What languages is Civ 6 built with?

[MDoulos]

What programming languages is Civ 6 built with?

I play mostly Civ 4 and especially Civ 4 Colonization. And I know they're built with C++ and Python. What about Civ 6? Furthermore, how much more difficult is it to mod Civ 6 compared to Civ 4. 100% more difficult? 1000% more difficult? 10,000% more difficult? What unique modding challenges exist? (Source code issues, unique art, difficult to read xml files, etc.) Thanks guys (and gals)!

 

[Gedemon]

C++/Lua and SQL/XML for the database

I really prefer to use the Lua & SQL from civ5/6 over the Python & XML from civ4, but this doesn't mean that's it's easier to use or allow better mods (but it's faster)

I think no one can answer the rest until the SDK is released.

 

[Leyrann]

Firaxis has said this is the most moddable civ yet, but before we can really know they have to release SDK (which they did mention recently in a live-stream, but they also said they had no date yet).

 

[MDoulos]

I've been told be a Civ4 modder that Civ6 is more difficult than Civ4 when it comes to total conversions and that total conversions and new concepts may not even be possible in Civ6. Hoping that the SDK changes that.

 

[Shiggs713]

civ4 is unquestionably easier to mod than civ 5, I seriously doubt 6 will be any better... from the looks of things its far worse.

 

[MDoulos]

civ4 is unquestionably easier to mod than civ 5, I seriously doubt 6 will be any better... from the looks of things its far worse.

Why do you think it will be far worse?

 

[LeeS]

I see a lot of talk about the SDK as if it is going to be like a Magic Talking Banana that will cure all Civ6's modding ills.

The civ5 SDK has never been much more than a file-packager for creating a mod. Other than giving access to the dll, which with Civ5 took what two years or something? People are setting themselves up for dissappointment if the SDK for Civ6 is not the Magic Talking Banana we would all hope it will turn out to be.

Even if the SDK is the Magic Talking Banana we all hope for, if Firaxis doesn't fix the pretty broken and kludgey implementation of lua, there will simply be a lot of things that will be far more difficult, if not impossible, to accomplish.

I found what little attempts I made to do Civ4 modding to be much harder than civ5 turned out to be.

I found Civ5 modding to be pretty easy once you understood how the game is put together in terms of the xml-tables and what systems do what. The real disapointment of civ5 was and is in the fact that we are not now and are not likely ever to be able to access the root dll for the game's graphics, which limits the graphical scope of total conversion mods if not the actual gameplay effects.

well, that and certain UI files the names alone of which themselves are cursewords in the Civ5 modding community.

 

[Gedemon]

Yes, we know almost nothing about the MTB, except those few words from an old interview:

A lot of the tools will be similar to what we had in Civ V. [Even] if you're a highly skilled modder, it was extremely difficult to work on leaders, and our elite units in the game, so we're paying special focus to that.

Most of the hopes are based on the "special focus", the broken import/export tool for graphics in civ5 was a huge deception.

But you are right about it being useless if we can't do complex gameplay coding.

I'm relatively confident here, because with the exception of controling AI units, so far I think I could convert all of my lua code from civ5 to civ6 if required (which I suppose will be required, as much as I'd like to be wrong, I don't expect the source code to be released *soon*)

My biggest concern ATM is to maintain the compatibility between mods using different artdefs, more specifically when changing existing assets from other mods, another point that would lessen the impact of a good import / export tool for my plans.

 

[DavDarkelf]

I'm fairly new to creating game mods but have experience of XML from about 15 years ago. Creating simple mods and simple new Civilizations seems to be fairly easy. However if you start to add requirements to units the XML code for it is way overcomplicated. To give a Unit +5 in attack or defense requires a stupid amount of code.

Other than that it's just time spent looking through the game XML code or asking questions from more experienced people.

I seriously doubt the SDK will make a lot of difference.

 

[Deliverator]

Firaxis has said this is the most moddable civ

To be fair, that was what they said about Civ 5 - they haven't made the same claim for Civ 6. The Civ 6 equivalent claim is "designed from the ground up with deep mod support in mind" from here. I'm currently thinking this has more to do with the modifiers system than graphics modding, but we'll see what features the MTB has when it finally appears (which probably won't be until after two more DLCs drop).

It's unlikely any version of Civ will beat the mod-ability of Civ 4 having worked with the DLL, Python and the graphics tools for that game.

My biggest concern ATM is to maintain the compatibility between mods using different artdefs, more specifically when changing existing assets from other mods, another point that would lessen the impact of a good import / export tool for my plans.

Yeah, the artdefs are painfully verbose and the fact you can't update them with SQL isn't helping. It's hard to imagine how Civ 6 graphics modding will be easier than Civ 5 unless they have some amazing GUI for viewing/editing/saving artdefs that takes all the unwieldy complexity out of it.

 

[MDoulos]

I'm learning to program now and I have a good C# resource. Is it easy to pick up C++ once I learn C#?

 

[Lynnes]

I must admit that I'm still hoping that one of the reasons for not having released the SDK yet is that they want to sell some more basic DLCs (scenarios, new city states or natural wonders) first, because the kit will be so extremely powerful that you literally could turn the game into a space sim with only a few clicks.

 

[greyTiger]

From my perspective I am not expecting the MTB to make things any easier for the mods I am working on (hopefully I'm wrong on this) as most of the changes I make are in lua.
It would be great though if there were tools that streamlined the whole process of creating civilizations, as I may then give that a go too.

 

[Nomad or What]

I must admit that I'm still hoping that one of the reasons for not having released the SDK yet is that they want to sell some more basic DLCs (scenarios, new city states or natural wonders) first, because the kit will be so extremely powerful that you literally could turn the game into a space sim with only a few clicks.

If it's not the all-powerful MTB we are hoping for I will probably stick to CiV modding. It took years and a lot of great modding minds to get CiV to the point where you could make a decent TC fantasy mod out of it and I don't intend to invest another couple of years while the modding community slowly unravels Civ VI. Sometimes the devil you know is better than the devil you don't....