Marz

[Tholish]

1. Download the zip using this link:
http://www.civfanatics.net/downloads/civ3/scenarios/Marz.zip

2. Then unzip it in the right place:

From the desktop, in Windows XP, go to My computer, then C drive, then program files, then infogrames, then civ3, then civ3ptw, then scenarios. Put the Marz.zip there.
Right click on it and select the option to unpack all.

3. Then apply the latest patch. I will upgrade Marz over time by
improving the text file and bix.

Download this.
http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads5/MarzPatch2.zip

Go to the Scenarios folder in the Civ3 PTW under Civ3, under
infogrames interactive, in programfiles, on your computer.
Put the zip file there for now.
In scenarios should be two Marz related folders:
one is the actual scenario, named "Marz." Delete it.
The other is the data folder, named "Mars."
Open it and delete the subfolder called "Text"

Now, unzip the zip where you left it, take the folder called Text and put it in "Mars."

4. Go back to the desktop. Start Civ3 PTW. Select to play a scenario, and scroll down to Marz.

(PS: you might also use the editor to remove Horses as a prerequisite for Jumpsuit.)

 

[Tholish]

Marz is set on the planet Mars, starting in the year 2050. You are the governor of one of 11 colonies. Your people chafe at the bit of Terran domination, which would use you simply to supply raw materials to the motherland. Yet the Terran authorities keep sending colonists, well equipped to found more sites, and worker robots, and as many Mercenaries as are necessary to keep the population in hand and the outlaws at bay.

As your people secretly develop independent capabilities, however, the Terran authorities take notice, and gradually withdraw support, leaving you to your own more rustic devices.
Your cities are guarded by crossbow miltia. Your workers wear home made pressure suits that cannot wander far from a steady supply of oxygen bottles. You can't even use the colony computer any more.

Over time, you will develop better technologies, cope with Mars, even surpass the Terrans of today and reach for the stars. But for the time being, Mars is a harsh mistress.
http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads5/mars.JPG

 

[Tholish]

I am very satisfied with Marz artistically. It is exactly the right
design, a good game, making a good statement or two. The Readme contains a more detailed analysis.

I am unhappy with it technically. It runs slow and occasionally it even crashes (though you can play through it using the autosave). I welcome advice. My theory is that I've simply saved it so many times (on my computer the current version was called "stub 10g") that it is like a photocopy of a photocopy of a photocopy. I need to retype the editor changes from scratch, in one shot rather than a bunch of tweaks and retweaks.

And of course, it is incomplete, though it plays.
It badly needs a civilopedia. Better city name lists will be included in the...patch.

There will be a patch, later, including revised text files and a revised bix, but not requiring new art. So it should be a pretty small download.

 

[Neomega]

Honestly, fixing the pediaicons is a pain, and will scare most novice modders, and all who don't have a clue. I would suggest a patch right away with the pediaicons fixed, and uplaoded via the uploads link.

Also, it would be a good chance to give credit to the people who made the units you are using Before I have to yell at you

For help these are the ones I know:
Blit RAV, Laser Tank, jumpsuit, and laser inf by yours truly
Crawler and Mech Walker by Level
Veritech, Space fighter, Advanced APC, dropship by Kinboat
Hover Tank, Hover artillery by Piernik
Combat Mecha was by Blue-O and Armored Shock Infantry was by Balou.
That's all I know off the top of my head, but you realy should try and be sure they all get credit, because they all take an incredible amount of time and effort.

Thats all the chastizing I'll do for now....

 

[Padma]

I will reiterate what Neomega has already said:

1) make a "patch", with the pediaicons.txt fixed, and upload it and update your first post.

2) Give credit where credit is due.

And finally, how about a screenshot?

 

[Tholish]

Mars Terrain (only the hills part and roads) sprnv8
Mountains, from the Warpstorm Watercolor set
Tundra Irrigation, used for agriculture domes unknown as yet
(downloaded it last February from a post in the
creation and customization general discussion
if this is yours please tell me)

Units (all or part used in one or more units):
Laser Turret abcman
Armored Shock Infantry Balou
Combat Mecha Blue-O
Ballista CivGeneral
SDK222 Dog
Chokonu Jimmy H
Trebuchet JimmyH and kilroy
Advanced APC Kinboat
Dropship Kinboat
Spacefighter Kinboat
UFO Kinboat
Veritech Kinboat
Swoop Commando Lab Monkey
Hover Copter Level
Hover Artillery Piernik
Hovertank Level
Crawler Level
Mech Walker Level
Satellite Master Jo
Blitz RAV Neomega
Laser Tank Neomega
Jumpsuit Neomega
Laser Infantry Neomega
V1 Pablostuka
Penguin Pesoloco
Engineer Pesoloco
Carden-lloyd sween32
Stormtrooper tpasmall
AT-AT Driver Unknown as yet
(thought I got this from
the units library, but can't find it
if its yours please claim it.)
Cobra utahjazz7

 

[Amenhotep7]

Screenshot=would be nice.

 

[Tholish]

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads5/mars.JPG

 

[Amenhotep7]

The terrain is alight...But sprnv8 has a second file with more than just hills! It looks very interesting by the way.

 

[sprnv8]

I have the whole Terrain set there.

Looks really nice Tholish

 

[Tholish]

I thank you for the compliment and the terrain. I tried using the entire terrain set at first, but I wanted the icecap to be white, which it actually is, rather than red. So I needed to use regular tundra. I tried just mixing regular tundra in, but of course I got all these square edges becuase of the sophisticated way the terrain sets are set up to fit together. Rather than painstakingly fixing that, I tried just the hills, and lo and behold it was lovely. Except the mountains needed to be more defined, so I got them from one of the sets that came with PTW. To me they look brown, but they are probably green. That's OK because, of course, all that is various kinds of terraforming algae, with which Mars was seeded to prepare for the ill fated first wave, back in 2030. It settled in the nooks and crannies, coloring the rock there, but couldn't handle less sheltered crater rims and ridges, which remained barren rust. And of course, once you start planting Orchards, the square look is OK because people do things in straight lines. A slightly more reddish look would have been nice in the plains ("frostline," the area covered by icecap in hard winters) and grassland ("tundra," the area covered by icecap much of the time, but exposed in summer. ) Perhaps I will fix that up later, but for now, this makes me feel like working on the civilopedia...

Oh, here it is
http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads5/MarzPatch2.zip

 

[Tholish]

OK, that's all. I'm not going to mess with it any more in PTW.
For some unknown reason it overly taxes the AIs.
It runs great when they aren't around, with quick moves typical of regular unmodified Civ3. Then as soon as you
meet other Civs it starts running real slow, from 30 seconds to two minutes per turn. It may even crash, but you can restart
from the autosave and it will be fine. This usually happens right after all the other civs sell communication with you to each other, but then stops. All this implies to me that the "AIs" simply cannot handle the complete departure from the normal Civ3 Earth, and are trying to do calculations they weren't hard wired for, which fill up the memory. When you restart from Autosave much of this is
cleared out or something. Anyway, once I get Conquests, I'll redo
the mod in that and see if it's better.

PS Simply putting it in Conquests did not help. I will have to actually rewrite everything.