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IncreduloDriver
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of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution
Nov 2001 time: 13:15
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Regarding using Mohammed for the Arabs:
If you use Mohammed as the leader of the Arabs, I wonder how certain people of a very specific faith may feel when they see a beat-up version of Mohammed on the victory screen? I'm no Muslim, but I don't think it'd be too nice. I think you run into the same problem as with using Jesus for the Hebrews ("Why didn't God's profit beat the pants off these heathens?"). I'm all for using great historical leaders, but perhaps we should keep *divine* historical leaders out of anything destined for mass public consumption. There are a whole slew of other awesome Arab leaders (Peter O'Toole, for instance, my personal favorite) that would make great leaders. And, while the majority of Arabic people and countries may be officially Islamic, there's no need to unfairly stereotype *every* Arab as a Muslim, just as it would be unfair to stereotype *every* American, Canadian, Limey, or Armenian as a Christian. So perhaps religion should take a back seat to more secular history?
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Barkeep49
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Quick suggestion: For Europa Univeralis when the players made a comprehensive change such as this they made a frontend program that allowed for quick customization so that curtain options and not others could be chosen. I don't know if anyone here has those talents, but something that would allow people to choose how to address some of the SE Asia and Inclusion/Exclusion of current Civs might be good.
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annoyed
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I think each civ should be given a special unit and special ability. I think these should change with each period of history.
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Locutus
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ACS CTP1/2 Manager & Civ4 Co-Manager
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Hengelo, The Netherlands
Nov 1999 time: 06:15
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All,
Could we please keep the civ-specific discussions in the civ-specific thread (links to these threads can be found in the first post of the XPC poll)? This thread is intended to discuss general issues, these civ-specific things are really disruptive (I don't mind small 'side-discussions' but 90% of the current discussion is not directly on topic). I need some suggestions for the UUs polls but other than that there's no need... The same goes for people practically casting their XPC votes here. If you want to tell the world which civs you feel should be included, please discuss this in my other thread (you don't actually have have to vote if you don't want to)...
But although I'm not for this off-topic discussion, I will say this: Muhammed is most certainly NOT gonna be the Arab leader. This is for the simple reason that this would be a grave insult to Muslims everywhere. It is strictly forbidden by the laws of the Islam to display Muhammed's image (beaten up or otherwise), just as it is forbidden to display God himself in Christianity (and Judaism and Islam). The only way to respectfully have Muhammed in the game as Arab leader is with an empty leader picture but I don't think that's really an option. I must say I'm quite dissappointed by the fact that so many people apparently know and understand so little of the Islam, IIRC the world's largest religion (at least very rapidly becoming the largest)...
LoD,
As I don't have the game I don't have a full overview of how the file system works either. I'll see if I can somehow manage to get a better idea of how editing the game works in general, as this is important for other reasons as well, but it might be a while before I can get my hands on the right information.
ranskaldan,
Actually, I already have something of a database (more accurate: a big text file) with all the civdata on my computer. If people are interested, I'll see if I can post tomorrow or so (don't have it at hand an it may need some fixing up). I'll continuously try to keep it up to date but the threads linked to in the the XPC poll will always be more accurate (although with all this discussion outside the 'designated' threads some important suggestions might have gotten lost).
El hidalgo, tmarcl,
Thanks for those files, they contain some good suggestions. I too am especially fond of composing city lists so I think you, El hidalgo, and I might be in for some interesting discussions (some surprising and interesting things on the Mongol city list, I'll probably have some comments/questions on that at a later time, I'm too busy now - keep an eye on the 'XPC explained: Spanish & Mongols' thread)... BTW, El hidalgo, I like your suggestion for the Junk as well, I'll add that to the list. Question though: what's a 'dhow'? I don't think I ever heard of that... (I'll probably post the polls as soon as I find out what it is)
Stuie,
You bring up a very important issue. I asked (maybe a bit too implicitly?) in my first post if it was appropriate at all to mess with the existing civs but since noone responded to it or seemed to object to it (until now), I assumed noone really had a problem with it. Though it will certainly be possible to (with some more effort) install only part of the mod (i.e. the new civs), it might be a good idea to find out how many people would do this. I'll start a poll soon in which I ask if it's okay with people to mess with the existing civs at all. If enough people have a problem with it, we can decide how to deal with it (leave them alone, make 2 versions, whatever).
