[WIP] Sikh/Punjabi civilization - looking for suggestions and art help
- Thread starter Gurra09
- Start date
Yay, thanks a lot! 
This is starting to look really good thanks to all you map and icon makers. Now I just need to finish those civilopedia texts, solve the alpha icon problem, and get a leaderscreen (which I somehow already have an icon for, eh) and this mod is good to go! Guru could use a unit flag too but I couldn't find out where the Firaxis icon files are stored (to have a look), I only find the unit models and the few .dds they haven't hidden somewhere...
This is starting to look really good thanks to all you map and icon makers. Now I just need to finish those civilopedia texts, solve the alpha icon problem, and get a leaderscreen (which I somehow already have an icon for, eh) and this mod is good to go! Guru could use a unit flag too but I couldn't find out where the Firaxis icon files are stored (to have a look), I only find the unit models and the few .dds they haven't hidden somewhere...
Spoiler :
I wanted to use the Sikhism religon's alpha icon to make things easier but to do that my civ icon has to be in an atlas on spot 7 (because the religion alpha icon is on that spot in religion alpha atlas, and they must be on the same). I used whoward's DDS converter to make the atlas but I don't get it - it shrinked the icon, wtf it was the right size already 
And when I tried to manually make an atlas, by opening the dds in Paint.NET and add extra space to the left the icon ended up blurry in-game, but right size so it's just a quality problem, why is this all so hard to get... I probably put the wrong settings to save the .dds under but all these DXT1 3 5, mipmaps, etc. just say nothing to me
And when I tried to manually make an atlas, by opening the dds in Paint.NET and add extra space to the left the icon ended up blurry in-game, but right size so it's just a quality problem, why is this all so hard to get... I probably put the wrong settings to save the .dds under but all these DXT1 3 5, mipmaps, etc. just say nothing to me
Skaz881
History Major
How goes the work on this civ? With the India pack coming out yesterday I thought of this and how once it's out there will be a full representation of India, plus it would be really cool to have a game with various Indian empires battling it out for supremacy *starts daydreaming about a Punjab/Harappa/Maurya/Maratha/Mughal/Chola game*
I suggest adding Burma, Nepal, Tibet and Durrani to this game
To be honest I am planning to create some simple scenario (Indian map + starting positions + city states)
...yeah, what is the state of this mod?
BTW, SIKHS! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrzjYX1yJOs
To be honest I am planning to create some simple scenario (Indian map + starting positions + city states)
...yeah, what is the state of this mod?
BTW, SIKHS! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrzjYX1yJOs
TPangolin
Just the worst person
East Asia with Persia, Chola, India, Maurya, Mughals, Maratha, Burma, Tibet, Siam, Indonesia, Philippines, China, Mongolia, Japan, Korea and Indonesia would be awesome
Skaz881
History Major
I hope you have more time soon, this looks like an awesome civ (and Sikhism needs more love, there are several mods with Judiasm but only one other that I know of that uses Sikhism).
Hello, I haven't posted here in quite a while but I dug this project up yesterday and why not show some pics of what I have done and what is still to be done.
I've been working on the Gurus and their great works. There are six unique Guru names that all have their own great work. This did sound like a tiny number to me but when you think about it; you don't get too many Gurus throughout a game and you won't use all of them for Great Works, there is religion stuff to do too. :There were 10 Sikh Gurus in reality but apparently only 7 wrote religious texts and I didn't find any good quotes from one of them so he was left out too.
One problem I'm having though is that while all Gurus seem to get their unique name, not all of them are named. Eh. The ones generated by acquiring a certain amount of faith are born unnamed and are called just Guru but they do create one of the six Guru great works so they are one of the unique Gurus just that the name wasn't given to them. I am not sure why that is... Gurus received otherwise, from wonders and policies to name the ones I have tested, are named though.
I am inclined to believe this is something that has to do with the Lua code I'm using to make the game actually give Gurus and not Prophets but I don't know much at all about Lua so I don't know if there's a way to force the game to name them?
