A Babylon 5 Mod for the Final Frontier Mod

[PsiCorps]

OK, using a Steam Download of Civ IV Complete, to get the MOD working with the planets showing was actually very simple. Install the Mod into the BTS Mod folder, then run the Civ4SteamRegistryFix within the Mod folder and hey presto, game works.

Now I have to see if I can fix the AI expansion issue mentioned in a previous post.

 

[Blake00]

Glad to hear.
Yeah if I recall they just couldn't compete with the insane amount of pirate attacks. Their colony ships would get picked off and they didn't have enough ships to clear out their space. Being attacked almost every turn is certainly exciting but being a human I was able to adapt (ie multiple escorts for my colony ships and cheaper fighter patrols) whereas the AI couldn't and just fell behind barely colonizing anywhere.

 

[PsiCorps]

I think I am missing the unofficial patch 3.19. I have downloaded the only patch I could find but it doesn't autoinstall. Unsure of what to do as I think this will fix some of the problems I am encountering ATM.

 

[Blake00]

Don't think I have that installed.. author's put a install guide in the thread though..
https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/unofficial-patch-for-3-19.324024/

 

[PsiCorps]

Thanks Blake00.

One of the issues I have is graphics. If the unit is selected, the graphics are correct.

If the unit is not selected it defaults to the FF graphics.

On a positive note, I think I fixed the AI settling issue. Need to test further before I can say it's done and dusted.

Encountering an issue with events that are firing way to often and also one off events that are also repeating. A chained event is also not functioning properly.

If the patching is beneficial I will ensure that I include it in the installation guide so everyone benefits.

 

[Blake00]

Strange that you're still having weird issues as you should just be able to drop the B5 mod on a clean Civ4 install with the reg fix and it'll work. If other things were needed then you and I and others would have had these problems years ago. You don't still have the Final Frontier Plus mod or any other mods installed do ya? as they might be battling with the B5 mod.

That's great news on the AI improvements though!

I remember in my big game years ago I couldn't build Babylon 5 itself even after you told me how to do it and ended up having to cheat it in.. wonder if that was due to broken chain events..
.

 

[PsiCorps]

I am unable to expose the C++ files in the steam version of Civ IV that I have, so the 3.19 patch isn't going to happen. Guess I'm going to have to wait until I can't get my hands on a non steam version of Civ IV.

You don't still have the Final Frontier Plus mod or any other mods installed do ya? as they might be battling with the B5 mod.

Nope I don't have that installed.

 

[Blake00]

I am unable to expose the C++ files in the steam version of Civ IV that I have, so the 3.19 patch isn't going to happen. Guess I'm going to have to wait until I can't get my hands on a non steam version of Civ IV.


Nope I don't have that installed.

These days I think everyone is using the Steam & GoG versions as the disc copy doesn't work anymore due to some annoying windows update that broke it. I know my copy stopped working and I contacted 2K support who asked for a picture of me holding the game discs and a note with some stuff they asked me to write. I obliged and they gave me a free steam copy lol.

Sounds like BTS still works though (which is all you need for this I guess) and it's just the rest of Civ4 that's broken.. more info here..
https://forums.civfanatics.com/thre...windows-vista-7-8-8-1-10-11-32-64-bit.408537/

 

[Samson]

These days I think everyone is using the Steam & GoG versions as the disc copy doesn't work anymore due to some annoying windows update that broke it. I know my copy stopped working and I contacted 2K support who asked for a picture of me holding the game discs and a note with some stuff they asked me to write. I obliged and they gave me a free steam copy lol.

Sounds like BTS still works though (which is all you need for this I guess) and it's just the rest of Civ4 that's broken.. more info here..
https://forums.civfanatics.com/thre...windows-vista-7-8-8-1-10-11-32-64-bit.408537/

I am still using the disk versions, only BTS but it works well.

 

[PsiCorps]

I have nothing but bad news to report. I have been getting error messages when trying to load the game. I have done a complete deletion and reinstall of Civ Complete, Imported the Mod to the Mods folder, run the registry fix and I am still getting the same error messages.

I have made no changes to any of the files referenced in any of the screenshots shown below.

I'm at a loss as to what to do, any ideas anyone?

