Star Wars: The Mod Awakens 1.11

[ajb]

Well it seems as though the turns are slow, then speed up, then grind to a halt (almost). . . by turn 50 however, turn speed improves dramatically, and seems to stay solid. . . it is what it is I quess.

Oversector buildings are destroyed during combat, is there a way to rebuild them? Does it matter? Thanks!

Once again Brilliant mod, quite a lot of fun!

 

[ajb]

So I'm thinking of making a larger map. . . damn the turn times!
Anyone still toying with this mod?

Once again Meteor Man, great mod, I love it!

 

[Meteor Man]

So I'm thinking of making a larger map. . . damn the turn times!
Anyone still toying with this mod?

Once again Meteor Man, great mod, I love it!

Thanks for the love ajb and sorry for the late reply, as usual. I should come around here more often.

The turn times are out of my hands for the most part. I've done everything I can to reduce them - save yanking a few civs or reducing the map size. It is what it is. I wish Civ3 could use modern computers' capabilities.

A larger map? I can't stand the turn times as it is, any larger would be unbearable. You'll probably hit the city cap pretty soon.

In other news, a very nice civver has given me a kick in the pants to get working on the Yuzzahn Vong expansion to this mod and I have decided to begin that work.

I'd also like to announce to anyone who happens to see this post that I'm finished with the bones of a massive WW2 mod centered on Europe, Eurasia and North America starting in 1936, including the Spanish Civil War. That mod is looking at a release date that is likely bleeding into 2021, especially if I finish the Vong expansion this year.

Fun stuff ahead! Stay tuned.

 

[RedMaul]

Definitely happy to stay tuned!

 

[ajb]

Thanks for the love ajb and sorry for the late reply, as usual. I should come around here more often.

The turn times are out of my hands for the most part. I've done everything I can to reduce them - save yanking a few civs or reducing the map size. It is what it is. I wish Civ3 could use modern computers' capabilities.

A larger map? I can't stand the turn times as it is, any larger would be unbearable. You'll probably hit the city cap pretty soon.

In other news, a very nice civver has given me a kick in the pants to get working on the Yuzzahn Vong expansion to this mod and I have decided to begin that work.

I'd also like to announce to anyone who happens to see this post that I'm finished with the bones of a massive WW2 mod centered on Europe, Eurasia and North America starting in 1936, including the Spanish Civil War. That mod is looking at a release date that is likely bleeding into 2021, especially if I finish the Vong expansion this year.

Fun stuff ahead! Stay tuned.

Oh wow, going to try that one for sure!

Ya I'm not sure how bad times are going to be, it might be a bust for my map.

If you take requests, any chance you could toss in a AT-ST unit and an imperial version of the planetary defense unit?

 

[Meteor Man]

Oh wow, going to try that one for sure!

Ya I'm not sure how bad times are going to be, it might be a bust for my map.

If you take requests, any chance you could toss in a AT-ST unit and an imperial version of the planetary defense unit?

I think the main problem will be you'll run into the city cap, so you'll have a large map but with more space between systems and about the same number of "cities." It might not be a bad thing.

As for the AT-ST unit, no one has made one on CivFanatics, as far as I'm aware. I went looking early on for Star Wars units, and any unused units I threw in a folder under "Extras" in the main mod folder. In there I have "Advanced Land Mine," "Modern Mine," "Mustard Gas Bomb," "Outrider," "STAP," "Dewback trooper," "planetary shield," "satellite network," and "scout droid."

Planetary defense unit? You mean the "Planetary Garrison?"

 

[Civinator]

Meteor Man, I had a look into my space units archiv - and there was an AT-ST among those units (so not in the best quality) and like most of those Star Wars land-units in my eyes looking much too big. I don´t know the name of the creator, but I temporally attache this unit to this post.

 

[ajb]

I was taking about the "DF.9 Laser Cannon", which has the generic rebel / republic look to it. I was hoping something like "XX-9 heavy turbolaser" (the iconic gun turrets every imperial base / ship has) for the imperial factions, something that is stuck on the planet that builds it but has a more imperial look to it.