Here are two pics of the Guru great work quotes, they are all from the Guru Granth Sahib but from different parts written by the different Gurus:
Then moving on to some stuff that is still needed. I do have an icon for Ranjit Singh but no leaderscreen or DOM so using the Gandhi ones as placeholder. I do not have the skills to make one of those fancy leaderscreens so for the moment being I'm leaving it like this:
I also have some trouble with icons... oh, icons. Always causing me trouble.
I don't have an alpha icon, or I do but I can't get the alpha and the normal icon to work with me at the same time. I use the Sikhism alpha icon which is in Firaxis' Religion alpha icon atlas on spot 7. BUT my normal icon isn't in an atlas and so it is on spot 0 in its DDS and the game requires alpha icon and normal icon to be in the same spot... I tried to make my normal icon an atlas and while that worked the icon came out all bad quality because I don't know the proper settings.
Hats off to anyone who can possibly understand me but it's really a mess because I'm so bad at the art...
Right now I'm using the good quality normal icon which makes the alpha icon show up as Buddhism because that's on spot 0 in the religion atlas. Buddhism isn't reeaally the right one though.
Welcome to Gandhi's Buddhist Punjab:
(The purple/white are not the real colors, that was because I was playing Punjab too and the colors were taken)
I've been working on the Gurus and their great works. There are six unique Guru names that all have their own great work. This did sound like a tiny number to me but when you think about it; you don't get too many Gurus throughout a game and you won't use all of them for Great Works, there is religion stuff to do too. :There were 10 Sikh Gurus in reality but apparently only 7 wrote religious texts and I didn't find any good quotes from one of them so he was left out too.
One problem I'm having though is that while all Gurus seem to get their unique name, not all of them are named. Eh. The ones generated by acquiring a certain amount of faith are born unnamed and are called just Guru but they do create one of the six Guru great works so they are one of the unique Gurus just that the name wasn't given to them. I am not sure why that is... Gurus received otherwise, from wonders and policies to name the ones I have tested, are named though.
I am inclined to believe this is something that has to do with the Lua code I'm using to make the game actually give Gurus and not Prophets but I don't know much at all about Lua so I don't know if there's a way to force the game to name them?
Here are two pics of the Guru great work quotes, they are all from the Guru Granth Sahib but from different parts written by the different Gurus:
Spoiler :
Then moving on to some stuff that is still needed. I do have an icon for Ranjit Singh but no leaderscreen or DOM so using the Gandhi ones as placeholder. I do not have the skills to make one of those fancy leaderscreens so for the moment being I'm leaving it like this:
Spoiler :
I also have some trouble with icons... oh, icons. Always causing me trouble.
I don't have an alpha icon, or I do but I can't get the alpha and the normal icon to work with me at the same time. I use the Sikhism alpha icon which is in Firaxis' Religion alpha icon atlas on spot 7. BUT my normal icon isn't in an atlas and so it is on spot 0 in its DDS and the game requires alpha icon and normal icon to be in the same spot... I tried to make my normal icon an atlas and while that worked the icon came out all bad quality because I don't know the proper settings.Hats off to anyone who can possibly understand me but it's really a mess because I'm so bad at the art...
Right now I'm using the good quality normal icon which makes the alpha icon show up as Buddhism because that's on spot 0 in the religion atlas. Buddhism isn't reeaally the right one though.
Welcome to Gandhi's Buddhist Punjab
:Spoiler :
(The purple/white are not the real colors, that was because I was playing Punjab too and the colors were taken)
AW Arcaeca
Deus Vult
Attached file includes the 32x32 icon you'll need and the original 128x128 icon from the game art assets.
Skaz881
History Major
You could try talking to DJSHenninger about the art, since his Sikh Empire has a lot of things in common with your Punjab and maybe he can tell you where he got the art from.
RawSasquatch
Minuteman
Right now, I'm trying my hand at a Ranjit Singh leader scene for ya here, and I'll probably turn that into an Icon + DOM for you, too. Might take a little while, though. Have a super WIP sneak preview:
Awesome, thank you! 
