The Playground Mod 3.0 3.0.0

[Bluemofia]

@wonderer1104 Welcome to CFC!

Can you upload a screenshot of the exact error you are receiving? I am referencing the file in my setup (admittedly, it is the steam version, but the steam/CD version differences is only the labels.txt, not the Pediaicons.txt), and I see the both lines.

 

[wonderer1104]

@Bluemofia Hey! Thanks for the warm welcome! Some things have happened since my OG post. I got a new computer with no disk drive in the beginning of Feb, so I installed the steam version of the game. However, I am still having the same exact problem. I have gone in the files, and the civilopedia art IS actually missing for the Staff Intel Center. I have made another bogus file to satisfy the program, but it is still not working. This time I have included a screenshot as you requested. I'm sorry that I am bothering you over it. I have just heard rave reviews and I want to give this a try!

 

[Bluemofia]

@wonderer1104, the Civilopedia Art for that particular entry reuses the existing Intelligence Center art, so it is not unexpected that it isn't present.

The specific error you are running into seems to indicate that the PediaIcons.txt file is not present at all; "Tattle Tale Kids" Building is the first building that utilizes a new Civilopedia Entry, and thus it would be the first one to error out if you are not using the PediaIcons.txt provided with the download.

Can you provide a screenshot of the Text folder, including the filepath? It should look something like this:

 

[tjs282]

Hi. Not sure if this thread is still being monitored, and I hate to make my first post here just to report a possible bug, but I hit an apparent roadblock while playing this mod (for the first time ever) the other day.

Playing at my usual Emperor on the standard-issue v.3.0 Scenario map (large Antarctic landmass, massive equatorial ocean with small islands), I random-rolled the Barbarians, starting towards the eastern end of the southern landmass. West to east: Girls[?], Horse, LEGO, me, Char and Boy Union on the southern landmass; Girls (also?) on the big western island, Staff on the big central island, UF — I think? — on the northern landmass. Although I had successfully repelled the Char in the opening stages, and was starting to make decent inroads into the Boy Union's turf, the LEGOs suddenly made peace with the Char, and backstabbed me while hordes of their units were on my turf.

And I couldn't fight them off, because even though I'd amassed a huge pile of gold by that point, and had finally researched Decentralization (that 50% rate-cap is a b****! ), I discovered that not only could I not upgrade my 3.4.1. Barbarian Hordes to 5.5.1 Barb Swordsmen, but I couldn't even build them from scratch!

(FTR, in addition to the Palace, I had built my Second Capital Fortress, and the Third Capital Fortress was also queued/underway)

I could upgrade my 6.1.1 ATAR Soccer Teams to Soccer Raiders, but I didn't have many of those, and most of them were a long way from the core Fortresses by that point (new ones were being built, but 85 shields takes a while to amass when the Barbarians can't cash-rush either). And D=5 Home Guards weren't going to last long against A=10 Forest Archers. So there wasn't much point continuing, because I was inevitably going to get overrun.

According to their 'Pedia entry, Barbarian Swordsmen have no resource dependencies, and when I looked in the .biq there didn't seem to be any other restrictions in place, either (AFAICT): the Hordes have the Upgrade-box checked, both units are available to the Barbarians, and Swordsmen don't have the King flag either. So what have I missed? What do I need to do to make them usable?

(Also, I noticed that the Barbarians can build the epic-game Mass Transit improvement from Turn 1, which seems a little ... unnecessary? Should that building have been assigned to the unresearchable "Garbage" tech, to remove it from the build-lists?)

 

[Bluemofia]

Hi. Not sure if this thread is still being monitored, and I hate to make my first post here just to report a possible bug, but I hit an apparent roadblock while playing this mod (for the first time ever) the other day.

Playing at my usual Emperor on the standard-issue v.3.0 Scenario map (large Antarctic landmass, massive equatorial ocean with small islands), I random-rolled the Barbarians, starting towards the eastern end of the southern landmass. West to east: Girls[?], Horse, LEGO, me, Char and Boy Union on the southern landmass; Girls (also?) on the big western island, Staff on the big central island, UF — I think? — on the northern landmass. Although I had successfully repelled the Char in the opening stages, and was starting to make decent inroads into the Boy Union's turf, the LEGOs suddenly made peace with the Char, and backstabbed me while hordes of their units were on my turf.

And I couldn't fight them off, because even though I'd amassed a huge pile of gold by that point, and had finally researched Decentralization (that 50% rate-cap is a b****! ), I discovered that not only could I not upgrade my 3.4.1. Barbarian Hordes to 5.5.1 Barb Swordsmen, but I couldn't even build them from scratch!

