13-06-2002 14:36									#1
	I had an idea- but not sure Increase the size of your Attachments

I haven't the artistic ability, nor the know-how to create brand new units, but the other day i was in the unmodified civ editor playing around with unit stats when i got an idea for a mercanary unit.

I immediately pulled up the explorer unit becuase i never use it and renamed it mercanary and changed its icon to that of a marine. The special thing about this unit is that i gave it the hidden identity trait of a privateer. Im not sure if it works yet because i haven't gotten far enough in my scenario to use it.

I gave it a rating of 8-4-1, but it treats all terrain as roads (i just imagine a small company of mercs sliping through the jungle fairly easily when compared to an army of regulars) and has a hit point penalty of -1 in order to try and simulate the less trained nature of a corp of mercanerys when compared to regulars. They also require rubber as a strategic rescource (i dont know any practical realistic reason why, though i thought they needed to come later in the game and they need to be restricted in use)

To kind of balance the game so i dont have everybody attacking everybody else with soley mercs, i made them more expensive in shields, but i dont remember how much. I hope it works because i think a hidden nationality ground unit could make the game play in the later stages of a game more exciting, at least for awhile.

If anybody has any ideas that can run with this, or if anybody has already tried it and has useful information for me, i'd be really interested. I would appreciate any feedback at all, really.

Also if any of you Tech jockeys out there have any interest in creating a brand new unit of this type (instead of just reusing the marine figure and covering up the Explorer unit like i did, in other words...which i heard caused computer problems anyway) then i would love to hear it.

	13-06-2002 21:32									#2
	Re: I had an idea- but not sure Remove this text

quote: Originally posted by Kramerman If anybody has any ideas that can run with this, or if anybody has already tried it and has useful information for me, i'd be really interested. I would appreciate any feedback at all, really.

Yes, I've added a colorless unit to my game as well, though I started allowing them with Bronze Working. I have 3 now that come in at various periods, including one horse unit with Nationalism, that represents an Old West outlaw. It works very well, in fact sometimes to well.

I'd suggest you use them sparingly, since the AI seems to take an "eye for an eye" approach with them. The more you use them, the more he will produce. I once had a look at the Indian empire, when we still had a cheat, and discovered that at least 2/3 of his cities were producing them. And he had quite a large empire at the time.

quote: Also if any of you Tech jockeys out there have any interest in creating a brand new unit of this type (instead of just reusing the marine figure and covering up the Explorer unit like i did, in other words...which i heard caused computer problems anyway) then i would love to hear it.

There's lots of graphics for various units both here and over at Civ Fanatics. At Fanatics, they've put them all into one "library" thread, which is now up to 120 units. Just look around, and you might find something that appeals to you. I'd suggest the Bandit unit done by Dark Sheer, which is what I'm using for my outlaw. He did a very nice job.

Good luck using your unit, it will no doubt keep you on your toes.

	14-06-2002 01:54									#3
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Thanks alot for the info. I'll be sure to check that stuff out.

jm

	14-06-2002 02:23									#4
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One thing I just noticed from your original post. When you changed the name of the Explorer, did you you also change the name of it's folder, Art>Units? and the .ini file inside? If not, your game will crash if you try to build it.

Another thing, changing the icon in the editor only affects the civilopedia and the city display. It doesn't mean that the game itself will start using the Marine graphics for the unit. It will still be the same as the Explorer. You have to change the graphics within the folder I mentioned, or at least the paths within the .ini file.

	16-06-2002 13:28									#5
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Yeah, I didnt know that at the time I wrote the post, Willem, but Ive since figured that out.

If I would of checked your post earlier I could of saved myself alot of time. But I got the hang of it now, much thanks to you and the info you told me earlier, and have almost a dozen extra units working great and im quickly adding more. I was wondering if there is any limit to the number of new units that you could add safely, but im sure ill figure that at soon enough.

That leads me to my next question. Coming up with good, accurate, and game balancing stats for alot of new units hasn't exactly been easy, so I was wondering if anybody knew of any threads that have talked extensively on obscure unit stats. If not, I may start a post where I'll list the ideas Ive had sofar and others can state theirs so that we can compile a library of possible stats that everybody can refer to.

Kman

Last edited by Kramerman on 16-06-2002 at 13:57

	16-06-2002 19:22									#6
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quote: Originally posted by Kramerman I was wondering if there is any limit to the number of new units that you could add safely, but im sure ill figure that at soon enough.

There's been some posts floating around mentioning something about a limit of 82 units in total. I don't know for sure though.

	20-06-2002 00:07									#7
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quote: Originally posted by Willem There's been some posts floating around mentioning something about a limit of 82 units in total. I don't know for sure though.

We have 121 units in the Double Your Pleasure mod actually I think 82 is the number of tech icons possible (the ones used in the science advisor screens.

	20-06-2002 00:21									#8
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quote: Originally posted by Willem There's been some posts floating around mentioning something about a limit of 82 units in total. I don't know for sure though.

There was never a limit on the number of units. The limit on the number of icons used to be 82, but that was removed for units and resources with the 1.21f patch

	20-06-2002 00:28									#9
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quote: Originally posted by zulu9812 There was never a limit on the number of units. The limit on the number of icons used to be 82, but that was removed for units and resources with the 1.21f patch

True - but not for techs I believe.