I just wanted to say that having tried to modify hundreds of games in the past - Galactic Civilizations is one of the easiest and most modifiable games I have ever had the pleasure of playing (and playing with!) 
Kudos to Brad, Cari, and all of the other developers!
You guys (especially Brad) get a lot of heat on the forums and a ton of complaining from users and whining for new features (me included!) and damn little praise. So here it is:
THANKS SO MUCH FOR MAKING SUCH A GREAT GAME AND OFFERING BETTER SUPPORT THAN ANY OTHER COMPANY IN THE INDUSTRY!!!
 
I bought GalCiv directly from you guys JUST because of the support and communication you provided to your users on the forum... and I am glad that I did!
(o.k. now about bonus pack #2... I was thinking..  )
| |
|
Here, Here! Hallaluya brother. The games MODability secures my interest in it for a very, very, long time.
BTW, Thrull, here are some fan sites where some bits and pieces of mods, manuals, etc, are or will be popping up.
 Link
Link
Link This is DarkHelmets site, he is muilding a MOD installer.
 
| |
|
|
|
ya man what happened to my still favorite game Half-Life? Theres at least a hundred mods for Half-Life Counter_strike alone!
        
| |
|
Just because a game like Half-life or Quake has a million mods doesn't mean it's easy to mod.
Show me another game that requires only notepad and a freeware program like ACDSee or Ifranview to modify.
Also MOST of the core elements of this game - the technology, units, races, random events, etc. are directly modifable with NO external third party programs! Just open up with notepad! Heck the designers not only commented the files, but are gracious enough to come here on the forum and EXPLAIN them in detail for us! Sorry but I just don't see other companies doing that with thier I.P.
Beyond the Cari's ship editor and possibly DarkHelmets mod launcher you really don't need anything else to fully modify this game (although I sure would like to be able to crack into those mdl files mmmmm...  ))
If you guys think making Half-life maps and skins is easier then hey more power to you. 
| |
|
RustyBlade,
Thanks for the links!!! That OCRed game manual is a Godsend!
| |
|
|
|
Thrull, your welcome.
Yes many games are moddable. I prefer the non-twitch games myself. Too old and slow for halflife. And my attention span usually requires more of a challenge. Still I welcome any and all modders to get into this game. It is really easy to mod. And hasn't been out but 18 days so far. Hardly enough time for hundreds of mods. I've completed two myself. The Angelina Mod is still being ok'ed. I do hope the fan sites and this one as well will impliment a voting system as to how the players feel about each MOD. It will help up develop and spend time on the best MODs possible.
| |
|
|
|
Gee... try to compliment the developers and everybody wants to rain on the parade 
Oh well *I* for one still think it's one of the most, easiest and funniest games to mod so nah
...and I hope Bard, Cari, Scott and the others will continue to appear here on the forums to answer questions and offer new improvements and bonuses!!! 
| |
|
Yes I will post my results on this thread.
Patience, and tolorance everyone. These are the truest examples of the mature mind. I love apple pie, yet I still enjoy orange marmolaide.
There is room for more than one game. Stardock has learned from SE IV, MOO*, etc. Just as they have learned from Stardock and others. I can see how some would find the data files difficult. But I suspect with a little effort and experimentation most anyone will be able to do it. I imagine there will me more than one series of tutorials done on that subject over the next few months. MODing is best approached in baby steps at first. Just as we are are also modding the multi-media. Do one image or sound, see if it works, when it does -repeat the process. The same method can be done with the data files. I will wait for a while to do data files, as I feel the multi-media mods will have a broader and more immediate appeal.
| |
|
|
|
|
|
I don't own GalCiv yet, will get it soon though. So I can say how easy it is to modify. A can name a game which is extremely easy to modify. It is called "The War Engine" and its developed by Boku Strategy Games and published by Shrapnel Games. Anyone here heard of tyhe game before? It is the same publisher of Space Empires 4. Anyway, The War Engine is a wargame construction set and you can make anything with it. You can even change the interface and anything else using only .bmp and .txt files. Practically the entire game can be changed in ways only limited to your imagination. I was a mod maker and beta tester for it, I actually made a completely new game with it. Pretty cool stuff! So if GalCiv is anything close to being as modifying as that game it will really be good.
   
