The States in Flames: it's Crimson Skies!

Paasky

Good News Everyone!
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Download here: http://koti.mbnet.fi/peksoft/cs/cs_beta1.rar (1.5mb)

Extract into ...\Sid Meier's Civilization 4\Beyond the Sword\Mods


New aircraft models: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=5903647&postcount=53
Scrrenshots: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=5913608&postcount=54

After having this in the main C&C section for a long time with almost no feedback, I decided to post the preview files, and create this thread to go along with it. The game will begin in the summer of 1932, and continue until 1950. The main objective will ofcourse be to unite the States again, with military/culture/diplomacy.

For a good read, and the story behind Crismon Skies, check this great site: http://www.crimsonskiesuniverse.com/universe/history

Note that the full version, which will hopefully come out working some day :)mischief: ), will have new units, buildings, techs, a soundtrack, 3 eras, and perhaps even a movie (if I can make the game show it while loading a mod...) !
 
I can't get the download to work but cool scenario.
 
Paasky said:
How doesn't it work? I can download it fine...

Also, you'll need something to open the .rar with, suggesting winrar ( http://www.rarlabs.com/download.htm )

I can extract the file, but when I try to start the MOD, it says the game has been asked to be terminated in a unusual way. Do you have any idea what that might mean?

It looks like at awesome mod though!!!
 
Wha? You've done all this already? Great work!:goodjob: Might download sometime, but currently I don't have access to the good computer. (Stupid oversleeping brother:cry: )
 
For some reason the game can't load any maps when the mod's loaded...

Got it! You need to put the mods folder inside the warlords folder itself, then it works.
So extract the Mods folder into C:\Program Files\Firaxis\Sid's Civ4\Warlords.
 
looks cool. i find alternate history very interesting (though i dont think i would find crimson skies interesting other than the history or how it got the way it did because im not too into aircraft-but for a civ game itd be nice) and i didnt even know crimson skies was based in north america, i thought it was some fantasy settng heavily based on reality. sadly i dont have warlords but im sure at some point i will.

as far as techs, since it spans such a small amount of time i dont think having world changing devices or concepts is doable. having the techs based loosely on new concepts or ideas and small technology advances is better i think. similar to how rts games do it. you research: better armor > new better armor > much much better armor >etcetcetc(with better names obviously).

the site you posted actually had a section on tech but it was all weapons based but im sure thats a good source. wikipedia is also a good source. type in a date and it will bring up a lot of information on that date with important people, inventions, buildings, concepts etc that happened on that date. i assume you cant just blindly do this though... adding in stuff from reality because things obviously arent the same in the CS reality. new concepts and ideas and tech may not have evolved and others may have hyper evolved(such as aero tech).


as far as religions, i think it would actually be a better idea to assign them before game or just throw them out all together. a number of the new state divisions are based just as much on religious beliefs as they are geographic and infrastructure reasons. unless religion plays some major role in the CS universe, id throw it out personally. it would just seem to clash and make little sense if most of north america was jewish for example because the setting is based on reality up until that time. you may be able to make the "religions" into something more creative to still have their effect. maybe a set of political beliefs/parties or a spy network or just have 3 "religions" for dry, wet and damp - with this you have to mod the python where one cant exist with another though. if you keep religion i would at least change them to more realistic ones based in NA such as baptist, anglican, mormon, catholic (etc).
 
I'm definately going to make airpower the most important factor in this scenario. But what about the zeppelins...? They should create most of the trade routes, but also be attackable, especially for the pirates.

Techs are mostly going to be again, about aircraft. 2nd most important techs are civilian, and last are ground & naval techs.

Yeah, especially the weapons systems should be in the tech tree, and some RL techs too.

The only people who are nuts about religion is Utah, so the Wet, Dry & Damp would be a good addition. And they could be regulated by the civics: No Alchohol Laws (no state religion), Light Alch. Laws (happiness +2 state relig., -1 non-state relig.), Strong Alch. Laws (+4 state relig., -3 non-state relig.).
Also, the happiness effect with wine would be +3 Wet, +1 Damp, -3 Dry.
 
Paasky said:
Does it work? Any Comments?


First of all let me just say that this scenario is WAY cool!!!! The problem I've been having is that in one game where I'm playing as Empire State, every time I try and take over Manchester from Maritime the game goes down and I have to restart, but each time I try I get the same response... I dunno why? Any ideas? Maybe it's just my computer.... Just thought you should know.

That being said, I LOVE this mod and it's grrrrreat alternative gameplay experience! Good work so far and I can't wait to see this progress! It's sure to be a hit.
 
