Installing custom units

[Ralendil]

YEAH! Great work! thanks! It works prefectly so I suggest to all to take this!

Many thanks to u.

[SpencerH]

I just put together the unit_32 file. My own unit animations just use the same icons as are in the game. The extra icons are from a variety of excellent sources here and at civfanatics.

[zulu9812]

Damn. I had been using SpencerH's units_32.pcx file in conjunction with the Alien legacy mod, and it worked fine - until I tried to build units that used the Apache Longbow and Stormtrooper icons. I thought that this might just be a clash with the mod so I uninstalled Civ3, restarted and then deleted the Infogrames Interactive folder. I then reinstalled, restarted and applied the two patches. I also replace the regular units_32.pcx with the one from this thread. I wanted to see if SpencerH's icon sheet would work with your standard civ3 (as i imagined it would do).

I used the Civ Multi-Tool (0.90) to copy Mech Infantry and renamed it to APC. I referenced the unit in CivEdit with the APC icon (#87) and made it buildable from the start of the game. I was able to build my first city but as soon as I tried to open the build queue, the game crashed. God damn it!

I know that it is a problem with the new icon sheet because the game does not crash if I use the Mech Infantry icon for the APC. I also know that it is the new icons causing the problem because the APC unit works fine if I use the Radar Artillery icon. I don't get this - i was able to use this units_32.pcx fine, and now I can't. I'm left thinking "You what?"

[SpencerH]

It may be something I just learned from a recent game that I bothered to play a little longer. Some of the icons (leaders, industrial settlers etc) are hard-wired into the game in some way. They didnt cause my game to crash but they did look funny in the build queue. Your new unit may have been on one of those icon places so there was a conflict. I've re-done the pcx so you'll have to respecify the icon locations for your added units with the editor. I started a game with the new pcx and it works but I didnt try adding a new unit (I will asap).

[SpencerH]

zulu9812

I added a new unit with copytool added a new icon to the next open space on the new pcx (#100). Booted her up after the editor tweaks and voila there it was. So I dont think its the new file. Actually icon space 87 isnt hard coded for anything either! In the original pcx file there isnt a space 87

Were there any changes to the tech tree in these mods you used? I've found that adding techs can cause the type of crash you mentioned if not properly set up.

[zulu9812]

SpencerH - the zip files is actually corrupt. Also, the problems I've been having lately is that the game crashes when I use the new icons on a fresh install - no mods, not even any changes to the rules, except for the new unit. There is actually a dedicated APC unit with it's own flcs, I'll try using that with the APC icon from your icon sheet.

[SpencerH]

You seem to have some terrible luck. Apolyton has some weird problem with attached files thats why everybody posts units and graphics at civfanatics. I could email it to you if I had your address.

As I was playing with the file this morning I ended up with a problem that sounds similar to yours. I was testing whether some of the icons I added for you were faulty in some way since I couldnt see them in the city screen but could in the editor. They were the icons at the very end (99-100).

After repeated starting the editor changing the icons then starting the game (etc) I found that the game would crash when entering the city screen. I thought it might be due to the ordering of the units relative to the icons (ie the last added unit cant have a lower icon number) but that isnt right.

I got the game back by re-setting the icons for the two last (new) units beside each other (76 and 77). Restarted everything was fine. Re-set crossbowman to 78 (so now theres a gap with an unused icon) I thought it would crash but it didnt! WTF!

So I'm still at a loss its kind of like the bic and pcx can get crosswired if you fiddle with them too much, but since functionality came back it cant be an unfixable corruption in the file.

Anyway let me know what you need. I'll continue testing.

[SpencerH]

OK it definitely looks like there is a limit to the number of icons (82). If I try to use 83 the game crashes!!! I guess what I had yesterday (with the blank icon in the city screen) was some kind of "hanging on by a thread" stage. Having the extra icons there doesnt hurt anything but if you try to use them things get funky.

