Thread Tools
Old November 27, 2000, 19:05   #61
Maccabee2
Warlord
 
Maccabee2's Avatar
 
Local Time: 20:03
Local Date: October 30, 2010
Join Date: Sep 2000
Posts: 121
If external map/scenario editors will make them
(1) easier to use
(2) more customizable
then I am in favor of external over internal editors.
I want customizability and ease of use, in that order.
Maccabee2 is offline  
Old November 28, 2000, 01:13   #62
Koyaanisqatsi
King
 
Koyaanisqatsi's Avatar
 
Local Time: 21:03
Local Date: October 30, 2010
Join Date: May 1999
Location: Robotropolis
Posts: 2,300
*knocks off the UBB rust*...It's been a while...

Customizing.......I suppose open-sourcing it is out of the question?

I'd definitely want an external editor. I think in-game editors are too restricted by the the game interface...usually playing a game and designing for one are different enough that an interface that would be efficient for one is clunky for the other. I'd also stick with standard Windows controls...everybody is familiar with those metaphors, so it's easier for most people.

Also, I'd try to integrate as many options as possible into the editor. When you load it, you should be able to create or select a working directory that has the map file, unit graphics, txt files, etc., and edit them all in some kind of integrated manner. For instance, a dialog box where you edit units should allow you to set the attributes, prereqs, unit graphic, and attack sound seamlessly, without the user ever knowing what files are being edited. There doesn't need to be an integrated bitmap editor or anything...this dialog box would just have the ability to import from a bitmap to the game file.

It would be nice if you could export a mod/scenario to a single .pak file or whatever for distribution.

Map editor...definitely paint-style, but I want more options as to brush styles than boxes of different sizes. I'd love to see a 'near terrain' brush, where you pick a certain type of terrain and it paints not just that terrain, but terrains that are related to it. For instance, a 3x3 near terrain brush set to 'hills' might paint hills, forest, and a mountain in a 3x3 block, but never ocean or desert. A brush shape other than a box would be nice, too. Is the map going to have altitudes a la SMAC?

Cut-and-paste is a must. A drag-and-drop palette would be nice for resource squares, terrain improvements, and units. I think cities wouldn't work well from a palette because of the number of options involved...a 'city placement wizard' would be truly sweet. Click a square, and a wizard gives you the option of quick or advanced options. Choose quick, and you just select the alignment and a generic city template (customizable templates!) like 'large industrial' that sets population, structures, units, surrounding terrain improvements, etc. Ideally, the template would be able to detect the tech level of the civilization and modify the structure list appropriately...but that's candy. If you chose advanced, you'd get a dialog box with a tabbed interface for setting up everything associated with that city by hand. Structures should be set from a list of checkboxes...the list should be read from the scenario's rules files, not a generic one.

Structure, unit, city, and terrain graphics should all be importable by this editor and automatically placed into the appropriate files. A 3DSMAX->CivIII import filter for units would be truly sweet. ...failing that, you should be able to override any 3D graphics with a 2D bitmap. Out of curiousity, are you doing voxels again? Integrating an interface skin with your scenario distribution would be a cool toy...

There should be the ability to just create and export mods without needing an actual scenario to go with them.

Scipt editing...I think this should be left to text files for the most part. Most people never use scripting, and I'd prefer power to ease of use because of that. If you do integrate it in the editor somehow, the ability to do step-through debugging would be very nice. Might have to do that in-game, though...I don't know. I think as many events as possible should be visible to the scripting engine. That's a broad statment, but I don't really have much in the way of specific requests there. It would be nice to be able to detect a change in government or SE settings, whatever will be used in CivIII.

If you guys allowed AI bots for different civilizations, I'd give you my firstborn son. If you wanted him. Ditto for making the interface XML customizable...but, that's beyond the scope of the editor, I suspect.

Tech tree editor...the interface for this is critical. I'd love to see some kind of hyperbolic tree viewer where you can drag and drop prereq connections around the tree. The viewer could also be loaded in-game as part of the help files. Some kind of GUI for defining prereqs is an absolute must, though, and you should be able to see unit and structure prereqs as well as the tech tree itself.

