Mod Creation Utility

[alexman]

I just finished writing a little program that I think makes life much easier for creating Mod Packs.

It's basically a windows interface for modifying the game's text files. You can download it from web.mit.edu/alexman/www/EasyMod.ZIP

At present, the program is capable of adding or modifying advances, units, governments, improvements, and wonders. You still have to edit the AI files manually, however.

Just unzip the executable into your main CTP folder and run it from there. It looks for civpaths.txt and based on this file reads all the necessary text files. When you have made your modifications it creates new gamedata folders with the modified files, and a new civpaths.txt file so the game knows to use those folders.

You can use the original files, or any working mod as a starting point. If you start from CD's mod, note that there is an error in uniticons.txt (there are only 79 icons but the number at the top says 80) that should be fixed before you can use EasyMod.

Please send any bugs, comments, or suggestions to alexman@mit.edu


Note: If you already downloaded the program on June 24th, note that I have since replaced it by the new version 1.01

[This message has been edited by alexman (edited June 24, 1999).]

[E.]

I have to say.....this is ******* beautiful!

One thing - none of the enabling or obsoleting advances seem to come up....but I think I can deal with it as it is....

Thanks for a great addition!

E

[alexman]

Thanks E.

To see the enabling/obsolete advances click on the arrow on the right and they will appear in a dropdown menu. You can then add/delete as you please. Use the "Go" button to go to the advance you have selected.

[alexman]

Version 1.1 is now available.
web.mit.edu/alexman/www/EasyMod.ZIP
The major change is the ability to calculate the net effect of each improvement on gold, science, production, pollution, happiness, and food. This helps to design balanced buildings.

Dan, Markos, feel free to post the program.

[This message has been edited by alexman (edited June 29, 1999).]

[anthony]

Thanks for this

just one small problem is that EasyMod doesn't work with CD's 4.2 mod ( for me at least) - it does work with the basic setup, both 1.0 and 1.1.

I get a problem about loading "uniticon.txt" and EasyMod then exits

A.

[LittleWing]

I got the same problem as Anthony with the CD mod 4.1.
There's something wrong with uniticons.txt.

Thanks for this useful work.

[Sieur Pitt]

Your application does not work properly when I tried to add a new wonder like "Pyramids" in Civ2!!! Why?

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Vive le Québec libre!!!!

[alexman]

Sieur Pitt,
You mean that you can't change the wonder movie?
Sorry about that. I'll fix it immediately.
[This message has been edited by alexman (edited July 06, 1999).]

[alexman]

anthony,

As I mentioned in the original post of this thread, CD's uniticons.txt has 79 entries but the number at the top says 80. Change this number to 79 and everything should be fine.

Version 2.0 with Great Library editing capability (including automated links), and some terrain modification, should be ready this week.

[alexman]

Version 2.0 is now on-line.
Download it from web.mit.edu/alexman/www/EasyMod.ZIP

You may now edit the GL text and the terrain.

Also, Sieur Pitt, creating a new wonder with its own movie should work now.
(Don't forget to create a new icon for your new wonder, otherwise you will end up modifying the icon of the wonder that you copied as well)

[This message has been edited by alexman (edited July 06, 1999).]

[anthony]

Whoops - next time I will read all the thread

Thanks again
A.

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Ack Oop!

[alexman]

OK, unless somebody finds some bugs that need to be fixed, this is the final version for a while because I'm leaving for vacation on Friday.

So v2.4 has visual (in addition to text) editing capability of the wonder flags. It also allows overwriting an existing Mod instead of always creating a new set of files (thanks E.)

Get it here as usual:
web.mit.edu/alexman/www/EasyMod.ZIP


[This message has been edited by alexman (edited July 07, 1999).]
[This message has been edited by alexman (edited July 07, 1999).]

[Sieur Pitt]

Adding a new wonder will caused CTP to crash. I mean, I tried with your 2.2 version and it's do the same thing. I tried to add wonder of civ2. So I began with the "Pyramids" wonder. I take your mod utility to do that. I add my wonder and when I start CTP, it's crash and this message appear in my screen: "Cannot find WONDER_PYRAMIDS in string database" OR "Cannot find DEFAULT_ID in string database".

PS:Sorry for my bad english, I'm a french quebecers

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Vive le Québec libre!!!!

[alexman]

Sieur Pitt,
I tried to add the pyramids with v2.2 and succeeded.

Here's a step-by-step description:
1) Make sure you are starting from a working Mod.
2) Run EasyMod and go to the wonders tab. Select a wonder that resembles the pyramids in some way (e.g. Stonehenge) and click "New". You should now have a new wonder, identical to the Stonehenge.
3) Modify the name to "Pyramids". You can also change the icon and ID names, but it's not necessary. Click "Apply".
4) Click on the "visual" flags button and change the wonder properties to whatever you like. Give it a 50% food bonus for example. Click "OK" in the flags dialog.
5) Delete the existing enabling advance. Add Agriculture instead, for example. Note that CTP allows many obsoleting and enabling advances. Click "Apply".
6) Click the icon "files" button. Change the filenames in edit boxes if you want GL entries different than the Stonehenge. If you change the filenames make sure you also click "edit" to create a new GL file. Click "OK".
7) Change the .avi file to the Pyramids video, which should be in the proper CTP directory.
8) Name your mod. (e.g Pyramids)
9) Click "OK". Easymod will start creating all the necessary files. When it asks you whether to overwrite "civpaths.txt" say yes.
10) Run CTP. You should have Pyramids now.

If it still doesn't work, try starting from the original game files, or CD's mod.

If you followed a different path and it didn't work, could you e-mail me with the exact procedure that resulted in a failure? It's probably a bug that I'm not aware of.

[This message has been edited by alexman (edited July 07, 1999).]

[Sieur Pitt]

Alexman,

Well, your right, it's work!!!! Thank you very much!!!!!!

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Vive le Québec libre!!!!