Well, this is my first post in this forum, and I certainly start with gusto :D

I have enjoyed every title of Civilization that has been released, but this one definitely takes the cake. Of course, if a game can be edited or modded, I love to get my hands dirty. I come from the train simulator side of things, and some of my work is now featured in an international product:

http://www.railroadsimulator.com

Anyway, on with the show... :mischief:

http://img519.imageshack.us/img519/4739/civ4tools0011jz.th.jpg (http://img519.imageshack.us/my.php?image=civ4tools0011jz.jpg)

This is by no means ready to release, but it's actually capable of doing something at this point. The TextInfos are some of the easiest objects to deal with, even though there are literally hundreds of them across several files.

Civ4Tools at this point is able to add or edit the TextInfos, and is able to save a properly formatted XML document. My end goal is to have a fully functional editor that can edit just about anything. Comments/suggestions are certainly welcome.

Dec 14, 2005: See page 2 for my first release of this project.

Dec 16/05: Posted the download in this post to make it easier to find. A small update, adding some more function, mostly with the civilization dialog.

[edit Jan 6, 2005]
Removed the demo, since it is now outdated.

Will this edit the existing files or will it place the edited files in a mod folder?

Looking very promising btw.

All I have to say is, if you pull of what your promise you are going to make alot of civvers happy. Good luck in your endeavors! :goodjob:

neat, will have a look on that when i come home.

/cheer

:)

Will this edit the existing files or will it place the edited files in a mod folder?

Looking very promising btw.

I could have it do either. The program can write files at this point, but it's still really just in the testing stages. No matter where the files are written, it has to be formatted exactly as it was read. So far, I can say it does exactly that.

I could have it do either. The program can write files at this point, but it's still really just in the testing stages. No matter where the files are written, it has to be formatted exactly as it was read. So far, I can say it does exactly that.

What are you writing this in?
I am trying something similiar in Python with a wxPython GUI, but am miles and miles away from getting anything useful out of it.

I'm writing it in VB.NET. I certainly know C++, but Basic is easier, and now with .Net, it's just as capable.

Looks great austin,will probably like too use it but will it back up the files also?.

OMG! This looks like the perfect XML editor. XMLSpy does similar stuff, but it's tedious. Why can't you release it yet? I'd be happy to test it.

Yes give it to thamis! He must finish [civ4] TAM mod in record speed! Man I really need a hit bad! :D

It's far from a releasable utility, I'm afraid. It's for the most part read only at this point, although I can edit and add records, so on. But it doesn't really write anything. That's still in the beginning stages, while I continue to grasp the ins & outs of the XML spec. Of course, I'm not completely in the dark on that aspect, it's just making sure it writes a perfectly-formed new file, something Civ4 isn't going to choke on.

I've decided that this will not overwrite the default Civ 4 XML documents, since the standard is to create new 'mod' folders instead. This will be what Civ4Tools will do. Unless people want the capability to overwrite the default XML. Do people want this capability?

Not really, its not a good idea to do it anyways, especially not for newbies, so I'd stick to the mod/folder

If some people really want it (wich I doubt), please make it a special attribute a user has to set before it overwrites the default files (with an onscreen warning perhaps?)

Then so it shall be handled that way. Thanks for the feedback.

It's been a while since my last update. But I have been busy. I hope to have something to release very soon, although it will still be quite limited in what it can do. The thing is, it will demonstrate the potential of what I hope it will do.

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c320/austin316hockey/Civ4Tools/civ4tools_002.jpg
Editing the game speed options. Want an epic game that takes twice as long? This is where you do it.

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c320/austin316hockey/Civ4Tools/civ4tools_003.jpg
This shot shows the turn increment options. The meat of the matter, here is where you can adjust the turn length, etc.

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c320/austin316hockey/Civ4Tools/civ4tools_004.jpg
The main window, showing the "normal" game speed option.

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c320/austin316hockey/Civ4Tools/civ4tools_005.jpg
The load dialogue.

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c320/austin316hockey/Civ4Tools/civ4tools_006.jpg
The area I'm working on right now. The civilizations. As you can see, the treeview at right hasn't been filled in yet; only a few tags are shown.

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c320/austin316hockey/Civ4Tools/civ4tools_007.jpg
Editing a text info. This dialogue is used for a few files, since the content is similar.

