i havent bought warlords yet and im not too sure i will (may wait for the next/last expansion) but how have the new city graphics for the different cultures been added? is it yet possible to give city graphics to every civ?

has anyone come by a way to do this in vanilla civ without manipulating different eras(creating a new era for each civ,starting them in that era and never leaving that era)... just a strictly python/xml based way to point to different art files? if so, what files are involved? ive searched around a good amount and i can find bits and pieces but its like some pieces are missing as well.

Yes it's possible already if you set up the refering xml like in Warlords this is a feature civ vanilla can have as well without problem. Someone already made a modcomp for this but I think it was removed from the forum because some poeple started to mob it because it contributed the warlords-cityart(meaning for piracy-ridiculous imo).

i was tempbanned for 3 days because of this....http://www.bsmparty.de/pics/smilies/pfeif.gif

Well it would be piracy to share files from a game.

Sure but modding evidently is in a grey zone here. Gamefiles are distributed every day in this forum and there are many mods that distribute even unchanged or nearly unchanged files here in this forum. I won't gives names cause I don't want to have them deleted.
Gamecopanies don't want their files distributed freely but also have an interest in modding activity for their games and encourage that. It's hard to draw a distinct line here what has to be judged piracy and what not imo.
If someone uploads a single file or two I think it's just normal and necessary part of modding process this shouldn't be restricted. If of course someone uploads the whole assets folder from Warlords the case is different.
Now there seems to be a problem with the expansion. As long we modded vanilla it seems nobody cared for distribution of gamefiles since you needed the game to run them. Files from Warlords are all useable in vanilla if you want that. But seems I cant use them for a vanilla-mod or I risk my mod be deleted.
But what if I make my mod for Warlords only using Warlord - files as well? Others still could dl it grap files they want and put them into their vanilla game. See the dilemma here?

well thats good to hear that its possible and sad to hear that there was even a mod but i cant get it... it seriously must have been up for less than 5 minutes for me to miss it.

as far as sharing files, i dont even think its a gray area. the company has promoted moding out the wazoo. every mod shares files, a lot unchaned in any way. if i want to have a redcoat in my game but i want to call it scarletcoat and all i do is change the folder name, i dont see how its different... but anyway! i cant change any of this. im tempted to buy warlords just to see how this is done but i dont really want any other aspects from warlords for my mod. it would be $xx just for a glimpse at some code that should already be in the vanilla verion.

thanks for the replies.

Modding Game Data == Text is allowed. But sharing Graphics so you could, in theory, remake an expansion with the original game isnt.

What is allowed and isnt is ultimately up to the game developer/publisher.

Sharing a file in Civ4 compared to an expansion is Different, because the expansion files are compatible with Civ4. And everyone here that has any use for a file from civ4 owns it. But a file for Warlords could (for alot of them) be used with civ4 without owning Warlords.

Yeah I know.
What I mean is: Firaxis should give clear directions wether they want Warlord being moddable or not!
But if they don't allow using their new graphics it will certainly loose alot of moddability!

Eh, well u dont have to release the warlord graphics to the web when you make a mod for it. If you want to use warlord graphics in a warlords mod, just use the path to it in the XML files.

What about slight changes to them? That's what concerns me. If I give a Warlord unit a new shield or just a new weapon. Or what if I just want to use the model with customanimations(I mean combined animations which do require a new folder) and give it a different name etc.

Thats not allowed. And then your mod has to compromise and not use the modified version of that graphic for the vanilla version?

I was talking about modding Warlords. Let me give a better example:

In the mod for Warlords I want to reskin the viking rename it to berserker and put it into a new folder with the new skin.(already illegal?)
Another model uses the spearman's body and the viking head(cut of with original model with blender and attached in the nifviewer). In the vikingspearmans folder would have to be the skin for the viking.
See- you could easily recombine the original nif with the original skin!
This is all allowed for vanilla and makes it modable.
If that's NOT possible for Warlords I must say what for do I buy it? I bought it to have more possibilities to mod!
I could accept releasing the mod only for Warlords if I use Warlord contents. However if others use the opportunity to get some Warlordscontent for their vanilla games why am I to blame for that?
It was Firaxis who proclaimed civ to be a game most moddable, right? If that is not the direction for Warlords as well again: why the hell buy it?
(already bought it btw I'm just asking myself what for if I'm not allowed to mod with it)

Yeah, well ok. Thats the bad part of modding expansions. Would be nice if we got a response if that would be considered ok or not. My guess is not though...

Yep that's my fear as well. I don't want to support piracy on this forum but I don't want to stop modding either(and must say the last impulse is stronger in me). A clear directive from Firaxis is really needed here. And this should better be modderfriendly else they'll never be my friends!:D

Yep that's my fear as well. I don't want to support piracy on this forum but I don't want to stop modding either(and must say the last impulse is stronger in me). A clear directive from Firaxis is really needed here. And this should better be modderfriendly else they'll never be my friends!:D

My guess would be that Firaxis has no problem with modding Warlords content as long as it is released for Warlords only. This, however, is impossible especially with the graphics as people could incorporate new made units, buildings etc. into vanilla Civ anyway without buying the expansion.

On the other hand, Firaxis proclaimed Civ IV the most moddable civ game ever which is definitely a part of their business strategy. So they simply can not ban modding Warlords - nobody would buy it then.

There are already reskins for vanilla... would they all be illegal?
Or the animated leaderheads?
In my opinion warlords' models should be allowed to be used in warlords mods and not in vanilla mods, while vanilla's parts should be used in vanilla and also in warlords.
But, what about users, who bought warlords, shouldn't they be allowed, to use their warlords models in vanilla?

I'd say that with number of Warlords copies sold Firaxis will no longer care (and modders will make their mods for Warlords only).

i agree that there should be some response to this.

the nature of civilization 4 itself actually leads to modification being almost strictly that as far as graphics go - a modification of already existing content. not to bash fireaxis here but they created a game with complex 3d graphics and want people to mod it. only a select few people are actually going to know how to create new 3d graphics (and of those, how many actually have a legal copy of a 3d program just lying around on their computer?). this leads to the large majority of the graphics modding to be reskins or hack jobs in nif viewer with existing content. it seems like if indeed they actually dont want someone using modded graphics and models from warlords then either someone made a huge blunder in making this "mod friendly" game so hard ot mod or they are just hypocritical. ( i seriously miss 2d graphics =P )

yes, someone posting something like the entire warlords asset folder should not be done but i think they are going to have to be lax if someone wants to post a few city graphics in a mod or something similar. if they arent then i dont see any point in modding for warlords or anything after because your mod may at the very least not get hosted due to content and at the worst you may get in legal trouble because of using the viking head model on a great scientists body.

You probably won't get much of an official response because this, I would suspect, is purposely a grey zone - Firaxis wants modding because it helps increase the audience and extend shelf-life. But the vast, vast majority of sales $$$ comes from single-player, out-of-the-box gamers. And they don't want files floating around that will compromise those sales.

In short, so long as no money changes hands, I doubt Firaxis will become too concerned on what happens here re: modding.

Sounds funny what I read in this thread. Why they changed policy so much from CivIII???

Let me clear, if I understood well -> It is not allowed for some moder to make graphic look for a MidEast Civilizations - but Company itself did not made it in Warlord expansion -that I possesed (They just did Euro, Asian and Mediteranian flavoured cities)? Why..if it's so?

They shoud let people do that like in Civ III or even better, to do that themselfs (like in Civ III and than sell COMPLETE game - not half/made :nono: )