27-07-2000 23:53									#1
	Personal Techniques Enter the AD-FREE zone

Use this thread to share the time-saving methods you have developed over the years. Here's one of mine to start this off:

-For scenarios that change terrains around, the best way to make the map is to create a category in the Modpack Manager expressly for that purpose and simply copy the terrain*.gif files into it's folder

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St. Leo
http://ziggurat.sidgames.com/
http://www.sidgames.com/forums/

	28-07-2000 01:04									#2
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Books. The more the merrier. Helps in making unit graphics and doing last second research. I currently have 43 out from the library for Kyokujitsu.

	28-07-2000 03:04									#3
	Help yourself to an AD-FREE life

Plan ahead.
Get the map right before you place any cities.
Get the cities completed before you place any units.

I've found a speedy technique for converting pictures into sprites (now that I have Adobe Photoshop).

Paint Shop Pro is not very good at resizing .gifs. Photoshop is no good for palletes, so I use both. Edit the picture in PSP to get rid of the background, then apply the Civ2 unit pallete. Save and load in Photoshop. Work out what the reduction factor will be, then zoom out to reach it rather than re-size. Back in PSP, start a screen capture, and capture the reduced size image in Photoshop. Edit the sprite for final touches.

Here's an example. Two images: the left one took me weeks of work resizing in PSP; the right one took roughly half an hour using the above method.



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"The man who can smile when things go wrong has thought of someone he can blame it on"

	28-07-2000 03:05									#4
	Remove this text

With Cross&Crescent I begun to use more and more scanned images for improvements and wonders. Sure, thats no new idea (there´s a SLeague design tip about this), but I´ve seen not many scns using this. But its simple and fast. There are a lot of images for historic scns in the net, so all you have to do is scale them down and then sharpen them. Some corrections with your graphics software - done! Best thing after scaling is that nobody realizes that the most of the available images show only ruins... However, I don´t use this technique for my units.

Edit: Andrew, just read your post. I think for resizing it´s better to convert a pic into 24bit. Then resize (better results) and reconvert into 8bit gif. I use it with PhotoPaint, works perfectly.
[This message has been edited by BeBro (edited July 27, 2000).]

	28-07-2000 08:11									#5
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Scanned units are Satan's gift to the Civ2 world. I find self-drawn units to be much more fulfilling and better looking. Most don't take over an hour to create.

	28-07-2000 16:06									#8
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To save time, learn some of the shortcuts keys. The ones I use most are shift + F1 (create unit), shift + F3 (set human player),
Ctl + shift + F8 (Repeat terrain change). The last one is not documented, but it's handy for irrigating and road building!

When creating events, I only do a few at a time and then test them to make sure those work. Then I feel confident I'm not repeating mistakes. It saves a lot of hair pulling later.



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There is no tiddle-taddle nor pibble-pabble in Pompey's camp.

	28-07-2000 20:12									#9
	Put an end to popups!

While we're on the subject of shift F8, am I the only one who does the entire map with irrigation for the sake of completeness?
BTW, I agree, always plan.

	29-07-2000 04:02									#10
	Lose 30 kilos (of popups)

shift-D to destroy cities. By far the handiest thing in the game (next to cnt-shift-F8).

This is probably the 10th time I've posted it, and there's always at least 1 guy who's never heard of it.

	29-07-2000 06:31									#11
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I used to fully irrigate maps. I don't do it anymore. It's an exercise in tedium and often isn't necessary if you've got a map that's well built without huge tracts of similar landscape.

	29-07-2000 06:32									#12
	Put an end to popups!

Shift-D destroys cities? Shiiiit, I was doing it the hard way!

	29-07-2000 08:17									#14
	Put an end to popups!

I also mentioned it 20x before but for the sake of being complete:

when cheat menu is toggled on:

Y: reveal/cover map
ctrl-shft-T: council cheat (useless)

	29-07-2000 19:21									#15
	Support Apolyton, buy GURPS/ Alpha Centauri

You can also use this to destroy units in the game even if that unit is move 0.

