Need more civs on Tiny map!!!

Ray K · October 31, 2001, 10:53

According to the manual, the Small and Tiny maps are for those players that want an intense game with lots of early contact.

Unfortunately, only four civs are allowed on the tiny map. This defeats the entire purpose, because the civs are still spread too far apart for very much early contact.

Is there any way to raise this limit to 8 civs?

One of the things that I think was lost from Civ1 was that you could have a lot of ancient era warfare. With Civ2, it all changed to build, build, build and fight later. Using bigger maps has a lot to do with this.

Civ Dave · October 31, 2001, 11:14

I remember back in the day inciv 1, I'd always use chariots for sooooooo long....

now its all tanks and mech inf.... I never even bothered working with most units in civ2

I found on a big map, though, you have lots of early ocntacts...

just make it small continents with lots of water

El hidalgo · October 31, 2001, 11:22

According to Firaxis, there is a way to play with as many civs (up to 16) as you want on any map, including tiny. You have to do it through the editor, though. I don't know how to do it (I don't have the game), but this is what Firaxis says:

Quote:

Depending on the map size you select, you may play with up to 16 Civs at once. The foreign advisor screen will only display eight civs at a time, however, so you can hold shift & right click on any of the eight slots on that screen to select another known civ to display. Using the editor, you can modify the game rules to force even tiny maps to support 16 players if you wish, but we don't recommend it if you're claustrophobic!

http://www.civ3.com/asktheteam_101901.cfm

Dan Magaha FIRAXIS · October 31, 2001, 11:46

Quote:

Originally posted by Ray K
According to the manual, the Small and Tiny maps are for those players that want an intense game with lots of early contact.

Unfortunately, only four civs are allowed on the tiny map. This defeats the entire purpose, because the civs are still spread too far apart for very much early contact.

Is there any way to raise this limit to 8 civs?

One of the things that I think was lost from Civ1 was that you could have a lot of ancient era warfare. With Civ2, it all changed to build, build, build and fight later. Using bigger maps has a lot to do with this.

Open the editor, the first thing you'll need to do is go to the "Tools" menu and uncheck "Use default rules". This will allow to modify the rules. Then go to the "Rules" menu, select "Edit -> World Sizes" and you can change the parameters for each world size.

Then save that file out into your "Scenario" directory. Start up Civ III, click "Load Scenario", and pick the scenario you just saved.

Dan

Ray K · October 31, 2001, 11:51

Quote:

Originally posted by Dan Magaha FIRAXIS

Open the editor, the first thing you'll need to do is go to the "Tools" menu and uncheck "Use default rules". This will allow to modify the rules. Then go to the "Rules" menu, select "Edit -> World Sizes" and you can change the parameters for each world size.

Then save that file out into your "Scenario" directory. Start up Civ III, click "Load Scenario", and pick the scenario you just saved.

Dan

Excellent! Thank you very much!

Elucidus · October 31, 2001, 12:56

Okay here's the thing. If you open the file Civ3mod.bic on the editor, any changes you make to it will effect the default game. Enjoy.

Elucidus · October 31, 2001, 12:57

Okay here's the thing. If you open the file Civ3mod.bic on the editor, any changes you make to it will effect the default game. Enjoy.

BTW, the file is at the Civ3 root, not in the scenarios folder. I'm pretty sure you can restore the defaults if you want, in case you mess something up.

Ray K · October 31, 2001, 13:02

Quote:

Originally posted by Elucidus
Okay here's the thing. If you open the file Civ3mod.bic on the editor, any changes you make to it will effect the default game. Enjoy.

Even better! Thanks, guys.

Dan Magaha FIRAXIS · October 31, 2001, 13:05

Quote:

Originally posted by Elucidus
Okay here's the thing. If you open the file Civ3mod.bic on the editor, any changes you make to it will effect the default game. Enjoy.

BTW, the file is at the Civ3 root, not in the scenarios folder. I'm pretty sure you can restore the defaults if you want, in case you mess something up.

Messing with Civ3Mod.bic is a very bad thing to do. I'll say it again for emphasis: messing with Civ3Mod.bic is a very bad thing to do. If you unbalance this, the "normal" game can get all out of whack and you can't easily restore this one file from the CD without reinstalling everything.

The whole point of the BIC file format and the scenario file system is that you don't have to modify the default rules, and I STRONGLY suggest that you avoid the temptation to monkey with them. Save your experiments out to another BIC file, and do it that way.

At the very least, make a backup of your civ3mod.bic and keep it in a safe place for backup purposes.

Dan

Boris Godunov · October 31, 2001, 13:20

Quote:

Originally posted by Dan Magaha FIRAXIS

Messing with Civ3Mod.bic is a very bad thing to do. I'll say it again for emphasis: messing with Civ3Mod.bic is a very bad thing to do. If you unbalance this, the "normal" game can get all out of whack and you can't easily restore this one file from the CD without reinstalling everything.

The whole point of the BIC file format and the scenario file system is that you don't have to modify the default rules, and I STRONGLY suggest that you avoid the temptation to monkey with them. Save your experiments out to another BIC file, and do it that way.

At the very least, make a backup of your civ3mod.bic and keep it in a safe place for backup purposes.

Dan

Dan: is saving a backup civ3mod.bic and then modifying the original safe, or will trying to restore the via backup make things worse? I only ask because I certain settings for the game I will want to see in every game I play, and I don't want to have to go in and alter the same things over and over again in ever BIC file I make.

Also, any ETA on a patch to complete the scenario editor?

Steve Clark · October 31, 2001, 13:26

Good thread, but needs to be moved to Civ3-Creation.

Elucidus · October 31, 2001, 15:20

You know they say the same thing about editing the Windows registry, but if you make a backup, there is always a way to restore it.

Sorry, I thought it was understood that you make a backup of anything you edit beforehand. If I can't simply copy the orignal over the edited without causing problems, then things are pretty absurd.

Dan Magaha FIRAXIS · October 31, 2001, 15:50

Quote:

Originally posted by Elucidus
You know they say the same thing about editing the Windows registry, but if you make a backup, there is always a way to restore it.

Sorry, I thought it was understood that you make a backup of anything you edit beforehand. If I can't simply copy the orignal over the edited without causing problems, then things are pretty absurd.

As long as you have a good backup, you can just copy it back over the modified one. I just wanted to put up the red flags on editing the default rules without making a backup. I suspect that eventually, someone will do this and then find out the hard way that the only way to restore the file off of the CD is to reinstall

Dan

El hidalgo · October 31, 2001, 16:46

Dan,

Veering slightly off topic, but is it possible to choose starting locations for individual civs? (Say, on a tiny map -- there, it's sort of on topic now...

). Is it possible to make a flat world map (tiny or any size)?

Very important questions to me, since I'm an avid Civ cartographer. Thanks for any information you can give!