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Resources for modmakers
Welcome,
This thread is intended to provide you a quick way to access all the important threads, websites, guides, files, tools, etc for making mods and scenarios or other modifications for CtP2. There are an awful lot of resources out there but until now it was sometimes a challenge to find the info/files/tools you needed as there was no one place where all these resources could be found. This thread will hopefully change that. Links to all resources that can be useful in modding CtP2 are collected here, so that you can hopefully access everything you need with a single mouse click.
However, there is so much info out there that it is impossible that this thread is complete, if only because new resources are being made available all the time. (Another important reason is that I don't have as much time to hunt for resources as I would like to have, so particularly in the early going this thread will be grossly incomplete.) Therefore, you are very much encouraged to post your own links to forum threads (on or off Apolyton), websites, files (in or out the Apolyton Directory), guides, or other resources in this thread. I will then add them to the summary in the first (few) post(s) of this thread ASAP.
Scenario Making
This section provides resources for making scenarios: info on the scenario file structure, the scenario editor and other scenario-specific info such as turnlength.txt. This covers only scenario-specific subjects: things like text file editing, modding the AI, programming SLIC and other tools that are essential for designing more than the most basic scenarios are covered in other sections, as they can be used for other activities as well, such as modmaking or other modifications.
Apolyton CtP2 Modificiation Section (by Activision & Apolyton): http://apolyton.net/ctp2/modification/scenedit.shtml
Official Activision documentation on the scenario editor. Lists all buttons and options and briefly explains what they do and how they work.
Modder's Guide to CtP2 (by hexagonian et al): http://www.mydocsonline.com/pub/hexagonia/modguide.ZIP
A guide compiled by hexagonian from posts on Apolyton made in the first months after CtP2's release. It contains a ton of info on how to do text file editing (editing/adding units/wonders/civs/etc, getting the AI to use new these new things, changing game settings to make the game and AI more challenging, etc) and on how to create scenarios and use the scenario editor. Although advanced topics such as advanced AI modding, SLIC, UI modding, etc are not covered by this guide, it's still the first resource every new modmaker should turn to when learning to mod CtP2.
CtP2 Map Editor Manual (by Immortal Wombat): http://apolyton.net/forums/showthrea...threadid=64677
There's no clear documentation on how the Scenario Editor of CtP2 works but for beginning scenario makers this can be a confusing tool. That's why Immortal Wombat wrote a brief guide on (the buttons in) the Map Editor, the largest and most complicated part of the Scenario Editor.
BMP to CtP2 (by harlan & Activision): http://apolyton.net/dir/index.php?id...reviews&cat=54 (Program); http://apolyton.net/dir/index.php?id...reviews&cat=39 (Map by OmniGod)
Tool that can convert BMP maps to CtP2 format so you can use your own maps in CtP2 scenarios without having to manually lay out every single tile in the Ctp2 built-in map editor. This program can be used in combination with the enormous Earth map OmniGod created to auto-generate maps of any part of the world of almost any size.
turnlength.txt Generator (by DDowell): http://apolyton.net/forums/attachmen...&postid=860078
This is a tool that lets you automatically generate turnlength.txt files for your scenarios, which saves a lot of repetitive type work. Of course, this does require that there is at least some degree of regularity in your date system.
Setting Trust & Regard (by Immortal Wombat): http://apolyton.net/forums/showthrea...threadid=49178
This thread contains an explanation on how one can easily set the diplomatic trust and regard levels between civs at the start of a scenario.
Text File Editing
Most of the game-elements in CtP2 can be changed or added quite easily, as they are stored in simple text files: things like units, wonders, tile improvements, advances, governments, civilizations, etc. By editing the relevant text files, you can change the properties of these things or add new ones (or delete old ones). Info on how to do this, what effect various settings have and tools to aid with this are listed in this section. Note that diplomacy, AI and SLIC are also parts of the game that are stored in text files, but those are listed seperately, as (editing) those concepts work(s) fundamentally different from (editing) units or governments and their text files are organized in a very different way.
Apolyton CtP2 Modificiation Section (by Activision & Apolyton): http://apolyton.net/ctp2/modification/
Official Activision documentation on (among other things) text file editing. Contains detailed info on a lot (but not all) of the text files in the gamedata folder, with all the flags, settings, etc that are available. Also provides some info on the directory structure.
Modder's Guide to CtP2 (by hexagonian et al): http://www.mydocsonline.com/pub/hexagonia/modguide.ZIP
A guide compiled by hexagonian from posts on Apolyton made in the first months after CtP2's release. It contains a ton of info on how to do text file editing (editing/adding units/wonders/civs/etc, getting the AI to use new these new things, changing game settings to make the game and AI more challenging, etc) and on how to create scenarios and use the scenario editor. Although advanced topics such as advanced AI modding, SLIC, UI modding, etc are not covered by this guide, it's still the first resource every new modmaker should turn to when learning to mod CtP2.
