Great Person Mod for Warlords (updated)

Great Person Mod for Warlords v. 1.01a

Updated to Warlords 2.08 by Gaurav. Please note that this mod is about 103 MB when uncompressed.



Based on Great Person Mod with Renamer Mod by Patricius et al.
Includes NoNameRenamerMod by TheLopez
Includes CvPath and CvCustomEventManager by Dr. Elmer Jiggle
Artwork updated to Warlords by Amra

This real update for Warlords 2.08 includes the following new features:

• Great Person Popup shows up with the other popups, at the correct time, even in multiplayer.
  It does not obscure the action during the other player's turns.
• Better test (ok cheat...) code.
  Use ALT-SHIFT-G to create Great Engineer, CTRL-SHIFT-G to create Great General.
  Enabled by uncommenting lines in CvGreatPersonModEventManager.py
• CIV4UnitInfos.xml and all other Firaxis code updated to Warlords 2.08.
  No game balance changes will be reversed.
• "Great Great General" bug fixed.
• Updated RandomNameUtils.py to Jeckel's version for Warlords.
  No python errors from any civs not included in RenamerMod.
• Included DEJ's CvPath.py. Mod will work whether installed in MODS or CustomAssets.
• No need to run any batch file.

Version 1.01a fixes the following issues brought up by LunarMongoose and jray:

• Spelling errors in two GP art files.
• Valmiki art file showing wrong GP type.
• Joan d'Arc missing.
• Jeanne d'Arc changed back to great prophet.

Credits:

• Snoopy, for starting this mod.
• Patricius, for keeping it going, getting out a real working version, and for making this an all around awesome mod.
• RobO for helping smooth out code of CustomEventManger.
• TheLopez for NoNameRenamer mod.
• Scottcstoness for his work on fixing pinkscreen problem.
• Much thanks to Tableist and Alerum68 for helping find quotes.
• Rabbit, White for various Great General images.
• Amra, for updating to Warlords, adding additional GP names, lots of new artwork.
• Dr. Elmer Jiggle for CvPath and CvCustomEventManager.
• Jeckel for RandomNameUtils.py update for Warlords.
• jray for art fixes.

[size=+2]What this mod does:[/size]
Whenever a great person, such as a great artist or prophet is born in any of YOUR cities, a window will popup, showing you a picture and a quote from the great person. Also, when all unique names are used up, a civ-specific random name will be used with a generic picture. The Warlords version of this mod adds 135 new Great People with images & quotes as well as Great General images.

[size=+1]Note regarding Warlords version from Amra:[/size]
The additional 135 Great People that I have included are names and images that I use in my (Amra's) Modpack. As such, a select few of the new names may not be as well known and were included because they are a favorite writer, artist, etc of mine. If you don't want someone included in your personal game, then edit the CIV4UnitInfos.xml file with notepad to remove any of the new Great People you do not want. If you do not want any of the new great people, rename the file to CIV4UnitInfos.xml.bak to disable it.

I have included a template image in the Art\GreatPeople directory in case anyone wants to add their own Great People.

[size=+2]Download:[/size]

Great Person Mod for Warlords v. 1.01a

You may notice that in the second screenshot I am playing as Korea and there were no GE names left.

Known Issues:

• Most of the images are not transparent.
• Joan d'Arc and Jeanne d'Arc are really the same person.
  I am still providing both because there are two very different art files.
  Feel free to disable whichever one you want from Civ4UnitInfos.xml
• See also issues reported by LunarMongoose.

If an artist would like to add new artwork, I could incorporate the changes.

Glad to see you updating these mods.

I started using "artpath = os.path.abspath("Mods\Mongoose Mod\Assets\Art\GreatPeople")" to get the path with no batch file a long time ago, but that obviously doesn't handle the general case.

Oh and from what I've looked at so far, you have typos in Alexander Fleming (wehat -> what) and Aryabhata (soace -> space)... Sorry to be annoying but it's what I do.

LunarMongoose said:

Glad to see you updating these mods.

I started using "artpath = os.path.abspath("Mods\Mongoose Mod\Assets\Art\GreatPeople")" to get the path with no batch file a long time ago, but that obviously doesn't handle the general case.

Oh and from what I've looked at so far, you have typos in Alexander Fleming (wehat -> what) and Aryabhata (soace -> space)... Sorry to be annoying but it's what I do.

