korn's Blitz Mod

[HarryS]

I tried again and had the same problem as before, though it was a type 2 not a type 3 error, oh well....

But something else occurred to me when I was reading over the 1.06beta readme. There seem to be dozens of changes but the 1.06beta seemed to have only nine. Do I have to install the earlier modpacks first before the the 1.06beta? Now that I think of it it would make sense. So am I just being obtuse again?

I would so seriously love to try this modpack out!

HarryS

 

[Desert Fox]

Hey Korn - I did not know that some of the corruption problem was "hard wired", if you will for lack of better words. I really thought you could designate some new buildings to help with the problem? There needs to be a degree of corruption to make things balance out in the game, but Firaxis has too address this issue.
I have been a real nut case about complaining. That is all in the past I have not stopped "trying" to play the game since I bought it when it first came out. I am ill and rely heavy on games to give some escape. Turn based games are the only thing I can handle. Hence why I turned into a nightmare for those fo you who were taking the bugs in stride.
All I care about now is the final patch too solve the big issues. I want to help you iron the bugs out of your mod because you have the right ideas for the game. Other mods have some good points but yours is spot on in view. I especially like your wheeled Settler! Playing expansionists civ it really helps big time!

I build computers for a living I know how to install programs etc. To bad there are some problems with the install of program and patch. You should not have to uninstall the game for each patch.

I still would like to see those folders created in your zip file. Make it tons easier to install the mod. Thanks for taking the time to make such a nice mod I mean that!

P.S. I plan to create my own mod soon once the patches are all in. I will use your mod for a base if you don't mind? Peace.

Desert Fox

 

[Desert Fox]

Hey I finally finished a game with a horrible score but finished with space race. :crazyeyes

First thing I notice is that the barbarians are now a challenge set at restless. Need at least 3 fortified when they hoard up.
Science is real slow but I think I understand why. It is harder too build a settler now? I mean cost more?
I set up a world 220x220 just to see if it crashes on large again. I did notice that every time I tried to change my color the game would crash. I play as Greeks most of the time. The green set for them is too much like the terrain making it tough to see settler build zone etc.

One suggestion I have is make the Privateer upgrade to another type of same ship. Call it Mercenary or something. Higher attack stats too hamper the modern shipping lanes. Of course it should not be able to take out a powerful battleship you know.
You need a dedicated artist for all of those great units you have made

Desert Fox

 

[korn469]

HarryS

each mod pack is a seperate entity, and you should try to install any of the previous versions

on windows there is a folder for civ3, mine is called civ3, but normally it's something like

Infogrames Interactive/Civilization III

inside of this folder there are a few folders

Art
redist
Saves
Scenarios
Sounds
Text

and a number of files including the civ3mod.bic and civ3.exe

to install a mod, you need to change all of the files affected by the mod, since i am not including the full range of files that is why i'm still calling v1.06 a beta release, i will certainly need to add in a civilopedia.txt and a pediaicons.txt (though if anyone want to volunteer for this i'd appreciate it very much ) but the zip contains everything you need on windows to get it to run

on windows all you needed to get it running is to replace the civ3mod.bic, and it should load...however since i've added buildings it won't load a save game, on windows you get a dataIO error

however you also need to create the unit folders because even though it will run it will crash the game as soon as those units come into play, which should be almost immeadiately

also another thing to note is the version of the bic, on windows it is 2.10, the game is not compatiable with any new or older versions of the bic, to get the newest version of the bic you need the newest version of the patch, so you cannot play the blitz mod (or most likely any new mod) on an unpatched version of the game

so where does this bring us to?

lets try to get this running, so could you do the following things for me?

