A Civ4 pouter looks for some civ6 modding help...

[zonk]

OK - after pouting my way through civ5, I'm making a concerted effort to try to like civ6 and having some success with that....

But - little bit of help using Modbuddy - and in particular, perhaps pointing me to a reference to tag/reference appropriateness - would be of great help.

Forgive an old man, but I'm far more comfortable with the pre-Civ5 versions where making tweaks was always just a matter of some python or xml editing -- been a while since I've had to deal with compiled cross-referencing (and I was always terrible at it to begin with!)....

Anyway, I'm literally just looking to make a modified civ - don't care about the art, I'm perfectly capable of understanding the tag text edits, etc - I've spent a couple of days watching videos and the like, but they all seem to be focused on 'flavor' edits, which I'm either not-so-addled that I understand or couldn't really care about. I'm just far more looking to do attribute changes... Plans to/would like to eventually create my own - but for now, I'm just struggling mightily to just use the sandbox template - but swap in existing leader/civ traits and buildings.

I feel like if I could just get over that hump -- say, even creating a custom civ, but pairing with existing traits/etc, I'd be in business... but alas, crash central.

I KNOW I'm just using the wrong references in the wrong places - and yes, I can read a schema, but I always seem to be finding myself at a dead-end where I bang my head on my desk, completely lost as to why what I've referenced where appears to be invalid.

Can anyone point me to a reference guide - or a good demo - where the focus is less on "here's how to do the shading in your color scheme" or "here's how to change your envoy names" and more "here's the cross-reference to to game asset modifiers/traits/etc"?

 

[LeeS]

Currently there really isn't a

cross-reference to to game asset modifiers/traits/etc

if I am understanding what you are looking for.

No one in the modding community has created such a X-reference as yet that I am aware.

If you zip the mod you currently have as it is warts and all, and attach to a post we can start giving some better help both in what specifically you are doing wrong in the code you have but also any misconceptions of misunderstandings re how civ6 modding works. And also give you some better direction on the sorts of resources available currently for understanding where to look to find the sort of ModifierType, EffectType, CollectionType, etc., that you need.

There are some tutorials on how the game's XML/SQL is put together, and there is specifically a two-parter (I think it is still only @ the second part) on understanding modifiers and effects, collections, and the like, in the civ6 tutorials and references sub-forum.

 

[zonk]

Thanks -

I did - multiple times - watch through one of the videos (the 30 minute one I've also seen referenced here), but yeah... like I said - it sort of glosses over the civ/leader trait aspects in favor of the flavor aspects... though still quite good (and hey - any modder that wants to sacrifice time for whatever explanation is aces in my book).

One route I'm considering - what do you think of the idea of potentially ganking one of the DLCs and cloning it? I know there are some aspects - modID, etc - I need to be wary of, but ultimately, I think what would really get me on my way towards understanding what I'm doing is more of a "here's an example using an existing vanilla Civ" with more of the copy/cut/paste.... that's what really is giving me fits on the demo I watched -- since he's already customized everything, I'm just really struggling with equivalencies.... what can I say - I've always learned best by clone/mimic example - and I think getting to the heart of what I'm looking to do would be best served by a lot more "ah-ha! Here's the object I want within the classes I'm looking for"...

 

[IllustriousYou]

One route I'm considering - what do you think of the idea of potentially ganking one of the DLCs and cloning it?

There's no trouble, I believe, in looking to the DLC for inspiration, but I'd avoid copying it.

For example, I looked at the Alexander DLC to see how they changed his ability to work only for completed wonders. I might use the same modifier in my work, but I wouldn't copy the trait into my mod (even if I intend to alter it).