Modding Q&A

[Predator145]

To those who have more experience with king ability units (like CCM), is there a way to get around king ability units not being able to defend non king ability units despite having higher defense stats and health? Auto produced machine gunners upgrading into king ability flavor units for example will not be able to cover regular units.

 

[Civinator]

To those who have more experience with king ability units (like CCM), is there a way to get around king ability units not being able to defend non king ability units despite having higher defense stats and health? Auto produced machine gunners upgrading into king ability flavor units for example will not be able to cover regular units.

There is only a very small option for units with the king-flag to defend normal units: Defense bombardment. I solved this problem by giving the most important units that should be defended (workers and settlers) the king flag, too. In this case units with the king-flag and a higher defense value defend units with the king-flag and a lower defense value (like workers and settlers).

 

[Takeo]

is there a way to get around king ability units not being able to defend non king ability units despite having higher defense stats and health? Auto produced machine gunners upgrading into king ability flavor units for example will not be able to cover regular units.

You can give the non-king units stealth attack against the King machine gun and the normal units will be forced to attack it first. Though, if you have a lot of units in your mod, then you will have a lot of extra work setting all this up.

 

[Nathiri]

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?

The King German folder in Units and then open the King German.ini. The ini file is actually a crucial file and is linked to the line referenced in pediaicons under ANIMNAME section. This is how the game finds all the animation files for the unit.

 

[Vuldacon]

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

Yes... Open the .ini file that is inside each Unit Folder. You Edit the lines to be able to Use Links as in my example.

 

[Civinator]

You can give the non-king units stealth attack against the King machine gun and the normal units will be forced to attack it first. Though, if you have a lot of units in your mod, then you will have a lot of extra work setting all this up.

Takeo, this looks like a good idea , but with more than 4.000 units in the next version of CCM I forgot about it and if every other unit in a stack can attack the same machinegunner unit may be this protection isn´t the best, too.

 

[Predator145]

How does negative culture work? I have a SW Palace generated building called "Flag" that causes -58 culture. Most buildings' culture values get negated by that. Yet there are those who just simple ignore it.

For example, Walls generate 13 culture and get negated. Walls go obsolete with Engineering and gets replaced by Citadels whose culture does not get negated. They both are of the same category with Land Bombard defense value, no maintenance and disappear once the city hits size 7.

"Agricultural Flag" is SW generated has a culture of +1 and gets negated. "Nordic Flag" is also SW generated, has a culture of 1 but is NOT negated. These 2 used the same graphics, have no maintenance. Yet they too are different.

 

[ajb]

Is there a way to change the foundation date of a city? For example have a scenario taking place start in the year 2000AD, but wanting some cities foundation dates (as well as some wonders) being perhaps 500BC?

 

[ajb]

Tech Randomization, Technology Randomization, Random techs.

As this was an issue for me, perhaps this might help others. In mods in which civilizations are granted a certain amount of techs which are randomized, for some reason this randomization would no longer happen (this was after I edited scenario properties). I tried several different civilizations a couple of times and each time they were granted the same techs (quite frustrating). How I solved this issue was to go back to the editor place one mine, then delete it and save. Now the techs are distributed randomly like usual. (Note I'm talking about random techs not pre assigned techs, they were unaffected).

 

[Nanuk]

Is there a way of changing what the colors are for terrain types on the minimap? I want to change the color for flood plains on the minimap so it blends in better with the surrounding desert terrain.

 

[ajb]

I'm having an issue with one of my units. It appears to cover up other units in its vicinity (well only units to the the tiles north, east and west of it). The giant arrow (arrow at top) is pointing at what should be a Star destroyer, however, 90%+ of it is covered up by the "mage" unit (it should not be doing this). Also the bottom right hand corner (giant arrow at the bottom) which shows what unit you have selected is messed up as well.


Anyone have any ideas as to what the issue is? (every other unit seems to be working fine, its just this one).

I should add that this problem unit is upgradable to another identically looking unit (has same wiki and icon text etc.).

