TCG Editor

[hwinkels]

Here's my TCG Editor for Civ3. It's an editor for .SAV game files only. The .ZIP file has 2 files in it and these are the only 2 you need to run the editor. You can actually get by without the .HLP file if you really want to. The help file is just a skeleton right now and doesn't have a lot of useful information in it.

It can be run from anywhere; you just need to unzip the files into whatever directory or "folder" you want to run them from and create a shortcut to the .EXE on your desktop. The program will figure out where your saved game files are, so you don't need to put anything anywhere special.

Features:

• Change forced retirement year
• Change treasury gold amounts for all civs
• Change victory conditions
• Change the player's civ within the game
• Reveal the entire map (multi-bug)
• Change the random number seed

Version 2.00 should work for all patch versions up to and including 1.17f. The "multi" feature has been changed to let you turn it on and off. The "Reveal Map" feature has been deleted since "multi" lets you do the same thing. I retained the code in case Firaxis fixes the "multi" bug in the future.

THIS IS VERSION 2.00
(after v1.02 downloaded 98 times)
Here's the .ZIP file:

[hwinkels]

Here's a screen shot of the TCG Editor in action.

Simply make your changes and save the file from the menu bar. If you change your mind and don't want to save your changes, simply click the 'x' button in the upper right and answer "no" when asked if you want to save your changes.

[Exsanguination]

beautiful.... just beautiful...

[MartinW]

This is great!

Why?

1. there are other trainers that let you reset the date, but then you don't really know how many moves into the game you are. (unless you do the math, but who wants to do math) this trainer lets you change the date the game ends, so you can see at a glance how far into the game you are.

2. watching "the show" is half the fun. this trainer reveals the whole map so you can see what's going on. (I got tired of suddenly noticing that German cities had fallen into the hands of the Russians and I'd missed the action)

3. this is a light program. (it uses very little system resources) it doesn't crash or refuse to load.

4. giving yourself more money is very simple with this program.

5. the other stuff it does that I haven't tried yet.

[God]

Wow nice program.
So simple and easy.
Great! Thanks.

[sturbs]

Nice editor but how can I remove the red letters TCG in front of all my civ saved games? Its even on my civII saved games.

[hwinkels]

A little convoluted, but not too hard:

For Win95 or Win98:
Open the folder with your SAV game files in it. Then select View/Folder Options... from the menu. Click the "File Types" tab. Scroll the list down and single-click on the TCG document icon. Click "Edit". Under "Actions" click "open", then press the "Edit..." button. Click the "Browse..." button and navigate to your Civ3 directory and double-click on Civilization3.exe. Then press "OK" and press the "Change Icon..." button. Double-click on the less-fuzzy icon for Civ3 (the top one on my system). Then click Close and Close again and finally close whatever folders you opened.

If you have WinXP:
Open My Documents. If the file you want is not located in My Documents or its subfolders, use Search to find the SAV files directory (as above).

Right-click one of the SAV files then click Properties. On the General tab, click Change. Then click the name of the program in which you want the file to open, which is Civilzation3.exe. Again, you might have to navigate your folder/directories to get to Civilization3.exe. It should be "C:\Program Files\Infogrames\Civilization 3" or something close to that.

If you have WinNT or Win2000 you'll have to see which method works. I don't have a system running either of those to test it out.

This is an annoying Windows "feature". This link explains the poblem. I don't agree with the author blaming it on programmers, however. It's not a standard thing you can avoid doing when using MS Visual C/C++ with MFC. The guts of the VC package do it automatically, and there's no real way to turn it off. IMHO the fault lies with Microsoft here, not "arrogant programmers" as the author of that page would have you believe. At least with TCG, it won't keep changing the icons back again, and the editor will still open the SAV files without a problem. It bothered me, too, at first, but I got used to it. It doesn't change the files themselves and is harmless. If I knew how to make it NOT do this, I would have.

Hope that helps.

[hwinkels]

The "multi" bug/feature/cheat (thanks to McFlyen's discovery) is now a part of the TCG Editor.

Funny how some things happen by accident. I did a trainer a couple of years ago for Rollercoaster Tycoon and there were some really cool things I found purely be accident. Serendipity is a wonderful thing. Call it Dumb Luck.

EDIT: v2.00 lets you toggle "multi" on and off.

[MartinW]

Thanks for the new version!

[chiefpaco]

Nice Util. I've used the civ switch to take a look at territory staticstics for the opponents (testing purposes, of course). Thanks.

[David In Asia]

many many thanks - i found the forced ending a serious pain in the arse.......as a beginner i wasn't get the chance to even begin any of the oher victory conditions.....although just won my second geme with diplomacy. i'm now on my third game, and i've gone up a level, and its just so cool that i can now play the game without having to worry about the dreaded 2050ad date.

you're the man!!! if i could, i'd buy you a beer or three.
nice one
david

[Slave]

That is awesome.Thanks

[Ashman]

Pretty impressive

[JustListenen]

Any chance of an update for compatibility with patch 1.21f >??

This would make up at least part of the loss of the "multi" save file.

[Ashman]

I have one question what does the 'Multi' checkbox do and what does chang seed button. I don't want to try it as it might mess up my saves

[peterval]

Many, many thanks hwinkels for your Tcg editor. It provides all I want from an editor except…. If you have a moment could you point towards the bytes that govern AI relations, ie whether they are polite, furious etc. It is not that I want to edit them (although I found it amusing in Civ1 to alter the relevant bytes) but I would like to know what my rivals think of each other.

I thought I could find out by using Tcg to change the human civ. But there might be something of the Heisenberg principle operating; maybe the act of observing changes the thing observed. Eg in my current game playing as Mao I have a MPP with Bismarck, but when I become Bismarck the pact has disappeared!

If you could spare a moment to help with the relations bytes I would be extremely grateful.

[Civanator]

Dude you need to make this compatible with 1.21. almost everyone has 1.21 and no one can use your Utility.

[Kaybenn&Athena]

We have the newest patch and DYP mod on our game .... and we cannot get thru the middle ages before we hit the 2050 year limit. Can you please update your wonderful program so that we can use it with the latest patch???

It would be most apprecited

Kaybenn & Athena

[Civanator]

i dont think he cares

[kittenOFchaos]

Have you tried e-mailing him...I am pretty sure he is an Apolytoner pre-dominantly.