Modding the aspects of "Game Speed"

VippiN said:
After having a go, somehow i've managed to start a game and 10 minutes into it have '53 turns left' come up. Hmm, that can't be good.

Rob

Since I didn't receive any replies about my drama, let me elaborate further.

This is using a slightly different XML, that was originally made to make the game 35% longer in all aspects. So if the numbers are slightly off the mark that is why.

I increased technology production time by 4.
<iResearchPercent>540</iResearchPercent>

I divided all gameturn cvars by 4.
- <GameTurnInfos>
- <GameTurnInfo>
<iYearIncrement>7</iYearIncrement>
<iTurnsPerIncrement>23</iTurnsPerIncrement>
</GameTurnInfo>
- <GameTurnInfo>
<iYearIncrement>6</iYearIncrement>
<iTurnsPerIncrement>20</iTurnsPerIncrement>
</GameTurnInfo>
- <GameTurnInfo>
<iYearIncrement>5</iYearIncrement>
<iTurnsPerIncrement>10</iTurnsPerIncrement>
</GameTurnInfo>
- <GameTurnInfo>
<iYearIncrement>4</iYearIncrement>
<iTurnsPerIncrement>14</iTurnsPerIncrement>
</GameTurnInfo>
- <GameTurnInfo>
<iYearIncrement>3</iYearIncrement>
<iTurnsPerIncrement>22</iTurnsPerIncrement>
</GameTurnInfo>
- <GameTurnInfo>
<iYearIncrement>2</iYearIncrement>
<iTurnsPerIncrement>14</iTurnsPerIncrement>
</GameTurnInfo>
- <GameTurnInfo>
<iYearIncrement>1</iYearIncrement>
<iTurnsPerIncrement>33</iTurnsPerIncrement>
</GameTurnInfo>
</GameTurnInfos>
</GameSpeedInfo>

What have I done wrong.
 
VippiN ~
What you've done there is limited yourself to 125 turns. You can't divide everything by four if you want four times as many turns. You need to multiply your iTurnsPerIncrement values by four. These values tell the game how many turns to give the player at this gamespeed.
I would start over, with a new CIV4GameSpeedInfo.xml file (from the original civ install), and do the following:
for each YearIncrement, divide by four.
for each iTurnsPerIncrement, multiply by four.
increase iResearchPercent, to whatever you want.

But also a caveat - your game is still going to accelerate, and I think you will find that the early game in your system is extremely slow whereas the lategame picks up and plays much faster, almost as fast as a game in unmodded Civ4. Of course, feel free to make it, test it, and prove us all wrong ;)

Best of luck.
 
First, I want to thank all of you for this discussion. Next I really want to thank Doskei for that Excel file -- I didn't like the values you used (a bit slow for my personal tastes), but I loved having the file to let me plug in my own %s and not have to think.

Next, I have a question for everyone. I've made a number of changes, and for now saved all my modded files to CustomAssets. Is this gonna mess up my succession games? If so, where can I put them (a mod dir?) so that I only use them in single player-me-only games. And how do I let Civ know whether I'm playing under my rules (mod dir) or a succession game (normal rules)?

Last, keep up the good work everyone. Don't be shy about arguing with each other, that drives progress. Just don't annoy someone to the point where he nukes you! :nuke:
 
Doskei said:
But also a caveat - your game is still going to accelerate, and I think you will find that the early game in your system is extremely slow whereas the lategame picks up and plays much faster, almost as fast as a game in unmodded Civ4.

I will vouch for this happening, modding the gamespeed is considerably more complicated than simply slowing research rate and adding turns. Sure it works beautifully for a while, but inevitably you'll be making 50+ gold/turn, running at 100% research, and spitting techs out at alarming rates. I know, because I'm guilty of doing it. :lol:
 
Thanks a bundle, Doskei. After some serious testing I've come to the conclusion that my own mod works great, but I want to test yours and see if it become even better.
 
Happy to help Gufnork. And honestly, if you're happy with the gameplay in your mod, you probably won't like mine. That's fine though, I'm happy you've got it working the way you like it :)

Been busy lately so no time to work on my version of this mod. I'll get back to it soon and maybe have a releasable beta before too long.
 
Doskei said:
VippiN ~But also a caveat - your game is still going to accelerate, and I think you will find that the early game in your system is extremely slow whereas the lategame picks up and plays much faster, almost as fast as a game in unmodded Civ4. Of course, feel free to make it, test it, and prove us all wrong ;)

Best of luck.

Interesting. I wasn't aware, but I see how it could, and would be correct. I take it that's why this thead is 10 pages long. :)
 
Maybe all that needs to be done is to quarter the <iTrainPercent> and halve the <iConstructPercent>? Thoughts?

