BTB's Civilization III: Somewhere In Time

[Quintillus]

Sounds intriguing, and I still have the CD-based versions including Vanilla, so I'm downloading. I read through the start and the end of the readme (and plan to use the Civilopedia for the rest). One note though - the download link on your site points to:

http://ngplus.net/index.php?/files/file/46-btbs-civilization-iii-somewhere-in-time/

And doesn't work, although the one at the top of this thread:

http://ngplus.net/index.php?/files/file/47-btbs-civilization-iii-somewhere-in-time/

Does work. I'm guessing with the 46 vs 47, the one on this thread is the updated version.

 

[BTB]

So, unfortunately, removing buildings from the index messes with the city view screen... something I realized when I had a look and thought, "hmm... I don't remember building the Pyramids". I do kind of want to find whoever coded Civ3's editor and punch him in the ovaries for about twenty minutes since rectifying this error is NOT easy and the damn thing shouldn't even have a delete option in the first place since half the **** in the game is hard-coded to index number.

While I was at it, I also changed around the civ traits a bit more (reverting several of them to their vanilla settings) because it bugged me that the civs didn't match up with the wonders that they actually built. I'm in the process of rewriting the civ-specific tips based on those changes as well as adding more information to the QuickRef card and making it a nice little printout.

tl;dr: 1.1 is coming soon

 

[BTB]

Sounds intriguing, and I still have the CD-based versions including Vanilla, so I'm downloading. I read through the start and the end of the readme (and plan to use the Civilopedia for the rest). One note though - the download link on your site points to:

http://ngplus.net/index.php?/files/file/46-btbs-civilization-iii-somewhere-in-time/

And doesn't work, although the one at the top of this thread:

http://ngplus.net/index.php?/files/file/47-btbs-civilization-iii-somewhere-in-time/

Does work. I'm guessing with the 46 vs 47, the one on this thread is the updated version.

To make it downloadable to non-users, I had to resubmit it to the site, so 47 is the current one and 46 is deleted. I thought I'd updated the link in the first post, but apparently I only updated the text. Will fix that now.

 

[Civinator]

So, unfortunately, removing buildings from the index messes with the city view screen

The city view is a very tricky feature of Civ 3. Now we modders know a little bit more about it this year, but many parts of it we still are not understanding - and it seems, Firaxis had the same problem.

When remembering well, even the Civ 3 vanilla editor had the feature of era-none techs. May be it´s a good idea not to delete the buildings that you don´t want in your mod, but to create a special era-none tech that no civ can receive and set these buildings to that tech as a perequisite.

 

[BTB]

Removing them is easy; I just set them to require 5 copies of the Pyramids to build with no tech prerequisite. It doesn't get rid of them in the Civilopedia, though, so I just have to bury them at the bottom of the list and mark them as removed from the game. Either way, it's purely an aesthetics issue.

 

[BTB]

All right, version 1.1 is up:

• Rearranged the traits on several civs and wonders (reverting many to their vanilla settings)
• Adjusted the aggression levels of China and Japan based on the above changes
• Adjusted the culture output of several wonders
• Leonardo's Workshop is now more expensive (300 -> 400 shields)
• Changed the cost of some spaceship parts and removed the aluminum requirement for several of them
• Mass Transit no longer requires aluminum and requires a Factory instead of a Hospital
• SAM Batteries no longer require upkeep
• Explorers are no longer restricted to Expansionist civs
• Fixed a bug where the taxman icon appeared as a scientist in the tech tree
• Fixed a bug where wonders and some buildings would display incorrectly in the city view
• Corrected some errors in the Civilopedia and largely rewrote the civ-specific advice
• Finished the quick reference spreadsheet; it is now suitable for printing

 

[BTB]

Made another small update. Also linked to a video that I think anyone who has interest in game design would do well to watch: http://btb2.free.fr/index.html#post112517

EDIT: ok, so I noticed a few small boo-boos in the last version, so... we're up to 1.1.2 now. Full changelog is as follows:

