Typhlomence's Civilizations

[Typhlomence]

Typhlomence's Civilizations​

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Common soundtrack pack download (code only)

The Koopa Troop civilization, led by Bowser (Version 7)
Compatible with: Unique Cultural influence, Cultural Diversity, Piety and Sovreignty, Map Labels, Exploration Continued Expanded, Wish for the World, Mercenaries, Cities in Development
Direct download | Steam Workshop
Additional soundtrack pack download

WarioWare civilization, led by Wario
Compatible with: Unique Cultural influence, Cultural Diversity, Piety and Sovreignty, Map Labels, Exploration Continued Expanded, Wish for the World, Mercenaries, Strange Religions, Cities in Development, Ethnic Units
Direct download | Steam Workshop
Additional soundtrack pack download (code only)

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Other civilizations

Walmington-on-Sea civilization, led by George Mainwaring (Version 5)
Compatible with: Ethnic Units, Unique Cultural influence, Cultural Diversity, Piety and Sovreignty, Civ IV Leader Traits, Map Labels, Exploration Continued Expanded, Wish for the World, YnAEMP v23, Mercenaries
Direct download | Steam Workshop

Ho-kago Tea Time civilization, led by Yui Hirasawa
Compatible with: Unique Cultural Influence, Cultural Diversity, Rise to Power, Civ IV Traits, ExCE, Map Labels, Wish for the World, Mercenaries, Cities in Development, Ethnic Units/R.E.D, Enlightenment Era, Randomized Unique Components and Traits
Direct download | Steam Workshop
Additional soundtrack mod (optional, but highly recommended!)

Culture Japan / Sorunia civilization, led by Mirai Suenaga
Compatible with: Unique Cultural Influence, Cultural Diversity, Rise to Power, Civ IV Traits, ExCE, Map Labels, Wish for the World, Mercenaries, Cities in Development, Ethnic Units/R.E.D, Enlightenment Era, YnAEMP (Culture Japan only, and only on v23 maps)
Direct download | Steam Workshop

Tomomo's Abyss civilization, led by Tomomo
Compatible with: Unique Cultural Influence, Cultural Diversity, Rise to Power, Civ IV Traits, ExCE, Map Labels, Wish for the World, Mercenaries, Cities in Development, Ethnic Units/R.E.D, Enlightenment Era, Randomized Unique Components and Traits
Direct download | Steam Workshop

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[Typhlomence]

As for what's coming next - it's probably something everyone would be more familiar with than a British comedy from the 70s. Nothing in-game yet but these icons should give you an idea:

Spoiler :

Yep, some civilizations based on Super Mario Bros.! There's already a Mushroom Kingdom civilization available so it's about time we had one for Bowser as well. I'm planning on making the Koopa Troop civilization conquest-based, of course - not sure what their UA will be yet, but I'm hoping I can give them a reduced resistance time when conquering cities as part of it. He will get two UUs as well - I absolutely want to include the airships that are used throughout the series as one of them (unforunately I can't model so it'll use the Sky Fortress model from Smoky Skies for now); It won't actually replace an existing unit, rather standing alone by itself, though I intend to make it compatible with Whoward's Steampunk Airships mod as well, where it will replace the Sky Fortress. At the moment I'm considering the Bullet Bill as the other, replacing the Guided Missile.

As for Rosalina... I must admit some bias here as she's my favourite character in Super Mario Bros., so hopefully you don't mind that choice*. But anyway she'll be the leader of the Lumas civilization - if you've played Super Mario Galaxy you'll know her role as the parental figure of those star creatures. Again, I'm not decided on the UA yet, but I'm thinking that giving them advantages in science and exploration would be suitable. Rosalina will also have two UBs (there isn't really something I can think to use as an UU) - one of which will provide a unique luxury, Star Bits, and maybe an additional bonus as well; it depends what building I choose to replace. The other UB I'm considering is a replacement for the Nuclear Plant that doesn't require uranium and gives a slightly greater benefit - based on the power source of the Comet Observatory, the Beacon.

