Modified Scenarios Workshop

[tootall_2012]

Hi Gapetit,

I would like to thank you not only for all the numerous conversions you made which I enjoyed playing but for all the help you provided me on many of my own little conversions projects.

 

[CurtSibling]

@gapetit is indeed a real credit to the CIV2 cause. I think I can speak for everyone in that we salute his hard work.

 

[Blake00]

Oh wow I missed this! It's funny Gapetit, I've been meaning to pop in here and give you a heads up about a recent rescue I did involving a very very old and huge central and south American Indian multi scenario modpack that some people might remember from back in the day called Sacrificial Blood: Rise of the High Native Empires by Shay Yates Roberts. I noticed you and @Fairline have done some impressive ToT conversions of a few other popular central and south American Indian scenarios in the Colonization era so I thought it might interest you, but I'm too late haha. You're extremely well earned retirement has come!

I remember seeing posts from you back in like 2018ish saying the end was coming but you stuck with it and have done some killer work over the last few years since so congrats man! And thank you again for converting the Master of Magic scenario to ToT for me a while back too as once I'm done with all my MGE work and finally move on to ToT I plan to finish that scenario and credit you for making it all possible!

Anyway I hope this isn't a true goodbye and that you'll stick around and still lurk the place to chat with people and enjoy the new creations still coming in. When I finally finish my MGE preservation and video work I'll be moving on to ToT and so naturally the ToT tribute video will be filled with scenarios you've converted so you will be mentioned many times in my ToT videos I'm sure haha! Probably still 6months away though so I hope you're still here to see it all when I finally get there and share your years of work with the world.

.

 

[Knighttime]

... a recent rescue I did involving a very very old and huge central and south American Indian multi scenario modpack that some people might remember from back in the day called Sacrificial Blood: Rise of the High Native Empires by Shay Yates Roberts.

Well, you wouldn't have needed to rescue it from backups, I've had it all along!

@gapetit Your TOT conversions have always been very well-done, and I really appreciate all the time you put into upgrading so many old classics. Thanks for providing a great service to the Civ2 community, and best wishes! I hope you continue to stop by the forums here on a regular basis.

 

[tootall_2012]

Hi all,

For those who maybe interested, after testing I realized that the ToT converted "Second Front" scenario was crashing with v0.17 of ToTPP just like for "Operation Herbstnebel" (as discussed in this post).

As such, I fixed the related issues:
Corrected @TERRAIN section in rules.txt
Added Movement Multipliers in @COSMIC2 section in rules txt

It's now also possible to select to play the scenario either in the newer version with ToTPP's No Stack Kills feature turned on and with extra German bunkers added to the map or in it's original form with ToTPP's No Stack Kills feature turned off and no extra German bunkers added.

To play the Newer version always use the SF.bat file to load your scenario files
To play the Classic version always use the SF_Classic.bat file to load your scenario files

Finally, I updated the scenario's unit graphics from Fairline's latest WWII collection.

The scenario can be downloaded here.

 

[Dadais]

Here's a conversion of the two original scenario for ToTpp.
It features according general graphics for units and terrain, an additionnal terrain in option for the wwii scenario to use (or not), two optionnal units for the wwii scenario to use or not (by default set to "no") and a diplomatic restriction for allied, german and russian in the wwii scenario only, plus a restriction erasing the explorer unit from the wwii scenario production. Also altered early artillery units to make them ignore city walls.

That said, it seems the ToT AI is handling this scenario way, way, way worse than the original one did.
It probably needs hex-editing with the .scn files on that point if I understood well Catfish's excellent guide, which I can't provide.

 

[Thorvald of Lym]

That said, it seems the ToT AI is handling this scenario way, way, way worse than the original one did.

Aye, WWII uses a custom AI script, the only MicroProse scenario to do so. It's an option in the MGE-era cheat menu under 'Scenario Parameters', but not ToT. I figured it was why nobody tried porting it before now.

 

[Thorvald of Lym]

So with gapetit retired, who here is handy with CivConverter? FoxAhead's MGE patch led me down a nostalgia tour of old scenarios and I got a hankering to port the OG, but I am not a seasoned hex-editor and it's been a crapshoot figuring out which work easy and which need cleanup (and where). Case in point: "The New World" from FW seems to work straight up, but my attempt to transcribe "The Day After" (and make it actually playable) crashes at the start-of-turn production cycle. I've tried following Catfish's guide but I'm not even sure I'm editing the right areas.

In short: I can do all the legwork for updating graphics and rules, but I'd like someone who knows hex-editing to verify the .SCN files. Any takers?

 

[Patine]

So with gapetit retired, who here is handy with CivConverter? FoxAhead's MGE patch led me down a nostalgia tour of old scenarios and I got a hankering to port the OG, but I am not a seasoned hex-editor and it's been a crapshoot figuring out which work easy and which need cleanup (and where). Case in point: "The New World" from FW seems to work straight up, but my attempt to transcribe "The Day After" (and make it actually playable) crashes at the start-of-turn production cycle. I've tried following Catfish's guide but I'm not even sure I'm editing the right areas.

In short: I can do all the legwork for updating graphics and rules, but I'd like someone who knows hex-editing to verify the .SCN files. Any takers?

I had converted Exodus a couple years ago, but it I remember it taking several tries and being a bit frustrating. @Tanelorn contributed some planes with the paintjobs of the belligerent powers shortly after.