1.1.2 - Fixed several civilizations who had the wrong starting techs
1.1.2 - Fixed a bug where defensive unique units could not be drafted
1.1.2 - Fixed a bug where two "dummy" wonders were available to be built
1.1.2 - Corrected a few minor errors in the Civilopedia and on the QuickRef sheet
1.1.1 - AI players now recieve 1 starting defensive unit on Regent
1.1.1 - Reverted AI cost factor on Monarch to vanilla setting
1.1.1 - Lowered the OCN multiplier for Chieftan and Warlord
---
1.1.0 - Rearranged the traits on several civs and wonders (reverting many to their vanilla settings)
1.1.0 - Adjusted the aggression levels of China and Japan based on the above changes
1.1.0 - Adjusted the culture output of several wonders
1.1.0 - Leonardo's Workshop is now more expensive (300 -> 400 shields)
1.1.0 - Changed the cost of some spaceship parts and removed the aluminum requirement for several of them
1.1.0 - Mass Transit no longer requires aluminum and requires a Factory instead of a Hospital
1.1.0 - SAM Batteries no longer require upkeep
1.1.0 - Explorers are no longer restricted to Expansionist civs
1.1.0 - Fixed a bug where the taxman icon appeared as a scientist in the tech tree
1.1.0 - Fixed a bug where wonders and some buildings would display incorrectly in the city view
1.1.0 - Corrected some errors in the Civilopedia and largely rewrote the civ-specific advice
1.1.0 - Finished the quick reference spreadsheet; it is now suitable for printing

 

[r16]

about the workings of the editör

Spoiler :

let me see if ı get this .

ı play the Lord of the Mods scenario almost exclusively , perhaps it suits me really . Limited to few cities to micromanage and being an "air minded" person ı find the action of "modern" times far too much simplistic , even if this is not a wargame . But ı also want to build some of the cool units of other civs . Start the editor , mark accordingly ? But , there are also some cool buildings . Adding a small wonder that acts as the Colossus to a city that already has the Colossus is really impressive ! Every race in LotM is defined by two sciences . Civ has 5 eras afterall , adding None to Ancient Times , Middle Ages , Industrial Ages , Modern Times . And if ı add the two specific sciences of a race to my two specific ones , why cool . But there are 4 sciences one can have and it's so time consuming .


so , a master science that unlocks the two specifics . ı will edit my civ to have that . If ı feel like playing Dwarves ı can research their two specifics placed in Ancient Times , but they can't turn to None to find the master science and become Elves or Orcs . Great idea ! Turns out it's not . Because the game engine only considers None as acceptable , that cool Middle Ages Dwarf units suddenly becomes available to all .

and this thread cures that . Good ... So

ı start the Conquests editor and label every science accordingly . 3-7 is the seventh science of the Industrial Ages and so on .


ı start the Vanilla editor . Start writing them up from 0-1 to 4-45 , if the 4th era has 45 sciences and on .


copy all the specifics faithfully . Say Vanilla Stealth is X:630 , Y:87 , costs 300 and requires Synthetic Fibers . Close Conquests editor .

according to taste ı can add Steam Power to Synthetic Fibers because without steam there would be no industrial revolution hence textiles companies will not exist : No research for synthetics to replace cotton or whatever .


all the sciences are currently in Ancient Times . With everything complete ı start moving them to next eras .


do ı now move 4-3 Stealth directly to Modern Times ? ı have them numbered , ı won't loose track ...


or is it in stages ? Leave all the 1-x sciences in Ancient Times and move all to Middle Ages leaving all the 2-x'es there and so on ?

one way or the other they are moved . Close Vanilla editor . Start the Conquests one . Import "Cıvilization Advances" . What happens now ? Can ı work them in the Conquests ? Maybe ı wrote it as Steelth ? Maybe it takes forever to research (as seen during game play) and ı should perhaps lower the cost to 200 ? Or keep a working vanilla copy and bring it at the very end before scenario release ?


no doubt all of these are already here in the thread but the workings of the editor really baffles me , this should make it clearer for me .

 

[BTB]

I'm not sure if you're asking or explaining, r16.

 

[r16]

asking . If these are the steps to follow , ı might use them in my "proposed" scenario , to be finished in this millennium . The idea is to be able to put every single unit ever made for Civ III into it , and filling the rest with stuff pillaged from any other game that uses "sprites" , made up as a challenge for ı tend to talk too much at times . So , while the modders can use various methods to prevent the game from seizing up , just as an example , the discovery of Iron Working might lead to a need to display like 200 units in a single page . So the idea is , ı might add a science of Iron Weapons (Dwarves) , dependent on the previous knowledge of Iron Working and Dwarves , limiting the units to 8 per box , or 20 or whatever . Repeating the same for Gunpowder Weapons to come after Gunpowder in the 3rd era and so on .

and this must be a right place to ask , what's to upper limit for the number of sciences ? ı think it's 31+Barbarians for races and 256 for buildings .

 

[BTB]

One, set all of the technologies you'll be working with to Ancient Times, starting with Stealth and working backwards. You must work literally one step backwards at a time, otherwise the editor will stop you.

Two, make the desired changes to the prerequisites. Since everything is all in the same era (Ancient Times), the editor will allow this.

Third, starting again with Stealth, work one step at a time backwards setting everything to Medieval ages. The editor will allow this change because it will let you change the era a tech is assigned to without altering its prerequisites. Repeat this step to set your Industrial Age techs, and finally your modern-age techs.

