Finishing and Publishing a Mod

[Ajidica]

I'm done with all the actual coding in my mod, but I'm running into three major roadblocks.
1. On Kaels tutorial, he talks about how under the Actions tab you have to tell the game what files to read so they can be changed. Do I have to add every file manualy, or is there a faster way to do it?
2. Also according to Kaels tutorial, under the Content tab, I also have to define if a map is included. However, I have no clue how I would go about defining that.
3. When I build my mod and look in the folder, I have the XML files, but not the art files that are needed as I replaced the DOM and map screens. Do I fix this simply by copying the art assets in?
Any help would be appreciated.

 

[Justicex]

Okay

1) Gotta do everything seperately. They are specific commands telling which assets you are adding, changing, etc. You can't just do one blanket command for it all. Say you are told to buy the pop for a party. That's all you're told. You buy one case of Coke and wonder why you are in trouble when you did what you were told. What you weren't told was, you need 10 cases, 5 Coke, 2 A&W Root Beer, 1 Sprite, 1 Dr. Pepper and 1 Cherry Coke.

2) I've never done that myself, but I assume it's very similar to the Actions tab. If you've created a custom map you want to include in your mod, you have to tell the game to add it and where it is to be added.

3) The easiest way to do this, is to create an Art folder in Modbuddy, resize the window slightly, open the folder that has your .dds files and then drag them from one window right into the Art folder on Modbuddy. This will add them to your mod and into the apropriate folder for the mod to use later. You will still need to tell the mod to use them via the xml of course

 

[Ajidica]

1. Blech. I did all the leaders individually.
2. Okay. I got help for this elsewhere.
3. That would be the problem. My art assets aren't in ModBuddy. I'm still used to Civ4 modding that was drag, drop, and rename.

 

[Justicex]

I don't know what to tell you then. That is how I got my art assets into my mod with no problems.

Okay. Two silly questions. 1) Did you click the arrow beside the Art folder in Modbuddy to make sure that you can see your assets that are in it? 2) Are you checking the folder before or after you click to Build your mod?

 

[Ajidica]

Sorry. What I intended to say was 'yes, that should fix the problem'. Sorry if my point got lost.

 

[Justicex]

It's all good. CivFanatics is a world-wide community. Little misunderstandings are bound to happen. I just hope I helped

Happy modding!

 

[Ajidica]

Okay.
I have the actions tab set up right (see attachment), spelling and all. If I am doing something wrong, I can't tell what it is.
When I go to load up my mod to look at the changes I made, all that shows up are the default vanilla civs I didn't remove with the delete command. In this case it is France, Ottomans, Russia, and Mongolia(From DLC). Now, I use France, Turkey, and Russia in my mod, but I specified for the leaders to be replaced and the map pic to be changed, it wasn't. Evidently my CivInfos isn't loading, and I can't tell what I am doing wrong.
Please enlighten me.

EDIT: I have the same problem with my new CitySTates not showing up.

 

[primordial stew]

"build solution" again just to make sure the copy is up to date, and then load the mod in WB, and finally check Database.log. Any issues in there?

civ5 *is* case sensitive, so if you misspell any of the entries they will be skipped, and I don't think it even complains about these.

Also, get the SQLite plugin for Firefox. It can load up the Civ5DebugDatabase.db and you can examine the various tables to see if you're stuff is indeed in there.

 

[Justicex]

It's just a guess on my part, but I don't think the hyphen is an accepted character for filenames. Try changing it to an underscore and make sure that you change everything that references it as well. Other than that, I don't see anything wrong with your Actions.

But I'm very new to this too so don't take my word as gospel.

 

[Ajidica]

"build solution" again just to make sure the copy is up to date, and then load the mod in WB, and finally check Database.log. Any issues in there?

Where is the database log?
As for loading the mod in WB, that won't help me as none of the new civs(or even city states) I added show up as an option for Player slots.

Also, get the SQLite plugin for Firefox. It can load up the Civ5DebugDatabase.db and you can examine the various tables to see if you're stuff is indeed in there.

Looks like I have to install Firefox as I'm running IE.