Personally I don't see a real problem. I would say that 1) is not really the case, the polls show that many of us (in case of the Zulus more than 80%) feel Firaxis made at least some mistakes. 2) has been proven to be false by the Call to Power series (its mods changed the existing game and initially worried people but eventually all but a handful of people tried and enjoyed the mods after all). Besides, there's always backups, no permanent damage would ever be done... And 3) is not really a problem either: if Firaxis releases conflicting patches (which I don't really expect, patches usually fix problems, not gameplay), we will simply release our own patches/new versions as well... As I see it, the mod will only give you more options, not force you into anything. But I can see how some people might still not be comfortable with changing the existing stuff so I'll start a poll soon.
star mouse,
I couldn't agree more. Though many of the decisions on the civs can be made independently from each other, the CSAs will need to be carefully balanced. We'll figure that out once we know all the civs though (perhaps we should even consider picking certain civs/leaving them out because of the CSAs but we'll see about that later)...
With 2 extra CSA properties (presuming we can add more ourselves) we can have 28 different combinations though, so it's not a necessity to have everything twice, as you suggest.
Barkeep,
That would certainly be an interesting idea but that would IMHO be aiming too high for this mod (but I'm sure someone will make such a editing tool sooner or later). Once you have a tool like that, you don't need modpacks anymore: people would release individual civs on Apolyton (or elsewhere) and every civ could be downloaded and added to people's pool from which they select their possible opponents before starting up civ3. You'd have an infinite number of civs to choose from, once the history and graphics people got going... I think we 'normal' civvers should focus on simply making civs and let the 'nerds' work on the more advanced stuff...
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Martinus
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of Poland
Jun 2001 time: 06:15
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quote: Originally posted by IncreduloDriver
Regarding using Mohammed for the Arabs:
If you use Mohammed as the leader of the Arabs, I wonder how certain people of a very specific faith may feel when they see a beat-up version of Mohammed on the victory screen? I'm no Muslim, but I don't think it'd be too nice. I think you run into the same problem as with using Jesus for the Hebrews ("Why didn't God's profit beat the pants off these heathens?"). I'm all for using great historical leaders, but perhaps we should keep *divine* historical leaders out of anything destined for mass public consumption. There are a whole slew of other awesome Arab leaders (Peter O'Toole, for instance, my personal favorite) that would make great leaders. And, while the majority of Arabic people and countries may be officially Islamic, there's no need to unfairly stereotype *every* Arab as a Muslim, just as it would be unfair to stereotype *every* American, Canadian, Limey, or Armenian as a Christian. So perhaps religion should take a back seat to more secular history? |
Moreover, for Hebrews especially, the historicity of Jesus is widely disputed, so it would be like putting Helen of Troy as the leader of Greeks (nobody knows whether she ever existed, and even if she did, she was not much of a leader)
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IncreduloDriver
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of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution
Nov 2001 time: 13:15
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No more off-topics, but I felt honour-bound to correct this, Locutus.
