-- A Heartfelt Thank You
-- Author: DartsTheMonkey (SharkyMcSnarkface)
-- DateCreated: 5/28/2026 2:52:56 AM
--------------------------------------------------------------

So, you've been nosy enough to take a peek into what this mod looks like on the inside and found this note.

Please, allow me to ramble on about modding, introspection, and life. If you would rather skip to the end than read this sort of strange autobiography, I won't blame you.

This note is dedicated to Delta. I don't know where you are, buddy. I just hope you are living your best life out there, somewhere.

----------------------------------------------------------------- LIFE RAMBLE START ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

I was a child of 14 when I started looking into figuring out how to mod Civ V. Certainly simpler than trying to do so for other games, and just a bit after the heyday of 
Civ V modding. I was looking into the guts of fun fictional civs like you are right now. It looked simple enough. How wrong I was. The guides were outdated, and confusing to a 
child. I remember the joy of my first simple mod, adding a mere city-state of Treasure Town. Seeing my efforts on the screen, it inspired me further. I tried my hand at making
a full civilization: The one which you are perusing the files of right now. I say learning how to make a civ took me a week and a reluctant visit to the CivFanatics forums,
where the kind users there would assist me in making my vision a reality. It was crude, it was messy, but it was mine. It was a show to the world of my passion. I once
cringed looking at the bad dialogue and mistakes I made in the making of Wigglytuff's Guild, but now I look back with great nostalgia. It was a simpler time, and I had fun
doing it. It was an escape from homelife.

Seeing the reaction to my work, I grew to crave it. I made the Temporal Empire not too long after, and then more mods came. More and more, the passion was soon outpaced by my
desire to be seen. I was putting out buggy slop, and it was clear I didn't want to make these anymore. So I stopped. For 3 years, I made nothing. I was just going about my life.
I don't remember much about this period in my life. I was learning I wasn't invincible, and everything I thought I knew about myself was a lie. If you would do the math, you would
see that I resumed making mods in 2020. Certainly quite the year. I was a shut-in loser so I was hardly effected by the Covid pandemic, but even I got restless. I looked back,
and decided to dust off ModBuddy. It was like riding a bike, and I picked it up again. My standards were higher, and I was slightly smarter. Like my old self, with each
mod I put out, the quality was higher (I think), my ambitions stronger. And that is life, I suppose. When you fall, all you can do is get back up. You learn from your mistakes.
You grow and change as a person. Lord knows I would beat the crap out of my younger self for being the fool he was.

But would that be fair to younger me? I was ignorant, and reliant on those whom I saw as my guides. It couldn't have been my fault for not knowing what wasn't taught to me. In
spite of all that, I became better. I took it upon myself when I finally faced the reality that I knew nothing, and running away won't help me. That's one hell of an accomplishment.
But I wasn't alone in it. The kindness of others lifted me up where I failed. I look back to life, and my Civ V modding journey, and see parallels to my learning and growth.
We can make great things happen when we work for it, and when we stop being afraid to ask for help. A better you, a better life, a better world is always possible.

And now, it has come full circle. A handful of people have since come to me asking for my help in modding Civ V, inspired by what I've made. I'm hardly the best teacher,
but I tried. As a way of finally being able to give back, even as meagre as it is compared to what I've taken. But hey, I've come across a lot of obstacles in my journeys,
what's one more? 

----------------------------------------------------------------- LIFE RAMBLE OVER ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

In all, thank you, and sorry. Thank you, user, for downloading my mod. Thank you everyone for enjoying my passionate work. Thank you those who have helped me become the person
I am today. And the sorry? Sorry for those I have failed along the way; Those whose promises I've given that I broke. Even now I'm too afraid to face them, and I don't expect
forgiveness, but know I am sorry.

Thank you all for inspiring 10 years of Civ 5 modding, and enduring my corny, sentimental ass. This means more to me than anyone could ever know.
- DartsTheMonkey, now known as SharkyMcSnarkface



"The important thing is not how long you live... It's what you accomplish with your life. While I live, I want to shine. I want to prove that I exist. If I could do something
really important... That would definitely carry on into the future. No... Not just into the future. In Hero's and Partner's future too... My spirit has become part of them,
I believe. In them, my spirit is alive. And that spirit could be passed along to others. And so, if I were to disappear... I think all that I have accomplished will go on.
That is... That would mean... That it's living, right?"
- Grovyle