BUG/BAT + Other Mods

[Eunomiac]

What is the easiest way to use the BUG/BAT Mod with other mods?

I enjoy playing with the added technologies and units included in the NextWar Mod, but can't figure out an easy way to merge it with BUG/BAT. So far, I've had to manually merge the NextWar XML files with the BAT XML files, then put the merged XML files into a new mod folder in C:\Program Files\Civilization IV\Beyond the Sword\Mods\. This is a tedious task, and it's one that has to be repeated every time I want to update my BAT/BUG installation to the newest version.

I'm not to clear on how the various Mods folders work (Program Files vs. My Documents), not to mention CustomAssets. Is there an easier way to merge mods like this by making better use of these folder hierarchies?

 

[NikNaks]

I'd recommend waiting until EF has finished his current project. It should make it easier to integrate with other mods.

 

[ripple01]

Any rough ETA on that, EF? (or anyone else in the loop)

Cheers,
ripple01

 

[EmperorFool]

I'm hoping within the next week, but it will more likely be two weeks because I'm taking a few days vacation next week. And that's just to get this into SVN. I won't be rushing a 3.1 release as this will be a pretty major update and I want lots of testing.

So I'm shooting for 3.1 in three weeks. All rough estimates. Things are progressing very well. I'd say the core work is about 90% complete. I'm currently porting all the mods that BUG includes to use this new core.

As for merging in XML-only mods, I would think that you could convert them to be modular (search for modular XML loading on the forums) and merge them into BAT in a straight-forward manner. The best part is that if only BAT changes, remerging into the new BAT will be a simple matter of copying your modular files into the new BAT folder.

Merging Python mods will always be hit or miss. The work I am doing for the BUG core will make it so that mods won't have to modify the central event manager (previous CvCustomEventManager) to add events. It will also be a lot easier for end-users and mod-makers alike to create their own INI files and options (all in XML) and even Options Screen tabs (eventually in XML).

A big part of this is going to be writing up a good tutorial for mod-makers. Anyone that has a Python-based mod they've made (or a dedicated user that wants to port one to BUG), feel free to PM me to get some advanced details.