The Civ 5 C&C Off-Topic Thread

[Kesler]

What is this strange land I've stumbled into?

 

[Klisz]

What is this strange land I've stumbled into?

A barb encampment

 

[Kesler]

Careful, or someone might request to have you cleared out :3

Since this threads topic seems to resemble a game of 52 Pickup, Klisz, what made you want to make Kingdom Heart Civs, and when can I play as Xehanort? And how did you learn to make Civs?

 

[Klisz]

what made you want to make Kingdom Heart Civs

Because everything I enjoy must be combined with everything else I enjoy until it becomes an unholy chaotic blob.

when can I play as Xehanort?

When I get around to finishing him. I was in the middle of working on him in late January/early February when I just burnt myself out on modding in general for about a month, so I'm not even entirely sure what still needs to be done (I do recall that the UA was finished except for having an interface method to show you its effects, but it required VMC or CP, and now I think I've come up with a way to make it work with Lua and SQL alone).

And how did you learn to make Civs?

Largely through Kael's guide, with whoward's standard XML files as an important reference (though I later switched to SQL).

 

[JFD]

Largely through Kael's guide, with whoward's standard XML files as an important reference (though I later switched to SQL).

Teaching imperial knights self-determination is tantamount to treason

 

[GoodSarmatian]

Maybe now that there's a Civ 5 thread in OT a mod could deport all the Civ talk from the "What games have you been playing" thread. As soon as somebody mentions playing a Civ game it degnerates into a discussion about 1Upt, and cIV vs ciV with the occasional weirdo who prefers III.

 

[Arakhor]

As opposed to the three-page diversion that occurs any time someone mentions an Elder Scrolls game?

 

[Kesler]

Largely through Kael's guide, with whoward's standard XML files as an important reference (though I later switched to SQL).

Thanks, I was following that guide two winters ago before school side tracked me (and the belief that the guide wouldn't answer everything). I'll have to give it another go.

 

[LeeS]

Thanks, I was following that guide two winters ago before school side tracked me (and the belief that the guide wouldn't answer everything). I'll have to give it another go.

It won't answer everything, as it was written before many many changes were made to the game. But it is still the best intro IMO to the way mods work in Civ5. The questions about what is inaccurate because outdated, and what the guide does not cover, are why there are the many tutorials, and of course, all that insanity expertise available when you ask questions or ask for help.

 

[Kesler]

Are there any other useful guides or inaccuracies you would point out before diving into making a mod?

 

[LeeS]

Are there any other useful guides or inaccuracies you would point out before diving into making a mod?

Partial Listing of Useful Modding Tutorials
Biggest innaccuracies off the top of my head would be:

1. we can in fact add audio to mods, which was not possible when Keal wrote his guide
2. Unit Art-Defines are handled completely differently now than they were when Keal wrote his guide.

Not so much an innaccuracy as much as it is the evolution of the game through the two expansions: Some columns in the XML that were valid (and still are valid) for Vanilla-Civ5 are not valid for G&K and BNW, and some columns valid for Vanilla and G&K are not valid for BNW, so you must be careful when inspecting the base-game xml-files for hints that you are looking in the files for the expansion you actually have:

1. Vanilla files are at:
   C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\Sid Meier's Civilization V\assets\Gameplay\XML
2. G&K files are at:
   C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\Sid Meier's Civilization V\assets\DLC\Expansion\Gameplay\XML
3. BNW files are at:
   C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\Sid Meier's Civilization V\assets\DLC\Expansion2\Gameplay\XML

The beginning portion of your file path might be slightly different depending on whether you have Win7, Win10, etc. (I have Win8.1)

 

[Chrisy15]

*Finds internet for a moment after two days without*

*Sees thread is no longer in chaos*

*Smiles*

I found that Civ's files are (quite) handy for learning XML, but looking at the code for mods is the easiest way to learn to mod, and to learn SQL and Lua.

[Edit] Wait, when did I pass 500 posts?

 

[GPuzzle]

*Finds internet for a moment after two days without*

*Sees thread is no longer in chaos*

*Smiles*

I found that Civ's files are (quite) handy for learning XML, but looking at the code for mods is the easiest way to learn to mod, and to learn SQL and Lua.

[Edit] Wait, when did I pass 500 posts?

That last one is just OT taking over you. Careful.

 

[Arakhor]

He only has six posts in this thread, so it's not his new colonial overlords that are fault here.

 

[Klisz]

Are there any other useful guides or inaccuracies you would point out before diving into making a mod?

bane_'s guide is a great starting point for Lua.

 

[Klisz]

Klisztain's log, civdate 2016.0319 - last night I was doing some Lua and was perplexed by it giving my cities pagodas instead of dummy buildings. Turns out I was referencing the building class in GameInfoTypes, not the building. Clearly it is I who is the true dummy.

EDIT: I was also adding the building class into Building_YieldChanges, which wasn't even giving me database errors.

 

[LeeS]

Klisztain's log, civdate 2016.0319 - last night I was doing some Lua and was perplexed by it giving my cities pagodas instead of dummy buildings. Turns out I was referencing the building class in GameInfoTypes, not the building. Clearly it is I who is the true dummy.

EDIT: I was also adding the building class into Building_YieldChanges, which wasn't even giving me database errors.

if SQL you almost always get nearly useless errors, or error messages that are more difficult to spot as coming from your mod. All you get is stuff like

No Such Column

Though there should have been a bad reference error reporting it like

Invalid Reference Building_YieldChanges.BuildingType "BUILDINGCLASS_X" does not exist in Buildings.

What is even more fun is when you forget to 'Active' the file containing your dummy building in ModBuddy, and you spend hours poring over your lua code trying to spot the error that keeps giving you Floating Gardens.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Bane_'s intro to lua-modding is listed in the list of tutorials I linked to.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This thread seems to be drifting remorselessly away from OT back toward Civ5-modding. "Every time I think I'm out, they pull me back in!"

 

[Klisz]

Though there should have been a bad reference error reporting it like

Invalid Reference Building_YieldChanges.BuildingType "BUILDINGCLASS_X" does not exist in Buildings.

That's what really weirded me out - I wasn't getting any such error, and in fact SQLiteSpy even showed that the game went ahead and added the row to Building_YieldChanges despite the reference not matching.

 

[AW Arcaeca]

Are there any other useful guides or inaccuracies you would point out before diving into making a mod?

There's a whole thread about things Firaxis forced upon us to be wary of

 

[Kesler]

[Edit] Wait, when did I pass 500 posts?

Damn it, he's catching up No doubt when you were assisting someone with log posting