Welcome, welcome. This thread is dedicated to my attempts at getting my mod (based on A Song of Ice and Fire), up and running.
Instead of wheedling the modders of this fine forum in a multitude of topics, I figured I'd consolidate and amalgamate my manifold difficulties into one frequently updated topic.
Ready for your first case?
Case 1: THE ADVENTURE OF THE INSTA-DEFEAT
Case History: I had a longer explanation of what the problem was, but my first writing of this topic was wiped out due to Case #2 (hie thee forth to said case!). Boiled down, here was the problem: upon starting a game, I would be defeated instantly, just as soon as it told me my leader's name.
Status: Solved
Sleuth Responsible: Me! Shockingly!
Solution: My problem was with my CustomAssets folder. I had attempted to utilize the Community SDK project's work, but bungled it magnificently - just goes to show that TGA and those hooligans can't code for beans (he says, fully aware that he shall rely on their expertise in the coming cases)! So I just deleted the new additions to the CustomAssets, and bingo! We have a working game!
Case 2: THE ADVENTURE OF THE DREADED SPINLOCK (credits to woodelf)
Case History: I was happily tooling about with the newly functional mod, and was testing out some various things. Upon discovery of my newly implemented Chivalry tech, the powerful Kingsguard unit was enabled. These are 7 characters in the books charged with defense of their monarch (they're like the secret service, only with white cloaks and swords). Anyway, I had stuck the code into the units files months ago - the unit is just a souped up swordsman. Once I produced enough hammers for the unit to arrive next turn, I hit enter. The little... spinning... thing, showed up. And it didn't have the good grace to leave. That spinner spun its little heart out, for minutes. So I had to do a restart of my computer to escape - the bugger wouldn't even give me a CTD!
Status: Solved
Sleuth Responsible: Me... again. I'm on fire right now.
Solution: So here's how I beat TDS (nothing makes a thing more official than it's own acronym) - my ArtDef tag was screwed up. I had it set to define the Kingsguard (which I haven't created yet), and once I changed it to Swordsman, it popped up without any problems.
Case 3: THE ADVENTURE OF THE RETICENT MONARCHS
Case History: My fellow opponents won't even give me the time of day. Upon first meeting them, they do nothing else but present their pretty little faces, with no diplomacy text to accompany it. What's peculiar about this is all the other diplomacy text is in order - it's just the greetings that seem to have them tongue tied. Thoughts?
Status: Solved
Sleuth Responsible: Gerikes
Solution: The mistake I made here was in how I created my leaderheads. Perhaps you've seen the CivLeaderHeadInfos.xml file - if not, let me tell you - it's messy. To avoid undue strain, I matched up my leaders personalities with the ones already extant in game - so, for instance, Theon Greyjoy assumed Montezuma's fractious attitude. I accomplished this by going into the CivLeaderHeadInfos.xml file and replacing each instance of Montezuma with Theon, and then failed to insert custom text for him. Y'see, there is a stock pool of texts for things like declaring war - but the greeting is custom-tailored for each leader. So I shall now go in and insert things like this into my diplomacy texts file:
Thanks very much!
Case 4: THE ADVENTURE OF THE KNIGHTS OF THE ROUND TABLE
Case History: A brief history lesson in the ways of Westeros. The Seven (a religion similar to Christianity) is the religion that has a tendency towards anointing its constituents knights. In keeping with this, I thought to have a new unit class (like Recon, Mounted, Melee, etc.): the Knighted. These fellows would only be available to those who worship the right god (or 7 gods, as the case may be). Am I allowed to add new unit types?
Status: Solved
Sleuth Responsible: Woodelf
Solution: UNITCOMBAT_KNIGHTED can be added in the Civ4BasicInfos.XML. From there you can make new units with that Unitcombat type.
Case 5: THE ADVENTURE OF THE DOPPELGANGER
Case History: For whatever reason, when I go to the unit-build menu, there are two instances of the worker. No other unit, just the worker. Any idea on why this would occur?
Status: Solved?
Sleuth Responsible: Civ 4?
Solution: This one sort of ironed itself out. I don't know what I may have done, but perhaps I accidentally fixed it.
