Modders Guide to Beyond the Sword

[Civmansam]

WOW!!

Amazing write up, looks like I have a ton of work.

I can't think of a expansion that has features suited more perfectly for the Star Wars Mod. Oh well, writing everything again will be a drag. But the new features more than make up for it.

My favorite thing is the formationinfos and the CityLSystem though. I don't know how many hours I spent on those, and I still haven't gotten them right

 

[Methos]

Excellent work Kael!

I was getting ready to request that this thread be stickied when I noticed it already was. BTW, if this is what you do when your on a break, I wonder about when your actually working on something!

 

[Kael]

My favorite thing is the formationinfos and the CityLSystem though. I don't know how many hours I spent on those, and I still haven't gotten them right

You are so right. I am so annoyed everytime I go back to work on the vanilla version of FfH2 that I have to keep these up to date. I can't wait to get all switched over and never have to touch these files again.

 

[methane]

Nice guide Kael!

Looking over the event information, are numbers like # of cities required or # of units required automatically scaled by map size, or will something that requires 7 cities on huge map also require 7 on small maps?

 

[thomas.berubeg]

thanks for witing this up. it will eb usefull.

 

[Kael]

Kael, can you confirm if Civ4SeasonsInfo actually allows seasons during the games. A yes/no will be enough to keep me going.

One of my scenario stumbling points is seasons, so hopefully BtS answers my prayers

The current CIV4BasicInfos.xml file defines a lot of different object types. For BtS Firaxis broke these out to seperate files. The Seasons file is exactly the Seasons section from the old BasicInfos file, nothing more. So it doesn't give you access to anything you didn't already have.

So you now have a UnitCombat file, Invisible file, etc. But they are just the same data you had in CIV4BasicInfos.xml seperated out.

 

[Shqype]

Holy guacamole! This is absolutely amazing!

I'm really impressed with many of the new features that will be in BtS, and I'm impressed with the dedication that went into creating this job.

Excellent work!

 

[strategyonly]

Sounds like one heck of alot of cuttin' and pastin',

Good job on the Guide, i agree with Methos, "if this is what you do when your on a break, I wonder about when your actually working on something!"

 

[seZereth]

good work Kael!
now we only need People who make use of it

 

[Ball Lightning]

Fantastic!

 

[GarretSidzaka]

thanks Kael!

 

[salaminizer]

awesome! man, I'm your fan. (and kudos to the other 2)

the most interesting feature for me is the bcanMoveAll or whatever is the name.. now THAT will allow me to continue with my ideas now I just need to plan everything and wait for BtS

 

[yatta77]

Very interesting. Thanks! Threads like this are what the "Download this Thread" tool is for.

The part about the Modular XML Loading is the one I think is going to be the most useful for me when I'm going to update my mod for BtS. It seems to simplify a lot the XML modding, also if I think I'll need some time to read and understand the new xml modding mechanics. Can't wait to check some other people work and comments, and try some of my ideas.

 

[dutchking]

10.4 LeaderHeads

iEspionageWeight- Sets that AI leaders preference for espionage
iFreedomAppreciation- Sets the AI leaders preference for colonization
FavoriteReligion- Sets the AI leaders favorite religion

This was DESPERATELY needed since Vanilla! I'm sick of Isabella founding Buddhism!

 

[Chuggi]

Yeah, I know I was vague in writing that section. There is a scenario that uses that functionality, but I haven't been able to figure out how to do it. I dont think you can change animations through it so your horse idea wouldnt work.

The only way I can figure out to get a unit to appear on horseback or not would be to have 2 seperate models, one mounted and one not. Then you would need and SDK change to intercept where the art definition is pulled and redirect it to another art definition if the unit has the promotion.

Impaler could probably put something together like that in a few minutes. It actually wouldn't be hard to create a unit art style on a promotion that would cause units with that promotion to use that unit art style. So if a swordsman has the "mounted" promotion he uses the UNIT_ART_DEF_SWORDSMAN_MOUNTED model instead of the normal one. Or a wizard that has the undead promotion uses the UNIT_ART_DEF_LICH model instead of the normal one, etc.

The big change in BtS (thanks to Impalers code) is that you don't need new units for all of this, just art definitions. It makes it so much simpliar.

More detail on the promotion section would be great but I guess we'll have to wait until it's released before we rip the scenarios apart to see how it works. It would definitely be easier for it to be directed to a new unit rather than extra models attached to the original though, so I hope Impaler considers it - but it makes sense that Firaxis did it the other way, to avoid having multiple units.

I agree that the art definitions, and the formation file change are the greatest improvements lazy modders like me could ever wish for.

 

[Dom Pedro II]

This is just... wow... that's all I can say. I'm extremely excited about promotions being able to change unit art. This is not only really cool, it was something that was absolutely critical for my mod and I've been struggling to find a way to make it work.

I thank you not only because you provided this here, but because I would imagine that some of this great stuff for modders was included because you guys, in developing your mods for the expansion, asked for the power to make these changes. And for that, I thank you very much!

 

[Solver]

Heh, I found out by accident that it's been published

It's been a pleasure writing my part of the guide. I really hope this gives the modding community a jump-start.

 

[wotan321]

Wow. No, let me rephrase that.... WOW!

I'll buy BTS just for the events portion. This is simply fantastic, thanks for all the hard work putting this guide together, and to the x-pack designers for implementing these changes.

 

[Morgawr]

iAIValue- is a number. Reflects the AI trigger value for this event.
[/indent][/QUOTE]

What does this trigger exactly do? I'm not a modder but I'm very interested in the random events + improved AI in BTS and I was wondering whether this means the AI also gets random events? I think it would be unfair if the AI didn't get to take advantage of the bonuses these random events (may) provide.

 

[Solver]

The AI does, of course, get random events. It gets the penalties and bonuses as much as you do.