Giant Earth Map (GEM)

What is GEM?
Giant Earth Map (GEM) is a mod developed for fulfilling the desire of playing historical scenarios on a giant-sized Earth map. Not only it is Giant, GEM is a map that doesn't use a standard projection of the Earth. This is because most human activities in history were concentrated in certain areas only and using a standard projection will result with a map containing many regions of not much use (such as the Pacific Ocean). In contrast, GEM is completely free hand sketched with proper enlargement to those areas of interest.

Other than the two plain maps, one with Modern and one with Ancient resource allocation, in version 6, there are 4 scenarios coming with the mod, 200BC, 1500AD, 1860AD and 1940AD. The scenarios are made with many references on nations to be included, city allocations, city names, city sizes and military sizes. GEM is also a good platform for modders who share the same philosophy to develop historical scenarios.

How the map looks:

http://forums.civfanatics.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=181317&stc=1&d=1214544839


More on background story of GEM

The first version of the Giant Earth Map took me on average two hours per day for half a year to develop it. Without using any map generators, I first drawn layout of the continents to the ratio that I felt most balanced. This gives me the flexibility to upscale the size of any interested region on the map. Then I adjusted/fine tuned the map, for every tile, so that the map looks realistic even in the local scale – something which usually cannot be achieved by map generators. It took me about 3 months to have a map ready for me to fill in resources.

Another great feature of GEM is that it references real statistic of resources for resource placements. This allowed the map to be less 'biased' towards any regions. However, the time needed to search for the correct statistic for each resource, scale the source into the number of icons on the map, correctly draw the border on the tiff map and lastly placing the sources on the civ map with the correct amount and correct locations was unexpectedly long. It took me another 3 months, almost the same amount of time for drawing the entire map.

After the first version, I received much feedback from this forum and have updated the GEM accordingly. The map you now downloading have been commented, reviewed, tested and balanced. I hope you will enjoy it.



Current Release: Version 6.4.1 (Released on 28 Jun 2011)
(Minor release)
1) Fixed a bug in 1940AD.
2) Game balance changes for 1942AD - US starts with a much larger military force. The commonwealth, Japanese and Chinese also increases a bit.
3) Added one more important city to Russia and changed some Russian city names to their historical names.
4) Added Sentry promotion (+1 visibility) to scout and explorer.

Version 6.4 changes:
Added two scenarios, 1936AD and 1942AD, which are derived from the 1940AD scenario. There are also some minor game balance adjustments in the other scenarios too.

I have reverted most unique unit's ability to BTS default just to make the game less different from the original. But I have made an important change on movement speed - the base movement of all land units is now 2, just like Civ 5 does. With the increase in movement, the warring aspect of the game is just plain faster.

N.B. Don't forget about the add-on pack for more leaderheads. It hasn't been changed but you will need to extract it to the GEM folder again every time you use a new version of GEM.

The download for BTS: (only compatible with patch 3.1.9)
http://forums.civfanatics.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=7790 - Version 6.4.1

The download for Warlords: (only compatible with patch 2.0.8)
http://forums.civfanatics.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=2682 - Version 4.1

The download for Civ4 vanilla: (should be compatible with any patch)
http://forums.civfanatics.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=7803 - Version 4.1


Details about what the download includes:

1) Scenarios:
200BC on GEM
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=276602
1500AD on GEM
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=276600
1860AD on GEM
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=284048
1936AD, 1940AD and 1942AD on GEM
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=276601
2) Plain maps:
GEM ancient resource - resources allocated as pre-1500AD setting.
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=276596
GEM modern resource - allocated with modern resource distribution.
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=276597
3) Generic modifications: Combined with RevolutionDCM mod. There are also other minor changes.
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=276604



Download Instruction
Download the rar or zip file and extract it to the following path (note that the following path should be changed according to where you have installed Civ 4):

"My Documents\My Game\Beyond the Sword\MODS\"
or
"C:\Program Files\Firaxis Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4\Beyond the Sword\Mods\"

After you placed the folder in the above path, start your game normally. Then click "Advanced" in the menu, click "Load a mod" and select "Giant Earth Map”. The game will restart but with the mod this time. Then go to "Single player", "Play a scenario" and pick a map that you like.

From GEM 6.2 onwards, the download is provided in rar format, which compress files better than zip. You will need WinRAR to extract the file, which can be freely downloaded from http://www.rarlab.com/.

WARNING: the map is Giant in size and it will strain your PC. RAM seems to be particularly important. In particular, the 1940AD scenario is a RAM killer! I won't try this map on a PC with less than 1G of RAM. Having that said, it would only cause, in the usual case, a long waiting time between each turn; in the worst case, your game would quit without saving because it is running out of ram.

Lastly, please come back and put a rating and drop a comment. If commenting, please try to be precise and constructive so that I know exactly what you want it to be.


More Downloads
Scenarios by other authors:
Other than the scenarios bundled with the GEM mod, there are a number of scenarios, developed by other authors, that you can download separately. These scenarios offer you the experience of other ages in History on the Giant Earth Map. You can easily found more about these scenarios from the corresponding threads within the GEM forum.

Graphics and performance Add-on:
From version 6.2 onwards, the leaderhead add-on is highly recommended since there are simply not enough leaderheads in the default game. Without the Add-on, some scenarios will have duplicated leaderheads.
http://forums.civfanatics.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=10829

Other add-ons can be found in here:
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=6863669&postcount=3


Release history

Version 6.4 (Released on 26 May 2011)
Version 6.3 (Released on 05 Dec 2009)
Version 6.2 (Released on 07 Jul 2009)
Version 6.1 (Released on 23 Mar 2009)
Version 6.0 (Released on 25 Jan 2009)
Version 5.3 (Released on 17 Sep 2008)
Version 5.2 (Released on 18 Jul 2008)
Version 5.1 (Released on 10 Jul 2008)
Version 5.0 (Released on 15 Jun 2008)
Version 4.2 (Released on 14/02/2008)
Version 4.1 (Released on 29/12/2007)
Version 4.0 (Released on 09/12/2007)
Version 1.0 to v3.1 http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=184684


Change log

Version 6.4 Change log
1) Added the 1936AD and 1942AD scenarios.
2) Changed the base movement of units to two.
3) Slow down road and railroad movements to balance the new movement ability of units.
4) Reverted most of the unique units’ ability to BTS default just to make the game less different to the original game (except increasing movement speeds since this is a giant map).
5) Added a machine gun unit to most cities in the ww2 scenarios to give some minimum city protection.

Version 6.3 Change log
1) Reversion of grassland for the long-time debatable use of desert terrain for those fertile river basins. Those tiles will have floodplain that will now add +2 food instead of +3. Therefore, grassland/floodplain will be generating 4 food as compare to 3 food for desert/floodplain in previous versions.
2) Removal of a few useless islands that are costing huge maintenance cost to some nations in the scenarios.
3) Expanding 1860AD scenario to have 50civs.
4) Power rebalancing to both 1860AD and 1940AD scenarios.
5) Using RevDCM version 2.5.

Version 6.2.1 Change log
1) Fixed the max turn bug in the plain maps.
2) Fixed an error in the diplomatic setting in 1940AD - Italy was started out at war with Russia and China.
3) Make Turkey and Russia more furious towards Germany. They will no longer open border to Germany.
4) Spain and Italy are no longer willing to open borders to nations that are worse than cautious.

Version 6.2 Change log
1) Combined with RevolutionDCM mod.
2) BTS patch 3.19 compatible.
3) Expanded 1940 scenario to have 50 civs.
4) Included more islands in all of the maps.
5) British Isles has been expanded and improved.
6) Gran Colombian region has been improved.
7) Many minor gameplay changes have been used. See “Mod changes v7.0.xls” for details.

Version 6.1 Change log
1) Fixed the missing flag problem for the 1860AD scenario.
2) Using Better AI v0.6.

Version 6.0 Change log
1) Added a new scenario – 1860AD.
2) Basically all the other 3 scenarios have been updated.
3) Unit support cost from 1 increased to 2. Moreover, the unit support cost ratio has increased in most difficulty level.
4) Using Better AI v0.45

For 1940AD scenario:
1) Shanghai is now controlled by Britain.
2) Added a few cities in US.
3) Changed the location of some cities for more accurately representing them.

For 1500AD scenario:
1) Reduced city population in many cities across west Europe, China and India.
2) Added some great people in west Europe.


Version 5.3 Change log
Generic changes:
1) Added many new leaderheads, which are mostly used for the 1940AD scenario. The leaderhead graphics can be downloaded separately.
2) Landsknecht: Strength: 8, +50% vs Mounted; +50% vs Melee.

For 1940AD scenario:
1) Polish skirmisher still exist around Polish area.
2) A new player is added - the Chinese Communist! It will control the Communist ruled area in history + Sinkiang. That's a total of 9 cities and ~30 units in the scenario. The leader will be Mao. Friendly towards Russia (but remain independent), hated Chiang to the guts (same goes to Chiang) and at war with Japan. Hated by most western countries.
3) India is now fully controlled by the British. The Indian Civ is now replaced by Nepal, which control all the Himalayan cities. Nepal is neutral in the war. It controls a total of 5 cities and less than 10 units.
4) South Africa, Australia, New Zealand and Canada are all independent states (i.e. not vassals of Britain). They are still at war with the Axis.
5) Commerce, Research, Production, Culture, Espionage and Gold are all rebalanced for better realism.
6) Germany has half of its forces situated in Poland.
7) Russia is at war with Japan.
8) Britain has no forces landed in France yet.
9) All the fascism nations now uses Free Market instead of State Property (only the 3 communist nations use this).
10) Most western countries now starts with Universal Suffrage instead of Representation.
11) Germany now owns the Mining corporation and Japan owns the Sushi corporation.
12) Switzerland is now owned by Sweden. That is to make Germany unnecessary to invade Switzerland.
13) Added city Stettin and Konigsberg in Germany.
14) Added city Vichy in France.
15) Added city Huanshang, Hanchung and Ganchow and removed city Linchuan in China.
16) Added city Gwalior and Indore and removed city Bhopal in India.
17) Changed some of the city sizes for population balance.
18) Added some defensive units in eastern Germany and western Russia.
19) Some Japanese marines now relocated to Haikow for easier invasion on Indochina.
20) Added many artillery to many nations.
21) Added two anti-tanks in Russia.
22) Added many rebellion culture to those cities that are owned by foreign nations. For example, Warsaw has minor nation's culture and Aleppo has Turkey's culture.
23) The minor nation flag will use Poland's flag (since Switzerland no longer represents minor nations).
24) The order of the scenario will be permanently arranged for multi player game.

For 1500AD scenario:
1) Holy Roman Empire is strengthened. Vienna (now capital of HRE) and Cologne are added.
2) Hungary is weakened. Zagreb is removed.
3) Naples is added (owned by Spain); Toulouse is added (owned by France).
4) Ottoman is strengthened.
5) Macau is added (owned by Ming); Goa is added (owned by Bahmanid).


Version 5.1 Change log
1) Updated to BTS patch 3.1.7.
2) Included Solver’s unofficial patch and Better AI mod.
3) Borrowed flags from “Road to War” and used to created more pseudo civs.
4) In 1940AD on GEM, India is now significantly reduced in power.
5) In 1940AD on GEM, the western front army distribution has been changed.
6) In 1940AD on GEM, modern flags borrowed “Road to War” have been incorporated.
7) In 1940AD on GEM, added some minor religions to some American cities.
8) In all 3 scenarios, the diplomatic relationship setting among each state, reduced by a factor of 10. For example, Germany was -100 to Britain, now it is -10.
8) Harbor and Cothon now produces +1 commerce on water tiles and reduced to +25% increase of trade profit
9) Gunship’s movement is reduced to 4.
10) As according to 3.1.7, attack submarine now cost 200.


