Modding Q&A

How does collateral damage work with a unit's bombard stat? Is it the higher the more likely damage is going to occur or is ROF taken into consideration as well?
 
As far as I know, none of the C3C naval units has both naval strategies enabled.
Thanks for your help! And sorry if I am mismanaging the threads here; that confuses me more than Civ.
I was making the game in PTW. In Conquests I see that the Carrack -- special unit of the Portugese -- has both naval strategies enabled I think, so I hope it will work and it seems to. The Carrack would have been a fine template to use if it were available for PTW.
 
With a doubled AI strategy for this unit, it is the question, if this will be used correctly by the AI.
The Civ3 AI copes with dual-strategy units perfectly ... erm ... adequately, in the sense that it will decide what it 'needs', consult its current build-list for units with that required strategy, and then (generally) build the best unit that it has available to do the job ("best" generally being measured in terms of highest A/D-stats, and/or lowest[?] shield-cost).

However, what the AI doesn't do (AFAIK) is switch a unit's strategy after it's been built, e.g. a Rifleman (which has both the "Offensive" and "Defensive" strategies checked in the Editor) will generally only be used for one purpose (sent out to attack weak units/pillage tiles) or the other (stays permanently garrisoned in the city where it was built). Which means that the AI cannot use its units as flexibly (and therefore as efficiently) as a human would, and over-builds accordingly.

("Must ... garrison ... every ... town ... with ... minimum ... 2 ... defenders!").
As far as I know, none of the C3C naval units has both naval strategies enabled.
In Conquests I see that the Carrack -- special unit of the Portugese -- has both naval strategies enabled
The Byzantine Dromon also has both -- though the Galley doesn't, nor does the Caravel; which is a little odd, since those are the only ships available for all other Civs until Magnetism (but maybe the devs didn't want the AI to waste its shields on weak ships...?).

That said, I have definitely seen the AI sending Galley-stacks where only 1 Galley out of 3-4 is actually loaded, and also seen such Galley-stacks sail past lone enemy (or barbarian) Galleys, without attacking them.

This is in line with the game-logic seen later on, where Destroyers (only "Naval Power") on escort-duty will generally stay with their escorted Transport (only "Naval Transport") all the way to its destination, ignoring all enemy shipping unless/until the Transport gets sunk — but also suggests that the AI had nominally assigned the "Naval power" strategy to the escort-Galleys, despite that strategy being technically unavailable.
 
The Civ3 AI copes with dual-strategy units perfectly ... erm ... adequately, in the sense that it will decide what it 'needs', consult its current build-list for units with that required strategy, and then (generally) build the best unit that it has available to do the job ("best" generally being measured in terms of highest A/D-stats, and/or lowest[?] shield-cost).

However, what the AI doesn't do (AFAIK) is switch a unit's strategy after it's been built, e.g. a Rifleman (which has both the "Offensive" and "Defensive" strategies checked in the Editor) will generally only be used for one purpose (sent out to attack weak units/pillage tiles) or the other (stays permanently garrisoned in the city where it was built). Which means that the AI cannot use its units as flexibly (and therefore as efficiently) as a human would, and over-builds accordingly.

This is correct: A unit marked "A/D" will be built by the AI as being of one class or another, and never changing it, once built. Also, a Unit marked "D," with a high AF, can be built as an "A" unit by the AI (and vice-versa re: "A" unit w/ high DF.)
 
This is correct: A unit marked "A/D" will be built by the AI as being of one class or another, and never changing it, once built.

I will add that when a Unit is pre-placed in a Game, the AI will indeed use All varied Unit Settings the same as a human player, changing what it needs from turn to turn. Attack or Defend or Bombard one turn and clear pollution or irrigate another turn, etc...
 
I've looked around but alas cannot find any topic on "indestructible buildings". I'd like to have some buildings (non wonders) which cannot be destroyed, if this is not possible then some work around.

The work around I was was thinking of having is a circular building chain to reduce the probability of the buildings being permanently destroyed. As in building A requires building C to be built, building B requires building A to be built, building C requires B to be built. Thus if any of the three buildings get destroyed (A, B, C) they can be rebuilt.

To be clear I do not want these buildings linked to an advance or resource (some locations space is too tight to fit some special "required" resource in), as I want their locations to be pre determined in certain cities.

Does this sound feasible?
 