Case 6: THE ADVENTURE OF THE WATER DANCER WHO WOULDN'T DANCE
Case History: This one is particularly peculiar - I'm adding a unit called a Water Dancer. I'm using Rabbit, White's very nice Spanish Fencer model, and I implemented it into the game with no troubles... or so I thought. While the model worked and the animations were splendid, the toolbar was completely devoid of any buttons. I could select the unit and move it about, but it just didn't seem to know that it was a unit - it wouldn't give me combat odds, for instance, and I didn't have any of the usual options for disbanding and so forth. The Civilopedia told the same sorry tale - I've attached a screenshot. All other units have their pedia entries and mission buttons - I have no idea what's going on here.
Status: Solved
Sleuth Responsible: Woodelf
Solution: The trick here was knowing what animation files to copy into the unit art folder. The Spanish Fencer model uses the animations of the explorer - so I copied in all the .kf files I could find from the appropriate Civart folder. But I neglected a few .nif files which had to do with idle stances and such, and I believe that was the difference. In either case, this dancer's back in business.
Case 7: THE ADVENTURE OF THE BABY BUTTON
Case History: I'm helping out with the Roanoke mod, and I'm working on buttons right now. Specifically, off-screen buttons, and city-bar buttons. I discovered that if you've declined to use the Unit Atlas when declaring your buttons, the city bar work will be done for you automatically; but this is ONLY true if your mod is placed within the Program Files/Firaxis.../Mods folder. Yet another lovely quirk of the game. In any event, here's the issue. When a new tech comes up, or the civilopedia is referenced, and a unit is enabled, the button is teeny-tiny. See attached picture.
My only guess at this point is that it has something to do with MipMaps (on the other hand, I thought those things generated themselves?), or perhaps the way I'm setting up the code is telling the pedia/tech pop-ups to look to the wrong file for its info, hence the small buttons.
Status: Solved
Sleuth Responsible: Rabbit, White
Solution: Consider this a tutorial in adding buttons, one with the vital energy that can only be gained from frustration and eventual success. Rabbit, White (is RW cool?) is like one of those surgeons who performs surgeries from across oceans - hook them up in front of a computer screen and they'll use waldo arms to slice open some guy in Sweden. Anyway, here's a lesson: don't complicate things needlessly. This was my major problem in this adventure. One of the things about Civ 4's mod folders are they are littered with relics, alluring things with appealing titles, as if they can promise you immediate satisfaction for your issue. But they are ultimately useless. RW suggested the Unit Atlas is one such bygone. He was not entirely correct - this relic is malignant. See, the game WILL use the atlas if you tell it to. In fact, it will use it for just about everything - city build icons, pedia icons, etc. etc. But somewhere in between summoning up the .dds from its slumber and actually presenting it to you, Civ takes it upon itself to garble and mangle your beautifully high-res buttons and reduce them to a hodgepodge of ugly pixels. So forget the unit atlas, I say. But how will I see city bar icons? The trick here is to place your mod within the mod folder of Firaxis Games/Civ 4, and not the My Games one. This gives you your city bar icon. But... what about those annoying magenta buttons that appear when you select a unit and then scroll the map so it's off screen? How do we nix those? Well, used to be I'd tell you to use the unit atlas. Not so anymore. What you want to do is be VERY careful in your declaration of the button code. If you do it right, the single .dds file will serve ALL functions, and you don't have to involve any atlas. So here's how the code works.
<Button>Art/Interface/Buttons/Units/unit-pulse-d.dds</Button>
That's it - the correct way to do it. Here's my old way (the incorrect way)
<Button>,Art/Interface/Buttons/Units/unit-colonist.dds,Art/Interface/Buttons/Unit_Resource_Atlas.dds,3,2</Button>
RW's real masterstroke was to tell me to remove the comma. If you have that comma in place, it won't work as you'd like. So that's how I got RW told me how to rid myself of baby buttons.
Is this Mission: Impossible? I hope not, as I'm sure most of your little sisters could out-mod me. In either case, please give me your thoughts. If you require any more information, post and you shall have it.
Good luck!
