Ho ho ho and a bottle of Tokaj! - A Magyar civ

[OzzyKP]

nm, I think I figured it out.

 

[cool3a2]

Yup! Born and raised in the United States and don't really speak much Hungarian, but ethnically I'm 100% and I still have family over there. Mostly near Debrecen.

Thankfully, Hungarians are quite tolerant in this case. I heard that Széchenyi wrote his diaries in German and didn't spoke Hungarian too well. Yet Kossuth still called him the greatest Hungarian. Maybe there are people that would disagree with Kossuth, but no one would doubt Széchenyi was Hungarian. Similar case with Liszt. Liszt said several times that he's hungarian although he doesn't speak the language and I didn't heard that Hungarians would have disagreed with that. Only Austrians seem to do... The third exampüle is me and my brother. I don't speak Hungarian perfectly either and my brothers hungarian is even worse unfortunately (I try to motivate him though!), yet we both have both citizenships (german and hungarian, while we were Hungarians before we became Germans) and NEVER made the experience that Hungarians treated us as outsiders. Not enough, I have much better contacts to the hungarian civ4 community then to the german. In fact, Hungarians seem to be pleased, if people like us care for their roots although one might think that we could easily forgot about that small (but beautiful) country in east europe.

Also, I'm planning to use this mod in a new diplogame we are starting, but I don't really understand how to use modules. Help?

Well, if you like to merge this mod with others, you'd probably need to skip the unqiue building artstyle as merging the definitions for these buildings would be a true pain, mostly because it's not modular. Disabling the artstyle should be rather easy, just remove the references in the CivilizationInfos.xml, but keep the unit artstyle if you want to keep the units. Unit artstyles can be and are made modular in my mod, so you can keep it. Next, you should be able to copy anything from the the modules folder of my mod. There are only two exceptions:
- the leaders diplo texts
- the sounds
Both can be made modular or quasi-modular, but only with tricks: WoC modular style and a java executable. This ways, diplotexts are just like other stuff, but you should remove them if you decide to not use WoC. Edit the leaderheadInfos.xml and reference to standard diplotexts. The java executable (also part of my mod) just needs to be executed and then will search for sound xml within the modules folder - should work even without WoC, but I haven't tested it. After that, you could delete the executable.
All in all, it would be the simplest thing to use my mod as base (you could maybe keep the building artstyle this ways, if there is no other mod you like to add thats building art you'd prefer) and extend it with the modular stuff from other mods. You wouldn't need to bother for WoC as everything you can do with standard modular modding can be done with WoC, too. Let me know if you have specific problems and I'll give you a hand. Feel free to use this thread or write me a pm. BTW: I think there is a little bug regarding the icons of religions underneath the cities. I already fixed it for the hun mod (so you could loo0k that up to see how to fix it) and fixed it in my files on my harddrive, but the last beta still has that issue, I think. In case you want to use WoC, I'll help you to fix it. If you decide to use only the stu8ff from my modules folder, the problem should not bother you - it's hidden elsewhere.

I really like the new backgrounds, Rakoczi's looks great!
Btw, how do you handle your mod's civilopedia?
Do you want me to use hungarian vowels?

Thank's for your kind words! Sure, use vowels. Letters like á, ´, í and so on can be used just like they are, only ő, ű and their capital variants cause trouble, but I'd take care for that. Just write your texts in word or any other program, post it here in any form you like and I'll take the rest!

 

[OzzyKP]

Thankfully, Hungarians are quite tolerant in this case. I heard that Széchenyi wrote his diaries in German and didn't spoke Hungarian too well. Yet Kossuth still called him the greatest Hungarian. Maybe there are people that would disagree with Kossuth, but no one would doubt Széchenyi was Hungarian. Similar case with Liszt. Liszt said several times that he's hungarian although he doesn't speak the language and I didn't heard that Hungarians would have disagreed with that. Only Austrians seem to do... The third exampüle is me and my brother. I don't speak Hungarian perfectly either and my brothers hungarian is even worse unfortunately (I try to motivate him though!), yet we both have both citizenships (german and hungarian, while we were Hungarians before we became Germans) and NEVER made the experience that Hungarians treated us as outsiders. Not enough, I have much better contacts to the hungarian civ4 community then to the german. In fact, Hungarians seem to be pleased, if people like us care for their roots although one might think that we could easily forgot about that small (but beautiful) country in east europe.

