Poll and request to Firaxis re:Editor functions

The_Aussie_Lurker · November 28, 2002, 22:31

Hi everybody,

Being in Australia (enjoying the Lovely weather

) I obviously haven't got PtW yet (December 6th, I believe!). However, it was brought to my attention that the claim made about combining Flags for Small and Great Wonders was not COMPLETELY TRUE. Some of the most important great wonder features I wanted to apply to Small Wonders-namely Obsolescence and the ability to place a given improvement in Every City (or city on continent) are still not in the "General Pool". This is very frustrating, as it limits my ability to create the Mod which I have been planning for many, many months now!!! (My Mega Mod

).
What I would like to ask the Firaxis team, and Mike B. in particular is: "Do you plan to eventually make these flags available for Small Wonders and, if so, when is this planned for?" If it isn't planned, then I'm afraid that I must get on my knees and BEG YOU to reconsider

.
Onto the Poll part of my post-how do the rest of you guys feel about this? Do you think, as I do, that it would be a lot simply to simply combine ALL of the flags for the Wonders (Great Wonders)? Or do you think they've done enough, and should leave the editor alone? Or perhaps you don't care, and just play Vanilla Civ3 and haven't even LOOKED at the Editor screen

.

Yours,
The_Aussie_Lurker.

ChaotikVisions · November 29, 2002, 01:00

I agree with the starting post, having ALL flags would be good for mods. I'd also like the ability to make custom road-types. Don't think it'd be all that difficult though i'm not a programmer. This would really help for creating mods and for people who aren't satisfied with infinite RR movement. This is a sort of compromise in that it'll leave RRs alone, but allow for someone to disable regular RRs and make a type of their own if they want.

The_Aussie_Lurker · November 29, 2002, 02:24

Actually, I'd like the ability to add/edit ALL terrain improvements. The way I'd envisage it, you'd have a drop box like you have for buildings, and you'd click on the one you want to edit. It would come up with the bonuses it grants underneath-ie bonus production, commerce and/or food, maintainance cost, # of turns to build, movement cost (if applicable), and technology which enables it!
This way, I'd envisage you having several levels of roads, mines and farms, as well as an ability to alter the bonuses for existing improvements. Definitely, though, the Great Wonder flags are my first priority.
Oh, and another quick thing. Currently, you can give an improvement a negative score for production, culture, maintainance, production etc, but I'd also like to be able to give units a negative value for commerce and science-if I choose!!

Yours,
The_Aussie_Lurker.

problem_child · November 29, 2002, 08:48

Can you make units tradable in the diplo screen in the PTW editor?

Deathwalker · November 29, 2002, 09:36

Can you edit civ relsations yet?

The_Aussie_Lurker · November 30, 2002, 22:06

Problem_Child: No, you can't trade units-another thing which needs to be available-at least as an option!!

Deathwalker: Not sure what you mean, could you please specify!?

Also, BUMP!!!

.

Yours,
The_Aussie_Lurker.

WarpStorm · November 30, 2002, 22:17

I think he meant civ relations, and no it isn't there.

The_Aussie_Lurker · December 2, 2002, 02:04

Actually, not being a programmer myself

, I was wondering if someone with programming ability could tell me how easy/hard it would be to hack the editor in order to give us those extra great wonder flags for small wonders? I'd like to know just in case the people at Firaxis don't intend changing this feature!! Though, based on their excellent past Patch reputation, I feel certain that they will

.

Yours,
The_Aussie_Lurker.

The_Aussie_Lurker · December 2, 2002, 18:02

Bump >>>

The_Aussie_Lurker

joncnunn · December 2, 2002, 19:07

Extremely difficult.

Like every other smart developing company, Firaxis doesn't release source code with the product.

Quote:

Originally posted by The_Aussie_Lurker
Actually, not being a programmer myself

, I was wondering if someone with programming ability could tell me how easy/hard it would be to hack the editor in order to give us those extra great wonder flags for small wonders? I'd like to know just in case the people at Firaxis don't intend changing this feature!! Though, based on their excellent past Patch reputation, I feel certain that they will

.

Yours,
The_Aussie_Lurker.

