M:C Monkey Work (XML editing)

[Kailric]

For anyone out there that would like to contribute to this Mod and knows a little about XML editing or adding Art here is a list of things that can be done, and I'll add more as it comes up. If you would like to contribute just post here what your are working on.

Lots of Civilopedia Entries filled in

Unit, Buildings, Professions, etc.

LeaderHeadInfos adjusted for attitude and personality

A little research is needed perhaps to determine the type of personality each Leader has and adjust there attributes in CIV4LeaderHeadInfos.xml.

More Unit Art diversity

A lot of the Unit Art available want work with Col straight from download but can be fixed, however, if someone wanted to find the Art to use for the various Civ units then I'd be happy to fix them for Col use. Or, I can teach you how to fix them yourself.

 

[Trade Winds]

Good idea to have a monkey-work-to-be-done list. When I finish with the tree, I’ll ask here what to do next, although I prefer to take up playable things first and leave colonopedia for latter.

 

[Lib.Spi't]

Ok So I was feeling crappy and not much like coding or being creative, so I thought I would do a trawling of the Civ Unit Art Section. Searching for things that are remotely feasible for a medieval setting.

Gondor Third Age Pack
Elamite Horned Warrior
Dunland Spearman
Mamluk Cavalry
Byzantine, Carthaginian, and Vietnamese Units
The Capos units, with some ancient and medieval models
Medieval Reskin Shop
Ottoman Units
Russian Units
Female Civilians (Missionaries)
3 Renaissance Cannons (Just incase you forgotrabout them muahahaha!)
Middle Eastern Units
'Possible Noble Woman'
Female Unique Units (not much here, but you might see something that you can use)
Medieval Reskin Thread
Knight Model
Renaissance Units (again you might see something for something)
Portugese Units
Bronze Age Units (the Spies might have a use)
Medieval Female Spies
Prussian Medieval Warlord
Rohirim Cavalry
Don't know if these are still even working, no pictures..
It's an archer on a giraffe...It had to be here right?
Byzantine dromon
Merged animation Unit Bow Spearman (I think)
Various 'Ancient Units' could find some uses maybe.
Stylish female swordswoman
French Units
Classical Age Units (Maybe some reskin uses)
Armies of the Dark Ages
A Kinght and a Footman
Crusader
Turks
A Nun
Berber, Spanish and Portugese
Medieval Militia
Jerusalem Knights
Crusaders
Tripoli Knight and Squire
Bakuel's Indian Units
Some Berber Units
Korean Hwarang
Helenic Elite Spearman
Hungarian/Persians
Ox Carts
Horseman
Viking
Spearman
Swedish Units
It's a dude riding a zebra! A freaking Zebra!
Greeks
Hungarian Settlers
Medieval Spaniards
Great Generals
Stone Age Units
Spanish Knight with a freakin big axe!
Ancient Iberians
Spearman
Legionary
Galleas
Korean Unit Pack
African Militia
Chinese Units
Various Unit Sets
Templar
Axeman
Wizards!
Unit Collection
highland swordsman
Crusaders
Conquistadors
Polynesian Medieval Units
Hungarian and Polynesian
Huscarl#
Sumerian, Korean, and Mayan Units. With an Aztec Jaguar
Medival Light Cavalry
Roman Republic
Persian Sassinids
Persian Achaeminids
Malakim Immortal
Barbarian Horseman
Medieval Americans
Medieval Arquebusier
Late Medieval Arquebusier
Norman Swordsman
Aquilonian Infantry and others
Medieval Germans


Ok that is everything from the first 10 pages of the units thread, I shall continue the Trawl at some other time!

 

[Lib.Spi't]

I will reserve this one as well just incase it gets too long for one!

 

[Kailric]

Thanks for the links. We are also going to need a Envoy unit, a Bandit Unit, and a Slaver unit (a Whip would be nice perhaps) for new professions.

 

[Lib.Spi't]

yeah there were some in there that would fit those (except maybe slaver) in that lot.

I will keep going through and drag out just about anything I can find and then whoever can go through and pick specifics or favourites.

 

[Nightinggale]

I have another monkey task:
Building/Unit yield demand
Units and buildings can require yields, which will then be sold at the domestic marked. Currently the DLL adds up all demands from all units and buildings in all cities in each plotgroup. That plotgroup then sells one unit for every 100 demand. There are some marked cap and other code to maximize profit within the cap, but that isn't important here.