Instead of wheedling the modders of this fine forum in a multitude of topics, I figured I'd consolidate and amalgamate my manifold difficulties into one frequently updated topic.
Ready for your first case?
Case 1: THE ADVENTURE OF THE INSTA-DEFEAT
Case History: I had a longer explanation of what the problem was, but my first writing of this topic was wiped out due to Case #2 (hie thee forth to said case!). Boiled down, here was the problem: upon starting a game, I would be defeated instantly, just as soon as it told me my leader's name.
Status: Solved
Sleuth Responsible: Me! Shockingly!
Solution: My problem was with my CustomAssets folder. I had attempted to utilize the Community SDK project's work, but bungled it magnificently - just goes to show that TGA and those hooligans can't code for beans (he says, fully aware that he shall rely on their expertise in the coming cases)! So I just deleted the new additions to the CustomAssets, and bingo! We have a working game!
Case 2: THE ADVENTURE OF THE DREADED SPINLOCK (credits to woodelf)
Case History: I was happily tooling about with the newly functional mod, and was testing out some various things. Upon discovery of my newly implemented Chivalry tech, the powerful Kingsguard unit was enabled. These are 7 characters in the books charged with defense of their monarch (they're like the secret service, only with white cloaks and swords). Anyway, I had stuck the code into the units files months ago - the unit is just a souped up swordsman. Once I produced enough hammers for the unit to arrive next turn, I hit enter. The little... spinning... thing, showed up. And it didn't have the good grace to leave. That spinner spun its little heart out, for minutes. So I had to do a restart of my computer to escape - the bugger wouldn't even give me a CTD!
Status: Solved
Sleuth Responsible: Me... again. I'm on fire right now.
Solution: So here's how I beat TDS (nothing makes a thing more official than it's own acronym) - my ArtDef tag was screwed up. I had it set to define the Kingsguard (which I haven't created yet), and once I changed it to Swordsman, it popped up without any problems.
Case 3: THE ADVENTURE OF THE RETICENT MONARCHS
Case History: My fellow opponents won't even give me the time of day. Upon first meeting them, they do nothing else but present their pretty little faces, with no diplomacy text to accompany it. What's peculiar about this is all the other diplomacy text is in order - it's just the greetings that seem to have them tongue tied. Thoughts?
Status: Solved
Sleuth Responsible: Gerikes
Solution: The mistake I made here was in how I created my leaderheads. Perhaps you've seen the CivLeaderHeadInfos.xml file - if not, let me tell you - it's messy. To avoid undue strain, I matched up my leaders personalities with the ones already extant in game - so, for instance, Theon Greyjoy assumed Montezuma's fractious attitude. I accomplished this by going into the CivLeaderHeadInfos.xml file and replacing each instance of Montezuma with Theon, and then failed to insert custom text for him. Y'see, there is a stock pool of texts for things like declaring war - but the greeting is custom-tailored for each leader. So I shall now go in and insert things like this into my diplomacy texts file:
Code:
<Tag>AI_DIPLO_FIRST_CONTACT_LEADER_THEON_1</Tag>
<English>Greetings! Gerikes is a very clever man!</English>Case 4: THE ADVENTURE OF THE KNIGHTS OF THE ROUND TABLE
Case History: A brief history lesson in the ways of Westeros. The Seven (a religion similar to Christianity) is the religion that has a tendency towards anointing its constituents knights. In keeping with this, I thought to have a new unit class (like Recon, Mounted, Melee, etc.): the Knighted. These fellows would only be available to those who worship the right god (or 7 gods, as the case may be). Am I allowed to add new unit types?
Status: Solved
Sleuth Responsible: Woodelf
Solution: UNITCOMBAT_KNIGHTED can be added in the Civ4BasicInfos.XML. From there you can make new units with that Unitcombat type.
Case 5: THE ADVENTURE OF THE DOPPELGANGER
Case History: For whatever reason, when I go to the unit-build menu, there are two instances of the worker. No other unit, just the worker. Any idea on why this would occur?
Status: Solved?
Sleuth Responsible: Civ 4?
Solution: This one sort of ironed itself out. I don't know what I may have done, but perhaps I accidentally fixed it.
