Mac GOTM Installers

[AlanH]

Hi senecasax

Thanks for your interest. Have you checked out the latest builds? This is covered in the first post under the "Warning" paragraph.

When I updated all the packages over the weekend because of a glitch with Panther, I also added a step to all of the preflight scripts like the one you suggest. I used the approach that Cracker has adopted in the Windows installer and copy the three critical text files into a backup folder called "Before GOTMxx"..

These files were always backwards compatible until GOTM24, when one of the text files became incompatible with the previous games, so this has only just become necessary.

My packages have always have preflight scripts. They check that the selected destination folder contains some prerequisite files and folders to indicate that it is at the correct mod state, and that the Civ3 version is 1.29. Some also have postflight scripts to move files around after the installation. For example the full installer for GOTM23 moves the existing resources files into the backup location and copies the GOTM ones into the active location, and the GOTM25 installer does some magic with the sound files.

You can read the scripts in the packages by opening them in Finder and looking in Contents/Resources. They are, not surprisingly, called "preflight" and "postflight", and they are plain text files containing bash scripts.

 

[senecasax]

Cool, I hadn't checked the packages, just read the little "Warning" in your first post. Very nice job with them though, it makes installing the GOTM a breeze on the mac.

 

[AlanH]

Glad you like them. Keep the feedback coming, and watch this space ...

 

[n8mac]

"Missing old bill of materials"

The city of 10.1 may not have a WLKD but at least they aren't revolting.

n8mac

 

[AlanH]

@n8mac: Thanks for trying it. I've made a modified version of the smallest one - GOTM23 Incremental and uploaded it here. I would really appreciate if you could try running this one to see if my change has made any difference.

Thanks,

 

[Nixnutz]

AlanH

Just downloaded your installer and let it do its thing.

Played a couple of turns and all seems well. (I'm running 10.2.3 on a G-3)

 

[AlanH]

Thanks Nixnutz. That's good to hear. I'm getting more confident about the installers now in Jaguar. Panther looks OK here, but I've yet to hear feedback from anyone else using it. 10.1 is the one I have the most grief with, because it seems I'm missing some subtle trick with Apple's tools and the installers fail miserably in that OS.

OK, I'll come clean. I have a small installer app I've been working on in my spare (ha-ha!) time that will take a Cracker zip file and load it into the Civ3 installation folder of our choice. It changes the process from a somewhat tedious sequence of standard Apple installer screens to a minimalist drag and drop operation. I've shown it to a couple of you, but had no feedback - positive or negative, yet. So I'll throw myself on the mercy of the wider populace and let you play with it at your own risk.

It will only work on the more recent zip files for GOTM21 and later, the ones that contain all the mod files in a replica of the Civ3 directory structure - Civ3/Art and Civ3/Text - and it won't do Cracker's latest piece of trickery for GOTM25, copying sound files from the old units to the new ones. I'm still pondering how to handle that new twist with this approach.

But here it is. Consider it an alpha release, as it is not even feature-complete yet. It backs any files up that it has to replace, in some backup folders with date-stamped names that are a bit cryptic, and I want to provide a way to unwind the installation sequence by reverting to the backups in the right order. But I'd be interested in whether it will work in OSX 10.1, and I'd welcome feedback on whether it looks like a useful approach in general.

I suggest you try it out on a copy of your Civ3 v1.29 installation. Just unzip the attached file and put the application wherever you like. When you double click it you should see a window containing a list of your installed Civ3 folders. The list will not include any fresh copies you have made recently, as it initially uses the "locate" disk index database in OS X that is only updated weekly. If the one you want to modify is not listed then drag it onto the window to add it to the list, and the installer will then remember it for future use.

If you have copies of Civ3 that are not version 1.29, or that have missing text or art folders, then they will also be listed in the window with a No Entry sign over the icon, and a description of the error.

