Fulano's MoO2Civ Minimod

Fulano's MoO2Civ Minimod v2.0b

Coming Soon!

See the readme for installation instructions of the last version.

Refer to the changelog.txt for more details on what is changed.


To use the minimod with older versions of MoO2Civ download Fulano's Minimod 1.5.4b. A changelog and readme file is included in the file.
I stopped working on Minimod v1.5 in March 2010 because it was included in MoO2Civ 5.0 and later.

Will check this out ASAP!

I'm actually playing it right now, which is a rare deal because I spend most my free time modding rather than playing. I only get to turn 200 before I have to change something that makes me have to restart. I hope to finish a game this time!

This promises to be interesting

Okay, I'm finally getting round to editing the text keys, but I have a question. According to here: http://modiki.civfanatics.com/index.php/Civ4_XML_Text it sounds like text files can be named whatever I want. If that is the case do you mind if I move some of the TEXT_KEY entries to a new file and get rid of some of the unneeded files?

EDIT:
The easiest way for me to change the descriptions for the new techs is just to use the same text key of whatever it enables. (For example I will put the armor barracks text key as the description for the armor barracks tech.) This will vastly simplify the mod's text keys. While I am doing this I am moving the text keys into new text files based on what they keys refer to (For example buildings or promotions). This will make the keys much easier to find and edit for you guys who keep working on this mod in the future. There are lots of unused text keys in the text xml files that I am deleting as I find them. I am creating a lot of text keys for units, and I am deleting several duplicate text keys.

Ummm... OK.

Just wanted to mention that with the now immobile planetary defenders you are no longer alerted when Marines/Armor/Robo-Warriors are up for promotion. (I don't really have a problem with that myself, but may add a note to that effect with the release of 5.0.)

It would be a good idea to add a note about that in the next release.

I was going to try to add DOMAIN_STAR to use for ground troops so their movement wasn't changed by DOMAIN_LAND improvements but that involves editing the .cpp files and I don't want to even look at that right now.

I remember a discussion of this when Babylon 5 mod introduced immovable planetary defenders (and I wanted to copy that), but I don't recall what the solution used was... (Using the DOMAIN_STAR - for Starbases? - wasn't it, I think. Although starbases can be active/inactive and receive promotions, despite having zero movement.)

That is right, starbases don't move! I'll have to go figure out why that is!

I was going to create DOMAIN_STAR for units that could only be on stars actually but there's gotta be something easier...

Also, I've got the text keys through the Sociology group done. Hopefully tomorrow the rest will be done.

EDIT:Oh my goodness! Starbases are set to move on DOMAIN_IMMOBILE. That's so simple! I'm going to change the ground troops to that domain and see what happens. I feel silly now!

EDIT 2: Yup, starbases have their movement set to 1 and the domain set as above. Now marines can fortify but they can't move unless transported. Glad that's fixed!

The text files are a bit of a mess. I'll be glad when they're cleaned up. I found four copies of the culture text keys, many other duplicates, but I think I'm most of the way through cleaning them, then I can upload the latest version of what I've been improving since last release.

I have a question about the star names. Where are those stored? There are tons of names in FinalFrontierTextInfosObjects.xml but none of them seem to actually be used in the game, or are then? Should those text keys for the MoO2 races' planets be saved?

EDIT: Darn! This last time I tried to start a game it freezes in the beginning of creating the map. It doesn't get past "Initializing." Doesn't work on any map, even if I restore the backup copy of FinalFrontierTextInfosObjects.xml from before I started taking stuff out of it and putting it into other files. Any ideas why?

EDIT 2: Even restoring the entire folder of text files it still freezes when loading a level. If I let it sit for ten minutes the window comes up that says your program crashed. I've no idea why it would decide to start crashing now. I started a thread in the tech support section, hopefully I'll get some help there, we'll see. http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?p=8930207#post8930207

Okay, so I'm learning that Civ4 isn't near as stable as I once thought it was.

The story:
I was done with the new text keys for everything.
I then tried to change the tags of several units to correct them (like banking system to spaceport) but that made things crash. For one, changing names in the artDefines files seems to make it crash, then trying to rename the banking system to spaceport and rename spaceport to whatever it's supposed to be named contributed to the crash.

I now restored the 1.3b version and used only my new techinfos.xml and text keys folder of the 20 files I had changed over the last few days.

To finish this version:
-I need to change the keys that I renamed.
-I need to make the other changes like changing the ground troops to immobile again. Then I wanted to release this version and start changing promotion icons to be more accurate.

Last Question
-Do you guys know if the text keys in the FinalFrontierTextInfosObjects.xml for planet names are needed? I noticed the planet names are in CIV4CivilizationInfos.xml, I just don't know if they needed to be in two places.

As to your last question: I just edited in star lists for each civs in CIV4CivilizationInfos.xml (the first thing I ever added to MOO2Civ), as I noticed there weren't any custom star names and I'd been making such lists from MoO II games I played for a while.

There are still a lot of FF references in different text files (like to FF leaders) that aren't used; since text files don't take up much space and there always were other more urgent matters to attend to, I've never gotten around to cleaning those up.