What number is your apc (I cut and pasted the new pcx and didnt rename it) ? In the new version the apc is #82 and it is the last one to work without causing a crash.

With this in mind you may need your icons set in a different order (since you can only use a limited number).

[SpencerH]

Zulu

Quite a coincidence we stumbled across a problem this morning that firaxis seems to have fixed with the new patch :LOL:

[zulu9812]

God damn it! You're kidding me? We can't actually add unit icons - we can only replace them? No wonder I've had had so much hassle! I've been running around trying to fix this for a month now and all of a sudden Firaxis come out and say "Oh, by the way, it's all fixed in the next patch". It's all very nice of them, but you'd think they could've thought of that for the original release!?!

Couple of things I don't quite understand:

1. How come the icons worked before and now don't? Computers aren't that random.
2. Surely other people have come acroos this problem when trying to use new units together with new icons? i can't believe I'm the first person to bring this out into the open.

btw - SpencerH, with the icon sheet that I actually managed to get from you, the icon for the APC was #87 in the editor, which, apparently is what is causing the crash (coz it's over 82).
I'd really like to get hold of whatever icon sheet you're using so I can play about with it before the new patch comes out. If you could email it to me at zulu9812@hotmail.com ? That'd be great, thanks.

[SpencerH]

Originally posted by zulu9812
Couple of things I don't quite understand:

1. How come the icons worked before and now don't? Computers aren't that random.
2. Surely other people have come acroos this problem when trying to use new units together with new icons? i can't believe I'm the first person to bring this out into the open.

btw - SpencerH, with the icon sheet that I actually managed to get from you, the icon for the APC was #87 in the editor, which, apparently is what is causing the crash (coz it's over 82).
I'd really like to get hold of whatever icon sheet you're using so I can play about with it before the new patch comes out. If you could email it to me at zulu9812@hotmail.com ? That'd be great, thanks.

What I noticed last night was that the icon for the new unit I added was strange (it was from the default flc ) It seemed to work though, so I posted thatit did. When I started to fiddle with it though, it went from strange to invisible to crash. I finally worked it out this morning but I think that more than #82 works sometimes but depending on some variable it could cause a crash. I have no other way to explain what I saw.

I'm not sure if we were the first to see this, Gramphos hadnt heard of it but firaxis sure knew. I think a lot of people added units but used the same units_32 icons (I've got three spearmen).

For now we can have 83 icons 0-82 which means there is room for about 9 non-default icons till friday. I'll send a pcx file with the apc at 82 and the attack helo at 81.

[zulu9812]

Thanx, SpencerH - i got your email with the brand-spanking new units_32.pcx. Unfortunately, it didn't work. At all. First I put the art folder for the APC unit from CivFanatics in the units folder. I then used the add feature in CivEdit and used the new APC icon (#82). However, the game crashed as soon as I tried to enter the build queue (same as before). I assumed that it must be a problem with the unit itself, so I deleted that and used the CopyTool to copy Mech Infantry, renamed it to APC and used the APC icon (#82). Same thing happens; the game crashes the first time I try to change what the city is building.

I can only think that the problem all along has been something else entirely and we've been barking up the wrong tree all this time. The fact that you were able to use icon#82 for a crossbowman unit suggest that the problem lies with something I'm doing. If you like, I'll post my civ3mod.bic and .ini for the CopyTooled mech infantry/apc.

A note to Ralendil and anyone else who downloaded SpencerH's original icon sheet - have you guys had any problems, or is it just me?

[SpencerH]

Post your bic. I can see if it works here.

[zulu9812]

here it is

[SpencerH]

Zulu9812

I cant get it to work either. I took your bic and removed the APC. Then I used the copy tool to make an APC (so I would have the folders etc). I played with the icon position, I used different pcx's no luck. It doesnt crash for me but I dont see the icon in the build queue. Do you use 1.17?

The only thing I can think of is that our versions of the 1.07 program are slightly different. Maybe this was what firaxis noticed. I really dont know what to tell you except wait for friday.