[BtS] Merged Mod

[marsrover21]

Marsrover,

Thanks for chiming in. CTD is a Crash To Desktop. Can you post a save game? Try attaching the save game as a zipped file to your reply... Most people only experience crashes in the late/very late game, this is the first time I've heard of early game crashing. Can you play Beyond the Sword patched to 3.13 without crashes to the end?

Hi Ninja. Save game attached (think I did it right, this is my first upload of a save game). Also, thanks for the explanation of CTD: that is exactly what it is. The screen goes black while waiting for the turns to change, and it crashes to desktop (I do NOT want to send a report to MS, lol).

Thanks for the quick reply, and for taking a look!

Edit: I never crash while playing BTS 3.13.

 

[Ninja2]

marsrover,

I downloaded your save, but I get a well-known (to CIV4, not my mod in particular) "failed to uncompress game data". This usually means that the version of the game that created the save is different from the one trying to load it. Just to confirm - I'm trying to load your save in BTS 3.13 with my Merged Mod version 0.6, and using Wolfshanze's 2.69 art... If anything in your setup is different, that might prevent me from loading the save... Do you by any chance have a Direct2Drive CIV4 version? I don't, and I've read that might cause issues as well with save games.

 

[marsrover21]

marsrover,

I downloaded your save, but I get a well-known (to CIV4, not my mod in particular) "failed to uncompress game data". This usually means that the version of the game that created the save is different from the one trying to load it. Just to confirm - I'm trying to load your save in BTS 3.13 with my Merged Mod version 0.6, and using Wolfshanze's 2.69 art... If anything in your setup is different, that might prevent me from loading the save... Do you by any chance have a Direct2Drive CIV4 version? I don't, and I've read that might cause issues as well with save games.

Looks all correct ninja. Don't know why it wouldn't open, then. Anyway, I'm playing on my second go-through now and it's all working fine. I will let you know if the problem occurs again. Thanks for the time!

PS: look forward to the update!

 

[strategyonly]

I was looking for a mod that has tons and tons of merged stuff, but alas!!

 

[Ninja2]

Ah, well, if only you bothered to read the first post!

 

[Wolfshanze]

Dont know if this has been reported or not but anyways, almost all of the stuff here is blank? Tons of pink stuff??
I was looking for a mod that has tons and tons of merged stuff, but alas!!

Looks to me like you're missing the Wolfshanze Mod FPK.

 

[Berenthor]

On interception:

Every time the game checks for an interception, it's basically two rolls of a 100 sided dice. The first roll checks to see if the target can evade interception. If the roll is greater than or equal to the unit's evasionprobability from the XML, the target failed to evade. The evasion probability is not currently modified by anything. Then comes the actual interception test. Another 100 sided dice is rolled, and if the result is less than the interceptors interceptionprobability from the XML, then the target is intercepted and aerial combat ensues. However, the interceptionprobablilty is modified by the interceptors current hitpoints, so the less hitpoints it has, the smaller the chance to intercept.

It's a very basic system, since all fighters in BTS come with a 100 interceptionprobability in the XML. So the only thing which lowers its chance to intercept is damage. And since the formula says currenthitpoints / maxhitpoints, and interception is 100, it follows that the chance to intercept equals the current hitpoints of the intercepting unit. Pretty boring if you ask me...

One thing to note: ONLY aerial units have their interception chance modified by damage. Ground units (my AA gun, SAM inf and mobile SAM) do not.

Thanks for the info ninja, I didn't know that. It makes sense if you read it . At least I now know that changing the strength of the plane effects interception as well. I read in your first post that you might want to include attack aircraft and maybe more expansive aircraft tree. I'm working on making something like this for the Wolfshanze mod (still adding all diverse units for the different nations and I have to upgrade to his new version, he beat me to a new version before I was finished ). If you want I could send you the files so you don't have to make it yourself (as soon as I'm finished and upgraded to the latest version off course). Keep up the good work, I'm really looking forward to playing your mod (the best of DCM, Revolutions and Wolfshanze ).

