Civ4Save

Parse the data in a .CivBeyondSwordSave file.

Currenly only vanilla BTS saves are supported (No mods). Once the remaining parsing bugs are ironed out I will work to support the most popular mods (BAT, BUG).

Thanks to this repo for hosting the Civ4 BTS source. Wouldn't have been possible to make this without it.

Usage

Install

• Requires >= python3.7

python -m pip install civ4save

Command line Tool

$ civ4save --help

Usage: civ4save [OPTIONS] COMMAND [ARGS]...

Options:
  --version  Show the version and exit.
  --help     Show this message and exit.

Commands:
  civs       Show details for a Civ or list all Civs.
  gamefiles  Find and print relevant game files paths.
  leaders    Show Leader or list Leaders optionally sorted by attribute.
  parse      Parse a .CivBeyondSwordSave file.
  xml        Generate python code or JSON from the XML files.

$ civ4save parse --help

Usage: civ4save parse [OPTIONS] FILE

  Parse a .CivBeyondSwordSave file.

  FILE is a save file or directory of save files

Options:
  --settings        Basic settings only. Nothing that would be unknown to the
                    human player
  --spoilers        Extra info that could give an advantage to human player
  --player INTEGER  Only show data for a specific player idx. Defaults to the
                    human player
  --list-players    List all player (idx, name, leader, civ) in the game
  --json            Format output as JSON. Default is text
  --help            Show this message and exit.

gamefiles command works on both Linux and Windows.

$ civ4save gamefiles

Game Folder
-----------
/home/dan/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/Sid Meier's Civilization IV Beyond the Sword

Saves Folder
------------
/home/dan/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/compatdata/8800/pfx/drive_c/users/steamuser/My Documents/My Games/Beyond the Sword/Saves/single

XML Folder
----------
/home/dan/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/Sid Meier's Civilization IV Beyond the Sword/Beyond the Sword/Assets/XML

The xml command can transform the XML files into other datatypes. It does not make any changes to your XML files, just reads them.

$ civ4save xml --help

Usage: civ4save xml [OPTIONS]

  Generate python code or JSON from the XML files.

Options:
  --enums                         Transform XML files into Python Enums.
  --text-map                      Create JSON mapping TEXT_KEY to LANG. Default is English.
  --lang [English|French|German|Italian|Spanish]
                                  Language to map TEXT_KEY's to
  --help                          Show this message and exit.

--enums could be useful for developers/modders, I used it to make this project. It locates the XML files (Vanilla, Warlords, BTS), reads each file, and transforms it into a python enum. BTS takes precendence over Warlords and Warlords over Vanilla if 2 XML files have the same name. The enums are written to stdout. Ex. civ4save xml --enums > enums.py to save them to a file.

--text-map creates a simple JSON object mapping each TEXT_KEY* human presentable text in the given --lang. I use this in the contrib package to make some of the Civ and Leader attributes more readable.

As a Libray

from civ4save import SaveFile

# SaveFile takes 2 args:
#   file: str | Path (required)
#   debug: bool (default False, prints hidden fields)

save = SaveFile('Rome.CivBeyondSwordSave')
save.raw  # raw construct.Struct, use to create your own wrapper objects
save.settings  # civ4save.objects.Settings
save.players  # dict[int, civ4save.objects.Player]
save.game_state  # civ4save.objects.GameState
save.get_player(0)  # Returns civ4save.objects.Player
# The plots take a few seconds to parse as there are thousands of them so they
# only get parsed when accessed. Afterwards they are cached so access is fast again
save.get_plot(x=20, y=20)  # Returns civ4save.objects.Plot
for plot in save.plots:
    print(plot.owner, plot.improvement_type)

Development / Contributing

python -m pip install ".[dev]" to install in editable mode along with all dev deps.

python -m pytest tests/ to run the tests.

Or you can use the ./run.sh script if you use bash.

./run.sh install dev
./run.sh tests
./run.sh c4 --help
./run.sh clean
./run.sh build

How it Works

Games are saved in a what's basically a memory dump that kind of looks like a sandwich.

| uncompressed data | zlib compressed data | uncompressed data + checksum |

The SaveFile class handles all of the decompression stuff as well as the parsing using the construct library.

If you want to see the actual binary structure of the save file see src/civ4save/vanilla/structure.py.

Write Order

The game calls its ::write functions in this order when saving:

1. CvInitCore (done)
2. CvGame (done)
3. CvMap (done)
4. CvPlot (buggy/inconsistent)
5. CvArea (under construction)
6. CvTeam (not implemented)
7. CvPlayer (not implemented)

Plots Bug

For some unknown reason save files larger than 136KB (largest I have that doesn't encounter the bug) parsing fails about half through the plots array. pass debug=True to SaveFile to see details when parsing a large save file and you'll get detailed debugging output.

TODO

• Click mutually exclusive group plugin for more robust cli arg handling
• Better docs
• SaveFile needs a logger
• src/civ4save/objects/* all need tests
• xml_files.py needs tests
• Caching of parsed saves (probably using dataclasses_json)
• Textual UI for browsing saves in a directory
  • maybe a send to trash button to make it easy to clean out unwanted saves
• Diffing tools to tell what changed between 2 saves/autosaves