Weird bug - other colonist leaders as king

drjest2000

Prince
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Dec 8, 2001
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I have been adding civs to my mod one at a time and double checking my work each step of the way, but I ran into a weird issue with Scotland.

The Scottish colonists end up with a random leader as the king, even though the XML files have Scotland Europe as the master civ. After four remakes, I am begining to wonder if the game just hates certain nations more than others. I gave up on scotland and moved on to Prussia, and then it started happening again with the Germans.

I have run into a similar bug with a colonial civ having no access to the Europe screen, but that was caused by forgetting to change the derived civ tag in the European component of the civ and easily rectified.

I have gone through the XML files line by line and found nothing is wrong there, so I am wondering if there is a limit for how many civs you can add to a mod.

My files are all cut and paste copies of the vanilla game xml files with only the tags changed. It worked fine with Courland and every other civ I have added. But as I am getting close to 50 colonial and native civs -- which I know is excessive, but I keep thinking of new ones to add >_< -- I am wondering how far one can take this modular loading thing.


SOLUTION FOUND!!:spear:
KJ Jansson pointed me in the right direction in this thread and I have resolved the issue by removing all remarks/comments (even those by Firaxis) from the XML files.

CIV4CivilizationInfos.xml BEFORE:
Code:
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!-- edited with XMLSPY v2004 rel. 2 U (http://www.xmlspy.com) by EXTREME (Firaxis Games) -->
<!-- Sid Meier's Civilization 4 -->
<!-- Copyright Firaxis Games 2005 -->
<!-- -->
<!-- Civilization Infos -->
<Civ4CivilizationInfos xmlns="x-schema:CIV4CivilizationsSchema.xml">
...


CIV4CivilizationInfos.xml AFTER:
Code:
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<Civ4CivilizationInfos xmlns="x-schema:CIV4CivilizationsSchema.xml">
...
 
Weird :(

I have 6 extra civs right now (2 colonial, 2 european, 2 native) - not much, so that's probably why I haven't had that problem yet? :confused:

How many extra civs do you have and of what types? And how many leaders?

I hope we'll get to the bottom of this problem.

Another idea - maybe it has to do with too many leaders with the same traits? Are the replaced leaders of the same traits as the old ones?
 
I try to make the leaders have unique trait pairs, but that means making plenty new traits LOL

another thing I found is that the new civs have to be in a certain order, you cannot group the "europe" parts together, so

NewCiv1
NewCiv1_Europe
NewCiv2
NewCiv2_Europe
NewCiv3
NewCiv3_Europe
... and so on
then Vanilla civs

but NOT grouped as in the Firaxis model:

NewCiv1
NewCiv2
NewCiv3
...
NewCiv1_Europe
NewCiv2_Europe
NewCiv3_Europe
... and so on

I don't think this is a major problem for new native civs since they don't have the derived relationship, and in my experiments they seem to function seamlessly wether they are added to the master CivInfo xml or left with a modular CivInfo in the modular folder.

also adding remarks in the data area of the CivInfos and DiplomacyInfos XML files seems to cause issues, which indicates that the XML parsing isn't W3C specification, the game's XML parser may be some sort of low-end OEM pebble-dash thing that isn't making use of the operating system default XML parser, which would account for all manner of things.

After several remakes of Scotland and Prussia without any success in resolving this bug, I am becoming convinced that there is a game-limit for the number of colonies/europe pairs the game's engine came handle. There is more than likely a memory leak that occurs above a certain level or some form of data corruption in the cache after a certain number of colony europe pairs.

This is all pure speculation on my part, but it makes a kind of sense when you consider the very limited number of colony/europe and native civs that are present in the product as shipped to market, they probably ran into similar problems during development.

