HOF Mod to be made compulsory.

Starting from WOTM-02, the use of the HOF mod will be compulsory for all Civ 4 GOTMs and WOTMs. It will likely be extended to the next SGOTMs as well, depending on compatability issues.

There are many reasons for making this decision. Firstly, it provides added security to the game, over and above what can be done with simply the 'locked assets' flag.

In terms of game administration, it also greatly simplifies the process. Currently, AlanH has to make a number of tweaks to allow the uploading and validation process to run smoothly. A lot of these issues will be solved by using the HOF mod, as it provides better standardisation, and will better handle such things as non-standard language packs (that have caused a few headaches recently!). It will also remove the need for players to upload the .Civ4Replay file, and reduce the problems of determining final scores. As a result, I think that by moving to the HOF mod, we can get the results processed and delivered much faster (ideally, we will consistently meet our target of 5 days following the close of the event). Further, there are several bug-fixes included in the mod that have not yet made the vanilla patch (eg. the hammer over-run). Compulsory use of the HOF mod fixes this, and ensures that the playing field is level.

For Mac players: We're hoping that this doesn't leave you out-in-the-cold. AlanH is working on making a Mac Mod that is at least compatable with the save files, allowing you to also participate.

I have actually been playing my single-player games using the HOF mod, as I like the extra info that it provides - it provides a real benefit (with similar functionallity to a wonderful program called 'CivAssist' for Civ3 ), so I think it will actually be a good thing to use for that reason. These include better presenation of diplomacy info, alerts on tech discoveries, city growth & unhappiness etc. For those of you wanting to write-up spoilers - which are what the GOTMs are all about, the "autologger" function in it is excellent.

We recognise that not everyone will want to install a mod to be able to play the GOTM, but we have discussed this in staff, and believe that the pros significantly out-weigh the cons.

[EDIT] The mod, together with instructions for installation and configuration, is available HERE

This also closes the gap in game play, since the HOF mod has fixed the slavery bug. Taking advantage of the whipping bug (or at least keeping from getting screwed by it) really changes how you play the game.

Go AlanH!! Here's hoping you can get the HOF mod converted for us mac folks (and double, nay, triple-thanks if you can get it done by Nov. 1!!!)

Gravitas.

Ok, if that's the way of the GOTM I'll go along with it. Can you post a link in this page to the explanation of what it does and where to download it? I don't do the HOF, I only know about this mod from hearsay...

quick question regarding the Warlords HOF mod...I thought I heard somewhere that vassal states are disabled in the newest version...is that true?

Jove said:

Ok, if that's the way of the GOTM I'll go along with it. Can you post a link in this page to the explanation of what it does and where to download it? I don't do the HOF, I only know about this mod from hearsay...

Click to expand...

Very good point - I'll post instructions later (and maybe a quick test save so that people can confirm it works).

Jove said:

Ok, if that's the way of the GOTM I'll go along with it. Can you post a link in this page to the explanation of what it does and where to download it? I don't do the HOF, I only know about this mod from hearsay...

Click to expand...

I was initially against it being compulsory, but after checking it out and using it several times in preparation for this moment, I grew a bit reliant upon it and now choose playing with it whenever possible.

Good!!!

I voted in the poll to make it compulsory ... i'm sure this will reduce the staff workload.

Then I hope results will come on time, not when i forget which game was.

Thrallia said:

quick question regarding the Warlords HOF mod...I thought I heard somewhere that vassal states are disabled in the newest version...is that true?

Click to expand...

That wouldn't make any sense. It might give an error that your game can't be submitted to the HoF because vassal states are enabled, but I don't see why they would make you unable to play a vassal state game if you wanted to.

And I'm completely in favor of making the HoF mod mandatory. It really is a nice mod that doesn't alter gameplay at all, but makes the game more enjoyable/intuitive.

Question.

(1) Will this mod impact my ability to play multiplayer games such as:

• Internet - against others who dont have the mod?
• PBEM - against others who dont have the mod?
• Pitboss - against others who dont have the mod?
• Hotseat - Kind of doubt it but just asking to be complete?

If it does impact any of those play styles, how would you recommend dealing with the need to switch back and forth?

Oculus said:

Question.

(1) Will this mod impact my ability to play multiplayer games such as:

• Internet - against others who dont have the mod?
• PBEM - against others who dont have the mod?
• Pitboss - against others who dont have the mod?
• Hotseat - Kind of doubt it but just asking to be complete?

If it does impact any of those play styles, how would you recommend dealing with the need to switch back and forth?

