How To Add Improvements And Wonders In C3C

Ukas

Pthooey of Tomainia
Joined
Mar 31, 2002
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This is an update for instructions I wrote for vanilla Civ3 and Play The World. There are some changes, especially for those who are jumping from vanilla to Conquest.

Have Fun,

Ukas

Edit: Forgot to change directory paths in two places. There shouldn't be other dramatic changes, so new version v1.02 will most likely be the last one. My sincere apologies to those 15 who downloaded the old version!

Download it from here:
 

Attachments

With these step-by-step instructions you shouldn't fail. If you do somehow and can't get civ3 to work or it appears as corrupted use your back up files to resurrect it. You can try to do it again - if you are doing this for the first time it's possible you've done something wrong. But I tried to write this for the first timers, since people experienced with civ3 modding probably just get bored reading this as they already know the procedure, some may have developed better techniques or even programs to help. This is how I do it. It may be confusing at first but after couple of times you'll probably learn to do it in two minutes.

Note: You will find these instructions for vanilla Civ3 and Play The World in CFC. The link:
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=48558&pagenumber=1

Sorry about possible typos and grammatic errors. My English is not always as good as is might be.

Anyway if you somehow ruin your files or/and blow up your computer with my graphics I will NOT take any responsibility. Remember to back up.


1.Add the building in Civ3Edit
2.Copy images to folders
3.Add the Wonder Splash to PediaIcons.txt
4.Add the building icons to PediaIcons.txt
5.Difference between Era specific building and Single building
6.Add the Civilopedia entry
7.Copy and paste the buildings.pcx's
8.Troubleshooting




PRECAUTION! BACK UP FOLLOWING FILES:

Civ3\conquests\text\PediaIcons.txt
Civ3\conquests\text\Civilopedia.txt
Civ3\conquests\Art\City Screen\Buildings-large.pcx
Civ3\conquests\Art\City Screen\Buildings-small.pcx


--

I've used the Ziggurat wonder, Brothel and Gallows improvements as examples, you can download these files from Civ Fanatics Forum Graphics Modpacks thread:

Ziggurat:
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=47773

Brothel:
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=47787

Gallows:
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=47306





1.Add the building in Civ3Edit


Add a building in Civ3edit Improvements and Wonders tab, name it Ziggurat, in civilopedia entry menu BLDG_Ziggurat appears automatically. Roll the list and choose it. This will be it's civilopedia.txt & pediaicons.txt name. Give the Ziggurat wonder charasteristics of your choice. If you are unsure how to do it study the way the original Civ3 buildings are marked.





2.Copy images to folders


Copy Zigguratlarge.pcx and Zigguratsmall.pcx found in the zip package into your Civ3\conquests\art\civilopedia\icons\buildings folder.
Copy Zigguratsplash.pcx into your Civ3\conquests\art\wonder splash\ -folder.




3.Add the Wonder Splash to PediaIcons.txt


In the zip package there's ziggurat.txt with lines:

#WON_SPLASH_xx
art\wonder splash\Zigguratsplash.pcx

Delete two x's and type BLDG_Ziggurat instead. Like this:

#WON_SPLASH_BLDG_Ziggurat


Add the lines to your Civilopedia.txt after lines battlefield medicine lines in #WONDER_SPLASH_ART begin -section. After the lines for Battlefield Medicine splash there is a long row of #'s. The Ziggurat part should be added in between.

So, the result should look like this:


#WON_SPLASH_BLDG_Secret_Police_HQ
art\wonder splash\forbidden city.pcx
#WON_SPLASH_BLDG_Ziggurat
art\wonder splash\Zigguratsplash.pcx
############################################################################

Wonder splash is the image Civ3 shows when you build a wonder, therefore Zigguratsplash.pcx is the pic Civ3 shows when you build the Ziggurat wonder. Your Civ3\art\wonder splash\ -folder is the place these images are located. By adding lines to PediaIcons.txt you will tell Civ3 where it can find images for this purpose.

