Test game for COTM115 Austria

[supersova_SU]

And if I do not want to make changes to the files of the game - I'll have to skip this COTM ...?

 

[Lord AJ]

Oh my. COTM 115 is just around the corner. Guess I'll have to test it by then. Will report if I find something odd.

 

[Lord AJ]

Oh and for those afraid of hurting their installation, here's what you could do:-

1. Copy your Complete game directory.../Atari/Civilization III Complete/ or wherever you have installed the game to another folder (let's call it backup)
2. Simply perform what's given in the op. Although that itself makes sure nothing from your original install is harmed, still if you're super cautious (paranoid?), you could do what I said in the above point.
Then in the rare case that something does go wrong, all you'll need to do would be copy back everything from backup folder to the original directory OVERWRITING the previous files.

Also, while you're at it I'll suggest you also try some terrain graphics from customization and Creation forum (Pounders terrain is nice) .

 

[Lord AJ]

Okay so I tried the Austrians and to say I liked them would be an understatement.
I don't think I'll be going back to the original Pediaicons.txt.
As for the game, everything works fine except for the Hussar still taking 3 movement points to move on mountains. Hills, forests and everything else is fine. I had no problems with anything, got a ga, could upgrade and got the industrious advantage.

 

[TheHaze]

I tried this out quickly and it seems fine to me. Tested the following:
- blitz ability for hussar -> ok
- movement over hills and forests -> ok
- upgrade horses to knights -> ok
- upgrade horses to hussars -> ok
- upgrade knights to hussars -> ok

Golden age was triggered with hussars.

Unfortunately did not get a leader so could not test out hussar army.

 

[Più Freddo]

And if I do not want to make changes to the files of the game - I'll have to skip this COTM ...?

Yes, that's right. The game will crash if you try. However:

1. You can change the file (singular) for this game and then change back, if you want to
2. There was already a COTM with Austria with similar prerequisites
3. The result of the poll was very clear
4. Changing PediaIcons.txt to contain more entries really doesn't change anything of the existing definitions. Use a difference tool to verify that the changes are limited to Austria only.

 

[Più Freddo]

the Hussar still taking 3 movement points to move on mountains.

That's intentional. Only Hills and Forests are treated as flatland. The Hussar also has the Blitz ability.

 

[Più Freddo]

- blitz ability for hussar -> ok
- movement over hills and forests -> ok
- upgrade horses to knights -> ok
- upgrade horses to hussars -> ok
- upgrade knights to hussars -> ok

The Civilopedia entries for Austria and Hussar should also work; they are from the original installation and not from any modification. Just the fact that they are visible is due to the new extended PediaIcons.txt file.

 

[Lord AJ]

I think the civilopedia doesn't mention the all terrain equal ability or the blitz ability.

 

[Più Freddo]

I think the civilopedia doesn't mention the all terrain equal ability or the blitz ability.

No, that's right. The civilopedia entry reflects the original design by Firaxis. However, movement points and attack and defence strengths are added from the game itself and always reflect the reality.

 

[serttech2003]

I used this thread to add Austria as an option. It ends up in the civ-content folder on the start page I believe.

Only difference is the UU doesn't blitz. I've started 3 emperor games as Austria and while I can maintain tech parity (or right below the leaders) up through the middle ages, by the time I get the Hauser I'm fighting muskets/riflemen. So...I have more training to do.

I have a questions for the experts.

(1) Is the Great Lib an option (with a palace pre-build)?

(2) I've failed with the Phil-Repub gambit every time. Is it possible with a non-sci civ at emperor?

I'm sensing my old Alph-Writing-CoL-Phil_Repub research plan needs to be changed. Maybe a run to Monarchy instead?

(3) How can arty be kept up with knights/Hausers? Having the ability to red-line defenders + the blitz ability would generate a large number of GL. I know the answer is a stack of workers but I don't have much practice doing that.

Time to find some old emperor training games in the succession forum.

 

[Più Freddo]

I used this thread to add Austria as an option.

That's a very bad idea if you're training for or preparing for COTM115. Why don't you just use this post instead? There's the PediaIcons.txt file and there are the base scenario files GOTM.bix, COTM.biq and COTM_A.biq. Use COTM_A.biq to create your own practice games with Austria.

Please don't use any other modded PediaIcons.txt file to add back Austria to the game! For COTM, please use only the one provided here.

 

[Più Freddo]

(1) Is the Great Lib an option (with a palace pre-build)?

Not useful on emperor. A good player will establish a lasting tech lead after the The Republic sling-shot.

(2) I've failed with the Phil-Repub gambit every time. Is it possible with a non-sci civ at emperor?

Certainly. I will tell you the result of my game testing in the pre-game discussion thread, which will open soon.

(3) How can arty be kept up with knights/Hausers? Having the ability to red-line defenders + the blitz ability would generate a large number of GL. I know the answer is a stack of workers but I don't have much practice doing that.