Ctrl+Shift+D is better for destroying units as it takes care of the whole stack at once.

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St. Leo
http://ziggurat.sidgames.com/
http://www.sidgames.com/forums/

	29-07-2000 20:27									#16
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Allard, could you please copy your guide on the text boxes and post it here? It would be most helpful.

	30-07-2000 08:23									#17
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Ok, but instead of spoiling this thread, I'll just give a link instead:

http://apolyton.net/forums/Forum18/...html?date=20:52

And here's the thread on hex-editing:

http://apolyton.net/forums/Forum18/...html?date=17:45

	30-07-2000 16:55									#18
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My tip is not to make historical scenarios. It` so much quicker to make everything up rather than research stuff

	30-07-2000 19:32									#19
	Support Apolyton, buy GURPS/ Alpha Centauri

So, have you discovered anything new yet Allard? Thanks for the text box hints. I'm going to try it in my next (first) scenario.

	31-07-2000 18:23									#20
	Enter the AD-FREE zone

Evil Capitalist,
In general I only irrigate,road build, or mine build the actual squares in use by a city. That can turn out to be a lot of the map, but not usually the entire map!

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There is no tiddle-taddle nor pibble-pabble in Pompey's camp.

	16-08-2000 07:35									#21
	Lose 30 kilos (of popups)

Well, I have found this thread very useful. I just wish that I could find books with the images I would like. I'll have plenty to scan for my next scn. Thanks for the tips.

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Kitana
Shogun of the Japanese

	16-08-2000 08:06									#22
	Support Apolyton or Terrorists Win

Thank goodness someone brought this up. All the scenario-building tips I need in one place. As to my scenario, it should be ready for playtesting in a couple of weeks.

	21-08-2000 20:44									#23
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If you use FrontPage Express with the default empty square as the back ground, then skrink/enlarge the image as needed, you can get the diamond background onto the units. This of course depends on the fact that you saved the units on a .gif file with a pink (Civ-recognized) background. Dunno if this is helpful though.

	22-08-2000 06:36									#24
	Support Apolyton, pre-order Civilization IV

Does anybody have advice on setting the time line for a scenario in MPG? I've had to do a lot of complex calculations to get it right, then when I changed difficulty level it went haywire. I couldn't seem to get the start date in the scenario parameters to 2015. It kept going to 4000BC.

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Kitana
Shogun of the Japanese

	22-08-2000 14:31									#25
	Avatar Enlargement: We've got the solution

Kitana, you have mpg right...To fix your problem just turn your game into a scenario... OPen up scenario parameters.. Change turn year increment to 1....Starting year to 2015..... Maximum turns 300..... NOw open up editor from the main menu....toggle scenario flag and enter a code for your scenario....After that, the year changes to 2015 and you can save the scenario.....

	23-08-2000 00:29									#27
	Support Apolyton, buy Galactic Civilizations: Deluxe Edition

Civfan, thanks for the advice. I didn't realize I had to set the turn interval. But I got it working!

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Kitana
Shogun of the Japanese

	23-08-2000 06:34									#28
	Got spare money?

Civfan,

Thanks for the tip, I did figure it out after posting this (and a little bit of hair pulling ). I didn't realize that trying to use civ's standard turn rate meant I had to use the civ timeline. DOH!!!!

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Kitana
Shogun of the Japanese

	24-08-2000 01:16									#29
	Help yourself to an AD-FREE life

How weird... why haven't you mentioned the barbarian 0 movement settler unit trick ?
A barbarian unit ( with 0 movement points and defense factor more than 0 ), if killed, gives to attacker the same reward of a killed barbarian guide...

BTW, download Chung Kuo sceanrio from SLeague to see it in action...
[This message has been edited by Prometeus (edited August 23, 2000).]

	24-08-2000 08:02									#30
	Full PM-box? Change here!

I think I'll have to talk with you about this Prometeus. I'm planning on using A LOT of barbarians in my current scenario. This sounds very appealing...

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Kitana
Shogun of the Japanese