Post utility requests here.:)

I want a Vannila to BtS xml updater.
And a Warlords to BtS xml updater.

I'd like to see the Civ4 soundtrack editor getting updated to work with BTS.

I'd like a LINK to a bts dll that would allow me to have 34 civs in one game.

Also on a sidenote, a guide on how to mod the DLL would be nice to.

Here's a link to a 34 civ SDK. Go Here! (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=233848)

There was this editor I used to use for DDS files, it could open the file and it's alpha in Paint. Can't find it anymore.

@The Frederick
You mean DXTBmp (http://www.softpedia.com/get/Multimedia/Graphic/Graphic-Editors/DXTBmp.shtml), right?

Is there a program that allows placement of civ starting positions in WBS files? That would be my request... That seems to be the number one request from people using WBS files with random starts, and when I made my own Europe map placing the civs was by far the most agonizing part.

Of course none of this would be relevant if Worldbuilder was actually a functional map editor...

I would *die* for some program that saves all high scores on a separate file, also uniting high scores for mods, etc.

I'm astonished nobody else but me is yearning for the soundtrack editor
being updated to BTS.

Does everyone else use Winamp to MANUALLY choose appropriate soundtracks
for each era??? How inconvenient!!!

Bah!:confused:

Combines DLLs in one DLL

It would be great to have utility that can record games (including GSOTM) and then show video walkthrough.

I need a utility to export a civ2 or civ3 map to civ 4

I'd love to see a mod/game editor for bts similar to what we had in Civ III Conquests. I'm not a programmer, and being married with kids, full time job, I don't have the time to spend hours and hours on end pouring through code I don't understand. I'd love to be able to manipulate pretty much everything from number and type of religions, resources, civics, units, you name it, with an easy to use and understand graphic interface.

Good grief people.

As a fairly experienced programmer I would suggest you to aim lower. A whole lot lower. I'm in for making a tool if it will only take about a week. But there is as far as I know no way to merge .DLLs and a full blown mod creator would take as long as making the game. Plus it would have to be updated constantly.

Basically I'm up for helping but most of these would require a team of half a dozen people and a few months of part time work. Both things I don't really have. A DLL merger would be absolutely evil to make.

Maybe you should think of shelling out a few hundred dollars for a professional team?

@Bianezzi
That would be easiest as a mod comp and not a separate utility.

@Colwyn
Thats actually reasonable but because I only have the civ 4 titles I can't help there.

@dimon157
There are APPs that do this so I would suggest Google.

@The Navy Seal
My Tag Editor will really help out with this.

If possible, though probably way too hard, I'd want a BtS to Vanilla Converter, Or an easy Add Religion Utility program. Like the one for units, only for religions ;)

My XML Manipulator will help a lot with the conversion, it will let you adjust the tags for the BTS files you can just copy can paste what you want into your stock files.

I'll try it ;) Just a little question: I mushed Classical Religions and Civ Gold 3 together and now I can't build any of the new Religions shrines...

I happen to know that no shrines were included in that mod. ;)

If I go into worldbuilder, there are ;) and If there aren't, someone could do them, hint hint.

I am not a programmer, but I am a lover of every incarnation of CIV. One of ones I loved most was Alpha Centauri...the main reason was the built in capacity to make your own CIVs.
So that is the utility I would like. For this game, a Utility that lets you make your own CIV's and Leaders. Nothing too intensive or game shattering. Just a little app I can launch that will do that for me without having to go into the code.
Thanks so much in advance, and for offering to do stuff like this for us!
FMT

ClassicThunder could you please give me a link to the tag editor.

P.S Welcome to CFC FunkMaster Tut I know you joined in 2004 but it's your first post so welcome. [party]

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=245177

It's been renamed to XML Manipulator since it can do a lot more now.

Thanks this will be very helpful. :king:

Is there a utility that tells me what is wrong with my MOD?

No. Post on the front page with details and people will help.

I liked to know if anybody is working on updating Civ4 Editor to work with BtS worldbuilder map saves

Is there new map genertaor to download becouse basic one in the game creates continentents with really un realistic and predictive shapes?

@david75hanjr: Did you know you can just rename the files from various 3rd party map editors - they work for me,eg. MyTest.Civ4WorldBuilderSave will load in Civ4 Vanilla - but rename it too MyTest.Civ4BeyondSwordWBSave and it loads in BTS instead - I havn't had any problems so far doing this - not 100% sure - but you could at least give it a try...

