Why same symbols for commerce and gold?

[Mumin]

This really bugs me. At first I thought that Bureaucracy provided +50% gold in the capital, which isn't nearly as good as the +50% commerce it actually provides. I want to change the symbol for commerce (or gold), but I can't find it defined in the xml or python files. Anyone who knows how/if it can be done?

 

[Mumin]

Anyway, I found the files. It was:

assets/res/fonts/Gamefont.tga
assets/res/fonts/Gamefont_75.tga

I edited the gold symbol with GIMP and noticed a severe risk of making the game crash on startup after certain changes. Can anyone familiar with GIMP and the tga-files explain why? (I'm familiar with neither.)

 

[DrJambo]

yeah, I agree. Having the same symbol for both isn't clever. Have you had any success with something simpler than "GIMP" ? lol.

 

[Mumin]

GIMP is the only program I know of that can open tga-files. I have posted a (to my knowledge) working mod in the graphics modpacks.

 

[ShroudedMist]

Well Photoshop handles .tgas just fine it looks like. No idea why your changed files are crashing however.

 

[Stuporstar]

It may be a problem with alpha channels or compression. Your program may be saving the file with a different set than it was originally. I remember having this problem when modding the graphics in Civ III. I'm not sure how they saved their .TGA files so I guess you'll just have to play with the save settings until it works, unless someone else around here knows for sure.

 

[Mumin]

I think that CIV crashes if I try to use text in the tga-file. Another notable thing is that the files shrink quite a lot in size when I save them with GIMP.

 

[Master Kodama]

Another notable thing is that the files shrink quite a lot in size when I save them with GIMP.

That would imply that you're saving them at a higher compression rate, which the game might not like.

 

[Stuporstar]

While we're on the topic, can anyone tell me how to get rid of this ugly white halo around my new commerce icons? I made one that used the stack of coins image found somewhere in the assets/art folder (can't remember where at the moment). It seems to be masking the image out in the old shape of the coin, so I get these ugly white pixels around my new icon.

 

[WildWeazel]

With an image that small, it shouldn't be hard to pencil it out.

btw what is the difference between gold and commerce? I haven't been paying attention to the little things in the game.

 

[Stuporstar]

Yeah, it's not a matter of pencilling it out because the bg for all the icons in that file is white. I tried giving it a larger black shadow just because black against the blue interface wouldn't be as noticable, but it still looks like crap. I guess I could try to match the blue, but that doesn't really solve the problem. Then I'd just have to change it again if I decided to change the theme.

Oh, and I think the difference between gold and commerce is that commerce deals with percentage factors (i.e. the tech/culture sliders) and gold represents an individual gold value. I'm not entirely sure.

 

[TheBladeRoden]

Is commerce the one in the top row or the second row, as opposed to plain ol gold?

 

[Stuporstar]

In the GameFont files, it's the one in the second row, beside the science and culture icons.

 

[KrikkitTwo]

With an image that small, it shouldn't be hard to pencil it out.

btw what is the difference between gold and commerce? I haven't been paying attention to the little things in the game.

Commerce comes from
Palace, Trade Routes (boosted by harbors), and Tiles (boosted by Financial)
It can be boosted by Bureaucracy

Your sliders then take that commerce and divide it into Gold, Sceince and Culture piles

Gold pile: Slider, Shrines, Spiral Minaret, Specialists, Hammers->Gold
Science pile: Slider, Specialists, Hammers->Science
Culture pile: Slider, Cultural buildings, Specialists, Hammers->Culture, Religion

Each of those piles is then affected by relevant buildings and civic effects.

Then gold goes into your treasury and Science goes into whatever you are researching and culture goes into the city's culture. (you can also gain gold by trading with other civs in the diplomacy screen)

 

[WildWeazel]

So basically, commerce is the input and gold is the output?

 

[Stuporstar]

I keep getting gold and commerce mixed up. Sorry, the commerce one is on the top row and the gold icon is on the second row.

btw, does anyone know if there are masking files for these icons, or something in the xml or python that defines the shape, size, positions and so on?

 

[MerakSpielman]

I'm messing around with these files (via photoshop) and there seems to be some sort of masking going on... I modded the commerce icon to be a couple of arrows, but in the game these are clipped so that the icon fits inside a circle exactly the size of the gold coin it used to be... I'm going through the unpacked .fpk files to see if I can locate the mask.

Also, these font files only mod the appearance of the commerce icon where it appears in-line with text, such as in the descriptions of buildings - not on the main map. I'm going to see if I can figure out where those graphics are as well.

 

[Simetrical]

Er, isn't this just in the alpha channel?

 

[MerakSpielman]

Er, isn't this just in the alpha channel?

Doh! Of course. OK, I went back and stuck in the proper alpha channels in all the images I edited.

However, now the game crashes whenever I found a new city. I'm guessing it doesn't like my changes for some reason...

The only thing that's worrying me is that many of the graphics files I'm changing have associated .nif files, or at least .nif files in the same directory with the same name. I can't open those, and I hope I don't need to...

 

[MerakSpielman]

Here is a screenshot of some of what I've accomplished so far (it still crashes when you build a city):