_Now Civ3 is able to play the wonder splash during the game._





4.Add the building icons to PediaIcons.txt


Next locate line #Start buildings in your PediaIcons.txt file.First line after it is #ICON_BLDG_Airport for Airport improvement. Vanilla Civ3 buildings are in alphapedical order, then comes PTW buildings and then Conquest buildings. The last lines for a building will be for Knight's Templar wonder.

#ICON_BLDG_Knights_Templar
SINGLE
81
art\civilopedia\icons\buildings\knightstemplarlarge.pcx
art\civilopedia\icons\buildings\knightstemplarsmall.pcx


Again look at Ziggurat.txt file in the package, and add following lines after the last Knight's Templar line and before #HomelessIcons line.


#ICON_BLDG_Ziggurat
SINGLE
art\civilopedia\icons\buildings\Zigguratlarge.pcx
art\civilopedia\icons\buildings\Zigguratsmall.pcx

In C3C buildings are numbered, so you must give a number for Ziggurat too. When this is your first self added building you will give it the next available number which is 83. Number 82 is used by Secret Police HQ, and not Knight's Templar which is the last in the file and uses 81. Type number 83 on a new line between the lines SINGLE and art\civilopedia\icons\buildings\Zigguratlarge.pcx.

The result should look like this:


#ICON_BLDG_Knights_Templar
SINGLE
81
art\civilopedia\icons\buildings\knightstemplarlarge.pcx
art\civilopedia\icons\buildings\knightstemplarsmall.pcx
#ICON_BLDG_Ziggurat
SINGLE
83
art\civilopedia\icons\buildings\Zigguratlarge.pcx
art\civilopedia\icons\buildings\Zigguratsmall.pcx
#HomelessIcons
etc.
etc.



_Now you are able to see appropriate icons and images in science advisor screen and when viewing civilopedia._






5.Difference between Era specific building and Single building


In era specific building graphics may vary when changing the era. Then you must make it appear four times, once for every era. My Gallows graphics are era specific. Different image and different name for the image for every era (gallows for ancient times, guillotine for middle ages, electric chair for industrial and firing squad for modern times. Gallows improvement needs following lines:


#ICON_BLDG_Gallows
ERA
84
art\civilopedia\icons\buildings\Gallowslarge.pcx
art\civilopedia\icons\buildings\Guillotinelarge.pcx
art\civilopedia\icons\buildings\Electricchairlarge.pcx
art\civilopedia\icons\buildings\Firingsquadlarge.pcx
art\civilopedia\icons\buildings\Gallowssmall.pcx
art\civilopedia\icons\buildings\Guillotinesmall.pcx
art\civilopedia\icons\buildings\Electricchairsmall.pcx
art\civilopedia\icons\buildings\Firingsquadsmall.pcx


Note that: Again you gave new number for the Gallows improvement. This time it was 84, since Ziggurat uses 83.


Let's imagine that the Brothel improvement is available from the industrial era. There's only one icon but you choose to do some art work and make it look different for modern ages - and name your civilopedia icons Bmodernlarge.pcx and Bmodernsmall.pcx. Then the lines should look like this:

#ICON_BLDG_Brothel
ERA
85
art\civilopedia\icons\buildings\Brothellarge.pcx
art\civilopedia\icons\buildings\Brothellarge.pcx
art\civilopedia\icons\buildings\Brothellarge.pcx
art\civilopedia\icons\buildings\Bmodernlarge.pcx
art\civilopedia\icons\buildings\Brothelsmall.pcx
art\civilopedia\icons\buildings\Brothelsmall.pcx
art\civilopedia\icons\buildings\Brothelsmall.pcx
art\civilopedia\icons\buildings\Bmodernsmall.pcx


With improvements there are no need for Splashes. In my ---.txt file in the package there are always needed additions for both civilopedia.txt and pediaicons.txt.

Now you have made the all important additions to Pediaicons.txt!