Version 4.2 Change log
1) Modified the landscape of Canada, USA and Australia. (See the attached map for more details).
2) Minor changes in resource placement. (See the attached xls for more details).
3) Bundled with the 1500AD scenario on GEM.


Version 4.1.1 Change log
Fixed some 'floodplain issues'. There should be no tiles starting with more than 4 breads in this version. Nothing else has changed.


Version 4.1 Change log
1) Floodplains and resources were added to some of the civilizations starting locations. These civs include: Maya, Aztec, Inca, Arabia, Mongol, Ethiopia, Persia and India. (See the attached xls for more details).
2) Many new islands are added to the map. These islands include: Malta, Ionian Islands, Hong Kong, Outer Hebrides, Zanzibar, Iwo Jima, Midway, Netherland Antilles, Cayman Islands, etc. (See the attached map for more details)


Version 4.0 Change log
1) Developed base on v2.2.
2) Used the new CvGameCoreDLL.dll for 40 Civ BTS developed by Mikel Olson in the civ fanatics’ forum.
3) Resource changes – refer to the excel file.
4) Modified Southern French coast by shifting Spain one tile south west. Spain and morocco are modified because of this change.
5) Eastern Europe is modified. Slightly increased the size of Romania and Hungary and decreased the size of Germany and Poland.
6) Increased the size of East Coast USA.
7) Increased the size of Indochina Peninsula.
8) Removed all floodplains on grasslands and plains. Floodplains can now exist on desert tiles.
9) Using the new civs and new leaders in BTS, 36 civs are placed on the map. China and India both have an extra civ to fill in the area.
10) All civs started with Noble difficulties.

Version 1.0 to v3.1 http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=184684




References and Acknowledgement

v1.0
[1] Collins, Complete World Altas, 2005.
[2] The Jacaranda Atlas 4th Ed., 1992.
[3] Australian Geographic, Antique Globe.
[3] FAOSTAT (FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANIZATION OF THE UNITED NATIONS), http://faostat.fao.org.
[4] BGS (British Geology Survey), World Mineral Production 2000-2004, 2006, http://www.bgs.ac.uk.
[5] World Biomes, http://www.blueplanetbiomes.org/world_biomes.htm.
[6] Elephant Care International, http://www.elephantcare.org/stats.htm.
[7] Rhye, Earth map, 24 civs [for Warlords]. http://forums.civfanatics.com/downlo...do=file&id=175
[8] BP, Statistical Review of World Energy, http://www.bp.com/statisticalreview

A special thanks to Kswoll for his MapEditor. Without it, I can't possibily do cut and paste sooo many times to get the right scale I want for building this map. http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=144414

v1.14
[9] WHAT'S AN ALPACA? http://www.belleauwood.com/What.htm
[10] Copper From the Bronze Age to the Fall of Rome http://www.unr.edu/sb204/geology/rome.html
[11] Llama http://www.wildanimalsonline.com/mammals/llama.php
[12] Perseid New Civilization: Thailand - Version 1.1. Used for Thai city names and other civ texts http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=155837
[13] Whaling History. http://www.whales.org.au/history/index.html

Wikipedia was used for miscellaneous purposes that are sometimes not recorded.

v1.15
[14] Cyprus-Island of Copper. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/cyco/hd_cyco.htm
[15] Marble and More, World Stone Industry: Leading Quarrying Productions. http://www.marbleandmore.com/econ/quarrypro.asp
[16] StoneWorld, Year End Statistic (2005 Year-End Statistics). http://www.stoneworld.com/SW/Protect...5yearstats.pdf
[17] University College London (2003), Horses in Ancient Egypt. http://www.digitalegypt.ucl.ac.uk/fo...ion/horse.html

Wikipedia was used for miscellaneous purposes that are sometimes not recorded.

v2.0
[18] Wikipedia, Athabasca Oil Sands, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athabasca_Oil_Sands
[19] USGS, International Minerals Statistics and Information, http://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/country/
[20] UNEP-WCMC, Global Distribution of Original and Remaining Forests, http://www.unep-wcmc.org/forest/original.htm
[21] USGS, Global Land Cover Characteristics Data Base Version 2.0, http://edcsns17.cr.usgs.gov/glcc/globe_int.html
[22] DK, Atlas of World History, 1999.
[23] Hamed A. Ead, Ancient Egyptian Science, http://www.touregypt.net/science.htm.
[24] Early iron in China, Korea, and Japan, http://www.staff.hum.ku.dk/dbwagner/.../KoreanFe.html

Thank goes to the test play team: Lord Oden, DodgyDave, alaskanfred and Marmoteo

v4.0
[25] The economist intelligence unit and the cartographic department of the Clarendon Press, Oxford Economic Atlas of the World, 3rd ed., 1965.

v5.0
[26] Population Statistic, http://www.populstat.info.


v5.1
A special thanks to Ace of Spades for helping to compile the 40 civ dll.
This version also “borrowed” the flags from Road to War.

v5.3
[1]CivGold for the leaderheads and civipedia.
[2]Road to War for the flags and leaderheads.

v6.0
[1]Using Better AI v0.45. Thanks the Better AI team and Ace of Spades to compile it for GEM.

v6.1
[1]Using Better AI v0.60. Thanks the Better AI team and Ace of Spades to compile it for GEM.

v6.2
[1]Using RevolutionDCM as the base. Thanks the RevolutionDCM mod team for the great mod.

FAQ related to GEM

Q: The game is very slow, it takes XXX minutes between each turn!
A: This is a fact we need to live with when playing Giant-sized map. Nothing I can do about.

Q: Can I modify GEM and incorporated into XXX mod?
A: Everything is possible. However, depending on the mod you want to merge into, the time and effort required can be significant. You will need to spend your own time to find out how to merge them. The good news is that, everything from this civfanatic is open sourced. The bad news is that I will not be able to give you any assistant in that aspect.

Q: Is GEM Multiplayer compatible?
A: Yes. It should. But it is always problematic when playing MP with mod.

Q: What is civ "Yue"?? Is this Cantonese??
A: Yue people:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yue_%28peoples%29
In ancient time, Yue is used to refer to the people in southern China. Southern China contains hundreds of different tribes in ancient time. I have used "Bai Yue" as the long name, which means "A hundred Yue" boardly referring to all the southern tribes.
Cantonese could be considered as one of the Yues but assimilated into Han Chinese culture.

Q: The mountains in Germany confuse me. Besides the Alpes seperating Germany from Italy in the south Germany has hardly any real mountains.
A: Actually, I did not define Mountains by their absolute height, but by their relative height in this map.
The reason is that, I want to enable city placement in the highlands. For example, if you look at those regions like Tibet, Andes and Rocky mountain, you will see a lot of hill or plain tiles surrounded by mountain tiles. That's because in relative terms, the tiles that are surrounded by mountain tiles are not as tall. Most of these tiles, however, I used tundra to represent that they are actually highlands.
For Germany, since it is mostly plain land in reality, smaller hills might featured as mountains in this map.

Q: Argentina, Brazil and all of south america has no cows! The thing is that the region is the second biggest exporter of meat.
A: There are two versions of Plain GEM. The ancient resource version will simulate the resource distribution on Earth before the 16th century. At that time, all of south america really doesn't have any cows. However, according to wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpaca
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Llama

There were two animals called "llama" and "Alpaca", which were domesticated by native americans, like Sheeps and Cows correspondingly from the Old World. So what I thought was, to give some sheeps in the Americas to represent these animals.

For Oceania, since there was no domestication, I've used deer to represent Kangaroos and Emus, that Australia has plenty.

Q: Why doesn't XX resource included in XX area? It was necessary because ...
A: Firstly, there are only limited number of tiles and we can't represent everything on the map. Secondly, it is difficult to obtain an objective and world-wide statistic for any time earlier than a century ago. For example, the stat I used from FAOSTAT gives info back to 1960s (mostly for food resources). The BGS stat I've used for mineral resources gives info only back to 2000AD. But in either case, I've already used the highest production year for any region to mitigate effects of abnormal production rate at a certain year.

Q: I can't view the top players in the list to the right, you can only view roughly the bottom ~25 players.
A: This is a problem for people playing at normal resolution. I am ok because I am playing at 1680 * 1050 resolution so I can see all 36 civs on the right. There is a mod to include a scrolling scoreboard that you can install yourself. See the suggested add-ons for more info.

Q: Why does Ottoman started in the central Asia? Is it not Istanbul?
A: I have changed Ottoman to mean Turk in GEM. Some other civilizations are also changed, Byzantine -> Hungary; Holy Roman -> Poland; Portugal -> Brazil; Celt -> Australia.

Suggested add-ons

Disclaimer: I recommend you to consider the following add-on. But most of them requires some computer knowledge and CIV modding knowledge. I suggest if you are not comfortable with doing any of the add-on, either just forget about it or make these changes in a very cautious manner. I can only provide limited support with these issues as well as I cannot guarantee the add-ons will work on your computer.

GEM Add-on leaderhead:
This is the only add-on that is managed by me. Provides lots of new leaderhead graphics that are compatible with GEM v5.3 or later. Follow the instruction listed on the site:
http://forums.civfanatics.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=10829


Crash to Desktop fix:
Thanks for gidds for reporting:
"There is a solution for the crash to desktop due to "Bad Allocation Memory". I have been using this on your map, and only crashed once as I used the graph settings on Max. After switching it a notch back, no probs ever arose anymore:

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=224178"


Blue Marble:
This graphics mod doesn't affect gameplay but improves the graphics of Civ 4.

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=232604


BUG:
Note: from version 6.2 onward, RevDCM is included in GEM as a default, and hence it is no longer required to install BUG separately by yourself.
BUG is mod that improves the interface of CIV and it doesn't affect gameplay. Note that BUG will cause a conflict with GEM if you just install it in the custom asset folder. It is because GEM uses Better AI and the two have some conflicts in python. But the two can be merged relatively simple.

First, install BUG from here: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=274636.
Then followed exactly the method mentioned in here: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=296534
and use the method "If you installed BUG 3.5 to CustomAssets and want to install Better AI as a standalone Mod:"

Then you will get BUG to work with GEM!


Scrolling diplomatic Screen:
Note: from version 6.2 onward, RevDCM is included in GEM as a default, and hence it is no longer required to install this separately by yourself.

Include this if you don't like BUG
Thanks for JEELEN for reporting:
"It seems to me it might fix the civs scrolling off screen"

http://forums.civfanatics.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=10972

I don't want to include it in GEM by default because I don't have a problem with it and don't want to waste my visible gameplay screen space for the scroll.

It only has one file so it should be a easy merge. But remember, use WinMerge with the existing file in GEM if you want to keep everything.

Information about the future update
As I am thinking of phasing out from CIV, I am not anticipating to release any more new scenarios. But if time allowed, some more scenarios could be done for a GEM version 7 and tops in my list are 2010AD, 600AD and 1200AD. Currently, no expected date of release.

My latest activities:

1) Playing 1860AD and 1940AD scenarios :)

Almost forgot: congrats on your new Civ4 - Giant Earth mod section!:thumbsup:

Almost forgot: congrats on your new Civ4 - Giant Earth mod section!:thumbsup:

Thanks for your support :D

Looks great!

One point on the resources though - as far as I'm aware, it's possible to program in a script which spreads resources to and from the new world at around the age of discovery (I know Rhye has done this, so you might want to see him about it).

Are you gonig to add the cotton tabacco and pottato resources?

Looks great!

