[BtS] "Mars, Now!"

[The_J]

Hi, please add a patch dowload link at the first page. It still says:

Ups, i always forget about updating the opening post.
Sorry, fixed, thanks for the notification .

I'm sorry, but as much as the terraforming is nice, it needs a lot more changes than just straight to ocean. At least make it optional...or tech based...

Cool down .
I've already been convinced that some steps more are needed.

Tech based ...do you think of something specific?

Right now you have buildings generating terraforming points. More points means a quicker terraforming process in the vicinity of the city. What if these 'terraforming chances' are called blue terraforming points, and red factions can generate red 'terraforming' points. That way, maybe red and blue points can cancel each other out. Blue points accelerate terraforming, red points arrest or regress it.

Note that red points don't need to do much, maybe it should lead to more sand storms. Add to that access to some kind of improvement which is capable of harnessing commerce, hammers or food from sand storms, and you got an alternative to being blue.

could technically be done, but only with a lot of work (note: The system is not really made by me, i use one which is already there and it supports only one type)...wait... could maybe be done easily...er...no, would be to random .

The terraforming could for the "reds" be defined in another way, so that they just terraform into the other direction, this could be done.
But would need a pre-determination, who is blue and red.

Still not convinced that this is a good idea...mmhh...let's see.

 

[DavidB1111]

Sorry, sometimes I get a little heated.
<bursts into flames> AHHH!

Seriously, Tech based, maybe wait until the end of the tech tree before land can become ocean? I'd hate to say it, but complete conversion of land to sea is up there with building a Dyson sphere on the technological scale.
Yeah, the mod has the advantage of being set 200 years in the future and all, but land to see...not easy.

Also, I would prefer the Terraforming to be able to be set up, like special workers build it.
That will allow plenty of people to put a bunch of sea tiles whereever they want, and it gets rid of the random aspect of it, which is my major complaint.

However, again, if a unit on the tile prevented it from being terraformed, that would be only a minor annoyance. I think. Then again, I thought my previous idea was good too.

 

[Vortilex]

BUG REPORT When I clicked on the civilopedia entry for BFG while playing the Luna map, I encountered an unknown CTD. Any recommendations?

 

[mechaerik]

I'd hate to say it, but complete conversion of land to sea is up there with building a Dyson sphere on the technological scale.

Dyson spheres cant be that hard to build if they're being mass produced:

 

[Makarius]

Makarius

 

[The_J]

Seriously, Tech based, maybe wait until the end of the tech tree before land can become ocean? I'd hate to say it, but complete conversion of land to sea is up there with building a Dyson sphere on the technological scale.
Yeah, the mod has the advantage of being set 200 years in the future and all, but land to see...not easy.

I have seriously no idea how to incorporate a dyson sphere in here ...
But yes, you're right, that's too much.
The advances in terraforming are alreay restricted to the buildings, not sure if additional a technology restriction would work very well.
Will see. I first would prefer to add the step wise terraforming and then look into it further.

Also, I would prefer the Terraforming to be able to be set up, like special workers build it.
That will allow plenty of people to put a bunch of sea tiles whereever they want, and it gets rid of the random aspect of it, which is my major complaint.

There might be another way, which i've discovered when working on something else, but would not work for the AI...will see what i can do about it .

BUG REPORT When I clicked on the civilopedia entry for BFG while playing the Luna map, I encountered an unknown CTD. Any recommendations?

With or without patch C?

 

[DavidB1111]

But was it the BFG 9000?

Hey, The_J, it's your mod. Do what you want. I'm just a bit biased in my thinking, I admit.

Mechaerik, Touche.

Also, Steam doesn't eat the souls of little gamers. It eats the souls of the mutants in this mod.

 

[Vortilex]

I was playing with Patch A. I didn't want to break my savegame. I was able to build Mech. infantry though. I'm going to see what happens with Patch C.

 

[empireruler]

Can Mars,now! run on a mac?
If so do you have a .zip or .rar of it?

 

[Vortilex]

Patch C fixed it, thanks

 

[The_J]

But was it the BFG 9000?

I can't say it really here...it's the Big [Autocensored] Gun.
It's somehow a homage to the shooter Quake .

Can Mars,now! run on a mac?
If so do you have a .zip or .rar of it?

forgot to upload a .zip.
Will do so tomorrow (my internet connection is extremly slow, but tomorrow i can use the one from the university).

