MOD: Civ3 - Unit-Mania - includes 40+ extra Units

02 May 2002 - Version 0.51 BETA for Civ3 v1.21f now available - see below


THIS IS A BETA VERSION ONLY.

I have had a crack at redesigning my Civ2 - ToT "Original Plus / Unit-Mania" Modpack which adds in a few dozen extra units for Civ III.

My idea is to have a smoother transition of unit upgrades from ancient to modern, not the big staccato leaps that seem to be a feature of Civ III (and were also a feature of Civ II). I also wanted to try to have at least 2 different unique units for each Civ - but I haven’t yet quite completed that (though I really like the suggestion somebody made of the "Ghurkas" as an elite unit for the Indians)

It also means that with respect to big equipment purchases that are not necessarily upgradeable that you are forced to make uncomfortable decisions - "Should I buy that squadron of Fighters now or wait until my Technology improves a little bit".

The increased number of units won't please eveybody, but I love complexity - the more the better for my tastes. See the attached excel spreadsheet for all the detail on extra units and other misc changes (for example, horsemen now have 3 moves, up from 2, same as cavalry). Additions and Changes in green.

In the meantime, here is a raw list of the new units

 Adv Jet Fighter
 AEGIS Steam Cruiser
 Armor
 Armoured Artillery
 Armoured War Elephant
 Arquebusiers
 Attack Chopper
 Bombard
 Bronze Cannon
 Canoe
 Cargo Ship
 Civil Defense
 Comitatensis
 Conscripts
 Crossbowmen
 Dragoons
 Dreadnaught
 Eastern Knight
 Eastern Horse Archer
 Fire catapult
 Grenadiers
 Guerillas
 Heavy Destroyer
 Horse Archer
 Infantrymen
 Ir. War Party
 Iron Age Archer
 Iron Age Hoplite
 Iron Age Impi
 Iron Age Spearman
 Junk
 Modern Artillery
 Modern Frigate
 Modern Infantry
 Modern Marine
 Monks
 Peasant
 Reservists
 Robotic Armor
 Royal Dreadnaught
 Saracen
 Special Air Services
 Tribesman
 U-Boat
 War Galleon
 War Galley

I have also duplicated some units (e.g Iron Age Impi, Iron Age Spearmen) in order to allow the “and/or” regarding building certain key units with resources. It seems silly that, if Copper is not available, and your technology includes Iron-Working, and you have access to Iron as a resource that you would not be able to build spearmen equipped with Iron Spear heads.

So too the AEGIS Cruiser. Most shipping only converted from coal to oil in the latter half of the 20th century. It seems reasonable that if there were no regular bulk supply of oil for fuel to be had, that coal could again be substituted for fuel for moden shipping, hence the AEGIS Steam Cruiser.

Although no extra advances have been added in this modpack, Some of the Tech precursors have been aded to – See accompanying Tech table for info – changes / additions in green for V 0.1 and in blue for V0.20 & V0.21

I have used in most cases the existing graphics / animations where possible for the new intermediate units, except where new animations are available (e.g. Modern Frigate, Crossbowmen, SAS, etc.)

I have also added in two extra strategic resources "Copper " like Harlan and the English Cossack have suggested, as a precursor to Spearmen / Hoplite and to some of the more modern units (Requiring copper wire etc.). and also “Hemp” a precursor to Ropes, Sails, and so it is a requireemnt for the sailing vessels.

A few other minor changes have been made (see the included 'read-mes' for more info) but otherwise the bulk of the rules are "Standard Civ3".

Apart from these changes I have tried to leave the rest of the Civ 3 rules largely alone, as there are plenty of other modpacks around that seek to redesign / correct / alter certain of the idiosyncracies of Civ 3.

Note that Saved games created with the V0.20 & V0.21 Beta update are incompatible with the new V0.51 Beta.


Enjoy and please feedback problems , comments, suggestions.


28-Feb-2002 - New vers of Modpack made available (posted to Thunderfall) V0.22 corrects a bug which caused abends / crashes when "Mongol Horsemen" were selected, created etc.

10-Mar-2002 - Version 0.30 beta (with extra bug fixes, no longer abending) no longer available.

24-Mar-2002 - Version 0.40 beta (2 extra units, updated / enhanced civilopedia, corrected units_32.pcx,

02-May-2002
Unit-Mania upgraded to Version 0.51

Converted bic to V1.21f format

Added "Saracen" (Flavour unit)
Added "Eastern Knight" (Flavour unit)

Added back in Bison (Buffalo) and Musk_Ox bonus resources from Civ2.

Added in new Strategic resource - Titanium - required for Stealth Aircraft and some spacecraft parts.

Available at http://www.users.bigpond.com/kestrel18/Civ3.htm

For download links, please see Thunderfall's post a few post down....

