[BtS] Diversica

It truly does wonders for loading time, from about 2 minutes it reduced it to about 30 secs :)

Had to do some shuffling around for my civ-specific art for easier PAK-building, but it was worth it I guess.
Is there a short tutorial somewhere on getting your PAK built? I'm nearing completion of my mod which is about 86megs zipped and takes a couple of minutes to load. Would love to cut-down the load time.
 
Is there a short tutorial somewhere on getting your PAK built? I'm nearing completion of my mod which is about 86megs zipped and takes a couple of minutes to load. Would love to cut-down the load time.

If you figure out how to use it let me know, i tried 10 times and i read the tut and still could not figure it out.
 
If you figure out how to use it let me know, i tried 10 times and i read the tut and still could not figure it out.
Point me to the tutorial... maybe I can make sense of it...

Most of my success comes not from tutorials, but simply downloading other mods and seeing how it looks when completed.
 
I did the following :

  • get the latest version of PAK, 2.15 (2.14 didn't work for me, it always created a PAK of size 0)
  • create a dir which contains the files and directories you want to include (separate from your mod as you do not want the xml in it), that dir is basically your Assets directory minus the stuff you do not want to include in the pak (as the PAK file needs to be placed in Assets and therefore has to include the subdirectory path from Assets downwards)
  • select File - New
  • pick the dir you want to include in the PAK (i.e. the one you created above)
  • press the 'New PAK file' button
  • press the 'Rename' button (optional)
  • check the 'store full paths' checkbox
  • do not check 'Compressed' or 'Compress all', neither one worked for me
  • select PAK - Build

That is it, you then should have a PAK file in the dir you selected. Put the PAK file in the Assets directory of your mod and remove the un-PAKed files from it.

I now have 3 dirs, one with the unpacked files for adding new units etc. (my regular mod, as available for download up to now), one for the files to PAK (which for me now is my entire Assets/Art directory, but none of the others) and one with my mod minus the packed files (in my case minus the Assets/Art dir) and with the PAK files in Assets instead (which will be used for zip-ing the next version of my mod once I will release it).

There seems to be a size limit on how large those PAKs can get, when I tried to place everything in one PAK it always hung (sometime it had created a PAK of size 250 mb, sometime of 270, but it never completed the build of about 290 mb). So I broke my Assets dir apart into approx. 100 mb chunks (going by the size of the CIV PAK files) and it worked nicely then.
 
I did the following :

  • get the latest version of PAK, 2.15 (2.14 didn't work for me, it always created a PAK of size 0)




  • where did you get 2.15, all i can find is 2.14 and i know that does not work with me.?
 
I got it here. The version which says Windows 2000 is actually version 2.15, I used it under XP.
 
Geebus Mamba!!!

Between you, Avain, Danrell, Zerver, Bernie, Geomodder and Matt and his ships (plus others I can't think of off the top of my head) I can't keep up, but I like that in a weird tortuous kinda way.

I just loaded and played 55b and gave it 5 stars!!

Now 6.0 is out!?!?! Lol. Man...

Now you KNOW I can't just sit back and play 55b. Gotta stop, delete and restart... THANKS BUDDY!!!

*Grumble-grumble*

:lol:

Glad I just upgraded my comp AGAIN. That's twice in 6 months... by the time I'm done, I'll have to have over a Terabyte of memory...

Thank god for optimized maxed out Quad CPUS and twin 8800 GTS 640 video cards.

I think you guys are doing this on purpose... If I have to build a "cool" room in my basement... thats it... I'm hunting you all down... Nuff said.
 
Hi Mamba,

Firstly, thanks for a fantastic mod, it really adds immensely to the experience!

A small issue though, I am currently playing a game as the Israelis on a Planetary sized map with the Odyssey game speed (in case that makes any sort of difference) and I am having a weird and annoying bug when selecting certain units. So far the problem has occurred with Maceman, Knights, and I think one other unit that I just stopped building. The bug is that when these units are selected the main interface does not update, basically whatever was current in the main screen before they became active gets stuck there. As an example I have a longbowman in a city with some available promotions, I hit fortify and the next unit to come active is a maceman. Well the screen doesn't update, I still see all the buttons and promotions available to the longbowman, and if I mouse over any cities I can't see what is in them, if I double click on a city I get a weird half city screen with no ability to see or change what is being built. This persists until I deselect the maceman. It is particularly a problem because, apart from the annoyance factor, it means that it is impossible to promote or upgrade any units afflicted by it.

Note, this is using 0.55b, has anything been done in 0.6 that might have fixed it and do I have to restart the game if I want to upgrade to 0.6?
 
Hey Mamba,

Thought I'd run this by you since you've been so responsive and quick to update your mod.

I made a suggestion in another thread, but I thought for the heck of it, why not post it here as well.

I realize everyone loves new units. I for one am a complete sucker for graphical enhancements.

Considering certain units, however, why is it so important to make additional units when historically they represented such a SMALL force to begin with. Like Navy Seals for example.

Lets use the Romans for a second. The Legions were fairly huge amounts of men. So that would be the base. The "wings" or Alae, were composed of mixed units depending on the enemy they were to fight.

On MOST occasions the Alae were Auxillia of various types, but there were Alae of Horsemen as well.

Since the scale of Civ is so large, why aren't these additions given to the Legions as promotions of various sorts instead of using a whole unit.

I mean, if you wanted to build a unit of horsemen you could, but at a prohibitive cost. While a promotion would be less effective but far more realistic and less costly.

This method could be used in ANY era where a single troop type dominates.

Thinking along the lines of Hearts of Iron and the Brigade attachments kinda thing.

