Where do I begin?

[eromrab]

Ok, so here is what I am going to do, if I can figure it out:

I want to take the road terrain improvement. Change the color to blue. Rename it as "Canal." Make it so that sea and land units can use that terrain. Hopefully have it tied into the trade network as well.

Anyone have suggestions on where on earth I am to begin? I'm a noob with this but I learn pretty quickly. I've printed off a bunch of tutorials, so hopefully that'll help...

Any help will be greatly appreciated!

 

[ClassicThunder]

I'd suggest you get some experience under your belt. No ones made this so no one can walk you through the creation. I can tell you it will take XML, C++, and maybe Python.

If you a noob you should do some more basic stuff first.

 

[marx&engles]

I'm also new to modding, but it sounds like you'll probably have to edit the xml file in the original civ iv assets that has the info on roads. i looked at it and it has the two routetypes: road and railroad. you should be able to create a new routetype named canal w/ the desired effects. the only thing that I don't know is how to change the color/ image. There might be a line of text for that, but I don't know...
Hope that's a starting point that you can work off of, but there is definitely more to it than that.

 

[ClassicThunder]

lol

Your going to have to go into the SDK and edit it so certain units can go on those tiles. You going to then have to add AI to the workers to get the to add it correctly and to the units to get them to use the canals properly.

So you looking at adding tags, lots of AI work, adding a automation and build, in addition to editing a few .dds files. If you don't know how to edit the colors then you don't have enough experience and basic knowledge of how Civilization 4 is set up to even consider such a difficult mod.

 

[Fanatic Demon]

Well, I suggest you take one step at the time.

Step 1: Create wide blue road model
Step 2: Make them buildable by workers
Step 3: Prevent them from beeing build in hills
Step 4: Allow sea unit to move over them
Step 5: Add AI code to make workers build canals between sea and cities
Step 6: Add AI code to make worksers build canals between oceans

Now, if you can do steps 1 and 2, I might help you with the other steps