Trouble adding new units

Thomas P

Chieftain
Joined
May 12, 2006
Messages
10
Hello everybody,

I'm a new member of your community and I have got lots of problems with adding new units to Civ4. I liked Civ3 and I liked it to create mods. I never had any problems, but now...:confused:

Okay, here is my problem. At first I decided to add a mobile SAM and a mobile Artillery to the game. I found those units in a folder of the game. I integrated the units into the game without any problems. So I decided to add another unit - a nuclear-submarine. I made a copy of the standard sub and integrated it the same way into the game as "nuclear-submarine". Then I changed the rules of both subs. For example the standard needs oil and the nuclear sub needs uranium. Maybe interesting for you - I reduced the defencepower of the nuclear-sub to 50% in shallow water (TERRAIN_COAST). :D I created a new button and everything was still working fine.
So at last I had to change the layout. I decided to use the layout of the akula-sub, but it doesn't work. My nuclear sub still looks like the standard sub. What must I do to change the layout? I read all descriptions about adding units, but I don't get it.
I created, similar to mobile SAM and artillery (and they are working fine), a folder called NuclearSubmarine in assets/art/units/. But obviously I haven't got the right files in my folder.

Can anybody help me, please? Who can teach me how to copy and replace files the right way? Can anybody please send me a list of the needed files and their sources?

I'm using the 1.61 patch.

Thank you.

PS: (I hope it's "PS" in english :crazyeye: ) I'm very sorry for the bad english. And I'm sure I made hundreds of mistakes, but I hope you could get the message. Thanks.
 
So you want the default sub, plus the Akula sub? Smitty named the nif file Akula so I'm sticking with that and naming the folder in Assets\Art\Units Akula for simplicity. When I say copy below I mean keep the original and add a copy.

It sounds like you have the Unit XML mostly correct. You copied the sub section and renamed it Akula. Now you need to make sure that the <EarlyArtDefineTag>ART_DEF_UNIT_SUBMARINE</EarlyArtDefineTag> states something different, say AKULA instead of submarine.

Now head over to your Assets\XML\Art folder and find the Civ4ArtDefines_Unit xml file. Copy the sub part and rename that ART_DEF_UNIT_AKULA. Head down to these 3 lines:

<NIF>Art/Units/Submarine/Submarine.nif</NIF>
<KFM>Art/Units/Submarine/Submarine.kfm</KFM>
<SHADERNIF>Art/Units/Submarine/Submarine_FX.nif</SHADERNIF>

and where I have bold, rename to Akula/Akula. The kfm file is the animation and the nif are what Smitty created.

I hope this helps.

edit - normally I don't change core Assets files, so either do this in Custom or make a "mod".
 
Thank you for your answers.

Reffering to NP300:
I'm reffering to the graphics and I've still got trouble. If I find a solution, I will tell you. The text was no problem. But thanks.

Reffering to woodelf:
Your comment was usefull, because I forgott to change the <EarlyArtDefineTag>ART_DEF_UNIT_SUBMARINE</EarlyArtDefineTag>.

You told me to rename Submarine.nif and Submarine_FX.nif into akula.nif and akula_FX.nif, but I haven't got a file with the name akula_FX.nif!!! Smitty created two files, but they are called akula.dds and akula.nif ! What is the .dds-file for? What must I do with it? And where do I get the file akula_FX.nif from? At the moment I use akula.nif and submarine_FX.nif, but I can see no changes in the game.
Can you help me again, please?
 
Thomas P said:
Thank you for your answers.

Reffering to NP300:
I'm reffering to the graphics and I've still got trouble. If I find a solution, I will tell you. The text was no problem. But thanks.

Reffering to woodelf:
Your comment was usefull, because I forgott to change the <EarlyArtDefineTag>ART_DEF_UNIT_SUBMARINE</EarlyArtDefineTag>.

You told me to rename Submarine.nif and Submarine_FX.nif into akula.nif and akula_FX.nif, but I haven't got a file with the name akula_FX.nif!!! Smitty created two files, but they are called akula.dds and akula.nif ! What is the .dds-file for? What must I do with it? And where do I get the file akula_FX.nif from? At the moment I use akula.nif and submarine_FX.nif, but I can see no changes in the game.
Can you help me again, please?

The dds is the skin work he did, I think. The akula_fx.nif will appear like magic if you simply type it in. You can use the single nif file for both. Trust me. ;)
 
woodelf said:
The dds is the skin work he did, I think. The akula_fx.nif will appear like magic if you simply type it in. You can use the single nif file for both. Trust me. ;)

So you have to take the akula.nif, make a copy and name it akula_fx.nif and then it will work? Because I tried what you said even though I had no fx file and I just got a pink ball instead of the sub.
 
NP300 said:
So you have to take the akula.nif, make a copy and name it akula_fx.nif and then it will work? Because I tried what you said even though I had no fx file and I just got a pink ball instead of the sub.

Me too, although I just took the standard .nif file and renamed it to Akula_FX.nif on the Art xml page, not the actual file.
 
NP300 said:
So you have to take the akula.nif, make a copy and name it akula_fx.nif and then it will work? Because I tried what you said even though I had no fx file and I just got a pink ball instead of the sub.
No, you just put akula.nif in both NIF and SHADERNIF tags.
 
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