Who does still care about Civ4Col modding? [SMALLTALK]

[raystuttgart]

Hi guys,

just out of interest, I would like to get a feeling how many of us still care about Civ4Col modding?
Meaning how big our community actually still is.

Please leave a vote in the poll.
If you want to, also leave a short post about yourself.

• Why are you visiting this forum?
• How often do you visit this forum?
• Which mods do you like?
• Have you ever modded or wanted to mod yourself?
• ...

It is not really specifically about WTP, but if you play WTP I would be interested to know of course.

Best regards
ray

 

[R_TEAM]

not exactly the answer that fit me here ....
Visit the forum regulary (2 times a week at last)....
But atm dont Play WTP , as i play mostly MP games - and with the actual desync problem it is no motivation here to start an game ...
But i love "Colonization" from Amiga Times - and WTP is for me the best game experience that come close to an sucesfull successor ....

 

[triplebassist]

I had taken a break from playing Col for a couple of years, but am really glad I've been playing again. I've liked the little XML work I've done. Even though my ability to do any actual programming for a mod is minimal, it's fun to think about how the changes I make can affect the game for others and how I want to adjust the game with the tools I have to make a better experience, so I might try to learn about the more involved aspects later.

 

[raystuttgart]

@triplebassist
Nice to hear that you are thinking of becoming a modder yourself.

Even though my ability to do any actual programming for a mod is minimal, ...

Modding is not necessarily about programming only - especially if you work in a big team.
Modders can also become quite specialized on e.g. graphics, events, balancing ...

-----

However, if you want to create a big new feature, there is almost certainly also programming involved.
And if you are modding all by yourself and want to create such new features, then you would also need to be able to programm.

But on the other hand such a big new feature also requires a lot more than just programming.
They usually also require new graphics, new Python-UI, new texts, good balancing, ...

Generally big new features require to know almost every discipline Civ4Col modding at least a bit.
But it is not said that such a big new feature needs to be done by one person alone.

Also, modding is simply not just about creating big new features.
It is also about all the small details, like creating events, improving graphics, improving balancing, improving texts, ...

-----

So basically what you need to learn for modding depends on the following:

• What do you want to achieve?
• Who do you work with?

 

[Nenos]

I've only the time to play around ten to sixteen hour a week. And my code skills are basic. I learnd a bit of Java. php and html at school in the evening class for one year. But it was in 1999. So I can report bugs but I need help to find and fix a bug.

 

[Kendon]

I'm not a programmer but I could proofread the English version. I just took a quick look at the first few Game Concepts in the Colopedia. I've bolded some corrections, mainly typos but with one content addition.

Games Concepts/Breeding Horses/Mechanics "attain its full breeding potential"
Combat/Naval Evasion "Select ships -- the Merchantman, Sloop, Fluyt, Corrack, Caravela Redonda, Brigantine and the Caravel -- have the chance to slip away from combat ..."
Borders and Culture/Expanding Your Borders/ ..."Village Markets, Taverns and all upgrades ...; Taverns and their upgrades"
Contested Plots/ "rival settlement lay in the past. (period needed)"
Breeding Horses, Cattle and Sheep/Mechanics/ "When there is less than one ...kind of livestock present, attain its full breeding potential "
Function of the various kinds of livestock/ "Cattle are also needed to produce ..."
Buildings/National Wonders/ ... capturing the colony (remove comma) in which it was built.

I've enjoyed playing since the TAC days and would be happy to give something back if it would be useful.

 

[Coprolover]

out yourself.

• Why are you visiting this forum?
• How often do you visit this forum?
• Which mods do you like?
• Have you ever modded or wanted to mod yourself?

1) Found a comment on moddb;
2) 1 time per 2 day;
3) I have been playing the original periodically since 2009, but I decided to try this mod because it is still supported. It surprised me, because 12 years have passed;
4) Monkey-level modding Fallout 3. I just noticed a few bugs and curves of parameters in the survival mode and got carried away a little. As a result, everything turned into a mini-fork of the mod, where I made a lot of fixes (rebalancing), wrote a couple of simple scripts (just a few lines), fixed the sprint script and fixed the incompatibility of locations (before that the plugin did not start with the master file and it was required to integrate them ). In fact, it was just fun with mod tools and nothing serious. Maybe I'll post it when I'm finished, but first need to get out of the russian gulag. In this mod I can test and make suggestions. If I increase my level over time, I can do something more serious.

