Cross-Platform Civ3 Editor

Cross-Platform Editor for Conquests now available! 1.48

I get an identical error, obviously the compression or otherwise of the BIQ is not the issue.
I've gone back and checked and it is definitely only a problem in the last 2 versions.
 
Hmm. I updated the method that calculates the best defender on a tile recently, and it appears that's causing issues with Rhye's mod and probably some others. I'll take a look at it this afternoon.

I might have to re-disable the 'are you sure you want to quit' message on OSX if it isn't working. I found three different ways it was supposed to work. One was rather old, and long deprecated. The one I used was deprecated as OSX 10.5.8 (IIRC). The non-deprecated one didn't work on OSX 10.4 according to the documentation. I didn't notice this when I tested it on an OSX 10.6.2 machine, but I'm not that familiar with OSX. Is it only closing the window (but not the program), or is it not even closing the window?

Update: Figured out why it wouldn't load - Rhye's uses duplicate unit names. Seeing that Firaxis's editor disallows them, I had thought they weren't allowed and had disabled them. Turns out they are allowed after all. I'll add an automatic test case for Rhye's - and might throw in a few more of the BIQs I have on hand, too.

Update 2: It might work if you click on the red circle in the upper-left of the window to quit on OSX instead of quitting via the menu. I always quit programs that way on OSX, and thus tested quitting that way, out of the habit of clicking red "X"'s to quit. Still not sure why it might work via red circles but not via the menu.
 
Version 0.70 is a combination bug-fix and feature release. Changes:

  • Fixed the bug where scenarios with duplicate unit names could not be opened.
  • Should fix the inability to exit via menu on OSX
  • Some map editing has been made available.

More on the map editing in a minute. I've also added the following scenarios as tests of being able to open a wide swath of BIQs. This means that all future releases will be tested before release to make sure they can open at least these BIQs without the map enabled (in addition to the generic non-real-world tests I had previously):

  • Rhye's of Civilization Expanded v1.23.biq
  • The Great War 2.1.biq
  • MEM Europe (Small).biq
  • RFRE 275BC Hard.biq
  • AoI4.1-31civs-FULL.biq
  • Twillight of Byzantium.biq
  • TCW1.6.biq
  • Rood.biq
  • Manhattan.biq
  • 5 Mesoamerica.biq (the actual Conquest)

The selection was mostly based on what I had on my hard drive. If you'd like to add a scenario to this list, let me know. It does take a bit of time to run the tests, so I don't want to test thousands of BIQs, but fifty or so would probably still be reasonable. Especially useful would be BIQs with unusual features (teleportation, deepwater harbors [note to self: add Age of Piracy to tests], etc.).

Download link here.

And now for map editing.

NOTE: Map editing should be thought of more as a curiosity than as something to use when creating mods at this point. If you do use it for the latter, save often.

NOTE: Read about map editing if you plan to do it. This will help you avoid some of the known pitfalls.

At this point map editing is not bug free. For example, I haven't dealt with editing tiles on the edge of the world yet, and adding hills/mountains/volcanoes has not been specifically addressed (you can add them, but the base terrain will be slightly odd). It also seems to have trouble with scenarios with custom resources. However, you can do a decent amount of things with map editing, so in light of the fact that the current OSX BIQ editing ability is zero, I've enabled map editing for the first time.

By default, map editing is not enabled, as it's still for the intrepid. To enable it, click on the Settings button and enable map editing:



Now you'll be able to edit maps. Unfortunately, by default Java gives programs too little memory to open all the PCXs a Civ3 map needs. To solve this, download this launcher program, save it to the same folder where the editor is located, and run it instead of the editor itself. It starts the editor with more memory (128 MB to start with, up to 999 MB), allowing it to open maps. If you don't have the map enabled, you can still just run the editor itself.

The next time you restart the editor (via the launcher) and open a BIQ, you'll notice a new MAP tab on the far right (you may have to scroll over depending on your choice of font). It will be grayed out for a few seconds after the rest of the tabs are ready for action, as it takes awhile for the PCX files to load. Once it's open, you can go over to it and start editing the map.

