http://gotm.civfanatics.net/games/2003images/gotm34civ.jpg

Despite a little hiccup where I (for some strange reason) thought that I wasn't releasing the game until tomorrow (is 30 too young for senility?), it is now available.

http://gotm.civfanatics.net/games/2003images/gotm34small.jpg

Note:
The conquest players get:
50 gold. An extra 2 scouts (ie start with 3)

The Predator player suffer with:
Expansionist trait turned OFF!

The game release page is here. (http://gotm.civfanatics.net/games/index.php?month=34)

Any problems, please let me know ASAP! :D

Just a typo on the release page. It says conquest class players get 0 gold.

Open Class Game Details for Gotm 34

Players who choose to play in the Open Class game receive no bonuses compared to a game that would be normally be played on Monarch level.

For the purposes of global ranking and comparison to all other GOTM scores, Open class game scores will be ranked according to the Jason score which balances speed and scoring skills for a combined "Best Overall game" rating.

Open Class Starting Bonuses:

* None

So, do Open class players actually get to play a Monarch game, or is this a typo too? :hmm:

Just a typo on the release page. It says conquest class players get 0 gold.
Thanks! That would be a bit tough! :lol:

Predator Class looks like it'll be hard again this month. Thanks again Ainwood for another GOTM, you never know I may even come close to winning this time! Oh and the picture above the map is pretty neat, almost makes me feel like building some Impi before the Middle Ages, well almost!

P.S. After the Ottomans beat me as Byzantines in the last COTM I bet I'll get beaten by the English this time. History always seems to repeat itself to some degree or another in my games.

FYI - respawn is ON! :D

Question--Does Barbs being off mean that non-expansionist civs cannot pop Barbs out of goody huts?

I'm not sure.

Good edit bob :)

In fact- if barbs are really off - i.e. the switch is set to no barbarians - there are no huts either. I dont want to spoil anything so I wont further comment on that. ainwood ? :)

Edit: and if barbs are sedentary - non expansionist civs can pop barbs from huts very well.

Really nice of Ainwood that he removed the BG so that we have some more to think and cannot start right away ;)

Barbs off?! Might as well play predator class.

Here I have wasted 4 hours already.

Time to make the donuts.

@ainwood:

<snip>
Is there some mistake?

Shouldn't be. Check PMs ;)

Really nice of Ainwood that he removed the BG so that we have some more to think and cannot start right away ;)
Sorry - the bonus grasslands got re-randomized :(

What does AI respawn ON mean? I have never played with that feature before.

What does AI respawn ON mean? I have never played with that feature before.It means that when the last AI city is destroyed, if the conditions are 'right', then they will appear again in a new location.

The best thread on it is probably this one (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?p=333780&highlight=respawn+space#post333780), where Mike Breitkreutz (Programmer for CivIII) lays it all out!. :)

I noticed that GOTM34 is not announced on www.civfanatics.com

I noticed that GOTM34 is not announced on www.civfanatics.com
'Cause I didn't have time to do that last night, and I'm at work now. Thanks for the reminder - I'll do it in my lunch break. :)

uummm im having a problem with this. I will try not to give anything away, but it is only like 20 turns into the game and an error comes on the screen saying an art file is missing and the game will now exit. I dont know what it is. Any insight would be appreciated.

-Juballs

uummm im having a problem with this. I will try not to give anything away, but it is only like 20 turns into the game and an error comes on the screen saying an art file is missing and the game will now exit. I dont know what it is. Any insight would be appreciated.

-Juballs
This means that either you are playing the Civ version in PTW, or you are playing the civ version adn haven't installed the required mod packs.

If its the latter, then try this post (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=2081281&postcount=5). :)

Oops. This is exactly what I did - I downloaded the Civ 1.29 version and I'm playing it with PTW, and what do you know - game crash because of missing unit animation. Dang it! I think that I did this last time too. I feel like such a pinhead.

It's people like us (me), that make ainwoods job that much harder. Sorry!

Using Civ III v.1.29f. getting message ".\Art\Units\eqWorker\eqWorker.INI" is an invalid file. I have never used Editor and am clueless as to how to correct this problem. Any ideas ?

I lost my PTW disc, so I'm playing in vanilla. Have there been any updates since GOTM 30(the last Vanilla game I played)? I'm getting some sort of missing art file error at the end of the ancient era, but the game also crashes hard at that time so the message goes by so fast that I can't read what it says is missing.

