Looking for Opinions on Difficulty

iamdanno · Jan 2, 2013

I would like to try to make a MOD that would show the list of Air Units in a city color-coded by health, so that selecting which to attack with would be more intuitive. I have never created my own MOD before, although I am familiar with the process. How difficult do you think it would be? I have no knowledge of LUA, or other programming languages, so hopefully could be done with XML only.

Thanks in Advance!

Gedemon · Jan 2, 2013

It can't be done in XML only, you'll have to do a bit of Lua for that.

iamdanno · Jan 2, 2013

That's what I suspected, but luckily it is not a big deal. Maybe someday I'll try to learn enough LUA to get it done.

Thanks for the quick reply.

mjjepper · Jan 2, 2013

I wish you luck on your endeavors. That is a good idea!

whoward69 · Jan 3, 2013

You need to make a mod that replaces the UnitFlagManager.lua file (this is different for Vanilla and G&K, so you'll need to pick which one you want to start with)

Add UnitFlagManager.lua to the mod and set VFS=true (as you are replacing an existing file)

There are two changes needed, one for units on a carrier and one for units in a city (fortunately the changes are the same for Vanilla and G&K, unfortunately Firaxis didn't bother putting what is basically identical code for units on a carrier and units in a city in a single utility method!)

Code:

  -- we're carrying
  controlTable = {};
  self.m_CargoControls.PullDown:BuildEntry( "UnitInstance", controlTable );
                    
[COLOR="Magenta"]  local sHealth = ""
  local healthPercent = math.max(math.min(pPlotUnit:GetCurrHitPoints() / pPlotUnit:GetMaxHitPoints(), 1), 0)
  -- Only colour units with moves left and that are currently damaged - missiles, atomic bombs, etc will never be coloured
  if (pPlotUnit:MovesLeft() > 0 and healthPercent < 1) then
    if (healthPercent > 0.66) then
      sHealth = "[COLOR:0:255:0:255]"
    elseif (healthPercent > 0.33) then
      sHealth = "[COLOR:255:255:0:255]"
    else
      sHealth = "[COLOR:255:0:0:255]"
    end
  end
  controlTable.Button:SetText(string.format("%s%s[ENDCOLOR]", sHealth, pPlotUnit:GetName()));[/COLOR]

  controlTable.Button:SetVoids( self.m_playerID, pPlotUnit:GetID() );

Code:

  cityFlagInstance.PullDown:BuildEntry( "UnitInstance", controlTable );
                
  -- 
[COLOR="magenta"]  local sHealth = ""
  local healthPercent = math.max(math.min(pPlotUnit:GetCurrHitPoints() / pPlotUnit:GetMaxHitPoints(), 1), 0)
  -- Only colour units with moves left and that are currently damaged - missiles, atomic bombs, etc will never be coloured
  if (pPlotUnit:MovesLeft() > 0 and healthPercent < 1) then
    if (healthPercent > 0.66) then
      sHealth = "[COLOR:0:255:0:255]"
    elseif (healthPercent > 0.33) then
      sHealth = "[COLOR:255:255:0:255]"
    else
      sHealth = "[COLOR:255:0:0:255]"
    end
  end
  local unitName = string.format("%s%s[ENDCOLOR]", sHealth, pPlotUnit:GetName());[/COLOR]               

  local bw, bh = controlTable.Button:GetSizeVal();

The code you need to add/change is in magenta, the rest is so you can find where to make the two changes

iamdanno · Jan 3, 2013

Thanks, Whoward! That doesn't seem too complicated. I'll try it out when I get a moment. Hopefully all goes well.

On an unrelated topic, I have used many of your MODs, and have been very happy with them. Thanks for sharing your good work with all of us! :goodjob:

iamdanno · Jan 10, 2013

Just to follow-up, I tried this out and it worked just as your attachment showed. It works for all players, so now I can see what air units the enemy has, and how (un)healthy they are, which I didn't really think about ahead of time. Thanks again!

whoward69 · Jan 11, 2013

iamdanno said:
It works for all players, so now I can see what air units the enemy has, and how (un)healthy they are,

That ability to click on other players "air numbers" and see the list of units in a city/carrier is really a bug that should be removed IMHO.

trystero49 · Jan 11, 2013

whoward69 said:
That ability to click on other players "air numbers" and see the list of units in a city/carrier is really a bug that should be removed IMHO.

Yeah, it's strange, isn't it? It should only be visible if you have a spy in the city.

HardRocker · Jan 12, 2013

Can't have a spy on an aircraft carrier :mischief:

Depending on how you consider the scale, in RL you could probably tell that information just with a good pair of binoculars, so maybe not a bug?

trystero49 · Jan 12, 2013

HardRocker said:
Can't have a spy on an aircraft carrier Depending on how you consider the scale, in RL you could probably tell that information just with a good pair of binoculars, so maybe not a bug?

True, you can't have a spy in an aircraft carrier. But I was only talking about cities. Seeing aircraft units on carriers makes sense but in a city not so much.

iamdanno · Jan 12, 2013

It should be possible to see air units in any city at satellites tech, IMO. I also like the satellites allow city targeting without LOS idea, too. I use that mod always.

Looking for Opinions on Difficulty

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