help on minor mod

[ASB central]

So hi,

I haven't posted here in a while, but I have made the move back from civ 4 to civ 3 for my own reasons(I like bigger maps and hate MAF errors). anyways I have been trying to make some minor changes to the game and have hit a couple snags, first off, I have always loved the future tech units from games like CTP and ToT, so in order to get that I need to use mods, which is fine, the modders for civ do great work. However because of my love of epically sized huge maps (250x250) I have encountered the problem that it takes like a thousand years for my forces to go from one end of my empire to the other, so my solution is to either shorten the span of time covered by a game turn, or to increase the speed of units.

Ideally I'd like to do a little of both, but there are a few little snags involved in that, first is that if I decrease the span of time per turn, then I will have jet fighters by the early dark ages , also, I like to spend some time dwelling on each era fully exploring the capabilities of the units and improvements for each time, so I want tech advancement to go slower. I have tried to up the tech rate value in the scenario editor, however it is limited to a level of 1000, and although this does slow advancement quite a bit, Ideally I would like to slow it a bit more. Is there a way to increase that limit, get around it, or is there an alternate technique? I know I can increase the cost of advancements, but that is a bit of a problem, because that is tedious as hell to go into each and every tech and edit the cost, especially if I want to fine tune the advancement rate for a scenario.

The other issue is that the only way I have figured out how to increase unit speed is to go into each unit and increase the speed value individually, which is a REALLY tedious process, and also is very hard to fine tune. Is there a way to modify movement rates for the entire scenario without doing it on a unit by unit basis? and barring that doing it the slow tedious way doesn't work that well because in the mod I am using (far horizons), some units give me the error "Please select an integer between 0 and 349" and it indicates the icon number value, and the editor doesn't allow me to do anything until I fix the icon number. Since there are obviously more than 350 units in that scenario I can see how that would be a problem, however if the mod creator managed to create that many units and assign icon numbers higher than 349, it must be possible to edit these units without having to reassign the icon numbers to something below 350. So how do I do that?

Finally, if I uncheck the "time limit" box in the scenario tab in the scenario editor, does that mean the game is open ended? Also if so, how does the turn intervals work after you go past the last batch of turns defined in the "time scale" menu? Do you still use the same alloted time scale as the last batch?

For example I set the game to have 500 turns on the time scale table, the base unit is months, I have 100 turns at 12 months, 100 set for 9 months, 100 set for 6 months, 100 for 3 months, and 100 for 1. after turn 500 do the turns continue going at 1 month each? Also do I have to set all seven values or can I set only 4 or five values?

Thanks much in advance for your help.

 

[Virote_Considon]

So hi,

I haven't posted here in a while, but I have made the move back from civ 4 to civ 3 for my own reasons(I like bigger maps and hate MAF errors). anyways I have been trying to make some minor changes to the game and have hit a couple snags, first off, I have always loved the future tech units from games like CTP and ToT, so in order to get that I need to use mods, which is fine, the modders for civ do great work. However because of my love of epically sized huge maps (250x250) I have encountered the problem that it takes like a thousand years for my forces to go from one end of my empire to the other, so my solution is to either shorten the span of time covered by a game turn, or to increase the speed of units.

Ideally I'd like to do a little of both, but there are a few little snags involved in that, first is that if I decrease the span of time per turn, then I will have jet fighters by the early dark ages , also, I like to spend some time dwelling on each era fully exploring the capabilities of the units and improvements for each time, so I want tech advancement to go slower. I have tried to up the tech rate value in the scenario editor, however it is limited to a level of 1000, and although this does slow advancement quite a bit, Ideally I would like to slow it a bit more. Is there a way to increase that limit, get around it, or is there an alternate technique? I know I can increase the cost of advancements, but that is a bit of a problem, because that is tedious as hell to go into each and every tech and edit the cost, especially if I want to fine tune the advancement rate for a scenario.

How about increasing the maximum and minimum research times for techs?

The other issue is that the only way I have figured out how to increase unit speed is to go into each unit and increase the speed value individually, which is a REALLY tedious process, and also is very hard to fine tune. Is there a way to modify movement rates for the entire scenario without doing it on a unit by unit basis? and barring that doing it the slow tedious way doesn't work that well because in the mod I am using (far horizons), some units give me the error "Please select an integer between 0 and 349" and it indicates the icon number value, and the editor doesn't allow me to do anything until I fix the icon number. Since there are obviously more than 350 units in that scenario I can see how that would be a problem, however if the mod creator managed to create that many units and assign icon numbers higher than 349, it must be possible to edit these units without having to reassign the icon numbers to something below 350. So how do I do that?