Yeah, I know, I don't ask for much, do I?
Koyaanisqatsi is offline  
Old November 28, 2000, 15:13   #63
Father Beast
King
 
Father Beast's Avatar
 
Local Time: 18:03
Local Date: October 30, 2010
Join Date: Feb 2000
Location: My head stuck permanently in my civ
Posts: 1,703
My 2cents worth.

I want an external editor. Ok, that cheat menu is cool enough for minor things and tweaking the game you're in. but for main creation, I go for an external. one I can call up from the main game if I want.

I want to be able to have multiple maps open, and select any size of terrain, and put it (with or without cities, at my convenience) into my new map. I currently can lock the oceans/coastline. I want to be able to lock terrain types, or just select a hunk of the map (of whatever size or shape I choose) and lock it down, so I don't accidentally screw up my piece of work while building onto other stuff.

I want to be able to set down terrain specials, Tile improvements, and pollution on the map I design.

I also want to be able to change government effects (not just their names) and improvement and wonder effects (not just their names).

I want to be able to designate which wonders, techs, units, and city improvements are availble to each civ. a check on and off list would be nice.
I would like to have a few representative scenarios available, and a tutorial showing us how you made them with your editor.

That's for me. I'm not much of an in depth person, but the great scenario makers should have a massive array of stuff at their hands. I barely know what photoshop is, much less how to use it, but these masters use it a lot and need to have their files accessible.

Ad PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE!!!! make the AI accessible. the civ and civ2 civs had somewhat of a temperament (the mongols and zulus were warlike, etc.) the AC factions had something resembling a personality, which was a plus. Make it so the AI can be customized for goals, some decision making, intelligent warmaking or peacemaking. Imagine some sort of switch where a certain civ will stay allied to you until your rep becomes less than spotless. Or where you can specify what cities or stretch of ground is "sacred" to a civ and they will not make peace with you as long as you hold it.
I realize it can be difficult to make this like a GUI, but make it accessible somehow, and I will cheerfully download the "Stalin.ai" file from someone who is good at it.
Father Beast is offline  
Old November 28, 2000, 23:23   #64
onepaul
Guest
 
Posts: n/a
[1]well, If you Firaxis girls are going to release CivIII for other platforms then I don't think making an editor using the good ol' MFC and other Windoze classes as the UI and base code is such a good idea, put in the game. Unless u're not going to release for other platforms...
[2]
someone prolly mention this, but a technology editor/maker/modifier/whatever would be nice. Would be nice to have the ability to create a poop-load of new techs and actually tie them into the game somehow, create a new technology with the editor and when discovered in the game, make the units tougher, faster, etc. or make new building avaiable or even new units avaiable (which would have to be created by the player)... ... ... ...
 
Old November 29, 2000, 12:19   #65
Dr Strangelove
Apolytoners Hall of Fame
Emperor
 
Dr Strangelove's Avatar
 
Local Time: 21:03
Local Date: October 30, 2010
Join Date: Dec 1969
Location: USA
Posts: 3,197
Of course I want a decent map editor, and the ability to place special resources where I desire.

I'd like to caution Firaxis about making the sprite graphics so sophisticated that creating new units, city improvements, and etc, would be beyond the expertise of the average Civ fan mod creator. Fan created Mods have done a lot to keep the Civ genre alive.

A user friendly interface that enables the average mod maker to edit the properties of units, advances, wonders, technologies, to edit the tech tree, to insert new "sprites", and to set events is also essential.

The Talonsoft "Operational Art of War" game series has an interesting event editor feature. While the nature of these games is very differnet from Civ I'd encourage you to take a look at this particular feature of the games. It makes thr timing and placement of events and event triggering very easy to handle.
Dr Strangelove is offline  
Old November 29, 2000, 14:51   #66
Jeffrey Morris FIRAXIS
Firaxis Games
 
Local Time: 01:03
Local Date: October 31, 2010
Join Date: Dec 1999
Posts: 126
Hey guys. What would be useful for me is for you to list your top 5 additions to the way the each Civ II FW editor worked. Don't bother mentioning features that were already included in those. If you want to email them, you can reach me at jmorris@firaxis.com. Thanks!

Jeff
Jeffrey Morris FIRAXIS is offline  
Old November 30, 2000, 22:28   #67
Shadowstrike
Emperor
 
Shadowstrike's Avatar
 
Local Time: 20:03
Local Date: October 30, 2010
Join Date: Jul 2000
Location: The Glorious Land of Canada
Posts: 3,234
OK....