 

[Ninja2]

Thanks for the info ninja, I didn't know that. It makes sense if you read it . At least I now know that changing the strength of the plane effects interception as well. I read in your first post that you might want to include attack aircraft and maybe more expansive aircraft tree. I'm working on making something like this for the Wolfshanze mod (still adding all diverse units for the different nations and I have to upgrade to his new version, he beat me to a new version before I was finished ). If you want I could send you the files so you don't have to make it yourself (as soon as I'm finished and upgraded to the latest version off course). Keep up the good work, I'm really looking forward to playing your mod (the best of DCM, Revolutions and Wolfshanze ).

Changing the strength of the planes doesn't really change anything. It's the hitpoints (health) that matter. All units have 100 hitpoints as a start, so basically if your interceptor has 50% damage, it will only intercept at 50% of its full potential (which happens to be 100) as well. I'm going to change this formula in the next release to make some more sense. As it stands, a biplane can intercept a jet bomber, and that's just plain nuts!

It's a nice offer you make, Berenthor, but I have to say no thanks at this point. I'm not interested in having to add a zillion art files to keep track of as well. But if you can convince Wolfshanze to add units to his pack, then I'll be able to add it in a more orderly fashion. Besides, I'm still not entirely convinced that I want to add ground attack planes. I was thinking of the A-10, but on the other hand that plane is so unique, that it's basically an American UU, and so perhaps it's a poor model to build a new unitclass around.

And thanks for the kind words!

 

[strategyonly]

Ah, well, if only you bothered to read the first post!

didnt see it sorry.

 

[Ninja2]

I was looking for a mod that has tons and tons of merged stuff, but alas!!

Oh, the winking smilie really ticked you off, I guess...

 

[dogshu]

Hi all,

I'm getting a CTD on a game I was playing. It was a custom game with fewer civs using the "tectonics" map script, started in the renaissance period. Here's the savegame:
http://dogshu.netlsd.com/AutoSave_AD-1440.CivBeyondSwordSave

Just wait 2 or 3 turns and it will CTD.

 

[Ninja2]

Hey dogshu,

The game crashes for me after I first hit 'Next turn', after the game tells me that Attila the Hun has appeared. But even just opening the save and going into Worldbuilder causes a crash.

I don't know how stable Tectonics is, I've just included it in the pack.

 

[dogshu]

I'm experiencing a CTD in another game, here's the save:
http://dogshu.netlsd.com/Jim_AD-1848.CivBeyondSwordSave

The setup was very similar to the last game I played, custom game with the merged mod and the tectonics map. The only difference is I started in the ancient era, and got much further into the game before the CTD.

I've noticed that if I reload my most recent autosave, and *not* switch to universal suffrage and emancipation when I get democracy, the CTD doesn't happen, at least not immediately. Here's the autosave:
http://dogshu.netlsd.com/AutoSave_AD-1846.CivBeyondSwordSave

So are these crashes related to tectonics or merged mod, or maybe a combination of the two? I'd like to finish up a game sometime, but these crashes are making me wary of starting a new game at all.

 

[Ninja2]

Dogshu, I would suggest that you try a different mapscript. Your two saves again crash my machine, when I try and open them in Worldbuilder.

I'm quite sure that there's nothing in Merged Mod which tinkers with suffrage, emancipatoin or democracy, so I don't think that's what really causing it.

 

[frekk]

I got a CTD with this mod, and I figured out what caused it and fixed it.

The crash occurred because the "barbarian invaders who hate civilization" event happened, and they were given ... horse archers. In python. It was the CvRandomEventInterface (from the base BTS game) that generated the error.

