OK... Firaxis / 2k game will not release the source code.
I tried to go beyond some limitations with my editor, adding eras, or buildings beyond 256.
It works in my editor.... but the game will not load it correctly because it's hardcoded in a way.
Are all hopes lost?
Not necessarilly.
I have an idea that may be interesting. However, this would require a LOT of work, and there's not guarantee I'll really try it.
First, I would need some support. Perhaps other programmers. Testers for sure. Perhaps some other kind of support (hint: if I could upgrade my computer it would make things much easier
).
Second, if I start this it means I will not be able to devote a lot of time on my game for a few more months... So should I spend time on a workaround for Civilization III, that will not be perfect but has potential, and could be done in a "short" time (a few months I think), or should I focus on my game, which as probably more potential, won't be so frustrating (no "workaround", but real nice solution), but is still a lot of time ahead?
Anyway, before I reach a decision I'd like to present the idea and see what you think of it.
Expanded editor 2. And I mean, really expanded.
The editor needs to be changed. It will for instance allow more eras. New options for units, civilizations, etc.
For example, for the civilization, instead of a name and leader name valid for the whole game, I'd add an option to make it dependant on the era.
So the leader for France could be Vercingetorix in the ancient time, Charlemagne in the Middle Ages, Napoleon in industrial, and De Gaulle for modern time.
It's also possible to have changes in the civilization traits, or agressivity level, etc.
The changes would be saved in a new file format. This format cannot be used directly in Civilization III, but you could load and edit with the expanded editor 2.
From this editor, you could generate a normal biq, the "start" of your game.
When doing this, the editor would "extrat" a part of main mod. It will take only the first 4 eras. All the techs, buildings, units, etc. that should appear later will NOT be included (to save loading time). The "era specific options", such as the leader name, would be set to the first era one.
Save game monitor
Then, you load your game normally in Civilization III, and each turn you save.
In the background, you would have a new tool, the "save game monitor", that will analyse your saved game.
If it detects a change of era, it will prompt you for a "change of rule". So it will take your saved game, and modify the embedded rule to match the change. You would have to exit your current saved game, and load it again to take the change into account.
For example, you were playing in the ancient era. You move to the middle ages. You save. The game monitor detects in the saved file that the era has changed. And so it creates a new saved game, where the name of the French leader is no longer "Vercingetorix", but "Charlemagne", as defined in the expanded editor.
You exit your current game... Load the saved game... Et voila! Your civilization leader, traits, etc, have changed!
Going a little further
Now, you have only 4 eras to start with... But when the game monitor detects that all the civilization have moved to era 2, ie the era 1 become useless, it will prompt again for a change.
What will it do?
- Remove all the technologies from era 1
- Move all the technologies from era 2 to era 1, from era 3 to era 2, and from era 4 to era 3.
- From the rules in the expanded editor, add all the new techologies, ie the era 5 techologies (in the expanded editor), as era 4 technologies (in the saved game).
- Update everything properly.
-- If a unit required an era 1 technology, it will now have a "no technology" required.
-- If an improvement is obsolete (the technology that makes it obsolete was an era 1 tech), remove it from the list of building, as no one can built it.
-- If a unit is obsolete (it upgrades to a unit that requires a era 1 technology, and doesn't need resource), remove it from the list of units, as no one can built it.
So to sum up, you can ahve only 4 eras in game at the same time, but when advancing in the game, you will "forget" the old eras, and get the new eras.
This would theoretically allow an unlimited number of eras.
We could also have more buildings, if we accept some buildings "disappear" with time.
Now, imagine you have 50 units in each era and 10 eras. You want each unit to be autoproduced by a building. In normal game it's not possible, as you would need 500 buildings.
But with this system, you could have "only" 200 buildings at the same time, and it becomes possible.
And the graphics
Do you want more city graphics, one for each era expanded era?
Do you want more unit graphics than 4 supported (for instance for armies?). Not a problem... the expanded editor could allow a setting where you tell, for each "era 1", which file to use.
So when era 1 is deleted, and era 2 becomes era 1, the game monitor could tale the city graphics from a "resource folder", and copy it in the "main folder".
To infinity, and beyond!
All the above would happen only one a change of era is detected. So it would probably not be too frequent, and the annoying part of having to exit, load may not be to cumbersome.
If you are ready to load every turn... We could go farther.
Imagine a city is occupied. The "resistance" status is known... The save game monitor checks for resisting cities, then find a unit belonging to the civ with the "resistance" flag, and creates new units in an empty tile near the city.
You have a unit with the "healer" flag. The save game monitor checks all the other units in the same tile, and restore their hitpoints.
As you can see, it opens a whole new can of worms.
So now, the big question... Should we try it? Would you support it? Should I focus on my game?
Note that it's not sure we can make it worl, as the save file format is not yet completly known, so a large part of the work would be to finish understanding it.