So, that's where things are at right now. Sorrry for having to post image links rather than thumbnails, photobucket doesn't do that. But imageshack seems to be broken lately.

Thank you very much for working on this!

Awesome!

When do you think we can have a beta version of this?

It looks like I have some bad news. Just after posting the update on Friday, my computer stopped working. I turn it on, the fans come on, the hard drives start up, but it won't POST. So, it looks like I'm out of commission until a few days before Christmas. Sorry about that, but fate has it in for me lately.

I've had to post this from a friend's computer. Anyway, thanks for the comments, and I will get cracking on this utility as soon as I possibly can.

Well I definitely look forward to seeing this tool completed.

Thanks to a great friend and $200, I've been able to get my computer back up and running. My old XP2200 will be given a proper funeral, now replaced with a slightly faster XP 2800+. So, it's back to work, with hopes of being able to release something to the community very soon. I'm actually installing VB.NET as I write this, so I can get back to business.

Sounds great! Sorry about your computer. Are you sure it's not fixable?

I'm pretty much convinced it's beyond repair. When I put in the new mainboard and CPU, it started without trouble. Either way, I now have a faster machine that should run Civ4 and my other demanding games a little better. Don't like having my hand forced, though. I plan to upgrade in the spring, going for an Athlon64 3700. :devil:

Anyway, I got VB.NET reinstalled, now just need to reinstall Civ 4. Then I'll be back in business.

This looks kick ass. Hope the work continues as this would cut the time in half it takes to make changes to all the files. Bravo sir, and look forward to your finished setup.

Ok. I've decided to release what I have so far, just so the community can get a feel for what I'm doing. Your feedback, ideas and comments are welcome!

Also, something I didn't post in the readme.txt. To get the edit dialogs, right-click in the tree-view on the right side of the window to get the context menu and choose "detail edit".

[attachment was deleted, faulty install]

When starting the game, I got a problem. It is looking for my CIV4 in e:\games\civ4, which is not where I installed it (I assume that's where you installed it?).

I can't open any files because of that.

See the end of this message for details on invoking
just-in-time (JIT) debugging instead of this dialog box.

************** Exception Text **************
System.IO.DirectoryNotFoundException: Could not find a part of the path "e:\games\civ4\mods\".
at System.IO.__Error.WinIOError(Int32 errorCode, String str)
at System.IO.Directory.InternalGetFileDirectoryNames( String fullPath, String userPath, Boolean file)
at System.IO.Directory.InternalGetDirectories(String path, String userPath, String searchPattern)
at System.IO.Directory.GetDirectories(String path, String searchPattern)
at System.IO.Directory.GetDirectories(String path)
at civ4tools.frmLoadMod.frmLoadMod_Load(Object sender, EventArgs e)
at System.Windows.Forms.Form.OnLoad(EventArgs e)
at System.Windows.Forms.Form.OnCreateControl()
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.CreateControl(Boolean fIgnoreVisible)
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.CreateControl()
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.WmShowWindow(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.WndProc(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.ScrollableControl.WndProc(Mes sage& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.ContainerControl.WndProc(Mess age& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.Form.WmShowWindow(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.Form.WndProc(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.ControlNativeWindow.OnMessage (Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.ControlNativeWindow.WndProc(M essage& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.NativeWindow.Callback(IntPtr hWnd, Int32 msg, IntPtr wparam, IntPtr lparam)


