Modding Q&A

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@Vuldacon
BTW, I used your volcano animation in my mod. Compare to vanilla version it looks spectacular. One minor thing I noticed imiediately after volcano started erupting is that there is no smooth transition between start and end of the animation. Would you know how to fix this? It looks a little like a stuck eruption.

 

[Vuldacon]

register... You are Welcome. Have Fun with your Game

Not sure what you mean concerning the Volcano. Perhaps it is something concerning your computer?

 

[register]

register... You are Welcome. Have Fun with your Game

Not sure what you mean concerning the Volcano. Perhaps it is something concerning your computer?

No, it's not my comp. The loop is distorted, the way is animated, it looks like jammed volcano, visually only but that's ok if you do not see it.

 

[Vuldacon]

register... The Volcano Eruption was a Request with Explosion. https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/request-re-do-volcano-animations.317283/#post-7976616
Because it is looping the Explosion takes place over and over with the animation. That is what you are seeing in the animation as "not a smooth transition between start and finish".

The only way to "smooth" the animation transition is to remake it with No Explosion.

 

[ajb]

Are city populations hard coded? i.e. when the city is at 1 = 10,000 population; 2 = 30,000 population; etc. Or is it possible to have 1 = 100 people, or 100,000,000 people??

Bumping my question.

 

[timerover51]

Bumping my question.

My assumption is that they are hard-coded.

 

[Civinator]

It is hardcoded.

You can read something about it here: https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/how-the-demographics-works.37033/
or better explained in German language here: https://www.civ-wiki.de/wiki/Demographie_(Civ3)
(here is the addition, that every unit of food in a granary counts as additional thousand inhabitants).

 

[ajb]

I'm having issue with the AI circularly building two buildings which each have the flag "Replaces All Impr. with this Flag Checked".

I was under the impression as this is a base game feature, there would have been something to govern AI behavior so it doesn't get into this loop. That appears to not be the case. How hard would it have been to have some code check if one of these buildings is in play and then drop the AI's interest in building something else which also has that same flag.

Anyone know how I can make this work?

 

[Predator145]

I'm having issue with the AI circularly building two buildings which each have the flag "Replaces All Impr. with this Flag Checked".

I was under the impression as this is a base game feature, there would have been something to govern AI behavior so it doesn't get into this loop. That appears to not be the case. How hard would it have been to have some code check if one of these buildings is in play and then drop the AI's interest in building something else which also has that same flag.

Anyone know how I can make this work?

I don't think anyone has been able to solve that. In stock game, the AI is very slow to build powerplants. So if they've built one, they're very unlikely to replace it with another just to replace it with the old previous one. But once C3X perfuming is involved, the loop issue became very apparent. My personal solution was to stack powerplant effects on top of each other while making them only give a 25% boost and cheaper.

 

[Civinator]

I'm having issue with the AI circularly building two buildings which each have the flag "Replaces All Impr. with this Flag Checked".

I was under the impression as this is a base game feature, there would have been something to govern AI behavior so it doesn't get into this loop. That appears to not be the case. How hard would it have been to have some code check if one of these buildings is in play and then drop the AI's interest in building something else which also has that same flag.

I asked Flintlock to fix this as one of the last remaining big bugs in Civ 3, but this seems to be partly complicated and to be no fun. One of the next versions of C3X seems to have a warning text when a chosen building would replace another building, but unfortunately, as this only helps the human player, this is no solution of the problem.

 

[tjs282]

I'm having iooses with the AI circularly building two buildings which each have the flag "Replaces All Impr. with this Flag Checked".

What do your two buildings do, how far apart in the tech-tree do they become available, and what are their relative shield-costs?

Is one building clearly "superior" to the other (e.g. more expensive and/or bigger production boost)? Because (I think?) that might be the only way that the AI is 'prevented' from loop-building in the stock game. Certainly it chooses which unit is 'best' to build for a given AI Strategy based at least partly on relative shield-cost (e.g. building 90-shield Infs and/or Guerillas as its primary attackers after learning RepParts, rather than 80-shield Cavs).

I have at least once captured an AI town (Ottomans) containing a Solar Plant (320 shields, +50% production) -- I assume because Ozzie drew Ecology as his Modern free-tech -- but I must admit that I don't know whether that was a new build, or a replacement for an older, cheaper Coal/Hydro. And that game was over shortly afterwards, so Ozzie never got the opportunity to downgrade...

 

[ajb]

Appreciate the responses.

One of my buildings is clearly superior than the other one (rated as such in cities which neither building is built), but this seems to have zero impact on preventing the circular build.