I tried to go beyond some limitations with my editor, adding eras, or buildings beyond 256.
It works in my editor.... but the game will not load it correctly because it's hardcoded in a way.
Are all hopes lost?
Not necessarilly.
I have an idea that may be interesting. However, this would require a LOT of work, and there's not guarantee I'll really try it.
First, I would need some support. Perhaps other programmers. Testers for sure. Perhaps some other kind of support (hint: if I could upgrade my computer it would make things much easier
).Second, if I start this it means I will not be able to devote a lot of time on my game for a few more months... So should I spend time on a workaround for Civilization III, that will not be perfect but has potential, and could be done in a "short" time (a few months I think), or should I focus on my game, which as probably more potential, won't be so frustrating (no "workaround", but real nice solution), but is still a lot of time ahead?
Anyway, before I reach a decision I'd like to present the idea and see what you think of it.
Expanded editor 2. And I mean, really expanded.
The editor needs to be changed. It will for instance allow more eras. New options for units, civilizations, etc.
For example, for the civilization, instead of a name and leader name valid for the whole game, I'd add an option to make it dependant on the era.
So the leader for France could be Vercingetorix in the ancient time, Charlemagne in the Middle Ages, Napoleon in industrial, and De Gaulle for modern time.
It's also possible to have changes in the civilization traits, or agressivity level, etc.
The changes would be saved in a new file format. This format cannot be used directly in Civilization III, but you could load and edit with the expanded editor 2.
From this editor, you could generate a normal biq, the "start" of your game.
When doing this, the editor would "extrat" a part of main mod. It will take only the first 4 eras. All the techs, buildings, units, etc. that should appear later will NOT be included (to save loading time). The "era specific options", such as the leader name, would be set to the first era one.
Save game monitor
Then, you load your game normally in Civilization III, and each turn you save.
In the background, you would have a new tool, the "save game monitor", that will analyse your saved game.
If it detects a change of era, it will prompt you for a "change of rule". So it will take your saved game, and modify the embedded rule to match the change. You would have to exit your current saved game, and load it again to take the change into account.
For example, you were playing in the ancient era. You move to the middle ages. You save. The game monitor detects in the saved file that the era has changed. And so it creates a new saved game, where the name of the French leader is no longer "Vercingetorix", but "Charlemagne", as defined in the expanded editor.
You exit your current game... Load the saved game... Et voila! Your civilization leader, traits, etc, have changed!
Going a little further
Now, you have only 4 eras to start with... But when the game monitor detects that all the civilization have moved to era 2, ie the era 1 become useless, it will prompt again for a change.
What will it do?
- Remove all the technologies from era 1
- Move all the technologies from era 2 to era 1, from era 3 to era 2, and from era 4 to era 3.
- From the rules in the expanded editor, add all the new techologies, ie the era 5 techologies (in the expanded editor), as era 4 technologies (in the saved game).
- Update everything properly.
-- If a unit required an era 1 technology, it will now have a "no technology" required.
-- If an improvement is obsolete (the technology that makes it obsolete was an era 1 tech), remove it from the list of building, as no one can built it.
-- If a unit is obsolete (it upgrades to a unit that requires a era 1 technology, and doesn't need resource), remove it from the list of units, as no one can built it.
So to sum up, you can ahve only 4 eras in game at the same time, but when advancing in the game, you will "forget" the old eras, and get the new eras.
This would theoretically allow an unlimited number of eras.
We could also have more buildings, if we accept some buildings "disappear" with time.
Now, imagine you have 50 units in each era and 10 eras. You want each unit to be autoproduced by a building. In normal game it's not possible, as you would need 500 buildings.
But with this system, you could have "only" 200 buildings at the same time, and it becomes possible.
And the graphics
Do you want more city graphics, one for each era expanded era?
Do you want more unit graphics than 4 supported (for instance for armies?). Not a problem... the expanded editor could allow a setting where you tell, for each "era 1", which file to use.
So when era 1 is deleted, and era 2 becomes era 1, the game monitor could tale the city graphics from a "resource folder", and copy it in the "main folder".
To infinity, and beyond!
All the above would happen only one a change of era is detected. So it would probably not be too frequent, and the annoying part of having to exit, load may not be to cumbersome.
If you are ready to load every turn... We could go farther.
Imagine a city is occupied. The "resistance" status is known... The save game monitor checks for resisting cities, then find a unit belonging to the civ with the "resistance" flag, and creates new units in an empty tile near the city.
You have a unit with the "healer" flag. The save game monitor checks all the other units in the same tile, and restore their hitpoints.
As you can see, it opens a whole new can of worms.
So now, the big question... Should we try it? Would you support it? Should I focus on my game?
Note that it's not sure we can make it worl, as the save file format is not yet completly known, so a large part of the work would be to finish understanding it.
, so perhaps the approach is moot).