 

[ajb]

Would any of you know if the AI uses the transports for their fighters/bombers? I've not noticed them using any. . . in the map I'm working on the distances are somewhat large between cities, I'm only adding 20%-25% or so cities, however, the map is 4 times the size. I'm also thinking of tweaking the transport capacity, however if I'm the only one able to use this then perhaps I wont.

 

[Civinator]

Unfortunately until today nobody had found a way to convince the AI to use landtransports or land-aircraft-carriers on land terrain.

 

[ajb]

Unfortunately until today nobody had found a way to convince the AI to use landtransports or land-aircraft-carriers on land terrain.

Ok in that case I wont bother with any transport modding.

Meteor Man, not sure if you intended on doing this or not, but including a bombard value for the planetary shield makes this building behave as though it was a wall. . . as in once a city grows to a major colony the shield is no longer applicable, also you cannot build it in larger cities.

I don't think the AI bombards much, units yes, cities I'm not so sure. . . So I removed the bombard value, now the shield can be built in any size city (i also doubled its defense value. . . a well defended city is going to be quite a challenge to take.

 

[ajb]

Meteor Man, how do your war triggering dummy units work (the zzzdu. . . unit)? Is there any scripting associated with them? Are they just units which are in the way and so the AI will inevitably attack them triggering a war? If its the latter of the two, how best should the units be situated?
I'm worried I might place the dummy unit in the wrong location and the AI will just take another path. Any help would be appreciated.

 

[ajb]

Does anyone know what the maximum amount of cities you can place on a map in the editor is? I know you can only build 512 in the game, however there are mods which allow a higher limit of something like 540-556. I could use those extra planets, issue is I'm not sure if I'll be able to add them to the editor.

Thanks for any feedback anyone gives.

Meteor Man, tell me to piss off if you feel I'm cluttering this up too much.

 

[tjs282]

Does anyone know what the maximum amount of cities you can place on a map in the editor is? I know you can only build 512 in the game, however there are mods which allow a higher limit of something like 540-556. I could use those extra planets, issue is I'm not sure if I'll be able to add them to the editor.

I think you might (also) need a/the hacked 'NoCityLimit' version of the Editor.

Searching CFC might find it, caveat emptor regarding its reliability/ usability, though.

I believe the hacked NCL conquests.exe doesn't work as intended for most players.

 

[ajb]

I think you might (also) need a/the hacked 'NoCityLimit' version of the Editor.

Searching CFC might find it, caveat emptor regarding its reliability/ usability, though.

I believe the hacked NCL conquests.exe doesn't work as intended for most players.

Really? Everywhere I had read, it seemed as though it was stable for the first 20-30 cities (so to around 532-542) but if you are suggesting there is stability issues I can manage without.

To be honest you are probably correct as if you weren't the NCL would probably be used more frequently to squeeze out those extra cities, darn.

 

[King Coltrane]

Hi Meteor Man!

As I often do, I recently got the twin itches of Civ3 and Star Wars and booted up your mod. The newest version is awesome and extremely thorough! Amazing job!

I played as Thrawn (How could I not?) and after mopping up some independent planets, I set about conquering the Eriadu Authority. My few Victory 1's and ISD 1's were instrumental in a swift conquest. For the sake of exploration of the mod (as well as refounding the empire while avoiding conflict with the New Republic), I snaked my primary force south, carving through the Black Sun, the Zann Consortium, the CIS, and eventually the Hutts and the Centrality. At the same time, I built up a force at Bilbringi and took down the Pentastar Alignment by allying with the "Restored Empire", who were next on the chopping block. This northern force then conquered Zsinj and the CSA. Although I had been building up at Fondor for a while, I was unsure whether to pull the trigger on the New Republic or mop up the rest of the galaxy first. Prentioch made this decision for me with a declaration of war. This was unwise, as my massive fleet of Secutors, Victory 2 and Turbulent Class Star Destroyers removed him from the map within a few turns.