*I won't promise anything yet but I have considered making civilizations for Wario and Daisy (she's princess of Sarasaland) as well, since they seem the most fitting, at least from the non-RPG games (which I've no experience with). If they happen, they'll be after some other things I want to do first, though.

 

[bane_]

Awesome spoiler. Is a total conversion out of consideration?
I did not knew this Rosalina girl, and I thought I liked Mario.

Also, why is every good-guy in this world blue-eyed?

 

[Typhlomence]

Awesome spoiler. Is a total conversion out of consideration?

I wasn't planning to do one, and I'm not sure I'd be able to do it on my own, to be honest. I probably don't have the skill to do it for a while yet if I were to try it.

Not that I think it's a bad idea!

I did not knew this Rosalina girl, and I thought I liked Mario.

Well to be fair it depends on what games from the series you've been playing - she was introduced in Super Mario Galaxy but has only been in two main titles since then and relatively few of the spin-off games as well.

Also, why is every good-guy in this world blue-eyed?

It's a common trope.

 

[Typhlomence]

Almost two months since I last posted in here? ...don't worry, this isn't dead - I'm just really easily distracted.

Anyway I've made some good progress on Bowser's civilization and I have it in game now, along with my first attempt at reskinned units. They're by no means release-ready (the airship's texture is the same as normal, just with the alpha channel reversed) but I'm happy that I got them working - giving them an adequate skin shouldn't be too hard now I've done that.

Spoiler :

I've also finally decided on a trait for the Koopa Troop that's, at least I believe, a bit different and works well with my intention for it to be a warmongering civilization. This IS Bowser we're talking about here.

UA: The Great Demon King Koopa - Resistance time is halved for conquered cities. Production +2% for every foreign city the Koopa Troop has in its possesion.

UU1: Bowser Airship - A standalone version of the Smokey Skies Sky Fortress*. It has a greater attack power than a normal Sky Fortress as well as dropping nearby units' strength by 15% rather than just 10%, but is more expensive. It can also carry two Guided Missile-type units rather than a single Fighter.

UU2: Bullet Bill - A replacement for the Guided Missile which has 75 strength compared to the normal units 60, and is available at Ballistics rather than Advanced Ballistics.

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*There's something I feel I should share since I probably should have posted it in this thread - or somewhere else in the public forum - in the first place. Since I knew there were mods that introduced the Smokey Skies airships into the game, I wanted the Bowser Airship to replace the Sky Fortress rather than exist beside it, and I asked whoward69 about this via PM to see if the method I thought up would be suitable. My idea was to use SQL like that below, that would only create the new classes, promotions etc. if no Sky Fortress had been loaded.

INSERT INTO UnitClasses
        (Type, Description, DefaultUnit)
        VALUES ('UNITCLASS_SKY_FORTRESS', 'TXT_KEY_MOD_UNIT_SKY_FORTRESS_BOWSER', 'NO_UNIT')
WHERE NOT EXISTS (SELECT * FROM UnitClasses WHERE Type = 'UNITCLASS_SKY_FORTRESS');

However, of course, I wouldn't be able to account for every single mod introduced in past, present and future that would include the Sky Fortress, and this SQL method would "be at the mercy of the modloader" for that reason. Unless I took note of all mods introduced that introduced a Sky Fortress and made this mod reference them...

So based on the feedback I got back, I introduced a hook into the PlayerCanTrain event, and checked for a unit with the expected type name (UNIT_SKY_FORTRESS). If it does, the unit is prevented from being trained by the Koopa Troop. This hook is only added if that unit exists - there's no point checking for the Sky Fortress to come up if it isn't in the game. It seems to work nicely from my limited testing so I'll run with this method.

I was also planning to have the name change depending on what other units existed, since the vehicle is simply known as the "Airship" in the Mario games. However it's not a big thing so I don't think it's worth the effort. "Bowser Airship" is a bit clumsy but there isn't really anything else I can use, unless I go to the cartoons and use "Doomship".