Case 6: THE ADVENTURE OF THE WATER DANCER WHO WOULDN'T DANCE
Case History: This one is particularly peculiar - I'm adding a unit called a Water Dancer. I'm using Rabbit, White's very nice Spanish Fencer model, and I implemented it into the game with no troubles... or so I thought. While the model worked and the animations were splendid, the toolbar was completely devoid of any buttons. I could select the unit and move it about, but it just didn't seem to know that it was a unit - it wouldn't give me combat odds, for instance, and I didn't have any of the usual options for disbanding and so forth. The Civilopedia told the same sorry tale - I've attached a screenshot. All other units have their pedia entries and mission buttons - I have no idea what's going on here.
Status: Solved
Sleuth Responsible: Woodelf
Solution: The trick here was knowing what animation files to copy into the unit art folder. The Spanish Fencer model uses the animations of the explorer - so I copied in all the .kf files I could find from the appropriate Civart folder. But I neglected a few .nif files which had to do with idle stances and such, and I believe that was the difference. In either case, this dancer's back in business.
Case 7: THE ADVENTURE OF THE BABY BUTTON
Case History: I'm helping out with the Roanoke mod, and I'm working on buttons right now. Specifically, off-screen buttons, and city-bar buttons. I discovered that if you've declined to use the Unit Atlas when declaring your buttons, the city bar work will be done for you automatically; but this is ONLY true if your mod is placed within the Program Files/Firaxis.../Mods folder. Yet another lovely quirk of the game. In any event, here's the issue. When a new tech comes up, or the civilopedia is referenced, and a unit is enabled, the button is teeny-tiny. See attached picture.
My only guess at this point is that it has something to do with MipMaps (on the other hand, I thought those things generated themselves?), or perhaps the way I'm setting up the code is telling the pedia/tech pop-ups to look to the wrong file for its info, hence the small buttons.
Status: Solved
Sleuth Responsible: Rabbit, White
Solution: Consider this a tutorial in adding buttons, one with the vital energy that can only be gained from frustration and eventual success. Rabbit, White (is RW cool?) is like one of those surgeons who performs surgeries from across oceans - hook them up in front of a computer screen and they'll use waldo arms to slice open some guy in Sweden. Anyway, here's a lesson: don't complicate things needlessly. This was my major problem in this adventure. One of the things about Civ 4's mod folders are they are littered with relics, alluring things with appealing titles, as if they can promise you immediate satisfaction for your issue. But they are ultimately useless. RW suggested the Unit Atlas is one such bygone. He was not entirely correct - this relic is malignant. See, the game WILL use the atlas if you tell it to. In fact, it will use it for just about everything - city build icons, pedia icons, etc. etc. But somewhere in between summoning up the .dds from its slumber and actually presenting it to you, Civ takes it upon itself to garble and mangle your beautifully high-res buttons and reduce them to a hodgepodge of ugly pixels. So forget the unit atlas, I say. But how will I see city bar icons? The trick here is to place your mod within the mod folder of Firaxis Games/Civ 4, and not the My Games one. This gives you your city bar icon. But... what about those annoying magenta buttons that appear when you select a unit and then scroll the map so it's off screen? How do we nix those? Well, used to be I'd tell you to use the unit atlas. Not so anymore. What you want to do is be VERY careful in your declaration of the button code. If you do it right, the single .dds file will serve ALL functions, and you don't have to involve any atlas. So here's how the code works.
<Button>Art/Interface/Buttons/Units/unit-pulse-d.dds</Button>
That's it - the correct way to do it. Here's my old way (the incorrect way)
<Button>,Art/Interface/Buttons/Units/unit-colonist.dds,Art/Interface/Buttons/Unit_Resource_Atlas.dds,3,2</Button>
RW's real masterstroke was to tell me to remove the comma. If you have that comma in place, it won't work as you'd like. So that's how I got RW told me how to rid myself of baby buttons.
Is this Mission: Impossible? I hope not, as I'm sure most of your little sisters could out-mod me. In either case, please give me your thoughts. If you require any more information, post and you shall have it.
Good luck!
Swearegen is so complicated he's awesome.