At this point I was pretty much unstoppable. I was far and away the greatest power in the galaxy and took down the Ssi-Ruuvi and the First Order just for fun. I was working on various Sith Empire stuff, but this is where I ran into some problems.

1) The Arc Hammer was missing it's Wonder Splash (easy fix, no worries).
2) There was no way for me to complete the Maw Installation Wonder. I'm not sure if it is a result of the phantom resource bug that comes from having disconnected cities (ie no access to the resource it is actually on), or if having the Tarkin Initiative meant that the well over 25+ Research Stations didn't count, or if there was something else, but I was unable to build it. I was a Sith Empire, so it wasn't that. I would suggest maybe changing the requirement to just be "The Maw" Great Wonder, the Superweapons tech, and the Sith Government. That way it still requires a pretty substantial amount of time (having to complete the first tech tree and much of the 4th), during which I'm sure most players have either gotten 25+ Research Stations or the Tarkin Initiative, but it wouldn't be dependent on the resource.
3) I think some of the later wonders are a bit too expensive. I get it that these are huge investments and are supposed to be very powerful, but 30-50 turns at the point that there are only 5 or 6 powers left in the galaxy is a lot. Alternatively, if you want to keep the cost high, I think the units should be buffed to compensate. For example, the World Devastator is objectively worse than every kind of star destroyer because it only has a movement of 2 and starts way off in the Maw. 40/20/2 just wont come into play against X/X/4 or X/X/5. I personally only built the Turbulent Class everywhere other than Fondor and Bilbringi, just because I'd rather have the movement than the attack or defense stats.

Honestly though, this mod is great. The turn time issues have been really optimized. The quests/cool stuff really keeps you hooked. The techs and units feel right. (I love punching through a planet's defense with an Allegiance Class and then following up with a Stalwart full of AT-AT's.

Thank you again for all your hard work. I think I'll play as the New Republic one of these days.

 

[Civinator]

There was no way for me to complete the Maw Installation Wonder. I'm not sure if it is a result of the phantom resource bug that comes from having disconnected cities (ie no access to the resource it is actually on), or if having the Tarkin Initiative meant that the well over 25+ Research Stations didn't count, or if there was something else, but I was unable to build it. I was a Sith Empire, so it wasn't that.

In your listed prerequisites for the Maw Installation Wonder, the prerequisite, that the resource (Maw Installation) must be within city radius, is missing. Can it be that this is the problem? The phantom resource bug adds a strat./lux. resource without any normal access to that resource, it doesn´t take away a resource.

The question, if fictive autoproduced buildings are counting for the number of needed buildings (especially if that number is greater than 1) is interesting. From my experiences many years ago with the multiple wonder wonders (in the WW2 Global thread), my guess is, that they are not counting - but here a test is needed.

 

[Meteor Man]

Meteor Man, I had a look into my space units archiv - and there was an AT-ST among those units (so not in the best quality) and like most of those Star Wars land-units in my eyes looking much too big. I don´t know the name of the creator, but I temporally attache this unit to this post.

Thank you, Civinator! It is a bit large but it's pretty easy to resize. I can add this to the next version.

I was taking about the "DF.9 Laser Cannon", which has the generic rebel / republic look to it. I was hoping something like "XX-9 heavy turbolaser" (the iconic gun turrets every imperial base / ship has) for the imperial factions, something that is stuck on the planet that builds it but has a more imperial look to it.

That would be fun. I would have to go looking for the unit model, though.

Would any of you know if the AI uses the transports for their fighters/bombers? I've not noticed them using any. . . in the map I'm working on the distances are somewhat large between cities, I'm only adding 20%-25% or so cities, however, the map is 4 times the size. I'm also thinking of tweaking the transport capacity, however if I'm the only one able to use this then perhaps I wont.

I wish AI used land transports. It is one of the weaknesses of having an all-land map. But I figured the AI really sucks at naval invasions.

Meteor Man, not sure if you intended on doing this or not, but including a bombard value for the planetary shield makes this building behave as though it was a wall. . . as in once a city grows to a major colony the shield is no longer applicable, also you cannot build it in larger cities.

