terraforming?

AkwaticDudeCity · March 22, 2000, 11:04

hullo to you all,
say, does anyone know how to change a settler's abilities to the extent that they cannot build new cities, but only terrain improvements? please someone tell me it is possible. i want to edit a few scenarios so that no new cities can be built by anyone, that way they'll be even more fun, well to me at least.

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ugh crud, why won't they fall prey to my Machiavellian schemes?

Hendrik the Great · March 22, 2000, 11:37

Hmm...Perhaps you can delete the appropiate lines in the game.txt(or menu.txt?). That way the human player wont be able to perform the deleted command lines. But whatever you do to the game.txt the AI will always be able to do it.

Here is another idea that's from Mercator I believe: Replace all Grasland and Plains or their equivalent with glaciars and tundra. The AI will not build city on them.

If you combine this with the changes to the game.txt there wont be any problem for you.
For the human player the option will be disabled and the AI wont build cities because it thinks the terrain is useless.

Good luck!

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Mathias' Civ II Page
http://members.xoom.com/thalys/index.html

Alinestra Covelia · March 22, 2000, 16:32

Does that apply specifically to terrain that has the benefits of tundra or glaciers, OR can does it only apply to the terrain in those two slots? In other words, if I were to replace tundra and glacier with, say, grassland and plains, then would the computer still think those terrains are useless because of their location in the rules?

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"In all creation, there can be no task more onerous or tedious than that of playing God." - Stephen Fry, 'The Liar'.

Miner · March 22, 2000, 17:31

AC: Yes, it is their slot rather than the food/production values.

However, how can you stop a City being built by a human player??? all you do is press the 'b' key, it's not like there is a popup box 'do you want to build a city?' which can be edited in labels.txt?

ZhugeLiang · March 22, 2000, 19:30

there should be a part of labels.txt where you can change/delete shortcut keys as well, although messing with stuff like that ussualy gets you weird errors....

AkwaticDudeCity · March 23, 2000, 09:20

actually it's the AI players expansionism which annoys me in certain scenarios.
in them i don't build new cities, and i want to prevent the AI players from building new cities too.
is the terrainchanging to inhospitable teraintypes the only way?
can't i change the settler/engineer's abilities in a way that it will be impossible for them to build new cities?
if i change the terrain, the map will look pretty weird with glaciers in North Africa and the Levant.
is it possible to create a new 'terraforming' unit like the formers in SMAC?

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ugh crud, why won't they fall prey to my Machiavellian schemes?

Michael Daumen · March 23, 2000, 09:36

You cannot make improve-only settlers.

You can change the name, features, and picture of the terrain you place. Glaciers and tundra could become the most profitable squares on the map and the computer wouldn't notice at all . . . unless there is a river present. I have seen the AI build in plains squares with rivers.

I think the labels.txt fix will work but I have never tried it. Maybe you could set up a scenario for each intended nation, leaving out settlers in all computer-controlled nations. But that wouldn't allow ANY computer settlers.

This will be a neat trick if you succeed!
[This message has been edited by Michael Daumen (edited March 23, 2000).]

Sten Sture · March 23, 2000, 14:01

(MD - As a big Hopkirk fan I am greatly enjoying your Great Game scenario, I am currently playing it as the Brits using Civ MGE.)
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As far as I know:

The AI will not (okay, Hendrik - RARELY!

)build a city on anything but grassland or plains, and if it has the option it will choose rivers first and something adjacent to a special.

It has never in my experience irrigated a forest square to allow it build on the resulting plain.

I have fiddled with the rules.txt to try to correct its maddening irrigation of tundra and deserts in the city radius, but refusal to clear swamps and jungles, to no avail.

In its preference to work certain squares in the city radius, it will almost always work the highest food square, then the high food squares with some shields - it will almost always ignore trade arrows. In scenario design if you want the AI to be competative, add trade arrows or shields to the squares it is most likely to use - such as wheat specials or raw grassland. Adding shields and trade arrows to gold mine mountains will most likely only favor the human player. I would imagine that most of this is also slot dependant, not based on some kind of a resource analysis algorhythm.

[This message has been edited by Sten Sture (edited March 23, 2000).]

Hendrik the Great · March 24, 2000, 01:19

I believe there is hardly a way around it than putting all the grasland and plains into the glacier and Tundra slots.
You can't really do anything about the AI building cities otherwise. As said, perhaps there is a way to disallow founding cities for the human player by playing around with the game.txt, labels.txt or menu.txt.
Just try out everything that seems to have to do with settlers in those files and see what happens.

But I do have to mention though that in some unusual cases the AI will build cities even on tundra, hills and forests.
Very rare but it does happen.

Otherwise give settlers only throu events.

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Mathias' Civ II Page
http://members.xoom.com/thalys/index.html

AkwaticDudeCity · April 3, 2000, 15:48

For all of you that actually give a rat's arse, here's what i found recently can be quite helpful in limiting the AI's city-building-zeal:
In 'Tribe Editor', change the Expand value to 'Perfectionist'. That way the respective AI tribe will focus on 'a few thriving cities rather than many mediocre ones'. If they do found a new city it at least will be worth conquering

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ugh crud, why won't they fall prey to my Machiavellian schemes?

Mercator · April 5, 2000, 14:38

quote:

Originally posted by AkwaticDudeCity on 03-23-2000 08:20 AM
is the terrainchanging to inhospitable teraintypes the only way?
can't i change the settler/engineer's abilities in a way that it will be impossible for them to build new cities?
if i change the terrain, the map will look pretty weird with glaciers in North Africa and the Levant.

Perhaps you don't quite understand. The only thing you have to do is treat Glacier/Tundra just as you would Grassland/Plains. You can give them appropriate graphics and make them as fertile as you want. No matter how fertile you make them, the AI won't build cities there.
(My "Orbis Terrae" scenario uses this: http://civ2.sidgames.com/scen.cfm#fictional )

Another more tedious way of accomplishing this is as follows:
When creating your map with the MapEditor, don't use Grassland or Plains (or change Grassland and Plains to something else in an already existing map). When you're in Civ2, change terrain you want to grassland or plains, using the cheat menu.

And an even worse way would be to edit the source of one of your savegames/scenarios. If you want to do this, contact me.

AkwaticDudeCity · April 7, 2000, 08:15

Mercator,
i checked your scenario and i must say it looks great. I'll play it after the weekend. I think i see what you mean. When creating the map just place Glacier, Tundra or whatever and change their characteristics. That way the AI will perceive the terrain as inhospitable and will not settle there. Am i correct?

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ugh crud, why won't they fall prey to my Machiavellian schemes?