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Modification Table of Contents

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  • Modification Table of Contents

    Modification Forum
    • CtP2-Creation Discussion on specific MODS, scenarios, AI and general modification * Go


    AI Customization
    • A description of how to use the AI SLIC2 functions available in Call to Power II to customize the behavior of AI players and the mayors that can control human cities. By Activision * Go


    CTP1 Sprites List
    • The sprites for the ctp1 units that are not in ctp2 are still there! Here's the list. * Go


    Scenario Making
    • Apolyton CtP2 Modificiation Section Official Activision documentation on the scenario editor. Lists all buttons and options and briefly explains what they do and how they work. By Activision & Apolyton * Go
    • Modder's Guide to CtP2 A guide compiled by hexagonian from posts on Apolyton made in the first months after CtP2's release. It contains a ton of info on how to do text file editing (editing/adding units/wonders/civs/etc, getting the AI to use new these new things, changing game settings to make the game and AI more challenging, etc) and on how to create scenarios and use the scenario editor. Although advanced topics such as advanced AI modding, SLIC, UI modding, etc are not covered by this guide, it's still the first resource every new modmaker should turn to when learning to mod CtP2. By Hexagonian * Go
    • CtP2 Map Editor Manual There's no clear documentation on how the Scenario Editor of CtP2 works but for beginning scenario makers this can be a confusing tool. That's why Immortal Wombat wrote a brief guide on (the buttons in) the Map Editor, the largest and most complicated part of the Scenario Editor. By Immortal Wombat * Go
    • BMP to CtP2 Tool that can convert BMP maps to CtP2 format so you can use your own maps in CtP2 scenarios without having to manually lay out every single tile in the Ctp2 built-in map editor. This program can be used in combination with the enormous Earth map OmniGod created to auto-generate maps of any part of the world of almost any size. By Harlan & Activision * Go (Program); Go (Map by OmniGod)
    • turnlength.txt Generator This is a tool that lets you automatically generate turnlength.txt files for your scenarios, which saves a lot of repetitive type work. Of course, this does require that there is at least some degree of regularity in your date system. By DDowell * Go
    • Setting Trust & Regard This article explains how one can easily set the diplomatic trust and regard levels between civs at the start of a scenario. By Immortal Wombat * Go


    Graphics, Sprite, and Sound Creation
    • Unit Creation Tools and Documentation Contains official Activision tools and info for the creation of sprites (graphics files for units, cities, trade goods and special effects), as well as a guide and some tools by Harlan to facilitate this process. Originally written for CtP1, but most of it still applies to CtP2 as well. By Harlan & Activision * Go
    • ReadZFSFile A tool which can be used to view and extract graphics and sound files from the ZFS archives. Useful for editing the graphics and sounds in the game. By Martin the Dane * Go
    • CtP TGA Picture Sizes Explains what the picture sizes of various graphics should be and where and how they are used. By Caranorn * Go
    • CtP1 Sprites List Official Activision list of CtP1 Sprites. This is a list of the units sprites that existed in CtP1 and are not in CtP2. To be more specific, the units are not in the game, but Activision left the sprites for use in mods. Note that the naming convention is different: CtP1 sprites are named GUxx.SPR while CtP2 sprites are named GUxxx.SPR. So the CtP1 sprites in the graphics\sprites folder can be used by renaming them. By Activision & Apolyton * Go
    • Civ3 Unit FLC conversion Provides FLC files and explanations on how to convert those to CtP2 format (including the necessary Makespr script files), so Civ3 units can be converted to CtP2 format and used in CtP2 mods and scenarios. Also includes a few already converted and ready-to-use units (Bowman, Swordsman, Archer, Mounted Warrior, Infantry, Cavalry). By E et. al. Go
    • Sounds Some general information on editing/adding sounds. By Martin Gühmann * Go
    • Sprite Edit is the tool that allows you to extract and edit all the graphics that are used to make up the unit, city, good, and special effect graphics. These graphics are bundled in the sprite format. By Martin the Dane * Go


    SLIC2 scripting language
    • SLIC2 is a C-like language that "moves" many things behind CTP2. By Activision * Go


    SLIC2 Events
    • This is a complete listing of SLIC2 events. By Activision * Go


    SLIC2 Function Reference
    • Reference of the SLIC2 Functions. By Activision * Go


    SLIC2 Built-in variable types
    • There is one builtin "variable" and a number of builtin variable arrays available in SLIC2. This document contains a complete reference of the data that can be extracted from these types. By Activision * Go