Whatcha think about that?
 
Great update Mamba! I can't believe the mod loads so fast now, from a couple of minutes to just a couple of seconds, thanks alot!!!
 
Firstly, thanks for a fantastic mod, it really adds immensely to the experience!

Thanks

A small issue though, I am currently playing a game as the Israelis on a Planetary sized map with the Odyssey game speed (in case that makes any sort of difference)

it shouldn't make a difference

and I am having a weird and annoying bug when selecting certain units. So far the problem has occurred with Maceman, Knights, and I think one other unit that I just stopped building. The bug is that when these units are selected the main interface does not update, basically whatever was current in the main screen before they became active gets stuck there. As an example I have a longbowman in a city with some available promotions, I hit fortify and the next unit to come active is a maceman. Well the screen doesn't update, I still see all the buttons and promotions available to the longbowman, and if I mouse over any cities I can't see what is in them, if I double click on a city I get a weird half city screen with no ability to see or change what is being built. This persists until I deselect the maceman. It is particularly a problem because, apart from the annoyance factor, it means that it is impossible to promote or upgrade any units afflicted by it.

This should not be caused by anything in my mod, I also never experienced this myself (never played Israel myself though).

Note, I am not saying that it is not due to my mod (it might be), but that is not due to any of the changes I made, so there is nothing I can do to fix it.

Note, this is using 0.55b, has anything been done in 0.6 that might have fixed it and do I have to restart the game if I want to upgrade to 0.6?

Nothing which should fix it has been done, nothing which could cause it has been done either to the best of my knowledge.

When updating to 0.60, I could continue my 0.55 games, not sure if this will be true universally though, sometimes there are issues between versions, even when only the graphics change.

Rename the current (0.55) dir (e.g. to Diversica_055), install the new one and if you have trouble, rename that (e.g. Diversica_060) and rename the 0.55 back to Diversica, that way you can at least continue playing your current games if 0.60 doesn't work with them for you.
 
I realize everyone loves new units. I for one am a complete sucker for graphical enhancements.

Considering certain units, however, why is it so important to make additional units when historically they represented such a SMALL force to begin with. Like Navy Seals for example.

because the only way to introduce different grahics (that I am aware of) is introducing new units.

Lets use the Romans for a second. The Legions were fairly huge amounts of men. So that would be the base. The "wings" or Alae, were composed of mixed units depending on the enemy they were to fight.

On MOST occasions the Alae were Auxillia of various types, but there were Alae of Horsemen as well.

Since the scale of Civ is so large, why aren't these additions given to the Legions as promotions of various sorts instead of using a whole unit.

I mean, if you wanted to build a unit of horsemen you could, but at a prohibitive cost. While a promotion would be less effective but far more realistic and less costly.

This method could be used in ANY era where a single troop type dominates.

Thinking along the lines of Hearts of Iron and the Brigade attachments kinda thing.

Whatcha think about that?

You cannot do mixed units (e.g. 2 legionaires + 1 horseman) based on promotions, so not matter what promotions you used, they would always remain 3 legionaries. Other than that, you could come up with additional promotions (not sure how flexible the promotion system actually is, i.e. what is possible and what is not).

I also do not consider one 'unit' to be a whole army / regiment, I usually move stacks around, sometimes on several nearby fields, sometimes on just one or two. I consider this aggregation of units to be the army, so depending on which units you built, your army could consist of many footmen and a few horsemen or the opposite. This isn't only a matter of promotions to me.

imo your promotion approach to this would achieve the same thing you currently get from creating armies out of many different unit types. The difference being that a) this is not reflected in the graphics b) as you said, the promotion approach would / should create units which are in some way superior to its original type (just as is true with the current promotions) but in many ways inferior to the 'real' unit .

So to me it boils down to 'simply' being an additional set of promotions with new effects. Personally I do not want to deviate too far from regular civ, so graphics are fine and everything else is only added reluctantly / carefully (and most of all, optionally). Promotions certainly fall into the latter part, it would probably also be difficult to find the right balance so the new promotions are neither inferior nor superior to the regular ones.

I am open to suggestions (assuming they can be unplugged, I haven't looked into promotions yet). What do others think of this idea ?
 
Yeah, good points there Mamba.

I guess it's because I really don't quite know how stacked units cooperate together. I always find my cannons attacking first for some reason.... and get annihilated. Is there a tactic I'm missing? can you attack with a stack all at once but set their attack timing? I'm lazy and don't feel like selecting unit type by unit type. LOL.

I just thought that if you made a legion unit, the "promotion" would reflect that this particular unit has cavalry attached. There by eliminating the need for a ton of stacked units. Might help some of the fellas who don't have the scratch to upgrade cpus and vid cards.

However, I guess that's what Civ is all about, pretty units and lots of them! At least thats what got me hooked.

Keep up the work, and maybe in a few weeks I'll have made some units of my own for you to peruse. I bought *cough* several graphics suites and have made a tremendous mess thus far, but trying. Following some of the tutorials found here made by the well-intentioned, is still like a Heart surgeon trying to explain a transplant procedure to a gas station attendant... er, no offense to gas station attendants...

I plod on, however....
 
Yeah, good points there Mamba.

I guess it's because I really don't quite know how stacked units cooperate together. I always find my cannons attacking first for some reason.... and get annihilated. Is there a tactic I'm missing? can you attack with a stack all at once but set their attack timing? I'm lazy and don't feel like selecting unit type by unit type. LOL.

Your cannons attack first because the cause collateral damage, weakening the whole defending stack. Afterwords the rest of your units get much better combat odds.
 
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