XML question

[pilferman]

When making minor adjustments to the game, I used to put the modified xml files in the customassets folder listed under mygames. I've since changed to vista 64 and I'm having all kinds of trouble making these minor adjustments. I made modifications to the Civ4HandicapInfo.xml file, placed it in the appropriate customassets folder and when I start the game, there's a whole series of error windows that pop up.

Also, I ditched the customassets route and tried using a modified civ4handicapinfo file in the regular location and none of the changes took effect in game.

Anyone know what's going on? I'm using the steam version of BtS and I've done all this before many times with XP.

 

[Wolfshanze]

You can always just create a MOD of the changes and default your game to start to your mod... simply put your changes in a subfolder of the MOD directory and load your changes as a mod.

 

[phungus420]

To expand on what Wolf said: It's generally not a good idea to use Custom Assets. It can create problems with multi player and other mods you try. The reason why people do it is that it's easy and you don't have to mess with loading your mod at start up. But really, it's not worth it. You should really just make your changes into it's own proper mod. You do this by creating a folder in the ...Civilization IV\BtS\mods folder, name that folder what you want your mod to be called and drop your custom changes in there. Your mod's name is now the name of that folder.

Now, the main plus to custom assets is not having to load the mod every time you play. Well it's easy to set your new mod up with a desktop icon so you can do this. Go into your ...Civilization IV\BtS folder, find the .exe and right click on it, choose "create shortcut" When you create the shortcut, go into it's properties, under target it should say

"C:\...\Civilization IV\Beyond the Sword\Beyond the Sword.exe"

Now add this to the end mod=\MyModName so you have this as target:

"C:\...\Civilization IV\Beyond the Sword\Beyond the Sword.exe" mod=\MyModName

Place the shortcut on your desktop and you can now click and play your mod. This gives you the benifits of Custom Assets, without it's drawbacks.

As an asside the desktop shortcut thing works for any mod, and is a great way to set up a mod if you don't want to mess with your games ini, and don't want to have to load the mod from the main game each time you play.