Civilization 2 Editing FAQ
For Civilization 2, Civilization 2 Gold on PC
Written by Kenny "Kenshi" Tam
Contact: kennytam@foxhound.zzn.com
===============
Version History
===============
Version 1.0
January, 4, 2002
Everything.
Version 1.1
January 12, 2002
Added some info about other texts.
Version 1.2
January 25, 2002
Some Miscellaneous info.
=================
Table of Contents
=================
I. Introduction
II. Basics
III. Editing Rules.txt
IV. Editing Graphics
V. Making New Units
VI. Miscellany
VII. Notes and Credits
===============
I. Introduction
===============
Civilization II, as many gamers know, is the immensely popular and
addictive strategy game for the PC. Although it is ancient, by gaming
standards, it is still played often. One of the keys to its durability
is due to its scenario editor and ability to customize and modify the
interface of the game itself (to a certain degree)
==========
II. Basics
==========
Civilization II is governed by three types of files, two of which can be
edited; the .txt and .gif files. The text files are the universal laws
of the game; they are analogous to the laws of reality a la the Matrix.
The gif files contain image files for the game. As such you can literally
change how the game looks. Tired of seeing Caesar's portrait in the
diplomacy screen? Replace it with Briteny Spears. Don't like how the
cavalry unit looks? Replace it with a cow instead.
To edit the text files, you basically need a text editor, id est, WordPad.
To edit the graphics, you need a graphics editor, id est, Photoshop or
something similar that can edit .gif files.
======================
III. Editing Rules.txt
======================
This text file virtually dictates the entire game; what units, buildings
and wonders are present, how units behave, how much resources are worth
etc. As such it is recommended that you keep a back up of this file often.
The file is somewhat easy to comprehend. Here is a breakdown of it;
1. Cosmic Principles
2. Advances
3. City Improvements
4. Wonder Obsolesce
5. Unit Properties
6. Terrain Properties
7. Government Titles
8. Leaders and Properties
9. Trading Commodities
10. Unit Orders
11. Difficulty Labels
12. Attitude Labels
i. Cosmic Principles
*********************
This deals with various laws of physics within the game; the size needed
before an aqueduct, etc.
Points of Interest;
Tech Paradigm; changing this can alter the pace of scientific research.
The higher the number, the longer it takes. If you keep on reaching the
space race for example in 1300 A.D, you should change this. Make sure
that he other techs, not you, are reaching tech eras earlier than it should.
Max Paradrop Range: How far (unknown units...probably grid squares??)
units can para-drop. Setting it to 90 can cover the entire world.
Para-dropping nukes?
Fundamentalism Loses This % of Science; The default is 50%. Lower this
to 0% and fundamentalism has no real disadvantages.
ii. Civilization Advances
*************************
This deals with the entire Scientific Advances aspect of the game;
-What Advances are labeled
-How much the Advance is worth to the AI
where: 8 is highest value, 0 is worthless
-What Personality AI will pursue this
where:
Positive Integers denote Civilized leaders
Negative Integers denote Militaristic leaders
-What Prerequisites are needed before it is available
-What Era it should be in (Icon)
where:
0= Ancient
1= Renaissance
2= Industrial Revolution
3= Modern
-What type of advance is it
where:
0= Military
1= Economic
2= Social
3= Academic
4= Applied
-Its Rules Label
Here is an Example;
Flight, 4,-1, Mob,ToG, 2,4, ;Fli
For the Advance "Flight", it is given as a "4" for value, meaning it is
moderately valued to the AI. It is a medium priority for the AI to research
it, and in a bargain, it is neither too valuable nor useless.
It is likely that an aggressive or militaristic leader would pursue this,
where as a more pacific leader would opt for "Recycling" or "Automobile."
To research flight, you must have researched Mobile Warfare and Theory
of Gravity. The advance flight exists as an Applied advance from the
Industrial Revolution.
The advance is known as "Fli" within the rules file. As such all references
to "flight' will be called "Fli." This is important to remember when
changing the technology tree. For example;
Radio, 5,-1, Fli, E2, 3,4; Rad
To research radio, you will need flight (Fli) researched first, with
electronics.
Word of Warning
---------------
Certain Advances have pre-packaged trigger; researching them will cause
in game effects and changes in AI, regardless of how much you change them.
(Borrowed from civfantics.com; see full credits in endnotes)
Automobile; with Electronics, changes civilization into Modern age.
Ceremonial Burial; Required for Temples to function; must be prerequisite.
Combined Arms; Paratrooper pop up message.
Communism; Allows government and Partisan to appear; decrease coliseum
effect by 1.
