Improved WorldBuilder

[AbsintheRed]

Caliom, I was experimenting with unique characters in the city names, and bumped into an unexpected issue
For example let the french capital spot called Páris instead of Paris
Even if the names are stored correctly in the python file, the game doesn't recongnize it. Behaves like there is no civ specific name for the plot, and adds a name from the generic french list instead.
In the same time, if you set that name manually while playing, it shows up perfectly.

So it shows up fine both ingame and in the python if it's set manually.
Thus the issue has to be somewhere in the RFC city name function, but I didn't find it
Do you have any idea regarding this?

 

[Caliom]

i'm no expert on this, but try this, it worked for me
in CityNameManager.py replace

city.setName(cityName, False)

with this

city.setName(unicode(cityName, 'latin-1'), False)

However the name is only displayed correctly on the city screen and not on the main screen.
Also landmarks seem to accept only ascii strings.

 

[AbsintheRed]

i'm no expert on this, but try this, it worked for me
in CityNameManager.py replace

city.setName(cityName, False)

with this

city.setName(unicode(cityName, 'latin-1'), False)

I will try right away

However the name is only displayed correctly on the city screen and not on the main screen.

Really?
Even with the latest svn version?

Also landmarks seem to accept only ascii strings.

That sounds really bad for city name editing in the wolrd builder

 

[AbsintheRed]

For me, at least these special characters work perfectly:
(both in the city screens/texts, and in the map)
ÁÂÄÉËÍÎÓÖÔÚÜßĐÇÝ
And characters ĂŐŰ and probably a couple others are still reasonably close on the map too
Same case for all their small conterparts of course

 

[AbsintheRed]

I'm not yet sure about it, but if I get it right, this is an issue with the dll font settings of the mod
If I manage to fix that, all latin-1 characters will show up correctly, even a couple others

About the landmarks:
Not sure what to do with it
Those special characters work correctly when set in the python files manually
But landmarks, thus your city name map tool currently cannot handle any of those characters
If any civ has a special char in it's name for a plot, that plot is uneditable in your tool for all civilizations

 

[Caliom]

I can fix that, actually i already did
only the landmark signs will not show the correct names.

I also did some other nice changes. Settler and warmaps are visible on the minimap now, lots of cleanup, and editable spawn areas. its almost stable. I have no time to write more detailed instructions now because i'm on the way on my holidays
i attach the current files, if your interested.

 

[AbsintheRed]

Sounds great!
Of course I'm interested
Will try it tonight
Have fun on your holiday!

 

[AbsintheRed]

Works perfectly, and an awesome job on it, again!
I especially like the minimap updates

 

[ezzlar]

A few noob questions about modding. I was thinking about learning how to do some simple stuff, so I have some questions:

- In what ways can you mod? What to start with?
- Add/remove buildings, starting units, starting techs, resources on map, starting gold. How do I change?

 

[merijn_v1]

Do you want to learn modding in general or RFC-modding?

IMO, XML modding is the easiest. There are several tutorials in the forums. If you only want to add things it's enough to know XML (for adding things in RFCE it also takes a bit python knowledge, but very little) For more advanced things you need to know python or C++.

Take a look here for example. This are a few examples of things you could do with only XML modding.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AqXyufVYme78dE9vM1VKWm14VTF5YURZOXZjckprSXc#gid=1

Spoiler :

The way I learned it is by try and error. Create a simple mod for yourself and try to add some things. To know what I had to do I looked something that something that was already coded. E.g. when I wanted to give a building a free specialist (let's say, a free scientist), I searched for a building that has a free specialist. I came up with the French Salon. I searched for the code that should do it and copy it to my new building. Al that's left was changing the artist to the scientist.
This works for almost every bonus you want to give new thing, that's already in the game somehow. Search for something that has it and give it to your new building/unit.

 

[ezzlar]

Thanks! But which are the xml files I should look at?

 

[merijn_v1]

That depends on what you want to do. And do you want to edit and RFC game or a "vanilla" mod?

