Tutorial: How to add a new leader in the game

Hello,

Considering all the questions concerning the adding of a new leader in the game I have decided to create this thread . I know that Paasky has created a good simple one , but I think we could create a global overview :
( sorry if my english is not perfect ... )

To begin a description of the files used by the game :

For this thread I take the name "AA" for the leader :

PICTURES :
AA_all : advisor picture, mandatory, it is used at every time in the diplomacy screen
AALarge : used in the civilopedia screen ,mandatory, the game crush without if you go to the civilopedia
AAsmall : ambassy and civilopedia picture, mandatory, used when you are in the ambassy screen and civilopedia

AA : used at the end
AA_ANG :used at the end, the leader is angry against you ? Work only for others civilizations
AA_ CONQ and AA_CONQ_L : used at the end , the AA_ CONQ is used when a civ was destroyed during the game, the AA_CONQ_L is used when you lose
AA_HAP, AA_SHAP, AA_KIS, AA_SKIS, AA_CULT, AA_CULTB used at the end depending the type of victory.

THE FLICS :


They are 8 , with a name like that AA_A01 or AA_A02
The AA is the name
The letter A indicate that it's the flics for antiquity, B= middle-age, etc ...
The 01 or 02 indicate the type of Flics :
01 = happy to angry
02 = angry to happy

remark = in the original game some Flics have not a letter AA_01, these files are those corresponding to the era of the historical leader , e.g. for Abraham Lincoln it's the letter "C" which doesn't exist.

HOW TO ADD A LEADER :

1- To add a leader you have two ways :

1-1 : you want just to replace an existing leader, without creating a scenario:
You have to check what is the name of the Firaxis leader, for example I want to change the pictures of Cleopatra with my pictures without changing anything else :I check the name of Cleopatra, it's CL, I rename all my "AA" files by CL.For the civilopedia pictures AAlarge and small it's often the name of the civ which is used e.g. Egypt in our example ...AAlarge becomes Egyptlarge
I replace all the initial CL files with the new ones ... It works ...
( see below chapter 2 for how you do that ... )

Edit : if you want to change the name of the leader in the basic game you have to edit the "Conquests.biq" file with the editor. It's a only-read file so you have first to uncheck the only-read flag ( right click on the file /properties ).. Make a save of the file in order to restore it if you need ..Open the editor and change the name and the others things you want... Be careful it's the main file for the game...

Remark : YOU LOSE THE ORIGINAL FIRAXIS PICTURES !! If you don't want to lose them you have to save them before of course ...

1-2 : You want to add a new leader without changing anything in the original game , the solution : you have to create a scenario in the editor.
a- you create a new scenario in the editor
b- You have to select the "specific rules " in the Scenario page
c- You have to add a new civilization or you change an existing one ( doesn't matter because you are in your scenario ) You have only 31 civs possible .. You are obliged to cancel some in order to add new. But you do it in your scenario ...
d- you change the name of the leader, you change the king unit type, you change the names of the flics for each areas, you change the RACE type

the RACE type is mandatory because it's the link between the scenario, the PediaIcons and the Pictures ... Without the Game crush..

e- You open the PediaIcons.txt file in the Conquests\Text repertory( or last add-on you have ). You add all the necessary links with the names of your pictures files .( The names of the Flics are only written in the scenario of the editor )

e.g.
#RACE_ROMANS
art\leaderheads\CE.pcx
art\advisors\CE_all.pcx

#ICON_RACE_ROMANS
art\civilopedia\icons\races\romanslarge.pcx
art\civilopedia\icons\races\romanssmall.pcx

2- you put the pictures and Flics files in the right repertories ...

CIV III and his Add-on have their own leaders so :

- if you want to replace one existing leader , you have to find where are the files (it's always in a global repertory called " art" but you have one "art" repertory by add-on...)
- if you want to add a new civilization with a scenario you put it in the "art"repertory of the last "add-on" you have ...

Ok let's go :

- you put the AA_all in the Art\Advisors repertory
- you put the AAlarge and AAsmall pictures in the Art\Civilopedia\Icons\Races repertory
- you put the AA, AA_ANG, AA_CONQ, AA_CONQ_L etc ... in the Art\leaderheads repertory
- you put the AA_A01.flc type files in the Art\Flics repertory

It's finished ... I think I didn't forget something

Question.
I have tried to use civarmys stuff and it works great except for in the foreign advisor screen the pics are huge and not like the rest. any suggestions on how to fix if any?

JaseEmtP said:

Question.
I have tried to use civarmys stuff and it works great except for in the foreign advisor screen the pics are huge and not like the rest. any suggestions on how to fix if any?

Click to expand...

Could you tell me what is the leader you tested I will make the test myself in order to find what is wrong ...

Great advice, my problem now comes from being told I cant save it on the main game cause its a read only file. I changed Chairman Mao to Li Shi Min, the flic and pics show up as Li Shi Min, but the name is still shows on the game as Chairman Mao.

How when I play a normal game can I have China's leader not only look like Li Shi Min and not use Chairman Mao as an alias?

