Strange pophead/specialists behaviour

[Rob (R8XFT)]

I was under the impression that I could have as many specialists as I liked; however, once I get to a fifth extra specialist (in this case a gladiator), it seems that as well as being the gladiator, the graphics also are seen as European content popheads!

I've not got to a sixth extra specialist, but seem to recall when I did in an earlier experiment, this doubled as the "happy" face for European civs, whilst the seventh doubled up as the "angry" face for Europeans.

Is this a glitch anyone else has seen? I guess one way to get around it is to use these "specialists" as Euro labourers and use the corresponding graphics, hoping that later slots won't have the same issues.

Update: I just noticed that the fourth extra specialist is doubling for the "happy" face for the Europeans, not the sixth as mentioned above.

Further update: In era two, it's exactly the same as era 1 - same faces covering the same Euro labourers.

[Virote_Considon]

There's a tutorial for this in the tutorial section IIRC. I think that it's just an unfortunate graphic problem, nothing that affects the game.

[Rob (R8XFT)]

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction - I foolishly never thought of looking there!

It does seem to be a very unusual issue; the thread deals with Civ 3 PTW - though the issue is much the same, it will probably be slightly different (in terms of which spaces are affected), as there are two more hardcoded specialists.

[Plotinus]

Yes, this happened to me too when I tried to add lots of specialists. I don't know what can be done about it.

I *think* the LOTM guys hit a similar problem and found a way of working around it. You might want to PM one of them and ask.

[Keroro]

IIRC before Conquests was released you had to mess around with European popheads to get any specialists added to the game at all. Here's the thread. I'm not entirely sure that it is related to what you're finding, but it's worth a read.

[Yoda Power]

Originally Posted by Plotinus

I *think* the LOTM guys hit a similar problem and found a way of working around it. You might want to PM one of them and ask.

It was actually my impression that we didn't. I remember discussing this with PCH on msn. He may have found the solution later though, I'm not really sure.

[WildWeazel]

Someone figured something out. That's about all I remember. Try mrtn or embryodead.

[Yoda Power]

So all the lotm guys have an idea that something happened about this, but none seem to remember what.

[Rob (R8XFT)]

I've kind of cracked this issue now. It works in a similar way to the PTW version in the tutorial, except instead of three specialists before the Euro heads were needed, there's room for eight. I'll find out as I go on how many more specialists come in before I see the Roman citizens.

[WildWeazel]

Originally Posted by Yoda Power

So all the lotm guys have an idea that something happened about this, but none seem to remember what.

Sounds a bit like our forum mod team lately.

[Yoda Power]

R8XFT - Now that I think about it, there might have been something about reusing the same heads for those spcaes where they doubled. Then there would be room for more heads after that. Not sure at all though.

Originally Posted by Weasel Op

Sounds a bit like our forum mod team lately.

Indeed.

[Rob (R8XFT)]

Originally Posted by Yoda Power

R8XFT - Now that I think about it, there might have been something about reusing the same heads for those spcaes where they doubled. Then there would be room for more heads after that. Not sure at all though.

That's exactly it; you also need to set up a "dummy tech" - one that cannot be researched by anyone and make that the prerequisite for those heads.

[WilliamOfOrange]

Just a question. How does one go about adding rows to the pcx file?

[Bluemofia]

You enlarge the pcx file, and then you C&P in the squares and the images.

[WilliamOfOrange]

Okay, and by enlarging, you mean the canvas I suppose. Thanks.

Oh, is there some limit to the length of the pcx? I thought I saw it being 500 by 1050. What can the new measurements be?

[Virote_Considon]

I think altering only the height of the canvas should be the safest bet.

[WildWeazel]

^ What he said. Just increase the height of the canvas by (H+1)*N, where H is the height of a tile and N is the number of new rows (1 extra for the border).

[WilliamOfOrange]

What is the maximum number of specialists citizens one can add? I have added 39 and that seems the limit in Conquests. That makes a total of 44 with the 5 original ones.

I added three and then had to do the 4 place holders for the European faces to show up properly. I added 9 and then needed place holders for the Mediterranean civ and then so on with 9 in between the ME and Asian civs.

Anyone have anything different to report?

[Virote_Considon]

What happened when you hit the limit? Did it tell you you've hit the limit/blank out the "add" button? Did it delete all the ones after the limit? Or is there something else that happened?

[WilliamOfOrange]

the game wouldn't load. I tested a few things and it seems that was the limit. The size of the popHeads.pcx doesn't seem to matter and the editor kept letting me add. I had to delete, like 12 or so.