Modding Question for any Civ4 BtS modding experts...

I am trying to 'mod' my own game so that the Technologies do not advance past a certain time periood. Meaning - I want to create a game that only goes 'to the medieval' period. I don't want gunpowder, modern techs, etc.

Now - here is what I've been instructed to do and what I've done (if this is right, then it is, if not, then I need some help) *although I need your help either way because I'm stuck...*

Here is where I currently am:

I go to civ/bts/assets/techs: I open the XML file in notepad, save as [insert new file name] and place in my documents. Now, I go to my documents and edit the Technologies I do not want in the game. Now, I replace the 'old' XML version with my new notepad-modified version. Now - here is the problem and one I do not know how to fix: I now LOAD the game (with the 'new' version in place (remember, its showing up as a 'notepad' version - not as XML if that matters* - and if it does - can someone tell me how to turn the notepad version INTO an XML) - yet, I now LOAD the game and the 'deleted' techs remain IN the game. What am I doing wrong??????? If this ENTIRE scenario is wrong, or just part of it...please, let me know.

Thanks guys.

I think that the way it works is it looks for specific filenames, except for xml\text, in which case it reads *.xml. Is it named "CIV4TechInfos.xml"?

What changes did you make? Just bDisable?

There are two ways to do this, one easy, one long:
1. disable all techs past the era you want. They will still be in the game though, but as they will be impossible to research the era will not advance.
2. Remove them - you will also need to remove the buildings, units, and anything else that references techs. This is A LOT. You will need to modify lots and lots of files for this one. Not hard, just long and potentially frustrating.

Under no circumstances remove the eras.

deanej said:

There are two ways to do this, one easy, one long:
1. disable all techs past the era you want. They will still be in the game though, but as they will be impossible to research the era will not advance.
2. Remove them - you will also need to remove the buildings, units, and anything else that references techs. This is A LOT. You will need to modify lots and lots of files for this one. Not hard, just long and potentially frustrating.

Under no circumstances remove the eras.

Click to expand...

To fix the "oh no I can see 50 red (disabled) techs in the science advisor) change their XML settings (whilst disabling them) to make their X-column -1. They won't display as they'll be off the left edge.

The simple way to do this is just disable paper.

Open up civ4techinfos.xml, find TECH_PAPER, scroll down til you come to <bDisabled>, and change the 0 to a 1. This will basically stop everyone from advancing past a late medieval/early renaissance level of technology. Paper is like a bottleneck in the tech tree that leads to practically all the modern techs.

I open the XML file in notepad, save as [insert new file name] and place in my documents. Now, I go to my documents and edit the Technologies I do not want in the game. Now, I replace the 'old' XML version with my new notepad-modified version. Now - here is the problem and one I do not know how to fix: I now LOAD the game (with the 'new' version in place (remember, its showing up as a 'notepad' version - not as XML if that matters* - and if it does - can someone tell me how to turn the notepad version INTO an XML)

Click to expand...

Hmmm ... why is it that people don't seem familiar with file extensions anymore? Since XP came out it seems like people are no longer familiar with basic elements of Windows, like file extensions and paths.

You must have saved this as a .txt (probably something like civ4techinfos.xml.txt). Very easy to fix, just find the file and change it to civ4techinfos.xml, make sure that file extensions are ON. You will know they are on when all files carry a three letter extension, like .txt, .exe, .ini, etc. When you "save as" in notepad it will save it as a .txt, not an .xml, unless you manually specify otherwise. In the save as box, you will see at the bottom a drop-down called "Save as type:" and it will usually say "Text". This will add ".txt" to the filename and change it to a text file. So, in the "save as type" drop down, change the type to "All files" and make sure that the filename ends in .xml.

Also, you say you're putting this in "my documents". I presume you're trying to put this in custom assets. What is the full path of the location? It should be \My Documents\My Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4\CustomAssets\XML\Technologies. Just putting it in my documents will not work.