Attempt to give +2 Movement from a Civic in BtS (my painful path so far)

[Baruna]

Goal: Grant +2 max movement to units (initially Scouts, later all land units) when a specific civic (CIVIC_NOMADISM in the LEGAL category) is active.

1.- Python First Try

• Learned quickly that XML alone cannot conditionally change unit movement based on a civic.
• Tried Python in CvEventManager.py to adjust moves each turn.
  Ran into no-log issues: my CivilizationIV.ini in My Games\Beyond the Sword kept resetting and PythonDbg.log wasn’t generated.
• Spent time toggling LoggingEnabled=1, HidePythonExceptions=0, etc., but the INI kept reverting. I paused Python debugging to attempt a DLL approach.

2.- VS 2008 Dead End

• The community wisdom says: compile with VS 2008 / toolset v90 (or at least older toolsets like v141_xp).
• I tried to obtain Visual C++ 2008 Express SP1 ISO:
  • Multiple official links now 404 or gone.
  • MSDN and mirrors were inaccessible or non-functional for me.
• Considered VS 2013 alternatives, but I specifically needed VS 2008/v90 according to community wisdom.

3.- VS 2022 Toolset Hell

• Installed Visual Studio 2022 Community and tried to build CvGameCoreDLL.
• Boost and Python headers: hit errors like
  fatal error C1083: Cannot open include file: 'Python.h' and cannot open source file 'boost\python\object.hpp'.
  Fixed by placing Boost 1.32.0 correctly.

• After that, hit template/STL errors:
  basic_ostream is not a template, etc.
  After a while, realised that this happens when using modern toolsets (v143) with very old code.

4.- Wrestling with VS 2022 Project Formats

• My project opened as NMake (only showed General, Debugging, VC++ Directories, NMake).
  No C/C++, Linker, or Platform Toolset fields.
• Created a new MSBuild C++ DLL project and imported .cpp/.h files.
  This finally exposed C/C++, Linker, etc.
• Set up:
  • Includes: Boost-1.32.0, Python24\include, project dir.
  • Libs: Python24\libs; Additional Dependencies: python24.lib.
  • Runtime: /MT.
  • Defines: _MBCS, _CRT_SECURE_NO_DEPRECATE, _SCL_SECURE_NO_DEPRECATE, BOOST_NO_SCOPED_ENUMS, etc.
  • Tried to enforce Multi-Byte but no Character Set field visible in UI.
• Still ran into compatibility issues because /std:c++98 isn’t exposed in v143, and Conformance Mode toggles werent available.

5.- Outcome

After hours of chasing toolset/version quirks (and dead VS2008 links), I parked the DLL approach. I’m now implementing a python workaround:

• On game start: each turn, check if Nomadism is active.
• For all land units: set baseMoves = vanillaMoves + 2 (and restore when civic changes), marking units to avoid stacking.

If anyone has a current source for VS 2008 or a toolset that compiles BtS 3.19 SDK on VS 2022, I’d love pointers. In the meantime, Python is keeping the project moving.