    Text File Editing
    • Directory Structure & Data Files A list of data files and their definitions that control all aspects in the game, like units, city buildings, terrain improvements, etc. By Activision * Go
    • CTPedit is an extremely powerful text file editing program created by J Bytheway. It allows modmakers to edit many of the various CTP2 data files (advance.txt, etc) through a graphical interface to speed mod development, decrease the chance of errors and help in other ways. The two most noteworthy extra features it offers are (1) a Great Library tool which allows use of templates to quickly generate many GL entries and (2) the ability to quickly make mass changes to entries in a data file. But there are many other features that this program adds that most other text editors don't offer. It's a program that according to John will most likely never leave the Beta stage, but that can in spite of this be an very useful tool for all modmakers. By J Bytheway * Go
    • Flaglist Lists all most of the flags that are available in the game, taken from from the ctp2.exe file. The lists in this file are grouped by the text file for which they are/could/should/might be used or, when that's not applicable, by subject (SLIC function, String, etc). This list may not be complete and for many flags it's not known what they do or if they work, but it's still an extremely useful resource to have when working with the text files. By Martin Gühmann * Go
    • Limits This thread briefly discusses the hard-coded limits of the game (before going off-topic). Useful to know for the beginning modmaker (but probably 'read once, remember forever'). By Locutus * Go
    • Powerpoints This thread explains the Powerpoints attribute from units.txt. By Mr. Ogre et. al * Go


    Terrain MODing
    • TileEdit Program that lets you view, edit and add the graphics contained within the Tile File. Without this, you can't edit the graphics of terrain or tile imps. By Martin the Dane * Go
    • Apolyton Tile File This file is the standard terrain file for modded CtP2. Since the file is rather large and not modswapper-compatible, it's difficult to synchronize the tile files of different mods. This file was created to serve as standard: all modmakers are recommended to keep their mods compatible with this file, and if they want to add their own terrains, they are recommend it to request an update for this standard file with their own terrain included. By Pedrunn and Mortal Wombat * Go
    • Adding Road-like Tile Improvements In this thread Immortal Wombat discussed his findings on the possibilities of adding road-like tile improvements (in this case Highways) to the game. By Immortal Wombat * Go


    * Activision does not provide any support for the map/scenario editor or the documentation that appears on these pages
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    Latest Articles

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    • CTP tga picture sizes
      by Caranorn
      Until today I was convinced there were only 3 sizes for the tga files 160 x 120, 32 x 24 and 24 x 18. But the large pictures used for units appear to be 96 x 72. This might explain some of the bad quality of the pictures in game (if the game has to scale them down). The uniticon.txt obviously uses 4 entries for icons (2 are identical), so I tried to enter a 96 x 72 tga instead of one of the UPUPXXXL.TGA files and it does work. However, I guess this requires additional space for the files, but probably this gives better quality of game icons and possibly even improves speed...
      December 25, 2011, 16:47
    • Setting Trust and Regard in CTP2 scenarios
      by Immortal Wombat
      Question:
      I would like to do a SCENARIO. where things have already happened you know.
      Are there some place to read about how to define regard,- trust,- startyear,- cost of researches and that kind of stuff?

      Answer: The questions you have asked are really two things. You can alter scenarios by changing the text files, and more abstract stuff has to be done by SL...
      December 25, 2011, 14:51
    • CTP II map editor manual
      by Immortal Wombat
      BUTTONS IN THE MAP EDITOR

      1. Cut Map Area
      2. Copy Map Area
      3. Paste Map Area

      - These work much like any such cut, copy and paste buttons in painting programs. To use them, you first have to select an area of the map using button 13, see below. Having selected a map region, you can cut it (copies it to the 'clipboard' and replaces with shallow ocean), copy it (copies to the 'clipboard' but remains present also. Once it is on the 'clipboard', you can paste the region by selecting the paste button (#3) and clicking a tile which you wish to become the TOP LEFT tile of the pasted region.

      4. save map area.
      -I never use this. I guess it's so you can save a segment from one map you make. why? (see #8)

      5. Small brush size. One tile at a time
      6. Medium brush size. I dunno, maybe 9 at a time.
      7. Large brush size. Something like 25 or 36 at a time.

      8. load map area.
      -Cunning, no? You can now load the segment (that you saved from one map in #4) into another.

      9. Set Map 'Explored'
      - All players see the map as fully explored. I think this saves into the scenario, otherwise it works no difference from button #16.