I've looked around but alas cannot find any topic on "indestructible buildings". I'd like to have some buildings (non wonders) which cannot be destroyed, if this is not possible then some work around.
Only buildings which produce Culture are automatically destroyed when a town is captured, others may survive. And any building (except a Great Wonder) can be rebuilt after destruction (and quickly, even by the AI) — if you make it cheap enough!

But AFAIK, the only way to make a building completely indestructible, is to give it the ability to allow an increase in settlement-size; e.g. in the epic-game, the Aqueduct allows a non-freshwater Town (Size-1) to grow into a City (Size-2), and Hospitals allow a City to grow into a Metropolis (Size-3). I have never seen either of these buildings get destroyed on capture (the only way to remove them — that I have found — is to raze/abandon the town).

So if you want to keep 'Duct- and Hospital-type improvements, you could have your indestructible building require one or the other of those as a prereq, and give it the same "Allows Size-X" flag.

If you want a building to be exclusive to a particular tribe(s), then you can also achieve that by assigning it to a non-researchable, non-tradeable "Era-None" tech which is only known to that tribe(s), and/or by requiring a specific government which only that tribe(s) will use (however, this latter only works if the tribe only knows one government). And you can then dictate when that building gets built (or can be rebuilt), by giving it a prereq (e.g. building or resource) that will not be revealed until later in the game.
The work around I was was thinking of having is a circular building chain to reduce the probability of the buildings being permanently destroyed. As in building A requires building C to be built, building B requires building A to be built, building C requires B to be built. Thus if any of the three buildings get destroyed (A, B, C) they can be rebuilt.
And what if all 3 buildings get destroyed?

Though I would be very surprised if your suggested circular building-prereq chain is allowed by the Firaxis Editor (I know for a fact that it does not allow circular unit-upgrade paths).
To be clear I do not want these buildings linked to an advance or resource (some locations space is too tight to fit some special "required" resource in), as I want their locations to be pre determined in certain cities.
(Sorry but) If you want the building only to be (re)buildable in a certain town/location, then the only way to do this (AFAIK) is to require a particular resource — or perhaps preferably, a unique combination of 2 resources — in the city-radius. But if you're setting up a premade map anyway, then this should not be a problem(?).

I mean, I've been playing Civ III near-daily since 2009, and Complete since 2014, mostly epic games on Small–Large random maps, and the number of games which have 'allowed' me to build the Iron Works (requires Coal + Iron in the radius) — when it was actually worth my while to do so — is still countable on one hand! :lol:
 
Only buildings which produce Culture are automatically destroyed when a town is captured, others may survive. And any building (except a Great Wonder) can be rebuilt after destruction (and quickly, even by the AI) — if you make it cheap enough!

But AFAIK, the only way to make a building completely indestructible, is to give it the ability to allow an increase in settlement-size; e.g. in the epic-game, the Aqueduct allows a non-freshwater Town (Size-1) to grow into a City (Size-2), and Hospitals allow a City to grow into a Metropolis (Size-3). I have never seen either of these buildings get destroyed on capture (the only way to remove them — that I have found — is to raze/abandon the town).

So if you want to keep 'Duct- and Hospital-type improvements, you could have your indestructible building require one or the other of those as a prereq, and give it the same "Allows Size-X" flag.

If you want a building to be exclusive to a particular tribe(s), then you can also achieve that by assigning it to a non-researchable, non-tradeable "Era-None" tech which is only known to that tribe(s), and/or by requiring a specific government which only that tribe(s) will use (however, this latter only works if the tribe only knows one government). And you can then dictate when that building gets built (or can be rebuilt), by giving it a prereq (e.g. building or resource) that will not be revealed until later in the game.
And what if all 3 buildings get destroyed?

Though I would be very surprised if your suggested circular building-prereq chain is allowed by the Firaxis Editor (I know for a fact that it does not allow circular unit-upgrade paths).
(Sorry but) If you want the building only to be (re)buildable in a certain town/location, then the only way to do this (AFAIK) is to require a particular resource — or perhaps preferably, a unique combination of 2 resources — in the city-radius. But if you're setting up a premade map anyway, then this should not be a problem(?).

I mean, I've been playing Civ III near-daily since 2009, and Complete since 2014, mostly epic games on Small–Large random maps, and the number of games which have 'allowed' me to build the Iron Works (requires Coal + Iron in the radius) — when it was actually worth my while to do so — is still countable on one hand! :lol:

Thanks tjs282, you are completely correct, it will not allow circular build paths, which is annoying to say the least. I will have to make a unique resource if I want this to happen. . . however things are so tight I'm going to have to move numerous cities to accomplish this. . . if there is a will there is a way.

