Modding Q&A

[Oni Ryuu]

Thank you Laurana Kanan.

I reworked the barricade graphics so it’s clear to see whether you can pass or not.

 

[Oni Ryuu]

Can the Civilopedia have a link to the internet?
I want someone to click the link and be taken directly to my mod’s thread.

Can anyone think of a way that a worker action could change a coast tile into a land one using the “clear wetland” or “plant forest” command?
I’d like to reclaim land and use the reverse to build ship canals if it’s possible.

 

[Bluemofia]

1. Civ 3 was created before internet integration of everything (but just barely). I don't think it is possible for you to link directly to the internet.

2. I don't believe so, but I haven't heard of people playing around with it that often. The worker jobs seem fairly hard coded on what they do, and so do the terrain tiles. (like, if ships can go on them, and whether they can explode like volcanoes or not)

 

[Oni Ryuu]

Thanks Bluemofia. I knew it was unlikely on both accounts but I thought it was worth seeing if anyone had any ideas.

 

[Oni Ryuu]

Has anyone tried marking a mobile land transport vehicle (truck, chinook etc.) with an army AI strategy using the custom editors? Marking them as a naval transport doesn’t have the desired results.

I’m going to try the offensive land strategy for destroyers and submarines to see if they’ll pursue and engage a naval unit.

 

[Oni Ryuu]

Is there a way to have culture group graphics for a unit that doesn’t require civilization unique units? What I mean is 1 rifleman unit available to everyone but with regionally appropriate graphics.

Something like this:-

#ANIMNAME_PRTO_Rifleman_CULTURE_ASIAN
Rifleman_Oriental

#UNITICON_PRTO_Rifleman_CULTURE_ASIAN
99

I don’t want a separate line of units just a change in graphics.
If that’s achievable, I’ll set the prestige units (most powerful unit available at the time) to a civ unique unit.

My game isn’t suitable for the normal system of civ unique units and this way I can add graphics as they become available without updating the BIQ or affecting the game in any practical way.

 

[tom2050]

I don't know of any way... but you bring an interesting point.

It does mention CULTURE in the pediaicons description, so perhaps used similar way as ERA. (maybe they were planning on it at one point)
If done in similar format of ERAS, would be something like, as you wrote:
CULTURES_ASIAN
CULTURES_EUROPEAN
CULTURES_MID_EAST
CULTURES_MEDITERRANEAN
CULTURES_AMERICAN

Worth a test at least! Of course, ERAS has a civilopedia entry in the BIQ, whereas CULTURE does not.
;
; type indicates how many files are in the file list.
; if only one icon exists for the building, TYPE should be SINGLE, and 2 files in list (large, small)
; if the building icon varies by era, TYPE should be ERA, and 1 file for each era per size in order should be in the list
; if the building icon varies by culture TYPE should be CULTURE, and file for each culture type per size in order should be in the list
; types must be written in CAPITAL LETTERS
; the order that the file names are written in must correspond to the order that they are in the .bic file:
; for ERA in the default mod that is: Ancient, MiddleAge, Industrial, Modern
; for CULTURE in the default mod that is: American, European, Roman/Mediterranean,

#ANIMNAME_PRTO_Worker_ERAS_Industrial_Age
Worker Modern Times
#ANIMNAME_PRTO_Worker_ERAS_Modern_Era
Worker Modern Times

#ANIMNAME_PRTO_Leader_ERAS_Ancient_Times
Leader Ancient Times
#ANIMNAME_PRTO_Leader_ERAS_Middle_Ages
Leader Middle Ages
#ANIMNAME_PRTO_Leader_ERAS_Industrial_Age
Leader Industrial Ages
#ANIMNAME_PRTO_Leader_ERAS_Modern_Era
Leader Modern Times

 

[Jorsalfare]

Regarding land transport: I have never tried to use the army-flag, but I have used the air transport flag, and have seen AI use'em in the field with units loaded - (link to thread). The problem with using the army-flag is that you cannot unload units once they're loaded. This kind of defeats the whole purpose of land transport units.

 

[Bluemofia]

Regarding land transport: I have never tried to use the army-flag, but I have used the air transport flag, and have seen AI use'em in the field with units loaded - (link to thread). The problem with using the army-flag is that you cannot unload units once they're loaded. This kind of defeats the whole purpose of land transport units.

Not using the army flag, but the AI Strategy using a custom editor, kind of like flagging an artillery unit as a Naval Power AI Strategy to get it to actively bombard targets. (However, the AI doesn't use this properly, because it will bombard only coastal targets, and it will run back to cities and hide, and never come back out).

