GRM7584
King
Catchy name, huh?
Table of Contents:
Post 1: Thats this one! Before your first post in C&C information, as well as a short guide on what a mod is and how to accomplish it.
Post 2: Guide to graphics and palettes; a vast majority of graphics issues have to do with palettes, so skim this if you have any problems with magenta, black, or translucence in custom graphics.
Post 3: Links and Common Questions/Newbie Questions/Modding Questions. Useful for everyone, I'm sure!
Post 9: My personal library of stuff I've done, for those interested.
Post 10: A Reference Card on Well-Known Mods and Scenarios.
Intended primarily as a brief for those who have never made a scenario or mod on their own, secondarily intended as a brief FAQ reference for common main-board questions. Avoid posting responses here if possible, as most things should be answered. Just don't clutter the thread, basically. If you have a question about something more specific, the answer is probably somewhere else on this sub-forum. Do feel free to post recommendations for additions.
But mostly this is a place for me to link to when someone asks a question that I've seen answered X zillion times.
Firstly and Foremostly: Do NOT create a new post in sub-forums unless you have a completed file, or, in the case of the Tutorials section, a completed guide. All questions go directly in the Civ3 - Creation & Customization forum; If you're not sure which one that is, check the top of your screen, with the linked list structure. It should ONLY say "Civilization Fanatics' Forums > CIVILIZATION III > Civ3 - Creation & Customization". If it does, scroll down past the sub-forum list and wham, you are in the main forum. If you STILL can't figure that out, just click this link: http://forums.civfanatics.com/forumdisplay.php?f=46
Important Addendum: Always, Always, Always check the date of the last post. As a general rule of thumb, avoid bumping threads 6 months or older unless you have something constructive to add. The 6 months figure is something I pulled out of thin air, I'm sure many people would likely say you should avoid bumping anything older than 2 months.
Second: You are going to need to edit .pcx files. Every last piece of static in-game art is a .pcx file, from buildings to terrain. I am not implying that you will have to make your own art; but you WILL need to do cutting and pasting if you want any set of graphics besides the one seen in the normal, epic game. Unfortunately, most programs don't know what the heck a .pcx file is!
What Program to use for .PCX editing?
I strongly recommend The GIMP , because it is extensively detailed and free. Other programs to consider are Photoshop or Paint Shop Pro. For all purposes, I will be providing parts of this guide from a GIMP perspective.
From here on out, this guide is primarily intended for an up-to-date version of Civ 3 Conquests; older guides for Vanilla civ or PTW can be found in this very forum, but you may still find applicable stuff in this post.
For those of you who do NOT have Conquests, you would probably do best going here: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=9337
1. I would like to create a Mod or Scenario. Where do I start?
First: Pick a name. For my example, the name I'll use for a scenario/mod will be "The Spanish Inquisition". Didn't expect that, now did you?
2. Open Civ3ConquestsEdit. If you have difficulty finding it, its in the Conquests folder. In the file menu of Civ3Conquests Edit (hereafter referred to as "CivEdit"), choose "Save as..." and enter your title, SpanishInquisition.biq in this case; make sure you save it in the Conquests/Scenarios/ directory, whether it is a mod or scenario.
3. I want to have custom rules, custom players, or a custom map. How?
Before I go further, here are the ramifications of those three customizations.
-Custom Rules: This means you will be able to edit the underbelly of the game. If you want to add or edit any units, buildings, civs, governments, you need this.
-Custom Map: This is fairly self-explanatory. If you want a map with or without preplaced cities and units, you need this.
*OH NO CITY AND UNIT BUTTONS ARE GREYED OUT!*
...This is a very common question. If you want to add cities or units, press the space bar to select a civ...you can now add cities or units to your custom map.
-Custom Players: This allows you to determine extra player information, like which civs can play, which era they start in, and if they get any extra units at start beyond what the game is otherwise capable of, as well as locked alliances. (Individual Player information is in the menu: Scenario -> Scenario Properties, and then the Players tab. Here you can set individual civs, starting gov't, et cetera)
You should be able to determine which of those you need for your scenario or mod; if you just want a random-map-generating mod, you only have to mess with rules. If you only want a map, only mess with map. If you want an Earth Scenario with preplaced units or cities which uses C3C's default rules, you only need to mess with custom map and players.
For The Spanish Inquisition, I'll say we need all three. Go to the Scenario menu, and note the last three items, cleverly labelled Custom Rules, Custom Map, and Custom Players. These are checkbox items, so click on whichever ones you need and they will be "checked", or activated. Note that checking Custom Rules produces a small warning pop-up, just click ok.
