Dungeon Adventure MOD MOD

[xienwolf]

Well, I just popped those 3 files into a folder called Chest and loaded it into my Assets/Art folder, worked fine.

I am guessing you already have some items added to your Art folder, as I do not have any Structures folder in there, let alone another inside of that. So at least that eliminates some possibilities.

My best guess: There is a limit to how deeply you can Nest a folder. Thus if you moved it back 1 or 2 folders total you should possibly be fine.

Best workaround I can think of: Quit putting things where the computer has any possible pre-conceptions If you toss things into Assets/Modules then there is guaranteed no limit to your nesting allowance, and the computer doesn't expect any specific structure. Once you have it working, then you can shuffle it into a more "normal" location and at least know that it isn't the files themselves which are the problem, but something in the core program and structure.

EDIT: Just tried it with the exact file structure which you defined yourself as using, and it worked fine. So I got no clue.

 

[mtagge]

Anyhow, I think I have a good start, but could use help and suggestions. I would be thrilled to collaborate with Kael and the FfH2 team, but don't know if they would be interested in working on yet another project.

But I'm happy to share my work, and would really appreciate any feedback. (Disclaimer: This is the first time I've done any work in XML or Python, so my approach to programming is: Bang on it until it works. The results are functional, but by no means elegant!)

Thanks!

That sounds a bit much like my style of programming. I am starting to feel comfortable around python and wouldn't mind pitching in with trying to get some functions up and running. I won't be able to download anything from the Internet until I change duty stations to Germany this summer, but I don't mind passing around code, reviewing your work, or helping codesmith a little. Feel free to include the mod comp I am working on now http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?p=6613194 as in your mod I don't think the added CPU time will be a factor with an adventure style of play. And if you want me to modify it in any way, just let me know. It is always easier to modify your own code then someone elses.

Cheers

 

[woodelf]

I blame Vista. Sometimes I can mod in it and other times it simply won't let me mod my own computer/files.

 

[Marksman77]

Kinda funny that the sophisticated CivIV engine is plugged to recreate the old ASCII game
Keep the good job, I can't wait for the result I loved rogue, dungeon crawl etc.!

 

[Psychic_Llamas]

great work here! i was wondering how long it would take before somone decided to do this . just a couple of question: how do cities work? do you build buildings and stuff as usual or do they act differently? can you get lots of adventurers or only a limited number? can you build other units? are there different kinds of adventurere (ie sorcerer, wizard, rogue, paladin etc) or must you upgrade them to FfH flavoured units like normal grigory adventurers?

again, great job with this, i will definately be keeping an eye on it

 

[Kael]

Okay. So I have Kael's lovely Treasure Chest, which I have looked at and admired in SceneViewer, but I cant seem to introduce it into my mod correctly.

The approach I took was to first unzip the files, which produced the "treasure chest" folder with the chest NIF and DDS file, plus the boundshape.nif.

I copied the whole folder into the asets/art/structures/improvements folder. Having made only that change, I tried to load the mod. No go. It looks like it starts to access XML, but crashed to the Vista "this program has stopped working" pop-up.

I tried removing the boundshapes.nif and tried to restart. No luck.

I then changed the XML code in the Civ4artdefines_improvement.xml file under the "goody hut" entry to change the path of the nif file to the one in my new "treasure chest" folder. The kfm line was changed to a blank entry. Still no load.

Why will the program crash if you simply add a folder and a few files into a sub-folder of "assets," even if nothing in the XML is trying to access that file yet?

This is the issue that I have been running into again and again. I sometimes eventually get my stuff to work, but honestly have not been able to figure out exactly what I did that actually fixed it.

Any suggestions?

Very odd. You should be able to put anything in that directory without an issue if it isnt referenced. All that Civ4 does is copy it into cache when it loads. If it is crashing during load I would have to guess one of the following:

1. The crash isnt related to the addition of the chest graphics. Removing them will still get the crash.

or

2. Your hard drive is dangerously low on space. When it goes to cache all the art files it is running out of room and crashing Civ4.

or

3. You don't have the vista permissions you require to make these changes. I noticed this on Woodelfs computer where I wasnt able to modify some files even though he seemed to be an admin on the machine. You'd have to talk to someone with more vista expereince to figure it out.

