help on my atlantis mod (bts)

[callum]

hi everyone

i need some help on my modular altantis civilization for bts

i have no experience with coding, modding or any other kind of technical aspect related to computers except for playing games after putting some effort into this mod ive ended up with no errors while loading (yay),
but now the game crashes after ive tried to start a new game with Atlantis as my civilization.
before (With the errors) i could see what i did wrong.. now i cant.. and have no lead on what to do to prevent this from happening

my mod:
ive added a UU called the atlantean, a galley that can enter ocean tiles, and has the greek dromon appearence (i hope) from the diversica mod below
UB: veruna statue.. (a made up atlantean goddes) it replaces the obelisk and has a few to many bonusses at this moment (Iborrowed the apperance from the statue in the amazon pack. (without asking. yet.. it was intended for personal use till i got it to work propperly))
ive managed to get an animated leaderhead in (originally called masinissa - also borrowed from someone here at civ fanatics)

during the construction and tests ive always used this civilization with the Diversica modpack

like this C:\Program Files\Firaxis Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4\Beyond the Sword\Mods\Diversica\Assets\Modules\Custom Civilizations\Atlantis

i dont know what else to explain. so ive also put my atlantis civ here, so you can see for yourself what it is/has become/might be the problem

any advice is apreciated!

(oh yea, one last thing.. ive put the amount of free starting settlers at 2 just for fun at this time! it is not intended to stay in, in the final phase)

 

[strategyonly]

hi everyone

i need some help on my modular altantis civilization for bts

OK i seen a few errors listed in the UnitArtdefines area, and just for your info, when a BtS mod crashes without any errors its 99.9% of the time an ArtDefines problem. hint: you have to have all the same MOD listed when putting you list together.

EDIT: OK i went thru even more, found about ten errors, and the main reason it is now crashing is the ARTSTYLE file, that why i put everything in the UU area, dont have to worry about that stuff.

 

[callum]

thanks for looking into the xml files! i didnt really get your first hint, but you got me in the right direction. i made some small changes and got it to work perfectly (except for 1 little bug, but im not sure if its related to anything i did.)

the above link is now broken

ive opened a new topic here

with a fresh new download
could you check that one again?

thanks,
Callum

 

[strategyonly]

thanks for looking into the xml files! i didnt really get your first hint, but you got me in the right direction. i made some small changes and got it to work perfectly (except for 1 little bug, but im not sure if its related to anything i did.)

the above link is now broken

ive opened a new topic here

with a fresh new download
could you check that one again?

thanks,
Callum

just tried your NEW copy and it crashes when you try to get the Atlantian Civ to work( after the leaderhead).

Spoiler :

<UnitArtInfo>
<Type>ART_DEF_UNIT_GRENADIER_ATLANTIS</Type>
<Button>,Art/Interface/Buttons/Units/Grenadier.dds,Art/Interface/Buttons/Unit_Resource_Atlas.dds,7,6</Button>
<fScale>0.44</fScale>
<fInterfaceScale>1.0</fInterfaceScale>
<bActAsLand>0</bActAsLand>
<bActAsAir>0</bActAsAir>
<NIF>Modules/Custom Civilizations/Atlantis/Units/Grenadier_Atlantis/egyptgrenadier.nif</NIF>
<KFM>Art/Units/Grenadier/Grenadier.kfm</KFM>
<SHADERNIF>Modules/Custom Civilizations/Egypt/Units/Grenadier_Atlantis/egyptgrenadier_fx.nif</SHADERNIF>
<ShadowDef>
<ShadowNIF>Art/Units/01_UnitShadows/UnitShadow.nif</ShadowNIF>
<ShadowAttachNode>BIP Pelvis</ShadowAttachNode>
<fShadowScale>0.95</fShadowScale>
</ShadowDef>
<fBattleDistance>0.35</fBattleDistance>
<fRangedDeathTime>0.31</fRangedDeathTime>
<bActAsRanged>1</bActAsRanged>
<TrainSound>AS2D_UNIT_BUILD_UNIT</TrainSound>
<AudioRunSounds>
<AudioRunTypeLoop/>
<AudioRunTypeEnd/>
</AudioRunSounds>
</UnitArtInfo>

 

[callum]

thanks for pointing that one out! the atlantis.zip file is replaced with the corrected path to the grenadier shadernif as from now. but i cant determine the impact yet, so some other weird stuff might pop up.. ill test it later today.

how can i have played my mod yesterday without it crashing? while it does crash on you now?