Ah, you're a Hungarian citizen, so that's a step above me. Me and my parents were all born here in the United States. My two grandmothers were born and raised in the US (their parents came over from Hungary), one grandfather was born & raised in Hungary, and the other grandfather was born in the US and raised in Hungary. Anyhow, I certainly haven't forgotten about that small, beautiful country back in Europe. I make a mean Chicken Paprikas.

Well, if you like to merge this mod with others, you'd probably need to skip the unqiue building artstyle as merging the definitions for these buildings would be a true pain, mostly because it's not modular. Disabling the artstyle should be rather easy, just remove the references in the CivilizationInfos.xml, but keep the unit artstyle if you want to keep the units. Unit artstyles can be and are made modular in my mod, so you can keep it. Next, you should be able to copy anything from the the modules folder of my mod. There are only two exceptions:
- the leaders diplo texts
- the sounds
Both can be made modular or quasi-modular, but only with tricks: WoC modular style and a java executable. This ways, diplotexts are just like other stuff, but you should remove them if you decide to not use WoC. Edit the leaderheadInfos.xml and reference to standard diplotexts. The java executable (also part of my mod) just needs to be executed and then will search for sound xml within the modules folder - should work even without WoC, but I haven't tested it. After that, you could delete the executable.
All in all, it would be the simplest thing to use my mod as base (you could maybe keep the building artstyle this ways, if there is no other mod you like to add thats building art you'd prefer) and extend it with the modular stuff from other mods. You wouldn't need to bother for WoC as everything you can do with standard modular modding can be done with WoC, too. Let me know if you have specific problems and I'll give you a hand. Feel free to use this thread or write me a pm. BTW: I think there is a little bug regarding the icons of religions underneath the cities. I already fixed it for the hun mod (so you could loo0k that up to see how to fix it) and fixed it in my files on my harddrive, but the last beta still has that issue, I think. In case you want to use WoC, I'll help you to fix it. If you decide to use only the stu8ff from my modules folder, the problem should not bother you - it's hidden elsewhere.

So it seemed like I was doing something pretty simple, but as usual I can never figure out how to get even the simple things to work (hence my failed Fractured States mod...). I tried making a Modular Bulgarian civ using pieces from RFC Europe. I copied (I thought) everything from the Hungarian mod, but it doesn't work at all.

What's the trick to making it modular? I don't suppose you could take a look at what I've done?

 

[cool3a2]

Ah, you're a Hungarian citizen, so that's a step above me. Me and my parents were all born here in the United States. My two grandmothers were born and raised in the US (their parents came over from Hungary), one grandfather was born & raised in Hungary, and the other grandfather was born in the US and raised in Hungary. Anyhow, I certainly haven't forgotten about that small, beautiful country back in Europe. I make a mean Chicken Paprikas.

Hungary has changed its laws to make it possible Hungarians living in areas belonging to Hungary before Trianon become hungarian citizens. This, however, does not affect Hungarians from the carpathian bassin, but also Hungarians living elsewhere in the world. I think you'd only need papers to prove you have hungarian ancestors. Also, Hungary doesn't care if its citizens have another citizenship as well. If that's fine for the US, you could become Hungarian by law without loosing your american citizenship. This procedure might require some burocrazy, but it might be worth to think about it.

So it seemed like I was doing something pretty simple, but as usual I can never figure out how to get even the simple things to work (hence my failed Fractured States mod...). I tried making a Modular Bulgarian civ using pieces from RFC Europe. I copied (I thought) everything from the Hungarian mod, but it doesn't work at all.

What's the trick to making it modular? I don't suppose you could take a look at what I've done?