I don't think that you can keep up with the Hussars, which move three tiles per turn on bare terrain including Forests and Hills. Why wouldn't you just build some more Hussars at a 20% discount (compared to Artillery) and hope that they retreat if they lose? That would give the same effect. To produce hundreds of Hussars, disconnect Iron (if you know Chivalry) and Saltpeter, build and/or short-rush Horsemen, reconnect Saltpeter and upgrade. With some luck you can capture Leonardo's Workshop from the AI.

 

[serttech2003]

That's a very bad idea if you're training for or preparing for COTM115. Why don't you just use this post instead? There's the PediaIcons.txt file and there are the base scenario files GOTM.bix, COTM.biq and COTM_A.biq. Use COTM_A.biq to create your own practice games with Austria.

Please don't use any other modded PediaIcons.txt file to add back Austria to the game! For COTM, please use only the one provided here.

I made the switch. Sorry for being newbie.

I've been away from GoTM for too long I've forgotten about important threads.

I don't think that you can keep up with the Hussars, which move three tiles per turn on bare terrain including Forests and Hills. Why wouldn't you just build some more Hussars at a 20% discount (compared to Artillery) and hope that they retreat if they lose? That would give the same effect. To produce hundreds of Hussars, disconnect Iron (if you know Chivalry) and Saltpeter, build and/or short-rush Horsemen, reconnect Saltpeter and upgrade. With some luck you can capture Leonardo's Workshop from the AI.

I need to add the connect/disconnect to my game play strategy. I've used it from time to time. I look forward to your game testing post.

 

[Più Freddo]

I've been away from GoTM for too long I've forgotten about important threads.

Oh certainly not. This is all new to all players. We only just started creating the games communally and this is the first game in the new series and the first game using Austria since COTM007 back in the Ancient Ages.

The novelty of the whole setup is the only reason for my giving detailed instructions. It's nothing personal.

 

[Cotta]

Statement:

The PediaIcons which I have to install doesn't work with the german vision (complete version, so called deluxe or "gold version" = C3C+PtW&Conquests).

Within one scenario of C3C Conquest = "MP Napoleonic Europe.biq" there are husars and so on, but the leaderhead isn't "Charles_V" like in your Austria PediaIcons but "Kaiser Franz_II" and it's only a detail of an austrian flag.

So, in yours you get a "normal" Leaderhead? Maybe I just have to find all the files with the relevance to Austria (in that scenario) and can start the Save in difference to yours. It could be just the same way you have to copy some files from PtW to play the Rise&Rule scenario.
Unfortunately RAR doesn't run on my engine since I got Windows7 or maybe disharmed with the No-Cd-Patch or the special patch english-german: the so called "goethe-tool"... (I really don't know the reason why...)

 

[Lanzelot]

Unfortunately RAR doesn't run on my engine since I got Windows7 or maybe disharmed with the No-Cd-Patch or the special patch english-german: the so called "goethe-tool"... (I really don't know the reason why...)

Do you mean the "PC Games Magazine version"?! This doesn't cause any problems, I've tried it successfully in German and English C3C versions. Also I'm pretty sure that the Windows version has no influence on this either...

The one and only problem is simply the bone-headed translation department of Firaxis. When they created the localized Civ3 versions (German, French, Russian, etc) they not only translated the texts that are displayed in the UI, they also translated all the file names of the files in the installation directory... (No idea, what they have been thinking... How can anybody be so stupid?) So for example, the sound and graphic files for the settler unit are located in the subdirectory

• ...\Art\Units\Settler (English version)
• ...\Art\Units\Siedler (German version)

So when someone with a German installation tries to load a scenario that someone has developed on an English installation, the game fails to start, because it tries to load animation files from the ...\Art\Units\Settler directory, which just does not exist on the hard-drive...

I remember I had that problem in 2007, when I tried to play scenarios like Sarevok's "The Great War" and El Justo's "Age of Imperialism". The "solution" I came up with back then was to just create copies of these directories and then rename them (and all files inside) to the required English names. After a few days of work, I was finally able to play those scenarios....

In 2008 I had the same problem again, when I was not able to load the SGOTM14 save. (The SGOTMs back then used to be played with a special scenario including things like "incremental naval movement" etc.) But then Kulko, one of our team members who is also from Austria, had a simpler solution, which took me only half an hour or so. I still have his instructions from back then, which describe how the PediaIcons.txt file that comes with a scenario, needs to be modified so that the scenario loads on a non-English C3C installation:

Im Szenario ist irgendwo eine Datei Text/PediaIcons.txt, welche besagt, welchen Namen welches Spielelement hat, und danach sucht er dann die Ordner im Filesystem für die Icons/Soundfiles.

Ein Szenario besteht im allgemeinen aus den Standardelementen und noch hinzugefügten. Wenn man also die PediaIcons.txt Datei im Szenario mit der im Standard Conquest Folder vergleicht, sollte es zwei Arten von Unterschieden geben:

• Neue Zeilen - Diese Zeilen müssen sowie im Szenario PediaIcons.txt bleiben.
• Existierende Zeilen mit gleichem Inhalt aber übersetzten Bezeichnungen (Settler -> Siedler). Diese sollten unbedingt so lauten wie es das Conquest PediaIcons.txt vorgibt.