To apply a GOTM mod to a Civ3 installation, drop the .zip file or the unzipped folder for the mod onto that copy of Civ3 in the window. The installer will ask for confirmation and then copy the files into the Civ3 destination. Unlike the current released installers, it will NOT check, for example, that you are installing GOTM25 files into a Civ3 that is already modded for GOTM24. So you have to make sure you apply multiple mods in the right order. The installer will accept multiple file sets in one drop operation, but there's no guarantee that they will be installed in the right order.

If you want to use this installer to try to create a GOTM25 configuration then you will have to do the sound file copy sequence manually as a final step, or apply my existing GOTM25 incremental installer if you can.

Enjoy, but please give me feedback - good or bad!

Thanks

Drag'n'drop GOTM Installer - Alpha release

[EDIT] This installer will load up ANY mod set as long as it runs in Civ3 version 1.29 and is supplied as a zipped or unzipped set of files in a folder hierarchy containing an Art folder and/or a Text folder.

 

[Txurce]

I thought Alan was about due for another testimonial, so here it comes:

Since switching to 10.2.8 my game took about a minute to shift from the desktop to the Civ home page. GOTM25 was playing as sluggishly as the original GOTM17 did, and I was despairing about checking in with every civ every turn. So I reinstalled Civ3 1.29, and followed with Alan's three last GOTM installations. The elegance of the programs surprised me much more than their ease, which I had expected. Then came the test - playing the game. It flies, as if it weren't a 15-civ game.

Alan, as I make a habit of saying, your efforts are greatly appreciated.

 

[AlanH]

@Txurce: Thank you very much for your kind remarks.

I would emphasise that the installers are simply packages built with Apple's Packagemaker, and any visual elegance is down to Apple's Installer application which actually presents the data on screen. The biggest challenge is trying to get them to you in zero time from the release of the files by Cracker, 'specially when Panther arrives the same week, and Cracker decides to throw in an extra installation script step

 

[Pigumon]

>AlanH
I am not sure what to do for GOTM25 installation. I downloaded your attached "GOTM installer", double-clicked it, and dragged my copy of CivIII ver 1.29 into the window. What is next?

Thanks in advance.

 

[AlanH]

@Pigumon:

I'm assuming that the copy of Civ3 you have dropped into the installer window plays gotm 24 correctly. If not you need to the earlier game installations first.

You need to download Cracker's add-on file set for gotm 25, using the link he posted in the pre-game discussion forum. Then you drop the file set onto it in the installer window. You can drop either the zip file or the unzipped folder it produces.

Having done that you need to find the readme that is installed with the file set in the "Mac" folder and use that to work out which sound files to copy manually from existing standard unit folders into the folders for the gotm special units.

When you download the actual start file, you will get some updated files with it. You then need to make sure you put these three patched files into the correct places before you launch the start file. This applies whatever installer you have used.

 

[AlanH]

In order to use my drag and drop installer to add the GOTM files you need to have first manually created a Civ3 game installation with the early mod file sets that didn't come in a suitable format for my installer.

Well, I've now made things a little easier. This link downloads an 8.3 MByte file set that you can use with my drag and drop installer to update a standard CivIII version 1.29b2 to allow you to play any gotm up to and including gotm23. After you install it you just need to follow the readme instructions in the "Art/resources storage" folder to adjust the resources depending on whether you want to play gotm21-plus, gotm20, or any other game.

Once you have used this file set to get up to the gotm23 level you can then move forward to gotm24 or gotm25 by applying Cracker's file sets.

Have fun, and holler if there's any of this you don't understand.

 

[Pigumon]

Thanks, AlanH.

But the installer did not work as expected. I could not drop the add-on file set. I do not know what was wrong.
So, I moved add-on files one by one to my copy of civIII folder. Now, I can play GOTM25 without any problem. I am now trying to finish GOTM25 in time.

FYI, mine is powerbook G4 with OS10.2.x.

 

[AlanH]

@Pigumon:
Thanks for trying it, I'm sorry you were not successful.

- Did the Civ3 installation that you wanted to upgrade appear in the installer window?

- If it didn't, were you able to drag it into the window?

- Have you changed the name of the "Civilization III" application file inside it? Or is it called something else in the Japanese version?