I need a utility to export a civ2 or civ3 map to civ 4

I've been away from here for awhile, but this is something I'd be interested in as well... Anyo0ne know if anything like this is in the works or out and about?

Thanks :D

Hello Folks,

I want to launch a mod from a list. I do not want to have to restart Civ to play a mod.

I used to try the mod launchers from a year or two ago, but they don't seem to work anymore. Is there one out there which works with BTS?

Thank you,

John

Program that somehow helps with city planning / dot mapping

I'd love to see a BTS mod loader where you don't have to start the main game before loading a mod

to load up mods I created a shortcut of the main game .ini file on the desktop, and just edit that to load up the mod i want before i get into Civ. Quick, easy, and no modding/utility required.

ic
thanks moopoo

I am not a programmer, but I am a lover of every incarnation of CIV. One of ones I loved most was Alpha Centauri...the main reason was the built in capacity to make your own CIVs.
So that is the utility I would like. For this game, a Utility that lets you make your own CIV's and Leaders. Nothing too intensive or game shattering. Just a little app I can launch that will do that for me without having to go into the code.
Thanks so much in advance, and for offering to do stuff like this for us!
FMT
seconded. Just a "simple" thing that let's you mix 'n match:
- traits
- unique units
- unique buildings
- starting techs
- have a selection to allow "highly favourable mode" i.e. allows more then the usual number of each of the above
- Optionally:
* leader image upload
* leader personality for AI

@'DG'
Try Dale's CivCustomizer. It doesn't actually create new civs, but you get to pick the combinations you want during the game.

Is there such a thing, I know about the one for Civ4. But, it doesn't work with BTS.

Thanks.

Open it with Notepad. There are tutorials on how to do it.

I have done a few searches but haven't been able to find it.

Just for your info
I'm currently working on zMod Maker. It will allow:
1. Editing of XML via an interface, no more tags
2. Editing World Builder Saves (Almost done, I can already place, read, and save terrains, features, and resources)

:D

Just for your info
I'm currently working on zMod Maker. It will allow:
1. Editing of XML via an interface, no more tags
2. Editing World Builder Saves (Almost done, I can already place, read, and save terrains, features, and resources)

:D

the WBS-editor: can you insert injured units, put some hammers to a building and put some food into the store of a city?
that would be :cool:

Well I'm limited by the World Builder Save, but I plan on having different file versions that will support unit names, city production and anything else I can think of.

:thumbsup: looking forward

I would like a way of dumping statistics about the players Civ into a log file, preferably in CSV or XML format. Id like to see things like city pop, beakers per turn at 0% and 100% slider, and so on. I dont mind if it runs during the game (can it be kicked off with a custom button or at a set date?) or on savegame files. If anyone has a dll capable of handling the savegame format and knows if this information can be read directly from there, then Ill write the rest.

hi.

does anyone know of a tga-editor, that doesn't make a bloody hell of a mess out of the GameFont.tga? Everything I tried out leaves the GameFont.tga crippled, if I do as much as open and save the thing without any further changes.:confused:

Try this tutorial (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=181119).

:(

Thx for your efforts, but it didn't work for me. I found that just copying GameFont.tga to ...\My Games\...\res makes a complete mess of the citynames and the icons above it. No changes whatsoever, just a copy of the original.

Making changes according to the tutorial you suggested, and placing the changed file in the original folder C:\progrmas\...\res yields correct letters in citynames but no icons whatsoever, just none, not a single one. Must have messed up something by just copying an pasting tiles, because all the letters are located before the icons. I think I call it quits due to frustration.

Did you also edit GameFont75.tga ?

yep, done that.

I think it might be a clue, that all the letters are ok, and are located before the religious icons I changed. But I really did it exactly according to the tutorial.

In addition, just opening GameFont.tga with the BTX-thing, and saving it with "replace --- yes" shrinks the file by 26 bytes. But the smaller file is still working, albeit not in the My Games directory, but in the original location only.

Would you agree, that this behaviour is a bug?

That's really strange. Are you sure you have all the pink dots in the right place?

Vilu made a really nice technology cost editor:

Could we get a building cost editor:
a unit cost editor:
a wonder cost editor:

??

be really nice, :):)

I#m positively dead sure. What I did was paste a 21 x 20 area from the Gods of Old GameFont.tga over a 21 x 20 area of the original BtS GameFont.tga with carefully leaving all the green dots in place right where they were.

