ToT Midgard Woes

Longtime Test of Time player, here.

I've won the Midgard scenario more times than I've had hot dinners, but I only remember discovering Bifrost once. And I can't remember how I did it. In the game I've got going right now, I think I've completed every single quest available (except for the doomsday Ragnarok quest), I've been hanging from Ygradssil for aeons and I've got a siege engine ready to go. I think the only quest-related things I failed to complete were the Embassy quests and the reliquary quests (mostly because I wiped out the Goblin capital at the beginning of the game).

What do I need to do to make Bifrost appear, and have that poxy Unspeakable Horror appear? It can't be a matter of research - or of failed quests, because completing the reliquary quests will win the game straight off.

I've scoured through the rules.txt and it looks like I've fulfilled the prerequisites, and that I'm just waiting for some kind of randomiser to decide that I've won.

How do I win with Bifrost?

I dont have ToT installed but try looking for an ''events.txt'' allows you to see the inner workings of scenarios easier.

I don't know much about the Midgard scenario, but I know something about the mechanics of ToT. I checked the rules and events files - which took me longer than I anticipated. I found so many bugs in the quest events, that I have a hard time believing any of the developers actually bothered to test it.

There are two ways to acquire Bifrost (the technology) for the win:

1. There is a 5% chance per turn of receiving Bifrost after researching the 20th iteration of Hang. fr Yggdrasil (Future Technology).
2. Bifrost is granted to the player who kills the Unspeakable Horror that Volsang sends to block Bifrost (the tile). A Bifrost trigger unit appears in tile (51,89) on the Surface World when all Ten Obstructions (listed in manual) have been overcome and someone possesses the Griffin Culture tech. Dispatching the trigger produces the Horror.

Here's the problem: 4 of the 10 Obstruction events contain severe bugs and another has the potential to fail if events memory runs low. The state of each quest is stored in 10 events flags. Here's the summary:

• Flag 0: Giant Flytrap & Flag Unit are killed together. Works. Can exploit the mechanism.
• Flag 1: Elder Dragon is killed in the Surface World. Works.
• Flag 2: First Unspeakable Horror is killed. Works.
• Flag 3: First Worm is killed. Works.
• Flag 4: First Frost Giant is bribed. Doesn't work. Flag is never turned on. The event actually attempts to turn it off, along with flag 31 (which controls Frost Giant production).
• Flag 5: Elder Dragon is killed in the Underworld. Doesn't work. No Continuous modifier; flag switches on for a single turn.
• Flag 6: Dwarven treasure hoard is plundered. Doesn't work. No Continuous modifier; flag switches on for a single turn.
• Flag 7: Someone builds a Jack O'Lantern. Works, although the 'No Broadcast' parameter in the Text action appears to be incompatible with the Builder parameter in the CityProduction trigger. As a result, no tribe is defined and no text is ever displayed.
• Flag 8: Someone builds Brian's Expedition. Works, providing events memory doesn't get clogged up with other Delayed events.
• Flag 9: Barbarian city of Rot is captured or destroyed. Doesn't work when the city is destroyed (with no walls, that's most of the time, unless you incite a revolt) because the event action uses the TriggerAttacker wildcard and there is no Attacker parameter for the CityDestroyed trigger. Clever.

Capturing the first cities of your 6 opponents to unite the 6 pieces of Volsang's prison key has the same effect as completing the first 9 quests. Throw in the city of Rot and you have the full set. That means it's possible to have two Unspeakable Horrors present simultaneously, either granting victory to the vanquisher.

Anyway I've attached a patch for the scenario. Fixes listed therein. You'll need to start a new game for it to take effect. I think I need to retire from Civ2.

BTW, I don't know how some of you guys play this scenario with the default graphics; the Surface World terrain is hideously depressing. I had to lighten it up:

Thanks for all the research and patch.

...

I guess I don't need to feel stupid that I could never figure out how to finish this scenario. Thank you, Catfish.

There were always other ways to win; you just couldn't do it by following the 10-quest path. Completing the fixed quests will also slow Volsang's release, as intended.

Catfish, I'm amazed by your work.

What do I need to do to get the graphics the way you have them in that screen shot?
I just dumped the graphics files in the Midgard folder, which seems to work, but where can I get the units and cities and flags, etc. like you have them there? I love them.

Thank you!

[edit]

Sorry, I mistook the screen shot for another one. I'm referring to:

I started playing the scenario and changed things as I went along. That explains the difference in the screenshots. It's an incomplete modification with a hodgepodge of graphics from different sources (mostly mine, Fairline's, CurtSibling's and MicroProse's: some from the ToT scenario and some from the earlier FW one). Attached is what I have installed. Back-up your original files. The units.bmp, rules.txt (x2) and static.spr files are to be installed as a set. If you wish to retain the original MicroProse animated units, then don't install any of those files. Use of the custom units requires that you disable animated units (Ctrl+P). The pack also contains the events fix, which includes one further change: I got tired of being bombarded with the Jack O'Lantern message every time someone produced one, so I added the JustOnce modifier to the event.

Sorry for the late response!

Thank you very much, I will definitely enjoy the game even more.

I know I'm necro-ing an old thread (probably not the best way to start my first post) but since this is exactly the topic I need to discuss, I figured it would be better then starting a new one.

