Star Trek Mod for Civilization IV...Good Idea?

[Promenthus]

I suppose you're right, it does make sense to do things your way =D. Besides, you can always make a "neutral zone" by placing a whole line of starbases as your boundary =p

EDIT: EXCELLENT NEWS!!! I have managed to create a working map script [Audience: "Finally Promenthus, you moron!"] that will generate terrain. It's already late at night right now so I'll work on the terrain features and resources tomorrow morning. Although the script won't produce ready-made maps, expect to see a beta-testing scenario coming out soon along with the mod itself! Once we get most of the XML work done, I'll worry about making a multi-layered fractal map script to generate the maps you'll see in Star Trek: Reborn. Hopefully someone else will contribute their Python skills!

 

[C44]

Excellent news, can't wait to play this mod.

Keep up the good work!

 

[Ranbir]

I have no idea what that means.

I better actually load that stuff you sent me too. *shifty eyes*

 

[Ploeperpengel]

StarTrekMod is coming? Great! And what about Babylon5, Stargate, Battlestar Galactica? I WANT IT ALL!!!!!

 

[Ranbir]

I do want some general space sim (which grants personal freedom on how to create the space setting)

But first, I want to help create the Trek mod. Going at it very particularly.


Edit: I just read at the start about roads and trading. Trading/connectivity can easily be solved with an improvement with the same effect as an airport.

Connectivity to resources is more of a bundle.

 

[Ploeperpengel]

Here's my contibution get it here:

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads11/SciFi1.zip

screenshots here:
http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads11/ScreenieSciFI1.jpg

 

[Promenthus]

Impressive, I'll definitely want to use some of those "trekkier" pictures.
Now it's obvious that I have to show off my own work =D

 

[Communisto]

starrr trrrek mod.....NOW!
i demand it. So it is written, so it is done.

 

[Promenthus]

Patience, Communisto, especially for the next two weeks. I'm completely bogged down with excessive homework and projects due, so there probably will not be much progress on the mod until spring break. However, I think we'll be ready to release an alpha (I'm not promising anything) sometime in the first week of April.

 

[Ploeperpengel]

Impressive, I'll definitely want to use some of those "trekkier" pictures.
Now it's obvious that I have to show off my own work =D

Good ones!

 

[GreyFox]

Just to give you guys moral support and encouragement, so that you know there are people who like this mod, want it, but don't have the time or skill to do it.

 

[l33t h4x0r]

update anyone...

 

[Andrew_Jay]

I do want some general space sim (which grants personal freedom on how to create the space setting)

But first, I want to help create the Trek mod. Going at it very particularly.

I was thinking it might be best to approach it the other way around - I guess the priority would be to get out a space-based terrain (graphics and rules).

I understand the optimal way to go about it has been determined to using land for space?

I guess desert=space, then you can set the various combinations as planet types:

grassland
grassland+trees
grassland+jungle
grassland+hill
plain
plain+trees
plain+jungle
plain+hill
desert+hill
tundra
tundra+trees
tundra+hill
peak (star?)

I was pretty interested in the various space mods circulating for Civ III since I was able to actually contribute something, but since Civ IV is significantly more complicated . . .

However, I am hoping to start looking into the .XML and playing around with rule settings to see what can be created for planets, etc.

 

[Effix]

--UPDATED: PLAYABLE MOD--
So I started on Charcoal's "MY Add a Civ Tutorial" for the fun of it. Perhaps someone beat me to it, but I made some leaderheads and civilization icons, mainly as practice (I've seen some flags but wanted to try it myself, no offense). I haven't tested anything in the game, please let me know if anything is messed up. These are just my choices, I know many of you would like to see a different list (just as i did), but perhaps then you can still use some of these graphics to save some time. This is also not intended as a final list if one would come out of this at all.

I've chosen:

United Federation of Planets
President
Jaresh-Inyo (Grazerite), Ra-ghoratreii (no that's not a Klingon, Efrosian)

Bajorans
First Minister
Shakaar Edon, Winn Adami

Cardassian Union
Legate
Dukat, Parn

Klingon Empire
Emperor (Klingon Empire -> Emperor. I know chancellor is also used, I also considered the rank of general, like general Martok)
Kahless (the Unforgettable, clone or not, you pick), Gowron

Romulan Star Empire
Praetor
Neral, Hiren

Ferengi Alliance
Grand Nagus
Gint (author of the rules of acquisition), Zek ("Ma'hadoon! Where's my beetlesnuff?")

Vulcans
Ambassador
Surak (founder of Vulcan logic), Sarek (chosen because of his important role as ambassador)

-Existing mod idea: This spacetile idea is great but perhaps a bit too complex for me to help out with, I myself might try a simpler approach in which the different races end up trying to colonize the same planet (this way many existing things like the terrain can be left untouched, Star Trek: Colonization Conflict). I'll see what I end up with, next I'm going to take a look at modifying/reskinning units, hope I can do a lot by just reskinning.
If I can help out on the spacetile mod just let me know (anything for the Trek), I'm quite good at scripting but not familiar with Python, I could do some image editing or 3d modelling. (What’s the latest on that, 3DSMax plug-in only? Can you use that same plug-in in GMAX?)

