[Beyond the Sword] History In The Making

[Rusty Edge]

Any chance of Revolution mod being included into the 3.17 build? With the REV-DCM combo fully available for 3.17, I don't see why not. It's setup so it can be turned on and off via pre-game settings.

I believe they have brought Moctezuma's Influence Driven War up to 3.17 compliance in that Mod-Pack. Moctezuma hasn't posted since Oct 2007 . So, it may appear to be a shortcut to include that group , rather than update Influence-Driven War independently .

My guess is that it's probably not that simple, because you are introducing new elements that would have to be compared to existing ones.

Arian-

The way I understand what I read, he current version of The BUG Mod now has a military advisor and includes the 3.17 patch , but you have to uninstall the older version before you put in the new one.

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=274012

 

[Rusty Edge]

Have a good break ....


On a personal thought on The Pyramids (which I personally have studied quite a lot in RL), I'm still not sure what they were built for. If they are burial chambers/monuments, the builders did a fine job of leaving no clue for us (Egyptian burial practices normally left many hieroglypics, the Giza Pyramids contain none)..One think is absolutely sure, they were built with a precise knowledge of Mathematics and Astronomy....

So that's my early morning thoughts on the topic

It was a nice trip, my thanks to all well-wishers.

As for the Pyramids, I buy into the theory that the Great one at Giza, at least, was designed as a state-of-the-art transporter ,to aim Pharoh's soul at the constellation Orion, where he would become a god upon arrival, able to bestow blessings upon those who had served him faithfully on Earth. Whether those blessings were to be in the world or the afterworld, I don't know, but I figure that they gave the people a sense of purpose, pride, and security- happiness in game terms.

I figure that the other pyramids were "Me, toos".

 

[DrewBledsoe]

Started a new game, got Gandhi, and could immediately see 3 lumps of gold...Excellent, thought I. But the more techs I reserached, I realised the darn RNG had given me a "no natural food start".Was about to start griping to myself,when only a handful of turns into the game this happened.....

Popped Flood Plains Wheat ....might enjoy this game me thinks

 

[Hyronymus]

Stop teasing me with your games of HiTM . But a nice plot it is.

 

[ruffriders23]

I have been waiting for this to be upgraded to 3.17 for a while now.

 

[DrewBledsoe]

I have been waiting for this to be upgraded to 3.17 for a while now.

The problem is, we don't have Grave's original source files. On the last page, Arian made an excellent attempt to break down HiTM into all its relevant components. http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=7076272&postcount=2019

The thing is, we don't have all of them, and to upgrade to 3.17 would (almost) involve putting HiTM together from scratch. Also, Grave edited and played around with some of these components.If I had to do it, it wouldn't be HiTM anymore, it would be something sort of like it, that I had created. Nevermind the time and work involved....so its a shame but unless Grave returns to the fray, I would hold your breath on an upgrade to 3.17...sorry

 

[Chuggi]

Why doesn't Grave update it himself, or upload his source files?

 

[DrewBledsoe]

Why doesn't Grave update it himself, or upload his source files?

Grave is current military...he recently moved all the way across The States. He is probably too busy, maybe other factors involved.

 

[Chuggi]

Ah. Well in that case he should've include his source files with the current version, like other coders do. Especially if his mod is so popular that the fans want to update it themselves.

 

[ruffriders23]

Why doesn't someone who knows the mod and knows how to mod pick it up then instead of letting the mod just go away when everyone finally upgrades to 3.17?

 

[Chuggi]

Because it would take forever to rewrite the code without the source files. :/

 

[Kalimakhus]

I am not sure if this was brought around on this thread before. I have updated to 3.17 a long time ago and ever since I have been missing HitM a lot. Anyway, there is an old trick that I used for Vanilla and Warlords when both got their last patches with the release of BTS. There have been a lot of mods I like to play and updating caused them not to work any more. I discovered by trial that using the older executable i.e. Warlords.exe for say 2.08 can still be used to start a mod that was originally made for 2.08. I have tried this with HitM just today and I was able to start the mod and play a game that is 250 turns (Odyssey speed) now.

