Outside Mods targeted for Inclusion

This thread is for discusing what mods made by folks outside the project should be targeted for Inclusion in future releases. We can list mods we think are good candidates and point out any reasons we feel they shouldn't be included. If someone wants to do the work and include a mod say so here (and on your works in progess post) so as to avoid duplicating effort.

So to start off some non-game play altering mods

jdog5000's AIAutoplay - allows the AI to finish your turn or any number of turns for you.
jdod5000's ChangePlayer - allows Python call to change a players Civ or Leader
Teg_Navanis' Unit Statistics - tracks various stats about all units in the game

I say that we don't include outside more ourselves, but ask the makers if they want to add their code to ours. That way, we will save a lot of time as we will not have to copy and paste their code ourselves.

I have been asking if their interested in doing that but many will not wish to go through work of learning CVS systems, registering at SF and obeying project conventions. It will still be good to include outside materials even if we need to do the work, I have put in some outside mods in the past and will probably continue to do so when I see one I like.

I've been looking at the code for the Unit Statistics mod by Teg. It collides in a whole lot of places both in the C++ and Python layers with SimCuties mods. If we want this mod included its going to take some work and SimCutie is probly the only one of us who knows his code well enough to do it. So SimCutie could you add this to your TODO list?

Impaler[WrG] said:

I've been looking at the code for the Unit Statistics mod by Teg. It collides in a whole lot of places both in the C++ and Python layers with SimCuties mods. If we want this mod included its going to take some work and SimCutie is probly the only one of us who knows his code well enough to do it. So SimCutie could you add this to your TODO list?

Click to expand...

OK. I will try. But this mod is quite big and complex mod.
So it will take considerable time.

A new mod control and switching mod has been released over in the Tutorial section, it seems to take a different route then SimCuties Custom Options. Some parts of the code or its principles might be usefull in enhancing the system already in place, specificaly with regards to mods that should not be toggled durring game play. I invited the developer to join us but he had no interest in doing so, fortunatly the code is avalible.

We should expore the comparitive strenths/weakness of both aproatches and attempt to create the ideal combination. Anyone Interested?

Its located at...
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=176058

Hi.. I am back from business trip...
Hmm.. Interesting approach.
It is good for choosing some selective set of features / mods among fixed set of already installed /integrated mods. But it is not general solution to arbitrary combination of new mods.
For example, it can be used in combind mod like sevo mod to selectively enable/disable features among all the integrated features of the sevo mod. But it can not be used for enabling / disabling brand-new mod that is not already included in the sevo mod. Integrator need to do work to integrate the new mod into sevo mod.

My event manager addesses the problem differently.
It completely eliminates need of pre-combining multiple mod into a combined mod like sevo mod or mod integrartion job.
Player need no prior knowlege/job to use new mod.
If player want the new mod/feature, just drop files into the python folder. If player do not want it, just remove it from the folder. Player can mix and match any combination of new and old mod as he like it.
No integration work is required. Enableing/disabling is just adding/removing files from the python folder.
Of couse, idea of this approach can be used for my event handler.
My Custom option screen already provides custom option whcih can be used like PlayerOption.
So if individual mod uses the custom option checkbox to enable/disable his own mod, player can enable/disable individual mod from custom option screen.
Namely, enabling/disabling selective part of the installed mod without actually removing files from folder.
I also think that it is good idea that player can enable/disable all mods in single screen pane.
It would have been served best by Firaxis GameOption screen if it is not broken as we know.
If the Firaxis gameoption will not be fixed in next SDK relase or next patch,
Then we may need specailized custom options only used for mod enable/disable in game option screen.
I will study it further.

SimCutie said:

Hi.. I am back from business trip...
Hmm.. Interesting approach.
It is good for choosing some selective set of features / mods among fixed set of already installed /integrated mods. But it is not general solution to arbitrary combination of new mods.
For example, it can be used in combind mod like sevo mod to selectively enable/disable features among all the integrated features of the sevo mod. But it can not be used for enabling / disabling brand-new mod that is not already included in the sevo mod. Integrator need to do work to integrate the new mod into sevo mod.