Even if I should have happened to make a mistake - though I could not think of any - it remains, that just relocationg GameFont.tga from the games' original folder to the My Games folder, makes a mess out of the towns' icons. How come?

I'd like a map statistics utility. Just count how many sea/ocean/grassland etc. tiles there are and what resources they contain. I want to do some testing on map scripts and right now want to know the amounts of resources (to answer questions like "how does the number of resources scale with map size?"). Manually counting the number of resources gets boring real quickly though :-).

An automated map script runner would also help here, but I don't really mind to run them myself a few times. However, given that there is a utility regenerating maps until you find a brilliant starting position, this should be possible as well, so if someone can help here I'd be grateful.

Celebithil,
I just wrote a quick little program to do what you need. Here it is.

It shows the amount of each Bonus, Feature, and Terrain type. With the exception of Hills and Peaks. The information for them must be stored differently. If you can tell me how they are stored, I may be able to print them also.

Just unzip the downloaded program, open the folder, and double click on the "Map Stats" icon to start the program. Then click on the load button to load a file. Let me know if you have any problems.

Okay, folks.

I don't need nothin' fancy here, just something that'll let me add leaderheads and Civs easily. No tinkerin' with the Pythons and the Game Rules. Just new Civs and Leaderheads. I enter the leaderhead, unit art and infos and it generates a mod for me.

I need something that'll take away the HRE and let me add Italy, for example.

Im eager to get started on some of these (such as above) except I dont have all the skills, I have time and determination so if anyone has good VB coding skills (esp in manipulating datasets) for a small amount of help I believe I could get quite far.

I am currently self learning so making slow progress :(

If you have these skills and a spare 20 min or so you could help speed me up a lot so drop me a line. I can upload my very basic code that I have so far if you reqd.

I would like a vanilla civ 4 utility.

Make a simple utility that allows players to change music for certain eras.

So i could put jazz music in modern, classical in others, etc. Make it a free thing where music styles can go anywhere, even in ancient if you want it to. Also make it so it doesn't conflict with multiplayer.

Has any of you yet made a saved game editor, like the one Gyathaar had for Warlords?

I host ongoing multiplayer epics/marathons on high difficulty levels and frequently have the need to add/remove players or change their difficulty level.

Anyone who can design and post an update for this utility for BTS would be much appreciated.

Bigben34

a scrollable scoreboard, for games with more than can fit on the right side of the screen, please

a scrollable scoreboard, for games with more than can fit on the right side of the screen, please
ThomasSG made a scrollable scoreboard as part of his CCV mod (http://forums.civfanatics.com/forumdisplay.php?f=308). Never used it myself, but I've seen the pictures. (http://www.civforum.de/showpost.php?p=2378021&postcount=33)

I'd really like to see a program that can merge C++ files if the modcomp authors use a certain format. For example:
//#START
//...some code here...
//#ENDWould sure make the lives of us modders a lot easier. :)

That wouldn't be hard, just depends on how much interface you want. I could have a small python script (you'd have to have python installed on you computer) in minutes and it would just be a prompt.

Yes, I have Python installed. That would be great. :) Thanks in advance!

Well I hate to tell you this but I wasn't able to begin work on this despite its relative simplicity. I have spent the last few days getting ready for college. I leave tomorrow but I should be able to write it up sometime soon. ;)

P.S this won't be able to merge code that has been changed in more then 1 altered file. For example file 1 is being merged with file 2, and function A has been altered in both file 1 and 2. This snippet will only use the file 2 version of function A. Of course if function A altered in file 1 and file 2 but neither makes changes to the same parts then it will use both. But if there is any overlap anywhere in the file it will cause the compilation to fail.

Actually that's fine, I've written my own little script because I realized I needed more than just split()ing by comment lines. But thanks anyway! Have fun in college! :)

How about someone converting one of the excellent xls city planners into a small program that could read in the hexes assigned to a city from a save game file. That would cut city planning time extensively and let people realistically plan a city's future growth. Attach a way to save your plans for review and refinment would make this overly awesome.

seconded. Just a "simple" thing that let's you mix 'n match:
- traits
- unique units
- unique buildings
- starting techs
- have a selection to allow "highly favourable mode" i.e. allows more then the usual number of each of the above
- Optionally:
* leader image upload
* leader personality for AI

mmm, I'd like this for Civ4:Col.
Also: Maybe a utility to make a unit all in one screen, instead of having to run around everywhere in order to make a unit that pops like a Great General, but has different values....

