Questions on Modding :)

[anansethespider]

Hello, this is my first post on the Civ Fanatics forums. I'm really excited to try modding this awesome game, and I'm hoping you all can help me with a few questions!

The first test project I'm working on is adding a new unit to the game. For this test project my unit was called a "Healer" and was a functional copy of the Medic. I just wanted to see how easy or hard it was to add a unit.

What I found is that on the back-end side it was all really easy... I can get the Healer to show up on production menus and unlock at the correct technologies, etc. And when I actually produce a Healer it behaves exactly the way it should! Which is frankly more than I expected from my first hour of modding...

However, I can't seem to figure out anything related to the art assets. Specifically, these are my current problems:

1. In the production menu, the tooltip for Healer displays the same as a Monument.

2. Once the unit has been produced and is roaming around the world, it has the tooltip of a settler - that flag.

3. The unit has the appearance of a warrior.

4. On the technology screen, the tooltip for the Healer is blank.

If anyone could point me in the direction of resolving one or all of these problems I would be much appreciative Thanks!

 

[Kobazco]

To change all of the tooltips/icons, you have to manually do everything in D:\Steam\steamapps\common\Sid Meier's Civilization VI\Base\Assets\UI

 

[anansethespider]

To change all of the tooltips/icons, you have to manually do everything in D:\Steam\steamapps\common\Sid Meier's Civilization VI\Base\Assets\UI

Ok, so I can find inside that folder icons_units.xml which I can edit to create a new entry for the Healer unit. But where are the actual images kept? In that file it says

Atlas="ICON_ATLAS_UNITS" Index="0"

which I assume points to the image for the icon stored somewhere. So let's say I want to add a new icon for my unit. Do you know how I'd go about that?

 

[Kobazco]

If you scroll down there should be units and what index they are assigned to. Just add in your own units and find the index you want to assign them to.

 

[anansethespider]

So you're saying I'd just add them to an already existing tooltip. So for instance, the Healer would look the same as the Medic in terms of tooltip. Do you know how completely new tooltips can be added so that there's no need for repetition?

 

[Kobazco]

We can't add in our own tooltips yet without the SDK.

 

[anansethespider]

We can't add in our own tooltips yet without the SDK.

tyvm exactly the info I was looking for.

 

[anansethespider]

Do you also happen to know why it shows up as a warrior walking around and how I can similarly map it to a different existing unit?

 

[Kobazco]

Yeah but you would have to go into the artdefs of the game and add in the entry for the healer themselves. You can make any combination of model/clothes, but I'm still figuring out how to do it.

 

[anansethespider]

Yeah but you would have to go into the artdefs of the game and add in the entry for the healer themselves. You can make any combination of model/clothes, but I'm still figuring out how to do it.

That does sound difficult. But this is gonna bother me to the point I'll have to figure it out I suppose. Good to meet you! And thanks for answering so quickly.

 

[Chinese American]

actually tooltips are handled by XML and Lua. So you can modify tooltips, and should be able to make your own tooltips as well.

tooltips should read data for new items just fine.

 

[anansethespider]

actually tooltips are handled by XML and Lua. So you can modify tooltips, and should be able to make your own tooltips as well.

tooltips should read data for new items just fine.

Where can I find the images?

 

[Cyphose]

I might be misunderstanding, but tooltips aren't images. They're handled and generated by the unit and localization databases.

Let's take the Spearman, for example. In-game, its tooltip in the tech tree (under Bronze Working) looks like this:



All of the things you see here are defined in the XML for the Spearman in Units.xml:

<Row UnitType="UNIT_SPEARMAN" BaseMoves="2" Cost="65" AdvisorType="ADVISOR_CONQUEST" BaseSightRange="2" ZoneOfControl="true" Domain="DOMAIN_LAND" FormationClass="FORMATION_CLASS_LAND_COMBAT" Name="LOC_UNIT_SPEARMAN_NAME" Description="LOC_UNIT_SPEARMAN_DESCRIPTION" PurchaseYield="YIELD_GOLD" PromotionClass="PROMOTION_CLASS_ANTI_CAVALRY" Maintenance="1" Combat="25" PrereqTech="TECH_BRONZE_WORKING" MandatoryObsoleteTech="TECH_COMPOSITES"/>

...and by the localization entries, like for the description in Units_Text.xml (obviously English localization):

<Row Tag="LOC_UNIT_SPEARMAN_DESCRIPTION">
        <Text>Ancient era melee unit that's effective against mounted units.</Text>
</Row>

If you define all of these things, it should generate the tooltip for you. What do you mean by "empty" in-game? What does it look like in-game, and what do your unit definition/localization entries look like?

 

[anansethespider]

I used the wrong word. I meant icons when I said tooltips

 

[Cyphose]

Ah, that would explain it. I was just misunderstanding

I can't speak on the difficulty of adding new art assets (or even editing existing ones) because that's far from my area of expertise, but from what I've been reading, I wouldn't get too ambitious until Firaxis releases some official modding tools for us to play with. Graphical modding has always been a royal pain, and isn't something I'd recommend newcomers dabble with (hell, even experts still have trouble), especially considering the game is brand new so everyone's on an equally clueless page at the moment.