Modding Q&A

[Predator145]

Has anyone ever successfully made a unit, which when auto-produced for the AI, they either simply disband it for the shields, or join it to the city for a population increase?

My first attempt at such they simply let sittin there, gathering dust. I'm not sure the AI will be capable of doing this at all.

There is no AI strat for 'disband for shields'. Even auto produced units with no AI strats would just sit there. There is the "leader" AI strat. And if that unit has the "finish improvement" special order the AI will use it to do so since in C3C it never makes armies with leaders.

 

[tjs282]

IIRC, there's a screenshot somewhere — in the "Interesting screenshots" thread? — showing the city-view for a captured AI-town (previously Mayan) with a citizen(s?) whose nationality is "Barbarian": the implication being that a Jav-Thrower must have enslaved a Barb unit into a "Worker (Barbarian)", which was then later added to the town (and never assimilated).

Found it. It's actually a thread:

https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/content-laborer-a-barbarian-chiefdom-not-a-modded-game.604294

Interesting to note that @justanick — who is far more knowledgeable about Civ3 mechanics than I am(/anyone is!) — says that the AI quite readily joins Workers to its towns.

 

[MeteorPunch]

Thanks for the finds. My original ideas will not work, but it seems there are some cool things that can be done.

 

[r16]

once ı had a little mod that tried to enslave so many soldiers that ı wouldn't need to build any units . Win against Germans and you have (German) Paratrooper . Win against Barbarians and you will have (Barbarian) Paratrooper . Except ı had two seperate games and in one of them the result for the later case would use my defining thing ... Playing Empire , lmperials and lmperial as names and so on ı would have (lmperial) Paratrooper ... Can anyone set that any barbarian captures will always carry the state tag ?

 

[Takhisis]

Unfortunately in Civ 3 events can only be created 'indirectly' by using other existing features in Civ 3 like the techtree or some other options in the game that can create reactions (like popup windows).

Is this what was done in Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire? I remember that text would sometimes pop up.

 

[r16]

is there any reason for the palace to have culture ? Am thinking on the usual long term to place huts around the single city of a "lost" civilization .

 

[MeteorPunch]

Anyone know a secret way to make "Replaces other buildings with the same flag" work with small wonders? I mean I doubt it's possible, but you never know.

 

[Predator145]

Does anyone know if the AI upgrades its units with the "city screen" option or with a unit command option. If it's the former it would spend no movement. I'd like to have units upgrade into cheaper versions of themselves. The AI wasting a turn upgrading is not ideal.

 

[Civinator]

Does anyone know if the AI upgrades its units with the "city screen" option or with a unit command option. If it's the former it would spend no movement. I'd like to have units upgrade into cheaper versions of themselves. The AI wasting a turn upgrading is not ideal.

I never reflected about upgrading with the "city screen" option or with a "unit command option", but here is an observation I had while watching the mod CCM in debug mode. In this mod an autoproduced immobile unit called clan must be upgraded to mobile civspecific settler units. While the human player has to use the unit command option to upgrade that unit with the result, that the upgraded settlers only can move in the next turn of the game, the AI civspecific mobile settlers can move out in the same turn of the game.

 

[Ozymandias]

is there any reason for the palace to have culture ? Am thinking on the usual long term to place huts around the single city of a "lost" civilization .

Beyond accruing Culture points over time, any Imp/SW/GW with any Culture value will be destroyed when captured.

 

[tjs282]

any Imp/SW/GW with any Culture value will be destroyed when captured

Only Culture-producing generic Improvements (including the Palace) and Small Wonders are destroyed on capturing a town.

Great Wonders are only destroyed if the town is then razed -- or later abandoned (not sure if they can also be destroyed by bombardment, if the Great Wall bug kicks in?).

 

[Vuldacon]

Civinator... A Player can Upgrade a Unit by navigating to the City Screen and Upgrade a Unit then go through any other Cities and Upgrade what ever is possible before the Turn Actually starts. Then those Units can be used the same turn.
I use this technique in EFZI2 Elite. For example, When The Machine Shop = Barracks is built in Adventure Island, I am in the City Screen and can Upgrade the Annihilator by right clicking the Unit and Upgrade it while in the City Screen... then after I get out of the City Screen, my Turn starts and I can use the Annihilator Armed That same Turn....same as the AI does.

 

[Civinator]

Civinator... A Player can Upgrade a Unit by navigating to the City Screen and Upgrade a Unit then go through any other Cities and Upgrade what ever is possible before the Turn Actually starts. Then those Units can be used the same turn.
I use this technique in EFZI2 Elite. For example, When The Machine Shop = Barracks is built in Adventure Island, I am in the City Screen and can Upgrade the Annihilator by right clicking the Unit and Upgrade it while in the City Screen... then after I get out of the City Screen, my Turn starts and I can use the Annihilator Armed That same Turn....same as the AI does.

Vuldacon, it´s great that I always learn something new about Civ 3.

So the correct answer to Predator145´s question is, that both the human and the AI players can upgrade with the City Screen option. The AI players always upgrade with that option.

 

[r16]

the scenario ı would like to make will run for a long time and having all 31 civs active at the same time would clearly stop the computer real quick . So , unless the human player opts to spare his/her starting unit in the earliest turns and upgrades into various forms , there would be some civs with a single city for 200 turns doing nothing , ı want them to have huts when their turn comes , for this the city has to have no culture ...

 

[Vuldacon]

Civinator... Upgrading and using a Unit the same Turn is very beneficial.
added to that technique is to start building a new "Forbidden Palace" in a City where you want to Build something the Turn you have the ability to Build it. You can navigate to that City and change the Production to the thing you want to build and have it that turn.
...just a matter of doing the Math to know how many shields are needed and how many shields the City produces each turn... and of course you do not want to actually Build a New Forbidden Palace so also keep in mind how many turns are required for it to build so you can prevent it.

 

[Ozymandias]

Only Culture-producing generic Improvements (including the Palace) and Small Wonders are destroyed on capturing a town.

Great Wonders are only destroyed if the town is then razed -- or later abandoned (not sure if they can also be destroyed by bombardment, if the Great Wall bug kicks in?).

I sit corrected

 

[Takhisis]

Civinator... A Player can Upgrade a Unit by navigating to the City Screen and Upgrade a Unit then go through any other Cities and Upgrade what ever is possible before the Turn Actually starts. Then those Units can be used the same turn.
I use this technique in EFZI2 Elite. For example, When The Machine Shop = Barracks is built in Adventure Island, I am in the City Screen and can Upgrade the Annihilator by right clicking the Unit and Upgrade it while in the City Screen... then after I get out of the City Screen, my Turn starts and I can use the Annihilator Armed That same Turn....same as the AI does.

Vuldacon, it´s great that I always learn something new about Civ 3.

You can also do it from your military advisor screen.

 

[Civinator]

You can also doing from your military advisor screen.

Interesting! I will try it in my next game - and the other option, too.

 

[Takhisis]

All you have to do is to switch to displaying units by city instead of by unit type. Just make sure that you're upgrading the correct ones, because you can get upgrade-happy and throw a few thousand supplies into that.

Although just upgrading a few dozen Tanks into Modern Armour in the epic game is just glorious.

 

[MeteorPunch]

Has anyone ran into a size limit for the Units32.pcx file? The template I'm using is 463x7927 pixels in size, but I feel like I'm gonna go over 10,000 vertically by the time I'm done.