This trick does not work in the C3C editor, as it will freak out on the first step of setting Stealth back to Ancient Times.

 

[r16]

thanks . If ı can find computer time , am trying to try in the vanilla editor .

 

[BTB]

1.3 is up, but it's just some fixes to broken links and a few small errors in the Civilopedia

 

[BTB]

New version up with some more Civilopedia fixes

 

[BTB]

Noticed a few pretty significant bugs while playtesting and uploaded a major version fix. Apparently the AI forgets how to use its workers if you remove their automate command.

Also, I want to punch whoever designed this game's indexing system in the dick. The splash screens for most wonders was wrong and it would crash for most small wonders. GUESS WHY!

 

[BTB]

And one last update for possibly the stupidest reason ever - the spaceship screen would sometimes (ok, usually) crash the game because I mistakenly had two spaceship parts set to part #5. It doesn't require a new game to work, though, so yay.

(CORRECTION: It totally does require a new game)

 

[BTB]

*Snip*

Hey, Civinator...

Going back to this, wasn't multiplayer added in Play The World? I'm curious how difficult it would be to port Somewhere in Time over to the PTW engine to allow multiplayer without introducing all of the crap in the Conquests engine that I'd rather deal without (changed bombardment priorities, new terrain, volcanoes, scientific great leaders, etc.)

 

[Civinator]

Hey, Civinator...

Going back to this, wasn't multiplayer added in Play The World? I'm curious how difficult it would be to port Somewhere in Time over to the PTW engine to allow multiplayer without introducing all of the crap in the Conquests engine that I'd rather deal without (changed bombardment priorities, new terrain, volcanoes, scientific great leaders, etc.)

Principally it would be possible to import the rules of your mod to PTW, but I don´t think that this is a very good idea. Most civers are no longer able to start PTW without problems. As far as I know, there exists no No-CD patch for PTW, meaning it must be started with a PTW CD - and windows has disabled the support of the security program SecuROM that is needed to start PTW. There only exist some very special versions of PTW that don´t have that security check, meaning their cds are still able to start PTW. Civilization Chronicles is one of them.

Much better is to import your mod to C3C. As do most civers, I don´t think that C3C is crap. In my eyes in most parts it is far superior to all other versions of Civ 3. All listed features you don´t like can easily be disabled with the exception of terrain. But even volcanos can be set to intervals that make them behaving like normal mountains most time of the game. There is one feature of Civ 3 vanilla and PTW that is problematic in C3C as in C3C it only works in the epic game: That´s the City View, but the missing of that feature isn´t in your list you have posted above.

 

[Nathiri]

Principally it would be possible to import the rules of your mod to PTW, but I don´t think that this is a very good idea. Most civers are no longer able to start PTW without problems. As far as I know, there exists no No-CD patch for PTW, meaning it must be started with a PTW CD - and windows has disabled the support of the security program SecuROM that is needed to start PTW. There only exist some very special versions of PTW that don´t have that security check, meaning their cds are still able to start PTW. Civilization Chronicles is one of them.

Much better is to import your mod to C3C. As do most civers, I don´t think that C3C is crap. In my eyes in most parts it is far superior to all other versions of Civ 3. All listed features you don´t like can easily be disabled with the exception of terrain. But even volcanos can be set to intervals that make them behaving like normal mountains most time of the game. There is one feature of Civ 3 vanilla and PTW that is problematic in C3C as in C3C it only works in the epic game: That´s the City View, but the missing of that feature isn´t in your list you have posted above.

As Civinator says. I actually think you would like what Conquests gives to you in order to play with. The only con I see is the tech tree issue. I dont think that works on Conquests, except if you open it up from Vanilla. An extra terrain like marsh can be changed to a completely different terrain, and you can turn off its disease. Marsh is one of the easiest terrains to change as its more of an overlay over grassland. You can set it to not be able to cut down too. Science Great Leaders are turned off from the player setup screen, but in the latest editor, its already off if you have preset game conditions. Lethal Land Bomardment is a unit ability that can be removed from the Units Tab.

 

[BTB]

Literally the only interest I would have in Conquests would be the multiplayer feature - meaning I'd have to put a lot of work into undoing everything else it added (the new terrain and the new civs would take some work), and although removing lethal land bombardment from units would be an easy task, changing the rules of priority for bombardment attacks (a change to the engine itself) would not be. And something like scientific Great leaders are something I would rather not even be an option in the first place. It just doesn't seem like something that would be worth the hassle to me.

Anyway, the mod has a forum now: http://ngplus.net/index.php?/forums/forum/33-civilization-iii-somewhere-in-time/