New to modding, trying to create a new civ

[sloul]

Hello everyone,


Well I guess I am a pretty bad student of modding.
I spent quite some time reading tutos
I went through Kael's one and a Newbie guide into modding, I also checked couple other but tried to stay focus on those two.

I think I spent about 10 hours overall, reading, and trying to put the teaching to effect, but didn't manage to add a civilization to the list of playable ones.


- I didn't produce any Lua nor SQL , I used only .xml
- I also didn't create any picture for my mod, I tried to reuse what was already in vanilla.




I put a .zip toward my mod.
If someone would find out the reasons why my mod/civ is not working that would be super nice.
But instead, if someone could just tell me what is the very, very, strict minimum input required to add a Civ, that would be super nice too.
Part of the reason I am lost is because I don't know where to look for my errors.

On that note

The civ. I want to add is named Viznars.
But after some time, I conceded.
So instead I decided to re-add America, under the name: Admeric.
Even then... no results.
And this is where I... decided to ask for help.

 

[Terion]

I went really quickly through your files, so I sure I missed some big things.
I'm new to modding too, so, again, I'm sure I missed things or little details here and there.

For the minimum, you'll need :
- A civ
- A leader
- 2 unique components

I don't know if the trait is mandatory, but yeah, can't hurt.
From my own experience, it won't work until you have every bit in place. I might be wrong, but my civ began showing up (with errors) when I had the civ, leader, unit, trait and gametext all in place. So, perhaps you're in the same case.

I'll suggest to wait for the gurus to drop by, I might just drown you in errors instead of helping ^^

 

[sloul]

Thanks Terion
Although I did create some .xml for Leaders, units, traits, gametext.
Right now I am just spending time on my concepts documents.

 

[LeeS]

You have a set of <Row> wrappers inside another set of <Row> wrappers here.

Plus you are trying to assign ID # 0 to your civ.

• ID #0 is already being used by the pre-existing civilizations within the game, so this is no good.
• You also have this in your "Admeric" civ, which I think is causing the game to also discard that entry into the <Civilizations> table.
• As a general rule, do not provide <ID>x</ID> columns within your mods. You would generally only do so when you are making a total game conversion mod, or a semi-conversion mod such as one that completely reworks the tech tree.

Spoiler :

<Civilizations>
	<Row>
		[COLOR="red"]<Row>
			<ID>0</ID>[/COLOR]
			<Type>CIVILIZATION_VIZNARS</Type>
			<Description>TXT_KEY_CIV_VIZNARS_DESC</Description>
			<ShortDescription>TXT_KEY_CIV_VIZNARS_SHORT_DESC</ShortDescription>
			<Adjective>TXT_KEY_CIV_VIZNARS_ADJECTIVE</Adjective>
			<CivilopediaTag>TXT_KEY_CIV5_VIZNARS</CivilopediaTag>
			<DefaultPlayerColor>PLAYERCOLOR_BROWN</DefaultPlayerColor>
			<ArtStyleType>ARTSTYLE_EUROPEAN</ArtStyleType>
			<PortraitIndex>0</PortraitIndex>
			<IconAtlas>CIV_COLOR_ATLAS</IconAtlas>
			<AlphaIconAtlas>CIV_ALPHA_ATLAS</AlphaIconAtlas>
			<MapImage>MapAmerica512.dds</MapImage>
			<ArtStyleSuffix>_EURO</ArtStyleSuffix>
			<ArtStylePrefix>EUROPEAN </ArtStylePrefix>
			<DawnOfManQuote>TXT_KEY_CIV5_DAWN_VIZNARS_TEXT</DawnOfManQuote>
			<DawnOfManImage>DOM_Elizabeth.dds</DawnOfManImage>
			<DawnOfManAudio></DawnOfManAudio>
		[COLOR="Red"]</Row>[/COLOR]
	</Row>
</Civilizations>

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I don't understand why you are setting all the standard civilizations as unplayable in Hidecivs.xml. Do yourself a favor and remove that file from the OnModActivated list until you get everything else going with your civ. If you are trying to build a mod that removes all the standard civs from play and adds a bunch of custom civs instead, still do yourself a favor and 1st get your civ (or civs) operating before tackling the next step.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