 

[Kiang]

Awesome stuff! Big Nintendo fan here; glad to see you're tackling Bower and Rosalina. I'm looking forward to the results! =)

 

[Typhlomence]

Thanks Kiang - I'm a bit of a Nintendo fan too although I haven't played that many of their games, unfortunately (hopefully in the future I can experience more of their catalog). And I thought it was about time for a Bowser civilization since we've had the Mushroom Kingdom available for a while now.

Anyway at the moment, though it's probably not the thing I should be prioritising yet , I'm tackling Bowser's diplomacy text. Can't have the King of the Koopas sounding like just another leader!

 

[Vicevirtuoso]

This line has to show up somewhere.

 

[bouncymischa]

*laughs* Oooh, awesome! I loved Super Mario Bros 3 and its airships, although I completely lost track of the series after that since I never had a Super NES. Still, I also love the Smoky Skies airship, so seeing a mod that can bring it in and play off of my nostalgia is great! Can't wait to see it mixing it up with the rest of my civs...

 

[Typhlomence]

This line has to show up somewhere.

It's in now.

Since Bowser has a lot of good lines in games I don't have, I've been using this as a reference. Hopefully most of the lines I have to improvise (I'm trying to make the diplomacy text as comprehensive as possible) will still seem in character for the Koopa King.

*laughs* Oooh, awesome! I loved Super Mario Bros 3 and its airships, although I completely lost track of the series after that since I never had a Super NES. Still, I also love the Smoky Skies airship, so seeing a mod that can bring it in and play off of my nostalgia is great! Can't wait to see it mixing it up with the rest of my civs...

Well, since Airships are so prevalent in the Mario series, I thought it would be prudent to give it to Bowser as an UU.

Honestly, I don't own much of the series myself (ViceVirtuoso's post reminded me that I should try a Mario RPG sometime), but thankfully Mario canon... doesn't really exist so I don't think I should have a problem pulling the Bowser civ off. I've been using the Mario Wiki to help me fill in the Civilopedia entries.

 

[TheLohoped]

but thankfully Mario canon... doesn't really exist

It somewhat exists. However its existence is limited to "Thou shall not mention Hotel Mario".

 

[bouncymischa]

Well, since Airships are so prevalent in the Mario series, I thought it would be prudent to give it to Bowser as an UU.

Honestly, I don't own much of the series myself (ViceVirtuoso's post reminded me that I should try a Mario RPG sometime), but thankfully Mario canon... doesn't really exist so I don't think I should have a problem pulling the Bowser civ off. I've been using the Mario Wiki to help me fill in the Civilopedia entries.

Well... for me, at least, considering that my formative Mario game was SMB3, it makes total sense. In SMB3, each world was a kingdom, and Bowser built up an army of Koopa infantry, airships, tanks, and battleships to conquer them all with. He might've gotten away with a domination victory, too, if it wasn't for that pesky plumber!

 

[Typhlomence]

Well, apart from Bowser's diplomacy text, I was also wondering about what to do art-wise with the Bowser Airship. Strictly speaking, I could have kept it using exactly the same model art as the Sky Fortress, but I felt I should at least put Bowser's ubiquitous face logo on it.

However, other than that, I wasn't sure, since, well, the Airships in SMB don't have a big gas-bag (heck, they don't even have sails)... then I remembered that the Neo Bowser City/Koopa City track from Mario Kart 7 had a blimp that flew around the course:

Spoiler :

And here's a side shot of the blimp I got from a video:

So, I've decided to try and replicate that (apart from the TV display on the side, of course; I'll use Bowser's logo instead) in the airship's texture. Well, at least as much as I can with my negligible texturing ability. I thought it would be nice to base the texture on something that actually existed in a SMB game, even if it is a side one.

Anyway, here's what I have now - I'll try to improve it over the next few days but it probably won't get much better, to be honest. Bowser's logo is dark like that since I have it assigned to player colour right now - not sure if I should keep that since it's going to be rare that someone else gets one and because of how colours work in Civ V it'll be green instead of red.

