Recent news, and a request for Markos

WesW · January 28, 2003, 07:42

Hi everyone.
What is going on with modification these days? I scanned the mod forum, but it was hard to tell what had been done over the last few months.

For those of you wondering, my health is stabilizing, but not back to where it was a year ago. "A lot has happened, but nothing has changed" would be a pretty good synopsis of the last few months. I am back to working on my mods more, about like I was before things got so bad last year, so I guess that is an improvement.
Btw, I have just posted the latest version of my MTW mod, and I think it's getting to the point where you can really see a diference in the game, and MTW is an awesome game to begin with.

Anyway, the main reason for this thread was to find out what you guys have been up to. So, let's dish.

I can't get over all the smileys that are available. The party scene in one post in IW's birthday thread was great.

Wouter, did you get the email I sent you a couple pf weeks ago? It may have gotten automatically deleted as spam because of the subject line. There was nothing important in the message, but I just wondered when I didn't hear from you.

Also, I sent Markos an email a few days ago, and I haven't received a reply from him, either. I asked him to mention my latest mod update in the news. MTW is not offically supported by Apolyton, but I feel certain that a lot of the people who frequent here also play MTW.
I also suggested that he may want to add the game to the list here, even though it isn't a civ game. The official and fan sites for the game are generally very poor. The only one that is decent is the org, where I post the mod thread and occasionally send in the mod for posting, but I don't think they get a lot of traffic. I have not had much success generating discussions of the mod.
The official site seems to get more posters, but their forums are about ten years out of date, and they don't post any fan mods.

Also, Mark, would you change the name of my site's link on the front page? I want to drop the CtP1/2 part and replace it with "WesW's Medieval Mod Page", if you can find the room. If not, something like the "Med Mod Series", if you have to keep it on one line.

Finally, you may want to email some of the site admins again to see if their hosted sites are still active. I hate to say it, but I don't know if Don Blevins is still alive (admin of CtP Maps, which hasn't been updated in over two years). I suddenly stopped hearing from him about two years ago, shortly after he said that his cancer had gotten much worse, and that he was going to have to severely restrict his activity. Cancer has killed almost his whole family, both sides; over a dozen people.

Well, I hate to end on that down note, but I look forward to hearing from all you old-timers out there.

Wes

Locutus · January 28, 2003, 09:42

Hey Wes, good to hear from you again

It's very good news that your health is stabilizing, let's hope it will continue to improve...

As far as the mods go, plenty of stuff has been going on in the past months, although lately things seem to have quieted down a little. I suspect the Democracy Game has something to do with that (you should check that out, if you haven't already), as well as the anticipated arrival of Rise of Nations (a Brian Reynolds civ-like RTS game, you should check that out too).

I'm not sure how much you know about but things like Visible Wonders, City Expansion, Natural Wonders, etc are all done now (although still not compatible with all major mods), Dale has been working hard on a revolutionary new mod (Ages of Man, although it's on hold now due to his activities in the Alt Civ section), hexagonian et al have been working on an impressive Lord of the Rings scenario, Maquiladora is working on a WWII scenario and various radical new features are supposedly still being worked on (things like strategic resources from Civ3 and new ways of dealing with slavery). And of course, people are still trying to improve the AI and other parts of the game as we always have...

No, I don't think I got your mail. Did you send it to my old address (w.snijders@student.utwente.nl) or to my current one (locutus@apolyton.net or wouter@apolyton.net)? I rarely use the old one anymore, especially since a fire destroyed the university mail servers a month or two ago (they're still working on reliable replacements).

Markos doesn't read these forums as much as he used to anymore but I'll drag his ass over here to make sure he sees this thread

Yeah, I haven't heard from Don anymore in a long time either. I plan on contacting him myself all time but something always seems to come up to make me forget about it...

Peter Triggs had contact with him long after me though, maybe he can bring you up-to-date...

