31-08-2005 17:21									#1
	Game developer magazine Support Apolyton, buy Galactic Civilizations

As mentioned in a closed thread, a technical article related to Civ IV development is available on Game developer magazine http://www.gdmag.com/homepage.htm.

Thanks sn00py for the hint. OTOH... what are you doing wandering around Civ IV? Back to work at Humanitas, NOW!

Now, hoping not to cross line into some moderator censorship, I'll try to resume the main concept, just to give a review to anyone considering if buying the whole tech magazine is his/her cup of tea.

The article of course is about programming technics, so has a lot of technical detail and external books and manual reference.

IMHO, the juicy part for common player is that they (at Firaxis) are keeping their promise at a very high level, with the ability to tweak a very large part of the game, city view on map, user interface and AI included.

Some of modding ask for a quite high level of tecnical knowledge, but the ability to "hot plug" changed part, without recompile the whole source code, is a great way to help mod developers *and* quality assurance bugs crushers.

I expect an easy and quick resolution of any minor balancing issue or minor bugs, at least assuming they are exactly identified.

Another promising phrase of the Mustafa article mention how easy will be to expand and improve the game in new release, plugging and unplugging part of game code without destroying the stable part ("1/3 new, 1/3 old, 1/3 improved" mantra made easy?).

Interesting words are spent mentioning city building arrangement (to manage wonders, buildings and houses all inside a single tile both with small villages and large metropolis), and units formation (still I can't understand if they plan to link this concept to any game use, e.g. a tactical choice of a formation before a battle).

A box is dedicated to the choice (and technical problem solved) of wrapping a flat map around a half globe in globe view, texturing, meshing et al.

On a final note, on the credits part is aknowledged the effort of Nat Duca (Globeview and City layout), Bart Muzzin (Unit formation editor) and Nathan Mefford, Tom Whittaker, Kelley Gilmore for their contribution to the article.

Last edited by Adm.Naismith on 31-08-2005 at 17:36

	01-09-2005 01:08									#2
	Got spare money?

I found the editor in Conquests to be exceptionally easy to use, if not some what limited. Has there been any indication that there is such a tool in place for those of us who are not adept at programming? The discussions I’ve read so far have addressed the potential scope of what can be modded, but not the ease.*

*I would search for this info myself, but the work computer blocks all game sites.

	01-09-2005 09:56									#3
	Support Apolyton buy from Amazon

TheArsenal,

The basics of the game (like the editor in Civ3), are accessed through XML, XML is a language, not an editor, but the way XML works is different. XML is very orderly and easy to read. You don't have to actually do any programming whatsoever. You just simply look for the line you want, for example, lets say you want to change the Spearman's graphic size.

You search for maybe
"Unit Sizes"
then under that you search for
"Spearman"
then next to that you find a number, maybe its number 1 (which is default), and if you want to make it bigger, you simply put in a higher number, if you want to make it smaller, you simply put in a negative number, and then save the xml file.

btw, this XML will offer a lot more options to change than what you got in Civ3's editor.

	01-09-2005 10:10									#4
	Put an end to popups!

I know it's a dumb question, but... Is it somehow like the "ini" file? I mean, the parameters are there, and you can change a lot of little annoying things...


Edited:sp

Last edited by Aro on 01-09-2005 at 20:18

	01-09-2005 11:16									#5
	Got spare money?

yeah something like that

	01-09-2005 11:52									#6
	Support Apolyton, buy Galactic Civilizations

It's actually very similar to the civ2 rules file, since notepad would be fine for editing it.

There are plenty of good xml editors though.

	01-09-2005 13:52									#7
	Support Apolyton, buy Civilization: The Boardgame

Wow, I'm on the Civ IV news page! (but my name is missing, I wonder if DanQ is punishing me because I'm dancing with copyright infringment ).

Well, to be true XML is not a programming language, but more a smart way to store data needed by a proper program (or script).

It's more advanced than a flat ".ini" or ".txt" of parameters, because you define data properties *inside* the file itself, using XML, and not inside the source code of the program that will use it.

That's good for many programming reason, but I agree that on a common user level (as most of us gamers) that can be ingnored, and we can simply focusing on how it can be modified: as easy as Civ II or .ini file, as Kuci and Sn00py said.

	01-09-2005 19:53									#8
	Increase the size of your Attachments

Sn00py - thanks. As far as changing the values of units, etc. that sounds fairly straight forward.

I guess what I’m also asking is what do we know - if anything - about creating scenarios (map making, unit and city placement, and the like) which was, along with tweaking/creating and tweaking/creating wonders, what I primarily used the Editor for? I can’t imagine doing something like this without a fairly easy to use tool.

	01-09-2005 20:17									#9
	Support Apolyton buy from Amazon

Ah. Hmmmm... I'd imagine an editor is provided for that.

	01-09-2005 21:01									#10
	Support Apolyton, buy Civilization 2

quote: my name is missing

the article was in our knowledge long before your thread

	02-09-2005 02:24									#11
	Browse Apolyton AD-FREE

The editor is a great part of my enjoyment. Creating maps and scenarios as well as re-balancing the game to my taste (to the degree I can ) is almost as much fun as playing.

	02-09-2005 04:04									#12
	Get a bigger avatar today!

quote: Originally posted by MarkG quote: my name is missing the article was in our knowledge long before your thread

Sir, and your point is?
I was referring to this part of the DanQ news:

quote: Apolyton Civilization Site forum user `` provides the following summary after reading the piece:

where anyone can see the user name is meant to be mentioned but left empty inside the couple of apostrophe, as in a last minute check missed from the draft to the final new...

But my point is moot: I never want the merit of the magazine article, still I summarize it in parts and you quote my same words (correcting my english mistake, and I'm thanking for that, of course).

I recognized the work of others so well that I quoted all the credits mentioned in the end of article...