If the BIQ doesn't load with the map enabled (or the map tab never stops being grayed out), try disabling the map in Settings, restarting, and opening it again. It should load then.

The interface will look somewhat like this:



By default the map is in 'selection mode' - clicking on a tile will bring up information about it. Here I have selected the city of Din Ganwy. You can change its name, population, or culture. Buildings are rather unstable, and changing them is not recommended at this time. The owner can also be changed to a different civilization, although you cannot at this point switch between a 'civilization owner' or 'player owner'. If you want the barbarians to own the city, choose 'Barbarians' from the Civilization drop-down, not the barbarians button. You can also delete Din Ganwy (you will be asked to confirm the deletion of a whole city).

Farther down, you can change the resource on the tile, as well as other overlays. Note that you can have rails without roads or vice versa. Rivers are selected relative to the center of the tile - NW means there is a river along the NW border. Right now, adding overlays is a bit cumbersome, as you have to select a tile, then add the overlay(s), select the next tile, etc. A quicker mode to add lots of one overlay will be added later. The tradeoff is the current method gives you more precise control of river flow.

Below the overlays, you'll see a misnamed "Existing Units" box. This is where you add units. You can add up to 8192 units at once by adjusting the slider - but it is your job to make sure you don't go over 8192 units total (unless you play on requiring the infinite unit patch).

And below this is the actual existing unit, organized into a table. Units of the same type and skill level are grouped together, so you can delete (the X) or change the experience level of all at once. You can also change how many units of that type and skill level exist with the up/down arrows.

There are several other brush modes, but the only one that is implemented so far is the Terrain mode. This lets you change the map's terrain. To activate it, click where I've outlined the second box from the right in the screenshot (the images didn't make the JAR apparently). This will bring up a dialog asking you which type of terrain you wish to add. Desert, grassland, tundra, plains, coast, sea, ocean, forest, jungle, and marsh should all work at this point (except at the edges of maps); the others are luck of the draw. Now click on the map where you want to add the terrain. If it is possible to make that change on that tile, the tile will have the new terrain. Overlays, etc. will remain intact.

What do I mean by 'if it is possible to make that change on that tile'? CivIII doesn't allow every combination of tiles to border each other. For example, tundra can't border desert - there's no PCX file for that and Firaxis's editor doesn't allow it. Thus you can't do it here, either. If you try to, nothing will happen. One special case you should be aware of is grassland bordering sea/ocean. That isn't allowed, so if you want to expand a landmass into coast that borders the sea, you have to first expand the coast, and then expand the landmass. A more smooth method of handling this will be added in a future version.

Other limitations currently are that you have to paint each tile with a mouse click (think Seurat), and you can only paint one tile at a time. These are both planned to be addressed in future revisions.

Less tested areas include coastal boundaries. You're generally safest modifying inland areas, or modifying water areas. This doesn't mean you can't modify the coastal land/water areas, just that it's more likely to cause errors. Save often.

If you want to go back to selecting tiles rather than painting them, click where I've outlined the first box from the right (the rightmost) in the screenshot.

There currently is no way to add new cities, and all units currently use the default color scheme (no civ specific colors). The owner of a unit can be determined by clicking on the tile where the unit is and seeing who is specified as the owner.

'Specialized' traits such as PTW Custom Unit Names ("23rd Cavalry Division", etc.) are not yet editable. Units that already have such names will retain them, but new units will just have the generic name of their unit type.

Scrolling is currently only available via the scroll bars. There's no minimap. It may show up in the future. Similarly, there's no grid at this point. Tile coordinates are visible on the right side when the tile is selected (unless the tile contains a city).
 
EDIT
Problem solved, it was an issue to do with where I was directing the editor to open files from. All sorted.

