SpaceWeasel
Chieftain
OK, I know everyone and his sister has posted a list of gripes and complaints and suggestions for Firaxis, but here is my two cents. Some of these I think haven't been mentioned before, while others are just seconding much-needed suggestions made by others. So here they are, in the order of how easy I think they would be to implement:
1) Make it so the Wonder stuff in the editor (except for the obvious ones that can only occur once, like Allow Diplomatic Victory) can apply to ANYTHING. For example, I want an Olympics small wonder that doubles the effect of all colloseums, but I can't do it. There is no reason for this that I can see and it should be extraordinarily easy to remove this arbitrary limitation. Also, I'd like to be able to have the option to use some of the wonder and small wonder effects for improvements - I know this could really really throw off game balance, but that's for the mod designers to decide not you! =P At the moment, I have several things I would like to be small wonders forced to be wonders (and vice versa) and an undue number of my wonders just build a certain building in every city. I would like to note that I have been experimenting with some success in making improvements that affect happiness in all cities.
2) Expose the raw numbers behind war weariness in the editor. I want to make it a much more significant factor in my top-secret mod, and the radio buttons don't cut it.
3) If possible, expose the effects of drafting in the editor. I'd like to add a wonder that significantly reduces the morale effects of drafting soldiers.
4) Could you provide any info on how the dialog boxes in scripts.txt work? I changed the messages around a little but it would be neat to be able to spawn our own boxes. Not a big deal if most of the stuff is hard-coded, but a better description of the tags than the one you provided to your localiation people would be great. Also, it would be nice to know if we can reference *anything* in any dialog box, or just the affected stuff. For example, could I mention the government type in a box that doesn't mention it already? For example, I want to change WLKD to celebrate days named after various famous leaders - say "Lenin Day" - drawn from the Great Leader names file. Is that possible? My true dream is to re-add the Solidarity demonstrators from Civ2 to the disorder popup, which is probably not possible but would fit nicely with my mod =).
5) That's it for now except: WE NEED A SCENARIO EDITOR. Some of the Firaxians have made noises like it's not really impossible to do within the context of the game code, but they may or may not do it. My thinking is either it would be too much of a hassle (*please*) or the evil French games-industry colonizers, er, Infogrames have some weird reason for not wanting it.
Allow me to make an emotional appeal: I am a poor college student with no free time, and I love your game more than food or social interaction. I have now spent hours and hours toiling away on the groundwork for my mod, which will drastically alter the gameplay in very neat ways, but my work will be TOTALLY wasted and unusable if you don't release a scenario editor in the future. The savegame editors are on their way to full-fledged editorhood, but I would feel a lingering dislike towards Sid and pals if this was all the editing community got. Put it this way: next time they release a game, I'd still hand over my gold, but it would say "Annoyed" in parenthesis next to my name.
At any rate, good work on the patch - now KEEP IT UP! The bugs were a bit silly but marginal compared to what we see in some games these days. I definately appreciate the Firaxian's cheerful willingness to fix these problems in a timely and effective manner, and expand our editing options in the meantime. I hope this trend continues, culminating in a SCENARIO EDITOR.
Did I mention SCENARIO EDITOR? Come on, it's the only way to keep your offices from being overrun by angry WWII and British history buffs.
*cough*SCENARIOEDITOR*cough*
(Ok, I'm done =)
Your loyal modmaking friend, holding his breath in anticipation,
SpaceWeasel
1) Make it so the Wonder stuff in the editor (except for the obvious ones that can only occur once, like Allow Diplomatic Victory) can apply to ANYTHING. For example, I want an Olympics small wonder that doubles the effect of all colloseums, but I can't do it. There is no reason for this that I can see and it should be extraordinarily easy to remove this arbitrary limitation. Also, I'd like to be able to have the option to use some of the wonder and small wonder effects for improvements - I know this could really really throw off game balance, but that's for the mod designers to decide not you! =P At the moment, I have several things I would like to be small wonders forced to be wonders (and vice versa) and an undue number of my wonders just build a certain building in every city. I would like to note that I have been experimenting with some success in making improvements that affect happiness in all cities.
2) Expose the raw numbers behind war weariness in the editor. I want to make it a much more significant factor in my top-secret mod, and the radio buttons don't cut it.
3) If possible, expose the effects of drafting in the editor. I'd like to add a wonder that significantly reduces the morale effects of drafting soldiers.
4) Could you provide any info on how the dialog boxes in scripts.txt work? I changed the messages around a little but it would be neat to be able to spawn our own boxes. Not a big deal if most of the stuff is hard-coded, but a better description of the tags than the one you provided to your localiation people would be great. Also, it would be nice to know if we can reference *anything* in any dialog box, or just the affected stuff. For example, could I mention the government type in a box that doesn't mention it already? For example, I want to change WLKD to celebrate days named after various famous leaders - say "Lenin Day" - drawn from the Great Leader names file. Is that possible? My true dream is to re-add the Solidarity demonstrators from Civ2 to the disorder popup, which is probably not possible but would fit nicely with my mod =).
5) That's it for now except: WE NEED A SCENARIO EDITOR. Some of the Firaxians have made noises like it's not really impossible to do within the context of the game code, but they may or may not do it. My thinking is either it would be too much of a hassle (*please*) or the evil French games-industry colonizers, er, Infogrames have some weird reason for not wanting it.
Allow me to make an emotional appeal: I am a poor college student with no free time, and I love your game more than food or social interaction. I have now spent hours and hours toiling away on the groundwork for my mod, which will drastically alter the gameplay in very neat ways, but my work will be TOTALLY wasted and unusable if you don't release a scenario editor in the future. The savegame editors are on their way to full-fledged editorhood, but I would feel a lingering dislike towards Sid and pals if this was all the editing community got. Put it this way: next time they release a game, I'd still hand over my gold, but it would say "Annoyed" in parenthesis next to my name.
At any rate, good work on the patch - now KEEP IT UP! The bugs were a bit silly but marginal compared to what we see in some games these days. I definately appreciate the Firaxian's cheerful willingness to fix these problems in a timely and effective manner, and expand our editing options in the meantime. I hope this trend continues, culminating in a SCENARIO EDITOR.
Did I mention SCENARIO EDITOR? Come on, it's the only way to keep your offices from being overrun by angry WWII and British history buffs.
*cough*SCENARIOEDITOR*cough*
(Ok, I'm done =)
Your loyal modmaking friend, holding his breath in anticipation,
SpaceWeasel
