[BtS] Merged Mod

[Toady]

So i sniffed around the code abit.

In Assets\XML\Units\CIV4MissionInfos.xml

Spoiler :

<Type>MISSION_RANGE_ATTACK</Type>
<Description>TXT_KEY_MISSION_RANGE_ATTACK</Description>
<Help>TXT_KEY_MISSION_RANGE_ATTACK_HELP</Help>
<Waypoint>NONE</Waypoint>
<EntityEventType>ENTITY_EVENT_BOMBARD</EntityEventType>
<iTime>10</iTime>
<bTarget>0</bTarget>
<bBuild>0</bBuild>
<bSound>1</bSound>
<HotKey>KB_B</HotKey>
<bAltDown>0</bAltDown>
<bShiftDown>0</bShiftDown>
<bCtrlDown>0</bCtrlDown>
<iHotKeyPriority>0</iHotKeyPriority>
<HotKeyAlt />
<bAltDownAlt>0</bAltDownAlt>
<bShiftDownAlt>0</bShiftDownAlt>
<bCtrlDownAlt>0</bCtrlDownAlt>
<iHotKeyPriorityAlt>0</iHotKeyPriorityAlt>
<bVisible>1</bVisible>
<Button>,Art/Interface/Buttons/Actions/Bombard.dds,Art/Interface/Buttons/Actions_Builds_LeaderHeads_Specialists_Atlas.dds,2,1</Button>

<Button> refers to a non existing .dds

Same applies for MISSION_BOMBARD which uses the same button.

The .dds is named Barrage.dds in that folder but no mission afaik (not 10000% sure) uses it.

I copied and renamed the .dds to avoid having to check the entirety of the code so both barrage.dds and bombard.dds are there... both the same Art.

I ll see if it works once i can run Civ in a bit.

Edit: Ok checked it works now

Edit 3224: Found <Type>MISSION_ABOMBARD</Type> which is a <EntityEventType>ENTITY_EVENT_BOMBARD</EntityEventType> had barrage.dds for it's button. Might as well correct this mission's button and rename the entry in the art/interface/buttons/actions folder to "bombard.dds" .

 

[Walderschmidt]

Ah, no I'm not sure what this issue could be. XML uncached is certainly not the issue... When does the game crash? I mean, how far can you get in the game before a crash? I assume you have patched CIV to 3.19?

I have the game patched to 3.19.

I don't even get to the loading screen before the game crashes. The only games that do work are the ones on the 34 & 36 civ maps.

Regards, Thomas

 

[Toady]

Correct me if i am wrong Walderschmidt but from what you are saying it looks like you've only attempted to play scenarios.

Have you tried running a Play Now or Custom Game on any map type other than PerferctWorld (even this should work but since it takes a bit to generate the map people sometimes think it crashed or hanged)?

 

[Walderschmidt]

Custom games and normal games do not work as far as I know.

When I click start, the game doesn't even go into loading screen, it just waits a second, and then crashes.

 

[Ninja2]

Something is definitely not right. Maybe you should try and reinstall? I assume your hardware is up to specs?

 

[Walderschmidt]

I will unistall my game and then reinstall my game this weekend.

I'll list the steps I've taken when I've done so.

Regards, Walderschmidt

 

[Ninja2]

<Button> refers to a non existing .dds

Thanks for investigating this further!

Actually, the button reference is a valid one. It references art from the default game which is compressed into fpk's, which may be why you can't immediately locate it. That reference is the default cross-hair button that all siege units also use.

