BUFFY & HOF Mod Releases

Hi

I am having trouble loading the BUFFY MOD for my BTS 3.19.
Specifically my problem consists in that I am fully able to play beyond the sword normally, but not use the mod. I can load other mods (I tried with Afterworld and a couple of others).
I tried starting the mod in all the three ways that I know (writing it into civilizationIV.ini, writing it into the shortcut destination field and advanced->load a mod). Every single time the game simply doesn't start up. I get an hourglass for a second and then... Nothing! It is very frustrating!
I have the latest patch and mod.
I am using Windows XP Pro.
I am using 3.19.001.
I tried switching on python alerts and I didn't get any.
The game never starts up - the loading screen doesn't even get there.

Please help me!

EDIT: or tell me where I should post this to get some help...

It seems like there may be some errors here, but I have no idea how to intrepret them - for example:
02:56:20 DEBUG: BugInit - global context not ready
02:56:20 INFO : BugCore - creating uninitialized mod CustDomAdv
02:56:20 INFO : BugCore - creating uninitialized mod TechWindow
02:56:20 INFO : BugCore - creating uninitialized mod StrategyOverlay etc.
..\WARLORDS\ASSETS\PYTHON\SYSTEM\xmllib.py:9: DeprecationWarning: The xmllib module is obsolete. Use xml.sax instead.

HELP!

I didn't look at your problem very closely, nor have I dealt with this type of thing, but one thing that jumped out at me was all the "WARLORDS" references. BUFFY is only for BTS. Good luck!

Thanks - I found the solution.
Apparently the mod had installed in the wrong location and I had mistaken it for an older version...
Silly me.

Good to hear you solved the problem.

Denniz said:

Use CTL-Shift-O to get the BUG Options. (That should be flashing on the screen as a reminder.) Everything that used to be on the HOF Tabs is found there plus much, much more. There is also a help file folks can access from there.

Click to expand...

This needs to be in big letters somewhere. I have finally found web connection, a copy of Civ4 (I could only find my expansions, not the original, and almost nowhere actually sells copies anymore) and have set up things, reinstalled civ, etc, etc. Therefore I can actually start playing games again, for the first time in nearly 3 years. YAY!

So I downloaded the new mod, started it up, and couldn't find any of the options I remember from the old HOF mods. Nothing flashing on the screen either. Searched forum, started reading threads, eventually found this post. So hopefully that fixes things. But might be helpful if it was easier to find. After all, if I didn't know about the extra options, I never would have missed them, and simply assumed the mod was needed for technical reasons like verifying games, etc.

Now I'm off to see if I still remember how to play...

Denniz said:

oops. It's ALT-Ctrl-O.

Click to expand...

This bit too.

Hmmm, ctrl-alt-o no worky. Time to shut down everything possible in the background and hope one of those was already using it. For the next release, a way into the options that doesn't involve a hotkey would be awesome.

EmperorFool said:

ALT + J should also bring up the options (legacy shortcut from Ruff's original mod). Does that work? Eventually we need to figure out what's wrong for you so you can set all the options, but for now you can modify the INI files directly in

C:\...\Beyond the Sword\Mods\BUFFY-3.19.001\UserSettings​

In there is one named MapFinder.ini. Open it in Notepad and change the path manually. Then launch BUFFY and see if ALT + CTRL + G works for you.

As for getting the options screen to work, check out the troubleshooting page for how to start diagnosing the problem.

Click to expand...

Hmmmm. I have checked a starting save to see if it is legal, and the HOF says it is, and I am using the right mod. I get the sevopedia if I open it from the main menu, but I only get the normal civopedia when opening it in-game. alt-x & ctrl-x appear to do nothing. If I go into the usersettings folder in the mod, all I see is a folder named CustomDomAdv, and a text file named Adv Unit Naming, which simply has all the various unit names set to default in it.

So it seems that something is wrong, and yet the HOF checker recognises it as legal. I'll look for an alternative download source and see if that helps.

sanabas said:

Hmmmm. I have checked a starting save to see if it is legal, and the HOF says it is, and I am using the right mod. I get the sevopedia if I open it from the main menu, but I only get the normal civopedia when opening it in-game. alt-x & ctrl-x appear to do nothing.

Click to expand...

This sounds like you're opening a saved game that was started without BUFFY. The mod used to start the game is embedded in the saved game file by BTS. If you have a mod loaded when you load a saved game without the mod, it will unload the mod.