One point on the resources though - as far as I'm aware, it's possible to program in a script which spreads resources to and from the new world at around the age of discovery (I know Rhye has done this, so you might want to see him about it).

Thanks for your suggestion. Thats something good to do but at the moment not my priority.

Are you gonig to add the cotton tabacco and pottato resources?

There will be no new resources, at least in Version 5.

Q: How do I choose what civs to play against in a single player game?

Dear Genghis,

do you have an idea when version 5 is ready for download? :-)
cant wait to try your 200bc-scenario ... i realy love playing the romans and make them survive untill modern times ...

I would say about two more weeks.

Hi...when i load your mod its give this error....reading error....what is that?
how can i fix it??

'reading error'? never heard of this.

Progress update: Version 5.0 - Expecting to release on 15 Jun 2008!

With the 200BC scenario moving along quite well the last two nights, I am anticipating to complete it by this coming weekend. Then one more week for my own testplay and final touchups. I am relatively comfortable with the release date this time.

Can you implement latest Bhruic pach 1.21 in GEM version of DLL please?I use Lt.Bob 1.11 GEM modification of Bhruic patch on your maps,but he did not implement new 1.21 Bhruic patch.Can you do it Genghis Kai?

Version 5.0 is released!

Great! I guess I won't finish conquering the Earth as the HRE on the old map now :-) Can't wait to try the new version, thank you for your efforts!

Best Regards,
Ace

I first tried your mod about a month ago, and it pretty much single handedly revived my interest in Civ. While I haven't taken more than a quick glance at the new version yet, it looks to be great. The 200BC scenario in particualr seems like it'll be a lot of fun, and increasing unit movement speeds and adding production to water tiles was a good move.

There are a few things that I don't like (like the Longbowman's strength reduction), but those are pretty easily changed. All in all, you've done excellent work.

There are a few things that I don't like (like the Longbowman's strength reduction), but those are pretty easily changed. All in all, you've done excellent work.

Feel free to comment on the changes. I am willing and actually prepared to make changes after more gameplay feedback has been collected.

The reason I reduced the Longbowman's strength from 6 -> 5 and Crossbowman's melee bonus from 50% -> 25% is because I would like to reduce the advantage of these defense units, which I think they were too strong.

Just DLed v. 5.0, will post comment after some gameplay. (BTW, it's not yet listed as a New/Updated File nor in the DL Database.);)

(BTW, it's not yet listed as a New/Updated File nor in the DL Database.);)

What do you mean? I uploaded version 5 in the same DL database entry replacing the previous version. Should I do something to mark it as a new/updated file?

That's probably it: after uploading MOO2Civ (Patch4), which basically is a Full Install (i.e. complete modpack), I noticed it didn't show up as a new file; Moderators couldn't figure out why, but I reckon it's because I used the same page as for Patch3 - so I reuploaded using a new page and then it was fine. (But if you don't want to do that, entering a post on the New/Updated Files can get you in on the next frontpage survey by woodelf.)

Thanks for putting all the time and effort into creating this mod/map. I've really enjoyed playing on it, and it has made Civ IV far more enjoyable than it was before.

I do have some general comments/suggestions. First, I noticed that in changes to the units, the ranges of the air units was kept the same. I tend to increase the air unit range even in large or huge maps, as the game's given unit range is far too small to be realistic to how far real life air units could travel. With the giant sized map, this discrepency is far larger, so I would figure on at least doubling the range of most air units (missiles as well), if not tripling the jet age units and such.

Second, I noticed that the civs with dumby leaders (Australia, Hungary, etc.) have the city names and leader names, etc. of the dumby civ and not the civ you intended for them. I just want to give you a heads up to this, if you didn't already know.

Finally, I notice that in between the Phillipines and Guam, when I first load the map, there will be something akin to a red meshed hyperbola extending up from the map surface. It goes away after I load up the map more than once, and I can't put my finger on where I've seen this before (perhaps when I've tried hand drawing a map before or attempted changes on already existing map files??). Anyway, the main thing is that the map is exceptionally playable; I've taken the liberty of modding in the air unit changes on my computer but if you don't see the need it's most certainly not the most necessary thing in the world.

1stcontact2035

First, I noticed that in changes to the units, the ranges of the air units was kept the same. I tend to increase the air unit range even in large or huge maps, as the game's given unit range is far too small to be realistic to how far real life air units could travel. With the giant sized map, this discrepency is far larger, so I would figure on at least doubling the range of most air units (missiles as well), if not tripling the jet age units and such.
1stcontact2035

Thanks for your feedback. In regards to the air units, I tend to think the current range is suitable - during WW2, planes doesn't have such a long range of attack. It is also for gameplay reason that airplane's range cannot be too far - otherwise aircraft carrier would be useless.


Second, I noticed that the civs with dumby leaders (Australia, Hungary, etc.) have the city names and leader names, etc. of the dumby civ and not the civ you intended for them. I just want to give you a heads up to this, if you didn't already know.

I thought I have fixed that already. Probably I uploaded the wrong file or something - it could be those bugs you get when rushing to made the release date :crazyeye: Anywya, my plan is to review the civilization/leaderheads of GEM, possibly adding some true ones in v5.1.


Finally, I notice that in between the Phillipines and Guam, when I first load the map, there will be something akin to a red meshed hyperbola extending up from the map surface. It goes away after I load up the map more than once, and I can't put my finger on where I've seen this before (perhaps when I've tried hand drawing a map before or attempted changes on already existing map files??).
1stcontact2035
I've got no idea what it is.

New patch is out. If I download the new patch to play online games will all the mods I downloaded no longer work since I might download the new patch?

New patch is out. If I download the new patch to play online games will all the mods I downloaded no longer work since I might download the new patch?

Yes, in deed. Will need to check out if GEM v5 is compatible with the new patch.

I like the many changes, dont see any problems yet with them, the change of coast and ocean is very nice, so you can finally do something with those cities on islands or with cities with too many water squares :)

I'm sorry, but i have to tell you that GEM and the new official Patch 3.17 for BtS does not work any longer. Game Crashes after Initializing.

This happens with my GEM 4.2 while loading a saved GEM Multiplayer Game and also on starting a new SinglePlayer Game

Thanks for Help,

Ciao, SAF

OH well. That means if I download the patch my current game will probably not work even though it's not a earth game. In my current game Im playing as the roman. Israel is surrounded by Saddam Hussein, Adolph Hitler and the Iranian leader. lol I will wait until eznaz mod is updated, hitler mod, iranian mod and giant earth map is updated before I download this new patch.

the 200 bc mod is great.

I'm sorry, but i have to tell you that GEM and the new official Patch 3.17 for BtS does not work any longer. Game Crashes after Initializing.

This happens with my GEM 4.2 while loading a saved GEM Multiplayer Game and also on starting a new SinglePlayer Game

Thanks for Help,

Ciao, SAF

Sad to know, but somewhat expected (more work more work) :(

How do you update a scenario to the new patch? Do you have to load the patch and then just the whole scenario?!

How do you update a scenario to the new patch? Do you have to load the patch and then just the whole scenario?!

Checking the change log with the new patch, there seems to be a lot of adjustments on the xml files as well. This means the general modifications I've made for v5 would need to be redone on the xml files coming with the new patch. Moreover, I will need to modify the new CvGameCoreDLL.dll file to enables 40civs to be played simultaneously.

But I don't think we will need to do anything at the scenario level, unless you also have some modification of your own.

Well, yes I have changed some XML files in my scenario, I guess it's actually a mod. So, I just have to redo them?

I've not done any own modifications. Simply GEM 4.2 for itself does not run any longer.

Are there no problems with GEM 5.0

SAF

I've not done any own modifications. Simply GEM 4.2 for itself does not run any longer.

Are there no problems with GEM 5.0

SAF

Do you mean GEM 5.0 can actually run on patch 3.17?

That would be pretty awesome... I was under the impression I'd have to finish my current games before upgrading.

Genghis_Kai thank you for the time and effort first off. I have installed 3.17 and just wandering how soon you estimate it will be when you update GEM for it?
Also with 2.5GB of ram what is the longest you could possibly think a in depth game could take between turns?

Do you mean GEM 5.0 can actually run on patch 3.17?

No, I don't know if GEM 5.0 runs on BtS 3.17. I did'nt test it because i thought it could lead to problems that do not allow to play the saved MP-Game any longer.

Thanks for your great Mod and Greetz!
SAF

Nope it doesm't work :mad:

Nope it doesm't work :mad:

So sad.

I didn't dare to upgrade the patch myself too. At the moment I just want to play own mod/scenarios.

So sad.

I didn't dare to upgrade the patch myself too. At the moment I just want to play own mod/scenarios.

Any chance that you can find the glitch? It seems to get stuck on the graphics ini. I actually only play this map, its awesome, and now I cant....:sad:

Any chance that you can find the glitch? It seems to get stuck on the graphics ini. I actually only play this map, its awesome, and now I cant....:sad:

I am playing the new scenarios and so not really looking at compatibility with the new patch.

Well it said that the patch was compatible with prior saves never occured to me that it would make the patch inoperative

I hope you fix it this is my favorite map and I couldn't wait to start playing 5.0 I am actually considering uninstalling the game. Let me know if you are planning to fix so as to know how to proceed.

I hope you fix it this is my favorite map and I couldn't wait to start playing 5.0 I am actually considering uninstalling the game. Let me know if you are planning to fix so as to know how to proceed.

I think I am now pretty certain that since GEM uses a modified dll, I will need to do something to make GEM compatible with patch 3.1.7. Now, I haven't work on the dll file before so I will wait and see if anyone out there is making it so that we can grab and use.

That would be great. Although I still had errors come up when using patch 313:confused:

It was fine for awhile then about 30 turns into the game it wouldn't let me load it again. I just gave up on it but will retry if it is adjusted for 317.

That would be great. Although I still had errors come up when using patch 313:confused:

It was fine for awhile then about 30 turns into the game it wouldn't let me load it again. I just gave up on it but will retry if it is adjusted for 317.

I haven't done anything on GEM for patch 317, so don't bother trying it. Would your problem be the old 'crash to desktop' problem due to running out of memory?

So, what kind of DLL do you need? Only a 40 player dll? Or is there something else that has to be in the dll, like the humungous map size?

A 40-player DLL can be found here:

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=234779

Best Regards,
Ace

I haven't done anything on GEM for patch 317, so don't bother trying it. Would your problem be the old 'crash to desktop' problem due to running out of memory?

Nope (an error pop up then the game quit completely), maybe it was due to an error on my part although I am sure I had 313 installed. I'm thinking I may have needed a clean install but I will retry to double check. As of the moment I am playing w/317 so its not a big deal. Ill just hope and try GEM again if its updated.

Thanks for your effort and concern!

I haven't done anything on GEM for patch 317, so don't bother trying it. Would your problem be the old 'crash to desktop' problem due to running out of memory?


There is a solution for the crash to desktop due to "Bad Allocation Memory". I have been using this on your map, and only crashed once as I used the graph settings on Max. After switching it a notch back, no probs ever arose anymore:

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=224178

A said, I hope that the solution is a simple one, your Earth Map really rules!! Would be a waste if its lost to us..

Disregard what I wrote about the 40-player DLL. It's only for 3.13 yet, sorry.

Best Regards,
Ace

I just found this Mod. It looks like a labor of love to me. Really nice work was put into this and I can't wait to try it out. I unfortunately updated with the new patch, so I will wait a bit to see if you are able to get it upgraded. If not, I may try a clean install and just install up to 3.13 to try this out. Thanks for the hard work and keep it up.

