Cross-Platform Editor for Conquests now available! 1.51

[Blue Monkey]

Quintillus: Time is tight for the next month or so - meaning don't know how much I'll be able to try out the newest version. But I'm tracking the thread & will do what I can.

 

[timerover51]

Quintillus, I just noticed in your editor that it is possible to set bonus resources as requirements for units, which would mark a major addition to the game. Does this work in practice? If it does, it would represent the means of getting around the 32 maximum strategic-luxury resource bug.

 

[Quintillus]

Quintillus, I just noticed in your editor that it is possible to set bonus resources as requirements for units, which would mark a major addition to the game. Does this work in practice? If it does, it would represent the means of getting around the 32 maximum strategic-luxury resource bug.

Good question, I hadn't thought to try that. Unfortunately, trying it today, it looks like it doesn't work. Setting Warriors to require Cattle did make them non-buildable at first, but after connecting cattle, the game crashed when my city completed its current unit. Even before it crashed (but after connecting cattle), I couldn't select a Warrior from the build queue.

So I'll probably set it so you can't select bonus resources in the Unit tab in 0.87, or at least not unless you have a low Safety Level selected. Keep asking this sort of question, though - sometimes this sort of thing does work.

 

[timerover51]

Good question, I hadn't thought to try that. Unfortunately, trying it today, it looks like it doesn't work. Setting Warriors to require Cattle did make them non-buildable at first, but after connecting cattle, the game crashed when my city completed its current unit. Even before it crashed (but after connecting cattle), I couldn't select a Warrior from the build queue.

So I'll probably set it so you can't select bonus resources in the Unit tab in 0.87, or at least not unless you have a low Safety Level selected. Keep asking this sort of question, though - sometimes this sort of thing does work.

I did not try it, but I might give in serious thought. It would be great if it would work, but I suspect that would require cracking into the source code.

 

[timerover51]

Sorry to keep troubling you, Quintillus, but my game design class has me thinking of working on Civ3 again, now that I have it running again on a laptop.

I noticed something odd when I finish editing a map done in the standard Civ3 editor and that is my Barbarians are no longer raging and spawning in dark areas. Even with the editor set to "Raging Barbarians", they do not seem to spawn, and the only ones that I am running into are the pre-placed ones. I am using Leobon's Warhammer Map, and have explorers running all over the board with great abandon, and only a limited number of opponents. Generally, when strictly using the standard Civ3 Windows editor, the life expectancy of an Explorer on the map previously has been about 2 turns, before being offed by a Barbarian.

Also, your editor does change my present Civilization colors from the Windows one. My Byzantines and the despicable Aztecs have the same color.

 

[Big Bopper]

Nice editor Quintillus. I've just started to use it for my scenario and it has come in quite handy.

I noticed something odd when I finish editing a map done in the standard Civ3 editor and that is my Barbarians are no longer raging and spawning in dark areas. Even with the editor set to "Raging Barbarians", they do not seem to spawn, and the only ones that I am running into are the pre-placed ones. I am using Leobon's Warhammer Map, and have explorers running all over the board with great abandon, and only a limited number of opponents. Generally, when strictly using the standard Civ3 Windows editor, the life expectancy of an Explorer on the map previously has been about 2 turns, before being offed by a Barbarian..

This is caused by civ3. Try starting a new random game and set the barbarian level to Raging Barbarians play a turn, exit out, and than start your map. For some reason the game doesn't recognize the barbarian activity in the editor, but the settings from the last game.

 

[timerover51]

This is caused by civ3. Try starting a new random game and set the barbarian level to Raging Barbarians play a turn, exit out, and than start your map. For some reason the game doesn't recognize the barbarian activity in the editor, but the settings from the last game.

These are not random game maps, but ones that I have modified in both editors, and I always have them set for Raging Barbarians (with the Barbarian units being the Swordsman/Cossack/Privateer, although I sometimes use the Gallic Swordsman for the base Barbarian unit).

