Galactic Civilizations: Least Mod-able Game Ever!

from Stardock Forums
Alright so the title was a chessy way to attract attion, but I might as well poke fun at myself in the process! ;p

I'm doing my first full conversion mod for GalCiv and finding that a couple of the moddable graphics aren't as "moddable" as they first seemed ;)

Cari would you pass this on (or can you answer if you know):

1) The Trade_Logo graphics in the GFX folder don't seem to do anything... my impression was/is that they should change on the bottom part of the trade screen when you are dealing with the other races, however in my 1.04 beta (unless I've screwed something up) it always shows the Terran Alliance trade logo on the bottom.

2) Also what does the Terran logo graphic in the setup folder do (if anything). I tried swapping that graphic out and nowhere in the game did it change. :notsure:
It would be nice if this graphic changed the logo on the setup screens (player, race, etc.) and the production and diplomacy screens as well. Having everything hardcoded into the .mtd files kind of sucks for modding... especially if you want to make something new and different for the player besides Humans or the Terran Federation :(

I realize this isn't really as high a priority as bug fixes and the expansion pack, but for us modders it would be great if those files actually did something when they were changed :D

THANKS DEVS! WE LOVE YOU GUYS!!!

PS - and please don't sticky this one... I have to look at the original thread every day and think "man, why did I open that can of worms!" LOL
2,015 views 7 replies
Reply #1 from Stardock Forums Top
>Alright so the title was a chessy way to attract attion

CHEESY way to attract ATTENTION

Gah! We also need an edit function for the forum ;p
Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top
Tap, tap, tap ...is the universal translator working?

Hmmm... well after further testing here is what I discovered:

There are 2 Logos.mdl files in the game.
One is in Gfx subdirectory
One is in Setup subdirectory

Terran_logo.pcx is ALWAYS ignored by the game. It currently does nothing.

The game pulls the Terran Logo from Logos.mdl in Setup subdirectory for all screens EXCEPT diplomacy screen (which is handled by foreignlogos.mtd file)

The game pulls all the other major races from the Logos.mdl file in the Gfx subdirectory.

My feeling is that this a coding bug and that ALL logos should be pulled from the Logos.mdl file in the Gfx subdirectory EXCEPT the terran logo which should be pulled from Terran_logo.pcx (which by all rights really should be in the Gfx subdirectory not setup)

Whew!

What would be EVEN BETTER is that instead of a logos.mdl file anywhere, there was instead a series of pcx files in the Gfx subdirectory as:
Terran_logo.pcx
Drengin_logo.pcx
Torian_logo.pcx
etc.

It would be nice if the diplomacy screens pulled from these as well. This would expand modability significantly... especially for "full conversions"

I won't even go into minorlogos.mdl LOL
Galactic Civilizations IV
Reply #4 from Stardock Forums Top

bump.

Cari, please feel free to make mutil available to anyone who wants to suffer with it. ;)

Reply #5 from Stardock Forums Top
Thanks Brad.

I'd like to use it ..Cari ! :D

-Doug
Reply #6 from Stardock Forums Top
Sure. I'll just add some comments to the original MUtil docs. :)