quote: Originally posted by Locutus
[Islam,] the world's largest religion (at least very rapidly becoming the largest)... |
Not by a long shot, buddy. According to my 2000 World Almanac, Islam has about 1 billion adherents, while Catholicism alone has over 1 billion, to say nothing of the 1 billion other Christians. And I don't think it's possible to "very rapidly" double your population by adding 1 billion people. I thought this was quite ironic, considering your sentence at the end of this next quote 
quote:
I will say this: Muhammed is most certainly NOT gonna be the Arab leader. This is for the simple reason that this would be a grave insult to Muslims everywhere. It is strictly forbidden by the laws of the Islam to display Muhammed's image (beaten up or otherwise), just as it is forbidden to display God himself in Christianity (and Judaism and Islam). The only way to respectfully have Muhammed in the game as Arab leader is with an empty leader picture but I don't think that's really an option. I must say I'm quite dissappointed by the fact that so many people apparently know and understand so little of the Islam [religion] |
That's sort of my point, that Muslims wouldn't like it. Yeah, I didn't know that displaying a picture of Muhammed is a terrible sin, and I didn't know that showing God is evil, either. I guess I just won't look up next time I'm in the Sistine Chapel. I'm quite dissappointed by the fact that you didn't check yours 
Sorry, I don't want to turn this thread into a personal arguement. You won't hear another off-topic peep out of me, not even in a rebuttal 
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Locutus
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ACS CTP1/2 Manager & Civ4 Co-Manager
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Hengelo, The Netherlands
Nov 1999 time: 06:15
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quote: Originally posted by IncreduloDriver
Not by a long shot, buddy. According to my 2000 World Almanac, Islam has about 1 billion adherents, while Catholicism alone has over 1 billion, to say nothing of the 1 billion other Christians. And I don't think it's possible to "very rapidly" double your population by adding 1 billion people. I thought this was quite ironic, considering your sentence at the end of this next quote  |
Actually, according to the Global Evangelization Movement research center there are about 1.9 billion Christians and 1.2 billion Muslims on this planet (source: www.beliefnet.com). While Christianity is actually gradually loosing members, especially in Europe, the Muslim population is booming, esp. in 3rd world countries (in fact, many cities in 3rd world countries *will* double their population in the next 2 decades). Islam is actually the fastest growing religion in the world and the number of Muslims in the world will outgrow the number of Christians within the next 2-5 decades. If you consider it took them almost 1500 years to get where they are today, that's very fast.
But these numbers aren't even that important. What matters more is that 20 odd years ago, an ordinary European/American citizen would encounter simply not encounter Islam in everyday life. Today the Islam is a phenomenon that noone can ignore (and that's complete unrelated to the 'war against terror') anymore. Knowing at least something about it is only the 'right' thing to do...
quote: That's sort of my point, that Muslims wouldn't like it. Yeah, I didn't know that displaying a picture of Muhammed is a terrible sin, and I didn't know that showing God is evil, either. I guess I just won't look up next time I'm in the Sistine Chapel. I'm quite dissappointed by the fact that you didn't check yours  |
What, you don't even know the 10 commandments? Regardless of your own (lack of?) religion, shame on you! In any case, the fact that most Christians have a problem with the 2nd Commandment ("Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above [...]") doesn't mean that Muslims have the same problem, does it? I'm fully aware of the many violations of this Commandments by Christians but Muslims enforce the rules of their religion very strictly (or at least their interpretation of the rules, which can widely differ: Taliban <-> 'Western' Muslims) and displaying Muhammed is indeed a terrible sin.
Edit: Martinus, I did not take any theology classes as I'm an atheist myself but I *did* take the effort of learning a thing or two about the world's biggest religions, and that includes reading the 10 Commandments....
Last edited by Locutus on 14-11-2001 at 21:00
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Locutus
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ACS CTP1/2 Manager & Civ4 Co-Manager
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Hengelo, The Netherlands
Nov 1999 time: 06:15
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Then you have a very weird bible 'cause that's the 3rd commandment. Here is a website which offers 10 different, highly respected, (English) Bible translations (plus a whole bunch of non-English translations). In all versions, the second commandment is similar in meaning: "You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below." (Exodus 20-4). I once compared portions of the NIV version (first one on the website) with the original Greek (well, 'original', the real original Old Testament is in Hebrew of course but I don't speak Hebrew and the New Testament *was* written in Greek - the differences between NIV and NT should be similiar to NIV and OT) and it's quite similar. So, as I said, if your Bible says the second commandment is about not using God's name in vain, you have a very weird version of the Bible (that's the problem with translations: they're not the original anymore but an interpretation of the original; I always prefer reading originals over translations but my Greek is too rusty for that in case of the Bible)...
But now even I am getting off-topic. Anyway, I found out that the dhow is an Arab ship, similar to the Xebec, so I'll start a batch of polls in a moment.
