Making Cradle 3+ fully compatible with the Apolyton Edition

[Kull]

Inca style (5): The Inca will use 3 graphics for the Ancient and Classical Eras and then add a new #4 for the Medieval Era and a different #4 for the Renaissance. Then they shift to the CtP2 Mesoamerican style in the Industrial Era. See attached example (shows 2 of 5 graphics).

[Kull]

Cahokia style (4): Has 3 graphics for the Ancient and Classical Eras and then adds a new #4 for the Medieval Era (see attached example with 2 of 4 graphics), shifting to CtP2 Mesoamerican in the Renaissance Era. This new style is used solely by the North American Tribes. Originally I planned for the Inca to share these, but they now have a unique style of their own.

[Kull]

Revised Castle Style (4): Barbarians, Celts and Vikings use the CtP2 "Castle" style which features a small Medieval castle right from the beginning. As with the "Persian Dome", it's definitely not accurate in the Ancient and Classical eras. The updated style is more appropriate for Ancient Europe (attached example shows 2 of 4) with 3 graphics for the Ancient Era and a different # 3 for the Classical.

Once the Medieval era arrives, the original Castle sprites for the Ancient/Classical periods now appear while the Middle Ages sprites move out to the Renaissance (previously these were used for both Middle Ages eras). That means this style uses ALL the original Castle-style sprites, thus providing more differentiation in each time period.

[Kull]

Revised Arab Style (-3): Arabs, Persia, and Turks use the "Arab" style which starts off with a Persian-style dome as the central building and then grows larger from one era to the next. It's definitely not accurate in the early parts of the game, so under the new system the Turks will follow the Levant-style (which does return to "Arab" in the Middle Ages) while Persia & the Arabs will now use the Indus-style cities in the Ancient & Classical eras. Unlike Harappa however, Arab-style will keep using the Ancient Era # 3 in the Classical period. The attachment shows the difference - Indus3a is the top level Arab city while Indus3b is the one used by the Harappans.

The existing Arab sprites for Ancient/Classical (31-33) will not be used (making those 3 slots available), while the four used for Medieval/Renaissance (41-44) will stay the same. The "style name" will remain "Arab" and we aren't creating new art, so it's just a matter of changing linkages in the agecitystyle.txt file.

Revised Palace Style (-1): As noted earlier I needed 4 additional slots, three of which came from the Arabs while the 4th comes from the largely unused Palace-style. The last Palace Style graphic in the Modern era (20) was removed, and the final slot for this style will be a repeat of the one before (19). Again, this only required a change to the linkages in agecitystyle.txt.

[Kull]

Indus style (6): Harappa will use 3 graphics for the Ancient Era, apply a different # 3 for the Classical Era, and then add a new #4 for the Medieval and a different #4 for the Renaissance. Then shift to CtP2 Asian in the Industrial Era. See attached example (shows 2 of 6 graphics)

[Kull]

Since the last post, I've taken another look at the new cities and decided to expand the list. At that point there were still 7 open slots, but making some changes to a couple of the CtP2 styles increased that to 11, all of which are now utilized. We'll start by reconsidering the "Levant" style:

Levant style redux (4): Under the new system, the Turks have moved into this group (from the Arab style), and both the Hebrews and Carthage now have their own styles. The additional change is that a second # 3 has been added, which appears in the Classical Era (so the top level cities using this style will change when moving from Ancient-to-Classical. As before, all Levant styles will shift to the CtP2 Arab series starting with the Medieval Era.

Hebrew style (1): This civ will continue to use most of the Levant-style graphics in the Ancient & Classical eras but the city style featuring the Temple of Solomon will move to the # 3 position in the Classical era. As before, the Hebrews will use the Levant style in the Medieval era, but the final two cities will now be Ancient Levant # 3 while the new Classical # 3 moves to the #4 slot. They will begin using the CtP2 Arab series starting with the Renaissance.

Carthage style (1): Similar to the Hebrews, Carthage will use most of the Levant-style graphics in the Ancient era, but in the Classical they will feature a new "Carthaginian" city in the # 3 slot (see attached). Carthage shifts to the CtP2 Rome series at the Medieval Era.

