Hello all,

Playing around with making a scenario in the editor and I have a few questions (if someone would be good enough to help):

:hmm: If starting a scenario in a specific era (e.g. medieval) how do you give the civs all the advances from the ancient age?

:hmm: How do you stop civs from attacking each other? (e.g. if designing a WWII scenario how do you stop Britain and the US from attacking each other?

:hmm: How do you make civs start with an existing right of passage agreement?

:hmm: how do you eliminate the need to explore the map? (e.g. if a scenario is in the industrial or modern age then the civs should already know what the world looks like).

thanks in advance,

Raymond

Well i know it is impossible tp start with diplomatic agreements. Also, there is an option somewhere that reveals the map, but I don't remember its location

Originally posted by rlw33
:hmm: If starting a scenario in a specific era (e.g. medieval) how do you give the civs all the advances from the ancient age?
Look under Player Properties (You must enable "Custom Player Data" first) If you start them in an era above ancient, they get all the (at least required) techs from the previous eras. Additionally, you can assign them specific techs there.

:hmm: How do you stop civs from attacking each other? (e.g. if designing a WWII scenario how do you stop Britain and the US from attacking each other?
You don't, unfortunately. There's no treaty-editing or creation whatsoever in the scenario editor; it's probably the main Editor gripe from modmakers. In certain situations, you can work around it by playing the first turn and setting up diplomacy and then distributing as a saved game in addition to the mod, but that is really only practical in a few special cases. And there's nothing to stop the AI from breaking such agreements at its earliest convenience.

:hmm: How do you make civs start with an existing right of passage agreement?
Again, you don't. See above.

:hmm: how do you eliminate the need to explore the map? (e.g. if a scenario is in the industrial or modern age then the civs should already know what the world looks like).
One more time ;) Currently there is no way to do this. If you are lucky, you can manage to trade maps and get most of it early, otherwise you just live with it. To save warpstorm the work, I am obligated to point out that in certain situations, strategically placed outposts help in this regard, but it is no where near the kind of simple, general solution that a "known map" checkbox would be.

Are you starting to get the feeling that the editor could use a little work? ;)

pdescobar wrote:
Are you starting to get the feeling that the editor could use a little work?

:lol: Very much so.
Thanks for the suggestion about the outposts though.
That's a good workaround that hadn't occurred to me.

regards,
Raymond

No problem. warpstorm deserves the credit for suggesting it though. I only included it there because every time I whine about not having a "known map" option, he points out the use of outposts :D

I agree that a known map checkbox would be a great addition. An option to 'paint' the areas known by each civ would be great also.

Maybe those features can be added in a patch... No wait expansion... with eight extra civs.

Does that remind you of anything :mischief:

I don't think we'll be seeing many new features in future PTW patches (just bug fixes). I think (this is purely my opinion) the money that Firaxis was given to build it is about used up. They don't do this stuff for free, it's a business for them. Programmers are very expensive (even cheap ones like game programmers). A few hundred K$ doesn't go very far if your staff actually expects pay checks.

If a future expansion comes out, I'm hoping it will concentrate on scenario building.

Grrrrr, they should put in the ability to set the diplomatic options at least. We deserved it! :D

Also it would be good, if we would have an additional feature in the game: Full Alliance. It could last forever, unless some of the 2 sides will decide to break it.

Additional option for the editor: Full Alliance flag. This should force the AI to NEVER break the alliance. This way we could make decent ww2, LotR or other scenarios.

Yes, Balrog that would be very useful for a historical scenario.

Didn't the civ2 editor allow you to set a diplomatic agreement as permanent or am I misremembering? Regardless, you are correct that it would be highly useful here too...

Originally posted by warpstorm
I think (this is purely my opinion) the money that Firaxis was given to build it is about used up. They don't do this stuff for free, it's a business for them. Programmers are very expensive (even cheap ones like game programmers). A few hundred K$ doesn't go very far if your staff actually expects pay checks.


I fully understand and agree warpstorm.

However, if would cost them NOTHING to release the diplomacy code (which has aleady been written), and allow the fans to make their own diplomacy editor script.

I myself couldn't do it....but I'm sure that there are other people who could.
Look at what Gramphos managed to achieve with his Civ3MultiTool.
And without Moeniir's wonderful FLICster, there would be NO new player created units at all!

So if they can't afford to do it, then release the code, and let the fans do it for themselves!.

It would cost them the money that can be made from another expansion. (My opinion is that since PTW turned a profit, Infogrames will eventually want them to do another expansion).

As Civ3 is setup currently, I think that they'd have to release all of the source code to allow this. The problem isn't just in the editor, the game would have to be changed also to make use of it. I don't realistically see them releasing the source code.

Well, I am one of those few people who dosen't mind paying for an expansion that contains a diplomacy editor!
(After all, after paying £30 for Civ3, and £30 for PTW, I also spent £45 for PaintShop Pro just so that I could make my own units....as well as another £40 for 3D software that I can't seem to get my head around! :crazyeye: ).

What worries me is that they won't bother with a diplomacy editor, but won't release the code either!

So I really don't mind....one or the other will suit me (but I do hope it IS one or the other.....and not neither!).

30 pounds for PTW? That's quite expensive...it came out as only $30 in the USA.

All new computer games are about 30 quid in Britain....at least when they first come out they are.

(Anyway, I think that all these computer game shops have a 'mug' detector....
....when they see me coming, they deliberately put the price up, knowing full well that I'm still going to buy it)
:lol: