v1.17f Reaadme

[Mike Breitkreutz FIRAXIS]

Originally posted by Willem


I know they're still working on it. Mike, I think that's his name, answered a query from some poster and he mentioned that he was focusing on being able to have civ specific starting points, and the ability of placing units/cities on the map.

Yes, I'm still working on it (right now, actually). I've also added a handful of other features to the editor but they didn't make it in time for this patch. I have not abandoned the editor and continue to work on adding features on a daily basis. Some features take longer to implement than others.

[Dida]

We can give 'go-to' command to every unit of the same type on the square, but we cannot give 'keep together' command to two different unit yet.
It will be nice if we have tell a battleship to 'keep together' with a carrier.

[Willem]

Originally posted by star mouse


This looks like a BIC change to me:
* Civ-specific units are now part of the regular upgrade chain.

Not really, you can do that now in the editor. They just made it official.

[pauli]

Yes, I'm still working on it (right now, actually). I've also added a handful of other features to the editor but they didn't make it in time for this patch. I have not abandoned the editor and continue to work on adding features on a daily basis. Some features take longer to implement than others.

so we get the same old editor till the next patch?

oh well. keep working... perhaps the editor should have it's own series of patches

/me hopes for an increased max for civ spacing... 32 just isn't enough for 256x256 maps...

[Willem]

Originally posted by Mike Breitkreutz FIRAXIS


Yes, I'm still working on it (right now, actually). I've also added a handful of other features to the editor but they didn't make it in time for this patch. I have not abandoned the editor and continue to work on adding features on a daily basis. Some features take longer to implement than others.

Thanks for the reply, I hope you don't mind a suggestion. It would be nice if we could have multiple lines of buildings being replaced, like you have now with the Power Plants. I'm not sure how it could be done but it would be a nice feature. Looking forward to your upcoming changes.

[Mike Breitkreutz FIRAXIS]

Originally posted by pauli
so we get the same old editor till the next patch?

No, some of the features made it in time; the biggest being undo/redo support which helps quite a bit when making maps. I believe there were a few optimizations and interface improvements in there as well.

/me hopes for an increased max for civ spacing... 32 just isn't enough for 256x256 maps...

Hmmm... ok. This would take, literally, 2 seconds to change.

[Thrawn05]

* The procedure for checking if the CD is in the drive has been changed to search all possible CD drives on a machine instead of simply the drive they installed the game from.

Please give me a moment as I swear obsenities............

Thank you, you may now bring the children back to the thread.

The reason for this is because a month ago I installed a 2nd HD for my computer, and I had to ******g reinstall EVERYTHING (for those who are not familiar with how the computer works, if you install a 2nd HD, its automaticly gets the drive letter after the 1st HD, so my D:\ CD drive turned to E:\)!!! Since all my programs INCLUDING CIV3 only check from the cd drive that is was installed from.

One question though , I usualy don't use my 2nd HD (mostly cause its just backup files), it is usually turned off for power saving, if I run Civ3, is it going to turn on the HD, read it, find out that its not a CD drive, and then go on to the next one. If this is the case, I might just skip this and any future patches, for the sake of my 2HD, which I don't want turned on/off/on/off/on/off all day, every time I run the game. Sooner or later, that's going to kill it.

[The_Aussie_Lurker]

To Mike or Soren,

First of all thankyou for taking an interest in the ideas and questions of the fans here at the forum. It shows that you really care about this game (like I had ANY doubt!!)

Just a couple of questions:

1) You mentioned how the improved editor will have a placement tool for cities and units, but from having read the posts of MANY scenario writers, the next big thing on their wish-list is some sort of scripting language, particularly for scenario events! So I was just wondering whether you will be including this feature in a future patch?

2) In SMAC, allies were able to house units in each others cities, fortresses etc. Will this feature be brought back, even as an option, in a future patch?

3) In Civ2, when a Civs capital city was taken, a civil war would ensue. Again, would there be ANY chance of bringing this back in a future patch (again, just as an option)?

Any answers you could give me on these matters would be most helpful.
Thanks in Advance!

Yours,
The_Aussie_Lurker.

[star mouse]

Originally posted by Mike Breitkreutz FIRAXIS
Yes, I'm still working on it (right now, actually). I've also added a handful of other features to the editor but they didn't make it in time for this patch. I have not abandoned the editor and continue to work on adding features on a daily basis. Some features take longer to implement than others.

