Modmakers Tutorial: How to add new units, improvements, wonders, and technologys!

[Gramphos]

Re: Adding Civs?

Originally posted by ScottVib
How about successfully adding (not replacing) civs and making them playable without crashing... Can this be done yet?

Thanks for this guide.

It seams as if the images for the advisor are refereed top from the EXE. To successfully add civs someone would need to have the exe to make it hold more the 16 images for the advisor. (And I'm not the one that dives into EXEs just like that.)

Therefore, as it currently stands your game will crash at the advisor, unless Firaxis makes those files referred to from another file or someone hacks the EXE or finds out that I'm wrong.

[Red Monk]

Wonders & Civs

Plutarck & Grumphos Thanks I thought it might be the splash screen but had no idea how to fix it

ScottVib I had no problem creating a new civ using the CopyTool. I copied Greece and then went into the editor and changed the name to Canada and changed all the city names to Canadian ones. I'm playing a game using this as my civ right now.

Red Monk

[ScottVib]

Gramphos, thanx I was afraid of that.... by the way when do you get the game (do you have it yet?), I can't wait to see what you can do when you actually get the game.


Red Monk, have you clicked on the Foriegn advisor screen? That is where the crash seems to occur most often (from what I've heard). The one time I created a new civ I must have done something wrong in the naming of files or something, because the game crashed on me anytime the new civ I added attempted to begin its turn (whether I or the computer were using it).

[Gramphos]

Originally posted by ScottVib
Gramphos, thanx I was afraid of that.... by the way when do you get the game (do you have it yet?), I can't wait to see what you can do when you actually get the game.

I got it today about 11½ hours ago. I've looked a little into the EXE-file, and it seams as the *_ALL.pcx are the only leader graphics refereed to from the exe. It might be possible to modify the civ 0 (barbarians to contain leader graphics, and make civ 17 (a new) the barbarians) to add one civ fully, but I don't know. Someone else more known to editing EXEs then I maybe could help out.
One thing that makes me a little mad is that the pediaicons.txt also include those filenames, but they seem to be unused

[Plutarck]

I believe the problem with the new civs mostly revolves around something going on with the Foreign Advisor screen.

From what I've heard I am led to believe that it has something to do with how the game gets the image to use on the foreign advisor screen. However as Gramphos said, something must be referenced inside the .exe and is causing the problem.

I have neither a copy of SoftICE nor the familiarity with the binary composition of compiled C/C++ executables that is required to sufficiently hack the game, so I'm out of the running for that task too.

Too bad the people with that expertise seem more interested in pirating Civ3 than improving it

[Avahz_D]

Hayt guys thanks for the info... This will be a big help....

[Gramphos]

I'm working over the building part of the copytool. Could you test the newest version?
(Yes, I know that all icons after wealth look bad. I'll see if I can trim this later. If I can and have the time to write a PCX-save routine I can copy the rows as well (but I can't promise anything))

I just need to know if there is any reason for wealth to be 33 high instead of 32.

[Red Monk]

New Civ

ScottVib This is very strange. The first time I played with the newly created civ I could go to the Foreign Advisor page no problem, my leader pic just didn't show, the circle was solid green. But a minute ago I tried going to the screen and this time it did crash! Go figure

Red Monk

[ScottVib]

Sorry if I jinxed you Red Monk

Edit- fixed messed up smilie

[facistdictator]

Hey Plutarck how about those instructions on adding new goverments like you promised.

[Plumbean]

Plumbean

Good job Plutarck keep up the good work.In the beginning nothings easy but thanks to people like you in a few months we will be able to do alot of things thanks agian

[korn469]

Major Problems with adding units

Plutarck

i followed your direction on adding units, and the unit i copied was the paratrooper...i even got the paratrooper Icon to show up in the Civilipedia, however in my build que strange things started happening

first the icon beside of the settler had became the modern age worker, (while in the actual build list it was the ancient age settler), then the worker didn't have an icon beside of it at all (while in the actual build list it was the correct unit), then my partisan unit didn't have an icon beside of it (while in the actual build list it was the ancient worker unit)

any thoughts on how to correct this would be very much appreciated!

here is what i added

#ICON_PRTO_Partisan
art\civilopedia\icons\units\05paratrooperlarge.pcx
art\civilopedia\icons\units\05paratroopersmall.pcx

between privateer and #end unit list

and

#PRTO_Partisan
^
^
^The [Partisan] is a paramilitary unit skilled in guerilla warfare techniques. Partisans carry no nationality markings, allowing them to attack and be attacked [without revealing the nationality] of the unit. A city that builds a Partisan loses one citizen from its population.
#DESC_PRTO_Partisan
^
^
^Although usually poorly equipped, Partisans forces have played a decisive role in many wars in the 20th century.
Though the largest guerilla war was on the Eastern Front in WW2, Partisans gained notoriety when guerilla forces in
both Vietnam and Afghanistan managed to defeat the well equipped armies of the Superpowers.

[Gaius Marius]

Ok, maybe I'm being stupid here, but I can't figure out how to set what terrain a resource appears on. After I create a new resource, I can go to the terrain tab, and ctrl-click to highlight it. Only problem is, nothing else is highlighted - all of the resources are listed in the box, and cant be added or removed.

If all I have to do is highlight the possible resources, how come none are highlighted to begin with? Am I missing something, or do I have to go and redo the appearance/terrain stuff every time I add a resource?

Thanks.

[Plutarck]

Gaius Marius:

Hm...I'm not sure what exactly is happening to you.

When I add a new resource and edit it in the Natural Resource tab, that same resource is automagically listed over in the Terrain tab (you might want to close the menu, press save, then reopen it, just to make sure).

In the Terrain screen just pick the terrain you want to change, then scroll down to the bottom of the Possible Resources list. All the ones that were already highlighted should still be, HOWEVER. If you click one time without holding down CTRL all the highlighting resources in the box will become unhighlighted. It can be pretty annoying if you're not very careful (happened to me a few times).


Is that the problem you were having?


korn469:

Hm...unless something just got typo'd in the pediaicons.txt file, there is only one possibility I can think of at the moment.

Open the .bic file with the Editor and select your new unit on the Units tab. Did you change the Civilopedia Entry field to what it should be?

Also try starting a new game with your alterations and open the Civilopedia entry in the game to your new unit. Does everything show up like it should?


Oh, and about the Worker. I really have no idea how the game figures out the Army and Worker units so that it changes depending on the age. It could either be hard-coded or just a matter of creating one folder called, for instance, "Partisan", another one called "Partisan Middle", and "Partisan Industrial", etc.

But I haven't tried that.

Anyway, some oddness might occur if you copy the Worker or Army unit, though I haven't tested that out yet, so it's just a guess.

[Gramphos]

It seems to me that if a unit is added you have to move the modern icons one step to the right in the units_32.pcx, but I'm not 100% sure.