If it can run: No idea.
It has not been tested yet.
This mod contains a new .dll, but the .dll is only for speed improvement and the mod can run without it and will still have every feature.
There will maybe be some problems in the text files, i'll see if i can find possible problems until tomorrow.
Would be nice if you then could report if it works or not .

Patch C fixed it, thanks

Good to hear .
Was to lazy to fix also patch A .
Has been a very strange bug.
Making the force shield promotion a prerequisite for itself made the civilopedia crash when you've opened an entry for a unit which was able to get this promotion and had the ability to intercept aircraft. Could not see any other effects.
I still don't understand the reason for it .

Thanks to The_Coyote for reporting it .

 

[empireruler]

Sure... as soon as I see it I'll send you any bug reports I have.
Also are you going to remove the .dll from the .zip file. Again thanks!

 

[The_J]

Sure... as soon as I see it I'll send you any bug reports I have.
Also are you going to remove the .dll from the .zip file. Again thanks!

forgot to pack it onto my usb device, shame on me.
Will do so tomorrow (hopefully...my memory...).

The .dll can stay in the .zip, it should not conflict with anything on a Mac.
Or am i wrong, is there something i don't know?

 

[empireruler]

Ok sounds good.

 

[The_J]

Okay, the .zip is up, download it either here or here.
Let me know if it works.
I'll try to do my best to solve any occuring problems .

 

[empireruler]

so I downloaded the files you gave and I got a bunch of xml errors (I would guess every xml that is in the mod). I got screenshots for a couple of them. Could all the errors relate to the custom .dll (I know civ4 for mac hates custom .dlls.) Another problem could be I somehow messed up during downloading. I will retry downloading and see how it goes. I am attaching some of the screenshots I took.

 

[The_J]

so I downloaded the files you gave and I got a bunch of xml errors (I would guess every xml that is in the mod). I got screenshots for a couple of them. [...]

Another problem could be I somehow messed up during downloading. I will retry downloading and see how it goes. I am attaching some of the screenshots I took.

No need to retry, i've seen these errors before in other mods, they seem to be regular erros because of PC <-> Mac incompatibility.
I've asked in the Mac forum, if someone knows where the problem exactly is.

Could all the errors relate to the custom .dll (I know civ4 for mac hates custom .dlls.)

No, this is not the problem.
The problem with dlls is: Macs can't use them, they ignore them, and if your mod needs the .dll to run, it will just crash.
My mod doesn't need the dll, so at this point no errors should occur.

 

[Torugu]

Uh...my whole point is that! I like land tiles dang it! I'm tired of all my land being sunk into the ocean. It doesn't even make sense from a terraforming aspect.

Honestly, the point I'm getting is that if you can change tiles via terraforming, turning them straight to water is not the way to go.
After all, how does a random tile nowhere close to the ocean turn into water? Nanotechnology can't even do that!

And Nanotechnology can do a lot of crazy things.

Nanotechnology might fail, but it should be a breeze for sufficiently advanced Biotechnology. Only problem is where to get enough Hydrogen from (as there are millions of tons of oxygen bound into the red sand of Mars) and but civilization that can lead wars on Mars should be able to solve that problem as well.
+ Flooding is a pretty realistic way to bring life to a dead planet, water provides a much more comfortable environment for the development of new life. (Could start spamming biological gobbledygook here), after all that's what happened on earth as well.
+ The oceans are one of the two most important climatic driving forces (the other being the sun), if you're planning to turn Mars into a second earth there's no way that you could do it without turning at least 50% of the planet into ocean

Sorry if I'm reviving a dead topic, but I very much like the current system and while I'm opposed to seeing it revised and tweaked somewhat I would very much regret to see it replaced with a generic "let's-plant-flowers" terraforming system.

(Oh, and "hi" )

 

[empireruler]

The J:Thanks so much for all your support on getting your mod to work on my mac. I hope this problem can be resolved!

 

[The_J]

Okay, next try:
I fixed some of the obvious errors in the text files, but i'm not sure, if i got all, because after my small reorganization one of the files has grown pretty big.

What to do: Delete all the files in marsjetzt-v04\assets\XML\text and copy the files in the attached .zip into this folder. Then let's see, if it starts.
EDIT: Attachement removed, should be obsolete now.

If it again throws some exceptions, then it would be nice to know if there are more erros besides the text. If you then could delete the text files again and just start it, it would be nice to hear if it runs (with completly messed up text, i know) or not.