thecowwarrior's MOD v1.0

[thecowwarrior]

thecowwarrior's MOD v1.0

This MOD combines several different MODs found on CivFanatics into one. I created this mainly for my friends and I to use, but I figured I'd upload it here too in case anyone else wants to use it. I want to stress that very little of this MOD is original work done by me, I simply combined my favorite MODs into one.

A list of changes:

Added several Leaderheads: Dido, Adolf Hitler, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, Red Cloud, Philip II, Johan DeWitt, and Crazy Horse, all with full diplomacy text. (Louis XIII and William Wallace are also included, but disabled. It is a simple process to enable them if you want to use them.)

Added Israel civilization with David and Solomon as Leaderheads.

Added a few Great Generals and Great Artists to the list.

Changed England's flag from St. George's Cross to the Union Jack, America's flag to the actual American flag, and the Japanese flag to the Rising Sun flag. Also modified England's city list to include cities from across the United Kingdom.


Added Trafalgar Square and Eden Project world wonders.

Massive graphics/flavor overhaul by adding Ethnic Mix More in Blue and Ethnic Citystyles MODs.

This is the first MOD I have ever attempted, and therefore I am positive I may have made things a bit more complicated than necessary. The MOD takes a while to load, but has been playtested several times with no crashes or major bugs, so I think it is safe to release. This MOD was created and playtested on BTS 3.19.


Install instructions (NOTE YOUR PATHS TO GAME DIRECTORY MAY BE DIFFERENT):

put CIV4GameText_Civilopedia_BTS.xml into C:\Program Files (x86)\2K Games\Firaxis Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4 Complete\Beyond the Sword\Assets\XML\Text

put CIV4GameText_Objects_BTS.xml into C:\Program Files (x86)\2K Games\Firaxis Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4 Complete\Beyond the Sword\Assets\XML\Text

put CIV4GameText_DiplomacyText_BTS.xml into C:\Program Files (x86)\2K Games\Firaxis Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4 Complete\Beyond the Sword\Assets\XML\Text

Put America.dds, RisingSun.dds and UK.dds in C:\Program Files (x86)\2K Games\Firaxis Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4 Complete\Beyond the Sword\Assets\Art\Interface\TeamColor

Put thecowarrior folder into C:\Program Files (x86)\2K Games\Firaxis Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4 Complete\Beyond the Sword\Mods


Known issues:

-Icon for Johan DeWitt's Longbowmen unit is a pink square. I believe this to be an issue with the Ethnic Mix More in Blue MOD and am unsure how to correct this.

-MOD takes quite a while to load. I tried using PakBuild to make it load faster as outlined at http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=187699. However, this caused several crashes after following those steps, so I abandoned using it.

-Israel's Leaderheads don't use their full diplomacy text. The code is there, but since it is a modular civ perhaps that makes it not function properly? Help on any of these issues would be greatly appreciated.


As I said before, most of this is not my work. Full credits here:

[LH] Adolf Hitler] by The Capo, Ekmek, Bernie14, The_Coyote, Smeagolheart, Chuggi
http://forums.civfanatics.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=12379

[LH] Dido (v1)] by The Capo, Ekmek, The_Coyote
http://forums.civfanatics.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=13841

3 New Leaderheads - The WASP Mod] by Jaroth (& Firaxis)
http://forums.civfanatics.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=14635

King Solomon w/Israel Civ [MODULAR] v2] by Nzk13, The_Capo
http://forums.civfanatics.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=14376

ETHNIC MIX MORE IN BLUE by coffee junkie
http://forums.civfanatics.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=14547

Ethnic Citystyles by GeoModder
http://forums.civfanatics.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=9422

Trafalgar Square [Modular]] by asioasioasio
http://forums.civfanatics.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=7056

Eden Project (XML+Python)] by tsentom1
http://forums.civfanatics.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=10535

 

[mechaerik]

Install instructions (NOTE YOUR PATHS TO GAME DIRECTORY MAY BE DIFFERENT):

put CIV4GameText_Civilopedia_BTS.xml into C:\Program Files (x86)\2K Games\Firaxis Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4 Complete\Beyond the Sword\Assets\XML\Text

put CIV4GameText_Objects_BTS.xml into C:\Program Files (x86)\2K Games\Firaxis Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4 Complete\Beyond the Sword\Assets\XML\Text

put CIV4GameText_DiplomacyText_BTS.xml into C:\Program Files (x86)\2K Games\Firaxis Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4 Complete\Beyond the Sword\Assets\XML\Text

Put America.dds, RisingSun.dds and UK.dds in C:\Program Files (x86)\2K Games\Firaxis Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4 Complete\Beyond the Sword\Assets\Art\Interface\TeamColor

Put thecowarrior folder into C:\Program Files (x86)\2K Games\Firaxis Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4 Complete\Beyond the Sword\Mods

Why exactly do these files have to be replaced?

Known issues:

-Icon for Johan DeWitt's Longbowmen unit is a pink square. I believe this to be an issue with the Ethnic Mix More in Blue MOD and am unsure how to correct this.

A pink square like this could possibly cause a crash.

 

[thecowwarrior]

Why exactly do these files have to be replaced?

Because I added the new Leaderheads Civlopedia info and diplomacy info in these files. Could I possibly have added them to a self contained file within my MOD? Probably, but as with the Modular Israel civ I added, it seems to have issues when done that way. If you or someone else knows why this is, please send me a message.

If you are worried about replacing them just rename the original files. However, replacing them does absolutely no harm to the base game as far as I have noticed.