| |
|
Oh I meant I CAN'T say how easy GalCiv is to modify. 
| |
|
RustyBlade - The ever present Mod pusher hehehe... Keep the faith bruther I look forward to some cool mods from you!
CapitalShip (Tim) - War Engine is awesome! I followed Boku from Circa 7000 through AoA and now finally TWE. I really like smaller development companies, because they are the underdogs of the gaming industry... and often they give excellent support to their loyal customers (cough cough nudge nudge ) Mike is a great guy and I have had some personal email with him in the past that was pretty enlightening about the game industry, programming, and pleasing the masses (yeesh). Out of curiosity which mod did you make???
I bought TWE for the same reasons I bought GalCiv - and both are great investments! Of course that's not to say StarDock is "small", but they lack the exposure of the larger gaming companies... fortunately all that is changing now with Galactic Civilizations
Also keep in mind that TWE is a "wargame construction kit"... a designing tool first and a game second. GalCiv is a game first. They're actually pretty close though... too bad GalCiv doesn't have unit & interface bitmaps like The War Engine though
Mythor - I know your post was full of smilies, but it really rubbed me the wrong way (no diplomacy here RustyBlade!)... frankly if I want to play Tetris... well I'll go play Tetris. I don't want or need GalCiv to be an FPS, RTS, or any other acronym (except maybe 4x ) And for the record I'm not making any "claim" that you need to feel compelled to argue or dispel (although I suppose you will anyway *sigh*)
Everyone else - the title of this thread (and intent) was a kind thank you to the developers who undoubtedly put a lot of blood, sweat, tears, and hopes into this game... it's really not meant for anyone else, but thank God we have the Internet so you can all show me the error of my ways 
Give any Geek or Grognard a keyboard and he feels it's his morale obligation to let you know just how wrong you are...
| |
|
Thrull, over at that community my name is Warspite. I made the Global War: Total Conflict mod.
| |
|
#17
by Citizen Ellestar - 4/17/2003 2:36:16 PM
I want to mod the AI, but it's can't be in *.txt files.
 
| |
|
#18
by Citizen Malleus - 4/23/2003 11:59:45 AM
What's the point of modding a "most moddable game ever" (nah, Civ2 was MUCH more moddable) if part of the game experience (Multiverse) will be denied to you if you do?
M
| |
|
|
|
#20
by Senator CariElf - 4/25/2003 5:15:49 PM
Malleus:
Not all mods will cause your game to be rejected by the metaverse. Just ones that imbalance the game too much. Right now we don't have the resources to set up a separate metaverse for modders, or something like that so we have to favor the players who either don't mod or only casually mod.
 
| |
|
|
|
#22
by Citizen Sploff - 5/3/2003 6:31:59 AM
Here's one to throw into the mix where you can literally mod everything: Europa Universalis 1+2.
| |
|
CapitalShip/Warspite - fancy seeing you here.
Yes, TWE is a wargame construction kit, and CapitalShip built an excellend mod that shiped with the game, the Global War mod. CapitalShip took a game designed to simulate small unit tactics and turned it into more of an operational level wargame. Clever stuff.
It's not really an apple to oranges comparison, because both games have different design concepts. TWE was meant to be modded, with editing tools built in. The basic campaign was almost a bonus. GalCiv is a thoroughly integrated game that has moddability as a bonus. Fortunately it's a very cool bonus, and yes the developers do deserve a thumbs-up for it.
| |
|
Re: GalCiv: Most Mod-able Game Ever!
No, that would be Civ2, or more likely Civ3. While there may be more you can change with GalCiv, I find the text files painful to use... *suggestion* release an editor...
  
| |
|
|
|
|
