Confused...?!?

I've gotten the itch to play some Civ4 again and I was recommend to look at the BUG, BAT, BULL, BUFFY, etc etc etc mods.... and I'd really want to try them out.

But I must be blind, because I've just spend an hour or more trying to figure out what the hell these mods actually does and how to install them.

1) The FAQ thread doesn't have any FAQs, and the link in it does not point to any FAQs
2) What does BUG do?
3) What does BAT do?
4) What does BULL do?
5) What does Better Bat AI do?
6) Do I need to install them all or are some included in others? (something alludes to this, but nothing is clear)
7) Are some of these outdated and not recommended anymore?
8) Where are the install instructions and how do I use them?

I'm a fairly heavy modder of all my games (Baldurs Gate, Diablo 2, Skyrim, Oblivion, Fallout, Neverwinter Nights etc) but so far Civ4 modding is the only game that has left me completely baffled as there are no explanations on anything... or they're pretty well hidden.

Can someone help me out?

1) I have never looked at the FAQ, so I'll skip this one

2) BUG collects all the data that you normally have to dig for and spend a lot of time finding. It is all available already but not much used due to the trouble of finding it all. BUG displays this data in an easily used manner. Basically, it improves the user interface to what it should have been if the programmers had paid attention to what the player needed.

For example, the display of empire names in the lower right hand corner can be modified to what is important to you. I have mine set to display how many cities each has, whether the civ is at war or plotting it, if I am their worst enemy, the ratio of military strength relative to me, both the civ name and leader name, how much the civ gained or lost in points each turn. You can choose some other things that I don't or not use some that I do.

BUG also puts a bar at the top that tracks how long until your next Great General and a separate one that displays how long until your next Great Person, as well as which city will produce the GP and the odds for what kind of GP. You can have the stuff that is displayed in the message list displayed on screen as it happens. There is a slider to change the angle of view and hence the amount of terrain that is on screen.

You can draw city locations on the map in a variety of colors. I use that to layout potential city locations and also to keep track of where each BFC is, without having to enter their city screens. You can send yourself messages that appear on the turn that you specify, as reminders of things that you then want to do. You can customize all of the info screens (diplo, city info, etc) to display the info that you want. Those are only some of the features. It really makes the game more playable. You can customize the options using a special BUG screen.

As for installing it, just go to the CIV downloads area and choose one lf the links to download it and then click the exe (after unpacking if you got a zipped version) to install. If you install it as a stand alone mod, then you would choose it like any other mod. If you want it to load automatically when you play normal BTS, you can install it in Custom Assets. If you mainly play mods, you probably won't want that since it can conflict with some mods. I mainly play normal BTS, so I have it in Custom Assets.

3) BAT is BULL (see below) with lots of fancy graphics added, such as custom flags and uniforms for the various civilizations. Like BULL it uses a custom DLL and must be loaded as a stand alone mod.

4) BULL is BUG with a custom dll added that makes some changes in the game play but not in the basic game. For example, you can set your forest chops to stop one turn short of finished. Many people do that and then come back for the last chop when they want the output for what they are building. BAT must be loaded as a stand alone mod.

5) Better BAT AI is BAT with further DLL changes to make the AIs smarter.

6) As implied above, BULL includes BUG, BAT includes BULL (and therefore BUG), Better BAT AI includes BAT (and therefore BUG and BULL).

7) The latest version of each is current and still maintained. BAT and Better BAT AI are still being added to periodically. The modders for them all are still active on the CIV forums.

8) The install instructions should be included in the zipped downloads. If you need help people here are always happy to advise what to do.

BUFFY, btw, is BUG modified for use in the HOF and GOTM games. A few folks like it better and use it for any game but that is what it is intended for.

Wonderful, thanks for your input. Nice and clear ideas of what they each do, love it

Just installed Better BAT AI and it seems like it works - although Steam and Win10 don't always see eye to eye...

I'm getting this error when starting a game though:

"Directory from CVAltRoot.py is not valid or does not Contain CivilizationIV.ini"

Everthing still seems to work though?!?



As a last favor can you (or anyone else) direct me to a guide on what the settings in the CTRL+ALT+O does?

I don't use Steam nor Windows 10, so I'm afraid that I can't help with that, but as long as everything works it may not matter. Someone that uses that combination will most likely be along and comment.

As for the guide, look in the Civipedia. BUG adds several additions, including one that introduces you to BUG. Beyond that, I just tried everything by turning things off and on in a test game where I kept moving between the game and the BUG options until I discovered what everything did and got it set up in a way that pleased me.

One thing that I recall was that if you turn on all, or even many, together of the options that apply to the command line for the units, it becomes very difficult to select a unit if there is more than one on the tile because the "sweet spot" to click on the unit becomes very small. So, try the options for units a few at a time and decide which ones you want.