Also (I wasn't sure where to mention this), but on the main page they recently put up a list of downloads from the community. Geomodders Ethnic Cityscapes looks really good. I thought that it would add a lot to your Mod. This is one I would deffiantley recommend cchecking out (also of course the ethnically diverse units mods).

I have now also gone through every thread, and this particular Mod appears (can't say for certain as I havn't tried it yet of course) to be right up their with my other favorite RFC Mod. That is the only other one I really play. Now it seems I might just have two. :)

I successfully got GEM working with 3.17 just by recompiling the 3.17 DLL with 40 players instead of 18 and replacing the DLL that comes with GEM with the new one. Dunno if it causes any weird stuff (I don't know what else the original GEM DLL changes) but I did load a scenario successfully.

I successfully got GEM working with 3.17 just by recompiling the 3.17 DLL with 40 players instead of 18 and replacing the DLL that comes with GEM with the new one. Dunno if it causes any weird stuff (I don't know what else the original GEM DLL changes) but I did load a scenario successfully.

I have not changed any thing in the dll file. What you are doing should work. However, the XML files that I've moded are developed on 3.1.3 and will not reflect the changes implemented in 3.1.7. So what you are doing is basically, updating half of GEM but not all.

Could you send me the modded dll file? I never looked into the source code before and it would save me a lot time if I don't need to figure out where things are in there.

Sorry, I can't post the updated DLL, it's not "clean" - it also includes the changes from my unofficial patch. The only required change is in CvDefines.h, where it says


#define MAX_CIV_PLAYERS (18)

Changing the number to 40. Your XML files are still from 3.13, but it's not missing too much stuff, actually. 3.17 didn't change *that* much in the XML, the UnitInfos file is the most important one that changed.

Sorry, I can't post the updated DLL, it's not "clean" - it also includes the changes from my unofficial patch. The only required change is in CvDefines.h, where it says


#define MAX_CIV_PLAYERS (18)

Changing the number to 40. Your XML files are still from 3.13, but it's not missing too much stuff, actually. 3.17 didn't change *that* much in the XML, the UnitInfos file is the most important one that changed.

Tried this immediatly after, but didnt work for me....

Well, I did try this, but strangely enough, there seems to be an error in the SDK supplied with 3.17 (in CvUnitAi.cpp) and it refuses to compile... that's something that I cannot fix, since I do not know enough about the intended behaviour of the line that produces the error (Line 371, the "iI" is undeclared).

Best Regards,
Ace

Ace, you must be using Visual Studio 2005 then. It's caused by failure to conform to standard C++ for-scope behaviour. You can actually compile the game with VS2005, but it will crash upon loading.

Yes, that's it. However, I do have VS2003 (and possibly VS2008) available, too. I guess, I'll try with VS2003 then, once I get home.

Thanks for pointing this out, this would not have occured to me otherwise that the failure was VS2005 related.

Best Regards,
Ace

Ace, you must be using Visual Studio 2005 then. It's caused by failure to conform to standard C++ for-scope behaviour. You can actually compile the game with VS2005, but it will crash upon loading.

Mmm... I only have VS2005. Is there anyway I can work around it?

I'm not aware of a way to make Civ4 work with VS2005. To compile successfully, you just need to turn off for-loop conformance:

http://tokage.celartem.com/sdk/images/vs8_prop2.png

In that screen, the for loop conformance setting should be "no". That makes the SDK compile but BtS will crash as soon as you try to start a new game or load a save. And sadly I don't know anyone who has managed to get it working with 2005.

I'm not aware of a way to make Civ4 work with VS2005. To compile successfully, you just need to turn off for-loop conformance:



In that screen, the for loop conformance setting should be "no". That makes the SDK compile but BtS will crash as soon as you try to start a new game or load a save. And sadly I don't know anyone who has managed to get it working with 2005.

Thanks Solver. I also have VS6. Would that help?

Anyway, I think I probably will wait for someone else to do the 40civ fix and then update GEM for 3.1.7.

VS6 wouldn't help either; that's too old to compile Civ4 on. I haven't actually tried it, but there are far more differences between VS6 and VS2003 than there are between VS2003 and VS2005.

As I just upgraded to 3.17, I successfully compiled Solver's unofficial patch 0.19 after changing the maximum number of players to 40 and used it as DLL for GEM v5. Many thanks to Solver for providing me with the info how to compile it.

Seems to work just fine - I hope it's okay to post it. If you encounter any errors, please let me know, then I must have made some mistake compiling.

Best Regards,
Ace

Update: It seems I am able to load older savegames from GEM that were created with 3.13 even after updating to 3.17 with the new DLL.

Best Regards,
Ace

I can just download it, and use it to replace the old CVGameCore from GEM?

That should work. At least, it did for me... I would backup your old file first, though - just in case my DLL does not work. It has not been tested intensively, however some quick tests proved no errors so far (played for about 2 hours).

Best Regards,
Ace

Cool and thxn for the work.
Going to try it out now. :)

Ace, that was with VS2003 after all, right?

As I just upgraded to 3.17, I successfully compiled Solver's unofficial patch 0.19 after changing the maximum number of players to 40 and used it as DLL for GEM v5. Many thanks to Solver for providing me with the info how to compile it.

Seems to work just fine - I hope it's okay to post it. If you encounter any errors, please let me know, then I must have made some mistake compiling.

Best Regards,
Ace

Thanks!:goodjob::goodjob:

Ace, that was with VS2003 after all, right?

Yep, it was VS2003.NET (seems the .NET part does not cause any trouble). I really had no problems at all, it was basically just changing the player numbers to 40 and hitting the "build" button.

By the way, I compiled this in release mode... does it make any difference?

Thanks!:goodjob::goodjob:

You're welcome :-)

Best Regards,
Ace

By release you mean Final Release, right?

Well, I had "Release" "Final Release" "Debug" and "Final Debug" available from the dropdown menu for configuration. I chose "Release".

I'm not sure if it makes a great difference, though. I just had to rename the DLL because VS appended "RELEASE" to the filename.

Best Regards,
Ace

:eek:
I guess i was fortunate to read these forums before i got any patches.I only have 3.13 version as thats the one GK used for his mod.I dont play online so its no biggie for me to get the latest patch although i have it saved ready to use.

Joshua

Ace, you should ideally use the Final Release version, it would be slightly slicker.

Here's a DLL of Better BTS AI v0.21 (includes Solvers Inofficial Patch 0.19) for 40 players, for use with GEM - compiled "final release" this time. It worked for me, but as always, backup your old file first.

Best Regards,
Ace

Ok I guys I am getting a bit confused.

I want to patch to 3.17 but have been waiting so I can play GEM.

If I patch today, and apply Solver's patch, which additional files do I have to add to keep GEM working?

Thanks....

You only need a modified DLL for 40 players - you can just use the one I supplied in the last post, although it does include some additional AI improvements.

If you want a "clean" DLL with only Solvers patch, use the DLL I supplied here. (http://forums.civfanatics.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=181675&d=1214854048)

This should go into the Beyond the Sword\Mods\Giant Earth Map\assets directory and overwrite the current DLL there.

Best Regards,
Ace

Best Regards,
Ace

Great thanks

thanks guys for making it work with 3.17.
i first played this mod perhaps 2 years ago, and it just keeps getting more and more fun.
great job =)

Guys I know this a super nub question..so I have the official 3.17 patch, so now I download the unofficial and extract it to where?Patches in my bts folder?Then download GEM followed by Ace's updated dll correct?

Thank you

What do you want to do? If you want to play GEM only, you just need GEM (goes in the mods folder) and the DLL that I posted.

The DLL includes the Better AI patch v0.21 (which in turn includes Solver's Unofficial Patch v0.19) - I guess there might be some little feature related to XML that was in the XML and is therefore not included, most likely the removal of barrage promotion on armore units - but I have not bothered to check.

If you just download GEM and use my DLL you should be fine.

Best Regards,
Ace

@Ace
Just to make sure and clarify, I replace the current Cvgamecore.dll in GEM with yours?
It may have been answered on the previous page but still wasn't sure..

Thanks allot, much appreciated!

Yes, the one in the Beyond the Sword\Giant Earth Mop\Assets directory.

Best Regards,
Ace

Announcement:

I will update GEM to v5.1 very soon, which will be compatible with BTS 3.17 and have unofficial patch 0.19, Better AI 0.21, and many miscellenous modifications discussed over the last few weeks included.

I have a suggestion. When you select leaders in the general scenario, you only have one leader to choose from of that civilization. For example, Persia only has Cyrus, America only has washington, etc etc. Is there anyway to make it so you can play as every leader in the game in the general Earth with old/new resources scenarios?

I have a suggestion. When you select leaders in the general scenario, you only have one leader to choose from of that civilization. For example, Persia only has Cyrus, America only has washington, etc etc. Is there anyway to make it so you can play as every leader in the game in the general Earth with old/new resources scenarios?

Not so simple to do.

Version 5.1 released! This is compatible with BTS patch 3.1.7.

Just wanted to thank you for your prompt response to my post a month or so ago, Genghis. And a massive thanks on providing such a great map. I've been playing the full BTS mod with 30+ civs and this has been such great fun. Can't wait to get my teeth into 5.1 and some of the scenarios. I'll try and give some more constructive feedback once i've played a bit more!!

Just wanted to thank you for your prompt response to my post a month or so ago, Genghis. And a massive thanks on providing such a great map. I've been playing the full BTS mod with 30+ civs and this has been such great fun. Can't wait to get my teeth into 5.1 and some of the scenarios. I'll try and give some more constructive feedback once i've played a bit more!!

It's my pleasure ;)

I just tried out GEM 5.1 on BtS v. 3.17 and it seems to CTD at init graphics when loading any of the maps.

I can load the mod, but can't load the maps.

I just downloaded v. 3.17 yesterday, along with GEM 5.1. I'm not sure if I accidentally installed GEM 5.0 again or incorrectly installed or something (had to download from separate computer and use travel-drive to install onto this computer due to slow internet).

Anway, I would appreciate any help you could give.

1stcontact2035

I just tried out GEM 5.1 on BtS v. 3.17 and it seems to CTD at init graphics when loading any of the maps.

I can load the mod, but can't load the maps.

I just downloaded v. 3.17 yesterday, along with GEM 5.1. I'm not sure if I accidentally installed GEM 5.0 again or incorrectly installed or something (had to download from separate computer and use travel-drive to install onto this computer due to slow internet).

Anway, I would appreciate any help you could give.

1stcontact2035

Probably it is to do with the new flags or somehow, something wrong with the leaderhead/civilization definition. I can't say why this would happen at this stage.

Can you try loading v5.0's map in v5.1 mod? (if you haven't deleted yet).

With regard to loading v 5.0's map, does that mean taking the map from the v 5.0 mod or simply loading the map that says v 5.0 in the v 5.1 mod? I actually have to dig out a backup disk to hopefully find the v 5.0 mod (I overwrit the mod with the 5.1 mod on my desktop yesterday).

But, I spent the past 30 minutes testing which maps do and don't work using this mod on my computer, and what error I encounter when they don't work. In fact, all of the maps seem to have the exact same error at the exact same moment. I then decided to try something, a hunch on a whim, I took the computer out of full screen mode. When I did, the graphics in the startup menu where all buggy (I can printscreen and post it later for clarity). It was almost as if much of the graphics files where being redirected to the startup files and mixed in somehow, at least it seemed that way visually (especially with the Earth on startup, which was now a mix of what I'm guessing was nearly all of the graphics for the mod strewn together stringing along). I hope I am being clear enough. The figureheads seem to have a "strobe" effect, where they white-out and come back into focus, doing this mutliple times, only to eventually have the whiteout effect win over. I'll be honest, I am in physics and not a computer programmer, but to me it seems like there may be an abstract "link" between the startup menus and the main core graphics of the mod that shouldn't exist.