I don't think the AI bombards much, units yes, cities I'm not so sure. . . So I removed the bombard value, now the shield can be built in any size city (i also doubled its defense value. . . a well defended city is going to be quite a challenge to take.

This is a good work around, thank you! I will include that in the next version. There's a long convoluted history behind the scenes with the planetary shield that I won't go into here.

Meteor Man, how do your war triggering dummy units work (the zzzdu. . . unit)? Is there any scripting associated with them? Are they just units which are in the way and so the AI will inevitably attack them triggering a war? If its the latter of the two, how best should the units be situated?
I'm worried I might place the dummy unit in the wrong location and the AI will just take another path. Any help would be appreciated.

No scripting. It's just making use of the sub bug to initiate war. If the unit is invisible, the AI should walk right over it and trigger war. At least, that's the plan. I'm not entirely sure if it's working. This is all a consequence of having "independent" planets on the map. It's hard to get the AI to expand and take these planets as fast as the humans player does. Even locking war with the independents doesn't force them to attack.

Does anyone know what the maximum amount of cities you can place on a map in the editor is? I know you can only build 512 in the game, however there are mods which allow a higher limit of something like 540-556. I could use those extra planets, issue is I'm not sure if I'll be able to add them to the editor.

Thanks for any feedback anyone gives.

Meteor Man, tell me to piss off if you feel I'm cluttering this up too much.

I appreciate all the attention the mod is getting, honestly. I didn't really expect so many replies, so this is pretty great! No worries.

Max cities can be amended using a 'cracked' .exe and Quint's 'cracked' editor. However, I have run into problems simply using the No-Raze patch once I finally switched to Windows 10. So if you're running civ on anything modern you might also have trouble with these edited .exes.

Hi Meteor Man!

As I often do, I recently got the twin itches of Civ3 and Star Wars and booted up your mod. The newest version is awesome and extremely thorough! Amazing job!

Thank you!

I played as Thrawn (How could I not?) and after mopping up some independent planets, I set about conquering the Eriadu Authority. My few Victory 1's and ISD 1's were instrumental in a swift conquest. For the sake of exploration of the mod (as well as refounding the empire while avoiding conflict with the New Republic), I snaked my primary force south, carving through the Black Sun, the Zann Consortium, the CIS, and eventually the Hutts and the Centrality. At the same time, I built up a force at Bilbringi and took down the Pentastar Alignment by allying with the "Restored Empire", who were next on the chopping block. This northern force then conquered Zsinj and the CSA. Although I had been building up at Fondor for a while, I was unsure whether to pull the trigger on the New Republic or mop up the rest of the galaxy first. Prentioch made this decision for me with a declaration of war. This was unwise, as my massive fleet of Secutors, Victory 2 and Turbulent Class Star Destroyers removed him from the map within a few turns.

At this point I was pretty much unstoppable. I was far and away the greatest power in the galaxy and took down the Ssi-Ruuvi and the First Order just for fun. I was working on various Sith Empire stuff, but this is where I ran into some problems.

1) The Arc Hammer was missing it's Wonder Splash (easy fix, no worries).
2) There was no way for me to complete the Maw Installation Wonder. I'm not sure if it is a result of the phantom resource bug that comes from having disconnected cities (ie no access to the resource it is actually on), or if having the Tarkin Initiative meant that the well over 25+ Research Stations didn't count, or if there was something else, but I was unable to build it. I was a Sith Empire, so it wasn't that. I would suggest maybe changing the requirement to just be "The Maw" Great Wonder, the Superweapons tech, and the Sith Government. That way it still requires a pretty substantial amount of time (having to complete the first tech tree and much of the 4th), during which I'm sure most players have either gotten 25+ Research Stations or the Tarkin Initiative, but it wouldn't be dependent on the resource.
3) I think some of the later wonders are a bit too expensive. I get it that these are huge investments and are supposed to be very powerful, but 30-50 turns at the point that there are only 5 or 6 powers left in the galaxy is a lot. Alternatively, if you want to keep the cost high, I think the units should be buffed to compensate. For example, the World Devastator is objectively worse than every kind of star destroyer because it only has a movement of 2 and starts way off in the Maw. 40/20/2 just wont come into play against X/X/4 or X/X/5. I personally only built the Turbulent Class everywhere other than Fondor and Bilbringi, just because I'd rather have the movement than the attack or defense stats.

