Vanilla - add one turn to beginning

[AThousandYoung]

Hello,

I'd like my games to start in 4,000,000 BCE, when humans split from chimpanzees. Clearly there will be a lot of modding involved in this, but to start, I want to simply add a turn to the beginning of the game, so it will go 4,000,000 BCE, then 4,000 BCE, then into the 4th century BCE as normal. How do I do this?

 

[primordial stew]

Look at CIV4GameSpeedInfo.xml. Add in this as the first data:


<GameTurnInfo>
<iYearIncrement>3996000</iYearIncrement>
<iTurnsPerIncrement>1</iTurnsPerIncrement>
</GameTurnInfo>

and in the .wbs file there is a line:
StartYear=-275 <-- game starts in 275BC, so you put in -4000000 instaed

 

[AThousandYoung]

Ah, thanks!

Wait - what's a .wbs file? Where is it?

 

[primordial stew]

errr.. map. wbs = world builder save (.CivWarlordsWBSave)

I'd guess you'd be using one of the earth maps, so in publicmaps most likely.

 

[AThousandYoung]

I would have to change the map itself? Can't I just make it work for any map I want?

 

[primordial stew]

Probably, but I don't know how that works.

 

[Paasky]

If the mapfile says StartYear = something, you'll have to change that. Although, you could search that same gamespeedinfo for something like startyear. But that would still only work on maps that have no pre-set startdate, which would basically mean a random map.

 

[AThousandYoung]

Hmm.

You know what...I'd rather just remove the year display entirely and work in turns. How do I do that?

 

[Spearthrower]

You do know that humans didn't "split from chimpanzees" though right?

They both split from a common ancestor - you can be fairly sure of this because of extreme morphological differences but with a high genetically similarity... this was probably around 10 mya.

For humans, the steps are approximately (give a million years here or there hehe)....

Ancient hominines: 8 mya
Ardipithecus: 5.5&#8211;4.4 mya
Australopithecus: 4&#8211;2 mya
Paranthropus: 3&#8211;1.2 mya
Homo: 2 mya&#8211;present

Homo branch
Homo Habilis: 2.4-15 mya
Homo Rudolfensis: 1.9-1.6mya
Homo Ergaster/Homo Erectus: 1.8mya to 70,000 years ago.

 

[AThousandYoung]

I am quite familiar with evolutionary theory and I know chimpanzees have been evolving from that common ancestor since that time as well. Humans and chimpanzees speciated from one another ~6 mya. I hadn't researched those specific stages of human evolution yet, but I'll write it down.

I've actually decided not to start that early. I think I'll start 35,000 BCE or just before so that I can include Stone Age technologies. Do you know much about that? My understanding so far is:

~35k BCE - You start with Clubmen. The technology "Hunting 1" gives Wooden Spears. The "Shield" tech lets you make Club-and-Shieldmen. "Stonework/Knapping 1" lets one build the Stone Tipped Spear unit.

~12k BCE - Archery gives Archers. Stonework 2 gives Maces. Slinging gives Slingers. Post Leatherwork units are protected against Maces. Stonework 3 gives Stone Axes which cut through leather. Agriculture will show up around this time, and may lead to a Military Discipline tech line.