GUIDE: Adding new units

Okay....I'm creating a new Wehrmacht unit to replace the infantry for the Germans. How do I make it one of Germany's unique units?
You must edit the Civ4CivilizationInfos.xml to do this. Scroll down below the cities to where it has the information about the Panzer UU ... as you can see it is under the "tank" subcategory.

Copy this code and paste it under the panzer code .... next change it so that it is a Wehrmacht under the "Infantry" subcategory ... (This will give Germany 2 UUs).

If you still aren't sure, I can provide the actual code for you, but just follow the style of the Panzer setting and you should be fine.

whenever i build one of my custom units, instead of the defualt portriat showing next to the city, i get a black circle with a white ! in it.
This is the problem that I am having as well ... although I added my unit icon to the unit Atlas, and everything else works, including civilopedia pictures and whatnot. Does anyone know the solution to this?
 
Shqype said:
This is the problem that I am having as well ... although I added my unit icon to the unit Atlas, and everything else works, including civilopedia pictures and whatnot. Does anyone know the solution to this?

i do not have the images added to the atlas, (i was going to try that next), but my civlopedia pictures work as well. either the civlopedia calls to the button itself, or its smart enuff to defualt to it if no atlas image is there.

do you get the big pink blob when not centered on a custom unit? if not, then i'll go thru the trouble of adding them to the atlas, as the pink blob bugs me alot more than the ! pic (even tho thats pretty annoying too).
 
I don't get any pink blob or any other problems, except the ! when my city is building the unique unit.

If the button itself is fine, then what is the purpose for the Atlas itself in the first place?
 
I am also getting the magenta box. :( tried many many things, like converting from a jpg, from tga, from png, coloring over in Direct X texture tool... no luck. I noticed all of them are 4.12 Kb, but mine are anywhere from 5.48Kb to 12Kb
 
I need help. I have installed civ4 twice, and watched it install art0.fpk, but when i look for it, it isn't there. I have used a search program, enabled hidden files, and looked with unpak. I just can't find it. I know it is supposed to be in assets, and there a four asset#.fpk files there but no art0.fpk. Can anyone shed some light on this conundrum. Thx
 
i had this same issue when i first tried to make some custom units. the secret is, your NOT looking for art0.fpk =D

the files your looking for ar in your main civ4\Assets directory. your looking for the files Assets0.fpk, Assets1.fpk, Assets2.fpk and Assets0.fpk. open the pak program by firaxis, and click pak>unpack and unpack each of those four files in a directory. (dont try to "open" the fpks, as you cant, which was where i got stuck for the longest time, again PAK>unpack).

now you have a directory just jam packed with all the textures/toys used in civ4. happy modding =D
 
I am pretty sure the big atlas is just abigger file that can be compressed better in graphics ram. Yes, if there is an atlas file and a single pic given, civ4 takes the one out of the big atlas. Just make sure you have alpha channel painted correctly if you convert your psd to dds again. Also remember that you may not change the atlas width height size if you convert ist back to dds. Always use a dds converted to psd/tga, never make a tga or so from scratch and convert it to dds later.
 
Master Lexx said:
I am pretty sure the big atlas is just abigger file that can be compressed better in graphics ram.

Yes. the atlas must be for the civilopedia or something, when multiple icons are displayed. A GPU prefers 1 128X128 texture over 4 64x64 textures.

With the sdk, I'd assume a 1024x1024 texture may be possible.
 
JBG said:
I've created a UU for my new civilization (which I'll post once I've fixed this). It is essentially another version of the mali skirmisher, and does not need any new graphics other than the button. It displays fine in all the menus (apart from the civilopedia where I can't get its entry to display anything other than the button for some reason) and there are no error messages in the game.

But whenever I try and build one in-game, Civ 4 bombs to the desktop (there are no error messages prior to this). Why should this be?

I do not have this specific problem (or perhaps I do, but I have another that prevents me from verifying this), but similar results. I have followed the guide, and when I begin a new game and tell a settler to build a new city, the game drops to desktop, without any error messages. Using the cheat mode, I was able to CTRL + SHIFT my custom unit in, and it could fight and receive promotion without problems. The unit I attempted to create was not a unique unit, simply to put in the Mark V Tank. I utilized the Modern Armor text as my blueprint to alter.