Click to expand...

It's not annoying. Thank you very much. All software has bugs. Bug reports are the best proof that somebody is using it.

I didn't actually check or change any of Amra's great people names/pictures. So you can blame him.

If I put out another version, I'll fix them. But I probably won't unless there is a bug that is more than cosmetic, someone contributes new artwork, or Firaxis releases another patch.

In the meantime, please don't forget that if you change the XML, you have to change the name of the file too. Otherwise, you get the generic Great Whatever image.

Edit: Oops, do you mean the spelling errors are in the images? If they are, I'd need to hire one of the artists.

Gaurav said:

It's not annoying. Thank you very much.

Click to expand...

Well most of the time I correct people's spelling or grammar, or other minor details, they get annoyed, or politely brush me off, or in the case of Lopez's PiratesMod, politely brush me off and then quietly fix it later without saying anything... *grumble*

Gaurav said:

All software has bugs. Bug reports are the best proof that somebody is using it.

Click to expand...

That's one of the reasons I stopped updating my stuff on here 5 months ago... Got a few "hey this looks cool" comments but no real indication anyone was really using it. Same with my music actually. Oh well.

Gaurav said:

In the meantime, please don't forget that if you change the XML, you have to change the name of the file too. Otherwise, you get the generic Great Whatever image.

Click to expand...

I know all about that from dealing with "Joan dArc" versus "Joan d'Arc" versus "Joan of Arc" vs "Jeanne d'Arc" a while back, the last of which I mistook for a different version of the name Joan at first... It was such a mess I even mentioned it in my mod thread. Incidentally those two are not in your version; they do exist (as GP Mod dds's) but I don't remember for sure where I got them.

Gaurav said:

Edit: Oops, do you mean the spelling errors are in the images? If they are, I'd need to hire one of the artists.

Click to expand...

Well if you can reproduce the font to an acceptable degree you can always just lift the portrait picture and rebuild it from the template, but assuming dds is a lossy format that might not be ideal. Anyway though yes that is what I meant.

LunarMongoose said:

That's one of the reasons I stopped updating my stuff on here 5 months ago... Got a few "hey this looks cool" comments but no real indication anyone was really using it. Same with my music actually. Oh well.

Click to expand...

I thought your SDK fixes found their way into a whole bunch of mods.

Gaurav said:

I thought your SDK fixes found their way into a whole bunch of mods.

Click to expand...

Ooh ooh ooh, you mean you remember me? ... *dances around happily*

Actually I was only aware of two that used those, Sevomod and CCP... If more did they didn't give credit, or else I didn't look hard enough. I was more referring to my full mod though, where most of my effort has actually gone... real barn-burner that's been.

Anywho I can post the Joan and Jeanne dds's if you don't have them and want to use them... Let me know.

LunarMongoose said:

Ooh ooh ooh, you mean you remember me? ... *dances around happily*

Click to expand...

If I didn't your sig would remind me.

LunarMongoose said:

Actually I was only aware of two that used those, Sevomod and CCP... If more did they didn't give credit, or else I didn't look hard enough. I was more referring to my full mod though, where most of my effort has actually gone... real barn-burner that's been.

Click to expand...

Not sure, but I thought the HOF Mod put it in one or two of the fixes before Firaxis fixed them. And how many mods added on to those three?

I think unless you have a team and are doing a massive total conversion, your best bet is to focus. A single person with a day job can't compete with some of these large teams. Plus full blown mods have to actually compete for attention from average users.

LunarMongoose said:

Anywho I can post the Joan and Jeanne dds's if you don't have them and want to use them... Let me know.

Click to expand...

Post them anyway right here. If I do not do another version, at least the next maintainer will have them.

Gaurav said:

If I didn't your sig would remind me.

Click to expand...

I'm going to quote my Ninja Gaiden wall scroll on this... "Fear not the sig, but the man who wields it."

Gaurav said:

Not sure, but I thought the HOF Mod put it in one or two of the fixes before Firaxis fixed them. And how many mods added on to those three?

Click to expand...

Firaxis only fixed one of them so far (the most glaring)... I've not looked at HOF yet, perhaps I should.