6.Add the Civilopedia entry


Civilopedia entries are not necessarily needed, since Civ3 works well without them. But if you want to add them for gameplay's sake I have usually taken the trouble to write the civilopedia entry for you. Or sometimes taken the trouble to copy parts of texts found in the internet ;-) Wikipedia is a excellent source for texts.

In Civilopedia.txt file found again in your Civ3\text\ folder there are sections for City Improvements, Spaceship Parts, Small and Great Wonders. Ziggurat is a Great wonder so find great wonders section. Last of the great wonders is the Secret Police Headquarters. Entry looks like this:



#BLDG_Secret_Police_HQ
^
^
^Gives the benefits of a second $LINK<Palace=BLDG_Palace> in the city that builds it. Cumulative with $LINK<Forbidden Palace=BLDG_Forbidden_Palace>.
^{Requires:} Only civilizations under Communist government can build the Secret Police HQ.
#DESC_BLDG_Secret_Police_HQ
^
^
^Totalitarian governments virtually always rely heavily on secret police forces to enforce ideological and political reliability in the populations they govern. Secret police headquarters are often innocuous and bland, and usually contain not just offices and meeting rooms but interrogation and torture facilities, prison cells, execution chambers, and so forth. The Soviet KGB's headquarters was made in the Lubyanka, a tsarist-era office building located over an underground prison complex.
Across the street from the Lubyanka was a toy store for children, to take away from the sinister image projected by the building.

NOTE: The #BLDG_Secret_Police_HQ part is for the screen when you click Seti Program icon to view it in civilopedia. #BLDG_Secret_Police_HQ program is viewed when you click the description button in that screen. So, we will give the Ziggurat wonder similar entry to just below Secret Police HQ. In Ziggurat.txt you will find next lines:


#BLDG_Ziggurat
^
^
^Doubless the happines of a temple in your every city on the continent.
^
^
^
^
^May trigger $LINK<Golden Age=GCON_Golden_Age> for Religious civilizations.
#DESC_BLDG_Ziggurat
^
^
^
^Ziggurat is a Sumerian word given by the ancient Babylonians and Assyrians to their temples around 2200 until
500 BC. The word means "terraced pyramid," and ziggurats were precursors to the Egyptian pyramids. Found in
many ancient Mesopotamian cities, ziggurats were step-shaped, representing the ascent into the heavens where
the gods reigned. The outside was constructed of materials that were resistant to the elements, and the terraces were often landscaped with shrubs and trees.


When giving charasteristics and effects for Ziggurat in Civ3edit I gave it the douples happiness of a temple Oracle effect and religious charasteristics. If you give it different effects, like 'adds one happy face in every city on the same continent' then change the following line:

^Doubless the happines of a temple in your every city on the continent.

to this one:

^Adds one happy face in every city on the same continent.

--

If you gave it militaristic characteristics for some reason then change:

^May trigger $LINK<Golden Age=GCON_Golden_Age> for Religious civilizations.

to:

^May trigger $LINK<Golden Age=GCON_Golden_Age> for Militaristic civilizations.


If these were your choices then Ziggurat wonder entry would look like this:

#BLDG_Ziggurat
^
^Adds one happy face in every city on the same continent.
^
^
^
^May trigger $LINK<Golden Age=GCON_Golden_Age> for Militaristic civilizations.
#DESC_BLDG_Ziggurat
etc. etc.



NOTE: If you are adding an improvement or minor wonder instead of a great wonder then put it in correct place (although I've I've had no problems so far if I've had
improvements in wonder section etc.). If you are adding an improvement put it as the last improvement before spaceship components start line. In civilopedia.txt sections are divided with lines like these:

; City Improvements______________________________________________________________________________City Improvements
; SPACESHIP COMPONENTS__________________________________________________________________________SPACESHIP COMPONENTS
; GREAT WONDERS ____________________________________________________________________________________ GREAT WONDERS
; END GREAT WONDERS _________________________________________________________________________ END GREAT WONDERS






7.Copy and paste the buildings.pcx's


This will sound harder than it actually is.

