BTS Patch

[Inspector Javert]

Hey I've heard stories of the patch causing game crashes, I'm not 100% positive where my orginal civ games are, is everyone having CTD problems or is it paticular to ceratian situations and what are those situations if any. Thanks guys

 

[Lobsang1979]

Hi Gpshaw,

There are a few minor issues with the 3.13 patch if it is installed correctly, and an unofficial (but extremely valuable) fix by Bhruic is available for those. More serious problems can occur if the 3.13 patch is applied in the following situations:
1) You have your Civ4/Warlords/BTS installations located in any folder other than the default (i.e. \Program Files\Firaxis). If this is the case, the patch unfortunately installs some files to the default locations instead and so probs occur. If this applies to you, I suggest a full reinstall of the games to their default locations (remember to manually delete the \Program Files\Firaxis folder after uninstall but before reinstall).

2) Some people are having problems with "Out of Snyc" errors being displayed in multiplayer. However, this appears to be linked to the above issue; if you follow the above steps you should not experience any MP problems from your system.

My personal opinion is that the 3.13 patch is too valuable to ignore, even with these rectifiable problems. Especially if you are running version 3.03 as I was. The benefits are numerous bug fixes, performance improvements, and the ability to lower movie playback settings if they are causing you CTDs in 3.03.

I hope this helps!

 

[Öjevind Lång]

Hi Gpshaw,

There are a few minor issues with the 3.13 patch if it is installed correctly, and an unofficial (but extremely valuable) fix by Bhruic is available for those.

All the same, I'm one of those people who are not good at editing files, so even though it is clear Bhruic has done a very impressive job (which Firaxis should have done in the first place, but never mind), I don't want to install his patch because

1. I am not sure how to do it correctly,

and

2. I'd probably have to uninstall and reinstall the whole game when and if a new official patch emerges.

That is to say: If you are good at editing files, then you are presumably fine. If not, then the trade weirdness and a few other things can be quite annoying. Still, a lot of things have been very much improved with this patch. (Ignore the screams from the multiplayers. )

 

[Aximander]

Copying the files by hand into the correct folders (if you used a non standard folder) takes quite a while. I didn't use the default folders and the patch installed the CIV4 core files to C: and the BTS files to C:\Windows\*
You have to go through folder by folder copying them. Took me about an hour.
I would rather unistall than do it again, but I didn't have all the CDs with me at the time. (Still don't for that matter. Not sure where I put the box w/ the other CD)

 

[jkp1187]

All the same, I'm one of those people who are not good at editing files, so even though it is clear Bhruic has done a very impressive job (which Firaxis should have done in the first place, but never mind), I don't want to install his patch because

1. I am not sure how to do it correctly,

and

2. I'd probably have to uninstall and reinstall the whole game when and if a new official patch emerges.

That is to say: If you are good at editing files, then you are presumably fine. If not, then the trade weirdness and a few other things can be quite annoying. Still, a lot of things have been very much improved with this patch. (Ignore the screams from the multiplayers. )

FYI -- the above should not be correct. The only file that is 'overwritten', so to speak, by Bhuric's patch (just as with Solver's patch before it) is:

CvGameCoreDLL.dll

Which is located in the path:

C:\Program Files\Firaxis Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4\Beyond the Sword\Assets


There are other files in his zipfile -- these are for the SDK, and all have a *.CPP extension. You do N O T need to do anything with those unless you're a modder and intend to do some hard-core modding to the CvGameCoreDLL.dll file.

All you need to do is make a backup of the CvGameCoreDLL.dll file (highlight it with your mouse, hit CTRL-C, then hit CTRL-V, and a file "Copy of CvGameCoreDLL.dll" will be saved in the same directory. That way, you can always "restore" the old version if you feel like doing so.

If there is another patch from Firaxis, and changes are made to CvGameCoreDLL.dll, it will just overwrite Bhuric's DLL file. Honestly, Bhuric's fixes are nice enough such that I wouldn't want to do without them.... but to each their own.

 

[Inspector Javert]

so as long as I installed in the suggested locatoin I shouldn't have any problems?

 

[Lobsang1979]

All the same, I'm one of those people who are not good at editing files, so even though it is clear Bhruic has done a very impressive job (which Firaxis should have done in the first place, but never mind), I don't want to install his patch because

1. I am not sure how to do it correctly,

and

2. I'd probably have to uninstall and reinstall the whole game when and if a new official patch emerges.

That is to say: If you are good at editing files, then you are presumably fine. If not, then the trade weirdness and a few other things can be quite annoying. Still, a lot of things have been very much improved with this patch. (Ignore the screams from the multiplayers. )

It takes literally all of 20 seconds to install. My advice is to take the time to do it because the only real bugs (i.e. showstoppers) that appear with 3.13 are fixed with the unofficial patch.

With this minor tweak, the game is vastly more enjoyable than 3.03. Try it and see, honestly.

Plus the unofficial patch won't conflict with any future patches at all. Great, eh

so as long as I installed in the suggested locatoin I shouldn't have any problems?

Yep, although I recommend adding the unofficial patch afterwards (see above). And if you have any mods installed, I would recommend removing them before patching too.