"Hyperlink Limit Exceeded" bug fix

I'm sure everyone encountered this abomination at least once - you're playing a mod, click on "Iron" or other popular resource and get spammed with "Hyperlink limit exceeded" 50+ times. Pressing enter for a couple of seconds usually helps, but doesn't work for everyone.

Here's a permanent fix. Unfortunately, it only works with the NoCD or NoRaze exe. For legal reasons I cannot post the patched version, but it's easy to do on your own, if you have such an exe already.

1. Backup your Civ3Conquests.exe in case something goes wrong.
2. Open Civ3Conquests.exe in Notepad++.
3. Use CTRL-F to find the phrase MessageBoxA . Ignore the first occurrence and click "Find Next" to jump to the next one.
4. Select the whole MessageBoxA phrase and one following character (which is a NUL character).
5. Type PostMessageA (if you did it right, your selected text will be replaced by this one).
6. Save and play.

What it does is that it changes the function that shows the "Hyperlink..." message to a function that dumps it into application's internal message system, where it is unused.

I know it's likely that most people won't use it because it doesn't work with the original cd-protected exe, but some may find it convenient I guess. I do!

Also, thanks for Civinator & Yoda Power for help with testing

EDIT: Whoever tried to follow it - it doesn't work with Notepad, sorry. You need to use Notepad++ which is a free text editor available here: http://notepad-plus.sourceforge.net/

Very nice! Does it require the NoRaze patch, or will just the NoCD exe do?

I wonder if you could thusly edit the original .exe file using Notepad ++ or some other Hex-editing capable tool..........

Weasel Op said:

Very nice! Does it require the NoRaze patch, or will just the NoCD exe do?

Click to expand...

Like I said, both plain NoCD exe and NoRaze patched exe will do.
EDIT: Actually you're right, it wasn't clear, I edited original post for clarity.

Hikaro Takayama said:

I wonder if you could thusly edit the original .exe file using Notepad ++ or some other Hex-editing capable tool..........

Click to expand...

It's not that - the original file can be edited with plain Notepad as well in the same way, the problem is that the game doesn't start, likely because the copy protection system doesn't allow the file to be modified.

embryodead said:

It's not that - the original file can be edited with plain Notepad as well in the same way, the problem is that the game doesn't start, likely because the copy protection system doesn't allow the file to be modified.

Click to expand...

I wouldn't be so sure about that: My Hexing experience goes back to the MS-DOS days, and there were programs that, if edited using Notepad's precursors, would not run either, but worked just fine if you Hexed them.

....As a matter of fact, supposedly "unhackable" EXE files that had been PK-Lite-ed could still be successfully Hexed.

I could give it a try and see if it works.....

Wow. Thanks mate!

Hikaro Takayama said:

I wouldn't be so sure about that: My Hexing experience goes back to the MS-DOS days, and there were programs that, if edited using Notepad's precursors, would not run either, but worked just fine if you Hexed them.

....As a matter of fact, supposedly "unhackable" EXE files that had been PK-Lite-ed could still be successfully Hexed.

I could give it a try and see if it works.....

Click to expand...

Holy . .. .. .. ., I'm a moron. Reading your post I just realized I've been using Notepad++ myself (in text mode though, not hex) so I just assumed it works with Windows Notepad. Of course it doesn't, cause Notepad sucks and encodes the file differently.

So, everyone, the tutorial doesn't work Or rather, it does, but you have to use Notepad++ And yeah, what you posted might work. I updated the original post with a link to Notepad++.

Notepad++, that is it.

Thank you very much for finding this, embryodead and Hikaro Takayama.

This could almost go in the Tutorials subforum.

Civinator said:

Notepad++, that is it.

Thank you very much for finding this, embryodead and Hikaro Takayama.

Click to expand...

Did you make it to work with the normal exe?

Tank_Guy#3 said:

This could almost go in the Tutorials subforum.

Click to expand...

But no one would notice it then

I was going to say regular notepad does not work, cases a command line to open when you start C3C and then closes.

BadKharma said:

I was going to say regular notepad does not work, cases a command line to open when you start C3C and then closes.

Click to expand...

FWIW, Notepad2 doesn't work either.

Just to say that I did what ya said and it worked. Thanks ED

That is VERY useful!!!

I will try it ASAP with my mod... With 3000 units, many given by oil or iron, it should be significant.

Wow! That's going to be really useful. Thanks ED.

This is Helpful Embryodead... Question: I understand getting rid of the Game Warning message but how does the game handle more Links than will fit in the Civilopedia Window? Can you have it scroll or what? What I have seen is the Entries moving into the Civilopedia Frame when there are more than will fit in the Window.

Excellent work

Vuldacon said:

This is Helpful Embryodead... Question: I understand getting rid of the Game Warning message but how does the game handle more Links than will fit in the Civilopedia Window? Can you have it scroll or what? What I have seen is the Entries moving into the Civilopedia Frame when there are more than will fit in the Window.

Click to expand...

Well, they're added till the frame ends and cut off. It's just a hack, can't have them scroll without the source code.

Well, they're added till the frame ends and cut off. It's just a hack, can't have them scroll without the source code.

Click to expand...

Yes, I thought perhaps you also found a way around the Space Limitation as well. Still, this hack is at least helpful and the available space can be Optimized to fit in more links.

Hello


Thank you
no CD file amended i.O.


MfG Wotan49