Map Editor

1. The ability to crop and resize maps.
2. The ability to cut & paste large sections of the map.
3. The ability to place cities, units and tile improvements on the map.
4. A preview option on the load map screen that shows the map in very little detail.
5. The ability to set national borders.

Technology Editor

1. The ability to see the tech tree in a flow chart format.
2. The abilty to "attach" (set prerequsites) technologies on the flow chart of the entire tech tree.
3. The ability to alter the abilites of each technology (i.e. allowing tile improvements, etc.)
4. A limitless amount of tech slots.
5. The ability to set the abilities of the technology from panels.


Terrain Editor

1. Allowing different drawings of each terrain that depend on its position and randomization.
2. Allowing the setting of sprites for terrain.
3. Allowing the making of tile improvements of your very own.
4. Allowing as many terrain types as the scenario designers wants.
5. Allowing the setting of how the AI reacts to different types of terrain.

Unit Editor

1. Limitless unit slots.
2. The ability to give units abilities made by the user (i.e. factory units which can produce 1 unit of a predefined type per turn)
3. The ability to choose whether a unit displays a shield or not.
4. The ability to create land and air units that can carry other units.
5. The ability to create sprites for units easily.

Events Editor

1. Many more triggers and actions (see SLIC)
2. Allowing a limitless number of flags.
3. Allow the usage of the @AND command as many times as one wants within a single event.
4. Creating commands of your very own without hacking into the game.
5. The ability for users to post "their" commands on the Internet for everyone else to download and use.

That's my two cents. I hope that you find my suggestions helpful.

Shadowstrike
Shadowstrike is offline  
Old December 1, 2000, 00:39   #68
DarthVeda
Emperor
 
DarthVeda's Avatar
 
Local Time: 21:03
Local Date: October 30, 2010
Join Date: Dec 1969
Location: Baltimore, MD
Posts: 4,325
I agree with that list 100%
DarthVeda is offline  
Old December 1, 2000, 01:00   #69
techumseh
Civilization II PBEMScenario League / Civ2-Creation
Emperor
 
techumseh's Avatar
 
Local Time: 19:03
Local Date: October 30, 2010
Join Date: Apr 1999
Location: of the frozen North.
Posts: 4,197
Ditto.
techumseh is offline  
Old December 1, 2000, 02:44   #70
zyxpsilon
Warlord
 
zyxpsilon's Avatar
 
Local Time: 01:03
Local Date: October 31, 2010
Join Date: Sep 2000
Location: Laval,Quebec,Canada
Posts: 128
quote:

Originally posted by Shadowstrike on 11-30-2000 09:28 PM
OK....
1-2-3-4-5 ALL THE WAY...
Shadowstrike


Look it up, Jeff... he summarized it exactly like most of us would.

Thank's, Shadowstrike!
zyxpsilon is offline  
Old December 1, 2000, 12:06   #71
Ralf
King
 
Ralf's Avatar
 
Local Time: 02:03
Local Date: October 31, 2010
Join Date: Mar 2000
Location: Sweden
Posts: 1,728
I agree with everything, accept for a slight change of priorities in the map-editor. Many of us civers just wants a more intuitive way of making some nice quick-and-dirty standard-game setup scenarios.

Dont forget our needs, because we are many!

Map Editor

1. The ability to drag-and-drop cities, units, tile improvements on the map. Included in above is the idea of global and national city-distrubution of units and city-improvements. Dont make the process more repetiously tedious when it has to be.

2. The ability to crop and resize maps.
3. The ability to cut & paste large sections of the map.
4. A preview option on the load map screen that shows the map in very little detail.
5. The ability to set national borders.
[This message has been edited by Ralf (edited December 01, 2000).]
Ralf is offline  
Old December 1, 2000, 12:07   #72
techumseh
Civilization II PBEMScenario League / Civ2-Creation
Emperor
 
techumseh's Avatar
 
Local Time: 19:03
Local Date: October 30, 2010
Join Date: Apr 1999
Location: of the frozen North.
Posts: 4,197
Sorry, here's another suggestion for map editability. I don't know if you're planning to retain the multi-map feature of Test of Time or not, but if you are, make the coordinates of the "teleporters" programable. Now a teleporter transfers a unit to the same coordinates on another map; only the map number is programable. Allow the coordinates to be edited, either with a specific coordinate (eg. 47,12,3 to 19,8,1), or with a simple equation (eg. x+7,y-3). This would allow a great deal more flexibility in creating linked maps and would make the feature more useful for historical scenarios.
techumseh is offline  
Old December 1, 2000, 14:27   #73
Ribannah
Queen
 