However the launcher still doesn't open.
Whether I double click on it or use the 'Open With' option nothing happens. I mean nothing. I might as well not have clicked anything (so no error message)
 
Is it in the same folder as the editor? I forgot to mention in my post that it has to be in the same folder, or it won't be able to find the editor. The editor also will need to have the name it has when you download it, "Conquests Editor 0.70.jar".

I'll try running them on a Mac and see if that occurs. Can't reproduce it on Windows so far (after downloading them from the cloud to see if it's an issue there), so maybe it's a platform-specific issue? Regardless I'm adding some error-notification dialogs to the launcher so it will be able to provide some more feedback on why it fails in the future.

edit: Updated the launcher file with more error notification. I've been able to test that it gives an error dialog when it can't find the editor, and it should notify when several others occur as well. You can download it from the same link. There's no need to redownload the editor.

edit2: Tested it on OSX, and it seems on OSX there's an issue with the fact that there are spaces in the filename, which prevents the launcher from launching it. The same thing happens on Linux. Other than the obvious getting rid of spaces, I haven't determined the best way to fix it yet.

edit3: Okay, fixed the launcher and reuploaded. As of 17:05 GMT today, I've tested the launcher successfully launching the editor on OSX. However, it still doesn't on Linux. Probably due to the spaces in the filename.
 
Success! :) works really well although stability with map editing is a bit suspect.
Very excited :nods:
You're doing a fantastic job, I can't wait till the ability to pre-place cities is included.

One problem I am encountering though is that when there are two files (of the same sort) named the same (as in Rhye's). When trying to, for example, add cattle to a tile in the Rhye's mod, it will only add the first type of cattle. Even if you select a different type of cattle it will automatically reset it to the first type.

The other problem I'm having is that units I have placed on the map are not showing up. Do cities need to be present in order for other units to be placed (eg. a similiar scenario to in Fall of Rome)
 
Glad it's working! I may be able to speed up file saving - I've put much more effort on opening part so far. Although in the short term I'll be focusing on improving map editing.

I hadn't considered the situations where multiple resources have the same name. I'll have to look into that and make that work properly. update: solution found. rather subtle how that one wasn't working.

At one point I know I wasn't refreshing the units on the map, but I thought I had changed that. :hmm: I'll have to look into that, too.

Thanks for reporting what isn't working. Especially the goods-with-the-same-name issue I may not have spotted for quite some time.

Update: Fixed the resource issue. I tried adding units on a city-less map, but they seem to be working properly, including in-game. Are you adding units to a tile with no units, or to a tile that already has some units? The unit that is displayed on the tile will be whatever unit has the best defence (with hitpoint bonus, experience, and base defence value taken into account), so if you add a Warrior to a tile with a Regular or better Spearman, it won't show up on the map (an Elite Warrior would show up over a Conscript Spearman). This is different from Firaxis's editor, likely including the MacSoft one for Vanilla Civ3. However, it should show up in the list of units on the tile (if there is already at least one unit of that type on the tile, you'd have to select a different tile and then the original one again to see the updated number - this will be fixed in version 0.71).

If the units aren't just hidden, which scenario/BIQ in particular is exhibiting this behavior?
 
The problem that occurs is thus - I want some civs in this mod I'm working on to start with no cities, but with a number of settlers, in pre-placed locations. However, the only units showing up in game are the default ones listed in the 'Players' section.
Barbarians are placing properly but not for players.
 
I've uploaded a scenario file demonstrating the problem. In this I've simply pre-placed some American settlers on this Kal-El's map, as you will be able to see in the editor. However they don't show up in game.
 

Attachments

  • Kal-Els Resource 180x180 Earth vUnitTest.biq.zip
    70.6 KB · Views: 109
I've uploaded a scenario file demonstrating the problem. In this I've simply pre-placed some American settlers on this Kal-El's map, as you will be able to see in the editor. However they don't show up in game.

Hmm, that does seem to be the case. Oddly it shows up in Firaxis's editor, too, but not in the game. I'll see what I can figure out about what's happening here.