(FTR, in addition to the Palace, I had built my Second Capital Fortress, and the Third Capital Fortress was also queued/underway)

I could upgrade my 6.1.1 ATAR Soccer Teams to Soccer Raiders, but I didn't have many of those, and most of them were a long way from the core Fortresses by that point (new ones were being built, but 85 shields takes a while to amass when the Barbarians can't cash-rush either). And D=5 Home Guards weren't going to last long against A=10 Forest Archers. So there wasn't much point continuing, because I was inevitably going to get overrun.

According to their 'Pedia entry, Barbarian Swordsmen have no resource dependencies, and when I looked in the .biq there didn't seem to be any other restrictions in place, either (AFAICT): the Hordes have the Upgrade-box checked, both units are available to the Barbarians, and Swordsmen don't have the King flag either. So what have I missed? What do I need to do to make them usable?

(Also, I noticed that the Barbarians can build the epic-game Mass Transit improvement from Turn 1, which seems a little ... unnecessary? Should that building have been assigned to the unresearchable "Garbage" tech, to remove it from the build-lists?)

Ah, it's been a while. Not sure if you are still playing, but if you can pass me the save file, and screenshots of the Barbarian Hordes you were trying to upgrade, I can try and look into it.

The usual upgrade problems seem to all be checked:
* Rules need to have the "Upgrade Unit" checkbox checked (confirmed in the .biq file)
* Rules need to have the Upgrade Path configured (confirmed in the .biq file)
* Civilization needs the appropriate resources (no resource requirements)
* Civilization needs to be able to build the Upgrade unit (you can build it elsewhere)
* Civilization needs to have the right tech (you can build it elsewhere)
* Civilization has the appropriate amount of gold (it is a 10 to 20 shield jump, so the gold cost is miniscule)
* Unit is attempting to be upgraded in a city with a "Produces Veteran Ground Units" building

The only thing I can think of that may prevent the upgrade from going through is if you don't have the appropriate upgrade buildings, such as the the Capital Fortresses, though you seem to be aware of that, but I'd thought I'd ask in absence of screenshots or a save file.

As a note, the Mass Transit System is enabled for everyone at the start by a limitation of design, as it is one of those remove population pollution buildings which everyone should get access to. We probably could have given each culture group their own version of it, and tied it to their own point in their technology trees, but the obsolescence to make sure they have their own is impossible for all 3 major Culture Groups (Staff, Child, and Barbarian civs), and we didn't want to make it generate culture, so we just left it as available in the beginning and called it a day. I guess we could have just considered it no big problem for someone to theoretically build all 3 versions, if each civ got it at their own unique tech, but... Lazy and didn't want to make 3 different versions of doing the same thing, and we felt that being able to build it from the start isn't that big of a deal.

EDIT: And I put down the email notifications, as this is kinda my baby, and I would like to continue to provide support for this, even if I've largely ran out of time to do much development because of IRL.

 

[tjs282]

Ah, it's been a while. Not sure if you are still playing, but if you can pass me the save file, and screenshots of the Barbarian Hordes you were trying to upgrade, I can try and look into it.

Thanks for your reply! No problem about the delay, I totally understand about Real Life getting in the way, especially considering the global cluster**** over the past 18 months or so.

I did not continue with that game at the time, but I generally keep mod savegames in separate directories to my epic-game saves, so I may still have the most recent savefile(s). (I can't check right now, because I'm at work; also, I was playing on our old WinXP laptop, which I no longer connect to the internet.) If I do, I will make a screenie or two, copy the files across to my newer machine, and upload them here.

(And if it turns out that I was being an idiot, I apologise in advance!)

 

[tjs282]

(And if it turns out that I was being an idiot, I apologise in advance!)

I located the savegames, and I am an idiot

So what have I missed? What do I need to do to make them usable?

I misread the 'Pedia. Decentralization does not unlock Barbarian Swordsmen (they require Barbarian Theory, still 2 techs away), so it's hardly surprising that I couldn't upgrade my Barbarian Warriors.

That game is still toast, though. I replayed from the last save, and the LEGOs duly declared again.

 

[Bluemofia]

Sounds good, glad to hear that you were able to get to the bottom of it.

Yeah, the Barbarians are a bit tricky to play in the mid game when the other civs start to get beefier units, and they tend to lag behind a bit in the mid game. Other than out-macroing the AI and crushing the neighbors in the early game, how I end up dealing with mid game AI my games is to use the Hidden Nationality units as honeypot traps for their units, luring them out of position into my territory. Meanwhile, using the non-HN Homeguards paired with and the HN Soccer Players to destroy them, and to prevent them from counter-attacking the Soccer Players.

If I end up having the upper hand and they run out of units to attack, I start using the Soccer Players to pillage their land, ruining their productivity, and to gain the mobility advantage even in their territory by dismantling their road network.

 

[Bluemofia]

Bluemofia updated The Playground Mod with a new update entry:

Download link update

Update due to Google Drive's new security features

Read the rest of this update entry...