 

[Samson]

I have nothing but bad news to report. I have been getting error messages when trying to load the game. I have done a complete deletion and reinstall of Civ Complete, Imported the Mod to the Mods folder, run the registry fix and I am still getting the same error messages.

I have made no changes to any of the files referenced in any of the screenshots shown below.

View attachment 731442

View attachment 731443

View attachment 731444

View attachment 731445

I'm at a loss as to what to do, any ideas anyone?

I really do not know what I am ttalking about, but as it seems to be failing on the longer file names could it be the 255 character limit on file names? Depending where you installed the mod, is it possible that the full file path for say "UncutDragon_GlobalDefines.xml" is just over 255 characters, while "PythonCallbackDefines.xml" is just under?

The other thing that strikes me is that "xml/Units\CIV4PromotionsTiersInfo.xml" has two different directory seperators. I do not know what effect that has.

 

[Blake00]

Just to double check you're definitely in the correct mods folder right? A lot of people get confused about where the true BTS mods folder is due to how the steam versions folders are annoyingly named, which I go into it in step 3 of the steam part of the install guide (with an example picture).

3. Just to be even more confusing Steam renamed the main Civilization IV vanilla install folder to 'Civilization IV Beyond the Sword' resulting in people thinking that they are in the BtS mods subfolder when they are not! So go into Civilization IV BtS install folder, then into the 'Beyond the Sword' subfolder and then finally into the BtS 'Mods' subfolder. Create a 'Babylon 5' folder and extract the 7zip files contents into that folder. If you're still confused then check out this screenshot of where mine is installed:
https://i.imgur.com/CW6EEVq.jpg

Also make sure that the address in the registry fix file (by editing it in notepad) matches where the game actually is as yours may be in a different location.

But if those are all fine then I've got no idea mate.. you're getting so many issues no else normally gets when they follow the install guide correctly.
.

 

[PsiCorps]

Also make sure that the address in the registry fix file (by editing it in notepad) matches where the game actually is as yours may be in a different location.

This may be what the problem is. I'll tackle this tomorrow when I have a little more free time to ensure I put everything in the right place and with the right pathing.

Thanks Blake00

 

[Blake00]

Hmm yeah I just noticed that I go into more detail in the quoted post below that the reg file download is attached to about how people should check the address...

YES! I got it!! The issue was that steam version of Civ 4 BtS doesn't put much in the windows registry. Even the disc version doesn't create a BtS reg entry, just a Civ 4 complete one. However the BtS patch does create a BtS reg entry with a language setting, install directory & patch version number. Through trial and error I've found that the language & version number reg entries have no impact on the B5 mod but the install directory record reg entry does. Without it the B5 mod won't work. Oddly enough if the directory address is wrong it still works. I've changed it to the default steam install folder however you could put C:\HairyBalls and it'll still work lol.

Here's the text if you wish to paste it into notepad and save it as a .reg file. Or you if want it even easier I've created this one attached. Just unzip the reg file and double click on it and it'll insert the below entry into your windows registry. Run the B5 mod and it should be all good now! (note this has only been tested in win 7 however it 'should' be fine in win 8 & 10).

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Firaxis Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4 - Beyond the Sword]
"INSTALLDIR"="C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Steam\\SteamApps\\common\\Sid Meier's Civilization IV Beyond the Sword\\Beyond the Sword"

I might write a proper install guide in my next post and also include a copy of the guide as well as this reg file in the main mod zip file download since PsiCorps has kindly given me admin access to the B5 sourceforge page. This should vastly reduce people having problems running the mod.

However I don't mention that at all in step 4 of the install guide below from the OP here and across it's other locations (ModDB/SourceForge/PDF guide), probably cause I assumed they'd follow the link to the reg post and then read that which was a mistake. So I think I should add something that tells people to make sure they edit the reg file and check the address. I built this guide a whopping 8 years ago for you with Windows 7 so it's possible steam puts it elsewhere in Win 10 or 11. Let me know where your steam Civ4 install ended up (assuming you left it to defaults). I still use Win 7 lol, however I've got a Win 10 partition these days but not Win 11 to do experiments with.