1stcontact2035

I just tested the scenario..
It looks like a fun map and very strategic
But at 6 minutes and 23 seconds in between turns(yes i timed it on my watch)..well it isnt for me..my comp well exceedes the recomended specs by 2-3 times in many areas...but still massive lag in between turns

I did play 3 turns however, and as britain demolished German Air Force, Germany Navy, took back Amsterdam, and pushed germany to the edge of their city..had infantry paratroopers and marines seiging a german city..
This was on Diety
To me it seemed pretty easy though, like all of CIV4 is
With the AI never transporting units by boat or anything, it becomes like taking candy from a baby...would be especilly easy to play germany cuz not like british or americans gonna land troops in Normandy, heck you prolly wont fight any of their ground units at all aside from the inital ones at start that britain owns

Hello Kai,

did you perchance not include all of the leaderhead data into the zip file for download? I am having problems with my game crashing whenever I encounter Hirohito, Chiang, Hitler or Mussolini. Seems like some data is missing there, and this causes the game to crash.

Best Regards,
Martin / Ace

Oh well... sorry for posting prematurely. This is not exactly a GEM Bug. It only happened to me because I do use GEM as my standard mod (like the settings) and was playing a custom game, where these leaders were used by the AI, since they are default for some of the new civs.

They are not in the scenario, so there's no problem then. However... is there any way for me to get the correct leaderheads?

Best Regards,
Martin / Ace

P.S.: I copied those from the "Road to War" mod for now. Their quality is a bit sub-standard compared to the other civ4 leaderheads, but they seem to work, so at least I can recover my crashing saved game :-)

did you perchance not include all of the leaderhead data into the zip file for download?

I think the game error I'm having may be related. I noticed that v5.0 was a larger file by about 2 or 3 mb when I copy and replaced on my computer than v 5.1.

--> To ask an already asked question, Ghengis Kai, are there perhaps some files that weren't uploaded, I'd say between 2-5 mb worth???

1stcontact2035

I think the game error I'm having may be related. I noticed that v5.0 was a larger file by about 2 or 3 mb when I copy and replaced on my computer than v 5.1.

--> To ask an already asked question, Ghengis Kai, are there perhaps some files that weren't uploaded, I'd say between 2-5 mb worth???

1stcontact2035

There are a total of five new leaderheads I've incorporated in my own development version, Hirohito, Chiang, Hitler, Mussolini and Menzies. Like I said somewhere else in the forum, including just one of the leaderhead would excess the 10MB upload limit. So what I did in version 5.1 is that, I have defined all these new leaderheads in the XML files but removed the art files. I have tested many times that there should be no problem for this because no scenarios at the moment uses any of them. Even if you open civilopedia in game and try to read about any of the new leaders, you will only see blanks but it won't crash.

I have also disabled playing a game on random maps where you can freely choose which civ you want to play (in this case, if someone choose any of the new leaderhead would result a CTD). So unless you changed the default setting, there should be no problem.

In the future, I am thinking of posting individual leaderhead graphics for you to 'plug' into the mod, thats why I've included them in the XML files already.

I think the game error I'm having may be related. I noticed that v5.0 was a larger file by about 2 or 3 mb when I copy and replaced on my computer than v 5.1.

--> To ask an already asked question, Ghengis Kai, are there perhaps some files that weren't uploaded, I'd say between 2-5 mb worth???

1stcontact2035

Also, I think you must be somehow mistaken the reading. v5.1 (3.4MB) is significantly bigger than v5.0 (2.7MB).

This is a superb mod. Although seeing Alexander on the modern resource map with at least 52 galleys by turn 460 on a Marathon game was somewhat alarming.

Also, I think you must be somehow mistaken the reading. v5.1 (3.4MB) is significantly bigger than v5.0 (2.7MB).

I think we've both gotten a little sidetracked from the main issue: the map freezes and crashes on the load-up screen when loading init graphics. Please continue working towards fixing said problem, and I'll continue working on my end towards locating any bugs, etc. that I can find on my computer. I've already narrowed things down a bit: #1 I merged folders when I extracted GEM v 5.1, and something could have been left over from v 5.0 that messed up 5.1. #2 If any of my unit asset changes I made to v 5.0 were left intact, it may have messed up v 5.1 somehow. With regard to graphics interacting with startup menus in windowed mode, I noticed that the graphics were all screwy in windowed mode with everything (yes, every single thing). I'll run a quick test to see if this is related somehow to the new GEM version (simply pull the folder out and then place it back in afterwards, though I may want to see if putting a brand new folder will solve the issue). I may do other tests as well, and I'll post them as I do them.

1stcontact2035

Fixed the problem.

All I needed to do was delete the previous GEM folder from my Mods folder and then re-extract the GEM into the Mods folder. Fixed it right up. I should have figured it was something to the effect when the Modern Resouce Map version was 5.0 and not 5.1.

Just wanted to say thanks for fixing the mod.

I just tested the scenario..
It looks like a fun map and very strategic
But at 6 minutes and 23 seconds in between turns(yes i timed it on my watch)..well it isnt for me..my comp well exceedes the recomended specs by 2-3 times in many areas...but still massive lag in between turns

its an amazing map and NO ONES comp exceeds recommended specs by 2-3 times on the Giant Earth Map :lol:
its not lag, its computation, and there is a lot of computatation that gets involved. best thing to do is, play the map whilst you are doing something else. I'm at about 1850 AD now on a quite mammoth game, probably about 350 turns in and its taking about 12 minutes per turn. Not because of 'lag', not because my computer is 'slow', but because there are about 23 million soldiers in the Old world, and they aint even modern yet! (ie 700plus? units)
but yeah, to have titanic battles and amazing strategic depth, this is the price we gotta pay =)
edit: and thats on emperor level, since you say you're a diety player, they'd probably be modern by then. imagine that! 0_o

hello! im playing the mod and so far i loved it! i dont know how to map but thats a great work!

i came here becasuse i started playing with portuguese civ in BTS, and it started somewhere near Rio de Janeiro, and i got desapointed because people keep mistaking portuguese people with brasilian people!:sad:
we portuguese only found Brasil in 1500ad!
but probably starting in Portugal it might be hard to expand with the spanish right beside us... inst it? i didnt get to europe yet...
but its a great job there! :goodjob:

hello! im playing the mod and so far i loved it! i dont know how to map but thats a great work!

i came here becasuse i started playing with portuguese civ in BTS, and it started somewhere near Rio de Janeiro, and i got desapointed because people keep mistaking portuguese people with brasilian people!:sad:
we portuguese only found Brasil in 1500ad!
but probably starting in Portugal it might be hard to expand with the spanish right beside us... inst it? i didnt get to europe yet...
but its a great job there! :goodjob:

It was a game play decision for placing Portugese to start in Rio de Janeiro. For the plain maps, I need to make all civs to start more balanced. If you want realism, try the scenarios.

I don't even know where to post this question.

I am working on making mod which "combines" Next War and GEM (for the time being) and have everything done except the fact that entering worldbuilder causes game to CTD via a misread with CvCoreDLL file that came with GEM v 5.1. I don't know how to compile SDK, and I am unsure how to post the entire mod at this point (25 MB zipped), so if anybody could help me with this I will be very grateful (I figured the file in question came from here, and if anyone knew how to change it to fix the problem Ghengis Kai or someone else in this forum).

1stcontact
Hopefully future creator of GEM with Next War Mod v0.1

That is rather strange. Everything else works?

I was the one who compiled the DLL in the SDK (although not the one who made the changes to it). Maybe you can mail the mod to me?

You could PM me for my email address.

Best Regards,
Ace

great! now i dont have to keep deleting the 3.17 patch when i play GEM and then downloading it again after im finished, so i can play a random game

GEM v5.2 is released!

Did the download work for any of you? Only returns errors for me.

Ya not working for me either

There is some problem for the upload in civfanatic. I will try to upload it asap.

Besides, I have emailed v5.2 to those joining PBEM game.

Hey any news on the upload?

I want to play this weekend!:cry:

Just tried to upload again but still no luck.

The issue is already made aware to the administrator. Hopefully it will be fixed soon.

Darn it:mad:

Just tried to upload again but still no luck.

The issue is already made aware to the administrator. Hopefully it will be fixed soon.


Just in case...this is the error message.

Warning: copy(./downloads/40028-giant_earth_map.zip) [function.copy]: failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /downloads.php on line 706
ERROR: File not found.

Can you upload your mod on some torrent?

Can you upload your mod on some torrent?

Of course I can. But I was told the issue will be fixed within 24 hours (that was yesterday). so i didn't bother to go look else where.

Version 5.2 is now properly uploaded.

Sweet! Gonna try this out.

Hay, do you also have a clean version of the modern resource map (clean meaning no civilizations on it)? If so I would appreciate if you could upload that one also. Thanks :)

I had a probem. Figured it out.

First I have to say your map/mod is great. Requires a lot of time of course, but the price is worth it.

And then I have to report 2 bugs I have when playing the BTS version (I have BTS 3.17):

-When I played as Mongols I couldn't build Keshliks! Also no Horse Archers.

-The 200BC Scenario doesn't work at all. The error message is:
Failed to read worldbuilder file "mods\giant earth map\privatemaps\200bc on gem v1.2.civbeyondswordwbsave"

First I have to say your map/mod is great. Requires a lot of time of course, but the price is worth it.

And then I have to report 2 bugs I have when playing the BTS version (I have BTS 3.17):

-When I played as Mongols I couldn't build Keshliks! Also no Horse Archers.

-The 200BC Scenario doesn't work at all. The error message is:

Thank you for reporting. Yes, there must be some bug in the 200BC scenario. I am surprise no one else reported it. I think it must be a minor bug during the update to v5.2.

in regards to Keshiks, you realise I have changed Keshiks to replace Knights instead of Horse Archers right? So you meant you can't even build Horse Archers? Which map did you play on?

Everyone, I just fixed the bug for the 200BC scenario. Please download v5.2.1 again.

Just tried with the latest version and it seems to work ok but on a old save the game seem to think that the russians are arabic, flag changed etc.

1) Some more proper flags for the 1940AD scenario. I haven't decided whether or not to include custom leaderheads. One idea I have currently is to provide separate download for each customised leaderhead. So users will have to download them individually and place it under the mod. Another version of the scenarios which points to the new leaderheads will also be downloaded separately.

deanej released an Arts & Sounds pack for Star Trek Beta 3; perhaps that's an idea for the LHs?

in regards to Keshiks, you realise I have changed Keshiks to replace Knights instead of Horse Archers right? So you meant you can't even build Horse Archers? Which map did you play on?

I played your 5.2 map, ancient recourse. I couldn't build horse archers, i couldn't build keshliks, I COULD build Knights

I played your 5.2 map, ancient recourse. I couldn't build horse archers, i couldn't build keshliks, I COULD build Knights

Yes, thank you for reporting. I have fixed that in v5.2.1 already.

Thanks for all the effort in getting up the mod and fixing it! much long awaited CIV time now waits for me

Just to be a nit, you forgot this place on the map: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longyearbyen

Just to be a nit, you forgot this place on the map: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longyearbyen

Well, I didn't forget. The poler region is cut off in this map.

This is what i've been looking for. Thanks for the effort. Downloading now.

Hello! I've got a little problem with this mod. I'd really appreciate if someone could help me.

