Welcome to JCivED

Welcome to the JCivED wiki!

JCivED stands for Java Civilization EDitor, and tries to be exactly that: an all-in-one tool to modify Sid Meier's Civilization save games (MS-DOS and CivWin) and executable (MS-DOS). Why Java ? It's just the language I am most proficient at, and was for some time the language of choice for seamless cross-platform support, which is important to me. Also, JCivED has zero dependency besides JDK/JRE, as I stick to writing everything in pure Java, mainly to avoid managing dependencies, but also for the joy of learning :) Sorry for the mess !

Why JCivED ? The short story : being a Civ player since the beginning (early 90s), I regularly came back to playing Civ out of nostalgia, until a decisive day in 2012 when I was upset enough at my current game that I pushed through to decipher Civ's map save format (I guess there was some mountain in my way). That effort unraveled into months and years of unexpected wonders and discoveries, leading to what JCivED is today: a tool to edit savegames but also Civ's graphics (PIC files), fonts (FONTS.CV) as well as a patch utility for CIV.EXE (more than 40 various technical and gameplay patches, including bug fixes).

The current JCivED homepage is hosted at a CivFanatics forum page, alongside decades of efforts and discussions that cover huge amounts of CIV.EXE technical details and game logic.

Hereunder is a very partial listing of interesting topics available in the Civ Fanatics forums :

• JCivED homepage: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=486470
• CivOne, a Civ1 clone in progress (by SWY): https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/civone-an-open-source-remake-of-civilization-1.535036/
• TerraForm -- a map editor for CIV dos (by Dack): https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/terraform-a-map-editor-for-civ-dos.126921/
• MAP, PIC and PAL formats explained: https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/map-pic-and-pal-formats-figured-out-almost.478234/
• SVE file format reference: https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/sve-file-format.493581/
• Civ1 Land Value calculation explained: https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/civ1-land-value-calculation-explained.498532/
• Modding Civilization 1 - Data Tables (by Gowron): https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/modding-civilization-i-data-tables.331078/
• Civ1 Combat Mechanics Exlained (by Gowron): https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/civ1-combat-mechanics-explained.492843/
• Modding Civilization I - Earth Map (by Gowron): https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/modding-civilization-i-earth-map.333598/
• Number of Starting Settlers and Techs (by Gowron): https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/number-of-starting-settlers-and-techs.494994/
• Cost calculation for bribing units/citis (by Gowron): https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/cost-calculation-for-bribing-units-cities.494886/
• Modding Civilization I - Patterns for Huts and Special Resources (by Gowron): https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/modding-civilization-i-patterns-for-huts-and-special-resources.339049/
• Modding Civilization I - Grassland Pattern (by Gowron): https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/modding-civilization-i-grassland-pattern.492500/
• Calculation of Approval Rating, Family Size and Productivity (by Gowron): https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/calculation-of-approval-rating-family-size-and-productivity.235082/
• Step-by-step Civ PIC modding with JCivED : Hobbit Castle Hut ! : https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/step-by-step-civ-pic-modding-with-jcived-hobbit-castle-hut.491332/
• FONTS.CV: https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/fonts-cv.493842/
• "Civ archeology" reveals lost features: https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/sve-archeology-reveals-lost-civ-features.491335/
• Civ1 Map Generation explained: https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/civ1-map-generation-explained.498630/
• Modding Civ 1 - Random Positions on EARTH: https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/modding-civ-i-random-positions-on-earth.499611/
• Modding Civ 1 - Play 1-to-1 or alone: https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/modding-civ-i-playing-1-to-1-or-alone.499613/
• Modding Civ 1 - Default Game Settings: https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/modding-civ-i-default-game-settings.499614/
• Modding Civ 1 - custom Civ colors ! https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/modding-civ-i-custom-civ-colors.499617/
• Civ1 explained: city disasters: https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/civ1-explained-city-disasters.507325/
• Civ1 explained: population count: https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/civ1-explained-population.507918/
• Modding Civ 1 - never-ending games: https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/modding-civ-i-never-ending-games.499911/
• Modding Civ 1 - load save game without exiting: https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/modding-civ-i-load-saved-game-without-exiting.509126/
• Civ1 exploit: design flaw in randomness: https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/civ1-exploit-design-flaw-in-randomness.509679/
• Arctic Anomaly: https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/arctic-anomaly.510277/#post-12797133
• Civ1 explained: tribal huts visit outcomes: https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/civ1-explained-tribal-huts-visit-outcomes.510312/#post-12798832
• Civ1 Advanced Hacking: special resource and hut patterns https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/civ1-advanced-hacking-special-resource-and-hut-patterns.512002/
• Modding Civilization I - Grassland patterns (by Gowron) : https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/modding-civilization-i-grassland-pattern.492500/#post-12891145
• Modding Civ 1 - Unlimited Civ re-respawn: https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/modding-civ-i-unlimited-civ-re-spawn.514562/
• Modding Civ 1 to have 1 turn for all Settlers tasks : https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/how-do-i-edit-the-game-so-settlers-take-only-one-turn-to-do-their-jobs.514255/#post-12897261
• Tutorial CIV+IDA Reverse Engineering : https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/tutorial-civ-ida-reverse-engineering.521637/
• Modding Civ 1 - No pollution : https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/modding-civ-i-no-pollution.521916/
• Civ1 Explained: AI Unit movements: https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/civ1-explained-ai-unit-movements.526708/
• City processing : https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/city-processing.535605/
• Pollution bug : https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/pollution-bug-nailed.535608/