Ostriches Modding Troubles

A Space Ostrich · Sep 9, 2014

I've made a thread to ask for answers to any modding troubles I run into while attempting to create a Beyond Earth Civilizations mod for Civ 5. So far, my two biggest issues are the fact that my art has a tendency to either not show up at all in the case of the Dawn of Man and Leader art. Or appear outside of it's designated zone in the case of the Icons. For some reason the Civilization Icon appears diagonally upwards and to the left of it's intended location, clipping out of the side of the circle it is supposed to appear in. Additionally, the leader displays one of the other Civ's leaders instead of the custom leader that it is being directed to. Everything is in the VFC. Screenshots below.

Spoiler :

In addition, for some reason whenever I select the custom Civilization using the regular menu, the UI disappears and I have to leave the game back to the main menu and use the advanced menu to select it. I am unable to go back and select advanced without having first quit back to the mod selection menu at the least. This I have no idea what is causing. But I'm sure experienced modders could tell me.

LeeS · Sep 9, 2014

The most important thing you can do at this point: whoward69's zip your mods and attach tutorial
Also see these:
whoward69's what ModBuddy setting for what file types tutorial
whoward69's enable error logging tutorial

A Space Ostrich · Sep 9, 2014

There you go, the current build zipped up and ready to be picked apart. :lol:

Thanks for those links by the way. I've already got some ideas that might fix some of my issues. I didn't know you could set fxsxml's to VFS.

Edit: There is a new build further down. This one has been removed.

LeeS · Sep 10, 2014

DataBase.log errors

Code:

[137336.500] no such table: Trait_WonderProductionModifier
[137336.500] In Query - insert into Trait_WonderProductionModifier('Type', 'Description', 'ShortDescription', 'WonderProductionModifier') values (?, ?, ?, ?);
[137336.500] In XMLSerializer while updating table Trait_WonderProductionModifier from file XML/Civilizations/CIV5Traits.xml.
[137338.609] Invalid Reference on Civilization_SpyNames.SpyName - "TXT_KEY_SPY_NAME_PAC_0" does not exist in Language_en_US
[137338.609] Invalid Reference on Civilization_SpyNames.SpyName - "TXT_KEY_SPY_NAME_PAC_1" does not exist in Language_en_US
[137338.609] Invalid Reference on Civilization_SpyNames.SpyName - "TXT_KEY_SPY_NAME_PAC_2" does not exist in Language_en_US
[137338.609] Invalid Reference on Civilization_SpyNames.SpyName - "TXT_KEY_SPY_NAME_PAC_3" does not exist in Language_en_US
[137338.609] Invalid Reference on Civilization_SpyNames.SpyName - "TXT_KEY_SPY_NAME_PAC_4" does not exist in Language_en_US
[137338.609] Invalid Reference on Civilization_SpyNames.SpyName - "TXT_KEY_SPY_NAME_PAC_5" does not exist in Language_en_US
[137338.609] Invalid Reference on Civilization_SpyNames.SpyName - "TXT_KEY_SPY_NAME_PAC_6" does not exist in Language_en_US
[137338.609] Invalid Reference on Civilization_SpyNames.SpyName - "TXT_KEY_SPY_NAME_PAC_7" does not exist in Language_en_US
[137338.609] Invalid Reference on Civilization_SpyNames.SpyName - "TXT_KEY_SPY_NAME_PAC_8" does not exist in Language_en_US
[137338.609] Invalid Reference on Civilization_SpyNames.SpyName - "TXT_KEY_SPY_NAME_PAC_9" does not exist in Language_en_US
[137339.312] Invalid Reference on Leader_Traits.TraitType - "TRAIT_INDUSTRIAL_PIONEERS" does not exist in Traits

Problem 1: Causes entire Leader Trait file CIV5Traits.XML to be discarded by the game.

Spoiler :

Problem 2: Absence of Spy names in the <Language_en_US> table.

Spoiler :

Problem 3: Non-Existing Leader Trait error.

Spoiler :

Problem 4: Icon Placements and missing leader Icons.