CTPEd (by J Bytheway): http://apolyton.net/forums/showthrea...threadid=50102
An extremely powerful text file editing program created by J Bytheway. It allows modmakers to edit many of the various CTP2 data files (advance.txt, etc) through a graphical interface to speed mod development, decrease the chance of errors and help in other ways. The two most noteworthy extra features it offers are (1) a Great Library tool which allows use of templates to quickly generate many GL entries and (2) the ability to quickly make mass changes to entries in a data file. But there are many other features that this program adds that most other text editors don't offer. It's a program that according to John will most likely never leave the Beta stage, but that can in spite of this be an very useful tool for all modmakers.
Flaglist (by Martin Gühmann): http://apolyton.net/dir/index.php?id...eviews&cat=240
Lists all most of the flags that are available in the game, taken from from the ctp2.exe file. The lists in this file are grouped by the text file for which they are/could/should/might be used or, when that's not applicable, by subject (SLIC function, String, etc). This list may not be complete and for many flags it's not known what they do or if they work, but it's still an extremely useful resource to have when working with the text files.
Limits (by Locutus et al): http://apolyton.net/forums/showthrea...threadid=60065
This thread briefly discusses the hard-coded limits of the game (before going off-topic). Useful to know for the beginning modmaker (but probably 'read once, remember forever').
Powerpoints (by Mr Ogre et al): http://apolyton.net/forums/showthrea...threadid=17957
This thread explains the Powerpoints attribute from units.txt.
Graphics, Sprite & Sound Creation
Creating and editing graphics and sounds in CtP2 is basically like creating and editing graphics or sounds for any other purpose: it can be done with any graphics or sound program that supports the required file formats (Paint Shop Pro and Photoshop are decent all-round programs for static graphics). However, there are a few CtP2 specific file formats and tools that need to be taken into account and knowledge of certain procedures and techniques can save a lot of time. These are listed in this section.
Unit Creation Tools and Documentation (by harlan & Activision): http://apolyton.net/dir/index.php?id...reviews&cat=54
Contains official Activision tools and info for the creation of sprites (graphics files for units, cities, trade goods and special effects), as well as a guide and some tools by Harlan to facilitate this process. Originally written for CtP1, but most of it still applies to CtP2 as well.
ReadZFSFile (by Martin the Dane): http://apolyton.net/dir/index.php?id...reviews&cat=54
A tool which can be used to view and extract graphics and sound files from the ZFS archives. Useful for editing the graphics and sounds in the game.
CtP TGA Picture Sizes (by Caranorn): http://apolyton.net/forums/showthrea...threadid=61438
Explains what the picture sizes of various graphics should be and where and how they are used.
CtP1 Sprites List (by Activision & Apolyton): http://apolyton.net/ctp2/modificatio...iteslist.shtml
Official Activision list of CtP1 Sprites. This is a list of the units sprites that existed in CtP1 and are not in CtP2. To be more specific, the units are not in the game, but Activision left the sprites for use in mods. Note that the naming convention is different: CtP1 sprites are named GUxx.SPR while CtP2 sprites are named GUxxx.SPR. So the CtP1 sprites in the graphics\sprites folder can be used by renaming them.
Civ3 Unit FLC conversion (by E et al): http://apolyton.net/forums/showthrea...threadid=38841
Provides FLC files and explanations on how to convert those to CtP2 format (including the necessary Makespr script files), so Civ3 units can be converted to CtP2 format and used in CtP2 mods and scenarios. Also includes a few already converted and ready-to-use units (Bowman, Swordsman, Archer, Mounted Warrior, Infantry, Cavalry).
Sounds (by Martin Gühmann): http://apolyton.net/forums/showthrea...threadid=56467
Some general information on editing/adding sounds.
Sprite Extractor (by Sir Ralph et al): http://apolyton.net/forums/showthrea...threadid=48955
This thread is a discussion about the conversion of sprite files to readable graphics files. Sir Ralph made an attempt to use the bits of source code Activision provided to create a tool that can do this but didn't succeed. If anyone plans to try this again in the future, information in this thread might turn out to be useful.
Terrain Modding
Modding the terrain and tile improvements (as in changing the graphics or adding new ones) is harder to do than most other kinds of modding, as the terrain and tile imps are stored in a special format, namely in the so called Tile File. Fortunately, Martin the Dane has been able to crack this format and thanks to the work of him, Pedrunn and Immortal Wombat we now have the means and knowledge to mod terrain and tile imps as well. There's even a standard in doing so, to avoid unnecessary downloading of large files. Resources related to this are collected in this section.
TileEdit (by Martin the Dane): http://apolyton.net/dir/index.php?id...reviews&cat=54
Program that lets you view, edit and add the graphics contained within the Tile File. Without this, you can't edit the graphics of terrain or tile imps.
Apolyton Tile File (by Pedrunn & Immortal Wombat): http://apolyton.net/dir/index.php?id...reviews&cat=39
This file is the standard terrain file for modded CtP2. Since the file is rather large and not modswapper-compatible, it's difficult to synchronize the tile files of different mods. This file was created to serve as standard: all modmakers are recommended to keep their mods compatible with this file, and if they want to add their own terrains, they are recommend it to request an update for this standard file with their own terrain included.
