Modding Q&A

[Vuldacon]

ajb... Well, You "Lucked Out" with having an easy correction for your Biq. This is a Lesson in SAVE Backups just in case

The only way I know to absolutely prevent an Improvement Building from being destroyed is if it is placed by a Great Wonder or if it is flagged to allow Level 2 or 3 Population increase. Of course if and when the Great Wonder is Captured or the City that has it is Razed, the Placed Building will be gone. That said, you could make the Building a Great Wonder. Then it could not be Bombarded away. If you want the Building in a Particular City, set a prerequisite in the City you want it in such as another Wonder, Improvement or set Resources required within City Radius.

Alternately, you could set the Building to build at a very low cost so when it is destroyed, it can be rebuilt immediately.
The Characteristics Flags affect more than a "Golden Age" but No Flagged Characteristics will prevent the Improvement from being destroyed from Bombardment other than what I mentioned above.

 

[tjs282]

Does selecting "military" or some of the other characteristics impact this likelihood at all (or are those characteristics just for the purposes of triggering a nations golden age)?

The Characteristics Flags affect more than a "Golden Age"

Specifically, @ajb, the "Civ-trait" flags for buildings affect whether that building can be built for half the shield-cost by a Civ with the matching trait (for the Mil, Sci, Rel, Sea, and Agri building-flags), or whether its maintenance-cost will be paid by a Wonder with the "Free upkeep for Commercial buildings" flag (Comm building-flag).

The Industrious and Expansionist building-traits do not have either of those effects (the Ind + Exp building-flags may possibly encourage Ind/Exp Civs to build those buildings before others with the same shield-cost but other traits, but don't quote me on that!).

When the building-traits are applied to Great Wonders, that's what triggers GAs. To get a Wonder-triggered GA, a Civ must build at least one, and likely more than one, GW(s) which has both traits of that Civ (or all the traits, if a mod has more than 2 traits per Civ). Alternatively, a Civ may also capture one (or more) GWs which has matching traits, and then build any Wonder.

So the more traits you assign to any Wonder, the more Civs it will be able to trigger a GA for.

 

[ajb]

Thanks for the responses, its too bad some of the limitations civ has.

The building in question was a defensive one which I was hoping would be one of the last buildings to be destroyed (I wanted large battles over this "city" to lay waste to improvements inside, while still giving the defending troops the defense bonus).
I'm under the impression defensive buildings get destroyed first, I guess it is what it is.

 

[Vuldacon]

Thanks for the responses, its too bad some of the limitations civ has.

Yes, indeed, Welcome to the Modding Game where you Must "Think out of the Box" to get what you want

The building in question was a defensive one which I was hoping would be one of the last buildings to be destroyed (I wanted large battles over this "city" to lay waste to improvements inside, while still giving the defending troops the defense bonus).
I'm under the impression defensive buildings get destroyed first, I guess it is what it is.

You can still have that Building with the Bonus Defense... Pre-place it as a Great Wonder then all other Improvements can be destroyed while it remains. You can add the Flags you want for the Great Wonder.
You can explain the "Great Wonder" in the Civilopedia as a Major Improvement rather than a Great Wonder.
Think about other factors such as if you want the Great Wonder to go Obsolete for all other CIVs. There are several ways to do it such as giving all other CIVs a Tech from the start of the Game that is simply named to collectively include all other CIVs, then set that Tech to have the Great Wonder go Obsolete... and Yes, there is more work to add what is needed but it all depends on how important the addition is for your Game but you can work around problems to have what you want

 

[Predator145]

Does anyone have success with making the AI prioritize building military buildings like barracks, walls and civil defense? These buildings are relatively cheap and should always be built first. But to make it worse, when at war, the AI prioritizes units before them. We've all seen the AI run around with a buncha standard units even well into the middle ages. This makes the militaristic trait the worst (next to expansionist) in AI hands.

No editor has the build often option of "military buildings". By assigning functions of happiness/trade/growth/production/culture/science to military buildings, one can trick the AI into consider them such. But the trick is how to do so without altering gameplay balance.

I tried giving a happy face and an unhappy face and the AI a "build often happiness" flag checked. This worked somewhat and will have the AI tricked into thinking the building is a happiness one on top of a military one. But the AI prioritizes the best value building to build first. The temple with 1 happy face and 2 culture thus got built first. Next, will be the colosseum and cathedral. In the WW2 Pacific scenario this got the Japanese, who had cathedrals and colosseums in many of their cities but no barracks, to build their barracks early (though not right away still) - an improvement over stock game. The Commonwealth would just build cathedrals although most of their cities were size 6 and didn't need any happiness.