I'm not sure why you'd want to change text keys that function properly as is though? (Like the FF Banking System is properly named and referred to as Space Port in game.) It seems like a bit of a waste of time. (I didn't know that this was what you were referring to when you mentioned cleaning up text keys. I thought you meant fixing the "(add key)" techs in the tech tree...)

JEELEN said:

I'm not sure why you'd want to change text keys that function properly as is though? (Like the FF Banking System is properly named and referred to as Space Port in game.) It seems like a bit of a waste of time. (I didn't know that this was what you were referring to when you mentioned cleaning up text keys. I thought you meant fixing the "(add key)" techs in the tech tree...)

Click to expand...

Ya, I was just being picky, but I'm not going to mess with them anymore. I was getting way to over ambitious.

I was referring to the add key techs when I said that as well as deleting extra text keys. Then I started sorting the keys into files so I can find them easier when editing things and I think I'll just leave it at that. I don't really want to mess with deleting the keys anymore.

I can't blame ya.

It's updated to v1.4b! Next I plan to tackle the promotion icons and make them unique so you can find what you're looking for easier for v1.5b. If that's easy enough then I want to include removing the promotion prereqs for more ship weapons and systems so they are accessible. In the distant future (v1.6b?) I want to change what the promotions do so they are more unique and useful.

I'll check it out. (Darn - I just have a v. 1.3b testgame beyond turn 200... found no real bugs/errors though.)

BTW, "-Tripled Cost of Astral Gate Piece (Dimensional Portal Piece)": I don't think the Astral Gate piecess should be in - unless they can somehow be linked to an automatic Defeat Antarans Victory (seems like no fun, and I'm currently setting up some custom scenarios for that). I turn off Ascendancy Victory by default myself.

I turn off the diplomacy victory myself usually, I just included it for those who do like it.

I would like to see the mod have more ways to win than MoO2 had just to make it more interesting to more people. For example my wife doesn't like games that you can only win by conquest, she prefers to win other ways and have more option.

I never really liked the Antarian homeworld win anyway because it still required you to build the biggest army which you could use to take over but instead you just shortcut to fight the Antarians and win without the work of conquering the galaxy...

I don't think the astral gate pieces are a good way to do it though, I think it's too easy to win still and it has no reason or story. To make it work it would need more pieces and more diverse pieces, enough pieces that you can declare war and take out enough stars to keep the person from winning). Maybe the story of the astral gate could be that it finds the new unknown Orion homeworld and opens a portal to it so they can come and bring peace to the galaxy.

Or the dimensional gate pieces could be kept and the antarian win added to it so it not only requires you to build the largest army but also have a good enough industry to finish the portal before someone decides to declare war on you before you finish.

Just ideas...

Well, you can play the mod any way you want too ofcourse. As for new ways of winning: if it's practical, I'm all for it.

Some feedback on v. 1.4: I like the complete renaming of the rewoked tree goodjob, but have a few minor comments

- the "Alpha", "Beta" and "Omega" fighter squadron techs should probably be renamed Fighter, Fighter II, Fighter III Squadron (which are used in game, except for the unit buttons, which still show the original Alpha, Beta, Omega symbols)
- Probe/Scouts can now start with move 3 with the new promotion button; perhaps their start move should be reduced to 1?*
- Marine/Armor/Robo-Warriors can't be taken on board anymore to transport by Invasion Ships (but show up when up for promotion); don't know if this was intentional.

Otherwise looking good.

* When playtesting I pretty quick had 2 scouting units moving at speed 5 (could have been more, but I missed the promotion button when starting the first Probe).

JEELEN said:

Well, you can play the mod any way you want too ofcourse. As for new ways of winning: if it's practical, I'm all for it.

Some feedback on v. 1.4: I like the complete renaming of the rewoked tree goodjob, but have a few minor comments

- the "Alpha", "Beta" and "Omega" fighter squadron techs should probably be renamed Fighter, Fighter II, Fighter III Squadron (which are used in game, except for the unit buttons, which still show the original Alpha, Beta, Omega symbols)
- Probe/Scouts can now start with move 3 with the new promotion button; perhaps their start move should be reduced to 1?*
- Marine/Armor/Robo-Warriors can't be taken on board anymore to transport by Invasion Ships (but show up when up for promotion); don't know if this was intentional.

Otherwise looking good.

* When playtesting I pretty quick had 2 scouting units moving at speed 5 (could have been more, but I missed the promotion button when starting the first Probe).

Click to expand...

Goodness that's a lot of bugs I missed! I obviously didn't test it enough. My whole family was getting sick so I was rather distracted caring for them.

The movement promotion prereq tech was incorrect but it is now fixed.
I fixed the fighter tech names too. I'll look for more as I test today.

I wonder if the marine problem is because they are immobile now. I'll check that out.

I have finished v1.5b but I will be testing it today and I will upload it later today.

Sorry to hear about the sickness...

So the changes weren't all intentional. If you simply gave the ground units the Starbase DOMAIN_IMMOBILE tag, that might interfere with Invasion Ships being able to transport them, I reckon. (But I'm just guessing here, as I don't know exactly what you did.)

Anywho, looking forward to v. 1.5.