I also came up with a replacement of the religions system; the beliefs system:

1. Animism (belief in spiritual beings, like wormhole Prophets, early human belief)
2. Polytheism (belief in multiple gods, Hinduism still exists)
3. Monotheism (belief in one god, Cristianity still exists, James T. Kirk?)
4. Atheism (denial of the existance of gods, Jean Luc Picard is one I think)
5. Honour (devotion to honour, no need for examples)
6. Materialism (devotion to the acquisition of wealth)
7. Philosophy (devotion to a philosophic view)
--The idea is to replace the religions with beliefs that cover all beliefs and religions, no major difference in influence like in the unmodded game, comments are welcome.

->Work in progress, but playable, no errors.
-7 civs, 2 leaderheads per civ incl. buttons, flags, descriptions, slightly edited the leader responses, not done yet, klingon talks about honour, ferengi still says he dislikes haggling.
-Unique units defined (using existing 3d meshes) incl. descriptions, not done with adjusting cost, strength etc.

Getting the flags right was harder then I thought it would be, important things to know are:
-White in the alpha channel defines the transparant areas
-The 'secondary color' is the one that will be shown in the transparant areas
-Set bWhiteFlag to 1 to prevent that all white in your flag will made transparent (I don't get this, we already have an alpha channel, is this easier for making decals or something?)

-extra: I came across
http://www.ufpcroatia.com
It is in Croatian but you should be able to find 'uniforme' in the menu. They have nice pics of different races in various clothing, maybe useful when making Great Persons or something...

--fun fact--
Talking about Leonard Nimoy, I picked up a fun fact (@memory-alpha.org):
"Live long and prosper" was probably inspired by the bible quote:
"May the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. May the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace." which is a quote read by Nimoy in Civ4 (invention of Devine Right or something).
Nimoy went to the synagogue as a child, the Vulcan hand sign was inspired by a Jewish custom (blessing: 2 hands, arms raised). So if you are Jewish this maybe really old news...

> DOWNLOAD MOD < (1.95 MB, zip)

 

[Effix]

(i want to delete this message but how? The edit button says edit/delete but then I'm lost, sorry. I can be such a chieftain sometimes)

 

[Coopa]

A bit off-topic, but I saw some of you mention Birth of the Federation

There is a game being made by fans called Birth of the Federation 2. Take a look at the work so far. Sounds great, and I'm sure they could use some help or offer some.

 

[Ranbir]

A bit off-topic, but I saw some of you mention Birth of the Federation

There is a game being made by fans called Birth of the Federation 2. Take a look at the work so far. Sounds great, and I'm sure they could use some help or offer some.

Yup seen it. Got to play with the GUI too. Very very sexy.

 

[C44]

any news about the mod?

 

[Andrew_Jay]

I can't remember if there's been any model for how the terrain will work in this mod, but I found some mock-ups I did a few weeks ago. One thing you'll notice is that I prefer 1x1 tile planets and stars to anything else - though perhaps that's just a preference left over from the CivIII mod, it's quite possible that some awesome-looking (and functional) 2x2 planets (or bigger) can be made with CivIV's graphics.

This first shot (taken from the Civ4 Editor utility) basically encompasses many of my ideas for how the game could work.

Of course, the form that cities will take is perhaps the biggest decision, and it seems that there are two ways to go:

"Star Cities" has the "city" built on the star, allowing the civilization to claim the entire star-system. The city then reaches out and works the planets in that system (for both models, I picture the coast and ocean tiles - unless they possess resources/asteroids - producing nothing. Food/Hammers/Trade will depend on the planets themselves and the improvements you build on them).

One cool thing about this model is that it can take advantage of all of the tile improvements in CivIV; one planet could have a "cottage" on it, another a "windmill", planets could be customised with mines, farms, "lumber camps", etc.

"Planet Cities" has each planet settled seperately. This allows for a little more flexibility, and the ability to exploit special resources on each (is there anyway to, for example, get a gold resource off of a one-tile island without a city on it? I don't think there is, which hurts the "star cities" model). One thing you should note is that I placed the planets in these examples so that they do not over-lap (so your "city" on Earth won't also work Mars, for example). You lose the ability to build terrain improvements, however (because everything will have a city on it). Also, if we are to avoid over-lapping, this model can fit fewer planets around a star (maximum of four it seems, where the "star cities" allows for six before planets are joined to each-other).

I really don't know which I prefer right now, because obviously both have their advantages and disadvantages. What do other people think?

 

[Ranbir]

I think we have more than one team working on a trekkie mod now.