Dear 2k/Firaxis

[Justin 12345]

In civ5 what will be use for modding ( i know lua will be), but what esle? Xml still? Sdk? Dds? Nif? Kf? Kfm? Blender? Also will pakbuild be used? Will you update it to the public to work with civ5??
Thanks in advance for any of these questions you can answer.

 

[mechaerik]

XML and C++ ( SDK is just what most people call the source code and is written in C++) are in IIRC.

I dont think theyre using the gamebryo engine, so no Nif files. Its possible that Blender could still be usable though.

 

[Justin 12345]

IIRC? Oh boy is that anither progran to learn/download? Grr stupid deveolpers always changing everything it was all working fine.

 

[mechaerik]

IIRC stands for If I Recall Correctly.

 

[Justin 12345]

Oh hah. Fail. Sorry lol. And is lua like python

 

[AriochIV]

Lua is a scripting language similar to Python, yes.

 

[Justin 12345]

Okay thanks everyone, got most of my ?s answered. Ill just have to wait and
see for
the rest

 

[civ_king]

Lua is a scripting language similar to Python, yes.

And much much faster

 

[Shurdus]

A question... DId you guys learn how to code while working on mods, or did you guys get schooled in it?

I ask because I am interested in modding or helping others mod, but I am a noob when it comes to math and such. Math in highschool was a cakewalk, never studied for it and got good grades, but when I was studying physics... Man I sucked.

So I can safely say I am not good at the hardcore math. Now I work in law so I did not use math skills for many years. Will coding be something I can pick up along the way, or is it something that requires at least some courses in programming?

 

[paradigmx]

http://www.lua.org/pil/ Basic Introduction to Lua
http://www.gamedev.net/reference/articles/article1932.asp Bit of a more detailed primer on Lua
http://www.eclipse.org/ General purpose Programming IDE
http://luaeclipse.luaforge.net/ Lua Plugin for the above IDE

 

[Shurdus]

Thanks, I am sure that will come in handy sometime.

 

[The_J]

...er...mmhh...i'll maybe merge both threads later.

A question... DId you guys learn how to code while working on mods, or did you guys get schooled in it?

I ask because I am interested in modding or helping others mod, but I am a noob when it comes to math and such. Math in highschool was a cakewalk, never studied for it and got good grades, but when I was studying physics... Man I sucked.

So I can safely say I am not good at the hardcore math. Now I work in law so I did not use math skills for many years. Will coding be something I can pick up along the way, or is it something that requires at least some courses in programming?

I guess 75% of the more active Civ4 coders are als coders in RL, but there are also people around, who have learning coding only via civ.
It's just easier when you already know the stuff, but it's not rocket science, and most of the easier stuff didn't really need mathematics.
Some of the things i've coded only have 2 or 3 additional lines, that's not difficult.

 

[killmeplease]

i'd say you should not know math beyond + - * / to do modding
what you need is logical thinking and attentiveness

 

[Dale]

Maths is the language of the universe. Knowing how to form mathematic functions definitely helps programming, but it's not a pre-requisite.

 

[mechaerik]

A question... DId you guys learn how to code while working on mods, or did you guys get schooled in it?

I ask because I am interested in modding or helping others mod, but I am a noob when it comes to math and such. Math in highschool was a cakewalk, never studied for it and got good grades, but when I was studying physics... Man I sucked.

So I can safely say I am not good at the hardcore math. Now I work in law so I did not use math skills for many years. Will coding be something I can pick up along the way, or is it something that requires at least some courses in programming?

I sort of leaned alongside the modding. The community here is great and always willing to help. The_J in particular is really helpful whenever my general idiocy rears its ugly head.

Me and my friend sort of worked out some other languages, and starting in Fall, i'm going to take some programming classes.

 

[EmperorFool]

I've started reading about Lua to get a head start, and it's so close to Python that most people should be able to make the switch pretty quick. To help that process along I've started writing a "Python to Lua" tutorial. It won't teach you Lua from scratch, but it will quickly explain to the Python modder the key differences they will find. I'll post a link when I've fleshed it out just a little more.

If you're starting from scratch, I cannot recommend enough Python for Software Design: How to Think Like a Computer Scientist. It's a free online book that uses Python as the teaching language and covers everything you'll need without bogging you down in the overly technical issues.