Click to expand...

No. It makes no difference to those at all - the mod is only loaded when you load the GOTM save (or load the mod from the 'load mod' menu option).

When you're playing multiplayer, it will be ignored.

I don't really care if the mod is compulsory or not, but getting the results in my lifetime is a very good reason for me to congratulate you for this decision.

As a mac user who has really enjoyed the GOTMs over the last few months, I hope we won't be left out. I can appreciate the need to standardize to save a lot of headaches in the administration of this thing; I also hope that AlanH's job is not too terribly difficult.

Shillen said:

That wouldn't make any sense. It might give an error that your game can't be submitted to the HoF because vassal states are enabled, but I don't see why they would make you unable to play a vassal state game if you wanted to.

And I'm completely in favor of making the HoF mod mandatory. It really is a nice mod that doesn't alter gameplay at all, but makes the game more enjoyable/intuitive.

Click to expand...

I do agree with making it mandatory, I don't play games without it anymore and if it makes things easier for the staff and improves my game without changing the game, I'm all for it.

as for the vassal states thing, I guess I must have read that vassal states weren't allowed in the HOF, so I misunderstood it to mean that the mod actually disabled vassal states.

Very good, all for it. I never play without the HOF mod now. Thanks!

Vassal states arn't allowed when submiting to HOF, they arn't disabled, so the mod will complain that this isn't a valad HOF submission (which it already does anyway), but other than that there is no difference.

Which bugs from Vanilla does this HOF mod fix? I can't find any clear explanatory list of them on the website and I don't feel like I should scroll through much more subpages. All I can see in the version history are bug changes introduced by the individual modcomponents.

Almost all of the modcomponents seem to be useless to me. Why would you need an autolog, an end-of-turn, advanced advisors, game turn/clock mods? Those things pose no problems in Vanilla. The only thing I might perceive as a useful mod is the specialist stacker, because it fixes a visualisation bug. All the rest is pure cosmetic nonsense.

I can understand that you would want to make things easy on the admins and that you want to keep players from abusing certain bugs. Well... then why not put up a small patch which only fixes those bugs and maybe some options that make things easier on the admins? I don't understand why you would want to make so many worthless additions mandatory and I sincerely hope that you force-disable all these extra options in the GOTMs/WOTMs.


Resultingly, contrary to the other posters, I don't see the benefit of the HOF mod and I'm not that happy about it being mandatory for future GOTMs and WOTMs. I do understand that you want to keep things simple for the admins which I can fully understand. I guess I'll just have to download the HOF anyway because I don't want to miss out on the challenging maps that the WOTM/GOTM provide... such a pity.

lroumen said:

Almost all of the modcomponents seem to be useless to me. Why would you need an autolog, an end-of-turn, advanced advisors, game turn/clock mods? Those things pose no problems in Vanilla. The only thing I might perceive as a useful mod is the specialist stacker, because it fixes a visualisation bug. All the rest is pure cosmetic nonsense.

Click to expand...

Erm, the autolog isn't cosmetic at all and is incredibly useful. I don't see how you can argue otherwise unless you never write a spoiler thread or look at what you did in your game after it's finished. Even the changes to the advisors aren't purely cosmetic, to say so would mean you've never used them. They make accessing information that is otherwise inordinately difficult to access very easy. So that's not a cosmetic thing, but a useful thing.

But all that is mute, if you don't want to use the mods you can disable them. So in essence the only thing you're arguing about is the fact that you have to take 20 seconds to install the mod. I'm sorry if I don't feel bad for you for having to do that.

Anyway, the bug it fixes is the whipping bug in vanilla civ4, you'll find a thread about it on these forums somewhere. edit: Thread is here.

I'm argueing that installing mods that you do not need in order to play the game is strange. Cosmetic mod components often introduce more bugs than they fix and yes, they are still all cosmetic. Before I made my reply I had looked at each of the mods to see what extra options they would give and I still think they aren't that useful.
Autolog is the same thing as pen and paper and the bonus information from the advisors seem to be more like cheating info and half the important info you can figure out with Vanilla Civ and Vanilla Warlods anyway.

I don't mind to download a patch that actually fixes bugs, but I do mind patches with unnecessary components. If you want whipping changed then okay, I can understand it if you want that patched However, if you want to see which building each city has built, then I can point you towards the individual city screens. 20 second installation aside, if you want to play with those mods that's fine with me, but I don't understand why it would be necessary for me to download them as well.

Btw.. for as far as I know, whipping hasn't caused a problem in Vanilla Warlords.