************** Loaded Assemblies **************
mscorlib
Assembly Version: 1.0.5000.0
Win32 Version: 1.1.4322.573
CodeBase: file:///c:/windows/microsoft.net/framework/v1.1.4322/mscorlib.dll
----------------------------------------
civ4tools
Assembly Version: 1.0.2174.17418
Win32 Version: 1.0.2174.17418
CodeBase: file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/Jan%20van%20der%20Crabben/My%20Documents/Civ4/civ4tools/civ4tools.exe
----------------------------------------
System.Windows.Forms
Assembly Version: 1.0.5000.0
Win32 Version: 1.1.4322.573
CodeBase: file:///c:/windows/assembly/gac/system.windows.forms/1.0.5000.0__b77a5c561934e089/system.windows.forms.dll
----------------------------------------
System
Assembly Version: 1.0.5000.0
Win32 Version: 1.1.4322.573
CodeBase: file:///c:/windows/assembly/gac/system/1.0.5000.0__b77a5c561934e089/system.dll
----------------------------------------
System.Drawing
Assembly Version: 1.0.5000.0
Win32 Version: 1.1.4322.573
CodeBase: file:///c:/windows/assembly/gac/system.drawing/1.0.5000.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/system.drawing.dll
----------------------------------------
SandBar
Assembly Version: 1.0.8.0
Win32 Version: 1.0.8.0
CodeBase: file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/Jan%20van%20der%20Crabben/My%20Documents/Civ4/civ4tools/SandBar.DLL
----------------------------------------
FlatTabControl
Assembly Version: 1.0.2147.32580
Win32 Version: 1.0.2147.32580
CodeBase: file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/Jan%20van%20der%20Crabben/My%20Documents/Civ4/civ4tools/FlatTabControl.DLL
----------------------------------------
Microsoft.VisualBasic
Assembly Version: 7.0.5000.0
Win32 Version: 7.10.3052.4
CodeBase: file:///c:/windows/assembly/gac/microsoft.visualbasic/7.0.5000.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/microsoft.visualbasic.dll
----------------------------------------

************** JIT Debugging **************
To enable just in time (JIT) debugging, the config file for this
application or machine (machine.config) must have the
jitDebugging value set in the system.windows.forms section.
The application must also be compiled with debugging
enabled.

For example:

<configuration>
<system.windows.forms jitDebugging="true" />
</configuration>

When JIT debugging is enabled, any unhandled exception
will be sent to the JIT debugger registered on the machine
rather than being handled by this dialog.

Well, that didn't work very well. In typical fashion, I forget to change a setting before release, and that botched everything.

What happened, is I disabled the section which verifies the location of Civ4, substituting that with a hard-coded location. Naturally, that's not gonna work too well on others' computers. :rolleyes:

That's now been fixed, so try downloading the file again.

[Dec 16/05: moved the download to the top of the thread for easy access]

just downloaded it, going to give it a test run. Looks very promising and right along some of the things that i want to mod for my games.

Thank you very much for your work on this, I will post any feedback i can think about in due time :)

Everything that you have seems to work, except I cannot actually edit any of the turn legths or anything in game options at all. The input field box comes up and I am able to input new values, but nothing actually is changed.

It seems that most of the only things that i can change are things related to text, but nothing that has any value besides text can be altered at this point.

I was able to change the name of a gr. person, change the text of a help tip.

I could not change a civs cities. Also when this is implicated could it be possible to enter a text of a city, instead of choosing from the list. People may want to add in cities that are not included in the predefined list.

That is about all that I had noticed on this release. It looks very promising and I will definately be following the progress of this.

Posting a small update this morning (it's just after midnight my time as I post this). The civilization edit dialog has been fleshed out pretty much, and it's just about complete.

Vladdrac: Thanks for the feedback. Yes, you'll probably find a lot of things don't work just yet. However, the stuff that is fully functional at this point is a major foundation for everything else. Most of the text stuff is the very basic building blocks upon which more complicated structures are built.

As far as adding/editing a civ's cities, I contemplated just allowing the user to type in the city names. However, all the cities reference the Text\CIV4GameTextInfos_Cities.xml file. The modification of that file is already built in to Civ4Tools. So, if you wanted to add more cities to a particular civ, you first create it in the cities panel, then it will appear in the listview in the civ edit dialog.

Having stumbled in vain around the XML I logged on hoping to find someone doing this - from what I've read this is the salvation I've been looking for!

This fix is going to be REALLY popular once you've got it sorted, there are heaps of us CivVets who are not programers just waiting for something like this.

Thanks again

CIV ON!

Will this utility let you add cash to your civilization or your opponents on the fly during a game? like powerbar did for civ3?

I'm not the coder, but:

As I understand it, no. The XML determines the game settings when the game is initialized. It doesn't alter memory (while the game is running) at all.

For editing city names I can only recommend this tool I made:
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=144366

I think that's the quickest way to do it.

Will this utility let you add cash to your civilization or your opponents on the fly during a game? like powerbar did for civ3?

As Raize has said, no, this is not an 'in game' editor. It works with the data files outside of the game. Any changes made in the editor would not take effect until the game is restarted.

Well, it's been an interesting week and a half. I have been busy, mainly working on this tool. Of course, I did visit my mom over Christmas, that was great. But I'm back to business, and I'm ready to share what I've been up to.