 

[Lutefisk Mafia]

After playing around with different things, I have isolated the problem.

It's Vista.

Gee, what a surprise.

To make a long story short, after struggling with this freakishly uncooperative OS, I finally solved the problem by by disabling UAC. Now I have no issues whatsoever when I add new folders and files.

Thanks for the suggestions, everyone, I should be able to pick up the pace now that I don't have to continually fight with an OS that behaves like a petulant 3-year-old.

I'm also going to look in the general mods forum and post a thread about this issue (if there isn't one already). I can't be the only one who faced this frustration.

 

[woodelf]

Congrats. Care to PM me and tell me what you mean by disabling the UAC? I'd love to as well.

 

[Lutefisk Mafia]

great work here! i was wondering how long it would take before somone decided to do this . just a couple of question: how do cities work? do you build buildings and stuff as usual or do they act differently? can you get lots of adventurers or only a limited number? can you build other units? are there different kinds of adventurere (ie sorcerer, wizard, rogue, paladin etc) or must you upgrade them to FfH flavoured units like normal grigory adventurers?

again, great job with this, i will definately be keeping an eye on it

The concepts are still fluid, but here are some of my current guiding ideas:

You start with a party of three Adventurers. The Adventurers can upgrade along a warrior, thief, or spell user path. Depending on your Civics, specialized options are available at hogher levels. For example, you can eventually upgrade a fighter type to a Paladin, but must have the civics "Lawful" and "Good" enabled. So at present, it is more like the Grigori Adventurer upgrades. But you can choose to have a party of all magic users, or one of each type, or whatever mix you choose.

I'm thinking that the civics will be alignment choices(Lawful-Neutral-Chaotic and Good-Neutral-Evil), quest focus (Wealth-Knowledge-Power), and maybe a party specialty (Militarism-Intellectualism-Spiritualism). As noted, certain unit upgrades will be available to only certain civics.

You have only one "city," which is your campsite. This is a place to park stuff, and upgrade your units. The options build will be limited to "buildings that enable new upgrades and a very select few units. The "population" units will represent one henchman who hangs out at your camp. Depending on what goodies you find in the dungeon and drop within the fat cross of the camp, your henchmen can "work" these assets to increase money knowledge or production of the campsite. Increasing the food available at the campsite will allow a greater number of henchmen to inhabit the campsite.

You start with the three Adventurers. Depending on your campsite features, you will summon additional Adventurers to your campsite at a certain rate (these are your Great People). It may also be possible to occasionally attract a Learned Sage or other Great Person to your side.

Presently, and for the forseeable future, each adventure map would be a one-off scenario. These woul dbe super easy to make in WB, however, so I can envision people in the fan community making dungeons and swapping them around. It would be really neat if someone could code a good map generating script to provide random adventures, but that is probably a ways off.

 

[Lutefisk Mafia]

Congrats. Care to PM me and tell me what you mean by disabling the UAC? I'd love to as well.

I'll post it here so everyone can see, too.

Follow this link, which has easy to follow instructions:

http://blogs.msdn.com/tims/archive/2006/09/20/763275.aspx

Alternatively, just Google "disable UAC Vista" and you will find many other links with information on various ways to do this.

UAC is User Account Control, which is how Vista determines who is allowed to access or alter certain files. Thing is, though, unless you are logged in as an Admin, Vista assumes that you do not have common permissions to do stuff like this. It is sort of like forcing your self-contained PC to be treated like a large corporate network in which the default is that you can't mess around with files. Kinda dumb if you are the only person who uses your computer.

Let me know if this works for you, too.

 

[Kael]

I'll post it here so everyone can see, too.

Follow this link, which has easy to follow instructions:

http://blogs.msdn.com/tims/archive/2006/09/20/763275.aspx

Alternatively, just Google "disable UAC Vista" and you will find many other links with information on various ways to do this.