A pink square like this could possibly cause a crash.

I'm well aware of that, that is why it is listed under the KNOWN ISSUES section of the readme. As I also said, I am unaware of how to correct the issue, and invited anyone who does to lend a helping hand. Remember, I am new at this.

In reality however, I have never seen this issue crash the game in well over a dozen playtests.

 

[EvanMeisterX]

Because I added the new Leaderheads Civlopedia info and diplomacy info in these files. Could I possibly have added them to a self contained file within my MOD?

Yes, you could have, and you should, so you don't accidentally mess up of BtS's actual files. I'm in the process of making a mod, and all of my files are in my Mod's folder.

 

[Le Sage]

I do not think anyone will replace any vanilla BtS files, so you do need to make it so that they work from within the mod folder itself. Otherwise you won't get an audience for the mod either. It's easily done and all other mods out there has it like that!

The pink square icon indicates that you have the wrong path for your icon graphic in your .xml. Possibly the image doesn't exist in your folder. It's easily fixed by looking for the button .dds and changing the path in the UnitArtInfos to teh correct one. Alternatively make a new button and paste that.

Good luck with the mod! It'll come along nicely as it already looks good from what I can see.

 

[thecowwarrior]

The pink square icon indicates that you have the wrong path for your icon graphic in your .xml. Possibly the image doesn't exist in your folder. It's easily fixed by looking for the button .dds and changing the path in the UnitArtInfos to teh correct one. Alternatively make a new button and paste that..

Thank you so much for the useful feedback! After being pointed to the correct XML file, my original suspicion that the Netherlands Longbowman unit button was missing from the Ethnic Mix in Blue MOD was confirmed (the btn_holland_longbowman.dds file was missing entirely from the MOD). I don't know how to make a nice button file, so until I learn I will just use the same button as for the Dutch Archer (please remember, I am NEW at this).

Next step: Make all the GameText XML files and Flag Decals self contained in my MOD. Should be fairly easy.

 

[thecowwarrior]

Next step: Make all the GameText XML files and Flag Decals self contained in my MOD. Should be fairly easy.

I have a new build where everything is self contained, installation is as simple as extracting the archive to the Mods folder. I don't have a unique button for the Dutch Longbowmen (I just used the same one as for the archer unit), if someone wants to explain to me how to make one I will add it. I also still don't understand why the Israeli leaderheads Diplotext doesn't work. I would like to get these issues fixed before I release my new build. Any help, anyone?

 

[Le Sage]

Ah! Excellent. Yeah, you can easily use the vanilla buttons as placeholders; there are also buttons to be downloaded in the CivFanatics database, so you can have a look around there and see if you find anything useful.

It took some time for me learning how to make my own buttons, but once I got the hang of it, it is really easy. Now I can massproduce buttons at a good pace There are good tutorials in the Tutorials Section of this website too. Have a look there, but I'd say the easiest way is to really find one in the database and use that one.

It looks really interesting. I'll be following your progress and try it out when you get the new version up!

 

[thecowwarrior]

New build is up. Full readme is posted on download page. Still not quite perfect, but I'm getting there. I have experienced no crashes or stability issues, the problems I have with it are extremely minor "in the details" kind of things. I also posted a few screenshots to give people an idea what they are downloading.

Try it out, you might like it!

 

[HahnHolio]

New build is up. Full readme is posted on download page. Still not quite perfect, but I'm getting there. I have experienced no crashes or stability issues, the problems I have with it are extremely minor "in the details" kind of things. I also posted a few screenshots to give people an idea what they are downloading.

Try it out, you might like it!

we would need some download link to test the new version

 

[thecowwarrior]

we would need some download link to test the new version

It is in the moderation queue, hopefully it will be available soon. I didn't realize it had to be re-checked every time I update my file.

EDIT: File is available now, please enjoy!

 

[thecowwarrior]

New build coming today. I fixed some small XML errors that affected the music and diplomacy text of a couple of the added leaderheads, and cut out some extraneous files to reduce the download size by over 10MB. I expanded Dido's Civlopedia entry, as I felt it was too short. I also tried PakBuild again, this time with success due to my mod files all being in the same directory. Load times are now much shorter, and I haven't experienced any bugs/crashes.

I would very much like to add unique boats and planes to my mod, but I have not found any thorough existing mods that I could tack on to mine. There are several individual ones, but I was hoping to find something along the lines of the Ethnic Mix Mod that would make every civilization more unique. I also cannot figure out why the Israeli leaderheads diplomacy text doesn't work. A custom opening menu would be nice, and creating the .dds file using GIMP is simple enough, but is there any way to make it use my screen without manually selecting it? If not, I don't think it's worth the bother, who is really going to go into the settings and adjust it just to play a mod? If anyone has any thoughts on these matters, please reply here or send me a message.

Updated file is now in moderation queue.

Thanks, and enjoy!

 

[thecowwarrior]

Update coming soon. I added several more Leaderheads, expanded Civilopedia entries and revised/updated diplomacy text for some previously added leaders, and corrected some small XML errors. Will be released later this week after it is thoroughly playtested.

 

[thecowwarrior]

Here is a temporary download link until it gets past the moderation queue.. I really need to get my post count up enough so my file doesn't have to get re-approved just because I updated the file description..

 

[thecowwarrior]

It appears I'm the only one that ever looks at this, but nevertheless, one more build will be released before Civ 5. Watch for it in the next day or two.