Civ4Tools was developing nicely as it was, but I found the tab control on the left side of the screen becoming a bit of a mess. Here's screenshot 4 as a reminder:

http://img471.imageshack.us/img471/4056/civ4tools0044pn.th.jpg (http://img471.imageshack.us/my.php?image=civ4tools0044pn.jpg)

Again, quite nice, but imagine having dozens of tabs in there? :confused:

Now have a look at the latest shot (beware, this one's big, wanted to preserve the detail):

http://img471.imageshack.us/img471/8540/civ4tools0084vb.th.jpg (http://img471.imageshack.us/my.php?image=civ4tools0084vb.jpg)

It's still got a similar flavour to the old version, except that the tab control is gonzo, replaced by a single listbox at the bottom, and several windows up top. The more important one is open, that is the XML tree. You can see several items hilighted in blue, a feature I retained, indicating that file is part of the current mod.

The design is smart, and uncluttered. And highly customizable, much like the Visual Studio environment is. It took me a while to get it right, but now that i have, we're off to the races.

I've also taken the opportunity to clean up some of my code, which sometimes gets unruly. Even though this is not a game in itself, it doesn't give me liscence to be reckless with my coding by any means.

So, that's where things stand at this point, I'll be posting some kind of release shortly.

Thank you. We definitely appreciate your work on this project. :)

Its looks good, but is as good as useless, since it hangs at Civ4gamespeedinfo.xml .

See the end of this message for details on invoking
just-in-time (JIT) debugging instead of this dialog box.

************** Exception Text **************
System.IndexOutOfRangeException: Index was outside the bounds of the array.
at civ4tools.general.SearchTexts(clsText[] ti, String t)
at civ4tools.mLoadData.LoadData(Form1 frm)
at civ4tools.Form1.ToolBar1_ButtonClick(Object sender, ToolBarItemEventArgs e)
at TD.SandBar.ToolBar.OnItemActivate(ToolbarItemBase item)
at TD.SandBar.ToolBar.OnItemRelease(ToolbarItemBase item, Point position)
at TD.SandBar.ToolBar.OnMouseUp(MouseEventArgs e)
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.WmMouseUp(Message& m, MouseButtons button, Int32 clicks)
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.WndProc(Message& m)
at TD.SandBar.ToolBar.WndProc(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.ControlNativeWindow.OnMessage (Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.ControlNativeWindow.WndProc(M essage& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.NativeWindow.Callback(IntPtr hWnd, Int32 msg, IntPtr wparam, IntPtr lparam)


************** Loaded Assemblies **************
mscorlib
Assembly Version: 1.0.5000.0
Win32 Version: 1.1.4322.573
CodeBase: file:///d:/windows/microsoft.net/framework/v1.1.4322/mscorlib.dll
----------------------------------------
civ4tools
Assembly Version: 1.0.2175.30944
Win32 Version: 1.0.2175.30944
CodeBase: file:///D:/Program%20Files/Firaxis%20Games/Civ4tools/civ4tools.exe
----------------------------------------
System.Windows.Forms
Assembly Version: 1.0.5000.0
Win32 Version: 1.1.4322.573
CodeBase: file:///d:/windows/assembly/gac/system.windows.forms/1.0.5000.0__b77a5c561934e089/system.windows.forms.dll
----------------------------------------
System
Assembly Version: 1.0.5000.0
Win32 Version: 1.1.4322.573
CodeBase: file:///d:/windows/assembly/gac/system/1.0.5000.0__b77a5c561934e089/system.dll
----------------------------------------
System.Drawing
Assembly Version: 1.0.5000.0
Win32 Version: 1.1.4322.573
CodeBase: file:///d:/windows/assembly/gac/system.drawing/1.0.5000.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/system.drawing.dll
----------------------------------------
SandBar
Assembly Version: 1.0.8.0
Win32 Version: 1.0.8.0
CodeBase: file:///D:/Program%20Files/Firaxis%20Games/Civ4tools/SandBar.DLL
----------------------------------------
FlatTabControl
Assembly Version: 1.0.2147.32580
Win32 Version: 1.0.2147.32580
CodeBase: file:///D:/Program%20Files/Firaxis%20Games/Civ4tools/FlatTabControl.DLL
----------------------------------------
Microsoft.VisualBasic
Assembly Version: 7.0.5000.0
Win32 Version: 7.10.3052.4
CodeBase: file:///d:/windows/assembly/gac/microsoft.visualbasic/7.0.5000.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/microsoft.visualbasic.dll
----------------------------------------
System.Xml
Assembly Version: 1.0.5000.0
Win32 Version: 1.1.4322.573
CodeBase: file:///d:/windows/assembly/gac/system.xml/1.0.5000.0__b77a5c561934e089/system.xml.dll
----------------------------------------