4. IMPORTANT! The Babylon 5 Mod will not work properly with the Steam version of Civ 4 BtS due to the steam version of BtS not inserting any Windows registry entries. The game will start but there will be many missing graphics & "Error in FinalFrontierGameUtils callback handler calculateScore" errors. To fix this problem run the 'Civ4SteamRegistryFix.reg' file included with the mod. If your download is missing this file then you can get another copy from HERE .

 

[PsiCorps]

This is the installation path for my Civ IV BTS - C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Sid Meier's Civilization IV Beyond the Sword\Beyond the Sword\Mods\Babylon 5 V3.3

This is my unedited registry file which is showing the correct location.

Unless it needs to have Mods\Babylon 5 V3.3 added at the end?

I have just completed a fresh reinstall and I am still getting the same errors as in post

• #2,350

On a side note, I am unable to locate any other files within the B5 Mod by the same person as the file causing the initial problem - UncutDragon_GlobalDefines

 

[Blake00]

Everything seems to be what it should be.. the registry fix is for the B5 mod to see where Civ4 is so nah adding the extra B5 bit on the end isn't needed. Also I'll point out that many other mods don't seem to have this registry issue so presumably the depths of the B5 mods files where it has a location address for things you could remove it's need to look at the registry, but I've never played with that stuff before so I'm no help sadly.

Anyway the strangest part is that you're getting errors that didn't happen originally when you installed it.. you had the mod 'mostly' working before these new errors, and whatever broke is surviving the re-installs

When you reinstalling are you truly wiping all traces of the game? eg when you uninstall it from steam it may leave mods and extra modified config files.. so after uninstalling go and have a look in your program files, steam, steam apps, common folder and see if there's still a civ 4 folder in there and if so, kill it!

Also I notice that Civ4 puts other stuff into more places that may not be being deleted..
C:\Users\MyUsername\Documents\My Games\beyond the sword
C:\Users\MyUsername\Documents\My Games\Warlords

I'm seeing all sorts of stuff in these folders including settings for some custom mods.. so wipe these too as it's quite possible your installations of some of those other mods that messed things up are remaining.. THEN you'll hopefully truly be doing a fresh install of civ4 that you can put the B5 mod on with nothing else.

.

 

[PsiCorps]

Everything seems to be what it should be.. the registry fix is for the B5 mod to see where Civ4 is so nah adding the extra B5 bit on the end isn't needed. Also I'll point out that many other mods don't seem to have this registry issue so presumably the depths of the B5 mods files where it has a location address for things you could remove it's need to look at the registry, but I've never played with that stuff before so I'm no help sadly.

Anyway the strangest part is that you're getting errors that didn't happen originally when you installed it.. you had the mod 'mostly' working before these new errors, and whatever broke is surviving the re-installs

When you reinstalling are you truly wiping all traces of the game? eg when you uninstall it from steam it may leave mods and extra modified config files.. so after uninstalling go and have a look in your program files, steam, steam apps, common folder and see if there's still a civ 4 folder in there and if so, kill it!

Also I notice that Civ4 puts other stuff into more places that may not be being deleted..
C:\Users\MyUsername\Documents\My Games\beyond the sword
C:\Users\MyUsername\Documents\My Games\Warlords

I'm seeing all sorts of stuff in these folders including settings for some custom mods.. so wipe these too as it's quite possible your installations of some of those other mods that messed things up are remaining.. THEN you'll hopefully truly be doing a fresh install of civ4 that you can put the B5 mod on with nothing else.

.

Thanks Blake00, I'll go through my PC after I uninstall Civ IV and find all Civ IV files, held anywhere and then delete them before reinstalling.

 

[<Nexus>]

It may also be worth mentioning:

Steam Users: If using Civ 4 on Steam, switch to the Beta version (equivalent to the original CD release).

 

[Blake00]

It may also be worth mentioning:
Steam Users: If using Civ 4 on Steam, switch to the Beta version (equivalent to the original CD release).

Hmm I didn't know about that, interesting. Although that means I never did it so I guess it isn't needed for this mod at least, as it works fine for me with the default steam install (& the reg fix).

 

[<Nexus>]

Hmm I didn't know about that, interesting. Although that means I never did it so I guess it isn't needed for this mod at least, as it works fine for me with the default steam install (& the reg fix).

I know that steam causes some small issues in some mods, including mine but I don't have steam.