Help Wanted Ads

[Vokarya]

OK, I now have a specific request. I would like to add the Congress of Vienna wonder, which will act as a proto-UN (although its resolution list actually is a copy of the Apostolic Palace, except it's not religion-specific and no Diplomatic Victory). I have all the files made up (including the VoteInfo.xml and VoteSourceInfos.xml files). I know this wonder will need modding of CvGame.cpp, which I do not want to try myself.

This is what I would like to have as the major settings:

Member: Any civilization not at war with the owner of the Congress.
Defiance penalty: +5 unhappiness ("The world considers you a villain!", same as UN). I also put in a free SPECIALIST_NOBLE in the <FreeSpecialist> tag of Civ4VoteSourceInfos.

Please let me know which files you need me to provide so that we can add this.

OK, the updated Python files for Via Appia and Golden Spike are ready to go. I would like to ask again about Congress of Vienna. The XML and graphics are done, but I do not know how to get the voting to work. I don't want to upload the wonder to the SVN myself just yet without knowing what will happen once I do.

 

[Thunderbrd]

OK, the updated Python files for Via Appia and Golden Spike are ready to go.

Congratulations on a hard fought job well done then. You've patiently worked out some damned tricky coding there and you deserve a great deal of respect for the perseverance shown throughout the process. Kudos as well to AIAndy and all who aided you along the way. Now THAT was some great teamwork!

 

[civhelp121]

So as I mentioned to Koshling via PM I'd like to help out with this mod. I was instructed that working on some projects is a good confidence building measure. As such it seems the futuristic diplomacy wonders has not been completed, I could work on that. There is a guide for building techs, and those seem simple enough. I would obviously also build the wonders as well as make it so that the old diplomacy wonders become obsolete. At first glance these seem like simple tasks (although with coding you never know ) so if any other confidence building measures are required I'm open to requests =P .

In any case I'll likely get started tomorrow.

 

[Koshling]

So as I mentioned to Koshling via PM I'd like to help out with this mod. I was instructed that working on some projects is a good confidence building measure. As such it seems the futuristic diplomacy wonders has not been completed, I could work on that. There is a guide for building techs, and those seem simple enough. I would obviously also build the wonders as well as make it so that the old diplomacy wonders become obsolete. At first glance these seem like simple tasks (although with coding you never know ) so if any other confidence building measures are required I'm open to requests =P .

In any case I'll likely get started tomorrow.

More something MrAzure/Volkarya/Hydromancerx might want to comment on (so this is just a personal opinion), but my suggestion would be to pick an earlier-in-game project. The reason is that the late game is VERY fluid and work-in-progress, so people are not getting to it so much in games (i.e. - work there is less visible except to the modders working directly on it).

A wonder might well be a good idea though (nicely self-contained) - Volkarya might have suggestions.

If you wanted more code-oriented tasks (though the learning curve is steeper) I could suggest a UI task (but it will require Pythion, C++, and possibly some XML too so definately more complex)

 

[strategyonly]

More something MrAzure/Volkarya/Hydromancerx might want to comment on (so this is just a personal opinion), but my suggestion would be to pick an earlier-in-game project. The reason is that the late game is VERY fluid and work-in-progress, so people are not getting to it so much in games (i.e. - work there is less visible except to the modders working directly on it).

A wonder might well be a good idea though (nicely self-contained) - Volkarya might have suggestions.

If you wanted more code-oriented tasks (though the learning curve is steeper) I could suggest a UI task (but it will require Python, C++, and possibly some XML too so definitely more complex)

If you DONT want something too complex, i have 2 (actually around 5) but 2 main one area's that definitely need attention, your choice, if you do, PM me, if not, PM the person who you think you want to work with then, that way you save these thread for their purpose, thx. Your choice, no biggy, either way, its UP to YOU!!

I am a stickler on getting things correct, infact i have had now like 10 people, just quit, oh well!!!

 

[Fanatic Noob]

What I need to do if I want to import custom civilization from ROM to C2C v24? I tried to do it just without any modyfications, just adddes in .xml lines to load dir with this Civ and game crashed to desktop at start screen when I tried to select added Civilization.

 

[civhelp121]

More something MrAzure/Volkarya/Hydromancerx might want to comment on (so this is just a personal opinion), but my suggestion would be to pick an earlier-in-game project. The reason is that the late game is VERY fluid and work-in-progress, so people are not getting to it so much in games (i.e. - work there is less visible except to the modders working directly on it).

A wonder might well be a good idea though (nicely self-contained) - Volkarya might have suggestions.