Adding Road-like Tile Improvements (by Immortal Wombat): http://apolyton.net/forums/showthrea...threadid=62915
In this thread Immortal Wombat discussed his findings on the possibilities of adding road-like tile improvements (in this case Highways) to the game.
AI and Diplomacy Modding
The settings for changing the behaviour of the AI opponents in the game and the options available in and AI behaviour of the Diplomacy system are largely stored in text files in the aidata folder. Modding these settings is harder than modding regular text file modding as understanding what exactly is going on and how in-game mechanisms use the text files is much more complicated than when you simply wish to add a unit. Contrary to the latter case, there are generally no simple step-by-step instructions that can be followed to make the game better, it requires case study of the files and experimentation. This section provides links existing info on these subjects.
Apolyton CtP2 Modificiation Section (by Activision & Apolyton): http://apolyton.net/ctp2/modification/
Official Activision documentation on (among other things) AI and Diplomacy modding. Contains detailed info on most of the text files in the aidata folder and the relevant files in the gamedata folder. Where applicable it lists all the flags, settings, etc that are available and briefly explains them. It also goes into the subject of using SLIC to modify AI behaviour, a crucial part of AI modding. Although all this info is invaluable to all AI/Diplo modders, due to the complexity of the subject it probably raises more questions than it answers.
Conversations with Richard Myers (by WesW & Azmel2 et al): http://apolyton.net/forums/showthrea...threadid=18597
In this thread Activisioner Richard Myers, aka Azmel2, answers many important questions about AI and Diplomacy modding. This is pretty advanced stuff so don't be discouraged if you don't get all of it at first read. However, it's a must-read for everyone into AI and/or Diplomacy modding.
How does the AI task it's units? (by Peter Triggs): http://apolyton.net/forums/attachmen...postid=1446543
A document Peter Triggs has been working on which, as the title implies, explains how the AI handles the process of assigning tasks to units. Although not finished, it's an extremely useful document for anyone working on the AI. It's based on the Conversations with Richard Myers thread but also incorporates some information from DarkReign and CtP1 (the AI systems of all three games are based on each other and very similar).
Notes on Diplomacy (by Peter Triggs): http://apolyton.net/forums/attachmen...&postid=543507
A document by Peter Triggs in which he wrote down some notes on the diplomacy functions and events of SLIC and how they can be used. It's a preliminary document but invaluable for people working on the diplomacy aspect of the game.
AI Terraforming (by sun_tzu_159 et al): http://apolyton.net/forums/showthrea...threadid=40160
Art of War (aka sun_tzu_159) explains how the AI terraforming logic works and why the AI never does it in the original game.
Decay (by Peter Triggs et al): http://apolyton.net/forums/showthrea...threadid=51263
A brief but potentially useful discussion about the decay of regard in the diplomacy files.
GUI Editing
The Graphical User Interface (or GUI) of CtP2 can officially be edited as well, but in practice this has turned out to be a tough challenge. Although large parts of the UI are stored in text files (with the extension *.ldl), some of it is hard-coded as well. Also, virtually no info on how to do it is available. Still, small successes have been achieved and the 'field' offers great potential, so every tidbit of info on this subject can be extremely valuable. These tidbits are collected in this section.
GUI Modification (by ahenobarb): http://apolyton.net/forums/showthrea...threadid=63684
With a combination of hex-editing (i.e. the hacking of the ctp2.exe file) and ldl file editing, ahenobarb managed to do things with GUI modding that have never been done before. There's a lot of misc info on GUI editing in here this thread, so if you're into GUI modding, this is a must-read.
SLIC Programming
SLIC is the scripting language that came with CtP2: it's a very basic programming language that gives you the power to completely alter the game. You can use it for simple things like generating message boxes when you capture an enemy city or you can use it to add whole new features and layers to the game and change it beyond recognition (e.g. to add religion or strategic resources). It's a very basic language and in itself not too hard to learn (providing you're willing to invest some time in it), but it does has many quirks, bugs, oddities and other irregularies that make it necessary, or at least highly desirable, to have a lot of information available to aid you in learning and using it.
Apolyton CtP2 Modificiation Section (by Activision & Apolyton): http://apolyton.net/ctp2/modification/
Among other things, this hosts the official documentation Activision released on SLIC. Particularly the function, variable and event lists are essential resources for all SLIC programmers and anyone interested in SLIC will probably want to have at least 1 printed hardcopy of each of these lists (I have 3 of each myself: 1 'clean' version and 2 with notes, brainstorms, sample code, etc). The actually documentation on how SLIC works is a classic catch-22: you won't be able to understand it until you know SLIC (unless you're an experienced programmer). And if it wasn't for the fan-made documentations, you couldn't possible learn SLIC without the Activision documentation. This catch-22 situation is probably why it took 1-2 years before SLIC programming really took off (back in the days of CtP1) but fortunately there's now enough unofficial info out there to break the cycle. Although odds are you won't understand it all, it's still highly advisable that everyone interested in SLIC read this info at least once.
