Modding is a waste of time in V1.1

Modding (as in putting a mod into the mod folder) won't work properly until 1.2
Also, if you have any race saves, anything modded is ignored until these saves are deleted, and the game has to call the race information from the .xml as opposed to a raceconfig.xml file.

One case: I made my own custom race, with a documented background, and differing text, all of which actually worked. Never published it because it was based on an in-joke betweem me and a group of friends. Modding works perfectly if you know how to use it, IE change the .xml files.

Yeah the modability will be added in 1.2, currently they have the basic framework in though to mod almost everything.

I agree. There's too many modding bugs in v1.1. V1.2 should be out soon, and should be better.

Wait a second, sheesh, talk about being selective.

You can change the race names in XML, you can totally change the game's UI using DesktopX, you can put in your own custom ships, you can put in your own technologies, custom planets, planetary improvements, and much more.

Even in 1.1, it wouldn't be very hard for someone to go in and make a Babylon 5 equivlanet. The ships are in the library, the raceconfig.xml is easy to change and the home worlds are easy to change.

If you're looking for a newbie-friendly mod folder you have to wait until 1.2, but to say you can't mod GalCiv 2 is a real stretch. You can mod the data that is already there in the regular directories just fine. 

False. I don't believe you can create new trade goods. Have you checked?

If this question has been answered before and I just missed it, then I apologize:

Is it possible to Mod things like the Diplomacy options (not just the actual text which I'm fairly certain you can modify, but the options that you can choose) also can you add your own AI Scripts and/or other related scripts in some way? (Not that there is a problem with the current, but it is conceivable that one might want to Mod a race that behaves in a unique way that might not match the current AI behaviour as seen by the Modder ).

Thanks.

alse. I don't believe you can create new trade goods. Have you checked?

 I haven't tried trade goods, which is why I didn't mention them.  But you can certainly add your own planetary improvements.  And I do suspect you can add your own trade goods as well though I haven't tried it.

If people are waiting for some super system that will let non-techies mod the game then they might as well give up now.  We're never going to put in that kind of time.  But anyone with a text editor and certainly mod up quite a few things.

All 1.2 is going to do is allow players to virtualize these mods in a special mod folder so that they can easily pick and choose between them.

Is it possible to Mod things like the Diplomacy options (not just the actual text which I'm fairly certain you can modify, but the options that you can choose) also can you add your own AI Scripts and/or other related scripts in some way? (Not that there is a problem with the current, but it is conceivable that one might want to Mod a race that behaves in a unique way that might not match the current AI behaviour as seen by the Modder ).

No.  The AI isn't scripted, that's one of the things that we did to make sure it was very adaptable. 

False. I don't believe you can create new trade goods. Have you checked?

Frogboy, you say it isn't hard and make out that I'm a newbie if I can't get it to work. But still there is not a single working example of a race mod available. So I would contend that rather than me being a newbie, your modding system has undocumented dependencies that only make sense when you are in possession of the C++ source code.

In your post you claim that it is possible to easily change race names in the raceconfig.xml file. So I tried it out this super basic mod. It just plain doesn't work. See the linked image.

Link

Now I could step through the your assembler code to see why it ignores my changes while parsing the XML file, but why bother when you are going to change the area of the code in V1.2.

Now don't get me wrong. You have done a great job on the game. The modding side of things just doesn't seem ready for prime time yet.

I’ve changed the Racename on my game. The trick is that you have to delete CurrentCustomRace0.raceconfig in “:C:\Documents and Settings\Andrew\My Documents\My Games\GalCiv2” before you start a new game. Otherwise the game loads from there...

No. The AI isn't scripted, that's one of the things that we did to make sure it was very adaptable.

Well, I was going ask if maybe such a feature could be added, but I have a feeling that doing so when only degrade the AI. However, the races do seem to behave slightly differently from each other in the game (the Drengin and Yor are more agressive I've noticed - it might just be me) is this solely based on their starting configuration (i.e. say what techs you give them to start, etc) or are some changable variables which control this. If its later, will there be a point at which can set this? (Say create a race with a high tendancy towards agressiveness (blowing stuff up) or a race with a high tendancy towards pacificist strategist (economic/research/influence type strategems).

