Civ4 BTS v3.19 Patch

Going over the patch notes again, I just noticed this one:

Sea patrolling ships no longer attack if they have less than 50% chance of winning the battle

I do know why a change to the patrolling ships attacking was needed. There were some problems with it so that the patrolling ships would attack would-be pillagers in cases where the patrolling ships had virtually no chance of victory and there were further problems with ships repeatedly pillaging and thus repeatedly causing the patrolling ships to intercept.

This change in the patch seems to want to fix the issue where patrolling ships intercept in cases where there is a low chance of victory. However, it will make the patrol order not something that you can rely on: if the pillager arrives with a slightly stronger ship (2+ frigates patrolling some seafood resources while the pillager is a combat 1 frigate), then the patrolling ships will just allow the pillager to pillage the area.

So while this makes the patrolling ships less suicidal, it does result in a patrol function that doesn't protect the resources securely. Note that it is hard to come up with a perfect solution for the patrol function because when you give this order, then you're essentially ordering the units to do something in unknown future circumstances.

I think I would have preferred a chance to intercept for combat-odds lower than 50%, maybe something like odds to intercept = 2 * odds to win. Not perfect, but at least it would make it a chancy business to pillage an area where slightly weaker ships are patrolling.
 
The change log does not say it, but Yakk posted something that I think it means that ships in patrol do not withdrawn anymore
Intercepting units _cannot withdraw_ as "they are really the defender".
I wonder if the 50% cap is not to protect the units from painful deaths, because they can't withdrawn anymore ;)
 
The change log does not say it, but Yakk posted something that I think it means that ships in patrol do not withdrawn anymore

I think Yakk was partially mistaken. If you look at CvUnit: pillage(), you'll see there is a comment stating that the pillaging unit is really the defender and therefore cannot withdraw. To make this happen, it sets its "extra" withdrawal probability to the negative of its normal value and resets it after the combat.

However, since the code works by making the pillager attack the interceptor's plot, the interceptor can't withdraw either because it actually is the defender. Therefore, no one gets to withdraw.
 
So is this new patch just a way of keeping us playing whilst they anounce civ5 or is there going to be another exp for civ4 ;)

or is the patch just a way of saying sorry for not being at exp2009 :D
 
The change log does not say it, but Yakk posted something that I think it means that ships in patrol do not withdrawn anymore

I wonder if the 50% cap is not to protect the units from painful deaths, because they can't withdrawn anymore ;)

I think Yakk was partially mistaken. If you look at CvUnit::pillage(), you'll see there is a comment stating that the pillaging unit is really the defender and therefore cannot withdraw. To make this happen, it sets its "extra" withdrawal probability to the negative of its normal value and resets it after the combat.

However, since the code works by making the pillager attack the interceptor's plot, the interceptor can't withdraw either because it actually is the defender. Therefore, no one gets to withdraw.

Good to hear that the pillager can't withdraw anymore. That's a healthy change that will avoid lots of problems that were mentioned in some lengthy discussion in another thread. It sounds like they used a rather complicated solution to make that happen which results in no unit being able to retreat, the pillager and the patrolling unit.

However, I was just mentioning that the restriction that a patrolling unit needs 50% or better odds of victory before intercepting will result in many situations where a patrolling stack of units will not intercept because the pillager is a slightly better unit. This is especially painful when you have a group of units patrolling an area of sea food resources like the example I gave: a single combat 1 frigate pillaging the sea food resources protected by 2 or more frigates without promotions. Similar examples exist in other time periods.

But as I said, it's hard to come up with a perfect solution for that. I mentioned an alternative based on chances in my previous post.


By the way: how is collateral damage handled in combat between 2 groups of naval vessels when combat is initiated due to a patrol order? If a battleship tries to pillage a resource and is intercepted by a battleship will the pillager cause collateral damage or the intercepting patrolling vessel or maybe even both? It used to be the pillager in 3.17, but maybe there are more undocumented changes in 3.19.
 
When a plane does a recon on top of a mountain, you see much, much, much further than a land square.

Situations which invalidated Secretary General/AP Resident now force the next vote to be an election?

I don't get this one. BTW great patch :)

Lastly,
Quote:
Terrain height no longer affects aerial recon missions
QQ
Lastly, QQ :(
 
Since I still need to run 3.17 for GOTM, I did a dual install so that I have both 3.17 and 3.19. I duplicated the Beyond the Sword folder in the Civ4 game folder, then duplicated the Beyond the Sword folder in Documents:My Games. Those two folders need to have the same name after duplication. Then I ran the installer which updates the original folder. Since I wanted the blessed version to be 3.17 so I can double click GOTM saves, I changed the duplicated folders back to Beyond the Sword and the original folders with 3.19 to Copy of Beyond the Sword. Make an alias to the executable in the 3.19 folder, change one the version's main menu screen so you know which is which without looking it up, and you're good to go.

This is what I did for duel install ...

  • copy Firaxis folder under prog files
  • rename my 'my games' folder
  • patch
  • compare firaxis folders - BtS changed but so did the dlls under Vanilla and Warlords
  • rename BtS folder (the patched one) to 'BtS v319'
  • copy in old BtS directory, called it 'BtS v317'
  • the game creates its own my games directory when you start v319 and I found no differences between the two - so I just collapsed back to 1 'my games' directory - you just need to remember which game was saved under which version.

You can then either rename one of your BtS directory to just BtS so that is the version that you get when you double click a save, or you can create short cuts to the different versions.
 
Is there anyway to get rid of 3.19 for now without re-installing? I kind of enjoy the mods that aren't compatible yet. I only updated because my stream auto-updated and me not noticing it quick enough to prevent it.
 