Gaurav said:

I think unless you have a team and are doing a massive total conversion, your best bet is to focus. A single person with a day job can't compete with some of these large teams.

Click to expand...

That's just it though, I don't have a job, day or otherwise. (Way to read my profile. ) Have been unemployed since I got out of college actually, but without 50,000 downloads and appearances in PC magazines *cough* TR *cough* I can't really expect modding work to help my job chances. Oh well.

Gaurav said:

Post them anyway right here. If I do not do another version, at least the next maintainer will have them.

Click to expand...

Edit: file removed, it served its purpose

These are in my full mod already and I dislike posting things redundantly (clutter + limited space) so I may not leave them here forever, but I will for a while. Not sure what happened with them, the file dates (Jan and Feb 06) indicate they're from a really early GP Mod version but I guess they got lost along the way.

LunarMongoose said:

I'm going to quote my Ninja Gaiden wall scroll on this... "Fear not the sig, but the man who wields it."


Firaxis only fixed one of them so far (the most glaring)... I've not looked at HOF yet, perhaps I should.


That's just it though, I don't have a job, day or otherwise. (Way to read my profile. ) Have been unemployed since I got out of college actually, but without 50,000 downloads and appearances in PC magazines *cough* TR *cough* I can't really expect modding work to help my job chances. Oh well.


http://homepage.mac.com/klwelch/Civ4/dArc.zip

These are in my full mod already and I dislike posting things redundantly (clutter + limited space) so I may not leave them here forever, but I will for a while. Not sure what happened with them, the file dates (Jan and Feb 06) indicate they're from a really early GP Mod version but I guess they got lost along the way.

Click to expand...

also in TR mod we have some your changes, you are listed in section: "and all others which can be forgotten" in readme - i humbly apologize, but sometimes if it is not made at start, it does never made...

and about huge team..heh..in TR, we are only four peoples, i am only one programmmer (sometimes houman will help with python)

LunarMongoose said:

Way to read my profile. )

Click to expand...

Ummm... okay. I don't think that homepage is going to help you get a job or a girl. Thanks for sharing.

I finally got to give this a try. I tried merging it with my jrayUGH modpack, and it worked like a charm! It's awesome to not have the action obscured by the Great Person screen anymore , and to not need the .bat file.

I noticed you removed Jeanne D'Arc from the .xml file. Was there a problem with that one? The .dds file is still there.

I can't believe the savings from compressing to .7z instead of .zip!! 10mb instead of 38mb, wow. I'm curious though-- when I try compressing to .7z, I get 10.4mb. What settings did you use to get it under 10mb? Very handy to have the download here at CivFanatics.

jray said:

I finally got to give this a try. I tried merging it with my jrayUGH modpack, and it worked like a charm! It's awesome to not have the action obscured by the Great Person screen anymore , and to not need the .bat file.

Click to expand...

I'm glad you like it.

jray said:

I noticed you removed Jeanne D'Arc from the .xml file. Was there a problem with that one? The .dds file is still there.

Click to expand...

LunarMongoose mentioned the same thing. However, compared with the xml file shipped by Amra, modified "Tuesday August 29, 2006 9:21:49 PM", I have not removed or added any GP names. Amra may have removed her for his own reasons. By all means, feel free to put her back in.

jray said:

I can't believe the savings from compressing to .7z instead of .zip!! 10mb instead of 38mb, wow. I'm curious though-- when I try compressing to .7z, I get 10.4mb. What settings did you use to get it under 10mb? Very handy to have the download here at CivFanatics.

Click to expand...

When I saw that Amra managed to get his download under 10MB, I looked at his settings in 7zip and copied them. So he gets credit for that too. I used the free and open source 7zip program itself. The settings were:
LZMA compression method (default)
Ultra compression level (maximum compression, minimum performance)
128 MB dictionary size (64 MB is default, will use more memory)
64 bit word size (smaller would result in higher compression, but at a very big hit in performance)

It looks like 7zip's default LZMA compression method is particularly good at dds files, so it is definitely worth the loss of compatibility compared with zip. I have seen that Amra kept switching compression methods with each file so as to minimize the overall size. He used WinRAR for his overall modpack. Given the huge amounts of art and such in his mods, that made sense for him.

