The Video Game Solution CD/The VideoGame Solution CD.iso/extra/pro2/civedx.doc

Text File | 1993-04-13 | 16.5 KB | 409 lines

*********************
NEW FOR VERSION 1.4
-   Should work with any version of Civilization (including 'multiciv').
-   Allows for limited editing of unit, improvement, terrain & tech names.
-   Edit tech advance prerequisites.
-   Mouse support

    Special Notes:
    Because CIV.EXE is a packed executable, you just can't go in and
indiscriminately change bytes.  Therefore, you are limited in the number of
characters you can use for some names.  I have tried my best to trap and
truncate any name that will 'corrupt' the packing.  Rule of thumb is to use
names that are the same number of characters (or less than) the original name.

    PLEASE MAKE A BACKUP OF CIV.EXE BEFORE YOU EDIT ANY NAMES!!!!
    If you get the message 'packed file is corrupt' when you start
Civilization, you will have to reload your backup copy of CIV.EXE.

    SPECIAL NOTE ON TECH ADVANCES
    If you change the names of tech advances, the tech advance 'quiz' will use
the new names so remember what the original names were.
    If you change the prerequisites for a tech advance, make sure the tech is
reachable - ie, changing Astronomy to have a prerequisite of Navigation and
Navigation to have a prerequisite of Astronomy can make both unattainable
unless you either trade or 'discover' one of them.

    A word about table locations:
    The editor changes the data in the CIV.EXE file.  Each version of CIV has
those tables in a different location.  The editor is aware of where most
locations are.  If it doesn't find the tables at any of the known locations, it
will automatically search the EXE file for them.  It can take awhile if it has
to hunt for the tables so it will display the number you can use on the command
line to speed things up the next time you use the editor.

    Mouse Support:
    Use the mouse to click on menus or fields.  Double clicking a field will
display a choice list if one is available for that field.  Clicking on the
<Escape> or <F10> push buttons will abandon or save your changes.

*********************
New for Version 1.3
    Works with version V04 of Civilization

*********************
New for Version 1.2

    Bug Fixes:
    Fixes minor bug when setting a tech requirement to or from 'None'

    New Feature:
    You can now edit the different Civ leader traits - this edits the EXE file
    so 1) changes are immediate and 2) changes are permanent.

    Special Note:
    Due to the fact that the CIV.EXE file is a 'packed' file, some of the
    leader traits can not be edited.  If a trait can not be edited, it will
    not appear on the edit screen.  All leaders can be made 'civilized',
    almost all can be made 'perfectionists' and most can be made 'friendly'.
    Setting all the traits you can edit to 'friendly', 'perfectionist'  and
    'civilized' tones the game down and appears to make the race to Alpha-
    Centauri more competitive.
    There are 3 possible values for each of the 3 leader traits, one of those
    values can be blank (trait is not listed on the F3 diplomacy report) - the
    leader editor shows this as 'None'.
    My guess is that when set to blank ('None') the civ could act in either of
    the other two values.


*********************
New for Version 1.1

    Bug fixes:
    Fixes bug that always changes the tech required for Fighters from Flight
    to Space Flight.
    Fixes bug with setting tech required to None (it would become unavailable
    if you set it None).
    My apologies for the bugs.

    New feature:
    You can now load & edit the military units in a 'saved game' file also.
    This allows you to fix the bugs in any games in progress, or to see the
    effects of unit changes immediately.  The saved game unit editor works
    the same way as the unit editor for civ.exe.  You do not need to use
    'Update' if you are just editing a saved game file.  The saved game file
    is updated automatically when you press F10 from the Saved Game Unit
    editor.

    Special Note:
    To save on code (and download) size, the editor variables used for the
    unit editing screen are shared between the CIV.EXE unit editor and the
    saved game unit editor.  I noticed that this causes a small side effect
    which may be a bit confusing if you edit the units in a saved game file
    and then in the civ.exe file in the same session.  I decided to leave
    this side effect in because it can be useful.

    What happens is this - when civedx starts, it reads in all the tables from
    civ.exe into internal buffers.  Because civ.exe is a packed executable, the
    tables are extracted from the buffers into the variables you edit on
    screen.  If using the 'Unit', 'Improvement' or 'Terrain' screen editors,
    when you press the F10 key, those screen variable are placed back into
    the buffers.  When you select 'Update', from the main menu, the buffers
    are written back to civ.exe.  If you select 'Saved Game' from the main
    menu, it will ask you for the name of the saved game file (civil0.sve is
    the 1st saved game, civil1.sve is the 2nd one ... civil9.sve is the 10th
    or last one).
    It will read in the unit table from the saved game into the
    unit editor screen variables (but not the buffer used to read civ.exe).
    After editing a saved game, the unit variables are immediately written
    back to the saved game file - BUT they are still in the screen variables.
    If, after loading in a saved game file, you select 'Unit' from the main
    menu, you will see the values from the saved game file displayed.  At
    this point you can use the values from the saved game file to update
    the buffers used to update civ.exe by pressing F10, or press escape to
    force civedx to re-extract the values from the civ.exe buffer to get
    back the civ.exe values.

