[BTS] Expanded Epic Game (fixed Next War)

[Niteshade]

On a much smaller scale, hehe... some of the shields do appear to be a little larger in cities that would ordinary warrant smaller shields. I've had my capital super-metropolis have a normal-sized dome and a relatively new city have a dome maybe 150% times as large.

What controls their size?

 

[Chiyu]

I wish I knew... I once made a topic about that when I just got BtS. It's weird .

 

[LordGek]

So what is meant by the range of 2 by the Assault Mech? Is this a 2 space Paratroop like thing? If so that might be cool but if its just some sort of ranged combat I think that seems weak since not even the Dreanoughts have that power.

 

[Ansible]

So what is meant by the range of 2 by the Assault Mech? Is this a 2 space Paratroop like thing? If so that might be cool but if its just some sort of ranged combat I think that seems weak since not even the Dreanoughts have that power.

The Assault Mechs are capable of bombard attacks to a range of 2 (unit damage only, it can't destroy improvements or reduce city defences).

I think the big advantage to the Drednaughts (besides the extra strength) is they ignore terrain movement costs..

 

[LordGek]

The Assault Mechs are capable of bombard attacks to a range of 2 (unit damage only, it can't destroy improvements or reduce city defences).

I think the big advantage to the Drednaughts (besides the extra strength) is they ignore terrain movement costs..

Enh, this still seems a little hinky to me. Can anybody name any other ground or even sea based unit with an <AirRange> greater than 0? I've changed this myself but will gladly change it back if ANYBODY has seen the AI using this unique feature competently.

 

[Ansible]

Enh, this still seems a little hinky to me. Can anybody name any other ground or even sea based unit with an <AirRange> greater than 0? I've changed this myself but will gladly change it back if ANYBODY has seen the AI using this unique feature competently.

The Cyborg has a range of 1, but probably not the answer you were looking for

 

[LordGek]

The Cyborg has a range of 1, but probably not the answer you were looking for

I have to admit I'm clueless in the way of Civ Modding and even the significance of many of these variables but now since I see SAMs have a 1 here as well, is this related to the range of their air interception abilities?

 

[Ansible]

I have to admit I'm clueless in the way of Civ Modding and even the significance of many of these variables but now since I see SAMs have a 1 here as well, is this related to the range of their air interception abilities?

It looks like the <iAirRange> variable sets the range for all air missions (including interception). The Assault Mech's ranged combat looks like it's also a form of air mission (enabled by <iAirCombat>30</iAirCombat>).

From what I can see, the Assault Mech is unique in 3 ways:
1. only land unit with air range of 2
2. only land unit with air combat value > 0
3. only air combat unit with a damage limit of 0

The last one is pretty weird, clearly its ranged (air) attack can do damage. From testing it looks like its ranged attack can only damage a unit at full health, but can kill an already damaged unit... might be a special meaning for a limit of 0?

 

[LordGek]

Having talked to Solver I was lead to believe the <AirRange> is just something for interception, check out the Mobile SAM as a comparison point. I still found it over the top and moved Assault Mech and Cyborg down to 1.

 

[Ansible]

Having talked to Solver I was lead to believe the <AirRange> is just something for interception,.

That's true for every land unit except the Assault Mech, because every other land unit can only do intercept missions. However, it looks like the Assault Mech can perform an additional type of air mission (its ranged attack), which is also controlled by <AirRange>.

check out the Mobile SAM as a comparison point.

Ya, I noticed that both SAM units have an AirRange of 1, which I presume means they can intercept missions to a 3x3 square.

(Note that the Mechanized Infantry has an AirRange of 0, but can still do intercepts... probably only on its own square though.)

I still found it over the top and moved Assault Mech and Cyborg down to 1

(The Cyborg was always at 1, no?)

I think you mean the extra ranged attack mode is over powered, in which case your change hasn't disabled it, rather it just limited it to adjacent tiles (as in, even with AirRange=1, the Assault Mech still has an extra attack mode that allows it to damage and kill other units without risking taking damage itself)

If you want to disable the second attack mode, set AirCombat to 0. (with or without the change to AirRange)

 

[Ansible]

Enh, this still seems a little hinky to me. Can anybody name any other ground or even sea based unit with an <AirRange> greater than 0? I've changed this myself but will gladly change it back if ANYBODY has seen the AI using this unique feature competently.

FYI: I ran a little experiment with world builder:

I put a barbarian Assault mech on a island and some of my units 2 tiles away over ocean. The barb AM attacked my units over the water, so it looks like the AI can use this feature.

 

[LordGek]

FYI: I ran a little experiment with world builder:

I put a barbarian Assault mech on a island and some of my units 2 tiles away over ocean. The barb AM attacked my units over the water, so it looks like the AI can use this feature.

Okay, well then maybe this isn't so bad then.

 

[CB Droege]

Would it not be easier to add the new NextWar stuff onto a copy of the Normal BTS files, rather than the other way around?

 

[Malv Roeller]

@Malv

This mod is for random map games. It fixes the Next War Epic game mod not the scinario. To play the mod you need to select advanced from the main menu then select load a MOD from the next menu. There will be the list of mods installed and one of them should be this one select it and allow the game to load then you can play as usual.

This of course will work if you installed the mod in the right place (i.e. inside mods folder and not inside the Next War folder).

By the way you may check the Extra mod in the modpacks forum. It is based on this mod and adds a lot of units, buildings, civics. It also includes ethnic units and cities styles.

I looked into every single menu, but it wasn't there. So I decided to put the files into the Custom Assets and just play a normal game with this mod. Everything was fine until Mechs came up. Then it happened that every unit I moved around had the graphic model of the mech laid over it. Different sizes, different positions. Here are some examples, and btw, I still would like to play this mod apart from the normal game. Perhaps it works with the new version.

 

[Kalimakhus]

@Malv

Maybe I wasn't clear enough.
First of all to install the mod correctly put the folder that is in the zip file into "../Beyond The Sword/Mods/" folder.

To load the mod:
1 - start the game.
2 - In the first menu select "Advanced"
3 - In the next menu select "Load Mod"
4 - This will give you a list with all the mods that are installed for BTS.
5 - One item will be "Expanded" select it and press ok, and the press OK again in the dialog box that will pop-up.

Another method for starting BTS with the mod loaded already:
1 - On your desktop there is a shortcut for BTS (find it)
2 - Right-Click the shortcut and select "copy".
3 - Right-Click in some empty area on the desktop and select "Paste"
4 - This will create a new shortcut named "copy of ..." (... = the name of the original shortcut).
5 - Now Right-Click the new shortcut and select "Properties"
6 - In the dialog box that will pop-up in the upper part there is a text box named "Target". It has the full path of the BTS exe file like this "D:\Program Files\Firaxis Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4\Beyond the Sword\Civ4BeyondSword.exe".
7 - Add mod=\Expanded to the end of the text (After the quotation mark).
8 - Click to activate the tab named general.
9 - In the upper text box replace the text there with Expanded.
10 - Click ok to close the dialog box.

Now when you click this shortcut BTS will start and the Expanded mod will already be loaded. Proceed with the game as usual.

 

[Malv Roeller]

You're right, Kalimakhus, it's there!

I'm always confused by the game's menu. I looked into singleplayer before, and there are three different directions for mods, in which is more or less the same content. None of them included "Expanded", and I wasn't near thinking that there could be *another* mod menu.

So thank you.

 

[jkp1187]

This was brought up in another thread, but I thought I'd post it in this thread as well, since a lot of 'heavy-hitters' seem to be posting here...


Does anyone know if the Space Race victory condition was tweaked at all for the Next War mod? That is, have the space ship parts been linked to some of the new techs, forcing you to 'run the table' on the tech tree before you can win? Seems to me that if this hasn't been done yet, it probably should, otherwise it might be too easy to launch and arrive at Alpha Centauri before you have a chance to take advantage of the future technologies.

I don't have much programming experience, but I'd be willing to take a look and see what could be done about this....

 

[LordGek]

This was brought up in another thread, but I thought I'd post it in this thread as well, since a lot of 'heavy-hitters' seem to be posting here...


Does anyone know if the Space Race victory condition was tweaked at all for the Next War mod? That is, have the space ship parts been linked to some of the new techs, forcing you to 'run the table' on the tech tree before you can win? Seems to me that if this hasn't been done yet, it probably should, otherwise it might be too easy to launch and arrive at Alpha Centauri before you have a chance to take advantage of the future technologies.

I don't have much programming experience, but I'd be willing to take a look and see what could be done about this....

I'm under the impression it runs fine with Space Race disabled, but I can't say I know for sure if any of the techs are screwed w/o the Space stuff.

 

[arstal]

Noticed a crash bug- when Fredrick forms as a colony (won't see in the patch I think) - the game crashes.

Wondering if anyone has a workaround/solution?

 

[jkp1187]

Noticed a crash bug- when Fredrick forms as a colony (won't see in the patch I think) - the game crashes.

Wondering if anyone has a workaround/solution?

That sounds similar to the problem identified earlier -- where if the AI creates a colony, it is supposed to automatically gets all of the mother country's techs and drafts two of the best defenders. But there's a way to get into a 'tech hole' where you can't build any draftable units (like if you get Rocketry before Assembly Line, where the SAM Infantry are not draftable, but they obsolete riflemen,) and the game crashes. (I think this also occurs when the AI tries to draft units, or if it gets the "militia take to the hills to repel the evil invaders" event when an attacker burns down a city.)

Solver's patch fixes this bug. Are his latest patches incorporated into this mod? (Do they need to be?)