1) make sure you have the current version of the patch installed
2) switch out the civ3mod.bic but do not alter any other thing at this time
3) start a new game

if that causes a crash open up the civ3 editor goto the help section, and open "about civ3 edit" then note the version of the bic

if it is not 2.10 then that explains the situation, and it means that windows most likely isn't compatable with mac, in order to test this, i have included the original version of the civ3mod.bic for windows, it hasn't been altered in any way, so replace the blitz mod civ3mod.bic with the original one, and then try to start a new game, if there is still a problem then windows created bics can't be played on mac and vise versa

however if it does load with the blitz modbic we're in business, create the art files and it should work then

if it doesn't work with the blitz mod bic but does work with the original bic then you'll have to wait till sunday or monday when i release beta7.1 with most of the needed files

however if the mac version doesn't have art folders and text files and such, then i'm not sure about anything except that the mac would most likely require mac specific mods
________________________________________

Desert Fox

I did not know that some of the corruption problem was "hard wired", if you will for lack of better words. I really thought you could designate some new buildings to help with the problem? There needs to be a degree of corruption to make things balance out in the game, but Firaxis has too address this issue.

you can add buildings with a corruption reducing effect, and i did (the newspaper in the middle ages and i changed the police station to reduce culture before firaxis did ), however the problem with balancing out these issues is this, cities far away from your capital which needs the building the most are also the cities least able to build those structures, while the cities with the smallest need for them are most likely to be able to build them

i will adjust the cost of the courthouse to make it easier to build in far away cities though, thanks for the idea

You should not have to uninstall the game for each patch.

hehe you shouldn't but everytime civ3 has became unstable on me uninstalling it and reinstalling it seemed to fix that

I still would like to see those folders created in your zip file. Make it tons easier to install the mod.

the only problem with that is my internet connection, it is slow as crap! but if you have a fast internet connection please tell me because i have an idea on how to work around this

I plan to create my own mod soon once the patches are all in. I will use your mod for a base if you don't mind?

no problem at all, just do two things make sure you say its built on the blitzmod and include the blitz mod contribution's and thanks file (i'm working on this)

 

[Desert Fox]

Hey I will be happy to help you out with that If that is your idea. Not a problem let me know what you want to do. I have no uploaded to the forum but that should be easy. :crazyeyes

Yeah I have had to uninstall the whole game when I was running win98SE. Now with XP I no longer have to not exactly sure why. In fact XP has not crashed fatally since I installed it!

Looks like you will beat me too fixing the corruption issue before I get around to making my mod. I hate another problem too resources disappearing to quickly, and not enough of them. I think the gold should be double appearance it is now, plus some of the military resource should be a little more plentilful too. The happy resources they should be the ones that are sprinkled around. AI will not trade on the cheap for military resources either. Maybe I am the only one this bothers?

I am getting ready to enter the Industrial age using latest Blitz mod. Soon see if it bombs or not.

Of course I would plaster your name all over my mod if I based it on yours No worries!

Desert Fox

 

[korn469]

Hey I will be happy to help you out with that If that is your idea. Not a problem let me know what you want to do. I have no uploaded to the forum but that should be easy.

this is exactly what i had in mind, i'll pm you about it soon

Looks like you will beat me too fixing the corruption issue before I get around to making my mod. I hate another problem too resources disappearing to quickly, and not enough of them. I think the gold should be double appearance it is now, plus some of the military resource should be a little more plentilful too. The happy resources they should be the ones that are sprinkled around. AI will not trade on the cheap for military resources either. Maybe I am the only one this bothers?

yea i'll make the courthouses cheaper and resources are up for review, along with terrain

 

[korn469]

ok it's not a true website or anything but it is a centralized place to get all of the blitz mod files, including the unit files (hehe now you don't have to ask anymore desert fox)

you can find it here in the briefcase, i'll put up a readme soon for it

Blitz Mod Files


anyways a few gameplay comments i missed

First thing I notice is that the barbarians are now a challenge set at restless. Need at least 3 fortified when they hoard up.

yup, i changed the default barbarians from warriors, horsemen, and galleys to swordsmen, knights, and privateers, additionally i took away all of the bonuses versus barbarians from regent on, so not only do barbarians get better units it also isn't as easy to kill them, this was done to slow down expansion some and to force the player to defend themselves better, also the great wall is actually worth something now

It is harder too build a settler now? I mean cost more?

settlers now cost 50 shields and require 3 population to build, compared to 30 shields and 2 population in normal civ3, they also have the wheeled special ability so they can't move over mountains or jungles unless they have roads on them first

I did notice that every time I tried to change my color the game would crash.

this isn't a problem with the mod it is a problem with civ3, you can only use the first 16 colors, if you use any other colors the game will crash

