Assorted Questions

[temurleng]

While fine-tuning my scenario, I've come up with a few questions:

1- Is it possible edit the barb king through rules.txt? I want to change its MP. (i figure this is an easy question)

2- Can I prevent certain options in commands from being doable, like airbase building? is it possible to kill the keyboard shortcuts? (i've read some uncertain answers. my efforts havent clarified.)

3- Is there a thread somewhere listing all the valid events commands? I checked the official website, as the orig manual suggested, but found nothing. I've found some bits and pieces here and there, but I'd like the whole enchilada. also, what scenarios made good use of events, so I can look them over? (EDIT: found @: http://www.cdgroup.org/forums/tbs/civ2/viewtopic.php?t=479)

4- I'm changing a lot of things in the scenario and am making a document with a quick overview of what the changes are and their effects (like fractal movement, domain 3...) I want to change the unit graphics when a wonder is built. Should I include this in the "Heads-up Overview" document, or not mention it to keep it a surprise?

5- I seem to remember reading somewhere (here, poly or CDG) a guide that showed how to "goldenize" graphics for the tech era icons in the lower right of icons.gif. I can't seem to find the guide, though. Could someone point the way?

 

[Boco]

1. IIRC, the Barb king uses the stats of the Diplomat slot. It does, however, use the final gfx slot of the Unit.bmp.

2. Not giving a civ Radio prevents airbase building. As you imply, you can edit @ORDERS in Menu.txt to prevent the option from appearing in the menu, but that won't prevent giving an engineer the direct "e" order. I haven't played with @ORDERS in Rules.txt to see whether that can remove the "e" order. If you can't omit it or replace it with a blank line, then maybe changing it to "€" will prevent "e" from working. Together with a Menu.txt change, the user may be fooled. I've never tested this, and I can't recall seeing a post stating whether or not Civ2 simply hardcodes the order.

3. Eyn has a website (http://eyn.free.fr/TOT/TOT4.htm) with a download named something like Aide-ToT.zip, which contains Macro.txt. This is an online copy of the ToT manual's chapter on event language. Catfish's Cave, http://users.tpg.com.au/jpwbeest/, may also have it.

I'll leave 4 and 5 for someone else.

 

[Broken_Erika]

One time i was playing around with the game and i replaced the diplomat with
an non-moving pillbox, when the barbarians showed up, i had this barbarian
king that never moved and had a defence of 18, another time i replaced the diplomat with a unit that no-one could build and had good attack and defence
and moved quickly, so the barbarian king ended up being like a party of
elite barbarian warriors

 

[yoshi]

I want to change the unit graphics when a wonder is built.

How? The only way I know of is to use Leonardo's Workshop--but that replaces the actual unit, not just the graphics.

I think there's a copy of the Macro file in my Events thread (somewhere on page 2 at this point I think). If you check out the bottom of the file, there is a list indicating the order in which the program reads the tirggers in an event. The file also tells you some of the things you can and can't do. I put a whole bunch of examples in my thread if you need some examples--far better than the simple example given in the Macro intro.

 

[temurleng]

IIRC, the Barb king uses the stats of the Diplomat slot. It does, however, use the final gfx slot of the Unit.bmp.

Wow. That sounds simple, but sounds like it could complicate things. Allright, thanks Boco.

Yoshi, I seem to recall seeing somewhere on Sleague about using some program to get unit graphics to change midstream. I'll try to find it and look it over again.

 

[MikeLynch]

IIRC you're thinking of CivSwap.

 

[temurleng]

I seem to remember reading somewhere (here, poly or CDG) a guide that showed how to "goldenize" graphics for the tech era icons in the lower right of icons.gif. I can't seem to find the guide, though. Could someone point the way?

Just in case I was too unclear about what I meant by "goldenizing", I've attached an image I did myself. I did it by hand, so I'm not too happy with the results and it took kinda long. From what I remember reading in the article is that there's some program where you can in a few seconds.

I want to change the unit graphics when a wonder is built.

How? The only way I know of is to use Leonardo's Workshop--but that replaces the actual unit, not just the graphics.

Allard Hofert wrote an article for the Scen League about it (I'll try to see if I can find it). The confusing thing was when he talked about using the program "delevents.bat" supplied with Fantastic worlds. It requires the player of the scenario to go into DOS and type something into "the right directory". What does that mean? The last time I used DOS was in grade school.

 

[yoshi]

Well, you can do that using CivSwap as MikeLynch said. (CivSwap saves the player having to swap files manually or run batch files to replace the old Units.gif, Rules.txt, etc. files.)