Stuie,
The whole idea of this Pack is to come up with something that at least the vast majority of Apolytoners can be satisfied with, so I'm sure we'll be able to work something out.
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El hidalgo
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quote: Originally posted by Locutus
El hidalgo, tmarcl,
Thanks for those files, they contain some good suggestions. I too am especially fond of composing city lists so I think you, El hidalgo, and I might be in for some interesting discussions (some surprising and interesting things on the Mongol city list, I'll probably have some comments/questions on that at a later time, I'm too busy now - keep an eye on the 'XPC explained: Spanish & Mongols' thread)... BTW, El hidalgo, I like your suggestion for the Junk as well, I'll add that to the list. Question though: what's a 'dhow'? I don't think I ever heard of that... (I'll probably post the polls as soon as I find out what it is) |
A dhow is a type of ship. Now that I look more into it it doesn't seem that it would be a particularly interesting unit. Apparently it was used by merchants.
I look forward to your comments about the city lists. It will be interesting to draw on everyone's knowledge and resources here and come up with some really definitive lists. 
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tmarcl
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Baltimore, MD USA
Feb 2001 time: 00:15
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quote: Originally posted by IncreduloDriver
Regarding using Mohammed for the Arabs: If you use Mohammed as the leader of the Arabs, I wonder how certain people of a very specific faith may feel when they see a beat-up version of Mohammed on the victory screen? I'm no Muslim, but I don't think it'd be too nice. I think you run into the same problem as with using Jesus for the Hebrews ("Why didn't God's profit beat the pants off these heathens?").
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Actually, you'd run into an entirely different problem using Jesus as leader of the Hebrews-the Jews at *most* acknowledge Jesus as a great teacher. He doesn't even reach prophet status. Choosing Jesus as the leader the Hebrews would be in quite poor taste, to put it mildly. A better example for your analogy would have been Moses.
However, I do take your point, and agree with you.
I'm all for using great historical leaders, but perhaps we should keep *divine* historical leaders out of anything destined for mass public consumption. There are a whole slew of other awesome Arab leaders (Peter O'Toole, for instance, my personal favorite) that would make great leaders. And, while the majority of Arabic people and countries may be officially Islamic, there's no need to unfairly stereotype *every* Arab as a Muslim, just as it would be unfair to stereotype *every* American, Canadian, Limey, or Armenian as a Christian. So perhaps religion should take a back seat to more secular history? [/QUOTE]
That would be difficult. In the Western world, we are primarily secular-our religion and our politics don't mix much, if at all. In the Middle East, however, most nations make it the law to be Muslim (Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia (I *think*-don't quote me on that one) to name a few. In some Middle Eastern countries, people are strongly persecuted for belonging to other faiths. In Israel's golden age (which I'm saying to be during King David's time and King Solomon's time), everyone was Jewish, and, according to the Old Testament, at least, if you weren't, you were put to death. King David himself was the writer of many of the Psalms.
The problem is that you're looking at the Middle East through Western eyes-you can't do that, any more than you can look at the Far East that way. The cultures are just too different.
Marc
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tmarcl
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Baltimore, MD USA
Feb 2001 time: 00:15
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quote: Originally posted by Locutus
But these numbers aren't even that important. What matters more is that 20 odd years ago, an ordinary European/American citizen would encounter simply not encounter Islam in everyday life. Today the Islam is a phenomenon that noone can ignore (and that's complete unrelated to the 'war against terror') anymore. Knowing at least something about it is only the 'right' thing to do...
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In your opinion, at least 
quote:
What, you don't even know the 10 commandments? Regardless of your own (lack of?) religion, shame on you! In any case, the fact that most Christians have a problem with the 2nd Commandment ("Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above [...]") doesn't mean that Muslims have the same problem, does it? I'm fully aware of the many violations of this Commandments by Christians but Muslims enforce the rules of their religion very strictly (or at least their interpretation of the rules, which can widely differ: Taliban <-> 'Western' Muslims) and displaying Muhammed is indeed a terrible sin.
