Arda Mod Preview - last attempt to bring this Mod back up and running!

[NubianMercenary]

This a preview of the Arda Mod,

It was first sent to me by Sifaus - Nov 26, 2007. He told me not to give it out, but I believe this to be an exception.

Since it's starting to look like this Mod will fall into deep decline. This will be a final attempt to bring this Mod back into production.

Please, test this preview out. If you can help with many of the bugs/errors found, or just with the Mod in general - message Me, Elda King (http://forums.civfanatics.com/member.php?u=92655), thomas.berubeg (http://forums.civfanatics.com/member.php?u=98543) or Sifaus (http://forums.civfanatics.com/member.php?u=112112)

Or alternatively;

Add us on Msn -

Sifaus: siffer_y@hotmail.com

Elda King: joaofcv300391@hotmail.com

Link to Arda Mod Preview:
http://files.filefront.com/ArdaModPreviewrar/;9113937;/fileinfo.html

Hoping for the best -

NM.

 

[NubianMercenary]

Feed back most welcome -

 

[Sifaus]

This is very very old preview and it wasn't working that i last try, but i'll try now again, with my new computer.

If it going to work, i'll start to add civs one by one.

Edit; Thanks for reminding this

 

[xexoy2]

ill try this and post for the recommendations i have if i have any

Unfortunately it did not even load whatsoever. it had an error when it was loading the mod. It is for Civ4 Right?

 

[cfkane]

I'm getting an error message too.

 

[NubianMercenary]

Yeah,

Try just clicking all the errors - they go away eventually. I just held onto "Enter" and it went through all the errors and eventually the Mod loaded.

 

[cfkane]

No, I don't mean an XML error message. I mean a "this program has encountered a problem and needs to close" message. The kind you can't just click your way through.

 

[Imrahiel]

Hi, your mod is a great idea and i can offer you some modding help if you want i just can do xml changes and mapping, but i would you help so often i have time for it if you want. I also have found some new unit Graphics you could use.

 

[xexoy2]

Yeah it said the same error for me too it said it needed to close.

does it just do that for Vistas maybe?

 

[Sifaus]

No, my old computer was xp and new one is vista. Preview not working on both of them.

 

[xexoy2]

odd idk wat its here for then.

 

[Sengir]

I'll have a little look tonight and see if I can get it to load. I'd be willing to join the team in any case. I can edit xml files, python and possibly/probably C++, though C++ will be slow going as I'm not that comfortable with it, but if necessary it can be done.

Couple of questions:
- I've read that the plan is to use FFH2 > are you planning to take that as base or are you thinking about canabalising only the parts you need (don't know which option is most feasible, but I usually prefer the minimize the bloat if at all possible).
- How far are you with a feature list? Do you know what's going to be in and what not (could find such a list on the forum here). I find it works easiest to first make a list of ideas you want in, and then start looking how to implement these, as a lot of things will be intertwined.
- Who is currently working on the project (and how much time are people able to devote to this? I'd like to have some kind of indication about how much teamwork this will be, as I'm fairly capable of scripting and programming, but my Tolkien-memory has been fading for a while).
- Is there a project-page somewhere (sourceforge, launchpad, etc.) or is someone keeping all the files together? A project-page is a lot easier because you'll never have to wait for someone to reply and everybody can view and comment on the changes you've made.
- I thought I had another question but obviously I've forgotten it.

As for myself, I think I should be able to spent at least one night a week on this (programming/scripting that is, not including actually reading this forum). For the coming week I think I've already got myself a nice todo-list:
- Play some FFH2 games to familiarise myself with the gameplay elements that are going to be used/ripped.
- check out the preview
- see if it's possible to work on the sdk on my linux-box as I'd prefer not to do any programming on the laptop.... might just have to write the damn stuff on one comp and compile on the other.
- and I've forgotten something again... I think....

 

[Sengir]

I've taken a look at the preview and the problem lies with two files:
Assets/xml/Art/CIV4ArtDefines_Unit.xml
Assets/xml/Units/CIV4UnitInfos.xml

Taking these two files out will at least make you able to load the mod (after holding the enter key for about twenty seconds), but doesn't really solve anything, since there will be multiple paths to CTD when you have the mod loaded:
- Clicking on the other Dunlending leader (Saruman?) will crash the game immediately (if you use the play now option)
- Starting the game with another leader will lead to CTD upon initialising the game. If you are quick (or your comp slow) you can see some notification about problems with the leader before the CTD occurs

At the moment I'm quite convinced that this is not a good starting point and that the xml files should be done again. But first it would be nice to hear some ideas about what this mod should like in the end, because I've been unable to find anything resembling a featurelist in this forum.


Sengir


Oh, and I finally know what I've forgotten to add to my todo list:
- Reread the silmarillion

 

[thomas.berubeg]

So...

IIRC, the biggest problem we had with the old version (Vanilla) was mostly in the diplomacyinfo file, which is hell to go through...

I'de recommend, if your going with BTS, to completely restart, and only reuse the art assets.

-thomas

edit: unit art doesn't work? Hm...

 

[Sengir]

The art files are probably fine, but the xml file causes a CTD. I'm going to try and salvage what files I can from the preview, see whether I can recreate the corrupt ones and get a working preview up and running. At least that's the plan until someone comes up with a better idea. (I really need to refresh my memory on the First Age to be able to come up with ideas content-wise, so before I'm done rereading I'm going to restrict myself to scripting/programming)

 

[thomas.berubeg]

Are you planning on using BTS? If so, use FFH as a base, and trim away what you don't need, rather than trying to put random features in. It'll be easier that way.

 

[Sengir]

Yeah, I think that's the way to go, but I'll have to look at the code of both clean BtS and FFH before deciding on that. Would depend on the wanted features as well I suppose.

 

[Sengir]

So here's the complete list of problematic files, remove them if you want to load the preview, though it won't amount to much without them.

Assets/xml/Art/CIV4ArtDefines_Unit.xml
Assets/xml/Art/CIV4ArtDefines_Civilization.xml
Assets/xml/Civilizations/CIV4CivilizationInfos.xml
Assets/xml/Civilizations/CIV4CivilizationsSchema.xml
Assets/xml/Civilizations/CIV4LeaderHeadInfos.xml
Assets/xml/Civilizations/CIV4UnitArtStyleTypesInfos.xml
Assets/xml/Misc/CIV4RouteInfos.xml
Assets/xml/Units/CIV4UnitInfos.xml

Oh, and apparantly the interface won't work with the mod, but at least you can check the civilopedia (F12) and Tech tree (F6) to see what's changed.

 

[xmen510]

Perhaps you should start smaller if there is a lot of problems happening. Get a working BTS version going without the FFH base. Don't use the magic system, just civs and an Arda map. Put in some new or changed techs (not going beyond gunpowder, etc.) and unique civs, units etc.

After that has been mastered, then start trying to up the ante. Perhaps the aim is too high to begin with. This will also refresh the enthusiasm of the people waiting for this to come out.

Just a suggestion and not a criticism here. I hope you don't take this the wrong way. I am one of the ones really looking forward to this. Being able to play it with and without the FFH base is fine with me.

Unfortunately I have absoluting no Modding or programming experience, so I don't think I can help in that way. Info and Ideas are my main forte. I was involved near the beginning with suggestions and ideas if anyone remembers me. It has been a while as I was without computer access for quite some time. I am glad to be back however.

 

[Sengir]

Thanks a lot for your suggestion. I'm not going to take it the wrong way, as I've been thinking a long the same lines. So far I've come up with a couple of pros and cons regarding FFH as base.
Pro:
- has a lot of features on top of BtS that would work well with a mod for Middle Earth

Con:
- has features that won't be used and would probably need to be stripped, increasing bug chances
- I'm not familiar with it, so I would either have to play it first or be guessing how everything is supposed to work. The first would delay the starting of the project, the second again add to bugproblems.
- A lot of features that could be implemented via FFH won't be that hard to do by simply modding BtS
- Most features that would be added through FFH are/were in a maybe state.

As you can see, there are more cons than pros and I hadn't even thought about the fact that getting something released will increase the chance of getting more people to work on this.

So I'm going to bite the bullet here and go with BtS as base, not FFH, so that I can start working on it now (well, this evening really) as opposed to when I'm familiar with FFH. It will also hopefully be easier to attract new modders if they don't have to familiarize themselves with FFH before they can get started.

Unfortunately I have absoluting no Modding or programming experience, so I don't think I can help in that way. Info and Ideas are my main forte. I was involved near the beginning with suggestions and ideas if anyone remembers me. It has been a while as I was without computer access for quite some time. I am glad to be back however.

Well, if all else fails, I'd be able to change the xml/python/sdk all by myself, though it might take a while. But what would be necessary to bring this mod back to live, are ideas about what should be in and out, how things should be done, etc., because I can't think of everything myself. So your Info and Ideas would be more than welcome (your Info will probably be transformed into Civilopedia entries )

Tonight I'm going to make a list of things that I think should be done for the first release of this mod and try to make some headway with it, so that I can have a bit of a feel for the timeframe I'll be working with.