I can't claim what is not mine ;)

1st : AttackChopper is a great flc from BlueO on Apolyton

2nd : I never do a SAS :confused: Was it the SpecOps unit by MazterJo ?

3rd : I notice that the unit ini files was not included as part of the unit zip file. The unit cannot work without the ini files ;)

And I love more units. I already added some 12-13 units to my own mod (not all of them has new flc of course :D )

Whoops, sorry for the wrong credit info - I will correct.

The SAS unit is actually the renamed 'green' Paratrooper unit which was created by Mork. My mistake.

The relevant unit .ini files are all in the first zip file (the 'part-1' file)

;) Hey;)

Hey Kestrel, I loved!!! your work for Civilization 2 Test of Time; The 3D World, Orginal Plus and so on.

So Then I saw that you had made a modpack for civilization 3, I downloaded it at ones. And it was GREAT!

I know that it is only beta version, but I dont get pictures of the attack helicopter in the civiliopedia.

But bye the way, keep your GOOD WORK!

From Erlend S.N

Visit my homepage at http://hjem.sol.no/erlendsn
Here will you find my page about civilization 3 and many other thing.

Links removed

(See Kestrel's post for download links)

Hey,

I have now played the games with 16 nations and the new mod and found a couple of bugs;some of the nations don't expand, france, india and so on. The picture of the attck chopper dosent show.

When I exit the game a error message apar, that said that it had been a faul in the civ3.exe file.

I have the newest offical patch for the european version and the civ3 is in the folder; programfiler/infrogames/civilization 3

Is this some of the bugs, that will be fixed in a later version? or is it something I have done wrong?

From Erlend

:D :D :D :D
some of the goody huts are houses from the game Caesar III

Nice idea :)


hmmm have you forget the small unit files for the civilopedia?

74Bombardlarge.pcx
75BronzeCannonlarge.pcx
ArmorLarge.pcx
ReservistLarge.pcx

but not ****Small.pcx

Hallo. I've noticed the same problems with just 10 civs (japan, america etc.)

Can i correct it by myself? (if it's easy...)

Bye

it's not good
the gallay cost 30 have attack 1, defense 1 and transport 2
and need't any strategic res

the war galley cost 30 have same att/defens transport only 1
and need a strategic ress

better is that the WG have attack 2, defense 1 transp 1 and cost 20

or what y say?

Dark Event - Re: Galley versus War Galley .

Yep - that's a bug. I thought I had fixed it in the 0.2 version but obviously if you are seeing it, I didn't.

The rationale for the
Galley 0/1/3 Carry 2 req no resource against the
War Galley 1/1/3 Carry 1 requires copper
was that fighting ships of that time had a "Bronze beak" with which to attack the other ships. I reason that you need copper to produce this, but I don't want civs stuck on an island without copper not to be able to build galleys.

If I set war galley attack to 2 then it is the same as the Caravel, so I didn't want to have to upgrade stats of all naval units to compensate. I will fix the bug in the next release.

RE The picture of the attack chopper doesn't show. Not sure as to that one, I thought I saw the animations working o.k. when testing the chopper. Have you loaded the chopper animation files into the correct sub-folder ? Or do you mean you can't see it in the Civilopedia? It seems I have inadvertently left out the Civilopedia pictures of the Chopper from the zip file. Sorry - Will fix with version 0.3

Re : When I exit the game a error message apar, that said that it had been a faul in the civ3.exe file.

I get that too. I don't know why, but it doesn't seem to stop me from playing the game or loading saved games, so I have ignored it so far. If anyone could shed light on that one I would be grateful. I wonder, do other modpacks which have lots of added units get a similar problem, or is it unique to Unit-Mania ?
If I can figure out how to fix it I will, but I don't at this stage know what is causing it.

RE :
Have you forgottem (some of) the small unit files for the civilopedia?

A. No, I just haven't got around to creating them yet.

Many thanks for all the feedback.

As more unique unit images become available I will continue to use the appropriate ones (with due credits) where it makes sense.

Thunderfall, I'll e-mail you an updated version of the Part-1 zip with these changes (and any other bugs I uncover) in the next few days.

Here is the link to the updated part 1 zip:

http://www.civfanatics.net/downloads/civ3/units/Civ3-Mod-Pack-Unit-Mania-V0-21-BETA-part-1.zip

The part 1 link in my previous post also points to the new version.

Kestrel18,

Great work, BTW, but I was reading through your attached document and your reasoning for "AEGIS Steam Cruiser" caught my eye. I happened to be an active duty member of the U.S. Navy (the one that developed AEGIS tech), and I have to take issue with the idea that AEGIS tech would be installed aboard a coal-fired steam ship. It would never happen ... the possibility for that is just outright zero. If oil was is short supply for some reason, it would be more likely that a nation possessing AEGIS tech would install a nuclear reactor aboard a cruiser hull before reverting to coal. Conversely, there is no logical way that a nation could develop AEGIS tech BEFORE discovering internal combustion/oil. AEGIS refers to a network of sonar, radar and weapons tracking systems, and if you haven't figured out how to build guided missiles, AEGIS tech would be useless to you.

