Fall from Heaven Phase 2 release list

[Kael]

If you gave a little flavor, i'll go crazy and get lots of ideas out about it.

Id rather have your creativity on the things we need for Light. Let me bump some theads where I see design gaps and get your feedback.

 

[talchas]

What XML file are you refering to?

Whoops, I meant xls.

 

[Kael]

Whoops, I meant xls.

Ahh, cool thanks. Its a lot of work on the front end but once its in a spreadsheet it is so easy to make changes and check information. This mod will be so big that I needed a tool to manage the data that was a little more efficient than notepad.

 

[loki1232]

Id rather have your creativity on the things we need for Light. Let me bump some theads where I see design gaps and get your feedback.

Yeah that is best.

Just so you know we've posted a bunch of spells in that thread recently, but haven't gotten any feedback. Just wodnering.

 

[talchas]

Inspired by Kael's example and with the basic idea for a general format taken from the homeworld 2 xls files, I made an xls file for spells. Note that it does play nice with having multiple xml producers in one xls, just make sure you right click the sheet and choose "move or copy", don't just copy the cells because I don't think that will work right. If you are tired of seeing column D and don't like it taking up screen space, just shrink it to size 0. Thats what I do when I'm not editing the makeup of the xls.

The file: http://members.aol.com/ben77/Spells.xls

The idea is that the basic macro used for this will work for any civ4 xml file. Column D lists what each row is - Literal is just a literal string that outputs a line containing whatever is in column E, LiteralBegin and LiteralEnd are like Literal but only at the beginning or end of the xml file, Tag inserts an xml tag like this "<Column E's data>Current Item's data for this column</Column E's data>", Map takes 3 parts separated by "/"s in column E: "Outermost tag/Tag around each group of elements/number of elements in a group", SubMap is a subitem in a Map that outputs like Tag except it sticks an extra tag around each however many items, and EndMap just inserts the closing tag for a Map. Any row where Column D is blank or something else is skipped. Columns A-C are for descriptions.

This xls makes use of lots of named ranges so that it can find the beginning and ends of the rows and columns that are being used, so use the "add row" and "add spell" buttons (or select those rows and columns and insert a new row/col) if you want to use this for your own stuff.

Whew, long post.

 

[Kael]

Inspired by Kael's example and with the basic idea for a general format taken from the homeworld 2 xls files, I made an xls file for spells. Note that it does play nice with having multiple xml producers in one xls, just make sure you right click the sheet and choose "move or copy", don't just copy the cells because I don't think that will work right. If you are tired of seeing column D and don't like it taking up screen space, just shrink it to size 0. Thats what I do when I'm not editing the makeup of the xls.

The file: http://members.aol.com/ben77/Spells.xls

The idea is that the basic macro used for this will work for any civ4 xml file. Column D lists what each row is - Literal is just a literal string that outputs a line containing whatever is in column E, LiteralBegin and LiteralEnd are like Literal but only at the beginning or end of the xml file, Tag inserts an xml tag like this "<Column E's data>Current Item's data for this column</Column E's data>", Map takes 3 parts separated by "/"s in column E: "Outermost tag/Tag around each group of elements/number of elements in a group", SubMap is a subitem in a Map that outputs like Tag except it sticks an extra tag around each however many items, and EndMap just inserts the closing tag for a Map. Any row where Column D is blank or something else is skipped. Columns A-C are for descriptions.

This xls makes use of lots of named ranges so that it can find the beginning and ends of the rows and columns that are being used, so use the "add row" and "add spell" buttons (or select those rows and columns and insert a new row/col) if you want to use this for your own stuff.

Whew, long post.

Thats cool, I was wondering if it was possible to make buttons instead of requireing the person to run macros from the menu.

And I had also wanted to make a tag identified version of the macro so I could allow people to add a remove attributes dynamically without having to go in and adjust the code (or renumber the lines) and it looks like you solved that problem too. Very nice work!

