Modding Q&A

[Predator145]

Predator145... Please Upload the the units_32.pcx Slots that Allow and Disallow the King Units you Posted about.
The Army and Leader Slots, for example, are indicated in the PediaIcons and I assumed that those slots could be changed if the PediaIcons.txt was changed for them.

If indeed there are particular "Hard Coded" Slots that will Allow the AI to Upgrade any Unit to a King Unit, we need this information... same for the Slots that do not allow AI King Unit Upgrades.

There are only a handful of slots disallowing. The rest are free real estate. I don't know for sure how many slots and what number they are as I found this out through trial and error. It would take me even more time to trial and error every unit in the WW2 Pacific scenario.

I unhooked the "Archer" unit from the upgrade line, gave it the stats, abilities and 'tactical nuke' AI strat of the "Atomic Bomb" unit. Then had it upgrade to an "Atomic Bomb2" with king ability and 'air bombard' AI strat that I added to that scenario. At the same time the original "Atomic Bomb" with 'tactical nuke' AI strat also upgrades to that. Both me and the AI were able to upgrade the Archer, but not the Atomic Bomb.

Next I replaced the Archer's animation with Wyrm's FROG-7. The menu icon is still the Archer but the unit in game is a friggin truck mounted missile. Yet it upgraded just fine. Conversely the Atomic Bomb with Archer animation but same old icon still couldn't be upgraded.

I suspect the slots where the original leader, armies, ships, missiles, aircrafts and maybe workers and settlers icons are positioned are coded to be barred while most ground unit slots are ok. The work around is to copy paste these icons on the icon sheet to a slot past the last unit which is the Mobile SAM and then change the icon there. The Mobile SAM icon slot is 207 if I didn't count wrong. Which means anything 208 or beyond is safe to upgrade.

 

[Vuldacon]

Predator145... Yes, the last Unit Slot in the Conquests units_32 is the Mobile SAM and that is 207 Units but the File starts at 0 so Number 206 in the Biq.

Interesting... I believe the "Work Around" has to do with using slots on the units_32 After the last Original Unit to avoid any Original Game programing for the Original Units.
This seems to allow the changed settings for the AI and it does make sense as it does not try to change any Original Unit or Slot.

I assume if a MOD does not have many Units, the slots after the The Mobile SAM (#206 in the Biq) can be used and leave blank Slots before that on the units_32.

 

[Oni Ryuu]

Thanks Blue Monkey

 

[Tommy Vercetti]

Is there any limit to what you can use a Civlopeida image? I want to put articles with pics in relating to my scenarios backstory.

 

[Nanuk]

So the AI will mishandle custom units unless placed after slot 207?

 

[Vuldacon]

Tommy Vercetti... You can add any Civilopedia image you like as a .pcx and correct size.

Nanuk... You can customize most Game Units. We were posting about King Units that the AI can Upgrade.

 

[Nanuk]

Tommy Vercetti... You can add any Civilopedia image you like as a .pcx and correct size.

Nanuk... You can customize most Game Units. We were posting about King Units that the AI can Upgrade.

Right, but apparently the game has hardcoded information based on the icon number of the unit. So I wonder how the game will handle units in the icon slots where King units are. I wonder if there are other units that have references to icon sheet for their AI.

 

[Predator145]

Is it true that the "amphibious" ability ignores city defensive bonuses? How is that ability coded? Does it only kick in when a land unit is inside a transport unit? In the case of land transports the moment you select a land unit inside it gets automatically unloaded.

 

[Vuldacon]

Nanuk... The Great Leader and Army Slots seem to be the Main slots that are specific.
Apparently if the Slots past the Mobile SAM are used, the AI can Upgrade Units there to King Units.

 

[Civinator]

Is it true that the "amphibious" ability ignores city defensive bonuses? How is that ability coded? Does it only kick in when a land unit is inside a transport unit? In the case of land transports the moment you select a land unit inside it gets automatically unloaded.

Predator145, I´m not aware about any reliable source, that the amphibious flag has the effect, that this unit can perform attacks to cities by ignoring the city defensive bonus and as far as I understand that flag, the attack must be performed from a unit located on a coastal -, sea- or ocean terrain, what would mean, that it doesn´t work for attacks from land tiles onboard of landtransports. On the other side I didn´t have a focus on land-transports after recognizing, that the AI is not able to handle such a type of unit.

 

[Predator145]

Predator145, I´m not aware about any reliable source, that the amphibious flag has the effect, that this unit can perform attacks to cities by ignoring the city defensive bonus and as far as I understand that flag, the attack must be performed from a unit located on a coastal -, sea- or ocean terrain, what would mean, that it doesn´t work for attacks from land tiles onboard of landtransports. On the other side I didn´t have a focus on land-transports after recognizing, that the AI is not able to handle such a type of unit.

I read it here: http://www.sullla.com/Civ3/strat8b.html

I was thinking about using a helicopter to simulate an air assault infantry unit. With "amphibious" it could strike from transports or even helicopter carriers if you give it the "tactical missile" ability and the carrier the "carry only tactical missile" ability.

 

[Civinator]

Predator145, that´s an interesting link and I hope it is o.k. for sulla, when I citate here the part of sulla´s comment about the Marine unit:

Marine (8/6/1): This is another speciality unit that can be very useful in the right circumstances. Their special ability is to attack cities from ships, during which they ignore city defensive bonuses. This might not seem like much, but with that ability marines have 8 attack against the 12.5 defense infantry have when fortified (compared to 22.5 in a metropolis when the city defensive bonus is added). Marines can be very useful in blitz invasions of another continent, such as capturing a city on the coast with marines, then moving the invasion force of tanks into the city and hopping to other cities on their rail network. And marines are the only units that can capture a city on a 1-tile island, such as the ones that exist on the earth map that is packaged with the game. If you can't secure oil for tanks, marines are your best industrial age attack force. They aren't useless at all, just speciality units - keep that in mind.