If you're looking for a transitional unit that fills in the gap between the destroyer/battleship and the modern eras, insert a Spruance or Kidd Class destroyer, a Perry Class Frigate and/or just leave the AEGIS Cruiser as that fill ... and add another unit that is more advanced than AEGIS Cruisers ... namely the Arleigh Burke Class destroyer (which uses an even more advanced form of AEGIS tech and is the U.S. Navy's newest surface warship -- The USS Cole, for example, was a Burke Class destroyer).

Here's another idea to play with ... the "Sea Shadow," which is an experimental "stealth" ship. Here is the Navy fact file on it:

http://www.chinfo.navy.mil/navpalib/factfile/ships/ship-sea.html

That's just my suggestions ... take it or leave it. IMO, there are already too many ships in the game, but you said you liked complexity, so I was just trying to help out ...

D&C

Oh, and another thing ... for all modmakers, the makers of Civilization HAVE NEVER UNDERSTOOD the simple freakin' fact that a GUIDED MISSILE destroyer or frigate should be able to CARRY GUIDED MISSILES! That always ticked me off. I'm still waiting to see someone develop a DDG or a CG that can carry cruise missiles.

I should add that one of the best ideas for naval units that I ever saw was a CIV2 unit called the "Carrier Battle Group" that someone developed as an add-on. There is nothing more powerful on any ocean anywhere, and if you DON'T like a lot of complexity in your unit choices but still want to maintain some realism, this would be the best unit to have.

In lieu of someone making one of those, however, there are a couple of things to point out ...

1) CIV does not allow you to build carrier-based CAP-support planes, like the E-3 Sentry, or naval recon planes like the P-3. These are critical gaps for people who like really, really complex and realistic scenarios.

2) CIV has never had an "attack aircraft," a la the EA6-B Prowler, although this one is arguable since the latest carrier-based fighters are dual-roled (the F-18 Hornet is both a fighter and an an attack aircraft).

3) The F-117A would NEVER, EVER, EVER be launched from a carrier. That's utterly preposterous. I notice that the B-2 is also carrier-ready in CIV3 ... ridiculous. That said, the DoD has just made a deal with a major manufacturer to build an all-purpose "stealth" fighter that could be carrier-based. A unit like that would be cool.

4) CIV3 does not allow you to place helicopters aboard carriers ... also very silly, considering there are few kinds of aircraft that are BETTER suited for taking off and landing from a carrier than a helicopter. Incidentally, all modern frigates and destroyers should be able to carry at least one helicopter ... another thing CIV3 won't let you do.

5) CIV3 does not allow for the production of amphibious assault ships, although I suppose that's what the transport is "supposed to be" ... well, if that's the case, it looks nothing like the USS Tarawa or the USS Boxer, for example. A true amphibious assualt unit in CIV3 should be able to carry at least two helicopters (with two marines aboard each one) and at least one Harrier/VSTOL unit. Note to FIRAXIS: We have COME A LONG WAY since the Normandy invasion, guys ...

Just some more brainstorming ... hope you guys don't mind.

D&C

I just downloaded this mod to check out these new units and my game keeps crashing. My default directory is Civilization III not CIV3. I moved the folders from CIV3 into the respective Civilization III folders and the game still goes down. Any ideas what I am doing wrong?

I am not getting an specific message, just down it goes. My version of Civ is 1.16f.

Originally posted by sealman
I just downloaded this mod to check out these new units and my game keeps crashing. My default directory is Civilization III not CIV3. I moved the folders from CIV3 into the respective Civilization III folders and the game still goes down. Any ideas what I am doing wrong?

I am not getting an specific message, just down it goes. My version of Civ is 1.16f.

I feel like an idiot. I downloaded the 1.16f patch but forgot to install it:crazyeyes

Hopefully the mod will work now.

DazednConfused,

Thanks for the suggestions & feedback - I'll take them on board when next I get a chance to update / fix this thing.

My rationale for the "AEGIS Steam Cruiser" (Which maybe should be renamed to plain old "Steam Cruiser" or one of the names you have suggested) was that if a modern strategic power had no access to Oil for Fuel in quantity and/or Uranium or other fissile materiel, that they would likely set up coal-liquefication plants and/or revert to coal-fired Steam driven turbines in ships.

