The following is a guide to creating an entire Civilization. This walkthrough will cover XML basics along with the XML files requiring modification, how to handle the art files and make leaderheads, flags, and buttons, along with some tips to get the desired effects.
Suffice to say, there will be several mini tutorials included in this rather large tutorial. Such as creating the leaderhead, designing U.U.s, setting up the A.I. of a leader, creating custom diplomacy text, among other things.
PLAN AHEAD!
But, before you begin, it is always a good idea to know what you're doing before you rush into creating a Civilziation.
Some things you should consider:
- City Names
You can technically have as many city names as you can imagine or only one. The problem with having only one city name is that the second the A.I. expands it has no names to choose from, so it just selects "ANY" city name. So if you deleted all of Japan's city names except Kyoto -- and let the A.I. expand, you'll get something like Damascus or Mecca.
I recommend having at least 12-24 default city names.
- Starting Techs
Each Civ usually has starting techs. These techs can "technically" be any tech in the game. But, I recommend selecting two from the following: Hunting, Fishing, Mining, The Wheel, Mysticism, or Agriculture
- Unique Units
Consider the various units that can be replaced by your unique units. You might also want to have a good idea of how to balance them with specific promotions/bonuses in mind.
Also consider the possibility of skinning the unit, which will be covered briefly in this tutorial.
- Leaders
Having a good knowledge of the leader in particular along with their personality/handle of government is a must for creating a new leader. Although you can technically assign any values you wish, your leaders will come out much better if you know about them before hand.
Along with their A.I. personality you can assign various traits, the default options are (Aggressive, Creative, Expansive, Financial, Industrious, Organized, Philosophical, and Spiritual).
SECTION 1
The Art Files
When modifying the art files in Civilization IV, you're going to need a proper program to modify the .dds files. .DDS files are basically similar to regular bitmaps, except that they contain the same image at different sizes.
It's important to note -- I've noticed that all Civ IV files are
DXT3 DDS files. This does not matter until we get into editing the files.
Firstly, you're going to need a proper program to edit these .dds files.
Personally I prefer
DXTbmp, which properly generates the
mipmaps (the same image at multiple resultions) and doesn't give me any serious problems (like the Photoshop plugin does).
Well the general idea with leaderheads is to have them at 512x512 like in the Greek World mod -- and have them stretched a bit in photoshop (125% width) so they stretch properly in diplomacy.
So let's say for a moment I have a really good portrait of Abraham Lincoln I'd like to make into the game that would scale properly in diplomacy without looking like his head was squeezed in a vice.
SECTION 1.1
Creating the Flag
The very first task you'll need to do to create a flag for your Civilization is a source image to create the flag from. Once you have your source image -- you want to resize its proportions to
128x128.
Here is my Carthaginian flag from my Carthage mod. As you can see it looks pretty nice at 128x128, and it's nicely set in the middle so it doesn't wrap around the actual flag mesh. There is only one problem however. When the game actually loads the image is actually "squished" by about 25% in the width.
To remedy this, we stretch the original image's width by 125% to cancel out this effect.
Which results in a properly scaled image within the game.
Now, with a properly scaled image, we can actually load the image into DXTBmp and create the .dds file.
To do this, simply load up DXTBmp. Then select
File -> Open and open up your 128x128 bitmap. Now, double click the white area labeled "Alpha Channel." This should load your default paint/image editing program. Now use the paint bucket tool and fill the entire white area with black. This will make the game use your RGB values rather than the player's in-game color to define the flag.
Now, click
File -> Save as -> DDS Texture. Before you save the image, click on the "Save as type" bar, and make sure that the image type is
DDS DXT3. Now this image is ready for implementation.
SECTION 1.2
Creating the Leaderhead
Firstly, it's best to have a source image. Here I have a painting of Abraham Lincoln -- although it's been shrunk down for internet use.
Now, when creating a leaderhead, it is a good idea to use the ideal proportions of
512x512, and remembering our law of 125% width from our previous enounter. With this in mind, I stretch this image to the proper proportions.
Now it may look rather ugly in that sense, but once put into the game, you can see the results in diplomacy look MUCH more pleasing to the eye!
Now, you want to treat the leaderhead file exactly as you did before with the flags. Load DXTBmp. Then select
File -> Open and open up your 512x512 bitmap.
EXCEPT -- DO NOT SET THE ALPHA CHANNEL BLACK! Click
File -> Save as -> DDS Texture. Before you save the image, click on the "Save as type" bar, and make sure that the image type is
DDS DXT3. Now this image is ready for implementation.
SECTION 1.3
Creating Buttons
Before you start creating buttons. Typically you'll need three buttons. One for the leaderhead, one for your Civ flag, and one for your Unique Unit. Make your buttons with this in mind for your Civilization.
Button sizes are typically
64x64 pixels. The best idea when creating a button is to firstly create the image for the 64x64 image file. Then, put the image into the Civ4 border. The reason behind the border is that they create an illusion of a button shadow when the alpha channels are applied. This is the border I use; feel free to use it in your mods.
The only difference now is the alpha channel. Here is the actual alpha channel used globally for Civ4 buttons. Make sure to set this up before you save your
DXT3 files.
SECTION 1.4
File Arrangements
Now that you've created the Art files you need to create the actual mod directory and place the files in their proper directories.
Firstly, go into your
Program Files\Firaxis Games\Sid Meier's Civilization IV\Mods directory.
Note: Do not go into _Civ4CustomMods directory or your My Games\Sid Meier's Civilization IV directory. Or else save files may not work properly with your modification.
Now, create a directory of your choosing therein. So it'll be something like
Sid Meier's Civilization IV\Mods\YourCiv\.
Inside that directory -- create the following folders and place the art files.
YourCiv\Assets\Art\Interface\Buttons\Civilizations\(your civ's button here)
YourCiv\Assets\Art\Interface\Buttons\Units\(your UU's button here)
YourCiv\Assets\Art\Interface\TeamColor\(your flag here)
YourCiv\Assets\Art\Interface\Leaderheads\(your leaderhead here)
YourCiv\Assets\Art\Interface\Leaderheads\(your leaderhead's button here)
Fortunately, you do not actually need to specify a .ini file, as you will see in most mod directories, within the directory. It will be created automatically when the modification is loaded. It need only be modified if you feel it nessicary after you load your mod the first time.
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