Alpha Centauri 2

Other Games => CivII => Topic started by: Blake00 on November 22, 2019, 10:53:48 AM

Title: Enhanced Mars, MasterOfMagic, MasterOfOrion ToT scenarios + ToT graphics for MGE
Post by: Blake00 on November 22, 2019, 10:53:48 AM

Hi guys,

I've recently been playing a lot of Test of Time (as I barely touched it back in the day) and have been having a lot of fun.

With Civilization 2 MGE I loved playing the Mars, Master of Magic Jr & Master of Orion Jr scenarios. I recently discovered Kestrel's excellent ToT conversion/remake of the Mars scenario (https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/mars-scenario-updated-tot-version-of-fw-mars-now-scenario-by-kestrel.636044/) and am now curious about the others however I haven't been able to find anything here, on Catfish's site or the League wiki. However the Mars remake isn't on any of them either so I figure its worth asking the gurus here about the others!

• Is there a ToT fan make conversion and/or remake of the FW Master of Magic Jr scenario? ToTs linked maps would allow for the mirror world Myrran to be added and all sorts of other cool stuff. I'm playing Midgard at the moment and I just keep thinking "omg if only someone used this stuff to remake the MoM scenario!". If anyone here is a guru with that difficult MGE to ToT scenario converter program and thinks they can convert it for me (I'll do the rest lol) please let me know! FOUND ONE HERE (http://alphacentauri2.info/index.php?topic=21350.msg123204#msg123204) (Although let me know if you know of more out there).
  
  
• Is there a ToT fan make conversion and/or remake of the FW Master of Orion Jr scenario? I've seen some ToT Star Wars & Star Trek scenarios using MGE MOO scenario style space gameplay but with nicer space graphics of course yet haven't found an actual MOO remake scenario in ToT. FOUND ONE HERE (http://alphacentauri2.info/index.php?topic=21350.msg122310#msg122310) (Although let me know if you know of more out there).
  
  
• Final question is a different and rather out there one lol. I've seen all the cool Civ2 style graphics and gui overhauls for ToT on Catfish's site however I know there are a lot of MGE fans out there who for various reasons don't want to play ToT. So I'm curious to know if anyone ever made a (obviously non-animating) ToT style graphics set for MGE mod (eg terrain, units, city & dark gui) using the best closest matching 8bit colour equivalents? FOUND ONE HERE (http://alphacentauri2.info/index.php?topic=21350.msg122309#msg122309) (Although let me know if you know of a better one out there or who made that one).

Title: Re: Civ2 MGE to Test of Time scenarios & graphics questions
Post by: Blake00 on November 22, 2019, 10:54:15 AM

UPDATE:
I've found an answer to question 3:

Someone has indeed already done a TOT graphics pack for Civ 2 MGE. I just found a mod at CivFanatics here:
https://forums.civfanatics.com/resou...iv2-gold.2471/ (https://forums.civfanatics.com/resources/tot-graphics-for-civ2-gold.2471/)

The mod coverts all units, cities, and terrain to ToT style however the author is unknown as he doesn't say any name in the readme and just gives an email of [email protected] (which fails). Does anyone know who made this?

Here's a photo below of me testing it.. it looks like the author has pretty much just done a straight colour pallet conversion with no touch ups as when I do the same thing myself I get the same results.

The grassland is way too dark and black/grey ish. The people who complained about ToT's graphics being too dark would hate this even more haha. Something is wrong with all the faction colours too. So unless someone here knows of a better one maybe I'll have a play with his files and see if I can make a better version..

(https://forums.civfanatics.com/attachments/modded-png.525780/) (https://forums.civfanatics.com/attachments/modded-png.525780/)

Title: Re: Civ2 MGE to Test of Time scenarios & graphics questions
Post by: Blake00 on November 22, 2019, 10:54:44 AM

UPDATE:
Another success! I've found the answer to question 2. There is indeed an upgraded ToT version of the Master of Orion Jr scenario from Civ2FW.

It was buried over in the old Cradle of Civilization site:
http://sleague.civfanatics.com/COC/s...od-moojr.shtml (http://sleague.civfanatics.com/COC/scenarios/mod-moojr.shtml)

(http://sleague.civfanatics.com/COC/scenarios/ss/moojr-ss1.gif)


If anyone knows of another one out there please still let me know!

Still no luck finding a enhanced Test of Time conversion or remake of the old Civ2 Master of Magic Jnr scenario, however I've been playing around with the Civ2 MGE ToT graphics mod I found above and fixing up varies bugs (like wrong faction colours eg blue barbarians lol) and improving some of the graphics to look a bit nice (eg green grassland and yellower desert). Here's a WIP shot to compare to the one in the previous post:

(https://forums.civfanatics.com/attachments/modded4-png.527280/) (https://forums.civfanatics.com/attachments/modded4-png.527280/)

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Title: Re: Civ2 MGE to Test of Time scenarios & graphics questions
Post by: Blake00 on January 06, 2020, 11:50:57 AM

Update on the ToT graphics for MGE mod remaster:

I've made a ToT style darkened GUI that is as dark as MGE can get before text becomes unreadable. Here's shot from my Barbarian game that shows off more undeveloped terrain than the previous shot posted as well as the new GUI.
(https://forums.civfanatics.com/attachments/modded5-png.536299/) (https://forums.civfanatics.com/attachments/modded5-png.536299/)


Am currently playing around making an MGE version of the ToT city screen. There's no transparency in the MGE city screens of course but there's no reason why I can't 'fake' the ToT transparency lol. The ToT info box background marble pattern is too dark for MGE fonts so I had to lighten that too.
(https://forums.civfanatics.com/attachments/modded6-png.536298/) (https://forums.civfanatics.com/attachments/modded6-png.536298/)

Only thing left that I want to do is the fix all the unit shield positions as they're all still in their default Civ2 graphics slots. Then I'll consider this mini project done!