Using Civ III v.1.29f. getting message ".\Art\Units\eqWorker\eqWorker.INI" is an invalid file. I have never used Editor and am clueless as to how to correct this problem. Any ideas ?
Sounds like you haven't installed the required graphics mods to give you comparable civs to PTW. Check out this post (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=2081281&postcount=5) for links to the install files you need. :)

I lost my PTW disc, so I'm playing in vanilla. Have there been any updates since GOTM 30(the last Vanilla game I played)? I'm getting some sort of missing art file error at the end of the ancient era, but the game also crashes hard at that time so the message goes by so fast that I can't read what it says is missing.
There haven't been any updates, but the original updates were version-specific. Ie - if you have never installed the updates for Vanilla civ3, then you will need to install them, regardless of whether you've installed the PTW versions. Link to the install files is here (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=2081281&postcount=5). :)

since GOTM 30(the last Vanilla game I played)?
I did have all of the packs installed(i played 22-30 successfully in Vanilla, then finally got PTW working). But since my disk shattered(meaning no PTW and, for now, no CD burner) I've gotta go back to vanilla and a cheapo 4x CDROM drive that looked like it hadn't been used since the early 90's.
Wasn't there some sort of fix to the vanilla pediaicons last month? Would I need to get that? Or do you think I'd have to reinstall the 21-25 updates again?

I am running conquests v 1.22, i downloaded the conquests version and it continues to say the fikle is missing. I know i downlaoded the conquest file because i started with 50 gold and 3 scouts. still cant get the game to work, the fact that many people are having trouble and posting about them is a sign that there may be something wrong with this months gotm.

-Juballs

This Game of the Month is not for Conquest but for Vanilla. So you want to make sure you have your vanilla up to 1.29f patch. You will want to put your old CD in, not the Conquest one. Although it says Conquest level, its just easy mode for GOTM vanilla.


-> Download these in this order and install them into the main Civ3 directory, NOT the Conquest subfolder:

On the first one I selected "no" on all the others I selected "yes" when it asked me if I had installed a previous version of GOTM.

GOTM 21 Full setup:
http://gotm.civfanatics.net/games/s..._full_setup.exe

GOTM22 Add-On Setup:
http://gotm.civfanatics.net/games/s...dd_on_setup.exe

GOTM23 Add-on Setup:
http://gotm.civfanatics.net/games/s...dd_on_setup.exe

GOTM24 Add-On Setup:
http://gotm.civfanatics.net/games/s...dd_on_setup.exe

GOTM 25 Add-On Setup:
http://gotm.civfanatics.net/games/s...dd_on_setup.exe

I was confused also, but this got it to work. However, it will probably screw up all your icons for your resources and maybe also your leaderheads. I fixed my resources by moving a file in my art folder, I need to go in and fix my leaderheads.

hope this helps.

Ainwood
Thanks for your reply.
I do not want to play in PTW mode.
If I download the 5/6 items on your link it seems to say it will screw up vanilla Civ III.
Does this make it a choice - either set up for vanilla or GOTM.
I have had no problems with COTM3.
Thanks again

juballs2001:
Are you playing the game using PTW or Conquests?

There are 2 downloads for this GOTM - CIV3v1.29, or Conquest.

If you download the Civ3v1.29, then you need to have the 5 mod-packs installed over your CIV3v1.29 before you can play it.

If you downloaded the Conquest version, then you play it using vanilla PTW.

I made the mistake of downloading the Civ3v1.29 and started playing it with PTW. It played fine for a while, but then started getting these errors that everyone here is posting about.

Jonh:
The mod-packs will not alter your Civ3v1.29 in any way that will affect your normal game-play - I have installed them and played a regular game of Civ3, and have had no problems.

Edit: Oh, yeah - that's right. I do recall having some issues with the Resource icons. When you install the mod-packs, they will make a backup of your Resource file. I ended up renaming the new Resource file and naming the backup back to the original name. I have no idea why they would have that kind of modification in those patches, as it made the resources unrecognizable, and the Strategic Resources didn't even show up at all for me, which caused me some excitement.

If i install that stuff, will i no longer be able to play other ptw and c3c games, or does it only screw up vanilla?

I am also playing a c3c game of my own, the ptw sgotm and the c3c gotm (prolly wont finish that since it is demi, i only play for domination/conquest and started 2 weeks late)
I don't want those games screwed up. Also don't want to swich files between games since i swich between games very often
(although this is a great game, i usually get bored of a game within 30 minutes, then have to stop in order to prevent careless playing)

WOA: If you decide to play the Civ 1.29 version, you'll need to switch the resource files when going from GOTM to regular games. On the other hand, if you choose to play PTW (which came with C3C), you can download the game and start playing and be able to switch between regular & GOTM games with no modifications needed. (the easier choice).

I did download the game and start playing in PTW, but got the errors.

So i suppose i also have to install for the files for PTW ?

If so, my question remains, can i still play my other games?

Also, tried to download from the links but they didnt work.