Wenn man das anpasst, hat es bei mir immer einwandfrei funktioniert.

Außerdem empfehle ich noch zum ausprobieren einen Spielstand mit Panzern zu nehmen, da ich hier in einigen meiner Installationen einen Bug hatte. Ist aber bei den letzten beiden Versuchen nicht mehr aufgetreten. Als Testsave nehme ich daher jetzt immer den Abschlusspielstand von Team Regular in SGOTM12. Viele Einheiten, Mediterrane Ressourcen und Panzer.

I guess the same would have to be done with Più's PediaIcons.txt: instead of one that has all the English standard names + the Hussar files, we need one that has all the German standard names + the Hussar files.

I think I still have a German C3C installation on one of my computers, so if you want to, I can try and create one. (In 2009 I bought an English Civ3 Complete version for 5 bucks on eBay and since then I never had to mess with this problem again...)

But not sure whether I will have time for that before the weekend.

 

[Cotta]

@Lanzelot

Well, thanks a lot. I'll try to rename the english filenames. The Hussar files should be within the Napoleon Scenario.

But what is about the Leaderhead? Could you pleas show a pic?

 

[Cotta]

I guess the same would have to be done with Più's PediaIcons.txt: instead of one that has all the English standard names + the Hussar files, we need one that has all the German standard names + the Hussar files.

No, that's not the problem. The "austrian" PediaIcons and the orginal from my european (=german) C3C both are english. The difference between the existing PediaIcons.txt and Piu's are just the following:

Spoiler :

#RACE_AUSTRIA
art\leaderheads\austrian_large.pcx
art\advisors\austrian_all.pcx

#HAPPY_RACE_AUSTRIA
art\leaderheads\austrian_large.pcx

#SHAPP_RACE_AUSTRIA
art\leaderheads\austrian_small.pcx

#LKISS_RACE_AUSTRIA
art\leaderheads\austrian_large.pcx

#SKISS_RACE_AUSTRIA
art\leaderheads\austrian_small.pcx

#ANGRY_RACE_AUSTRIA
art\leaderheads\austrian_small.pcx

#ILOVE_RACE_AUSTRIA
art\leaderheads\austrian_small.pcx

#LOVED_RACE_AUSTRIA
art\leaderheads\austrian_small.pcx

#LHURT_RACE_AUSTRIA
art\leaderheads\austrian_large.pcx

#HURTN_RACE_AUSTRIA
art\leaderheads\austrian_small.pcx

#ICON_RACE_AUSTRIA
art\civilopedia\icons\races\race austrian_large.pcx
art\civilopedia\icons\races\race austrian_small.pcx

So the problem must be solved in any reference folder to......whatever

 

[Lanzelot]

The difference between the existing PediaIcons.txt and Piu's are just the following:

???
If I make a diff between Più's PediaIcons file and the original, I find the following differences:

Spoiler :

#RACE_AUSTRIA
art\leaderheads\x2_Charles_V victory neutral.pcx
art\advisors\x2_Charles_V advisor.pcx

#HAPPY_RACE_AUSTRIA
art\leaderheads\x2_Charles_V victory happy lg.pcx

#SHAPP_RACE_AUSTRIA
art\leaderheads\x2_Charles_V victory happy sm.pcx

#LKISS_RACE_AUSTRIA
art\leaderheads\x2_Charles_V victory kiss lg.pcx

#SKISS_RACE_AUSTRIA
art\leaderheads\x2_Charles_V victory kiss sm.pcx

#ANGRY_RACE_AUSTRIA
art\leaderheads\x2_Charles_V victory angry sm.pcx

#ILOVE_RACE_AUSTRIA
art\leaderheads\x2_Charles_V victory heart sm.pcx

#LOVED_RACE_AUSTRIA
atr\leaderheads\x2_Charles_V victory heart tiny.pcx

#LHURT_RACE_AUSTRIA
art\leaderheads\x2_Charles_V victory beatup lg.pcx

#HURTN_RACE_AUSTRIA
atr\leaderheads\x2_Charles_V victory beatup sm.pcx

#ICON_RACE_AUSTRIA
art\civilopedia\icons\races\x2_Charles_V civpedia lg.pcx
art\civilopedia\icons\races\x2_Charles_V civpedia sm.pcx

It looks more like you have an English version of C3C, but downloaded a wrong PediaIcons file from someplace else?!

BTW: did anybody notice in the above? There are two typos:

#LOVED_RACE_AUSTRIA
atr\leaderheads\x2_Charles_V victory heart tiny.pcx

#HURTN_RACE_AUSTRIA
atr\leaderheads\x2_Charles_V victory beatup sm.pcx

This should be "art", not "atr". I would guess that in some games, depending on the achieved victory condition, the game crashes when entering the victory screen... Più, can you correct that in your file?