If you wanted more code-oriented tasks (though the learning curve is steeper) I could suggest a UI task (but it will require Pythion, C++, and possibly some XML too so definately more complex)

I guess a bit of background for the modders: I'm a third year Computer Science student, the upcoming semester is the first semester I'm taking all upper division classes.

Hmm, I'll definitely build a wonder since thats easy and self-contained. However I would like a code oriented task, actually queuing buildings has been a pain for me. I didn't know you could copy and paste queues (I did know you could build ones with more than two units/buildings) given the different circumstances of each city generally different queues are more suitable. Also clicking on the unit/building generally takes a few seconds to add to the queue, which is frustrating when you want to build a 10-item long queue in 10 cities.

I imagine a separate check-list interface would be much more suitable for queue-generation. I'm familiar with the difficulty of making sure the checkbox correlates to the right object (intuitively I'd use a single object to represent both the checkbox and the item next to it but with events all I'm really given in AS3 at least is the checkbox object). Perhaps the user could enter a queue mode where, much like when you select techs, you click on the word/image which is then added to either the top or bottom of the queue (depending on if the user pressed ctrl).

On a related but different note I've been wondering what the complexity for the algorithm used to add items to the queue is. I would think its possible to do it in constant time (thereby guaranteeing basically no wait in adding to the queue) but given I'm not very familiar with C++ and certainly not civ code (is it something more like log or polynomial time? ).

Anyway thanks for the warm welcome so far, I always feel kinda bad when I make a post that is pretty much entirely about myself xD

 

[Thunderbrd]

I imagine a separate check-list interface would be much more suitable for queue-generation. I'm familiar with the difficulty of making sure the checkbox correlates to the right object (intuitively I'd use a single object to represent both the checkbox and the item next to it but with events all I'm really given in AS3 at least is the checkbox object). Perhaps the user could enter a queue mode where, much like when you select techs, you click on the word/image which is then added to either the top or bottom of the queue (depending on if the user pressed ctrl).

I think I'm following some of the 'vision' there. Interesting... I'm not real familiar with that side of the code but AIAndy would be the guy to refer to on the filter systems employed. The checkbox method sounds very interesting - but how do you account for units that can be built multiple times over and selected more than once in the queue? (Oh, and you do realize that ctrl allows you to queue a selection to come up before the rest of the list already right?)

 

[strategyonly]

What I need to do if I want to import custom civilization from ROM to C2C v24? I tried to do it just without any modyfications, just adddes in .xml lines to load dir with this Civ and game crashed to desktop at start screen when I tried to select added Civilization.

No offense, but this is NOT RoM, so nothing there will work, ok.

 

[Fanatic Noob]

I see. I figured out that most easy way is to make custom Civ from scratch by editing one of current ones, by changing graphics files and xml's.

 

[strategyonly]

I see. I figured out that most easy way is to make custom Civ from scratch by editing one of current ones, by changing graphics files and xml's.

All you need to do is d/l the ones that i have provided and change the schema's thats all that really needs to be done, except if you want to add a negative trait, that is.

 

[Koshling]

I guess a bit of background for the modders: I'm a third year Computer Science student, the upcoming semester is the first semester I'm taking all upper division classes.

Hmm, I'll definitely build a wonder since thats easy and self-contained. However I would like a code oriented task, actually queuing buildings has been a pain for me. I didn't know you could copy and paste queues (I did know you could build ones with more than two units/buildings) given the different circumstances of each city generally different queues are more suitable. Also clicking on the unit/building generally takes a few seconds to add to the queue, which is frustrating when you want to build a 10-item long queue in 10 cities.

I imagine a separate check-list interface would be much more suitable for queue-generation. I'm familiar with the difficulty of making sure the checkbox correlates to the right object (intuitively I'd use a single object to represent both the checkbox and the item next to it but with events all I'm really given in AS3 at least is the checkbox object). Perhaps the user could enter a queue mode where, much like when you select techs, you click on the word/image which is then added to either the top or bottom of the queue (depending on if the user pressed ctrl).

On a related but different note I've been wondering what the complexity for the algorithm used to add items to the queue is. I would think its possible to do it in constant time (thereby guaranteeing basically no wait in adding to the queue) but given I'm not very familiar with C++ and certainly not civ code (is it something more like log or polynomial time? ).

Anyway thanks for the warm welcome so far, I always feel kinda bad when I make a post that is pretty much entirely about myself xD

If you're interested in UI stuff, check this thread out: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=459664

 

[civhelp121]

I think I'm following some of the 'vision' there. Interesting... I'm not real familiar with that side of the code but AIAndy would be the guy to refer to on the filter systems employed. The checkbox method sounds very interesting - but how do you account for units that can be built multiple times over and selected more than once in the queue? (Oh, and you do realize that ctrl allows you to queue a selection to come up before the rest of the list already right?)