Well, I would help you if you want me to. You haven't mentioned what exactly happens if you try to start the mod, so I could only guess currently. You could try to do it vice versa and add the stuff from Bulgaria to the Hungary mod and see if that works. Alternatively, you could provide me your files and I'll take a look at it. I'd prefer it to tell you how to solve your problem by your own rather then fix it for you as I think that would help you more. Also, it most probably will take me till weekend to take a look at your files.

BTW: Ekmek sent me the fixed Széchenyi using Lincolns animation. There should be no clipping, no glitches and he got a new nose. Széchenyi, I mean, not ekmek.

 

[Ekmek]

BTW: Ekmek sent me the fixed Széchenyi using Lincolns animation. There should be no clipping, no glitches and he got a new nose. Széchenyi, I mean, not ekmek.

actually its lincoln's animations and three custom ones including greeting.

the model still could use work though like the glossiness and you could add medals to replace the painted on ones, i think you can handle that.


PS Although my maternal great-grandmother was hungarian and I've been to budapest - I consider work on this and Kossuth the end of my obligation i really have other LHs I need to do

 

[cool3a2]

PS Although my maternal great-grandmother was hungarian and I've been to budapest - I consider work on this and Kossuth the end of my obligation i really have other LHs I need to do

Wow, the great ekmek is one of us! If you have papers to proof that your great-granmother was Hungarian, you might be able to get hungarian citizenship, too And no prob, I won't need your services for this anymore. At least not for civ4. Except of hints maybe, but don't think so either. So, relax!

actually its lincoln's animations and three custom ones including greeting./QUOTE]
Oh, cool! Didn't check the animations that closely.

the model still could use work though like the glossiness and you could add medals to replace the painted on ones, i think you can handle that.

Yeah, I think so, too!

 

[The Capo]

BTW: Ekmek sent me the fixed Széchenyi using Lincolns animation. There should be no clipping, no glitches and he got a new nose. Széchenyi, I mean, not ekmek.

Screens! I demand screens!

 

[cool3a2]

I'm about to work on the shader maps and on adding real medals. I'm able to do this by my own, but it will take me longer then you would need to. I'll provide screens as soon as possible!

 

[cool3a2]

Screenshot attached. The model is done actually, there is just a minor problem: on the back, there is a hole between the body and the fur which is visible during the greeting animation. Not sure how to fix that. If nothing else helps, I could try to alter the anmation a little bit so that Mr. Széchenyi is looking to the right (from his point of view) covering the hole. Besides of that, there is work necessary on the shader maps and the lights. Oh... I'm such a noob regarding lights...

 

[Ekmek]

you could fix the model to pull the fur closer to the body.

 

[cool3a2]

Yeah, I already did that and it seems to be okay as long as Széchenyi doesn't lift his arm. So it is animation related. I already tried to assign some vertices of the fur to the forearm. Maybe I did something wrong, haven't played around with it too long.

EDIT: I just found out why things look different in nifskope then in the game. The main mesh is set up so that all faces are drawn from both sides (stencil property). Unfortunately, this works in nifskope only. In civ4, all the faces are drawn from only one side. What I gonna do, is getting a part of the fur and invert normals - that should close the hole. Did the same with Rákóczi, so that should work.

 

[cool3a2]

Another preview. I've done some work to the texture and the shader maps, closed the hole the way I mentioned in my last post and worked on the light setup. I think it is pretty okay now. I should move the LH backwards, I guess. To be able to move the camera backwards was one of the things why I asked Ekmek for help and why I caused him so much work. On the other side, the the leaderhead looks pretty good this ways. I'll try to move the camera anyways, still: any thoughts?

Besidees of this, improving on Trudeau and helping OzzyKP with his mod, I also worked on the furs of Álmos, Koppány and Rákóczi to get the TTorusFur shader to work. I was successful and Koppány is done now. Álmos is one a good way, just need to adjust on the lights a little... oh, I hate lights. Even more then textures and animations... In case of Rákóczi, the shader works, too, I'm only unable to get the lights done. The only problem is, that the main light affecting the fur comes from the left (leaders perspective) while everything else on the left side is in shadow. The light just needs to be on the right. Correcting the position of the light alone doesn't do it, I'd also need to adjust the lights direction since it is a point light. The only problem is, that I can't see the light in nifskope (no dummy object, I mean), so I have to do it blindly. No fun... How are you experts work on the lights? But basically I got the TTorusFur shader working for Rákóczi as well.