You cannot have any left-over dangling bits of text like these if they are not wrapped inside comment codes:

Spoiler :

	<Leader_MajorCivApproachBiases>
		<Row>
			<LeaderType>LEADER_ALDER</LeaderType>
			<MajorCivApproachType>MAJOR_CIV_APPROACH_WAR</MajorCivApproachType>
			<Bias>5</Bias>
		</Row>
		[COLOR="red"]..........[/COLOR]
		<Row>
			<LeaderType>LEADER_ALDER</LeaderType>
			<MajorCivApproachType>MAJOR_CIV_APPROACH_NEUTRAL</MajorCivApproachType>
			<Bias>5</Bias>
		</Row>
	</Leader_MajorCivApproachBiases>
	<Leader_MinorCivApproachBiases>
		<Row>
			<LeaderType>LEADER_ALDER</LeaderType>
			<MinorCivApproachType>MINOR_CIV_APPROACH_IGNORE</MinorCivApproachType>
			<Bias>5</Bias>
		</Row>
		[COLOR="Red"]..........[/COLOR]
		<Row>
			<LeaderType>LEADER_ALDER</LeaderType>
			<MinorCivApproachType>MINOR_CIV_APPROACH_BULLY</MinorCivApproachType>
			<Bias>5</Bias>
		</Row>
	</Leader_MinorCivApproachBiases>
	<Leader_Flavors>
		<Row>
			<LeaderType>LEADER_ALDER</LeaderType>
			<FlavorType>FLAVOR_OFFENSE</FlavorType>
			<Flavor>5</Flavor>
		</Row>
		<Row>
			<LeaderType>LEADER_ALDER</LeaderType>
			<FlavorType>FLAVOR_DEFENSE</FlavorType>
			<Flavor>5</Flavor>
		</Row>
		[COLOR="red"]..........[/COLOR]
	</Leader_Flavors>

This would work

<!--  ..........   -->

but what you have will not. What you have at the moment will cause the entire file to be discarded by the game.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

You have this:

<GameData>
	<Traits>
		<Row>
			<Type>[COLOR="red"]TRAIT_GOLDEN[/COLOR]</Type>
			<Description>TXT_KEY_TRAIT_GOLDEN</Description>
			<ShortDescription>TXT_KEY_TRAIT_GOLDEN_SHORT</ShortDescription>
			<GreatPeopleRateModifier>-20</GreatPeopleRateModifier>
		</Row>
	</Traits>
</GameData>

and this

	<Leader_Traits>
		<Row>
			<LeaderType>LEADER_ALDER</LeaderType>
			<TraitType>[COLOR="red"]TRAIT_TEST[/COLOR]</TraitType>
		</Row>
	</Leader_Traits>

which do not match and therefore will not work.

Plus I think you need a positive number to make Great People appear faster.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I don't see anything in your units file that ought to make the two units fail to function although if you look carefully through the CIV5Units.xml file for Warriors and Archers you'll probably see a few things that you have omitted to add to your units that you would most likely need to add to get them fully fleshed out. Such as, your archer and warrior units don't upgrade to anything else at later stages of the game because you have not added a <Unit_ClassUpgrades> table with <Rows> for these two units.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I also recommend this tutorial: whoward69's enable error logging tutorial

Error logs are your friend as a mod-maker because they at least give you clues as to where your troubles are. It takes a little bit of work to get on to how to read the error logs, but once you get over that curve of understanding the error logs, you will save yourself lots of time in chasing down where you have mistakes in your mod.

The first hint with error logs is to look always 1st in the file called DataBase.log once you have the error logging enabled.

[edit to add]best to only attach the mod as it appears in the MODS folder of enable-able mods. If you are not sure what I mean by that, see whoward69's zip your mods and attach tutorial

 

[sloul]

Thanks Lees!
When I see my mistakes I really feel bad that I made you reading all this.
Like me creating a GOLDEN trait and my leader using TEST.
Well, the thing is, I wiped out my mod about 3 times and started again from scratch.
At the time I called for help my brain was so... not functional I think I added a ton of mistake while trying to fix what was already broken.

Well anyway, a big, big, thanks to you.