I've installed Civ4, Warlords and BtS. Fully patched. I've downloaded this mod and placed it in "Sid Meier's Civilization 4\Beyond the Sword\Mods". As I've started BtS and loaded the Giant Earth Map mod the game then restarts but then crashes as it's restarting, giving me the standard Windows message, something like: ~~ "BtS has run into a problem and had to stop". Any idea what's wrong?

Do you use the Civ IV Gold version? Some of them can't be fully patched iirc.

Do you use the Civ IV Gold version? Some of them can't be fully patched iirc.

Nope :( I got original Civilization 4

:confused::confused:
My computer has just reset up, have everything unworking except 1500AD Scenario? Any one know why is that??
Actually its like every time i open a new game, it went straight to "you have been defeated"!?!? so strange...
Any one could help me??
Thanks a lot

Hello all,
I downloaded the latest version and put it in the My Games... folder. It load the mod, but after it restarts it doesn't give me option to choose any of the scenarios. What am I doing wrong?

Genghis,

Out of curiosity, did you completely block the raze citiy option in 1500AD and other GEM scenarios?
Or it is impossible just for cities with 5+ population?

Thanks,


T.

p.s. yes, Im playing 1500 AD as Poland (1816AD) and time has come to do terra bruciata and burn and raize the Holy Roman Empire lands...time to send him back to the Middle Ages...

Traiano,

I have turn out raze cities for all the scenarios I think. I don't think you can make it to be just for 5+ pop cities :)

Traiano,

I have turn out raze cities for all the scenarios I think. I don't think you can make it to be just for 5+ pop cities :)

I see.
I'll re-implement it on my version ;-)

In over crowded Europe (in any GEM scenario) I realized that quite often - even if you can control a city you just conquered - it is very unlikely that cultural borders wouldnt make it switch back to its original owner or to other neighbors.
Therefore I raze cities quite often...to create more room to grow for my european civ and to permanently weaken my neighbors...*evil grin*


p.s. I had the impression in old civ 3 there was this option so that cities with pop 5+ couldnt be razed...but I might be mistaken...

Beta version of v5.3 is released!

So what 5.3 have different than 5.2?
I can test play it if i know is it worth of it :D

So what 5.3 have different than 5.2?
I can test play it if i know is it worth of it :D

Well, check the first post.

Yep, my bad, i'm blind :lol:

Hello All,
I ask again, How do I get the Maps to work after the Mod is loaded?

Hello All,
I ask again, How do I get the Maps to work after the Mod is loaded?

It can be due to too many reasons. Compatibility of any modding your own, versions of patch, etc. I guess you just have to do some different tests.

Here is what happens. I have the latest Civ IV Patch. I have started BtS. I load the Mod. It confirms in the upper Right corner that I have the right mod. I try to load a scenario but none of the maps show up.

In the download all of the scenarios are in a private folder. does this need to be changed?

I have been playing your 5.3 map (modern resources), it is only 500 turns, I guess the same would apply for the ancient resource map. Any way you could change that?

Thanks for adding the cows to Holland, maybe a few fish near Ireland?

I have been playing your 5.3 map (modern resources), it is only 500 turns, I guess the same would apply for the ancient resource map. Any way you could change that?

Thanks for adding the cows to Holland, maybe a few fish near Ireland?

Thanks for pointing that out. I will remember to confirm the turn numbers in the official release.

V5.3 official is released!

hooray, time to start a new map, "best earth ever" is what you should have called it :goodjob:

Okay, I finally got it to work. I had to remove it from the Docs folder and move it the main game folder.

is there anyway to use this map for other mods, such as RoM 2.3???

is there anyway to use this map for other mods, such as RoM 2.3???

you'd have to combine the mod's files, place the civs you want and hope it works, im pretty sure that would work

Hi there,

I wonder if Genghis Kai or one of the other modders would care to comment on the viability of a map larger than the current GEM. Don't get me wrong I really like GEM and I have played all my best games on it. However even on GEM Europe is crowded and lot of compromises have had to be made in terms of resource allocation(especially true since I use the WoC mod with 16 new resources to find space for). Is it possible to make a map size 3 times larger than the current GEM? If so how would you go about doing it?

I am aware that the game will run slowly on such a vast map size. At present I have slowdown of about 15 seconds between turns on single player during the late game which does irritate me but I plan a processor/ mobo upgrade anyway. If I could have a more realistic earth map I could tolerate a longer delay.

By the way I upgraded my PC yesterday going from 4GB to 8 GB of RAM and a 256MB video card to a 1GB one. My GEM games are now a little faster but I only managed to shave about 5 seconds a turn off in the late game. I have concluded it must therefore be a processor issue. Any suggestions on great processors / motherboard combinations for CIV would be welcomed.

I read In the ultimate machines thread someone claimed to have 5 seconds between turns. Why I can't achieve this with my system is beyond me.

My Partially upgraded system is:

intel core 2 duo CPU E8200 2.66Ghz
Asus P5Q motherboard
1TB LaCie Hard disk
8GB Ram
Asus ATI Radeon HD 4850 1024MB GDDR3
OS = Win XP professional x64 (English version) (Dedicated Drive for OS)
Civ version. BTS 3.17 WoC 1.0 (Dedicated Drive for games)

Imperium30.

As it is: forget it.

If Firaxis should decide to make a patch that makes Civ 4 fully compatible to a 64 bit system, then it might be possible. But they won't do so. GEM is barely playable as is, anything bigger ... no chance.

As it is: forget it.

If Firaxis should decide to make a patch that makes Civ 4 fully compatible to a 64 bit system, then it might be possible. But they won't do so. GEM is barely playable as is, anything bigger ... no chance.

What are these incompatibilities of which you speak? I've got Vista Home Edition 64 and Civ 4 runs just fine.

I have to agree with Jabarto. BTS runs fine for me under a 64 bit environment. In fact I upgraded to 64bit XP pro just for CIV so that I could use more than 3GB of RAM. It may not run much faster than it did on XP 32 but it's surely not slower.

So could you explain further what these problems are?

I really want a bigger map. It's sad if its impossible.

Many Thanks.

Imperium30

Civ 4 does work with Vista and 64 bit ... but it doesn't support it. Nor does it support dual cores.

Actually Civ 4 is designed for XP on a 32 bit system. And if you use it on Visa 64, your system is only running on those parameters.

You've got a dualcore? Fine, though Civ 4 is only using one core.

You've got a 64 bit system? Fine, but Civ 4 is working in 32 bit mode only.

You've got more then 2 GB? Fine, though Civ 4 is using 2 GB (3 with a little workaround) max.

Civ 4 won't run any faster on your system then on a fast 32 bit system with 2-3 GB. Actually it works faster on XP then on Vista, because XP is using less resources itself.

Bastian-Bux

Well I think i may have got your news just in time. Does this mean that if I were to upgrade my processor from my current E8200 dual core to something that has more power and more cores then I am not going to see any performance gain?

That's just so infuriating.

Is there anything I could do to make things faster? I have 8GB of RAM so that means from what you said that I am not using 6 of them. How can i get it up to 3 like you said?

Is there any (possibly single core) processor you know of that I could get for my system that will significantly outperform my current processor? Perhaps there is a product that usually has commercial application that could be used?

Many Thanks,

Imperium30.

There is a workaround somewhere in this forum that allows win 32 system to use closer to the maximaly possible 4 GB then the 2GB that they are limited to due to MS "wisdom". Just search for 3 GB RAM workaround or something lik that.

Your best chances are:

- use the best single core processor that Civ 4 supports
- use the "lightest" 32 bit system you can Civ 4 to work with (XP or even 2K)
- get that 3+GB workaround working (didn't work for me though)

All together you still won't see so much of an improvement, as there is not much to be gained this way compared to a current dualcore 64 bit system.

You might be able to get 10-15% (my guesstimate), but its not realy worth the downgrade. What worth it in any case is working with XP instead of Vista of course, as Vista is a stillborn as finally even Windows had to admit.

Such a rapid response. Thanks.

I use XP anyway becuase vista is such a resource hog.

I suppose the only thing to be done is to pester Firaxis to release such a 64bit patch. Probably futile but worth trying.

Imperium30

They would be stupid to do so.

Actually if I'd be Firaxis I'd wait for the next windows to hit the stores (2009), and then decide what to do. But probably it's going to be Civ V that will be 64 bit.

Here is the link

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=224178

Let me know if you get it to work, as I'm just the messenger and am clueless on these things. If you read through the forum there are people who will help though.

This will also fix any memory allocation errors. I'm trying to do this now as my maps are occasionally crashing late game, which can be annoying.

On another note, you must be a very patient civ player if even GEM isn't big enough. I love this map, but I'm currently on for a domination single player victory and getting 51% land mass is a major drag; each turn taking ages not so much with performance issues, but with empire management and waiting for your cavalry to crawl across Asia at one tile a turn with siege units in tow! Can't imagine doing a bigger map, but each to their own.

Adhesive86,

I would love to try that solution but the link that is provided in Slyflyer's post seems to be dead. I will try it again later.

I take your point about the difficulty of winning a domination victory on GEM or larger maps. I can see why this may bother some players. That it does not perturb me is down to the way I play the game. I have never won a domination victory on any map size. For me its almost a redundant feature of the game - like some kind of holy grail. Since the beginning of the CIv series I have always operated a wonders based strategy. In Civ 4 this amplified with several cathedral level buildings in the 3 selected cities leads to cultural victories in 90% of games. I have won isolated space race and diplomatic victories but cultural is the norm.

The reason i want a bigger map is that I want a longer (I would also want a speed slower than marathon) and more realistic game. Even on GEM Britian can only accommodate 2 -3 cities. This means that a player choosing England must expand quickly in order to stand a chance. In a crowded Europe that's pretty tough to do. If Britain could hold 8-9 cities I feel the CIV would be more viable.

Imperium30

Sorry my mistake that link ( http://www.ntcore.com/exsuite.php ) was not dead at all. It transpired that I can only access it via a proxy server. For some reason known only to themselves the Chinese government seem to have blocked this site. Life behind the Great Firewall of China is often like this. Anyway I got the software and followed the process outlined but discovered that the box that I was supposed to check was already checked (app can handle > 2gb). Therefore I am no further advanced than before.

Thanks for the advice though.

Imperium30.

Just out of curousity, for what reason the area around Tenochtitlan on the map is alll tundra?

Just out of curousity, for what reason the area around Tenochtitlan on the map is alll tundra?

I think it's to simulate altitude.

LoneWolf,

I recall reading previously a post by Kai that said that the distribution of mountains and tundra was linked to the relative elevation of the terrain.
There are vast areas of Tundra in GEM. There are also many mountains. Whilst the distribution of these terrain features is accurate (from a certain point of view) it compromises the staring positions of several CIVs including the Aztecs, Incas and Persians.
You can always edit using the WorldBuilder function.

Imperium30.

The link between mountains and elevation is how it should be, but what tundra has to do with elevation? Well, the higher the colder, of course, but is Cuidad de Mexico really so high that it's surrounded with tundra and boreal forests? You'd think that the climate of Mexico City is like the climate of North Siberia the way it is depicted in the map.

Hills and mountains simulate attitude, tundra, grasslands, etc. should describe overall climate and temperature, which are not linked to attitude alone.

Actually the valley of Mexico has a cold-tropical climate due to the elevation of the city (2300 m / 7000 feet above NN).

Original the valley was full of lakes and swamps, and the surrounding mountains where heavily forested. So yes, this valley was a very fertile place, comparable with several of the "craddles of civilization".

a cold-tropical climate

But not tundro-borealic, I hope??!

