Cross-Platform Editor for Conquests now available! 1.51

[Quintillus]

It is easy to forget something like that, though. That's why it's a good check to add. I'll probably release 0.81 before that so some of the new additions can be used, but it's definitely something I'll look into. Although exhaustively insuring all required items are present might take awhile (for example, you probably need a Palace building, I think a default government is required, etc.).

The renaming is now present, but I went ahead and added some additional change I'd been planning at the same time, and it'll take some more time to complete testing to make sure unintentional changes weren't introduced. I also found a few fixes for custom player data that I want to add - currently, changes to custom rules don't necessarily automatically update custom player data as well, and manually updating that is kind of a pain.

 

[Quintillus]

NOTE: The hazards described below are obsolete as of version 0.81, and if using version 0.81 or later, you can safely ignore them.

So, while testing the player tab, I've found that it doesn't work so great when you start deleting technologies or units when you (1) have custom player data and (2) at least one civ has starting techs/units specified in the custom player data. Behavior when deleting governments or difficulties isn't always desirable, either, though it's less bad. I'm going to be fixing these issues for 0.81, but it is going to take awhile to test them - these are issues where sometimes the Firaxis editor is perfectly happy with them, but Conquests will crash to the desktop, so it takes longer to test (and it's interesting to see how Firaxis's editor uses different algorithms for loading scenarios than the game itself, and both are less error-tolerant than they could be). In the mean time, I recommend the following precautions:

• Don't change the starting techs or units for any civs in the PLYR tab. It's OK to change the number of starting units
• Don't delete technologies or units in a scenario where you have custom player data and at least one civ has starting techs/units (this may go all right, but might not)
• Deleting governments/difficulties isn't working the greatest. I recommend saving and reloading the BIQ after deleting one of these, and then updating the PLYR tab as appropriate. Also save a backup just to be safe.
• Remember that you are not supposed to delete any difficulty levels unless permitted by law. If you get caught deleting a difficulty level, well, the cracked editor warned you.

If you don't have custom player data, none of this applies and you can happily mod away.

In other news, I also found a bug in Firaxis's editor while testing. It's avoidable by being extra-vigilant, and possibly by using Steph's editor (I haven't tested yet), but did cause me to do a double-take. Edit: Make that two bugs of a similar, though not identical, nature. Has anyone else noticed them?

 

[Quintillus]

Version 0.81 is now available! Were it not for the decision to make the previous version 0.80, this could have been version 0.7.11 on 7-11... alas, that didn't happen.

This version includes both fixes and enhancements. Changes are:

• Fix for deleting difficulties, governments, technologies, and units when you have custom player data. Previously, the custom player data info was not updated when you deleted these, which could cause, for example, your players' governments to get thrown out of whack. Now, these auto-update.
• Fix for deleting technologies. Previously, deleting a technology didn't automatically update technologies' prerequisite technologies, which could result in a ciruclar dependency, which causes Conquests to crash. Now, prerequisites are automatically updated, so you can't cause a circular dependency this way.
• Fix for InputSAV functionality. It now always assumes that the SAV is a Conquests version.
• Added the ability to rename items. So far, this applies to the "main" items like civilizations, espionage missions, etc., and not yet to "sub-items" like city names.
• Added in-editor help, which is still a work in progress but more complete than the previous online documentation. To access it, click on the question mark in the upper-right, or press F1 at any time. Scroll to the bottom of any page and press "Index" to go back to the main page.
• Added warnings when it appears that you are running Vista or higher, and have Civ3 installed to a location where UAC can (and likely will) interfere with modding. Also added information about this when a load fails and UAC appears to be the likely cause.
• Fix for deleting buildings when there is a custom map - needed to decrease the BIQ size information.
• Fixed an error that occured when you deleted a building on a BIQ with a custom map, but had the Settings set to not display the map (different fix).
• Visual improvement to get rid of a white box in the right pane on the map tab when you have a high resolution monitor and have certain tiles selected.

Due especially to the fixes to buildings, technologies, and custom player data, this update is recommended.

My efforts to determine whether UAC was enabled failed unexpectedly, probably due to UAC (they worked at the command line, but not in the editor). So, I couldn't definitively say whether UAC was enabled, and if you run Vista or higher and have Civ3 installed in a UAC-protected location, you'll get a message about UAC whether you have UAC on or not - but only the first time you run the program (and if you re-use your old config file, you won't get a message).