I looked at the map examples you provided. Los Angeles needs to have more food resources nearby. Else, how could it ever grow into the 2nd largest city in America? Remember that those mountain squares within the city radius are not even usable. Compensate for that by adding some wheat or cow or something.

P.S. I live near Los Angeles. There are plenty of dairy farms within the city limits of some of the outlying suburbs. The cow smell gets so bad on some summer days, that we call it "Dairy Air". :lol:
 
I have no idea what could cause the crash...
What units are left in the city once you take it? Could you upload the save, I can have a lok at it.


I have changed the way food is used in the scenario: Citizens require 0 food, but the city growth takes from 20 to 100 turns, depending on the amount of food close to the city.
Remember the timeframe is 1933-1945'ish, so cities won't grow ultra-fast, except with extraordinary events, like big wars.

also, IIRC, the surroundings of LA are already filled with stuff. I could remove one of the mountians though...
 
Paasky said:
I have no idea what could cause the crash...
What units are left in the city once you take it? Could you upload the save, I can have a lok at it....


How would I upload the game? I'd be happy to though.
 
Too bad this is a WL only mod. I love Crimson Skies, but I haven't got Warlords yet. I'm sure to give this a try when I can.

As to the Zeps, I always had an idea for a light patrol zep. It would be a small ship, stats equal to the light cargo zep, but faster (moves farther), and with no cargo. It would be used mainly for patroling your boarders. Not sure how relevent this might be. The airships have always been one of the most appealing things about CS for me. I love airships.

Have you figured out a way to make the AI use the zeps, or is this a MP only scenario?

One other thing on the zeps as trade inferstructer. Do you have Free Mind? I worked up an idea for a civilian derigible to simulate the great German Zeppelins. I think it would be implementable to some extent using just XML and Python, but I'm not sure. When I came up with it, I did not plan on using it for an actual goods trade unit, rather I designed it as a gold generator. Basically, it's a non-combat unit that can fly around the world, and everytime it enters a city, it generates an amount of gold based on several factors like distance traveled, nationality of the departure and arrival cities, and a few other things. Simulates a passenger travel service. I created a Free Mind Mind-Map for it, if your interested. I've never really looked into implementing it much, as with a lot of my mod ideas. I come up with a lot of ideas, but rarely ever put them into effect.

It might be possible to somehow rework the trade system in Civ into something more like Civ 1-2, where you actually built caravans that carried trade goods around the world. Maybe something where a city can build a load of a resource if it has access to the raw material. Then, that load is put on a transport and sent to another nation. That nation then has access to it for a certain number of turns, simulating using the load until it runs out. Not sure if this would be possible to do, let alone getting the AI to make use of it.

It might be nice if there were a way to use the above trade with the current system. You make a trade like you do now, but rather than being a transparent thing in the game, that trade agreement actually creates an AI controlled "caravan" that then navigates to the nearest city of the recieving nation. In CS, this caravan would be a light or medium Cargo Zep.

Building on that idea, would it be possible to have the game create random units. These would be passenger or cargo zeps that are not state owned that would randomly appear at a city and travel to another city, then disappear. Each city would get a bonus of some kind when a ship arrives or departs, and larger cities would create and attract more ships than smaller cities would. These would provide a target for pirates.

OK, I need to stop this post now. It's getting a bit long, sorry. I just love CS so much that I keep getting ideas for it. They may not be very good ideas, but I still get them. :)
 
1st: Yes, I have FreeMind. I actually made a post of it into the Civ 4 Tools section ;)

The zeps could be auto-created to transport goods instead of them being transported via roads. Maybe 1 zep transport would give the target city the resource for 10 turns? So if you did a trade of 1 Wheat for 1 Sheep, the Zep's would transport it from a city with wheat into the capital. And vice-versa. But what about internal trade? That could be done with Zeps too...

This would prob require a monstrous python code though :D
 
Now that you mention it, I think it was you that introduced me to Free Mind. I read that post you mentioned about it and looked into it. Before this, I hadn't even heard of a mind map. Now, I use them quite extensively when working with civ. I haven't used them much for anything else yet though.

I don't know if your interested or not, but here is what I worked up. Not much info here, as it pertains more to a full CS-ish airship mod that I had theorized quite a while ago. Most of this was written back late last year, when modding Civ IV was still a fairly undiscovered country. Now, some of it may be superfluous. It does give an example for how a civilian passenger airship would work.
 

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So is an updated version ever going to be released? Do you need help? I can't do very much, but I'll try!
 
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