LBT characters playing Civilization 4

[Ducky123]

[I was told by the admins I should put this here]  :unsure:

Heya guys, here's a pretty insane project I'm gonna do: I'm gonna start a game of Civ 4 in the Hot Seat mode, playing as Littlefoot & Co. They'll each write a sort of "story" about their game from their perspective (in their unique way of talking minus Spike) and each play according to their personalities (eg. Cera will be more aggressive while Ducky will be rather pacifistic). I'll try to make it as entertaining as I can (especially once we get to the time of the first wars ) yet also give as many information as I can (maybe you'll learn something about the game, who knows? )

Since the whole project would result in a ridiculous amount of posts due to the picture limit on this forum, I've decided to start a blog, where I write all of this though I'd post teasers here regularly, I guess? At any case, I'll keep you informed about the status quo of the game, editing the most recent post whenever there's something new

Anyway, here's the link to the blog. I hope I didn't mess up something  

Comments should probably be posted on the blog itself though I'll leave that up to you. Everything you need to know in detail is written in the first blog entry too

I haven't started writing the first entries of the characters yet (there'll be 8 of them, Gang of Seven plus Ali ) but I'll hopefully get 2 or 3 done until the end of the day. The first posts always take the longest, after that I'll try to develop a schedule that I intend to keep as best as I can.

Hope some of you will find it interesting  

EDIT: Oh shoot, I'm a Littlefoot now! Yay   )

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Starting-game
Littlefoot start
Cera start
Ducky start
Petrie start
Spike start
Chomper start
Ruby start
Ali start
Turn 1
Turn 2
Littlefoot 3
Ducky 3
Spike 3
Turn 3
Ducky 4
Petrie 4
Spike 4
Ruby 4
Turn 4
Littlefoot 5
Cera 5
Ducky 5
Chomper 5
Ali 5
Turn 5
Ducky 6
Chomper 6
Ruby 6
Turn 6
Littlefoot 7
Cera 7
Ducky 7
Spike 7
Chomper 7
Ruby 7
Turn 7
Littlefoot 8
Ducky 8
Spike 8
Chomper 8
Ruby 8
Turn 8
Littlefoot 9
Cera 9
Ducky 9
Petrie 9
Chomper 9
Ali 9
Turn 9
Littlefoot 10
Cera 10
Ducky 10
Spike 10'
Chomper 10
Ruby 10
Turn 10 (watch out for this one! xD)

[The Chronicler]

This seems like a rather interesting concept. I think I'll keep an eye on this and see how it goes.

This actually wouldn't be the first time I've seen something like this. In the past, I've occasionally visited civfanatics.com (a forum for fans of the entire Civilization game series), and I've noticed a subforum dedicated to sharing stories of games that people have played, many of them written out like fanfiction, and in a few cases even including screenshots of each and every turn. I think it'll be quite neat to see this kind of game-fiction being attempted here on this site.

I should also probably note that while I have certainly played Civ4 before, it's been almost ten years since I last played, so my understanding of how the game works may be a little rusty. (Not to mention, I'm much more familiar with Civ5, since that's the game I'm still working my way through. Though I am familiar with the concept of playing a "hotseat" game, since I had to use that option in order to unlock some rather tricky achievements in Civ5.)

[Ducky123]

Great

I'm also playing a mod of the game so you might not recognise too much.

Littlefoot's first post has been finished at last. He's less than amused about his chunk of land  

[Sneak]

Our gang spreads into everything. XD

never played Civilization games. I don't think I will read this.

[Sovereign]

I read this and I truly like the idea of it.   Some of your comments about the game from Littlefoot's point of view like "the developer of the map must hate me" are very funny but as someone who has only once played Civilization, many of the technical details in the blog went past me. In any case, if you continue doing this, I'll take a look on the posts to see if there's something that I understand.

[ADFan185]

Sounds very interesting and enjoyable to see looking forward to hearing the outcome of this project that you're working on.

[The Lone Dragon]

Well this certainly looks like an ambitious project. I've never played the Civ games but I can't think of a better opportunity to learn how and of course you playing as the Gang that will make for something interesting. I would suggest really getting in character for when you play each of them, keep the formality so we know what's going on but keep in character so as to make it fun as well. (Mabye even a chat between the Gang while playing)

[rhombus]

This looks like a very promising start to a unique concept.   If I could make one suggestion though, it might be good to either have the characters explain the technical stuff in-character or perhaps put the technical stuff in italics or something like that and to leave the in-character material in normal text.  In this way the character roleplay elements are kept distinct in the posts.