Part of the idea of the help is both to explain standard functionality, in a similar way to what Firaxis's editor's help does (or is supposed to... I gather by one of the sticky's titles that not everyone is convinced it succeeds?). Another part is to explain new concepts. Currently this focuses on such items as the BIQ Comparison utility and safety levels, but this is planned to be expanded to include, for example, negative city maintenance, more than seven flavors, and other improvements that simply aren't possible in the regular editor.

The help is in HTML format, and can also be viewed in your favorite web browser. As of right now, its source is my memory, but if anyone wants to contribute additional pages (particularly ones that are not yet present), that's great. The main restriction is that (so far) no images (and if so, they'll have to be small... I don't want the help ballooning the size of the editor. also, I don't know if the wimpy HTML supports images), and don't try to get too fancy with the HTML... lists work, tables hopefully will, basic CSS works, but don't count on a whole lot.

 

[Takhisis]

It's still 7+1-1 if you twist the numbers a bit.

 

[Blue Monkey]

Version 0.81 is now available!

 

[Lee_Dailey]

howdy Quintillus,

i managed [somehow] to unsubscribe from this thread. [*sigh ...*] i'm delighted that you are still working on this. i've greedily downloaded the new version ... [*grin*] thank you!

take care,
lee

 

[Axolotl]

Quintillus, I realize the answer is probably no, because that's how Firaxis rolls, but do you think it would be possible to change the Required Government drop-down menu in the Buildings tab to a multi select? For instance, my perpetually in-progress mod features two governments, Autocracy and People's Republic, that can build prison camps and reeducation camps, respectively, that work identically - i.e. boost shields and cut down on corruption in newly conquered areas at the cost of major unhappiness; it would just be so swell if i could economize on scarce improvement slots by combining them into one building that is still only buildable by civs using those governments. Alternately, maybe Chiefdoms can't get it together enough to build infrastructure such as aqueducts. Have you seen any indication that this could be done?

 

[Takhisis]

No, you can't. Just don't make it require any governments, or make it go obsolete with an optional tech.

 

[bluebox]

Great you're still working on this!

There are still some character encoding issues when running on ubuntu, but I don't know how to help you without the source. I should run a test if it is only a cosmetical issue or if it breaks the BIQ.

I have a parallel installation on Win XP and Ubuntu, using Ubuntu as my main OS and WinXP for gaming.

You might like to know it is not neccessary to have CivIII installed in Wine, I just link your Editor to the folder on the XP drive.

The command line to start the editor in the terminal is:

$: cd /path/to/ConquestsEditor0.81
$: java -jar Conquests\ Editor.jar

 

[Quintillus]

Quintillus, I realize the answer is probably no, because that's how Firaxis rolls, but do you think it would be possible to change the Required Government drop-down menu in the Buildings tab to a multi select? For instance, my perpetually in-progress mod features two governments, Autocracy and People's Republic, that can build prison camps and reeducation camps, respectively, that work identically - i.e. boost shields and cut down on corruption in newly conquered areas at the cost of major unhappiness; it would just be so swell if i could economize on scarce improvement slots by combining them into one building that is still only buildable by civs using those governments. Alternately, maybe Chiefdoms can't get it together enough to build infrastructure such as aqueducts. Have you seen any indication that this could be done?

Unfortunately, Takhisis is right - there's no way around that. The way Firaxis decided how to make BIQs work, you can only have one prerequisite government.

Great you're still working on this!

There are still some character encoding issues when running on ubuntu, but I don't know how to help you without the source. I should run a test if it is only a cosmetical issue or if it breaks the BIQ.

I have a parallel installation on Win XP and Ubuntu, using Ubuntu as my main OS and WinXP for gaming.

You might like to know it is not neccessary to have CivIII installed in Wine, I just link your Editor to the folder on the XP drive.

The command line to start the editor in the terminal is:

$: cd /path/to/ConquestsEditor0.81
$: java -jar Conquests\ Editor.jar

Actually, that's not Ubuntu-specific. This is being displayed because where the name is stored, there actually is a blank character, and then "arauder", etc. I probably ought to turn it off by default. But it was interesting upon discovery to be able to see what other names Firaxis had considered in the various scenarios, but ultimately decided against and not completely deleted.

Also, you're right - only access to the files is actually necessary. I've even connected to a Civ3 install across my local network on a few occasions.

