New Tile Improvements ?

[Immortal Wombat]

Does anybody have any idea how to add tile improvements to the game. I've edited all the text files with other improvements in, but the new one doesn't show up in the improvements box.

As there isn't any new TI in mods I assume it isn't the most easy thing to do, but surely its possible?

[gemini]

Well this question has been asked by many other people and it's all come up dry. I don't think it is possible.

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Gemini

[Immortal Wombat]

Oh well, thanks for the reply, i'll keep trying and see if it can be done

[Immortal Wombat]

No-one is ever going to read this post, so I won't explain how to add a tile improvement to the game, even though I have discovered a way of getting one new one into the game. Apparently it was left in like the combat engineer and cattle units, but not used. If anyone cares enough to reply to this then I'll explain.

[gemini]

I'm very interested!!!!

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Gemini

[Paul]

Me too

[Immortal Wombat]

Firstly, sorry about my sullen depressed post previously. I was annoyed that all interest in ctp seemed to have vanished during the last two months, I suppose it was only to be expected, and hopefully I shall get ctp2 soon anyway, and join the happy ranks of modders in the ctp2 forums.

The *new* terrain improvement is not anything to do with me, and it was purely by chance that I found it. Whilst dreaming of all sorts of additions to the game that could be made if terrain improvements could be added, I realised that there was a "LISTENING_POST" for both land and sea, as well as all the food/production/transport improvements, so I though a seafort might be nice. I added it to Installations.txt (despite previous disappointments) and to my utter amazement, in the game there was a seperate sprite for it, and in the battle view, a fence type thing across the picture. The only disadvantage of this wonderful new seafort is that I can only get it to work if it replaces the sonar buoy in the tileimprovements menu. This means that it wont work as an additional TI, but a sa replacement sprite.

To add it to the game, I believe only the following text files need altering

ctp_data\default\gamedata :

##add to tileimpicon.txt
+1 to top no.
ICON_TILEIMP_SEA_FORT "CT049F.tga" "null" "GAMET049.txt" "HISTT049.txt" "PREQT049.txt" "VARIT049.txt" "Null" "STATT049.txt"

##add to tileimp.txt
+1 to top no.
TILEIMP_SEA_FORT { TILEIMP_DEFAULT_ICON ICON_TILEIMP_SEA_FORT }

##add to installations.txt
+1 to top no.

INSTALLATION_SEA_FORT {
PRODUCTION_COST 1000
PRODUCTION_TIME 2
VISION_RANGE 2
RADAR_RANGE 0
ATTACK 0

FIREPOWER 0
DEFENSE_BONUS 2
ENABLING_ADVANCE ADVANCE_MASS_PRODUCTION

### FLAGS HERE


#DEFAULT_SPRITE SPRITE_FORT # #id string of the default sprite

BUILD_SOUND_ID SOUND_ID_FORTIFICATIONS
VISIBILITY_CLASS_0

VISIBILITY_CAN_SEE_0
VISIBILITY_CAN_SEE_1

IS_FORT
INSTALLATION_WATER
}

### INSTALLATION DONE ###


ctp_data\english\gamedata :

##add to gl_str.txt

TILEIMP_SEA_FORT "Sea Fort"
INSTALLATION_SEA_FORT "Sea Fort"


As it replaces the sonar buoy, I have given it all the attributes of a sonar buoy (seeing subs etc.) but with the additional bonus of having a defensive bonus for ships inside it, with a slightly greater bonus than a fortification gives on land.

If I manage to add it as an extra TI (ie. keep the Sonar Buoy) then I'll detail how, and make this new one available with steel rather than mass production. I hope this wasn't a major anticlimax for anyone interested in actually new tile improvements - I'm working on it.

Thankyou gemini and paul for renewing my faith with the world.

Ben

[gemini]

Hey this sounds good, I'll have to give it a try some time and see for myself.

SPRITE_FORT, well it's a good find anyway, makes you wonder if there is any more unused ti's.

Well, about ctp, your right not to many people interested any more, I think it has to do with the lack of scen's and mods, look how long civ2 has gone and people still play it. But there are lots of mods and scens for it. But ctp seems pretty tough for making scens or mods. There is alot you can do though if you really try. Just like you have proven with your find. I'm still making my scenario, been doing it for a long time and have from time to time run into alot of problems and bugs that I have spent too much time fixing, but I'm still going on with it. Mostly because I am making the scenario for myself I don't really care if everyone has moved on to ctp2. I think people will still be playing ctp for a while at least anyway.

Good luck with your mod!!!! Let us know when your done. There's alot of people that read and never write so I wouldn't be to discouraged if you post something and get no reply's.


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Gemini

[Immortal Wombat]

Thanks for the encouragement, the ecomod will probably be a ctp2 mod now, but i will try all new things in ctp as well, the city expansion thing by BlueOrange would enhance ctp quite a bit, if it could be adapted. Also i'll try for a sea-tile airbase (unlikely but hey, why not) etc. to see what else activision left out.

I hope you release your scenario to Apolyton, it will be nice to get some new stuff for ctp


Ben

[gemini]

Sounds cool man. Keep up the good work.

Ya, forsure I'll let everyone now on Apolyton when my scenario is released. It's absolutely huge though so it may not apeal to alot of people but I've been playtesting and like the results.

I'll tell you though that the bugs with the ai are frustrating and very, very, time consuming trying to fix. It seems that in my scenario the ai quits building in the late stages of the game. It's weird though cos some civs keep building and some just don't build. I've uped the #'s in the aip build list and it doesn't seem to work. I've tried changing some of the other aip setting but haven't run into a fix. Well regardless to say it wrecks the scenario if the ai quits building units. So, back to testing and more testing I suppose. But I have made alot of improvements to the ai(making it more aggressive and stacking better), so I'm happy with that part but it was very time consuming as well trying to figure out how everything works and basically ending with my best guess on the final settings. It seems to bad that activsion didn't go into more detail describing what everything means in the aip and fli files. But we've had some incredible discoveries by the people that use this forum. That's forsure!

Cya man,

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Gemini

[Immortal Wombat]

I have spent the last few days looking through the gamefiles, and I have found that tile improvements that Apolyton have left out of the final game consist of:
Land: LAND_MINES
Water: DRYDOCK
MAGNETIC_MINES
Space: SPACEDOCK
X_RAY_MINES
They are not found in any gamefiles that the game uses, but are included just enough to annoy me. They have pictures, when you hang the mouse over the tile you wish to place it, but have no picture in the Tile Improvments panel, so yet again they work instead of the Sonar Buoy. The sea airbase does exist, but uses the land airbase sprite! I also cant find any pictures for the new tile improvements so I am not confident about getting into the game. Oh well, the quest continues.

Ben