Edit: I have been working on a new city list that should be based more on the era I have in mind rather than modern Punjab. The city list order is not final, most of the names are from this map: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/e1/Punjab_under_Ranjit_Singh1823-1839.jpg
City list in the spoiler:
Edit2: I seem to be missing an icon size for the Gurdwara building because in the list when you choose building project and in the small circle on map screen the Gurdwara icon is empty, this also goes for the tech tree. I have sizes 45, 64, 128 and 256 now, but I thought those were all I needed? Screenshot in spoiler - you see the bigger icon below but not the small one in the list. I tried adding smaller sizes than 45 (32, 24 and 16) but that did not correct the issue.
Edit3: Wow, this post is edited a lot. Anyway, I'm having a few concerns about my concept with this civ. While I do love everything about it, it feels so peaceful and the Sikh Empire era really wasn't that peaceful. I'm trying to think of ways to make it a little bit more militaristic while still keeping these things that I like. Maybe the +1 movement for Worker could be taken out as it doesn't really make a lot of sense for the Sikhs and add some military feature to the UA? Any ideas? The old faith from kills trait achieved this but I'm not so sure about bringing that back.
Also, I'm thinking of maybe changing the name of the civ to Sikh Empire because that's the most common name of it. I read Punjabi Empire somewhere but it doesn't seem to be used as much. If I do change the name some changes to the map would need to be made, either taking out Empire and leaving it just "Punjab" because that will still be its short name or change Punjabi Empire to Sikh Empire.
Edit: I have been working on a new city list that should be based more on the era I have in mind rather than modern Punjab. The city list order is not final, most of the names are from this map: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/e1/Punjab_under_Ranjit_Singh1823-1839.jpg
City list in the spoiler:
Spoiler :
Edit2: I seem to be missing an icon size for the Gurdwara building because in the list when you choose building project and in the small circle on map screen the Gurdwara icon is empty, this also goes for the tech tree. I have sizes 45, 64, 128 and 256 now, but I thought those were all I needed? Screenshot in spoiler - you see the bigger icon below but not the small one in the list. I tried adding smaller sizes than 45 (32, 24 and 16) but that did not correct the issue.
Spoiler :
Edit3: Wow, this post is edited a lot. Anyway, I'm having a few concerns about my concept with this civ. While I do love everything about it, it feels so peaceful and the Sikh Empire era really wasn't that peaceful. I'm trying to think of ways to make it a little bit more militaristic while still keeping these things that I like. Maybe the +1 movement for Worker could be taken out as it doesn't really make a lot of sense for the Sikhs and add some military feature to the UA? Any ideas? The old faith from kills trait achieved this but I'm not so sure about bringing that back.
Also, I'm thinking of maybe changing the name of the civ to Sikh Empire because that's the most common name of it. I read Punjabi Empire somewhere but it doesn't seem to be used as much. If I do change the name some changes to the map would need to be made, either taking out Empire and leaving it just "Punjab" because that will still be its short name or change Punjabi Empire to Sikh Empire.
RawSasquatch
Minuteman
Alright then, I finished that art I said I would do earlier! All at their proper in-game resolutions, here's the leader scene for Ranjit:
And his DOM (using the Civ's map):
And a 256px Icon, if you want to use it:
I'm not sure at what point in the process I completely devastated his left arm + hand...but assuming it's acceptable and moving on, if you want a militaristic component to the Civ, something Chakram-based would be pretty awesome. Simple Musketman replacement that gains experience and generates Generals faster, has a weak ranged attack? You could move the Gurdwara into being part of the UA somehow: make it a Religious building ala Pagodas and Mosques, only available for purchase by the Sikhs/Punjabi. Or if you want to get wonky with Lua and have it purchasable in any civ's cities that follow the Sikh's religion, that would be cool!
