BUFFY & HOF Mod Releases

I just had another extremely frustrating experience trying to stop MapFinder while it was generating Large maps.

1) I carefully pressed CTRL-ATL-G once. MapFinder just kept going.
2) Repeat step 1 precisely 3 times!
3) I carefully pressed CTRL-ATL-G once. Great! MapFinder says it just stopped; NO, its running again!
4) I carefully pressed CTRL-ATL-G once. MapFinder just kept going.
5) I carefully pressed CTRL-ATL-G once. MapFinder stopped; Thank you Merlin!

It seemed impossible that MapFinder recognized a single hot key sequence as both a start and stop event in step 3 above; it appears that the key code repeat feature is being triggered! The number of milliseconds that a key is held down is configurable and quite often made very short by default.

I can think of no explanation of why 4 times out of 5 Map generations MapFinder did not detect even one CTRL-ATL-G hot key sequence when during each Map generation it was carefully, meticulously, purposefully, entered.

It is a very bad idea to use a hot key as a toggle for starting/stopping MapFinder, especially when the hot key will repeat when held down too long. Once the repeat key feature kicks in, it hard to ensure that an odd number of hot keys are sent.

Additional information about the above issue:

A) When the map was being generated, the screen would turn all white, and would return to normal after each new Map was generated; I've seen this before; it doesn't seem to affect the Maps generated by MapFinder and rebooting the machine always seemed to fix it; I imagine it was caused by a memory leak somewhere in the system, not necessary in either BtS or Buffy; just a visual artifact that seems to have no effect on functionality.

B) CTRL-ALT-O Map tab; delays were 0.00, 2.50 and 2.50.

I just verified that the hot key CTRL-ALT-G does indeed repeat when held down purposely long. It showed MapFinder stopped and presumably started (MapFinder should display something - its file parameters - when started) about 7-8 times and then BtS stopped responding to any input (keyboard or mouse) and had to be killed via task manager. The mouse pointer would blink every 20-30 seconds as though a Map was being generated, but otherwise the screen was frozen - never updated a pixel other than mouse cursor. I recall seeing the task "not responding" as well.

Sun Tzu Wu

I changed it to have two separate shortcuts and added a separate Save path several weeks ago. Those changes will be in the next release.

EmperorFool said:

I changed it to have two separate shortcuts and added a separate Save path several weeks ago. Those changes will be in the next release.

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I'm very happy to hear the changes requested are already completed!

Thank you very much!

Sun Tzu Wu

It was suggested by EmperorFool on BUFFY dicussions that this would be the forum to post my question on. I am a huge Civ4Bts fan. I have started running BUFFY mod, and it is great. One of the problems going from Civ3 to Civ 4 was the loss of use of aircraft to damage/destroy roads and railroads. I don't understand why Firaxis decided to remove that, as using aircraft to destroy infastructure before troop movement is a very common real life scenario. It was suggested that if I was able to get some fan support, that the makers of the BUFFY mod might notice this support and consider in its update a checkbox an option to be able to alter gameplay by allowing aircraft damage to roads. I would also love a checkbox to allow artillery to damage ships. So what do you guys say - any support for these as OPTIONS to gameplay?

To keep the HoF consistent, I'm sure they won't allow any altered gameplay. But thanks for trying!

WastinTime said:

To keep the HoF consistent, I'm sure they won't allow any altered gameplay. But thanks for trying!

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Certainly, any number of game altering mods can currently be run. When doing so, are those games eligible for HoF status? Perhaps we can establish a "HoF-Game Altered" Forum when running any mod that is game altering? Then the current HoF forum can be kept pure when absolutely no game altering mod is being run, and the new forum can include game altering mods with subfolders for mod being run? The BUFFY with game altering checkboxes can be called BUFFY-ALT.

I am afraid that you are going a little beyond the scope of the Hall of Fame. If you follow the link in my sig you will see that there is also a website that goes along with the "forum".

Seriously, we really restrict our modding activities to things valid for the HOF and GOTM competitions. You can't run other mods with BUFFY, so there can't be a BUFFY ALT. You best bet is to find someone in the general modding community that can take the source to BUG (Python) & BULL (DLL) and add on things you are interested in.

I've reinstalled CivIV on a XP machine, using CivIV Complete. BUFFY works fine alone, but when I install BUG, even after setting Buffy's "NoCustomAssets = 1" I get strange happenings. The most common reproducible problem is I get an immediate defeat when I try to load a starting map and regenerate the map. Right now I need to uninstall BUG to run BUFFY, then reinstall it for Succession games. The only difference I can think of, unless I made a mistake, is that this is a Civ IV complete installation. Any ideas how to fix this?

pholtz said:

I've reinstalled CivIV on a XP machine, using CivIV Complete. BUFFY works fine alone, but when I install BUG, even after setting Buffy's "NoCustomAssets = 1" I get strange happenings. The most common reproducible problem is I get an immediate defeat when I try to load a starting map and regenerate the map. Right now I need to uninstall BUG to run BUFFY, then reinstall it for Succession games. The only difference I can think of, unless I made a mistake, is that this is a Civ IV complete installation. Any ideas how to fix this?

Click to expand...

That is a know bug. I think the fix is coming with the next release. For now try renaming rather uninstalling.

Well, whatever you do, you should prioritize fixing the stack attack bug. Barring that, you shuld advertise in big red letters that BUFFY is not compatible with stack attacks and advise everyone to make sure that option is unchecked.