************** JIT Debugging **************
To enable just in time (JIT) debugging, the config file for this
application or machine (machine.config) must have the
jitDebugging value set in the system.windows.forms section.
The application must also be compiled with debugging
enabled.

For example:

<configuration>
<system.windows.forms jitDebugging="true" />
</configuration>

When JIT debugging is enabled, any unhandled exception
will be sent to the JIT debugger registered on the machine
rather than being handled by this dialog.

I've voted this thread terrible because you ignored me.

I got the same excpetions as Kaiserguard, but the versions on some of the assemblies were different. I have .NET 2.0, which may be the reason for different versions. However, the exepction (index out of range) is the same.

Keep in mind, this is not even really in beta yet. There will be problems. The version I released was only a small demo of where it's going, and now is in fact obsolete. Sorry Kaiserguard to have not responded to your post in the past week, I've been tied up with other things, and in fact haven't had a chance to work on Civ4Tools.

As far as the crash is concerned, thank you for the feedback, it is valuble. I will check the code to see where this actually happened. Now, I have a question. Have you modified the default Civ4gamespeedinfo.xml file? Or have you made other changes to the vanilla game? These are things that could influence its performance.

Civ4Tools is being built using VB.NET 2003, which runs on the .NET framework 1.1. You will need that version of the framework for Civ4Tools to work. Now I am planning to upgrade to VB.NET 2005, which runs on the new .NET 2.0 framework. I will post an announcement when I do.

As far as the crash is concerned, thank you for the feedback, it is valuble. I will check the code to see where this actually happened. Now, I have a question. Have you modified the default Civ4gamespeedinfo.xml file? Or have you made other changes to the vanilla game? These are things that could influence its performance.

No, there isnt even one present in my mod I want to edit, but it might be 1.52 which causes trouble, as it adds a new gameplay-speed called Marathon.

At least I am happy you have responded! ;) :goodjob:

Aaaahhhh, now I know what the trouble might be. That's one of the new language updates, right? Since, as far as I know, there are no benefits for me to install that patch, I didn't. Maybe I better. Ok, thanks for the info.

Does anybody know if austin316hockey is still working on this project, and if so, what stage it is at now?

PLEASE CONTINUE THIS PROJECT!!! I BEG YOU!!! im no coder and have EXTREMELY little experience with any language but have like .001% knowledge in C and c++ from freinds and this program makes it easy for me to understand XML which I have never seen or used in my life. I BEG YOU PLEASE CONTINUE THIS PROJECT!!! austin316hockey YOU ARE MY HERO!

considering he hasn't been on civfanatics since Jan 7th....:(

considering he hasn't been on civfanatics since Jan 7th....:(
Funny to read this from you JP:(

OMFG when are we going to get a working xml editor???

I hear about how moddable this game is, and see all these interesting mods for download, but there isn't even a tutorial that doesn't assume you know EVERYTHING already.

All I want to do is:
1. Download a custom unit.
2. Choose the unit's stats.
3. Make the unit usable by only one civ.
4. Make the unit creatable in the game.

After about 3 hours of searching, I have found 2 tutorials that are either misleading or extremely difficult to understand (for example, one calls the Assets0.xml file "Art0.xml" which had me searching in vain for about 20 minutes).

This game is NOT as easily moddable as everyone claims. Only people who know everything about the game files (and who have experience programming) can accomplish anything with it, and the same can be said for hundreds of games before it.

Before you call a game "easily moddable" you should get Neverwinter Nights and crack open the toolset. It has several wizards for editing, placing, and programming in-game objects. Entire worlds can be constructed and scripted by novices. If someone has created a custom graphic, all you have to do is unpack one resource file, stick the thing in it, and save. Voila, you have modded the game without having to rewrite a half dozen files by hand.

OMFG when are we going to get a working xml editor???

