Klaus Meier, where have you been in the internet during all the decades since the release of Civ 2 and Civ 3 ?
To find programmers to write an updated Civ 3 (or at least to fix the remaining bugs of C3C) would be a dream, but in the past all efforts to get the C3C source code did fail (Ozy can tell you a thing or two about it). Most of us are only normal modders, but there are/were a few civers, who created something that is above normal modding, mostly done by hexediting.
Patches:
In my eyes the first of them is skyer2, who created the no-raze patch, saving cities on fixed maps from beeing razed by the AI. A present update of this patch was created by Tsubasanut, also adding the no-unit-limit patch (more than 8192 units) and the fix of the magenta beam in the C3C civilopedia. It can be found here:
https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/ccm2-epic-mod.625812/page-32#post-15755612
There also exists a patch trying to add a no-city limit to C3C (more than 512 cities) , but it seems that this patch unfortunately has a lot of issues.
The most important patches were done by Antal1987 (a link was provided in the posts above). He not only fixed several errors that Firaxis was never able to fix themselves (among them the graphical civilopedia glitch with the magenta beam in the images and the scientific age error). His exe 4 is part of the inofficial C3C expansion CCM2.50 and from reading his posts commenting his patches I think he would be the civer knowing most ( but of course far away from all) about the C3C coding.
Editors:
The Firaxis editor 1.03 (that is part of Civ 3 Complete) should be avoided, as it holds a bug eliminating scientific leaders in mods or scenarios, when their biqs were closed last by this editor. If you want to use a Firaxis editor, you should use the Firaxis editor 1.00, that doesn´t have that bug. A very old upload of editor 1.00 can be found
here.
Much better (and my present C3C standard editor) is the Quintillus editor. A link to that editor was provided in the posts above. This editor allows settings that cannot be achieved by the Firaxis editors (among them worker units, that can be set to do only one worker job, adding additonal LM terrain and teleport options and setting deepwater harbors on fixed maps and an amazing function to transfer maps with different settings of resources in the biqs).
Another very interesting editor is Steph´s editor. Unfortunately until now I had no opportunity to make an indeep test of it, but I hope this time will come in the future.
Tutorials:
For adding units, buildings and leaders to your mods/scenarios, you should visit the following tutorials at CFC in the
tutorial forums:
Units:
https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/adding-units-to-c3c-thorough-guide-for-the-newbie.71114/
Buildings:
https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/how-to-add-improvements-and-wonders-in-c3c.83122/
Leaders:
https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/tutorial-how-to-add-a-new-leader-in-the-game.94754/
As Klaus Meier (unfortunately not Sid Meier
) sounds like a very common German name, here are two links to German Civ 3 tutorials:
A tutorial about basic Civ 3 modding, that can be found here:
https://www.civforum.de/forumdisplay.php?520-Civ3-Anleitungen-Tutorials and
a tutorial about advanced Civ 3 modding, written by me many years ago, that can be found at the same place.
Details:
Caravans, so not exactly working like Civ 2 caravans (as they can only be sent to cities of the same civ), can be created on fixed maps in C3C by the reverse capture the flag option (example the scenario AoI, created by El Justo) and for random maps by using the capture the princess option (example the mods CCM or RARR). The AI is using these options, but far away from perfect, so the values for those 'caravans' should be set low.
Textfiles:
Labels text: The steam version of Civ 3 Complete should be avoided, as this version 'overnight' added an additional line into its labels text file, playing havoc with the texts used in all normal mods and scenarios. The GOG version of Civ 3 Complete doesn´t have this very annoying bug and normal mods and scenarios can be played here without these problems.
PediaIcons text:
The pediaicons file is much more important, than the civilopedia text file. A C3C mod or scenario can be played without a civilopedia text, but not without a working pediaicons file. Additionally the pediaicons file holds many of the link adresses, that are used in the civilopedia text file (additional link adresses can be set in the civilopedia file).
Civilopedia text:
If you set words in brackets [word], this word appears in kursiv letters. The use of this kind of brackets {word} lets the text appear in bold letters. This sign ^ stands at the start of a new line. Links are created like that, using terms of the pediaicons file or additionally from the civilopedia itself: $LINK<Saltpeter=GOOD_Saltpeter>
Don´t use too many links in a civilopedia entry. If your civilopedia entry for a unit, a building or something different, holds more than 32 links, the hyperlink bug is triggered.
Example for the civilopedia entry of a unit (#PRTO_ starts the civilopedia entry of the stats of the individual unit, the entry #DESC_PRTO_ starts the description of that unit):
#PRTO_Ottoman Line Infantry
^{Type:} Offensive/Defensive Unit
^
^{Civs:} Turkey
^
^{Attributes:}
^ * $LINK<Movement Restrictions=GCON_Movement Handicap>: Mountains, volcanoes, marshes (no roads).
^ * $LINK<Airlift=GCON_Airlift>
^
^{Prerequisites}:
^ * $LINK<Saltpeter=GOOD_Saltpeter>
^
^{Upgrades to:} $LINK<Ottoman Rifleman=PRTO_Ottoman Rifleman>
^
#DESC_PRTO_Ottoman Line Infantry
^Line infantry is ...
I can easily research.
