Stormrage
Ever Present Taskmaster
I`ve crossed my fingers! (well, not really, I`m typing now, and then I`ll eat some pan-cakes but you know..)
Online petition for an updated Civ III editor
- Thread starter Rob (R8XFT)
- Start date
Virote_Considon
The Great Dictator
Ack. Now I want pancakes, too 
I'm just curious: other than those like Warpstorm, who was actively involved in playtesting, has anyone EVER received a response from Firaxis / Take Two / Inforgrames / Anybody?
-Oz
-Oz
Stormrage
Ever Present Taskmaster
Um.. wasn`t mrtn a play-tester? Being one of the leading modders today, he might have some influence 
OZ - I got an answer from the answering machine during the holidays, if that counts
OZ - I got an answer from the answering machine during the holidays, if that counts
OZ - I got an answer from the answering machine during the holidays, if that counts
Was it helpful, or merely the transactional equivalent of an obscenity?
As for mrtn, perhaps he can be approached to try ...
-Oz
Stormrage
Ever Present Taskmaster
The best way to approach mrtn is from either left or right, he doesn`t like people sneaking up to him from behind, and if he sees us to soon he`ll say: "no, its hardcoded". 
Oz: we`ll be back after the hollidays. The silence that followed was the "obscene" part
Oz: we`ll be back after the hollidays. The silence that followed was the "obscene" part
The best way to approach mrtn is from either left or right, he doesn`t like people sneaking up to him from behind, and if he sees us to soon he`ll say: "no, its hardcoded".
Oz: we`ll be back after the hollidays.
Academic? So I'm going to be "alone" when I finally start my Great Mod??
Oh well. Happy holidaying!
-Oz
Stormrage
Ever Present Taskmaster
Um.. no.. they went on holidays. Firaxis. I contacted them around Xmas..
Now you got me confused..
Now you got me confused..
Virote_Considon
The Great Dictator
I got an automated message this morning. Don't really expect much more o.O/
Stormrage
Ever Present Taskmaster
What does it say?
Virote_Considon
The Great Dictator
Something about a machine, some dials, and the message being sent to the correct people (which I can only assume is the "Recycle Bin" )
)
wolf_66
Lone Civer
Folks
I do not know how many chances this thread could have to trigger desired results either from Firaxis or thanks to skilled Civ fans (Steph or someone else ).
Anyway I would suggest an attempt to (re)establish clear priorities identifying most desired features not supported by current editor. What about a poll on specific editor enhancements? At least this will make clear to game developer the real civ community feeling and desires. Maybe this wont be enough for civ 3 enhanced editor but it could have some influence of future chapters of civ saga
sorry if it looks too... ingenuous
I do not know how many chances this thread could have to trigger desired results either from Firaxis or thanks to skilled Civ fans (Steph or someone else ).
Anyway I would suggest an attempt to (re)establish clear priorities identifying most desired features not supported by current editor. What about a poll on specific editor enhancements? At least this will make clear to game developer the real civ community feeling and desires. Maybe this wont be enough for civ 3 enhanced editor but it could have some influence of future chapters of civ saga
sorry if it looks too... ingenuous
It would probably be useless.
Without the source code, we can't change CivIII, as there is very little hope Firaxis does anything.
If you want to be heard by them for "next game", it will probably be easier on CIV forum, I'm not sure they are very active anymore here.
Beside, CIV is to different from CivIII, so comments on what we would like to have in CivIII would not mean much.
No, it's best to make suggestions for SSS.
Everyone behind SSS!!!!
BTW, I've been recently able to increase the time I can spend working on it, so I'm expanding the editor. Still busy on some skeleton, but it takes a nice shape.
Without the source code, we can't change CivIII, as there is very little hope Firaxis does anything.
If you want to be heard by them for "next game", it will probably be easier on CIV forum, I'm not sure they are very active anymore here.
Beside, CIV is to different from CivIII, so comments on what we would like to have in CivIII would not mean much.
No, it's best to make suggestions for SSS.
Everyone behind SSS!!!!
BTW, I've been recently able to increase the time I can spend working on it, so I'm expanding the editor. Still busy on some skeleton, but it takes a nice shape.
I_batman
Emperor
Well, you know I did. I have already posted the email trail. But that was only semi-official. Oz, you may remember where I posted that email trail, because I can't.
Regarding any official response to my request that I snail mailed to 2K last autumn, absolutely nothing from them.
Guys, we have to accept it, any changes in Civ III from 2K/Firaxis are NOT going to happen.