    If I've made the above too confusing, then just follow this simple rule:
    Don't use civedx to update a saved game file then the civ.exe file at
    the same time (quit civedx in between).

    If you want to use the unit values from a saved game to update the civ.exe
    file then, select 'Saved game', load in the saved game (press either F10
    or escape to leave the unit editor), select 'Unit', press F10, then
    select 'Update'.

    The rest of this doc is pretty much the same as the doc for civedx
    version 1.0
*********************

    CIVEDX is a utility that allows you to display and modify some of the data
tables in the CIV.EXE file.  This utility reads and writes to CIV.EXE so
please be sure you have a backup copy of it before using CIVEDX. You also have
the ability to write out the tables to a text file, read the values from the

EXE file and save them in a separate table file, load in a separate table file
to use to update the EXE file.

    When the program starts, it displays a sign-on screen and main menu.  From
the main menu you can chose to view and modify the Unit values, Terrain values
City Improvement values (including WOWs) Leader traits and Tech advances.
Another choice on the main menu is to 'Update' the CIV.EXE file.  You MUST use
the Update function to actually update the tables in the EXE file.  Another
choice is to load and edit the unit values from a saved game (you do not need
to use 'Update' if you're just using civedx to edit a saved game).  The last
choice is to quit the program and return to DOS.

   When you view/edit one of the tables, you may move the cursor from field
to field using the Enter, Tab or cursor keys.  The screen will scroll up and
down as needed.  As you move from field to field, the bottom line of the screen
will display a brief explanation of the field.  Press the F10 key to accept the
changes or press the Escape key to abandon the current changes.  Even if you
press the F10 key, the changes will not be written to the EXE file unless you
select Update from the main menu.

If you select "Saved Game' from the main menu, you will be prompted to enter
in the name of the saved game file.  Save game files are created when you save
a game yourself or through the 'Autosave' option of Civilization.  They are
named CIVILn.SVE where n is 0 through 9.  You get to save games in the first
4 slots (0,1,2,3) and the Autosave option will save files in the last 6 slots
(4,5,6,7,8,9).  You may use a full or partial path with the file name.


    The usage is

CIVEDX [<keyword> <filename>]

where [<keyword> <filename>] is optional.  If used, <keyword> is 'dump',
'load', or 'save', and <filename> is either a text file or a table file.
You may use a full or partial path with the file name.


Some examples:

CIVEDX

   will read in the tables from CIV.EXE and allow you to display and modify
those values.  The Update menu choice will then update CIV.EXE.  You must use
Update function to write the tables back to the EXE file.


CIVEDX save values1

   will read in the tables from CIV.EXE, write them out to the table file
values1, then exits back to DOS (no sign-on screen or menu).  It would be a
good idea to do this first to save the original values before you start
experimenting.


CIVEDX load values1

   will read in the tables from values1 and allow you to display and modify
those values.  The Update menu choice will then update CIV.EXE.  You must use
Update function to write the values1 tables to the EXE file (values1 will
not be updated).


CIVEDX dump info.txt

   will read in the tables from CIV.EXE, write them out to the text file
info.txt, then exit back to DOS (no sign-on screen, no menu).


    You can modify the following Military Unit values in CIV.EXE or in a
    saved game file.

Rep   - Tech replacement.  This field determines what tech advance replaces
        the unit.  A value of 127 means the unit is never replaced by a tech
        advance (it stays available for the rest of the game).  The numbers 0
        through 66 represent the various tech advances (a numbered list is
        included at the end of this file for your reference).

ASL   - Unit movement Type (0 = Land, 1 = Air, 2 = Sea)

Mov   - Movement allowance

M     - Movement modifier (0 = none, 1 = return to base or die, 2 = return to
        base after 1 turn out)

Atk   - Attack value

Def   - Defense value

Cost  - Resource (shield) Cost (divided by 10, 1 = 10, 5 = 50, 12 = 120, etc.)

Vis   - Visibility (0 = adjacent, 2 = 2 squares, 3 = 2 squares at sea)

Carry - Capacity (number of units it can carry, note that transport units must
        be on a sea square to have units embark - the following field may have
        to be a 5 in order to be a transport type?)

Spc   -  (all I can say is that a 6 allows you movement through
                    enemy zones of control, transports have a 5 here)

Tech Required - The tech required in order to be able to build this unit.  You
                can press the F2 key (when the cursor is in this field) to get
                a choice list of tech advances (sorry I didn't do this for the
                Rep field but the screen would've gotten unwieldy).



    You can modify the following City Improvement values in CIV.EXE

Cost   - Resource (shield) cost to build this improvement.

Maint  - Maintenance cost per turn.

