Why do you have to be a wiz to mod in Civ4?

[PotterDK]

Am I the only one missing the easy modding with the editor in Civ3??? The world builder in Civ4 is pretty much useless. I don't know squad about computers in general and to me a Pythin is a snake.
Can any one direct me to an proper and easy editor for Civ4 that mortal can actually use.
I just want to make the advances longer to research and I want to remove most of the Small Wonders, only keeping the Forbidden Palace.

Thank you.

 

[JujuLautre]

ask into the creation and cutomization forum; but you want to edit xml files, not python.

 

[Joe Harker]

^^^

What he said,

In the tech info xml files you can adjust the amount of beakers needed for each technolgy
Or you could modify one of the speed settings (don't know what file) so that tech research is longer

Just make sure that you make backup copies of any files you change.

The reason why the editor was removed was because you couldn't make really advance mods (you certainly couldn't make final frontier with a civ 3 type editor)

 

[Yakk]

They went with modding power over modding ease.

This has two big benefits:
1> There are some really good mods in civ4 that wouldn't be possible in civ3.
2> The developers of Civ4 could use the powerful modding abilities to design civ4 itself.

On the downside, it is slightly harder to mod civ4 so that axemen have 200 strength.

 

[PotterDK]

I'm sorry if I posted in the wrong forum - I'm new to this site and didn't quite know where to look.

 

[Popcornlord]

XML isn't to hard, but there are a few easy-to-use XML editors in production. I recommend looking at these, even though they're a little buggy.

 

[PotterDK]

I found a good XML Editor - it will just be a matter of trial and error getting to know it. But I need good advice. When the game crashes because you have been a bit too creative or so, do any of you know how I can pin-point the problem? Is there any easy way of doing so?

I have used Wolfshanze's mod, but made some adjustments.

First of all I made the Marathon reseach speed slower (350 instead of 300) in "CIV4GameSpeedInfo", which I copied from the basic game.

Then I removed almost all of the small wonders "CIV4BuildingInfos" (not in "CIV4BuildingClassInfos" - said there was some xml problems when I tried to run it, so I left them there).

Then I made Hitler '_FINANCIAL' instead of '_CHARISMATIC' in "CIV4LeaderHeadInfos".

I could play the game untill 1700 BC (I think), then it crashed into windows. Anybody have any idea why? I sure don't.

Thanks.

 

[General Tso]

I recently made an XML editor for Civ4 that's really easy to use. If you're interested in trying it, the link is in my signature.

 

[PotterDK]

Hahahahahahahahahaha!!!!

That was actually the XML editor I was refering to!!!
Good work!!!

 

[General Tso]

Thanks PotterDK, I'm glad you like it.

 

[PotterDK]

But seriously what is the difference between "CIV4BuildingInfos" and "CIV4BuildingClassInfos" - I have tried to delete buildings in both and just in "CIV4BuildingInfos". Could play both times but after a while it crashed.

 

[Shiggs713]

civ4buildinginfos.xml defines all the certain buildings, and all (well there are exceptions) of their functions. This includes unique buildings, such as the stock exchange.

civ4buildingclassinfos.xml defines all the building classes. This is different than defining certain buildings, its defining building types. This file defines banks and stock exchanges as the same thing; bank.

If you want to add a new type of building, you must add them in both files. If you just want to modify a building, or add unique buildings (not new types), then you can get by only editing civ4buildinginfos.xml.

You should read more XML tutorials to get down all the basics, and understanding how changing things in 1 XML file can sometimes make you have problems in several other ones... usually only tags that lead to other files, such as in the civ4civilizationinfos.xml, it defines the art tag for the civilizations. Something like; ART_DEFINE_CIVILIZATION_AMERICA

if you change these, you'll also have to modify the artdefinescivilizations.xml, and any mistake in any art defines will lead to a crash (with no error log), leaving newbs completely lost. If you've only changed XML and you get an error less crash, 95% of the time its going to be a problem with either art defines or events.

sorry to ramble on, just sharing some experience.

 

[PotterDK]

I did go over the tuturial in this page, but found no reference on how I should actually erase a building - lots of references to how I should edit a given building or even create one, but none about how to erase 'em.
Personally I would think it would be nothing more than erase the buildings civ4buildinginfos.xml and civ4buildingclassinfos.xml, because most buildings have their own class. It did tell me when I loaded the mod that there were some errors in civ4buildingclassinfos.xml. I then started the game, and it crashed after a while. Then I tried only to erase the buildings in civ4buildinginfos.xml, and then it didn't present any error, when I loaded the mod. But it still crashed after a while.

I can't think that it has anything to do with the other modding I have done on the mod, that is making Hitler 'financial' instead of 'charismatic', or making all the tech's 25% longer to reseach, because that's pretty basic stuff, and it shouldn't crash because of that.

 

[Joe Harker]

I did go over the tuturial in this page, but found no reference on how I should actually erase a building

The easiest way, but the ugly way is make a new technology and disabled it so it can't be researched, then make all the buildings that you don't want, need the tech you have disabled to build them. Therefore because the AI and you can't research it you can't build the buildings as a result.

 

[PotterDK]

I don't care if it's ugly - it sounds creative and I will give it a try.

 

[CyberChrist]

Personally I would think it would be nothing more than erase the buildings civ4buildinginfos.xml and civ4buildingclassinfos.xml, because most buildings have their own class.

It did tell me when I loaded the mod that there were some errors in civ4buildingclassinfos.xml. I then started the game, and it crashed after a while. Then I tried only to erase the buildings in civ4buildinginfos.xml, and then it didn't present any error, when I loaded the mod. But it still crashed after a while.

The XML checker doesn't catch all XML errors. Missing ART entries are not caught and is the most common reason for in game crashes, however it doesn't sound like that is what is happening here.

Your problem might occur if you only deleted the default building(s) in civ4buildinginfos.xml , but not the Unique Buildings of the same building class. Without having tested this then I suspect the game would crash once a civ gains access to their UB and the game tries to find the default building (which you deleted) that is listed under the class in civ4buildingclassinfos.xml.

To fix this you should try to either, deleting all the UBs of the same class or (if you want to keep those UBs) change the deault building reference(s) in the civ4buildingclassinfos.xml to one of corresponding UBs.