Flamegrape
Warlord
I have a general suggestion for all leaderhead artists. I'm guessing that this may have been discussed before. But since I'm working on a scenario/mod that depends on this method of utilizing custom-made leaderhead graphics, I thought I would bring it up here. Again, please forgive me if this has already been discussed.
I think that it would be best if leaderheads (and other graphics such as terrains) were distributed in a standardized format so that it would be easier for people creating scenarios. What I'm talking about is a simple matter of directory structure.
To help make my point, the manner in which Civilization 3 looks for graphic components must be understood. In the map editor, Scenario Properties can be edited. The Scenario Property window looks slightly different in the CIV3, PTW, and C3C editors. But all of them have a place where you can specify "Scenario Search Folders." Here you can specify one or more paths to search for content that is included in a scenario. Each folder in the path must be separated by a semi-colon (no spaces) and must be contained in the root of the scenarios folder. For Example: If your mod is called MyMod and your search path is "My Mod;Lush Cities;Watercolor Terrain" the game will look for the assets in the following order
My Mod
Lush Cities
Watercolor Terrain
My Mod
CivConquests
CivPTW
Civilization III
It seems to me, in my very humble opinion, that it would be best to publish leaderhead graphics in a manner that makes it easy to find for any newly-created scenario or mod. It is simply impractical to attempt to package the same leaderheads in with a mod that has already been used with another mod. Perhaps the solution lies in simply downloading a specific popular mod and make sure that you indicate in your own scenario's "README.TXT" file that it is necessary to download and install one mod pack before yours can be played. I think that this can lead to problems in the future. Mods are updated and things changes. Mods created for C3C don't work with PTW or vanilla CIV3. And there are plenty of other problems that can arise because of confusing or outdate information.
But if you package leaderheads and other graphic components in a standardized way, they can be easily used in ALL DIFFERENT VERSIONS of CIV3. It would simply be a matter of placing a leaderhead folder in the appropriate Scenarios folder.
Let me digress a little bit. And hopefully I'll further illustrate my point. This method of modularizing custom-made graphic components is used with several other game engines. The one that I'm most familiar with, Quake III Arena, requires a specific directory structure, archiving, and file naming convention for all custom-made components. This is done to fascilitate the use of graphic components (e.g. player models, weapons, textures, etc.) in various game maps. Custom-made models and graphics therefore look consistent no matter what game map is being used at the moment.
In order to apply this method to Civilization 3, a specific directory structure must be used.
For example, I intend to used sween32's "Atahualpa" leaderhead to represent the Anasazi tribe in my C3C scenario. (Atahualpa was the leader of the Incas. But since Conquests includes an entirely new representation of the Inca tribe, I thought that using sween32's work to represent the Anasazi would be a nice idea.) It is just not practical for me to include 20 megabytes of leaderhead graphics in my own mod pack. It's also a waste of disk space if sween32's excellent work has already been included in other mod packs that I've installed. I suppose that I could specify instructions that indicate that such-and-such modpack must be installed first before mine will work.
But I have a better solution. I am planning to include a set of simple instructions with my modpack that could pave the way for easier leaderhead implementation in many custom-made scenarios and modifications in the future.
If you download sween32's Atahualpa leaderhead from his website, his zip archive has the following structure:
\Atahualpa
--\Advisors
--\Civilopedia
--\Flics
--\leaderheads
I suggest that the archive (and all other leaderheads and custom-made CIV3 graphics available on the internet) be structured like this instead:
\Atahualpa
--\Art
----\Advisors
----\Civilopedia
----\Flics
----\leaderheads
Once the archive is downloaded and unzipped, all that one has to do is copy or move the Atahualpa directory to the appropriate scenario folder.
Thereafter, all that one has to do to make sure that the Atahualpa leaderhead is included in any future custom-made scenario is to make sure to include "Atahualpa" in the list given in the Scenario Search Folders.