Spoiler :

Also, I'll probably give this a test run very soon too - I don't need to have the diplomacy text done to play as Bowser myself!

 

[Typhlomence]

Well, I finally got around to finishing the textures for the Bowser Airship and the Bullet Bill. Both are still basic reskins but I feel they're decent enough to use now.

Spoiler :

And with that, I feel that Bowser's ready for testing in a game. I still need the civilization select and the Dawn of Man art, plus I'm not happy with the unit icons, but they won't affect how the civilization performs so I can do those later.

I've also been deciding on the music playlist as well; there's a heck of a lot of decent tracks available across loads of Mario games and I've taken them from all over - main series, RPGs, Mario Party, you name it. I've mainly stuck with tracks that are related to Bowser in some way, so unfortunately there aren't that many that are suitable for only peace times; there's a whole load of ones that will play in either peace or war (and of course plenty of war-only tracks too). I've added a few variations of the signature World 1-1 theme, too - I feel it's only fitting that this and any other Mario civilizations I make include it! I'll weight them so they're rare for Bowser but they'll be there.

As for Rosalina... I finally decided on a possible UA for her, so I'll show what I thought up:

Guardian of the Cosmos - Mountainside cities gain a free Observatory after researching Astronomy. Production +15% when constructing Spaceship parts.

I feel that being designed for a scientific victory bests suits Rosalina - she does live on a spaceship that she and her Lumas built, after all - and so I thought the UA should reflect that. Also, the free Observatories are a reference to the Comet Observatory.

I'm worried it's not balanced, though. Free Observatories means that the Lumas must settle a lot of mountainside cities to take advantage of it, and I don't know how advantageous +15% production for Spaceship parts (which can further be increased by the Spaceship Factory) will be. One of my ideas was to make something to do with surplus Food and Hungry Lumas, having the latter transform into units, buildings or other things, but I don't know how difficult it would be to do something like that and whether I can make it into a useful ability.

As for her other uniques... I don't know whether I should try to have an UU. While I've seen custom civilizations that have two unique buildings, it seems that in general all civilizations have at least one unit for a unique. Unfortunately, apart from the Comet Observatory (which will be Rosalina's capital), the only thing I feel would work as a UU would be the Starshroom, the vehicle that Rosalina first used to explore the universe with the lost Luma. However, as it's not a military vehicle the only thing I could see it replacing is the Scout, unless I make it an Attack Starshroom or something. Then there's the fact that I will need to make a new model for it...

Any thoughts from you guys about those?

 

[bouncymischa]

The airships look awesome! Seeing them fire Bullet Bills should be amusing :3

As for her other uniques... I don't know whether I should try to have an UU. While I've seen custom civilizations that have two unique buildings, it seems that in general all civilizations have at least one unit for a unique. Unfortunately, apart from the Comet Observatory (which will be Rosalina's capital), the only thing I feel would work as a UU would be the Starshroom, the vehicle that Rosalina first used to explore the universe with the lost Luma. However, as it's not a military vehicle the only thing I could see it replacing is the Scout, unless I make it an Attack Starshroom or something. Then there's the fact that I will need to make a new model for it...

Any thoughts from you guys about those?

Well, you don't necessarily need to have a UU -- I've got a civ that has only a UB and a UI, although the UA itself spawns unique units. I don't really know anything about Rosalina myself, so can't say what sort of civ would best suit her.

If she is kind of exploration-oriented, one option would be to make the Starshroom a later-game exploration unit? I know one of the Switzerland mods introduced a UU that didn't actually replace anything (well, it replaced a new unbuildable unit), and I'm doing the same thing with one of my upcoming civs, as it didn't feel appropriate to have it replace an existing unit. So you could always make an unbuildable mid-game scout and then have the Starshroom act as a UU for it, although having the Scout upgrade to it would require jumping through a couple of hoops.

 

[Typhlomence]

Well, you don't necessarily need to have a UU -- I've got a civ that has only a UB and a UI, although the UA itself spawns unique units. I don't really know anything about Rosalina myself, so can't say what sort of civ would best suit her.