One suggestion I have is make the Privateer upgrade to another type of same ship. Call it Mercenary or something. Higher attack stats too hamper the modern shipping lanes. Of course it should not be able to take out a powerful battleship you know.

i'm thinking of doing this, i'd call it a commerce raider but i still haven't made up my mind one way or the other, just because i'm not sure where it would fit into the naval warfare side, i might possibly just add the hidden nationality flag to submarines though i'm not sure about this

on a historical note, the CSS Alabama during the US Civil war and the German Pocket Battleships in world war 2 are examples of this...though in WW1 or WW2 i think there was some german ship operating in the indian ocean that sank massive amounts of shipping, but i can't think of its name

You need a dedicated artist for all of those great units you have made

hehe know of any?

 

[HarryS]

Dear Korn,

Many thanks for all the advice and so much of it! I'll try switching out the Civ3mod.bic and see what happens.

The Mac has all the Art etc files and folders just like the windows version. One of the moderators, I forget who, did say that there is no reason why the modpacks shouldn't work on the Mac as it use all the the bic and flc files just like windows.

HarryS

 

[HarryS]

Hi Korn, me again. I've been looking over your reply to me in more detail and in the interest of giving you all the details you may need I'm going to answer some of the queries in your reply.

In my Civ3 folder I have all the files you mentioned except redist.

the civ3mod.bic file seems to have no version number at all. When I check it just says n/a.

Last night, I downloaded from Macsoft the Mac-compatible version of the latest patch, version 1.17f. I don't know if that will make a difference.

I am not really sure what you mean by "switch out the civ3mod.bic" Do you mean change the one in the basic version of the game for the one in 1.06beta? I'll try it anyway.

HarryS

 

[HarryS]

The updated 1.17f patch seemed to make the difference and I started a new game with no problem. I've only played two turns but at least it's up and running.

Now the questions. I'm probably belabouring the point but I want to make sure I completely understand. Am I right in saying that 1.06beta only modifies the units listed? And am I also right to say that if I want, say, the modifed/extra governments, like fascism, extra buildings etc. I need to download other earlier modpacks?

In the readme for the complete list of modifications I noticed under the government types, there were listed a number of different factors for each type under the heading of 'AG', what are these?

Anyway, sorry to keep bugging you like this but I figure if I right pedantic questions now they'll be that much easier for you to answer quickly.

HarryS

 

[HarryS]

In the readme list of units are the unit types listed in {} brackets, the unit upgrade? For example do Swordsmen actually upgrade to Grenadiers? That's quite a jump up the tech ladder. And UUs seem to 'upgrade' to the inferior standard equivalent unit, which seems odd.

Anyway, thanks again.

HarryS

 

[korn469]

switch out the civ3mod.bic" Do you mean change the one in the basic version of the game for the one in 1.06beta?

yes, exactly

I'm probably belabouring the point but I want to make sure I completely understand. Am I right in saying that 1.06beta only modifies the units listed? And am I also right to say that if I want, say, the modifed/extra governments, like fascism, extra buildings etc. I need to download other earlier modpacks?

no, the beta7 bic will make all of the changes listed in the beta7 readme, though until i update the civilipedia the only way to see what changes i've made is to either read the read me or to open the civ3mod.bic in the editor

so to get the blitz mod working, simply delete your current civ3mod.bic (after saving it somewhere else on your computer) and then simply put the civ3mod.bic from the blitz mod into the main civ3 folder, but the most important thing is this, you can only have one civ3mod.bic file in your main civ3 directory at any one time, so make sure it is the latest (and hopefully greatest) blitz mod civ3mod.bic

In the readme for the complete list of modifications I noticed under the government types, there were listed a number of different factors for each type under the heading of 'AG', what are these?

AG stands for AI aggression levels

In the readme list of units are the unit types listed in {} brackets, the unit upgrade? For example do Swordsmen actually upgrade to Grenadiers?

yes they do upgrade, it is quite a jump but it also have the positive effect of no more obsolete units in the build queue

And UUs seem to 'upgrade' to the inferior standard equivalent unit, which seems odd.

a civ will only upgrade a unit to what it can actually build, so that means a samurai wouldn't ever upgrade to a rider or a knight because the japanese can't actually build those units, nor would it upgrade to a coassak either, it will upgrade to the next unit the civ can build, so there isn't any problems here

 

[HarryS]

Hi Korn,

Everything seems to be running smoothly, I can tell because 20 turns in the barbarians sacked my one and only city! I'll have to be more circumspect about opening those goodyhuts in future. This is going to be hard.

