Unknown Civilization



Unknown civilization is actually the GAIA civilization we have always known. Through hex-editing the *.scn file, it can be accessed by human or computer player in Age of Empires (without the Rise of Rome expansion pack) campaigns. A showcase campaign Land of Tribulation was also made to display its usage along with other tricks.

Disadvantages:

• It is difficult to access the unknown civilization, only in testing and campaign.
  
• It cannot be used in the Rise of Rome expansion pack.
  
• You need to start (not finish) a normal game before editing or playing a scenario (campaign) with the unknown civilization to prevent a highly possible crash.
  
• You cannot modify the tribe name, resource amount or AI behavior of the player with the unknown civilization in the map editor, or otherwise you would lose the unknown civilization setting.
  
• The unknwon civilization has no unique civilization bouns.
  
• The unknown civilization cannot gather resource, while human player would even "capture" all seen animals, trees, mines and fishes.
  
• The unknown civilization cannot build; computer player will just place the foundation of a building, while a building command by human player will crash the game.
  

Advantages:

• The unknown civilization’s name is cool.
  
• The unknown civilization has ALL technologies.
  
• The unknown civilization can have animal, tree, berry bush, gold mine, stone mine and fish as player units, with no villager from any player being able to gather resource from them.
  
• The unknown civilization can have alligator, eagle (automatic map-exploring), elephant, elephant king, gazelle, horse, lion, lion king, and pigeon (hawk) as player units, but human player cannot control their movement.
  
• The unknown civilization’s dock prohibits trading service FOR other player.
  
• The unknown civilization’s villager always attack with the jihad animation.

As I promised, the unknown civilization templates and a compatible *.dat allowing placement for player animal units are being made (mines, trees and several other GAIA units would be included in later versions).

Since you cannot modify the tribe name and the starting resource of unknown civilization players in the map editor, or otherwise you would lose the unknown civilization setting, they are all pre-set in the template in the following combinations.

Name:

• Unknown (U*.scx)
  
• Wild Beast (W*.scx)
  
• Tamed Animal (T*.scx)

Resource:

• All 0 (*0.scx)
  
• Deathmatch default (*DM.scx)
  
• All 99999 (*99999.scx)

On the other hand, the altered empires.dat (named unknown1.dat) will enable placement of the following units for normal players:

• Alligator
  
• Elephant
  
• Fish - Tuna
  
• Fish - Salmon
  
• Gazelle
  
• Lion King
  
• Elephant King
  
• Bird - Hawk
  
• Bird - Eagle
  
• Lion
  
• Horse
  
• Fish - Shore
  
• Fish - Shore
  
• Fish Whale

Another file unknown2.dat, besides having the above feature, will also include all the functions of Enhanced Editor 2.0. However, it would not allow you to test the scenario directly in the map editor.

Download Link: http://aoe.heavengames.com/dl-php/showfile.php?fileid=2223

How to Use:

1. Make a backup of the original empires.dat in C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Age of Empires\Data.
   
2. Put the *.scn files into C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Age of Empires\Scenario.
   
3. Start Age of Empires (without Rise of Rome expansion pack) and design on the *.scn files with your preferred setting until everything is finished except the placement of GAIA units for unknown civilization players.
   
4. Exit the game, then put the *.dat file into C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Age of Empires\Data and rename the one you want to use (with or without Enhanced Editor 2.0 function) into empires.dat.
   
5. Start Age of Empires (without Rise of Rome expansion pack) again and create a standard simple player random map game, then exit it immediately once it is started.
   
6. Go the map editor, open the *.scn file you are designing and place the GAIA units for unknown civilization players.
   
7. Exit the game and restore the original empires.dat.
   
8. Start Age of Empires (without Rise of Rome expansion pack) again and create a standard simple player random map game, then exit it immediately once it is started.
9. Put your finished *.scn file into a campaign and test your scenario under campaign mode.
   

Unknown Civilization Hex-editing Tutorial:

1. Create a new scenario and input your preferred tribe name, resource amount and AI behavior of all players.
   
2. Change all players into Egyptian civilizations.
   
3. Save the *.scn file and exit the game.
   
4. Make a backup of the *.scn file.
   
5. Open the *.scn file with a hex editor and delete the first 28 bytes of data at the beginning of the file.
   
6. Decompress the altered *.scn file with AoK Trigger Studio(Tools->Raw decompress...).
   
7. Open the decompressed file with a hex editor and search for the first 8 pairs of hex values "0100000004000000" and replace them with "0000000004000000".
   
8. Compress the decompressed file again with AoK Trigger Studio (Tools->Raw compress...).
   
9. Insert the previously deleted 28-byte-data from the backup file into the altered *.scn file.
   

[This message has been edited by Trisolo (edited 06-29-2009 @ 09:53 PM).]