Im trying to plan out Phase 2 so we can have an idea on what to focus on and where things will fall. I also like the idea of "themeing" the versions so that they offer a new aspect to the game (it will also help generate interest).

This is what I have so far. Let me know what you tihnk and if you think things should be pushed back or moved up. Thi is a very high level list, there may be a 100 things that need to be made in the game to accomplish just one of the items on these lists.

Version 1.1 "Light"

Required:

[tab]1. New spell system
[tab]2. 16 New civs (all except Mercurians, Sidar, Svartalfar, Infernal and Illians)
[tab]3. Associated new leaders, civ specific units and buildings
[tab]4. Temple upgrades.
[tab]5. 1 Hero for each civ.
[tab]6. Mana nodes.
[tab]7. Alignments and civ enemies.

Desired:

[tab]1. Add the Conclave of Delos (sun) religion?

Version 1.2 "Fire"

Required:

[tab]1. Fire side of Hell
[tab]2. Mercurians and Infernal civs
[tab]3. Armageddon counter

Desired:

[tab]1. Forest fires
[tab]2. New religion?
[tab]3. Ancient forests


Version 1.3 "Shadow"

Required:

[tab]1. Quests
[tab]2. Equipment
[tab]3. Sidar, Svartalfar and Illian civs
[tab]4. Shadow side of Hell.
[tab]5. Wilderness
[tab]6. Monster resource nodes
[tab]7. Shadow and Sun spheres

Desired:

[tab]1. New religion?


Version 1.4 "Ice"

Required:

[tab]1. FfH Scenerio's

Starting from the top:
Light:
1. I think that you should also leave out another good civ. Currently the good civs outnumebr the bad, and taking away one would leave you with an even fifteen.
2. I personally thinkt hat svaltar should be put in in phase two, so that there are many elven untis out there, and the elf slaying promotion is useful. Take out the mind one, which looks much more complex.
3. A little more flavor on each of the civs would be nice before we started creating units and buildings for them.
4. I'm glad we've convicne you with our temple upgrades ideas.
5. New religion? Yay!!!

Starting from the top:
Light:
1. I think that you should also leave out another good civ. Currently the good civs outnumebr the bad, and taking away one would leave you with an even fifteen.

I have no problem with this, lets start working on them and we can push one if it looks like it needs more work or we just dont have an interesting concept for it.

2. I personally thinkt hat svaltar should be put in in phase two, so that there are many elven untis out there, and the elf slaying promotion is useful. Take out the mind one, which looks much more complex.

All the new elven units coming in 1.1 should make it worthwile (maybe to worthwile). I wanted to save the dark elves for Shadow because I think a lot of the work we will do for that stage will help with the dark elves. thats when we will probably write the shadow and death spells. I want to take a closer look at assasination and subtefuge options in shadow, something that is core to both the sidar and the dark elves.

3. A little more flavor on each of the civs would be nice before we started creating units and buildings for them.

Good point. Ill go through the civ post and try to add a line or two about each of them.

4. I'm glad we've convicne you with our temple upgrades ideas.

They are good ideas. We might be stealing a few of them for civ specific buildings too.

5. New religion? Yay!!!

They are question marks! But I thought they might be nice adds if they fit the theme of that release.

*Quickly thinks of religions that fit the themes of the release*

Well the fire release is a good time for the fire/body/chaos religion.
Another evil one might unbalance things, but we need something for the shadow release. Truthfully, I can think of a better religion for the light release (sun/spirit/enchantment)
I feel like we've used all of the evil spheres already except shadow, and it would be hard to have a religion based on that. Admittedly it would fit the release...

EDIT: if we get the good religion set up quickly maybe we could release it and the chaos one in the fire phase.

Added a link to the alpha version of Light to the first post.

Um is the 1.59 patch included in the download?

Um is the 1.59 patch included in the download?

No, send me a pm if you want to try the alpha and dont have the patch.

No, send me a pm if you want to try the alpha and dont have the patch.