Ribannah's Avatar
 
Local Time: 02:03
Local Date: October 31, 2010
Join Date: Aug 2000
Location: The Netherlands, Embassy of the Iroquois Confederacy
Posts: 1,578
I would like to add one more:

The ability of building & accessing libraries, to make it easier for us to exchange information. The libraries should be able to contain an unlimited number of units, techs, wonders, maps, misc. art, etc., and should also be manipulatable themselves (importing, exporting, printing).

------------------
If you have no feet, don't walk on fire
Ribannah is offline  
Old December 3, 2000, 01:42   #74
airdrik
Prince
 
airdrik's Avatar
 
Local Time: 19:03
Local Date: October 30, 2010
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Nampa, ID, USA
Posts: 401
quote:

Originally posted by techumseh on 12-01-2000 11:07 AM
Sorry, here's another suggestion for map editability. I don't know if you're planning to retain the multi-map feature of Test of Time or not, but if you are, make the coordinates of the "teleporters" programable. Now a teleporter transfers a unit to the same coordinates on another map; only the map number is programable. Allow the coordinates to be edited, either with a specific coordinate (eg. 47,12,3 to 19,8,1), or with a simple equation (eg. x+7,y-3). This would allow a great deal more flexibility in creating linked maps and would make the feature more useful for historical scenarios.


If they are going to use teleporters in the real game, then they have two options: teleport from anywhere to anywhere, or teleport between specific locations (several locations around the maps will teleport to all other locations). Either one would be just as realistic (star wars vs. star trek, either one could happen but not both).

Probably before the discovery of teleportation, you would have to fly troops between maps(in a real game), which would take so many turns(1-2) and could only happen between certain locations (1/civ/map) to represent shuttling troops between worlds.
[This message has been edited by airdrik (edited December 03, 2000).]
airdrik is offline  
Old December 4, 2000, 12:59   #75
Zulu Elephant
Prince
 
Zulu Elephant's Avatar
 
Local Time: 01:03
Local Date: October 31, 2010
Join Date: Jun 1999
Posts: 763
I think pretty much everything editingwise got covered in Test Of Time.
Except the GIVECITY event theat everyone seemed to want - it would be soooooo useful in scenerios to able to use that event
Apart from that everythings fine - you could edit whatever to want
Oh, and make the editor like the fantastic worlds one (only make it work)
Zulu Elephant is offline  
Old December 5, 2000, 10:31   #76
Phil_E
Settler
 
Local Time: 01:03
Local Date: October 31, 2010
Join Date: May 1999
Posts: 2
Look at starcraft's editor and copy it, then look at the editors made by non-Blizzard people (StarDraft and StarGraft) and copy them. Starcaft has the best editor out there, end of story, so get rid of the ****house civ2 editor and make an entirely seperate program and spend time making it good. Even though without the editor Starcraft still owns, the editor has added immensley to the longetivity and expanded on it's gameplay, with tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands (if not millions :P) of maps been made, many which are extremely fun to play, and hundreds of quality campaigns (antioch chronicles, legacy of the confederation, celestial irruption to name but a few are absolutely amazing, and extremely professional pieces of work). For me, the civ2 editor was the biggest letdown of the game that had me addicted so mimick starcraft's editor and you'll have one (well probably lots :P) happy gamer (as long as the game is any good as well of course :P)
Phil_E is offline  
Old December 6, 2000, 00:10   #77
Diablo, Bro. of Mephisto
Prince
 
Local Time: 01:03
Local Date: October 31, 2010
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Salt Lake City, USA
Posts: 456
Well well, i see that FINALLY someone from firaxis itself has finally asked us civ fans what we want (unless its just that I've only been here since september).

