MOD: The BALANCER

[WesW]

Which bic to click?

I am having trouble using the editor. It seems that no matter which civ3mod file I alter, it just causes the game to crash.
I need someone to give me exact instructions on which file to open and what to save it as. I may have mis-copied the instructions in the editor thread. I believe the trouble is that one file is named "civ3mod BIC File" and the other "civ3mod.bic BAK File".

I went through the units with the editor today, and may a whole list of small changes to the unique units, plus adding ZOC's to mounted and artillery units, plus the Longbowman, Rifleman and Infantry.
I believe that if an enemy exposes its flank, that these units will be able to open fire on, or attack them.

Once I get the game to work with the changes, I will attach the file here and a list of the changes.

As to EP's question, I just plan to offer advice and opinions with everyone else here, at least for the time being. There needs to be a lot of unit graphics made and an editor which will allow new advance icons, civs, etc. Once I see what is available to us, and if I have the time, I may start on a Medpack III for Civ III.

[Elucidus]

I named my backups- civ3mod-bak.bic, civ3mod2.bic, and civ3mod-new.bic. Then I just edit civ3mod.bic. Don't know exactly what your asking though. I hope this helped.

[WesW]

Well, the file in the Balancer zip is called "civ3mod", and listed as a Bic file. When I open this file with the editor, modify it and save it, the game crashes. It does not matter what changes I make. Apparently this file must match some other file, and I do not know which one.
When you save the file in the editor, do you simply "save" it, or do you "save as" to another name?

[Elucidus]

I have it extracted to a separate folder. I edit it, hit CTRL-S, and then copy it to my civ 3 directory. So I don't know what is wrong. Does the game let you play it if it is not edited?

[Yaga]

Hrm...

...I'm wondering if having gov't specific wonders isn't a little unbalancing then, esp in the favor of Religious Civs, which only have the single turn of anarchy in switching governments.

Anyone else have thoughts on this?

Also, pretty sure that all Civs start with a Settler - and I don't think you can change it using the Editor: In the "Units" tab, it has a "Starting Units" section (or maybe it says "Free Units," I forget" - there it lists Settler, Worker, Scout. Tried playing around with it, but there didn't seem to be any way to make the starting units Civ or Quality specific...

Wes: Best advice I can give on using the editor is to reboot *before* you use it, then load the "Civ3Mod.bic" file from the Civ III root directory. Save to the same directory before quitting. As always, make a back up. This should allow you to run the changes from the normal, "New Game" menu option. I'd advise against trying to use the "Scenario" menu option, as many (myself included) have observed problems with this option.

Also, there seems to be a resource leak somewhere in Civ III, as I've noticed that when I try and go back and forth between the editor and the game, or even launch the game, quit, then launch again, I'll get crashes, corrupted graphics, etc. Poking around, Civ III seems to spawn at least two other processes (seen in the "Ctrl-Alt-Del" menu) and these, too, may be the problem. (For reference, I'm playing on a Celeron 500a w/ 512 MB or Ram, Riva TNT2 graphics card and running Win98SE)

So, make back ups, reboot if there are problems, and you should be fine. I'll try and help answer any other problems you may have subsequently.

Cheers,
Yaga

[Elucidus]

I just got done testing the ability to build some of the government specific wonders and such and switching governments and building those and so on. It is difficult to do regardless, although like you said a religious civ would benefit the most from it.

That is why I would really like to add restrictions to this.

[Steve Clark]

Wes, shouldn't your talents be directed more toward making scenarios (when the time comes) instead of constantly messing with the regular game? I would say that 95% of all customization efforts in Civ2 were involved in creating units, tech trees, events, improvements/wonders, terrains, etc. relating to the scenarios' focus. I know only Civ2 had such a robust scenario-designer community and not the other titles, but the expectations of Civ3 scenarios promise a great deal of creativity, imagination and historical knowledge. In most scenarios, you have to accurately define and design each and every unit from scratch, in other words, start over in making Civ3 fit that time period or event. The same goes with the tech tree and any other elements of the game. That's not "modding" but "customizing" or "creating". Right now without a full editor and the inability to create scenarios, I just view such "mods" such as the one discussed here as a temporary creative outlet. "Modding" the regular game was not something you saw very much in Civ2, creating customized scenarios was what kept that game very popular for years (along with MP). Civ3 should expect the same.