 

[strategyonly]

thanks for pointing that one out! the atlantis.zip file is replaced with the corrected path to the grenadier shadernif as from now. but i cant determine the impact yet, so some other weird stuff might pop up.. ill test it later today.

how can i have played my mod yesterday without it crashing? while it does crash on you now?

OK i fixed alot of what was going on, here is my working version: I had to correct the maceman kfm, in the artstyle had to delete the tank and the settler, the settler was the main problem for civ crashing!!! BUt at least you can work from this one.

http://forums.civfanatics.com/uploads/86969/Atlantis.zip

took me about a total of 3-4 hours with all from the day before and today!!! PHEW!!

 

[callum]

oh wow, thank you so much. ive downloaded your version and ill check it out today. i will do some comparing so i can see what ive done wrong. thanks!

 

[callum]

OK i fixed alot of what was going on, here is my working version: I had to correct the maceman kfm, in the artstyle had to delete the tank and the settler, the settler was the main problem for civ crashing!!! BUt at least you can work from this one.

so ive checked it out! and it works great. thanks again.

im still learning, so i have some questions if you dont mind

-by moving the CIV4ArtDefines_Unit.xml to the main atlantis folder you cold delete one CIV4ArtDefinesSchema.xml. so why did you keep the CIV4ArtDefines_Building.xml in the buildings folder? cant this one be moved? so i can delete another artdefinesschema?

-i dont know anything about kfm files.. but i do know the maceman animation is fixed now!! the broken kfm file was something wrong in diversica right?

-and last: why did the settler and tank in CIV4UnitArtStyleTypeInfos had to be deleted? not that i mind (i dont see much difference ingame ) but running my latest version on my computer didnt couse any problems... so i dont understand whats wrong with it..

callum

 

[strategyonly]

so ive checked it out! and it works great. thanks again.

im still learning, so i have some questions if you dont mind

-by moving the CIV4ArtDefines_Unit.xml to the main atlantis folder you cold delete one CIV4ArtDefinesSchema.xml. so why did you keep the CIV4ArtDefines_Building.xml in the buildings folder? cant this one be moved? so i can delete another artdefinesschema?

YOu know i didnt really look at the building files, oops

-i dont know anything about kfm files.. but i do know the maceman animation is fixed now!! the broken kfm file was something wrong in diversica right?

well whom ever used the original kfm, yes had it wrong.

-and last: why did the settler and tank in CIV4UnitArtStyleTypeInfos had to be deleted? not that i mind (i dont see much difference ingame ) but running my latest version on my computer didnt couse any problems... so i dont understand whats wrong with it..
callum

OK heres the main thing, you "as you stated" use the Diversica mod, but when making stuff you must assume NOT everyone has that, so you cant use that as a main reference and anything that is not in the NORMAL (basic) BtS game cant be played without that MOD also. In other words you could put back in the settler and the tank, but ONLY if you also include the Diversica MOD with it completely. But must people then wont use your stuff cause they dont want to use other peoples MOD stuff when playing. "They" want the control of the game, hence you make stuff with the "Basics." I hope this makes sense??

Keep making more stuff, not bad at all for a first try. Better than i did.
Main thing for doing this for me is "Just Have Fun."

 

[callum]

oh, im having loads of fun hehe. even more now i can finally play as an atlantean. i hope more ppl on these forums will feel the same.

your explenenation made perfect sense aswell.. i was just all too happy when i finally fugured out how to implement a new civilization (useing diversica by coincidence) so i basicly hurried forward from that in my new found enthousiasm.. i clearly wrote it down in the post where i put up my mod, so ppl would know not to expect it being 'playable' with something other then diversica But its great if it is!
ill check it out for myself how it works in other situations.. its interesting to know.

look at this btw

perfect background for my atlantis leaderhead hehe
expect an update after this weekend

 

[mamba]

well whom ever used the original kfm, yes had it wrong.

This depends on the graphics you import, some maceman replacements may use different animations. When you replace the unit graphics with some different kind, your best bet is to pick the appropriate definition from CIV4ArtDefines_Unit.xml.

For the maceman that would include

<NIF>Art/Units/Maceman/Maceman.nif</NIF>
<KFM>Art/Units/Maceman/Maceman.kfm</KFM>
<SHADERNIF>Art/Units/Maceman/Maceman_FX.nif</SHADERNIF>

which is the graphics and animation. You always replace the two *NIF entries, depending on the unit you also replace the KFM entry. It was the right animation for 'my' maceman

 

[callum]

the byzantine maceman (which i used for atlantis) taken from diversica is a sword unit.. so the nif and kfm files i refered to (the same as you refered to in diversica's byzantine units) should be correct right? but maybe its a bit to late comment on this, looking at your post in the diversica thread