Spoiler :
And his DOM (using the Civ's map):
Spoiler :
And a 256px Icon, if you want to use it:
I'm not sure at what point in the process I completely devastated his left arm + hand...but assuming it's acceptable and moving on, if you want a militaristic component to the Civ, something Chakram-based would be pretty awesome. Simple Musketman replacement that gains experience and generates Generals faster, has a weak ranged attack? You could move the Gurdwara into being part of the UA somehow: make it a Religious building ala Pagodas and Mosques, only available for purchase by the Sikhs/Punjabi. Or if you want to get wonky with Lua and have it purchasable in any civ's cities that follow the Sikh's religion, that would be cool!
I haven't been working on this for months but with a newfound interest for Civ5 I wanted to pick up and finish this. There's not a whole lot left to do before I can release a first version.
Let's begin with a list of what new things I have done.
- I reworked the UA to give it a more militaristic touch, and this is what I've got:
Langar
+10%
Combat Strength bonus if within 2 tiles of a Holy Site. +1 
Faith from each Farm.
What do you think? Is it balanced? Is it relevant? I am considering new names for it since it doesn't really align with the concept of Langar anymore, but I haven't find a suitable name yet.
- I added support for JFD's Cultural Diversity and YnAEMP. Although the YnAEMP TSL support is only for Giant and Huge Earth Map because for some reason World Builder crashes to desktop when I try to load the other YnAEMP Earth maps so I can't check those coordinates...
Then there's the things that still needs to be done:
- Writing text strings - I want to finish the DOM text, civilopedia entries, diplomacy greetings etc. before I release a first version of the mod.
The rest of the stuff on this list is not as urgent but would be nice for making it a better quality mod.
- Music! I have been searching for peace and war themes but haven't found anything yet. To make it as easy as possible for me to put it in later I have a deactivated audio XML already in the mod (it's not in the update database list).
- Some art stuff... I renamed the civ Sikh Empire but the mapand DOM screen still says Punjab. I feel like such a noob that can't edit this myself without having it look like a two-year-old did it so I'll just leave the old ones in there for now.
Also, the Guru still uses the Great Prophet unit flag and while that is not the biggest issue it would be nice to have a unique one.
- I was thinking of doing Decisions and Events support too because that would be fun but I don't have any Lua experience and I don't really have the time or patience to learn it right now.
Edit: Oh, and I still haven't found a solution to this problem:
Let's begin with a list of what new things I have done.
- I reworked the UA to give it a more militaristic touch, and this is what I've got:
Langar
+10%
Combat Strength bonus if within 2 tiles of a Holy Site. +1 Faith from each Farm.What do you think? Is it balanced? Is it relevant? I am considering new names for it since it doesn't really align with the concept of Langar anymore, but I haven't find a suitable name yet.
- I added support for JFD's Cultural Diversity and YnAEMP. Although the YnAEMP TSL support is only for Giant and Huge Earth Map because for some reason World Builder crashes to desktop when I try to load the other YnAEMP Earth maps so I can't check those coordinates...
Then there's the things that still needs to be done:
- Writing text strings - I want to finish the DOM text, civilopedia entries, diplomacy greetings etc. before I release a first version of the mod.
The rest of the stuff on this list is not as urgent but would be nice for making it a better quality mod.
- Music! I have been searching for peace and war themes but haven't found anything yet. To make it as easy as possible for me to put it in later I have a deactivated audio XML already in the mod (it's not in the update database list).
- Some art stuff... I renamed the civ Sikh Empire but the map
Also, the Guru still uses the Great Prophet unit flag and while that is not the biggest issue it would be nice to have a unique one.
- I was thinking of doing Decisions and Events support too because that would be fun but I don't have any Lua experience and I don't really have the time or patience to learn it right now.
Edit: Oh, and I still haven't found a solution to this problem:
I seem to be missing an icon size for the Gurdwara building because in the list when you choose building project and in the small circle on map screen the Gurdwara icon is empty, this also goes for the tech tree. I have sizes 45, 64, 128 and 256 now, but I thought those were all I needed? Screenshot in spoiler - you see the bigger icon below but not the small one in the list. I tried adding smaller sizes than 45 (32, 24 and 16) but that did not correct the issue.
Spoiler :
RawSasquatch
Minuteman
DOM Screen taken care of.