UAC is User Account Control, which is how Vista determines who is allowed to access or alter certain files. Thing is, though, unless you are logged in as an Admin, Vista assumes that you do not have common permissions to do stuff like this. It is sort of like forcing your self-contained PC to be treated like a large corporate network in which the default is that you can't mess around with files. Kinda dumb if you are the only person who uses your computer.

Let me know if this works for you, too.

Great find, Im gald you posted about it. I often get weird permission issues reported by Vista issues and I think this will help with a ton of them.

 

[Vehem]

UAC is User Account Control, which is how Vista determines who is allowed to access or alter certain files. Thing is, though, unless you are logged in as an Admin, Vista assumes that you do not have common permissions to do stuff like this. It is sort of like forcing your self-contained PC to be treated like a large corporate network in which the default is that you can't mess around with files. Kinda dumb if you are the only person who uses your computer.

Let me know if this works for you, too.

I'd love to show this to my flatmate - he's a Linux fan-boy and a big exponent of Account Control and permissions. We quite often debate whether or not they serve the user in any way on a single user system, but we've never quite managed to convince each other one way or the other.

The one thing we can agree on though is that Vista does it extremely badly and given that you've posted an option to disable it has made me dread the day I have to abandon XP a little less (mind you, I still estimate that to be several years away). Thanks.

 

[woodelf]

Thanks Lutefisk. Sorry for the hijacking.

 

[Lutefisk Mafia]

I'd love to show this to my flatmate - he's a Linux fan-boy and a big exponent of Account Control and permissions. We quite often debate whether or not they serve the user in any way on a single user system, but we've never quite managed to convince each other one way or the other.

Well, it is a good idea to get a warning if a program is trying to perform admin level functions that you may not have intended to be initiated. The way I look at it though, is that I have a single user PC. So if something is happening, it is because I started the program or it is an automated function of a program that I have vetted and installed myself.

I have good anti-virus, anti-spyware, and anti-rootkit programs installed. They take care of the nasties. I don't need UAC, and it just gets in the way of activities like modding.

@woodelf: No worries! The way I see it, this is definitely related to my mod, because I couldn't mod until it got fixed! Besides, if anyone hijacked the thread it was me!

 

[Kael]

I'd love to show this to my flatmate - he's a Linux fan-boy and a big exponent of Account Control and permissions. We quite often debate whether or not they serve the user in any way on a single user system, but we've never quite managed to convince each other one way or the other.

Well, it is a good idea to get a warning if a program is trying to perform admin level functions that you may not have intended to be initiated. The way I look at it though, is that I have a single user PC. So if something is happening, it is because I started the program or it is an automated function of a program that I have vetted and installed myself.

I have good anti-virus, anti-spyware, and anti-rootkit programs installed. They take care of the nasties. I don't need UAC, and it just gets in the way of activities like modding.

@woodelf: No worries! The way I see it, this is definitely related to my mod, because I couldn't mod until it got fixed! Besides, if anyone hijacked the thread it was me!

I agree. Id also recommend AppArmor for Linux which does exactly what you suggest, locking down the rights of applications to keep them under control, not the users. That way aplications can be set to only be able to write to specific directories, etc.

 

[Lutefisk Mafia]

And here it is. After fixing Vista, it took me all of 30 seconds to plop the files in a new directory, repath the artdefines file, set the scale -- and here we go:

This is currently functioning as the default goody hut. Later, I will tweak the functions of the goody hut so that treasure chests yield a random amount of gold, equipment, or even a trap.

Thanks, everyone!

 

[Rex rgis of Ter]

It's amazing! I can't wait until it's released!

What are you planning on the Victory Conditions being? Great Job!

 

[Broken Hawk]

Wow! A new of achievement.

 

[xienwolf]

I've got to find some of the button files which I had downloaded and hook you up. But in case I forget to do so, check the Graphic Modpack area, I am reasonably certain most of them came through there. Tons of really nice, ready to use, buttons out there


For this mod-mod more than any other, changing how the Goody Huts work is vital, can't wait to see how you re-write it

 

[zxcvbnm]

I had some ideas about a mod much like this, I just don't remember where I put them...

Anyway, looks great and I really like Roguelikes.