Civilization 5 was my first foray into the series, but it quickly became one of my favorite games. Although my interest in it petered off slightly after playing through the Brave New World Expansion, my love for it was reignited with the help of a community; r/civbattleroyale. This community watched a 61 AI game of Civ 5, and through this community, I was able to learn about Civ 5 modding, leading me to work on several mods, and take a greater responsibility in the community as a whole.
MODS
Tlingit and Greenland
After some time in the community, I had made friends with the leader of the modding group Colonialist Legacies , who was looking for help with some upcoming mods. With him, I worked on Greenland, lead by Erik the Red, and the Tlingit People, lead by Sheiyksh I. For both of these mods, I was tasked with doing research for each civ’s Civilopedia page. I went to work, learning whatever I could about the two peoples and their respective leaders, browsing dozens of websites and ebooks in order to build my data. From this initial data, I trimmed and edited my work, before submitting to the project leader for final editing and implementation.
These two projects were a good learning experience, allowing me to learn more about different cultures. I would have liked to have been able to implement what I had done myself, but understand the project limitations that prevented this from happening.
Work on the Civ Battle Royale Mk2.1
By October 2016, I had become part of a group known as the Power Rankers; who would analyze the data and gameplay of each part and create a ranking system for the remaining civs, along with slides that included relevant information and our opinions. But at the end of October/early November, the file which ran the Battle Royale mk2 became corrupted, and it seemed uncertain whether the game will continue. I joined a large group of people in an attempt to salvage the game. Once it became clear it couldn’t be salvaged however, we were tasked with a new goal; recreating the Mk2.
Working as part of a team, we put together the data needed to recreate the game. And with nearly 800 turns, there was a lot. We combed through the data, figuring out what technologies each civ had before the corruption, and what buildings they had in each city. Unit placement was an adventure in itself, with the team looking through hundred of pictures to make a map, which was then copied to an Excel sheet that could be input into the game.
I also was part of a balance discussion. In an effort to increase both balance and entertainment, we made several changes to the game code, including:
- Reducing Carrier Bias for all civs to decrease amount of carriers built.
- Better distribution of late game resources
- Removing a certain wonder from the game due to power levels
On September 20,2017, after nearly 11 months of work, the Mk2.1 was released. The fans were ecstatic with the continuation, with Firaxis designer Ed Beach providing a narration for the 101st episode. By December of 2018, the game has been completed. I have continued to work as a Power Ranker, working through the years on two additional seasons for CivbattleRoyale.