Campaign???

[tom2050]

I ran a test on the labels.txt file (you have to change its properties. Its a read-only file) I change the name of 1 mesopatamia to 1 WW2 and change the name of the biq file to 1 WW2 and the scenario folder to WW2. I set the scenario screen folder to point to the WW2 folder. I could not find the Hall of Fame screen so I could not change the scenario name on the screen.

I start Civ conquests, selected hall of fame. The hall of fame screen came up normal with 1 Mesopatamia as the first scenario, BUT when the game started, it was WW2. Where is the Hall of Fame Screen?

That is good to know. So perhaps the labels.txt campaign names tie the biq's together (or do nothing ). The Hall of Fame .pcx file is named different, it is the CamprecBG.pcx in Conquests/Art/Advisors page. I'm guessing the HallofFame pcx file must be used after a campaign game which shows a victorious game (not sure though).

I think Campaigns were introduced with Conquests expansion pack. I can't remember what Hall of Fame was in Vanilla or PTW...

Tom

 

[The Guardian]

That is good to know. So perhaps the labels.txt campaign names tie the biq's together (or do nothing ). The Hall of Fame .pcx file is named different, it is the CamprecBG.pcx in Conquests/Art/Advisors page. I'm guessing the HallofFame pcx file must be used after a campaign game which shows a victorious game (not sure though).

I think Campaigns were introduced with Conquests expansion pack. I can't remember what Hall of Fame was in Vanilla or PTW...

Tom

Here is the Hall of Fame screen for PTW
http://img132.imageshack.us/img132/5325/halloffameptw.jpg

The Hall of Fame works differently in PTW and mearly tracks scores for everyone (all Leaders) PTW also has the labels.txt file, and from what I see there what I said here appears to be true.

Conquest is different. It uses the scenarios in the conquests/conquests folder to track VP thru a series of scenarios ( 9 ) in a specific order.

The PTW editor does not have the campaign selector in the scenario screen of its editor as the conquests editor does. I believe the campaign option was originally put into conquests editor
(as shown in the editor help file in my previous post) specifically for the developers to create this Hall of Fame campaign series, then deactivated for distribution. I don't think they realized how useful a tool it would be for mod developers. I DO BELIEVE tho that the coding is still in the game.

I will check the Hall of Fame screen and see if I can edit it to show MY scenario in the list. If it does, that should be a complete work around.

 

[nick0515]

If you do get a complete work around to work you might want to make a simple tutorial for the tutorials section. Would be very useful. And this thread is a bit confusing to follow as is, at least for me.

Cheers for the good work Guardian!

 

[The Guardian]

If you do get a complete work around to work you might want to make a simple tutorial for the tutorials section. Would be very useful. And this thread is a bit confusing to follow as is, at least for me.

Cheers for the good work Guardian!

Thanks for the suggestion, it's good one. But you need to thank TOM2050, also. He's done a great job working on this too, and deserves a great deal of credit.

FOR TOM:

BTW Tom I have treid and tried but I can't find a way to edit the HOF screen regarding the names of the scenarios. I am sure it has something to do with the campaign selection button in the editor. If we could contact the original developer of the civ3editor or maybe Sid himself might know. maybe he could tell us. But I don't know how to contact them, or even if they would reply.

 

[tom2050]

BTW Tom I have treid and tried but I can't find a way to edit the HOF screen regarding the names of the scenarios. I am sure it has something to do with the campaign selection button in the editor. If we could contact the original developer of the civ3editor or maybe Sid himself might know. maybe he could tell us. But I don't know how to contact them, or even if they would reply.

I am stumped on this one... I can find no other way to get it changed either. They could have hardcoded it in game, making the Labels.txt game names do nothing. At least that what it seems like.

If that is the case, they only thing that could be done is to graphically alter the camprecBG.pcx itself in a way to black out the campaign names there, and make it so you'd have to enter in your own campaign names on the left side. It could be done in a nice looking way, but in order to do this, those files in the Conquests directory would have to be backed up or overwritten, which is never user-friendly.

