Tips for Total Conversions
- Thread starter bane_
- Start date
whoward69
DLL Minion
You can almost certainly remove more, but you're then heavily into the realms of UI modding to remove assumptions Firaxis coded in (like there being a space race of a fixed number of parts on the Victory Progress screen), or you're getting very close to the "hard-coded in the DLL, expect a CTD some time soon" boundary!
whoward69
DLL Minion
... who doesn't think it's necessary to know C++ to write a TC. Just take a look at Anno Domini (sp?), the (no longer available) Roman mods (mainly posted on the 2K forum) and the Russian Front mod by WW2Commander - to name just three
bane_
Howardianism High-Priest
- Joined
- Nov 27, 2013
- Messages
- 1,559
To be honest, my TC would definitively not happen without Howard's VMC, but mostly because of the ridiculous amount of freedom his GameEvents provide; you can do wonders.
Most base features (in my mod, that is) that are too specific to even ask for someone to mod into a public DLL can be replicated through Lua and some UI modding*.
*UI modding is a nightmare for me, but surely learning C++ would surely take a bit more time.
(OP updated)
Most base features (in my mod, that is) that are too specific to even ask for someone to mod into a public DLL can be replicated through Lua and some UI modding*.
*UI modding is a nightmare for me, but surely learning C++ would surely take a bit more time.
(OP updated)
That's what I was afraid ofBuying combat unit with faith (which represents summoning) is an important aspect of my mod, so I need to force the AI to do it using Lua.
The CP AI knows how to faith-buy military and non-military units, might look at copying that data from the CP if you want (or just use the CP as your base). The VMC is part of it, along with its glorious events.
Re: total conversion tips – there are tons of references for defines that don't control for zero. They'll cause lots of fun if you don't manage these global defines properly.
G
That's great, as I wrote elsewhere I'm going to use the CP DLL as the base for my mod
I need to analyze the source code (and make some changes if needed) to make sure that the AI will purchase combat units in the circumstances that happen in my mod, but so far it sounds promising.
whoward69
DLL Minion
What happens depends on a lot of other variables. If you're not using the faith system or the world congress, very little at a guess (at that's where most of the era hard-coding happens). If you're keeping one or both of those, then you'll need to use ERA_INDUSTRIAL as the type and change the TXT_KEYs to call it what you want.
You'll also have to dig into the PostDefines table and see what effect remove the other two eras has ... you may be able to get away with changing them both to ERA_INDUSTRIAL.
But on the upside, you do have an (almost) empty and working canvas to experiment in!
You'll also have to dig into the PostDefines table and see what effect remove the other two eras has ... you may be able to get away with changing them both to ERA_INDUSTRIAL.
But on the upside, you do have an (almost) empty and working canvas to experiment in!
Moderator Action: As the thread has become a collection of tips for total conversions, moved to Tutorials and Reference section.
whoward69
DLL Minion
Changing era Types will almost certainly mess with any Early/Mid/Late unit reskins achieve via the ART_ tags
Civitar
Adventurer
Whoward, didn't Pazyryk have a tutorial thread on how to check through Lua whether any of your SQL failed to load? That could be pretty useful here (and I can't find the bloody thread!!).
whoward69
DLL Minion
He does. Basically it inserts a name/value pair into a table (you can use Defines) at the end of every sql file, and then uses Lua to check that every expected value is in the table as the mod starts/loads.
Unfortunately it's not fool-proof, as it's possible for a statement to be invalid (and hence not execute) while not causing the sql file to fail (I ran into that issue when creating the "TC - Minimal" mod)
Edit: And it's here - http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=480793
Civitar
Adventurer
It's better than what I have now, which is nothing of the sort. Thanks Whoward!
whoward69
DLL Minion
The SQL/XML loading check thread is here - http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=480793
Civitar
Adventurer
Great, thanks.