I sent you the pm.

Do mages now gain XP from having their spells kill stuff?

I'm amazed at how fast you and Talchas can put together a working file. I wasn't expecting anything even remotely functional for weeks yet. Then again, I've not written a program since I wrote code in Fortran 70 in college.

Any particular timetable for when you'd like the techs more fleshed out? The version I have up now has pretty much everything from 1.0 in it except for a few exceptions. So it should be workable with the new version for testing as well, but I have to admit I've not done much with the .xls file than add and change a few techs, and that I don't really know what half of the variables mean.

I'm amazed at how fast you and Talchas can put together a working file.
I did get started over a month ago, so it hasn't been that short of a time, although it has been working to one extent or another for a good while now.

I'm amazed at how fast you and Talchas can put together a working file. I wasn't expecting anything even remotely functional for weeks yet. Then again, I've not written a program since I wrote code in Fortran 70 in college.

Any particular timetable for when you'd like the techs more fleshed out? The version I have up now has pretty much everything from 1.0 in it except for a few exceptions. So it should be workable with the new version for testing as well, but I have to admit I've not done much with the .xls file than add and change a few techs, and that I don't really know what half of the variables mean.

No timetable. The tech tree is always one of the last pieces because we have to fit it to everything we have created (and right now that list is kinda murky). There is an updated tech spreadsheet in the assets/editor directory. if you have any questions about what the fields are for just throw up questions in the tech thread and ill answer as many as I can.

Uploaded a new alpha version to the first post in this thread. It contains the following changes:

*1. Made disease only applicable to living units.
*2. Added animals to living units array.
*3. Made it so animals cant be slaves.
*4. Made werewolves animals.
*5. Made Kael a Sheaim hero.
*6. Made Maros an Khazad hero.
*7. Gave the Arcane Barge, Hemah and Kael the ability to cast.
*8. Kept units from being able to cast twice ber turn.
*9. Added xp to spellcasting (early very basic form).
*10. Added Animal promotions.
*11. Added the Feed ability (Vampire ability, devour population for xp)
*12. Added the Vampire unit (Calabim only, feed ability)
*13. Added the Burning Blood spell (body 2, divine 1, boosts stats, 50% chance to destroy the unit at the end of the turn)
*14. Added the Moroi unit (Calabim unit, Burning Blood ability)
*15. Added the Enforcer unit (Bannor only, improved city defense)
*16. Added the Beastman unit (Doviello only, improved city attack)
*17. Added the Guardsman unit (Bannor only)
*18. Added the Bannor Paladin unit (Bannor only)
*19. Added the Ring of Flames spell (fire 1 sorcery 1 spell, does damage to all units within 1 tile)
*20. Added the Lifecycle spell (creation 2, divine 1 spell, units death upgrades the tile)
*21. Added the new phase 2 unit combats (Lightning, Water, Orc, Undead)
*22. Granted priests the ability to choose selected spheres (based on their religion) during levelup
*23. Added the Death and Earth spheres.
*24. Added the Orc Axeman unit (Clan of Embers only).
*25. Added flags for all civs.
*26. Added the units file to the FfH editor.
*27. Added the Lichdom spell (death 3, sorcery 3, turns the caster into a lich).
*28. Added the Lich unit.
*29. Added the Raise Skeleton spell (death 1, sorcery 1).
*30. Added the Summon Tiger spell (nature 2, summoning 1).
*31. Added the Destroy Undead spell (life 1, sorcery 1).
*32. Added the Gift Vampirism ability (Vampire ability, make a level 7 or higher unit into a vampire).
*33. Fixed the fact that onCombatResult wasn't being called (kept subdue animal, disease, werewolves and fireball effects from working).

I just fixed my computer so that I can actually play a real game of Civ4 and downloaded the latest version of FFH. Its nice to see how everything is being used. The xml file is really nice - reminds me of homeworld 2. Just playing a game, the lack of any references to spells in the pedia was really annoying, so I might work on that next. Also, a bunch of spells have that Ctrl-Alt-F12 hotkey I used testing, and there are a few other leftovers (like haste using the nuke sound).

