So how far can modding really take things?
For example, how many unique units can be applied to a civilization? Not to provide unbalanced gameplay but to specifically have a different look and feel for different civs? Can you make different Great People for two different sets of civs? For example, in the idea i have in mind, can you have a second set of names and skins for a seperate civilization group?
Perhaps I need to be more specific so that my intentions are a lot clearer. I would like to take a map concept I have that much further, the concept being the age of discovery and colonization of the Americas by the Europeans but playing civs from the perspective of the Native peoples. In my opinion for a great interest of gameplay it would be preferable that the European civs be strictly AI that would be generated at a set point in the timeline, and that they would be generated in the form of caravels each with a settler unit, military unit , etc. Simply because of this timeline issue i think it would be important to have Europeans as AI... unless of course I went so far as to just set up cities for each Native civ to forgo this issue since with the map size being what it is, the oceanic travel time should provide the extra rounds for the Natives to establish firmly. (oops thinking out loud here)
Back to the point, in order to apply a certain level of historical accuracy it wouldn't make a lot of sense for Native civ units to have the same look and feel as their european counterparts or to have access to the same unit availabilities as the Europeans.. .like siege equipment such as cannons. A Sioux Horse Archer should look very different than a European one, just as much as a Sioux (or any Native) infantry unit of any type should look different than a European one. It seems to me that this could be dealt with by simply creating a lot more UU per civ to replace the standard. But is there an easier way?
Furthermore, it would make great sense to have a Native Great Prophet be called a Great Shaman or Great Medicine Man, or to have the inclusion of other Great People such as Great Chief or Great Warrior, etc instead of Great Merchant or Great Engineer names and units. That being the case, can you set specific names for each Civ of those type of units, with special unique skins for each circumstance?
Also, I know you can set specific tech trees, but where are there examples of how to rescript these techs and redesign (and limit) the techs for each Civilization type? Can you also link the release of new techs along a specific timeline as well? For example, it wouldn't make sense to have the ability for Horseback Riding to occur until at least some time after the Europeans have been on the continent.... as a historical context concerning the return of horses to the American continents. Besides, each group would have a very different set of starting techs and in some circumstances different civs within the two groups would have some unavailable to them. One of the main reason i would want to avoid so much technology aspects is that culture more than technology was such a large portion of the Native life. They kept to a relative similar tech base for thousands of years which drastically changed only when the Europeans introduced them.
Then again there is also the aspects of religion into this mix, which would mean the disabling of pretty much all but few faith systems, one obviously being Christianity in the Europeans, then the Animistic faith system of the Natives, a Polytheistic second faith for other Native cultures, etc.
I guess you could say that I have a lot of little 'what ifs' and while I certainly have the ability to hit the artistic aspects of this type of Mod creation, I have no idea concerning the python aspect or the individual files related to the XML modifications either.
Oh maybe that means i am looking for interested parties? there must be a board for that here some place, eh?
Unless of course I can find the information on how to do it all myself... but that would be the WorldBuilder manual's advice...
can anyone at least tell me if these sort of things are at least possible? Its a tall order that is much more inline with the mods that were included with the game, but in some areas, even more so.
For example, how many unique units can be applied to a civilization? Not to provide unbalanced gameplay but to specifically have a different look and feel for different civs? Can you make different Great People for two different sets of civs? For example, in the idea i have in mind, can you have a second set of names and skins for a seperate civilization group?
Perhaps I need to be more specific so that my intentions are a lot clearer. I would like to take a map concept I have that much further, the concept being the age of discovery and colonization of the Americas by the Europeans but playing civs from the perspective of the Native peoples. In my opinion for a great interest of gameplay it would be preferable that the European civs be strictly AI that would be generated at a set point in the timeline, and that they would be generated in the form of caravels each with a settler unit, military unit , etc. Simply because of this timeline issue i think it would be important to have Europeans as AI... unless of course I went so far as to just set up cities for each Native civ to forgo this issue since with the map size being what it is, the oceanic travel time should provide the extra rounds for the Natives to establish firmly. (oops thinking out loud here)
Back to the point, in order to apply a certain level of historical accuracy it wouldn't make a lot of sense for Native civ units to have the same look and feel as their european counterparts or to have access to the same unit availabilities as the Europeans.. .like siege equipment such as cannons. A Sioux Horse Archer should look very different than a European one, just as much as a Sioux (or any Native) infantry unit of any type should look different than a European one. It seems to me that this could be dealt with by simply creating a lot more UU per civ to replace the standard. But is there an easier way?
Furthermore, it would make great sense to have a Native Great Prophet be called a Great Shaman or Great Medicine Man, or to have the inclusion of other Great People such as Great Chief or Great Warrior, etc instead of Great Merchant or Great Engineer names and units. That being the case, can you set specific names for each Civ of those type of units, with special unique skins for each circumstance?
Also, I know you can set specific tech trees, but where are there examples of how to rescript these techs and redesign (and limit) the techs for each Civilization type? Can you also link the release of new techs along a specific timeline as well? For example, it wouldn't make sense to have the ability for Horseback Riding to occur until at least some time after the Europeans have been on the continent.... as a historical context concerning the return of horses to the American continents. Besides, each group would have a very different set of starting techs and in some circumstances different civs within the two groups would have some unavailable to them. One of the main reason i would want to avoid so much technology aspects is that culture more than technology was such a large portion of the Native life. They kept to a relative similar tech base for thousands of years which drastically changed only when the Europeans introduced them.
Then again there is also the aspects of religion into this mix, which would mean the disabling of pretty much all but few faith systems, one obviously being Christianity in the Europeans, then the Animistic faith system of the Natives, a Polytheistic second faith for other Native cultures, etc.
I guess you could say that I have a lot of little 'what ifs' and while I certainly have the ability to hit the artistic aspects of this type of Mod creation, I have no idea concerning the python aspect or the individual files related to the XML modifications either.
Oh maybe that means i am looking for interested parties? there must be a board for that here some place, eh?
Unless of course I can find the information on how to do it all myself... but that would be the WorldBuilder manual's advice...
can anyone at least tell me if these sort of things are at least possible? Its a tall order that is much more inline with the mods that were included with the game, but in some areas, even more so.