It's just a guess on my part, but I don't think the hyphen is an accepted character for filenames. Try changing it to an underscore and make sure that you change everything that references it as well. Other than that, I don't see anything wrong with your Actions.

But I'm very new to this too so don't take my word as gospel.

I'll test that out.

 

[Le Sage]

Check the MyGames/Civilization5/Logs folder. The Database Logs is in there as well as numerous other logs that I personally haven't explored too much yet.

What I am wondering is how to open that Civ5DebugDatabase.db. I have the plugin for Firefox, but nothing happens when I open the file in Firefox...

 

[Ajidica]

I got this in the database log. Any ideas for what it means:

[611182.901] Validating Foreign Key Constraints...
[611182.947] Passed Validation.
[611183.337] 
-- SQLite Memory Statistics --
Memory Usage:
		[Cur]		[Max]
Malloc:		258552		2247088
PageCache:	2503		3483
LookAside:	26		1767
Scratch:	0		1

Static Buffer Overflows:
		[TooLarge]	[NoSpace]
PageCache:	0		0
Scratch:	0		0

Largest Allocations:
Malloc:		65280
PageCache:	1160
Scratch:	5032

Prepared Statements:
Current:		3
------------------------------

EDIT: I renamed the files so they use an underscore rather then a hyphen. Nothing changed.
I checked all of my spelling, everything matches.
Additionaly, my builds are changing so I am doing that right. I removed the load command for the file where I deleted the majority of the vanillla civs, and when I tested my mod (it was enabled in the ModChoser thingy) all the vanilla civs appeared.
I've gone over the mod but either I am as blind as a bat or incompetant, but I'm not seeing any errors. Should I just upload it here (or should I do it through the ModHub?) and let the sages of CFC-C&C take a look at it?

 

[Justicex]

Yeah, put it in a zip folder and attatch it to a post here. There are many wonderful people here that will take a gander for ya

 

[Le Sage]

Yeah. You can publish it as an "experimental" version too. Not even Alpha or Beta.

 

[Ajidica]

I'll put it up on the ModHub as experimental. Give me a minute.

 

[Le Sage]

I need to go to bed. She's 02.13 and I have work tomorrow, but I can take a look tomorrow as well.

 

[Ajidica]

Thats fine. I forget you are in Sweden (or is it Finland?). I am consistantly amazed by the internet. Here I am, talking with a person almost on the other side of the world about modding a game.

EDIT: It is up on the ModHub. Do a search for Ajidica or Thirty Years War. I put it under Total Conversions and Historical Scenarios.
EDIT2: The art assets are also there if anyone feels like commenting on the historical accuracy of the flags (found in the DOM-Screne folder.)

 

[Le Sage]

Finland.

I'll take a look this evening and see if I can find out what is glitching. The Thirty Years' War fascinates me, so it will be interesting to see what you've done with it.

Edit: I was just about to download it, but the Mod Hub won't open. I have to try again later. The bleedin' mod Hub is really irritating and the worst invention ever.

Edit2: Right. I have it now. I am going to take a look.

 

[Le Sage]

It is probably 30YW_CivilizationInfos which is faulty in some way. In the Hundred Years' War, I didn't create new Civs, but rather updated existing, you may want to try that, and also paste each civ into a separate xml file, which makes it a lot easier to overlook too. Just updating vanilla civs into new ones is the easiest way.

I think it might be stuff like France and England, which are vanilla civs that makes it so that the file never updates the database, since there will be two references to them. you should need to delete those before adding new ones, or indeed just update them, which is probably easier.

It's rather hard for me to see, since I can't open the mod in ModBuddy. I can't rebuild the mod either to try my theories out. God, I wish the days of Civ4 were back, when things didn't need crappy ModBuddy.

Also, try to publish the 30YW CivilizationInfos on the modding forum and have others check it out. Wish I could be of more help.

 

[Ajidica]

I'll try replacing French, Ottoman, and Russian civs to see if I avoid that issue along with splitting them into individual files. If that fails, I'll try your method of just doing a civ rename.
Might this have something to do with UAC? I recently updated to Windows 7 and although I am the overall admin, I have had a few issues with admin rights.