If you downloaded the PTW save and played using PTW and still got errors, you should take a screen capture (if you can) and send it via PM to Ainwood (with a current save if possible) and he'll address the problem one on one with you.

Double check you downloaded the PTW save (there are 2 saves for each level). The downloaded file should be named GOTM34_OPEN_PTW.ZIP if you're playing open class.

Since I play from the PTW disc for GOTM, I'm not 100% sure of the procedure at this point.

Oh i downloaded the wrong one, thanx for your help. :goodjob:

Cool, Thanks for an easy one. After COTM03 (loss) and GOTM33 (hard win).

My brain needed a break.

I finished it a couple of hours ago, can't wait to do the first game posts.

Thanks again.

http://www.lggaming.com/user/xerol/civerror.gif

Finally let me see the message before it crashed. I think it's got something to do with pediaicons.txt.

WOA: If you decide to play the Civ 1.29 version, you'll need to switch the resource files when going from GOTM to regular games.
This is no longer the case. All current games put the standard resources in the correct places, so the 'out of the box' resource files are the ones you require. You need to swap once only after you've installed the add-ons, just to revert to teh standard files, because the add-ons still switch to 'old' GOTM resources.

http://www.lggaming.com/user/xerol/civerror.gif

Finally let me see the message before it crashed. I think it's got something to do with pediaicons.txt.


OK - open your pediaicons.txt file (in your civ3\text\ folder) and scroll down until you see some lines beginning:


#Era splash art begin


Copy the text below, and paste it over the top of that section:

################################################## ##############
#Era splash art begin
#ERA_SPLASH_ERA_0
art\erasplash\ancient.pcx
art\erasplash\medival.pcx
#ERA_SPLASH_ERA_1
art\erasplash\medival.pcx
art\erasplash\indust.pcx
#ERA_SPLASH_ERA_2
art\erasplash\indust.pcx
art\erasplash\modern.pcx
#ERA_SPLASH_ERA_3
art\erasplash\modern.pcx
art\erasplash\modern.pcx


This is a problem with a copy paste error with last-months pediiaicons.txt file in which the PTW equivelent was pasted over the Civ version. :(

Ok, it works now. But what still confuses me is why I had last month's Vanilla pediaicons...since I played in PTW last month(couldn't finish due to the aforementioned shattering of disc and ruining of drive).

About these bloody crashes with error messages referring to pediaicons.txt , could someone (ainwood?) please make available a correct, fixed, verified, stamped, and official pediaicons.txt for GOTM vanilla 1.29? A pediaicons that would have both era and wonder splash things correct, would have lethal sea bombardment and would have the extra leaderheads and similar stuff correct. The current pediaicons.txt has at least era and wonder splash things wrong, presumably they are PTW things mentioned above. I have far too little time to play the GOTMs anyway, I'd rather not waste half the time fighting these crashes and wondering what is going to fail next. Since you seem to know what's wrong and know how to fix things why make players experience crashes and only then give copy-and-paste style solutions. I hope to see a link to a correct pediaicons.txt either here or in "Classic 34 Reference Thread". Perhaps I should have sent PM but since this affects everyone who used the incorrect file they got from vanilla GOTM 33, I figured I don't care. Maybe lack of sleep is to blame for my mood having (again) played almost until 2 in the morning...

About these bloody crashes with error messages referring to pediaicons.txt , could someone (ainwood?) please make available a correct, fixed, verified, stamped, and official pediaicons.txt for GOTM vanilla 1.29? A pediaicons that would have both era and wonder splash things correct, would have lethal sea bombardment and would have the extra leaderheads and similar stuff correct. The current pediaicons.txt has at least era and wonder splash things wrong, presumably they are PTW things mentioned above. I have far too little time to play the GOTMs anyway, I'd rather not waste half the time fighting these crashes and wondering what is going to fail next. Since you seem to know what's wrong and know how to fix things why make players experience crashes and only then give copy-and-paste style solutions. I hope to see a link to a correct pediaicons.txt either here or in "Classic 34 Reference Thread". Perhaps I should have sent PM but since this affects everyone who used the incorrect file they got from vanilla GOTM 33, I figured I don't care. Maybe lack of sleep is to blame for my mood having (again) played almost until 2 in the morning...

Your wish is my command ;)

I didn't really want to release a new file every month, as it just confuses people. However, I have attached what I believe to be a fairly good version. I figure that we can tackle it with an open-source philosophy: Any corrections that anyone makes, they can post me back a copy and together we'll get the bugs sorted. :)

Putting together a pediaicons.txt file is actually a bit 'tricky', as it involves a lot of typing, and one letter out of place can cause crashes.

We tried to release a bullet-proof version last month, and actually inadvertently introduced a few more errors :( - mainly due to the fact that the format between PTW and Civ versions is a bit different.