Good to see you back, even if it's just for a while

HuangShang · January 28, 2003, 10:32

uh-oh, WesW is back!

or is he? i came just before u left so....
HI

Engineer_J · January 28, 2003, 17:10

Hey Wes good to see you again. Good luck with everything. I keep meaning to get MTW, but been so busy playing CTP 2 and my other games. Has anyone updated MedMod II with the unit updater or any of the new slic. In a craddle game right now, but wanted to start Med Mod next.

MarkG · January 28, 2003, 17:13

i always read threads with my name on the title

child of Thor · January 28, 2003, 18:04

good to see you here again Wes, i thought what with having bumped into you on the MTW forum that you wouldn't be seen here again in a long time. Glad you are getting better and i think you have missed alot of stuff since you left.
Dale has been in overdrive as has Pedrunn and i have a sneaky feeling that the lack of 'active' modding(and news about) from certain unnamed regulars must mean something good is going on behind the scenes

Good luck with the MTW mod - i'm going to give it a go as soon as i've finished my 'Danish' campaign

Immortal Wombat · January 28, 2003, 18:09

I'm SLICing Hex's LOTR scenario. It should be a cracker, whether you've read the books/seen the films or not.

Locutus · January 28, 2003, 19:07

Quote:

Originally posted by MarkG
i always read threads with my name on the title

Especially if they're in the Staff Room, no?

Peter Triggs · January 28, 2003, 21:36

I last heard from Don about a year and a half ago. I've been meaning to e-mail him for the past two or three months but keep putting it off for fear of hearing bad news.

Dale · January 29, 2003, 05:29

Wes:

Great to see you again, and in better health and spirits!

My CTP2 modding has taken a back seat to my new Alt-Civ game, Empire. Here's a sneak peak...........

Maquiladora · January 29, 2003, 05:36

The pic doesnt show Dale, damn crosswinds. Those beaches and sea tiles look like ctp1 BTW, or maybes its just me...

Locutus · January 29, 2003, 07:14

Quote:

Originally posted by Peter Triggs
I last heard from Don about a year and a half ago. I've been meaning to e-mail him for the past two or three months but keep putting it off for fear of hearing bad news.

I think that's playing a part for me as well...

Quote:

Those beaches and sea tiles look like ctp1 BTW, or maybes its just me...

I could be all wrong, but I don't think any of those images are original

Graphics-wise, it looks great though, better than most Alt Civ projects

But Dale's really gonna have to release a demo if he wants us to say anything sensible about gameplay *hint* *hint*

hexagonian · January 29, 2003, 11:07

Quote:

Originally posted by Dale
My CTP2 modding has taken a back seat to my new Alt-Civ game, Empire. Here's a sneak peak...........

...I've been busy with the graphics for Dale's project, so modding CTP2 has taken a back seat to 'Empire'. A lot of the graphics are starting to be finetuned now - (the above files are more along the lines of rough placeart)

You could say that CTP did influence the look of 'Empire' but the terrain is original, as well as the art on the main screen.

Not much I can do with 'War of the Ring' at the moment... The SLIC is all I need (that, and playtesters when the SLIC is done)

Welcome back Wes

Pedrunn · January 29, 2003, 13:22

The DG is consuming almost all my Apolyton time and some time more. Although i surely wont run for President next term so i will probably have some more free time to do more modding. Still i try to slic and mod once in a while. For example, currently i am trying to make the special units disapear and intead use a click in a city to do the special attacks.
I also plan to give some tries in diplomacy in the future. But compared to the way i was some months ago. I have stopped modding for a while.

Welcome back Wes.

Dale · January 29, 2003, 17:11

Locutus:

What Hex said about the graphics is correct, however, some of the "this is pretty much final" graphics

are starting to creep into the game. I do also thank him immensly for the graphic art for Empire, cuz if I'd done them it'd be stick figures and solid coloured terrain. Not too good to look at.