That's great! Thanks a lot, RawSasquatch.
I have worked a little bit more on the trait and below are my four options for a final trait. I haven't done any balancing yet so the concept is what matters the most here. They all have the same name, Sarkar-e-Khalsa, which means Government of the Khalsa and was the official name of the Sikh Empire. According to Wikipedia the definition of Khalsa is "the collective body of all initiated Sikhs, the embodiment of the Guru and the final temporal Guru/leader of the Sikhs" and they also served as a military force of the Sikh Empire so mentioning them in the UA title seemed appropriate.
Anyway, here are my trait options:
Sarkar-e-Khalsa I
+10% Combat Strength bonus if within 2 tiles of a Holy Site. +1 Faith from each Farm.
This UA puts emphasize on the civ's food/faith orientation while adding a military aspect to it. I like this one but the faith from farms seems a little disconnected from the rest of it.
Sarkar-e-Khalsa II
+10% Combat Strength bonus if within 2 tiles of a Holy Site. +1 :c5movement: Movement for Workers.
This one keeps the holy site strength bonus but in combination with the other half of the previous Langar trait. I liked the Worker movement bonus and was thinking whether or not that would fit better with the trait than +1 faith from farms.
Sarkar-e-Khalsa III
Gains Faith for the empire from each enemy unit killed.
A simple but fairly neat trait that is essentially the faith version of Monty's trait. I do like the combat strenght bonus from holy sites though which is not incorporated into this trait idea for the sake of balance - Monty's culture from kills trait is just that after all. Also, the trait does hint at religious sacrifices and that's not really fitting this civ.
Sarkar-e-Khalsa IV
+10% Combat Strength bonus if within 2 tiles of a Holy Site. +1 in their Capital.
Quite similar to the first trait but instead of farms the faith bonus goes to the palace. This would give the Sikhs quite a strong start in the religion game so I'm debating whether it would be too strong a trait. Although the faith from just the one palace would be less than the faith from farms or kills.
I'd love feedback on these UAs because I can't decide which one to go for or whether or not they are balanced.
I have worked a little bit more on the trait and below are my four options for a final trait. I haven't done any balancing yet so the concept is what matters the most here. They all have the same name, Sarkar-e-Khalsa, which means Government of the Khalsa and was the official name of the Sikh Empire. According to Wikipedia the definition of Khalsa is "the collective body of all initiated Sikhs, the embodiment of the Guru and the final temporal Guru/leader of the Sikhs" and they also served as a military force of the Sikh Empire so mentioning them in the UA title seemed appropriate.
Anyway, here are my trait options:
Sarkar-e-Khalsa I
+10%
Combat Strength bonus if within 2 tiles of a Holy Site. +1 Faith from each Farm.This UA puts emphasize on the civ's food/faith orientation while adding a military aspect to it. I like this one but the faith from farms seems a little disconnected from the rest of it.
Sarkar-e-Khalsa II
+10%
Combat Strength bonus if within 2 tiles of a Holy Site. +1 :c5movement: Movement for Workers.This one keeps the holy site strength bonus but in combination with the other half of the previous Langar trait. I liked the Worker movement bonus and was thinking whether or not that would fit better with the trait than +1 faith from farms.
Sarkar-e-Khalsa III
Gains
Faith for the empire from each enemy unit killed.A simple but fairly neat trait that is essentially the faith version of Monty's trait. I do like the combat strenght bonus from holy sites though which is not incorporated into this trait idea for the sake of balance - Monty's culture from kills trait is just that after all. Also, the trait does hint at religious sacrifices and that's not really fitting this civ.
Sarkar-e-Khalsa IV
+10%
Combat Strength bonus if within 2 tiles of a Holy Site. +1 in their Capital.Quite similar to the first trait but instead of farms the faith bonus goes to the palace. This would give the Sikhs quite a strong start in the religion game so I'm debating whether it would be too strong a trait. Although the faith from just the one palace would be less than the faith from farms or kills.
I'd love feedback on these UAs because I can't decide which one to go for or whether or not they are balanced.