I was able to get ranged bombardment working last night, and I haven't touched the button references. I only added the DCM_NAVAL_BOMBARD to the xml file. Below is a code excerpt from CvUnit.cpp:

Spoiler :

[B]
//RevolutionDCM - change proposal to ranged bombardment. Only collateral damage can be issued.[/B]
if (GC.getGameINLINE().getSorenRandNum(odds, "Bombard Accuracy") <= getDCMBombAccuracy())
			{
				szBuffer = gDLL->getText("TXT_KEY_HAS_RANGED_BOMBARD_ATTACKED", getNameKey());
				gDLL->getInterfaceIFace()->addMessage(getOwnerINLINE(), true, GC.getDefineINT("EVENT_MESSAGE_TIME"), szBuffer, "AS2D_BOMBARDED", MESSAGE_TYPE_INFO, GC.getUnitInfo(getUnitType()).getButton(), (ColorTypes)GC.getInfoTypeForString("COLOR_GREEN"), getX_INLINE(), getY_INLINE());
				szBuffer = gDLL->getText("TXT_KEY_HAS_BEEN_RANGED_BOMBARD_ATTACKED", getNameKey());
				gDLL->getInterfaceIFace()->addMessage(pLoopUnit->getOwnerINLINE(), false, GC.getDefineINT("EVENT_MESSAGE_TIME"), szBuffer, "AS2D_BOMBARDED", MESSAGE_TYPE_INFO, GC.getUnitInfo(getUnitType()).getButton(), (ColorTypes)GC.getInfoTypeForString("COLOR_RED"), getX_INLINE(), getY_INLINE(), true, true);
				[B]if (GC.getDefineINT("DCM_NAVAL_BOMBARD"))
				{	//standard DCM damage calculation[/B]
					int iUnitDamage = GC.getGameINLINE().getSorenRandNum(bombardRate(), "Bombard damage");//(rand() % (bombardRate()));
					collateralCombat(pPlot, pLoopUnit);
					pLoopUnit->changeDamage(iUnitDamage, getOwner());
				} else
				{
					collateralCombat(pPlot, pLoopUnit);
				}
			}

The first bolded part indicates that ranged bombardment damage deals collateral damage - not bombard damage. The second bolded part states that IF DCM_NAVAL_BOMBARD is true, the damage is determined by a random roll against bombardrate. Besides, there are several checks in two other functions, that checks if DCM_NAVAL_BOMBARD is true, and if it isn't, the unit in question is not allowed to perform ranged bombardment. So my reasoning yesterday was flawed, and I don't need to fill in collateral numbers for all naval units.

Sometimes CIV caches the xml, I'm not exactly sure when or why. The effect is that xml edits don't take effect on the next game start. Could this have been what happened in your case, I wonder...

 

[Admiral Armada]

So i just reinstalled civ after a long hiatus, and promptly downloaded your mod (again).
Some weirdness:
I don't have any music on the open menu screen, i have added some other stuff onto the mod, but i don't think it should affect the main menu.
Is the order of religions changed? Ive started a few games and Christianity always seems to go first, around the time that Buddhism should go (never gotten it myself). Choose religions is off.
It is possible that i touched something i shouldn't have when merging, but none of the files i merged should have anything to do with the weirdness. Any ideas as to the cause?

 

[Ninja2]

So i just reinstalled civ after a long hiatus, and promptly downloaded your mod (again).
Some weirdness:
I don't have any music on the open menu screen, i have added some other stuff onto the mod, but i don't think it should affect the main menu.
Is the order of religions changed? Ive started a few games and Christianity always seems to go first, around the time that Buddhism should go (never gotten it myself). Choose religions is off.
It is possible that i touched something i shouldn't have when merging, but none of the files i merged should have anything to do with the weirdness. Any ideas as to the cause?

Welcome back, Admiral! I've noticed about the music missing, and I have absolutely no clue as to why it's suddenly disappeared. I haven't had much time to look into it, thought, but the file is in the right place, and I have not done anything to it since the last version. I will look into it this week, hopefully. Also, I have done absolutely nothing to change religions, all of that is handled by Orion's Inquisition mod. I have seen one other user report some weirdness in the Inquisition thread, but I have not seen issues myself.

 

[von Krysiak]

Hey jsut wanted to say I have been a big fan since the release! Your mod keeps me playing the game till now (same thanks go to Dale and Wolfshanze for amazing mods but you merged them all together after all!)