If I go into the usersettings folder in the mod, all I see is a folder named CustomDomAdv, and a text file named Adv Unit Naming, which simply has all the various unit names set to default in it.

Click to expand...

BUFFY only writes an INI file once you've changed one of the options. As long as you keep the defaults, there's no need for the files (usually). I recommend starting a new game using BUFFY just so you can verify that it's working on your end. Load BUFFY, do SINGLE PLAYER, CUSTOM GAME, and set make your choices. After closing the Dawn of Man screen, ALT + CTRL + O should open the options screen.

The HOF checker just checks that the installed files are correct, so it's good that they pass. What saved game are you loading? Do you have a link?

EmperorFool said:

This sounds like you're opening a saved game that was started without BUFFY. The mod used to start the game is embedded in the saved game file by BTS. If you have a mod loaded when you load a saved game without the mod, it will unload the mod.

BUFFY only writes an INI file once you've changed one of the options. As long as you keep the defaults, there's no need for the files (usually). I recommend starting a new game using BUFFY just so you can verify that it's working on your end. Load BUFFY, do SINGLE PLAYER, CUSTOM GAME, and set make your choices. After closing the Dawn of Man screen, ALT + CTRL + O should open the options screen.

Click to expand...

I haven't started any game without buffy. I installed all the HOF mods, and changed the BTS ini file to automatically boot up buffy. Then started via custom game.

The HOF checker just checks that the installed files are correct, so it's good that they pass. What saved game are you loading? Do you have a link?

Click to expand...

I have attached it.

All fixed, the cause of the problem was me being stupid. It was too late at night when I set it up, and when modifying the BTS INI file, I had put Mod = Buffy-3.19.001, when I should have put Mod = Mods\Buffy-3.19.001

I'm not sure why it sort of worked and the HOF site called it legal, etc. Regardless, it is now working fine. I get all the extra icons, etc, I get the 'press ctrl-alt-o to change options' flashing message, and ctrl-alt-o does indeed bring up the options.

Now off to play.

I've had a problem with the BUFFY-3.19.001 mod crashing since I've upgraded to the 64-bit version of Windows 7 It has happened three times now I have applied all of the "Vista Fixes" detailed on the HOF page. For the latest crash, I was running BTS in the "Windows XP Service Pack 3" compatibility mode.

A .txt file of the problem reported by Win 7 is attached, along with the PythonErr2.log file in a .txt format.

Were you attacking with Stack Attack on? This is a known issue with 001 that is fixed in 002.

EmperorFool said:

Were you attacking with Stack Attack on? This is a known issue with 001 that is fixed in 002.

Click to expand...

I wasn't attacking anyone during the latest crash; don't believe I was attacking during the other two. I normally unstack the units before attacking a city. I'll double check that stack attack is turned off. Fortunately I have changed the autosave to 1 turn.

EmperorFool said:

Were you attacking with Stack Attack on? This is a known issue with 001 that is fixed in 002.

Click to expand...

I reloaded the autosave, and Stack Attack is turned off.

Does it crash when you do the same thing, or can you make the same moves after reloading the autosave without crashing?

EmperorFool said:

Does it crash when you do the same thing, or can you make the same moves after reloading the autosave without crashing?

Click to expand...

No. I reload and repeat the moves and it does not crash again. The first time it happened, I noticed that my anti-virus program was running, but that hasn't been the case the other times

Nonrepeatable crashes are notoriously hard to diagnose. It could be any number of things. Are you running the latest video card drivers? Do you have any other mods loaded?

EmperorFool said:

Nonrepeatable crashes are notoriously hard to diagnose. It could be any number of things. Are you running the latest video card drivers? Do you have any other mods loaded?

Click to expand...

I upgraded to the latest video card driver when I installed Windows 7. No other mods loaded. I have BUG 4.1 in the Custom Assets folder. I didn't think that would conflict with BUFFY-3.19.001. Should BUG 4.1 be installed as a mod instead of being under custom assets?

BUFFY v001 will have trouble with BUG in the CustomAssets folder, but not the other way around. BTW, BUG 4.2 is out, and I recommend upgrading.

BUG is entirely Python code which cannot make the game crash to the desktop. If you were using BULL, it might be a different story. Have you played enough unmodded BTS on that machine to validate that it works without crashing?