 

[Laurana Kanan]

(However, the AI doesn't use this properly, because it will bombard only coastal targets, and it will run back to cities and hide, and never come back out).

This wasn't my experience.

 

[Bluemofia]

This wasn't my experience.

Right, I was referencing that thread when I wrote the post, although I probably should have made it clear that the mileage may vary, as a others in that thread reported that it didn't quite work as well as your test (see this.)

 

[Laurana Kanan]

I read tom's post back in March, but can't really explain why that test failed and mine succeeded other than perhaps we used different flags/settings outside the "Naval Power" flag. In any event, it worked well enough for me. Now I'm more interested to see if anyone can find a way for unit appearance to change by culture group.

 

[Oni Ryuu]

The problem with using the army-flag is that you cannot unload units once they're loaded. This kind of defeats the whole purpose of land transport units.

My thinking with the army strategy is that the transport will load the units, transport them and then attack the enemy killing the transport unit but leaving behind fresh infantry. The cost of the transport unit is worth the mobility advantage.

Worth a test at least!

It’s going to be a while before I can do any testing but I’m quite interested. It wouldn’t have much of an effect on game play but would make a more appealing game without having thousands of individual units.

EDIT: Got another one
Is there a way to remove the single bombard button but keep the multiple bombard one?

I want an aircraft or an artillery piece to hit multiple targets without the option to select multiple tiles. I know it wouldn’t work for cruise missiles but that’s a problem for another time.

 

[Jorsalfare]

My thinking with the army strategy is that the transport will load the units, transport them and then attack the enemy killing the transport unit but leaving behind fresh infantry. The cost of the transport unit is worth the mobility advantage.

Ahh, I understand. Army strategy, but not army flag... Yes, that could work.
When giving my land transports the air transport flag, AI would load the land transport and occasionaly move it into the field with units loaded, but it did never attack. When I gave it offensive AI strategy, it attacked, but only when empty. As if it assigned either offensive strategy or air transport strategy to it - not both. The army-strategy might be the solution! This will be on my test-in-next-game list.

 

[tjs282]

EDIT: Got another one
Is there a way to remove the single bombard button but keep the multiple bombard one?

I want an aircraft or an artillery piece to hit multiple targets without the option to select multiple tiles. I know it wouldn’t work for cruise missiles but that’s a problem for another time.

Assuming that you're talking about the button showing multiple trajectories (in standard Civ3C), I think you might have misunderstood its function. That is the 'Auto-bombardment' button -- but having clicked the button, you still have to tell the unit which tile within its bombard-range to target, it doesn't automatically pick the (best) target(s) itself. All it will do is just continue to fire at its assigned target-tile on each subsequent turn, until you tell it to stop again, or there's nothing left but a smoking crater (on land) or open water (at sea).

If you want a single bombard-unit to (be able to) hit multiple units within a single turn, you can give it more than 1 MP, and the Blitz ability. If you want to hit multiple units simultaneously with a single barrage, I believe you need to give it the 'Charm-attack' flag -- but since that function's hidden in the standard Editor, and only accessible through the Steditor or the Queditor, I've never had access to it, I've only read about it on this forum. And either way, the player would still have to tell the unit which tile to target.

 

[Bluemofia]

If you want a single bombard-unit to (be able to) hit multiple units within a single turn, you can give it more than 1 MP, and the Blitz ability. If you want to hit multiple units simultaneously with a single barrage, I believe you need to give it the 'Charm-attack' flag -- but since that function's hidden in the standard Editor, and only accessible through the Steditor or the Queditor, I've never had access to it, I've only read about it on this forum. And either way, the player would still have to tell the unit which tile to target.

The Charm function is also available in the cracked Firaxis editor as well.

Also, it doesn't do damage to units, but halves their defensive power for the rest of the turn, making them easier to kill, but not actually doing damage.

 

[Oni Ryuu]

Hi tjs282
You’ve misunderstood what I meant so I’ll explain with an example.

I have a katusha truck and a self-propelled gun. Each have three turns but the katusha truck using rockets doesn’t have blitz.

I would like to have a phosphine gas rocket truck with low bombard strength high hit rate and blitz so it can bombard three times but I want all three bombards to hit only one tile with no option to conserve moves or reissue orders.
It will work exactly the way normal blitz artillery does just without a “single fire” option.