I hear about how moddable this game is, and see all these interesting mods for download, but there isn't even a tutorial that doesn't assume you know EVERYTHING already.

All I want to do is:
1. Download a custom unit.
2. Choose the unit's stats.
3. Make the unit usable by only one civ.
4. Make the unit creatable in the game.

After about 3 hours of searching, I have found 2 tutorials that are either misleading or extremely difficult to understand (for example, one calls the Assets0.xml file "Art0.xml" which had me searching in vain for about 20 minutes).

There is no Art0.xml file as far as I know. Those sound like fpk file names, and Assets0.fpk would be correct name if that was the case.

This game is NOT as easily moddable as everyone claims. Only people who know everything about the game files (and who have experience programming) can accomplish anything with it, and the same can be said for hundreds of games before it.

You are correct. I don't think anyone is claiming that Civ4 is easily moddable. What is amazing about Civ4 is how moddable it is, not how easily moddable.

Before you call a game "easily moddable" you should get Neverwinter Nights and crack open the toolset. It has several wizards for editing, placing, and programming in-game objects. Entire worlds can be constructed and scripted by novices. If someone has created a custom graphic, all you have to do is unpack one resource file, stick the thing in it, and save. Voila, you have modded the game without having to rewrite a half dozen files by hand.

Yeah I have modded NWN too and you are right that it is much easier than Civ4. But I can't do nearly the same amount of things with NWN that I can with Civ4 (not to take anything away from the NWN guys, they did an incredible job and built an amazing game engine).

An editor is a tool, like all tools it allows you to accomplish a specific task with less time/effort but it assumes certain requirements. A shovel, though better than your hands at digging holes, isnt very handy for opening a jar of pickles. So instead of giving an editor that could do specific tasks Firaxis spent their time making a game that was open for modding. A huge amount of xml settings, scriptable python hooks, and public release of source code for the community to read and modify to do what they want.

The end result is I can do a lot more modding Civ4 than I can NWN, but it is harder to do. If you want an easy way to mod, this probably isn't the game engine for you. If you have an ambicious idea for a game and you want to do things that havent been done before then this is what you want.

I have never programmed before starting to make a mod for Civ4 so I dont think its required (though it certainly helps).

Seeing that ir8 spammed his request in several forums Im sad that I wasted the time to respond to it seriously. Someday I'll learn.

I'd say that I could easily open a jar of pickles with a shovel. Of course, the end result may not be what is expected, but the task would be complete, nonetheless? ;)

Anyway, whether ir8 was spamming or not, I'd have to say that I'd agree with the fact that this is not an easy game to mod unless you have a masters in Computer Science and can translate Binary into English on the fly. While I understand that Firaxis has made the game mod friendly, expanding the possibilities of mods, they have left those of us who have trouble with the "hello world" programming lesson sitting on our thumbs either waiting for others to create an editor that we can work with, or play other people's mods while stuffing our ideas in a closet. And those that do have the capability are often undergoing the project on their own, leading to a long development time (at this rate, we may get a decent Civ 4 editor by the time Civilization 6 is released... 5 if we're lucky), or spend their time developing their own mods, which I do not blame them.

Now, before anybody says that I should take the time and learn how to do it myself, (and stop being so lazy), allow me to retort. A long time ago, games were made by a small group of people, often one person. They handled everything from programming to level and character design to sound and music. Even then, they didn't really need much skill in anything but programming. However, as technologies advanced, so too did the skill levels in the various elements of the game become increasingly more demanding. Before long, teams would be needed to make a single game. Only the rare prodigies in everything were able to embark on making games by themselves. But, alas, few people are masters-of-all-trades!

It was during the early years of games that I began to develop an interest in game creation. At the time, I thought that programming was the main avenue to game creation. (I later learned that programming is just the binding that holds all of the elements together, vital, but not the core of game creation.) I began to find books that would help me learn what I needed for my passion. Books like Game Design in 21 days and C++ Programming for Dummies became my bibles. Armed with a compiler and these books, I set out to begin my journey to success and the ultimate form of idea sharing through electronic entertainment. I progressed through these books by the chapter. However, it wasn't long before I hit a stumbling block that would cripple my dreams. The programs copied word for word and function for function from the book to the text editor in the game were not working. I would check and recheck and find that they were entered perfectly and all instructions were followed exactly. If I could not get these pre-written programs from a book to work, how could I ever get my own programs to work. My dreams were beginning to shatter!

