Is it difficult?

[emil209]

Do you need to be some sort of programmer to understand how to make an own civilazation? I have downloaded the toolpack etc, and all i need to know now is how to actually create a new civ. If you dont need to be a pogramer, can someone tell me how? Otherwise im domed

 

[Emerald_Knight]

Reading Kael's guide would be a great place to start creating your own civ! The link is in the Tutorial section.

 

[emil209]

so you mean that I need to be a programer to make a mod? If I understand the whole thing right, I need to understand LUA programing if im supposed to understand how to make an mod?

 

[jaldaen]

I made a civilization mod without any substantial programming background (I made a Portugal mod for Colonization... that's it). I also highly recommend Keal's Guide in the Tutorial section. For civs you just have to learn XML (or SQL depending on preference)... I haven't needed to mess with Lua at all. Most of the XML coding is straightforward and Modbuddy does a good job of letting you know when something is wrong with squiggly red underlines

PS: That doesn't mean there isn't a lot of trial and error... there is, especially if you are making something unique.

 

[varus]

I won't lie, it's hard.

If you basically cut and paste from other modders you can get it done, but it's still not easy. And even then, if you want to do something original, good luck.

There are tons and tons of stupid little things that are very hard to figure out. I have no less than 4 "please help me" threads going right now. They are on stupid things like where to find files in the original game, how to move my mod so that it stops dumping files on my desktop, how to get .dds files to open, blah blah blah.

There is a LOT of headache if you don't already have a programmer's mind. I think the biggest problem with a lot of the guys that are writing guides and answering questions is that they are way too experienced to understand how confusing this is to the little guy.

For me, even the guides go way over my head because the writers usually skip steps that are obvious to them. It's really hard to dumb down your thinking to put it into perspective for someone who just doesn't understand.

Case in point:
The only thing I have been able to mod successfully is Kael's own celtia mod. I did that because all I had to do was cut and paste from his guide right into modbuddy. Anything that I have tried to do myself has failed, mostly because I just don't know how all these operators work.

 

[emil209]

Thank you Varus, that was the answer I was looking for.
And Jaldaen, I dont even know what I should press in the modbuddy to get up the XML files in the first place :S The only thing I know is pressing "New project", "empty mod" and then writting the name and subscriptings. After that, its a big blue field and blank text fields to the right. So I just simple cant understand this I guess

 

[emil209]

ohh, right, one last thing.
Creating a map was waaayyyy easier than making a mod, my map works perfectly on my civ but how do I publish it?