[Kull]

Levant style (4): Three graphics for the Carthaginians, Hittites, and Phoenicians (see attached example with 2 of 4 graphics) with a 4th for the Hebrews. However, all follow different paths after the Classical Era:
- Carthage shifts to the CtP2 Rome series starting with the Medieval Era
- Hittites and Phoenicia shift to the CtP2 Arab series starting with the Medieval Era
- Hebrews keep using the existing 3 graphics in the Medieval Era and add a new #4 (featuring the Temple of Solomon), after which they shift to the CtP2 Arab series with the Renaissance

[Kull]

Japan style (6): Yamato will use 3 graphics for the Ancient Era, apply a different # 3 for the Classical Era, and then add a new #4 for the Medieval and a different #4 for the Renaissance. Then shifts to the CtP2 Asian style in the Industrial Era. See attached example (shows 3 of 6 graphics)

[Kull]

Minoan style (3): Three graphics used by the Minoan civ in the Ancient Era (attached example shows 2 of 3 graphics). They shift to Greek in the Classical Era and then to CtP2 Roman in the Medieval era.

[Kull]

Greek Style (con): In the next era the "Greek Style" shifts to the traditional Classical style (see attached example - shows 2 of 3 graphics) and then follows the Roman style beginning with the Medieval era. Greece and Macedonia previously used the Roman style from beginning to end, so this is a completely new look for both civs.

[Kull]

New City Sprites: After creating a full set of 19 Mesopotamian City sprites (see Post # 30) I noted that for any future city sprites it would make more sense to create partial sets, primarily for civs to use in the Ancient and Classical era, and then to merge those into an existing path. In addition to the complexity associated with making a complete set of all-era sprites, the biggest issue is the hard code limit of 255 sprites. Adding the Mesopotamian and African City sprites (the latter courtesy of BureauBert) brought the total number of sprites in Cradle 5 to 219, leaving only 36 open slots.

As I commented then, it's enormously time consuming to create new city sprites from scratch, especially since I'm not an artist. Fortunately the modding community inundated Civ3 with city sets for almost every conceivable civilization. Many of those are absolutely beautiful - true pieces of art - but unfortunately most of them are too large to use as-is, so all required editing. Even so, without those baseline graphics this project would have been impossible. Let's take a look at all the new additions:

Greek style (6 graphics): Begins with 3 Mycenean-style cities available in the Ancient Era, applicable to Greece & Macedonia. See attached example (shows 2 of 3 graphics)

[Kull]

Would you say that what you are doing is making a mod for CTP2 or more than that?

I'm not changing any of the game code (i.e. the executable) so it's definitely a mod. That said, I'm identifying bugs and creating work-arounds so in that sense it's a bit more than just a mod.

[Cyberguy00]

Would you say that what you are doing is making a mod for CTP2 or more than that?

[Kull]

Feats Concept:

One of the important features in CtP2 is the presence of Feats, which essentially facilitate the use of SLIC events to reward the Player for performing a variety of different actions. Examples include being the first civ to circumnavigate the globe, discover a particular Advance, or build a certain number of City Improvements. Cradle takes this even further by using the Feat System to award a set of unique traits to every Civilization, thus ensuring that each one offers the player a different gameplay experience.

Although the Manual talks about Feats to some degree, there was nothing in the Great Library. But now there is - a new Concept entry for "Feats of Wonder" has been added to the Cradle 5 GL (the 2D art seen in the attachment was borrowed from AOM)

Files changed: uniticon.txt, concept.txt, gl_str.txt, & GL.txt

[Kull]

"Embassies Everywhere" Gap in availability:

After the Cyrus Cylinder expires with Age of Reason, there is a gap in the benefit provided by this Wonder, since the only other EmbassiesEverywhereEvenAtWar Wonder is the late game "World Peace Center".

Rather than add this ability to a mid-game wonder (the Eiffel Tower was a tempting option), a different idea was to add the lesser powered (and completely unused) EmbassiesEverywhere attribute to the "Book" Wonders associated with the three "world religions" (Christianity, Islam & Buddhism) on the basis that these religions have so many adherents worldwide that some of them are present in every nation. This provides the religion's "Home Country" a sustained level of insight into the workings of the various foreign governments. However, this access would be disrupted during war-time since the information isn't being provided by intelligence agents or traitors but rather by normal citizens.

To clarify, the information thus obtained is identical to that visible through an Embassy, but it saves the player (or AI) from going through the trouble of dispatching Diplomats around the world. In particular, it avoids the time-consuming process of sending another Diplomat to re-open an Embassy that was closed during time of War.

Files changed: Wonders.txt & GL.txt