New SW Mod?

[TC01]

I've seen a lot of posts in outdated/old threads about starting a new SW Mod. Unfortunately, because half of them are old and being revived, I can't actually tell what kind of progress is being made.

If you want my assistance in anything, I'd be happy to help. I can do XML and Python coding. I'm not an incredible modder, but I'm not a horrible one either.

So, I have two questions. First, how many people/who is actually involved in this new mod? Second, what is being planned? A Final Frontier type mod? A "Civ 3 Star Trek mod" type mod (with planets seperate from star systems)?

 

[Jawa'sRevenge]

In the same boat as the guy above.

 

[civ editor11]

We all are the threads haven't been posted in for a year or more in most cases so what do we do?
Well TC01 can Help with making a multi plot planet map script for us.
Jawa you can navigate through the old threads and find any useful graphics or XML files
And I'll see if we can put these all Together
You guys okay with that.

 

[TC01]

Make new threads? Like they did in the Arda mod? An introductory thread saying "these people are working on the mod", "this is what we are planning", "these threads are outdated", and "we need this from the community"?

Do you want one plot for planet? Or more than one plot for a planet?


To me, it makes the most sense to start fresh with a mod of Final Frontier for Star Wars, just like Star Trek, Babylon 5, Peacekeeper Wars, and M002Civ. Get civs, units, buildings, leaders, etc. in first. I see that you would want ground battles of a sort, and I'm wondering if the way this would work best would be to make scenario mods that focused on ground terrain, and a major mod in space.

Kind of how like the Eugenics Wars scenario is part of the Star Trek mod, but it is really just a scenario for Civ 4, with only a few changes, taking place on an Earth map.

 

[civ editor11]

I was thinking a 9 plot planet

 

[TC01]

I was thinking a 9 plot planet

I guess you could do it, but you'd run into difficulties, the first one being getting a lot of planetary graphics.

The simplest way to do it would be to start in Civ 4, then, rather than Final Frontier, because while nothing is strictly hardcoded in Final Frontier, the python for the solar system is rather heavily... encoded... in the python. But, you'd use FF graphics for nebula, space terrain, asteroids, etc.

Are you thinking for the planet to be terrain or feature? My advice would be to make it feature, that way you can take advantage of the "multiple graphics per feature" (the Forest is one feature, but has four different graphics) and show planetary variation- that is, each planet would look different. You'd need to have it be something like this:

FEATURE_PLANET_CORE (Center of planet)
FEATURE_PLANET_EDGE (Edges of planet)

Then, I could have the mapscript place where it normally places a solar system a FEATURE_PLANET_CORE, and around it place FEATURE_PLANET_EDGE. The FF mapscript normally places flood plains around a solar system to prevent other things from being placed too close. I would simply replace that with FEATURE_PLANET_EDGE.

Sound good?

 

[civ editor11]

That would definitely work you could do it than post the files that makes it work here please and any graphics that we could use to create this mod are you okay being are python expert

 

[TC01]

That would definitely work you could do it than post the files that makes it work here please and any graphics that we could use to create this mod are you okay being are python expert

If you're asking if I'd create the graphics, well, I have virtually no graphical creation skill. So someone else would have to do that.

I'll start making the changes now.

 

[civ editor11]

I have no skills also i just add them in game
Would These Graphics work for some of it
I've taken the terrain down because its been changed and I don't think anyone needs it

 

[TC01]

Possibly. As I said, I don't meddle with the graphics. So, you might want to get some artists to help with this. Most mod teams/computer game teams are 90% graphic, 10%programming. In any event, the terrain just needs to be strung up to XML files- can you do this?


I've gotten v0.1 of the mapscript working. It drops solar systems like normal, and then surrounds them with asteroid fields.

It's going to be problematic, "de-Final-Frontiering" the solar system code from the mapscript. It should be doable, but very tricky. But I don't want to do this until I have a version of the mod where I can drop it in and test it.

 

[civ editor11]

I'm Working on the mod i haven't heard from Jawas Revenge but I'm just adding units right now I just started so it'll be a while till I'll put it out here for you but Could I have the Map script so I could drop it in the mod if so where and how would I add it in. I'll report any and all bugs I detect straight here

 

[TC01]

I'm Working on the mod i haven't heard from Jawas Revenge but I'm just adding units right now I just started so it'll be a while till I'll put it out here for you but Could I have the Map script so I could drop it in the mod if so where and how would I add it in. I'll report any and all bugs I detect straight here

No, unfortunately, you couldn't have the mapscript because it's not done yet, because I wrote the mini code that I did inside the Final Frontier mapscript. So until I get rid of the solar system code there it won't work in regular Civ 4. Since I didn't want to mess with this, all the mapscript does is drop asteroids around a solar system to prove I can do it.


I'm thinking we might want 6 planet types (assuming you're dead set on the nine plot idea. Which still might not work.)

-Volcanic: Volcanic terrain (FFH hell terrain: burning sands minus fire)
-Arid: Desert
-Polar: Snow (core), Tundra (edge)
-Oceanic: Water-covered
-Earth-like: Grass (core), Plains (edge)
-Rocky: Hills

Both planet feature types can have six "subtypes" (in other words, a volcanic edge art, an arid edge art, etc.), and I can randomly give each planet a different planet type. However, before any of this is implemented, someone needs to set up the features + their variations via XML art and feature defines. Can you do this? Most of the art already exists. Actually, all of it exists, the challenge would be converting it from terrain to feature art (all of what I described is terrain).

Are there any other ideas for planet types?


I had another idea that will make things a lot easier. If you make spaceships able to travel over planetary features, but not capture cities (like gunships), it doesn't matter whether a city is built on the edge or the center. Then make ground units unable to move onto tiles without Planet Core or Planet Edge plots. Further, then each civ can start on the Planet Core tile of their planet, because it is easier to code this way.