As for a demo, it's a little bit off yet. Most of the GUI is still going into the game, however the player and city structures are finished, and there are dynamically growing cities on the map now. User building and units is yet to be finished before a demo will come out.

With two weeks leave coming up in a week and a half, hopefully it'll only be a couple of weeks before an alpha demo comes out in Alt-Civ.

J Bytheway · January 29, 2003, 17:20

Do be sure to mention it here for those of us who don't frequent the alt-civs section

.

WesW · January 30, 2003, 02:55

Thanks for the well-wishes everyone.

Nice to hear you guys are still at it with the mod-work. And if you see anything in the Medmods that you want to copy or whatever, feel free. It would be nice to know that some of the stuff we did there lives on.

SMIFFGIG · January 30, 2003, 11:52

What is the link to Empire alt civ, i really wannna see and eventually try it

and WesW, where can i get your MTW mod, i have MTW but sadly dont play the game as it seems exactly like Shogun: Total war, which is now IMO old and boring now

I find in MTW that you get to a certain point (even if its 200yrs up the line) when you just KNOW 100% that your gunna win
The AI seems to have no tactics for comming back

a way of explaining it. In a football match u get % off possetion, well i find as soon as in MTW u get 51% possetion youve won the game.
Lol what crap i talk

anyway nice to see you back and hope u get better

-James

Dale · January 31, 2003, 02:29

Quote:

Originally posted by SMIFFGIG
What is the link to Empire alt civ, i really wannna see and eventually try it

It's not released for a demo yet, so I haven't announced it in Alt-Civs. But the time is close. Once the city building is active then I'll announce something in Alt-Civ. I'll leave a post in this forum letting you guys know when Hex 'n I have something playable, and try to convince Markos to post a news item.

There'll also be a web page to download from, and where I'll be placing screenshots.

Zaphod Beeblebrox · January 31, 2003, 12:00

welcome back wes

WesW · February 5, 2003, 01:37

Thanks, Zaph. I love all these smilies, though it does seem to take a long time for the pages to load.

My Medieval: Total War mod is posted right alongside my Ctp mods, on my Apolyton webpage.

ískallin · February 5, 2003, 15:12

Hey wes nice to hear from you and better that you are in better health.
You have checked out the DG haven't you

Peter Triggs · May 20, 2003, 14:00

GOOD NEWS FROM SKORPION59

Peter it is good to hear from you. I have thought many times about jumping back into the forums but didn't think anybody would remember me. Also, I don't have the amount of free time as I used to.

As for myself, right now I am doing good. The cancer has spread but the treatments seem to be staying on top of it. In fact, right now I am in remission and it is just a pain in the rear. Pains, can't digest food, etc. At this point, I plan on living another 40 years.

I was self-employed here in Tulsa for quite a while and had been bugging a friend of mine in Seattle about starting a business too. When I started into remission, I went to Seattle to see my friend about starting a business. Within 2 days, he quit his job and we started our new company. Everthing just fell into place and we were doing very good. After about a year, the cancer came back so I had to come back to Tulsa but all is okay again.

There is a 3-phase $15Million DOD project to put quite a bit of security equipment and wiring in the 3 Naval Bases in the Seattle area. It is being done in three $5Million phases. My friend just left yesterday with the phase 1 contract signed off. This will be the biggest project I have worked on so far.

My sister still goes in and out of remission and my father still can't take care of himself so I'm going to have to figure out how to deal with those issues before going to Seattle.

I don't know what will happen or if I will come out of remission but I'm taking this train. This project will be the one that 'sets me for life'. Also, we are front runners in the 2nd and 3rd phases, giving us a $15Million boost to say the least.

Peter, again it was great hearing from you and feel free to share any or all of this info to the group.
Don

MarkG · May 20, 2003, 15:42

excellent stuff!
send me(well, everyone's) regards!!

Locutus · May 20, 2003, 17:36

(Did I overdo that?

)

Changmai Beagle · May 20, 2003, 20:54

Nice to hear you're back.