FNBrown · December 2, 2002, 19:11

I've stated elsewhere that I'd also like to see them make it more intuitive to add custom units, resources, and city improvements as well.

Right now, it can be done, but I haven't the time to figure out the way to do it without crashing the game.

The_Aussie_Lurker · December 2, 2002, 19:14

It's true, but remember that Gramphos and a few others were able to crack the editor after Civ3 first came out, so I was just wondering if such a feat could be repeated again? I also know that Trip recently cracked the editor, bringing up the buttons for adding eras, worker jobs etc. The problem was that these functions weren't supported, so caused errors and crashes. It did, however, reveal that the Firaxis team might be looking to introduce these functions at a later date!

Yours,
The_Aussie_Lurker.

FNBrown · December 2, 2002, 20:00

Quote:

Originally posted by The_Aussie_Lurker
It's true, but remember that Gramphos and a few others were able to crack the editor after Civ3 first came out, so I was just wondering if such a feat could be repeated again? I also know that Trip recently cracked the editor, bringing up the buttons for adding eras, worker jobs etc. The problem was that these functions weren't supported, so caused errors and crashes. It did, however, reveal that the Firaxis team might be looking to introduce these functions at a later date!

Yours,
The_Aussie_Lurker.

It should also reveal that Firaxis ought to introduce some of these clever folks to their payroll.

Nuclear Winter · December 2, 2002, 20:39

We need era adding, real diplomacy editting, map revealing (no outpost trick!) we need a event palcing sistem, I guess all here agree that the ability to edit citiy view improvements and wonders would be apreciated.

The_Aussie_Lurker · December 3, 2002, 18:26

Hi guys,

Another Editor function I would like, which ties in with issues of flexibility, is that improvements which add food, trade and shields to ocean/sea squares should be more flexible, so that you can have an improvement gives this bonus to land squares. I especially have thought of improvements that I would LOVE to have this effect.

Yours,
The_Aussie_Lurker.

The_Aussie_Lurker · December 5, 2002, 01:12

>>>Bump

Raion · December 5, 2002, 13:15

More like the Civ II editor that came out last with the expansions of Civ II.

An upgrade!

Civ III is an OS!

The_Aussie_Lurker · December 5, 2002, 22:18

Hey guys,

I'm not going to be able to be at the PtW chat with CivFanatics tonight (Surprise, surprise!), so I was wondering if someone could ask them about any future changes to the editor which might be getting planned in future Patches? I would particularly like some info in regards to:

1) The opening up of the remainder of the Great Wonder flags

2) Units which require improvements etc. to build.

3) Any abilities to add/edit terrain improvements.

4) The ability to add production, commerce and food to non-sea squares.

If that could be done, I'd be VERY grateful!!

Yours,
The_Aussie_Lurker.

The_Aussie_Lurker · December 10, 2002, 17:59

>>>> Bump

The_Aussie_Lurker.

The Rusty Gamer · December 12, 2002, 00:11

Advances ideas:

1. A "not" checkbox next to each required tech (prerequisite). This way, you can create either/or situations with the tech tree. If, for instance, you say that tech A requires not tech B, and that tech B requires not tech A, then if you research tech A, you can no longer research tech B and the reverse is also true. You have to make a choice. This is a simple example, you can make it much more sophisticated than that.

2. A tradable checkbox (default on). We can define whether each specific tech is tradeable or not or whether or not it will be discovered in goody huts. This means you are forced to research some techs. Also, techs in the "none" era can be defined as tradeable. So maybe each civilization can be given unique techs but they are bargainable.
One idea or use for this would be to only give some civs the ability to mine, others to irrigate, others to build roads. Maybe you only have two of the three abilities to begin with and the only way to get the third ability is to trade with someone.

3. Allowing a tech from the "none" era to be a prerequisite for techs in other eras. This way, you could define completely different tech trees for each civilization if you wanted to.

4. Making other things prerequisites for researching certain techs. eg: A certain number of a building, or a certain government has to be in power. If you added the "not" option, you could really make the tech tree complex
egs: You cannot research this tech once you have built 5 granaries and you must be a republic.
or: You must have 8 barracks before researching this tech and you cannot have a monarchy in power.