Is there a util that will take the data from the demographics charts and actually give numbers to them, in BtS? It would be nice to see what the actual values are, as opposed to 'well, it looks like my opponents are a little weaker than me' I'm especially interested in something like this for multi-player, so it's possible that this would be considered spoiler info, in which case never mind ;)

Fog of war

To have Options to turn on or off?

Uh...how about a util to convert a :bts: savefile into a WBS so you can continue the game after a patch? I lost a fun game that way... :mad:

Edit: Would also be good for instances like I just had, where I found myself wanting to take a multiplayer game I was involved in and play a solo version. :sad: Any help here?

A utility that enables you to edit civic effects in game; the utilities I've tried usually don't let me go far enough as I've seen some civic editors have gone.

a macintosh worldbuildersave editor (like MapView) would be much apreciated.

also, this should be stickied.

Hi Guys I'm an amateur coder just messing about with XML.

I have attached an exe that lets you modify all X and Y co-ords of all the techs in a tech tree in seconds by a chosen factor.

I use it to let me add extra techs at the beginning by shifting all techs to end.

To use click "Import XML" then navigate to file, it should populate the grid on the left. (this is there for no reason but to let you see its worked although you can edit the xml and use "save")

Enter your desired X and Y shift then click shift. Wait a while depending on your pc (mine it takes 1 second) and its done. Please can someone let me know if it runs on there pc as I have Vista 64 and I not sure I have all the right setup?



Im also looking for any other suggestions of tools regarding editing XML? such as the one in March 08 if its still wanted?


"
Could we get a building cost editor:
a unit cost editor:
a wonder cost editor:

"

It doesn't work for me, I tried importing CIV4TechInfos.xml and successfully shifted the techs by an arbitrary amount.

Anyway, it's the saving part that doesn't work. I get an error saying that it can't find C:\Programming\Civ4XMLEditor\VB\CivEdit\CivEdit\As sets\tempXML\CLV4TechInfos2s.xml.

The grid should be larger in order to be useable. It's a pain to scroll through all those tags and only see 1½ column at a time.

Anyway, nice work.

yeah that was a real rough effort I shouldn't have posted, I have a much better one created now that can do more that I will post up in a few days (must have left an absolute reference to a testing file in there) :) but thanks


Hey a few question (on TechInfo.xml) that doesn't deserve a thread if anyone can answer (as I dont really mod myself):

I notice that the "Description" and "Civlopedia" entry are always a variation of the tech name, should I make it auto correct these entriies based on the tech name or is there a reason that could cause trouble?

And is there any other fields / other xml fields in other files? like that I can auto complete as you edit a field?

I would like a program to combine the dlls in different mods without causing crashes

I would like a program to combine the dlls in different mods without causing crashes

Your request is simply not physically possible.

In order to combine various SDK modcomps you must combine the source code yourself, and compile the merged source into a new Civ4 gamecore that combines the components you want. There is no way around this.

Can we get a program that automatically creates CIV4DiplomacyInfos.xml files? Adding diplomacy text is tedious as hell.

Can we get a program that automatically creates CIV4DiplomacyInfos.xml files? Adding diplomacy text is tedious as hell.

I could probably do this one.

Would anyone mind looking through this thread and making a bulleted list of the requested utilities. Make it a lot easier to find one that you can make.

Ok from what I have gathered the file is in the following format.


<TEXT>
<Tag>NAME_OF_TEXT</Tag>
<English>This is the text in English</English>
<French>Ceci est le texte en français</French>
<German>Dies ist der Text in deutscher Sprache</German>
<Italian>Questo è il testo in italiano</Italian>
<Spanish>Este es el texto en español</Spanish>
</TEXT>


I could write a PHP script that lets you select a title and enter the text in English. I could then likely have it use Google Translate to have it translated over to the other languages.

EDIT:
Contacted requester. What I had built before was not what he wanted. Therefore it has been removed from this post. I will update this post once the tool is completed again.

Tool is completed

It is finished. You may use it here:
http://zellfaze.bryansoft.info/civutil/diploxml/

Sorry about the long URL. My personal site www.zellfaze.com is down at the moment. So I am hosting the utility at a temporary location.

