Favorite XML Tweaks

[xfactor99]

Desert Tiles
-Can be irrigated.

Tundra Tiles
-Can support any improvement that Plains can.

Dumb question, how can I do this? I don't see how to do this in the CIV4TerrainInfos.xml anywhere..

 

[Angst]

-25% cost for Jags when whipping.

Protective no longer double the production speed of Castles, but bunkers instead.

Imperialistic 2x Production Speed of Castle.

Airship loses 5% health per attack done.

 

[Kranden]

No Airships Aaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrgggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhh

 

[Jabarto]

Dumb question, how can I do this? I don't see how to do this in the CIV4TerrainInfos.xml anywhere..

Don't worry, it took me a while to figure it out, too.

You need to check the "Civ4ImprovementInfos.xml" in the same directory. Each improvement has a "<TerrainMakesValids>" field where you can add the terrain types you want to be able to support that particular improvement. So for the first example, I added a "Desert" entry to that field for the farm improvement.

Now, it's been a while since I did that change, but I definitely remember having to muck with a few other fields to make it work. I think I had to set the "<bRiverSideMakesValid>" and/or some other similar field to 0. You might have to experiment a bit.

Also, on a more topical note, I recently changed Darius from Fin/Org to Org/Pro because I thought he was too powerful before and because I really, really, really wanted an Org/Pro leader.

 

[ICNP]

Now what would happen if you allowed land units to walk on water? What would the animation vs ships look like?

 

[Firestorm94]

i change some of the terrain yields, mostly increasing production and commerce on rivers

 

[JohnnyBeGood]

I made a Marine that can walk on water. When he attacks a ship that is close to land, the ship actually comes onto the land for the battle. Very weird looking.

I also made a modern "Privateer" that is a submarine---works very well.

 

[phungus420]

Improvements:
-Workers are consumed with all but farms, mines, roads, and railroads like workboats. this makes it more of a guns vs butter decision "do I need more workers? should I build that improvement? I need to go raiding an AI....)

What file controls this? Is it improvmentsinfos.xml? And what tag is it?

 

[TheDS]

A Walls requirement for Great Wall sounds good to me too.

I also like the idea of Mobile SAM being a defend-only unit like the MG, and making it Siege means units with +vs Gunpowder don't get a bonus against it. That's the whole reason MGs are Siege, really. The downside is of course not being able to assign the anti-air promotions, but I'm pretty sure the MG has a workaround because there are things other Siege units can do that it can't. Heck, if you can make a "Defensive" category, they could both go in there.

As to not being able to build Missionaries after SM, I have two simple suggestions for you: 1. Build Monasteries BEFORE they obsolete - make them a priority! 2. Switch to OR like you're supposed to. You're supposed to have tough choices - lack of choices isn't fun at all. Your catch 22 complaint is unfounded.

As for myself, I believe I'd like the Cannon to appear at Gunpowder, have Rifling require Steel to prolong the usefulness of Musketmen and Curiassiers, and also move Privateer to Gunpowder (+ Astronomy) so it lasts a little longer and more will get built without the aid of Drydocks. One other thing I was thinking about was that Airships should be able to bomb city defenses instead of ground units. The damage per turn would be comparable to that of a Catapult, but I'm not sure that this is okay - why wasn't it done this way in the first place?

All in all, I find the game largely well made, and the majority of my gripes are with the interface.

 

[Rusty Edge]

If interface is your issue, have you tried The BUG
mod?

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=274636

 

[Fredric Drum]

Everybody boosts stuff, but nobody thought about nerfing overpowered praetorians!

Oh, and I just had an idea, to give helicopters access to coastal tiles...

 

[phungus420]

Everybody boosts stuff, but nobody thought about nerfing overpowered praetorians!

My prets are str 6 with the freepromo's shock and cover. (and a first string chance -pila, too bad it's not in the animation). They are still quite powerful, but they should be, especially since everything else the romans get (leader traights and UB) are so underwhelming.

 

[ICNP]

Praetorians aren't overpowered! Their just really good at what they do!

Bring Helicopters over Coast and allowing them to dock on Frigates would be sweet. Give them some Anti-Sub capacity and they would be really sweet.

 

[6K Man]

There's a lot of good ideas on this thread

One question, though - for those of you who have added new units, where do you get the unit graphics/animations from?

 

[TheDS]

If interface is your issue, have you tried The BUG
mod?

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=274636

Thank you, yes, I'm using it already, and it's great, but it doesn't address most of my issues.