Getting started with SLIC/Event-Based Scripting for CtP2 (by Peter Triggs and Immortal Wombat): http://apolyton.net/forums/showthrea...threadid=33181
A basic guide into SLIC programming. It explains the basics of SLIC programming and how to get started with it (including Editplus SLIC definition files). Vital resource for anyone who wants to get into SLIC programming but doesn't have much programming experience.
Ultimate Guide to SLIC (by Locutus): http://ctpmodmakers.250free.com/SLIC...l/Slicdoc2.htm (online HTML format); http://home.student.utwente.nl/w.snijders/Slicdoc2.rtf (downloadable RTF (Word) format)
Not quite as 'ultimate' as the title suggests, because it's unfinished. It's an elaborate manual that intends to explain to programming newbies and veterans alike (but with a focus on newbies) the all the details of the SLIC programming language. The most important part that's missing is the part that deals with messages, other than that it's reasonably complete. However, I do hope to get around to doing a complete makeover of that guide, as a lot of new info, examples and other useful stuff could be added to all chapters. Still a very important resource for beginning SLIC programmers though.
SLIC Kung Fu: The Complete Guide to SLIC (by ahenobarb): http://apolyton.net/dir/index.php?&i...eviews&cat=240
This elaborate SLIC guide runs to about 250 pages and is divided into three sections. The first section covers how to write SLIC code, the second section provides a walk through of writing SLIC code (in this case it is a demo script to return cattle to the game, with some changes that prevent the original problems), section 3 contains the appendices for SLIC commands etc.
SLIC Oddities (by mapfi et al): http://apolyton.net/forums/showthrea...threadid=63931
Although SLIC is basically easy to learn, it has many oddities that make it seem a lot more complicated than it really is. Unfortunately these oddities can only be learned from experience, from your own or from that of others - and that's exactly why this thread was created: to collect all these oddities in one place so you can easily learn about them without having to find out the hard way.
SLIC Template Processor (by J Bytheway): http://apolyton.net/forums/showthrea...threadid=62876
Tool to generate SLIC files from templates. It is able to take a template file and create a SLIC file from it which repeats the code of the template over and over again and fills in the 'variable' sections. For example, you can tell the processor to take advance from a certain advances.txt file and create the template code once for every advance in the textfile, where everytime an advance is inserted in the correct place in the code. It also adds further functionality to access the fields within the entries (in a limited way) and supply the number of the entry for use with array indicies and such like. This tool saves a lot of tedious copy-paste work and repetitive manual editing of certain sections of SLIC code.
SLIC Excel Sheet (by Locutus): http://home.student.utwente.nl/w.snijders/SLIC.zip (downloadable ZIP file); http://home.student.utwente.nl/w.snijders/SLIC.xls (XLS file, some browsers can view this online)
This file provides a summary of all the SLIC functions and events with very brief info on what they do and what arguments they require. Much info is based on a late beta of CtP2, not on a release version, so a release, a patch and 2 years of experience followed and have rendered it somewhat obsolete, but it can still come in handy in some cases as it provides at least some info that Activision never released.
SLIC1 Function Reference Revisited (by Locutus): http://home.student.utwente.nl/w.sni...Functions.html
This is the function reference of CtP1. Although many new functions were added in CtP2 and a few CtP1 functions changed or disappeared, this could in some cases still prove useful for CtP2 SLIC coders as the functions are not ordered alphabetically but by subject. Can save a lot of time searching for that one function you were looking for but can't remember the name of... (The color coding is also cute
)
What Govt Am I? (by Dale): http://apolyton.net/dir/index.php?id...eviews&cat=172
This is a small mod which can be isntalled to find out which government each civ is currently in. There is no known way of finding this out through SLIC, so Dale wrote this mod to make it possible through a workaround.
mod_* Functions (by MATT:-) C et al): http://apolyton.net/forums/showthrea...threadid=59846
A very interesting discussion on mod_* functions. Describes the findings of experiments with mod_UnitAttack, mod_UnitDefense and mod_UnitRangedAttack.
Civ2 events.txt Comparison (by Peter Triggs): http://apolyton.net/forums/showthrea...threadid=55971
In this thread a comparison between SLIC and Civ2's events.txt is made and is shown how Civ events could easily be converted to SLIC.
EditPlus (by ES-Computing): http://www.editplus.com (program); http://home.student.utwente.nl/w.snijders/slic4ep2.zip (SLIC definition files by Locutus); http://apolyton.net/forums/attachmen...&postid=590580 (new SLIC definition files by Peter Triggs)
Although any text editor from NotePad to MS Word XP Pro can be used to edit SLIC files, some programs are more suitable than others. Two of the best tools out there are UltraEdit (www.utraedit.com) and EditPlus, as these programs offer all sorts of tools and features specifically designed for programmers and script languages (things like color coding, auto-completion, macros, user tools, project management and an endless number of (other) customizable settings). EditPlus has been popular among SLIC programmers since 1999 and several sets of SLIC definition files for EditPlus are available for download. Note that EditPlus is officially shareware, not freeware like virtually all other resources.