I hope that I've put across my point clearly. It's so simple that it wouldn't surprise me if this specific convention has already been suggested. But it seems to me that following a set of established rules in the mod community would allow for easier scenario creation and much less confusion in the future.
What do all of you think?
I think that it would be best if leaderheads (and other graphics such as terrains) were distributed in a standardized format so that it would be easier for people creating scenarios. What I'm talking about is a simple matter of directory structure.
To help make my point, the manner in which Civilization 3 looks for graphic components must be understood. In the map editor, Scenario Properties can be edited. The Scenario Property window looks slightly different in the CIV3, PTW, and C3C editors. But all of them have a place where you can specify "Scenario Search Folders." Here you can specify one or more paths to search for content that is included in a scenario. Each folder in the path must be separated by a semi-colon (no spaces) and must be contained in the root of the scenarios folder. For Example: If your mod is called MyMod and your search path is "My Mod;Lush Cities;Watercolor Terrain" the game will look for the assets in the following order
My Mod
Lush Cities
Watercolor Terrain
My Mod
CivConquests
CivPTW
Civilization III
It seems to me, in my very humble opinion, that it would be best to publish leaderhead graphics in a manner that makes it easy to find for any newly-created scenario or mod. It is simply impractical to attempt to package the same leaderheads in with a mod that has already been used with another mod. Perhaps the solution lies in simply downloading a specific popular mod and make sure that you indicate in your own scenario's "README.TXT" file that it is necessary to download and install one mod pack before yours can be played. I think that this can lead to problems in the future. Mods are updated and things changes. Mods created for C3C don't work with PTW or vanilla CIV3. And there are plenty of other problems that can arise because of confusing or outdate information.
But if you package leaderheads and other graphic components in a standardized way, they can be easily used in ALL DIFFERENT VERSIONS of CIV3. It would simply be a matter of placing a leaderhead folder in the appropriate Scenarios folder.
Let me digress a little bit. And hopefully I'll further illustrate my point. This method of modularizing custom-made graphic components is used with several other game engines. The one that I'm most familiar with, Quake III Arena, requires a specific directory structure, archiving, and file naming convention for all custom-made components. This is done to fascilitate the use of graphic components (e.g. player models, weapons, textures, etc.) in various game maps. Custom-made models and graphics therefore look consistent no matter what game map is being used at the moment.
In order to apply this method to Civilization 3, a specific directory structure must be used.
For example, I intend to used sween32's "Atahualpa" leaderhead to represent the Anasazi tribe in my C3C scenario. (Atahualpa was the leader of the Incas. But since Conquests includes an entirely new representation of the Inca tribe, I thought that using sween32's work to represent the Anasazi would be a nice idea.) It is just not practical for me to include 20 megabytes of leaderhead graphics in my own mod pack. It's also a waste of disk space if sween32's excellent work has already been included in other mod packs that I've installed. I suppose that I could specify instructions that indicate that such-and-such modpack must be installed first before mine will work.
But I have a better solution. I am planning to include a set of simple instructions with my modpack that could pave the way for easier leaderhead implementation in many custom-made scenarios and modifications in the future.
If you download sween32's Atahualpa leaderhead from his website, his zip archive has the following structure:
\Atahualpa
--\Advisors
--\Civilopedia
--\Flics
--\leaderheads
I suggest that the archive (and all other leaderheads and custom-made CIV3 graphics available on the internet) be structured like this instead:
\Atahualpa
--\Art
----\Advisors
----\Civilopedia
----\Flics
----\leaderheads
Once the archive is downloaded and unzipped, all that one has to do is copy or move the Atahualpa directory to the appropriate scenario folder.
Thereafter, all that one has to do to make sure that the Atahualpa leaderhead is included in any future custom-made scenario is to make sure to include "Atahualpa" in the list given in the Scenario Search Folders.
I hope that I've put across my point clearly. It's so simple that it wouldn't surprise me if this specific convention has already been suggested. But it seems to me that following a set of established rules in the mod community would allow for easier scenario creation and much less confusion in the future.
What do all of you think?