I'll make my answer plain and simple: I want an in-game editer that you can use to edit ANYTHING. and also improve the map-editor, I want to be able to fully create my own map, where certain cities will go, i want to be able to place farm-land, irigation, mining, etc., in the map-editor itself.
Diablo, Bro. of Mephisto is offline  
Old December 6, 2000, 12:25   #78
Pyrodrew
Prince
 
Pyrodrew's Avatar
 
Local Time: 17:03
Local Date: October 30, 2010
Join Date: Dec 2000
Posts: 679
MOST IMPORTANT in order
=======================

1> Include more OPTIONS besides the "historical" view(such as Fantasy & Sci-Fi) in basic random map games. Sci-fi & Fantasy should NOT be limited to only scenarios.

2> Percentage Random Map Generator. In Heroes of Might&Magic2... you could give PERCENTAGES to each terrain on a random map: 60%ice, 10%swamp, 10%grass, 10%water, etc. They extended this % further for random artifacts, treasures, & monsters... SWEET.

3> Being able to customize the enemy AI in detail... diplomacy, economics, combat, etc. with a random option for anything of course.

4> An option to include more random events: Earthquakes, Tornados, Meteors, Hurricanes, Volcanos, etc. with their danger on a random scale of 1 to 10.

5> Different Game Options: King of the Hill, Capture the Flag, Classic, etc. would be nice.

6> Terrain Options: let the player decide if grapes can be found in any terrain, or only hills, or whatever.

7> The Wonder Movies & Heralds would be nice to see again too.

I strongly agree with Shadowstrike... the more options the better.
Pyrodrew is offline  
Old December 6, 2000, 14:33   #79
N35t0r
C3C IDG: Apolyton TeamSpanish CiversDiplomacyScenario League / Civ2-CreationPtWDG2 Latin LoversC4DG Team Alpha CentauriansPSPB Team EspañolC4WDG Spamyard TeamBtS Tri-League
Emperor
 
N35t0r's Avatar
 
Local Time: 22:03
Local Date: October 30, 2010
Join Date: Jan 2000
Location: ( o Y o )
Posts: 5,048
just crossed my mind:

when editing city sizes, you currently have to calculate the pop. of each area to get it's size equivalent (i do so, anyway). It'd be great to be able to change the # of people cities have (eg, changing that 10,000 people size 1 cities have).

Also, enter the pop. in # to the city-modification screen, and the size is automatically worked out.

Ok, i don't know if i made myself clear. I just wrote as it came out.
N35t0r is offline  
Old December 6, 2000, 18:56   #80
Whitemage
Settler
 
Local Time: 01:03
Local Date: October 31, 2010
Join Date: Nov 2000
Location: Tennessee,USA
Posts: 6
I have never played ToT, but I think a multiple-map feature is a must!

On graphics: I’m no programmer, but I was wondering if you could have the option on
how we make the units(2-D as per Civ2, or 3-D/moving as with ToT and CtP, I believe)
In individual scenarios( or even units!), the author could make beautiful, flowing graphics that take a million hours to make, or use Civ2 still graphics if he had other things in his life
Basically, I am terrible at making graphics, so there should be some way of allowing simpler ones.

You should also make it so only a certain civ( or group of civs) can make a certain Wonder/improvement/ get certain tech.

All of the above are must-haves.
Basically if you would feel comfortable making scenarios that are really bizarre or have odd victory conditions , you’re on the right track.
Whitemage is offline  
Old December 6, 2000, 21:16   #81
Crustacian
Prince
 
Crustacian's Avatar
 
Local Time: 17:03
Local Date: October 30, 2010
Join Date: Jul 1999
Location: of Idaho PST
Posts: 794
In case it has not been mentioned, I would like to see the ability to start a game without any 2 human civs being right next to each other and be a bit spread out so one does not have to die

also to be able to have your own form of govt names, and city names pre ready to use at the click of a switch instead of renaming them each time.

*****And to have you guys add as an option into the game the old music from civ 1 especially the tunes from German's & English. <----I loved those tunes.
Crustacian is offline  
Old December 10, 2000, 16:48   #82
Snapcase on Snapcase
Guest
 
Posts: n/a
Okay, my top 5s (just to be different from Shadowstrike, whose lists are excellent. But you do need variety...) I've divided it up into four sections, the first one essentially the GUI portion of the old editor, #2 the Cheat Menu, #3 the Scenario Menu and text files, and #4 The Macro Language.

