Modding Civ 4 (preferably bts) new civs, maps, mods

[deekay]

Hi civ friends, my name is Mikhael.

I want to customize Civ IV BTS and need some help.

What i want: I want to play custom games not scenarios and i wand to add new civilizations to choose from and to play against/with. That means i want to make them available in the custom game setup screen. Is that possible? How do i approach this if it is possible?

I already found new and neat maps. Was also able to load into them / to choose them in the custom game setup screen.

For my mod questions. I'd like to use the better AI mod together with BTS and new civilizations.

Is this what i want possible?

Thanks for your help.
Mikhael

 

[lymond]

You might get some help here, but really this is a better place for your questions:

https://forums.civfanatics.com/forums/civ4-creation-customization.158/

Tons of modding has been done to this game over the years, much of which does what you are asking. You may find an existing "kitchen-sink" mod that does most of what you want, maybe even with better AI mod included. If not you can find the tools and assistance you need over in that mod forum. Mod components exist, I'm sure, that facilitate your needs, so it is just a matter of understanding how to put it all together. (I'm not a modder myself)

 

[deekay]

Thank you. Should i just copy my thread over there? Or could you please move my thread?

Previously i've made some modding to C&C red alert 2. modding this little cute game was way easier. I could just jump in and even edit the very core of the game. Guess thats not possible with Civ IV. Its all packed into .dll and not .ini as it seems.
I'd so want to edit out those pre modern civilizations like inca, and maya and just replace them to modern civs. But i am fine with just adding new civs. This is possible but from what i read i have to play scenarios then.

 

[lymond]

I requested a thread move for you.

I'm pretty sure you can add new civs and remove civs. Heck ..a lot of the big mods have a bunch of new civs or majorly changed cast of civs. You might want to peruse some of the popular big mods out there. You may find what you need.

Pretty sure there is a way to modify DLL but requires more complex modding stuff. Don't think that is required for adding civs though.

Civ IV is very moddable..lol. Thousands and thousands of mods out there.

 

[deekay]

Guess i found something interesting. I supposedly even can edit existing Civilizations by modding the .xml files. I'll read me into that. But that just as a sidenote. I still want to just add new civs and to be able to play with/against them in customgames in combination with better ai mod.

I'll just wait until my thread is moved. Thank you again!

Moderator Action: Welcome to CivFanatics. Moved to Civ4 C&C. Best of luck in your modding. leif

 

[PPQ_Purple]

Start from here: https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/msmd-how-to-create-a-mod-video-demo.262402/
Than proceed to this: https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/downloading-installing-a-playing-a-new-civ.178919/
Than look at this: https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/adding-multiple-civs.635957/#post-15208057
And finally visit this section to get what civs you want: https://forums.civfanatics.com/resources/categories/civ4-new-civilizations.6/

 

[keldath]

use kmod.

its what you want.

best ai mod ever to civ4 with core fixes no gameplay changes to bts much.

 

[Nightinggale]

Pretty sure there is a way to modify DLL but requires more complex modding stuff. Don't think that is required for adding civs though.

The DLL is fully modable. All you have to do is to download the source code and the compiler and you are good to go. In theory installing the compiler is just following a guide (like mine), but it seems a number of people have major problems with this. There is a bit of a learning curve to complex modding, but you can do more or less everything. For instance I'm currently working on a full scale xml modding tool, which is actually a mod itself. You can read more here, though while it can be used already, it's not done yet.

However to add a new civilization, all you have to do is to copy xml/civilizations/civ4civilizationinfos.xml from vanilla to your mod and then open it. You can copy paste an existing civilization and as long as Type is unique, the game will view them as unique and add them to the ingame lists. If multiple have the same Type, the last one will be used, but with the index of the first. I highly recommend against this as it makes confusing xml files. You can also use the editor and click clone on a civilization. That will provide the same result as copy pasting. However handling Type when adding more entries is one of the parts, which needs some improvements.

Civ IV is very moddable..lol. Thousands and thousands of mods out there.

Yeah. For a while I considered it the most modable game I have ever encountered. Now I'm not sure if it's civ4 or Rimworld, which should have that title, but civ4 is certainly way more modable than most games.

 

[deekay]

Thank you for all the replies. dont have much time during the week, but ill definetely read me through all this. either k-mod or the manual way.

@Nightinggale, ok, as far as i understood .dll is that they are not that easy decompileable. as that the code gets corrupt during decompiling. some say you need to have huge programming skills and often you need to rewrite stuff from scratch. dunno.

.ini modding as i did in C&C was very easy. i consider the .xml modding as easy, its just there are lots of dependencies. if i have to add a civilization ill have to work me trough several process, but still fine. but .py or .dll requires some more serious programming skills, which i dont have unfortunately

 

[Nightinggale]

@Nightinggale, ok, as far as i understood .dll is that they are not that easy decompileable. as that the code gets corrupt during decompiling. some say you need to have huge programming skills and often you need to rewrite stuff from scratch. dunno.

If you look into the online talk about decompiling, you will learn that there are tools, which provides decent results. However this only applies to managed code and civ4 is unmanaged. This means you need the source code for this from before it was compiled and luckily it has been released. Most mods includes a modified source code as well. You should likely start with something like K-mod, meaning you should use the source files included in that mod.

 

[Kjotleik]

What i want: I want to play custom games not scenarios and i wand to add new civilizations to choose from and to play against/with.

I added some civilizations/leaders from various modders into the BBAI mod some time ago. 13 Civs/28 leaders in total.
The project is currently on hold. I will try to find some time during christmas to continue adding some more civs/leaders.

If you want to play with more than 18 civs at once, I've included the 50-civ dll. Re-name it to use it instead of the original file.

Also, the PerfectWorld2f mapscript by cephalo is included here. I think it's a good one, so I use it a lot.

Civs/leaders by veBear, dacubz145, cybrxkhan, Anima Croatorum and john0452.
Take a look in the Credits-folder for credits.

download-link:
Better BUG AI vK

 

[PPQ_Purple]

And what ever you do make bloody sure your mod or what ever mod you are using also includes Varietas Delectat. It's the mod that makes CIV look beautiful.

 

[deekay]

I added some civilizations/leaders from various modders into the BBAI mod some time ago.

Just tried that mod as it comes. And i've noticed, that there are new civ's and leader's available. However those are just as "non-saying" as zulu, inca, maya e.g. But maybe i can just rewrite the added civ's into something i desire. I'd like to have all the current big countries. Canada, Mexico, Australia, Africa, etc. I dont wanna put civs in there that got nullified by date. So any pre historic civ's i'd like to edit out. But i think i can start with your mod doing so. Could you please elaborate the 50civ mod .dll? I didnt found it in the dl files.

make bloody sure your mod or what ever mod you are using also includes Varietas Delectat.

I'll check that too. Thank you

 

[Kjotleik]

But maybe i can just rewrite the added civ's into something i desire. I'd like to have all the current big countries. Canada, Mexico, Australia, Africa, etc. I dont wanna put civs in there that got nullified by date. So any pre historic civ's i'd like to edit out. But i think i can start with your mod doing so. Could you please elaborate the 50civ mod .dll? I didnt found it in the dl files.

You are free to change what I've done as much as you want.

Attached file should visualize how to enable up to 50 civs in one game. Just re-name those two files, and you're good to go.

 

[deekay]

All right thank you. Ill probably have time at the weekend testing it

btw. i thought about changing leader attributes too, to make some leaders more superior over others.
Any quick advice what attributes i should give to those leaders? Or what attributes i should take away from leaders i want to turn out to be weaker?