 

[Trinkledink]

I could use some help with this.... I'm totally new to this whole editing concept. What does it mean to export? What are you exporting? Where is 'what ever you are exporting' going? What's a CSV? What's Input from SAV? How do I change the rules set? I'm trying to add a civilization that isn't offered in the scenario(Middle Earth through LotM rules) and simply adding a starting point for the civilization isn't working. Help? =[

 

[Lee_Dailey]

howdy Trinkledink,

have you tried the help system? it's that little question mark in the upper right of the util ...

take care,
lee

 

[Quintillus]

I could use some help with this.... I'm totally new to this whole editing concept. What does it mean to export? What are you exporting? Where is 'what ever you are exporting' going? What's a CSV? What's Input from SAV? How do I change the rules set? I'm trying to add a civilization that isn't offered in the scenario(Middle Earth through LotM rules) and simply adding a starting point for the civilization isn't working. Help? =[

There is some info in the help system that Lee mentioned, although it doesn't cover all your questions (except to see more in the next version now that I know more of the questions I should answer). To answer your specific questions...

What does it mean to export? - This means to take the info out of the BIQ file, and put it into a file that another program (in this case Excel, or other spreadsheet programs) can understand. Civ3 won't be able to open the exported file.

What are you exporting? - The program exports information about units, buildings, techs, and resources, such as their cost, attack values, and range. You'll be able to choose exactly what you are interested in after clicking "Export to CSV".

Where is 'what ever you are exporting' going? - You choose. You'll be able to choose where on your hard drive you want to save the exported spreadsheet, so you can find it easily later on. On Windows, the default location is My Documents, but you can change that to whatever you prefer after clicking "Export".

What's a CSV? - It's a relatively simple spreadsheet format that most spreadsheet programs can understand. It stands for comma separated valule, because it stores information in a format like this:

Spearman, 1, 2, 1, 20

Which represents a spearman unit with attack 1, defence 2, movement 1, and a cost of 20 shields. The next row might represent an Archer like this:

Archer, 2, 1, 1, 20

For more information, see Wikipedia's article.

What's Input from SAV? - Input from SAV lets you take a .SAV save game file that originated from a scenario, and recover the scenario's rules from that. You can then use those rules to re-create a BIQ. This could be useful if you have a few old savegames and have no idea where the mod they came from is anymore, or even what mod it was.

How do I change the rules set? I'm trying to add a civilization that isn't offered in the scenario(Middle Earth through LotM rules) and simply adding a starting point for the civilization isn't working. Help? =[ - To add a new civilization, you'll want to go to the CIV tab, and right-click on the list of civilizations at the far left, and choose "Add". Then enter the name of the civilzation, and make sure to specify the Civilopedia entry as well, plus some information such as Culture Group, Noun/Adjective, and whether it's singular or plural. Then you'll be able to add a starting point for that civ.

My battery is almost depleted now, so I can't go into too much more detail, but I can provide additional information later if need be.

 

[HockeyMask]

Hi. Forgive me for what is going to seem like a completely ignorant post to you veterans but I'm new.

I just bought Civ III on Mac. I noticed this editor mentioned several times so I checked it out and I'm picking and poking on it.

I have some questions.

1. I can't seem to edit any players in the player tab. Is that supposed to happen?

2. I can't edit a save file, right? There's no way to (for example) take one civilization in the game and it give it more money than another?

 

[Lee_Dailey]

howdy HockeyMask,

look at the post above yours for a discussion of what can be done with SAV files. the editor is only for configuring the rules and various settings for a scenario [used to generate a new game], not for modifying an existing game save file.

as for editing the player tab info, i can do that. what exact steps are you using?

oh, yes ... what is the exact version of the util you have installed?

take care,
lee

 

[Takhisis]

HockeyMask, look around the place. The Utility Programs section has a savegame editor somewhere, if you can dig it up.

 

[AlanH]

HockeyMask, look around the place. The Utility Programs section has a savegame editor somewhere, if you can dig it up.

I don't think you'll find one for the Mac.

 

[Takhisis]

You sure it doesn't work for Mac?

 

[AlanH]

I'm not aware of a .sav editor that works on a Mac. Which utility does?

 

[tom2050]

I have absolutely zero experience using such a thing, but something such as WINE could possibly work to run a windows program as such on mac OSX.

http://www.winehq.org/about/