      10. Set Map 'Unexplored'
      - Opposite of #9

      11. X-wrap on/off.
      - i.e. do the sides of the map connect in the game?

      12. Y-wrap on/off
      - i.e. do the top and bottom of the map connect?

      CO-ORDS
      - Displays the co-ordinates of the tile your cursor is hanging over.

      13. Select portion of the map
      - As used with buttons 1,2 and 3. Simply click the tile you want at a corner of the chosen region, then drag across to the opposite corner of the region and let go.

      14. Eraser.
      - Works like a paintbrush, but turns everything to default terrain (shallow water)

      15. Reset Map
      - Covers the whole map in shallow water.

      16. Reveal Map
      - duh...

      17. Reload Slic
      - You won't need this for map design, but it reloads the SLIC files that you may have changed while modding.

      18. Locate!
      - Type in a set of x and y co-ordinates, and press locate to center the map on them.

      19. Remove all Goods
      - Removes all goods...

      20. Generate Goods
      - Generates goods at random across the map. Different seeding pattern on each click.

      21. Hut
      - Place a hut on the map, or remove one by clicking this button, then clicking the hut.

      22. River.
      - As above, but with rivers, not huts.

      23-26. Place goods
      - Place (or remove) goods on the map. Most terrains only have 2 goods, so only the first two buttons work. Some mods allow the other 2 to work as well.
      Button 1 places the first good for that terrain, button 2 will place a different one (but will firstly remove the first good, click again to add the second - it doesn't replace. if that makes any sense...)

      27. Toggle Pollution on/off

      28. Map Size.
      Select the map size you want. This will reload the map as a blank all-sea map, so copy any regions you want to keep.

      29. Difficulty
      - Select one of the 6 difficulty levels.

      30. Barbarians.
      - Select one of the 4 barbarian levels.

      31. Date Roller
      - Change the year in the game by scrolling backwards and forwards.

      32. Save Map
      - Save the map to a map file. Then you can reload it later, or publish it, or something.

      33. Load Map
      - So you can continue working on it I guess. You have to have saved it first.

      34. Save scenario.
      - Save the whole scenario (map, rules, etc. ) to a scenario file, which you are asked to place in the scenario structure. Select the scenario fo your choice, and click save. The press 'back' outwards.

      ...
      December 25, 2011, 14:15
    • EditPlus: updated SLIC-definitions, new CTP2-DB-definitions
      by BureauBert
      Why not get back to CTP2-modding just to enjoy the luxury of syntax highliting in EditPlus?
      • for SLIC (Locutus' SLIC-definitions file updated for CTP2 AE)
      • for CTP2 AE database files (a brand new definitions file)

      I will keep updating both files as long as the Source Code Project is going on with the Information I can find in the AE Modding Wiki (or somewhere else, but preferably there).

      The EditPlus definitions for CTP2 AE database structures are currently supporting all files in \default\gamedata and \default\aidata. I will see how much I can do for the string files, but I intend to integrate at least some highliting support for editing the Great Library. Personally, I like browsing the textfiles with syntax highliting -- I can see clearly now .

      I will eventually post updates here (not too frequently though).

      Please don't hesitate to post your suggestions and complaints .

      Installation:
      • Requires: EditPlus
      • copy the zipped files into the EditPlus program folder
      • open EditPlus, open the menu Tools > Preferences
      • go to "Settings and Syntax"
      • hit the "Add" button
      • for SLIC enter a description like "SLIC", file extension "slc", the syntax file is "slic.stx", the auto completion file is "slic.acp" and the function pattern file is "slic.ctl"
      • for the database defintions enter a description like "CTP2 DB", the file extension is "txt" (which might be a bit annoying if you use EditPlus for other textfiles and if you frequently use words like "InvaderMovementRegardCost" in your notes ), there is just a syntax file "ctpdb.stx"
      ...
      January 29, 2011, 18:53
    • CTP1 Sprite List for CTP2 modders
      by Martin Gühmann
      The following is a list of the units sprites that existed in CTP1 and are not now in CTP2. To be more specific, the units are not in the game, but Activision left the sprites for use in mods. Here is the list...
      December 10, 2010, 20:19
    • AI Customization
      by Martin Gühmann
      AI Customization

      Following is a description of how to use the AI SLIC functions available in Call to Power II to customize the behavior of AI players and the mayors that can control human cities.


      Getting Started

      You should create a new scenario that will include the modifications you make. Specific directions for creating a new scenario can be found below in Appendix A. Most of the files that you will modify to make AI changes can be found in the default\aidata subdirectory of your scenario. You will also create/modify the scenario.slc file in the default\gamedata subdirectory of your scenario.
      ...
      December 10, 2010, 19:42
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