Tom

 

[Blue Monkey]

I second the suggestion to write up a tutorial. Even if you eventually find that you cannot get everything to work. Knowing what does work, and with what limitations, may very well be of use to other mod makers.

 

[The Guardian]

I am stumped on this one... I can find no other way to get it changed either. They could have hardcoded it in game, making the Labels.txt game names do nothing. At least that what it seems like.

If that is the case, they only thing that could be done is to graphically alter the camprecBG.pcx itself in a way to black out the campaign names there, and make it so you'd have to enter in your own campaign names on the left side. It could be done in a nice looking way, but in order to do this, those files in the Conquests directory would have to be backed up or overwritten, which is never user-friendly.

Tom

Maybe you could just rename the conquests/conquests folder, create your own campaign folder then rename that to conquests conquests. Create a new labels.txt file and camprecBG.pcx and replace the original with that ( and of course back up the originals ) What do you think Tom?

 

[The Guardian]

The only thing that could be done is to graphically alter the camprecBG.pcx itself in a way to black out the campaign names there, and make it so you'd have to enter in your own campaign names on the left side. It could be done in a nice looking way, but in order to do this, those files in the Conquests directory would have to be backed up or overwritten, which is never user-friendly.

Tom

Have you tried to alter the camprecBG.pcx Tom? Any luck? If you can do this, I can handle the rest.

 

[tom2050]

Have you tried to alter the camprecBG.pcx Tom? Any luck? If you can do this, I can handle the rest.

I haven't gotten around to it yet. Perhaps tomorrow I will through it together and I'll post it up here for you. I'll keep all the original graphics if possible so it keeps theme with game. That way anyone else can update as they see fit.

Tom

 

[Steph]

A question then.

How do you think real campaign system should work?

Should it be based on epic random map? Only on pre made maps?

How do you see it working? You play a WWI scenario until you reach 1914?

Then you start a WWII scenario where the ownership of the cities is determined by the result of the WWI scenario?

How could this work?

A possibilty could be that after the WWI scenario is completed, you go through "peace treaty" screen, where you can see what is your achievement during the scenario, like some "victory points", and then you can use these victory points to "buy" cities, and transfer them to you.


Example: In the WWI scenario, Germany owns Strasburg. At the end of the scenario, Germany occupies Belgium.

But France has much more victory points (let say the German casualties are much higher). Then at the end of WWI scenario, France can use the victory points to "free" the Belgian cities and return them to Belgian civilization, and buy the Strasburg city so it becomes French.

And so when you start the WWII scenario, the ownership of the cities is the result of the WWI scenario.

 

[tom2050]

I see a campaign system working in a variety of ways. Some could be quite different than others, such as a WW2 campaign where you are a certain general... and it could be based on what that general did historical during the war. Passing a specific epic campaign that may have happened allows to proceed to the next.

It would be very interesting to have such a thing, or the ability to create it, and would give modders more ability to add things in the game that create a different feel.

Same for all timelines, or even fantasy mods such as Lord of the Mods, you would be able to recreated scenarios in a sequence based on different parts of the Movie/Book itself. Scenario 1 could be based on Fellowship of the Ring situations, and proceed to the 2 towers, and ending with Mt. Doom, etc.

These types of things would be terrific in my mind, and would be a huge addition.

Tom

 

[Steph]

Making scenario where everything is preplaced is already possible. You just have to tell the player to play it in a given order.

My idea would be more how to make a tool that could take a scenario at the end of the game, read data from it, and then create a new scenario based on the result of the previous one.

How should it work?

How far could we go? Could we have a scenario focused on a detailed map of Europe with only European civ at first?

And then a map of the world with new civilizations such as the Aztec, and where the European civ would start with the strenght accumulated in the first scenario?

 

[The Guardian]

Making scenario where everything is preplaced is already possible. You just have to tell the player to play it in a given order.

My idea would be more how to make a tool that could take a scenario at the end of the game, read data from it, and then create a new scenario based on the result of the previous one.

How should it work?

How far could we go? Could we have a scenario focused on a detailed map of Europe with only European civ at first?

And then a map of the world with new civilizations such as the Aztec, and where the European civ would start with the strenght accumulated in the first scenario?