Having gov only versions of buildings like CCM opens up the option of war weariness reduction for zero WW govs with no consequences.

The Quintillus editor has the option of "double happiness of" for improvements as well. This too counts as a "happiness" building. One could try doubling the happiness of granaries (which is zero) to trick the AI. I'm not sure if that has any effect.

Miscellaneous flags like double sacrifice, charm barrier, stealth attack barrier (if your scenario doesn't feature land stealth attackers), pollution reduction (if you scenario doesn't feature pollution), allows diplo victory (if your scenario doesn't allow), allow nukes (if your scenario doesn't feature any), allow spaceship parts (if your scenario doesn't feature that) and last the "more luxury trade" flag in the Quintillus editor can be ticked carefreely as well.

But for the others I don't see how I can incorporate anything without drastically altering gameplay. Any ideas?

 

[Civinator]

- With the Flintlock Patch it is possible to create SWs that can give barracks, city walls and so on to every city on the map or on a continent.
- Additionally there is the mobilization setting in Civ 3.

 

[Predator145]

- With the Flintlock Patch it is possible to create SWs that can give barracks, city walls and so on to every city on the map or on a continent.
- Additionally there is the mobilization setting in Civ 3.

AI only SW IMO is the last resort. After all, it's a big departure from stock game balance. The SW generated buildings are maintenance free and in the case of buildings with land bombard defense (walls) it's bugged. Then I'd have to think about other things for the Great Wall and Sun Tzu.

The AI loves culture. If you give Walls 4 culture they'd build it early, esp with "culture" as build often civ flag checked. Conversely, the AI seems to not prioritize a SW if it generates no culture. When I removed the token 1 culture from the Military Academy, the AI didn't care for it even though I lowered its cost down to 1.

But how to balance out culture given to things like walls, barracks and civil defense? How does the negative culture and pollution thing in the editor work?


Does the AI even use the Mobilization setting?

 

[ajb]

Yes, indeed, Welcome to the Modding Game where you Must "Think out of the Box" to get what you want



You can still have that Building with the Bonus Defense... Pre-place it as a Great Wonder then all other Improvements can be destroyed while it remains. You can add the Flags you want for the Great Wonder.
You can explain the "Great Wonder" in the Civilopedia as a Major Improvement rather than a Great Wonder.
Think about other factors such as if you want the Great Wonder to go Obsolete for all other CIVs. There are several ways to do it such as giving all other CIVs a Tech from the start of the Game that is simply named to collectively include all other CIVs, then set that Tech to have the Great Wonder go Obsolete... and Yes, there is more work to add what is needed but it all depends on how important the addition is for your Game but you can work around problems to have what you want

Thanks again for the suggestions, good way to think "outside the box" as you say.

 

[ajb]

Anyone know about a luxury resource bug? My capital is unconnected to any of my cities; upon taking another nations capital all cities connected to that former capital now have two phantom luxuries (they give my cities two happy citizens). Once I connect my capital to my other cities these two phantom luxuries disappear.

 

[tjs282]

Anyone know about a luxury resource bug? My capital is unconnected to any of my cities; upon taking another nations capital all cities connected to that former capital now have two phantom luxuries (they give my cities two happy citizens). Once I connect my capital to my other cities these two phantom luxuries disappear.

Broadly speaking, the so-called "phantom-resource bug" may/will kick in if your .biq includes >32 Lux + Strat resources in total.

(i.e. you can 'safely' have anything up to 32 Lux + 0 Strat, or 0 Lux + 32 Strat, but as soon as you add one more of either — whether as an all-new resource, or by reassigning a previously Bonus resource as a Strat/Lux — the bug will definitely kick in)

You can read about the bug and the workaround (such as it is) in more detail here:

https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/keeping-resources-in-check-no-phantom-resources.391951/

 

[Predator145]

Is it possible for a 1 trait civ to get a golden age from wonders?

Does negative culture multiply by 2 after a 1000 years?

Do Wonder and now SW generated improvement's culture double after a 1000 years?

 

[tjs282]

Is it possible for a 1 trait civ to get a golden age from wonders?

It should be easier to get a GA, since the Civ would only have to build a GW with one matching flag, instead of one-or-more GW(s) with 2 matching flags.

Does negative culture multiply by 2 after a 1000 years?

No idea for sure, but that would seem logical.

Do Wonder and now SW generated improvement's culture double after a 1000 years?

No.