If you have to run it via DOS prompt, it's probably a program that is only designed to run in DOS--which is a bloody pain in the a$$.

 

[temurleng]

Well, you can do that using CivSwap as MikeLynch said. (CivSwap saves the player having to swap files manually or run batch files to replace the old Units.gif, Rules.txt, etc. files.)

If you have to run it via DOS prompt, it's probably a program that is only designed to run in DOS--which is a bloody pain in the a$$.

Ahh, now I get it. For whatever reason, I didn't make the connection between question and answer. Thanks.

I'm guessing that: A) my "change unit graphics w/ wonder" is too ambitious; B) no one knows the "goldenizing" reference, but if I find it again, I'll post a link here...

 

[yoshi]

It's not that complicated: just prompt the player to go into the scenario's folder and click on the batch file that swaps the graphics files--Icons.gif for the editing (or 'goldenizing') of the tech icons.

(If you don't know how to work with batch files, I'm sure people here can help you.)

CivSwap automates this process but has the downside that it requires autosave to be on.

I personally use file swapping for everything. For example, I'm working on a scen now that is basically what I think the vanilla game should have been like where all everything from terrain stats to improvement names gradually change over time.

The only problem with your idea is that it means you have to swap a whole new set of files (even if it's just a small change it's still a new file) just for that one change (i.e. when wonder built, player is prompted to swap files). Just means a lot of work for a relatively small change. Designers usually try and crap as many changes into one swap so they make it all more efficient and don't have to be continuously swapping files (although CivSwap will save you having to do that last part).

 

[Catfish]

I'm guessing that: A) my "change unit graphics w/ wonder" is too ambitious; B) no one knows the "goldenizing" reference, but if I find it again, I'll post a link here...

Both of the documents to which you refer can be found at the Scenario League. Allard's multiple file article can be found here and the tech icons article can be found here. It looks like it uses a very old version of Paint Shop Pro.

If you're only changing graphics files, you don't need to concern yourself with delevent.exe (not delevents.bat, BTW). As the name suggests, it is used to delete events from a file. Write a batch file which copies an alternative units file to units.gif. As yoshi said, you just need to prompt the player to run it when the wonder is built. You will also need to be able to restore the original units file.

CivSwap automates this process but has the downside that it requires autosave to be on.

IIRC, CivSwap automates the running of batch files or scripts on specified turns. Therefore, it's not useful in this situation.

 

[temurleng]

Thanks so much for finding the article, Wobbegong. I'd looked through the scenleague a number of times, but never found it.
So, if I'm understanding this correctly, it would be possible to make the "Fanatic" a Crusader for a certain number of years (say AD900 to AD1600) and eventually switch it out to the original fanatics unit? You could (would have to?) also change the rules.txt to change a/d/m, name and role. if so, could be something you could use in your scen, Yoshi.

 

[Broken_Erika]

In my ww1 scenario, i am using multable unit files so that when you swich to the other files, infantry and warships have different graphics and stregnth, mainly infantry's defence is raised and all warships have different attack and defence, beacause i am too lazy to set it up any other way

 

[Catfish]

So, if I'm understanding this correctly, it would be possible to make the "Fanatic" a Crusader for a certain number of years (say AD900 to AD1600) and eventually switch it out to the original fanatics unit? You could (would have to?) also change the rules.txt to change a/d/m, name and role.

Yes and yes. That sort of thing is in fact very common. Well-known examples include Red Front, Second Front and Imperium Romanum.

 

[yoshi]

Sorry for the delayed response.

What W said.

Just be sure to change 'Crusader' to 'Fanatic' in any events that have that unit as a value (i.e. you need to swap an Events.txt file as well as the other files--if you make any changes that could affect events).

You can change pretty much everything; one idea is to actually force Ages once x tech discovered. My main reason for using batch files is so that I can get the most out of each slot (i.e. 'upgrading' a unit type rather than having a seperate unit acting acting as the upgrade). For example, 'Red Front' upgrades the T-34 unit slot from T-34/76 to T-34/85. This is particularly good for ensuring that the stupid AI keeps pace with tech.

One thing that I'm trying out now is to have the 'Mining' tile improvement become available later in the game (i.e. the first Rules.txt file has all terrain types as un-minable, the second Rules.txt has them as normal).

Another thing I'm trying out is to have Leader names/titles and personalities change over time (i.e. they die or are re-elected as time passes). Not sure how the AI will respond to this though. Same process as above.

Try stuff out and see what works for your scen; there is still plenty that hasn't been done using this method so yours may be a first.