Construction; Allows fortresses to be built.
Democracy; Allows government. Allows Courthouse to make extra citizen
content.
Electronics; Increases Coliseum effect by 1. With Automobile, changes
civilization into modern age.
Explosives; Ability for Engineer to transform terrain.
Fundamentalism; Allows government.
Fusion; Prevents nuclear meltdowns; increases ship movement by 25%.
Guerilla Warfare; increase number of partisan under communism. Allows
partisan to appear from captured city.
Gunpowder; Sells Barracks; Removes obsolete units from build menu.
Map Making; Allows map exchanges.
Mobile Warfare; Sells barracks.
Monarchy; Allows government.
Monotheism; Required for Cathedrals and Michelangelo Wonder to function.
Must be perquisite as well.
Mysticism; Increases Temple happiness by 1.
Nuclear Fusion; Allows Nuclear Weapons (with Manhattan Project.) Uranium
appears as trade commodity.
Nuclear Power; Ship movement increases by 1.
Philosophy; Allow free advance and Golden age pop up text.
Radio; Airport message; Allows airlift and Airfield tile improvement.
Railroad; Allows railroad to be built.
Refrigeration; Allows Farmland tile improvement.
The Republic; Allows government.
Theology; Increases Cathedral effectiveness by 1.
Trade; Allows trade.
iii. City Improvements
**********************
This section deals with City improvements that you build. Note that this
is not strictly limited to improvements; any non-unit items, such as
spaceship parts or wonders of the world, are listed here.
The format for this section;
-What the item is labeled as
-How many shields (x10) it costs to build
-Upkeep in gold per turn
-Prerequisite needed to make this Item appear in the menu.
Here is an example;
University, 16,3, Uni,
Keep in mind that the function of the improvements do not change; their
function is given in that order. As such, renaming the "university" as
"Airport" or "cinema" will still cause the icon, and function to remain
the same. The only thing that changes is how it appears.
Next it requires 16 (x10) shields to produce. Furthermore, it will cost
3 gold Per university per turn to maintain. Finally, to produce this
improvement, you would need the advance "University" researched.
Wonders of the world are identified as the same way, but generally cost
more to produce and require no upkeep.
Note you can add extra advanced by overwriting the given Custom Advances.
iv. Expiration Advancements for Wonders
***************************************
This is a simple section. It states what advances make the wonder
obsolete.
v. Unit Types
*************
This is one of the larger sections of the file; it deals with almost every
aspect regarding units. It is somewhat RPG-ish in statistics.
The layout of this section;
-Unit Label
-Advance which makes it Obsolete
-Movement Rate; how far it can move; 45 is the maximum I think
-Fuel; number of turns an aircraft can move before crashing. 0 for non-air.
Note that an air-unit that has 0 fuel can move near infinitely. It will
lose some HP however per turn.
-Domain of unit;
where;
0= Ground
1= Air
2= Sea
-Attack Power; Chance of hitting opponent; 99 always causes nuclear attack.
-Defensive Power; Chance of hitting when Defending (counterattack)
-Hit points (x10); Maximum damage it can sustain before it is destroyed
-Firepower (x10); Amount of damage it can deal if it hits.
-Costs; number of rows of shields needed; typically 10 per row
-Hold; how many units a transport can hold
-Role; how the AI will use this unit;
where:
0= Attack
1= Defend
2= Naval Superiority
3= Air Superiority
4= Sea Transport
5= Settle
6= Diplomacy
7= Trade
-Prerequisite Advance; what advance is needed to build this
-Flags; where
0= false
1= true
Subsection- Flags:
------------------
The flags section deals with unit abilities, such as Para-dropping or
submarine spotting capabilities.
100000000000000 = Submarine Spotting capabilities
010000000000000 = x2 Defence against air
001000000000000 = Destroyed after Attacking (missiles)
000100000000000 = Free Support for Fundamentalism
000010000000000 = x2 Defence against Horse
000001000000000 = Alpine; All terrain as roads
000000100000000 = Can Paradrop
000000010000000 = Can carry air units
000000001000000 = Ignores City walls
000000000100000 = Must Stay near coast
000000000010000 = Can Attack air units
000000000001000 = Submarine advantages/disadvantages
000000000000100 = can make Amphibious Assaults
000000000000010 = Ignores zone of control
000000000000001 = 2 space visibility
Notes regarding flags;
----------------------
Paradropping units must land on Land tiles. Paradropping air units seems
okay, but dropping ships is impractical, as they cannot move.
Carrying air units seems to be only applicable with Sea units. Air units
can land on ground units with this ability, but will not actually transport
them when the unit moves.
