OK, so how do I do that?

[Kiran]

Ok, I used to play Civ2 all the time, but college always got in the way. Now that that problem's been gotten rid of, I see a lot of things have been done to my favorite game since I last played it. So, I decided to start at ground zero. I opened Rules and started editing EVERYTHING. Changed Civ names, attitudes (stupid instead of worshipful, pissed instead of enraged), changed the tech tree, changed trade commoduties (Mountain Dew is the most sought after), changed Civ attributes. But I've run into some problems.
The main one is how do I change the icons? I see thousands of different units, but I can't GET them! Right now I have a SAM that looks like a flying boat and a missile launcher that looks like a fat man with a spear. Ive tried everything I can think of and asked everyone I thought might could figure it out. Nuthin doin.

Not all of my questions are easy and stupid, though:

1-What is "sub advantages/disanvatages?" Im trying to make a land unit that can carry cruise missiles, but it wont happen.

2- How do I get a Nuke's blast radius? Then I could have Tactical Nuclear Missiles.

3- How can a Helicopter travel over water if its a ground unit? And, how do I get a unit to suffer incremental damage like the Helo does when its not resting?

4- Spies and dips dont require resources. Is the only way to get a unit to do the same thing to make its role diplomacy or make it free support under funda gov?

5- How do I get a unit to have x2 v. sea units like the AEGIS cruiser has x2 v air?

6- Ok, so spies and dips can sabotage units. They reduce the overall hits a unit can take. Is it possible for a unit to reduce the attack or defense factor?

7- Is it possible to create a unit that will multiply the defense of the most capable unit, like the fort, and not increase its own defense?

I figure some of the answers are simple "no's." However, any help you can provide will be deeply appreciated.

[Roman]

I am not a design expert, so other people might be able to help you more, but anyway:

1- Go to the file rules.txt. Find the statistics for units. There will be a table of special advantages/disadvantages and the codes for these advantages. Add the code for the unit you want to have the ability to the unit's profile in the same file.

2- As far as I know, you cannot do this. Nuclear attack is based on the unit having an attack strength 99 (or anything above 80 [don't quote me on this number, I cannot remember it properly, but it is somwhere in that region]) and I think the parameters for that are hardwired into the game. What you could do is give a mmissile attack of say 75 and a high firepower rating, that way it would function as only a very powerful cruise missile and would probably never fail to destroy the target. Alternatively you could use events functions to try to recreate everything that the "tactical" nuke destroyed around the target, but I don't know how to do that or if it is actually possible.

3- Same answer as to question no.1.

4- You can use the cheat menu to create any unit you want under any government. The unit will have NONE support if it was created closer to an AI city than to your own city at the time of creation. I don't know how you would create a unit that has NONE support so that you can build it in your own cities, without doing the things you already mentioned.

5- I don't think this can be done - at least not in a simple way. Perhaps you should consider just doubling the unit's attack value and making it into a submarine style unit so that it cannot attack land targets.

6- As far as I know this is not possible.

7- As far as I know this is also not possible.


NOTE: There are many ingenious designers here, who may even be able to help you do some of the things I think cannot be done.

[jcarkey]

1. I believe that's impossible for a land unit to carry air units. If you want to toggle sub adv./disadv. there are flags next to all of the other unit stats in rules.txt. They are all of those 00100011 like numbers. Read at the top of rules.txt to find out.

2.Set attack to 99.

3.Helicopter, nil, 1, 6.,0 The first one represents its domain. 1=Air. 6 represetns its range off of one fuel tank. THis would be 3 for armor or two for a howie.0 represents its fuel load. For all ground units it is zero. For air units it is symbolic for helicopters and means it will decline health if it is not in a friendly city or airbase at the end of the turn. For the second part, I do not believe that that is possible.

4. I don't know.

5. Not possible.

6. No.

7. No.


Hope that helped.

------------------
If someone doesn't agree with you, you haven't explained yourself well enough-Luther Ely Smith

She turned me into a newt...well I got better- Monty Python and the Quest for the Holy Grail

How many boards could the Mongols horde, if the Mongol hordes got bored?- jcarkey

[Kiran]

What specifically are "sub's adv/disadv?" As far as I know, the sub is the only unit that can carry missiles and missiles only. So that's an adv. But what's diadv? Defense, range- no, separate characs. Cant figure it out. I tried a land unit that could carry other land units, but they were never able to pick up units.

How can a helo go over water if its a land unit? How do I change icons? The images I've seen available for download are all independent, but my units.gif treats them all as one. I can cut and paste images in and out, but will that mean the computer will put them in the game? I rekon no.

[jcarkey]

Subs advantages are that only units with the "See sub" flag can see them. It can carry missles. The disadv. are that it can't attack land units.


Yes, you can cut and paste icons in. They will be used porvided you have all of the info in the rules.txt filled out for that slot that that unit is in.
A helo is an air unit. It says domain, 1 which means ari. The only thing that sets it apart is the fuel capacity set to zero which makes it have helo adv/disadv.

------------------
If someone doesn't agree with you, you haven't explained yourself well enough-Luther Ely Smith

She turned me into a newt...well I got better- Monty Python and the Quest for the Holy Grail

How many boards could the Mongols horde, if the Mongol hordes got bored?- jcarkey
[This message has been edited by jcarkey (edited February 19, 2001).]
[This message has been edited by jcarkey (edited February 19, 2001).]

[Kiran]

Yeah, I realized the Helo was air after playing again.

Ok, this is what I'm trying to do- Make a Missile launcher that can carry missiles. So, I made the spy capable of carrying missiles (sub adv/disadv) and made the diplomat a missile (air uni). I sentried the
"diplomat" in a city after I put the "spy" in the city. But the dip dint jump on board. When I put them on a land square all by themselves and sentried the dip, he still didnt get on. Either what I want aint possible, or Im misunderstanding something.

I think it would be real cool if all Modern vehicular mili units, ie Tanks and mech inf, took the progressive damage that the Helo does. It would make it more realistic. The only way to repair the damage would be to wait them, make them go to an allied city, fortify or go into one of your cities. But that would mean they all, in essence, would ignore ZoC and could attack air units. That means a tank could blow away a bomber. Nah, I dont think so.

I just realized- If I double the units attack and make a sub adv/disadv, would that mean it could carry missiles? My experience says no. I dont have rules.txt in front of me right now, so Im gonna have to check, but Im not certain if the sub can carry air units, like a carrier.

[Thoth]

quote: Originally posted by Kiran on 02-20-2001 11:19 PM Ok, this is what I'm trying to do- Make a Missile launcher that can carry missiles. So, I made the spy capable of carrying missiles (sub adv/disadv) and made the diplomat a missile (air uni). I sentried the "diplomat" in a city after I put the "spy" in the city. But the dip dint jump on board. When I put them on a land square all by themselves and sentried the dip, he still didnt get on. Either what I want aint possible, or Im misunderstanding something.

Land units cannot carry missile/air units. However, if you set the "sub" or the carrier flag on a land unit, air units will end their turn (land) on the unit.