 

[Vuldacon]

ajb... It is probably a Transparency problem with the Unit Palette.

If you can generate a Storyboard of the Unit ( I would start with the Default Animation ) Look at the Last two palette slots... those palette slots are indexed for the transparent colors.
The Background color should to be on the last slot. If you post the Unit, I will take a look at it.

 

[ajb]

ajb... It is probably a Transparency problem with the Unit Palette.

If you can generate a Storyboard of the Unit ( I would start with the Default Animation ) Look at the Last two palette slots... those palette slots are indexed for the transparent colors.
The Background color should to be on the last slot. If you post the Unit, I will take a look at it.

Thanks Vuldacon, attached is the unit in question.

Honestly the extent of unit manipulation I know is quite limited.

 

[Vuldacon]

ajb... OK, I have the File and will look into it this evening and post what I find.

 

[Vuldacon]

ajb... The Mage Palette was not correct. I only set the Background Transparent and everything else is the same.

The Zip only has the Corrected Flcs. The BulkTransportRun.flc did not have the transparency problem so it is not included.

The problem was that palette slot #222 was also Pure Magenta and that palette slot was set as the background for the animations.

 

[ajb]

ajb... The Mage Palette was not correct. I only set the Background Transparent and everything else is the same.

The Zip only has the Corrected Flcs. The BulkTransportRun.flc did not have the transparency problem so it is not included.

The problem was that palette slot #222 was also Pure Magenta and that palette slot was set as the background for the animations.

Thanks Vuldacon, you are 100% correct it is something to do with the sprite animation. I've used another unit for the sprite animation (illuminati) as a place holder and everything works fine. The unit in question is a late game unit, so no rush (especially as I can just swap the sprite files without starting a new game).

- I can't get over how on a game 20 years old or so there are 1 day responses usually, wild if you ask me (but in my opinion modern strategy games have become much more causal, so I can understand. . . I'm playing it after all).

 

[Vuldacon]

ajb... You are Welcome.

If you can look at the Palettes for Units when finished, you can see if the transparent colors are at the end of the Palette and not before as well.
I left the same Magenta Color on #222 Slot but changed the index to use the Magenta on the last slot.

Yes, and the Civ Games are Fun

 

[KingArthur]

What methods and tools do folk use for putting the arrows on the technology trees e.g. science_ancient.pcx?

 

[Vuldacon]

Screenshot in game and then open in gimp, its exactly the same size as in game so you can use coordinates of gimp.

That and also make the Arrows you like for use.
Screen Shots are the way to go.

 

[Civinator]

Before doing a screenshot of the new techtree in complex techtree concepts as it is per example in the RARR mod, I adjust the places of the new techboxes and the connecting new arrows with a photomontage done with my graphics program psp 7. This is a very good way to see new possible connections and placements for techboxes in these complex situations. The techs that are not needed for reaching the next era are noted on a piece of paper and than set to needed in the editor, so the coloured signs of those techs are removed.

Than I do the screenshot and cut out the techboxes in the screenshot and fill them with copied background graphics (for standard techtrees the yellow-sand background). The screenshot becomes the exact same pallette colouring as the former techtree graphic where the new techtree will be copied in (so only the frames of the former techtree are remaining (or in short: the old yellow part with the arrows is replaced by the new yellow part).

If the techtree should be transferred to a new background (as it was needed for the CCM mod) I completely remove the old yellow background and set all but the arrows to transparency. The graphics showing only the arrows and the new background should be set to 16 mio colours and than the arrows are copied into the new background. Than the colours must be reduced back to 256 colours and for psp 7 the last colours in the pallette must be set to magenta and poison green.

Now the techtree will be fine tuned by adjusting the x and y values of the techboxes and giving back the "not needed for next era" settings to the techs in the editor and if needed by enlarging or cutting down some arrow graphics.

I posted a screenshot with a photomontage of a possible new techtree for era 3 of the RARR mod and some more explanations here. That prototype allowed me to improve the new techtree even more. Now it is looking like that: