Technical questions

[Cyrion]

Originally posted by duke o' york
Partisans can be generated from captured cities when the civ (previously ) owning them has both Communism and Gunpowder. They do not need to have a communist government though. Guerilla Warfare allows you to actually build partisans, and will increase your chances of having (more) partisans from a captured city. I'm not sure, but I think that GW also means that partisan barbs appear, whereas other civs can have them when their cities are captured, provided they have the requisite techs.

Do you mean that IF the civ doesn't have Gunpowder AND Communism, then they wouldn't get partisans??

Interesting, I'll have to check whether they have Gunpowder (Communism being the tech behind that civ name...).

Anyway, I could use the spare slot I just got form my event problem upthere to create a special "rebellious" peasant I could throw in the partisan slot! It would then even make the game a bit more "interesting"...

Don't think so. It's likely to build whatever's in the settler slot. Can you link a units preq tech to a CityTaken trigger? Or will that cause a problem with other cities from the civ-formerly-known-as-barbarians?

Yes, actually I would really like them to build the same specific kind of unit that took the city!

If that's not possible, then I'll have to put a "generic" monster in the settler slot, make sure that this civ is unable to build anything, and hope it will then go for the unit in the settler slot! Not 100% satisfying, but it would do...

BTW, could someone find the time to make some tests with barbarian units and changeterrain commands?? Just to confirm that this problem is really messy (and that it's not only a matter of me being stooopid... ).??

[Thoddy]

most comprehensive knowledge about partisans

http://apolyton.net/forums/showthrea...46#post1083746

[Boco]

Thoddy, thanks! That XLS is useful. You and Slow Thinker are a real boon to the community.

[Cyrion]

Thanks for the very useful info, guys!

[Cyrion]

Is there a way to "cover" only a few selected square in map, so that some terrain isn't displayed as known to the player??

I don't want to cover all the map and redo the whole "reveal terrain" routine...

[Mercator]

No can do... Unless you don't mind hex-editing. But if it's more than just a handful of squares that's gonna be even more tedious. And by the time you figured out how to do it, or managed to find someone to do it for you, you could have all done it the traditional way.

[Cyrion]

Thanks Mercator, I'll then have to do it the (not so) hard way!

[Cyrion]

1) Is the "original" Radio tech needed for am Airport to operate? I changed the tech prerequisite in a scen (as I didn't want any airbases) and the Airport-equivalent doesn't seem to woirk properly?

And if the "Radio" tech is needed, then is there a way to avoid Airbases (and yes, I really need settler-types )

2) I use a civ for the Bad-guys (I have good reasons not to use the Barbarians for that), with the "right attitude": militaristic, expansionist, aggressive... They are set at war with all others every turn in the events file.

Nonetheless, they don't behave aggressively enough: they sometimes attack, but tend to fortify when they encounter foreign units (yes, the unit role is Attack).

Might that come from their lack of units?

Would creating heaps of units in their "unreachable corner city" convince them to use their other units aggressively??

If not, what would?

[Cyrion]

First the questions: where do I change the text/lists that appear in the tool bar at the top of the screen? I tried to modify most of the text files, but my menu list still reads for the Order menu: Build Roads, Build Irrigation, Build Mines, ...

And I would really need to change a few of those name (airlift and build airbase), so help please

Originally posted by Cyrion
1) Is the "original" Radio tech needed for am Airport to operate? I changed the tech prerequisite in a scen (as I didn't want any airbases) and the Airport-equivalent doesn't seem to woirk properly?

Answer after some testing: yes, it is needed!

2) I use a civ for the Bad-guys (I have good reasons not to use the Barbarians for that), with the "right attitude": militaristic, expansionist, aggressive... They are set at war with all others every turn in the events file.

Nonetheless, they don't behave aggressively enough: they sometimes attack, but tend to fortify when they encounter foreign units (yes, the unit role is Attack).

Might that come from their lack of units?

Would creating heaps of units in their "unreachable corner city" convince them to use their other units aggressively??

I tried giving them many more units, but it didn't change anything.

[Mercator]

The menu text should be changed in the labels.txt. Changing menu.txt doesn't seem to have any effect.Or not on the displayed text anyway, I didn't test any other changes.

I don't know the answer to your other question.

[Cyrion]

Originally posted by Mercatore Uno
The menu text should be changed in the labels.txt. Changing menu.txt doesn't seem to have any effect.Or not on the displayed text anyway, I didn't test any other changes.

Sadly, no!

I did some testing, and here is the (sad) result:

1) first of all: my goal was to replace "airlift" and "build airbase" in the "Orders" menu from the tool bar at the top of the screen!

2) replacing all the "airbases/airlift" occurences in the labels.txt didn't change anything about the menu!

3) replacing the the "airbases/airlift" occurences in a menu.txt placed in the scenario folder didn't change anything about the menu!

4) replacing the the "airbases/airlift" occurences in the "main" menu.txt placed in the CivII folder provided the desired result!

So, sadly, it appears that to achieve the deisred goal, you have to modify the menu.txt in the "root" CIvII folder, which will then affect ALL your games, and so not be "scenario-dedicated"!

As this is not desirable, I'm afraid I'll have to renounce modifying the menu list, unless someone can provide a solution...

[William Keenan]

1) Is the "original" Radio tech needed for am Airport to operate? I changed the tech prerequisite in a scen (as I didn't want any airbases) and the Airport-equivalent doesn't seem to woirk properly?

The radio tech has two effects. It allows setler units to build airbases and it reduces the cash/science bonus for delivering trade. Airports should still work properly without the radio tech.

2) I use a civ for the Bad-guys (I have good reasons not to use the Barbarians for that), with the "right attitude": militaristic, expansionist, aggressive... They are set at war with all others every turn in the events file.

Nonetheless, they don't behave aggressively enough: they sometimes attack, but tend to fortify when they encounter foreign units (yes, the unit role is Attack).

Might that come from their lack of units?

Would creating heaps of units in their "unreachable corner city" convince them to use their other units aggressively??

Make the AI units cheap. Cost to build effects how willing the AI is to scrifice it. Cheap units it will charge like orcs at Helmsdeep.

replacing all the "airbases/airlift" occurences in the labels.txt didn't change anything about the menu!

The change needs to be made in the memu.txt file. the problem however is that file has to be in the civ2 directory to function. Haveing it in the scenario directory is no good. This works in ToT, though.

[Cyrion]

Thanks for your answers!

Originally posted by William Keenan
The radio tech has two effects. It allows setler units to build airbases and it reduces the cash/science bonus for delivering trade. Airports should still work properly without the radio tech.

That's what I thought too, but as you can see in one of my posts above, I did some testing which proved that it's not the case: the "Radio" itself is needed for the airport to work, rather like the "Mysticism" tech is needed for the temple!

Make the AI units cheap. Cost to build effects how willing the AI is to scrifice it. Cheap units it will charge like orcs at Helmsdeep.

Now that's a good solution: it's easy to implement, and I'll test how it works!

Maybe really cheap isn't needed, but right now they are horribly expensive, which I'll change!

The change needs to be made in the memu.txt file. the problem however is that file has to be in the civ2 directory to function. Haveing it in the scenario directory is no good. This works in ToT, though.

Exactly what my testing found, as written in my post above!

[Cyrion]

Next question

What are ALL the changes needed, and in which files, if I want to provide new names for the cities to be built by the various civs?

I built the cities and entered the names manually, and now when I build a new city, the game doesn't propose a default name! (and no, it's not because the civ has built many cities! 5-7 at most!).

I tried adding a city.txt to the scen file, but the "name line" is still blank! What did I forget?

Do I need to modify the civ name somewhere, for instance?? Or to add the correct first 5 names in the city list??

[William Keenan]

The civ name in the city.txt file needs to match the civ name in the rules.txt file.

[Cyrion]

It works perfectly now, thanks William!

On another topic: is there a way to modify the "adds 25% to spaceship thrust" that appears in the "Fusion Power" tech description (or, rather, not in the description, but in the first window related to that tech which displays the prerequisite and such) ?

I searched (nearly) all txt files but wasn't able to find it...

[William Keenan]

It's in the PEDIA.TXT near the top, under the heading @PEDIACIVFACTS

the line reads ^Improves Spaceship thrust by 25%.

[Cyrion]

It didn't check the pedia file

Thanks William!

[Elok]

By "work," do you mean just their airlift function, or the entire deal, including repairing and veteranizing air units?

