Scenario Editor vs Text Editing

Mike K. · July 7, 2003, 02:37

I'm curious as to the advantages/disadvantages to text editing/using the builtin Civilization Gold scenario editor. A long while back, when I first got my hands on Fantastic Worlds, I remember the builtin editor would frequently scramble your data and ruin your work, which discouraged me from scenario making for some time. Does it still do this? Is there any reason to use the editor (if you're not using batch files)?

Palaiologos · July 7, 2003, 05:53

I always use the scenario editor. It works okay me thinks. The most frequent "problem" i've had is when sometimes i finish editing i press "cancel" instead of "ok" and nothing is saved.

fairline · July 7, 2003, 07:40

Here's a question: When I patched my copy of FW with the MGE upgrade files from Civ Fanatics the in-game editors disappeared. I assumed MGE didn't include them. Are you guys saying your copies include the editor?

Mercator · July 7, 2003, 07:42

Only people with legal copies are allowed to use the editors.

fairline · July 7, 2003, 07:48

If I could still get hold of a legal copy I would. I did after all pay full price for civ2, FW and ToT

Palaiologos · July 7, 2003, 07:57

Gareth you don't have the editor?

I don't know if i could ever design anything without the editor.

Mercator · July 7, 2003, 08:32

Quote:

Originally posted by fairline
If I could still get hold of a legal copy I would. I did after all pay full price for civ2, FW and ToT

MGE is still available online at various places. And at the low price it's sold now, even with shipping you'll be off cheaper than paying full price.

But the only reason the editor's aren't there is because the menu text file is defective.

Henrik · July 7, 2003, 10:00

My MGE has editors. I only use them for editing some stuff tho (never graphics nor techs, the editors will almost guaranteed mess up any tech tree you have without it being noticable at first (changing the second preq to nil, randomly assigning new preqs, etc)).
It appears it does this to protect you from creating tech loops, however more often than not it just screw things up...

Exile · July 7, 2003, 11:31

Well, Henrik, perhaps I should relate my experiences with the editor. I've used them since day one, and only one time was I forced to go into the text file and alter things manually.

There are some rules.

Henrik is correct about the automatic reassignment of preqs by the Advances editor. If you attempt to create a tree that has, somewhere in its base, a "no,no" tech, the MGE editor will change it. Interestingly enough, the editor will allow you to create a "tech loop." I can verify this from experience--it was the reason I was forced to go into the text file to begin with.

Some editors will not save your changes unless you "Save as Scenario" from the Cheat menu. The units, terrain, improvements, effects, and cities editors will save your changes. My practice is to simply exit out. The game will save it.

The Events editor requires a special touch. Any changes made in it will ONLY be saved if you "Save as scenario." (AFAIK--there may well be other ways.) The best way I've found to deal with this is to make the file outside the scenario and just set it in place when it's completed. Then locate the problems and fix them.

Perhaps others can provide more knowledge?

Stefan Härtel · July 7, 2003, 12:07

I only use text editors.
The built-in editors are buggy and also quite circumsantial. Text editors give you much more freedom.

Michael Daumen · July 7, 2003, 12:31

One thing the scenario editor cannot do is list Barbarians as a tribe in the events file (meaning that you won't be able to create barbarian units or pop up messages when a barbarian unit is killed or city taken). And once you create an events file with the editor, it will not let you re-create a new one which you can edit by hand. If you know you won't have barbarians in your scenario then you should be OK, but writing the events file by hand is definitely the safer move.

Eivind IV · July 8, 2003, 10:01

The last year I have done text editing manually, as FW doesn't work on Windows XP. I've never seen the editor in MGE, does that even exist? Are you saying I have to buy MGE to get that? I have the legal copy of civ2 and have just upgraded it to civ gold from the download section at CivFan.

Please tell me I can get the MGE with the built in editor somewere...It would save me alot of work

Henrik · July 8, 2003, 10:48

Quote:

Originally posted by Kobra
I have the legal copy of civ2 and have just upgraded it to civ gold from the download section at CivFan.

You do know that the patch at civfan is ilegal?
Not that it matters to me, I'd have used it if there was one for the mac version

Exile · July 8, 2003, 11:06

Correction and retraction;

I take back what I said about the terrain editor. You must "save as scenario" to save changes there too.

Eivind IV · July 8, 2003, 13:51

Quote:

Originally posted by Henrik
You do know that the patch at civfan is ilegal?
Not that it matters to me, I'd have used it if there was one for the mac version

No, I didn't know that

But I have the legal original Civ2 CD. But where can I get an *cough* illegal *cough* copy of MGE with the scenario editor?

Henrik · July 8, 2003, 14:10

Not supposed to discuss such things here, polly is stricter about these things than civfan. And in any event I don't know, I'm a mac user, and thus know little about the obtaining of PC programs.

fairline · July 8, 2003, 15:29

I assumed that the patch at CivFan was legal because MGE is no longer available to buy and, like Kobra, I have kosher versions of vanilla civ and FW..... OK anyone know where I can buy a legal copy of MGE from?

Eivind IV · July 8, 2003, 15:36

I found it! :b

Hurray! ...on *cough* Kazaa *cough*

Mercator · July 8, 2003, 15:48

Quote:

I assumed that the patch at CivFan was legal because MGE is no longer available to buy and, like Kobra, I have kosher versions of vanilla civ and FW.....

Abandonware is equally illegal, and having an earlier version is no excuse unless they had made multiplayer available in a free patch.

You should be able to find it on eBay at least... And there are various links among the banners and buttons on Apolyton where you can get it (and when perusing those, you'll also support Apolyton).

Kobra, may you gently roast in civ2 hell.

Eivind IV · July 8, 2003, 15:58

Quote:

Originally posted by Mercator

Quote:

Kobra, may you gently roast in civ2 hell.

I'm already here, baby

And I'm not alone...

St Leo · July 8, 2003, 19:41

I've been using text-editors since the days of 2.42 and the propensity of the FW editors for data loss did not entice me to switch over to them at all.

Oh, and I also am using the infamous patch. I am not buying MGE just for PBEM. Besides, Microprose sent me two free copies of ToT. Surely, they actually meant to send one ToT and one MGE.:P

BTW, it's the FW install program that causes the problems on XP. You can install the game on a different computer, record the directory onto a CDR, and then copy it onto the harddrive of your XP computer (and later removing the readonly bit in the Properties dialogue).

Eivind IV · July 8, 2003, 22:11

I manage to install the game alright, but when I am to install the Wing program/driver that follows with the CD it says stop...I only use MGE anyways, so it doesn't matter

fairline · July 9, 2003, 02:06

That's weird - I installed vanilla civ2 and the FW expansion disk without any problems on my winXP computer

@mercator: the only copy of mge I found on eBay was being sold by a company that requires AmEx-only payment, and a cursory perusal of both the Poly ads and a google search revealed nothing.

Mercator · July 9, 2003, 07:32

How about these?
http://search.ebay.com/search/search...ty=MetaEndSort

or this one...
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...category=11053

Cifer Almasy · July 9, 2003, 11:53

Quote:

Originally posted by Exile
Correction and retraction;

I take back what I said about the terrain editor. You must "save as scenario" to save changes there too.

I dont have to! I can make changes per editor and save it as a normal savefile. Or did I misunderstand you now?