I am new to this whole programing thing but I have some things I would like
to do and need help learning how to do them. I would like to alter the
tech tree and alter not just units you can creat but buildings you can
produce from the city mode. I am also interested in adding new resources.
How do I go about doing all of this especially since I want to be able to
steal some graphical work and tech tree ideas from Age of Empires and Age
of Mythology. They have different file extension names. Can you help me
on how to make these alterations. I am aware that people have already
created there own techs I can just use, but I want to learn how to do it
for myself. Please help me out, or point me in the right direction.

You could start by looking in the Tutorial sub-forum, you'll find there the basis of CivIII modding.

For the converting graphics from AoE and AoM, there is no easy and quick way to do it.
If you want to convert some simple graphics (non units), you should use a screenshoot program, learn about the CivIII graphics (PCX, 256 colours, last 2 = transparency) and start cust-n-pasting.

Good luck.

...(PCX, 256 colours, last 2 = transparency) ...Except that in Photoshop it's the first two. :)

@Peter
If you want to mod the gfx of the game you should get a gfx program. The three most used here is Photoshop, Paint Shop Pro and GIMP. GIMP is apparently free, but hard to learn. PS and PSP cost money if you're honest. :mischief:

PSP has a free trial version but it's a large download :(

Also, instead of taking screenshots, some games (like rise of nations) have many of thier graphics in the subfolders of the game, just open it up with your program and do waht you need to do :). To learn what you need to do look at the files in the civIII art folder, most of the titles will tell you waht they're used for, then you can copy that format for yours :) (also look in the tutorials subforum)