Civ4 - Modding

[GuildBoss]

In my attempt to learn Python/XML I'm doing a teeny mod to make Forts more useful/interesting.

My idea so far is:

a) simply modify the City Garrison promotions to also apply when stationed in a Fort (and drop "City" from the title). So:

Garrison I
    +20% city/fort defense
Garrison II
    +25% city/fort defense
Garrison III
    +30% city/fort defense
    +10% vs melee

b) give the fort improvement a natural +1 visibility bonus (just like when a unit is standing on a hill).

Sounds easy enough, right? Well, not quite. I did some digging into the XML and found all the places to make these modifications but have two problems:

a) Although Promotions have a convenient <iCityDefense></iCityDefense> element they do not have one for specifically for Forts.

There is, however, an element called FeatureDefense which allows giving a bonus based on specific "terrain" types. FOr example, Woodsman I gives +20% defense on Forest which looks like:

<FeatureDefense>
     <FeatureType>FEATURE_FOREST</FeatureType>
     <iFeatureDefense>20</iFeatureDefense>
</FeatureDefense>

Only problem is there doesn't seem to be one for FORT.

b) AS for the Fort improvement itself, there doesn't seem to be any way to assign it a visibility bonus. I suppose I could add it to the promotion but that means the unit would have the bonus even when not in a fort. I guess we can pretend that at Garrison III they get a pair of binoculars. :roll:

Anyway, I'm hoping Soren is still around to point me in the right direction.

[SorenJohnson]

sorry, most of this won't be possible until the SDK release...

[GuildBoss]

sorry, most of this won't be possible until the SDK release...

Wow, thanks for the quick reply! I guess I'll wait for the SDK then.

Anybody else have any mod ideas?

[Alan Au]

Anybody else have any mod ideas?

It'd be a real pain from an art standpoint, but the mechanics are close enough to Alpha Centauri to do a quasi-remake.

- Alan

Edit: Lo and behold, there are people already working on this!

[Igor Muravyev]

I had so many mod ideas for Civ4 it was hard to fall asleep.

Here's one, add a bunch of more special units in the game to really shine each country's renown units:

****
Britain:
1) Man of War
2) Graal Knight
3) Supermarine Spitfire

Germany:
1) King Tiger
2) U-Boat
3) Krupp Artillery

Russia:
1) MiG-29 Interceptor
2) Conscripted Riflemen
3) T-90 Battle Tank
4) Nuclear Submarine

USA:
1) Joint Strike Fighter
2) M1A2 Abrams
3) AH-64 Apache
4) Minutemen

Rome:
1) Legion
2) Equites
3) Auxilia

***

and so on. Basically have more units from that Civilization's historically "high" periods. As well we could add a modern "Special/Covert Ops" unit which would be a modern upgrade to the Explorer except able to carry out sabotage operations on undefended tiles (while being seen of course) with huge movement rates.

[Ben Sones]

I want a "Land of the Lost" mod, where all the wild animals are replaced by dinosaurs, except that there are lots more of them, and they are a lot tougher, and persist throughout the game.