Questioning Modding

dalek master

dalek master

Prince
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Jun 13, 2005
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Depths of the time war
Just a quick question. If any of you have bothered to look at this stuff and the files of the game, will you still need heaps of third-party software and in-depth knowledge in computer languages to mod things (units, scenarios etc.) like civ III. I remember downloading a tutorial for making units and discovering how seriously you would have to take it, and you would have to download or buy around 7 different pacakges before you could get anywhere.

Will civ4 still be like this? Can I create new units or found new techs (to a certain standard) without having to use more than 9 programs?
 
"bump" means posting in a thread to move or "bump" it up to the top of the list of thread in a forum.
 
Like with Civ3, the only thing that requires programs is making new graphics. All the gameplay stuff can be done in Notepad- XML, Python, even the World Builder if you want to!

jkp1187 said:
Isn't a scenario editor supposed to be released in January? I think I'll just pony up the money for that....
Click to expand...
That's the SDK, with the actual source code of the game, which will be for hard-core modders who know C++. It will be a download.
 
Weasel Op said:
Like with Civ3, the only thing that requires programs is making new graphics. All the gameplay stuff can be done in Notepad- XML, Python, even the World Builder if you want to!


That's the SDK, with the actual source code of the game, which will be for hard-core modders who know C++. It will be a download.
Click to expand...

yeah but how much new programs and money will I have to bother with?
 
dalek master said:
yeah but how much new programs and money will I have to bother with?
Click to expand...

You will just need to learn C++. Not for the weak of heart. Personally, I will not likely use any C++ mods outside of Firaxis generated ones, unless they contain source code, or are from an accredited programmer. The reason being, if you don't know what you are doing (i.e. a professional programmer), you have a great risk of introducing memory issues, security flaws if played online, etc.

As for what you need...you need to go to Borders or B&N and learn about OOP and C++. Then you will need a development environment (a good free one that I used for my classes is devC++: http://www.bloodshed.net/devcpp.html). I don't recall if that comes with the GCC compiler or not (I think it did), if not go to www.gcc.gnu.org and download GCC (devc++ will require it).
 
fortunately, ive got a discount copy of visual studio .net through school, and have knowledge of c++ :) Im still not sure about modding, and how much needs to be done in code, however. Well, i'm in this forum doing some research at the moment...my first goal is a canadian civ. I know, they used to be british, blah blah. but so did the americans.
 
Tarkhan said:
fortunately, ive got a discount copy of visual studio .net through school, and have knowledge of c++ ...
Click to expand...

Cool. If we use visual studio to mod with the SDK we will be modding in .net managed code. Does anyone know if we will be able to develop stuff with .net (e.g. python .net, c++ .net, etc.)? Like you, I use vs.net, but I don't if we can use it, or not.

BTW, if you can get a hold of vs.net 2005 (it's in RC1, right now), it has incredible advances in XML editing over 2003 or 2003 visual studio versions
 
IMHO, the best thing you can get is to download the full python package at www.python.org. The editor is context sensitive (color coded and tabbed and such), but otherwise, it's just a glorified notepad, but makes a huge difference.

I concur that the creation of new 3D units and animations will be the most painful. There are open source 3D modelers (www.blender.org which also supports *cough* python scripting). What we'll need eventually is export and import plugins for whatever package you are using to get the format used by the game engine.
 
Nemo said:
You will just need to learn C++. Not for the weak of heart. Personally, I will not likely use any C++ mods outside of Firaxis generated ones, unless they contain source code, or are from an accredited programmer. The reason being, if you don't know what you are doing (i.e. a professional programmer), you have a great risk of introducing memory issues, security flaws if played online, etc.

As for what you need...you need to go to Borders or B&N and learn about OOP and C++. Then you will need a development environment (a good free one that I used for my classes is devC++: http://www.bloodshed.net/devcpp.html). I don't recall if that comes with the GCC compiler or not (I think it did), if not go to www.gcc.gnu.org and download GCC (devc++ will require it).
Click to expand...

not entirely accurate - the game's core engine and AI engine is in C++, but the majority of other things are actually in Python, a totally different programming language. Python and its development suite are totally free.
 
Rayanth said:
not entirely accurate - the game's core engine and AI engine is in C++, but the majority of other things are actually in Python, a totally different programming language. Python and its development suite are totally free.
Click to expand...

Yeah, but he was asking about the SDK, that is yet to come, which is rumored to be a C++ API for the game's core engine.
 
Nemo said:
Yeah, but he was asking about the SDK, that is yet to come, which is rumored to be a C++ API for the game's core engine.
Click to expand...

My apologies for skimming/misreading... i'm buried up to my nose in a modding project already :mischief:
 
As has been mentioned, the only real 3rd party software you need to mod things currently is if you want to change graphics. That being the case, there are a number of programs that can make modding easier - installing Python gives you access to the IDLE editor which is what I used when working on Civ 4. There are a number of editors to help with XML such as XML Spy and XML Shell. There are many others for both Python and XML as well.
 
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