Civ3 Community Scenario Compilation DVD

[Quintillus]

That's just... wow, what a short sighted and wasteful idea to build in the scenario search path and then change filenames. I had no idea that's why mods weren't cross-compatible.

@Quintillus I don't either and I don't suppose it's possible to buy the Steam version outside your account region, but now I'm imagining a collection of dummy Steam accounts each from a different region. Can you get in trouble for opening or logging into several accounts from the same IP? $1.24 a pop isn't bad for deployment testing, but the setup may be a headache. Anyway I think it'd take more than PediaIcons since some paths are found in the BIQ or hard-coded, right? (Not knowing how far the translation extends, what about things like leaderhead animations and city graphics?) I imagine symlinks would work but that's a lot of files to touch.

My understanding is you aren't supposed to have multiple Steam accounts, but my understanding is also that it's a "we can terminate the account if you're causing trouble with multiple ones, but largely don't care." I know some people IRL who have multiple accounts, my understanding being so they can have different personas for different gaming communities they are in, and it hasn't caused them any trouble. But they've probably also only bought games in their home region.

However, since Lanzelot is willing to test and is also fluent in German, I think it makes more sense to go with that approach. Re-installing my whole Steam library if the Steam-swap idea went haywire doesn't sound very fun...

Ok, I found Kulko's old instructions (from 2008...) and I think I know again how it works. Apparently the PediaIcons.txt contains the paths to all important things: unit animations, leader heads, buildings&wonders. (But Civilopedia links may be a different file, I'm not sure.) In any case, all Scenarios I played back in the day could be made to work by just editing the PediaIcons.txt. I think no BIQ file modifications are necessary. (But of course I did not play every available Scenario... Only a handful.)

So I would volunteer to provide German PediaIcon versions for the above scenarios and test them a bit. (Only need to reactivate one of my PCs that has a German installation... In 2010 or so, I bought an English version on eBay and have been using that for new installations ever since.

Fantastic! I just sent you a PM, and will follow up later when the preview is available to test with. Upload speeds where I am are about one floppy disc's worth of data per second, so it's not the fastest process (download speeds will be much faster once it's living on a server in the cloud instead of on my hard drive).

 

[Quintillus]

Status update! Printed DVDs have been ordered, and will likely arrive some time next week. I decided to err on the high side of initial demand and ordered 50 copies, which should be plenty for at least the spring based on early demand.

The first physical test DVD has also been burned successfully, and I was pleased to see that the time to copy all the scenarios over from disc was only about 6 minutes, giving an expected range of 6 - 12 minutes depending on a desktop or laptop drive. Once uncompressed, the scenarios will require 9 GB of space, so I've also included instructions on how to install only the ones you plan to play soon, should you not have lots of disk space available.

Remaining tasks include testing the scenarios with Steam (and likely including a labels.txt patch for Steam users), and making the mods compatible with the German version of Civ 3. Documentation for the scenarios is now present on the disc, and only light updates in that area are expected.

At this point it likely makes sense to start sending your addresses, so that one the printed discs are arrived, the test shipment(s) are verified, and the disc contents are finalized, I'll be able to start sending them out. I promise not to share them with anyone other than the post office! The address should be in your local language so that your local post office can deliver it to you; the only English requirement is the name of the country (although if your country uses a non-Latin font, and especially a non-Latin/non-Cyrllic font, it may be helpful to have both the local, and English versions as a backup, in case my transcription of the letters is not great).

 

[Quintillus]

The shipping-test disc has been sent. I'm expecting it to arrive some time next week or early the week following. Hopefully it will arrive intact; I became more optimistic after remembering how many discs Netflix sends through the post every year. As shipped, it weighs about 25 grams, below the 1 ounce threshold that would require extra postage, so if successful it bodes well for the prospects of sending discs to nearly any international destination (a few locations currently have restrictions due to the pandemic).

The printed discs have also been made, and are en route to my place. I didn't expect them to be printed quite so soon, but this means they will likely arrive around Thursday, before the test disc completes its journey, and potentially before I finish Steam testing. Still, that is a good thing, as it means there's a good chance that as soon as the content is finalized, the discs can start being shipped out.

