We weren't kidding about the modding..

The possibilities..

from JoeUser Forums

When we said you could mod Galactic Civilizations II, we meant it.  And one of the features of 1.2 will be the example mod.  The first beta has an early stab at it but it will be in beta 2 (this week) that more meat comes into play for the mod.  One might argue that we went overboard with our example mod as it is arguably a mini-expansion pack unto itself.  These mods could be done by anyone mind you. There is no coding involved.  Below are two screenshots of alternative game interfaces that will be with th emod so you can get an idea of what is possible.

v1.2 will be FREE to all Galactic Civilizations II players.

38,087 views 28 replies
Reply #1 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
user interface mods? cool!

and its a great step to have the modding functionality approaching the capabilities found in the Civilization series
Reply #2 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Looks great! Kudos to the team!

I hope there's still a chance that some parts of the AI (as much as possible ) will be made available for modding. Most Paradox games had a significant part of the AI in text files with values for lots of parameters, it allowed for great modding, improvements and adaptions. Something along these lines would be great for GalCiv too.
Galactic Civilizations III
Reply #3 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
This is probably a useless question, but I've noticed in the pictures above that the UI retains some "shininess" to it. I'd really like to be done with that effect, especially on the minimap. Can that "shininess" be editted out? I would imagine so.
Reply #4 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Me likey. I lik this UI much more than the original one.
Reply #5 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
personally I kind of like the mettalic 'shiney' look. but yea, I'd like to remove the 'shineyness' from the minimap, which kind of obscures things in that top area. having the rest of the UI looking 'shiney' is np for me.
Reply #6 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Wow! Is it heresy to like the mod interface _better_ than the normal one? Great job team, looking forward to b2
Reply #7 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Wow! Is it heresy to like the mod interface _better_ than the normal one? Great job team, looking forward to b2


I never said it's heresy to like the mod interface better than the normal one. I was just stating my opinion.
Reply #8 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Oh, is that what that half-circle over the top of the mini-map always is? Shininess? If that can be taken away it should be, I never had any idea what it meant and it screws up the colors.
Reply #9 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I wonder if it would be possible to make rotating components on the ships. For example, one that once you install it constantly rotates around its center axis. My Angel's Pencil ships just don't look right without their outer ring spinning, and the same goes for Babylon 5 style ships.
Reply #10 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
If you don't like the shiney stuff it's easy to remove. Just get www.desktopx.net and edit the screen. 3 seconds and you're done.
Reply #11 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

I wonder if it would be possible to make rotating components on the ships. For example, one that once you install it constantly rotates around its center axis. My Angel's Pencil ships just don't look right without their outer ring spinning, and the same goes for Babylon 5 style ships.

I think the Omega class destroyer ship in the library already does htiis.

Reply #12 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Actually, it looks like it did, but...

- increased size to be more in line with the Hyperion and Olympus Class, note that
I had to remove the rotating hull animation because with it the game wasnt able to scale
the ship correctly (way too large on the galactic map, or way too small in combat depending on the
models real size)


Darn.
Reply #13 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Double darn on the 'no rotating part'...

I was looking forward to making 'Serenity' from the movie/TV show.

(grins)
Reply #15 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Is it possible to design new, floating UI elements? I've always wanted to have the econ sliders and income breakdown available in a mainmap window.
Reply #16 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
i like ths change, thats a nice look, more minimal, thats awesome that it can change that much, we love you stardock haha
Reply #17 from JoeUser Forums Top
Just a bit more reason why all gamers should luv the folks from Stardock!

Keep up the great work Brad and co.!
Reply #18 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Question- have you guys fixed the String not Found errors yet?

I had to go back to 1.11 because it was annoying me too much- they're all over the place.
Reply #19 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
The string not found errors were caused by the servers not being synchronized properly. They are now synchronized, so you should be able to get it properly now.
Reply #20 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

I hope there's still a chance that some parts of the AI (as much as possible ) will be made available for modding. Most Paradox games had a significant part of the AI in text files with values for lots of parameters, it allowed for great modding, improvements and adaptions. Something along these lines would be great for GalCiv too.

Nope, the AI is not scripted so it's not possible to mod the AI.

Could rotating ship parts be a new feature in the next patch? =D

Not in a patch.  It might be possible in an expansion pack, but it would take some work to make it not be a pig.

Is it possible to design new, floating UI elements? I've always wanted to have the econ sliders and income breakdown available in a mainmap window.

No, it's only possible to change the appearance of existing screens.  We would need to implement some sort of scripting for you to be able to create new UI elements/screens.

Reply #21 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Do you mean I must reinstall the game?!
Reply #22 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Cari, I still get String not found errors in the Options screen in the Mods window. What do I need to do to solve them (since Stardock isn't letting me redownload), reinstall the entire game? I hope not; that would be a really poor way to solve the problem.

-HM

Reply #23 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Cari, I still get String not found errors in the Options screen in the Mods window. What do I need to do to solve them (since Stardock isn't letting me redownload), reinstall the entire game? I hope not; that would be a really poor way to solve the problem.

Have you tried the following:
- uncheck the "show prerelease" checkbox
- install the associated version (ie the 1.11 productive version)
- check the the "show prerelease" checkbox
- install the associated version (the beta version)

If you have archived the 1.11 version, you can also reinstall it from archive and then redownload the beta.
Reply #24 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I tried that. No go. Here's screenshots:





-HM
Reply #25 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Nope, the AI is not scripted so it's not possible to mod the AI.


So be it - I think it would be sweet if the AI's had a state file that they could update so that they, over time, adapted to my play style. Obviously you could imagine to share the state files using MetaVerse as well in order to make the AI better than all of us.

Oh well, I do not expect this to happen as I suppose it would be a major redesign of the AI.

What I think could be done is to store a trustworthiness bonus for the player between sessions so that the AI ain't fooled every time that nasty player shows up with gifts or whatever and then backstabs it.

Another thing I have thought about is how closely the UI and the AI's are attached to the core game engine, if they are well separated then it should be trivial to create games with 0 or 1 human player. The purpose of a 0-player game is to let the AI's fight it out amongst themselves, I suppose that could be a useful development tool and additionally it could be a way to get an instant war story using the resume function of the game.