It seems I made much too less amphibious attacks into coastal cities to recognize that advantage of ignoring the city defensive bonus. I will try more amphibious assults against coastal cities in my next Civ 3 games and have a closer look to the performance of units with the amphibious flag.

On the other side this comment only speaks about attacks directly from boards of ships when the city defensive bonus is ignored. This is a parallel to the observations I made with the current settings of advanced amphibious units in my mod CCM: I gave those units the blitz option and two movement points, but restricted the movement costs of all land terrain, so units with 2 MV can only move 1 tile in reality without a movement bonus in that terrain. Those amphibious units had no such movement bonus and as the result they can perform a blitz attack when attacking from 'water'-terrain but are not able to do a blitz attack inside land with the exception, that there are roads on that land terrain.

As the blitz attack setting is not working for units with the amphibious flag setting when attacking "inside" land terrain, I have the current understanding, that this ability is connected to the terrain from which the attack is started, and not if this attack is started by a "carried" unit - but I never stop in learning more.

Edit: I posted that topic in the Civ3 - Strategy & Tips forum, asking for replies to that observation posted by sulla.

 

[MeteorPunch]

That's a very interesting "lost" discovery if true. Probably not too hard to test either: Make a buildings or cities with super high defense,

 

[Predator145]

Is there a way to make a unit disappear from the icon menu outside of having it upgrade to another unit?

 

[MeteorPunch]

Un-check the "Upgrade Unit" flag. Instead of upgrading to that unit, it will not be available to build.

 

[tjs282]

Is there a way to make a unit disappear from the icon menu outside of having it upgrade to another unit?

Un-check the "Upgrade Unit" flag. Instead of upgrading to that unit, it will not be available to build.

CCM uses this 'obsolescence' mechanic for a lot of its units.

The only real problem with using this method, is that the section of the Pedia-window display showing a unit's statistics and requirements, is generated directly from the .biq-settings, and will thus report (falsely) that the unit can be upgraded. A conscientious modder might therefore also want to add a note to the unit's 'Pedia-description text, that the 'upgrade' is not possible, at least for the human player (as I understand it, since the AI-Civs don't use the GUI, they would be able to upgrade such obsolete units — if they have the cash).

 

[Vuldacon]

In EFZI2 Elite, I use the "Unchecked Unit Flag" = Obsolete for the Authorities SWAT Unit later to prevent the Authorities from building Hordes of them.
I added a statement to the Civilopedia regarding that the SWAT cannot Upgrade.
... as Civinator said, the Game will report that the Unit Upgrades in the Civilopedia and that is the false condition to using the method.

 

[MeteorPunch]

(as I understand it, since the AI-Civs don't use the GUI, they would be able to upgrade such obsolete units — if they have the cash).

I haven't not heard that one, but I am not surprised at all. I knew they could Rebase air units without that enabled, so...

 

[MeteorPunch]

Predator145, that´s an interesting link and I hope it is o.k. for sulla, when I citate here the part of sulla´s comment about the Marine unit:

Marine (8/6/1): This is another speciality unit that can be very useful in the right circumstances. Their special ability is to attack cities from ships, during which they ignore city defensive bonuses. This might not seem like much, but with that ability marines have 8 attack against the 12.5 defense infantry have when fortified (compared to 22.5 in a metropolis when the city defensive bonus is added). Marines can be very useful in blitz invasions of another continent, such as capturing a city on the coast with marines, then moving the invasion force of tanks into the city and hopping to other cities on their rail network. And marines are the only units that can capture a city on a 1-tile island, such as the ones that exist on the earth map that is packaged with the game. If you can't secure oil for tanks, marines are your best industrial age attack force. They aren't useless at all, just speciality units - keep that in mind.

It seems I made much too less amphibious attacks into coastal cities to recognize that advantage of ignoring the city defensive bonus. I will try more amphibious assults against coastal cities in my next Civ 3 games and have a closer look to the performance of units with the amphibious flag.

On the other side this comment only speaks about attacks directly from boards of ships when the city defensive bonus is ignored. This is a parallel to the observations I made with the current settings of advanced amphibious units in my mod CCM: I gave those units the blitz option and two movement points, but restricted the movement costs of all land terrain, so units with 2 MV can only move 1 tile in reality without a movement bonus in that terrain. Those amphibious units had no such movement bonus and as the result they can perform a blitz attack when attacking from 'water'-terrain but are not able to do a blitz attack inside land with the exception, that there are roads on that land terrain.

As the blitz attack setting is not working for units with the amphibious flag setting when attacking "inside" land terrain, I have the current understanding, that this ability is connected to the terrain from which the attack is started, and not if this attack is started by a "carried" unit - but I never stop in learning more.

Edit: I posted that topic in the Civ3 - Strategy & Tips forum, asking for replies to that observation posted by sulla.

I tested 2 different versions and believe the ignores defense is false.

Tested once with City size 2, and a second version with the building defense given a high rating. In both, the attacker was easily killed and absolutely did not ignore defenses. It's possible at some point in time after his article, that something got changed in the coding and game rules.

If I'm wrong, be free to correct me.

 

[r16]

marines are definitely heart breakers for me . They die easily attacking from the sea , even worse from the ground . They would be more potent in an army , and of course you can neither get elite marines (without first losing an inordinate number) nor make your single marine in an army to last two combats in one turn ...