Making civilization-specific units?

[Lunardog]

Hi all, new member onboard.

I dusted off my old Civ2 CDs and started playing and I decided to try making my own scenarios. Since I liked the FW scenario where all the different countries/civilizations had their own units but I can not for my life figure out how.

For example, in the Jules Verne scenario the exotics have their own weird units, the alliances have kilted militias and steam frigates, the infidels have Arabian units and so on.

I want to make something similar in my scenario, giving "my" civilization my own version of warriors (or legions or whatever) and my evil opponent will have their special units. For example, I want to have ninjas but give one of my opponents dwarven warriors. They will have the same basic skills and values but look different.

Is there any way to do this, if so can someone teach me?

Thanks in advance.

PS: I'm not sure if this is the right place to post this, if not, just delete/move it.

 

[Magic_gorter]

Moderator Action: Moved to scenario league and scenario creation

 

[Prof. Garfield]

Here's an example for a unit "US Troops," exclusive to the Americans.

In your tech tree have a technology called "Not American" and give it to all civs that are not the Americans. Then, set the expire advance for "US Troops" to "Not American." This will prevent any civ with the "Not American" tech building "US Troops" even if they have the prerequisite advance.

 

[AnorakTel]

I'm pretty certain you can't do this. It's a feature of CIV III and you can create as many custom units as you like in that. Of course it's harder because you have to do the animation etc

Civ II is easier. You just edit Rules.Txt - Section starting @UNITS.
You may want to edit Units.gif to get a pretty picture.

But there is no flag that ties a unit to a particular Civilization.

Immediately after writing the above I found something.
I run original CIV II that I've modified it to include the extra three units and two extra technologies.

But this area includes versions such as Test of Time. These have diffeent rules
If you are running one of the later versions this thread http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=471988 may be useful.

 

[Catfish]

I'm pretty certain you can't do this.

That's not true, even for FW. The OP even provided an example: the Jules Verne scenario. It's done using "no, no" prerequisite and/or obsolescence techs (see here and here). This question has already been answered in another [Edit: threads merged] of the OP's replicate threads (originally there were three).

 

[Peregrine]

Alternatively, if a civ-specific unit is NOT tied to a tech advance, but is supposed to be available at start, a technology can be labeled for the specific civ (Germans, for example; a tech called "Germanic"), this technology can be given to the Germans during the creation process. The civ-specific unit can then have this tech as its prerequisite, and will therefore only be buildable by the civ specified. Also, using this method, an obsolete tech can be set up that will prevent the civ-specific unit being built, thus removing it from play. The obsoleting tech can be delivered via an event, set either random or by specified turn. The obsoleting tech can also be set up to be delivered when another, event-specified tech is discovered normally. For example, a "Mounted knight" unit for the German civ, having its preq tech the "Germanic" tech, would have the "Reiters" tech its obsoleting tech. Thus when "Reiters" tech is acquired normally, the "Mounted knight" unit now becomes obsolete. I used these tricks in several scenarios. Especially the Age of Imperialism scenario.

A similar approach is to create an event that gives the civ-specific tech to the specified civ, either by random (see below) or by a specified turn number. This will allow the civ-specific unit to be given to the civ sometime during the game. This can also be set up so that there are two events. The first event uses a normal tech aquisition as a trigger to give the civ-specific tech to the civ. In this way, the specified civ receives a tech, and then receives a unit that, seemingly, accompanies the tech.

A random event can give the civ-specific tech to the civ, thereby providing the civ-specific unit only at that (random) time. The Mongols scenario used this trick w/the Mamluk Cavalry unit.

 

[AnorakTel]

That's not true, even for FW. The OP even provided an example: the Jules Verne scenario. It's done using "no, no" prerequisite and/or obsolescence techs (see here and here). This question has already been answered in another [Edit: threads merged] of the OP's replicate threads (originally there were three).

I'm sure you're right. However I have the original CIV II bought in 1996 and never updated. I keep forgetting that there were expansion packs. No events etc. in my game. (or rather I haven't found any.)

 

[Jubal_Barca]

Am I right in thinking that the split tech tree can't be used in non scenario games because the AI will research both?

So if I have

Tech A

Tech B Prereq Tech A, makes Tech C units obsolete
Tech C Prereq Tech A, makes Tech B units obsolete

Then the AI will research both of them and end up with the units from neither?

 

[Catfish]

Am I right in thinking that the split tech tree can't be used in non scenario games because the AI will research both?

You can't control the starting techs, so for all versions of Civ2 up to MGE, yes. For ToT you can control the later availability of techs using @CIVILIZE2 and @LEADERS2 in rules.txt. In ToT you can also restrict unit types to groups of tribes. The official Fantasy, Sci-Fi and Extended Original games (mods, as opposed to scenarios) use both of these methods.

Then the AI will research both of them and end up with the units from neither?

Yep.

 

[jarhead_leif]

You can't control the starting techs, so for all versions of Civ2 up to MGE, yes. For ToT you can control the later availability of techs using @CIVILIZE2 and @LEADERS2 in rules.txt. In ToT you can also restrict unit types to groups of tribes. The official Fantasy, Sci-Fi and Extended Original games (mods, as opposed to scenarios) use both of these methods.

I believe that starting techs're hard coded depending on the given starting terrain. But as opposed to what Catfish said (w all my respect).

As far as I know, upon modding T0T for months atleast, it is possible to give starting tech/s to certain civ/s. With altering the rules.txt file and 21 triggers in Events.txt.

Tricky but effective.

 

[Catfish]

I believe that starting techs're hard coded depending on the given starting terrain.

Terrain can affect the number of techs, but the starting pool is always confined to those 16 technologies listed by Scouse Gits in the link above. I don't know the setup for ToT's Fantasy or Sci-Fi games.

As far as I know, upon modding T0T for months atleast, it is possible to give starting tech/s to certain civ/s. With altering the rules.txt file and 21 triggers in Events.txt.

Tricky but effective.

You could write GiveTechnology events for each tribe (for a mod, that can be up to 21) to be triggered on the first turn, each granting a "no, no" tech that serves either as a base technology for a restricted tree or simply, as a prerequisite for tribe-specific units. The latter would work, however, the units would be available immediately. The former creates a few problems with all versions of Civ2 because restricted technologies could be obtained by espionage, conquest (no scenario parameters) or trade (MGE or lower). In ToT, that's not as big a problem because you can restrict units under @UNITS_ADVANCED and the wrong tribes couldn't build restricted units even if they possessed their prerequisites. For MGE or lower, you'd have to provide another set of "no, no" obsolescence techs at the start to prevent the wrong tribes from building the wrong units.

 

[jarhead_leif]

Since the discussion isn't T0T (which I'm not familiar with), I'm afraid I can't be of any help.

 

[Catfish]

The last poster didn't specify. ToT is MGE with new graphics and scenario design features.