If I do the last editing work in the standard Windows Civ3 Editor under Parallels, the Barbarians work as they should. When I do the last editing work using Quintillus' Editor, the Barbarians behave oddly, with only the pre-placed ones showing up and then more Roaming than Raging. Also oddly, while getting very limited numbers of land Barbarian units, I am getting a fair number of Privateers appearing.

 

[Quintillus]

I did not try it, but I might give in serious thought. It would be great if it would work, but I suspect that would require cracking into the source code.

That's what it looks like from the test I did on the 6th.

Nice editor Quintillus. I've just started to use it for my scenario and it has come in quite handy.

Thanks for chiming in! Glad to hear it's proving helpful!

Also, your editor does change my present Civilization colors from the Windows one. My Byzantines and the despicable Aztecs have the same color.

I'm not sure quite what you mean by this. IIRC, Civ3 can get a bit confused with civ colors sometimes - is the color that both the Aztecs and Byzantines have the bright red, by chance? I think a few years back someone posted the order in which the game assigns civ colors, but I don't remember where that is anymore.

Another clarifying point would be, are these the colors in-game or in the editor? I know on the map tab, the starting location color hasn't always been correct, but I'd be more surprised if things were off in-game due to something other than Civ's at-times-strange color assignment algorithm, which can result in civs having the same colors, as well as civs having colors that are neither their unique nor their default color.

These are not random game maps, but ones that I have modified in both editors, and I always have them set for Raging Barbarians (with the Barbarian units being the Swordsman/Cossack/Privateer, although I sometimes use the Gallic Swordsman for the base Barbarian unit).

If I do the last editing work in the standard Windows Civ3 Editor under Parallels, the Barbarians work as they should. When I do the last editing work using Quintillus' Editor, the Barbarians behave oddly, with only the pre-placed ones showing up and then more Roaming than Raging. Also oddly, while getting very limited numbers of land Barbarian units, I am getting a fair number of Privateers appearing.

That's interesting. I tend to play with few barbarians, but paying closer attention to this, the editor does seem to be doing something strange with the "Select barbarian activity" option - it seems to not be editable as soon as I'd expect, and it looks like it may be getting reset to No Barbarians. That would explain the dearth of land barbarians, though if that is what's happening, it would indeed be odd that there'd be lots of sea barbarians. Is it more sea barbarians than Raging would normally give?

This will be something I'll be looking more into for 0.87.

 

[Blue Monkey]

IIRC any mod - mapped or not - uses the game settings from the previous game. (When I remember to) start the mod (set the difficulty level, # of opponents, etc.), open a standard game then restart the mod/scenario to start a new game. Opening the standard game will reset all the "hidden" flags so the mod values will be as expected. I start the mod the first time so that the levels are already as I wish when opening the standard game.

 

[Quintillus]

Here's an idea that I thought of that won't happen, but I'd likely forget overnight if I didn't write it down. And since I don't know if it would be useful, why not write it here?

Wouldn't it be cool if you could work on scenarios collaboratively, in real-time? For example, I'm working in the resources tab, and someone else is working in the buildings tab. I add a new resource, and the other person now is able to select that resource from the drop-down in the buildings tab. Or, we're both working on the map. I add a city on one part of the map, while the other person is adding rivers somewhere else (or even in the same area), and we both see our changes when we scroll (or the map refreshes, if it's in the same area). In other words, it'd be like Google Docs or Zoho Office, only for Civ3.

The only issues are that (1) I don't know if there's actually anyone who would use it, and (2) it would take a really long time to add, and this isn't my day job. (2) also includes those finicky details like "what do you do if the other person doesn't have the graphics for something that's on the map?", "what happens when someone loses their Internet but keeps making changes offline?" and that networking isn't one of my areas of expertise. As well as that there are other things to add that are either quicker to add, more useful, or cooler (or some combination).