Another example is that I have heavy bombers that can’t be loaded into aircraft carriers. If they had three moves they could rebase and bomb in the same turn so I’d remove the rebase option and use airlift instead. It’s important to make it appear to function in the same way as a normal aircraft does; one command per turn (despite the extra moves).

 

[Bluemofia]

I don't know of any way... but you bring an interesting point.

It does mention CULTURE in the pediaicons description, so perhaps used similar way as ERA. (maybe they were planning on it at one point)
If done in similar format of ERAS, would be something like, as you wrote:
CULTURES_ASIAN
CULTURES_EUROPEAN
CULTURES_MID_EAST
CULTURES_MEDITERRANEAN
CULTURES_AMERICAN

Worth a test at least! Of course, ERAS has a civilopedia entry in the BIQ, whereas CULTURE does not.

Got around to testing it:

I have tried the following:

Spoiler :

#ANIMNAME_PRTO_Rocket_Cart_CULTURES_Mediterranean
Chasquis Scout
#ANIMNAME_PRTO_Rocket_Cart_CULTURES_Roman
Cruiser
#ANIMNAME_PRTO_Rocket_Cart_CULTURES_American
TOW Infantry
#ANIMNAME_PRTO_Rocket_Cart_CULTURES_European
WWII Paratrooper
#ANIMNAME_PRTO_Rocket_Cart_CULTURES_Asian
Curragh
#ANIMNAME_PRTO_Rocket_Cart_CULTURES_Mid_East
King Byzantines

#ANIMNAME_PRTO_Rocket_Cart_CULTURE_Mediterranean
King American
#ANIMNAME_PRTO_Rocket_Cart_CULTURE_Roman
King Babylonian
#ANIMNAME_PRTO_Rocket_Cart_CULTURE_American
King Chinese
#ANIMNAME_PRTO_Rocket_Cart_CULTURE_European
King German
#ANIMNAME_PRTO_Rocket_Cart_CULTURE_Asian
King Greek
#ANIMNAME_PRTO_Rocket_Cart_CULTURE_Mid_East
King Roman

I used "CULTURE" and "CULTURES", and tried capitalizing or not the different culture groups and the word "Culture" (ex: tried CULTURE, CULTURES, Culture, Cultures, and "Asian", "ASIAN", and every combination between the two). Also, I saw in the text references to "Roman" and "Mediterranean", so I tried both.

The plan was, if the Rocket Cart unit that I added changed graphics at all, it would indicate that one of these work. However, graphics remained unchanged, so this particular combination of text does not control culture graphics for units.

Ah well, it would have been a good thing for mods if it worked.

EDIT: Oh hey look, 7777th post. Sadly, not very lucky.

 

[Oni Ryuu]

That’s a shame. Thank you for testing it though. I really wish we could alter the main code. It’s been more than 20 years, why won’t they let us alter the code!

Oh hey look, 7777th post. Sadly, not very lucky.

If you were playing Final Fantasy 7 you could mess up Emerald Weapon.

 

[Vuldacon]

Oni Ryuu... Perhaps I am not understanding correctly. Other than simplicity and any desire to gain Culture for a Unit, do you basically want different graphics for the same Unit for the Civ it belongs to?

Why not use an upgrade path in the Biq?
This is like the Great Leader in EFZI2 upgrading to a Civ Specific Champion, each being different.
You can have a Rifleman for All Civs and have it upgrade to each Civ with different Graphics by using different Units.
Each Unit can also have different settings as you prefer.
The AI uses this very well... the Only drawback is that the Unit requires upgrading so the Cities need a Barracks to upgrade them.

If you ever wanted to change the graphics for any of the units, simply change the Name of the New Unit Folder the same as the previous Unit for the position. This way you do not have to change the Biq or text files.

As for Landmines... They do slow and damage the enemy but only until they are destroyed. If on Roads or Railroads, they can also slow the enemy by damaging the Road or Railroad after the Mine is destroyed.
You can set them up where you can Airdrop them to an area you want to keep Mined. You can also use Mine Laying Vehicles to place and retrieve the mines but that is slow to keep up the Mine Field.

Many of the game changes we want have required a "Work Around" due to the Game Engine Programming. There has been some success with New Biqs but Without the Code we basically have to keep thinking "Out of the Box" and use what is programed in a creative manner to try an achieve the differences we want.

Probably most of the Modders have asked the question "Why" about many programed game factors... I have found the basic answer is "Because"
Like it or not, that is what was programed to suite what the developers wanted for the Civ III/Conquests Games and I seriously doubt that the Code will ever be released