Beta Testers wanted

[ruff_hi]

This is what happens now (new installer):

..\Beyond the Sword\BUG Mod
.......\CustomDomAdv
.......Adv Unit Naming.ini
.......BUG Mod.ini
.......BUG Mod Help-XXX.chm
.......GNU Public License.rtf
..\Beyond the Sword\MODS\BUG Mod
.......Assets
.......PublicMaps
.......Uninstall_BUG.exe

I just tested this and got similar results to earlier (using the original install package). A couple of points ...

• the install says to backup the customassets folder, but doesn't mention the public maps folder - I think my copy of ring_world got over-written
• I'm not sure about the public maps folder under the mod folder. Does the mod pick those up? I'll test. If not, it should write them to the 'my docs' public maps folder.
• Why are we putting the BUGMod mod under my docs and not under 'my progs'. I thought that mods under my docs were a little flaky.
• Suggest changing the mod to 'BUG Mod v3.0' as I already have an earlier version of BUG installed as a mod. Save games can get touchy about the names of the mod you are using.

 

[alerum68]

15 download, and no comments. That's what I like to see!

 

[Aristos]

15 download, and no comments. That's what I like to see!

I have one comment: the Relations screen in EFA is out of center. I handed over a solution days ago, but no one seemed to care. I know its not a big deal, a few lines of code is probably nothing for you, but I felt it was worth the attention.

I'm using SVN only; did not try the installer.

 

[EmperorFool]

The Relations screen in EFA is out of center. I handed over a solution days ago, but no one seemed to care.

It's certainly your choice to feel that way, but I think if you honestly assess the amount of time and effort the BUG team has put in to this release, it's quite apparent that we all care very much. The first priority for me is a quality release followed closely by lots of new features that our users will like.

The first version of the EFA that you provided assumed a screen width of 1280. Playing at 1024 like many of our users do, the Relations tab was not only off center but partially off the screen. Given that, I wasn't going to use the second version without thoroughly testing it at all resolutions.

Unfortunately, we're all mortal and as such limited by space and time. I made the decision to focus on completing the features I had already planned, and I think this release is going to be very good. Certainly there were things I wanted to get to that I couldn't, but that's life.

We set aside this week to test the beta release without adding any new features. We will be fixing bugs as they are discovered and we have time to fix them.

 

[TheOnlyDJCat]

I tested a two person multiplayer one-city-challenge against 9 AIs game yesterday.
Installing as a MOD on both computers was no problem.
Four problems occured during play (I used a very old verison of BUG before, so I don't know if these problems are new in 3.0 or mulitplayer dependent).

1. Off-centered relation screen (already posted)
2. Hammer counts with three digits are not displayed in the F1-screen. This might be intended, but it would be difficult to find the best produciton city for an important wonder this way. In One-city-challenge it wasn't really a game breaker
3. Advanced scoreboard wasn't shown. We had to disable it to see the other civs.
4. Mouse over mini icons of units in a stack -> The upgrade icons on the left side of the screen overlap the current health of the unit (difficult to read the numbers). Sometimes the icons stay there even after the mouse left the unit icon.

 

[Bubi]

You could write in the german help file, that you have to rename the CustomDomAdv_ger.txt to CustomDomAdv.txt to get the german expressions of the pages in the CDA.

 

[EmperorFool]

2. Hammer counts with three digits are not displayed in the F1-screen.

@Cammagno - I think Alerum adjusted some columns to leave room for the scrollbar. Before I start tweaking these pages, a) would you rather handle your babies, and b) do you know if you left room for 3 digits or not?

3. Advanced scoreboard wasn't shown. We had to disable it to see the other civs.

Someone gave us a fix for this problem with multiplayer I think, but it appears it's not entirely solved. Can you load up the game, turn on the Advanced Scoreboard, and post the contents of the file "My Games/BtS/Logs/PythonErr.log"? This will help me track down the problem.

