Civilization III BIC file format

[Mercator]

updated again...

Oh yes, not everything from civ3mod.bic is quit done yet. In the RACE section, the binary data for the build often and build never things has to be worked out.
Apart from that, the WCHR, WMAP and CONT sections are still largely unexplored.

[Nero Would]

Originally posted by Mercator
Oh yes, not everything from civ3mod.bic is quit done yet. In the RACE section, the binary data for the build often and build never things has to be worked out.
Apart from that, the WCHR, WMAP and CONT sections are still largely unexplored.

Oops. You're right. Here are the build never and build often bits (the same layout is used in both fields)

    4	long		build never (binary):

						00000000

			off. land units         .......1

			def. land units         ......1.

			artillery units         .....1..

			settlers                ....1...

			workers                 ...1....

			naval units             ..1.....

			air units               .1......

			growth                  1.......



			production              .......1

			happiness               ......1.

			science                 .....1..

			wealth                  ....1...

			trade                   ...1....

			explore                 ..1.....

			culture                 .1......



    4	long		build often (binary):

                        same layout as build never 

[Gramphos]

The WMAP, WCHR and CONT are for maps, not present in the civ3mod.bic. IIRC there are 2 unknown values in the CULT section.


I believe CONT is short for continents, and should then define all islands in a way. (Don't ask me how)
(Used by the game to determine wonder effects and corruption.)

[Nero Would]

Originally posted by Gramphos
The WMAP, WCHR and CONT are for maps, not present in the civ3mod.bic. IIRC there are 2 unknown values in the CULT section.


I believe CONT is short for continents, and should then define all islands in a way. (Don't ask me how)
(Used by the game to determine wonder effects and corruption.)

I went a little too far when I stated that we have completed all the sections in civ3mod.bic. I believe we have documented every field that is displayed by the editor. However, there are a number of fields that do not seem to be displayed. Some or all of them may be unused, but some may actually control something in the game. Here is a summary of the unknown fields along with their values. If we can guess what some of them may mean, we could hex edit the file to experiment.

CULT Culture section
The start of this section is unusual. The section label (CULT) would normally be followed by the number of records in the section, and then the records themselves. But in the CULT section, there are two additional long integers between CULT and the record count: their values are 33 and 5.

GOVT Government section
There are three unknown long integers in each record of this section. There values of the three fields are:[list=1][*]0 for Repulblic/Democracy, 1 for the rest.[*]-1 for Despotism/Communism, 0 for Anarchy/Monarchy, 1 for Republic/Democracy.[*]1 for Repulblic/Democracy, 0 for the rest.[/list=1]
Note that none of these control the trade bonus that Republics and Democracies get, the field that controls the trade bonus is already identified.

RULE Rules section
This section only contains one record, and it has four unknown long integers whose values are 50, 2, 16, 1000.

WSIZ World size section
There is an unknown 24 byte field (perhaps a 24 byte string) that is hex zeros in all records.

In addition, note that most of the binary fields have a few bits that we have not assigned a meaning to, but those bits are all zero, and most or all of them are presumably spare.

As Gramphos and Mercator point out, there are also some sections that do not appear in civ3mod.bic that still need to be documented.

[Mercator]

updated once more (build often/never added)

[Gramphos]

There is a mix up in the editor of width and height for maps. And that is for the format as well.

[Mercator]

Did I put the width/height in the WSIZ section the wrong way around, or are you referring to something else?

[Gramphos]

Originally posted by Mercator
Did I put the width/height in the WSIZ section the wrong way around, or are you referring to something else?

That is what I'm saying, and te reason for this error is that the editor shows them the wron wai (the thing named witdh in the editor controls the height of the map and vice versa)

[Mercator]

I checked it again last night, and I still get the same results (i.e. my data being correct)...

The width/height in the World Sizes tab correspond with the real map width/height and the width/height in the places I put them in the BIC format... You can turn on the Grid Coordinates in the editor (you have Civ3 now, I assume?) to make it more clear.

[Gramphos]

Originally posted by Mercator
I checked it again last night, and I still get the same results (i.e. my data being correct)...

The width/height in the World Sizes tab correspond with the real map width/height and the width/height in the places I put them in the BIC format... You can turn on the Grid Coordinates in the editor (you have Civ3 now, I assume?) to make it more clear.

Ah, I see. I always see X as width and Y as height, what is all this about a real world. There is such a world?
Well, anyway. I'll name them XSize, and YSize from now on.


(And the calculation for the number of tiles is wrong anyway)

[Kuciwalker]

Could the unknown 1000 in the RULE section be the border expansion multiplier?

[Nero Would]

Originally posted by skywalker
Could the unknown 1000 in the RULE section be the border expansion multiplier?

I don't think so. The field that the editor calls the border expansion multiplier (and which also has a value of 1000) is the last field in the section. I suppose it's possible that there are two multipliers that are used in different circumstances, and Firaxis set both to 1000, but I can't think what the distinction might be.

[Mercator]

Originally posted by Gramphos
(And the calculation for the number of tiles is wrong anyway)

Well yes, the real map width is only half that of the width in the BIC file (a 256 x 256 map is actually only 128 x 256).

[Gramphos]

Originally posted by Mercator
Well yes, the real map width is only half that of the width in the BIC file (a 256 x 256 map is actually only 128 x 256).

But with their definition of width and height of a map it should be height/2.
Even thou length and with would be better names for it.
If you have width and height I say that width is the Xsize, and height the Ysize, But if you have Length as well Length = Xsize, Width = Ysize, and Height = Zsize.

[Mercator]

I´m pretty sure Width and Height are rather common terms for the X and Y dimensions respectively. At least Civ2, all image editors I know and even HTML and CSS use them the same way...