I just fixed my computer so that I can actually play a real game of Civ4 and downloaded the latest version of FFH. Its nice to see how everything is being used. The xml file is really nice - reminds me of homeworld 2. Just playing a game, the lack of any references to spells in the pedia was really annoying, so I might work on that next. Also, a bunch of spells have that Ctrl-Alt-F12 hotkey I used testing, and there are a few other leftovers (like haste using the nuke sound).

Yeah I havent spent much time on the aesthetics yet, just trying to get them in and working. We are going to need to go through effects and audio to try to make the spells as distinct as possible.

Im building the 1.60 version now. I will build on that this week and I should have another update available next weekend. Hopefully with more of everything.

Yeah, a spell tab in the Pedia is definitly going to be needed.

Well, I'm working on a spell page for the Pedia now.

EDIT: Ugh, recompile everything again because I changed one thing in CvEnums.h ... I hate C++.

Ok, its done, I've uploaded it as part of the spell system, so same links as before. All the python is based on FFH 1.1, not vanilla, so you can just copy screens/*.py and entrypoints/CvScreenInterface.py over (and the dll) and it works.

Oh, and I currently haven't stuck all the text references in yet.

I was just looking at the list of features:
WOW
great work i can't wait to play it. I really think that we should add a religion worshipping lugus in the light release (when else can we send out a good religion)

I was just looking at the list of features:
WOW
great work i can't wait to play it. I really think that we should add a religion worshipping lugus in the light release (when else can we send out a good religion)

It would definitly fit the theme. I'll add it to the maybe list.

I just fixed my computer so that I can actually play a real game of Civ4 and downloaded the latest version of FFH. Its nice to see how everything is being used. The xml file is really nice - reminds me of homeworld 2.

What XML file are you refering to?

It would definitly fit the theme. I'll add it to the maybe list.

If you gave a little flavor, i'll go crazy and get lots of ideas out about it.

If you gave a little flavor, i'll go crazy and get lots of ideas out about it.

Id rather have your creativity on the things we need for Light. Let me bump some theads where I see design gaps and get your feedback.

What XML file are you refering to?
Whoops, I meant xls. :crazyeye:

Whoops, I meant xls. :crazyeye:

Ahh, cool thanks. Its a lot of work on the front end but once its in a spreadsheet it is so easy to make changes and check information. This mod will be so big that I needed a tool to manage the data that was a little more efficient than notepad.

Id rather have your creativity on the things we need for Light. Let me bump some theads where I see design gaps and get your feedback.

Yeah that is best.

Just so you know we've posted a bunch of spells in that thread recently, but haven't gotten any feedback. Just wodnering.

Inspired by Kael's example and with the basic idea for a general format taken from the homeworld 2 xls files, I made an xls file for spells. Note that it does play nice with having multiple xml producers in one xls, just make sure you right click the sheet and choose "move or copy", don't just copy the cells because I don't think that will work right. If you are tired of seeing column D and don't like it taking up screen space, just shrink it to size 0. Thats what I do when I'm not editing the makeup of the xls.

The file: http://members.aol.com/ben77/Spells.xls

The idea is that the basic macro used for this will work for any civ4 xml file. Column D lists what each row is - Literal is just a literal string that outputs a line containing whatever is in column E, LiteralBegin and LiteralEnd are like Literal but only at the beginning or end of the xml file, Tag inserts an xml tag like this "<Column E's data>Current Item's data for this column</Column E's data>", Map takes 3 parts separated by "/"s in column E: "Outermost tag/Tag around each group of elements/number of elements in a group", SubMap is a subitem in a Map that outputs like Tag except it sticks an extra tag around each however many items, and EndMap just inserts the closing tag for a Map. Any row where Column D is blank or something else is skipped. Columns A-C are for descriptions.

