Mods Folder

Thanks CariElf!

~SDC~

If I read you well in another thread, the most important thing is:
If you want to replace a file by another one, it will take the mod folder file in preference to the other file.
Am I right?
And thus the next question is: How do I swap mods? Are there subfolders in the mod folders so I can pick which mods I want and which I don't? (You can check Ctp2's modswapper and modmaker programs on apolyton ctp2 section for a neat user interface and what I mean).
So can I have -regular galciv/-galciv with mod1 where I gave colonyships an attack of 42/-galciv with mod2 wher I gave colony ship a range of -42 without swapping files around by hand?
Or are we limited to one mods folder?

Right. Any file that you put in the mods folder or one of its subdirectories will replace its equivalent file.  If there is no equivalent file, it gets loaded like a normal file. 

Currently, Gal Civ just scans the mods folder.  You could create multiple copies of the mods folder with your variations and just rename the different folders so that you aren't manually moving files.  

That's manually moving the folders, Cari .

Anyway, the ability to replace file is great news. Thanks!

Well, it's better than moving the files themselves.

Now all you need as an option where you can set the "mods" directory name. Then you won't have to move anything.

Hi CariElf,

these links don't work for me. Did I miss anything?

http://www.joeuser.com/sdfiles/data%201.12.zip
http://www.joeuser.com/sdfiles/filelist.txt
http://www.joeuser.com/sdfiles/gfxfilelist.txt

Thank you always for doing a great job. I'm a software developer by myself and I appreciate your work very much. I know how hard it it to answer all these silly questions

Best regards, Volker

Walldorf2000: we moved the server, and apparently those files didn't move with it. I've replaced the files, so they should work now.

Where exactly should the mods folder be??? (Just done a clean install, and it's not there!)

Alex


~SDC~

Should be right there in GalCiv's main directory. It was there automatically when I updated to the first version that used it. Make sure you did a clean install of the right version (1.13.080 is on Stardock Central right now).

~SDC~

Thanks for that - I just did a total reinstall to get GC:AP up but no mods folder. I just wanted to check where it should be before proceeding.

Alex


~SDC~

Hmmm....it should create the directory the first time you run Gal Civ.

which means probably here
C:\Program Files\Strategy First\Galactic Civilizations\Mods
(yes, I was also blind)

Am I missing something in this explanation? From what I've seen, it doesn't quite work this way. It seems that each entry (i.e. each individual tech, building, whatever) replaces an existing one with the exact same ID, but the files themselves aren't replaced wholesale.

While a great feature I'm very happy for, the mods folder would be easier to use if it actually did replace each file completely.

As it is, some data (notably tech requirements and abilities) aren't replaced at all, but added to the default item. This makes it next to impossible to effectively remove a default tech, ship, improvement, or anything else with a tech requirement using a mod. It also makes it very difficult to adjust the tech tree, as there's no way of removing abilities or the default tech req's from an existing tech either.

I know I'm a bit late on this, but I thought I'd mention it in case it wasn't actually 'working as designed'... or in case I'm doing something wrong...

The mods folder works as it was designed to work.

If you want to actually remove stuff you have to actually edit the files in the data folder.  I put up links to clean copies of the data folder with every release so that people can wipe out their modifications at any time.

I thought that might be the case. Thanks for the reply in any event.



That's the way I'll have to do it then. I'll probably include back-ups in my mod anyway, but I was hoping there'd be an easier way to do it...

how do you change mod files?

All of the files in the data folder are really text files, so you can open them with any text editor (like notepad).  Then you just change the values that you want. There are some tutorials and things on the mods forum.

I never considered modding yet but now since I was a bit annoyed that the AI would still spend money into research, that nothing is left, I tried to make new techs...

Tried? No, it worked at once! With the same savegame! Made some techs and they started reserching them just like I wanted them to do!

This usually only works with an existing game if they have a lower number than any already existing techs, and techs lower than 700 should probably be considered off-limits for Stardock's own expansions (some of the bonus pack techs have numbers in the 600-605 range, IIRC, although they may have been renumbered as part of the fix for a bug that occured in GC 1.12).

Tech ID numbers as high as 13130 are known to work in the current version of both GalCiv and AP. (Some files I have hanging around from the beta test cycle intended to try to break things have techs with numbers that high. I usually remove them when playing, but once in a while throw them back in just to prod at limits on various things. Planet Class is known to be able to go at least as high at 32757, although it would take an insanely high PQ bonus to get there. Racial ability boni can go up to at least +32757%, and probably to +2.1G%, but they don't display on the stats screen if they're above +999%.)

~SDC~

Hello! I've got some questions.
Can I use the metaverse with mods?
What if I make a political party what makes my abilities VERY high? Is that fair?

Its ok to use the meta with mods.
You can mod almost everything you want, but be carefull if you do too much (like empire PQ +40%) you'll get 0 points for that game

Thanks.
I use 2 computers: I play GalCiv on one, and I use Internet on the other. It's not a good combination, but it's hard to change. How can I use the metaverse? Can I?

Dunno about using it from a computer without GC, i have it on all my three boxes.
But if you don't want to play on your second box, you can set up your GC on the online one with the same setup (mods, build) as your playing one. Save the game at the last turn, copy the save to the online one and submit the game thru that one.

Thankyas