Not sure what's going on there. My guess for the civ icons being off-center is that you don't have the icons placed in the center of the required icon 'circle', but I'm not very expert at Icon and Artwork issues. Though I will say I think the name CIV_COLOR_ATLAS_LEGENDS seems suspicious in the sense that I think I've seen that atlas name before. For more info on Artwork requirements see these:
whoward69's DDS Texture (Image File) Creation and Usage for Beginners
FramedArchitect's Icon and Screen Pixel Dimension Reference tutorial

There might be something useful in those.

BTW, I made the fix as recommended for Problem #1 and that cured the game-crash issue although Washington and Augustus were still showing on the leader selections in the Game Set-Up menus. Also I'm not claiming there aren't other errors that will need fixing, but those are the ones I've been able to identifify in getting the civ to load without crashing or 'locking-up' the game.

A Space Ostrich · Sep 11, 2014

Thanks. I'll fix Problem 1, and I'll add the spy names once I get the art on track since it doesn't seem to be causing any crashes. Industrial Pioneers is getting reworked as part of a design change so hopefully there will be no issues with that as it's being changed to a flat wonder production bonus, basically a worse version of what Egypt gets but with a Unique Worker to accompany it.

Nutty · Sep 11, 2014

A Space Ostrich said:
...I'll add the spy names once I get the art on track since it doesn't seem to be causing any crashes.

...until you reach the Renaissance.

bane_ · Sep 11, 2014

If you use CPP's or whoward's DLL, you are safe!

A Space Ostrich · Sep 13, 2014

Spy names are added and work. Art is more functional than normal, but someone really needs to make a template complete with those golden rings so you can tell exactly where to put it, because even placed at exactly the right location it still sits outside the rings slightly. And GIMP is the worlds most worthless program so I can't finely edit anything.

Nothing seems to be fixing the invisible UI issue. And no matter what I do the Dawn Of Man art doesn't show up, and neither do most text fields I've added to the text file. The history section in the Civiliopedia has random Tabs in it, but otherwise is one of the only text fields to actually show up. And finally, the leader art currently alternates between not being present at all or being the wrong image in the dds file that the Leader image shows up in. With the latter being my fault but the former seemingly happening for no discernable reason. How out of date is the Kael tutorial? Because unless there are more references to the leader art hiding somewhere there isn't any reason that the leader won't show up properly in the selection screens or other screens. And likewise, the Dawn of Man screen doesn't ever seem to do anything or update relative to anything else. The unique units don't show up despite being fully functional everywhere else in the mod. And the text is blank while the image is black with red lens effects on it. I haven't got a clue what I'm doing wrong in the Dawn of Man setup.

LeeS · Sep 13, 2014

add the most recent version of the mod. you may also want to remove the obsolete version from your previous post so there's no possibility anyone trying to diagnose your trouble can accidently download the wrong version of the mod.

A Space Ostrich · Sep 15, 2014

Here's the latest build. I'm very tempted to use another mod that I know works and just change art and code to fit mine rather than attempting to make it myself, but I don't want to give up too easily.

LeeS · Sep 15, 2014

OK. Partly it is some misunderstandings:

Code:

	<Traits>
[COLOR="Blue"]		<Row>
			<Type>TRAIT_INDUSTRIAL_PIONEERS</Type>
			<Description>TXT_KEY_TRAIT_INDUSTRIAL_PIONEERS</Description>
			<ShortDescription>TXT_KEY_TRAIT_INDUSTRIAL_PIONEERS_SHORT</ShortDescription>
		</Row>[/COLOR]
	</Traits>
	<Traits>
[COLOR="Red"][B]		<Row>
			<Type>TRAIT_INDUSTRIAL_PIONEERS</Type>
			<Description>TXT_KEY_TRAIT_INDUSTRIAL_PIONEERS</Description>
			<ShortDescription>TXT_KEY_TRAIT_INDUSTRIAL_PIONEERS_SHORT</ShortDescription>
			<WonderProductionModifier>10</WonderProductionModifier>
			<CityCultureBonus>1</CityCultureBonus>
		</Row>[/B][/COLOR]
	</Traits>

Once you have the <Row> --- </Row> shown in blue with the <Type>TRAIT_INDUSTRIAL_PIONEERS</Type> column you cannot have a second <Row> --- </Row> set with the same <Type>TRAIT_INDUSTRIAL_PIONEERS</Type> column. This sort of thing causes the game to discard an entire XML file.