If she is kind of exploration-oriented, one option would be to make the Starshroom a later-game exploration unit? I know one of the Switzerland mods introduced a UU that didn't actually replace anything (well, it replaced a new unbuildable unit), and I'm doing the same thing with one of my upcoming civs, as it didn't feel appropriate to have it replace an existing unit. So you could always make an unbuildable mid-game scout and then have the Starshroom act as a UU for it, although having the Scout upgrade to it would require jumping through a couple of hoops.

I guess I had a brain lapse when I was writing that last post since I now remember I was going to make her exploration-focused as well. That's part of her role as guardian of the cosmos, after all! Now that I think about it, having the Starshroom is a better fit than the second building I was going to have, the Beacon (Nuclear Power Plant replacement). I think it might be good to introduce the Starshroom at Navigation - when the normal scout is obsolete - and it'll be a hovering unit that can also go over any water tile, since it IS a spaceship (in the Renaissance era ). That might go well with the free observatories part of the UA, actually... Rosalina will be able to explore the seas even if she lacks any coastal cities due to having to get as many mountainside cities as possible.

The only UB she'll have now is... well it'll be a building that provides a unique luxury resource, Star Bits. I'll probably make it replace an early building since the rest of her unqiues (at the moment) occur in the mid-to-late game.

Anyway adding it as a unique unit that doesn't replace anything is something I can definitely do - the Bowser Airship does that too by default (coincidentally). I read a thread a couple of days ago too that was about altering upgrades for existing units so I should be able to work something out (though it may conflict with a mod that does the same thing...).

 

[bouncymischa]

I guess I had a brain lapse when I was writing that last post since I now remember I was going to make her exploration-focused as well. That's part of her role as guardian of the cosmos, after all! Now that I think about it, having the Starshroom is a better fit than the second building I was going to have, the Beacon (Nuclear Power Plant replacement). I think it might be good to introduce the Starshroom at Navigation - when the normal scout is obsolete - and it'll be a hovering unit that can also go over any water tile, since it IS a spaceship (in the Renaissance era ). That might go well with the free observatories part of the UA, actually... Rosalina will be able to explore the seas even if she lacks any coastal cities due to having to get as many mountainside cities as possible.

Definitely sounds interesting -- I remember playing around with hovering units before and they can make interesting scouts if available early enough. Having the Starshroom appear with Navigation should be fine, although I think the Scout doesn't go obsolete until Scientific Theory...

The only UB she'll have now is... well it'll be a building that provides a unique luxury resource, Star Bits. I'll probably make it replace an early building since the rest of her unqiues (at the moment) occur in the mid-to-late game.

Reading about the Star Bits, the thought occurs to me that they sound like a strategic resource, rather than a luxury one. (Although Lumas do apparently enjoy eating them?) It does have me wondering if there's a way to implement them as a unique Strategic Resource, perhaps something like the Manpower resource JFD's Switzerland uses. You could have a basic Lua function that counts up how many Star Bits a player has at the start of their turn (using GetNumResourceTotal), and then apply certain bonuses to them.

Anyway adding it as a unique unit that doesn't replace anything is something I can definitely do - the Bowser Airship does that too by default (coincidentally). I read a thread a couple of days ago too that was about altering upgrades for existing units so I should be able to work something out (though it may conflict with a mod that does the same thing...).

One thing, though, is that you wouldn't want everyone's Scouts to potentially upgrade, only Rosalina's, so you couldn't have the regular Scout have an upgrade. (Particularly if they'd upgrade to an unbuildable dummy unit...) The easiest option would likely be to give Rosalina a dummy Scout that's identical to the normal one, but with an upgrade to a Starshroom. On the other hand, this means you'll have to fiddle around to get the civ selection screen to show right, since the extra dummy unit would appear before a UB, I think... Still, it's probably easier to do that than to try and fiddle with the normal Scout.