4. Mouse over mini icons of units in a stack -> The upgrade icons on the left side of the screen overlap the current health of the unit (difficult to read the numbers). Sometimes the icons stay there even after the mouse left the unit icon.

I've already fixed the problem with the promotion icons remaining on-screen after the text disappears, but the other part is new. Can you post a screen shot of this in action? If not, can you post a save with a sign over the plot with a unit that causes this?

Also, have you used CivScale to change your font sizes, or are you using BlueMarble or any other mods? Probably not the latter since you're using BUG as a mod, but I just want to double-check.

Thanks for testing guys! This will make the final release better for everyone.

 

[Cammagno]

@Cammagno - I think Alerum adjusted some columns to leave room for the scrollbar. Before I start tweaking these pages, a) would you rather handle your babies, and b) do you know if you left room for 3 digits or not?.

Yes. As I wrote before, I'll really appreciate that my CDA pages are left as they are in their original version. The width of ALL columns has been optimized to get the best possible compromise; furthermore, the help file provide the width of all columns, so if they are changed it also should be changed. So, I'll try to revert that file to the original version (Edit: it seems to be impossible due to the move of containing folder).

On the other side, I'm strongly in favor of people creating their own cda pages (maybe using mine as model or starting point), and I'm also in favor of including them in BUG (at least the more interesting and different ones). We already have localized versions (this is the reason because I didn't know about the changes to that file, I use the Italian version that I suppose has not been changed).
I also will make a new version for the extended screen (If it will be extended for hi-resolution screeens).

So, to make using this files more practical, I have a feature request for future releases (we already discussed this in the past): make so that the CDA loads the file whose name has been selected from a list in the BUG option screenvincluding all the files in the folder; if it is not possible, also a text box in which to write the file name will be ok.

 

[TheOnlyDJCat]

I will be at work for a few hours, but afterwards I try to provide screenies or saves.

I have BlueMarble installed but never touched the CivScale utility (or does BlueMarble use it internally?)

I try to tweak the advisor screen(s) myself (haven't seen that feature yesterday), to adapt the column widths. These 1900 pixels should be used

 

[EmperorFool]

I have BlueMarble installed but never touched the CivScale utility (or does BlueMarble use it internally?)

I don't know. Before starting BUG I used BlueMarble as well, and I don't recall the font sizes being any different. However, Alerum is seeing the same thing as you do, and he typically runs BM.

These 1900 pixels should be used

Ahh, it could be that running at a higher resolution alters the font size. I play at 1024x768 because otherwise the fonts are just too tiny. I'll play around with other resolutions to see what I get.

 

[The Doc]

I opened a thread about the beta in the German Civ-Forums and somebody has a problem with missing icons: click (see attached screenshots)
He says that BUG installed as intended. I have no clue about what might the problem, though. Maybe he needs patch 3.17 for BUG Mod 3.0?

Edit: @Bubi: Will do.

 

[EmperorFool]

Somebody has a problem with missing icons: click (see attached screenshots)

Wow, that's going to be one damn fine capital!

It looks like his font file got hosed. The odd thing is that the Great Person icon is missing at the top of the first screenshot (GPP Bar), yet it is clearly visible on the CDA in the second screenshot.

Could you please have him try a few things and report back?

1. Switch to another language.
2. Rename the font file "CustomAssets/Res/Fonts/GameFont_75.tga" to something else (e.g. add ".old") and restart Civ.
3. Uninstall and reinstall BUG. Try it as a mod if he's currently using it in CustomAssets.
4. Does he have any other mods installed, e.g. BlueMarble?
5. Is he using CivScale to change his fonts?
6. Verify that the normal game without BUG works fine.

This is gonna be a fun one!

Maybe he needs patch 3.17 for BUG Mod 3.0?

Absolutely not. BUG should work fine with both 3.13 and 3.17. I'm still using 3.13 myself.

 

[Bubi]

I'm using BlueMarble and changed the font size from 1 to 2 via civscale and I don't have such a problem.