General update, the add-many-buildings-at-once utility is ready and will be in 0.87. The civ-color modification is coming along and works, but I want to make it gnarlier so that it'll be a clear step up (versus using GIMP or something like that) in most cases. The map-flipper isn't integrated yet. Progress has been delayed somewhat due to playing Civ, and might be more since the latest GOTM looks interesting and is at a level I can play.

 

[Takhisis]

Yes it would be, very cool. I'm not sure as to how many people would actually use it though.

 

[timerover51]

Quintillus, now that I have finished my classes for the summer, except for writing evaluations, I am going to go back to exploring your editor some more.

 

[Balthasar]

I love all of these ideas, Quintillus.

An online modding editor designed by me would have a front page from which you could access a "Project" (a biq + Autonamed File Folders, version numbers could be also added automatically). Each project would have a designated Manager (project starter?). The Manager would have the ability to allow others onto the Modding 'Team', and to 'lock' some changes to the mod, so that other members of the team can't change them.

You might be able to do some interesting things with an online editor, such as use an "ingame view" - what a player with the whole map revealed would see on the very first turn of the game. An "InGame View" could be made interactive, allowing modders to edit the Civilopedia and Labels just by clicking on them. It would be nice if we could load units into ships. Perhaps the editor could analyze the mod as it's being built, and have an "Playable" (or 'Not Playable') indicator button. An automatic log of changes to the biq could be kept.

Of course, once you had a website for this, I'd strongly urge the addition of Multi-Player Civ3 Scenario Gaming ability, so that the modders could group test the scenarios they've created.

I'm brainstorming, mind you - haven't really thought it out in any detail...

 

[Takhisis]

I believe that the OpenTTD editor ahs something like this, you can look at their code. We've certainly modded maps there live through LAN as well as Internet connections.

 

[Quintillus]

Yes it would be, very cool. I'm not sure as to how many people would actually use it though.

That's the thing. If this were 2003, my guess is it would get a lot of use over the years. Being 2013, that's a lot less certain. Although given the revival of Civ1 lately, anything's possible.

OpenTTD looks interesting. I'd heard of the original Transport Tycoon and it always sounded kind of interesting, though I've never played it. Might have to check it out. Though as they went with the GPL license (which does make sense for their purposes), and don't expect to actually add that functionality, I won't be looking at their code. I'm more of an Apache/MIT type person when it comes to open-source.

Some great ideas, Balthasar. And some of them could be added in a desktop editor, too - the Civilopedia one and the log of changes, for example. The log of changes isn't that much different from something I've thought of adding - undo functionality. It would essentially be undo functionality, but in a form where you could go back and look at it (and go back in time) even days later.

timerover51, glad to hear you'll be exploring some. How were the classes?

 

[Balthasar]

Some great ideas, Balthasar. And some of them could be added in a desktop editor, too

Oh yes. As many as possible.

....given the revival of Civ1 lately, anything's possible.

I've been saying that for awhile, now...

 

[Quintillus]

Version 0.87 is now available! This update brings several new features, including the three mentioned in post 399. Changes are:

• Added a utility that lets you quickly and easily customize civilization colors.
• Added a form (under the ! button) that lets you set buildings in many cities at once. You can filter cities by owner, size, and whether they are coastal or not.
• Added a whimsical utility that lets you flip maps 180º, as seen in this map.
• Added support for working with Russian-language BIQ files. This doesn't in itself let you play them in-game if you don't have the Russian version of Conquests, but you can at least edit the scenarios.
• Change so that you won't have a white box over the map forever if you put another program (or one of the pop-up windows) over the top of the editor and then minimize/move it.

The civ color customization is the big feature. There is a help file included for it, and I recommend reading it. Basically, this utility lets you change every aspect of civ colors, and gives you context as to what changing each element of a civ color does (did you know that the color for a civ in the histogram can be completely different than the one in the diplomacy screen, which can again differ from the one on the minimap? it can!). There are 70 constituent colors in a civ color, so in addition to being able to change them individually, I've included an ability to modify many colors at once. You do have to be a bit careful with this, however, as sometimes this can make all the constituent colors become very similar. So I highly recommend saving a copy of any ntp**.pcx civ color files that you create and are happy with before modifying them further.

