[BTS] mod question about city graphics

[civofthedead1979]

for my mod, i dont have settlers, but i want to have workers who can build a temporary military camp. will essentially work the same as a new city, but i want to implement my own look for it. i have made a camp nif asset in blender and nifskope, but cant figure out how to add it in place of the in game city asset, or can i add it in myself instead of replacing the current 'city' nif file

 

[Nightinggale]

It's a bit unclear what precisely you want to do from a game mechanics point of view. Do you want to replace cities with camps or do you want to have cities and camps? If you don't have settlers, how do you plan on making new cities?

If you really want two types of cities, you might be entering a realm, which can only be modded by the DLL. You might consider something camps being cities and then "real" cities having buildings you can't actually build to make them act and look different. You might also use different styles to get different graphics, though I suspect the DLL will require modding if one player can have more than one style.

I think you need to make clear what precisely you want to do if you want answers specific enough to be really useful.

 

[civofthedead1979]

It's a bit unclear what precisely you want to do from a game mechanics point of view. Do you want to replace cities with camps or do you want to have cities and camps? If you don't have settlers, how do you plan on making new cities?

If you really want two types of cities, you might be entering a realm, which can only be modded by the DLL. You might consider something camps being cities and then "real" cities having buildings you can't actually build to make them act and look different. You might also use different styles to get different graphics, though I suspect the DLL will require modding if one player can have more than one style.

I think you need to make clear what precisely you want to do if you want answers specific enough to be really useful.

so, in my mod, i dont have settlers, all the 'cities' exist on the map already from the start, you cant raze them and you cant build new ones. think total war campaign map. the object is to capture them. most of the plots are already occupied by 'barbarians'.
what i want to do instead is have workers be able to build a camp anywhere on the map, (like the outpost you can build in total war) like you would a new city, but you cant add buildings to it, but you can work the land around it. i cant find anything in the XML files or art files. if this is a part of the game you cant mod. can i add a building asset you can build on any plot on the map?

 

[Nightinggale]

The simplest approach to this is to make a building, which you can't build and manually add it to all starting cities. Next you set all buildable stuff (buildings, wonders, units etc) to require this building. If you found a new city, it will lack this special building, meaning while it has a construction queue, it won't have anything to add to the queue. The benefit of this approach is that it can be done in xml only.

Next question is about graphics. One obvious solution would be to make two art styles, one for cities and one for camps. However...

ArtStyleTypes CvCity::getArtStyleType() const
{
   return GET_PLAYER(getOwnerINLINE()).getArtStyleType();
}

Each city will use the art style of the owner and to change that you need to mod the DLL itself. It's impossible to change from python. In other words you either need DLL changes or you can forget about the art style approach.

The only other approach I can think of is to add one or more buildings to the cities and make those buildings display the difference. I will not rule out that there are other ways to hack graphical differences into the city graphics but I can't think of anything.

 

[civofthedead1979]

The simplest approach to this is to make a building, which you can't build and manually add it to all starting cities. Next you set all buildable stuff (buildings, wonders, units etc) to require this building. If you found a new city, it will lack this special building, meaning while it has a construction queue, it won't have anything to add to the queue. The benefit of this approach is that it can be done in xml only.

Next question is about graphics. One obvious solution would be to make two art styles, one for cities and one for camps. However...

ArtStyleTypes CvCity::getArtStyleType() const
{
   return GET_PLAYER(getOwnerINLINE()).getArtStyleType();
}

Each city will use the art style of the owner and to change that you need to mod the DLL itself. It's impossible to change from python. In other words you either need DLL changes or you can forget about the art style approach.

The only other approach I can think of is to add one or more buildings to the cities and make those buildings display the difference. I will not rule out that there are other ways to hack graphical differences into the city graphics but I can't think of anything.

what if i was to modify the nif file for the fort that the worker builds and change it so i can build anywhere? could i do that, and if so, where do i go in XML? i cant find fort under buildings, i think its under improvements, but i dont know where to look.

 

[PPQ_Purple]

Honestly I think you should look at Rise from Erebus and in particular the Kuoritates settlement system. It's DLL work but it's similar to what you want.

 

[Dancing Hoskuld]

so, in my mod, i dont have settlers, all the 'cities' exist on the map already from the start, you cant raze them and you cant build new ones. think total war campaign map. the object is to capture them. most of the plots are already occupied by 'barbarians'.
what i want to do instead is have workers be able to build a camp anywhere on the map, (like the outpost you can build in total war) like you would a new city, but you cant add buildings to it, but you can work the land around it. i cant find anything in the XML files or art files. if this is a part of the game you cant mod. can i add a building asset you can build on any plot on the map?

In Super Forts by Red Key forts spread culture and claim plots. This gives the plots to your nation.

 

[civofthedead1979]

i have made the graphic for the military camp, very basic right now, the asset exists in the game, instead of complicating things, i have added yield changes, and prereq nature yields etc. basically you'll need a plot with 2 food to build the camp, you cant build on tundra, snow or desert, this brings terrain into play. it will also cost you 2 coin, but if you have banking you get 1 coin back. but the thing i am struggling with to get in the game, is to set a prereq tech for it. i see that forts has mathematics, i want to set military tradition as the prereq tech, as it seems you have to have one to be able to build it, but cant find where i put this in the xml files. does anyone know?