 

[ezzlar]

I will devote my energy to RFCE!

Move resources on map. Change starting units and starting tech. Change starting gold. Change starting buildings.

I am mostly interested in the map.

 

[merijn_v1]

That's all (except moving resources) handled in the python. IIRC, all things are RiseAndFall.py . Take a look around there, most of the code you search for explain themselves. (Hint: Use ctrl-F "starting")


Moving resources on the map can be done with the WB save. Open the scenario file with a text editor and take a look around there. Try to search for a plot with a resource and look how the code looks like.

Hint:
To make the coordinates of the plots visible ingame, you should enable the cheatcode. If that's done, you can hoover over a tile with the mouse and press the shift or ctrl button. (I don't remember the correct one ATM, but it's certainly one of them)
Maybe enabling the "view grid lines" option (one of the buttons above the minimap) will help to.

 

[ezzlar]

Thanks again but after having edited a few files and played with the WB it seems that map changes can be done by editing in the WB map mode. Is that correct? Even war maps and settler maps can be edited there.

 

[Michael Vick]

Thanks again but after having edited a few files and played with the WB it seems that map changes can be done by editing in the WB map mode. Is that correct? Even war maps and settler maps can be edited there.

Yes, to use your edited settler, war, or city name maps you must save the changes in world builder, then replace the RFCEMaps file in the XML with the XML file that is created in the worldbuilder save folder, renaming this new file "RFCEMaps", of course. To simply edit terrain and resources for your game, load the Byzantines and make your changes without touching the civ, then save in worldbuilder. When you load that worldbuilder save, you get the choice of civs again and its like another version of RFCE with your own map.

 

[AbsintheRed]

Both Merijn and Michael are wrong in a couple parts

That's all (except moving resources) handled in the python. IIRC, all things are RiseAndFall.py . Take a look around there, most of the code you search for explain themselves. (Hint: Use ctrl-F "starting")

Starting gold for all civs, and starting units/cities for France and Byzantium are handled in the WBSave file (partly or completely, among with a couple other small things)
Anyway, most of the rest is in rhysandfall.py, that's true

Yes, to use your edited settler, war, or city name maps you must save the changes in world builder, then replace the RFCEMaps file in the XML with the XML file that is created in the worldbuilder save folder, renaming this new file "RFCEMaps", of course. To simply edit terrain and resources for your game, load the Byzantines and make your changes without touching the civ, then save in worldbuilder. When you load that worldbuilder save, you get the choice of civs again and its like another version of RFCE with your own map.

The most important thing when changing the WBS file is not to simply overwrite it
Each time you save in the World Builder, the initial starting units for France, the starting golds, etc. will be added once again. Obviously this will kill balance after a couple changes/saves.
You have to merge in your changes manually in RFCE
It's actually quite easy after you get to know exactly what to look for

The settler and war maps are entirely different then the WBS save file.
With Caliom's tool, a .py file is also created.
The RFCEmaps.py can be overwritten with that, but instead of that I like to merge in the changes in that file too

 

[merijn_v1]

If you make the changes to the map directly in the scenario file (with a text editor, not by the WB), you don't get extra starting units for Byzantium and France.

 

[AbsintheRed]

I will devote my energy to RFCE!

Move resources on map. Change starting units and starting tech. Change starting gold. Change starting buildings.

I'm interested in resource changes for the main mod too
Want to have better resource distribution/balance on couple parts of the map

I hope you use the latest SVN version, made quite a few balance changes - including starting units and techs - since RFCE 1.0
I plan to release the next version in a month

 

[AbsintheRed]

Hey Caliom!
A couple days ago I made some small changes in your province visualizations too, connected to Latin-1 support
I was also thinking about some other small improvements:

First, the visibility maps. IMO it would be great if it also shows the upcoming visible map for the unborn civs.
Would be nice for testing purposes, without save or anything else, just for a visual check for them in 500AD

The other would be adding the general signs to the city name map lists of the given spots
It is already stored and restored, and would make some of the updates much easier
What do you think?