 

[The Doc]

Wow, that's going to be one damn fine capital!

It looks like his font file got hosed. The odd thing is that the Great Person icon is missing at the top of the first screenshot (GPP Bar), yet it is clearly visible on the CDA in the second screenshot.

Could you please have him try a few things and report back?

1. Switch to another language.
2. Rename the font file "CustomAssets/Res/Fonts/GameFont_75.tga" to something else (e.g. add ".old") and restart Civ.
3. Uninstall and reinstall BUG. Try it as a mod if he's currently using it in CustomAssets.
4. Does he have any other mods installed, e.g. BlueMarble?
5. Is he using CivScale to change his fonts?
6. Verify that the normal game without BUG works fine.

This is gonna be a fun one!

Absolutely not. BUG should work fine with both 3.13 and 3.17. I'm still using 3.13 myself.

Here is the reply: click
It was the "GameFont_75.tga" file. When he renamed it, all icons showed up like they normally would.
He said, he re-installed Civ4 and the problem occured only when using BUG Mod. Vanilla BtS worked fine.

 

[EmperorFool]

Can you please have the user try the previous version of the game font file (attached). Just unzip this and put it in the place where the BUG one was renamed (CustomAssets).

I checked the font file packaged with the release, and it is indeed incorrectly formatted. It's missing a single pixel. Unfortunately, it's an important marker pixel. In any case, the file I attached should work for him and will be included in the final release.

Thanks a ton for passing this on. It pays to have people using different installs (I think he's using Civ Complete). Now if we could only get a 3.17 player to test this puppy out. If you're out there, please also try out a game with the "No Espionage" feature and make sure that

• Scoreboard:
  • No Espionage icon (the spy).
  • Power ratio of all civs
  • Research and turns left for only your vassals and teammates.
• Demographics Graph:
  • Power of all civs.
  • No Espionage option in the menu.
• No Espionage screen icon in the upper right of the main interface (though you can still hit CTRL+E to open it, but there's nothing we can do about that; 3.17 bare does the same thing).

I think those are all of the changes to expect with that option.

 

[Cammagno]

Now if we could only get a 3.17 player to test this puppy out.

You have me. No problem till now.

 

[The Doc]

You have me. No problem till now.

Ditto.

@EmperorFool: Keitan tested the new file but experienced the same problem as before.

 

[Aristos]

1. Off-centered relation screen (already posted)

Use the attached file (backup the original first) and help them test different resolutions. I use 1280x1024 and it works very well. It should work in any resolution because it uses the same formulas for widescreening as the Military Advisor and the Foreign Advisor.

Let them know the result.

 

[TheOnlyDJCat]

At first i have to apologize, because the column widths are working properly. Three digit numbers are shown perfectly! I have done something wrong when clicking through the adivsors before. After reinstalling everything was ok.

- The file from ricardojahns works - the relations are correctly centered now. Is it impossible for the F1-Advisor to use the full screen width too?

- The attached log file is immediately taken after enabling Advanced scoreboard in hot seat multiplayer-team mode (and scoreboard still invisible).

- The attached screenshot shows a mouse over for a longbow man with bad placed icons.

Btw - I have 3.17 and except Solvers patch and Blue Marble no other mods. I play with 1900x1200

 

[Cammagno]

So, I'll try to revert that file to the original version (Edit: it seems to be impossible due to the move of containing folder).

Due to the impossibility of reverting, I had to re-do it.
I've uploaded it, but I''ll appreciate an advanced savegame to test it properly.

One note for people wanting to do their own CDA pages:
the unique buildings are shown ONLY when that specific Civ is used, so you have to consider all the possible Civs and their building when you prepare the pages: some space which seems not-used, instead will be used by some unique building if you use that specific Civ.
Obviously, this is a valid note only for people wanting to have their pages included in BUG, for personal use it is ok to ignore Civ different from the used one, as it is ok to modify a bit the column width going from start to intermediate game to advanced game... my CDA pages are only a compromise.