Useful Patches for Civ 3 Conquests v1.22

Steph said:

Isn't it based on decompiling the game and creating a "pirate" version of it?
I think some explanation are needed

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It's not creating a "pirate" version. Patches still require legal version

Puppeteer said:

He's already on that and has turned up a lot. I thought he had fixed it, but perhaps he needs to implement the framework for that one.

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I haven't fixed that yet, I just have located the problem. So now I'm thinking how to fix it.

Antal1987 said:

It's not creating a "pirate" version. Patches still require legal version

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Good solution then. Do you want me to post the full list of ideas we had when we discussed with Firaxis to try to get the source code?
Some may be really difficult to do without full source code, some may be possible with your patch system.

I hope you can change a little the way the ignore terrain and withdrawal works. I think it should be relatively simple to do and could interesting new options.

Steph said:

Good solution then. Do you want me to post the full list of ideas we had when we discussed with Firaxis to try to get the source code?
Some may be really difficult to do without full source code, some may be possible with your patch system.

I hope you can change a little the way the ignore terrain and withdrawal works. I think it should be relatively simple to do and could interesting new options.

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You can create a new thread or extend this one: see.

What happened when you've tried obtain sources? Have you spoken to any Firaxis coding manager?

I'm glad to introduce another feature - City worker's limit is now increases up to 44 instead of 20.

I've managed to fix not only controllers but renderers too. And now the game correctly renders city borders, loads and saves cities' data (Checked).



patch_v5

I hope you'll enjoy it!

In addition I publish precise fix list for this patch if someone would gonna enlarge the limit. (Value in commands should be increased by 1: 44 + 1 = 45 = 0x2D)

patch v5 is here

Antal1987 said:

You can create a new thread or extend this one: see.

What happened when you've tried obtain sources? Have you spoken to any Firaxis coding manager?

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Not a coding manager. I was in contact with someone else. I prepared a document explaining the idea, with a proposed team, business model, etc.
They were are first interesting, so I exchanged several email with him.

My idea was that Firaxis would provide the source code to a group of fans, who would submit a list of fixes/changes to Firaxis for approval/veta (so they could refuse something that will be "too good" compared to their upcoming titles).
The group would prepare the new version, test it, and then send it to Firaxis for approbation before release.

But then my contact just said "Project is cancelled, it will never happen". No explanation.
A year later I tried again with another contact I got, the guy asked for an update of the doc, I sent it. He said he would answer back "shortly". 6 years later I'm still waiting for an answer.

Steph said:

Not a coding manager. I was in contact with someone else. I prepared a document explaining the idea, with a proposed team, business model, etc.
They were are first interesting, so I exchanged several email with him.

My idea was that Firaxis would provide the source code to a group of fans, who would submit a list of fixes/changes to Firaxis for approval/veta (so they could refuse something that will be "too good" compared to their upcoming titles).
The group would prepare the new version, test it, and then send it to Firaxis for approbation before release.

But then my contact just said "Project is cancelled, it will never happen". No explanation.
A year later I tried again with another contact I got, the guy asked for an update of the doc, I sent it. He said he would answer back "shortly". 6 years later I'm still waiting for an answer.

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Yes this was a sad story for all of us.

And part of the reason why I moved away from Civ3 modding and switched to Napoleon Total War.

But I stil have my unfinished mod on my hard drive, and the source code of my editor including the "expanded game mechanism."

Wow, I am deeply impressed!

I tried your patch 5 with my running game and... it is working flawless!



Please continue Your excellent work!

Do you think you could manage to have more cultures? At least so each civilization has its own city graphics?

Antal1987 said:

I haven't fixed that yet, I just have located the problem. So now I'm thinking how to fix it.

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No problem. You're doing awesome! You've generated a lot of excitement and hope. Don't let our enthusiastic requests wear you out. You keep having fun and doing what you do. We're loving it!

Steph said:

Do you think you could manage to have more cultures? At least so each civilization has its own city graphics?

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I think its possible by using patch framework.