Good to hear the editor's going to get a bit of a makeover in a future patch. One little feature a lot of people would like to see in the Editor is some improvement to the map generation, such as a map zoom and a mini-map.

I would like to see some control in the editor over the frequency of bonus resources in a BIC file. I have noticed that bonus resources can be fairly rare, and I would like to make them more common if needed. All that is needed is a single number that denotes "frequency of appearance", with 0 = random, 10 = every 10th eligible square, 5 = every 5th eligible square and so forth. (setting to 1 is not a good idea, so make this value invalid).

[Grumbold]

Originally posted by Flight
I mean, how often in a game to you want one of your units to wake up when one of your own passes by? Yet this is given the 'y' hotkey and the far more used enemy-only wakeup is relegated to 'shift & y' which is a much harder order to give.


It was said above but i thought i'd clarify for your benefit
friendly unit in this ocntext means another civ's unit - not your units (presumably)

sounds like a great patch, covers everything i wanted that i can think of right now and some more. Even fixed my bug (civil disorder popup crash)

nice one firaxis but of course the editor needs its own patch

Ok I phrased it badly but I still maintain that it is far more common to sleep units until hostiles are about. When you've got peaceful AI scouts trawling up and down coastlines and borders "exploring" and settlers looking for places to settle I don't want my units waking up all the time. I can issue 'y' with one hand while the other stays on the mouse but shift-y is a 2 hand effort. It'll be irrelevant if the unit has two new clickable icons for these new orders.

TechWins, I'm not going to test it myself because the key changes mentioned (random retreats even if you've saved a movement point, no pop rush) would infuriate me even more while the one I currently hate most (AI trading during in your turn) is not mentioned as fixed. Stacked movement of identical units via a keyboard command that has to be issued every turn rather than a true form of grouping is not sufficient payoff to put up with the existing or new frustrations. When the editor allows me to turn off these new ideas I'll check out the full package. There are better games to play in the meantime and I can always check back here for balanced and unbalanced opinions of the work in progress

[Grrr]

It seems to me that this patch is mainly aimed at bringing the functionality of Civ3 back up to the average user. It should allow us to play properly. IMO firaxis will release another patch soon which is more of an addition/modification patch.

I just hope that the corruption problem has been addressed.

[star mouse]

Originally posted by Mike Breitkreutz FIRAXIS
[Increased max for civ spacing] would take, literally, 2 seconds to change.

Have the max civ spacing dependent on the map size and maximum number of civilisations. There will be obvious problems when the minimum civ spacing is greater than the size of the map. There are also less obvious problems when the possible number of positions available on the map as determined by the setting for minimum spacing is less than the maximum number of civs.

A maximum value equal to

SQRT ( (MAP X * MAP Y) / NUMBER_OF_CIVS )

could work, but testing will be needed to check this.

[rflagg]

--

First off, yes, the *original* civ2 came with the ability to create scenarios. In fact, one of their first releases in the expansion forte, if you'll recall, included the top ten best scenarios created by us players. I guess it's just that Firaxis doesn't care, and that [microprose] did care about the players and not the money.

Secondly, thanks to Firaxis for actually responding to the threads here, but being vague when it comes to editor fixes. I have one simple question Dan: Is there going to be player specific starting locations, and unit/city creation available in the editor? Everyone has wanted to know - just simply say yes or no, and we'll be happy with *any* answer.

It's sad to read through the forum and find how very many of us have put the game away - I know the same happened to civ2, but I know personally I never did so, and I know quite a few more people seemed to keep on playing, because of the ability to modify the game. Just my 2 cents.


-rflagg.

[Willem]

Re: --

Originally posted by rflagg
I have one simple question Dan: Is there going to be player specific starting locations, and unit/city creation available in the editor? Everyone has wanted to know - just simply say yes or no, and we'll be happy with *any* answer.

Well if you had read this thread carefully, you'd realize that "Mike" is now working on this ability. It always helps to find out the facts before you make an ass of yourself.

[Salvor]

Originally posted by Thrawn05


One question though , I usualy don't use my 2nd HD (mostly cause its just backup files), it is usually turned off for power saving, if I run Civ3, is it going to turn on the HD, read it, find out that its not a CD drive, and then go on to the next one. If this is the case, I might just skip this and any future patches, for the sake of my 2HD, which I don't want turned on/off/on/off/on/off all day, every time I run the game. Sooner or later, that's going to kill it.

It shouldn't. Your OS knows which devices are fixed HDDs and which are removeable CD drives without having to perform any actual I/O on them.