Mod Approval Process - CivScale - Font and Interface Colours

[Ruff_Hi]

CivScale does two things ... 1) change various scaling items (cloud depth, city sizes, unit sizes, etc and 2) change the interface colour and transparancy. This thread is aimed at discussing the impact of changing the interface colours, transparancy and text font.

Once a mod is submitted for approval (by the submittor starting a thread in the approval forum), the community should use a rigorous standard to judge the mod:

Most importantly, does the mod give the player any edge over not having it? Graphics mods would probably pass this standard easily, but it's important to note that terrain mods could possibly make it a lot easier to see the squares at the "edge" of the fog, based on the tile blending -- that would be enough to exclude it.

The general principle is that the mod should not give the player information he should not otherwise have -- the foreign affairs advisor mod that included the "gold available for trade" would explicitly fail this test.

I will post a review of the interface and font features of this mod as well as a list of files that it affects. I will also post some screenshots of the impact of changes.

Secondly, is the mod useful? Does it benefit enough players in some way, and is it a benefit to the RB community that players use it? Blue Marble would almost certainly also pass this check, since many players[1] would say it makes the terrain a lot prettier. Autologger might not pass this test, actually, since there is quite a bit of opposition to its use as the "bulk" of reports.

Not much to do here - guess we just look at how many people post in this thread to gauge the interest.

Finally, does the mod bring something new? If we already approve ($DEITY help us) ResourcesAsNFLIcons 1.1, we don't also need ResourcesAsNHLIcons 0.98c.

Ditto

APPROVAL PROCESS

What I need from "the committee":

• Is a mod "Graphical"? (Affecting appearance).
  
• Is a mod "Utilitarian"? (Affecting player's interface).
  
• Is a mod "Rebalancing"? (Affecting game rules).
  
• Which components are modified? (World Builder, XML, Python, C++)
  
• Which files are affected?
  
• If Python or C++ are involved, the mod needs to be certified free of trojans.
  
• VISUAL EVIDENCE showing and explaining what the mods actually do.
  
• A simple "aye" or "nay" from each committee member as to their personal recommendation on whether or not to approve a given mod. (Explanations may follow but are not required.)
  

My initial take on these is ...

• Is a mod "Graphical"? - YES
  
• Is a mod "Utilitarian"? - YES
  
• Is a mod "Rebalancing"? - NO
  
• Which components are modified? - Themes
  
• If Python or C++ are involved, the mod needs to be certified free of trojans. - NO code was changed in the making of this mod
  

[Ruff_Hi]

Here are some screenshots illustrating the differences caused by the colour part of CivScale. The first set are with a high opacity value.

Custom Game Setup ...


Civ Selection ...


List of units ...


Typical game play screen shot (ignore the huge icons - that is the other part of CivScale which is being addressed in a different thread) ...


These next few screenshots are with a low opacity value.

Opening Credits Menu ...


Civ Selection (this is probably the major problem with the low opacity value) ...


Typical game play shot ...

[Ruff_Hi]

For me - there is no impact on the actual game play, spoiler information, etc from this part of CivScale. I think this mod can be approved. Can we get some comments from the community regarding the colour / font / opacity component of CivScale regarding this?

[pling]

For me - there is no impact on the actual game play, spoiler information, etc from this part of CivScale. I think this mod can be approved. Can we get some comments from the community regarding the colour / font / opacity component of CivScale regarding this?

Oh yes, I meant to comment on this earlier - I agree I can't see any impact on the game play, and I'd quite like to have my purple interface back

[mihau]

sounds interesting...

BTW:
Ya know what I would like to have ?
"FIND CITY" option - I hate searching the continents for the city, ...mine or AI's
does anybody know such mod?
would it had a chance to be allowed in RB?

[Bede]

I have used Civ Scale in solo games for the larger, sans serif fonts. The original typefaces are just too difficult to pick out for old farts who wear trifocals so we can see keyboard, monitor and the rest of the world clearly.

As for color/opacity that looks to be a matter of taste, and I have none.

[Ruff_Hi]

Anyone else got any comments on the colour / font part of CivScale? If so, please make them known. One of the requirements for mods to get approved is that they have a not insignificant usage (actual level not defined IIRC).

@Sirian - what more are we missing to get a ruling on this mod?

[Sirian]

@Sirian - what more are we missing to get a ruling on this mod?

Because CivScale has some features that won't be approved (the scaling aspects, which you showed to provide spoilers), that may be the end of it. I don't exactly intend to approve parts of mods. It's yes or no, to keep enforcement matters simple and clear.

If that weren't at issue, you'd still need to show evidence establishing that the mod has no trojans and get together a committee of folks from the community who proactively put their stamp of approval on the mod. (It is not enough to raise the points and, hearing no direct objections, assume that you've crossed the finish line).

Does this clarify for you?


- Sirian

[Ruff_Hi]

Yes thx but I have no idea how to show that this executable is free of trojans et al.

Folks - we need some sort of quota that really want this mod approved - please post here if you do. I plan to post to the author of this mod re the spoilers and see if we can get a spoiler free version.

[T-hawk]

I took some time to try this out today, and I must say I quite like it. The option to use sans serif fonts within the game is splendid. Can we approve it? Can't be any harm in changing the colors of the interface.

On a tangent, would it be possible to give blanket permission to manually editing Civ4Theme_Common.thm? (Separate question from approving CivScale itself.) As far as I can tell, there's nothing in there but HUD and interface stuff, but it's got a lot of juicy options that are beyond the scope of CivScale or any other frontend to the text files.

For example, a change I really want is removing the drop-shadow that the game uses for much of its text. Trivial to do by editing the .thm file, and obviously it'd have zero gameplay implications. But it seems silly to make a UI and distribution package for T-hawk's Text Drop Shadow Removal Mod to alter three numbers in one text file, and I can't imagine a "critical mass" of the the community ever caring enough for official approval of that. So how can we approach this?

Edit: Actually, that file is Python code, so blanket editing permission won't work as you can tap into any part of the game from there. But I think it'd work to allow any editing that's confined to the namespace of GFC_Control.GFC_Control_DefaultControl_Style . Or, more simply, just allow "value" edits like numbers (for colors) and font names.