Hi. Sorry for my bad english (youknow : My tailor is rich, but my english is poor. Usual).


Galciv2 is more moddable tnah, say, Civ series. But it lack a lot of things :

Example : A lot of thnig need to be in a lot of files : For the passmark problem, he need to look in Mapraceinfo.xml and Raceconfig.xml, but in English.str too (line 2752 and after).

And Frogboy, you can't really create a Babylon5 mod, because else all the race can have the Shadow cutting beam. Even if you use the trick "prerequisite of Shadow techs is owned only by the shadow and cost 60000bc", others races can trade or stole (by spying or planet conquest) it.

For now, i add three race : Foxies (sneaky race with bonus in war and culture), Skunkies (loving race with bonus in morale and culture) and Kats (warlike race with bonus in war things). Replace Altarians, thorians and Korx, in this order (Kats not use Drengin because Kats are more sneaky than theses stupid drengins).
I add new texts in Conversations and Flavortexts, change their names, racial texts and planetary spawn names, change their bonus abilities, leaders graphics. But nothing more.

Yes, all tech tree is totally changed : Focused on the "only one prerequisite" thing, because it's the way of Galciv, but for the other it's more a "search five theory tech, and after that you can search usable tech OR new a new theory thread (after you research the five "Laser theory tech", you can search for Laser weapons or "plasma theory tech"). I added new techs, nex threads, and so on.

But i can't add racial tech : AI can always trade or stole it (and, you now, i think AI cheat with the stole thing : They can have a tech i don't have, even if the prerequisite tech is a racial tech only i have and... they don't => They can't search it (they don't have prerequisite), they can't stole it (nobody have), but they have. And in the first turns of the game, not less. Strange, no, Frogboy ?



For really modding nex races, we need :


- A new tag "no trade/no stole" for the techs.
- Try to have texts in the same file (planetary names in two or three files : What the use ?).

Oh, and i forgot ! We need, to :

- Explain all the tags and tags values, damnit ! We don't know what can do a lot of tags !

I don’t like the tone being taken here, but if I may add my own US$.02:
I’d love to be able to create a defense module that was effective against more than one type of attack; currently you can’t.
I’d love to be able to make hulls where certain defenses were built right in.
I want a tag that says [will allow ship building]true[/will allow ship building] rather than the Kludge we have to use now...

It seems that we have a system that is fairly open, but I’d love to see it opened even further...

And Frogboy, you can't really create a Babylon5 mod, because else all the race can have the Shadow cutting beam. Even if you use the trick "prerequisite of Shadow techs is owned only by the shadow and cost 60000bc", others races can trade or stole (by spying or planet conquest) it. For now, i add three race : Foxies (sneaky race with bonus in war and culture), Skunkies (loving race with bonus in morale and culture) and Kats (warlike race with bonus in war things). Replace Altarians, thorians and Korx, in this order (Kats not use Drengin because Kats are more sneaky than theses stupid drengins). I add new texts in Conversations and Flavortexts, change their names, racial texts and planetary spawn names, change their bonus abilities, leaders graphics. But nothing more. Yes, all tech tree is totally changed : Focused on the "only one prerequisite" thing, because it's the way of Galciv, but for the other it's more a "search five theory tech, and after that you can search usable tech OR new a new theory thread (after you research the five "Laser theory tech", you can search for Laser weapons or "plasma theory tech"). I added new techs, nex threads, and so on. But i can't add racial tech : AI can always trade or stole it (and, you now, i think AI cheat with the stole thing : They can have a tech i don't have, even if the prerequisite tech is a racial tech only i have and... they don't => They can't search it (they don't have prerequisite), they can't stole it (nobody have), but they have. And in the first turns of the game, not less. Strange, no, Frogboy ? For really modding nex races, we need : - A new tag "no trade/no stole" for the techs. - Try to have texts in the same file (planetary names in two or three files : What the use ?).

 

1) As you pointed out, you have to change the race names in english.str as well. 

2) You could give each race its own unique tech tree. All you'd need to do is have some races start out with a given technology that the others do not and have that tech be the prerequisite for others.

3) Those techs could then lead to particular weapons and defenses that would in effective give each race its own set of weapons.

4) The weapons and defenses point to their own .x files which users can create themselves if they know 3D Studio (or Maya).