Still no luck finding an enhanced ToT version of the Master of Magic scenario sadly. :(

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Title: Re: Enhanced Mars, MasterOfMagic, MasterOfOrion ToT scenarios + ToT graphics for MGE
Post by: Blake00 on February 21, 2020, 02:43:39 PM

FINALLY some progress and good news regarding question 1!

Firstly I've found some traces from yeeaaarrs ago of someone working on a Test of Time Master of Magic scenario specifically the Myrror side over at Apolyton HERE (https://apolyton.net/forum/civilization-series/civilization-i-and-civilization-ii/147584-scifi-fantasy-unit-graphics?p=7592308#post7592308) and HERE (https://apolyton.net/forum/civilization-series/civilization-i-and-civilization-ii/232691-lizard-men-and-dark-elves?p=7578131#post7578131) but I don't think it got finished. Might try to track him down!

But what's even cooler is that finally after all this time I got help on this elsewhere when Knightime on CivFinatics told me in my C&C and Red Alert WIP Civ2 mod thread about the scenario conversion request thread (https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/modified-scenarios-workshop.410838/page-32) where you can get any old Civ2 scenario converted to ToT! Sure enough conversion guru Gapet*t had the old Master of Magic Jr Civ2 FW scenario fully converted and working in ToT within 24hours lmao! Amazing!

So now I have a template to build something better.. eg a MoM scenario with more than the 5 factions, enhanced and/or retro original graphics, and most importantly addon THE DARK MYRROR WORLD! Thanks to Test of Times ability to have multiple worlds linked via teleporters (like original MoM).

2 worlds 1 game:
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/46/MoM_Worlds_Overland.gif)


Testing Gapet*t's new conversion:
(https://forums.civfanatics.com/attachments/upload_2020-2-9_16-15-16-png.545578/) (https://forums.civfanatics.com/attachments/upload_2020-2-9_16-15-16-png.545578/)

Title: Re: Enhanced Mars, MasterOfMagic, MasterOfOrion ToT scenarios + ToT graphics for MGE
Post by: Blake00 on February 21, 2020, 02:50:30 PM

In fact now 3 ideas for the look of the Civ2 Master of Magic Jr Remastered mod sit in my head for this:

• Stick with original Civ2 MoM scenario graphics leaving Arcanus as is (eg screenshot in above post). Make purple versions of terrain for 2nd Myrror world with more terrain special resources. Move some start positions to there.
• Use existing Test of Time fantasy scenario resources (which animate!) to replace all terrains and units on both worlds.
• Use ORIGINAL MoM graphics for both worlds since after doing 2D to 2.5D art asset conversions with Metro on the Heroes of Might & Magic Civ2 Scenario (http://alphacentauri2.info/index.php?topic=21340.0) I'm quite experienced with such conversions. Plus original MoM units were 2.5D in city & battle screens already so that just leaves the old 2D terrain to worry about!

Which would people prefer to see? Or do you want all 3 of them done hahaha? :P

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Title: Re: Enhanced Mars, MasterOfMagic, MasterOfOrion ToT scenarios + ToT graphics for MGE
Post by: Elok on April 28, 2020, 03:38:01 AM

It's been ages since I owned a computer with Civ2, or even Civ4, but I've always thought they missed a grand opportunity with MoMJr.  If you use the TOTPP--and I hope you do--you could conceivably make a vast and interesting scenario with race-matched cities.

Title: Re: Enhanced Mars, MasterOfMagic, MasterOfOrion ToT scenarios + ToT graphics for MGE
Post by: Blake00 on May 23, 2020, 12:58:04 PM

Quote from: Elok on April 28, 2020, 03:38:01 AM

It's been ages since I owned a computer with Civ2, or even Civ4, but I've always thought they missed a grand opportunity with MoMJr.  If you use the TOTPP--and I hope you do--you could conceivably make a vast and interesting scenario with race-matched cities.

Yeah I've been hearing about how ToTPP (which I use) greatly expands unit, city, terrain graphics limits even further so individual races is certainly a possibility now. Right now the plan is to make an enhanced expanded version of the original scenario and not mess with too much. However then I'll look at a more extreme version that looks and feels like like the original MoM!

---------

Another update on the ToT Graphics for Civ2MGE mod! I've finally fixed all the unit health bar shield positions as they were all in weird places in the original mod. I've also made a fully transparent version of the 'transparent illusion city background' I posted earlier (http://alphacentauri2.info/index.php?topic=21350.msg122941#msg122941). The other one will probably be the default background but I'll include this one in the mod as a alternative option. This mod is pretty much ready for release now so stay tuned!

Unit health bar shield locations corrected (click to expand):
(https://forums.civfanatics.com/attachments/modded7-png.554433/) (https://forums.civfanatics.com/attachments/modded7-png.554433/)

Fully transparent looking (illusion) city screen (click to expand):
(https://forums.civfanatics.com/attachments/modded8-png.554434/) (https://forums.civfanatics.com/attachments/modded8-png.554434/)


Oh and I have now created ModDB pages for my 2 ongoing projects here as well. News wise they're a bit behind here as you guys get all the good news first of course haha.

Test of Time Graphics for Civilization 2 MGE mod (Enhanced):
https://www.moddb.com/mods/test-of-time-graphics-for-civilization-2-mge-mod (https://www.moddb.com/mods/test-of-time-graphics-for-civilization-2-mge-mod)

Civilization 2 Test of Time - Master of Magic Scenario (Enhanced):
https://www.moddb.com/mods/civilization-2-test-of-time-master-of-magic-scenario (https://www.moddb.com/mods/civilization-2-test-of-time-master-of-magic-scenario)

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