Land and air units can have the coast flag, similar to triremes, but they
will crash if they venture inland.
Submarine abilities can make a unit invisible, but they can only attack
when in a sea tile.
Back to Editing Units;
----------------------
Here are three example units, incidentally one sea, air and land.
Taking the first unit, the BATTLESHIP, it is a Sea unit which does not
go obsolete. It has 10 movement points, and unlimited fuel. Its attacking
power is 18, and defensive power is 12. It can with stand 40 points of
damage, whilst it deals 30 per attack. It costs 16 rows of shields (160
shields) to build this unit, and the AI uses it as a Naval superiority
unit. It has 2 spaces of visibility.
The Next unit, the FIGHTER, is an air unit that becomes obsolete when
Stealth is researched. It can move 10 spaces, but only has 1 turn of fuel,
meaning it has to move, attack and land in a single turn. Its attacking
power is 6, and it has the defensive ability of 4. It can deal and withstand
20 damage. It is used as an air superiority unit, and it requires "Flight"
to be researched. It can attack other air units and has 2 space visibility.
The last unit, the MARINE, is a ground unit. It does not become obsolete,
and it can move 2 spaces per turn. It has the attacking strength of 8,
and defensive ability of 5. It has 20 hit points, but deal 10 damage per
attack. It is used as an attacking unit, and it can make amphibious
landings.
Notes:
------
Similar to the advances, certain units have pre-packaged game triggers.
Engineer- Units in this slot will perform settler functions at an
accelerated rate, same as that of the engineer. It also displays the "you
can now build railroads" message.
Fanatics- Regardless of prerequisite, only fundamentalist governments can
build this. Switching out of fundamentalism will replace the unit in build
menu with the rifleman slot.
Spy- Units in this slot will receive the extra spy functions. Otherwise
units elsewhere will only have basic diplomatic functions
Freight- Only this slot offers the double bonus in Trade.
Musketeer and Knight- Building this unit will cause certain obsolete units
to be removed from the build menu, regardless of whether they are obsolete
or not.
Nuclear Missile- Building this unit slot will cause the Nuclear Deterrent
Message to appear (Our words are backed with nuclear weapons)
Paratrooper- Building this unit slot will cause the paradropping message
to be shown.
Bottom Right- Represents barbarian leader.
Unit Miscellany
---------------
-Giving a the attack value of 99 will cause it to behave as a nuclear missile
regardless.
-The maximum movement appears to be 45
-Hit point and firepower values cannot be over 9
vi. Editing Terrain
*******************
This deals with how terrain tiles behave.
The layout for this section, straight from Rules.txt:
Terrain
Movecost, defense, food, shields, trade,
. . . Irrigate, bonus, #turns, ai-irrigate,
. . . Mine, bonus, #turns, ai-mine
. . . Transform
Defense = multiply by 50% to get % of normal combat factor defended at.
(so 3 x 50% = 150%, meaning a strength 2 unit defends at 3).
Irrigate/Mine = yes, no, or type of terrain changed to
Transform = Terrain type engineers can transform to
Bonus = # extra production from that change
Turns = # turns for settler to make change
Ai = Minimum government level necessary for Computer player to want
to perform irrigate/mine
0 Never
1 Despotism
2 Monarchy
3 Communism
4 Fundamentalism
5 Republic
6 Democracy
For Example;
Hills, 2,4, 1,0,0, yes, 1,10, 0, yes, 3,10, 1, Pln, ; Hil
The Terrain Hills costs 2 movement points to cross. Its defense factor
is 4, and produces 1 food per hill tile in city radius. It does not produce
and shields nor trade. It can be irrigated by an engineer, taking 10 turns
and giving 1 bonus food. The computer will never irrigate hills. The
hill can also be mined, taking 10 turns and giving 3 bonus shields. The
computer can do this at basic despotism government. If the hills are
terraformed, they will be converted into plains.
The maximum food, shields and trade, as far as I know, can be several
trillion. However this can cause problems, mainly incredible growth,
production and trade. The cities, with the exaggerated food amounts, will
grow to 100 cities in no time. However, the maximum city size is 127,
so if your city goes over this limit, it will loop around to -128 (negative
number.) The bonus trade will cause science to be researched at an
exponential rate, reaching space race in 1000 BC. Furthermore your income
will push your treasury past 32,000, which is the maximum amount. Going
past this will cause your money to roll around back to 0, selling your
improvements and generally causing annoyances.