So to update to 3.17 and still be able to play HitM you can do the following:
1- Before installing the patch go to Beyond The Sword folder and rename the Civ4BeyondSword.exe file to any other name keeping the extension. I renamed it to Civ4BeyondSword313.exe.
2- Install the patch normally.
3- Whenever you like to play HitM start the game using Civ4BeyondSword313.exe rather than the new Civ4BeyondSword.exe that was installed by the patch.
4- You also can create a shortcut that starts the game and load HitM in one step. To do so just make a copy of the Beyond the Sword shortcut you have on your desktop (installed when you install BTS). Right click this copy and choose properties, In the dialog box you will get on Target tab the text box named target will have the following text or similar "C:\Program Files\Firaxis Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4\Beyond the Sword\Civ4BeyondSword.exe" (quotation marks included). Change this to "C:\Program Files\Firaxis Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4\Beyond the Sword\Civ4BeyondSword313.exe" mod=\HISTORY IN THE MAKING
You can then use this shortcut to start HitM with the right executable.

I can't guarantee that HitM would work well and totally without issues using this process. So far in my game I haven't noticed any problems though some may be there considering that there are other changes with 3.17 besides the exe and dll files. On the other hand these changes may not be an issue because the mod replaces many xml and python files. Anyway, I will keep you noted with anything I find in case anyone doesn't like to risk updating without being 100% sure that HitM will work all through a full game.

 

[Arian]

Thanks for the info.

Basically you keep 3.13 running, isn't it?

Should be fine as long as you keep your XML and Python also at 3.13.

 

[Arian]

Why doesn't someone who knows the mod and knows how to mod pick it up then instead of letting the mod just go away when everyone finally upgrades to 3.17?

Some ModComps are missing/not available. Can't update

 

[DrewBledsoe]

Because it would take forever to rewrite the code without the source files. :/

Exactly, even though I tried some hack methods, its probably easier to start over from fresh.

I am not sure if this was brought around on this thread before. I have updated to 3.17 a long time ago and ever since I have been missing HitM a lot. Anyway, there is an old trick that I used for Vanilla and Warlords when both got their last patches with the release of BTS. There have been a lot of mods I like to play and updating caused them not to work any more. I discovered by trial that using the older executable i.e. Warlords.exe for say 2.08 can still be used to start a mod that was originally made for 2.08. I have tried this with HitM just today and I was able to start the mod and play a game that is 250 turns (Odyssey speed) now.

So to update to 3.17 and still be able to play HitM you can do the following:
1- Before installing the patch go to Beyond The Sword folder and rename the Civ4BeyondSword.exe file to any other name keeping the extension. I renamed it to Civ4BeyondSword313.exe.
2- Install the patch normally.
3- Whenever you like to play HitM start the game using Civ4BeyondSword313.exe rather than the new Civ4BeyondSword.exe that was installed by the patch.
4- You also can create a shortcut that starts the game and load HitM in one step. To do so just make a copy of the Beyond the Sword shortcut you have on your desktop (installed when you install BTS). Right click this copy and choose properties, In the dialog box you will get on Target tab the text box named target will have the following text or similar "C:\Program Files\Firaxis Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4\Beyond the Sword\Civ4BeyondSword.exe" (quotation marks included). Change this to "C:\Program Files\Firaxis Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4\Beyond the Sword\Civ4BeyondSword313.exe" mod=\HISTORY IN THE MAKING
You can then use this shortcut to start HitM with the right executable.

I can't guarantee that HitM would work well and totally without issues using this process. So far in my game I haven't noticed any problems though some may be there considering that there are other changes with 3.17 besides the exe and dll files. On the other hand these changes may not be an issue because the mod replaces many xml and python files. Anyway, I will keep you noted with anything I find in case anyone doesn't like to risk updating without being 100% sure that HitM will work all through a full game.

Nice way around, anyone who tries it, pls let us know of any bugs/anomalies etc.

Thanks for the info.

Basically you keep 3.13 running, isn't it?