• Waiting actually waits. When I tell a unit to wait, it's because I want it to wait, usually this means put it at the end of the move queue, so how about putting it at the end of the move-queue? It's ******ed to have the same unit get reselected every other move.
• Select units in the same area. It's also pretty stupid to move units all over the place, when 99% of the time I want to move units that are in the same general area, so how about arranging the move-queue to take this into account?
• Retain settings. When I set something, how about keeping it that way? Zoom level, sort order for cities (F1 screen), etc.
• Proper scrolling. If at any point a window has enough information in it to warrant scrolling, make it so the mouse scroll wheel will scroll it. WTF is it with scroll buttons, anyway?
• Holding buttons is like rapid-click. On the Espionage screen, why do I have to click + or - over and over? Make the buttons slightly bigger, and allow me to hold down the button to get it to activate quickly so I can get to 99 and back in under an hour, okay? Under 5 seconds should be the goal, without having to physically turbo-click.
• When units auto-move and reveal tiles, leave any discovered units visible.
• When units auto-move and discover enemy units, HALT! Give a chance for new orders to be issued. For Privateers, all foreign units are enemy.
• Simplified war/peace declarations. Instead of announcing every individual nation at war or peace, instead conglomerate them into their natural groups. I can't think of any time when it's NOT okay to say Group A declares war on Group B, and list all the members of each group. Frex: France, Spain, and England declare war on Egypt and Arabia. These will be master/vassal relationships, with Master being listed first in each group. When dealing with DefPacts, it's okay to have each member and its vassals perform separate declarations. This will prevent 50+ horns with large groups warring on each other.
• Informed consent. When expected to agree to something, allow the player to have full information. Who is he going to be forced to declare war on if he accepts a vassal? How powerful are they? What are my relations with them? What are my trades with them? And so on.
• Wake blockaders sitting on vassals. For any newly made vassals, wake any ship that is blockading it.
• Wake blockaders when enemy units show up.
• Airport indicator. Where did it go? Give me a prominent thingy on the main screen to show me an Airport is present. Also, alter the icon in an obvious way if it was used this turn.

Just the ones I've written down so far - I started writing them down just a few days ago. Forgive the sass, these are copied directly from notes-to-self, and I don't mind what passes for my wit. I have a longer list of gameplay changes I'd like to see.

I don't think much of the above could be done by a typical modder, do you? Maybe the Airport indicator thing. I'd swear there was one, but maybe that was Civ3 or Civ2.

Edit: Deleted complaint about Sentry not fortifying units - turns out I was mistaken.

 

[JujuLautre]

Informed consent. When expected to agree to something, allow the player to have full information. Who is he going to be forced to declare war on if he accepts a vassal? How powerful are they? What are my relations with them? What are my trades with them? And so on.

Just about this one: you can open every screen possible when someone visits you, either by the keyboard shortcut or by clicking on the button on top of the screen

 

[Dresden]

• Waiting actually waits. When I tell a unit to wait, it's because I want it to wait, usually this means put it at the end of the move queue, so how about putting it at the end of the move-queue? It's ******ed to have the same unit get reselected every other move.

I cannot put into words how much I hate that; I cannot count the number of times I simply gave up and fortified a unit after it "waited" for only a single other unit four or five times in succession. At some point, I should really look into this issue in the SDK though.

I don't think much of the above could be done by a typical modder, do you? Maybe the Airport indicator thing. I'd swear there was one, but maybe that was Civ3 or Civ2.

I think an airport indicator on the main screen might be one of the harder things to do since the city bar is tied pretty deeply to the game engine. Same with the general interface stuff like scrolling behavior and the (unlisted by you by hated by me anyway) awful handling of the gold trade dialog in diplomacy. The movement/waking issues could probably be handled in the SDK.

And yeah, civ3 had the airport indicators on-screen. For civ4, perhaps the use of plot overlays could be extended beyond their current implementation when you're in airlift or rebase mode; having something to show cities available to be airlift sources seems a little harder since the overlays are usually pretty unsubtle and would be distracting if they had to be on most of the time.

 

[grumbler]

Wake fortified units when enemy units appear - there should NOT be separate fortify and sentry commands if there's no penalty to unfortifying.

Sentry is for when you want to be alerted to the approach of enemy units (to either preemptively attack or retreat). Fortify is for when you are well aware of the enemy's presence and you want the unit to hold their defensive position. So I think it's sensible to have separate commands for these two cases.

 

[TheDS]

Sentry is for when you want to be alerted to the approach of enemy units (to either preemptively attack or retreat). Fortify is for when you are well aware of the enemy's presence and you want the unit to hold their defensive position. So I think it's sensible to have separate commands for these two cases.

You have found a flaw in my gripe. It would be better if Sentry also fortified you, but woke you, where as the regular Fortify meant "I don't care to move this unit". I can't count the number if times I've fortified a unit that I expected to come under attack soon, and then the enemy wandered away instead, and then I forgot to move that unit, and that's what I was really railing against. I'll correct that on my own list.

 

[TheDS]

Just about this one: you can open every screen possible when someone visits you, either by the keyboard shortcut or by clicking on the button on top of the screen

There have been plenty of times when I couldn't, even in yesterday's session. (fully patched to 3.17.19.2)