This xls makes use of lots of named ranges so that it can find the beginning and ends of the rows and columns that are being used, so use the "add row" and "add spell" buttons (or select those rows and columns and insert a new row/col) if you want to use this for your own stuff.

Whew, long post.

Inspired by Kael's example and with the basic idea for a general format taken from the homeworld 2 xls files, I made an xls file for spells. Note that it does play nice with having multiple xml producers in one xls, just make sure you right click the sheet and choose "move or copy", don't just copy the cells because I don't think that will work right. If you are tired of seeing column D and don't like it taking up screen space, just shrink it to size 0. Thats what I do when I'm not editing the makeup of the xls.

The file: http://members.aol.com/ben77/Spells.xls

The idea is that the basic macro used for this will work for any civ4 xml file. Column D lists what each row is - Literal is just a literal string that outputs a line containing whatever is in column E, LiteralBegin and LiteralEnd are like Literal but only at the beginning or end of the xml file, Tag inserts an xml tag like this "<Column E's data>Current Item's data for this column</Column E's data>", Map takes 3 parts separated by "/"s in column E: "Outermost tag/Tag around each group of elements/number of elements in a group", SubMap is a subitem in a Map that outputs like Tag except it sticks an extra tag around each however many items, and EndMap just inserts the closing tag for a Map. Any row where Column D is blank or something else is skipped. Columns A-C are for descriptions.

This xls makes use of lots of named ranges so that it can find the beginning and ends of the rows and columns that are being used, so use the "add row" and "add spell" buttons (or select those rows and columns and insert a new row/col) if you want to use this for your own stuff.

Whew, long post.

Thats cool, I was wondering if it was possible to make buttons instead of requireing the person to run macros from the menu.

And I had also wanted to make a tag identified version of the macro so I could allow people to add a remove attributes dynamically without having to go in and adjust the code (or renumber the lines) and it looks like you solved that problem too. Very nice work!

I've updated the xls with the current ffh spells and an importer so that you don't have to do it all by hand. The importer relies on you having put the correct setup of tags in the xls file, but it sticks all of the data in.

And I've now uploaded a version that has both spells and promotions to http://members.aol.com/ben77/FFH-talchas.xls. I will probably remove the spell section and upload this and a unit one to the general civ modding forum.

And I've now uploaded a version that has both spells and promotions to http://members.aol.com/ben77/FFH-talchas.xls. I will probably remove the spell section and upload this and a unit one to the general civ modding forum.

I have already added a version with the promotions as well, and added all the spells in. I attached my latest version. I hate to see us both working on the same thing (although your version is definitly more flexible than mine).

If you do upload it you may want to change the edited by line in the starting text for each file as follows:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!-- Created with the FfH Editor by Talchas -->
<!-- Sid Meier's Civilization 4 -->
<!-- Copyright Firaxis Games 2005 -->
<!-- -->
<!-- Promotion Infos -->
<Civ4PromotionInfos xmlns="x-schema:CIV4UnitSchema.xml">
<PromotionInfos>

Just to identify if your tool was used to create the file and you deserve the stamp for making the utility instead of leaving the reference to XML Spy. Of course you can change the 'FfH editor' part to whatever name you prefer.

I got an overflow error trying to import my promotions file. I attached the promotions file if you want to try it out.

I've uploaded a version which works. The problems were just problems with the info the xls had about the promotion xml.

And now I've uploaded a version with unit info and with groups to easily hide/show various sections. I'll make a version for regular Civ4, release that and go back to working on the spell system.

And now I've uploaded a version with unit info and with groups to easily hide/show various sections. I'll make a version for regular Civ4, release that and go back to working on the spell system.

The spell page doesnt work if there are more than 17 spells in the spell file. It doesnt appear to be spell specific (if I delete 3 spells from the begning I it displays 3 more spells, but always only 17). If there are 17 or less spells is works.