Honestly though, this mod is great. The turn time issues have been really optimized. The quests/cool stuff really keeps you hooked. The techs and units feel right. (I love punching through a planet's defense with an Allegiance Class and then following up with a Stalwart full of AT-AT's.

Thank you again for all your hard work. I think I'll play as the New Republic one of these days.

Thanks so much for the bug-hunting! I will take a look at the Maw Installation. Shouldn't be a problem with the phantom resource bug as I'm pretty sure I removed all instances of that arising but I could be wrong. Your third point is also well-taken.

In your listed prerequisites for the Maw Installation Wonder, the prerequisite, that the resource (Maw Installation) must be within city radius, is missing. Can it be that this is the problem? The phantom resource bug adds a strat./lux. resource without any normal access to that resource, it doesn´t take away a resource.

The question, if fictive autoproduced buildings are counting for the number of needed buildings (especially if that number is greater than 1) is interesting. From my experiences many years ago with the multiple wonder wonders (in the WW2 Global thread), my guess is, that they are not counting - but here a test is needed.

Indeed, Civinator, this is a good question, and might actually be the problem here. I should do some testing regarding this.

Thanks for all your points, everyone! Glad people are having fun with the mod. Very sorry that it literally takes me months to respond to anything -- that is my bad.

I've started a youtube channel where I upload Civ3 mod gameplay and I stream myself working on the WW2 mod on twitch. I just uploaded the first episode of some Star Wars TMA gameplay (of course playing as Thrawn - ). I'll post that here in case anyone wants to come watch me play or chill on my stream while I mod and watch videos.

 

[Delta_Strife]

I do like a good WWII Mod! Let me know if you need units for that mod.

 

[ajb]

For anyone interested in a Larger more Epic map (admittedly somewhat painful turn times should you not have a processor 3.0GHz or better as multi cores do not help) please see attached file (the .7z file will include the map as well as the updated Civilopedia).

I wanted to make as huge a map as I dare; to include 512 planets using Meteor Mans Star Wars mod.
Graphically the map is the same, the general mechanics are the same however, there are some differences as follows.
-Money is an issue most buildings cost, especially the production buildings.
-Ecumenopolis have the potential to be huge, they are quite a key asset and should be taken (I'm talking 100+ populations, will really help with cash and research).
-The map is aligned as precisely as possible with the cannon star wars planet locations which can be found online (I used the same site as Meteor Man), quite literally if there is a star, moon, planet etc. it aligns (as best as possible) with he cannon location.
- Several units have minor tweaks to their stats / abilities.
-Added several resources, various resource value changes.
-Land value changes (mainly movement costs).
-Research (unless starting as the Republic or perhaps the Galactic empire) will be slower, however don't worry as you have more time for the map.
-Production tree is changed, numerous buildings require other buildings to be built please refer to the Civilopedia.

Probably there is a bunch more changed, however I did not keep a log so I'm just including what I can think of off the top of my head.

I made the map to be played on the Yoda difficulty (that difficulty is modded) and the slightly less than normal AI aggression level.

I have tested it and to the best of my knowledge all the triggers and hidden resources work.

I would say this is a map for those who enjoy marathons.

Note: the map was made for fun, not balance, some nations like the New Republic will be extremely easy to win with, other nations like the Restored Empire will have challenges to say the least.

Installation Instructions: Place the map C:\CIV\GAME\Civilization III Complete\Conquests\Scenarios (or wherever you installed the game). Place the Civilopedia C:\CIV\GAME\Civilization III Complete\Conquests\Scenarios\Star Wars TMA\Text (or the related location depending on where you installed the game) Note: Save a copy of the original Civilopedia.
Please include the Civilopedia if you play this map! Numerous buildings require prerequisite buildings, without this Civilopedia you will be lost.