4. (If you are using only the default Civ3 rules, art, and text setup, then you already know enough, and don't need to read further. Check post 3 for links and tips) Go ahead and save your .biq and minimize CivEdit. At this point, it would be wise to set up your scenario/mod directory in the Civ3/Conquests/Scenarios folder. First, go to the Civ3/Conquests/Scenarios folder. Make a new folder, title it however you like. For simplicity, its generally best just to use a standard name, so, again, for my example I'd just call it "Spanish Inquisition". Now, inside that folder, create two seperate folders, "Art" and "Text".
Art has a number of folders, with a lot of different content. What you will most likely be using it for is Civilopedia Icons, Buildings_Large.pcx, Buildings_Small.pcx, Units_32.pcx, Unit graphics, and Leaderhead graphics. Civilopedia Icons are generally in the format NAMELarge.pcx and NAMESmall.pcx, or something similar. Buildings_Large and Buildings_Small are the two files used for the Building Queue graphics in the City Screen. Units_32 is also used for the Building Queue graphics, but for the units rather than the buildings. Units each get their OWN folder, with all the animations and sounds therein. I'll talk about that later.
For text, the easiest first step is just to go into Conquests' Text folder (Civ3/Conquests/Text/), copy all the files, and paste them in your scenario's Text folder. Now you can edit your own text files based on default C3C's; this will make things very easy for you. Each of the files has a different significance, and here are the biggies:
-Pediaicons.txt is used by the game and CivEdit to FIND ALL IN-GAME GRAPHICS, with a scant few exceptions. I capitalize that because graphics do not magically appear in the editor or in the game if you paste them in your folder. You MUST tell the game and CivEdit where to look for everything, and you must do it by name.
-Civilopedia.txt is used for the text in Civilopedia entries. It details the language and markups you can use inside the file, isn't that nice?
-Script.txt and Labels.txt are used for a wide variety of things; generally speaking, if text pops up in the game, appears in a popup, is seen in a menu, or doesn't fit in the other 3 text files listed, this is where to look.
-Diplomacy.txt is used for Diplomacy Text. Go figure. http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=15270
Now comes the tricky part: You have to add any and all graphics, text, CivEdit information, and whatever else you want into your .biq and scenario folder. A brief on graphics and the GIMP will appear in post 2, and a brief on other issues and frequent questions (as well as some in-forum links) shall be in post 3.
Table of Contents:
Post 1: Thats this one! Before your first post in C&C information, as well as a short guide on what a mod is and how to accomplish it.
Post 2: Guide to graphics and palettes; a vast majority of graphics issues have to do with palettes, so skim this if you have any problems with magenta, black, or translucence in custom graphics.
Post 3: Links and Common Questions/Newbie Questions/Modding Questions. Useful for everyone, I'm sure!
Post 9: My personal library of stuff I've done, for those interested.
Post 10: A Reference Card on Well-Known Mods and Scenarios.
Intended primarily as a brief for those who have never made a scenario or mod on their own, secondarily intended as a brief FAQ reference for common main-board questions. Avoid posting responses here if possible, as most things should be answered. Just don't clutter the thread, basically. If you have a question about something more specific, the answer is probably somewhere else on this sub-forum. Do feel free to post recommendations for additions.
But mostly this is a place for me to link to when someone asks a question that I've seen answered X zillion times.
Firstly and Foremostly: Do NOT create a new post in sub-forums unless you have a completed file, or, in the case of the Tutorials section, a completed guide. All questions go directly in the Civ3 - Creation & Customization forum; If you're not sure which one that is, check the top of your screen, with the linked list structure. It should ONLY say "Civilization Fanatics' Forums > CIVILIZATION III > Civ3 - Creation & Customization". If it does, scroll down past the sub-forum list and wham, you are in the main forum. If you STILL can't figure that out, just click this link: http://forums.civfanatics.com/forumdisplay.php?f=46
Important Addendum: Always, Always, Always check the date of the last post. As a general rule of thumb, avoid bumping threads 6 months or older unless you have something constructive to add. The 6 months figure is something I pulled out of thin air, I'm sure many people would likely say you should avoid bumping anything older than 2 months.
Second: You are going to need to edit .pcx files. Every last piece of static in-game art is a .pcx file, from buildings to terrain. I am not implying that you will have to make your own art; but you WILL need to do cutting and pasting if you want any set of graphics besides the one seen in the normal, epic game. Unfortunately, most programs don't know what the heck a .pcx file is!
What Program to use for .PCX editing?
I strongly recommend The GIMP , because it is extensively detailed and free. Other programs to consider are Photoshop or Paint Shop Pro. For all purposes, I will be providing parts of this guide from a GIMP perspective.