Hi

I was in middle of game using bug and varietas. It is a marathon game and I was around trun 700 when I found out about the patch. I read where patch seemed to be doing ok with bug and varietas so I downloaded the new patch from here installed it and restarted game( without the cd hehe that is conevenient). Bug and varetas seem to be working fine I didnt even have reinstall em.

The 3.17 saved game loaded without a problem and game picked up where I left off only under new patch and so far I have played about 70 turns or so without noticing any hiccups.

This patch seems very nice going be the change logs. I never really used the gold chop thingy even though I never had a problem with it being part of the game but it not being around wont affect my style of play much. I do chop a lot in early game so not 100 percent sure if what I been reading about how patches fixing of the gold overflow also affect other chops but hopefully it wont be anything I will notcie too much.

Bout the only thing so far from reading I dont like is the part about you can no longer trade for obsoleted resources. I dont like it for thee reasons. One it kinda out out of the blue like it was just done on a whim or something. Two I liked it just for realism I always looked at it like say when a More developed nation still trades with lesser developed civs for their "exotic" goods. Euro colonies of the new world trading with the native for furs and beads and stuff. And three I also think in addition to "realism" effect it also had a "game play" effect. There been more than a cpl of threads asking point for bothering with capping very small civs that wont be much help other than the pluss 1 happy for owning a vassal. One of my reasons for sometimes letting a rinkydink civ cap to me was then I could just trade/demand for squirrels or whales or ivory or something and then make sure they stay away from the obsoleting techs as long as possible.

So to me that change is just 1)arbitrary and with no good reason, 2) not as realisitic as old way, and 3) affect game play a little in to me a negative way. Maybe it not game changing but still annoying. But hopefully overall the plusses in the patch will outwiegh the minuses.

And like I said it seems to be working fine with current versions of Bug and Varietas. Another thing I have seemed to notice is that when I installed 3.17 I ALWAYS had this problem where if I tried to exact a game to main menu game would just crash to desktop. I never had that porb with other versions of BtS just with 3.17 and now it seems to be fixed cuz with 3.19 I can save to main menu again from a game.

ALso with 3.17 I would have most of the graphic settings on the med-high levels that along with extra stuff from BUG and now Varietas meant sometimes in big huge maps late in game turns could take a while like there would be a 4 or 5 sec freeze right at start of a turn. And now while it still has that lil freeze in my current game which is a huge map it seems to be less like more in 2-3 sec range instead of 4-5 sec range. So maybe it just me but maybe it may meen the patch also running game lil more efficently.

Kaytie
 
Is there anyway to get rid of 3.19 for now without re-installing? I kind of enjoy the mods that aren't compatible yet. I only updated because my stream auto-updated and me not noticing it quick enough to prevent it.
There is no way you can do that sadly:(
 
The main situation where this occurred is this:
If a new member of the AP or UN emerges on the turn of a vote this breaks that vote. If this happens during a Resident/Sec General election that vote yields no winner and the next vote would only occur on the next scheduled election - essentially meaning that for the normal term of the Resident/Sec General the AP/UN was disabled.
New members for AP occur through religion spread on that turn - new members for both can occur through colony split on that turn.
If I understand this correctly the vote on that turn is still broken (yields no result) - but you only have to wait until the next scheduled vote and not until the next scheduled election.

tyvm ;).... need more chars
 
This thing is seriously unstable in Windows 7. I've tried twice and it's frozen twice. First time I couldn't even get a map generated, second time it froze about 50 turns into the game. ugh.
 
This is what I did for duel install ...

  • copy Firaxis folder under prog files
  • rename my 'my games' folder
  • patch
  • compare firaxis folders - BtS changed but so did the dlls under Vanilla and Warlords
  • rename BtS folder (the patched one) to 'BtS v319'
  • copy in old BtS directory, called it 'BtS v317'
  • the game creates its own my games directory when you start v319 and I found no differences between the two - so I just collapsed back to 1 'my games' directory - you just need to remember which game was saved under which version.

You can then either rename one of your BtS directory to just BtS so that is the version that you get when you double click a save, or you can create short cuts to the different versions.

thanks for the info. but you cannot play multiplayer without using version 3.19? in other words gamespy will deny you lobby access without the updated version? :sad:
 
There was a complicated exploit involving the Liberalism "Pick your free tech" popup and loading a saved game that resulted in getting the free tech in a different game, or getting multiple techs in one game with enough reloads.

I don't remember the exact details, it's around the forums somewhere. Seemed useless in multiplayer, as all the reloads and score jumps would be obvious, and worldbuilder is faster in single player, so what's the point?
 
Could anyone check if AIAutoplay is broken?

I put 'chipotle' into civilization.ini, started the console, and after typing: game.AIPlay 5 - for 5 turns of autoplay - I was instantly defeated: all cities destroyed and all units desintegrated.
I did receive a healthy lion though!
This also happend when I played with BUG 3.6 as a mod.
Autorun worked fine, when I put 'Autorun = 1' into civilization.ini and started a new game.

This may well be the normal behavior without patches. I wouldn't really know since I have always faithfully used the unofficial patches and lately Better BTS AI.
 
I put 'chipotle' into civilization.ini, started the console, and after typing: game.AIPlay 5 - for 5 turns of autoplay - I was instantly defeated: all cities destroyed and all units desintegrated.

Looking at the code for the AIAutoPlay mod included in Better BTS AI, I believe this is the default behavior. Having patched to 3.19, you have been reverted to the non-BBAI version of autoplay.

I'm quite sure jdog5000 will be releasing new versions of both mods fairly soon.
 
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