and oversaw a series of religious reforms.
Joshua was the young successor of Moses, leading Israel into Canaan after their desert wanderings. Under his leadership, many battles were fought against the native peoples and cities such as Jericho were overcome. The land was divided up and given to the twelve tribes.

Thanks for this info, too. I think I may end up keeping Solomon & David for the time being. If I do remove somebody, it will be Solomon. I varied them up a little as far as Traits go, so they're not as identical. If I remove Solomon, I might put Hezekiah in his place.

 

[Grave]

** UPDATE **


Tech Tree and Technologies are finished. Here is a (rough looking) pic of the TechTree.

I may still change some around a bit to enhance gameplay, but this is pretty much it. You SevoMod fans might recognize some of the Techs.

Next I'm going to work on the Buildings... then onto Units. Hopefully I can get alot accomplished this weekend!

Grave

 

[kristopherb]

how about changing chemistry with steel it will make a big difference

 

[Grave]

how about changing chemistry with steel it will make a big difference

I don't think I'll switch Chemistry/Steel around. Chemistry played a significant part in the creation of industrial-era steel from iron (smelting, removing carbon from iron, etc).

But, I do think I'll change some of the techs around, specifically in the early industrial era. Something about the way they're arranged right now just isn't sitting right with me.

 

[Leif]

Do you need any ideas or things playtested?

 

[Grave]

Do you need any ideas or things playtested?

Well, so far I think everything that I installed is working properly. While I haven't spent a whole game playtesting, I would usually run through about 10 or so turns, just to make sure no errors pop up.

I'll release a beta version prior to official release, so that way if any of you guys find bugs, I can do my best to squash them before releasing it to the public.



** UPDATE **

Got 90% of the new buildings/wonders in the game and working properly. Just have to add a few more, then go over them again and fine tune them.

 

[Impaler[WrG]]

Grave, you might be familiar with my CCCP project, its been on hold ever sinse 2.08 came out but I'm in the process of updating it and merging in Aussies latest code. I'm always looking for more code to include in the hopes that people will find the project a usefull base for building their mods upon. Is your code avalible and would you be interested in colaboration?

 

[Grave]

Grave, you might be familiar with my CCCP project, its been on hold ever sinse 2.08 came out but I'm in the process of updating it and merging in Aussies latest code. I'm always looking for more code to include in the hopes that people will find the project a usefull base for building their mods upon. Is your code avalible and would you be interested in colaboration?

Yeah, I'll be releasing the source code (in a seperate download) at the same time I release the Modpack once it's completed. Hopefully this mod catches on with the public, as I'd be very curious as to what kind of modifications (or add-on mods) people could come up with to expand this mod further.

While developing the SDK version of my project, I always paid close attention to the development of CCCP, because it's such an innovative idea. We could definately do some collaboration here once I get this thing released! My goal is to have a public release by New Years. But you know how modding goes... sometimes to take a step forward you have to take a few steps back.

 

[Ben E Gas]

The mod looks great from what I've read. I am glad that all of Sevo's work will not be lost as well. Question, sorry if it is answered above, I did not see it: Will this mod work with the latest patched Warlords?

 

[Grave]

The mod looks great from what I've read. I am glad that all of Sevo's work will not be lost as well. Question, sorry if it is answered above, I did not see it: Will this mod work with the latest patched Warlords?

Absolutely!

 

[Donkey Puncher]

I am not sure if it was this thread but I thought it was a good idea make the manhatan project a national wonder instead of a world wonder. courious what you thought

 

[Ben E Gas]

Is this mod completed? If not, when do you think it'll be completed?


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nvrmind. sorry, just saw your original post said it should be completed near the end of december.

 

[Grave]

I am not sure if it was this thread but I thought it was a good idea make the manhatan project a national wonder instead of a world wonder. courious what you thought

Hmmm.... I'm curious... what would be the benefit of having the Manhattan Project a National Wonder, as opposed to being a Project?

Is this mod completed? If not, when do you think it'll be completed?


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nvrmind. sorry, just saw your original post said it should be completed near the end of december.

I'm still working on the buildings right now. I've tweaked the existing buildings that need tweaking, added quite a few new buildings and still need to add a few more. There's alot involved in adding a building if you've ever tried it, let alone the dozens I have added. But it's actually pretty fun to do. Alot better than SDK coding!

After I'm satisfied with the buildings, I'll work on the units... and after that I'll get back to the Religions.

So my work is still cut out for me right now. My goal is to have it done by New Years, but it may/may not happen, but I'll do my best to make that deadline.

 

[Donkey Puncher]

you can't build nukes till you build the M.P. Depending on if you could get the AI to want to build asap are something I guess It wouldnt work properly and balanced

 

[Grave]

you can't build nukes till you build the M.P. Depending on if you could get the AI to want to build asap are something I guess It wouldnt work properly and balanced

The Manhattan Project is already like that. You can't build nukes or bomb shelters until one of the civs completes the Project. Then they're available to everybody, providing you have the PreReqTeqs for the buildings/units.

 

[Grave]

** UPDATE **

Spent the past few days squashing bugs with the buildings, and working on the CityLSystem.xml file. I now feel pretty comfortable with the buildings.

And I even added Wonder Movies for some of the new Wonders that didn't have them included with their respective download! They're still shots, but at least they're better than nothing.

Tomorrow I'm going to try and work on the Units a little. With my Christmas vacation coming up, I won't have much time to work on this, but I'll pick up again after I return from vacation.