So yeah will update from old .83 to 1.0 tontie and give it a try - keep up the good work man

 

[Ninja2]

Nice to hear from you again! I will release a new version this week, so don't start a huge game just yet...

 

[von Krysiak]

Nice to hear from you again! I will release a new version this week, so don't start a huge game just yet...

Thans for a warning - I am mid campaign now so might actually wait till next version hehe.
BTW Been out of touch for a while - do you know if there was ever a solution to "memory alocation failure" error message which haunts mey games on Vista?

 

[Ninja2]

I don't think MAF's have been cured entirely. But reports of them have certainly reduced a lot, at least in this thread, so I don't know if people just accept them as a fact of life, or if they've been reduced... I DO know that quite a few crashbugs have been fixed over time, so what people MAY have thought where MAF's could have been something else, and these other crashes have definitely been reduced.

If you're still on 0.83, you'll be very positively surprised about the AI when you try the next version - it's much more efficient, thanks to jdog5000 primarily.

 

[von Krysiak]

Can't wait really. One thing that was bugged in .87 was tech tree for Mali when starting a new game not all advances were showing - will test it on your new version as soon as I get a chance because I never played with this nation before (prolly last one left hehe)

 

[christian_a]

Graphics problems!
Can somebody help?

Previously, I ran Wolfshanze Mod (newest), and had some graphics problems. I changed to Merged Mod, and as this uses Wolfshanze graphics, there are still some problems.

Previously some units were shown with bright pink skin, rather than the nice graphics of the mod. This problems seems to no longer exist in Merged Mod. I still have some problems, where units are shown with the 'vanilla' skins, rather than the ones specific to the relevant civ. And many units are simply shows as Warriors, rather then the Axemen etc. they really are.

Anybody else suffer from this? Any fix?

 

[Ninja2]

Hmm, this I have not heard of, I think. Have you tried to add any extra units yourself? Or, do you have any mods installed in the CustomAssets folder (look in <yourname>\My Games\Beyond the Sword\CustomAssets)?

 

[christian_a]

Hmm, this I have not heard of, I think. Have you tried to add any extra units yourself? Or, do you have any mods installed in the CustomAssets folder (look in <yourname>\My Games\Beyond the Sword\CustomAssets)?

I've added no units myself. Only mods I've installed are HOF, Wolfshanze and now Merged Mod. But I'll check.

 

[arstal]

I don't think MAF's have been cured entirely. But reports of them have certainly reduced a lot, at least in this thread, so I don't know if people just accept them as a fact of life, or if they've been reduced... I DO know that quite a few crashbugs have been fixed over time, so what people MAY have thought where MAF's could have been something else, and these other crashes have definitely been reduced.

If you're still on 0.83, you'll be very positively surprised about the AI when you try the next version - it's much more efficient, thanks to jdog5000 primarily.

THe only thing I can think of that would help MAF's now would be to use some reduced poly model from other mods such as Phungus's. You can't use his whole FPK though as he took units out of the game (one of many reasons I don't like his mod, though his graphics changes help)

 

[Ninja2]

Yeah, I know. The thing is, I really want to go that way, but changing all those art definitions really (I mean really, really, really) takes a long time. It's no fun doing it, and I don't have time for it. Unless someone can come up with a fast way of doing it, or I get fired, it's not likely to happen anytime soon.

I tend to play standard and smaller maps (that's all I have time for anyways), and keeping to those maps gets me out of trouble. I understand why this is not satisfying for other people, there's just not a lot I can do about it at present.

 

[Ninja2]

Version 1.10 released!

This is a significant release, with lots of updates and a little new stuff as well. Be sure to read the first post again, and please provide feedback on what you like/dislike.

I feel this mod is coming to the end in its development cycle, there is very little left I want to do (besides doing graphics). I think the mod is very stable, it plays really well I think. Let me know if you run into any trouble.