My event manager addesses the problem differently.
It completely eliminates need of pre-combining multiple mod into a combined mod like sevo mod or mod integrartion job.
Player need no prior knowlege/job to use new mod.
If player want the new mod/feature, just drop files into the python folder. If player do not want it, just remove it from the folder. Player can mix and match any combination of new and old mod as he like it.
No integration work is required. Enableing/disabling is just adding/removing files from the python folder.
Of couse, idea of this approach can be used for my event handler.
My Custom option screen already provides custom option whcih can be used like PlayerOption.
So if individual mod uses the custom option checkbox to enable/disable his own mod, player can enable/disable individual mod from custom option screen.
Namely, enabling/disabling selective part of the installed mod without actually removing files from folder.
I also think that it is good idea that player can enable/disable all mods in single screen pane.
It would have been served best by Firaxis GameOption screen if it is not broken as we know.
If the Firaxis gameoption will not be fixed in next SDK relase or next patch,
Then we may need specailized custom options only used for mod enable/disable in game option screen.
I will study it further.

Click to expand...

Where can I find your EventManager? It seems to be a more user friendly version of Dr. Elmer Jiggles Ini parser. Then again I am bumping a 45 day old thread.

Its in the CVS, have you been able to perform a check out with the Tortise CVS configuration I sent you, SimCuties eventmanager is under the Python folder. Its quite complex, I wouldn't recomend trying to modify it but you can ofcorse make use of it so long as you properly configure the Mod/s to register themselves. Theirs some documentation in the CVS checkout and SimCutie may be able to help you.

Yes I tried your solution, but it didn't work. It kept asking me for TGAs' password, even though the string entered was with a server, I reinstalled and retried .. same issue.

Maybe there's something wrong with my network connection. I know on occassion my VPN client causes problems with certain ports. It wasn't running at the time however.

Its asking SPCIFICALY for the password to TGA's SF account or is it just asking for "A password"? Yet your using Anonymous login correct, it shouldnt need any password for that and their should be no-way for it to even know about TGA unless perhaps your trying to log in as the Administrator or something like that.

I will be releasing Hidden Nationality, changeable Cargo, and Invisibility all via promotions (so they can be added and removed easily) in the next release of FfH2. After I get some playtest feedback and the bugs worked out I can wrap them up as modpacks if you guys are interested in including them.

Kael said:

I will be releasing Hidden Nationality, changeable Cargo, and Invisibility all via promotions (so they can be added and removed easily) in the next release of FfH2. After I get some playtest feedback and the bugs worked out I can wrap them up as modpacks if you guys are interested in including them.

Click to expand...

I'd be interested in the Alignments as seperate modcomp as well but don't know if it's suitable for CCP as such.

Ploeperpengel said:

I'd be interested in the Alignments as seperate modcomp as well but don't know if it's suitable for CCP as such.

Click to expand...

Yeah, its a cool mechanic but in the FfH implementation its probably to specific for anything but a fantasy mod. Maybe a general "faction" attribute on leaders and a multivalued iAttitudeTowardsFaction that the modmaker can fill in. Make factions dynamic (added and removed via python) and you have a more open ended system that could be used for alignment, or for a variety of other tasks.

Kael said:

Yeah, its a cool mechanic but in the FfH implementation its probably to specific for anything but a fantasy mod. Maybe a general "faction" attribute on leaders and a multivalued iAttitudeTowardsFaction that the modmaker can fill in. Make factions dynamic (added and removed via python) and you have a more open ended system that could be used for alignment, or for a variety of other tasks.

Click to expand...

alignments no but the mechanic could be used for world views <not religion but general outlooks on life they are differnt and a larger driving factor than religion>

So this works through XML on the CivilizationInfos.xml you put a civ in a group and each leader can have diplomacy modifiers for each group and with Python you can dynamicaly re-assign a player to a new grouping. If thats basicaly it then it sounds very flexible and usefull for mod makers to use.

yes as in a WW2 mod ..axis ..allies ...could care less about either but will swich if one attacks them <to the opposite of course > ie enemy of my enemy is now friend ..<untill he peeves me off>

Hmmn are The Lopez's mod componets being converted to be plug and play ? Im More curious than anythign else since he has such a HUGE library of stuff it would be nice to see that set up as plug and play ;o)

His SDK based components can be incorporated in the DLL and a bunch are already included. Nothing thats C++ can be plug and play because of the compiled nature of the DLL. Non UI Python based code can either be included as Python or translated into C++ (which is good for speed). UI Python is already very plugable.