[Cyrion]

Originally posted by Elok
By "work," do you mean just their airlift function, or the entire deal, including repairing and veteranizing air units?

BY work in that post (if I am speaking about the same you did!), I meant the name list!

And about the airports/airlifts, to make it short: if you use another tech than the one in the original "Radio" slot as a prerequisite, then you can build the airport, but it won't do anything (exactly as the temple without the "mysticism" tech), until you have the tech in the "Radio" slot! So, no matter what its prerequisite, without the "Radio" tech, your airport doesn't do anything, and with it, it works normally.

Is that a bit clearer now?

And William: found the (25% thrust in pedia, thanks )

[Cyrion]

How can I can choose which set of "heads" a civ uses? Is that linked to the kind of graphics they use for their cities (doesn't seem so)??

I'll try to find some info on that around the web, but I would appreciate if someone could help me!

[jasev]

AFAIK, It's linked to the age. If you change the techs used to change the age to give them to certain civs (for example, change industrialization to a private tech for the Civ A), then you'll be able to use the "industrial" people.gif row just for the Civ A.

Unfortunately, there are only four rows, so you'll be limited.

[Cyrion]

Yes, tha'ts what I was afraid of...

But maybe Curt can confirm that (or, even better, infirm it!), as he used the different heads in his Bitterfrost scen!

[William Keenan]

Originally posted by Cyrion
How can I can choose which set of "heads" a civ uses? Is that linked to the kind of graphics they use for their cities (doesn't seem so)??

I'll try to find some info on that around the web, but I would appreciate if someone could help me!

Changes to the City Style and and People Style are caused by the discovery of certain tech slots. Please see my papers on the COC for a full explaination.

[Cyrion]

Thanks William, that exactly what I was looking for (I'm glad I added your name in the Credits section of the readme)!

Actually, I used your paper to define the city style, and just couldn't find it again!

Too bad the situation is as I feared: I can't do anything about the heads without major "scen surgery"...

But that's not really important anyway

[Cyrion]

2 more questions for you civ creators

The second one is much trickier than the first, but I sometimes get weird ideas...

1) is there a place where I can change the number of people related to city size?? What I mean is: could I define somewhere that a city size 2 would be shown as having 500 people, a size 5 3'000 and a size 12 10'000 for instance (I don't mean changing the growth rate, just the "number" of people displayed! Nothing gameplay related, just cosmetics! )

2) a question about FT (Future Technology) and the events; if nobody can answer, I'll have to check (which shouldn't be too difficult, but I haven't much time right now...).

Let's say I write an event giving 100 Gold once a civ discovers FT.
- if I don't use the "justonce" command, the civ will get 100 Gold every turn after it's discovery, correct??
- if I use the "justonce", then the gold will be gained only on the turn when the tech is discovered (or the one after, I don't remember!). But what would happen if FT2 is discovered?? Would it be seen as a new FT (i.e. 100 Gold), or would it still be seen as the same FT?? (i.e. no gain)

So my question is: can I write an event giving something every time a FT is discovered, but only once for each FT discovery??

Not sure my question was really clear, but you should be used to that right now...

[William Keenan]

#1 - I don’t think you can change the population formula. It seems to be hard coded in the civ2 engine. If you could change it, would anyone notice?

#2 - Events are triggered by having a technology not by discovering a technology. Therefore, the event is true every turn after the given tech is discovered; hence the need for JustOnce.

You can distinguish between Future Tech levels in ToT but not in FW or MGE.

[Cyrion]

Originally posted by William Keenan
#1 - I don’t think you can change the population formula. It seems to be hard coded in the civ2 engine. If you could change it, would anyone notice?

I would! But it's not really important, as you implied...

#2 - Events are triggered by having a technology not by discovering a technology. Therefore, the event is true every turn after the given tech is discovered; hence the need for JustOnce.

Yes, I knew that!

You can distinguish between Future Tech levels in ToT but not in FW or MGE.

Will you stop advertising ToT!!

OK, I guess I'll really have to change over to ToT, but not for this scen, for the next one!

How can you differentiate in ToT? Have to specify in the event which precise FT triggers the event?? Or is there another way??

BTW: thanks for you answer William!

[techumseh]

Hi William. Happy New Year.

[William Keenan]

Thanks Techumseh. Nice to see you all are still playing. Mabye I'll dust off my ToT.