Playable Austria in Civ III?

[Walnut Lobster]

While looking up stuff about Civilization III I discovered that Austria has all the files and animations necessary to be a playable civilization it's just that the game is hardcoded to only have 31 playable civs and Austria is 32 I guess. So as someone who is hopelessly inept in this department, how do I make Austria playable? I played this game all the time and never knew there was a "hidden" civ and I would like to see how it is.

[[NN]Natmeris]

You have to rename a civ like Sumeria or another, and put in all the stuff you want, according to the pedia description. Then add the Hussar unit. Give it their free techs etc. Remove Enkidu for the civ if you chose Sumeria. The hussar is already in the pediaicons and that, you just have to add it to your custom BIQ. To get the right pedia description without cut and pasting, you can change the diplomacy index to 32 I think instead of -1.

[Walnut Lobster]

I have no idea where to even start top try to modify files. Although I know I will be replacing the Sumerians because they are too similar to the Babylonians, plus Gilgamesh I believe wasn't even a real person.

[Eauxps I. Fourgott]

I believe you'll have to do some fiddling around in the editor, which can be found in the Civilization III Complete/Conquests folder. But I've never done it myself, so I'm not entirely sure how it is done.

[[NN]Natmeris]

I assumed you had basic knowledge. So first step is open the editor. Go to Civilizations Tab. Open the dropdown menu of civs, click Sumeria. Hit Rename and type in Austria. You now fill in the settings.

To get the traits that were intended, go to the Conquests root, then Text, then pediaicons.txt. It says Militaristic and Industrious. You can use these same traits, or choose others, up to you. The techs are not binded literally to the traits, so on the right, you see Free Techs. You put the usual free techs there that the traits receive (Warrior Code/Masonry).

Put the civ entry as RACE_AUSTRIA in the middle of the page. Put the Index as 32, instead of -1.

Set Culture Group as European for the city graphics.

You can change the team colours at the bottom to something else, or leave it as the Sumerian one.

Bottom left are the Flics, or the animations you see of the leaderheads in the player setup and diplomacy. This is the most crucial part besides the entry for getting it to load ingame without crashing. In Conquests/Flics is where the files are located. I'll go from ancient to modern here. Make sure the drop down menu is on the era you want.

Art\Flics\X2_Charles_ancient_fwrd.flc
Art\Flics\X2_Charles_ancient_bwrd.flc
Art\Flics\X2_Charles_mid_fwrd.flc
Art\Flics\X2_Charles_mid_bwrd.flc
Art\Flics\X2_Charles_indust_fwrd.flc
Art\Flics\X2_Charles_indust_bwrd.flc
Art\Flics\X2_Charles_mod_fwrd.flc
Art\Flics\X2_Charles_mod_bwrd.flc

Reverse is Bwrd. Make sure each one goes in its proper slot. Of course, if you want Industrial animations in ancient, you could do that.

Set the fav gov, title, name, adjective, build often flags as you want. But for Build Often flags, do not have more than 4 flags. The build often flags make the civ more unique between each AI. It's what dictates their city buildings behaviour.

You should replace the cities, military leaders and sci leaders, but up to you. You can leave what is there so it doesnt crash. I assume you want to at least change the cities. Just so you know, make sure you have it in the same layout as default, and do not leave extra spaces, otherwise that could cause a crash ingame.

Finally, go to Units Tab, and go to enkidus (near the bottom), and take it away as available for your civ by clicking it while holding CTRL. Now hit Add Unit, name Hussar. Give it what stats you want. I think 3 or 4 movement is what is wanted according to the civilopedia. 3 movement is standard for cavalry. Then probably 6 attack and 3 defense. Give it Saltpeter and Horses as required resources. Set it as available for your civ. In the Unit Abilities, Hold CTRL so you can pick the stats individually. The usual one used here is Start Golden Age. Set Prerequisite as Military Tradition. Set Shield cost as 80 or whatever desired. 80 is what usual cavs have. In Special Actions on the right, tick Load, Airlift, Pillage, Upgrade Unit, and Capture. Load, Pillage, and Capture are hard-coded for the AI Strategies to appear for Offense, which with Defense, makes the AI to use them as a unit. Civilopedia Entry is PRTO_Hussar. Give it Zone of Control too I suppose, since default cavalry have that. Icon is 188 (this is what shows in the city screen, but is not necessary for launching without error)

You would want to set the default Cavalry as not available for Austria (originally Sumeria). Next find the Cossack unit. Set under the Upgrade to: box, as Hussar. Go ahead and tick Upgrade Unit on the right as well.