In my own tests I've been noticing some odd glitches when map editing, such as civilizations starting the game in Anarchy when they aren't supposed to. In these cases the game doesn't complain when loading the scenario (though Firaxis's editor does). I think it may have something to do with the Continents variable (which continent a tile is on), whose formula I haven't decoded yet. But I'm not sure. I need to improve my debugging tools to figure that out. In the meantime, changing attributes of a tile should mostly work, but changing the terrain itself will cause this type of bug in-game.

edit: The problem in the previous paragraph seems to only apply in certain situations or with certain BIQs. Another possibility which I am considering is that it may be an issue with only version 12.06 BIQ files (Conquests 1.00). But if you notice odd stuff of that sort happening in-game, that's probably the bug that's causing it.
 
Version 0.71 is a bugfix release. Bugs squashed:

  • Version 12.06 BIQs are now properly saved as version 12.08 BIQs (previously they could exhibit odd behaviors).
  • Fixed the importation of non-standard-sized unit palettes. This will allow more scenarios to be opened for map editing.
  • Fix to allow changing the number of buildings present in a city.
  • Fix to allow multiple resources of the same type on the map.
  • The list of existing units on a tile now automatically updates when you add more of the same type/experience level of unit using the "Add" button.
  • The typo of 'Existing Units' instead of 'Add Units' has been fixed.
  • Improved support for changing tiles on the edge of the map in non-wrapped worlds.
  • Fix of a situation that could result in odd graphics on changed tiles and those tiles S, SW, and SE of such a tile. This is the not-yet-infamous "Error XKCD".
  • You may now compare TILEs in the BIQ Compare section. It is recommended that you only do this on similar maps, or you'll get a lot of output.
  • Section headers have been added to most BIQ Compare output.
  • All icons that are supposed to be included with the editor are now included.

The bug with the settlers not showing up in game is still outstanding, as far as I know, although it does appear that it was a version 12.06 BIQ. I plan to download Kal-El's map and see if I can reproduce it with 0.70 but not 0.71.

To include the icons, the editor is now downloadable as a ZIP file here. The launcher program is included in the ZIP, but if you don't plan to do map editing you can launch the editor directly.
 
The problem with multiple resources of the same name within the map editor has been fixed, however when being set as a required resource for a building or unit the problem persists (automatically resets it to the first resource in the list).

Also, when trying to set an upgrade path for units as soon as you click on anything else it will reset the upgrade to 'None'.
 
Any news?

Also, when dealing with pre-created maps (all earth maps for example) I can't work out how to change the number of players? Changing the number in the WSIZ tab doesn't alter it, nor does changing the number of players listed in the 'PLYRS' tab. Any suggestions?

I refer to the 134x130 Rhye's Earth Map and the 140x140 Kal-El's Earth Map as examples where I can't change the number of players.

Also, unless I use a BIQ that already has changes to the players as my template I cannot change any details in the PLYRS tab, its simply greyed out.

Finally I can't place a start location for anyone but whatever the 1st listed civ is for the scenario
 
The problem with multiple resources of the same name within the map editor has been fixed, however when being set as a required resource for a building or unit the problem persists (automatically resets it to the first resource in the list).

Also, when trying to set an upgrade path for units as soon as you click on anything else it will reset the upgrade to 'None'.

I see, there is indeed that issue with multiple resources of the same name in many places. Well, it's now fixed for version 0.72; support for more than one of any type of item (building, resource, unit, etc.) with the same name now exists.

The upgrade issue will also be fixed. A classic copy-paste error, it was saving to the wrong place.

Any news?

Also, when dealing with pre-created maps (all earth maps for example) I can't work out how to change the number of players? Changing the number in the WSIZ tab doesn't alter it, nor does changing the number of players listed in the 'PLYRS' tab. Any suggestions?

I refer to the 134x130 Rhye's Earth Map and the 140x140 Kal-El's Earth Map as examples where I can't change the number of players.