Welcome,
This thread is intended to provide you a quick way to access all the important threads, websites, guides, files, tools, etc for making mods and scenarios or other modifications for CtP2. There are an awful lot of resources out there but until now it was sometimes a challenge to find the info/files/tools you needed as there was no one place where all these resources could be found. This thread will hopefully change that. Links to all resources that can be useful in modding CtP2 are collected here, so that you can hopefully access everything you need with a single mouse click.
However, there is so much info out there that it is impossible that this thread is complete, if only because new resources are being made available all the time. (Another important reason is that I don't have as much time to hunt for resources as I would like to have, so particularly in the early going this thread will be grossly incomplete.) Therefore, you are very much encouraged to post your own links to forum threads (on or off Apolyton), websites, files (in or out the Apolyton Directory), guides, or other resources in this thread. I will then add them to the summary in the first (few) post(s) of this thread ASAP.
Scenario Making
This section provides resources for making scenarios: info on the scenario file structure, the scenario editor and other scenario-specific info such as turnlength.txt. This covers only scenario-specific subjects: things like text file editing, modding the AI, programming SLIC and other tools that are essential for designing more than the most basic scenarios are covered in other sections, as they can be used for other activities as well, such as modmaking or other modifications.
Apolyton CtP2 Modificiation Section (by Activision & Apolyton): http://apolyton.net/ctp2/modification/scenedit.shtml
Official Activision documentation on the scenario editor. Lists all buttons and options and briefly explains what they do and how they work.
Modder's Guide to CtP2 (by hexagonian et al): http://www.mydocsonline.com/pub/hexagonia/modguide.ZIP
A guide compiled by hexagonian from posts on Apolyton made in the first months after CtP2's release. It contains a ton of info on how to do text file editing (editing/adding units/wonders/civs/etc, getting the AI to use new these new things, changing game settings to make the game and AI more challenging, etc) and on how to create scenarios and use the scenario editor. Although advanced topics such as advanced AI modding, SLIC, UI modding, etc are not covered by this guide, it's still the first resource every new modmaker should turn to when learning to mod CtP2.
CtP2 Map Editor Manual (by Immortal Wombat): http://apolyton.net/forums/showthrea...threadid=64677
There's no clear documentation on how the Scenario Editor of CtP2 works but for beginning scenario makers this can be a confusing tool. That's why Immortal Wombat wrote a brief guide on (the buttons in) the Map Editor, the largest and most complicated part of the Scenario Editor.
BMP to CtP2 (by harlan & Activision): http://apolyton.net/dir/index.php?id...reviews&cat=54 (Program); http://apolyton.net/dir/index.php?id...reviews&cat=39 (Map by OmniGod)
Tool that can convert BMP maps to CtP2 format so you can use your own maps in CtP2 scenarios without having to manually lay out every single tile in the Ctp2 built-in map editor. This program can be used in combination with the enormous Earth map OmniGod created to auto-generate maps of any part of the world of almost any size.
turnlength.txt Generator (by DDowell): http://apolyton.net/forums/attachmen...&postid=860078
This is a tool that lets you automatically generate turnlength.txt files for your scenarios, which saves a lot of repetitive type work. Of course, this does require that there is at least some degree of regularity in your date system.
Setting Trust & Regard (by Immortal Wombat): http://apolyton.net/forums/showthrea...threadid=49178
This thread contains an explanation on how one can easily set the diplomatic trust and regard levels between civs at the start of a scenario.
Text File Editing
Most of the game-elements in CtP2 can be changed or added quite easily, as they are stored in simple text files: things like units, wonders, tile improvements, advances, governments, civilizations, etc. By editing the relevant text files, you can change the properties of these things or add new ones (or delete old ones). Info on how to do this, what effect various settings have and tools to aid with this are listed in this section. Note that diplomacy, AI and SLIC are also parts of the game that are stored in text files, but those are listed seperately, as (editing) those concepts work(s) fundamentally different from (editing) units or governments and their text files are organized in a very different way.
Apolyton CtP2 Modificiation Section (by Activision & Apolyton): http://apolyton.net/ctp2/modification/
Official Activision documentation on (among other things) text file editing. Contains detailed info on a lot (but not all) of the text files in the gamedata folder, with all the flags, settings, etc that are available. Also provides some info on the directory structure.
Modder's Guide to CtP2 (by hexagonian et al): http://www.mydocsonline.com/pub/hexagonia/modguide.ZIP
A guide compiled by hexagonian from posts on Apolyton made in the first months after CtP2's release. It contains a ton of info on how to do text file editing (editing/adding units/wonders/civs/etc, getting the AI to use new these new things, changing game settings to make the game and AI more challenging, etc) and on how to create scenarios and use the scenario editor. Although advanced topics such as advanced AI modding, SLIC, UI modding, etc are not covered by this guide, it's still the first resource every new modmaker should turn to when learning to mod CtP2.