Map and Scenario GUI Editor:

1. A stand-alone application for everything. Not just the maps, but all of them.
2. A good amount of paint-like features, including but not limited to fill, lines, shapes (boxes, ellipses...)
3. Full drag and drop of cities and units, form a conveniently located floating window or sidebar.
4. Copy and Paste, including drag and select, CTRL select, drag selection to move, CTRL-drag selection to copy, etc.
5. Export and import of bitmaps for terrain.

Victory condition and scenario rules editors:

1. Greater integration with Macro Language, Rules and objectives changeable on the fly and during a game.
2. A clear, unified, easy-to-follow way of setting victory conditions, in which you pick them off a list and/or define them as Macro Language parameters.
3. More varied victory conditions than just conquer xxx, bring xxx to xxx, don't let xxx die and all the normal ones.
4. More definable personalities and attributes of the civs in the game. Make them love or hate, distrust or trust each other.
5. Allow the user to experiment with setting up rules in a strange way, wilth thousands of turns if they want to.

Rules and graphics editors:

1. Editing of all in-game objects, including Wonders and Improvements, Special Abilities or limitations, etc.
2. Limitless city names, technologies, units, terrains, etc.
3. Allow more than a set palette for units and terrain.
4. Dealignment of special abilities from techs and units, allowing you to set which units become barbarians and which techs let engineers use the change terrain command, etc.
5. Visual and text-based representation of the tech tree, the unit charts, etc.

Macro editor:

1. More versatile operations including non-conditionals such as loops, mathematical operations, user input, and so on.
2. More commands, variables or flags, etc.
3. More input options, more triggering conditions.
4. Full integration with all other parts of the game, so that you can do things like modify the rules or attributes while the game progresses.
5. A nice, line-based GUI.
 
Old December 14, 2000, 22:09   #83
Grrr
Civilization III Multiplayer
King
 
Grrr's Avatar
 
Local Time: 14:03
Local Date: October 30, 2010
Join Date: Dec 2000
Location: of Hamilton, New-Zealand.
Posts: 1,160
My desired WWII scenario:

Should be on a massive map of at least 10000x7500 tiles, but the more the better. I should be able to have unlimited cities, as I would model every city possible. Unlimited Civs, as I would need to recreate the whole world. (This would equate to at least 100, but more likely about 250). Unlimited units, as I would like to create all units as they were at a certain date/time. This should be in total number, but also in differnt units, I want to be able to fight a Messersmidt, against a Zero, as historically accurate as possible. The scale for strength, etc should be unlimited, as I should be able to build units which are extremely similar, yet slightly stronger or weaker than one another (1-2%). Adjustable citizens per city (eg 1 citizen=10000pop, or 1 citizen=100pop). I should be able to deny cities to build certain things, even if possible in normal civ. I should be able to have adjustable durations of turns, as if I would want to make a historically accurate scenario, I want to be able to make the turns last 1 minute, or 1 millenium, however I wish. I should also be able to give differnt civs different tech trees. There should be an ability to build a differnt tech tree for each civ. I should be able to make a tech tree with at least 1,000 techs in it, all of which can hold at least 10 items. I should be able to give individual units names, eg USS ENTERPRISE, and name places on the map. I should be able to trigger any situation, eg: 'If Zero {name: Hashimoto} gets shot down by Cruiser {name: Philadelphia} then Civ {name: Japan} will send Zero {name: Takahashi} out to do function {name: Kamikaze, function: sacrifice unit, deals 156 damage} on the Cruiser {name: Washington}'. In this way I should be able to control exactly what the AI does, and not the Civ engine. I should be able to pre-program diplomacy, eg: 'If Civ {name: Britain} is at war with Civ {name: America} then Civ {name: Japan} will offer a treaty {name: Peace} to Civ {name Australia} in exchange for units {name: Holden Tanks, quantity: 650}'. In this way I would like to be able to trigger the slightest events. I want to be able to recreate everything in historical accuracy. I also want to build my own city improvements, eg '{name: Lancaster Bomber Factory, cost: 9600 Production, image: Lancast.bmp, Lancast.jpg, requires: Advanced Bombing, special: Can only be built by Civ {name: Britain, Canada}}'. I want to make this scenario in reality, to be the best WWII scenario in history, and it should not take more than 65 million characters / clicks to produce(about 1 year, of solid 24 hour work). I want to be able to save the entire scenario on a 2 gig Jaz disk, and should be able to play directly off the Jaz, rather than needing the CD(or whatever you are releasing Civ III on) and the Jaz. I don't believe in typing and mousing. The main programing should use one, or the other, but NOT both!I want to be able to print of every tech tree, and give people popups of historical information at certain trigger points, eg the invention of the Nuclear Bomb. I want to be able to set ANY winning perameters that I can think of, including things such as 'Expunge Hitler's Military Might', 'Generate World Peace'. I should be able to make certain missions eg 'Take Control of London'. All such things should be possible. I should also be able to play on ONE computer, as all the civilizations, to test if the scenario works as it should. Just so you know, I actually prefer the text method of controls in a scenario, as I exampled above. Keep all scenario stuff in Windows, to make it easier to work with.
MAKE ALL FILES NORMAL WINDOWS FILES(.BMP, .JPG, .TXT, .HTML, .ZIP, .ICO, .DOC, .MP3, .WAV, .MID, .ANI, .MPG, etc)!!!

