Two questions

[prototypetolyfe]

I have two questions, kinda noobish so don't attack me.

1) Is it possible for me to edit victory conditions once the game has begun? If so, is it ingame or XML? If XML, where can I find it, and what should I do?

2) When I had vanilla, my Qin and Kublai were switched (so Qin was the one in the blue robe and Kublai was the one with the thing in his hair). Is there any way for me to switch them back to that way (just the leaderheads)?

 

[KeloGBites]

1) Not sure, World Builder probably?

2) Leaderhead XML file if I'm not wrong, someone else can probably point you to the exact lines that have to be changed.

 

[Antilogic]

1) XML changes will affect things like the text in the game, or general game rules like how much food the corn resource produces or how much culture a building generates, etc. All the specific settings for your game will be in the save file, which you might be able to text-edit. I'm not exactly sure how to do that.

2) Before you switch the leaderheads, you may want to know that vanilla Civ4 had the art files backwards, and the more recent versions have it corrected. If you really want to switch them back, though, look in the Assets/XML/Civilizations/Civ4LeaderHeadInfos.xml file. Each leader will be identified with a tag in all-caps, and among the first entries is an ArtDefineTag. You can switch these entries for Qin and Kublai to switch the leaderhead art if you really want to.

I highly, highly recommend you do not overwrite your original game files. Copy any files you plan on changing into the CustomAssets folder, under the same file structure (so copy the Civ4LeaderHeadInfos.xml file into a new CustomAssets/XML/Civilizations folder). That way, if you mess up, you can just delete your alteration and the game will work fine. Otherwise, you might be stuck reinstalling the game!

 

[prototypetolyfe]

I know that they were backwards in vanilla, but I played it that way for so long that I still haven't gotten used to it the way it is in BTS and I also think that Kublai (blue robe) looks more Chinese than Qin (thing in hair), and Qin looks more like Genghis.

Also, any specifics on the savegame file or the XML, if you couldn't tell, I haven't modded anything before.

 

[Antilogic]

I just played a few awkward games and got used to how they should look. But to each his own.

I can't help you on editing a save-game. Others have said you can text-edit save games, but I have never tried and I don't know how.

I can give you a step-by-step process for XML editing, though:

1. Go to your CustomAssets folder.
2. Create a new folder in CustomAssets called XML, if it isn't there already.
3. Create a new folder in that XML folder called Civilizations, if it isn't there already.
4. Go to your normal program files for BtS, go to Assets -> XML -> Civilizations, and copy the Civ4LeaderHeadInfos.xml file from the original location in Assets to the new location you made in CustomAssets.
5. Open up the file you just copied into CustomAssets, Notepad is fine.
6. Search in Notepad for the Qin Shi Huang entries and Kublai Khan entries. They will probably be named something like QIN_SHI_HUANG and KUBLAI_KHAN, because the programmers liked all caps with underscores. Just search for the first part of the name and you should find them.
7. Under each leader entry, you will see several entries (an entry is the following format: <open tag>information</close tag>) that define everything for the selected leader (including traits, favored civics, which types of improvements they like, diplomacy, etc.). The one you want to look at, for changing the graphics, is called ArtDefineTag.
8. Copy Qin's ArtDefineTag, and paste it where Kublai's ArtDefineTag is. Then take Kublai's original ArtDefineTag, and paste it over Qin's ArtDefineTag.

And that's it. Open up your game and test it. If you get an XML error, it means you copied the stuff wrong and messed up the file. If you did this in normal Assets, you are out-of-luck and have to reinstall or copy somebody else's unaltered file and overwrite yours. If you did this in CustomAssets, you can just delete that messed up file and everything works okay. Long story short: any changes you want to make, do them in copied files in CustomAssets. That way, you have a backup in case you mess it up.

 

[prototypetolyfe]

Thanks. That worked great. Only issue is the background image behind the leaderhead, but I think I can deal with that. I had almost gotten used to it when I played an unrestricted leaders game with qin in charge of mongolia, which threw me back to square one.

If anyone knows about the savegames, that would be helpful as well

 

[Antilogic]

Wait, the background wasn't included in the art files?

Then there must be another tag somewhere you have to change. I thought everything was included in the ArtDef XML tag, but I could be wrong.

 

[FriendoftheDork]

Thanks. That worked great. Only issue is the background image behind the leaderhead, but I think I can deal with that. I had almost gotten used to it when I played an unrestricted leaders game with qin in charge of mongolia, which threw me back to square one.

If anyone knows about the savegames, that would be helpful as well

This worked for me:

1. Load the save.
2. Enter world builder, do the changes you want and can.
3. Save as scenario in WB
4. Start a new game, custom scenario and load the scenario, chose your old civ.
5. In custom scenario settings you can change victory conditions, game speeds etc.
6. Profit!

Drawbacks:
- You get to see the whole map
- when loading the scenario some other civs may be before you and things change
- GPP and possible other counters reset. Expect alot of golden ages for AIs!

 

[JujuLautre]

Someone wrote a soft to change victory conditions and other stuffs while in game I believe; no idea who that was though