Online petition for an updated Civ III editor

[Virote_Considon]

And Mirc and Stormy (the only one who managed to get through- twice!)

 

[Mirc]

^ Hey at least I managed to discuss with some OPs in private about it. And I asked the question twice (but it didn't get through).

 

[cubsfan6506]

Does anybody think they may of copied part of the source code from say, another game and that's why they don't want us to have it.

 

[Virote_Considon]

Call to Power? Which, IIRC, has released the source code?

Civ2? Whose source code is in the abyss?

 

[Ozymandias]

Does anybody think they may of copied part of the source code from say, another game and that's why they don't want us to have it.

That's a tad paranoid, as doing so would leave them with a major, legal liability on their hands. Everything I've seen just suggests poor programming practices.

-Oz

 

[cubsfan6506]

I have no Idea but I do find it odd that they won't release it even for a large sum of money. (Even though they probaly know we don't have that.)

 

[Steph]

Everything I've seen just suggests poor programming practices.
-Oz

They have programming practices ?

 

[Stormrage]

So Steph, that thing we were waiting for you to tell us.. it failed?

 

[Steph]

I think it may be doable, but would take some time, and more importantly would be illegal .

 

[Stormrage]

I thought breaking the code illegaly was a piece of cake (for those who know, like pirates crack other games and make trainers `n stuff), but we wanted it legal, thats why we are trying so hard?

 

[Steph]

It's not exactly a piece of cacke for me, I have no skill there, but I have a friend who's an exepert and had a look at civ and told me after 15 minutes how to crack it...

My idea would be to "intercept" some actions, like "unit A attack unit B", then go in an external database to see that for instance, unit A being cavalry and unit B a pikeman, B has a x2 defense bonus, then modify the parameters for the attack, and then transfer it back to normal CivIII code.

However, finding where exactly is the piece of code for that would take time, and we don't know how the code is structure, and if we can intercept easily (or if it's to messy).

However, this would require first disassembling and breaking the code, which is illegal.

My hope was we could plug a "listener" without actually breaking the code, but that doesn't seem to be possible.

 

[Stormrage]

Wait.. so they don`t actually have to "give" us the code.. they just have to say, "nah, we don`t need it, go ahead and breake it". And then you and your buddy work your magic?

 

[Ozymandias]

It's not exactly a piece of cacke for me, I have no skill there, but I have a friend who's an exepert and had a look at civ and told me after 15 minutes how to crack it...

However, finding where exactly is the piece of code for that would take time, and we don't know how the code is structure, and if we can intercept easily (or if it's to messy).

However, this would require first disassembling and breaking the code, which is illegal.

My hope was we could plug a "listener" without actually breaking the code, but that doesn't seem to be possible.

All and what we really need access to are their APIs ("Application Programming Interfaces" - chunks of code that allow "handshaking" with other programs). With those, we could (I think) work legally on whatever we wanted, as it would involve no release of existing code, just a "map" of their "sockets".

-Oz

PS/EDIT: Of course that assumed they even programmed it intelligently enough to HAVE APIs ...

-O.

 

[Steph]

Wait.. so they don`t actually have to "give" us the code.. they just have to say, "nah, we don`t need it, go ahead and breake it". And then you and your buddy work your magic?

We could, but that's a lot of work, and I don't favour it, because I don't think it is the correct approach to the problem. It would not be a proper expansion.

Oz: I strongly doubt they made API that can be exposed.

I wonder if perhaps they don't want to release the code because they are ashamed of it

 

[Civinator]

From the BTS-Pre-release chat: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=227415

Going back to an OLDER game... Civ3. Any plans to release the source code for it? Alot of modders would love you for it.
<alexman> I don't know about releasing the source code for Civ3. But there is source code for Civ4. Why not use that?
<GarretSidzaka> LOL some ppl are still addicted to civ3!

And: Civ4 still has no editor !!

Question: Is it possible to use the Civ4 source-code for Civ 3 ??

 

[Stormrage]

You mean cos they asked "why not use that (civ4 code"" when we clearly asked about civ3?

 

[Civinator]

You mean cos they asked "why not use that (civ4 code"" when we clearly asked about civ3?

This interpretation at least is possible. I&#180;m no programmer, to say something about the value of this sentence.

But Alexman (Alexander Mantzaris) is the leaddesigner of Civ 4 now and he had deep insight in the Civ 3 source code too.

 

[Steph]

It is obviously not possible.

 

[Civinator]

It is obviously not possible.

So we are still ignored by Firaxis.

 

[Steph]

Of course we are. We are evil. We don't like CIV.