On an unrelated note what kind of tax service allows you to file online, but has hours of operation. . . a banana republic tax service that's what kind.
 
What determines a city's ability to build naval units? Does it have to be so many water tiles connected to the city? Is it possible to enable cities deep inland to build naval units if the city is essentially canal'd to by a bunch of cities that connect the ocean to the lake?
 
What determines a city's ability to build naval units? Does it have to be so many water tiles connected to the city? Is it possible to enable cities deep inland to build naval units if the city is essentially canal'd to by a bunch of cities that connect the ocean to the lake?
To build naval units (or a Harbor), a city must be coastal; that is, it must be adjacent to saltwater (a water-tile providing 1 food per turn). Obviously the world-ocean is always salty, but landlocked water-bodies are only considered salty by the game engine, if the 'lake' contains >20(? IIRC) water-tiles in total.

The map-generator frequently produces maps with a lake ('lagoon') separated from the ocean by an isthmus only 1 tile wide at its narrowest point. I have played multiple games with such lagoons. I have also played maps where the lagoon stretched from one coastline to another, allowing canal-towns to built at either end.

If such a lagoon is less than 21 tiles in size (i.e. freshwater), then it will only be possible to build a Harbor and ships in the canal-town(s) -- although the lagoon can still act as a safe anchorage for your ships (and you could even dock them for repairs in other towns bordering the lagoon; the repair will just take longer, due to the lack of a Harbour).

However, if the lagoon was also >20 tiles, you could therefore build Harbors and ships in all towns bordering the lagoon, including on the isthmus(es), and sail those ships through the canal-town(s) into the ocean.
 
Perhaps this has been already answered but is there a maximum limit the number of resources you can have?

In the resource.pcx that came with the mod I'm working on it has 384 resource spots. Of those 384 spots I'm using perhaps 252 resources in total (I'm estimating, it might be a few higher or lower) of those 252, 41 are either a luxury or a strategic resource (once again I'm estimating could be a resource or two above or below 41).

So here is my issue, I just added one more bonus resource (replacing an unused resource spot; as in I'm using 253 out of 384 spots) and the scenario will just keep loading and loading and loading and never actually load up. If however I delete the last resource I just made, or any other used resource then everything works fine. To be clear the 100+ resource spots I'm not using are spread through the entire resource.pcx file. . . I did not chronologically add resources that I use (as in I might have 20+ resources I'm using then a gap of a few non used resources before I start using resources again).

So did I hit the limit? If so are there any other constraints I should know about? There are a few "meh" resources I can cannibalize for more important resources, but if I don't have to I'd prefer not to.
To reiterate what are the maximum resources allowed? What constraints are there?
 
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There is a limit of 256 resources in C3C.
 
I have a massive mod I'm working on (a larger version of Meteor Man's Star Wars: The Mod Awakens 1.10) and turn times are brutal (I have 512 pre placed cities). There is no air trade or sea trade, however land trade over roads is possible.

I do have land in the the mod which serves no purpose, as such would deleting land improve the turn time? As in if I have a square plot of land 100x100 will that improve turn time vs a 250x250 plot of land? This is of course with all things being equal (number of units, cities, trade paths, etc) the only thing different is the amount of land.
 
ajb... Basically, it is the Number of CIVs and Units more than the size of the Land that use more time. The Trade over land, no matter how large, still allows Units to only move a specific number of tiles so even with a smaller land mass the same number of Units will still move the same number of tiles and the turn times will basically stay the same.
The Larger Land Masses simply add more to move across (and can allow more Civs and Units but you said those numbers would remain unchanged) and therefore add to the Length of the over all time to play the Game in number of turns, not the turn times themselves.
 
Thanks Vuldacon for the response.

I'm trying to add some buildings to the mod I'm working on, I've successfully added them and tested them in the game (they work as they should, civipedia entry, build icons work everything). . . however should I close the editor the buildings I added are gone (no longer in any of the cities, no longer as a building I can choose). I feel like I'm missing something.

To be clear I can add the buildings, they work like any other building I can load the scenario I'm working on and play the game (the buildings work as they should), however should I ever reload the scenario into editor the buildings are gone (in both the cities and the building is no longer an option in my list).