Prodiving dynamic cultures or civ race graphics requires:
- overwriting functions which initialize resources. The following images are to replaced with dynamic images:
-- Citi Images
-- Citizen Faces images
-- Palace Parts images
- overwriting rendering function or functions related with them
-- class_Citizen_Mood_Array::Get_Image(class_Citizen_Mood_Array *this, int EraID, int WorkerTypeID, int MoodID, int GenderID, int CultureGroupID) which returns pointer to image to be rendered on City Form
-- class_City:raw_City_Tile_Image, which renders city image, calculating its index by the formula: CultureGroupCityImages[BIC_Data.Races[Civilizations[_City->Body.CivID].RaceID].CultureGroupID + 5 * (Civilizations[_City->Body.CivID].Era + 4 * _City_Class_Index)];
-- several functions of City_View_Form, which response for rendering
-- several function of Palace_View_Form, which response for rendering

Sounds very promising.

Hmm...Something I've noticed with the new city tile limit, is that very rarely something will happen where the city doesn't register the citizen labouring any tiles at all in terms of food/production/commerce. I'm not sure what's causing it.

Bengal Tiger said:

Hmm...Something I've noticed with the new city tile limit, is that very rarely something will happen where the city doesn't register the citizen labouring any tiles at all in terms of food/production/commerce. I'm not sure what's causing it.

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I'm not sure I've understood. What do you mean "something will happen"? What exactly happens? And what do you mean "city doesn't register the citizen"?

Technically, a city has a list of citizen objects. Each object stores info about race, mood, tile index and smth else... When City grows, it creates new citizen object and puts into the list. When City shrinks, it removes excess objects.

Antal1987 said:

I'm not sure I've understood. What do you mean "something will happen"? What exactly happens? And what do you mean "city doesn't register the citizen"?

Technically, a city has a list of citizen objects. Each object stores info about race, mood, tile index and smth else... When City grows, it creates new citizen object and puts into the list. When City shrinks, it removes excess objects.

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Well, as you can see in the picture I attached, despite a citizen working a tile that should be producing three shields, one commerce, and one food, the city is only producing one shield and 2 food per turn, so it's obviously not registering what the citizen working the tile is bringing in. This makes any form of growth in the city impossible, since it will only ever have 2 food per turn, which is only enough to sustain the single citizen.

However, this seems to occur fairly randomly, as you can also see by the partially filled food box.

Bengal Tiger said:

Well, as you can see in the picture I attached, despite a citizen working a tile that should be producing three shields, one commerce, and one food, the city is only producing one shield and 2 food per turn, so it's obviously not registering what the citizen working the tile is bringing in. This makes any form of growth in the city impossible, since it will only ever have 2 food per turn, which is only enough to sustain the single citizen.

However, this seems to occur fairly randomly, as you can also see by the partially filled food box.

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Please, share, your save file, if you can, because I couln't simulate case like that.

In normal C3C the dumb use of citizens by the AI frequently happens after changing governments.

This new City limit is AMAZING.
Tried it out on an ongoing AOI game.
The city I looked at before had Food=67, Shields = 137, Commerce= 137.
With new patch Food=112, Shields=206,Commerce=200. That´s a difference
Since I let the city manager handle all things I know the AI saw the extra squares and used them.

So it works, BUT naturally this patch really rocks the boat almost to sink it. A whole bunch of scenarios and mods will topple over since they are created with special care. With this new addition that radius increases a whole lot.

I think question arise with what new feature should be in a "common" patch
The first patches to the "official" No-cd patch 1.22 was to increase city and unit limits and of course the no-raze stuff. That helped and improved the game.

Things that truly changes the game perhaps should be included in an extra patch, beyond the common and known true bugs. (Increase city radius is not a bug IMHO, just a limitation).

IMHO if all improvements/bugs are put into 1 patch gamers have to decide to skip like the submarine bug by not getting all the other presumed stuff.
Having a almost bug-free patch AND then increase that patch with additional possible things. I guess we all have many things in mind that really might change the game, but that could go horrible wrong as I mentioned before.

One thing (I mentioned before) is that resource needs to be within city radius to build a certain unit. That changes the game and is not a bug, but increase unit handling in mods. Such a change should not be in the primary "bug-free" patch but perhaps in an expanded patch.
BUT who makes the choices ???
Antal1987 of course within what great skill Antal1987 have. We other can only suggest.
It´s a big responsibility to get this right.
I wish Antal1987 the best of luck in his great Quest to improve this game.