So far I have two addresses to ship discs to, which is at least five less than known interest in receiving a disc. I'll follow up with known interested parties once I'm ready to start putting discs in envelopes, but you can go ahead and send addresses via PM, to ensure you are among the first to receive a copy.

Update 2/18: Creation of Steam labels files (or packaging of them for the couple mods that already had them) has been completed, and a Steam section added to the install instructions. I'm currently validating that each of the scenarios start up and look normal with a Steam install. This should be the last major step in terms of content curation.

Edit: Steam testing has completed. One missing Steam label was detected and added, and all scenarios are now working with the Steam version, from the disc image, when the Steam label change is applied.

 

[Quintillus]

The discs have arrived!

Spoiler Picture :

Boxed copy of Vanilla Civ3 and the Vanilla and Conquests discs not included

The test shipment also arrived successfully, which was the other major remaining item. Work on compatibility with the German version of Civ III remains ongoing, but all other to do items are done.

Final re-compression of the scenarios is in progress, and I expect to burn the first copies tonight. Thus, it is time to start sending discs out.

I've also uploaded the on-disc documentation (including the full list of mods and BIQs) here, so you can see what to expect on the disc.

In order to receive a copy, please send a PM with your address, and if you'd like the German compatible version (pending its availability), please note that as well. Some have also inquired about covering costs; this remains somewhat discouraged but if you'd like to, I'll reply with how to do so when you send your address. As an alternative, sending a postcard from your part of the world to the return address is encouraged.

Tagging those who have expressed interest in the DVD (or the project but without specifying disc or download), but for whom I do not have an address. @Nathiri , @need my speed , @Rhye , @pinktilapia , @Plotinus , @WildWeazel , @Fortis1 , @AnthonyBoscia , @templar_x , @jarred! , @Lanzelot . Please see the last paragraph and send an address in a PM if you'd like me to ship you a copy.

I'd like to give the discs some time to arrive so that it will be the first method of distribution, prior to uploading the ISO image. Thus the downloadable image will likely be posted in the second half of March.

 

[need my speed]

Please see the last paragraph and send an address in a PM if you'd like me to ship you a copy.

My reason for liking your post was actually because, well, I like the idea, it's creative and fun!

But you truly do not need to spend money on me to get a disk to me! I mean, it'd be pretty cool to have it, but, in the end, you're paying for me to have a fancy 'collector's item' box that's more fun to have just to have it than a true practical purpose (I could just download the scenarios from this forum, after all). So... That feels a bit conflicting?

 

[Quintillus]

Well, I have over 40 discs ready to be shipped out. I don't expect to have them all shipped out by June, but I'd also rather not still have 37 of them in 2037.

As for costs, they are really not very high. Some people swing by Starbucks every day. Others have five streaming services. I make Civilization scenario discs. The maximum possible cost, if all discs were sent internationally, is $120. That's a bit over one month of Starbucks, roughly equal to two months of having five streaming services, and less than buying Civilization VI and all its expansions on Steam right now. And as someone who's always lived below my means, and has seen my salary increase over the past five years but my living expenses remain the same (and decrease in 2020), that's an amount I'm happy to invest in promoting some of the fine scenarios made here over the years.

And the U.S. Postal Service has $188 billion in liabilities. They need that postage revenue more than I need to save it.

 

[Elephantium]

Wow, this is amazing! Kudos for putting this together, Quintillus

 

[Ozymandias]

Count me in

- Now: 20th etc.; "Catalogued Releases;" a steady influx of some excellent newcomers - This sort of thing really isn't my bailiwick at all, but is there anyway to keep this mini-Renaissance of C3C going? Some over-arcing ?

 

[need my speed]

Well, fair enough! You're always, always, free to decide to not send it, but I'll ask if it's still possible to ship things to my office, and if so, I'll forward you their location.

 

[Takhisis]

Since you're doing compatibility updates for non-English versions:
the Sengoku files in the 1.00 version of Conquests (I know I still have the disc somewhere) have a mixup in the .txt files between the Spanish and Italian versions. Specifically, the Horseman unit in the Spanish version is treated as an Italian unit, (‘cavalleggero’) which is -naturally- missing and inevitably results in a crash whenever anybody tries to build it.