 

[civ editor11]

Those are great ideas TC01 I'm still workink on units and buildings and anything else in the XML I can do I'm using the planetbuster to help me create the Death Star could you alter the code to make an asteroid belt instead of ocean for me Heres the code in python for you All I've done is change the unit Type planet buster to Death Star.
Tell me if there is any specific place I have to put it so i don't crash the mod and it works.
I don't think you need that python code anymore since you now have an updated version of it

 

[TC01]

Those are great ideas TC01 I'm still workink on units and buildings and anything else in the XML I can do I'm using the planetbuster to help me create the Death Star could you alter the code to make an asteroid belt instead of ocean for me Heres the code in python for you All I've done is change the unit Type planet buster to Death Star.
Tell me if there is any specific place I have to put it so i don't crash the mod and it works.

In general, I think when starting this mod, you should copy over ONLY Final Frontier's XML (and art/sound/whatever) folders into "Star Wars/Assets". That way, you don't have to mess with the Solar System python and new python can be written directly into the original Civ python files (when we need, say, the Event Manager, we copy it into a new directory, Star Wars/Assets/Python.)

That being said, the code would go in onNukeExplosion, a function in the Event Manager I'm most familiar with (after spending several weeks making various nukes for a Star Trek modmod).

	def onNukeExplosion(self, argsList):
		'Nuke Explosion'
		pPlot, pNukeUnit = argsList
		CvUtil.pyPrint('Nuke detonated at %d, %d'
			%(pPlot.getX(), pPlot.getY()))
#Original code above. Death star code below.
			if pNukeUnit.getUnitType() == gc.getInfoTypeForString('UNIT_DEATH_STAR'):  
				iX = pPlot.getX()
				iY = pPlot.getY()
				for iiX in range(iX - 1, iX + 2, 1):
					for iiY in range(iY - 1, iY + 2, 1):
						pTarget = CyMap().plot(iiX, iiY)
						if pPlot.getFeatureType() == gc.getInfoTypeForString('FEATURE_PLANET_CORE'):
							pTarget.setFeatureType(gc.getInfoTypeForString('FEATURE_FOREST'),0)
						if (pTarget.getFeatureType() == gc.getInfoTypeForString('FEATURE_PLANET_EDGE') or pTarget.getFeatureType() == gc.getInfoTypeForString('FEATURE_PLANET_CORE')):
							pTarget.setFeatureType(gc.getInfoTypeForString('FEATURE_FOREST'),0)
						if pPlot.isCity()
							pCity = pPlot.getPlotCity()
							pCity.kill()

All that's necessary. I'm not certain if it won't actually turn the asteroids around an edge plot (if you target an edge plot). But it should be correct.

If you wanted to have special things happen if a certain building melted down, I could do that as well. Or if you wanted multiple types of special nukes.

 

[civ editor11]

Will This work if I put it in now or do i need to wait for the map script. that is the one to make the death star nuke work right?
Do You know any really good tutorials on learning python for civ 4 I would like to help there . I know a little but not enough to work on civ 4
What terrain are we using for planet edge planet core and so on so I can add the correct XML to it

 

[TC01]

Will This work if I put it in now or do i need to wait for the map script. that is the one to make the death star nuke work right?
Do You know any really good tutorials on learning python for civ 4 I would like to help there . I know a little but not enough to work on civ 4
What terrain are we using for planet edge planet core and so on so I can add the correct XML to it

(Sorry for the numerical system, but you had a lot of questions/ideas and I need to organize my thoughts in response).

1. Can you not do anything with the Python yet, please? I'll add in all the python code into a copy of the default BTS Python files that I need. So don't worry about adding in any code- if you need me to do something in Python, post it in the Python Modding thread I created.

2. Unfortunately, I know no good tutorials because I didn't use any to learn. I learned by playing Fall from Heaven 2, looking at the spell code for a certain spell, and figuring out how the spell did what it did. Mainly, I combined my in-game knowledge of features to the code I was looking at to figure out what code did. If I ever needed something done, I would say "where is this done elsewhere?", find a place where similar code was used, and make small changes to it.

3. For planet edge/planet core, the real problem is going to be that currently they are features. However, all the art that best suits them is currently terrain. So, we would need to convert the TERRAIN_GRASS (Grassland) art to FEATURE_PLANET_CORE variety one (like how the forest works?), and the TERRAIN_PLAINS (Plains) art to FEATURE_PLANET_EDGE variety one. The art below is what I'm thinking for five types of planets.

Planet Core		Planet Edge		Description
Grass			Plains			A grassy, Naboo-esc planet.
Snow			Tundra			A cold, snowy planet.
Plains			Coast			A planet with little land. (maybe all water?)
Desert			Desert			An arid, desert planet.
Burning Sands*		Burning Sands		A volcanic, fiery planet.

Can you do this? Should I open a thread in the main C&C forum asking for help with this? The problem with doing it the other way (terrains, not features) is that it would require much more work on my end, and I'm not sure I could do it.

*Burning Sands is from Fall from Heaven 2.

 

[civ editor11]

I Should be able to do it I'll start on it shortly

I can't add the death star yet because the death star currently has no animation if you find one post it in the graphics thread

 

[civ editor11]

Could you post that burning plains terrain in the graphics thread for my use I really need it to do what you want

 

[TC01]

If you're the mod leader, can you PM a mod and get the old threads unstickied and the new one ([BTS]What we're doing now) stickied? That way visitors to the forums know what's up to date and what isn't.

 

[civ editor11]

I'm just acting leader I don't have that power how would we change the leader because the old leader is gone and not coming back.