24-06-1999 23:03									#1
	Mod Creation Utility Support Apolyton, buy Civilization: The Boardgame

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).]

	25-06-1999 10:17									#2
	Help yourself to an AD-FREE life

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

	25-06-1999 18:43									#3
	Lose 30 kilos (of popups)

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.

	29-06-1999 12:22									#4
	Put an end to popups!

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).]

	05-07-1999 15:52									#5
	Support Apolyton, buy Galactic Civilizations

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.

	05-07-1999 18:14									#6
	Support Apolyton, pre-order Civilization IV

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.

	06-07-1999 09:39									#7
	Lose 30 kilos (of popups)

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.

	06-07-1999 01:09									#8
	Support Apolyton buy from Amazon

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

------------------
Vive le Québec libre!!!!

	06-07-1999 07:50									#9
	Support Apolyton, buy Call to Power 2

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).]

	06-07-1999 09:50									#10
	Help yourself to an AD-FREE life

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).]

	06-07-1999 17:48									#11
	Support Apolyton, buy Galactic Civilizations

Whoops - next time I will read all the thread

Thanks again
A.

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Ack Oop!

	07-07-1999 08:16									#12
	Support Apolyton buy from Amazon

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).]

	07-07-1999 22:36									#13
	Full PM-box? Change here!

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!!!!

	08-07-1999 00:00									#14
	Increase Your PM Length

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).]

	08-07-1999 19:37									#15
	Increase Your PM Length

Alexman,

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

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Vive le Québec libre!!!!

	08-07-1999 23:19									#16
	Increase the size of your Attachments

Alexman,

Sorry I made a mistake, this is not with uniticons.txt that I have an error but with units.txt. I have modified it myself but it is close to the CD's one. I've added new sprites reference for the new units. I haven't found yet why it doesn't work.

	09-07-1999 00:01									#17
	Avatar Enlargement: We've got the solution

LittleWing,
could you E-mail me your units.txt file?
I'm interested to see where the problem is...

	09-07-1999 01:14									#18
	Enter the AD-FREE zone

Hey, alexman. I use CDs mod 4.2 and i get a error in the uniticon.txt....

And i use no other mods, not even the being built mod

please advise, over

	09-07-1999 01:25									#19
	Support Apolyton buy from Amazon

Hey Depp, did you change the number at the top of CD's uniticons.txt from 80 to 79? There are only 79 icons in CD's file... over.

	09-07-1999 02:14									#20
	Support Apolyton

Aha !
I uninstalled CTP and reinstalled it and just patched it and then it worked, but now i know what to fix, great!

I got ICQ 1131079 by the way, if ya want a swede to verbally abuse

What are you planning to add next? How to edit the amount of years per turn and that basic stuff maybe?

Great work by they way, really great!

	09-07-1999 08:01									#21
	Support Apolyton, buy Civilization 2

I think the next thing to add will be the visual editing of the unit flags. There are lots of special unit properties so this will be more tedious than it was for improvements and wonders.

After that, I like your idea to edit the timeline. Any other suggestions are more than welcome. But I will be away for two and a half weeks starting tomorrow, so any new additions will have to wait until after that.

--Alexman

PS. Depp, I don't have an IQC number, so I guess I'll only abuse you on these forums!

	09-07-1999 17:07									#22
	Suffering from ads?

timeline and the difficulty levels should be fairly easy to do (if one know what to do!!) since they are all the same, and maybe barbarian activity also.

Wierd, i noticed that the amount of barbarians controlled the amount of gold you get and such stuff. it is really not the level of barbarian activity you set, but the randomness in the game. Odd.

Back to modding, thanks again!

	10-07-1999 00:31									#23
	Support Apolyton, buy Alpha Centauri

I know I promissed to leave you people alone with new versions until I get back from my vacation, but I just couldn't resist...

web.mit.edu/alexman/www/EasyMod.ZIP

EasyMod 2.5 is not as strict with the input files as previous versions were. After all, if CTP doesn't always care about the number at the top matching the number of entries, why should this dumb utility?

I also made the error messages a bit more descriptive as to where they occur, so people can figure out where they are having problems.

So now CD's 4.2 is read with no problem (only a warning), even though it has an error in uniticon.txt This way you won't need to read this entire thread to stop from asking why EasyMod doesn't work for CD's Mod
[This message has been edited by alexman (edited July 09, 1999).]

	10-07-1999 16:33									#24
	Support Apolyton, buy Call to Power 2

When you want to change a wonder and edit the great liberary text, then it creates a new file but can´t you make the program extract the old text so you don´t have to rewrite it again?

Anyone know how to make units avaivible with the building of a wonder, fot that civ only?

	19-07-2000 00:59									#25
	Tired of ads?

Every time I try to go to the referenced page it says that it is not available for download