In my mod before the issue began, I had successfully added:

New China/China
New Courland/Courland
New Denmark/Denmark
New Italy/Italy
New Portugal/Portugal
New Russia/Russia
New Sweden/Sweden
...
Australian Aborigines
Acolhua
Ainu
Ayutthaya
Aztec (new leaderheads only)
Beothuk (as Skraelings in preparation for a viking civ)
Blackfoot
Bod (that's an ancient Tibetan Empire)
Brunei
Champa
Chickasaw
Choctaw
Chola
Creek
Denesuline (Chipewyan)
Guarani
Hawaii
Inca (new leaderhead only)
Inuit
Japan
Khmer
Maasai
Madagascar (Malagasy)
Mahican
Majapahit
Malacca
Maya
Moche
Mohawk
Mohican
Navajo
Nazca
Nez Pierce
Olmec
Paiute
Papua
Powhatan
Purhepecha (Tarascan)
Ryuku Islands
Samoa
Seminole
Shawnee
Srivijaya
Tagalog (Philipinas)
Tlaxcalan
Toltec
Toungoo
Ute
Xhosa
Zoque
Zuni

So I was already pushing the envelope LOL

Androrc, the replacement is a bit random, the European leader/King is usually French in my experience of the bug, although sometimes the Europe portion of the relationship is missing altogether and although the ship can sail to Europe it becomes lost to me from that point since I can't even access the europe screen when that happens.

At first I thought that there were key words that caused the issue, since it began when I added Scotland and every effort ended in the bug, but after trying to add Germany, it's evident it is a more non-specific problem likely dealing with a memory limit or leak.
 
drjest2000, have you managed to add all those civs in modules?

If so, does each civ have it's individual module with there own CIV4CivilizationInfos.xml or are they all in one single module?

Because, from what I understand, having multiple CIV4CivilizationInfos.xml is like not supported or something. At least I tought that was the problem...
 
Australian Aborigines
Acolhua
Ainu
Ayutthaya
Aztec (new leaderheads only)
Beothuk (as Skraelings in preparation for a viking civ)
Blackfoot
Bod (that's an ancient Tibetan Empire)
Brunei
Champa
Chickasaw
Choctaw
Chola
Creek
Denesuline (Chipewyan)
Guarani
Hawaii
Inca (new leaderhead only)
Inuit
Japan
Khmer
Maasai
Madagascar (Malagasy)
Mahican
Majapahit
Malacca
Maya
Moche
Mohawk
Mohican
Navajo
Nazca
Nez Pierce
Olmec
Paiute
Papua
Powhatan
Purhepecha (Tarascan)
Ryuku Islands
Samoa
Seminole
Shawnee
Srivijaya
Tagalog (Philipinas)
Tlaxcalan
Toltec
Toungoo
Ute
Xhosa
Zoque
Zuni

Hot damn! You should really release those as a pack (or perhaps a pack per continent).
 
I could use some of them in Westward Ho... I already have "real" Paiute and Navajo civs with art taken from CIV Gold for BTS, but I don't have some others like the Blackfoot and Ute (they are just renamed versions of existing Col native civilizations).

Thinking of making a "COL Gold" mod?
 
TC01, that's exactly my plan to make a "COL Gold" style mod :)

I am trying to keep the time period 1500-1800 as much as possible, but some regions weren't didn't experience major colonization until the post-1800 period (parts of Africa, Pacific Islands, and the North American "west" & "south west" for instance). And some cultures didn't have organised states during that period, the Tamil for instance had a sort of organised state, but it was more or less the collapsed Padyan Kingdom or Chola Empire. You could turn it either direction and be right.

For the 1.0 release, my plan is to keep the game engine vanilla, the most I plan on doing is adding unique units and maybe building art-styles by region/culture, but that all hinges on my ability to beat the learning curve for these things.

Androrc, I hadn't thought about sets by region/continent, but that's a great idea. I had sort of considered doing mod-mods for existing mods, but that's all in the future.

As it stands, I am kind of limited by the LeaderHeads. I am not very knowledgeable about 3D software, so I can only use existing LeaderHeads. I guess I could learn how to modify LeaderHeads :D
 
drjest2000, have you managed to add all those civs in modules?

If so, does each civ have it's individual module with there own CIV4CivilizationInfos.xml or are they all in one single module?

Because, from what I understand, having multiple CIV4CivilizationInfos.xml is like not supported or something. At least I tought that was the problem...

I was able to have all of them working with unique modular CIV4CivilizationInfos.xml files, they loaded and played correctly with no issue. The only civs that I experienced any problems with were Scotland and Prussia (Germany).