- If it was in the window, did it display any red text indicating that there was any problem with it?

- If it was in the window and there was no red text error indication then you should have been able to drop the file set onto it. If you can't then I would be interested in seeing a directory listing of the top level if your Civ3 application folder contents. Perhaps there is some localization problem for a Japanese version.

 

[Sid]

It's now December, 9th on my side of the planet. Yesterday I tried to install the GOTM 25 Incremental package on my Panther\iMac system. No luck.

AlanH, I may have done something wrong -- or Panther has. I know I'm a bit late (been playing Age of Mythology because it looks so pretty). Is the start file for GOTM 25 in a separate place, as usual -- couldn't even find that.

Sorry to bother you, but there have been so many annoying glitches with Panther -- at least my dayjob applics are working OK.

 

[AlanH]

Originally posted by Sid
It's now December, 9th on my side of the planet. Yesterday I tried to install the GOTM 25 Incremental package on my Panther\iMac system. No luck.

9th December here as well
What did it look like when it failed? Did the installer run? Did it produce an error or did it run to completion? Since you don't have the start file yet (see below) I assume it's not failing after that stage. If the installer throws an error then select "Show Log" in the file menu before you close it. Select "Show everything" in the popup at the bottom of the window, and that should indicate what went wrong. Copy and paste it all to a post here if you want me to interpret it.

Is the start file for GOTM 25 in a separate place, as usual -- couldn't even find that.

There's not much point in trying to load the start file if you don't have the mods installed properly. However, the installer contains a readme that is displayed in the second screen, and that includes the url for the GOTM25 start file. The ReadMe is also saved into the GOTM ReadMes folder in your Civ3 directory.

Note that the submission deadline for GOTM 25 was over a week ago . GOTM 26 is the current game, and the urls for that are in the game announcement page, as there are no new installations needed once you have the #25 setup working.

 

[Sid]

Dec 9 11:10:56 : GOTM25 Incremental Installation Log
Dec 9 11:10:56 : Opened from: /Users/sidstarr/Desktop/GOTM25 Incremental.pkg
Dec 9 11:10:56 : Hardware Model: PowerMac6,1 @ 1249 MHz, 768 MB
Dec 9 11:10:56 : Running OS Build: 7C107
Dec 9 11:10:56 : Installer Language: English
Dec 9 11:14:10 : LaunchApplication(/System/Library/Components/CharacterPalette.component/Contents/SharedSupport/CharPaletteServer.app)
Well, that's the log -- thanks for the clear instructions.

When I click on the GOTM25 Incremental. pkg, I get the message, "The installer package ... cannot be opened. The preflight script was either not executable or not readable."

I have separate GOTM install of 1.29b2 and have put your GOTM Installer in the same folder. It keeps telling me that it can't find the installation of 1.29b2. Once again, I feel that I've done something wrong as other appear to be OK. (Although most of them seem to be on 10.2.8).

 

[AlanH]

Sid, when did you download the installer? The reason I ask is that the error you are getting when you try to run the installer is the one that appeared when I first produced it, and I had only just got Panther myself at the end of October. I subsequently rebuilt all the installers using Panther and they certainly work here now.

I'm not sure what that log listing is telling us - the installer certainly shouldn't be trying to launch "CharPaletteServer" at any time, let alone 3 minutes after it started.

I assume the last part of your message is referring to the new alpha drag and drop installer. If you have recently created or moved your copy of 1.29b2 then the GOTM Installer will not find it. You have to drop the folder containing that installation onto its window. It will then recognise it. This is explained in the post for that installer.

 

[Sid]

Hi Alan, I d/l the day before I posted on this topic. Have been using the installer as per your instructions. Still no luck.

When I get a break from some heavy video rendering, I'll try it all again.

Thanks for your replies.

 

[BuddhaBubba]

as i haven't played a GOTM on the MAC in quite awhile

and would like to

i tried your GOTM23 installer and it didn't work

bah

sometimes I wish we still had our own "Mac" Tourneys like the old days...

:sigh: