Civilization V DLL Source Code coming with Fall Patch

[Putmalk]

And it also won't change the fact that civ5 modding is not optimal to total conversion mods either. In civ4, you just created files with your stuff and didn't have any of the base civ stuff in them. In civ5, you have to explicitly delete everything not part of your mod, each item at a time.

Is it not possible to replace existing files with VFS?

 

[Gedemon]

That's not a big problem, you can mass delete in civ5 with a few SQL lines.

Database with SQL, Firetuner, Lua are making the difference for me, I don't like the base game as I liked civ4, but the modding aspect, in my opinion, is better than civ4, if we put aside the DLL source of course.

If civ5's DLL covers the same range as civ4, the only advantages left for it will be the better understanding and use of the 3D graphic models (but progress are made here), and the fact that most civfanatics modders prefer civ4 as a game and don't want to bother with civ5.

But give it time, and you'll see huge total conversions.

 

[Putmalk]

I mean, I'd like to be a team member of a total conversion but that's a lil ways down the road for me...lol....

 

[The_J]

Do you really need another one ^^ ?
(means you'd rather need team members yourself, wouldn't you?)

 

[Putmalk]

Do you really need another one ^^ ?
(means you'd rather need team members yourself, wouldn't you?)

I work solo, brah. The only team members I need are the icon artists that can make gorgeous 2D icon artwork.

No, I'd much rather work as a team member, not as a lead project manager, on a total conversion mod, with a specific task. I have to get practice working in a team, game designers seldom work alone. It would be an interesting challenge for me, and the next step for me.

And you can never have enough total conversions. To be fair though, most of my mods (Ancient World I, and Sengoku Jidai) were fairly simple. Sengoku Jidai is far more complex though because I cleaned up my code and learned LUA, allowing me to modify and activate events on the map to make it really nice.

 

[Androrc the Orc]

I work solo, brah. The only team members I need are the icon artists that can make gorgeous 2D icon artwork.

No, I'd much rather work as a team member, not as a lead project manager, on a total conversion mod, with a specific task. I have to get practice working in a team, game designers seldom work alone. It would be an interesting challenge for me, and the next step for me.

And you can never have enough total conversions. To be fair though, most of my mods (Ancient World I, and Sengoku Jidai) were fairly simple. Sengoku Jidai is far more complex though because I cleaned up my code and learned LUA, allowing me to modify and activate events on the map to make it really nice.

Maybe, but I think one of the beauty of modding is that you can make your mod without a team, by putting together the artwork and etc. that others have done, adding to it your own extensive work. That is one reason why I'm so enthusiastic for modular mods (or mod components) - they allow modders to more or less easily incorporate new features which others have created into their own mods.

 

[Putmalk]

Maybe, but I think one of the beauty of modding is that you can make your mod without a team, by putting together the artwork and etc. that others have done, adding to it your own extensive work. That is one reason why I'm so enthusiastic for modular mods (or mod components) - they allow modders to more or less easily incorporate new features which others have created into their own mods.

Idk, I mod for experience in game developing...I prefer to make things with a team...a team that knows what they're doing.

 

[Androrc the Orc]

Idk, I mod for experience in game developing...I prefer to make things with a team...a team that knows what they're doing.

Have you considered the CCTP team? They are quite good.

 

[primordial stew]

Maybe, but I think one of the beauty of modding is that you can make your mod without a team, by putting together the artwork and etc. that others have done, adding to it your own extensive work. That is one reason why I'm so enthusiastic for modular mods (or mod components) - they allow modders to more or less easily incorporate new features which others have created into their own mods.

Yes, it just sometimes takes too long! I've been working on 3 mods, but have yet to release any of them With a team it's easier to keep things moving along since the dependencies are known, and the work can be divided. For example the testing. I've launched Operation Barbarossa maybe 40 times already, and there will be more!

 

[chrome-rome]

Have you considered the CCTP team? They are quite good.

I approve this message ! You beat me to it Androrc

Seriously, if you are interested, we would love to have your skills. Shoot me, FiresForever, and/or Horem a PM if you are interested

 

[Jabberwockxeno]

@2k Greg
Thank you for coming by and spreading the news.
No need to say it is a very exciting announcement.


In essence, yes, it will allow mods to perform deeper modifications, such as the one related to gameplay and AI. Actually it gives mods the ability to rewrite a part of the civ5 engine (half of it roughly, and the most interesting half from a modder's pov, the other one being the rendering engine and such).

Now there is a big catch: this is not modular, so if two mods each bundle their modified version of the dll, you can only use one of them (although you can have both installed). Also, those mods will likely not be available from the Steam workshop since they escape the little sandbox we used to be confined in.

For those reasons and for the example, while IGE could benefit of it to fix a couple of bugs and allow more features, I may not use this freedom so that you can still use it with other mods that really need that power. Or maybe I will submit a patch that dll creators may or may not apply to their own versions and let IGE detect whether the dll includes my patch or not, so that IGE can take advantage of my modifications when available.

But mod creators could co-collaborate to ensure two mods that use a modified .dll can work together, right?

Also, will this help extracting assests in any way?

 

[Acoustic]

When exactly is the fall patch suppose to drop?

 

[crawf0rd]

I approve this message ! You beat me to it Androrc

Seriously, if you are interested, we would love to have your skills. Shoot me, FiresForever, and/or Horem a PM if you are interested

I would offer my services, but I wouldn't be adding anything to the team that you don't already have!

 

[3335d]

I would offer my services, but I wouldn't be adding anything to the team that you don't already have!

You most certainly would. You would be able to implement a host of features that we want in the mod following DLL release.

 

[trystero49]

When exactly is the fall patch suppose to drop?

ETA is no more explicit than "fall".

 

[3335d]

Some quick questions:

1. Would it be possible with the DLL to make a spherical globe, even if it means reinventing the wheel?
2. Would the creation of different worlds be possible with the DLL?

I only ask these questions because entirely new concepts have been brought with the DLL in previous total conversions like FfH and RfC.

 

[trystero49]

Would it be possible with the DLL to make a spherical globe, even if it means reinventing the wheel?

It is not possible to make a sphere with hexagons: you need to use at least a few pentagons. To add pentagon tiles, you will likely need to change the game engine, and you'll need the .exe at the very least. Just look at a soccer ball: hexes + a few pentagons.

Other than that witchcraft, you have to remember that civ maps right now are basically rectangles: every row of hexes has the same amount as the other rows. You'll have to make maps that have decreased numbers of hexes at the poles (to simulate a spherical map), but that will probably cause all kinds of weirdness from the game camera. Not to mention, you'll probably have to add some code so that the AI weighs expansion in these areas differently, since their geometry in relation to the rest of the map is decidedly different.

If you want to simulate crossing the arctic, you are probably better off using lua to remove units and then make them appear on "the other side" of the arctic a couple of turns later.

Basically, no technological advance will help in making a spherical globe using tessellated regular polygons because it is math that is screwing us on this one: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Platonic_solid. The closest thing we'll ever get to a spherical civ map is the icosahedron: and a 20 tile map couldn't possibly be very interesting.

 

[Androrc the Orc]

2. Would the creation of different worlds be possible with the DLL?

You mean having multiple maps? Perhaps... it was eventually found out to be possible in Civ4, and such a thing was released a few months ago.

 

[ThisNameIsTooLo]

Will it be possible to replace Civ V game mechanics with those of Civ IV? Things like the old trade route system, adjusting tax rates, and so on? I'd like to play a game like Civ IV, with 1 UPT and a hex grid (the latter which can't be done in Civ IV).

 

[trystero49]

Will it be possible to replace Civ V game mechanics with those of Civ IV? Things like the old trade route system, adjusting tax rates, and so on? I'd like to play a game like Civ IV, with 1 UPT and a hex grid (the latter which can't be done in Civ IV).

It may be possible, but it will require massive amounts of coding. It won't be as easy as copy-pasting from the Civ IV DLL into the Civ V DLL, because the game engine is different. You'll have to write many, many lines of code as work-arounds for lots of these mechanics, and then you'll also have to write code that makes the AI work properly with the new changes.