Um .. did you try to uncheck the read-only flag for the .biq?

Xen_Antares said:

Great advice, my problem now comes from being told I cant save it on the main game cause its a read only file. I changed Chairman Mao to Li Shi Min, the flic and pics show up as Li Shi Min, but the name is still shows on the game as Chairman Mao.

How when I play a normal game can I have China's leader not only look like Li Shi Min and not use Chairman Mao as an alias?

Click to expand...

You have to edit the Conquests file and to change the name in it .. To save the file you have to uncheck the read-only flag ( right click on the file /properties ..) ...it must work...
PS make a save of your Conquests file to restore it if problems ...

ok, i've followed the tutorial for changing leaderheads for the base game, but the instructions for changing the name of the leader said go to the "conquests" file and i don't have one. i'm changing joan of arc to napoleon if that helps. i noticed all the pcx and flc files are in the civ3 file, not ptw or conquests. i've put all the files where they're supposed to go, so what am i doing wrong? you did mention something about the biq file but i can't find it for nothing. please help before i lose control and throw my monitor through the window.

Emperor C said:

ok, i've followed the tutorial for changing leaderheads for the base game, but the instructions for changing the name of the leader said go to the "conquests" file and i don't have one. i'm changing joan of arc to napoleon if that helps. i noticed all the pcx and flc files are in the civ3 file, not ptw or conquests. i've put all the files where they're supposed to go, so what am i doing wrong? you did mention something about the biq file but i can't find it for nothing. please help before i lose control and throw my monitor through the window.

Click to expand...

Hello Emperor C!

You have to open the Conquests.biq file which is in the Conquests Repertory with the Editor( make a copy before). First you have to uncheck the readonly flag of this file, for that right-click on the file and click on Property, you will see it...the *.biq files are files managed by the Editor.The game uses a Conquests.biq file, it's obligatory you have one... Make an automatic research if you can't find it.
(you can too access directly to the Editor by double-clicking on the file)
When you are in the Editor you change the name and all what you want...

well, i made it work for scenarios, but not a random game. i didn't think you could use the editor for a regular game?

Emperor C said:

well, i made it work for scenarios, but not a random game. i didn't think you could use the editor for a regular game?

Click to expand...

Normally it works ...

I know it's possible to add up to 15 additional Civs into a game, making a total of 31. Is it possible to play a game with all 31 civs at once, or am I limited to a random 16 of the 31? I'm using Vanilla Civ3 with 15 added civs.

Figaro said:

I know it's possible to add up to 15 additional Civs into a game, making a total of 31. Is it possible to play a game with all 31 civs at once, or am I limited to a random 16 of the 31? I'm using Vanilla Civ3 with 15 added civs.

Click to expand...

Hello Figaro !

I think it's possible to play 31 civs at once... Even if I never tested it myself, I know that it's possible, in the Editor, to change the number of players to 31...I think that if you have not a powerful computer the game will be very slow with 31 civs... This is the case for my computer... Even with 16 civs, at the end, in modern era, the game is slow...

When I try to change the number of players in the editor it tells me "Please enter an interger between 1 and 16" or something similar. Maybe I need the hacked Civ3Edit I've heard about?

Figaro said:

When I try to change the number of players in the editor it tells me "Please enter an interger between 1 and 16" or something similar. Maybe I need the hacked Civ3Edit I've heard about?

Click to expand...

It's only possible in the Conquests Editor... I have tested it in the CIV III basic game editor and I have the same answer than you... In the Conquests Editor it's working I have tested it : I put 31 civs ... have you Conquests ?

No, unfortunately.. has anyone made a hack or anything?

alright i figured out the problem. my editor had a bug in it somehow .
i backed up all the changes i did, reinstall the game, redid my changes and then (drumroll) changed the name of Joan. Everythings cool now and took me about 10 seconds . Thanks again for your help.

Figaro said:

No, unfortunately.. has anyone made a hack or anything?

Click to expand...

I don't think so ... I think that the basic game CIV III is simply not able to manage 31 civs ...

Emperor C said:

alright i figured out the problem. my editor had a bug in it somehow .
i backed up all the changes i did, reinstall the game, redid my changes and then (drumroll) changed the name of Joan. Everythings cool now and took me about 10 seconds . Thanks again for your help.

Click to expand...

You welcome !!

It seems I'm in need of some help once again. I'm adding leaderheads to my scenario this time using your tutorial. I've installed Atahualpa for the Inca and Suriyothai for Siam without any problems, but when I try installing Liliuokalani for the Polynesians, I'm getting the "Art\Flics\Po_01 can't be found" error. I've double checked everything, all the files are where they're supposed to be. I created my own scenario folder for the Art and Text files. All the files have the "PO" designation, including the PediaIcons and I change the .flc's in the editor. The only thing I could think of was that I needed to change the main PediaIcon file but that wouldn't make sense since the other two leaderheads worked. I'm out of ideas so I need a more experienced modder to give me a clue lol.

Nevermind, I fix the problem. Forgot to put the A in front of the 01 in the flc file. I need to go to bed and finish it later