Any help is greatly appreciated.
 
I'm trying to add some buildings to the mod I'm working on, I've successfully added them and tested them in the game (they work as they should, civipedia entry, build icons work everything). . . however should I close the editor the buildings I added are gone (no longer in any of the cities, no longer as a building I can choose). I feel like I'm missing something.
In addition to the limit on resources (256 possible, 32 of which can be Lux+Strat), there is also a hardcoded limit on the number of possible buildings (including Wonders) which can be included in a .biq, which is also 256 (IIRC).

Is it possible that your added buildings have exceeded that limit?
 
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I'm trying to add some buildings to the mod I'm working on, I've successfully added them and tested them in the game (they work as they should, civipedia entry, build icons work everything). . . however should I close the editor the buildings I added are gone (no longer in any of the cities, no longer as a building I can choose). I feel like I'm missing something.

It could be as tjs282 stated above, Post#720 but I am wondering if you are switching between two different Editors. Otherwise, I need more specific details.
 
In addition to the limit on resources (256 possible, 32 of which can be Lux+Strat), there is also a hardcoded limit on the number of possible buildings (including Wonders) which can be included in a .biq, which is also 256 (IIRC).

Is it possible that your added buildings have exceeded that limit?


It could be as tjs282 stated above, Post#720 but I am wondering if you are switching between two different Editors. Otherwise, I need more specific details.

Thank you guys very much, that was the problem; the mod already has 256 buildings (weird how it would allow me to add the building, save and play the game with said building though).

There are two building which I am no longer using so I can delete them to allow my own building(s). However, this brings up a new problem, deleting these buildings (they are half way down the list) will throw off any buildings which have been preselected and are below those deleted buildings on the building list. (To avoid confusion see below)

Building list (with preselected buildings BEFORE delete)
Building A <--- I select this building
Building B
Building C < XXXX --- I don't need this building
Building D
Building E <--- I select this building
Building F

Building list (with preselected buildings AFTER delete)
Building A <--- I select this building
Building B
Building D
Building E
Building F <--- this is now the building selected (I wanted building E)

The mod has the maximum 512 cities, also I'm not sure if it just drops down by the amount of spots being deleted (to be honest I'm worried it will mess up all pre selected buildings), also I'm not sure what happens to the building if lets say I had selected "Building F" (presumably there would be no selected building). The building pre-selections can be unique for numerous cities, as such I'd have to go through each and every one painstakingly. Is there any way around this?

Please for the love of God and anything remotely good in the world tell me there is a way around this problem (I was more or less done modding this last night and ready to play, now there is probably a weeks worth of work at least, aghhhhh)!
 
Thank you guys very much, that was the problem; the mod already has 256 buildings (weird how it would allow me to add the building, save and play the game with said building though).

There are two building which I am no longer using so I can delete them to allow my own building(s). However, this brings up a new problem, deleting these buildings (they are half way down the list) will throw off any buildings which have been preselected and are below those deleted buildings on the building list. (To avoid confusion see below)

Building list (with preselected buildings BEFORE delete)
Building A <--- I select this building
Building B
Building C < XXXX --- I don't need this building
Building D
Building E <--- I select this building
Building F

Building list (with preselected buildings AFTER delete)
Building A <--- I select this building
Building B
Building D
Building E
Building F <--- this is now the building selected (I wanted building E)

The mod has the maximum 512 cities, also I'm not sure if it just drops down by the amount of spots being deleted (to be honest I'm worried it will mess up all pre selected buildings), also I'm not sure what happens to the building if lets say I had selected "Building F" (presumably there would be no selected building). The building pre-selections can be unique for numerous cities, as such I'd have to go through each and every one painstakingly. Is there any way around this?

Please for the love of God and anything remotely good in the world tell me there is a way around this problem (I was more or less done modding this last night and ready to play, now there is probably a weeks worth of work at least, aghhhhh)!

It turned out it was not so bad to fix, all building selections lower on the list of the deleted buildings were unaffected. Thankfully most of the buildings after the ones I deleted were wonders or other unique, relatively low use buildings, so it was much quicker than I thought to fix everything.

I have another issue though, the new building (which works well) is a defensive building, is there a way to ensure a low likelihood of it being destroyed from bombardment? Some of the attacking units have a bombardment feature, to simulate the damage being done from the heavy weapons use. I found the defensive structure was destroyed too quickly. 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)?
 
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