Ok, then the all important buildings-large.pcx and buildings-small.pcx. You will need some kind of image editor for the purpose - make sure the editor you use works with pcx-files. Paint program which comes with windows will not work, at least one with windows XP I'm using doesn't. I can't exactly tell you how to do it since different programs use different ways. But copying and pasting should be available in the simplest image editor and commands are often similar. Learn from a help file or something how to copy and paste in the program if you don't already know. This is how it can be done usually:

a. In the program open my buildings-large.pcx and then Civ3's buildings-large.pcx found in Civ3\Art\City Screen\ folder. In my file there is usually one building graphics or if era specific there will be four of them in a row. In Civ3's file there's the whole building list as images ment for game's city screen queue list and build button.

b. Select my single icon.

c. Copy it by pressing ctrl-c keyboard shortcut or with copy command in edit tab or something. My icon is now in the clipboard to be used soon.

d. Select civ3's building-large.pcx, zoom in until you see few icons appearing larger. Roll down until you seen empty slot under the last Spaceship Component icon.

e. Paste my icon in the first empty space immediately under the last Spaceship Component icon. Be sure that green lines are symmetrically joined in every corner and it looks to be in its right place compared to original Civ3 icons.

f. My icon may view as selected, so unselect it (learn how to from your program).

g. Save it as building-large.pcx into Civ3\Art\City Screen\ folder.

h. Repeat the procedure with buildings-small.pcx


NOTE: If the building you are adding is era specific (like most improvements), not a single building which will look the same in every era (like most wonders) and poor me have supplied you with only one icon you have to make a horizontal row of four icons in your buildings-large and -small.pcx's.
 
8.Troubleshooting



Q: How Come I don't see new building in City View.

A: You can't see added buildings in City View since it's hardcoded --- meaning you'd have to replace existing graphics with new one. For some mods this would be ok, but people generally do not use it anyways - I guess...

--

Q: Hey, I can see PINK in new graphics! Lot's of it!

A: Usually this effect occurs because .pcx in question has wrong values for background color magenta and border color light green. THis is a common problem.

In Photoshop change this with IMAGE->MODE->COLOR TABLE...
First color (number 0) must be magenta and have values red 255, green 0, blue 255
Second color (number 1) must be light green and have values red 0, green 255, blue 0

In Jasc Photopaint Magenta and some others magenta should be one before last and light green the last color.

Any color which has values close to real magenta values will show ugly in Civ3. Don't change picture from 256 colors mode to others if you have no real reason to do it.

--

Q: You pervert! I don't want to see any Brothel graphics! Besides my mom told me to stop this kind of stuff anyway!

A: Then you should download another era specific improvement - Brewery. You'll Tell your mama that they brew only non-alcoholic beer. You'll find the Brewery file from this thread:

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=50589

--

Q: Every entry in text files looks ok and checks out. Still I get an error message when loading Civ. What gives?

A: You may have hit space in a wrong place. If there's an empty space in line #ICON_BLDG_Ziggurat Civ3 will read that as a part of the entry line. Same in editor, if you've accidentally hit space bar after typing the name. Check for empty spaces by moving the cursor. If it jumps a space after the line instead of moving to next line below or just staying there... empty space is the reason, so delete it.

#ICON_BLDG_Ziggurat
SINGLE
83
art\civilopedia\icons\buildings\Zigguratlarge.pcx
art\civilopedia\icons\buildings\Zigguratsmall.pcx


-------------------------------------- End of instructions --------------------------------


Finished! Congratulations! Now you are able to see the buildings and use them for your civ3 games, scenarios and mods. Spread the message. And if this helped you there's no harm done if you mention poor old me in your mod or scenario etc. ;-)

In short, make sure your entries are correct and don't panic if civ3 crashes - make the changes crash message will spot for you.