Now that I've had a chance to take a closer look at the readme I can appreciate the details though I don't understand it all. The AG rating is a great idea, it gives you some idea of what kind of trouble you're going to be in....

I am not sure about the lists of traits like 'Offensive/Naval/Workers/growth etc...' for each Civ. Are these areas of special cultural strength? A more detailed expansion of the general cultural traits like Militaristic/Commercial etc?

Also in the city improvements there seem to be three entries for each improvement. The first is clearly cost and one of the others is maintenance but what is the last one?

Some of the units have a note 'blitz' attached to them. Is this an advance prerequisite, an ability or a short hand for the bombard command?

On a gameplay note I seem to be able to irrigate my city tiles from the sea, did you change back to the Civ2 way of doing things for irrigation?

And on a last small note further to our discussion of UUs in the Readme I noted that Legionaries seem to upgrade to Immortals while Immortals upgrade to Legionaries. It could just be a typo but I thought you'd want to know.

By the way, my brother works for Infogrames out in Melbourne and did some of the graphics for 'Wipeout' racing game. It's not something I know a lot about but I could ask him if he'd like to do some graphics for the city improvements and/or the civilopedia entries, if you want? For all I know he may eat flic files for breakfast and be able to rattle out endless unit animations before lunch.

Anyway, thanks for excellent modpack. In all my years of Civing it never occurred to me that it was possible to alter the game, it's great work.

HarryS

 

[roalan]

I have a question. Why can't the cov3mod.bic file go into the scenario folder instead of the main folder? If it can where does the .pcx file go?

 

[Desert Fox]

Hey I am playing on a 180x180 as Romans. I am having trouble building settlers/colonists fast enough to fill a hugh piece of land. The cost increase is unbalanced on hugh worlds anyways.
Corruption is much higher too for some reason. I have the city set at 40 on world settings.
Still has the problem with the wrong icons (graphics) in the queue or when viewed inside a transport. It functions as colonists though. :crazyeyes
I do not have the ability to build a hospital to enlarge past size 12? Did you remove it by accident
Let me know about any fixes need to play and the game needs a mod or it sucks. Peace.

Desert Fox

 

[korn469]

HarryS

I am not sure about the lists of traits like 'Offensive/Naval/Workers/growth etc...' for each Civ. Are these areas of special cultural strength? A more detailed expansion of the general cultural traits like Militaristic/Commercial etc?

it is options in the editor that determine what the AI will build...

Offensive units are units with the offensive AI enabled, such as warriors, archers, swordsmen, etc

Defensive units are units with the defensive AI enabled such as spearmen, pikemen, etc

and so on

Also in the city improvements there seem to be three entries for each improvement. The first is clearly cost and one of the others is maintenance but what is the last one?

first value is cost, second is culture, third is maintenance

Some of the units have a note 'blitz' attached to them. Is this an advance prerequisite, an ability or a short hand for the bombard command?

blitz is an ability that grants a unit the ability to attack as many times in a turn as it has movement

On a gameplay note I seem to be able to irrigate my city tiles from the sea, did you change back to the Civ2 way of doing things for irrigation?

check those squares again, they will say coast, but if they are completely enclosed by land they count as fresh water (ie they are lakes, inland seas things of that nature)

And on a last small note further to our discussion of UUs in the Readme I noted that Legionaries seem to upgrade to Immortals while Immortals upgrade to Legionaries. It could just be a typo but I thought you'd want to know

i think it is a typo in the readme, and i will correct it, and look to make sure it's not in the blitz civ3mod.bic (but i don't think it is, iirc you can't have a unit upgrade to a unit that upgrades to itself)

By the way, my brother works for Infogrames out in Melbourne and did some of the graphics for 'Wipeout' racing game. It's not something I know a lot about but I could ask him if he'd like to do some graphics for the city improvements and/or the civilopedia entries, if you want? For all I know he may eat flic files for breakfast and be able to rattle out endless unit animations before lunch.

if this was truly the case i couldn't be thankful enough!

