1) I would like to modify my corporations and also create three new ones. I don't care about adding new graphics or anything, I just want this to work in the game at the conceptual level. (I want to rearrange some resources and remove some overlap so as to be able to have more congruent corporations in each city!)

2) Is there something I can do to simply change the leader traits for my favorite leader? For example, my favorite leader is George Washington. However, I want him to be Industrial and Charismatic! (And maybe there is a way to decide the traits of other leaders as opposed to the random way at the Custom Game screen (that I don't believe actually works)?)

3) What are some easy, popular, or fun things to change in Civ4 (fully expanded) that only require use of the Microsoft Notepad program? Any ideas would be much appreciated. (At this point, I am not ready to create or add anything new; I just want to get more comfortable and visual with the whole computer programming curve that I am woefully at the bottom of!)

Your input is much appreciated. I have not been too pleased with Civ4 only because I loved modding Civ3, and that was actually do-able for me (a guy who knows nothing about computer programming!) and turned out to be pretty fun. This whole "World Builder" thing plus the advanced programming languages and things is really just a turn-off for me overall. I understand that Civ4 has far more capabilities for modding and gameplay than does Civ3, but I don't hardly know any of them! Too much to learn too quickly in order to keep my motivation up.

Thanks again for your time.

All the XML can be edited with notepad. (Although I recommend notepad++, it is much easier to use.)

1) I would like to modify my corporations and also create three new ones. I don't care about adding new graphics or anything, I just want this to work in the game at the conceptual level. (I want to rearrange some resources and remove some overlap so as to be able to have more congruent corporations in each city!)

Corporations are completely handled by the XML, so using the existing ones as examples and adding others should be easy(ish. The graphics for corporations are in the Gamefont.tga files and they are a pain to edit.)

2) Is there something I can do to simply change the leader traits for my favorite leader? For example, my favorite leader is George Washington. However, I want him to be Industrial and Charismatic!
Piece of cake. Just open up the Leaderheadinfos.xml file, search for "WASHINGTON" and change his traits.


(And maybe there is a way to decide the traits of other leaders as opposed to the random way at the Custom Game screen (that I don't believe actually works)?)
Not sure what you mean, all the leaders traits are the same every game. It's in the XML.


3) What are some easy, popular, or fun things to change in Civ4 (fully expanded) that only require use of the Microsoft Notepad program? Any ideas would be much appreciated. (At this point, I am not ready to create or add anything new; I just want to get more comfortable and visual with the whole computer programming curve that I am woefully at the bottom of!)

Go to Modiki (The link is at the top bar on this site) and look at the XML referance files for a complete view of what you can edit with XML. The good news is, about 70% of the game content is XML, 20% is python , and 10% is C++.

Too much to learn too quickly in order to keep my motivation up.

XML is easy to learn, and it is written logically.
for example, the bracket <ihappiness>2</ihappiness> (which is in many of the XML files) is very understandable. The "i" part stands for integer, which means the number inside has to be an integer (a whole number, no decimals or fractions). The "happiness" part is how much extra happiness the citi(es) get (or don't get). The same is true of <bAnimal>1</bAnimal>. The "b" means boolean, which is asking for a true or false statement, and 0 means false and 1 means true. So this line means, "is this unit an animal, True." So the unit is an animal. Most of the XML is easy to understand, and when it isn't, Modiki can tell you what it means.

Is this modification different from Civ3? For example, when trying to add some corporations, will I need to update the Civilopedia and also direct the program to look at the graphics files that I want it to? (At this point, I don't care if my three new corporations have the same graphics as existing ones.)

As far as leader traits go, I will have to do some comparisons, I suppose. However logical XML appears to be, I do not yet know the logic. Therefore, I do not know what to type and where at this point. I suppose I can figure it out over time (and error).

But as far as leader traits in the game, I noticed that when I go to the Custom Game screen in the game, one of the check boxes is for the leader traits to be random. Never have I seen random leader traits having clicked on this. However, what I wanted to know was if I could somehow either (A) choose my leader traits in the game and (B) also do the same for other leaders. If not, then I suppose I will just have to edit the XML somewhere and then make sure to pick those leaders when I do another custom game.

Lastly, thanks Afforess for your efforts here. I was intrigued by your explanations of the XML at the end of your reply here. I wish there was a similar kind of "beginner's course" on this material to help us out further. But for now, I can see where that fits into my initial request: I only wanted to know how to kind of tweek the game as opposed to overhauling the thing. And that info you provided is right down my alley! So thanks again.

No problem. Just start small, and corporations are pretty small. I started by using a tutorial to figure out how to create a new civilization.

Later, I picked a larger modpack that I liked (In my case, Rise of Mankind) and began making smaller modmod's (mods for the modpacks) for it. Now, I understand 95% of the XML and can do almost anything I want in there. It gets easier the more you do it.

Hey,

What is the order of the CommercesProduced and the YieldsProduced? The Modiki has me believing they are beaker, gold, culture and food, gold, hammer. But that doesn't seem right. Can you confirm?

Also, what is the order for the HeadquarterCommerces?

Thanks.


Snootch

The commerces are, in order: gold :gold:, research :science:, culture :culture:, espionage :espionage: (if using BtS, otherwise there are only 3).

The yields are, in order: food :food:, production :hammers:, commerce :commerce:.

They are always in that order regardless of the specific enclosing tag.

Thanks a lot.

Is that the same for the HeadquarterCommerce as well? Gold, research, culture, Espionage...?

Also, what are the values for each of these? Are they in increments of 25 = 25% or what?

Thanks again.


Snootch

Is that the same for the HeadquarterCommerce as well? Gold, research, culture, Espionage...?


As GE said, all tags that have this structure - have this order.


Also, what are the values for each of these? Are they in increments of 25 = 25% or what?


If the tag is a modifier tag (its name usually ends with 'Modifier'), then yes - 25 is 25% (and you can use a minus sign for a negative modifier).
Otherwise - it's in absolute values (e.g. +3:gold:)

Great help. Thanks to you both.