With YAUGM, I knew I was attracting new users primarily, and did not want to help users learn a new program, so I used zip and hosted with a third party. But now my audience is mostly other modders, so I don't think it will be a big deal. (It is hard though getting used to these puny download rates. )

I just noticed that Valmiki was categorized as a Great Artist in the XML, whereas the picture shows Great Prophet. I learned this the hard way by whooping it up for the hero that was going to lightbulb Divine Right for me, only to see him outfitted in Shakespeare pants . (Actually, I decided to lightbulb Music instead and then use the new one to get 2/3 of Divine Right, but that's another story...).

The Google gods seem to describe him more as an artist (but someone please correct me if I'm wrong)... so, I took the liberty of updating the .dds file accordingly. Saving with DXT5 compression in GIMP got the same 256kb file size, so I assume all is well. Here's the file if you want to use it.

Oh, and I have one question: Suppose I were to change him back to a Great Prophet. Would it be sufficient to just move his entry in CIV4UnitInfos.xml to the Great Prophet section? Would I also need to move his entry in Amra_GameTextInfos_GreatPeople.xml to match the overall ordering? Are there any other changes I'd need to make (for example, are there counts or indices stored anywhere)? Thanks!

jray said:

I just noticed that Valmiki was categorized as a Great Artist in the XML, whereas the picture shows Great Prophet. I learned this the hard way by whooping it up for the hero that was going to lightbulb Divine Right for me, only to see him outfitted in Shakespeare pants . (Actually, I decided to lightbulb Music instead and then use the new one to get 2/3 of Divine Right, but that's another story...).

The Google gods seem to describe him more as an artist (but someone please correct me if I'm wrong)... so, I took the liberty of updating the .dds file accordingly. Saving with DXT5 compression in GIMP got the same 256kb file size, so I assume all is well. Here's the file if you want to use it.

Oh, and I have one question: Suppose I were to change him back to a Great Prophet. Would it be sufficient to just move his entry in CIV4UnitInfos.xml to the Great Prophet section? Would I also need to move his entry in Amra_GameTextInfos_GreatPeople.xml to match the overall ordering? Are there any other changes I'd need to make (for example, are there counts or indices stored anywhere)? Thanks!

Click to expand...

Hi, jray, no, Firaxis got this part right, you can add, subtract, move around the great people without any fuss.

I see you are not afraid to do a bit of artwork. Do you think you can correct those spelling errors LunarMongoose was kind enough to point out? If so, I'll put out a new version and officially add you to this mod's very long list of credits.

Gaurav said:

I see you are not afraid to do a bit of artwork. Do you think you can correct those spelling errors LunarMongoose was kind enough to point out? If so, I'll put out a new version and officially add you to this mod's very long list of credits.

Click to expand...

Sure, I'll give it a shot. I don't think it's possible to edit the text directly in the .dds files, but I like sneaking around with lassoing individual words and letters and re-arranging things, kinda like a ransom note .

Hey Gaurav,

I've been gone from here for about 4-5 months and was just looking in the window before I decide whether I want to open the door and step all the way back in, so to say, and I just wanted to say "Thanks" for taking over this mod. I was never very good at python coding so I'm sure it is in much better hands with you.


Thanks again.

Amra said:

Hey Gaurav,

I've been gone from here for about 4-5 months and was just looking in the window before I decide whether I want to open the door and step all the way back in, so to say, and I just wanted to say "Thanks" for taking over this mod. I was never very good at python coding so I'm sure it is in much better hands with you.


Thanks again.

Click to expand...

I spoke to TAFireHawk and the other guys with the VISA modpack and they told me not to bother waiting for you to get back to me, and that no one knew how to get in touch with you.

Well, if you ever want it back, let me know. Otherwise, are there any new GPs you want to throw in? Or improve upon? Plenty of suggestions available in the unique GP names mod...

Gaurav said:

I spoke to TAFireHawk and the other guys with the VISA modpack and they told me not to bother waiting for you to get back to me, and that no one knew how to get in touch with you.

Well, if you ever want it back, let me know. Otherwise, are there any new GPs you want to throw in? Or improve upon? Plenty of suggestions available in the unique GP names mod...

Click to expand...

Seriously, no biggie. As I said, I'm not sure if I am doing any more mods yet and I really did mean thanks for taking it over. It was always one of my favorite mods and I am happy to see it live on.