That should be all. There is a lot of cool stuff you can do from this editor. While your are limited within the settings editable, there is much freedom regardless. This is my most advanced scenario atm: https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/thelen-epres-mrel-nelthelrinae.619542/

[Walnut Lobster]

Thanks! I have typed everything in as instructed (to the best of my Neanderthal-like intelligence) and I am going to test it out. I used basic knowledge of Austria and the city list from Civ 5 to fill in the city names. Typed in some historical Austrians for the military leaders, left the science leaders alone as I don't have any names at the moment. I am curious, why do I need the Cossack to upgrade to a Hussar? Also is there a king unit for Charles? On the off chance I want to play a regicide game I wouldn't want Gilgamesh still being the king unit.
Side note: Had to enable the warrior and spearman for Austria but it's looking good so far.

[[NN]Natmeris]

Originally posted by Walnut Lobster:

Thanks! I have typed everything in as instructed (to the best of my Neanderthal-like intelligence) and I am going to test it out. I used basic knowledge of Austria and the city list from Civ 5 to fill in the city names. Typed in some historical Austrians for the military leaders, left the science leaders alone as I don't have any names at the moment. I am curious, why do I need the Cossack to upgrade to a Hussar? Also is there a king unit for Charles? On the off chance I want to play a regicide game I wouldn't want Gilgamesh still being the king unit.
Side note: Had to enable the warrior and spearman for Austria but it's looking good so far.

I'm sure you would fine the reason why by looking at the horsemen to knight to cavalry upgrade lines. This is how all unique units upgrade back into the default line-up of those units. So Knight would upgrade to Hussar. I chose cossack, because its the last of the cavalry upgrade line, so you dont have to mess with another unit's upgrade, or set Hussar upgrade to another etc. The game blocks access to every unit that that civ does not have available. So each civ can have a different upgrade unit, from one universal unit. There is a guide about this on civfanatics too.

There is a King unit for Charles. You have to hit "add' again in the Units Tab. Copy the settings from another king unit, and put in the pedia entry: PRTO_Charles_V. Then of course, set that as the default King unit in the Civilizations Tab. Make sure to give the King AI Strategy (which is greyed out until you make sure the settings are the same as another king unit). Make sure in Unit abilities, the King ability is highlighted. Charles is icon 167.

Good catch on the warrior. I was going to mention about making the default units available, but I figured they were already. Forgot about the Enkidu restriction.

[Walnut Lobster]

Originally posted by NNNatmeris:

Originally posted by Walnut Lobster:

Thanks! I have typed everything in as instructed (to the best of my Neanderthal-like intelligence) and I am going to test it out. I used basic knowledge of Austria and the city list from Civ 5 to fill in the city names. Typed in some historical Austrians for the military leaders, left the science leaders alone as I don't have any names at the moment. I am curious, why do I need the Cossack to upgrade to a Hussar? Also is there a king unit for Charles? On the off chance I want to play a regicide game I wouldn't want Gilgamesh still being the king unit.
Side note: Had to enable the warrior and spearman for Austria but it's looking good so far.

I'm sure you would fine the reason why by looking at the horsemen to knight to cavalry upgrade lines. This is how all unique units upgrade back into the default line-up of those units. So Knight would upgrade to Hussar. I chose cossack, because its the last of the cavalry upgrade line, so you dont have to mess with another unit's upgrade, or set Hussar upgrade to another etc. The game blocks access to every unit that that civ does not have available. So each civ can have a different upgrade unit, from one universal unit. There is a guide about this on civfanatics too.

There is a King unit for Charles. You have to hit "add' again in the Units Tab. Copy the settings from another king unit, and put in the pedia entry: PRTO_Charles_V. Then of course, set that as the default King unit in the Civilizations Tab. Make sure to give the King AI Strategy (which is greyed out until you make sure the settings are the same as another king unit). Make sure in Unit abilities, the King ability is highlighted. Charles is icon 167.

Good catch on the warrior. I was going to mention about making the default units available, but I figured they were already. Forgot about the Enkidu restriction.

Okay I was looking at the Cossack purely thinking it was giving Russia two unique cavalry. Completely forgot that they still would have access blocked.

Also from the perspective of playing against Austria, I can't get Charles' unique text in diplomacy, assuming there is any.

Lastly I noticed I created a .biq so does this mean Austria will only be playable in that specific .biq (aside from the Napoleonic War one)? It would be cool to be able to play as Austria in multiplayer.