The xml name "UNIT_HORSE_ARCHER" had been changed to "UNIT_HORSEMAN". So a python exception occurred and there was a CTD, because CvRandomEventInterface couldn't find any horse archers anymore. If you look in CvRandomEventInterface, you will see that the Hun event (and some others like the Horse Whispering event, whatever that is) does indeed specify "UNIT_HORSE_ARCHER". Quick look through the logs showed the problem, and I just went through the xml files and changed all references to "UNIT_HORSEMAN" back to "UNIT_HORSE_ARCHER", and haven't had a problem since. Since other people are reporting crashes related to Attila, I suspect this is the cause (and the fix), probably for other mystery CTDs too since there seem to be other events depending on that unit name.

Why the name was changed in the first place doesn't make any sense to me ... not like it's going to show up in the game or anything.

Dogshu, you have a different problem ... my fix doesn't work for it. Logs showed this python error about 20 times in just the one turn before it crashed:


Traceback (most recent call last):

File "CvGameInterface", line 180, in AI_chooseProduction

File "CvGameUtils", line 234, in AI_chooseProduction

NameError: global name 'pPlayer' is not defined
ERR: Python function AI_chooseProduction failed, module CvGameInterface


I have no idea. PythonErr.log on my games with this mod has been empty since the horse archer fix.

 

[Ninja2]

Thank you very, very much for that find, frekk!! I would have never found this out myself! So a basic find and replace in the xml is in order to fix this...

EDIT: CVGameInterface.py is not edited in my mod. I guess I'm in the clear for that bug, then...

 

[frekk]

Thank you very, very much for that find, frekk!! I would have never found this out myself! So a basic find and replace in the xml is in order to fix this...

EDIT: CVGameInterface.py is not edited in my mod. I guess I'm in the clear for that bug, then...

CvRandomEventInterface, not CvGameInterface.

It apparently depends on some of the standard xml unit names. So if you change that name, it'll crash on certain events.

Other names I found in there include UNIT_SWORDSMAN, UNIT_SPEARMAN, UNIT_DESTROYER, UNIT_BATTLESHIP, UNIT_CARRIER, UNIT_FIGHTER, UNIT_ARCHER, and UNIT_AXEMAN ... so if you remove or change the "xml name" of any of these units, it will cause a crash unless you mod CvRandomEventInterface to reflect the changes.

Find and replace all occurences worked for me ... including references in the civilizationinfos and style units. Not necessary to change the names of the UUs or style units, I just did find and replace like this: >UNIT_HORSEMAN< for >UNIT_HORSE_ARCHER< (>ART_DEF_xxx< for artdefines).

By the way, GREAT mod!!! I love this one.

 

[Ninja2]

I was refering to the other bug that dogshu had. But I guess I'd better take a look the random events in general, to see if any of them should be edited to take account of the extra units in my mod. But thanks for the help, I really appreciate it!

 

[Wolfshanze]

Find and replace all occurences worked for me ... including references in the civilizationinfos and style units. Not necessary to change the names of the UUs or style units, I just did find and replace like this: >UNIT_HORSEMAN< for >UNIT_HORSE_ARCHER< (>ART_DEF_xxx< for artdefines).

That actually involves more changes then simply changing the two references in "CvRandomEventInterface" to "Horseman" which accomplishes the exact same thing and is easier to do.

You're actually looking to cause more trouble by trying to roll-back the changes, instead of just fixing the last two vestiges of the Horse-Archer reference.

 

[frekk]

That actually involves more changes then simply changing the two references in "CvRandomEventInterface" to "Horseman" which accomplishes the exact same thing and is easier to do.

True, but Python makes me uncomfortable ... it always gives me the business about my tabs and spacing etc so I generally leave it alone. Plus ... it would involve adding another modded file, which I generally don't like to do unless it's absolutely necessary.

You're actually looking to cause more trouble by trying to roll-back the changes, instead of just fixing the last two vestiges of the Horse-Archer reference.

Nah ... I've got it covered. unitinfos, unitclassinfos, artdefinesunit, civinfos, the unitstyle file, and ... that pretty much covers it, I think. Yes it's alot more references (50, 60?) and that means a bigger margin of error but I really truly do loathe having anything to do with Python if it's at all possible to avoid.