 

[Ekmek]

lights are hit or miss. I think there is an option in nifskope to sow it but don't remember wgere. the other option is to attach (paste) a branch underneath the light to track where its being places - like the background branch or the sun from genghis kahn (you'll see a dot). but it was a long ime ago i messed with them on alexander and attila.

 

[cool3a2]

Well, I couldn't find a sun in genghis' nif, but I used some box instead. Still, I couldn't paste it underneath the light (as child, I mean) but only at the same level as the light. This ways, the block doesn't move with the light. If I know give him the same x, y and z values as the light, the box moves to where I expect it to. Still, the lights get screwed up if I only invert the x values. The rotation parameters don't seem to play the role I believed them to at first. It's not a directional light, but a point light, thus it seems to shine to all directions equally. Nevertheless I think these parameters are the key. Seems like the lights axis aren't like the boxes, but rotated, thus a translation in x direction results entirely different then expected... I guess I have to do some maths...

 

[cool3a2]

Just to proof that I'm still working on this, I provide some screens. I stopped working on Széchenyi for a while and returned to Álmos and Rákóczi. Still messing around with the fur and the light. I was able to improve a little on Rákóczis light and although it is still not perfect, I think this is the best I can get... I'd prefer it if the lights would come a little bit more from the right (leaders perspective) and cause a smooth blend to dark. Also, the fur is almost black where it is not enlightened, so even if I could cause the light to shine the way I'd like to have it, the rest of the fur would be pretty dark... The second problem is the texture. I figured out that the mipmaps are very important in this case and as I'm not able to get the mipmaps similar to the ones of the original fur texture from Genghis, the fur doesn't look that well (compare the two previews of Rákóczi - brown fur is my texture, grey fur texture is from Genghis). Álmos-s texture looks slightly better, but rather hard then soft. Also, the light isn't perfect either, although I can't say what exactly is wrong...

EDIT: There is also another small issue with Rákóczi. When he closes his eyes for a moment, the left eye lid is enlightened although it should be in the shadow...

 

[cool3a2]

No news on the two above leaderheads, nor on Nagy v2, but uploaded two 'new' leaderheads:

Matthias Corvinus:

(Background image taken by Robot B.)

János Szapolyai (fixed version of nintrams leaderhead, hope the one coming with his Colonization mod was v2...):

(Planned to be one of the deactivated leaders in this mods next version.)

Download links in post #1 of my leaderhead thread: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=330562

 

[cool3a2]

Next step taken, Paprika modcomp released: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?p=10519500#post10519500. That modcomp will be the base for the next version of this mod. Will be of interest for modders at first place as it should ease merging the mod with others while keeping the building artstyles (that will be modular from now on). Already ported the Hun mod (not yet released) and it felt great.

BTW: English civilopedia text for Béla:

Spoiler :