 

[talchas]

I've updated the xls with the current ffh spells and an importer so that you don't have to do it all by hand. The importer relies on you having put the correct setup of tags in the xls file, but it sticks all of the data in.

 

[talchas]

And I've now uploaded a version that has both spells and promotions to http://members.aol.com/ben77/FFH-talchas.xls. I will probably remove the spell section and upload this and a unit one to the general civ modding forum.

 

[Kael]

And I've now uploaded a version that has both spells and promotions to http://members.aol.com/ben77/FFH-talchas.xls. I will probably remove the spell section and upload this and a unit one to the general civ modding forum.

I have already added a version with the promotions as well, and added all the spells in. I attached my latest version. I hate to see us both working on the same thing (although your version is definitly more flexible than mine).

If you do upload it you may want to change the edited by line in the starting text for each file as follows:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
[b]<!-- Created with the FfH Editor by Talchas -->[/b]
<!-- Sid Meier's Civilization 4 -->
<!-- Copyright Firaxis Games 2005 -->
<!-- -->
<!-- Promotion Infos -->
<Civ4PromotionInfos xmlns="x-schema:CIV4UnitSchema.xml">
    <PromotionInfos>

Just to identify if your tool was used to create the file and you deserve the stamp for making the utility instead of leaving the reference to XML Spy. Of course you can change the 'FfH editor' part to whatever name you prefer.

 

[Kael]

I got an overflow error trying to import my promotions file. I attached the promotions file if you want to try it out.

 

[talchas]

I've uploaded a version which works. The problems were just problems with the info the xls had about the promotion xml.

 

[talchas]

And now I've uploaded a version with unit info and with groups to easily hide/show various sections. I'll make a version for regular Civ4, release that and go back to working on the spell system.

 

[Kael]

And now I've uploaded a version with unit info and with groups to easily hide/show various sections. I'll make a version for regular Civ4, release that and go back to working on the spell system.

The spell page doesnt work if there are more than 17 spells in the spell file. It doesnt appear to be spell specific (if I delete 3 spells from the begning I it displays 3 more spells, but always only 17). If there are 17 or less spells is works.

It does some odd things with the column order too, its set for 3 colums but only displays 2. If I change it to 2 columns it only shows 1. Its probably related to the first issue but I thought I would mention it in case it helped you hone in on it.

I attached a copy of the spell infos so you won't have to stuff one yourself.

 

[talchas]

Thats odd, it works for me just fine. What version of excel are you running? About the column order, what do you mean? Can you post a screenshot.

 

[Kael]

Thats odd, it works for me just fine. What version of excel are you running? About the column order, what do you mean? Can you post a screenshot.

Sorry I should have been clearer. I mean the spell pedia page (I just realized everything I said could also be applicable to the spell worksheet, and since I was replying to a post talking about the spreadsheets it was very unclear).

 

[talchas]

Ah, that makes more sense. When I get back to a machine w/Civ4, I'll take a look.

 

[Kael]

Ah, that makes more sense. When I get back to a machine w/Civ4, I'll take a look.

An odd issue. The close button no longer works on most of the windows. Pressing escape lets me close them.

It doesn't work if I use the DLL I compiled with your latest changes or the DLL you compiled in the FFHSpells files. It works fine if I switch back to an earlier version of CvCoreGameDLL.dll. You updated twice between the 2 versions I built, once to add the greying out spell buttons and again to add the spell pedia. Im not sure which update introduced the issue.

 

[talchas]

yeah, I just noticed that. I bet its because I moved around some enum numbers that either the python has hardcoded or the exe uses and inlines. If needed I'll just add the stuff to the end. Also, I've posted a new version of the xls file (promotions had an extra Help field).

 

[talchas]

Sorry I should have been clearer. I mean the spell pedia page (I just realized everything I said could also be applicable to the spell worksheet, and since I was replying to a post talking about the spreadsheets it was very unclear).

Weird, its working for me just fine, see the screenshot below.

 

[Kael]

Weird, its working for me just fine, see the screenshot below.

Did you try the spell file I linked?