5. Allowing the minimum and maximum turns for each tech to be defined individually. If left at zero, it would use the general settings default.

Time scale ideas:

1. Being allowed to define the units for each break. Eg: The first break may be in years, the next in months, the next in weeks.

2. Having a "days" unit.

3. Allowing more than 7 breaks.

General ideas:

1. Most (if not all) of the options on the "General Settings" tab could be defined for each civilization. Imagine having one civ that has different city levels (eg: 7 and 15), another requires only 1 food instead of 2 per pop point but maybe has a higher min and max research turns, another only has a 9 cultural border level and so on. You would have to balance it all out but it would make civs really quite unique.

2. Alternatively, or as well, some of the "General Settings" options could be defined at each difficulty level.

piratebrun · December 12, 2002, 13:50

Great ideas, Rusty Gamer! It would give me some more things to do with the scenario I am creating

ESPECIALLY the tech stuff

The_Aussie_Lurker · December 12, 2002, 17:48

Most of these ideas seem to be absolutely excellent RG, though I'm not sure what you mean by the time scale settings. Could you explain them in a little more detail?-thanks

.

Yours,
The_Aussie_Lurker.

The Rusty Gamer · December 13, 2002, 01:11

In the current PTW editor, on the "Scenario Options" screen, we are allowed to set up to 7 time scale changes in the format :

First x turns = y units each
Next x turns = y units each...

If the game gets beyond the seven changes, it then drops to 1 unit per turn automatically.

Also, you can define the base unit of time overall as either years, months, or weeks.

So what I suggest is to be able to have more than 7 changes and also to be able to define the base unit of time for each change rather than just overall. Also, to be allowed to define units as "days".

The Rusty Gamer · December 13, 2002, 01:14

It would also be good to be able to have more (or less) eras in a tech tree.

??? HOW DO WE ALERT FIRAXIS TO THESE IDEAS ???

TheRascalKing · December 13, 2002, 09:07

I just wanna change it so that railroads no longer allow infinite movement. Why won't they allow that simple change? Stupid lame-ass infinite railroads...land one unit on enemy's coast and his entire army is there the same turn. Lame!

The Rusty Gamer · December 14, 2002, 20:28

Since, when creating a map, you can now choose to switch on or off X-wrapping and Y-wrapping, it should be easy to allow these choices for a random map; in particular, it could easily be an option on the main map setting screen rather than having to specify it in a mod.

The Rusty Gamer · December 23, 2002, 20:48

I would also like to see the "not" checkbox option on the buildings tab for any prerequsite building. Then you can create a "build either this or that but not both" situation for each city; in other words, a real choice to make.

eg: I thought of having a forge building in the early stages of the game which increases shield production but that for each city you have a choice of either building a forge or a granary but not both.

piratebrun · December 24, 2002, 12:04

Also the ability to have more than 1 prerequisite building for another building would be nice. And the ability to make certain civs NOT ABLE to build certain buildings/wonders... could be limited buy not allowing certain civs particular techs.

The Rusty Gamer · January 18, 2003, 06:36

Bump!

Another possibility is for some or all of the options on the General Settings tab to be defined for different government types.

This could give some very radical changes when switching governments. Borders could change, etc.

Speaking of goverment types, I would like to see a government option that evens out all the culture over all your cities. You could switch this switch on for "Communism" for instance.

Say you had 3 cities, one with 300 culture, another with 30, and yet another with 1500. When you switched to communism, it would pool all culture points and then divide them out. 1500+300+30=1830. Divide this by 3 and you get 610 culture points per city. So the first city shrinks its borders but the third city expands its borders. You might also have a penalty for this to offset balance - effected by corruption perhaps?

The Rusty Gamer · January 26, 2003, 00:45

On second thoughts, pooling culture points might be too powerful, especially if you have 1 city with several thousand culture points. It might be better to have something like a "Pool border levels" option. So if you have two cities, and one has a border level of 1, and another has a border level of 3, pooling it would give both cities a border level of 2. If it doesn't divide out evenly, it would be rounded down.