Help. Why wont my mods work?

from Elemental Forums

Hi everyone, I hope you can help me.

I've been trying to mod the core gamefiles ever since the game came out, but no matter what I change, it doesn't seem to be reflected ingame.

As a wild example I just tried to change the description text for the Pariden Kingdom, but the change doesn't exist when I start the game. I've tried changing research, modifiers and descriptions left and right, and nothing works.

The files I'm working on are (amongst others) the corefiles situated in the gamefolder (name in the English-folder).

 

I've tried activating and deactivating "use mods" in the gameoptions etc.

I'm seriously stumped. I have the feeling that the game is refering to another set of files somewhere else, but for the life of me I don't understand why none of my xml changes gets registered.

4,808 views 9 replies
Reply #1 from Elemental Forums Top

You need to move any files you change into the mods folder, it doesn't read the files extracted in the data/english one.

And of course make sure you still have Use Mods activated in options.

Reply #2 from Elemental Forums Top

If you're changing the core files, I believe you have to delete the data.zip file (binary data that the game uses so it loads faster), and then run the game with /createxmlbinary so it re-creates it with your changes. They should show up, then.

Edit: The above might also work, I haven't personally messed with existing core files.

Multiplicity - Control multiple PCs using one keyboard and mouse
Reply #3 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Annatar11, reply 2
If you're changing the core files, I believe you have to delete the data.zip file (binary data that the game uses so it loads faster), and then run the game with /createxmlbinary so it re-creates it with your changes. They should show up, then.

Edit: The above might also work, I haven't personally messed with existing core files.
End of Annatar11's quote

Same problem here as OP and my mods were working previously. I'm gonna try this code and, hopefully, see some action.

EDIT: Thank you A LOT. That has solved 98.6% of my problems and the mods are working now.

Reply #4 from Elemental Forums Top

Keep in mind also that anything you change in the Program Files directory in Vista will not take hold unless you have full permissions in the directory. For example, if you tweak something with notepad, the OS will make a different 'secret' copy of the file for notepad, and leave the one that Elemental uses alone. I ran into this nightmare in my Civ4 modding days.  

Reply #5 from Elemental Forums Top

EDIT: Thank you A LOT. That has solved 98.6% of my problems and the mods are working now.
End of quote

My pleasure :) Picked up that tidbit from Cari while idling in IRC.

Reply #6 from Elemental Forums Top

Wohooo thanks. I looked in data.zip but since it just held an empty directory I just left it alone. Didn't notice that I was more than 1MB in size.

Though I still can't make it rebuild the data.  I try running this command, but nothing happens, besides the game running.

Reply #7 from Elemental Forums Top

You added the command to the end of the Target field in the game shortcut?

Reply #9 from Elemental Forums Top

I'm still getting a "Doubling effect" on a number of things despite this code. For example, my tech tree modification works but some things are being displayed twice (barracks, war colleges) and some bonuses are being doubled (prestige per city). It's minor inconveniences now but annoying, nonetheless.