(Just had a late time victory made ineligible by neglecting to make propoer note of that that).

kcd_swede said:

Well, whatever you do, you should prioritize fixing the stack attack bug. Barring that, you shuld advertise in big red letters that BUFFY is not compatible with stack attacks and advise everyone to make sure that option is unchecked.

(Just had a late time victory made ineligible by neglecting to make propoer note of that that).

Click to expand...

The stack attack bug is fixed and will be in the next release. However, saying that we haven't mentioned it is a bit rich. Just look at the BUFFY faq in the 'announcing BUFFY' thread - it is mentioned right near the top.

Please point me to an appropriate post if this is a repeat. I could not find anything on my searches.

I am having problems trying to give a unit an order. The order shows up as a text notation in the lower left hand blue box. The order is not carried out and the unit is stuck. It seems that the unit I am trying to give the order to somehow becomes part of a stack when I didn't select the group of units as a stack. I have to click to a different unit at a different location to overcome the bug.

A picture:

I see four units selected and it says there are four in the stack, so I don't think it's a matter of having some units hidden. But just in case, click the icon directly below the warrior in your screenshot: the red circle with a line through it. This will clear any filters that are hiding units in case you clicked a filter by accident.

The other thought is that your SHIFT key is stuck down, either because your keyboard is old/dirty or you are running Sticky Keys. Hit your SHIFT key 5 times to clear it. It's in the Accessories folder in the Control Panel, the Accessibility panel. You can turn it off so it won't come on again.

EmperorFool said:

I see four units selected and it says there are four in the stack, so I don't think it's a matter of having some units hidden. But just in case, click the icon directly below the warrior in your screenshot: the red circle with a line through it. This will clear any filters that are hiding units in case you clicked a filter by accident.

The other thought is that your SHIFT key is stuck down, either because your keyboard is old/dirty or you are running Sticky Keys. Hit your SHIFT key 5 times to clear it. It's in the Accessories folder in the Control Panel, the Accessibility panel. You can turn it off so it won't come on again.

Click to expand...

Thank you for the response.

I will try your first suggestion, but suspect it will not help.

I believe this is a program error, not a cpu error.

ruff_hi said:

The stack attack bug is fixed and will be in the next release. However, saying that we haven't mentioned it is a bit rich. Just look at the BUFFY faq in the 'announcing BUFFY' thread - it is mentioned right near the top.

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Great news about the fix!

But really... Down in post #4 in a thread that is probably barely even browsed by most players is not the BIG RED LETTERS that you should have put it in so that it will register even in two remaining brain cells of the most lazy and undiligent players such as myself.

Stack Attack is very broken (CTD) - turn that feature off - we are looking at it

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Errr...Yes, I can confirm that.

By the way... what does CTD mean? My limited brain would have gone into 'syntax error' and not registered this warning even if I had ever gotten the idea to read through a thread detailing the details that I'd never use and forget anyhow. (I think I found the answer... from my limited experience, I would guess that CTD means Crash To Desktop, even though in my experience it can also lock up your desktop and require a hard re-boot, thereby inspiring Windows to want to do a long boring diskcheck when you re-start, that is, if you can re-start without a recovery disk). Lots of fun for everyone!

NOt sure if this has been mentioned, but limiting the number of unit slots before starting a new line (the icons above the action panel) to 12 would prevent some unit icons being behind the score panel, and impossible to click-on without changing the layout.

In the Deployment Tab/Mode I'd like to see a simple list of the units without any categorization. There are two drop-down menus; if the first one had a None selection, than the units could be listed without being categorized, right?

The best I seem to be able to do is select "Unit Type" in both drop downs. The result of that is seeing a Unit List something like:


I'd like to see the same list, without the redundant Categories:


Sun Tzu Wu

Do you care to see the entirely ungrouped list of units?


You can of course see this list for any single grouping by expanding it, but do you want a simple list of all units one-per-line?

The screen is geared towards grouping, so it may take some work to make a None grouping at all, but I'll take a look.

EmperorFool said:

The other thought is that your SHIFT key is stuck down, either because your keyboard is old/dirty or you are running Sticky Keys. Hit your SHIFT key 5 times to clear it. It's in the Accessories folder in the Control Panel, the Accessibility panel. You can turn it off so it won't come on again.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the suggestion, this was indeed a sticky key SHIFT problem. It occurred after holding down the shift key in the city build cue to build multiple units/buildings.

EmperorFool said:

Do you care to see the entirely ungrouped list of units?

Axeman
Axeman
Spearman
Swordsman
Swordsman
Warrior
Warrior
Warrior
Worker
Worker
Worker
Worker
Worker​

You can of course see this list for any single grouping by expanding it, but do you want a simple list of all units one-per-line?

The screen is geared towards grouping, so it may take some work to make a None grouping at all, but I'll take a look.

Click to expand...

No, I want the see every specific unit type I have without the Groupings selected in the drop-down to the left edge of the Deployment Mode of the Military Adviser screen that includes menu items Unit Type, Combat Type, Level, Promotions, Location, and Orders, implemented by a None menu item that adds no grouping at all, followed by the number of said units in parentheses. Thus, to use your example above I want to see:


However, I'd like to retain the option of clicking on "Show individuals units" and see something like the following:


I don't care to see the global Grouping "ALL UNITS" either, but I could tolerate it (ignore it). On the other hand, dozens of (redundant) Grouping lines are hard to ignore.

Sun Tzu Wu