UTILITY: Save Game Editor v1.0

[jimmyh]

Well I think it's time for a Save Game Editor.

Some one asked to be able to change unit positions in the save game file so that they could have correct starting positions on the map.

Well I've managed to hack the file and find out where this is done.

I've tested this and it works, if you want to change unit positions then you should have the Civ3 editor up and running with the map you are playing on ( THIS WILL ONLY WORK WITH PREMADE MAPS ), when you select each unit it'll tell you what civ if belongs to, you can even move the barbarian units.

I'll look into being able to add units to the file, maybe this could then be used to create scenarios or some thing

You can also edit the year of a save game file.

Putting in silly vaules for positions will be your fault, there is no error checking of what is entered.

If any one wants any other features then just let me know.

Update Avaliable here.

http://apolyton.net/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=34651&perpage=30&pagenumber=2

Cheers.
James.

[ixnay]

Good job! I'm now playing a game on a huge earth map with accurate starting locations! Only problem is that I have contact with whatever civ was placed where I first started. So, the AI quickly traded communications and techs all over the place. Oh well. I have accurate locations, and thats what matters. Good job.

[jimmyh]

Hmmm, interesting!!!

Could you please post the save game, before you changed it and after you changedit , does'n't matter if you don't have before, but it would be nice.

James.

[jimmyh]

I think I see the problem now, I try'd it with swapping two civs over and when I loaded it back up, with my new starting position I could not see anything, the terrain was still hidden, although the civ I swapped with had there terrain uncovered.

As for having contact with them, I think that when ever you uncover an area which is used by another civ, you get contact with them.

I've not yet found the section in the Sav file which indicates which area of the map is uncovered.

I also looking for where the money value is stored.

James.

[Plumbean]

Plumbean

good job Jimmyh who knows with a little work Scenario Building might be in our future keep up the good work

[BiggN]

Doesn't work with XP.

So could some one make a nice SG w/ correct starting positions of the English on the Huge map plz.

[jimmyh]

I don't have Win XP to test this on, a little more info might have been nice, does the program load up at all?

What map, map size, difficulty level and how many other civs?

James.

[kittenOFchaos]

Lalalalalala!

I solved this my having the starting positions of each civ units moved to the Antartic (which I cleverly created)...I started the game up as the english (cos I want to play them), saved it and did the editing...

It worked!

Problems...basically the lack of ease in customising things between games and you can't just change civ.

What I provide is thus the English civ at two difficulty levels with real world map (by satyajedi)...on the monarch difficulty load up the save game and press "b" to found london...the map will then show up.

On the monarch version I eliminated the 2 barbarian warrior invasion as it may catch too many people out...on diety you can take them on (just build a warrior as fast as possible and then attack the barbarians when the are close to london...I never advice defending versus barbarians you get "ambushed" and usually lose )

FIRST FILE: monarch difficulty...english on real world map.

P.S you load these files as a saved game AFTER you have extracted the save game file by using winzip!!!

Thanks to:
1. jimmyh

http://apolyton.net/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=34651

for providing the "save hack utility"

2. satyajedi

http://apolyton.net/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=33601

for starting a world map that he and "friends" have improved and improved and improved and I used.

[jimmyh]

Re: Lalalalalala!

I'm glad that it worked for you, whic is cool.

Care to be more descriptive about this!!!!

Problems...basically the lack of ease in customising things between games and you can't just change civ.


I've almost got a fixed for the map not showing up, will be released in the next version.

Did you know you can also move the barbarian units aswell.

I must say that the new world map is now looking very nice indeed, much better that the original.

[kittenOFchaos]

Zipped the file, should upload now.

First file: play on real world map with historic civ placement as the english...monarchy difficulty!

[kittenOFchaos]

Same cookie but this time at diety difficulty and I let the barbarians come for you immediately!

(I upped the barbarians of the normal map to raging and there is more huts...actually the same is true of the monarch level, but I removed the early invading forces of the barbarians in England at that level.)

Again you are England...I think london is already built for you

[kittenOFchaos]

Jimmyh...the problem is not with you utility -except that I can't just copy paste a list of coordinates in...

This means it takes ages to edit the save utility everytime you want to setup the human player as a different civilisation (or difficulty level OR if we want to change the map AND we have to go through the use of antartica etc as the "player starting positions" until we upload a full set.

This is just a stop-gap till the patch I HOPE!

My txt file for positions to move the units to...(I will tomorrow post later today my solution to the contact problem)

[jimmyh]

Did you try out the files first, coz I got loading errors in Civ3.

[kittenOFchaos]

Yes jimmyh...I knew about moving barbarians -which I did for the monarch level one.

If I had more time (3rd year geology student in need of writing his dissertation) I would sort this thing out fully! As it is one person made a request to play as England and I was keen to do that aswell.

An interesting thing is that Ireland has no rivers, neither does Scotland so it is a tricky (but not impossible) task to get irrigation in Ireland. TIP: cities adjacent to irrigation act as a source of freshwater.

[kittenOFchaos]

You got errors...hmmm...could have been winzip...you did extract the files???

Yes I tried them out, worked fine for me.


You can of course do what I did yourself:

1. add antartica yourself to WHATEVER world map -or anything that gives some spacing between player starting positions (having removed all the other player starting positions from the map.
2. save the scenario (you can change no.of barbarian tribes and their activity)
3. load the scenario chosing who you want to be...
4. save the game
5. edit the save and put in the positions for the units of each civ as I tell you to in my txt file I provided (for the worldmap I recommended...if it isn't THAT world map you use the editor to find out the historic civ starting site coordinates and plug them into your save game editor to move the civ units to the right places from antartica etc)
6. Load your saved game and la-de-da you have the problem sorted.


Oh for the patch