Yeah I'm familiar that it does that already with queues, since this would be a new pop up box I figured I'd have to readd that in myself. The check box issue is a good point, I could stick with the other idea and simply make them images/words you click which are added to an internal queue (faster since its all represented by primitive data types), which is then pushed to the actual in-game queue.

Given I haven't seen the code for the current system I'm not sure what exactly would make this faster, but I think that since this would place the queue and buttons in one spot isolated from the clutter of the city screen the delay would be much lower. Also the player would be able to see a much larger number of units/buildings at once which would decrease scrolling.

@Koshling- I checked out the thread, looks interesting. I don't mean to make UI my thing, I've just found the building selecting process to seriously decrease how much fun I have playing the game, so its something I'd like to fix to enjoy the game. I mean I don't mind it though.

Also in general, is there an API for civ4? It would seem to be a monumental task to try and discover all the files and function just going through file after file.

If you guys care about my timeline (if not then just skip this part) I'll be home possibly by 6 p.m EST otherwise I'm hanging out at my uni with terrible internet. So the SVN download will begin when I get home and then I'll pour over the code to see what goes where.

 

[AIAndy]

I guess a bit of background for the modders: I'm a third year Computer Science student, the upcoming semester is the first semester I'm taking all upper division classes.

Hmm, I'll definitely build a wonder since thats easy and self-contained. However I would like a code oriented task, actually queuing buildings has been a pain for me. I didn't know you could copy and paste queues (I did know you could build ones with more than two units/buildings) given the different circumstances of each city generally different queues are more suitable. Also clicking on the unit/building generally takes a few seconds to add to the queue, which is frustrating when you want to build a 10-item long queue in 10 cities.

I imagine a separate check-list interface would be much more suitable for queue-generation. I'm familiar with the difficulty of making sure the checkbox correlates to the right object (intuitively I'd use a single object to represent both the checkbox and the item next to it but with events all I'm really given in AS3 at least is the checkbox object). Perhaps the user could enter a queue mode where, much like when you select techs, you click on the word/image which is then added to either the top or bottom of the queue (depending on if the user pressed ctrl).

On a related but different note I've been wondering what the complexity for the algorithm used to add items to the queue is. I would think its possible to do it in constant time (thereby guaranteeing basically no wait in adding to the queue) but given I'm not very familiar with C++ and certainly not civ code (is it something more like log or polynomial time? ).

The main problem with queueing a building is probably that it currently invalidates the cached filter lists instead of just removing the item from there.
Would need some tests though which part takes the most part.

Edit: For some API information check the Modder's Documentation thread.

 

[Koshling]

The main problem with queueing a building is probably that it currently invalidates the cached filter lists instead of just removing the item from there.
Would need some tests though which part takes the most part.

Edit: For some API information check the Modder's Documentation thread.

...but don't expect too much The codebase is largely undocumented (blame Firaxis), and when I started I foudn the best approach was to start with something fairly contained and just fiddle around in the debugger watching what was going on until I understood it.

However, feel free to PM me with requests for explanations of specifics, or to answer questions about the code (C++ anyway - I know little about the Python) as needed. I also hang out in the C2C chat in a background window much of the time, if you want to talk.

 

[Fanatic Noob]

All you need to do is d/l the ones that i have provided and change the schema's thats all that really needs to be done, except if you want to add a negative trait, that is.

All work is done, and my moding skills and my willigness are so great, that I added negative traits to all 4 leaders in Civilization, that I manually added

 

[strategyonly]

All work is done, and my modding skills and my willingness are so great

I see you dont like to brag, HUH

 

[Dancing Hoskuld]

@Koshling or AIAndy I am at the stage where I can't put off learning about how to save to the save game file from python. There are two methods is either one better and do they play nicely with the way C2C's does save compatibility?

 

[AIAndy]

@Koshling or AIAndy I am at the stage where I can't put off learning about how to save to the save game file from python. There are two methods is either one better and do they play nicely with the way C2C's does save compatibility?

Using either BugData or SdToolKit is fine but you will have to keep your own compatibility (so if you want to store XML types, use type strings instead of ints).

 

[Dancing Hoskuld]

Using either BugData or SdToolKit is fine but you will have to keep your own compatibility (so if you want to store XML types, use type strings instead of ints).

Thanks and I had figured out the bit about my own save compatibility. Now to run away and do something else just to put off learning something new for a few hours.