From the map-makers point of view the choices are not easy as Civ affords a limited number of terrain types which must be used to represent all the diverse features of Earth. If CIV 4 included weather or temperature zones then it would be possible to differentiate terrain in terms of crop yield etc without deviating from the current selection. Alas this is not the case so we are stuck with making the map from the 6 types Civ allows us and they all offer identical yields no matter where they are in the world. I wish someone would make a weather mod.
For high altitude regions that are not themselves mountainous there are only 2 realistic choices: tundra or hills. Neither is entirely satisfactory and neither takes account of varying levels of fertility in different climates. The valley of Mexico just one example of this. Some areas of the world are just wonderous in their fertility (or they were in antiquity). The area of the Nile valley was many times more fertile than a bit of grassland around New York or Northern Europe. The depiction of it as desert floodplains really does not do it justice at all in terms of realtive fecundity. However for reasons of gameplay balance I suspect it had to be toned down somewhat.

Imperium30.

Still, Mexican Borealic Tundra is just dumb. That's just like putting Jungles in the British Isles, because jungles have a high rainfall rate, and it's quite rainy in Britain.

And what's wrong with hills?

neither takes account of varying levels of fertility in different climates.

Just plump some food resources. Arent they supposed to kinda represent fertility? I mean, if the terrain is fertile, then you can grow much more Corn/Wheat/etc. there. There's a reason why most mapmakers put some Wheat next to the Egyptian starting position, and it's not only game balance.

2 realistic choices: tundra

When I think of tundra, I think of "cold". I don't think of it as "high".


At least, can the snow-covered pines be changed to "normal" trees?


Mexican Tundra looks slightly less OMGWTFWTPT?!1? in Blue Marble, with its darker overall colors.

Huyana Cupac doesn't appear to be getting 3 gold (2+1 for financial) from sea tiles. Have sea tiles been modded to have one less gold perhaps?

Any ideas?

Ta.

Yes, they have been moded to give 1 gold, 1 hammer and 1 food instead of 2 gold and 1 food.

I gotta say, this new version of GEM is pretty awesome.

I mentioned some changes I made to the map on the download page, but I will mentioned them again here.

Basically, I made several rivers navigable:
1. The St. Lawrence I widened for access so that New York state and Ontario can be reached from the Atlantic.
2. I gave a space of ocean where New Orleans would be to represent some kind of penetration up the Mississippi. This might be enough, but it would be interesting to open it up more if that were possible. On my next game I'll try it.
3. I did the same to the Amazon, Yangtze, Yellow, and Nile Rivers, not drastically, but enough for vessels to reach a little more inland, and really only for historical reasons.

Likewise, I gave a good deal of grassland to tiles along the widened Nile river, rather than so many flood plains. To me, this better represents the remarkable fertility of the Nile River valley.

Things I love about this map(I started ancient) are having the Poles, Hungarians, a couple of more African nations, and basically a host of really cool civs to start out.

However, I quickly eliminated the Americans, the Australians, and the Native Americans from this early map. For the colonizers, I thought it redundant. Because there is a colonization option built into BTS, there's no need to have the Americans or Australians. In the case of the Native Americans, you might be better served to tag a few barbarian cities as starters in North America instead, not only because they develope so much slower, but their relative isolation to all other civs better reflects the historical circumstances once the Europeans came along. Likewise, it better invites expansion northward by such as the Aztecs, Myans, and Incas if they so choose without some intrusive caucasoid state blocking their progress.

I give the whole project five stars. I had NO problems at all downloading, loading and playing the game. No freezing, a bit of time in between turns, but try this, if you have problems with the speed:

Reset the rate of the graphics. I went from high to medium, I rated everything down to one unit, froze the animations, etc. If,as the game progresses, this is not enough, I can always bring it down from medium to low.

Whatever the lag, I think it's well worth it.
Great map! Great scenerios!

Just plain awesome!
When I do my New Jersey map(and doesn't everybody need one?) I may go to you for a few questions.

BTW, thanks for all the hard work.

Gudinsdiv,

Thanks for your comment. Yeah, navigable rivers are something very tempting to do. But there are pros and cons for it. While it allows some historically important river cities navigable, some would think the map looks really distorted with the highly widened rivers. It also reduced the number of land tiles which are usually very fertile. Anyway, I agree that it is an interesting modification to GEM.

For American and Australian civs, there are some people who love to take the challenge to start on Americas or Australia. I think the plain GEM map should be as generic as possible to fulfill as many people's wish as possible.

One other problem with extended "fjords" is that they are not crossable without a coast going transport ship. This does make them very usefull borders. Plus they do stop culture.

hey man contact me to speak about the hardware upgrade solutions :D

uups... this post had to be a replay ... hehe i am newbie in the posting thing ... forgive me :D

P.S. i was adressing this to Imperium30 , as i saw him "online" a moment ago

This is really awesome Ghengis. Thanks for all the hard work. I had a suggestion that I thought I would mention...

Have you thought about merging your .dll file with Blake's better AI for BTS? The best reason for doing this is that it will make the AI play a lot smarter, which would allow the player to play on an easier difficulty level. Game performance would be greatly improved because the AI would make better use of fewer units. The vast number of units controlled by the AI on higher difficulties is what makes the game run very slow (especially on such a big map) in the middle to late stages of the game, so if you can reduce the difficulty level without making the game easier you can make the game perform much better for most people.

It's also nice to have the AI play a less predictable game... if you've never tried playing with Blake's better AI, it's something to check out.

http://forums.civfanatics.com/forumdisplay.php?f=245

I have replied you on better AI on the other thread.

Yes there is better AI but a very old version if I haven't miss something, It'll be a good idea to use the latest version who change a lot for air combat and will be great for solo playing on scenarios as the WW2 scenario.

Armand.

Oh ic.
Ace of Spades, task for you :)

Allright... I will check for the new version when I get home tonight, build the DLL, and send you a copy. Sorry, I missed this at first.

Best Regards,
Martin / Ace

Did not get to it today, but will hopefully do this tomorrow - however, I guess there is no immediately impending release, right?

Best Regards,
Martin

Given the time I can free up from PBEM from now on, I might start considering working on 1860AD and or other scenarios. But the release will not be immediate. So take your time :)

I am receiving the following message: Memory Allocation Failure - Exiting Program Reason: Bad Allocation.

I am running GEM 5.3 on BTS v3.17 on Vista Home Premium (32b)
I have a Core 2 duo 2.00GHz processor with 4 GB of Memory and a GeForce Go 7900GS.

The map and scenarios are fantastic but I keep locking up once I get to the middle ages. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

I am receiving the following message: Memory Allocation Failure - Exiting Program Reason: Bad Allocation.

I am running GEM 5.3 on BTS v3.17 on Vista Home Premium (32b)
I have a Core 2 duo 2.00GHz processor with 4 GB of Memory and a GeForce Go 7900GS.

The map and scenarios are fantastic but I keep locking up once I get to the middle ages. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Patterlo,

See post 3 of this thread for a suggested fix for this common problem. Kai has provided the link, but if any specific questions/ issues remain regarding the fix this would be best taken up on that thread.

As I am aware the 'fix' basically allocates more of your system's memory to the game.

Here it is c&p:
----

Crash to Desktop fix:
Thanks for gidds for reporting:
"There is a solution for the crash to desktop due to "Bad Allocation Memory". I have been using this on your map, and only crashed once as I used the graph settings on Max. After switching it a notch back, no probs ever arose anymore:

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=224178"

Adhesive86,

I originally tried this fix and kept getting the error, but after rereading it I found that I missed the part that has you change settings in the command prompt (likely the most important part) and made the changes. Hopefully it works out. Thanks for the help...

Ran for about 4 hrs last night error free thanks for the help.

Fantastic build...

Keep it up and: :newyear:

Keep it up and: :newyear:


:newyear: too, my friends :D

Hello everyone, Happy New Years.

I had a couple of questions about GEM.

Is there any chance that the Canada mod can work with Giant Earth Map? I really want to play as the Canadians with a Red and White flag, instead of changing all of the Civilization descriptions to "Canadian Empire" and playing with a blue flag =\

Also.. is the mod designed so that we can only use a specific leader? I've found that I have always seen Roosevelt for the Americans, Stalin for the Russians, etc., instead of Lincoln or Catherine.

Thanks

If you want play with another leader just go to privatemaps subfolder in Giant Earth Map folder. Then open map where you want to change leader via notepad.

Then, for example, if you want to change american leader just write america in search (ctrl+f) and it takes you to team0 which in this situation (at least in modern resources- map) is american. Then just replace LeaderType with another leader. Be sure that you write those correctly, otherwise map will crash.

So if you want to replace Roosevelt with Washington, just replace line
LeaderType=LEADER_FRANKLIN_ROOSEVELT
with
LeaderType=LEADER_WASHINGTON

Leaders, and how you write them, can be found in Assets/XML/Civilizations, it's XML file and can be open via notepad too.

Ok, this looks very complicated, i'm very bad in explain soemthing :lol:

Is there anyone here able to play this map without having to wait for ages until the next turn? If so, could you tell me your specifications?

Is there anyone here able to play this map without having to wait for ages until the next turn? If so, could you tell me your specifications?

Specs don't really matter that much as there is a limit within the civ engine itself.

As Kai makes clear in the FAQs the giant map naturally runs slower than other games. Personally even towards the end of games I never have to wait more than 2-3 minutes, but for some this is considered a long time.

The 1940 scenario will start slower than others as the whole world is populated, with the standard start the fastest as each civ has only a settler to start off with.

I have 1.87Ghz, 3GB Ram and 8400M GS graphics laptop, so pretty average. I'm reliably informed that any more would not help, although any less than 2GB ram is going to hinder. If you are experiencing crashes then look under tha FAQs on the first page of this thread for the MAF fix. Bringing the graphics down to medium will also help.

Mostly it's RAM which affect to speed.

I have to wait something 5-10 minutes (never counted) between turns, when game years is something 1500-2000 AD.

But while waiting next turn i watch TV or play guitar or something.

Wait time between turns is little price if compared to how great this map is.

If you want play with another leader just go to privatemaps subfolder in Giant Earth Map folder. Then open map where you want to change leader via notepad.

Then, for example, if you want to change american leader just write america in search (ctrl+f) and it takes you to team0 which in this situation (at least in modern resources- map) is american. Then just replace LeaderType with another leader. Be sure that you write those correctly, otherwise map will crash.

So if you want to replace Roosevelt with Washington, just replace line
LeaderType=LEADER_FRANKLIN_ROOSEVELT
with
LeaderType=LEADER_WASHINGTON

Leaders, and how you write them, can be found in Assets/XML/Civilizations, it's XML file and can be open via notepad too.

Ok, this looks very complicated, i'm very bad in explain soemthing :lol:

That helps a lot, cheers :goodjob:

Is there a way to close or open slots in a lan multiplayer? When I start a custom senerio with an original map I can close some of the ai slots, but in this map and any other custom maps I can't change any slot to close, open, or ai . Can you guys help out?

why is holland a desert?

Because there is no marsh in GEM.

And it is the only way to represent the high density population of Holland with the Civ4 engine.

Armand.

love this mod genghis would have given up on civ a long time ago if not for this mod.

i love it.

shame about the performance issues from firaxis side.

why is holland a desert?

I would add to the other two responses that the "wetlands" best addresses the terrain there--which you must obviously be familiar with. Play a few rounds and you'll see how well it works--sickness and all, btw! There is a history of the marshy lands, in a specific area, too, I think Walcherin, being notorious for their ill effects.

Till 150 years ago the dutch have been in aveage the smallest people of all of europe due to the disease effects of the marshes. Only due to modern medicine and extraordinary good feeding did they manage to become such giants.

Do you mean Walcheren? in Zeeland? I typed it in on wikipedia but I didn't find anything about diseases, and I've never heard about illness due to marshes in the Netherlands.