Just combine the two sets of <Row> --- </Row> into one.
......................................................................................................................................

Code:

			<CivilopediaTag>TXT_KEY_CIVILOPEDIA_LEADERS_DAOMING[COLOR="Red"][B]+[/B][/COLOR]</CivilopediaTag>

Get rid of the "+" sign.

.....................................................................................................................................

For the leader icon issues double-check this FramedArchitect's Icon and Screen Pixel Dimension Reference tutorial to be sure you aren't missing an icon size or two.

I'm still trying to compare the rest of your error problems you mention to what I am seeing in-game. But I may not be able to get back with anything until later this evening my time or perhaps even some time tomorrow.

calcul8or · Sep 15, 2014

If LeeS doesn't mind, I can add a few things about the art issues.

First, see the link he provided to make sure you are supplying all of the appropriate sizes.

Second, Are you using the blank icon atlas template (the one with all of the white circles on it? Each icon should be sized to fit the circles (172 pixels). You can have parts extend over the edges, but the parts that extend beyond the white circle will appear outside of the gold ring in-game. Your icon for the civilization, for example, is not sized correctly.

Third, you provided only one size for the leader icon (256). You will need all of them as listed in LeeS's link. Additionally, the Daoming_Atlas file seems to have her icon in a separate layer from the base - this will cause problems. Also, in the Civ5Leader_Daoming XML file, you specify the portrait image as "9". If you are intending it to be the first one in the Daoming_Atlas file, it should be "0".

The Dawn of Man image should be sized at 1024x768. Anything different will cause it to fail.

I'm not really sure what you're trying to accomplish with the Leader Scene - I've simply used a 1600x900 image. Then, your Daoming_Scene.xml file has only this in it:

Code:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<!-- Created by ModBuddy on 2/5/2014 8:30:00 PM -->

<LeaderScene FallbackImage="Daoming_Scene.dds"> </LeaderScene>

I can't guarantee this is a comprehensive list of fixes, but hopefully it will help you on your way.

LeeS · Sep 15, 2014

calcul8or said:
If LeeS doesn't mind, I can add a few things about the art issues.

Whew! Please do! I just suck at artwork. All I really know about it is you need icon files and leader scene and map images, and for icons you need an <IconTextureAtlases> table. Much beyond that is beyond the scope of my understanding.

A Space Ostrich · Sep 15, 2014

Thanks for your help guys. I'll try and get a third build done soon.

bane_ · Sep 16, 2014

calcul8or said:
I'm not really sure what you're trying to accomplish with the Leader Scene - I've simply used a 1600x900 image. Then, your Daoming_Scene.xml file has only this in it:

Code:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>  <LeaderScene FallbackImage="Daoming_Scene.dds"> </LeaderScene>

That's all you need to get a fixed image as the Leaderscene background.
This file has to be VFS=true, by the way.

calcul8or · Sep 16, 2014

Whew! Please do! I just suck at artwork. All I really know about it is you need icon files and leader scene and map images, and for icons you need an <IconTextureAtlases> table.

Anyone who has seen my artwork would tell you I suck too

However, along the way I've made every mistake I could think of, and hopefully learned enough to successfully get an image into the game

A Space Ostrich · Sep 16, 2014

I made a few fixes which had a dramatic effect on seemingly unrelated issues. The UI no longer dissapears, I got the icon size issue fixed. The only remaining problem is the Leader Icons not working right, which I'm working on. Thanks for all your help guys.

calcul8or · Sep 16, 2014

One more note I missed on the Dawn of Man text - it's usually formatted like TXT_KEY_CIV5_DAWN_PAC_TEXT. The way you have it formatted, it seems to be mixing up the Dawn text and the Civilopedia text. Also, as much as we would like it to, the game doesn't translate line breaks in the text into new lines in the game. So, each time you want text to start on a new line, there needs to be a [NEWLINE] entry; for a skipped line in between paragraphs, it's [NEWLINE] [NEWLINE].

A Space Ostrich · Sep 17, 2014

The new, and final build is almost complete. All that's left to do is test some changes and redo the special ability to fit the Civ better (I'm thinking a minor production bonus from traderoutes in addition to the 10% wonder bonus) and replace the pracinhas with something else.

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