Guess I'll need to make some changes so the AI actually builds something useful (this was handicapping the most productive cities the AI had).

 

[Fergei]

I think the 'distinct personalities' of the AI Civs is one of the game's strong points, so I'm nervous to meddle with it. Does anyone have experience of setting a Civ to 'emphasise' shields, food or trade and thoughts on whether or not this is a good thing to tweak?

As someone who happily uses the governor system to speed up my games I don't think it'd be game breaking but before I wade into this I'm looking to see if I can 'stand on the shoulder of giants'!

 

[Predator145]

I think the 'distinct personalities' of the AI Civs is one of the game's strong points, so I'm nervous to meddle with it. Does anyone have experience of setting a Civ to 'emphasise' shields, food or trade and thoughts on whether or not this is a good thing to tweak?

As someone who happily uses the governor system to speed up my games I don't think it'd be game breaking but before I wade into this I'm looking to see if I can 'stand on the shoulder of giants'!

The "distinct personalities" are the devs attempt at making the AI play to its strength. However, while it makes the civs slightly distinct, it often fails to make them perform well. Unless you enjoy certain civs performing far under their potential.

Mongols and Zulus have offensive units and production flagged as build often. So they would build mostly offensive units during peace time since factories only appear late game. That coupled with their high aggression means they will often pick fights with other AIs. But in AI vs AI fights, they often end up losing. That's because the AI is tactically inept and can't make use of its initial numerical superiority. The civs that build up their infrastructure, get their cities to a happy size 12 will outproduce and steamroll the poor Mongol who's been building archers instead of temples and aqueducts and is still stuck at size 6 cities with 2 entertainers.

So if you want the Mongols to fullfill their intended role as a scary threat to both the human and AIs alike they'd need to be able to have good shield output. But that's not accomplished by having production as build often ticked. Early game is all about growth. So the Mongol like everyone else looking to conquer or simply tech ahead, would need to get to a happy size 12 ASAP. That means you need growth and happiness improvements.

With C3X, you can perfume aqueducts and hospitals so that the AI can build them in time. That means you won't have to ever tick growth build often.

I've experimented with offensive units being built often vs not. And my conclusion is that the AI performs better in war when it doesn't have that ticked. An AI that builds up its infrastructure during peace time is much scarier. Mongols and Zulus thanks to their lv 5 aggression will pick fights often no matter what.

C3X allows you to improve the AI's performance vastly, esp in the Industrial and Modern age if you mod away the powerplants replacing each other.

 

[Fergei]

Thanks. Yes, the Mongols are a work in progress. Ghengis Khan be quite competitive on score, gets his Keshik at Monarchy with me then goes all passive. He does not realise the strength of the unit and not once have I seen him go on an assault with it (he is plenty aggressive enough earlier in the game even though I turned down his aggression a touch). I'll try bumping the Keshik up to an attack of 5. If that doesn't work I'll start messing with the 'build often'. The comparison with the Zulus is interesting to me as the Zulus perform okay with me generally. Better than the Mongols on average.

But specifically, I was more interested if anyone had experience of the 'emphasise' features for the AI Civs.

 

[Fergei]

I should add I do notice in my custom settings some Civs disband units because they have built too many. I'll keep an eye out to see if this may happen disproportionately with some Civs due to the 'build often' settings you mention for Mongols and Zulus.

 

[Predator145]

Thanks. Yes, the Mongols are a work in progress. Ghengis Khan be quite competitive on score, gets his Keshik at Monarchy with me then goes all passive. He does not realise the strength of the unit and not once have I seen him go on an assault with it (he is plenty aggressive enough earlier in the game even though I turned down his aggression a touch). I'll try bumping the Keshik up to an attack of 5. If that doesn't work I'll start messing with the 'build often'. The comparison with the Zulus is interesting to me as the Zulus perform okay with me generally. Better than the Mongols on average.

But specifically, I was more interested if anyone had experience of the 'emphasise' features for the AI Civs.

Flavors in the editor are another option to emphasize what civs prioritizes what. You can use the check build value function of C3X by clicking P to see how much of a value the flavor adds to the AI prioritizing something.

 

[register]

Can someone remind me where I should look if I want to change customized faction names? All my factions names have Romulus first instead or King or Chief. I do not see anything to change in Civilopedia nor editor.

 

[Vuldacon]

register... in the Biq under Civilizations, left side toward top, Title and Leader Name slots.

 

[register]

It is caused by biq in Conquest scenario. I have in that slots Title Orator and Name Lucan but when I start the gave I see Orator Romulus ???