From here on out, this guide is primarily intended for an up-to-date version of Civ 3 Conquests; older guides for Vanilla civ or PTW can be found in this very forum, but you may still find applicable stuff in this post.
For those of you who do NOT have Conquests, you would probably do best going here: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=9337
1. I would like to create a Mod or Scenario. Where do I start?
First: Pick a name. For my example, the name I'll use for a scenario/mod will be "The Spanish Inquisition". Didn't expect that, now did you?
2. Open Civ3ConquestsEdit. If you have difficulty finding it, its in the Conquests folder. In the file menu of Civ3Conquests Edit (hereafter referred to as "CivEdit"), choose "Save as..." and enter your title, SpanishInquisition.biq in this case; make sure you save it in the Conquests/Scenarios/ directory, whether it is a mod or scenario.
3. I want to have custom rules, custom players, or a custom map. How?
Before I go further, here are the ramifications of those three customizations.
-Custom Rules: This means you will be able to edit the underbelly of the game. If you want to add or edit any units, buildings, civs, governments, you need this.
-Custom Map: This is fairly self-explanatory. If you want a map with or without preplaced cities and units, you need this.
*OH NO CITY AND UNIT BUTTONS ARE GREYED OUT!*
...This is a very common question. If you want to add cities or units, press the space bar to select a civ...you can now add cities or units to your custom map.
-Custom Players: This allows you to determine extra player information, like which civs can play, which era they start in, and if they get any extra units at start beyond what the game is otherwise capable of, as well as locked alliances. (Individual Player information is in the menu: Scenario -> Scenario Properties, and then the Players tab. Here you can set individual civs, starting gov't, et cetera)
You should be able to determine which of those you need for your scenario or mod; if you just want a random-map-generating mod, you only have to mess with rules. If you only want a map, only mess with map. If you want an Earth Scenario with preplaced units or cities which uses C3C's default rules, you only need to mess with custom map and players.
For The Spanish Inquisition, I'll say we need all three. Go to the Scenario menu, and note the last three items, cleverly labelled Custom Rules, Custom Map, and Custom Players. These are checkbox items, so click on whichever ones you need and they will be "checked", or activated. Note that checking Custom Rules produces a small warning pop-up, just click ok.
4. (If you are using only the default Civ3 rules, art, and text setup, then you already know enough, and don't need to read further. Check post 3 for links and tips) Go ahead and save your .biq and minimize CivEdit. At this point, it would be wise to set up your scenario/mod directory in the Civ3/Conquests/Scenarios folder. First, go to the Civ3/Conquests/Scenarios folder. Make a new folder, title it however you like. For simplicity, its generally best just to use a standard name, so, again, for my example I'd just call it "Spanish Inquisition". Now, inside that folder, create two seperate folders, "Art" and "Text".
Art has a number of folders, with a lot of different content. What you will most likely be using it for is Civilopedia Icons, Buildings_Large.pcx, Buildings_Small.pcx, Units_32.pcx, Unit graphics, and Leaderhead graphics. Civilopedia Icons are generally in the format NAMELarge.pcx and NAMESmall.pcx, or something similar. Buildings_Large and Buildings_Small are the two files used for the Building Queue graphics in the City Screen. Units_32 is also used for the Building Queue graphics, but for the units rather than the buildings. Units each get their OWN folder, with all the animations and sounds therein. I'll talk about that later.
For text, the easiest first step is just to go into Conquests' Text folder (Civ3/Conquests/Text/), copy all the files, and paste them in your scenario's Text folder. Now you can edit your own text files based on default C3C's; this will make things very easy for you. Each of the files has a different significance, and here are the biggies:
-Pediaicons.txt is used by the game and CivEdit to FIND ALL IN-GAME GRAPHICS, with a scant few exceptions. I capitalize that because graphics do not magically appear in the editor or in the game if you paste them in your folder. You MUST tell the game and CivEdit where to look for everything, and you must do it by name.
-Civilopedia.txt is used for the text in Civilopedia entries. It details the language and markups you can use inside the file, isn't that nice?
-Script.txt and Labels.txt are used for a wide variety of things; generally speaking, if text pops up in the game, appears in a popup, is seen in a menu, or doesn't fit in the other 3 text files listed, this is where to look.
-Diplomacy.txt is used for Diplomacy Text. Go figure. http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=15270
Now comes the tricky part: You have to add any and all graphics, text, CivEdit information, and whatever else you want into your .biq and scenario folder. A brief on graphics and the GIMP will appear in post 2, and a brief on other issues and frequent questions (as well as some in-forum links) shall be in post 3.
lol nice work, this was much needed.
Here is the part that I have difficulty with. 