As such try to be careful in editing the terrain features. Setting food
to even 9 can have adverse effects, such as lack of cities being built
(the computer has reached it's quota that usually will be filled by
expanding and building cities. Due to the changes in terrain building
2 cities may satisfy their quota even.)
vii. Editing Governments
*************************
Basically Microsoft word decided that I want an Undeletable line across
my work, so I have to retype this section due to those bastards. This
section is easy enough. It is the default title for the governments. I
don't think they relate to what you name the governments, since they are
linked by advance slot triggers.
viii. Editing Leaders
*********************
Once again, from Rules.txt
Leader, female, color, style, plural, adjective, ...
...attack, expand, civilize, ...
...govt, male, female...
Female: 0 = male 1 = female
Color: Color set (1 - 7)
1= White
2= Green
3= Blue
4= Yellow
5= Teal
6= Orange
7= Purple
Style: City style (0 - 3)
0 = Bronze Age
1 = Classical
2 = Far East
3 = Medieval
Attack: 1 = aggressive -1 = rational
Expand: 1 = expansionist -1 = perfectionist
Civilize: 1 = civilized -1 = militaristic
Govt = government type for name replacement (0 = Anarchy, 6 = Democracy)
Male, female = titles for leader of government
Example:
Ramesses, Cleopatra, 1, 4, 0, Egyptians,Egyptian, 0, 0, 1,
1, Pharaoh, Pharaoh, 2, Great Pharaoh, Great Pharaoh
So for the Egyptians;
The male leader is Ramesses, and the female Queen of the Nile would be
Cleopatra. By default, the Egyptians would be ruled by the female leader.
Their color set is 4, which means they are the color yellow. Their city
style is Bronze Age, which resembles clay huts and stone temples. They
are balanced neither too aggressive nor passive, in between expansionist
and perfectionist, and civilized. Instead of King or Emperor, they are
referred to as Pharaoh or Great Pharaoh.
It seems confusing at first, but once you look at it, it's simple enough.
Notice how the civilizations are laid out; the color set dictates how they
are ordered.
Set 1 (White): Romans, Russians, Celts
Set 2 (Green): Babylonians, Zulus, Japanese
Set 3 (Blue): Germans, French, Vikings
Set 4 (Yellow): Egyptians, Aztecs, Spanish
Set 5 (Teal): Americans, Persians, Chinese
Set 6 (Orange): Greeks, English, Carthaginians
Set 7 (Purple): Indian, Mongol, Sioux
What does this all mean? No matter what Type of Civ game, there will be
only 1 of each color set present. Therefore, in the default games, the
Greeks will never face off against the Carthaginians since they are in
the same set. The Germans will never get to invade France, since the French
won't be in the game, and the Spanish will never wipe out the Aztecs.
Even when you select computer opponents, you are given a choice from each
set. It is unknown if they are linked by trigger (likely, due to portraits
etc) so it is difficult to switch their sets around. As far as I know,
it is best to leave their order alone. If you are really desperate, edit
it in game using cheat mode and the scenario editor.
ix. Miscellaneous Items
***********************
The remainders of the items are basically item labels.
The first is Trading Commodities:
As far as I know, you can change the names around, but Uranium for example,
will appear regardless of name only when nuclear fusion is researched.
Orders:
As far as I know these deal with the keyboard commands for units. I didn't
mess around with them so I am not sure about this area.
Difficulty:
This labels what the various difficulties are called. The order moves
from easiest at top to hardest level at the bottom. Changing the names
around won't have any effect other than to cause confusion, or for personal
customization. If you want you could change it to "hard as hell" and so
forth.
Attitudes:
This labels the various levels of computer attitudes towards you. It is
given as a numerical value within the game's engine, and then given a word
label. It moves from Positive at top to negative at bottom. There are
9 levels, so I don't know the exact value; roughly 10 points per level,
but 100 is the maximum enraged and 0 is worshipful.
You cannot add levels onto it, but you can rename it. You can use your
imagination here.
====================
IV. Editing Graphics
====================
To edit graphics, you first need a graphics editor. Paintshop Pro or Corel
Draw photo-paint are good ones.
Basically any GIF file can be opened and edited. ALWAYS make a back up
unless you are confident you are the next Rembrandt or something.
Basics:
-------
Editing the Graphics can be as simple or difficult as you want to make
it. First choose what you want to edit. For this example, we will be
changing the color of the Knight's Horse.
-Firstly Load up your program and open up units.gif
-Zoom into the knight unit on a level you are comfortable with.
-Select what ever color you want the horse to be.
-Set the Pen size to the Smallest (usually)
-Color the Horsey!
IMPORTANT POINTS:
Before you do anything, notice what color the background is; Magenta and
a weird shade of purple.