[Elucidus]

Yaga, you are correct. All civs start with a Settler. There isn't much we can do about that at this point. Good eye, BTW, I hadn't even thought to look for this. Thanks for pointing it out.

[Elucidus]

Re: Visual range

Originally posted by mavmcleod
Some suggestions:

I would like to have some ability to extend the visual range, either by buildings like Radar Stations in cities or as a terrain improvement like the fortress (I wonder how the Brits would have stopped us without the radar stations in WWII).

I can't understand why a gallon has the same range of view (in fact perhaps 50 km) as a modern battleship (realy about 300 km).

Perhaps we could get some kind of radar unit (visual range about 5 squares) and a radar plane like the E3-Sentry or the Hawkeye (visual range about 8 and 6 squares).

A small wonder like "Spy Satellite Command Center" should reveal all the map incl. units expt. subs.

Thanks for reading...

Maverick

Maverick,

I am sorry your post slipped through. I read it and I thought I responded, but in reveiw I guess I didn't. Again, my apologies.

Radar Stations: City Improvements cannot (to my knowledge) add visual range. It would be nice if you could add, say, one extra step to the normal visual range with a Radar Station. Or if we could add a tile improvement, which may complicate things for the computer workers. However, we currently cannot do either. I like the idea, however.

I believe we could extend the range of a battleship...never thought about it.

Also the carrier has radar, but how would you use an AWACS? Set it to Air Superiority, or would it's mere existance in a city or on a carrier activate it? Of course, what's to say you cannot add movement to air units. I've never tried but that might work.

As far as the small wonder I like the idea, for the most part, but again, currently no capability for it.

We will probably put some of this in the wish list for a future balancer mod.

[Cian McGuire]

Cian,

I've never seen that. Are you the Russians? Also what level are you playing on?

Yup, I'm the Russians and I was playing through the game with the mod to see if everything works correctly on Chieftain...

[Elucidus]

Did that happen from the onset of the game, or did it start suddenly?

[Elucidus]

Monkspider,

Problems with 1.5. Contact me...email, ICQ, Apolyton PM.

[GenTomGun]

Reichstag

There could be a problem w/the reichstag......in my game....i have built the reichstag...it does show now that every city i own has a military acadamey in place....so now i should be able to build armies upto my city limit...which is for every 4 cities you can support an army....i have 31 cities i should support upot 7 armies...however...i cannot get any of my cities to build an army...maybe i am doing something wrong....maybe this has nothing to do w/the reichstage wonder....however i have accomplished everything i need to be able to use the military acad. that the reichstag has put in place but i cannot.....i have an army that is victorious in combat etc..........someone please help or give advice here..................

[Elucidus]

So Amry does not display in your build queue?

[GenTomGun]

Eluc

No. The Army does not show up in the build queue. I know i have all requirements to be able to build the armies now. Really the only requirement you need besides of coarse the military acad., is an army already existing in your civ and that army be victourious in a battle, and i have done that?! Again, i dont know if i am missing another part in the mixture, or the reichstag wonder is not working properly, but i dont think that is it, the only thing its suppose to do is give you a military acadamy in every city right?, well it has done that in my game, the only other possiblity would be that the small wonder military acad...is broke!!!!! What do you think?

By the way...on up in the posts here...i posted my save game file....right when the reichstag is about to be built..i uploaded that file for people to d/l and test the reichstag ability w/me if they wanted to....maybe you can try it if you have time sometime to d/l that save game and see for yourself.