Quick Modding Questions Thread

[The_J]

@ icons: Did you also change the Assets\res\fonts\Gamefont.tga and _75.tga?
If not, then this is the reason.
If you want to fix that, you should use this editor, because manually it's a pain.

 

[dacubz145]

is there anyway to find xml errors in scenarios?

 

[kiwitt]

You have used the civchecker ? - I use it on my mod/scenario

 

[Megatherion]

@ icons: Did you also change the Assets\res\fonts\Gamefont.tga and _75.tga?
If not, then this is the reason.
If you want to fix that, you should use this editor, because manually it's a pain.

The icons were not the problem, they showed. Rather, when I had camel and bison resource in the game (I finally got them both to show up by allowing bison in desert) The text would be screwed up. Like I posted, instead of a bullet leading '·' in front of a message like "·Autosaving" would become a green smiley, the arm with the fist (symbol for a unit's strength) would become a yellow smiley.
Never mind though, I seem to have messed up something and now I get XML loading errors. So I scrapped it since I hadn't put much work into it, yet.
One more question: That camel resource that I found is said to be modular. I know what it means but I don't know how to use it and I didn't find it in the modiki. Do I just copy over the resource folder with artdefines and bonusinfo into the assets\modules folder and that's it?

Thanks for the editor link. Won't work (without some effort) in Wine and since I'm on Linux 100% and don't even have a copy of Windows dual booting or playing Civ in Windows is not an option.

 

[The_J]

The icons were not the problem, they showed.

I'm not talking about the resource icons on the map, but the icons in the city screen, these are different (and you need to modify the mentioned files for them, else the text will be screwed up, icons will be shifted to others).

If you can't use the editor, it will really be a hassle.
There are 2 images in these files, the normal images and the alpha (you can see both with e.g. DXTBmp...er...I guess it's Win only...GIMP should probably work too), and both have to be edited...and every pixel counts. If one is wrong, it can lead to direct CtDs.

That camel resource that I found is said to be modular. I know what it means but I don't know how to use it and I didn't find it in the modiki. Do I just copy over the resource folder with artdefines and bonusinfo into the assets\modules folder and that's it?

...and you have to activate modular loading in your mods .ini file.

 

[Megatherion]

Thanks.
I have used the GIMP for editing the Gamefont before. It worked, so I'm quite confident. Will look into that, perhaps then I'll get that issue with the smilies sorted out.

Since my resources show up in small numbers (on a huge pangea map, arid climate to have lots of plains and deserts I had 1 camel and 1 bison (which I allowed to appear on desert for testing purposes) I wonder how the overall density of resources can be increased. I thought there might be something in the GlobalDefines, but I didn't find anything. I also played with the iUnique tag in the BonusInfos.xml which didn't do anything useful, neither.
Is there any way to make more resources appear?

Edit: OK, so it does work. I was just a bit too cautious adjusting the values.

 

[dacubz145]

Couple questions:
1)Is there anyway to replace movies with pictures? So when a wonder is compelte a picture shows up with the info?
2)What does the Lsystem do? I have somewhat an idea but not completely sure what all of its posibilities are, and what if the lsystem in the artdefines is missing?

 

[The_J]

Couple questions:
1)Is there anyway to replace movies with pictures? So when a wonder is compelte a picture shows up with the info?

just put the .dds at the place where the movie is defined.

2)What does the Lsystem do? I have somewhat an idea but not completely sure what all of its posibilities are, and what if the lsystem in the artdefines is missing?

The LSystem stuff is an addition to the artDefines. It's there to bring some more diversity in the placement of the graphics (else all farms would look exactly the same, exact the same placement), and allows ethnic city and improvement styles.

 

[dacubz145]

The LSystem stuff is an addition to the artDefines. It's there to bring some more diversity in the placement of the graphics (else all farms would look exactly the same, exact the same placement), and allows ethnic city and improvement styles.

Cool thanks, do you know or is there somewhere to tell me what you can write in there? I just realized some buildings ive borrowed from Realism Invictus had new Lsystems, so while transering them, there are new xml things like

<Attribute Class="Era">ERA_MODERN,ERA_FUTURE</Attribute>

and i have no idea what that means

 

[The_J]

You can also have different improvement graphics for different eras .
A farm in ancient times will look different from a farm in the modern era, and that entry regulates this diversification.

 

[dacubz145]

What size are the movies that are played in civ? (length X width)

 

[The_J]

...er...should you not know, since you already made some wonder movies?

I also think it doesn't matter. My own opening vid is a wonder vid and therefore has a lower quality than the normal Civ4 intro vid.

 

[Luthor_Saxburg]

Hi.

I am a non-Modder but I'd like to make a modification in a MOD that already exists. If there is a simple way to do it, it would just be great!

The thing is that the MOD seems great but I do have a problem with the terrain colours. As I'm colorblind it's really confusing for me to play there. Which is a pity!

So the question is this: how can I change the terrain colours in (a simple way in) a MOD? If it would be the basic BTS colours would be fine. I did try to ask the same question in the MOD but got no reply.

If it helps the Mod is the following one:
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=207724

 

[The_J]

You should be able to get the default BtS land textures back by deleting (if present) the mods Art\Terrain\PlotTextures or Art\Terrain\Textures folder (but make a backup!).

 

[Luthor_Saxburg]

Hi.

Unfortunately there is no such folder...

The folders under "Art" are only 4... the ones in the picture.

There was a folder "Assets\XML\Terrain". I did try to rename it... there was a series of error messages but the game seemed to run nevertheless (with the same modifed terrain).

Thanks for the tip anyway.

 

[dacubz145]

Luther Saxburg, xml is not were your problem is it is art

The art is paked, I know this because I have the mod as well, look here to unpak it, you will get a folder of art. Delete the terrain one, then either place the art files back into the mod, or repak it and replace it. If you place the art files back, then delete the paked file originally in there

 

[flug_auto]

In civ3 laborers were among specialist in editor. Is it possible to edit laborers (not citizens, but laborers, who work the land) in civ4, like give them +1 beaker or +1 gold, with python and xml only, or is it only through SDK?

 

[Leoreth]

That's not an easy task even in the DLL. What you're asking for is essentially adding commerce types (like beakers) to plots, which are only supposed to produce yields. XML and Python definitely don't support this.

 

[Soylentblue]

Originally Posted by dacubz145
Couple questions:
1)Is there anyway to replace movies with pictures? So when a wonder is compelte a picture shows up with the info?

just put the .dds at the place where the movie is defined.

I have done that but the text never shows up. Is there any way to convert a dds file to a bik file?

 

[dacubz145]

I came across same proble, J_mie6 says theres a solution, you should ask him