This is what got me into civ, because I had to find it (on Windows 98!) with Notepad myself and fix it. A couple of years later, on freaking dial-up, I officially joined CFC.

 

[Lanzelot]

Specifically, the Horseman unit in the Spanish version is treated as an Italian unit, (‘cavalleggero’) which is -naturally- missing and inevitably results in a crash whenever anybody tries to build it.

But that needs to be fixed in the standard installation itself, not in Quintillus scenario compilation, right?


Anyway, I have made some progress with regards to the PediaIcon files: when I looked at the first file from the AoI scenario, I quickly realized that this is going to be some tedious and error-prone work, which I don't want to do for 25 files. So I wrote a little program that does it automatically!

The good news is, that it can handle all languages. It only requires as input the standard PediaIcon.txt file from the corresponding localized C3C installation, i.e. the file
...\CivilizationIII\Conquests\Text\PediaIcons.txt
from a standard French/German/Italian/Spanish/whatever C3C v1.22 installation.

I have run it now with the PediaIcons.txt file from my old German installation and produced the attached output. If any of you can send me the PediaIcons file from other localizations, I can also produce the necessary files for other languages.

(I am pretty confident, that I can handle any Western European language (Microsoft CP1252). For other languages like Greek, Russian, Turkish etc. I will probably need to know the Microsoft codepage your Windows is running on and will probably need to adjust my program a bit.)

Instructions: just unzip the attached file into the "CivilizationIII\Conquests\Scenarios" directory in your C3C installation, after your have extracted Quintillus' DVD into that directory as per his instructions. It will overwrite the PediaIcon.txt files of all these scenarios with the corresponding German version.

 

[Takhisis]

But that needs to be fixed in the standard installation itself, not in Quintillus scenario compilation, right?

I'm just highlighting one issue with the non-English versions which might cause problems with whatever the CDs install.
Also

overwrite the PediaIcon.txt files of all these scenarios with the corresponding German version.

this could be done to fix the above… I've never played the Italian version.

 

[Nathiri]

It's arrived:

Thanks Quintillus

 

[Lanzelot]

I really like that picture! Reminds me so much of the times when I was a kid and watched Errol Flynn movies, The Sea Hawk, Against All Flags and other stuff like Treasure Island or Horatio Hornblower with Gregory Peck...

 

[Takhisis]

That little square paper sleeve is so much like the ones in which the installation discs for Civ 3 Complete come…

 

[WildWeazel]

Success! It will enjoy a prominent position on the (increasingly overcrowded) Shelf of Displaying.

 

[Quintillus]

It's good to see some of them arriving! I like the placement by the Limited Edition Civilization III box. For those on the fence, I encourage requesting one... there are still over 40 available.

The downloadable option should also be available in the next few days. I realized tonight that I unintentionally built a web that trapped a bot on my web site, so I am attempting to free that bot before making the disc image widely available. I wouldn't want the poor bot to download the compilation a thousand times once it can discover the link - in part because 200 downloads would exhaust the monthly bandwidth allocation, and the bot would probably reach that before most prospective downloaders got to it. Hopefully when I check tomorrow or Wednesday, I'll see that the bot has been freed and has moved on to indexing other web sites.

 

[timerover51]

Greetings Quintillus, now I know I have to get some computers up and running, soonest. This is a terrific idea.

 

[Quintillus]

Greetings all! For those of you who have been waiting for the ISO, good news! I have sufficiently protected my web site from search engine bots, and you can now download the ISO image of the compilation from this link (4.3 GB compressed, 9 GB uncompressed; roughly 1 week to download on 56 Kbps dial-up). It contains all the scenarios mentioned on the first page. You'll note it is version 1.02; 1.01 includes compatibility with the German disc version of Civ3, and 1.02 adds a 70's scenario for the Cold War that I discovered a couple weeks ago.

Discs remain available for shipping as well; all you need to do is send a PM with your address so I can send it.

 

[Lanzelot]

And I just got my disc in the mail today...!