 

[Typhlomence]

Definitely sounds interesting -- I remember playing around with hovering units before and they can make interesting scouts if available early enough. Having the Starshroom appear with Navigation should be fine, although I think the Scout doesn't go obsolete until Scientific Theory...

You're right. I don't know why I thought they obsoleted at Navigation...

Reading about the Star Bits, the thought occurs to me that they sound like a strategic resource, rather than a luxury one. (Although Lumas do apparently enjoy eating them?) It does have me wondering if there's a way to implement them as a unique Strategic Resource, perhaps something like the Manpower resource JFD's Switzerland uses. You could have a basic Lua function that counts up how many Star Bits a player has at the start of their turn (using GetNumResourceTotal), and then apply certain bonuses to them.

Hmm, I've had a look at JFD's Swizterland and it doesn't seem too tricky to do; I just have to decide what Star Bits as a strategic resource will do. Perhaps I can tie the spaceship production boost to the Star Bits and put something else into the UA, instead...

One thing, though, is that you wouldn't want everyone's Scouts to potentially upgrade, only Rosalina's, so you couldn't have the regular Scout have an upgrade. (Particularly if they'd upgrade to an unbuildable dummy unit...) The easiest option would likely be to give Rosalina a dummy Scout that's identical to the normal one, but with an upgrade to a Starshroom. On the other hand, this means you'll have to fiddle around to get the civ selection screen to show right, since the extra dummy unit would appear before a UB, I think... Still, it's probably easier to do that than to try and fiddle with the normal Scout.

Well I was considering if Rosalina got a unique scout from a city state (Shosone's Pathfinder in the base game, for instance) then it would still be able to upgrade to a Starshroom. Or the other way around - some other civilization gets the Starshroom from a city state then they can upgrade their scouts to them; if it's possible for a city state to give a unique unit from a class that doesn't have a default, that is.

Of course, as you allude to, I don't know what would happen if a unit was set to upgrade to a class that doesn't have a non-unique unit assigned. I could test it out, but your "dummy scout" idea would work fine (though is there a way to prevent the dummy scout from being given out by city states?). I would have to have a further, unbuildable dummy unit for the civilization select screen that shows the UB, as far as I know, but I don't think that's difficult since I've seen something similar done before (Vice Virtuoso's Vocaloid civilization used a dummy building to show the Spring Onion Farm UI).

 

[bouncymischa]

Hmm, I've had a look at JFD's Swizterland and it doesn't seem too tricky to do; I just have to decide what Star Bits as a strategic resource will do. Perhaps I can tie the spaceship production boost to the Star Bits and put something else into the UA, instead...

There are all kinds of things you could do with them. The spaceship production bonus is a neat idea, although rather late game, so not sure if you'd like them to do something else as well. They could always add science, which would be an interesting quirk. Or you could have effects like "for every 10 star bits, recon units you control get +1 vision range".

Well I was considering if Rosalina got a unique scout from a city state (Shosone's Pathfinder in the base game, for instance) then it would still be able to upgrade to a Starshroom. Or the other way around - some other civilization gets the Starshroom from a city state then they can upgrade their scouts to them; if it's possible for a city state to give a unique unit from a class that doesn't have a default, that is.

Of course, as you allude to, I don't know what would happen if a unit was set to upgrade to a class that doesn't have a non-unique unit assigned. I could test it out, but your "dummy scout" idea would work fine (though is there a way to prevent the dummy scout from being given out by city states?). I would have to have a further, unbuildable dummy unit for the civilization select screen that shows the UB, as far as I know, but I don't think that's difficult since I've seen something similar done before (Vice Virtuoso's Vocaloid civilization used a dummy building to show the Spring Onion Farm UI).

I'd forgotten about the fact that city states could gift unique units. Given that the Starshroom would be a UU, I'm not sure a non-Rosalina civ could upgrade her special Scout into a Starshroom. Hmm...

 

[Vicevirtuoso]

IIRC, only Units with a tech prerequisite can be gifted as UUs from Militaristic CSes. I know that I never once saw a Militaristic CS offer an Incubator in the 15 months that the Madoka Civs had Incubators.