 

[Predator145]

What does the error FILE NOT FOUND "Art\Units\Frank\..\Swordsman\SwordsmanFortify.wav" mean? This is Utahjazz's frankish axeman. Things are supposed to work fine without sound files right? I copy pasted the swordsman's wavs files into the folder but it didn't help.

 

[Nathiri]

What does the error FILE NOT FOUND "Art\Units\Frank\..\Swordsman\SwordsmanFortify.wav" mean? This is Utahjazz's frankish axeman. Things are supposed to work fine without sound files right? I copy pasted the swordsman's wavs files into the folder but it didn't help.

True, but if there's a file path link there, then the game will search for it. The file path is not accurate so the game crashes. Moving the files in the folder wont help unless you edit the file path. Either fix the file path for the original link, or if you prefer to keep the sound file in the folder, remove the '/'s and just put the name of the sound file itself (eg. 'SwordsmanFortify.wav')

 

[Predator145]

True, but if there's a file path link there, then the game will search for it. The file path is not accurate so the game crashes. Moving the files in the folder wont help unless you edit the file path. Either fix the file path for the original link, or if you prefer to keep the sound file in the folder, remove the '/'s and just put the name of the sound file itself (eg. 'SwordsmanFortify.wav')

Sorry for noob questions. Is the "file path link" something that the creator of the unit put in? And how do I edit it? I don't know where to remove the "\"s.

 

[Vuldacon]

Sounds are in the .ini Files that are inside the Unit Folders.
"Sound Paths" are simply links to sounds that are in Other Unit Folders.

Here is an example of links to sounds in a .ini File. The same process of linking flcs for animations can also be done the same way.
This .ini File is used for the Unit "General Fullbright'" and links both Animations and Sounds from a different Unit in the .ini File.
[Sound Effects]
BLANK=
DEFAULT=
WALK=
RUN=..\King German\KingGermanRun.amb
ATTACK1=GeneralFullbrightAttack.wav
ATTACK2=..\King German\KingGermanFidget.wav
ATTACK3=
DEFEND=
DEATH=..\King German\KingGermanDeath.wav
DEAD=
FORTIFY=..\King German\KingGermanFidget.wav
FORTIFYHOLD=
FIDGET=..\King German\KingGermanFidget.wav

 

[Nathiri]

'\'s are the symbols that designate subfolders. DEATH=..\King German\KingGermanDeath.wav. The \ separating each name tells the game to look in a sub folder/another folder from where the ini file is located and the '..' another mod folder directory entirely. What I meant by removing the '\'s was removing the sub folders. If you are using files from other units, the best way is to try and fix the file path as that saves hdd space and keeps the mod folder smaller in file size. But if you wanted to keep the sounds for the unit in its folder (you said you had copied the files to the folder), then removing everything before the sound file's name would tell the game just to look in the same folder as the ini file. So instead of "DEATH=..\King German\KingGermanDeath.wav" it would just be "DEATH=KingGermanDeath.wav". You can see this is in Vuldacon's example under ATTACK1.

 

[Vuldacon]

Nathiri... Absolutely

 

[Takhisis]

Is it possible for a 1 trait civ to get a golden age from wonders?

It should be added that 0-trait civs trigger a golden age by building any Wonder.

 

[Predator145]

'\'s are the symbols that designate subfolders. DEATH=..\King German\KingGermanDeath.wav. The \ separating each name tells the game to look in a sub folder/another folder from where the ini file is located and the '..' another mod folder directory entirely. What I meant by removing the '\'s was removing the sub folders. If you are using files from other units, the best way is to try and fix the file path as that saves hdd space and keeps the mod folder smaller in file size. But if you wanted to keep the sounds for the unit in its folder (you said you had copied the files to the folder), then removing everything before the sound file's name would tell the game just to look in the same folder as the ini file. So instead of "DEATH=..\King German\KingGermanDeath.wav" it would just be "DEATH=KingGermanDeath.wav". You can see this is in Vuldacon's example under ATTACK1.

Oh. That's nice to safe space. Sorry for being illiterate but how do I edit that path? Where do I open it?

Example of Vuldacon's unit :

[Sound Effects]
BLANK=
DEFAULT=
WALK=
RUN=..\King German\KingGermanRun.amb
ATTACK1=GeneralFullbrightAttack.wav
ATTACK2=..\King German\KingGermanFidget.wav
ATTACK3=
DEFEND=
DEATH=..\King German\KingGermanDeath.wav
DEAD=
FORTIFY=..\King German\KingGermanFidget.wav
FORTIFYHOLD=
FIDGET=..\King German\KingGermanFidget.wav

Where do I open this? Is it in the unit's folder?