It may simply be that I am a stupid newb who is making the same error repeatedly, I don't know.
 
great tutorial, Ive only got two problems so far:
1) My unit has no action buttons (goto, slee, etc...) and I cant imagine why.
2) In the civilopedia only the picture show up.

Does anyone know what may be the problem?
The Civ4GameText_Civilopedia_Units seems to be aye ok, Ive been through it several times. And the missing action icons I dont even know where to start in a try to fix that.

cheers.
 
JSmith99 said:
I do not have this specific problem (or perhaps I do, but I have another that prevents me from verifying this), but similar results. I have followed the guide, and when I begin a new game and tell a settler to build a new city, the game drops to desktop, without any error messages. Using the cheat mode, I was able to CTRL + SHIFT my custom unit in, and it could fight and receive promotion without problems. The unit I attempted to create was not a unique unit, simply to put in the Mark V Tank. I utilized the Modern Armor text as my blueprint to alter.

It may simply be that I am a stupid newb who is making the same error repeatedly, I don't know.


You're not alone: I've got exactly the same problem, hope someone can help cause it's driving me nuts.... :twitch:
 
A sacrificial offering goes to whoever can figure out my problem:

I've created multiple units (not unique units, by the way), but whenever starting a new game every civ begins with a Settler and my new unit (same one every time) INSTEAD of the warrior it should start with.

Does anyone know what the cause of this is? It reminds me of some technology issues when new techs were created, which allowed Plastics and Computers to be researched in the beginning of the game along with the other beginning technologies... that time it had to do with the position of the techs both in the XML file and their XY coords ... I wonder what causes this issue?
 
So, Im having this weird problem.
Instead of my new unit I get a huge purpleish blob, which usually means something is wong with either missing graphics files invalid path to the .nif.
Ive checked and double checked the names of my artsdefines tag, my path and filename to the files, but nothing wrong there as far as I can see.
I tested whether I had any missing graphics files by replacing (temporarily) a original units files with mine, and then they worked just fine.
So either the pikeman requires some files outside the art/unit/pikeman filder, or Ive screwed up in the xml.
But I havent.
my earlyartdefinestag:
<EarlyArtDefineTag>ART_DEF_UNIT_MERCENARY</EarlyArtDefineTag>
compared to the tag in the artsdef file:
<UnitArtInfo>
<Type>ART_DEF_UNIT_MERCENARY</Type>
<fScale>0.44</fScale>
<fInterfaceScale>1.0</fInterfaceScale>
<NIF>Art/Units/mercenary/Pikeman.nif</NIF>
<KFM>Art/Units/mercenary/Pikeman.kfm</KFM>
<SHADERNIF>Art/mercenary/Pikeman_FX.nif</SHADERNIF>
<ShadowDef>
<ShadowNIF>Art/Units/01_UnitShadows/UnitShadow.nif</ShadowNIF>
<ShadowAttachNode>BIP Pelvis</ShadowAttachNode>
<fShadowScale>1.0</fShadowScale>
</ShadowDef>
<fBattleDistance>0.35</fBattleDistance>
<fRangedDeathTime>0.31</fRangedDeathTime>
<bActAsRanged>0</bActAsRanged>
<TrainSound>AS2D_UNIT_BUILD_UNIT</TrainSound>
<AudioRunSounds>
<AudioRunTypeLoop/>
<AudioRunTypeEnd/>
</AudioRunSounds>
</UnitArtInfo>

And as i said, my path IS correct:
Art/units/mercenary
Im at a total loss here.
 
yeah, but it aint my button thats big and purple, its the model.
cheers n e weh.

edit: finally found the problem, I was just being a sloppy ****, not focusing. as usual.
edit2: yay cencorship, mebbe you should change your name to china fanatics, you bloody violators of free speech.
 
Was there any work done on the real Persian Immortal so far?

arstibara.jpg

*picture from Rise of Persia Mod - Rome:Total War

I could probably take the spearman and give it Archery ability as well + Change to attack first.

I m thinking about making one, however how could I make the skin? I am not an artist. ANy tips for me where I should start with skins?

Thanks
Houman
 
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