(29 November 1206 – 3 May 1270, King of Hungary and Croatia (1235–70), duke of Styria 1254–58. One of the most famous kings of Hungary, he distinguished himself through his policy of strengthening of the royal power following the example of his grand father Bela III, and by rebuilding Hungary after the catastrophe of the Mongolian invasion in 1241. For this reason he was called "the second founder of our country" by the Hungarians.
Béla was the eldest son of King András II of Hungary and his first wife, Gertrude of Merania. The infant Béla was probably present when a group of conspirators murdered his mother on 28 September 1213. Following the murder, his father ordered only the execution of the conspirators' leader and forgave the other members of the group, which resulted in Béla's emerging antipathy against his father.
In the beginning of 1214, he was crowned junior king. In 1220, Béla married Maria Laskarina, a daughter of the Emperor Theodore I Laskaris of Nicaea and his father entrusted him with the government of Slavonia. However, King András II, who had arranged Béla's marriage during his return from the Crusade, persuaded Béla to separate from his wife in 1222. Pope Honorius III, however, denied to declare their marriage null and void; therefore Béla took back his wife and escaped to Austria fearing his father's anger. Finally, King András II made an agreement with his son with the mediation of the Pope and Béla took over again the government of Slavonia, Dalmatia and Croatia.
In 1226, his father entrusted him with the government of Transylvania where he assisted the missionary work of the Blackfriars among the Cuman tribes who settled down in the territories west of the Dniester River. As a result of their missionary work, two chieftains of the Cumans, Bartz and Membrok were baptized and they acknowledged Béla's overlordship around 1228. During the early 1230s, Béla took part in the military expeditions of his father against Halych and Austria.
His relation with his father became even worse when King András II married, on 14 May 1234, Beatrice D'Este, who was thirty years younger. When his father died on 21 September 1235, Béla ascended the throne without any opposition and Archbishop Robert of Esztergom crowned him on 14 October in Székesfehérvár.
Béla's main purpose was to restore the royal power that had weakened during his father's rule; e.g., he ordered the burning of his advisors' seats, because he wanted to force them to stand in the presence of the king. As he also wanted to strengthen the position of the towns, he confirmed the charter of Székesfehérvár and granted new privileges to several key towns in the kingdom.
He sent Friar Julian to find the Magyar tribes who had remained in their eastern homeland. Friar Julian, after meeting with the eastern Magyars returned to Hungary in 1239 and informed Béla of the planned Mongol invasion of Europe. Béla wanted to take precautions against the Mongols; therefore he granted asylum, in Hungary, to the Cumans who had been defeated by the Mongols. However, the nomadic culture of the Cumans caused tensions between them and the Hungarians which became more and more acute. Béla tried to reinforce the eastern borders of his kingdom, but the Mongol troops, led by Batu Khan, managed to break through the frontier defenses on 12 March 1241. On hearing of the Mongols' successful attack, the citizens of Pest, who had been accusing the Cumans of cooperating with the Mongols, murdered Köten, the Khan of the Cumans; therefore the enraged Cumans began to plunder the countryside and they left the country. After the Cumans' departure, Béla could lead only a small army against the Mongols who defeated him in the Battle of Muhi on 11 April 1241. After his disastrous defeat, Béla fled to Pozsony and then to Hainburg where Duke Frederick II of Austria seized his treasury and enforced him to cede three western counties of his kingdom to Austria. Béla fled from Hainburg to Zagreb and he sent his envoys to the Emperor Frederick II and Pope Gregory IX to seek their assistance against the Mongols. He even offered to accept the overlordship of the Holy Roman Emperor in case he sent troops to Hungary, but none of the Western powers provided him any assistance. In the meantime, the Mongols were plundering the territories of the kingdom west of the Danube River. Moreover, in January, they could cross the frozen Danube and Béla had to flee from the Mongol troops. The Mongols attacked the Dalmatian cities for the next few years but eventually withdrew without major success, as the mountainous terrain and distance were not suitable for Mongol warfare. After failure against Croatian soldiers, Mongols retreated and Béla IV awarded Croatian towns and nobility. Anyway, much of Hungary and Croatia was plundered by the Mongols, but without any major military success.
Following the Mongol invasion of Hungary, Béla broke with his former internal policy. Based on the experiences of the occupation, he began to grant estates to his partisans, but simultaneously he also obliged them to build up fortresses there, because only fortresses could resist the conquerors. He also encouraged the towns to protect themselves by erecting walls. He called back the Cumans to Hungary and granted them the deserted territories between the Rivers Danube and Tisza. Because of his successful internal policy, he is greatly respected in Hungary and commonly known as "the second founder" of the kingdom.
Already in 1242, he could lead his troops against Duke Frederick II of Austria. During his campaign, he managed to reoccupy Sopron and Kőszeg and he compelled the duke to renounce the three counties he had occupied during the Mongol invasion.
Upon his request, Pope Gregory IX absolved Béla of his oath he had taken to the Holy Roman Emperor during the Mongol invasion on 21 August 1245. Shortly afterwards, Duke Frederick II of Austria, who did not give up his claims to the western counties of the Kingdom of Hungary, launched an attack against Hungary. Although, he could defeat the Hungarian troops in a battle by the Leitha River, he died in the battle. With his death, the male line of the House of Babenberg became extinct, and a struggle commenced for the rule over Austria and Styria. Béla decided to intervene in this struggle and arranged a marriage between Gertrude of Austria, the niece of the deceased Duke Frederick II of Austria, and Roman Danylovich, a son of Prince Danylo of Halych. In 1252, he led his armies against Austria and occupied the Vienna Basin. However, King Ottokar II of Bohemia, whose wife was Margaret, the sister of Duke Frederick II, also declared his claim to the two duchies. Béla made a campaign against Moravia and based on the provision of the following peace Wiener Neustadt and the Duchy of Styria came under Béla's rule.
Béla had had his eldest son, István crowned junior king already in 1246, but he did not want to share the royal power with his son. However, István recruited an army against his father and persuaded Béla to cede him the government of Transylvania in 1258.
In the same year, the Styrians, who would have preferred the rule of the King of Bohemia, rose against Béla's reign, but his troops suppressed their rebellion. After his victory, Béla appointed his son to Duke of Styria. Nevertheless, the Styrians rebelled against the rule of the King of Hungary again with the support of King Otakar II. Béla and his son commenced a military campaign against King Otakar II's lands, but their troops were defeated on 12 July 1260 in the Battle of Kressenbrunn. Following the battle, Béla renounced his claim to the Duchy of Styria on behalf of the King of Bohemia in the Peace of Pressburg.
Béla favoured his younger son, Duke Béla and his daughter, Anna, the mother-in-law of the King of Bohemia; therefore his relationship with his elder son was getting tense. The two kings (father and son) began to harass the other's partisans, and their clash seemed inevitable. Finally, the two kings signed an agreement in the summer of 1262 in Pozsony. Based on the agreement, István V took over the government of the parts of the Kingdom East of the Danube. However, their reconciliation was only temporary. In 1264, the junior king attached his mother's and sister's estates in his domains. Béla sent troops against his son, whose wife and son were soon captured, while István had to retreat to the Castle of Feketehalom. However, the young king managed to repel the siege of his father's troops and to commence a counter-attack. István V won a strategic victory over Béla's troops in the Battle of Isaszeg in March 1265 and in the subsequent peace Béla was obliged to cede the government of the Eastern parts of his kingdom again to his son.
Béla lost his favourite son in the summer of 1269. Afterwards, his favourite daughter, Anna exercised more and more influence over him. In his last will, Béla entrusted his daughter and his followers to her son-in-law, King Otakar II of Bohemia, because he did not trust his son. Béla died on the 3rd of May 1270.