The problem here is that so far virtually no demands have been added to XML, which mean this feature isn't active.

Example:

<YieldDemands>
	<YieldDemand>
		<YieldType>YIELD_TRADE_GOODS</YieldType>
		<iYieldDemand>5</iYieldDemand>
	</YieldDemand>
</YieldDemands>

This will provide 5 demand for trade goods. 20 of such buildings in a plotgroup will then sell one yield combined (presumably a bit low). Each unit/building can make a demand for multiple yields. The XML read code for this is copy paste meaning both buildings and units use the same type of XML setup for this. Good for monkeys even though it was actually designed that way to make it easier to code the DLL.

Kailric has said a few times that he would look at this, but so far he has been busy with other (great) stuff. Maybe it would be fine if somebody else propose a solution for this. I assume we need to set this up, playtest, modify, playtest, modify etc until we feel balance is working. This mean whoever works on this shouldn't feel the pressure of delivering the final result in the first attempt.

 

[Kailric]

This is a good project too.

Kailric has said a few times that he would look at this, but so far he has been busy with other (great) stuff.

Yeah, I know, each time I started to work on it I had desires to add other things that could effect this, so I am attempting to knock all of those out first. We can add Civics that adds bonuses or negatives to this system and once I have a good feel for playing with this addition I can better decide what the Civics should do.

Like I mentioned, after I am done with Civics, I want to start a branch for Upkeep costs, then when that's done I will work on balancing the Economy.

We need more recruits. I am going to make a post on the Steam Colonization forums about this mod and attempt to get people to come check it out. It already gets 2 or more downloads everyday, which really impresses me since it is such an old game. Anyone else know were we may could find play testers, modders, or just people interested?

 

[Trade Winds]

Last Autumn before discovering the great M:C, I came from playing some BTS mods where they were trying to do more things with the yields around cities, even they tried to get counters to yields and trade them in quantities. That was a great idea until I remembered about Colonization and found M:C. So maybe some BTS moders could also be interested on this magnificent project.

 

[Kailric]

Last Autumn before discovering the great M:C, I came from playing some BTS mods where they were trying to do more things with the yields around cities, even they tried to get counters to yields and trade them in quantities. That was a great idea until I remembered about Colonization and found M:C. So maybe some BTS moders could also be interested on this magnificent project.

That is actually a great idea. I bet there is a bunch of modders that don't even know about M:C. I had no idea about the development of R&R till after the final release. You say , "trade them in quantities", what mod were you referring too?

 

[Lib.Spi't]

there are a few that do that now, Masters of Mana is one...Evolution of War is another.

 

[Nightinggale]

The yield concept in MoM is great, but somehow I feel like it spoils some gameplay as either the costs are way too high or I haven't figured out how to really use the system yet.

maybe some BTS moders could also be interested on this magnificent project.

I think a whole lot of people would be really interested. However I have no idea how to find those people and inform them where to look.

 

[orlanth]

I think it's true very few active modders visit this site; it could be there's a fairly big hidden potential audience of who own Civ4Col but stopped playing the vanilla version after release, and aren't aware there are good mods out there or don't know to search for them.

As an idea to find more modders, it could be good to ask Desura to open a modding page for Civ4Colonization and M:C. That way more people who own the game or are general modders could come across M:C and other mods of Col, without needing to know to intentionally search for Col mods first. http://www.desura.com/mods/add

You say , "trade them in quantities", what mod were you referring too?

I think that's referring to MoM mod where several Yields like Wood etc can use an empire-wide counter like Gold does currently. I don't know if it's possible to add other "global counter" Yields like this in Col.

In 2071 I added a YIELD_ENERGY with <bCargo>0 , which I hope will allow it to work as a local non-stored yield (ie Power Plant buildings produce x Energy per turn, and manufacturing professions use Energy in addition to their basic raw Yield as an input). The idea would be that a city's total manufacturing is limited by it's current Energy production per turn, so you'd need to discover and invest in advanced Energy development in order to develop big concentrations of heavy industry.