You wouldn't get any more TURNS, but for the "people" in your civs it would be as if they could train and build more things....
 
Then you'll end up with the same number of turns to research a tech, but you'll be churning out a unit every turn (and if it was possible to do so, many cities would churn out 2-4 units a turn).
 
Right...That's sort of what I'm looking for .... Ideally, I'd have a 1900 turn game with the same tech progression(year-wise), but this thread indicates that the late-game aggregate effect of mucking about with everything is...problematic :D...

I just had the above brainstorm... but that "simplest solution (changing as little as possible)" would really only acheive my goals on a small map, as I don't want my larger #'s of units having to walk forever to get to the front...
 
I've been watching this thread for a while and have been tinkering with the game speed but there is one thing that is baffling me more than getting the correct gameplay balance...

I've added a new gamespeed to the list, the mod works but when choosing it from the custom game screen i get "TXT_KEY_GAMESPEED_TEST" as the name of the speed. I read in a previous post that you can change the description to say "Test" and it will appear as "Test" in the custom game screen, but thats not good enough!! :D

Epic, Normal and Quick all have the same kind of descriptions i.e.

<GameSpeedInfo>
<Type>GAMESPEED_EPIC</Type>
<Description>TXT_KEY_GAMESPEED_EPIC</Description>
<Help>TXT_KEY_GAMESPEED_EPIC_HELP</Help>
<iGrowthPercent>150</iGrowthPercent>....
But the Custom Game screen pulls "Epic" from somewhere and I cant find it!

I've edited 3 files (\XML\GameInfo\CIV4GameSpeedInfo.xml, \XML\GameInfo\CIV4CultureLevelInfo.xml and \XML\Text\CIV4GameText_Help.xml <= was pointless as mouseovers arent working properly! :crazyeye:) and searched numerous others in the XML...

Has anyone found out how this is supposed to be done?

Going to go keep searching but I'd really appreciate any help!

Cheers! :goodjob:
 
I searched long and hard for that answer myself, to no avail. The other thing I want to know is how to add a scroll bar to that list of speeds, so when more are added, you can actually see them all.
 
JeBuS27 said:
I searched long and hard for that answer myself, to no avail. The other thing I want to know is how to add a scroll bar to that list of speeds, so when more are added, you can actually see them all.

Thats a good point...

Have you tried adding loads of new speeds already? or is it just an assumption that they dont scroll?

If you have already tried then this might be proof that these parts of the game ARE hardcoded... or that we need to start trawling the python! :lol:
 
I found what I was looking for from my previous post!! (#231) :goodjob:

It was in one of the text files!
=> \Assets\XML\Text\CIV4GameTextInfos_Objects.xml

This file allows you to assign the "written language" part of the game.

eg.
<TEXT>
<Tag>TXT_KEY_GAMESPEED_TEST</Tag>
<English>Test</English>
<French>
<Text>Test</Text>
<Gender>Male</Gender>
<Plural>0</Plural>
</French>
<German>
<Text>Test</Text>
<Gender>Male</Gender>
<Plural>0</Plural>
</German>
<Italian>
<Text>Test</Text>
<Gender>Female</Gender>
<Plural>0</Plural>
</Italian>
<Spanish>
<Text>Test</Text>
<Gender>Female</Gender>
<Plural>0</Plural>
</Spanish>
</TEXT>
...
This file also allows you to assign the difficulty level names, civic names, promotions... the list goes on, its a BIG text file!!

So if your ever looking to change the name of something, check here 1st ;)

Going to start compiling a list of all the XML files and what each ones purpose is.

PS. If there is already a thread for this, please someone point it out so we can get the XML referenced!
 
I don't even have that file... Wonder what's up with that.
 
Well, I re-installed and sure enough, it's there. All those hours searching and I could've just found it if I had the full installation. :p
 
Max_x_fire said:
I found what I was looking for from my previous post!! (#231) :goodjob:

It was in one of the text files!
=> \Assets\XML\Text\CIV4GameTextInfos_Objects.xml

This file allows you to assign the "written language" part of the game.

eg.

This file also allows you to assign the difficulty level names, civic names, promotions... the list goes on, its a BIG text file!!

So if your ever looking to change the name of something, check here 1st ;)

Going to start compiling a list of all the XML files and what each ones purpose is.

PS. If there is already a thread for this, please someone point it out so we can get the XML referenced!


I Have tried that too - succesfully added a new gamespeed with it's own name - only problem, suddenly all cities become legandary with only 1 culture point :eek: the first who manged it to found 3 cities won the culture victory :eek:

anyone knows what have to be canged/added here ?
 
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