Tech Required - The tech required in order to be able to build this
                improvement.  You can press the F2 key (when the cursor is in
                this field) to get a choice list of tech advances.



    You can modify the following Terrain values CIV.EXE.

Cost   - Movement cost.

Def    - Defense modifier.  (2 = 0%, 3 = 50%, 4 = 100%, 6 = 200%, others ?).

Food   - Base food production before the effects of irrigation.  You will
         notice some of the terrain is repeated.  The first 12 are the primary
         terrain types and the second 12 are the secondary types that can be
         found within the first 12.  You'll notice some duplication of names;
         the first 'Game' corresponds to the Game found in Forest, the second
         Game in Tundra, etc.
         NOTE:  Changing food production for most of the primary terrain types
         to greater than 1 will cause the secondary terrain type not to display
         on the civ screen (when you right click on a terrain square).  The
         secondary terrain type (Game for Forest, Coal for Hills, etc.)
         will produce the amounts you change them to, they just won't
         display on the terrain information screen in the game if the primary
         has food > 1 except for Grasslands.).

Prod   - Base resource production before the effects of mining.

Trade  - Base trade value before the effects of roads or government type.


    To make a unit transport other units, set its unit type to 2 (or set it to
1 to move over land & sea) and its special attribute to 5.  The unit will have
to be on a sea square to take on passengers and the unit may even disappear
occasionally (it's still there though).  I haven't tried increasing the number
of units a transport can carry to more than 8 so I don't know what happens.
Just keep in mind that the other civs utilize the enhancements to units also
so changing the attack or defense values is a two edged sword (watch out if
Genghis gets those awesome tanks you create).

NOTE:  There are some strange interactions between movement and attack values
for fighters, bombers and nukes.  The values I've found to work for fighters
are movement <= 30 with attack between 4 and 8.  For bombers I've found
movement and attack pairs of 12,30 (move = 12, atk = 30) 20,40 and 30,60.
The only two combinations I found for nukes are move = 35, attack = 225 and
move = 40 with attack = 250.  There are some other values that will work but
there are some combinations that don't work very well.  I haven't been able
to figure out why.

NOTE: When you start a new game, the Unit values are taken from the table in
CIV.EXE.  When you load a saved game, the game uses the Unit values in the
save game file.  Changes that you make to the Unit values take effect for new
games (and any saved game from that new game).  Changes to City Improvements
and Terrain take effect on both new games and any saved games.

New NOTE:  To see effects of unit changes immediately, you can use the saved
game editor.  I think the new changes might take effect only on new units
built though.


You can change the following traits for leaders in CIV.EXE

Trait 1 - Aggressive or Friendly or None (Use the F2 key for choices)

Trait 2 - Expansionist or Perfectionist or None (Use the F2 key for choices)

Trait 3 - Civilized or Militaristic or None (Use the F2 key for choices)


    I've tested it on both the original version and version 3 EXE files and it
appears to work ok on both (you can export a table from one version and
import it to the other version if you want).  I did not put much in the way of
range checking in order to allow experimentation.  Please keep in mind that
this utility updates the CIV.EXE program file so PLEASE BACK IT UP FIRST.  I
do recommend the first thing you do is

    CIVEDX save original.val

so you can easily restore the original tables.

    My thanks to Bill Larkins, Avenger and a few others for helping me figure
out some of the fields in the tables.

    Any questions or comments can be directed to:


 Steven J. Cotellesse
 152 Blackburn Avenue
 Lansdowne, PA 19050
 [phone]
 CIS: 70255,1276


List of Tech advances and their corresponding number

 0  Alphabet
 1  Code of Laws
 2  Currency
 3  Atomic Theory
 4  Democracy
 5  Monarchy
 6  Astronomy
 7  MapMaking
 8  Navigation
 9  Mathematics
10  Medicine
11  Physics
12  Engineering
13  University
14  Magnetism
15  Electronics
16  Masonry
17  Bronze Working
18  Iron Working
19  Bridge Building
20  Invention
21  Computers
22  Writing
23  Steam Engine
24  Trade
25  Ceremonial Burial
26  Mysticism
27  Nuclear Fission
28  Philosophy
29  Religion
30  Literacy
31  Horseback Riding
32  Feudalism
33  The Wheel
34  Gunpowder
35  Industrialization
36  Chemistry
37  Combustion
38  Flight
39  Advanced Flight
40  Space Flight
41  Mass Production
42  Pottery
43  Communism
44  The Republic
45  Construction
46  Rocketry
47  The Corporation
48  Metallurgy
49  RailRoad
50  Nuclear Power
51  Theory of Gravity
52  Steel
53  Banking
54  Electricity
55  Refining
56  Explosives
57  SuperConductor
58  Automobile
59  Genetic Engineering
60  Plastics
61  Recycling
62  Chivalry
63  Robotics
64  Conscription
65  Labor Union
66  Fusion Power