It does some odd things with the column order too, its set for 3 colums but only displays 2. If I change it to 2 columns it only shows 1. Its probably related to the first issue but I thought I would mention it in case it helped you hone in on it.

I attached a copy of the spell infos so you won't have to stuff one yourself.

Thats odd, it works for me just fine. What version of excel are you running? About the column order, what do you mean? Can you post a screenshot.

Thats odd, it works for me just fine. What version of excel are you running? About the column order, what do you mean? Can you post a screenshot.

Sorry I should have been clearer. I mean the spell pedia page (I just realized everything I said could also be applicable to the spell worksheet, and since I was replying to a post talking about the spreadsheets it was very unclear).

Ah, that makes more sense. When I get back to a machine w/Civ4, I'll take a look.

Ah, that makes more sense. When I get back to a machine w/Civ4, I'll take a look.

An odd issue. The close button no longer works on most of the windows. Pressing escape lets me close them.

It doesn't work if I use the DLL I compiled with your latest changes or the DLL you compiled in the FFHSpells files. It works fine if I switch back to an earlier version of CvCoreGameDLL.dll. You updated twice between the 2 versions I built, once to add the greying out spell buttons and again to add the spell pedia. Im not sure which update introduced the issue.

yeah, I just noticed that. I bet its because I moved around some enum numbers that either the python has hardcoded or the exe uses and inlines. If needed I'll just add the stuff to the end. Also, I've posted a new version of the xls file (promotions had an extra Help field).

Sorry I should have been clearer. I mean the spell pedia page (I just realized everything I said could also be applicable to the spell worksheet, and since I was replying to a post talking about the spreadsheets it was very unclear).
Weird, its working for me just fine, see the screenshot below.

Weird, its working for me just fine, see the screenshot below.

Did you try the spell file I linked?

Specialists and Base terrains are doing the same thing in the pedia. Displays a handful of them then pops a python error.

I tried your thing, which gave me tons of errors because it couldn't find the needed promotions, but it worked ok. I just uploaded a new version which fixes the problem with the buttons - maybe it will fix this too.

I tried your thing, which gave me tons of errors because it couldn't find the needed promotions, but it worked ok. I just uploaded a new version which fixes the problem with the buttons - maybe it will fix this too.

Cool, I will let you know, thanks.

I tried your thing, which gave me tons of errors because it couldn't find the needed promotions, but it worked ok. I just uploaded a new version which fixes the problem with the buttons - maybe it will fix this too.

Woot! It fixed the pedia issue too! You're awesome.

The spell pedia page looks awesome, but when I click on the spells it doesn't pop up a page for that specific spell. Not a huge deal, but I assumed you wanted a popup since you provided the CvPediaSpell.py file as well.

Are you using my modified DLL? It works for me.

Are you using my modified DLL? It works for me.

Yeah, even with your .dll when I double click the spell buttons in the pedia it doesnt take me to the individual spell page.

Are you using my FFHSpells demo mod, or have you copied it into the main FFH stuff? If you have copied it in, have you copied in the CvScreensInterface.py I use? It has new functions that are needed for the spell page, so maybe that is the problem.

Are you using my FFHSpells demo mod, or have you copied it into the main FFH stuff? If you have copied it in, have you copied in the CvScreensInterface.py I use? It has new functions that are needed for the spell page, so maybe that is the problem.

That was it you gi-nourmous stud. Sorry about that, I was sure I checked for all the updated files but I missed cvscreensinterface.py. I'll be putting a new version out tomorrow wthat includes your updates and tons of new spells. Its going to be a substantial update.

And I've now uploaded a version that has both spells and promotions to http://members.aol.com/ben77/FFH-talchas.xls. I will probably remove the spell section and upload this and a unit one to the general civ modding forum.

I've uploaded a new version with techs and unitclasses. Techs are already in the FFH editor, but I made a page for regular civ4, so I thought I might as well copy it here too.

Is the Conclave of Delos going to be included in light?

Is the Conclave of Delos going to be included in light?

No .