Patch v1.1 and Scenarios

[marc420]

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, Thank you,Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, Thank you,Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, Thank you,Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, Thank you,Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, Thank you,Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, Thank you,Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, Thank you,Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, Thank you,Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, Thank you,Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, Thank you,Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, Thank you,Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, Thank you,Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, Thank you

This is exactly the stuff I've been struggling to figure out. Thanks very, very,very, very,very, very,very, very,very, very,very, very,very, very,very, very,very, very,very, very,very, very,very, very,very, very,very, very,much for your instructions. Particularly the last part about how to set up a Random Scenario usiing Mod files.

marc

[Pintello]

Hi Guys,

Looks like Locutus beat me to the answer to your second question Scorp. Oh well. :-)

I do have an on topic question though. I have changed a few files in CTP2 to experiement with some things, suggested in these forums, but I would like to put those files in a seperate "Mod Scenario" so that I can put the original files back in the game. How would I go about doing that? These are primarily changes in the Map.txt file, the const.txt file, and the units.txt file. I would also like to play with making some "canals" as mentioned in other threads which would involve adjusting the terrain.txt file.

I am kind of slow about this programing stuff, so could you, Scorp, list out step by step how I would go about doing that? Could you also possibly use some of these file names as examples. I would really appreciate it.

Its kind of funny. I have yet to run across a hardware, software, or support question that I could not resolve. I even actually understand how NT works and administer a corporate network -I am an IT Analyst by trade- but I seem to always have problems getting this programming stuff. Go figure.

Regards,
Timothy Pintello
[This message has been edited by Pintello (edited December 19, 2000).]

[skorpion59]

Thanks guys.

I was beginning to wonder if anybody was reading any of this or if it was all a waste of time.

Got to agree on the Random Scenario Mode info. That was the hardest thing for me to figure out. There was nothing intuitive or obvious about it at all.

Here is some more on the 4 types.

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Definitions and Info for the 4 Scenario types or modes

The 4 Scenario options are found on the Empire tab in the Editor (or Cheat Menu as it is also called).
They are FullGame, ByPlayer, Pl w/Nation and ByNation.
Activision's definitions (which generally are completely wrong) are as follows:
FullGame - Start Location by Player, with Nation choice, using All Nations
ByPlayer - Start Location by Player, with No Nation choice
Pl w/Nation - Start Location by Nation, with Player choices
ByNation - Start Location by Nation, regardless of Player


What does this really mean and how do I decide which to use. That is actually pretty easy.
If you want to have 'Pre-Existing' scenarios, that is scenarios which have existing cities or units, you must use the 'FullGame' option. You can't do this with any other option. Since you can only play this type of scenario as player 1, you will have to let the end-user know which Civ is player 1.
If you want the end-user to be able to pick any of the 42 Civs, you must use the 'ByPlayer' option.
If you want to tie the player to the Civs by the DB numbers, you must use the 'Pl w/Nation' option. This would be equivalent to setting NonRandomCivs=Yes in userprofile.txt. Player 1 will always be Civ 1, Player 2 will always be Civ 2, etc.
If you want to only use specific Civs, you must use the 'ByNation' option.


My definitions and info for the 4 types are as follows and have the format found below:

Option Name:
Use: My definition of the option
3-8: This is the screen which pops up for the user asking him to pick 3 to 8 Civs for scenario play
42 Civ: This is the screen which pops up for the user asking him to pick which Civ he wants to be
Start Locs: This specifies whether Start Locations can/must be set with this option
City: This specifies whether Cities/Settlers/Units can/must be placed in the scenario
Set By: This specifies how the Player/Civ is set. Arrows means you must use the left/right arrows to cycle through the Players while Pull-Down means you must use the pull-down menu to select the Civ. Both of these are on the left side of the Empire screen.
Info: Any info related specifically to this type of scenario

1) FullGame:
Use: Start Location by Player 1 only, used for Pre-Existing scenarios
3-8: No
42 Civ: Yes with the 8 Scenario Civs pickable, see info below
Start Locs: No
City : Yes
Set By: N/A
Info: This option will allow a person to pick 1 of 8 pre-defined Civs. Unfortunately, you MUST pick the first Civ (player 1) or the scenario will not work. Also, there is no way of knowing which Civ is Player 1 without the scenario creator telling you.

2) ByPlayer:
Use: Start Location By Player with All Civs available
3-8: Yes
42 Civ: Yes with all 42 Civs pickable
Start Locs: Yes
City: No
Set By: Player Arrows
Info: None

3) Pl w/Nation:
Use: Start Location by Player with No Civ Choice
3-8: Yes
42 Civ: No
Start Locs: Yes
City: No
Set By: Player Arrows
Info: This ties each Player to the corresponding Civ in the CivDB.

4) ByNation:
Use: Start Location by Nation with 8 scenario Civs available
3-8: Yes
42 Civ: Yes with 8 Scenarios Civs pickable
Start Locs: Yes
City: No
Set By: Civs Pull-Down
Info: None

General Info for All
You can set more than 8 Civs when building real scenarios but it is a waste because only 8 will be avaulable in the scenario
The 2 pull-down menus on the right side of the Empire Tab screen (governments & civ) have no use in building scenarios
When setting cities, they must be at least size 1. They will default to 0 and must be changed by the city-size arrows on the city tab
When clearing all existing land/units, you must wait until you hear the settler die before building the scenario. I have seen this take up to 3 minutes before.
Never save a scenario more than once during each launch of CtP2.

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If anybody wants any specific info or other step-by-step instructions, just ask. Some of the modders, including myself, have done this for so long we tend to forget what actually is obvious and what isn't. In other words, we forgot how hard it was to figure this stuff out when we started.

[This message has been edited by skorpion59 (edited December 20, 2000).]

[MarkG]

don, i hate to see someone having to do this, but

THANK YOU!

[skorpion59]

ROTFLMAO, okay Markos, I got it.

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Additional info regarding using the 4 types of Scenarios.

FULLGAME - Pre-Existing, you got that
PL w/Nation - useless, forget about it

So, that leaves the decision between ByPlayer and ByNation.

If you want to specify where a PLAYER starts on a map, use BYPLAYER.

If you want to specify where a Civ starts on a map, use BYNATION.

Most scenarios which have been commented on in these forums pertain to using correct historical locations for the Civs, thus you would use BYNATION for them. In fact, BYNATION would probably cover 95% of the scenarios that will ever be made. Another easy way to remember is, if you are using a real map (world, med, pacific, etc), use BYNATION.

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I plan on doing 'How to load CtP2 Text maps using the Chat Window' next and then 'How to add customized maps to a Random Scenario'. This last item would let you set up something like the Apolyton Pack where the 1st scenario is played on a random map and the rest in the pack are played on customized maps.

BTW Markos,
I wouldn't mind if DarkKnight wanted to put some of this info in the Mod Area. It could be 'prettied' up using HTML. Then, when this thread goes to archive, we could post a link to the Mod Section to answer somebodies question.

I had been contemplating putting something out in Word format so I could add screenshots to better explain things as I actually tried creating a text-based version of the screens but they looked terrible.

[This message has been edited by skorpion59 (edited December 20, 2000).]