I've also been planning to have a unfavorable Yield Pollution which you want to avoid producing, and could also be good for the World History mod with this yield being "discovered" with the Industrial Revolution techs (or possibly even an "Unhealthiness" or "plague" mechanism in M:C). Most city professions would produce Pollution in addition to their main production yield; certain industrial Civics and the Consortium's Rapacious trait would give you a "bonus" to Pollution production rates, while Environmentalist Techs or Civics would reduce it. It would be an abstract non-stored Yield per city, but would have to provide some penalty like subtracting 1 Food production per 5 Pollution. I'm hoping it could be possible to do something like this with default EmphasizeInfos being set to "deemphasize Pollution". Does this sound reasonable or is it unlikely to be able to get working with the DLL?

 

[Kailric]

Thanks for all the info, I'll start spreading the word around and see if we can't get some more interest generated.

 

[Lib.Spi't]

The other side of recruitment, is finding the people who don't think they are good enough to be involved, and encouraging them to take part in these easy jobs.

 

[Kailric]

In 2071 I added a YIELD_ENERGY with <bCargo>0 , which I hope will allow it to work as a local non-stored yield (ie Power Plant buildings produce x Energy per turn, and manufacturing professions use Energy in addition to their basic raw Yield as an input). The idea would be that a city's total manufacturing is limited by it's current Energy production per turn, so you'd need to discover and invest in advanced Energy development in order to develop big concentrations of heavy industry.

I've also been planning to have a unfavorable Yield Pollution which you want to avoid producing, and could also be good for the World History mod with this yield being "discovered" with the Industrial Revolution techs (or possibly even an "Unhealthiness" or "plague" mechanism in M:C). Most city professions would produce Pollution in addition to their main production yield; certain industrial Civics and the Consortium's Rapacious trait would give you a "bonus" to Pollution production rates, while Environmentalist Techs or Civics would reduce it. It would be an abstract non-stored Yield per city, but would have to provide some penalty like subtracting 1 Food production per 5 Pollution. I'm hoping it could be possible to do something like this with default EmphasizeInfos being set to "deemphasize Pollution". Does this sound reasonable or is it unlikely to be able to get working with the DLL?

Two very interesting concepts there. YIELD_ENERGY could be tied in with my Upkeep ideas, so that instead of Spending Gold for Upkeep, in the future you have to have enough Energy instead. Energy output could be Empire wide with each Energy producing building or Effect being added to the Grid.

 

[Lib.Spi't]

It would be better if it could be connected to the plotgroup, rather than empire wide, that way you would have to produce energy on different continents etc.

 

[Kailric]

It would be better if it could be connected to the plotgroup, rather than empire wide, that way you would have to produce energy on different continents etc.

In the future Energy will be Wireless

I've created a M:C mod and family thread over at Civ4 creation forums, drop in and show it some love
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?p=13129912#post13129912

PS I've also created a thread on the Steam Colonization forums. It's cool, when I clicked on ScreenShots, pics of 2071 could be seen

 

[Lib.Spi't]

In the future Energy will be Wireless

In the future your butt will be wireless!

 

[Nightinggale]

In the future Energy will be Wireless

Speaking as an electrical engineer, I say you totally missed the concept if you refer to wireless power transportation across plots. The problem with wireless power transmission is that power loss depends on the squared distance. At a meter the loss is 50%. This mean the loss over two meters would be 87,5%. Imagine sending power across the street. If transfer goes between plotgroups, you would have to send the power at least two plots meaning a loss of 99,99% and then add a whole lot of 9s. In fact background noise would likely be picked up as the dominant power source in the receiver.

If wireless power has a future, then it would be something like electric busses being powered by the road. If we combine this with the capacitor based busses in Shanghai where the bus can drive for a few minutes without external power, we would have working solution. Electrical powered, yet it can drive across short unpowered sections, like road work detours, bridges or railroad crossing. The powergrid will never use it and the concept of having a TV without cables is just plain stupid. Not only will it be a waste of power, it will also make an electrical field, which might disturb phones, HDs and other electronics. Still somebody is working on making such a TV for unknown reasons. I would say it is a dead end just like previous experimental products like the hydrogen balloon with a steam powered propeller. It did consider how to avoid sparks from flying up to the balloon, but it just made it less likely, not impossible


As for attracting more people I really hope it works. We could really benefit from it and so can other people wanting our mods even though they don't know they want them yet.

In the future your butt will be wireless!

It currently is. That's called farting