The actual scenario program should give the player access to all files, and should save all changes in a ZIP file with the Scenario's name. One of these should be included, for the original game. This is a bit like Andrew livings concept of the game being just one scenario of which many can be added.

I would like to see myself making the above, outlined scenario in the near future. However this will only occur if the programming would be as easy as I demonstrated in my own example of how I would like to see the editor.

I think two editors should be available. The first would be a Civ II style one, in which minor changes can be made, for the average user, this may even be in-game, I don't care. The second would be a full program, in which the entire game is copied, and can be fully edited, until no trace of the original game can be found again.

Thankyou Firaxis (If you read this essay),

-Grrr!!, Grrr@Britannica.com
Grrr is offline  
Old December 18, 2000, 22:43   #84
Diablo, Bro. of Mephisto
Prince
 
Local Time: 01:03
Local Date: October 31, 2010
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Salt Lake City, USA
Posts: 456
I would like to add on what I said earlier:

1. two words: Complete Customization.

2. unlimited units (or at least a minimum of 150).

3. unlimited map design, be able to choose ANY size of map.

4. a much easier editor for all the editors, it takes me about 5 minutes just to edit one unit.

5. be able to choose from a HUGE list of sounds for units.

well, thats all I can think of at the moment.

p.s. hope I didnt say anything I said earlier in the thread.
Diablo, Bro. of Mephisto is offline  
Old December 19, 2000, 18:57   #85
ChrisShaffer
Prince
 
ChrisShaffer's Avatar
 
Local Time: 19:03
Local Date: October 30, 2010
Join Date: Aug 1999
Location: Iowa City, Iowa, United States of America
Posts: 359
Editable AI.

Need I say more?
ChrisShaffer is offline  
Old December 22, 2000, 19:34   #86
Depp
Prince
 
Depp's Avatar
 
Local Time: 01:03
Local Date: October 31, 2010
Join Date: Dec 1969
Location: Stockholm, Sweden
Posts: 399
Look to CTP 2 and then make an editor for all the txt files and AI. That would be awesome...
Depp is offline  
Old December 23, 2000, 16:29   #87
Civ2Veteran
Settler
 
Local Time: 01:03
Local Date: October 31, 2010
Join Date: Dec 2000
Location: Detroit, MI USA
Posts: 8
Dan, thanks for the opportunity to give you our input.

"Must Have" section.

Concerning Civ3 map editing, these are some things that I think would be particularly useful in a Civ3 map editor:


1) Allowing the Special Resource squares and "goody hut" squares to be completely editable with regard to the location of the squares and the number of the squares on the map. The Civ2 map editor limits us to 64 predetermined "resource seed number" locations and does not allow us to put the special resources or goody huts anywhere else. This is very frustrating at times, especially if we want to create a special scenario map with our own special resource locations.

Every time I talked to Microprose about this, they were always dead set aginst allowing us to do this, and never had any good reason as to why they were stonewalling us on this issue. It can't be all that difficult to allow it. I've never talked to a Civ2 player who said that this was a terrible idea, and in fact, everyone I talked to about it ALWAYS thought it was a good idea. I just don't understand why microprose was so opposed to the idea.

