A Few Things Still Aren't Working With My Mod

[gi5epi 579]

I'm still fairly new to this so my work is a bit messy, I'm still learning. I have a lot of parts working, but I'm not sure how to fix some of the others. I'm not sure what size the map should be for the civ selection menu so not all of it is on screen. I might not even have the right DDS settings, but I'm not sure. My civ's unique unit and the building also aren't showing up in the game, both the infantry and the forge are both available to the civ when they should have been replaced. Finally, the DOM fails to load, but it doesn't crash the game. If someone could take a look and tell me what I might have done wrong, I would be most thankful. I've included a .zip of the mod.
And if you find anything else wrong that's not related to these issues that would also be most helpful.

 

[LeeS]

For the required pixel-dimensions see FramedArchitect's Icon and Screen Pixel Dimension Reference tutorial

1. Leader fallback scenes should not be set as UpdateDatabase. They should be set as Import=true and not have any action in the Actions list unlike "normal" XML and SQL files. See whoward69's what ModBuddy setting for what file types tutorial
2. This is attempting to tell the game the unit upgrades into itself

     <Unit_ClassUpgrades>
       <Row>
         <UnitType>UNIT_GI_DEATH_KORPS_GUARDSMAN</UnitType>
         <UnitClassType>UNITCLASS_INFANTRY</UnitClassType>
       </Row>
     </Unit_ClassUpgrades>

   You have defined the unit as belonging to UNITCLASS_INFANTRY here

   <Class>UNITCLASS_INFANTRY</Class>

   so it cannot upgrade to the same class of unit.
   
   This will not cause the game to not implement the unit as a unique unit, but is still incorrect.
3. You have defined the unique unit as belonging to the Infantry class of units, but that is not what you have stated here in your civilization xml-file:

     <Civilization_UnitClassOverrides>
       <Row>
         <CivilizationType>CIVILIZATION_GI_KRIEG</CivilizationType>
         <UnitClassType>UNITCLASS_SPEARMAN</UnitClassType>
         <UnitType>UNIT_GI_DEATH_KORPS_GUARDSMAN</UnitType>
       </Row>
     </Civilization_UnitClassOverrides>

4. You have a similar error with your building in that your building xml has

   <BuildingClass>BUILDINGCLASS_FORGE</BuildingClass>

   but your civilization xml file has

     <Civilization_BuildingClassOverrides>
       <Row>
         <CivilizationType>CIVILIZATION_GI_KRIEG</CivilizationType>
         <BuildingClassType>BUILDINGCLASS_OPERA_HOUSE</BuildingClassType>
         <BuildingType>BUILDING_GI_VITAE_WOMB</BuildingType>
       </Row>
     </Civilization_BuildingClassOverrides>

5. FYI "<CultureFromKills>" in table <Traits> is a percentage value of the defeated unit's combat strength rather than a direct number of culture points to add. Hence Monty's setting of

   <CultureFromKills>100</CultureFromKills>

 

[gi5epi 579]

Thanks for your help! I made the changes that you suggested and I got the unit to work and removed it upgrading to itself, but the unit flag is not working so I assume I defined it wrong or it's the wrong size. I think I also correctly made the changes to the building like you suggested, but I still can't get my forge replacement to work. Maybe I missed something, I can be dumb sometimes The map in the selection screen also works now as well, but I still can't get the DOM screen to load, it was the right size and everything when I checked it, so I don't know why it won't load still. Thanks again for your help This should be the latest build.

 

[LeeS]

Your building is not working because you are defining it as BUILDINGCLASS_FORGE but then you are telling the game the city needs a Building already present from BUILDINGCLASS_FORGE in order to construct the building

<Building_ClassesNeededInCity>
    <Row>
      <BuildingType>BUILDING_GI_VITAE_WOMB</BuildingType>
      <BuildingClassType>BUILDINGCLASS_FORGE</BuildingClassType>
    </Row>
</Building_ClassesNeededInCity>

So you can never meet the requirement since the required building you are specifying is the same as the one you want to be able to build.

As for the artwork, if the pixel dimensions are correct then you probably did *not* convert the file properly when you converted to dds format. You might have a setting wrong, for example. But I'm not enough of an expert on making art files to be able to give more help on what to look at than that.

[edited to add the *not* that I omitted]

 

[Artisanix]

but I still can't get the DOM screen to load, it was the right size and everything when I checked it, so I don't know why it won't load still.

That's because in Buildings.xml file for BUILDING_GI_VITAE_WOMB you have no splash image set - WonderSplashImage tag is empty, and you need to put dds file name there.

As for the rest of the art in your mod, well, the compression and sizes for images you use, make your mod very large in relation to content it offers. Just for the comparison, one of my mods that contains 256 world wonders (icons and splashes) is smaller in size that your mod here, which adds only one splash, 5 icons, and small map.

1) The original splashes have sizes as 972x568 or 972x448 (the former has bottom hidden by info, and latter has all of the image displayed - I recommend 972x448 because of this. And it can be saved as DXT1).

2) You use one icon in 8x8 grid, which increases its size by nearly 64 times. Put all your icons into one atlas, save as DXT5 and play with indexes later.

 

[LeeS]

That's because in Buildings.xml file for BUILDING_GI_VITAE_WOMB you have no splash image set - WonderSplashImage tag is empty, and you need to put dds file name there.

Not true. He is defining the building as a unique replacement for the Forge Class of buildings, therefore the column can be omitted entirely or left content-less. Only World Wonders actually need anything specified, and National Wonders can be made to use splash screens when running William Howard's mod for that.

<Column name="WonderSplashImage" type="text" default="NULL"/>

 

[Artisanix]

LeeS, I disagree
My answer is true for gi5epi 579's question, though with the case you presented it is partial.

gi5epi 579's asked why DOM screen isn't loaded by the game, and DOM_Venner.dds file is a splash screen in this mod, and the mod adds only one building.

If gi5epi 579 wants to see that DOM splash screen in game, then no matter whether this building will be converted to world wonder, or whoward's mod will be used to extend that functionality - this tag can't be empty. As both, vanilla game, and whoward's mod reference that column for image to be shown as splash screen.

Though based on the fact that this mod looks like the one that adds civilization to the game, then usually in such a mod no world or national wonders are provided, but the stuff related to that civ only. So the answer to gi5epi 579's question should be rather that the mod has no content for which splash screen will work, so that DOM file can be simply removed from it.

 

[Ryika]

DOM stands for "Dawn of Man", the image that appears during the Loading Screen. It has nothing to do with a Wonder Splash Image.

The actual reason for why it doesn't work seems to be that it's an unsupported DDS format. Windows Texture Viewer says it's 24bit- R8 G8 B8 (whatever that means), I resaved it as DXT3 ARGB 8 bpp | explicit alpha (that's how it's called in Photoshop, no idea what's the equilavant in Gimp) and now it loads fine.

It's missing the Alpha-Layer to create the round corners of the original DOMs though.

 

[Artisanix]

Well, I stand corrected with the interpretation then. Thanks Ryika for explanation. Was not familiar with DOM concept before.

Anyway, I optimized all the graphic:
- cropped all icons to just one tile
- added alpha with round corners to DOM
- fixed MapKrieg512 file (not correct dimensions before), and added alpha with round corners to it
- re-saved everything as DXT5 or ARGB8888

Now the files should look correct in game. After changes, the size of art files on disk is around 1.3 MB, without optimization that's 90.2 MB.