The reason modding takes so long

[CivWarGamer]

Is because you have to test the game after every little change in code, so that if something goes wrong then you know what caused it. To make matters worse, it takes 5 minutes to start up the game.

 

[Spatzimaus]

1> No, you don't have to test it after each little change. That's what log files and FireTuner are for. You can make hundreds of changes at once, and then see which ones cause error messages. That isn't to say that things can't still go wrong without doing this, but those sorts of mistakes would be the ones you'd miss even going one change at a time.

2> No, you don't have to restart the entire game. It might not recognize a rebuilt mod right away, but build it again and it'll usually add it to the list in the Mods menu. Sometimes it might take more than one rebuild, but you'll know when it works because there'll be a message in FireTuner when the mod list changes.

3> Even when you do decide to restart the game (say, to clear the cache) you CAN skip the intro movie. I've never had it take longer than about 30 seconds to load a game from scratch.

 

[CivWarGamer]

You're wrong. (btw, why do you have an incomplete mod with Age of Mythology - what is the point in a mod like that?)

This is not a technical issue, it's a philosophical issue and I disagree with you 10,000%. If you make multiple additions and you have a bug in your game it's going to take you a lot longer to pinpoint the bug because you now have loads of code to double check.

log files are almost worthless as I've looked at them countless times and there are a trillion types of bugs that will not show up in the log files. Firetuner is a joke.

what the hell you talking about movie, I removed that on the first day of release.

Now answer some of the tougher questions I've posted here in the forum instead of responding to my philosophical statement and I'll respect you more.

 

[Gedemon]

log files are almost worthless as I've looked at them countless times and there are a trillion types of bugs that will not show up in the log files. Firetuner is a joke.

Firetuner is the best mod tool that have ever been released for a civ game. If you want to do a bit of coding of course, for XML modding, the log files are your friend, and are not that hard to read.

 

[CivWarGamer]

Firetuner is the best mod tool that have ever been released for a civ game. If you want to do a bit of coding of course, for XML modding, the log files are your friend, and are not that hard to read.

Log files are ok, but there are trillions of types of bugs what will not show up in the log files.

I'll have to take another look at firetuner, last time I looked it was a joke.

 

[ww2commander]

I agree both with Spatz and Gedemon in that it takes time to learn to use these powerful tools properly.

The errors in the logs are specific to XML and SQL files. After getting use to the 'standard' errors at the top of the file, the rest is easy to troubleshoot as it tends to present the errors in the order the files load as per your mod properties > actions section.

As for fire tuner, Spatz is right in that the error list is easy to sort through for numerous changes assuming care is taken when coding.

I am still learning to code myself, but patience is your friend and being nice to those that have an extensive knowledge on Civ 5 coding also helps

However, I sympathies with your view in that a tutorial or cheat guide is long overdue on explaining some of the common error messages in the logs and firetuner.

 

[CivWarGamer]

nm...................................

 

[PawelS]

LUA is an interpreted language, so, for example, some changes to the interface are visible immediately without restarting the game (I saw it when making some changes to the top bar).

I'll have to take another look at firetuner, last time I looked it was a joke.

I find it quite useful...