Help! Cities.gif keeps crashing Civ

[Curumbor Elendil]

I've been trying to edit the cities.gif for a modpack, and each time I do, Civ crashes when I load the scenario. All I'm doing is editing the flags in the bottom left corner. I've been copying and pasting from a common source (the "allflags" graphics file on civfanatics.com). Other scenarios that make changes to the flag section work just fine. I've even tried copying and pasting the entire flag section from the cities.gif of one such scenario (2194 Days), and it still crashes! I'm confused!

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Curumbor Elendil
http://pantheon.yale.edu/~jps35/
ICQ 56126989

[BeBMan]

That can have different reasons: wrong format, wrong palette etc.

If you have FW or higher, you can also try to save the cities as BMPs, perhaps this works...

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Civ2000

[Snog]

Your graphics program is saving the gif files in the wrong format for civ2. Civ 2 requires gif 87a non-interlaced.

[Curumbor Elendil]

I tried both of these strategies, and neither one worked. First, I saved cities as a 24-bit bitmap. When I started the scenario I got a message "Image not 640 x 480 x 256 color." So then I saved it as a 256-color bitmap. Then all the cities had a bizarre black color, and when I started the scenario I couldn't see the cities and units for each civ. Finally, I saved it as a noninterlaced version 87a gif file (which I think it was originally anyway), and I had the same problem.

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Curumbor Elendil
http://pantheon.yale.edu/~jps35/
ICQ 56126989

[Curumbor Elendil]

OK, I think I've got it working now, apart from a small glitch which has changed the colors of the numbers (population) on each city icon. I edited & saved the file using Paint Shop Pro instead of Paint, for whatever difference that makes!

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Curumbor Elendil
http://pantheon.yale.edu/~jps35/
ICQ 56126989

[Curumbor Elendil]

Well, this is bizarre. The game is taking the colors of the flags for the shields on the units and the little squares for the population numbers on the cities. You're supposed to use the upper line of flags for the new ones, right? So now what am I doing wrong?

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Curumbor Elendil
http://pantheon.yale.edu/~jps35/
ICQ 56126989

[Snog]

In the flag graphic, the square 5 down and four to the right is the shield color, 5 down and 7 to the right is the shield shadow color (for unit stacks). The bar along the top is the color for names. One of those is for the city number background also, but I forgot which.

[Curumbor Elendil]

quote: Originally posted by Snog on 01-09-2001 04:59 AM In the flag graphic, the square 5 down and four to the right is the shield color, 5 down and 7 to the right is the shield shadow color (for unit stacks). The bar along the top is the color for names. One of those is for the city number background also, but I forgot which.

Wow, what a strange way to do it. That's what I assumed the bottom row of flags was for. I'm surprised the Guide to Advanced Scenario Design doesn't mention this.

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Curumbor Elendil
http://pantheon.yale.edu/~jps35/
ICQ 56126989