Should be fine as long as you keep your XML and Python also at 3.13.

Yes, its not actually upgrading to 3.17 per se.

Some ModComps are missing/not available. Can't update

Exactly again...

Guys:- When Grave decided he was having a break from HitM he asked me to look after things. I'm 100% sure, he didn't plan to completely abandon it, or Im sure he would have given me the relevent SDK. As said earlier, maybe he's too busy IRL for CIV atm.......so that's the current status.

 

[Kalimakhus]

Thanks for the info.

Basically you keep 3.13 running, isn't it?

Should be fine as long as you keep your XML and Python also at 3.13.

I don't keep XML or Python at 3.13. They get updated when the patch is installed. I only keep the executable (after renaming it so it is not overwritten by the one installed by the patch). Usually new mods won't work because their DLL can't work with the new exe file. Keeping the older exe file solves this. Other changes may or may not be of issue. This is what I am exploring now.

@Drew

BTS is upgraded to 3.17 normally. As you said it is a workaround. The mod won't be upgraded. It will work as if BTS is still at 3.13. I think if this work we can at least wait till either Grave is back again or someone is able to port the DLL.

 

[DrewBledsoe]

I don't keep XML or Python at 3.13. They get updated when the patch is installed. I only keep the executable (after renaming it so it is not overwritten by the one installed by the patch). Usually new mods won't work because their DLL can't work with the new exe file. Keeping the older exe file solves this. Other changes may or may not be of issue. This is what I am exploring now.

If the XML and python files get overwritten, I can't see them working without quite a few bugs, as Grave added a lot of code to many xml files...

Anyways, it's an excellent plan, if it works

EDIT: To put it another way, they probably won't actually crash, but may have a lot of stuff missing. which will effect gameplay.

EDIT 2: Kali, just saw your Edit to that post, and stopped to think...I'm being dumb (few beers isn't helping (well it is)...HiTM won't be touched be any upgrades to BTS XML files, as Grave basically included them all in HiTM , to make it a stand alone game...so I'm more hopeful than before...anyways pls let me know how it goes..thanks

 

[Rusty Edge]

I don't keep XML or Python at 3.13. They get updated when the patch is installed. I only keep the executable (after renaming it so it is not overwritten by the one installed by the patch). Usually new mods won't work because their DLL can't work with the new exe file. Keeping the older exe file solves this. Other changes may or may not be of issue. This is what I am exploring now.

@Drew

BTS is upgraded to 3.17 normally. As you said it is a workaround. The mod won't be upgraded. It will work as if BTS is still at 3.13. I think if this work we can at least wait till either Grave is back again or someone is able to port the DLL.

If you're playing, HitM, try Drew's patch in post#1908, it solves some pre-existing problems with one of the components.

 

[Kalimakhus]

@Drew

Exactly. I was going to explain this as I felt I wasn't clear enough. The XML and Python files that get overwritten by 3.17 are the ones of vanilla BTS i.e. in Beyond the Sword\assets folder. The ones of HitM are not touched by the patch. Now HitM still uses some files from the vanilla BTS. The point is any file that is modified by the mod will be used from the mod's folder other files will be loaded from Beyond the Sword\assets.

I've gone further with my game and things seem to be working nicely. I will sure report any issues I may notice. Hopefully there won't be any serious issues.

 

[Kalimakhus]

If you're playing, HitM, try Drew's patch in post#1908, it solves some pre-existing problems with one of the components.

Thanks for pointing me to the exact post. I remember reading this post before but being busy and not playing HitM at that time I forgot to download it. Many thanks to Drew for his efforts. He has always been dedicated to HitM and helped the mod's fan a lot.

On the other hand I remember right before the time of 3.17 that I noticed many Python Exceptions arising from events' code. It seems that some part of the code that is repeated throughout the file was badly indented which in python causes a great miss. Such exceptions won't give error message if you keep them hidden through the setting in the ini file, but they will still cause the code they arise from to fail. I am sure this was a cause of many of the missed up events behavior noticed by players.