 

[keneticpest]

So we meet again.
My download will not run at all, no matter which way I try it.
Could you tell me how you formatted the Huns mod so I can structure it like that, that way is so much easier too install on mods like Neoteric World for example.

 

[cool3a2]

So we meet again.
My download will not run at all, no matter which way I try it.
Could you tell me how you formatted the Huns mod so I can structure it like that, that way is so much easier too install on mods like Neoteric World for example.

Not sure what you mean actually. You just need to download the exe file and run it. An installer will show up leading you through the install process. If you want to merge it, well, the problem will be the citylsystem and the plotlsystem files. Those can't be made modular, so you need to carefully copy and paste together all the desired code. Besides of this, there should be no difference between the Hun mods and this mods structure. There might be a few additional xmls, but nothing serious. If you'd elaborate a little on your problem, I could help you better.

 

[cool3a2]

I have worked on Álmos last weekend and ported this mod to the paprika modcomp. See attachment for Álmos, I thing it is the best I can get out of it. Regarding the Paprika modcomp, everything seems to work fine, so I am optimistic that it will introduce a modding standard to my mods which eases merging of unique building art. The only building I didn't touch was the harbour art. Although I might take a look at the portuguese feitoria. If I'm not entirely wrong, it's an harbour replacing ub, thus there might be a way how to support harbours through Paprika. Note: nothing of these changes is available yet.