 

[Blake00]

Yeah I've never been game to attempt a conversion because of issues like that as I'm not good with that stuff. Gapetit's retirement was a huge loss. Would be good if at some point we could have someone doing 'simple' conversions by request as in they don't have to worry about new graphics or anything.. just a 1:1 conversion to ToT that works and then the rest of the community can decide on whether to 'remaster/remake' its graphics and features etc. As I think that's partly what made it hard for Gapetit in the end as the irresistible urge to remake scenarios with updated graphics ate up way more time and created many more problems for him (ie endless hunting for suitable improved graphics and having ask others like Fairline to make new ones). And yes I see the irony in me (the guy who makes all his projects too big and take years to finish) saying that but I never listen to my own advice.

 

[Thorvald of Lym]

As I think that's partly what made it hard for Gapetit in the end as the irresistible urge to remake scenarios with updated graphics ate up way more time and created many more problems for him (ie endless hunting for suitable improved graphics and having ask others like Fairline to make new ones).

Aye, I thought I'd have that Freeciv skin good for demo this week, then I learned all the MGE-scale hi-def sprites are hiding on 'Poly.

 

[Patine]

Aye, I thought I'd have that Freeciv skin good for demo this week, then I learned all the MGE-scale hi-def sprites are hiding on 'Poly.

Actually, come to think of it, I've done four conversions, not just Exodus, but my own Korean War, Empire of the Rising Sun, and Modern Middle East scenarios, which I started all three, and significant work, by MGE before converting. I can give it a try, but I make no guarantees of success...

 

[Thorvald of Lym]

At this stage, any help is appreciated. The staple MGE scenarios I've tried thus far seem fairly stable, so I'll bundle them together in a bulk attachment with extraneous files (eg. sounds) cut out and you can have a look. Anything that requires more work can be earmarked for other volunteers.

 

[Thorvald of Lym]

And here they are! I ran all scenarios through the first two turns (where possible) and made notes of what I found. SANTA and NEWWORLD were early ports and include some of my personal updates. The latter also revealed an error where you're not notified of rival wonder progress until it's built; this may be a bug in other scenarios too.

Root includes a generic "Terrain2.bmp" in case like me you find the scenarios aren't falling back to default graphics properly.

Also includes "The Day After" because I caught the gapetit bug.

 

[Blake00]

Well done!

I forgot say when Gapetit retired he sent me a bunch of scenario conversions he'd done but hadn't got around to doing big public releases for so they're just sitting on my hard drive.. I really gotta upload them in the near future. Just been busy trying to finish up my MGE work before switching to ToT work!

 

[gapetit]

Hello, I recommend to avoid the blocking of the conversions, that you generate an excel, and when you use a hex editing, you use it to choose the blocks: I used two open hexes with 2 scenarios, the first of which was already fixed: I chose both blocks, copied the correct one and pasted it into the defective one, replacing it.

Escenarios Corruptos
CIVILIZACIONES
0 (Bárbara)	5778​		6289​
1	9126​		9637​
2	12474​		12985​
3	15822​		16333​
4	19170​		19681​
5	22518​		23029​
6	25866​		26377​
7	29214​		29725​

 

[gapetit]

Then there is the problem of the units that do not have a city assigned and that in the conversion go from NONE to nothing... after a few games they suddenly disappear (you should not forget that in Rules you have to mark the barbarian units to they don't disappear). With hex you can also try to solve it massively to avoid having to do it by hand, one by one, which is very tedious... The downside is that this model is not suitable for all scenarios...
Replace the higher with the lower:

Replace to NONE:


No Orders:

<bh:ff>X<bh:00><bh:00><bh:ff><bh:ff><bh:00><bh:ff>
<bh:ff>X<bh:00><bh:00><bh:ff><bh:ff><bh:ff><bh:ff>


Fortify:

<bh:ff>X<bh:00><bh:00><bh:01><bh:ff><bh:00><bh:ff>
<bh:ff>X<bh:00><bh:00><bh:01><bh:ff><bh:ff><bh:ff>


Fortified:

<bh:ff>X<bh:00><bh:00><bh:02><bh:ff><bh:00><bh:ff>
<bh:ff>X<bh:00><bh:00><bh:02><bh:ff><bh:ff><bh:ff>


Sentry:

<bh:ff>X<bh:00><bh:00><bh:03><bh:ff><bh:00><bh:ff>
<bh:ff>X<bh:00><bh:00><bh:03><bh:ff><bh:ff><bh:ff>


QUITAR BUILT TRANSPORTER

<bh:00><bh:ff>1<bh:00><bh:00><bh:0b><bh:ff><bh:00>
<bh:00><bh:ff>1<bh:00><bh:00><bh:0c><bh:ff><bh:00>

 

[gapetit]

And I also add the table to pass the casualties to 0 on the scenario as Catfish also explains (the steps to follow are the same as with the corrupt scenarios)

CIVILIZACIONES		80 Bytes		Espacio Civilizaciones
0 (Bárbara)	3248​	79​	3327​	3348
1	6596​	79​	6675​
2	9944​	79​	10023​
3	13292​	79​	13371​
4	16640​	79​	16719​
5	19988​	79​	20067​
6	23336​	79​	23415​
7	26684​	79​	26763​

 

[gapetit]

Everything is explained by Catfish here:

http://users.tpg.com.au/jpwbeest/jp_conversion.htm

 

[gapetit]

Greetings and encouragement, another day we will talk about technology.