It is true that the U.S. would probably use Nuclear plants in ships if they were denied Oil (and still had access to fissile materiel), but not all other countries could / would be able to. (Esp. those on the technological or political "outer" or with a professed "No Nukes" stance)

It was mainly about making avaiable a modern combat ship of some sort to the Civ Player regardless if there was an oil embargo in place.

I'd also like to throw in a few other "odd" units if I get around to it. e.g. "Steam Powered Tanks" (imagine an armoured traction engine) with stats something like 14/10/1 and
req. Coal, Iron, Copper to simulate what might have happened if the Internal Combustion engine hadn't caught on in a big way a hundred or so years ago.

Need a unit animation for that one though , as that isn't my forte.

Kestrel18

do you know if your mod is compatable with the new patch. I have been seeing a lot on the boards saything that some mods are crashing with the new patch.

The Unit-Mania Mod is compatible with the new patch - but note that V0.20 and V0.21 had a bug that caused game to crash if a ceratin unit was selected.

This has been corrected in the V0.22 Berta Update.

Saved games created with the Unit-Mania V0.20 or V0.21 Beta updates are compatible with this V0.22 update. Unit-Mania V0.22 works with either Civ3 executable version 1.16f or 1.17f

The bug was as folows - any time the Player or AI tried to create the unit "Mongol Horseman" the game would crash.

Reason ? The "ini" file was spelt "MongolHorsmen.ini" instead of "Mongol Horsemen.ini" - That is - there was no space between the words in the file name, teherfore the executable couln't find the ini file. A trap for young modders.

I have fixed this in the 0.22 version and have mailed that to Thunderfall for inclusion here , but mod also available from Apolyton in the "Files" section.

If anyone does get a crash, can you note down what you tried to do immediately before the crash (e.g. Create a new units, initiate diplomacy screen, whatever) and that may help me to track down any more of these weird bugs.

Also if you have any saves immediately prior to crashes, send to me & I might then be able to duplicate the circumstances, identify & correct.

Version 0.30 Beta now available - a few extra units and Civ3 no longer seems to crash as it is exiting the modpack.

http://www.users.bigpond.com/kestrel18/Civ3.htm

Suggestions, Comments still welcome.

Cheers.

24-03-2002

Unit-Mania - Version 0.40 beta now available

2 extra units,
updated / enhanced civilopedia,
corrected units_32.pcx,
plus all previous changes

available at
http://www.users.bigpond.com/kestrel18/Civ3.htm

Cheers.

Hi all :confused:

I downloaded and installed the UnitMania mod...looks great, but was just the starting point for the mod I'd love to create. There were some other units I wanted to add to this (For example, the ME-110 from Haverlock as a Fighter-Bomber), but I -cannot- seem to get it to work. Its probably just me, of course. Here's what I did:

I dl'd the zip file, and expanded it.

I put the images in a folder under art/units called Fighter-Bomber, and put the icons into the civilopedia/icons/units subdir, renaming them to Fighter-BomberLARGE and Fighter-BomberSMALL

I renamed the .ini file to Fighter-Bomber.

I put the civilopedia entry into the file. Ditto the PediaIcons entry.

I added a new unit, and called it Fighter-Bomber. To start, I didn't give it any requirements, so I could test it.

And my problems?

- I can't find the ME-110 image in my icons list. How does it number those stupid things anyway? Also, my editor now seems to crash (something going wrong with the graphics) whenever I scroll through the unit list.

- The fighter-bomber still doesn't show in my list of possible units at start, even though it has no requirements.

Could anyone offer me a hint?

I had the crashing editor problem a while back, but I dont see any reason why it shoudl'nt have. I guess I proved that if you add 40+ units to a mod in the wrong order, and want to rearrange them, it is better to start over than to open the bic in notepad and start moving stuff.

Anyway, when my editor started crasing when scrolling through the units, i knew it was time to start over. For me, at least, it always crashed when i got to certain units. I have yet to figure out why.

Sorry I couldnt help

Unit-Mania upgraded to Version 0.51

Converted bic to V1.21f format

Added "Saracen" (Flavour unit)
Added "Eastern Knight" (Flavour unit)

Added back in Bison (Buffalo) and Musk_Ox bonus resources from Civ2.

Added in new Strategic resource - Titanium - required for Stealth Aircraft and some spacecraft parts.

Available at http://www.users.bigpond.com/kestrel18/Civ3.htm

Dude! This sounds totally awesome! Could you, perhaps, merge all those files into like 1 or 2? (Preferably 1.) Sure, it might take all day, but it would take all day anyway, and most everyone's got Gozilla or something like it. Hopefully you've also got all the necessary instructions for installation.

Game on, big fella!

Originally posted by DazednConfused
Kestrel18,

Here's another idea to play with ... the "Sea Shadow," which is an experimental "stealth" ship.

See also the "arsenal ship" --

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/ship/arsenal_ship-gallery.htm

-Oz