Navigable Rivers?

[binhthuy71]

Can rivers in BtS be made navigable? A trip through BtS\Assets\XML\Terrains seems to rule out a simple change in xml. I don't know Python so any solution requiring it would have be cut and paste. If possible, I'd like to make it a feature of the basic game rather than having to load anything other than a simple mod that makes ships capable of sailing on rivers.
I would appreciate any help or suggestions (Other than "Learn Python") that you all can offer.

 

[Androrc the Orc]

I would like to see that as well. Specially with ships that can only navigate in rivers. IIRC the idea of making rivers navigable has been brought up sporadically since the oldest versions of Civ, but Civ4 is the first Civ game with enough moddability to allow this.

 

[Dom Pedro II]

It can be done in the SDK for sure, but the big problem is getting it to look right...

 

[Voyhkah]

It can be done in the SDK for sure, but the big problem is getting it to look right...

I see your point. This is something I've always wanted, so someone tell me if/when the modcomp comes out. Seems like it will be very popular.

 

[binhthuy71]

It can be done in the SDK for sure, but the big problem is getting it to look right...

For my part, it's more than acceptable if the ships sail up the river sideways, or backwards, or even levitate over the bends. Once I've accepted the fact that a Warrior is taller than the Eiffel Tower the concept of looking right is relative.

 

[Dom Pedro II]

For my part, it's more than acceptable if the ships sail up the river sideways, or backwards, or even levitate over the bends. Once I've accepted the fact that a Warrior is taller than the Eiffel Tower the concept of looking right is relative.

Touche... I've made ships move on riverside tiles, and I can say it definitely isn't pretty. Unfortunately, there's no way to shift the ship off-center when its on land as to make it look correct.

 

[binhthuy71]

Heh, oldtimers like me can remember a cheat code for the "Age of ......" games that would enable ships to move on land. That wasn't pretty either but it sure was fun.

 

[Tholish]

Ships travelling up and down rivers can be done with XML. Actually, you make flood plains navigable. First, you make all rivers be in flood plains, regardless of terrain type, like this in FeatureInfos.

Spoiler :

<FeatureInfo>
<Type>FEATURE_FLOOD_PLAINS</Type>
<Description>TXT_KEY_FEATURE_FLOOD_PLAINS</Description>
<Civilopedia>TXT_KEY_FEATURE_FLOOD_PLAINS_PEDIA</Civilopedia>
<ArtDefineTag>ART_DEF_FEATURE_FLOOD_PLAINS</ArtDefineTag>
...
<TerrainBooleans>
<TerrainBoolean>
<TerrainType>TERRAIN_DESERT</TerrainType>
<bTerrain>1</bTerrain>
</TerrainBoolean>
<TerrainBoolean>
<TerrainType>TERRAIN_GRASS</TerrainType>
<bTerrain>1</bTerrain>
</TerrainBoolean>
<TerrainBoolean>
<TerrainType>TERRAIN_PLAINS</TerrainType>
<bTerrain>1</bTerrain>
</TerrainBoolean>
</TerrainBooleans>...

This means the ONLY feature that will border rivers will be flood plains, no rivers running through forests or jungles, unless you want to also change tha appearance value of flood plains from 10000 to something lower and have it share (but then riverside forests would choke the river with logs and make them non navigable)



Then you make floodplains passable by putting this in all water units in UnitInfos

Spoiler :

<FeaturePassableTechs>
<FeaturePassableTech>
<FeatureType>FEATURE_FLOOD_PLAIN</FeatureType>
<PassableTech>TECH_SAILING</PassableTech>
</FeaturePassableTech>
</FeaturePassableTechs>

I would tone down the yield benefits of flood plains though, and make other tweaks so that land and sea units can fight.

Also, if you want inland cities to be able to make water units theres a dll modification that was done by koma13 for Dune. It's just a few lines and I use it in my FutureMod, though it doesn't exist as a modcomp.

 

[binhthuy71]

Tholish, Thank you very much! That's a nice, simple, workaround and I'll implement it right away along with your suggestion to tone down the yield benefits from flood plains.