There's Many a Slip 'Twixt the Crouch and the Leap

[malthaussen]

I am addicted to modding games right out of the box, and I've always loved the relatively easy moddability of games made by this team. I decided to do a very small mod as an experiment, but am running afoul of somebody-or-else's law.

After I open the xls file and make my desired adjustment (nothing fancy, just adding some supplies to Boston to see what happens), I output the file in csv format and it looks just fine, all the rows are lined up and everything reads as I expect it should. But when I process the file through csv splitter I get a text file in which all the data are null (as below):

BlockState =
SetControl =
Insurgent =
CreateStruc
SetType = $Port
SetName = _genName
SetLevel =
Apply
CityStyle =
CivLevel =
Transport =
BlockState =
SetControl =
Insurgent =
CreateStruc

That can't be right. So I'm trying to figure out what went wrong. According to the tutorial, I am supposed to use the .csv as the import file and
open the "Cities" tab, then click "Extract Script." That's what I'm doing, and that's what I'm getting. So I decided to make a different change, and did a simple name change on the 23rd Foot ("Welsh" to "Welch"). In this case, the
result script file appears to have the correct data, but the format is nothing at all like the script file in the scenario. So I am confused as to whether or not it would work.

OTOH, for a simple change like renaming the RWF, that can be easily done in the scenario and script files themselves. But doing more challenging stuff like creating new units and generals would be more difficult using the text files directly.

So, there appears to be a step missing, or something is not working properly. No doubt I am doing something egregiously stupid: the question is,
what?

-- Mal

[lodilefty]

If you are changing the "Setup" or "Events/Reinforcements" tabs, you use the "Setup, Events" tab in splitter. "Cities" tab is obly when generating a new, um, Cities.ini file....

http://www.ageod.net/agewiki/Modding_Campaigns_and_Scenarios#Exporting_data_.E2.80.93_the_CSV_Splitter

I'm not sure which tutorial you are using, but we are doing all humanly possible to keep this up to date:
http://www.ageod.net/agewiki/Main_Page

as a one-stop-shopping location for Modding, Gameplay and such.

Welcome to the world of AGE Modding!!!!

[malthaussen]

Update to the above: I also attempted to process the "events" page (#2 of the spreadsheet) through .csv. In this case, when I press "generate script," it overwrites the script file (contrary to what it says in the tutorial). I am using CSV splitter version 0.71 with a 1.07b patch of WIA.

To summarize:

Setup.csv processed through the splitter (tab: Setup/Events, command: make script) results in an odd-looking setup script. Here are the first couple of lines:

SelectFaction = $NULL,WIA© - Florent Quesnel 2007,ScenName,1775 Campaign.scn ,NULL,NULL,NULL,NULL,NULL,NULL,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
SelectRegion =
=

SelectFaction = $NULL,1775 Scenario Setup,StartEvent,1,NULL,NULL,NULL,NULL,NULL,NULL,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
SelectRegion =


Events processed through csvsplitter gives another script file which doesn't look like the ones in the game (overwriting the first script unless you rename it):

SelectFaction = $NULL,NULL,ScriptName,1775 Campaign.sct ,NULL,NULL,NULL,NULL,NULL,NULL,
SelectRegion =
=

SelectFaction = $NULL,NULL,Include,1776 Campaign.sct,NULL,NULL,NULL,NULL,NULL,NULL,
SelectRegion =

Format is similar, except Mr Quesnel is not credited in the events script file

And processing the Cities.csv through csvsplitter gives the null page as shown above (tab Script Cities, command [only for WIA/ACW/NCP] Extract Script.

If these are the correct formats prior to processing, then I'm fair baffled.

In any event, if I try to run the scenario anyway with these weird-looking files, I get a mass of debug errors -- all "failed to find faction" with numbers ranging from 1(!) to 92. Or more. And, maddeningly enough, the "Script pre parse" and "script post parse" both look like the new script file, but the "Script Report" carries a different date, structure, and data. (These are the named files in the "Scripts" folder, not the "Scenario" folder, which has different data)



-- Mal

[lodilefty]

You're close...

The Setup tab will generate a Script.ini file (or whatever you ttype in the Filename box)

The Events/Reinforcements tab will generate the file xxxx.sct (using whatever filename is present in Line 3 "Scriptname" command in the Spreadsheet.

You get 3 files, as clearly described in http://www.ageod.net/agewiki/Modding_Campaigns_and_Scenarios

Please note the CRITICAL NOTE:

CRITICAL NOTE:
When exporting the csv files, [color="Red"]you must define the “Field Delimiter' as a semicolon ;[/color] and the 'text delimiter'
as none or blank. [these are the English language terms from Open Office©]
This is absolutely required for ALL files from the spreadsheet DB being prepared for use [Models, Units,
weathers, abilities, etc.], not just scenarios.

...looks like you have commas to me

[malthaussen]

Ah, that would probably account for the confusion, then. But it is most vexatious: neither Excel nor Open Office gives me the nice little popup to change the delimiters that is shown in the turorial. I'll have to figure out how to change those delimiters as indicated.

Okay, that would seem to have done it. Although adding supplies into the Boston entry did not add supplies to Boston. Still, that was just a test.

-- Mal

[lodilefty]

Ah, that would probably account for the confusion, then. But it is most vexatious: neither Excel nor Open Office gives me the nice little popup to change the delimiters that is shown in the turorial. I'll have to figure out how to change those delimiters as indicated.

-- Mal

My Open Office brings up the "popup" when I choose "File-SaveAs-csv"

...probably some option I selected 5 years ago.....

[malthaussen]

I don't get that option, but it is changeable from the control panel. You can customize "List separators" under "Regional and Language Options -- advanced"

-- Mal