CTPEd (by J Bytheway): http://apolyton.net/forums/showthrea...threadid=50102
An extremely powerful text file editing program created by J Bytheway. It allows modmakers to edit many of the various CTP2 data files (advance.txt, etc) through a graphical interface to speed mod development, decrease the chance of errors and help in other ways. The two most noteworthy extra features it offers are (1) a Great Library tool which allows use of templates to quickly generate many GL entries and (2) the ability to quickly make mass changes to entries in a data file. But there are many other features that this program adds that most other text editors don't offer. It's a program that according to John will most likely never leave the Beta stage, but that can in spite of this be an very useful tool for all modmakers.
Flaglist (by Martin Gühmann): http://apolyton.net/dir/index.php?id...eviews&cat=240
Lists all most of the flags that are available in the game, taken from from the ctp2.exe file. The lists in this file are grouped by the text file for which they are/could/should/might be used or, when that's not applicable, by subject (SLIC function, String, etc). This list may not be complete and for many flags it's not known what they do or if they work, but it's still an extremely useful resource to have when working with the text files.
Limits (by Locutus et al): http://apolyton.net/forums/showthrea...threadid=60065
This thread briefly discusses the hard-coded limits of the game (before going off-topic). Useful to know for the beginning modmaker (but probably 'read once, remember forever').
Powerpoints (by Mr Ogre et al): http://apolyton.net/forums/showthrea...threadid=17957
This thread explains the Powerpoints attribute from units.txt.
Graphics, Sprite & Sound Creation
Creating and editing graphics and sounds in CtP2 is basically like creating and editing graphics or sounds for any other purpose: it can be done with any graphics or sound program that supports the required file formats (Paint Shop Pro and Photoshop are decent all-round programs for static graphics). However, there are a few CtP2 specific file formats and tools that need to be taken into account and knowledge of certain procedures and techniques can save a lot of time. These are listed in this section.
Unit Creation Tools and Documentation (by harlan & Activision): http://apolyton.net/dir/index.php?id...reviews&cat=54
Contains official Activision tools and info for the creation of sprites (graphics files for units, cities, trade goods and special effects), as well as a guide and some tools by Harlan to facilitate this process. Originally written for CtP1, but most of it still applies to CtP2 as well.
ReadZFSFile (by Martin the Dane): http://apolyton.net/dir/index.php?id...reviews&cat=54
A tool which can be used to view and extract graphics and sound files from the ZFS archives. Useful for editing the graphics and sounds in the game.
CtP TGA Picture Sizes (by Caranorn): http://apolyton.net/forums/showthrea...threadid=61438
Explains what the picture sizes of various graphics should be and where and how they are used.
CtP1 Sprites List (by Activision & Apolyton): http://apolyton.net/ctp2/modificatio...iteslist.shtml
Official Activision list of CtP1 Sprites. This is a list of the units sprites that existed in CtP1 and are not in CtP2. To be more specific, the units are not in the game, but Activision left the sprites for use in mods. Note that the naming convention is different: CtP1 sprites are named GUxx.SPR while CtP2 sprites are named GUxxx.SPR. So the CtP1 sprites in the graphics\sprites folder can be used by renaming them.
Civ3 Unit FLC conversion (by E et al): http://apolyton.net/forums/showthrea...threadid=38841
Provides FLC files and explanations on how to convert those to CtP2 format (including the necessary Makespr script files), so Civ3 units can be converted to CtP2 format and used in CtP2 mods and scenarios. Also includes a few already converted and ready-to-use units (Bowman, Swordsman, Archer, Mounted Warrior, Infantry, Cavalry).
Sounds (by Martin Gühmann): http://apolyton.net/forums/showthrea...threadid=56467
Some general information on editing/adding sounds.
Sprite Extractor (by Sir Ralph et al): http://apolyton.net/forums/showthrea...threadid=48955
This thread is a discussion about the conversion of sprite files to readable graphics files. Sir Ralph made an attempt to use the bits of source code Activision provided to create a tool that can do this but didn't succeed. If anyone plans to try this again in the future, information in this thread might turn out to be useful.
Terrain Modding
Modding the terrain and tile improvements (as in changing the graphics or adding new ones) is harder to do than most other kinds of modding, as the terrain and tile imps are stored in a special format, namely in the so called Tile File. Fortunately, Martin the Dane has been able to crack this format and thanks to the work of him, Pedrunn and Immortal Wombat we now have the means and knowledge to mod terrain and tile imps as well. There's even a standard in doing so, to avoid unnecessary downloading of large files. Resources related to this are collected in this section.
TileEdit (by Martin the Dane): http://apolyton.net/dir/index.php?id...reviews&cat=54
Program that lets you view, edit and add the graphics contained within the Tile File. Without this, you can't edit the graphics of terrain or tile imps.
Apolyton Tile File (by Pedrunn & Immortal Wombat): http://apolyton.net/dir/index.php?id...reviews&cat=39
This file is the standard terrain file for modded CtP2. Since the file is rather large and not modswapper-compatible, it's difficult to synchronize the tile files of different mods. This file was created to serve as standard: all modmakers are recommended to keep their mods compatible with this file, and if they want to add their own terrains, they are recommend it to request an update for this standard file with their own terrain included.
