Empty Mod - total conversion template

Total conversion mods need so many things removed that it is simpler to start clean and add things than edit units, buildings etc.
That is the reason for an empty mod.

The original idea is by Pazyryk - check this thread
The whole thing is possible thanks to lemmy101 and his "IndieStone Anti Deletion-Crash Fixinator SQL"

I have simply added my xlm editor, "gutted" the files and put it all together.

How to use:
Download
Unpack - put it into your modbuddy mod directory
open the mod in modbuddy, edit the files etc
rebuild
start civ5 and run the mod

Editing bigger files might be much easier if you use the editor ("Empty Mod/Empty Mod" directory) Just open xlm file, make changes, press export and voila - the file is created, overwriting the old one in XML directory
There are also civ5 files (as of patch 1.062) included, in case anyone wants to copy existing assets. I will probably include mongols genghis khan entries, too.
Full Civ5 files: CivV 1.062 editor.xls, "Civ 1.062 rest of files.ZIP"
Empty files (in by deafault): "EmptyMod editor.xls", "XML empty rest.ZIP"

This is an initial version and as such, will probably need some improvements. But it is tested, and the game is running - after all, 2 buildings, 5 units, 2 civs, 3 promotions and 2 techs are in

All policy branches and resources are in. Both require changes to lua files, for UI towork or to let players be placed properly. I have decied it is better to leave these in place, as removing and then adding might be troublesome in this case.
That has also a side effect of all resources being visible from the start.

Good luck creating mods and let me know if you spot any bugs.

Awesome work. I'm sure this will be massively useful to people!

Great Ahwaric! So we'll be seeing Orbis 2 very soon now?

I know you've been working on this for a while, beating your head against a wall...

So Simply... Thank you and Congrats on getting it done.

Has anyone been successful in doing this sort of mod which includes scenarios?

I haven't tried this code since I don't need to delete *everything*, just techs, buildings, civs, citystates, and maybe the modern stuff later. So am still using this XML to delete, and then the "Fixinator" at the end:
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=9835818&postcount=34

I've still got some problem with the civs when loading a scenario where it CTDs. After loading, the civs set in WB are not there, just 2 ?. I haven't modified leaders, though Carthage and France both use Napoleon.

Everything works individually, but not when loaded from a map

Not loading the scenario, using advanced setup to get the rights civs, and having lua add the units does indeed allow the Battle of Cannae to take place.

there may be issues with the fixinator and worldbuilder maps I'm afraid, since the worldbuilder seems to place units on the map by ID. Look through the fixinator SQL and try removing the 4 line blocks mentioning 'Units' and 'UnitClasses' and 'Leaders' perhaps? basically trim out stuff you've not been deleting so you don't need to reassign the IDs.

Awesome! This will make my modding life so much easier... Now I'm off to exploit your hard work!

Thank you!!! Total Conversion mods will be much easier now

wow

the TAM team, and most probably the whole world, will never be thankfull enough towards you.

First: Awesome! I'm using this as the base for my total conversion mod, and it's so much better than working from the base files as I was doing first.

However, I've encountered a couple of bugs. The latter two may be because of things I've done in my own mod, so if someone wants to test for them in some other version it would be great.

* When I start the empty mod as-is, I've had the game crash as soon as my units are on the map. This may be related to the below bug since it didn't happen when I turned goody huts off.

* When I (or the AI) explore goody huts, the game crashes immediately.

* After about ten turns (with goody huts turned off to prevent the previous problem), I win a science victory. Needless to say, I haven't built a spaceship or even developed a single technology. Could this be related to the spaceship components not existing in the empty mod? I may have time to test this theory tomorrow, but I thought I'd post here first in case anyone else has the same problem.

Hey FYI I've added SQL support to the Tech Editor, so now it can load up your mod to gut itself out:

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?p=9883193#post9883193

it detects a few conflicts, mind you. Let me know if these are valid or whether it's got confused by the SQL somehow? ;D

Thanks for this work!

This is behaviour I found when there were mismatched IDs.

lemmy101 said:

Code:

When I (or the AI) explore goody huts, the game crashes immediately.

This is behaviour I found when there were mismatched IDs.

Click to expand...

I'll look into that. Thanks for the tip!