3.19 Wild Speculation Thread

[Tsukasa]

...
So, what specific gamecore code was into the DLL, and what can we expect that will mean to FfH?

i hope we will see spieders growing with exp. ...

 

[ori]

So, what specific gamecore code was into the DLL, and what can we expect that will mean to FfH?

don't know what FfH will do with the new goodies - but here they are:

EDIT: My overall impressions is that there's a lot of new functionality for modifying game sounds, some new functionality for messing with the interface, but nothing particularly earth-shattering beyond that. The top item on my wishlist was more of the trade screen exposed, followed by some of the interface stuff from Colonization such as the spin boxes, drag-and-drop ability, and the ability to allow popups appear with the city screen up. I'm sad we didn't get that, but there's still enough here that the hearts of many a modder should be warmed.

Here's a more comprehensive list of the stuff that's been moved to the DLL:

CvCity

getBuildingArtInfo
getBuildingVisibilityPriority

These two give you greater control over how cities look. Haven't really thought of any great applications for them... will probably be mod-specific.

getMusicScriptId
getSoundscapeScriptId

These affect city sounds. I'd like to tweak these myself because I want there to be a distinction between the sounds of coastal and inland cities. When you open a coastal city screen, you might hear seagulls, a boat horn, etc.

getBuildQueue

Not sure why you'd want to mess with this, but there it is.

CvPlayer

getIntroMusicScriptId
getMusicScriptId

With these two, I think you could actually now have different music play under different circumstances. It already does it based on peace/war and era, but you could make it so that it'll play different music based on the other player's state religion, civic, or anything else you can think of. Maybe not extremely useful in the standard game, but could be interesting for specialized mods.

getGlobeLayerColors
getTradeLayerColors
getUnitLayerColors
getResourceLayerColors
getReligionLayerColors
getCultureLayerColors

Controls the colors for different things on the maps.. Not sure why you'd want to mess with this, but there it is anyway.

getUnitArtInfo

This'll provide a fairly easy and straightforward way to have units look different based on religion or civics among other things.

CvPlot

getSoundScriptId

Controls the tile's sound. Takes the improvement sound first, if there's none, goes to feature, if no feature, it goes to terrain. Could be modified to have culture-specific sounds I guess.

get3DAudioScriptFootstepIndex

You can use this to set conditions for what kind of footstep noises should play.

getAqueductSourceWeight

Tweaking this would make the aqueduct appear in more rational or more insane positions I think

shouldDisplayBridge

Pretty self-explanatory. The only reason why I might think one would want to mess with this is if you wanted to make bridges something that had to be specifically built and thus open to targetting by pillaging, bombing or sabotage. I'm seriously considering it

checkLateEra

This is obviously some kind of graphical display thing. It might be used to control the appearance of improvements?

CvUnit

getSelectionSoundScript

Want your Roman unit to shout in Latin when you click on him in the ancient era and in Italian when you click on him in the modern era? This is where you'd code that.

getLayerAnimationPaths

The greatest unexploited feature in BtS... the Layer Animation Paths. No Unit Maker that I know of has ever actually made units to take advantage of this fantastic feature. Previously, changing the layer animation paths was strictly reserved for promotions, but with this function exposed you can have it based on virtually any criteria you want.

isCombatVisible

Basically controls quick combat. Could use it to have certain types of units skip battle scenes even if the Quick Combat option isn't turned on

CvDLLInterfaceIFaceBase

setInterfaceMode
getInterfaceMode
getShowInterface
getMouseOverPlot

There some potential for some good interface changes with these... Being able to get the plot the mouse is currently over can be quite handy. I've already got some ideas about what I might do with this.

CvGameInterface

This file and the CvGameTextMgr have most changes made to them, and has potentially the most interesting new functionality.

getGlobeLayers
startFlyoutMenu
applyFlyoutMenu

Not sure, but I think the flyout menu concerns the bottom part of the screen... so the list of stuff you can build, draft buttons, hurry buttons, selecting units, etc.

getNewHighlightPlot
getPlotHighlightColor

More map stuff

getWidgetShow
There's two of these. One determines if a model should be shown in the civilopedia for a particular resource (prevents Hit Singles, Movies, etc. from showing on terrain). And the second determines if a water improvement is to be shown in water.

nextActivePlayer
Moves the next player in line to be the new active player.

getNextSoundtrack
getSoundtrackSpace
isSoundtrackOverride

More sound control

initSelection

Picks which unit to select first such as at the start of a new turn

shouldDisplayFlag

Controls when your player flag should appear at the bottom of the screen.

shouldDisplayUnitModel

Controls when your selected unit's model should appear at the bottom of the screen

shouldShowResearchButtons

Controls when your research options should appear at the top (like when you've finished research a tech)

shouldCenterMinimap

Controls when the map should be centered.