Adding Road-like Tile Improvements (by Immortal Wombat): http://apolyton.net/forums/showthrea...threadid=62915
In this thread Immortal Wombat discussed his findings on the possibilities of adding road-like tile improvements (in this case Highways) to the game.
AI and Diplomacy Modding
The settings for changing the behaviour of the AI opponents in the game and the options available in and AI behaviour of the Diplomacy system are largely stored in text files in the aidata folder. Modding these settings is harder than modding regular text file modding as understanding what exactly is going on and how in-game mechanisms use the text files is much more complicated than when you simply wish to add a unit. Contrary to the latter case, there are generally no simple step-by-step instructions that can be followed to make the game better, it requires case study of the files and experimentation. This section provides links existing info on these subjects.
Apolyton CtP2 Modificiation Section (by Activision & Apolyton): http://apolyton.net/ctp2/modification/
Official Activision documentation on (among other things) AI and Diplomacy modding. Contains detailed info on most of the text files in the aidata folder and the relevant files in the gamedata folder. Where applicable it lists all the flags, settings, etc that are available and briefly explains them. It also goes into the subject of using SLIC to modify AI behaviour, a crucial part of AI modding. Although all this info is invaluable to all AI/Diplo modders, due to the complexity of the subject it probably raises more questions than it answers.
Conversations with Richard Myers (by WesW & Azmel2 et al): http://apolyton.net/forums/showthrea...threadid=18597
In this thread Activisioner Richard Myers, aka Azmel2, answers many important questions about AI and Diplomacy modding. This is pretty advanced stuff so don't be discouraged if you don't get all of it at first read. However, it's a must-read for everyone into AI and/or Diplomacy modding.
How does the AI task it's units? (by Peter Triggs): http://apolyton.net/forums/attachmen...postid=1446543
A document Peter Triggs has been working on which, as the title implies, explains how the AI handles the process of assigning tasks to units. Although not finished, it's an extremely useful document for anyone working on the AI. It's based on the Conversations with Richard Myers thread but also incorporates some information from DarkReign and CtP1 (the AI systems of all three games are based on each other and very similar).
Notes on Diplomacy (by Peter Triggs): http://apolyton.net/forums/attachmen...&postid=543507
A document by Peter Triggs in which he wrote down some notes on the diplomacy functions and events of SLIC and how they can be used. It's a preliminary document but invaluable for people working on the diplomacy aspect of the game.
AI Terraforming (by sun_tzu_159 et al): http://apolyton.net/forums/showthrea...threadid=40160
Art of War (aka sun_tzu_159) explains how the AI terraforming logic works and why the AI never does it in the original game.
Decay (by Peter Triggs et al): http://apolyton.net/forums/showthrea...threadid=51263
A brief but potentially useful discussion about the decay of regard in the diplomacy files.
GUI Editing
The Graphical User Interface (or GUI) of CtP2 can officially be edited as well, but in practice this has turned out to be a tough challenge. Although large parts of the UI are stored in text files (with the extension *.ldl), some of it is hard-coded as well. Also, virtually no info on how to do it is available. Still, small successes have been achieved and the 'field' offers great potential, so every tidbit of info on this subject can be extremely valuable. These tidbits are collected in this section.
GUI Modification (by ahenobarb): http://apolyton.net/forums/showthrea...threadid=63684
With a combination of hex-editing (i.e. the hacking of the ctp2.exe file) and ldl file editing, ahenobarb managed to do things with GUI modding that have never been done before. There's a lot of misc info on GUI editing in here this thread, so if you're into GUI modding, this is a must-read.
SLIC Programming
SLIC is the scripting language that came with CtP2: it's a very basic programming language that gives you the power to completely alter the game. You can use it for simple things like generating message boxes when you capture an enemy city or you can use it to add whole new features and layers to the game and change it beyond recognition (e.g. to add religion or strategic resources). It's a very basic language and in itself not too hard to learn (providing you're willing to invest some time in it), but it does has many quirks, bugs, oddities and other irregularies that make it necessary, or at least highly desirable, to have a lot of information available to aid you in learning and using it.
Apolyton CtP2 Modificiation Section (by Activision & Apolyton): http://apolyton.net/ctp2/modification/
Among other things, this hosts the official documentation Activision released on SLIC. Particularly the function, variable and event lists are essential resources for all SLIC programmers and anyone interested in SLIC will probably want to have at least 1 printed hardcopy of each of these lists (I have 3 of each myself: 1 'clean' version and 2 with notes, brainstorms, sample code, etc). The actually documentation on how SLIC works is a classic catch-22: you won't be able to understand it until you know SLIC (unless you're an experienced programmer). And if it wasn't for the fan-made documentations, you couldn't possible learn SLIC without the Activision documentation. This catch-22 situation is probably why it took 1-2 years before SLIC programming really took off (back in the days of CtP1) but fortunately there's now enough unofficial info out there to break the cycle. Although odds are you won't understand it all, it's still highly advisable that everyone interested in SLIC read this info at least once.