[[NN]Natmeris]

Originally posted by Walnut Lobster:

Originally posted by NNNatmeris:

I'm sure you would fine the reason why by looking at the horsemen to knight to cavalry upgrade lines. This is how all unique units upgrade back into the default line-up of those units. So Knight would upgrade to Hussar. I chose cossack, because its the last of the cavalry upgrade line, so you dont have to mess with another unit's upgrade, or set Hussar upgrade to another etc. The game blocks access to every unit that that civ does not have available. So each civ can have a different upgrade unit, from one universal unit. There is a guide about this on civfanatics too.

There is a King unit for Charles. You have to hit "add' again in the Units Tab. Copy the settings from another king unit, and put in the pedia entry: PRTO_Charles_V. Then of course, set that as the default King unit in the Civilizations Tab. Make sure to give the King AI Strategy (which is greyed out until you make sure the settings are the same as another king unit). Make sure in Unit abilities, the King ability is highlighted. Charles is icon 167.

Good catch on the warrior. I was going to mention about making the default units available, but I figured they were already. Forgot about the Enkidu restriction.

Okay I was looking at the Cossack purely thinking it was giving Russia two unique cavalry. Completely forgot that they still would have access blocked.

Also from the perspective of playing against Austria, I can't get Charles' unique text in diplomacy, assuming there is any.

Lastly I noticed I created a .biq so does this mean Austria will only be playable in that specific .biq (aside from the Napoleonic War one)? It would be cool to be able to play as Austria in multiplayer.

Yeah you have to load that BIQ. You can load scenarios in MP no problem. I thought putting the index in the civilizations tab as 32 would give what you wanted for those diplomacy texts.

[Walnut Lobster]

I still can't figure out how to enable the diplomacy text, but aside from that everything seems to function I haven't been able to test the Hussar as I haven't gotten that far yet. I also noticed that I cannot use Palace View or City Aerial View. While features that are not needed to properly play I always thought they were neat any way to enable them?

[[NN]Natmeris]

Originally posted by Walnut Lobster:

I still can't figure out how to enable the diplomacy text, but aside from that everything seems to function I haven't been able to test the Hussar as I haven't gotten that far yet. I also noticed that I cannot use Palace View or City Aerial View. While features that are not needed to properly play I always thought they were neat any way to enable them?

When you make a scenario, the City View is disabled in the Conquests expansion. It is only available in the default BIQ.

Changing the Diplomacy Text Index doesnt work? (to the right of Culture Group and Pedia Entry in Civilizations Tab).

[Walnut Lobster]

Originally posted by NNNatmeris:

Originally posted by Walnut Lobster:

I still can't figure out how to enable the diplomacy text, but aside from that everything seems to function I haven't been able to test the Hussar as I haven't gotten that far yet. I also noticed that I cannot use Palace View or City Aerial View. While features that are not needed to properly play I always thought they were neat any way to enable them?

When you make a scenario, the City View is disabled in the Conquests expansion. It is only available in the default BIQ.

Changing the Diplomacy Text Index doesnt work? (to the right of Culture Group and Pedia Entry in Civilizations Tab).

Yeah the Diplomacy Text Index is set to 32 but it's not displaying anything properly.

[[NN]Natmeris]

Originally posted by Walnut Lobster:

Originally posted by NNNatmeris:

When you make a scenario, the City View is disabled in the Conquests expansion. It is only available in the default BIQ.

Changing the Diplomacy Text Index doesnt work? (to the right of Culture Group and Pedia Entry in Civilizations Tab).

Yeah the Diplomacy Text Index is set to 32 but it's not displaying anything properly.

I'll have to look into that. The longer way of editing the diplomacy.txt file, can be rather daunting and its a little complex.

[Walnut Lobster]

Originally posted by NNNatmeris:

Originally posted by Walnut Lobster:

Yeah the Diplomacy Text Index is set to 32 but it's not displaying anything properly.

I'll have to look into that. The longer way of editing the diplomacy.txt file, can be rather daunting and its a little complex.

Okay thanks. I was able to make it to the Industrial era but when I tried to build Hussars it said the game was missing the files, everything seems to be right in the editor, but it will not let me use them. Any idea what might have gone wrong?

[[NN]Natmeris]

You'll have to give me a screenshot of the unit page.

[[NN]Natmeris]

Ah. Try Index number 25 for the Diplomacy text.

I see the cause of the unit error. I thought everything was already in place, but one area it lacks, which causes the crash. You need to open the Pediaicons.txt in your root, and go to the bottom where ANIMNAME_PRTOs are.

Add
#ANIMNAME_PRTO_Hussar
Hussar

to the bottom, and it should be good to go. You can even load your current save. Same for the King unit.

#ANIMNAME_PRTO_Charles_V
King Austria