[TUTORIAL] [TUT] skin and add new Bonus Resources and add Improvements

[BeastofStrength]

thank you!!

[thecowwarrior]

Very thorough guide, helped me a ton. Thank you!

[NusRa]

I followed your Tutorial.
Was able to add resources to xml, no problem.
However, the section of tutorial on adding the mini map icons to the font files was trial and error.
Was able to do it after a while using Psp 4.14.
The learning curve was high.

First hurdle was adding that blue/green pixle.
Solution: save the mask to file. Then delete the mask.
Then add the pixle to correct location.
After which the mask is reloaded.
Save the gameFont file, so you don't have to repeat this step.

Next, make active the icon image, crtl-c to copy. Then make the gameFont image the active image.
My icon image has a black background, so make sure the background color is black for the clipboard copy. More on why the background is black in a moment. Anyway paste the icon into the gameFont image using crtl-shift-e(paste as a transparent seltion).
Don't unselect the paste outline.
Next mask->edit. Then change foreground color to a gray scale white. And, paint or fill the still selected icon with this foreground color.
Unselect the icon. Now view through mask in the view menu to check your work.
Save the gameFont file. And place in the your mods custom assets res/font folder.
Repeat process for the gameFont_75 file.

Note this is what took me so long to implement his mod.
I was testing out my changes made to only one of these files, to see if I was doing it correctly.
And, it wasn't working, so my thinking was that I wasn't doing the change correctly.
Once I made the leap of thinking to maybe, firixas programmed the loading of these mini icons as pairs, the above instructions worked like a charm.

[civ2]

Nice tutorial!
I used it do make a funny mini mod on resources:
http://www.2shared.com/file/2r8TnNgZ/AAA_Resources.html
It does 2 things (and was done in those 2 major steps too)
1. Simple value tweaking - making resources much more useful.
2. Improvements tweaking - this was done after reading your tutorial.
The second part includes:
a. Taking MINE and FARM, and adding MINE_2 and FARM_2.
b. The original upgrade is made "cottage style" to immediately upgrade into the second/new one.
So what's the catch?
Simple:
c. The first upgrade doesn't give BONUS bonuses.
Instead, it SPAWNS resources!
Like, build a FARM on an normal tile, and you can get a RICE!
Same goes for MINE - need some GOLD?
I made the discovering values very small (aka chances VERY high), but my first tests were with low chances.
Which made it kinda GAMBLING.
Why?
Cause the _2 thingy gives useful stuff ONLY with resources!
So there was a chance of an "abandoned mine" that was just sitting there, EMPTY.
Which meant you had to change it to, say, COTTAGE, and then rebuild it for another TRY!
d. Now almost the same was done with COTTAGE.
It now can spawn ALL other resources that aren't spawned by MINE/FARM!
Except for WATER ones - I found no way to spawn them...

I'm awaiting everyone's reviews on this "mod", and maybe someone knows THIS:
How to make resources spawn WITHOUT building improvements???
Why those WATER/LAND_WORKED things don't work like other improvements???
I tried to make them do the trick, but it didn't happen...

Do you think I should.could post this in the MODS section???
It just seems to be so minor...
Thanks!

[cfeyyaz]

Hi, I want that building a mine/farm/pasture etc. to cost money(gold from the empire's treasury). Is it possible by doing small modifications on those XML files, or does it require other advanced programming skills?

[The_J]

Can be done .
That's in the units\buildInfos.xml, the value for iCost.