I have the exact same issues with the Midgard scenario as Catfish explained through (I played a couple games, using cheat mode to accelerate the process, and found the effects to be exactly as Catfish described-from in game evidence, not playing around in game files - no experience in that whatsoever, i just like to play the game)

Anyway, I tried downloading the patch, but it would always open up in my Winzip program, and I can't seem to get it open from there.

Furthermore, I can't find any of the folders in the games file (such as events or rules).

When I click on the Test of time file in my computer, here are the files I get-maybe you can help:

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Thanks catfish!

I translated the fix to german and uploaded it to the resources:

https://forums.civfanatics.com/resources/tot-midgard-fix-eng-ger-1-0.27991/

AyCe said:

Thanks catfish!

I translated the fix to german and uploaded it to the resources:

https://forums.civfanatics.com/resources/tot-midgard-fix-eng-ger-1-0.27991/

Click to expand...

Hi @AyCe ! I didn't notice you necroing this old Midgard thread as I also necro'd the other one a few years prior with some stuff that might interest you if you got into catfishes event code and are good with that stuff. As I noticed one of the events still didn't work for me despite Catfish's patch so I'm wondering if it happened to other players. Basically the game never summoned a Worm for me to kill so that plus its connected events never occurred resulting in me being unable to finish the game via the Bifrost victory. In the end I had to turn on cheat mode and create a Barbarian worm for me to kill just to get the final events and win the game which was a shame (I did get a legit non-cheat victory via the super siege catapult though). I go into more detail on this issue over in a giant tips post I made in the other old CFC Midgard thread a few years back about the various issues I encountered and tricks I used to get around problems.
https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/test-of-times-midgard.151248/#post-15318133

Also ElderDragon is reporting a crash in the midgard scenario over in the ToTPP thread so I wonder if that's being caused by Catfish's events patch too (EDIT: Looks like his issue is something else and not the scenario or patches fault).

.

I didn't test the fix this extensively myself, so if someone can suggest changes that will fix it, I can upload a new version.

AyCe said:

Thanks catfish!

I translated the fix to german and uploaded it to the resources:

https://forums.civfanatics.com/resources/tot-midgard-fix-eng-ger-1-0.27991/

Click to expand...

@AyCe I am precisely in a project to translate this game into Spanish. What files translated into Spanish do you need from midgard?
Thanks.

rhaul said:

@AyCe I am precisely in a project to translate this game into Spanish. What files translated into Spanish do you need from midgard?
Thanks.

Click to expand...

I need the Events.txt and Midgard.scn from the Midgard folder. But you are saying you're translating it, so it does not have a spanish translation yet? In that case, it would probably be better to translate the english Events.txt from this fix into Spanish. You can also translate the civ names in the Midgard.scn from this fix via the cheat mode I think. It is a bit tricky, as the names of units have to match the names in the Rules.txt from the Midgard folder, and the civ names in Events.txt have to match the ones in the scenario file.

For german I compared the english original files with the fixed ones and made the same changes on the german files. This was a bit more work, so instead translating the already-fixed files means this comparison work is not needed. But that only makes sense if there isn't already an official spanish version of the game.

AyCe said:

I need the Events.txt and Midgard.scn from the Midgard folder. But you are saying you're translating it, so it does not have a spanish translation yet? In that case, it would probably be better to translate the english Events.txt from this fix into Spanish. You can also translate the civ names in the Midgard.scn from this fix via the cheat mode I think. It is a bit tricky, as the names of units have to match the names in the Rules.txt from the Midgard folder, and the civ names in Events.txt have to match the ones in the scenario file.

For german I compared the english original files with the fixed ones and made the same changes on the german files. This was a bit more work, so instead translating the already-fixed files means this comparison work is not needed. But that only makes sense if there isn't already an official spanish version of the game.

Click to expand...

Actually, I haven't translated the game yet, but all this information comes in handy.
The Midgar.scn file with which program can be edited to translate?

rhaul said:

Actually, I haven't translated the game yet, but all this information comes in handy.
The Midgar.scn file with which program can be edited to translate?

Click to expand...

With Civ2 You can use the cheat mode to rename the civs I think and then save it as a scenario again. Even if that does not produce the same file as the existing one (other than the civ names, of course), we can fix that later with a hex editor.
Speaking of, you may also be able to change the civ names in the file via hex editing. Maybe there is also an external tool for that, I don't know.

AyCe said:

With Civ2 You can use the cheat mode to rename the civs I think and then save it as a scenario again. Even if that does not produce the same file as the existing one (other than the civ names, of course), we can fix that later with a hex editor.
Speaking of, you may also be able to change the civ names in the file via hex editing. Maybe there is also an external tool for that, I don't know.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the info, I'll have to try to see if it works.
I'm going to have to create a translation project thread to help me since I see that it won't be simply translating the txt files directly into Spanish.

AyCe said:

With Civ2 You can use the cheat mode to rename the civs I think and then save it as a scenario again. Even if that does not produce the same file as the existing one (other than the civ names, of course), we can fix that later with a hex editor.
Speaking of, you may also be able to change the civ names in the file via hex editing. Maybe there is also an external tool for that, I don't know.

Click to expand...

I have written it to you in the thread that I have created for the translation project but I don't know if you have seen it.
https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/project-civ-2-tot-translation-to-spanish.676570/

I'm trying to edit the Midgard.scn file with civ2 but I get this message.
What should I do?

It looks like you're trying to load a ToT scenario in the older MGE lol, you can't do that.