My argument isn't that the modding in GalCiv is trivially easy. The name of this post is that it's a "waste of time".  It's only a waste of time if you're very non-technical.  I've modded my own game iternally to be Babylon 5 like. 

The text and such is not hard coded in the game (for one thing, we'd have to translate the EXE itself). 

2) You could give each race its own unique tech tree. All you'd need to do is have some races start out with a given technology that the others do not and have that tech be the prerequisite for others

And when you take a planet from them you get access to that special tech tree. You will have complete research access to the tree for anything down the line from whatever tech you get as a reward for invading. Also, what's to stop any other race from researching the first tech in the special tree branch?

Frogboy, "I've modded my own game iternally to be Babylon 5 like."

Would you be willing to post that mod? My wife (and I) is a huge B5 fan.

one question Frogboy, does the AI add jewelry to their ships on their own or does it use the base ship-configs and simply adds weapons/shields/engines as needed to them? Iam looking for a way to prevent the AI from adding jewelries to B5 ships (in order for their look to not be desroyed) without having to make all jewelries invisible (like deleting or overwriting them with an empty X-File).

AI uses core ship looks and then puts extra parts of it.
Since on core ship, eveything is jewelry, even parts that look functional, the AI ships will look weird by appearing to have multiple functional parts.

Like Freighters with two cargo pods (original jewelry and another added by AI when redesigning ship). This really gives a lot of ugly ships. Every time I see AI constructor, Freighter or colony ship with "an extra" functional component at ride side of the ship I grin.

If there is anything I would like changed, it is that AI should use core looks for all his ships, with new parts not visible.

Thank for your answer, Frogboy.

1) As you pointed out, you have to change the race names in english.str as well. 2) You could give each race its own unique tech tree. All you'd need to do is have some races start out with a given technology that the others do not and have that tech be the prerequisite for others. 3) Those techs could then lead to particular weapons and defenses that would in effective give each race its own set of weapons. 4) The weapons and defenses point to their own .x files which users can create themselves if they know 3D Studio (or Maya). My argument isn't that the modding in GalCiv is trivially easy. The name of this post is that it's a "waste of time". It's only a waste of time if you're very non-technical. I've modded my own game iternally to be Babylon 5 like. The text and such is not hard coded in the game (for one thing, we'd have to translate the EXE itself).

1° Yes, but why have the SAME information in several files
? For example, name empire or planetary spawn need to be in a lot of file.


2° It's exactly what i do, but AI can stole or trade the prerequisite tech. I don't want my loving race Skunkies (they think they can conquer the galaxy whith love. No, really) have the dark weapons of the Kats !

3° See 2°

4° To hard for me, but i see your point.

Oh, one minor feature I’d love to see: when I rush build, randomizing the names of the companies. IE:
The game has Company A, B, C..F listed internally. Player rush buys item 1 and sees:

Company C: 500 credits
Company A: 10 credits and 2/ turn for 7 turns
Company F: 5 credits and 2/ turn for 8 turns
Company B: 10 credits and 2/ turn for 9 turns

But when she buys item 2:

Company A: 500 credits
Company C: 10 credits and 2/ turn for 7 turns
Company E: 5 credits and 2/ turn for 8 turns
Company D: 10 credits and 2/ turn for 9 turns

As I said, it’d be a minor feature, but would add a nice layer of reality...

another thing Id like to see for modding is the capability to define the size of ship models on the galactic map as well as in 3D combat directly via the game or the XMLs. having to "guess" the right sizes out of the 3D Editor is a pain especially as there is some automatic scaling going on that you cant affect (for the different hull sizes: tiny, small...). so a ship currently may look too big on the galactic map, but too small in combat or vice versa. especially annoying when the ship is animated like my Omega, which kinda screws with the auto-scaling of the game.

Not tried modding so I don't wish to speak too much about things I don't understand. I do wish to broach something I've seen mentioned though. That is the if you give a race a custom tech tree, iof invaded or that tech is stolen other races have access to it too. That seems perfectly reasonable to me. If I conquer an alien race, no matter how foreign the tech, I can bet you anything one of my top priorities would be to retro engineer there technology. It seems rather realistic to me in that sense.

Still, it makes sense to be able to flag some things as unstolable/untradable.