Do you mean Walcheren? in Zeeland? I typed it in on wikipedia but I didn't find anything about diseases, and I've never heard about illness due to marshes in the Netherlands.

Sorry, my typo.
Yes, it was in Zeeland. Apparently the illnesses carried by the mosquitos there has had a negative affect on the native population. I've been trying to find my specific source for this, but I think the original comments were placed in the eighteen and nineteenth centuries. That, at least, was the period studied where the subject came up.

When I find it I will let you know.

OK. "Walcheren Fever" killed 4,000 British troops that were part of a failed attempt to aid the Austrians against Napoleon in the War of 1809. This I got from Answers.com under "Walcheren". Nonetheless, this was the context in which I recalled it, so it's a matter of which one of my few dozen books on the Napoleonic Wars I read it in.
I shoild retract this, however: that although the text itself gave the impression of a people there that were genuinely beat upon by disease on account of the marshes, it might be unfair for me to broadcast that as the full picture of the Netherlands. It did strike me as appropriate that GEM has the marshes there, though, and any floodplain will have ill affects on a habiting population.

Gudinsdiv, it heavily depends on what parts of the netherlands you talk about. The southern netherlands (today Belgium) are situated much higher then the northern parts. Also Groningen in todays Netherlands is in a hilly region -> no marshes.

Though the lower parts did indeed have trouble with diseases and famine. As I already wrote in another post, the dutch have been considered small people at the time of Vincent van Gogh ... and look at them now.

Gudinsdiv, it heavily depends on what parts of the netherlands you talk about. The southern netherlands (today Belgium) are situated much higher then the northern parts. Also Groningen in todays Netherlands is in a hilly region -> no marshes.

Though the lower parts did indeed have trouble with diseases and famine. As I already wrote in another post, the dutch have been considered small people at the time of Vincent van Gogh ... and look at them now.

I'm not going to argue that point. I agree. Locale is the whole gist of the debate. However, the idea of GEM having "deserts" in the Netherlands as a means as providing for a better population boost and a reflection of the existing marshes *in some areas* isn't any kind of slight or inaccuracy IMO. That this is being made such an issue of is a little ridiculous. Do you realize how small the Netherlands is?
Take my state. New Jersey is maybe a square, a little green square that is ungeographically depicted on a North American eastern seaboard that best exemplifies the geography of Washington and New York.
Not that I'm complaining.
I get it.

I suppose the discussion here has at least made me aware of the marches/diseases in Netherlands in the past. I wasn't even aware of that when I chose to use desert + floodplain to represent Netherlands. All I was thinking was that since every continent has some floodplain and if Europe doesn't has any, it seems a bit unbalanced (to me floodplain is a bonus). Therefore, I chose Netherlands to be represented by floodplain.

Sorry, my typo.
Yes, it was in Zeeland. Apparently the illnesses carried by the mosquitos there has had a negative affect on the native population. I've been trying to find my specific source for this, but I think the original comments were placed in the eighteen and nineteenth centuries. That, at least, was the period studied where the subject came up.

When I find it I will let you know.

OK. "Walcheren Fever" killed 4,000 British troops that were part of a failed attempt to aid the Austrians against Napoleon in the War of 1809. This I got from Answers.com under "Walcheren". Nonetheless, this was the context in which I recalled it, so it's a matter of which one of my few dozen books on the Napoleonic Wars I read it in.
I shoild retract this, however: that although the text itself gave the impression of a people there that were genuinely beat upon by disease on account of the marshes, it might be unfair for me to broadcast that as the full picture of the Netherlands. It did strike me as appropriate that GEM has the marshes there, though, and any floodplain will have ill affects on a habiting population.

You're right! I found on the internet that there's been malaria in the coastal regions, and other things until well after WWII. I really didn't know that. And about the geography of the netherlands: there aren't many marshes left. It's mostly grassland with agriculture, and in the east and south some forests, and hills especially in the south.

I suppose the discussion here has at least made me aware of the marches/diseases in Netherlands in the past. I wasn't even aware of that when I chose to use desert + floodplain to represent Netherlands. All I was thinking was that since every continent has some floodplain and if Europe doesn't has any, it seems a bit unbalanced (to me floodplain is a bonus). Therefore, I chose Netherlands to be represented by floodplain.

And I'd just chalked it up to pure genius!:lol:
Great map in any way it took shape.

I'm most impressed with the civ choices you made to include here. The historical/geographical placements are awesome.:goodjob:

yeah its not even loading onto my comp.....

VERSION 6.0 is released!!!

This Mod is great! Is there anyway to start in random locations?

I tried starting the new 6.0 version for BTS, but it failed. I installed it in the same directory as the former versions. I can load the mod without a problem.
But when i want to select a scenario, i dont see the privatemaps for GEM, only the Public maps. Am i doing something wrong?

Oops, sorry! It suddenly works perfect now. Must have been me doing something stupid.
Let's just never mention this again...

For people complaining the diplomatic screen:

Thanks for JEELEN for reporting:
"It seems to me it might fix the civs scrolling off screen"
http://forums.civfanatics.com/downlo...=file&id=10972

I don't want to include it in GEM by default because I don't have a problem with it and don't want to waste that extra space for the scroll.

It only has one file so it should be a easy merge. But remember, use WinMerge with the existing file in GEM if you want to keep everything.

Another solution is to use the BUG mod, which also allows for a scrollable scoreboard. It can be used with GEM without any problems and no need for merging (by installing the BUG mod in the "CustomAssets" folder, see documentation).

Best Regards,
Martin

I tried to use the BUG mod with this map, and the Domestic and Military advisors didn't work, so I uninstalled it. Also I noticed some changes from 5.3, which I am tentatively attributing to GEM 6.1. Changes to Markets, Grocers, Banks (+1 trade routes added by each) and Airports, (no extra trade route, +25% trade yield) Cannon requiring Replacable Parts instead of Steel, and Levee's requiring Engineering instead of Steam Power. I like these changes, although the Levee change makes the Dutch even more powerful than before.

Also, I noticed that the AI likes to build cities with just 1 space between cities. Is this a GEM change?

GEM combined with BUG works fine for me. You have to delete the advisors from GEM though to have the BUG ones work.

Those from GEM are only from the unofficial patch anyway, and superflous if you use BUG.

Best Regards,
Martin

I've got myself a new computer now, with the following specifications:

Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 3.16 GHz (overclocked to 3.48 GHz)
4GB Corsair RAM
ATI Radeon HD4870X2 2GB

I'm in the future era on GEM, and I have to wait fifty seconds between each turn.

I've got myself a new computer now, with the following specifications:

Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 3.16 GHz (overclocked to 3.48 GHz)
4GB Corsair RAM
ATI Radeon HD4870X2 2GB

I'm in the future era on GEM, and I have to wait fifty seconds between each turn.

That sounds like a computer what we should all get ;)

Totally Uber

I got a new computer today and the first thing I wanted to do was try GEM on BTS since i couldnt run it before, however I have lost disk 2 for BTS and so i must settle with CIV 4:(-Is this mod any good for CIV4 or is it just good for BTS?

Vanilla Civ4 only upto Version 4.1. It doesn't include any of the scenarios.

I love looking at this thread. I haven't downloaded it, and I don't think I will for some time, but this is just incredible. The scenarios look flawless and the map especially looks like it came from another world.
One question though:
Is RFC on GEM just my fantasy, or could it ever be a reality?

I downloaded the GEM mod today. It seemed to install fine and opened up seemingly just as well. The thing is that, though, once the game started none of the menu bars or buttons showed up. I had to do everything by keyboard hotkeys. I have BUG installed. My guess is that there is some conflict between the two? Anyone have ideas on how to resolve the issue?

Yes. BUG will cause a conflict with GEM. It is because GEM uses Better AI and the two have some conflicts in python. In fact, I have just installed BUG myself recently and found out this page to merge the two:
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=296534

I followed exactly the method of "If you installed BUG 3.5 to CustomAssets and want to install Better AI as a standalone Mod:" and I got BUG to work on GEM!

Does that mean you'll be including BUG with GEM as a standard feature?:confused:

No. I think I should leave it optional. I am installing BUG in the asset folder and running GEM as a mod.

I will need to check whether GEM will still run smoothly without BUG now.

I'm really liking this mod so far. I don't really like major rule changes in CIV mods (there's always a problem with game balance), so playing a mod that focuses on creating an awesome map is great.

There's just one issue so far. The slower tech rate and higher military costs seem to be hurting the AI more than me. In my game (4000BC start, ancient resources) it's around 1000 BC and I've walked over Germany, Hungary and Rome without any problems. They had cities guarded only by warriors, so it was a cakewalk for me. Also, if I'm not mistaken, the AI starts with Archery on higher difficulty levels, so them having only warriors was really weird for me.

I do however enjoy the increased road mobility on a huge map.

Overall, awesome work!:)

I'm still enjoying this mod, but I do have a question: Is anyone intrested in making an American Revolution senario? Just curious, considering that, in my opinion, it would be a great update.

To everyone,

I haven't been working on Civ modding for a while as I have been busy at work. I also don't think I will be spending time on modding in the near future. In fact, as has been mentioned before, I have been phasing out of modding and now is probably the time I would like to say goodbye.

There were already some work I did for GEM 7 which I could tidy it up and release it if I have time. It will not be a completed release, however, as was planned.

Thanks for your support to GEM in the past, it was a great experience to meet lots of you in here. Probably we will see again in Civ 5 :)

To everyone,

I haven't been working on Civ modding for a while as I have been busy at work. I also don't think I will be spending time on modding in the near future. In fact, as has been mentioned before, I have been phasing out of modding and now is probably the time I would like to say goodbye.

There were already some work I did for GEM 7 which I could tidy it up and release it if I have time. It will not be a completed release, however, as was planned.

Thanks for your support to GEM in the past, it was a great experience to meet lots of you in here. Probably we will see again in Civ 5 :)

Godspeed, Genghis. You've left a lasting legacy in your excellent map, and I would like to thank you for all your effort. Hopefully we'll see more of you when Civ 5 rolls around.

Thanks for days on end of superb gaming from GEM, which will continue with the scenarios you have provided.

All the best for the future and hopefully you'll be showcasing your talents once again when civ5 rolls around. :goodjob:

Thank you very much for several days of fantastic CIV IV game play. :goodjob:

Your GEM-mod is truly an outstanding job, so once again - thank you for your great contribution to great gameplay. Your scenarios where great before GEM - but after... WOW.

Fantastic job you've done.

:worship::worship::worship::worship::worship:
:worship::worship::worship::worship::worship:

Greeting from Denmark

Thanks for the kind words!

Installed the newest Mod Version for BTS and it doesnt run anymore. I also have the newest BTS Patch installed. Is the newest Mod Version not compatible with the newest Patch or what causes my problem? Never had any issues before.

in the diplomacy screen,I found the following thing:
I meet A,and i choose B that already knows A
when I move my cursus on A,i can see if A is on war or wost enemy with C that I've not yet met.like this215742
Is that a bug?

Does anyone know how to get the GEM mod working through Crossover Games? I followed all the steps to install the MOD, and can see it in the "load a MOD" screen, but when Civ restarts it always crashes immediately on or before it gets to the first start up screen... Thanks - ive played this map on PC and it is THE BOMB!

As I mentioned in the download page , this map is so well done , you could use it in teaching History or Geography , wonderful ! :D

This map is so absolutely incredibly detailed. I am amazed by it.

GEM 6.2 is released!

Have you been able to merge your maps wth the current RoM mod?
I know you have once, but is it difficult using Revolutions with GEM?