handleCityScreenPlotPicked
handleCityScreenPlotDoublePicked
handleCityScreenPlotRightPicked
handleMiddleMouse

This deals with mouse clicks on plots when the city screen is up. For me, this is very handy since I plan to make changes to how players manage their cities. Just how useful these functions will be I haven't determined yet.

handleDiplomacySetAIComment

Concerns diplomacy... not sure why you'd mess with this

CvGameTextMgr

getFontSymbols
assignFontIds

This is the meat and potatoes of the gamefont changes. If you want to add new stuff that will have a little icon associated with it that you want to appear in text, this is where you're going to mod it in. This does not pertain to adding new religions, corporations, yields, commerces, or general buttons like , , or . That you've always been able to do. These functions would only need to be modified if you wanted totally new stuff like civilization languages, or political ideologies, or something along those lines.

getPlotHelp
getRebasePlotHelp
getNukePlotHelp

This provides a bit more flexibility for modders in determining what text they want to appear on the left-hand side of the screen when a player mouses over a plot. THis could be very useful if you want to provide more info to players when they're using interface modes (such as when you select an air mission and you see the air range and the target cursor appear). So if you wanted to, you could program it to tell you the odds of being intercepted on that particular tile if you wanted.

getInterfaceCenterText

This controls the text that appears in the middle of the screen when a player wins.

getTurnTimerText

Looks like this controls the game turn info? Thought that was done in python...

There's also a bunch of functions controlling text when in Advanced Start mode or World Builder, but I decided not to list them all/

 

[CurseUppl]

Looks good!

 

[cyther]

The two things that I'm thinking of are the small possibility to seperate art and sound from religion and possibly a way to choose a portal's destination or teleport spell without using the NukeAction.

 

[Verdian]

So I don't understand the code, but does this mean 1) we can finally recolor rivers for hell terrain and 2) It is possible to disable the clouds and thus reduce late-game slow downs?

Changing the sounds from cities could be fun, too... I'd imagine the Calabim and Sheaim to have more screaming.

 

[Iceciro]

We require additional screaming villagers.

 

[xxHammerxx]

I like the idea of coastal cities sounding different from Inland cities. Maybe it means we could also get a relig music underlay/overlay to the normal city screen music.

 

[Haerzog]

And perhaps we can get volcanic lava floes to travel downriver, or generate their own rivers. Perhaps this could result in special terrain, such as wasteland and volcanic plateau.

 

[UNIT 666]

Dang, that'd be cool. It would open up a whole new type of mapscript: Broken World, with areas that are wastelands - not deserts, but actual wastelands, with scorched, featureless terrain for the most part, and dangerous lava flowing through some areas which make attacking through them highly undesirable. (amphibious won't help there!)

It might even open up some options for a new modmod civ.

 

[mythmonster2]

So, is the current version compatible with 3.19? I'm assuming so since I have the patch.

 

[Kael]

So, is the current version compatible with 3.19? I'm assuming so since I have the patch.

Yes, FfH 0.41d requires BtS 3.19.

 

[Tasunke]

Or you could replace Hell terrain rivers with Lava rivers, and perhaps make attacking over them particularly nasty to living things, and just a tiny bit nasty for angels. Maybe treat as if it were flames or something, so you need fire resistance or magic resistance to cross it w/o roads at all.

 

[MagisterCultuum]

I believe it has long been established that the game can handle only one type of river. That is why Kael hasn't added a hell version of oceans or coats, because he thinks the clean blue water flowing into them would look odd.

 

[far_wanderer]

I believe it has long been established that the game can handle only one type of river. That is why Kael hasn't added a hell version of oceans or coats, because he thinks the clean blue water flowing into them would look odd.

Rivers are the one place where I think Civ4 took a step backwards. I long for the old days when rivers existed on tiles rather than in some bizarre twilight zone in between them. It would probably fix this issue, and would make it much easier to do things to them with spells.

On a tangent, now that I think about it the one other thing I liked better about Civ2 also had to do with small bodies of water: those little channels that existed between diagonal water tiles.

 

[Grey Fox]

On the topic of rivers. I think it makes more sense with them between tiles, and gameplay wise I think it works fine (especially with the combat penalty and bridges). Graphically it can look pretty sweet too, especially with cultural borders bordering the rivers. Though it can look bad at times, since the edges are square, and with multiple turns it can get very zig-zaggy.

 

[Haerzog]

If i understood the changes listed earlier, isn't one now able to add, and change, river types?

 

[Tasunke]

thats what I thought which was why I mentioned it

at the very least I think it should be looked into.