I must agree with Littlefoot though, he has been utterly screwed in terms of his starting location.  What is a longneck going to do with fur and fish anyway?  

[Ducky123]

Whoa, I didn't expect so many comments  

I kinda didn't get much sleep yesterday so I didn't get to work on it further but at least Cera and Ducky should be finished today. The first posts just take an eternity but the normal posts should be rather short.

Thanks for the suggestions too If you'd rather have more technical stuff, just let me know as well as if there are any game-related questions. I know it's hard to understand when you don't know the game at all   I wouldn't understand it right away either if somebody tried doing this with, say, a pokemon game  

And... there was something else I wanted to say but I forgot  

EDIT: Not what I was going to say but something else: What do you think about the picture size? Can you read everything fine? If not, I can make the screenshots bigger (though they'd be almost as big as the screen in that case )

EDITEDIT: (here's the short Author's note I posted on Cera's post which I just finished)

Quick question, guys. I've done a few things a bit differently here, what do you think? When I talk (not the characters) I used brackets as an indication and put some of it in italics. I don't really like the looks of the italics though, I'd rather indicate changes through colour or something similar...

Another thing, what about picture sizes? I made one of these original sized, would you rather have all pictures at this size? Also, I really wish I didn't have to post screenshots of LBT characters when ever I want to show emotions of them
http://lbtmeetsciv4.blogspot.de/

[rhombus]

To answer your question on the latest post, I think the new format works quite well, with the technical details in italics.  The only thing that might make it easier to follow would be to make the characters' words appear in bold but overall the new format is an improvement over the original incarnation.  As for the picture sizes, they seem to work well on my machine.  

Btw, I think you have captured Cera's aggression and arrogance quite well in her post.   I wonder how she will react when she gets to deal with the other characters...

[Sovereign]

This time things were a bit easier to follow as it was a good idea to separate Cera's comments and your thoughts about her position as well as information of the game. Thus far, the concept has seemed pretty random but I'm sure you'll have some ideas on how to make this work.   The picture sizes are fine as well as the pictures of the character emotions. I can relate to Cera for disliking her starting position. As for the italics, I was fine with them but you can do whatever you feel is the best way.

Just to ask, why is most of the talk on the Civilization series focused on this fourth installment even if there are two newer ones?

[Ducky123]

To answer your question on the latest post, I think the new format works quite well, with the technical details in italics. The only thing that might make it easier to follow would be to make the characters' words appear in bold but overall the new format is an improvement over the original incarnation. As for the picture sizes, they seem to work well on my machine. in-yes.gif

Btw, I think you have captured Cera's aggression and arrogance quite well in her post. dino_laugh.gif I wonder how she will react when she gets to deal with the other characters...

Thanks for the feedback Yeah, Cera is fun to write and I had enough opportunities to portrait her in fanfictions already to get an idea of her character

This time things were a bit easier to follow as it was a good idea to separate Cera's comments and your thoughts about her position as well as information of the game. Thus far, the concept has seemed pretty random but I'm sure you'll have some ideas on how to make this work. smile.gif The picture sizes are fine as well as the pictures of the character emotions. I can relate to Cera for disliking her starting position. As for the italics, I was fine with them but you can do whatever you feel is the best way.

Thanks for your feedback as well I'm still thinking about these things but I suppose I can use these first posts of the characters to figure out what's best to use, yep, yep, yep (and, besides, I can edit everything whenever I want/need)

ust to ask, why is most of the talk on the Civilization series focused on this fourth installment even if there are two newer ones?

That's a very good question to ask... Personally, I have only ever played this installment of the series. I have taken a look at Civ 5 & 6 but some of the changes weren't all in my favor which kept me away from playing them thus far. I actually own Civ 5 but I never really played it. Just didn't get hooked while I got hooked almost instantly on Civ 4...

Working on Ducky + Petrie now... should be online in a bit.

EDIT: Ducky is finished. I just spontaneously had the idea to help her out a little because... I couldn't resist her request, honestly   Also figured out how to do link to the individual posts, here are all blog entries so far, I'll also keep these more or less up to date in the first post (that is, if the GoF allows for an unlimited number of links to be posted in the same post... I'll find out eventually
Starting-game
Littlefoot start
Cera start
Ducky start
Petrie start

[Sovereign]

I'd say your last posts are already a major improvement from the first ones.    I'd say these ones are already more interesting and definitely easier to follow. Even though I must say that it feels like you were more inspired in Ducky's than Petrie's start.   Still, it'll be interesting to see how the game progresses.

