Son of a...

[Redking]

It really isn't quite as difficult as you make it out to learn

Please don't misrepresent my post.

I didn't say it was difficult to learn, I defended the original poster's assertion that it's tedious, and a mess, and a disappointment, and a watershed departure, for the time being at least, from recent iterations of the game.

At issue is not the merits of XML and Python, but rather Firaxis' psspoor support for it. It's wonderful that they've exposed the SDK to the programming community. But this thread isn't about the programming community. It's about casual modding, now deceased. As in dead, non-living, expired. Long-live programming enthusiasts. Hurray for them.

 

[Redking]

One thing I wish happened was instead of making 1 "All Encompessing Mod", with all the new civs/units/etc... I wish they were all seperate. And instead of having the new XML files already have the Code in them. I wish there was say, just 1 TXT file with the code needed. That way, one could download what they wanted and edit as they wanted, instead of sifting through thousands of changes, just to to add a couple new units and a civ.

Ditto

One of these days I can use my database/documenting skills and do that.

The promise of technology is to end up with less work, not more. That, increasingly, is my frustration.
Of course, some chalcolithic farmer, recently swindled into adopting the horse-drawn plow, must have been cursing the same thing as he mucked out heaps of excrement from his brand new horse stall.

 

[Chinese American]

it might be possible to make an SDK component that makes reading different XML files from different mods as simple as drag and drop into the folder.

 

[Kael]

it might be possible to make an SDK component that makes reading different XML files from different mods as simple as drag and drop into the folder.

Its not, unless you give up some flexibility. Which is what this conversation boils down to. You can have simplicity or flexibility, but not both.

For your example, what if the XML files from different mods used different schema? How would a common engine deal with differing attributes, especially if those attributes are expected to be there for other functions (ie: we can't just make them optional).

That is the best and worst thing about Civ4 modding. You can't make any assumptions about the data or mods, there is no "one way" to do anything, or simple checkboxes to make significant changes. But what is awesome about that is there are no limitations, there are a million ways you can do things, and you can make changes that would have been impossible in Civ3.

 

[Venger]

Kael -

I don't think ease and power are mutually exclusive - but I do agree that difficulty can be expected to be proportional to the task. I would argue that doing something small, like adding a resource, should be easy, but modifying the combat system to create stack attacks, should be expected to be hard. But it's all hard. Sad indeed, because I really, really like what Civ4 has become with Warlords. Not perfect, but definitely evolutionary. I just long for what has been lost...

Venger

 

[Chinese American]

It depends on how much effort you put into changing SDK to make different schemas work. There are some files where that may not be worth it, like schemas. But for casual modders that just want to add new units and buildings, I don't think we have to worry about different schemas yet.

It took some time, mostly to relearn how to expand dynamic arrays, but I finally got the mod to work. It reads in extra files without putting original Firaxis files inside the mod's folder.

Right now it's just for unit infos. What it does is read in files that match *_CIV4UnitInfos.xml and add those entries into the game. So your folder, C:\civ4\Mods\MyMod\Assets\XML\Units\, could just contain MyMod_CIV4UnitInfos.xml and nothing else. You don't need the original files. Whereas before, you would have to add your new units into the huge CIV4UnitInfos.xml and put that inside your mod folder.

If you don't want to use the vanilla units, then you would make your own CIV4UnitInfos.xml and put that into your mod folder. This works just like before.

If you want to borrow another mod's unit infos, copy that file into the units folder and rename it, like HisMod_CIV4UnitInfos.xml. So your units folder would have two files, MyMod_CIV4UnitInfos.xml and HisMod_CIV4UnitInfos.xml, and both will be added to the game. Or you could just use his file and not even make your own.

Forgot to mention, you still need a complete CIV4UnitClassInfos.xml for now, that also contains new entries for new units. So I still need to work on that and the art defines.

 

[Aussie_Lurker]

Hey, Chinese American, I like your Avatar-it seems very intriguing. I can't help but notice the 'Borrow [Food Icon]' part. Where on earth did you get it from? Is it from a mod?

Yours,
Aussie_Lurker.

 

[Chinese American]

I uploaded a mod component for what I talked about in my last post. What I call reading partial files. You can find out more here:

XML Load : SDK mod component
http://forums.civfanatics.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=2681

Hey, Chinese American, I like your Avatar-it seems very intriguing. I can't help but notice the 'Borrow [Food Icon]' part. Where on earth did you get it from? Is it from a mod?

Yours,
Aussie_Lurker.

You can find that in my Trade Routes mod (see sig). Put food into your treasury and cities can borrow food from this storage.