Also, unless I use a BIQ that already has changes to the players as my template I cannot change any details in the PLYRS tab, its simply greyed out.

Finally I can't place a start location for anyone but whatever the 1st listed civ is for the scenario

Apologies for the slow reply; I was on holiday and had several other things to do upon my return.

The PLYRS tab is still a work in progress. There isn't yet a way to change the number of players. If there is no custom player data, you can change it via the world size tab; if there is custom player data, Civ will only pay attention to the value in the PLYRS tab, which is not yet changeable.

The ability to add custom player data to a map that doesn't have it already would require the editor to carry a 'default' setup for custom player data. It would be the same for allowing a custom map to be enabled on a BIQ without one, or custom rules to be enabled on a scenario without them. For the latter this would require quite a lot of data, or an extremely bland basic scenario. It's something to be added, but at the present I'd rather focus on smoothing out the rest of the editor.

The start location issue also will be fixed in version 0.72.

I'd like to try to tackle a few more issues that I've uncovered before releasing 0.72, and need to figure out why one of my compatibility tests that passed for 0.71 is failing now. Thus it may be a bit of time before 0.72 is released.
 
That all sounds great, and I'm happy to wait for the next update :)

Any idea how far away, (low priority, medium priority, high priority etc.) the ability to pre-place cities is?
 
I am having a problem with this editor and can't seem to find a resolution to it when I go to open a file (note this only happens after I have saved it a couple of time and get going...convenient right?) when I go to open the saved file it says

An unexpected exception occurred: Java.lang.NullPointerException

Anyone know how to fix/stop this from occurring?
Also is there a way I can program units to upgrade in this editor? I tried doing it but when I either switch to another unit or go to save the upgrade to box goes back to what it was earlier. Not sure how to solve this either.
And lastly how can i put in unit pictures both for the civilopedia and the editor picture election box/production box in game.If these answers were posted earlier I didn't see them and if you could tell me where this information is I would be grateful.
 
Are you using the most up-to-date version.

Also, no disrespect but you can't have looked too hard. In the post 2 above yours Quintillus adresses the upgrade problem stating that he is aware of the problem and that it will be fixed in the next update.
 
Oh haha I don't know why I didn't see that guess I was too busy looking into the past. And yes I am using the most up-to-date version.
 
That all sounds great, and I'm happy to wait for the next update :)

Any idea how far away, (low priority, medium priority, high priority etc.) the ability to pre-place cities is?

I unfortunately don't have a whole lot of time to work on the editor this month, due to classes and job-hunting, primarily. By sometime this summer (July?) that will probably change. There's also the issue that a lot of the current crop of bugs are rather resistant to being fixed, so even if I had a lot of time progress wouldn't be fast.

That said, I am planning to release what I have as 0.72. It both fixes some bugs and prevents you from triggering a few bugs that I haven't had time to fix yet.

Pre-placing cities would probably be medium-low priority at this point. High priority is getting some more of the bugs fixed, which by extension means I also have to reconfigure how I treat units to be more in line with Firaxis's model, where they basically save a whole copy of a unit for every strategy it has, rather than just letting one copy of the unit have more than one strategy :rolleyes:. Not sure why they designed it that way, but it's too late to change it now. Medium priority is polishing off some of the areas that are mostly, but not entirely implemented - for example, you can't choose unit strategy for newly placed units at this time, as you can in the Firaxis editor. After that will be adding new features, of which pre-placing cities would be a relatively high priority. Part of the reason I don't want to do this earlier is that fixing the bugs may well make city placement go smoother when I do add it. I could throw it together relatively soon if I wanted to, but I don't really need more things to fix on the map.

I am having a problem with this editor and can't seem to find a resolution to it when I go to open a file (note this only happens after I have saved it a couple of time and get going...convenient right?) when I go to open the saved file it says

An unexpected exception occurred: Java.lang.NullPointerException

Are you opening more than one file without restarting the editor? Although this sometimes works, I have not been testing it, and it may cause this sort of error. You should be able to save as many times as you want, though.