[rhombus]

Very nicely done.  I absolutely love Ducky's post - she seems to be happy as long as her citizens have water to swim in.   Petrie's was done nicely as well.  The current formating I think does an awesome job of explaining everything without compromising the dialogue of the players.  I can't wait to see what happens with the rest of the gang.  

[Ducky123]

I'd say your last posts are already a major improvement from the first ones. smile.gif I'd say these ones are already more interesting and definitely easier to follow. Even though I must say that it feels like you were more inspired in Ducky's than Petrie's start. dino_tongue.gif Still, it'll be interesting to see how the game progresses.

Thanks!

Actually, I feel like Petrie is the kind of player who doesn't think much about what he's doing which is probably why you got that impression

Very nicely done. I absolutely love Ducky's post - she seems to be happy as long as her citizens have water to swim in. dino_laugh.gif Petrie's was done nicely as well. The current formating I think does an awesome job of explaining everything without compromising the dialogue of the players. I can't wait to see what happens with the rest of the gang. smile.gif

Thanks I'm trying to get them done until... hopefully tommorrow Spike's almost finished now.

EDIT: Four days later... Spike start
Chomper start [Cookie to whoever figures out who is his neighbor ]
Ruby start Ruby has a neighbor too. It's Petrie!  
Ali start

[Ducky123]

Hey guys, the first turn is finished whew    It won't take me nearly as much time to do the next 100 turns or so since there's not much happening and not nearly as much explaining to do

I'm still not sure about a few things concerning formatting so some enhanced feedback would be great. Here are my ideas:

• Colour code: Basically, colouring the text in a colour that suits the characters (might use red for Ali though since Ruby is pink already...) When I'm talking, the text would remain black. I might also use bold text though I haven't decided yet.
  
• Picture sizes: I kinda think the pictures are too small. It's a little hard ro read things at times, at least that's my impression. I mean, you can hardly see all the symbols that indicate the yield of every tile...
  
• I don't really have any special ideas for some of the characters except for making use of their unique speech pattern. If you got one for, say, Chomper or Ali, let me know
  
• Might play around with the blog design itself. I merely chose any design when I made this up
  
• What do you think about me making a small post like in the link below after every turn? I'd probably talk about the previous turn from my perspective if there's anything of particular interest to talk about. I can already tell you that the next two turns are uneventful since, literally, nothing is happening and there's nothing to do. Only in turn 3, the first player will have finished building their scouts.
  

Turn 1
Turn 2

[Sovereign]

I don't think there's anything really wrong with the format. Things are rather easy to follow and the pictures seem to be large enough. I can read the info that is in the pictures even if they tell me very little. I liked the last three posts as they were written in a fun style that was easy to understand. You may experiment with the colors but at this point, I'm not completely sure if they're mandatory. And you may do these short summary posts in order to sum up the overall situation after major events. They might clear things up a bit.

[rhombus]

I concur with Sovereign.  I think that colored posts might be a good idea to show who is talking, but otherwise the previous posts were quite easy to understand and follow.  I am not very interested in the upcoming Petrie/Ruby drama though... we all know how close borders tend to lead to early wars in Civ 4.   I also quite like how Chomper's sharptooth reasoning is able to come to the fore in this game... something tells me that he will not be the "friendly" sharptooth in this game.   And as for Cera destroying Ducky's spaceship in the last game, I must approve of her tactics.  I wonder if, in retaliation, Ducky might become the most evil swimmer in this game.  

[ADFan185]

Yes I agree the color posts will make it more easier to follow what's going on.

[The Chronicler]

Alright, now that all the players have been set up, it's time to see how they'll do.

Looks like everyone has built their first city on the coast (except for Petrie, who appears to have built his on a inland lake, so no boats for him yet), so I'm guessing this is some kind of archipelago map they're playing on.

Littlefoot and Cera are starting near the polar region (judging by the ice, Littlefoot in the north and Cera in the south), Ruby and Petrie are so close to each other that another city cannot be built between their capitals, same goes for Chomper and Ducky (I checked both the color and the terrain to confirm it), while Spike is on the west coast of a large landmass and Ali is on the east coast of some large landmass.

Let's see how the first few turns will go.

(I'd like to mention that, as a gamer who never downloads any mods, I'm completely unfamiliar with the version you're playing here. I personally would have preferred sticking to the official version so that anyone with any familiarity would have a good understanding, but this is your project so I'll just let you do your thing.)