Modular Mods (simple to disseminate!!)

[Milan's Warrior]

I have the following idea:
allow for modular mods to be disseminated in an easy way.
What do I mean?
e.g. of a new Civ, allow to wrap up all what you need for a civ in one file (or one folder) and allow that to enter the epic game

e.g. of a new UU, same thing, allow to wrap up all what you need for a new civ and circulate it like that.

The idea is to simplify the way in which mods are written and circulated, but allowing to mod only one aspect and than to ciculate it. The player than will put together the mods piecemeal.

The idea is similar to what happens in SimCity, where you can just create a new building and make it available for everybody to load and to use with building created by other people

 

[rhialto]

Problem is, mods aren't necessarily compatoble. What if one mod renames a unit that another mod is expecting to be there, breaking teh upgrade path? Thats just one of teh more basic problems.

 

[warpstorm]

For the most part you can distribute your PTW and C3C mods today by wrapping up everything in one subdirectory (plus the scenario file). Like rhialto said, since there is nothing that ensures that my mod will work with anyone elses (for example, I know mine doesn't play well with SnOOpy's) I'm not sure what you are asking for that is any different than what exists today. The biggest improvement would be to make the scenario file more modular, but that has it's own technical issues. To further complicate things Civ4 mods will also allow code changes. I suspect that simplicity of modding will not be the highest priority (as oppsed to increasing the power of mods).

 

[Tholish]

I'd like it if the editor worked for more things like buildings do in the C3C editor, where you see a list of available options right there in the editor, from out of the Pedialcons. (And can somebody please rename the file "Pedialcons?") If it was easy enough, you could mod at the speed at which you could think without having to do a bunch of typing and cutting and pasting. It would be about designing the game rather than drudgery. Its getting harder, eh?

 

[Juka The Dumb]

the scenario editor in c3c is a pain in the ...,if you want custom stuff.they should make it easier.i mean,you have to write manually where your tech will appear(coordinates!) in your science advisor screen.thats just the first thing that came to my mind right now..

 

[warpstorm]

And how would you tell it where to put it? Graphically? Very, very often when using graphical only editors I wish they had a way for me to put in numbers exactly. Whenever I build GUI builders I always build the numerical inputs system also because in the long run you are going to need it.

 

[warpstorm]

Its getting harder, eh?

I assume that except for simple map editing, you'll need to program to make your mods.

 

[Tholish]

If that's so then there will be people modding the editor itself, meaning it will get easier.