Modder's Guide 1.0

[hexagonian]

...at http://www.mydocsonline.com

login is hexagonia
password is hextapul

A handy beginning guide for the novice modder and a good reference for those who have been modding for awhile...

This is a compilation of posts from the past 4 months that I have found handy for Mod work. If you see something in there that you have posted., please contact me for credit, but I had originally cut and pasted the info for my own use only.

Also, additions will be welcome, but must be submitted to me via email.

[kaan]

nice piece of work :-)

-klaus

[MrFun]

Um - well, there's just one problem - my computer says that there is no known program to open the guide after I downloaded it.

What program do I need? thanks

[hexagonian]

You can use Adobe Acrobat Reader (5.0) to open the file. You can go to Adobe's website and download it for free.
http://www.adobe.com

[MrFun]

I'll be traveling to Ecuador this summer as a university student to begin learning Spanish and living with a native family.

So - muchos gracias, Hex.

[MrFun]

Oh, by the way - after printing this puppy out and reading it, I have to say this - a great, essential resource!

[hexagonian]

De nada...

I can't remember too much of my Spanish from my college days.

Make sure you stand on the Equator while there.

[MrFun]

I'll do just that -- plus, from Ecuador we'll be taking field trips to Peru's ancient Incan ruins called Ingapirca in the Andeas, and in Ecuador, we'll be visiting part of the Amazon rainforest. Those are only two of the several trips we'll be doing along with Spanish classes.

[hexagonian]

Lucky stiff...

Nothing like that in Chicago! I guess I'll have to go to the Field Museum instead - somehow it's not the same though.

[MrFun]

Oh, and hex -- I think something needs to be cleared up.

Recently, I posted a question regarding adding more than eight civilizations in a launched game. I know that you said in your guide that that is not possible because Activision does not support more than eight on created scenarios.

BUT a person on this forum named LukeCz gave instructions which is transcribed below:

1) backup civ_str.txt and civilization.txt documents

2) delete all civilizations in civilization.txt and civ_str.txt which you do not want in your scenario

3) in civilization.txt, on the following line, change the number to match the modified number: 16 # # Number of Civs in list (add as grows)

4) start a new random game with the desired number of civs

5) enable the Scenario Editor via Option, Cheat Mode and clear all land tiles -- wait until all Settlers die

6) load a map that you wish to use in your scenario

7) place Settlers for your desired number of specific civs where you want

8) save scenario to the desired folder

9) put the modified files civ_str.txt and civilization.txt to your scenario directory and place back the default, original ones

Now, is this really possible? Because I followed the instructions but because it did not work, so I think I did not put civ_str.txt and civilization.txt in the right place under the scenario directory. If it is possible, it needs to be clarified WHERE under the scenario directory you place the two files and then you might want to add this to the guide.

Thanks for answering my question if you already know.

[hexagonian]

Logically, everything seems to be right in that setup for setting up more than 8 civs. What you are doing in removing the unwanted civs is what I would have done in that situation.

A couple of things though. The scenario structure will use the .txt files in a scenario structure over the default files. This has worked very well for me when I have made alterations to them and I do all my work through the Scenario structure - (though the only default files that I changed on my setup were the civilization.txt and civ_str.txt. I had added the Hexagonian civ when I got the game, but I have posted my Mod with those altered files, without any report of problems in that area.)

A question though...
Did you also make a change in your userprofile.txt file, which is a file created when you first loaded CTP and launched your first game? This was not mentioned in your post.

There is a line in that file

NumPlayers=

that I believe will have to be changed, irregardless of whether you are running a default game or a Scenario game. The number needs to be set to either the number of civs that is in your scenario, or possibly (number of civs in scenario +1 to cover for Barbarians). I seem to recall that the number appears as 9 when you play with the max default setup of 8 civs.

What I suggest doing first is move your original userprofile.txt file to another folder, launch a new game with 8 players and then quit out of it. Then open the new userprofile.txt file and check what that number is. Then do your civ alts as you mentioned earlier, and set your number of players in userprofile.txt. Then try launching the scenario.

One thing I remember from CTP1 - when adding civs, you do not have to make your choice for number of civs on the screen where you make all of your game setting choices. Doing so causes the game to crash. This might also be the case for CTP2.

Plus I do not know about subsequent loadings of your save gamefile - what I do know that when you load a saved scenario game, you first have to launch a new game through the scenario, and then load the saved game. If you change your userprofile.txt between time that you last played your scenario and when you want to play again, it may cause problems too.

If this works, and you plan on using this as a publicly posted scenario, you will have to include instructions in your readme files.

If it doesn't work, I do not have an idea how to make it work other than what I posted above.

[MrFun]

I will print out this post, and keep you posted on what I have accomplished with further testing. thanks