The major gain from not having individual CIV4CivilizationInfos.xml files (placing all of the civ infos in a single master file) is that this allows you to exercise a degree of control over the sort order of the leaders in the drop-down menu.

The whole mass was all modular in totality until the bug with Scotland and Prussia, then I tried placing the data all in one file and this did not resolve the bug with Scotland or Prussia.

It did work without error in a completely modular system until I ran afoul on the colony-europe relationship with Scotland and Prussia.
 
TC01, if there are any natives I have in the mod that might interest you for the Westward Ho mod just name them and I will send you a file with them done up as modules:


The Western North American tribes I have ready or almost finished are:

Blackfoot
Cheyenne
Choctaw (Western after relocation in the 1840s)
Haida (California-Oregon)
Hopi
Nez Pierce (may be too far north for your mod's theme)
Shoshone
Ute
Yuma
Zuni

I need leaderheads for some of them, which is a major road block. If you'll take them with 2D art for leaderheads I can have them for you today or tomorrow.
 
TC01
Androrc, I hadn't thought about sets by region/continent, but that's a great idea. I had sort of considered doing mod-mods for existing mods, but that's all in the future.

As it stands, I am kind of limited by the LeaderHeads. I am not very knowledgeable about 3D software, so I can only use existing LeaderHeads. I guess I could learn how to modify LeaderHeads :D

I don't have much problem with them using 2d leaderheads, I use a 2d leaderhead for Olmecs myself; if you'd release them I'd enjoy them very much. ;)
 
Code:
-Sioux (Already in Vanilla Col)
-Pawnee
-Apache (Already in Vanilla Col)
-Blackfoot
-Crow (New Leader: Plenty Coups)
-Cheyenne (New Leader: Morning Star)
-Shosone (New Leader: Pocatello)
-Ute (New Leader: Antonga Black Hawk)
-Navajo (New Leader: Narbona)
-Paiute (New Leader: Wovoka)

These are my native civs. For everyone but the Navajo and Paiute, I just did a renaming of an existing native civ and it's leaders.

I could add other Western natives in, of course, and the leaders I have defined aren't set in stone. But the:

Blackfoot
Cheyenne
Shoshone
Ute

are the four from your list already in the mod.
 
TC01, I'll try to have them ready for you by tomorrow (Monday). Is there anything special you want done to them? I have them all set to teach mostly silver miners, seasoned scouts, fur traders, and trappers than the agricultural/fisherman stuff. To me it seemed ridiculous and non sequitur to make land-locked tribes in the Great Plains and Rockies/Sierras agronomists. The Hopi I set up to teach farmers and silver miners more than anything else, pity there isn't a clay/pottery resource combo. I suppose I could add one, but dear God the work...
 
TC01, I am sorry for the delay, I am still looking for good graphics for the period of your mod for the leaderheads. The Hopi, Blackfoot (albeit technically I guess it should be Niitsitapi, since Blackfoot are only one tribe within a greater nation), Cheyenne, Choctaw, Yuma, and Zuni are all done, still need "killer" graphics for Crow, Shoshone, and Ute. I will make another Google Image Search and see what I can find to get these completed.
 
TC01, here are the first three, take a look at them, give them a test drive and see if you like what I've done. If you want to change anything, feel free to do it yourself or say what changes you'd like done and I'll do it, I'm flexible as over-cooked pasta. If you like the over-all results, I can have the rest to you by Thursday at the latest, just need to double check my work and do some play testing to make sure I didn't forget anything.

Androrc, I'll clean up my whole mod and upoad an alpha copy for you as soon as I can, I'd really appreciate the feedback :)
 

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Sorry for the delay in responding, been busy with other projects.

Blackfoot look good, they were the first civilization I tested. No 3D leaderheads isn't a problem... someone can always make a 3D leaderhead in the future. I'll look at Cheyenne next. Hopi aren't in the mod currently, but I will add them in if they're good.
 
Delay is all good, TC01, no one is going to die because of a time gap in modding :)

The time allowed me to make some more progess on the learning curve, and there simply aren't enough hours in a day to get all the learning done I need to do to catch up to you young fellows in the modding effort LOL
 
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