Thanks. :worship: :thanx: :worship:
I personally have no skill in fixing anything, I just noticed that an older pediaicons.txt did work and remembered reading something about copying some text somewhere. I tried working around the problem by copying the splash-thing texts from an older pediaicons.txt but the PTW leaderheads were still question marks and no matter how many catapults fired on a redlined enemy galley it refused to sink (but it never gave the text for failed bombardment either). Same thing if I bombarded a walled town, no text that bombardment failed but no visible effect either.

Since I choose to have no www. access on the PC I play [civ3] with, I can't easily download fixes or read about them while I play. That's why an error-free file is worth its weight in gold in saved playing hours. ( :joke: how much does one bit weigh anyway, and is 1 heavier than 0 ? If a 10k file weighed 10 kilos, how heavy would my hard drive be?)
High :king: J.J. says :thanx:

Does anyone else think that not being able to play GOTM with C3C is ridiculous? :confused:

No... maybe you should read some of the discussion threads about the differences between the games. You'd never be able to make a fair comparison.

BTW you can play, the only thing you can't do is submit. ;) The other thing you can do is play the COTM... :mischief:

Does anyone else think that not being able to play GOTM with C3C is ridiculous? :confused:
BTW - Welcome to CivFanatics and GOTM. :D

It is not ridiculous at all. There are some players that are excluded from C3C, llike our MAC players. There are others that think that PTW is a better game and are not fond of all the C3C changes. That is why there are 2 versions of the GOTM.

You should have PTW as a part of your C3C installation. So you can give it a try if you like or play COTM03 or wait for COTM04, due in a week, 1 Sept at midnight.

Good luck in GOTM/COTM.

BTW - Welcome to CivFanatics and GOTM. :D

Thanks. I've been registered here for a few years, but usually I hang out at the Apolyton forums.

It's just so frustrating not being able to submit a C3C save... I understand your point, but AFAIK the majority of players who tried C3C seriously think it's better overall than vanilla or PTW.

And I do have PTW installed, but after playing dozens and dozens of C3C games, I don't feel comfortable switching back. That would feel like a downgrade.

Thanks for your time though. :goodjob:

@ainwood: GOTM34 Announcement Page says:

"ALL SPOILERS PROHIBITED: Do not post any messages or questions about this game in any forum until after about July 20, 2004. Please do not discuss any aspect of this game prior to that date."......should this say August 20, 2004? :)

Does anyone else think that not being able to play GOTM with C3C is ridiculous? :confused:I've been away from GOTM for a looooong time BUT I thought there was now a Conquests GOTM? (viz. CGOTM?) :confused:

P.s. I think it IS ridiculous to have C3C and Civ3/PTW in the same GOTM without MAJOR MAJOR balancing mods! (Totally Impractical) :)

Thanks. I've been registered here for a few years, but usually I hang out at the Apolyton forums.Am I missing something?......I just glanced at Apolyton and it looked to me like anything COMPETITIVE was Dead In The Water!? :confused:

Hi,

I targeted a Cultural 20K victory (currently in ~40/50turns) but I have just noticed that I'm near a 100K victory (in ~15 turns). What is the best : slow the global culture to have a 20K victory or go to a 100K victory ?

It will be the first time I have a cultural victory so it does not matter which one :D

This is one of the things that bothers me - should I conquer, wait for a culture victory, or launch my spaceship. I can do all three, which will get more points?

The answer depends on the 'best dates' for a victory condition calculated by the GOTM staff after the game is complete. This date is a combination of many factors and I've never bothered to try and work out the formula. :)

However, on the GOTM website, in the Jason calculator section, there are examples of the best dates for past GOTMs. To highlight your example - in COTM2, the best date for a cultural 100K victory was 1440AD, whereas the 'best date' for a cultural 20K victory was 1700AD, a full 52 turns later.
So if I were you, and based on this, I would wait for the 20K victory.

But remember, these dates are calculated for a completely different game, so I couldn't say for sure.

Two things to rememeber.
Is your 20K city at risk of capture? If yes, a 100K might be safer.
To get a 100K victory, the second civ needs to have less than 50K by the time you reach 100K.

This is one of the things that bothers me - should I conquer, wait for a culture victory, or launch my spaceship. I can do all three, which will get more points?

I have three choices too: 100k, 20k or domination if i decide to attack Aztecs. But it would not be interesting to have a domination victory now, it's too late.


The answer depends on the 'best dates' for a victory condition calculated by the GOTM staff after the game is complete. This date is a combination of many factors and I've never bothered to try and work out the formula. :)


It might have been already explained but why don't we have these best dates ? :mischief: I agree it may influence playstyle, but it may be interesting to get it only with the results to compare our winning date with the estimated best dates. no ?