Edit: Martinus, I did not take any theology classes as I'm an atheist myself but I *did* take the effort of learning a thing or two about the world's biggest religions, and that includes reading the 10 Commandments.... |
It might not have been a bad idea to have taken a theology class, Locutus. This isn't the forum to discuss it, but you are way off. Before accusing people of violating this that or the other thing, it might be a good idea to find out *why* they do it. (Admittedly, most Christians probably don't know why they are allowed to make graven images, but that's besides the point).
Marc
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Dark Horseman
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Davis, CA
Nov 2001 time: 21:15
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Important Civilizations for an expansion:
The Hapsburg Empire (aka Austria-Hungary): Very old European Empire nearly primarily responsible for World War I. Vienna is often considered the 2nd cultural capital of Europe to Paris especially during the classical period.
Sweden: The most powerful European nation to attain neutrality during World War II. Also a viable power in the medieval ages with famous leaders such as King Gustave. Sweden was among the first countries to successfully implement socialist policies into Democracy *successfully* providing an example for Europe through the 2nd half of the 20th century to today. All the while countries like Russia, Germany, France, and England were all relying on political extremes which led to the World War catastrophes.
The Khmer: Someone did mention them, but I wish to reiterate. They constructed the most impressive Buddhist religious buildings that are still standing throughout Indo-China. Also a very rich empire. Religious and industrious.
Korea: Always left out in the Asian theatre. Korea is an important Asian nation. In AOE2 they were represented by their superior imperial navy, and in CCRA2 they represented the modern day allies with Black Hawk fighter Jets. Scientific and industrious.
Sioux: Largest Native American congregation. Dissappointed they were dumped after Civ2. Militaristic Expansionist.
Hebrew: One of the most influential religious cultures of all time (if not the most). The home of 3 of the largest world religions today (Christianity, Judaism, Muslim). A better leader candidate imo is King David. Religious and Commercial.
Ethiopia: Also mentioned; until the imperialist age they were the most wealthy civilization in the world. The only African country to fight back imperialism (Italy) until World War II.
Ottoman Turks: Largest and most powerful despot empire which threatened Europe many a time and dominated the middle east.
Mayans: Oldest civilization in recorded history.
Incan: Largest native Southern and Central American tribe.
Feel free to correct any information that is wrong this is all off the top of my head, and it's late. I'd like to see the old civs brought back too: Carthage, The Vikings, The Celts, Mongols.
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Locutus
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ACS CTP1/2 Manager & Civ4 Co-Manager
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Hengelo, The Netherlands
Nov 1999 time: 06:15
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quote: Originally posted by tmarcl
It might not have been a bad idea to have taken a theology class, Locutus. This isn't the forum to discuss it, but you are way off. Before accusing people of violating this that or the other thing, it might be a good idea to find out *why* they do it. (Admittedly, most Christians probably don't know why they are allowed to make graven images, but that's besides the point).
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I agree this is not the place to discuss it but you can't deny the 10 Commandments say you're not allowed to do so. In the few 'theology lessons' (if you can call them that) I followed in highschool they even explained that. I know about there are plenty of other inconsistencies in the Bible and that many theologists have (good or not so good, I'll leave that open here) explanations for them (IIRC this particular case was decided by the iconnoclastic(sp?) movement in Byzantium) but as an atheist I don't particularly care, that's something Christians have to figure out for themselves. And I'm not accusing anyone of anything, merely pointing out a fact. Since when is breaking your own rules by definition a bad thing? Treating men and women equally also violates the rules of Christanity, yet I don't think many people today would view that as a bad thing. In some cases breaking your own rules merely reflects the insight that justice/religion is more than a book of laws...
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Harel
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Ramat Hasharon, Israel
May 1999 time: 05:15
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quote: Originally posted by Spartan187
I don't know if this is still being UU: Either Zealots, an upgraded Swordsman (Jewish Zealots fought very well against the Romans once their numbers are considered) or perhaps the Palmach, an upgraded infantry.
Generals would include Deborah and Dayan. |
Why not the Merkava, an upgraded advanced tank? Have some pride in modern Israeli tech! :-)
I disagree that Israel should be a religious country. I would call it a scientific militaristic state.
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