Have fun,

Ukas
 
Thanks for the effort, you've put in, Ukas!

Nevertheless, I've tried to add a building to my mod, following your instructions.

But if I use the "add" button at the "improvement and wonders" tab, nothing appears in the "civilopedia entry" field. Even if I change some values like costs, required ressources and the like.
Using the editor, I don't find any new entry in either the civilopedia.txt nor in the pediaicons.txt.
As I am running C3C 1.15, the dates (by the explorer) are still as of 12.01.2004 for both.

Nevertheless, the game crashes when trying to load the mod.

Anybody any hints, comments, flames on me? :confused:
 
@Ukas: Just one suggestion: Say that if they are replacing entries in the pediaicon file to not replace the entries for the spaceship as their is somethig about them that does not allow you to replace them. I replced those entries once and pasted the new pictures over the space ship parts in the Buildings large and small file. But it still showed the spaceship parts. Best to avoid them altogether so as not to get a large headache.
 
I haven't really messed with the spaceship graphics but I was planning to. After all it's been done so it should work... but I'll write tutorial of it when I know more, if there isnät one already. Thanks for the warning anyways :)
 
I also followed your directions and was able to get it to work, though with blank build ques. And then later after I had debugged and went in and assigned techs to the new buildings the game would crash whenever i went to build my first city. Not sure whats causing this but it may be the blank buildings. The splashes work but not the buildings_32. Any ideas?

ps. thanx for the tutorial
 
It seems people are often complaining about crashes these days. Check buildings-large.pcx and buildings-small.pcx if they are ok. If they are not in 256 indexed color mode they will cause a crash. ALso if their file name or entry name is wrong. Everything else should cause faulty graphics only.
 
The tutorial didnt help. Game crashes after first city gets built.
This is annoying.
 
By the way.. The picture of the wonder to be added, should be placed where?

Under the knights templar picture or not?

Or need there to be an empty space between knights templar and the new wonder?

Please help.
 
If they are not in 256 indexed color mode they will cause a crash. ALso if their file name or entry name is wrong. Everything else should cause faulty graphics only.

>How you mean?

How do I know they are not in 256 indec bla bla and how u mean file name wrong? Its buildings-large and buildings-small isnt it?
 
Add the building in Civ3Edit


Add a building in Civ3edit Improvements and Wonders tab, name it Ziggurat, in civilopedia entry menu BLDG_Ziggurat appears automatically.

>This doesnt happen with me. Ziggurat only appears in the list after I have changed the pediafile manually. So why is this?
 
Game crashes when viewing civilopedia wonders, or when building city. buildings-large.pcx and buildings-small.pcx are ok.
 
Alireza you were answered in different thread by a different person, but I will include your questions in the tutorial. But that'll have to wait until I get better with the flu.
 
NO Space under the Knights Templar to put any other Improvements need longer buildings-large or buildings-small files everytime i edit does files editor :IrfanView crashes
 
Kingshaggy, I haven't tried modding like this yet but as I was reading this thread I noticed where you might be having (part of) your problem.
Ukas says to modify the building-large (& small) files in the CivIII\Art\City Screen\ folder, whereas I reckon you're looking in the \Conquests\Art... folder.

Still begs the question though - with only one (obvious) line below the last space component, do we just keep adding lines as we need to? If this (newbie) question has already been answered could somebody please point me to the appropriate thread?

I wonder if Ukas is over his flu yet? I liked the tutorial by the way Ukas!

Cheers!

Edit: For what it's worth, I now realize (i) you only have to modify the "building..." files in the \Conquests\Art... folder, and (ii) you do just add more space below the last picture as needed. Of course, I'm no expert so I hope this is right. :blush:
 
So I followed the tutorial and set all the wonder requirements to none to see if the wonder would show up when I loaded a new game. However, there is no option to build the new wonder but the wonder is in the civilopedia. I tried this method but set it as an improvement, loaded the game and there was the improvement but still no new wonder. What could I be missing?
 
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