Anyway, thanks for excellent modpack. In all my years of Civing it never occurred to me that it was possible to alter the game, it's great work

you're welcome! and thanks for the feedback

______________________________

roalan

I have a question. Why can't the cov3mod.bic file go into the scenario folder instead of the main folder? If it can where does the .pcx file go?

i will check into all of this, because installation could possibly safer and easier by making it a scenario

______________________________

Desert Fox

I am having trouble building settlers/colonists fast enough to fill a hugh piece of land. The cost increase is unbalanced on hugh worlds anyways.

hmmm i have had the exact opposite argument (the world fills up too fast) over at apolyton, i recommend you go for navigation so you can get colonists which move faster and aren't wheeled

Corruption is much higher too for some reason. I have the city set at 40 on world settings

unless firaxis changed something with the patch corruption should not be higher, except under fascism which was too powerful, i don't know what could be causing this

Still has the problem with the wrong icons (graphics) in the queue or when viewed inside a transport. It functions as colonists though.

this won't work till i include the pediaicons.txt file, and i am going to put it in with beta7.1 so it should work fine then

I do not have the ability to build a hospital to enlarge past size 12? Did you remove it by accident

i certainly don't think so, but i will check this out to make sure, you do have medicine right?

_____________________________

i have a few errands to run when i wake up in the morning, but then i'm going to work on the beta7.1 (including a pediaicons!) and i will release it either late sunday night or sometime monday (EST) with the changes we've discussed

 

[HarryS]

Hi Korn,

look I'm goimg to have to learn to read! My comment about the UUs was not quite true. What it says is that Immortals upgrade to Swordsmen and that Legionaries upgrade to Immortals. But that's still means one UU is upgrading to another UU.

I hope that's more useful.

HarryS

 

[Desert Fox]

When playing on a hugh world the extra shields for settler & colonists do not work. The high cost of science was a problem too. I quit a game 1950 AD where I still had not finished filling in my land and no prospect of ever reaching the space age. It was not my playing style that did it.
Personally I really liked the way you did units in the past mods. I had a major problem with barbarians too. Since my land was so large the barbarians were the worst I have ever seen in a game.
Corruption was actually higher then in any other game I have played. Only 3 cities away from my capital and the corruption was so bad that it took 50-60 turns for the common improvements.
I am not the best player but I did find these problems on hugh worlds. Maybe on smaller worlds this is not an issue.
I made some changes to see how it works out to help handle corruption and the high cost of building colonists & settlers. Settlers are normal, (3/2) colonists are now 5/3.
I tagged a bunch of buildings to help with the corruption issue.

Looking forward to some changes especially fixing the little things like the icon view being wrong. Peace!

I perfer this web site over Apolyton, to many "know it alls" & clicks over there making it not very enjoyable. Civ Fanatics is a much better site less clutter too. Apolyton seems to be into ads like crazy too. I use software to block tracking attempts. Not to piss off anyone just my opinion.

Desert Fox

 

[korn469]

look I'm goimg to have to learn to read! My comment about the UUs was not quite true. What it says is that Immortals upgrade to Swordsmen and that Legionaries upgrade to Immortals. But that's still means one UU is upgrading to another UU.

harryS

a unit can only upgrade to a unit your civ can build, if you can't build a unit then the build queue skips that units and moves on to the next highest unit you can build...it also works the same in reverse, that's why in normal civ3 even if you have discovered intergrated defense you will still have longbowmen and either swordsmen (if you have iron) or warriors (if you don't) in your build queue

so that is exactly how it is supposed to be

basically what that works out to mean is that if you are the persians a warrior will upgrade to an immortal, if you are the romans a warrior will upgrade to a legionary, and if you are any other civ a warrior will upgrade to a swordsman

hope that clears things up

 

[Desert Fox]

I am playing your mod on Chieftain level and having all the trouble with the extra cost of building settlers & colonists. I figured that at a higher level it wouold be that much worse.

I am playing a game as Persians now with some slight changes to combat corruption and make it easier to build settlers & colonists. Let me know what the popular opinion is though.
Looking forward to checking out the next version. Peace!

Desert Fox