If you're restarting the editor between openings, post the BIQ as an attachment (and note if any mods are needed for it) and I'll see what might be happening. There's also a log.txt file in the same folder as the editor that will contain more details of the error. Somewhere in that file you'll find the text "java.lang.NullPointerException", and below that will be a bunch of technical information. That could be quite useful in pinpointing the problem. It will look something like this:

Code:
5781 [Thread-9] ERROR GraphicsImport  - Out of memory
java.lang.OutOfMemoryError: Java heap space
	at java.awt.image.DataBufferInt.<init>(DataBufferInt.java:41)
	at java.awt.image.Raster.createPackedRaster(Raster.java:458)
	at java.awt.image.DirectColorModel.createCompatibleWritableRaster(DirectColorModel.java:1015)
	at java.awt.image.BufferedImage.<init>(BufferedImage.java:323)
	at com.civfanatics.civ3.xplatformeditor.PCXFilter.createBufferedImage(PCXFilter.java:273)
	at com.civfanatics.civ3.xplatformeditor.GraphicsImport.importGraphics(GraphicsImport.java:95)
	at com.civfanatics.civ3.xplatformeditor.GraphicsImport.run(GraphicsImport.java:45)

But will say java.lang.NullPointerException instead of java.lang.OutOfMemoryError. It lets me see the exact point in the code that is causing the problem, so I can fix it much more quickly.

Note: I think you may have to have 5 posts to use attachments, but the log.txt (or part of it) probably will be enough for me to fix the problem even without the BIQ.

Also is there a way I can program units to upgrade in this editor? I tried doing it but when I either switch to another unit or go to save the upgrade to box goes back to what it was earlier. Not sure how to solve this either.

That'll be solved in 0.72!

And lastly how can i put in unit pictures both for the civilopedia and the editor picture election box/production box in game.If these answers were posted earlier I didn't see them and if you could tell me where this information is I would be grateful.

That's actually something you have to do separately - via placing image (PCX) files in the correct locations, and updating some text files, such as civilopedia.txt. There's a few tutorials on adding units in the Tutorials section that will include information on how to do this, such as this one and this one. They do tend to assume Windows filenames, but after you find your Civ3 units/scenarios folders the rest of the filenames should for the most part correspond.
 
Version 0.72 is now available. This is a bugfix release, although due to time constraints, it does not fix all outstanding bugs.

Bugs fixed:

  • Added support for multiple items of the same type with the same name across the editor, both on the map and elsewhere.
  • Previous versions swapped the # of bonus AI offence and defence units in the DIFF tab upon a save. Upon the next save, the # would be swapped back to its original value, etc. This swapping no longer occurs. If you find your files currently have swapped values, saving it one more time in 0.71 or earlier will swap them back to the proper values.
  • Added map support for scenarios that use smaller-than-average city graphics, one such scenario being The Human Body.
  • Fix to allow changing the owner of starting locations
  • Fix to allow the setting of unit upgrades
  • Fixes to allow the user to safely delete buildings and goods on BIQs with custom maps. It is not yet safe to delete civilizations of unit types (PRTOs) from such maps, so this ability has been temporarily disabled in BIQs with custom maps (note that this is regardless of whether map editing is enabled).
  • Added notification for out of memory errors when opening the map. As long as you use the launcher program when editing the map, you should not see this error.

Also to be aware of (these apply to 0.70 and 0.71 as well):

  • If you type in a new value for the culture or population of a city and then immediately click on another tile, the value will not stick. You must either click on something else in the right side panel, or use the up/down arrow at least once to get the value to stick. Attempts are being made to remedy this, but they have not succeeded yet.
  • On very large maps with lots of cities, there is a noticeable lag when you click on a new city or change a city's culture. This will be fixed at some point with a more efficient algorithm.

The map support, despite the fixes, should still be considered quite new and untested, so use it with caution! Thanks to those who have been using the editor and reporting bugs!

Download link here.
 
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