 

[raystuttgart]

I've only the time to play around ten to sixteen hours a week.

That is pretty much my problem as well.
Modding can become really time consuming ...

But modding can really be a lot of fun - if you are doing it because you are motivated and you are also able to really achieve something.
There is something quite satisfying in creating your own "perfect game" by working together with a team of other motivated people you like.

I have had times during e.g. the early days of TAC and RaR where modding was way more fun to me than actually playing any game.
There were simply so many ideas and dreams, so much potential in the game, so much motivation in community, ... that everything seemed possible.

 

[raystuttgart]

So ok, by looking at the poll and also looking back at the last months, I have come up with a few conclusions for myself.

The things that make me happy to see:

Spoiler :

WTP is still relatively popular considering players.
That is good news for me, since it shows that it was worth our effort.

There are still loyal community members and supporters that want to help.
So new community members will find help and advice in this forum.

There are also still a couple of motivated modders that might create some nice improvements from time to time.
Thus I believe that WTP generally will continue to live in terms of being supported and improved over time.

The things that are a bit disappointing for me:
(Might however also be a good thing. )

Spoiler :

Compared to the number of players this game still has, it seems that only a tiny fraction of players regularly visits the forum.
Maybe they simply do not have forum accounts though.

That is a pitty, because this forum could really use more discussions.
It also makes it a bit more difficult to get more supporters.

-----

We modders do not have a common vision anymore.
Thus there is also no commitment, no planning and no work organisation for big projects.

I thus accept that WTP needs to change from a "managed team project" into a "community project".
Meaning that it mainly becomes a collection of personal projects that later on might get integrated or not into core mode.

It is up to the remaining modders and community to figure out what WTP core mod will become.
(Meaning the things they merge together and which they will keep separated.)

-----

I had personally hoped for a real team project though - simply because I believe it is much more effective.
Basically like in the times of TAC and RaR.

But that time seems to be over - even though I still have problems to accept it.
Since that is however obvious to me now, I end again my time as Civ4Col-modder as already announced a few weeks ago.

I will thus not participate in team decisions, feature design, implementation or release publishing anymore.
I will however stay around and try to support from time to time.

------

Summary:

I am happy to see that there are still people interested to play and mod this game.
Thus I am also confident that WTP will continue to live and further be improved.

I am looking forward to all the great things our remaining modders and community will create.
And most importantly I wish all remaining modders a lot of fun and success. Keep up the spirit!

 

[GlasgowGeek]

Hi guys,

just out of interest, I would like to get a feeling how many of us still care about Civ4Col modding?
Meaning how big our community actually still is.

Please leave a vote in the poll.
If you want to, also leave a short post about yourself.

• Why are you visiting this forum?
• How often do you visit this forum?
• Which mods do you like?
• Have you ever modded or wanted to mod yourself?
• ...

It is not really specifically about WTP, but if you play WTP I would be interested to know of course.

Best regards
ray

5k plus hours of Civ4Col, just on the Steam version alone. RaR is responsible for most of it lol
Before that, it was Colonization on the AMiGA. One of the few games that supported a graphics card, and was awesome on it!

Played Civ 5, and Civ 6, but now gone back to Col+WtP(RaR) on Steam Linux.
I really want to convert the Chesapeake Bay map to RaR, but no idea how to convert maps to the new format.

 

[nci]

Hello,

* I visit this forum to check if there's future development of WTP, once a month or less
* I genuinely love current state of WTP. I tried earlier versions of what ended up as WTP, and for me something just wasn't there, while with WTP 2.8 I'm mostly happy, and can finally enjoy playing Colonization!
* I do some very basic stuff e.g. have a personal Civ4Bts modcomp, and changed brightness values for WTP because couldn't see visited plots well otherwise, but that's about it.

 

[raystuttgart]

I genuinely love current state of WTP.

That is nice to hear.

I tried earlier versions of what ended up as WTP, and for me something just wasn't there, ...

What specifically are you talking about with "earlier versions"?
Earlier versions meaning WTP 2.7 or RaR or even TAC?

By the way:
The currently most updated (and probably best version) of WTP is (inofficial) Release 2.8.1 here.
(It may sound like a "small update" but it actually got a lot of improvements - and even new features - compared to last official release.)

 

[nci]

Earlier versions meaning WTP 2.7 or RaR or even TAC?

I meant RaR & TAC. I don't think I tried WTP prior to 2.8.

The currently most updated (and probably best version) of WTP is (inofficial) Release 2.8.1

I will try that, thank you! I always play the RaR Americas - Gigantic scenario, will it work fine with 2.8.1 given the changes?

 

[raystuttgart]

I always play the RaR Americas - Gigantic scenario, will it work fine with 2.8.1 given the changes?

Yes, that Scenario will work.
(Because it does not have preplaced starting Units of Colonial Nations.)

 

[PH2]

I still regularly play the game and appreciate everything this community has done to bring a dead game back to life. I probably played the 2008 release less than 10 hours in total before I stumbled on RTR a few years ago, and now WTP. I've been playing it regularly for the past 3 or 4 years and am still enjoying it. I have absolutely no modding/programming skills, though.

 

[Tugboatspotter]

In regards to modding, I understand it is disappointing that so few people would consider modding this game. I think it is unlikely to change considering the age of the game. Younger modders will naturally gravitate to newer games.

An important thing a poll like this misses is that this is a mod/game that people tend to play sporadically, so why would people check the forum when they are not currently playing the game? I have played many civ mods over the years and I regularly return to mods I haven't played in months or years. Only at that time would I consider checking the forums. Also, there will always be new players who discover the brilliance of this mod.

Rarely will a mod stand the test of time as this one will.

 

[Gladi]

My largest reason for not visiting this forum is that I am not visiting civfanatics at all. Back in the day Master of Mana and FfH kept me here long enough to get involved the non-gaming part of the forums.

 

[Anba02]

Hi guys,

just out of interest, I would like to get a feeling how many of us still care about Civ4Col modding?
Meaning how big our community actually still is.

Please leave a vote in the poll.
If you want to, also leave a short post about yourself.

• Why are you visiting this forum?
• How often do you visit this forum?
• Which mods do you like?
• Have you ever modded or wanted to mod yourself?
• ...

It is not really specifically about WTP, but if you play WTP I would be interested to know of course.

Best regards
ray

Hi

I still come back here from time to time. Still hoping that someone will pick up the idea of creating a mod where you can save your victorious game, from ...say vanilla. Then you load the mod where you can start the same game as a scenario with the difference that you are now an independent nation trying to catch up with the former colonizing countries in order not to become a recolonized banana (ok sugar) republic.

Best Regards
Andreas

 

[ColoFan]

i like the game, but love your mod. I am playing the game very often with a friend via LAN. You and your mod are great!

• Why are you visiting this forum?
• How often do you visit this forum?
• Which mods do you like?
• Have you ever modded or wanted to mod yourself?

I visit the forum, because I love the mod
I was visiting the RaR forum 1-2 per month, then I thought its finished. After many months I realized today, that there is "we the People"
I like the TAC mod, I love the RaR mod, now I will test "We the People"
I have never modded, but would like to do

BR
ColoFan

 

[Nebula213]

i look so from time to time in this forum for years now. but i play colonization some while.
i start with the Original colonization 1995 and it is love from the first time until today with my 1995 bought disk via dos box on my tablet and it is so cool. simple but so many way to play it is a game like no other in my opinion. i can talk hour and hours talk about colonization. i play squad and steel Division and red dead redemption 2 abd xcom long war mod but colonization is the one and only. every year i got to times when i take the game for one or two weeks and play it again.

2008 version was ok, not bad but not so mich love like the 1995 version in my opinion but my msin problem was tge short time and if i build more colonize it was harder than with 3 colonies. i like the graphic and the possible to level the soldier.

after some year 2011 i am found TAC and it was amazing. i found people they like colonization like me and TAC give the game the right direction to be simple and has enough depth. since final release i am only play this. and away from keyboard on my table the old colonizazion.

rar was a bit complex and the changes from time to time le me wait for the next better release. but it dosent gappend and i thought tac is the last colonization game for me. i think no comoany will make a remastered again. not enough profit and it is a awkward topic with the naitives in colonization in the game.

this year i found wtp and hiver aroubd you and i am impressed what you few all have done. i take my had off.... ☺ . it is complex from my point of view but it has so many new units and event and mechanics so i have to learn to play your version of colonization. i wait now for the next big version release and i hope for christmas. i wish you all modder and player stay Healthy. best regards from Ostfriesland (germany) and thank you this team for your work on this Beautiful game. sorry for the wall of text and i can write more.... ☺