To sum this up, I am saying "Let us put special resources and goody huts on the map anywhere WE want to and don't put any of your own limitations on OUR ability to do so, and allow us to put as many of them on the map as WE want to". Don't limit us here anymore.


2) Change the random map generator in the map editor to save us a lot of TIME in map customization.

Let me explain. In Civ2, when we generate a random map with the map editor, it usually requires a lot of changes in order to be the type of map we want to play a game on, and it can take a long time to tweak it one square at a time enough to satisfy our needs for a particular game we want to play (changing more than one square at a time is cumbersome because it usually clumps too much similar terrain together). This can be simplified by allowing us to "program" the way a random map is generated in a more specific way than is currently allowed in Civ2.

Allow us to select not just the paramaters currently available in the Civ2 map editor random map generator, but also how many continents/islands should be on the map, and what size, in total number of land squares each continent/island should be. Also included in the continents/islands section should be the option to specify how many special resources should be randomly distributed on each continent/island, how many river squares should be on each continent/island and how many of each type of terrain square would be randomly distributed on each continent/island. I don't care what method you use to allow us to do this, I just want to be able to do it QUICKLY and EASILY. I'm quite sure that it can't be that difficult for you to allow us to have these options - this map editor would not be nearly as complicated as the code of the actual game program.

Allowing us to do these things would save us a huge amount of TIME in generating many specific styles of random maps to play on. I would pay extra $money$ to be able to do these things.


3) Make the editing of maps much easier by making it easy to edit them much more quickly than we currently can. It is very tedious in Civ2.


"Would Be Nice" section.


1) Allow us to specify with the map editor whether a goody hut would have a random event come out of it, or whether some specific event, like an advanced tribe, random technology, barbarians, wandering nomads, money, or military units would be the result of entering it. This would allow us to create maps that would have some predetermined rewards/surprises/disasters in them.


2) Provide for an additional twist on special resource squares by causing some special resources to not show up (remain hidden) in a terrain in which they are present until the terrain is terraformed in some way, whether it is by mining hills/mountains/desert, having a settler mine grassland/jungle/plains/swamp to turn them into forest, or by having an engineer transform the terrain with the "O" command. There was an element of this in "Sid Meier's Colonization", and it made things more interesting/unpredictable.


------------------
Civ2Veteran is offline  
Old December 26, 2000, 01:44   #88
St Leo
Scenario League / Civ2-CreationApolytoners Hall of Fame
 
St Leo's Avatar
 
Local Time: 21:03
Local Date: October 30, 2010
Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: In search of pants
Posts: 5,085
-Map Editor that can import and export both greyscale and colour NOAA elevation files (besides, you guys can whip up a world map in under an hour if you code that)
-One click city placement with prespecified size, improvements, objectives, etc.
-event based switching of text files used for game purposes
-PaintShop/PhotoShop/whatever editable graphics
-text files
-text files
-text files

------------------
St. Leo
http://www.sidgames.com/hosted/ziggurat/
http://www.sidgames.com/forums/
St Leo is offline  
Old December 29, 2000, 04:01   #89
Crustacian
Prince
 
Crustacian's Avatar
 
Local Time: 17:03
Local Date: October 30, 2010
Join Date: Jul 1999
Location: of Idaho PST
Posts: 794
Can you make it so scenario stuff is seperate from cheat menu's? Could cheat menu be limited solely to play against the AI even if you have to have seperate disk for MP play so an MP game hopefully can't get modifyed in cheat menu, or peeked at?
Crustacian is offline  
Old December 30, 2000, 12:42   #90
Sir Shiva
Guest
 
Posts: n/a
Hoo boy would I love to play Grrr's WWII scenario.

Snapcases ideas are pretty good. I would like to see a menu in the editor which brings up all the units/techs/civs/cities/pics etc. for easy GUI editing, so that we don't need to mess about in the text files. Personally, I like text files but this would make it alot easier. Also, with this GUI editor you could edit several connected things together, so you don't need to be hopping back and forth in the text files...

------------------
-Shiva
Email: shiva@shivamail.com
Web: http://www.shivamail.com
ICQ: 17719980
 
 

Bookmarks

Thread Tools

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is On

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -4. The time now is 21:03.


Design by Vjacheslav Trushkin, color scheme by ColorizeIt!.
Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.2
Copyright ©2000 - 2010, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Apolyton Civilization Site | Copyright © The Apolyton Team