Getting started with SLIC/Event-Based Scripting for CtP2 (by Peter Triggs and Immortal Wombat): http://apolyton.net/forums/showthrea...threadid=33181
A basic guide into SLIC programming. It explains the basics of SLIC programming and how to get started with it (including Editplus SLIC definition files). Vital resource for anyone who wants to get into SLIC programming but doesn't have much programming experience.
Ultimate Guide to SLIC (by Locutus): http://ctpmodmakers.250free.com/SLIC...l/Slicdoc2.htm (online HTML format); http://home.student.utwente.nl/w.snijders/Slicdoc2.rtf (downloadable RTF (Word) format)
Not quite as 'ultimate' as the title suggests, because it's unfinished. It's an elaborate manual that intends to explain to programming newbies and veterans alike (but with a focus on newbies) the all the details of the SLIC programming language. The most important part that's missing is the part that deals with messages, other than that it's reasonably complete. However, I do hope to get around to doing a complete makeover of that guide, as a lot of new info, examples and other useful stuff could be added to all chapters. Still a very important resource for beginning SLIC programmers though.
SLIC Kung Fu: The Complete Guide to SLIC (by ahenobarb): http://apolyton.net/dir/index.php?&i...eviews&cat=240
This elaborate SLIC guide runs to about 250 pages and is divided into three sections. The first section covers how to write SLIC code, the second section provides a walk through of writing SLIC code (in this case it is a demo script to return cattle to the game, with some changes that prevent the original problems), section 3 contains the appendices for SLIC commands etc.
SLIC Oddities (by mapfi et al): http://apolyton.net/forums/showthrea...threadid=63931
Although SLIC is basically easy to learn, it has many oddities that make it seem a lot more complicated than it really is. Unfortunately these oddities can only be learned from experience, from your own or from that of others - and that's exactly why this thread was created: to collect all these oddities in one place so you can easily learn about them without having to find out the hard way.
SLIC Template Processor (by J Bytheway): http://apolyton.net/forums/showthrea...threadid=62876
Tool to generate SLIC files from templates. It is able to take a template file and create a SLIC file from it which repeats the code of the template over and over again and fills in the 'variable' sections. For example, you can tell the processor to take advance from a certain advances.txt file and create the template code once for every advance in the textfile, where everytime an advance is inserted in the correct place in the code. It also adds further functionality to access the fields within the entries (in a limited way) and supply the number of the entry for use with array indicies and such like. This tool saves a lot of tedious copy-paste work and repetitive manual editing of certain sections of SLIC code.
SLIC Excel Sheet (by Locutus): http://home.student.utwente.nl/w.snijders/SLIC.zip (downloadable ZIP file); http://home.student.utwente.nl/w.snijders/SLIC.xls (XLS file, some browsers can view this online)
This file provides a summary of all the SLIC functions and events with very brief info on what they do and what arguments they require. Much info is based on a late beta of CtP2, not on a release version, so a release, a patch and 2 years of experience followed and have rendered it somewhat obsolete, but it can still come in handy in some cases as it provides at least some info that Activision never released.
SLIC1 Function Reference Revisited (by Locutus): http://home.student.utwente.nl/w.sni...Functions.html
This is the function reference of CtP1. Although many new functions were added in CtP2 and a few CtP1 functions changed or disappeared, this could in some cases still prove useful for CtP2 SLIC coders as the functions are not ordered alphabetically but by subject. Can save a lot of time searching for that one function you were looking for but can't remember the name of... (The color coding is also cute
)What Govt Am I? (by Dale): http://apolyton.net/dir/index.php?id...eviews&cat=172
This is a small mod which can be isntalled to find out which government each civ is currently in. There is no known way of finding this out through SLIC, so Dale wrote this mod to make it possible through a workaround.
mod_* Functions (by MATT:-) C et al): http://apolyton.net/forums/showthrea...threadid=59846
A very interesting discussion on mod_* functions. Describes the findings of experiments with mod_UnitAttack, mod_UnitDefense and mod_UnitRangedAttack.
Civ2 events.txt Comparison (by Peter Triggs): http://apolyton.net/forums/showthrea...threadid=55971
In this thread a comparison between SLIC and Civ2's events.txt is made and is shown how Civ events could easily be converted to SLIC.
EditPlus (by ES-Computing): http://www.editplus.com (program); http://home.student.utwente.nl/w.snijders/slic4ep2.zip (SLIC definition files by Locutus); http://apolyton.net/forums/attachmen...&postid=590580 (new SLIC definition files by Peter Triggs)
Although any text editor from NotePad to MS Word XP Pro can be used to edit SLIC files, some programs are more suitable than others. Two of the best tools out there are UltraEdit (www.utraedit.com) and EditPlus, as these programs offer all sorts of tools and features specifically designed for programmers and script languages (things like color coding, auto-completion, macros, user tools, project management and an endless number of (other) customizable settings). EditPlus has been popular among SLIC programmers since 1999 and several sets of SLIC definition files for EditPlus are available for download. Note that EditPlus is officially shareware, not freeware like virtually all other resources.
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