Wonder Request: The Place of Truth

[Thunderclan]

I found nothing to suggest that this request has been made before so if it has then my apoligies.

The Place of Truth is a village that stood on the West bank of Thebes in Egypt. It was where the greatest craftsmen lived and served Pharoah.

I would like to see someone with more modding knowledge then I have turn this into a World Wonder that grants a bonus to Culture and an increase in the chance of getting a Great Artist.

Also if possible I'd like it to be useable with the Vanilla game.

 

[The_J]

That's easy enough to do it yourself .

Just try it, and post your problems here.

 

[Thunderclan]

Can someone point me toward a fairly simple to use program that will allow me to attempt to make a graphic for The Place of Truth?

 

[God-Emperor]

I think The_J may have forgotten the graphical aspects of the thing...

The other stuff for what you have described is easy - it is entries in XML files. The graphics, particularly a 3-D model to use as the in-city representation of the thing, are not quite as easy (unless you re-use some existing building's graphics).

You might go to the download database and see if there is a model that you could use. Anything that looks like a town, or part of a town, would presumably be OK - in the Wonders section there is one of the Alhambra that looks somewhat compatable with egyptian architecture.

 

[Thunderclan]

Alhambra looks to be the best option.

Now before I get started and screw something up which files do I need to add information to in order to create both the Place of Truth and a new technology to unlock it?

 

[The_J]

For the building itself:
Buildings\BuildingInfos.xml and BuildingClassInfos.xml.
for the art entry:
XML\Art\ArtDefines_Buildings.xml
For the technology:
Technology\TechnologyInfos.xml
for the Text:
Every file you want to take from the XML\text folder.


Good to see, that you take that challenge .

 

[God-Emperor]

My suggestion is to try the following order:

CIV4BuildingClassInfos.xml - copy an existing wonder and change the type, text, and default to what you want them to be. This is the data that actually makes it a wonder, national wonder, or regular building and allows unique buildings for civilizations to work (UB's use the same building class info as the regular building, but a different building info).

CIV4BuildingInfos.xml - copy the same wonder, changing the building class, type, and other fields as desired but leave the art definition alone for the moment.

Now you should be able to test it in game. Fire the game up and use the worldbuilder to give yourself the required technology (and maybe boost your city and drop in a great engineer or two to rush the thing). Build the wonder - is it there (disguised as the other wonder)? Are the properties listed for it (on the pop-up when you mouse over the thing in the build queue when building, and in the city screen) what you want them to be? Does it show up in the Civilopedia? At this point, you may see TXT_KEY_whatever instead of the desired text, or text for the wonder that was copied. Those can be fixed later by setting the various text related fields in the files and defining the translations in an XML file in the text folder (if you want, you can add a new file instead of editing an existing one; call it anything you want, as all XML files in the text folder are loaded regarless of what they are named - just make sure the format matches).

After that works, tweak the properties to get exactly what you want, add the desired art, and fix the text. Test it more.

Then add the new technology.

(Mini tutorial on adding a wonder that requires no python...)

 

[Thunderclan]

Its getting there but I have a few oddities. Since it was at the bottom of the list I used the Space Elevator as my Wonder base. Mysticism was my Technology base.

I made the edits to the BuildingClassInfos, BuildingInfos and TechInfos and started the game.

Checked the Civilopedia. The entry for both the wonder and technology were there (with the TXT_KEY before them).

Started a game and the tech shows up and can be researched. The duplicated Space Elevator won't show up in the building menu.

Activated Worldbuilder. The option to place the duplicate is there but when I activate it it doesn't show. (Though I did notice that one of the houses disappeared when I activated it).

Help?

Also I was wondering if I have to keep all the lines that aren't needed for the entry. Like gold trading and government center and such? It would make it alot easier to work on this stuff if I can remove them.

 

[Thunderclan]

Small change. I've managed to get the duplicate graphic to appear in the city now through Worldbuilder.

Haven't tried normal building yet.

Also I added the Alhambra graphic and made the XML changes I could find but it hasn't changed.

 

[Thunderclan]

I've gotten a new graphic to appear in the Civilopedia...Problem is the graphic is a red blob.

And I still get nothing but an empty space when I add it to a city.

 

[Lord Tirian]

Also I was wondering if I have to keep all the lines that aren't needed for the entry. Like gold trading and government center and such? It would make it alot easier to work on this stuff if I can remove them.

You need to keep them, as you see, all other buildings do as well. Reason for that is that the game parses all lines in a certain order - if you remove a line or change the order of the lines within a building entry, the game will trip over that.

I've gotten a new graphic to appear in the Civilopedia...Problem is the graphic is a red blob.

This means you've got a typo in your path (i.e. the game doesn't find the model at the specified path).

Cheers, LT.

 

[Thunderclan]

Now I can see the shape both in Civilopedia and Worldbuilder but its pink.

Also I still can't build it in normal gameplay

 

[Lord Tirian]

Now I can see the shape both in Civilopedia and Worldbuilder but its pink.

This means the game finds the model, but not the texture - have you renamed the texture? (the file with the .dds extension) If so, change the name back. Alternatively, open the .nif-file (the model) and check the name of the texture.

Also I still can't build it in normal gameplay

Did you remove the latitude requirement from the space elevator? You can't build the elevator everywhere because of that.

Cheers, LT.

 

[Thunderclan]

I've almost done it!!

The Place of Truth now builds in normal gameplay, uses the correct graphic and displays the right effects both in-game and civilopedia.

I still have to add Civilopedia descriptions for the Wonder and Technology and get rid of the TXT_KEY before the tech name but I'm nearly there. Also have to find buttons to go with them and something to replace the Space Elevator's movie with.

I gave it double production speed with stone and when built it gives +4 Culture and +2 to the chances of getting a Great Artist. Is that good for a Ancient Era Wonder or are the numbers too high?

 

[The_J]

For the TXT_KEY_ thing: Look in some file in the XML\Text folder, then you'll see, what you have to do .

The values: I think, it's not enough.
Maybe a free great artist would be good.

 

[Thunderclan]

And what tags do I need to change to do that?

Also having Button related problems. I found 2 that looked good in the Downloads section and renamed them, added them to the Art files and changed the Button tags but in-game they still use the buttons for Monotheism and Space Elevator.

What am I missing here?

 

[The_J]

And what tags do I need to change to do that?

Take one whole section from a building, copy it, change the TXT_KEY... for your building, and add the name in the tags under it.

Also having Button related problems. I found 2 that looked good in the Downloads section and renamed them, added them to the Art files and changed the Button tags but in-game they still use the buttons for Monotheism and Space Elevator.

What am I missing here?

Is caching disabled?
Maybe it uses the buttons, because they are in the cache.
You can disable caching in the civIV.ini (My Documents\My Games\BtS\Civilization.ini; search for cache).

 

[Thunderclan]

Buttons are working now.

Just the Civilopedia, Movie and adding The_J's suggestion left to do.

 

[The_J]

Civilopedia -> wikipedia, easiest way to do it .
Movie: That's difficult, because there's probably no fitting movie around. You should look in Arian's wondermovie thread, maybe there's something, which is generic enough, so that it could fit.
The text: It's really easy .

 

[Thunderclan]

The Civilopedia is done...not great but its done

I still haven't found the tags that would give the Wonder either a free Artist or Great Artist once built.

On the movie problem I was thinking of doing what the Temple of Soloman and the other unique shrines do. Just a single picture which I've found but don't know how to properly add to the game.