Mod inside a Mod ?

[Pomphis]

I recently found History in the Making and like it, but miss some stuff from other mods. I just noticed that once running HitM it offers me the option to load a mod like BtS does. Does this mean that I could load for example the navy mod to run HitM with navy ?

How about other mods ?

 

[MikalJ]

I could be corrected on this, but I think that loading a mod in this way replaces HitM as the currently active mod.
To merge mods, you have to do it manually/request the author adds those features, IIRC.

 

[lymond]

^^^this is correct.

 

[Pomphis]

Thank you. So I guess I will have to learn how to copy units from another mod into HitM. Does somebody know whether there is a tutorial specifically for this somewhere ? And maybe for copying buildings and wonders too ?

 

[vincentz]

https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/guide-adding-new-units.139721/

 

[Pomphis]

Thank you, but that is about creating a new unit. I assume copying is similar enough, but is there nothing about copying ? Basically I want to add some ships to the steam age, for example the Ironclad Cruiser from Legends of Revolution or the Ironclad Frigate from the Navy mod.

I also have problems with understanding beginning with

"First of all you must unpak the Art0.fpk file using the PakBuild Utility to get the unit. Since new models can't be created you will have to use an existing one. Copy the whole ...arts/units/warrior folder from the unpaked .fpk file and paste it in your assets folder (either of your mod or the custom one) keeping the file structure."

What and where is a PakBuild Utility ? Where do I find Art0.fpk ? What means "paste it .. keeping the file structure" ? How is that different from just pasting ?

When I google PakBuild Utility I get this thread https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/civ4-pakbuild.136023/ which mentions quite a few problems.

 

[vincentz]

I think the best way to learn is by looking at an example. Try to look in downloads folder for something that is "modular". Thats an easy way of adding stuff.
You can download my mod (see sig) and see what I did with the star wars units. They are in the assets/modules/starwars folder.

Basically what you need for a unit is:

In XML/Units folder
CIV4UnitInfos.xml (the file that describes what the unit can do, and what it is)
CIV4UnitClassInfos.xml (the class of unit and if there are special rules how many of a certain kind you can have)

In XML/Art folder
CIV4ArtDefines_Unit.xml (this describes which 3d model and animations and scale of the unit)

and then you need the actual 3d model, which usually is in art folder somewhere. its a NIF (3d model) file with some KFM and KF files (animations) and some DDS files (textures).

Hope it helps a bit

 

[Pomphis]

That looks quite helpful, thank you.