Anyhow hope it helps! If you have any problems, questions, concerns, bugs, death threats, etc. Feel free to let me know.

I am only minimally familiar with XML, so forgive this if its stupid.
I would like to change the game length in BTS, preferably at the same time as the cost of techs would change, either separately or tied together.
Can this be done by a simple change in a save game, say saved at year 4000bc? would the game create the required calendar?

I'm pretty sure the CIV4GameSpeedInfo will do what you need. It has the start stuff in there if I'm not mistaken. Try playing around with it a bit or do a search in the forums for it. Hope this helps some.

Would it be at all possible to have a program/mod to keep track of time spent by each party in multiplayer?
While it is no intention to rush anyone in our multiplayer games it would be exceedingly interesting to see who uses the most time on their rounds in a tally.

Im sorry if such a program/mod already exists, but i tried to search and had no luck finding any reference.

What i am thinking is a mod/program that counts the amount of time each player spend on their turn and shows it to you in a simple breakdown such as:
Player 1: 30000 seconds spent
Player 2: 25000 seconds spent
and so on. Alternatively one that simply showed how much time others spend waiting on them would be interesting.

I'm pretty sure the CIV4GameSpeedInfo will do what you need. It has the start stuff in there if I'm not mistaken. Try playing around with it a bit or do a search in the forums for it. Hope this helps some.Very helpfull thanx. I'm still a bit leary of XML editing, but this was easy once you pointed me the right place. each era has two line, increment and number of turns, thanx again.

/bump

Hey, folks. First time posting on these forums, so I hope I'm in the right area/thread.

I'd like to know if the following exists/is possible to put together: a utility that keeps track of in-game events and actions and plays corresponding mp3s/wavs when these events are triggered.

An example might help clarify my ramblings. You've set out to achieve a conquest victory and have successfully wiped out all but one opponent. The utility in question picks this up (only 2 players left) and plays a dramatic, tension-filled theme of your choosing while you fight against the remaining opposition. Upon defeating (or being defeated by) your opponent, another theme plays in recognition of the event.

I could think of hundreds of different instances where a special theme could play, but what's important here is determining whether such a utility/mod/whatever you wanna call it exists or is even possible. I'd be more than willing to put forward the time and effort to learn how to edit/create the necessary files, but I need to know beforehand if a.) the utility already exists in some form or b.) such a utility is assuredly impossible to create for whatever reason.

Thanks for reading and posting any useful comments/feedback.

/bump
I'd like to know if the following exists/is possible to put together: a utility that keeps track of in-game events and actions and plays corresponding mp3s/wavs when these events are triggered.


Welcome to CFC :)

It seems that you're not looking for a utility but for a Mod that can do this.
You should probably go up one forum for these kind of things.

Anyway, I don't know if there's an existing Mod that does something similar, but I think there's a way to do this from Python.
Python is a script language which is used in Civ4, in which you can hook up to just about any event in the game and run your own logic.

You can use the Python game API (http://civilization4.net/files/modding/PythonAPI/) to influence the game. Specifically it has the CyAudioGame (http://civilization4.net/files/modding/PythonAPI/AllClasses.html#CyAudioGame)which seems to be what you're looking for (you can use it to play any sound), although I'm not sure if it's good for background music (have never tried it myself).

You'll probably need to define your custom sound files in the XML files.

Everything's in the BTS Assets folder (or Warlords, or Civ 4 vanilla, whatever you have installed).

You can find tutorials and people who can point you to more details in the forums.

Whatever you do - DO NOT modify the original files that came with the game. Copy them to a new Mod folder or to the custom assets folder.

Good luck.

I would really like a program which lets me load more than one mod at a time, or that lets me merge one or more mods together. there are just so many good mods that I want to play together.

Not sure it means an utility or something else.
I need help in editing dds files in "normal view".
What I mean is:
The dds-to-bmp thingy is great, except...
It doesn't help to actually edit those dds except for some coloring.
The reason? The body parts are so randomly placed that every dds is almost unique...
Which makes it sooooo hard to exchange different units, not to mention to actually draw a new one.
Is there any help on this?
My goal for now is to import HOMM5 units into Civ4.
Now, both games use dds files, so I basically only need a way to be able to edit them easier.
Which I see no way, as of now...
Help, please. :D

Man, it is a pain adjusting scale of units and esp. buildings to they fit the cities and don't overlap. Anybody know of an easier way besides game trial and error? A program?