Those two colors are set to be Transparent in the game. In other words,
a magenta tank would be invisible expect for its shield. Similarly, this
goes for ALL graphics files.
The weird purple shade is also set as transparent. However, you can color
over it with Magenta and it would have the same effect.
It is Safer to use magenta as the background as opposed to the weird purple
tone. Some files might not like it and cause the purple to be visible.
Another thing to note are the Green borders; do not interrupt them at any
point; keep them there.
Any Color that has 255 in any RBG section, such as pure blue, red, green,
black, white, purple, yellow, green, etc will appear as some weird shade
of Teal or worse.
===============
V. Adding Units
===============
It is actually pretty easy to add extra units. You just need the graphics
editor, word processor, and maybe sound recorder (in accessories folder
for Windows)
Firstly open up Units.gif. Look at the 6th row, last three units on the
right. These are the Custom Units.
Suppose we want to add a "bathtub" unit.
Drawing the Unit:
*****************
-Open up Units.gif
-Move to the square next to the Explorer.
-Any unit left of the explorer are custom units.
-Take the pipette tool and copy the background magenta color.
-Color over the Samurai-looking dude.
-Draw in your Bathtub or whatever.
Alternatively
-Copy an image from somewhere.
-Paste it.
-Resize it so it fits into the Green borders,
-Be sure not overlapping any of it.
Notes:
------
Notice the blue dots on the green lines. The dots above and to the left
of the unit dictate where the shield will go, or more precisely, the top
left corner of the shield will go.
Making the Unit Appear
**********************
-Once you have saved your unit, remember which slot it is in.
-Open up rules.txt
-Give your unit a name, stats etc.
Making Your Units Grunt
***********************
-Find a sound file.
-Name it custom1.wav etc. depending on the slot.
-Place it into the sounds folder.
Notes:
------
Civilization II Gold Edition has access to more extra unit slots. The
entire bottom row, except for bottom right corner, can be used as extra
units. Do note that they are listed as "Extra Units" as opposed to "Custom
Units." As such sound files should be named "Extra1.wav."
=================
VI. Miscellaneous
=================
i. Regarding Sound
******************
Sounds are allocated to units in groups. Find it on
http://www.civfanatics.com/Kobyashi/SCENAR~3.shtml as well as loads of
other information.
ii. Other Stuff to Fiddle With
******************************
There are other text files that you can fiddle around with;
Game.txt: This file deals with all dialogue in the game; diplomatic, pop
up etc. It uses various strings to identify parties involved, so its best
not to mess with it.
With that file, you can basically change the way the AI speaks in diplomacy.
It does take quite a bit of work, and it cannot be allocated to specific
Civilizations. But for fun, feel free to modify it as you see fit. Some
good ideas that seem pretty fun to play with are "all your base" English,
including various random profanity etc.
City.txt: This file lists the different city names, in order, for all the
civilization. You can add more or change the names of cities.
People.gif: (think I got the name wrong) This file contains the different
graphics representing your citizens in the city screen for all eras. If
you feel bored, replace them with portraits of Britney Spears or Jennifer
Aniston or whomever for a city I sure would like to live in.
iii. In Game Editor
*******************
The cheat mode isn't really a cheat mode. It's a powerful editor that
can modify a lot of your game; extremely useful for scenario building.
It's pretty intuitive to use really.
======================
VII. Notes and Credits
======================
-Civilization 2, Civilization 2 Gold edition, and all likeliness are
Trademark and Property of Microprose.
- Scientific Advance trigger info referenced from "Custom Tech Tree Design
for Civ2" by Kobayashi, posted at
Http://www.civfanatics.com/doc/customtree/TechTree.html, 2001.
-Unit Slot Triggers referenced from "Getting the Units Right from the
Beginning" by Kobayashi, posted at
http://www.civfanatics.com/Kobyashi/SCENAR~3.shtml.
-Http://www.Civfanatics.com for reference information.
-Mr. Jeff Veasey at Http://www.Gamefaqs.com for hosting (hopefully) this
FAQ.
-L.N- For his Civ 2 multiplayer games.
-E.J.R for a nice web page that broke the monotony and kept me working.
-N.H- For all civilization that can be created and conquered, you are the
only one that surpasses any civinilzation that has ever existed.
This document Copyright 2002 by Kenny "kenshi" Tam, and may not be
duplicated or reproduced (in part or in full) for profit without the
explicit permission of the author. Chances are it will be rare if anyone
would want to use this crappy FAQ.
This document is supposed to appear on
http://www.gamefaqs.com.
http://www.psxcodez.com
http://www.DLH.net
http://www.gamespot.com
