Civilopaedia

[VENI]

Hello

I've been working on/off again on a mod for some time (for CiC, of course ...), and would like to modify the civilopaedia as well. I've come across a utility to extract .dll graphics, but I'm not sure how to go about editing the effects/description entries themselves ... e.g., when a tech is discovered, the pop-up is for that tech and not Seafaring (which it replaces); likewise, when 'Info' is requested on a particular unit, one gets a modified entry ...

If this *is* possible, would s/o kindly advise me on how to go about doing this, and/or further resources? I'm sure this has been asked about before, but I may not have been looking hard enough ....

Thanks!

[McMonkey]

Almost all of the text you can see in the game can be altered by editing GAME, ADVICE, LABELS and DESCRIBE text documents. I think the Civiliopedia can be altered using the DESCRIBE document.

[kobayashi]

What Mcmonkey said. I have a fully updated civpedia in many of my scenarios (off the top of my head, Lord of the One Ring, The Rape of Nations, The Wealth of Nations) and updated the pop up messages in all of them. You can open the relevant files in any of them to check. Updating the pedia is not easy as you have to manually make an index of what the original corresponding techs were before you changed it. If you have already changed the names of techs, then you have to manually click the describe button to see which pedia entry pops up. I've done that beofre, it is tedious but not impossible.

a few points

-the pop up messages are located in the game.txt.

- under fantastic worlds there was a pedia.txt file but this is no longer used under MGE becuase of the describe.txt.

- you can add your own pedia entries under game concepts for any topics you want, doing away with the need for a lengthy readme.

[McMonkey]

I once got the Civiliopedia index muddled up and it took me ages to untangle it! As Kobayashi says, plan out changes careful.

I added the House rules and Diplomacy rules in the Game Concepts part of the Civiliopedia for my scenario 'Rise of the Dictators'. It is certainly a neater way of including a read me and is easier for players to check whilst playing the game.

[VENI]

Thanks for the feedback! I've been playing around with this, and the issue has been that my modding, following the format of 'Conflicts in Civilization', has been done within one folder within the 'Scenarios' subfolder, away from the main game executable files (incl. the original civilopedia).
So two options:
1. Basic: drop in a pedia.txt, which allows barebones stats & improve/wonder blurbs, but not 'concepts' or elaborate description;
2. Advanced: drag everything into the Civ2 directory, which allows use of the main civilopedia (incl a describe.txt), soon to be modded

I had already made good use of the game and label txts, which can only be used in the main folder, but it never occurred to me to put the entire mod there ...

So thanks! I'm excited to start populating this ....
(don't worry, I did make back-ups of the orig)

[VENI]

The follow-up question, then, is how does one alter the pedia graphics? There is the file 'graphics.apr' in the PEDIA folder which assumedly contains them, but does anyone know how to access them?
thx!

EDIT: the gifxtractor3 utility doesn't ...

[McMonkey]

Not sure how to alter the Pedia graphics. Any alterations to the units should show up in the Civiliopedia. What graphics do you mean?

[VENI]

What I'd like to be able to do is to rework the original civilopedia to reflect my mod, replete with images and descriptions. The 'PEDIA' folder in Civ2 CiC contains the following: 'get_info' executable, 'civjump.dll', 'function.apr', 'graphics.apr', the 'describe.txt', as well as a series of texts which provide the narrative descriptions for units, advances, govs, concepts etc.

So while I'm able to rework the majority of the text portions, the images of the original unit, advance, etc are still displayed. For example, 'Velites' is in the 'Warriors' slot: in-game, when I call up 'units' in the pedia, the original unit names are displayed; I click on 'Warriors' and title, stats & description of Velites comes up, albeit with the picture of the original 'Warriors' unit.
Same thing, of course, with Advances (but worse, because it also has the image of the old tech req.s). I've attached screenshots to show what I mean.
EDIT: 'pologies for the large size of pics

[McMonkey]

Ah, I see. I use the MGE (Multiplayer Gold Edition) of Civ2 which has a different style Civilopedia that can be fully customized. I had forgotten all about the old style Civilopedia.

Can't help with your problem, other than suggest you apply the MGE patch and mod that, which might not be such a bad idea.

[VENI]

McMonkey, is there a patch capable of upgrading CiC to MGE? The only patch I know of is @ Civfanatics, MGE v1.3, but I'm pretty sure I'd need to already have MGE ....
Have I really been missing s/thing?

[Arthedain]

Yes you have.. This site is not that fond of speaking of that patch IIRC.

[kobayashi]

McMonkey, is there a patch capable of upgrading CiC to MGE? The only patch I know of is @ Civfanatics, MGE v1.3, but I'm pretty sure I'd need to already have MGE ....
Have I really been missing s/thing?

Only us old timers know this...

At CivFan there is the download manager created download section (probably what you were looking at) which everyone is using for Civ 4 stuff. This is a new feature added way after Civ 3 was released and doesn't contain much in the way of Civ 2 stuff.

and there is the real Civ 2 downloads section which you can access by picking "Civiliation II" from the menu bar above the site title, and then choosing "Downloads". This download section is a 100x bigger and has everything.

Now having said that, changing the pedia graphics cannot be done via the scenario folder and you have to alter the master Civ2 files to achieve this. Then you will end up with what we call a Mod and not a scenario. Most people will avoid these like the plague since it involves a permanent change to their Civ2 engine.

[McMonkey]

Or you can download MGE here: http://www.bestoldgames.net/eng/old-...lization-2.php

As I said in the info page: "A free download of Civ2 Multiplayer Gold Edition. No CD required, just unzip and play (god that sounds so wrong ). I take it this site is kosher but use your own judgement." If anyone thinks this site is dodgy tell me and I will remove the links!

[VENI]

O.M.G.

Wow. wow. To think this has been there without me having seen it for so long ..... all this time ... best not to think about it
So I have made the appropriate downloads, and am psyched to delve into this ... first glance: amazing in comparison to CiC (an Events Editor, which shows remaining space?!?!).
I've never progressed beyond CiC all these years, as it simply wasn't high on the priority list ... I've always gone back to tinker around, scrounging graphics, etc from various scenarios ... but this .. this changes ..everything!
(not to mention rendering my original question irrelevant ..)
So thanks so much - I truly appreciate it. I've got some work to do now!!!
(not to mention several ueberfantastic scenarios to play ...)

[kobayashi]

Veni be forewarned, there is a memory bug with the tech tree editor which screws up the entire tree.

Unless you already know how to skirt around the bug, I suggest you manually change the tech tree by directly editing the rules.txt.