The options are work on Steph's project of rebuilding the game. or have some brilliant hacker figure out how to make some sense of the binary. Stryker seemed to be on that path, but he disappeared. I am simply not smart enough to decompile, disassemble, and delink the code into some kind of human-readable format.
If you want to stay with Civ III, I am betting Steph's project is the way to go. Now, even though I am sure this will raise the ire of Steph, I am betting that he is years away from putting out a product that will satisfy most people. No offense is intended towards Steph with that statement. I am simply imagining all the man-years that went into building Civ III, and comparing that to Steph's project.
Steph is working part-time at his project, with a team scattered across the planet, all made up of volunteers. That simply can't be as efficient as having a dedicated, paid team, working closely together in the same building.
I have said this before, and will say it again:
Civ IV, even with all the major, major flaws in it, is the future of the Civ series. I still am working on El Justo's TCW projects, particularly the MP mode.
But that is the extent of anything I have to do with Civ III anymore. I am trying to get familiar with the XML, Python, and C++ of Civ IV. Once BTS is released, I want to implement some ideas I have there that can't be done with the Civ III game engine.
Stormrage
Ever Present Taskmaster
I know what they are doing. They are letting Steph & co. make SSS, and then they `ll pay him loads of $$$$ for it, rename it Civ V, and voila! - the perfect crime -they didn`t move a finger, and "made" the perfect game, a heaven for players and modders alike
BTW - can the code thingy be cracked or something? Or reverse engineered? Cos, before there was mention of them not even having the code anymore, so all they had to do know was turn a blind eye for a couple of modders, who are little people to them corporate giants.. munchkins really..
BTW - can the code thingy be cracked or something? Or reverse engineered? Cos, before there was mention of them not even having the code anymore, so all they had to do know was turn a blind eye for a couple of modders, who are little people to them corporate giants.. munchkins really..
Steph's project is not exactly staying with CivIII you know.
No offense taken, you are right. We are working part time, and it's not easy. However, given some results we get, I sometimes wonder about the efficiency of said dedicated paid team
If we could get real funding and full time working, we would probably achieve a lot.
The more they wait, the more it will cost them!I know what they are doing. They are letting Steph & co. make SSS, and then they `ll pay him loads of $$$$ for it, rename it Civ V, and voila! - the perfect crime -they didn`t move a finger, and "made" the perfect game, a heaven for players and modders alike
Decompiling C++ is not so easy. One possibility would be to "intercept" some events to change the effect.BTW - can the code thingy be cracked or something? Or reverse engineered? Cos, before there was mention of them not even having the code anymore, so all they had to do know was turn a blind eye for a couple of modders, who are little people to them corporate giants.. munchkins really..
Like create an external data structure, build in addition to a biq, and use it.
Exemple.
We make a new editor, adding the "group" attribute to units. Like cavalry, infantry, etc.
Then, we get the biq files, and add in our "external file" a x2 for pikeman against cavalry (all these info are stored externally)
When there is an attack, we get the ID of the units involved, we look in the external files, and then we change the value
Like Knight Attack 6 against Pikeman defense 4 (I don't remember the real value as I modded CivIII to much)
Intercept the attack. Look in external file: Knigth belongs to cavalry group. Pikeman has x2 against this group. Change defense of pikeman to 8.
Then restore the normal chain of events to let CivIII handle the attack with the modified value.
However, this is just a raw idea, I'm not an expert in this kind of programming, so I'm not sure how feasable it is.
Stormrage
Ever Present Taskmaster
How much money did you estimate you could get? (where did this come from?!?)
Edit: How much money did you estimate you would need?
Edit: How much money did you estimate you would need?
For the current team, if we had to quite our jobs to work full time, we could need about 15,000 $ a month (guestimate)
Let say we need 2 years to have something "finished"
That's an investment of roughly 360,000 $.
However, I'm not a fiancial expert, so there is probably some taxes or other expenses I'm not aware of.
But we have ideas to generate income before the 2 years. I'm not sure how well it would work though.
Let say we need 2 years to have something "finished"
That's an investment of roughly 360,000 $.
However, I'm not a fiancial expert, so there is probably some taxes or other expenses I'm not aware of.
But we have ideas to generate income before the 2 years. I'm not sure how well it would work though.
We would probobly have to double that figure to account for taxes. Plus add some money in to account for capitol expenses and administrative expenses (accountants, lawyers, etc.) That leads us to needing $750,000-$1,000,000.