I don't see any problem with the first part. That would be just a matter of creating another biq file. You can include all the player info for both biqs in in the first biq. If you will be using a total of 31 civs in biq A, B, and C but only 8 civs in Biq A and 20 in Biq B and 31 in Biq C, you include all 31 civs (player data, units, buildings etc.) in Biq A but only activate the 8 civs that will be used in Biq A. Same with B and C. All data from each scenario can be autosaved. The problem is how to import the data into the next scenario, and most importantly, how do place it on a new map CORRECTLY?

By using the campaign solution we are discussing here, we can go from one campaign scenario to the next, automatically. All the player has to do is click next, and we can keep a record of victory point scores. Individually and cumulatively.

What we can't do, is import from the previous scenario. THAT would be incredible.

I am not a programer, but it looks like all the pieces are here. The game has auto save, so the data can be saved. The data can be imported. So, you are correct Steph, how DO we do it?

 

[The Guardian]

It could be done in a nice looking way, but in order to do this, those files in the Conquests directory would have to be backed up or overwritten, which is never user-friendly.

Tom

I have a solution for this Tom. An installer can be used with a read me text. Simple instruction - rename conquests/conquests folder to ??????? then start installer.I can create one and send it to you if you like for your examination and testing.

 

[Steph]

What we can't do, is import from the previous scenario.

We can't? Impossible is not French .

THAT would be incredible.

It would, wouldn't it?

I am not a programer, but it looks like all the pieces are here. The game has auto save, so the data can be saved. The data can be imported. So, you are correct Steph, how DO we do it?

If only we knew a talented programmer.

Spoiler :

And if only he wasn't so busy at the moment and could afford to change his computer to work better on an expanded editor. Hopefully in January

 

[The Guardian]

A question then.

How do you think real campaign system should work?

Should it be based on epic random map? Only on pre made maps?

How do you see it working? You play a WWI scenario until you reach 1914?

Then you start a WWII scenario where the ownership of the cities is determined by the result of the WWI scenario?

How could this work?

A possibilty could be that after the WWI scenario is completed, you go through "peace treaty" screen, where you can see what is your achievement during the scenario, like some "victory points", and then you can use these victory points to "buy" cities, and transfer them to you.


Example: In the WWI scenario, Germany owns Strasburg. At the end of the scenario, Germany occupies Belgium.

But France has much more victory points (let say the German casualties are much higher). Then at the end of WWI scenario, France can use the victory points to "free" the Belgian cities and return them to Belgian civilization, and buy the Strasburg city so it becomes French.

And so when you start the WWII scenario, the ownership of the cities is the result of the WWI scenario.

What I was thinking, was of a historical campaign series, like what I outlined previously, where all starting forces were known. Example: Napoleons Italian campaign, Napoleons Campaign in spain, and russia. This is relatively simple to do.

Creating an epic campaign series that covers several eras would be difficult based on the reasons I stated above. Notice I said difficult not impossible. I believe we can do this with all the talented people we have here, we can make this happen.

 

[The Guardian]

BTW, welcome aboard Steph. Glad your here , finally. LOL.

I sent an email to Soren regarding this, but haven't gotten a reply.
I am sure he's busy with his new job, but I figured what the heck, might as well try.

 

[The Guardian]

Tom have you had a chance to check that camprecBQ.pcx file yet? I know your busy, but just checking.

 

[tom2050]

I did the graphic, but it didn't come out right in game (not enough room), I think I need to expand it a little on the left side... I should be able to post it tomorrow. I can also post a PSD (Photoshop file) with layers so it can be changed easier that way to fit what you need.

Tom

 

[The Guardian]

I did the graphic, but it didn't come out right in game (not enough room), I think I need to expand it a little on the left side... I should be able to post it tomorrow. I can also post a PSD (Photoshop file) with layers so it can be changed easier that way to fit what you need.

Tom

That sounds great Tom. Do you think there might be a way to document this so that other modders will be able to do this on their own and create there own campaign series?

BTW, I have tested a setup program that will make installation of the campaign mod very simple.