Then, the revolution I mentioned earlier hit me. Programming is not the core of a game, it is the binding. It is what holds all of the elements together so that they function the way that they are intended. This was not the avenue that I wanted to take. I am much more creative than technical. My path lead elsewhere.

It was at this time that I discovered game editors. Heroes of Might and Magic 3, Civilization 3, even RPG Maker, had editors which allowed me to focus more on the creative side and worry less about the technical aspect, after all, that part was already dealt with by the developers. I could focus more on the story or the scenario than on the "if-than"s and "printf"s. I was able to explore my imagination without having to worry about technical migraines. I often found myself spending more time with the editors than actually playing the games. When I did play the games, it was more often testing what I have been working on. The only thing that would hold me back is my own short attention span and limited time. With these editors, I was able to make mods that, though nothing worth releasing, were appeasing to me.

Now as the years pass by, I find myself with greater ambition. With the desire to create something that I can unleash onto the world. To my dismay, my dreams are becoming shattered once again. The editors are relying more on programming and scripts. While this is fine in that it widens the range of possibilities for user mods, it also cripples those with limited or no technical skills. The only possibility, is for the creative minds and the technical wizards to join together.

However, I find that a difficult possibility myself. I can't prove myself with a release with the current mod without the technical side, which hinders my creative side. Now that I am free of the bind that has crippled my ability to create and network (The Navy), that possibility opens a little. However, I am perhaps a bit too old fashioned for this world. I realize that many basement developers communicate and coordinate with each other on projects through the same means that I record this... the Internet. Modern technologies have made this possible, often without the parties involved ever meeting each other face-to-face. But that is where I am old fashioned. I find that communication is better face-to-face. After all, that is the only true communication. Anyway, it's a lot of scientific mumbo jumbo, and I have already gone on long enough.

In closing, I would like to say, first, that I have the deepest regards for Firaxis and this rant, essay, or whatever you would like to call it, is not intended as a slander or flame. I am not angry with Firaxis for forgetting those of us who need a little hand, I am merely frustrated! Too those of you (like austin316hockey) who are working vigorously on the tools that will aid us, I thank you and hold out hope that they will be delivered soon. Yes, I know that there several out there now for Civ 4, which are decent, but even the developers of these tools will admit that they are not complete (even if they are after version 1.x). Those utilities being made that are more complete are often focused on one thing, requiring several different ones to be used to get a working map. (I often found myself using one to layout the map, another to fine tune it, another to place units and such, and finally dig through the XML to find the elements that I need to edit for my own preferences. And the last step is for a very minor gameplay mod.) To those of you who are working on your own mods, Keep at it! Maybe you'll match my visions of the ultimate Civ experience one day and I will look forward to giving it a try. And lastly, to Firaxis, thank you for making Civilization and I pray, that if it's too late for you to make a working, user-friendly, editor for the rest of us "technically challenged" yet creative individuals, I pray that you will take us into consideration when preparing to release Civ 5. Think about adding a 5th component to the modding scheme that will allow us to make, at the very least, simple mods... steps to something bigger... to our ultimate civilizations!!!

Maybe you missed this one?
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=193830

Ploeperpengel - thanks for the link. I am definately going to read up on this and what I have seen so far looks promising. I am currently reading through the thread and it is starting to reinvigarate my Civ-craving.

However, as I mentioned earlier, this is still in development and looks like a ways to go before even a strong beta will be available. I still have to finish reading through the thread in order to see how it is developing, but at only v0.1 after three months of development, it foretells of a long time before a fully functional version is released. That's not a knock on TheLopez, I think it looks great so far and he is doing a phenomenal job from what I've seen. I understand the commitments and sacrifices he is making for this project and I look forward to giving it a run.

And not to take away from austin316hockey's efforts either. I truly do appreciate those of you out there who are doing your best to give a tool that the "rest of us" can use, especially when it takes time away from your own mods. Keep up the good work and I am sure that soon we will have what we need to get us going.

you must have a hankering for Spore to be released to unleash that creative energy :)

Yes, I am definately interested in, and looking forward to, Spore!

:)

and here i was thinking it was original (look down, no not the floor!!), is this tool of yours going to be like the civ 3 editor, i got so good at that nearly gave me heart attack when they sacrificed it for the world builder?