                Customized Civilization II unit icons
                       (for Civ 2 v. 1.06)

design work by Marc Fisher (mfisher@mail.cjnetworks.com,
                            Compuserve 70711,3177)

The accompanying UNITS.GIF file is intended to replace the file of the
same name which comes standard with Civ 2.  If you try my changes and
don't care for them, just copy your old UNITS.GIF back over the top of
this one, no harm done.  It's free, I like 'em, and that's' enough
<g>.

The RULES.TXT file can be optionally used to replace the standard CIV2
rules.  It will make both the fighter and bomber available upon
discovering "Flight", the Jet Fighter and Jet Bomber (B-52) available
upon discovery of Advanced Flight, and the Commando unit can be built
upon discovering Guerilla warfare.

The Commando has attack strength of 6, defense of 5, 2 hit points, 1
firepower point, costs 80 shields (paratroopers cost 60), ignores
enemy Zones of Control and City Walls, and can paradrop from any
friendly city just like a paratrooper. (Be careful, the AI really
likes to sneak this guy in on your cities!)

Both the Jet Fighter and Jet Bomber are positioned to be between the
equivalent prop models and Stealth aircraft in cost, power, and
defense.  They're here because I thought it was silly to go from F4F
Wildcats straight to B-2s... OK, that and I just wanted to play with
B-52s!

My file contains the following changed units:

Rifleman        - A scanned modern infantryman aiming a rifle.
Armor           - A scanned M1 Abrams MBT.
Helicopter      - A scanned Apache AH64 gunship.
Stealth fighter - A scanned Aurora Mach 6 fighter/recon aircraft.
Paratrooper     - No more yellow, thanks to my buddy Phantom
Alpine Skier    - No more yellow, thanks to my buddy Steve Strayer.
Blonde Spy      - More of Phantom's work

Additional Unit icons:
B-52 bomber
Commando unit
Jet fighter (actually re-used the existing "stealth" fighter icon, the
F22)

There are two ways you can use the UNITS.GIF file.  If you don't want
to use the additional units, just copy the GIF into your CIV2
directory and start the game as normal.

If you want to add the Commando and Jet Aircraft, you'll also need to
copy the RULES.TXT file into your CIV2 directory. (I renamed it
RULES.NEW so it wouldn't overwrite your existing rules without asking.
To use it, you'll need to rename it RULES.TXT) This copy of RULES.TXT
was taken from the latest Civ 2 version 1.07 patch.

Design notes:

The rifleman was tricky.  I scanned a picture out of a magazine which
looked pretty realistic, but discovered that he was so realistic I
couldn't see him in jungle terrain (except for his shield).  I had to
tinker with the darkness settings some, and he still tends to blend in
a little, but then that's how camouflage works, right?

The M1 was a real bugger.  I must have used 5 different scans from
various sources before I found one I liked.  The problem is that most
of the source material for M1s show them in desert paint, which comes
out far too light to look good in Civ2.  The one that's included here
not only had the best perspective angle, but was in the Army's Central
Europe standard green.

The Aurora (if it exists) is supposed to be a Mach 6 reconaissance
craft, designed to replace the retired SR71.  As such, it probably
isn't much of an air superiority fighter but I think it looks cooler
than the F-22 (a *real* air superiority craft) that comes out of the
box.  To save the F-22, I just moved it to the "Jet Fighter" unit.

I discovered while creating my own icons that it's not nearly as easy
as it looks.  First, you have to be sure you have up-to-date video
drivers and software.  I tried it with several commercial packages
without luck, before upgrading to Windows 95 and the 32-bit version of
Paintshop Pro (Adobe Photoshop and Micrografx Picture Publisher came
in handy, as well).  There are some cautions at the bottom of the
UNITS.GIF file that are worth heeding.  As long as you don't overstep
the dark purple triangles in the bottom of the square you're fine.

The second thing I discovered was that the Civ2 icons are so small you
will lose most of your detail.  When your icon is only 40-50 pixels
wide, there's not alot of room for windows, gun barrels,  and
missiles.  It took alot of work to get the M1, Apache, and B-52 to look
right and my artists' eye still isn't real happy when I look at them
in 5:1 zoom.  But they're better than the originals in many respects,
and they provide me with the variety I like when I'm playing my
favorite game; CIVILIZATION II.

SOUNDS:  I did not include the CUSTOM sound files required to make the
additional new units sound correctly in combat.  If you want to use
the new units, you can do this yourself by executing the following DOS
commands while in the CIV2\SOUND directory:

COPY MCHNGUNS.WAV CUSTOM1.WAV
COPY JETBOMB.WAV CUSTOM2.WAV
COPY JETCOMBT.WAV CUSTOM3.WAV


Have fun!  If you come up with an interesting icon, feel free to
E-mail it to me or upload it to Gamers' forum in Compuserve (GO
GAMERS) to share with everybody.


Marc  (Lord Protector and Leonardo's apprentice)

