Beginner...

[Achileus]

Hi everyone - first post on here, so be nice and understanding. I notice that there's a thread in the Civ II section for scenario-building for beginners, but I can't see anything similar for Civ III. If I'm being blind, will someone point me in the right direction, and if not, will someone be kind enough to give me a summary? I'm not a complete beginner - I have played extensively on Civ, Civ II, Test of Time, Civ III and PTW. I also made scenarios a long time ago for Civ II Fantastic Worlds, but that was a while ago now, and I am pretty much clueless when it comes to starting on Civ III PTW. Any help will be much appreciated.

[mrtn]

Welcome to CFC!
Scenario-building is a quite wide term, as it includes different things. My advice would be to start modding small stuff, maybe add some units and techs to the epic game rules, before starting on full-fledged scenarios.
Check the tutorials subforum, and also check some of the different scenarios already created.
It's also much easier for us to answer specific questions, rather than vague "help me!" pleas.

[dugfromthearth]

Some first questions:

Do you want to just do a different map, perhaps with cities and such already existing?

Do you want to just change the rules a bit?

Do you want to add new units, improvements, advances, etc?

Do you want to change the graphics?

The map is easy, changing the rules is easy. Adding new units and such is a bit more complex.

[REJS7]

Here is a 5 point guide I find is really helpful:

1) Do a subject you enjoy; don't do the battle of the bulge when you would rather be doing the fall of rome.

2) Be realistic ; if you have never done a mod or scenario for Civ3 don't take on a 5000 year epic, rather start with a realistic project (like a WW2 scenario).

3) Stay focused; the worst thing for your confidence is to look at unfinished work. When you start a project stick with it becuase the finished project is well woth the time spent.

4) If in doubt, ask; many a good project because of unasked questions. This site has many of the answers, and if none of them satisfy just post a message and someone will have already faced the same problem as you.

5) Have fun; this is not school, work, or university. It is you (with maybe a few mates) having fun doing something you enjoy. No matter how tempting you can always re-install the game or walk away.

[Achileus]

Thanks for the welcome and the helpful replies fellas! Much appreciated.

Originally Posted by dugfromthearth

Some first questions:

Do you want to just do a different map, perhaps with cities and such already existing?

Yeh, I will be doing a completely new map, but I'm happy doing that. As you say, it's pretty easy.

Do you want to just change the rules a bit?

Yep - I expect that I will want to incorporate something like a Capture the Flag/Princess as part of the scenario, as well as limiting scientific advances to particular nations. I guess that's not really creating brand new rules, though, just choosing existing ones.

Do you want to add new units, improvements, advances, etc?

New units, yes. New improvements and advances, not yet I think.

Do you want to change the graphics?

Probably not.

[dugfromthearth]

1) try to plan out as much as possible in advance. The lists in civ are done by the order you enter things, not sorted alphabetically or anything. So it is easier to look stuff up later if you planned it out and entered all your cavalry units together, then infantry, etc. Rather then just having a seemingly randomly ordered list.

2) Order of changes

try to do civilization advances first, and in the order they appear in the tech tree. The reason for this is that advances are only dependent on other advances. So if you enter them in order you can fill them out completely in one pass.

try to do resources and governments next - they only depend on civ advances.

improvements and units require advances and sometimes resources/governments so do them last. If you are going to have improvements produce units, do the units first (although that is in conquests not PtW).

(The idea here is that if you are adding a factory that produces tanks, you don't want to add factory, then add tanks, then change the factory to produce the tanks, then add the advance to allow the factory, then go back and change the factory to require that civ advance.)

3) Use debug mode to check things and do it fairly regularly. After you have the ability to produce a few new units, go into debug mode and generate them in game. You can make sure the mod actually loads, the units appear correctly, they can move, etc.

[Achileus]

Thanks for the tips, Dugfromtheearth. Seems like a lot to take in, though. It also appears that creating scenarios in CIV III is a lot different to when I was doing them back in CIV II Fantastic Worlds. But I'll get there...