There isn't a way of increasing every unit's movement without doing it on a one-by-one basis, I'm afraid

What you could do, though, is perhaps increase the movement rates along roads?

Finally, if I uncheck the "time limit" box in the scenario tab in the scenario editor, does that mean the game is open ended?

Nope. It just defaults to 540 turns.

Also if so, how does the turn intervals work after you go past the last batch of turns defined in the "time scale" menu? Do you still use the same alloted time scale as the last batch?

For example I set the game to have 500 turns on the time scale table, the base unit is months, I have 100 turns at 12 months, 100 set for 9 months, 100 set for 6 months, 100 for 3 months, and 100 for 1. after turn 500 do the turns continue going at 1 month each? Also do I have to set all seven values or can I set only 4 or five values?

I'm not sure, but I think it uses the last value used...

 

[Civinator]

About research costs on big maps (especially 250x250) some posts on the following side of the CCM thread could be helpful :

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=352057&page=16

 

[Steph]

There isn't a way of increasing every unit's movement without doing it on a one-by-one basis, I'm afraid

If only we had a decent editor where we would for instance select 100 hundred units, and set the movement rate for all of them at once!

Or where we could see all the units in a kind of spreadsheet to fine tune the movement.

That would be great.

and barring that doing it the slow tedious way doesn't work that well because in the mod I am using (far horizons), some units give me the error "Please select an integer between 0 and 349" and it indicates the icon number value, and the editor doesn't allow me to do anything until I fix the icon number. Since there are obviously more than 350 units in that scenario I can see how that would be a problem, however if the mod creator managed to create that many units and assign icon numbers higher than 349, it must be possible to edit these units without having to reassign the icon numbers to something below 350. So how do I do that?

You need to use the correct unit32.pcx (big enough to havz more than 350 units), and put it where it will be found in the search folders.

 

[Virote_Considon]

Yeah, but the problem is, you can only set all selected units to have the same movement, which means that if units with different movement are interspersed with each other, you're still effectively doing it on a 1 by 1 basis

 

[Steph]

You can use filters and CTRL key to still do them batch by batch instead of one by one.

 

[ASB central]

How about increasing the maximum and minimum research times for techs?

that is something I considered, but it is hardly the optimum solution

What you could do, though, is perhaps increase the movement rates along roads?

again it is something that I considered, but again it's only a half measure and would only partially give me the game experience I'm looking for.

Nope. It just defaults to 540 turns.

so there's no way to play more than 1000 turns in a game? quick related question, I haven't actually not accomplished the objectives on civ III before reaching the time limit, does it ask you if you want to continue playing even after the "last" turn is reached like civ II did?

thanks for the feedback though, I appreciate it.

 

[ASB central]

You need to use the correct unit32.pcx (big enough to havz more than 350 units), and put it where it will be found in the search folders.

so I should replace the original icon .pcx file with the .pcx file from the mod I'm using? and it will stop giving me the error in editor for numbers higher than 349? OK cool, I'll try that thanks a lot.

 

[ASB central]

You can use filters and CTRL key to still do them batch by batch instead of one by one.

filters? could you elaborate? I didn't spot anything like that in the utilities page, but then again I wasn't specifically looking for filters. do these filters allow you to only select infantry units or only select land, air, or sea units? that could be useful, depending on what it allows you to group select. thanks a lot.

 

[Steph]

so there's no way to play more than 1000 turns in a game? quick related question, I haven't actually not accomplished the objectives on civ III before reaching the time limit, does it ask you if you want to continue playing even after the "last" turn is reached like civ II did?

I'm working on a way to reset the turn count regularly, so you could play more than 1000 turns.

so I should replace the original icon .pcx file with the .pcx file from the mod I'm using? and it will stop giving me the error in editor for numbers higher than 349? OK cool, I'll try that thanks a lot.

No, but you need to be sure in the scenario properties that the search folder is properly defined, and so the pcx from the mod you are using is found first, and used instead of the original, but don't replace the original.

filters? could you elaborate? I didn't spot anything like that in the utilities page, but then again I wasn't specifically looking for filters. do these filters allow you to only select infantry units or only select land, air, or sea units? that could be useful, depending on what it allows you to group select. thanks a lot.

See link in my signature.

 

[ASB central]

I'm working on a way to reset the turn count regularly, so you could play more than 1000 turns.


No, but you need to be sure in the scenario properties that the search folder is properly defined, and so the pcx from the mod you are using is found first, and used instead of the original, but don't replace the original.


See link in my signature.

Thanks for the help. Your editor is pretty cool, I'm yusing now, thanks for making it.