The other big requirement is that there must be ntp**.pcx files in the scenario search folders to use the civ color changer. Beyond that, I recommend reading the aforementioned help file that is linked off of the main help page, and playing around with it. There's also a very good guide to civ color editor by the esteemed Rhye in this post, which was the basis for understanding how to make this utility.

I do hope to release a set of civ colors made using this utility. I'd originally planned to release it with this version, but this version was already running rather late, thanks in part to playing Civ3 till 5 AM a couple weekends ago, so the civ color set will have to come later.

The ability to set buildings in many cities is similar to a functionality available in Steph's editor. For those unfamiliar, it makes it much less tedious to, for example, give a civilization a Library in every city with population of at least 4.

The map-flipping utility may not be useful, but could be used to spice up an old map.

I hope that Russian support is only the beginning of support for more languages, with Chinese being a major goal. I'm also aware of French and German versions of Civ, which I plan to look into. If anyone knows of other language-specific versions of Civ, please note them in this thread (is there a Spanish one?). I'm hopeful that adding support for more localities will prove relatively easy once I have scenarios designed for that language's Civ version.

In a related note, I'm thinking of adding in internationalization support within the editor, so the editor could be used by (at this point) Russian Civ players who don't speak English as well as English-speaking Civ players. However, I'm not sufficiently proficient in any non-English languages to be able to do good translations myself. I could probably do a so-so French one, but that's it. I'm more likely to go ahead and write the code to make the program work in different languages if someone is willing to translate the text in the program (things like "Civilopedia Entry", "Emphasize Food", "Free Technologies" in the CIV tab, for instance). If you're interested, leave a note, and I'll bump up the priority of that on my to-do list. I can provide help with the concept and how-to-do-it once that's ready; what I don't have is the fluency in multiple languages.

 

[timerover51]

That's the thing. If this were 2003, my guess is it would get a lot of use over the years. Being 2013, that's a lot less certain. Although given the revival of Civ1 lately, anything's possible.

OpenTTD looks interesting. I'd heard of the original Transport Tycoon and it always sounded kind of interesting, though I've never played it. Might have to check it out. Though as they went with the GPL license (which does make sense for their purposes), and don't expect to actually add that functionality, I won't be looking at their code. I'm more of an Apache/MIT type person when it comes to open-source.

Some great ideas, Balthasar. And some of them could be added in a desktop editor, too - the Civilopedia one and the log of changes, for example. The log of changes isn't that much different from something I've thought of adding - undo functionality. It would essentially be undo functionality, but in a form where you could go back and look at it (and go back in time) even days later.

timerover51, glad to hear you'll be exploring some. How were the classes?

Given that people are still buying Civ3 online and elsewhere, I do not think that it will go out of style anytime soon. So any improvements to your editor will be appreciated, along with Steph's work as well.

The idea of map-flipping sounds very interesting, and I will need to experiment with that. I also need to look more at what your editor is doing with Barbarians.

With respect to the class, it went very well, and the students actually managed to get a goodly number of the games they designed to playtesting in three weeks, which is extremely good.

 

[timerover51]

I think that I may have figured out why the Barbarians are not working if your editor is the last one that I use on a Mod. The Barbarian activity bar is grayed out and cannot be reset, but it looks like it applies a default setting of No Barbarians. My pre-placed Barbarians camps appear, but the land units remain in the camp and do not cause problems. However, the sea unit, the Barbarian Privateer, does spawn and will seek out naval units to attack. The difference in behavior I cannot explain.

Presently, what I am doing is working with either your editor or Steph's editor first, and then doing a final check in the Firaxis editor to get the Barbarians working right. It looks like that might cause problems with some of the other things that your editor does. With scenarios that I am not using Barbarians, then I am not having problems, obviously.

 

[Takhisis]

My 'map' tab isn't working properly which is a bit of a bummer. I can't see half of it.