The Major-General Mod

[ahmedvonmuneeb]

Okay! I've been an avid player of the Civ series ever since Civ1; I've been playing Civ4 for the last four weeks and feel that I've seen enough of the game that needs fixing. I don't mean to say that I can make it a better game than Sid did, but I think it's still worth a try. I'm a game designer in real-life, started a games development department with one of the major software houses Islamabad; we're currently working on two RPG's, to be released next year. I'm an electrical engineer by profession, and a game designer by choice. That's enough about me, now for the mod:

The mod is going to be designed to improve gameplay at Noble, because that is the difficulty level at which Firaxis claims the game is perfectly balanced. The handicaps of higher difficulty levels will still apply to this mod. In addition, it will be optimal to play it at epic game speed. The mod is intended to remove a lot of the shortcomings that one experiences in Civ4. Such as the imbalanced marines, the inability to blitzkrieg your enemies in a few turns of fluid warfare. In addition, no improvements will be made that the AI cannot comprehend and utilize.

When I visited these frums to post this thread, I came across many people who have already been working on addressing these very issues. Some of the ideas have been very similar to my own. I would really appreciate it if such modders would find it interesting to work on this mod as well.

Features include:
- Great person type: Great Generals
- Armies anyone?
- Movement rebalancing (if possible)
- Terrorism
- Artillery combat mechanics reworked
- Revised tech-tree
- New wonders (actually some are inherited ones)
- Many new UU's for ALL tribes
- Supply (tentative)
- Wonders balanced
- Economic warfare enabled
- New untis, including paratroopers (rela ones, for a change) and SP artillery
- Helicopters revised
- Some units balanced

The problem is this: I do not know Python, XML or how to make sprites. The only AI I've ever worked with was developing neural networks for intelligent RADAR, and an abortive attempt at making a mod for Hearts of Iron II (ended up debating Panther II's "Historical Improvement Project" mod).

If there's anyone out there who thinks that the features mentioned above and more would make Civ4 more fun to play, and possesses the skills needed to make this mod idea a reality, please PM me with your e-mail address or MSN id and let's get started!

I would really appreciate any comments and/or questions that you have to make.

 

[The Great Apple]

The problem is this: I do not know Python, XML or how to make sprites.

I hate to say it... but learn!

XML is really simple. It'll take you at most 5 minutes to work out what is going on, a few more to work out some of the details of what's going on... and then hours to work out what each individual little tag does.

Still, you can change alot with it.

Python isn't too bad, but it'll take a bit more hard work to get into. I think the best way to learn it is to bash your head against some very simple scripts - and ask questions if you don't understand.

Looking at your ideas I'd say a few of those could be done in XML, quite a few will just need quite simple python, quite a few are done already. Some of them, however, will need to wait until the SDK comes out, and we get C++.

Unfortunetely very few mods get done with just ideas, as I think most of the people who do the modding have their own ideas, and want to make something primarily for themselves.

EDIT: And welcome to CFC!

 

[Kushan]

Features include:
- Great person type: Great Generals
- Armies anyone?
- Movement rebalancing (if possible)
- Terrorism
- Artillery combat mechanics reworked
- Revised tech-tree
- New wonders (actually some are inherited ones)
- Many new UU's for ALL tribes
- Supply (tentative)
- Wonders balanced
- Economic warfare enabled
- New untis, including paratroopers (rela ones, for a change) and SP artillery
- Helicopters revised
- Some units balanced

The Great Generals have already been done, you can find the link here on the forums. Unit and building balancing can be done through XML. But I as far as changing the actualy game mechanics, your gonna have to wait for SDK, like The Great Apple said. You can pretty much edit everything with XML and Python, except the game mechanics.

I tought myself XML in 2 days, and know have a pretty good idea how it works.

Python I havent even touched yet.

Welcome to the forums.

Kushan

 

[maxpublic]

The problem is this: I do not know Python, XML or how to make sprites.

XML is just HTML on steroids. A formating language with a few interesting additions. If you can master HTML you've got XML covered.

Python isn't particularly innovative. It's just like any other programming language; same logic wherever you go. If you already know C or Perl then all you really need to do is master the syntax changes. Think of it as learning a dialect of a tongue you can already speak.

Better yet, if you're lazy like me you can pose a question here and have somebody who already knows Python provide you with enough code to get you to where you want to go.

- Great person type: Great Generals

Already been done, although you might want a different implementation.

- Armies anyone?

You could make units themselves army groups; that wouldn't be too hard. It also wouldn't strain the AI. I did this for a series of earlier playtests; e.g., there was one - count'em, just one - infantry unit per era, no independent artillery, no rock-paper-scissors warfare. I assumed that each unit was an army, with all of its organic components already factored in. It worked fine and the AI did much, much better with this system than it does with stock civ. However, players seem to find that sort of thing boring. Not enough bells and whistles, I guess. Or perhaps the game gets too hard when you can't consistently outsmart the stupid AI on the battlefield.

- Movement rebalancing (if possible)

Try setting infantry movement to 5, mechanized to 10, and allow everyone to use each others roads (i.e., every unit comes with the 'Commando' promotion). You'll get your fluid battles, and then some. Too bad there's no way to implement extra move costs when passing through a ZOC, though.

- Artillery combat mechanics reworked

It's been discussed. The conclusion is that it isn't possible without the SDK, and perhaps not even then.

- Supply (tentative)

There's a city-side supply system in the game already, doubling your maintenance costs when you leave your cultural boundaries. However, I have no idea how you're going to get the game to trace supply lines for units, or worse - how to make the AI pay attention to supply lines. Neither of these mechanisms exists in the code.

Max