[BtS] Super Spies

[Trojan Sheep]

1.2 is up... finally!

Bugs are squashed!

Assassinations abound!

The AI is smarter!

Dirty bombs cover the world in fallout!

skodkim textual change is in!


Seriously though, test it and let me know how it goes. I've tested most of the features, but some of the changes such as the AI stuff will take a lot longer to test thoroughly.

Please be aware that my 1.1 test game CTDed when I tried to reload it, which means this version is likely not save game compatible with previous versions. However I had no problems whatsoever with a new game.

 

[skodkim]

Great news Trojan Sheep - and you even included my "text fix" suggestion - thanks!

I'm certainly looking forward to giving this a go, however most of the time Iøm playing my own modified version of History in the making. I'd really like to include Super Spies in it but both you and Grave (maker of HiTM) include Bhruics unofficial patch and neither yours or Graves is the same as the original one and I have no idea how to "merge" them.

Anyway looking forwad to it!

\Skodkim

 

[skodkim]

Actually I'd like to add one question. Is your copy of Bhruics patch the official one (but not the latest one then) or have you modified it?

\Skodkim

 

[Trojan Sheep]

Is there a newer version out there than 1.11?

Regardless, the DLL included with Super Spies includes the entirety of Bhruic's 1.11 patch, but I only included the SDK files I modified. If you were going to merge this mod, the best way to do it would be to start with a fresh 3.13 SDK Instance, copy all of Bhruic's files into it, copy all of my SDK files into it (or the other mod if you felt it was more complex), copy all the files from the other mod (assuming it also includes Bhruic's) that the first mod did not touch, and then finally open each of the remaining files, find the tagged code that was changed and put it in the propper place within your project. Note that if two mods touch the same bit of code, you will have to make a judgement call about how to work them together, but feel free to post the code here if you need a hand. Compile the DLL, merge all your xml/art (I really wish I could have made this mod modular, but the promotion file doesn't like that for some reason), and you should be done.

Oh except the python, which you will likely tear your hair out trying to merge unless you get lucky, python is incredibly touchy and you have to be very careful about how many tabs you have, where you place the code in the larger scheme of things so on and so forth. I'm not a fan of Python personally, but unfortunately most of civ's interface is powered by it so... not much choice in the matter. The only real tip I can give is, save it for last and once everything else is done and running try merging it, if you can access the civlopedia when you start up the game you should be good, if you can't you missed something and need to try again... I'm sure there are some python masters out there that can spot problems in seconds, but I'm certainly not one of them

 

[skodkim]

Thx for the quick repply!!

No, 1.11 is Bhruics newest version.

I don't think I'll start messing around with SDK and Python. It seems like it's gonna take a lot of time just getting to know the basics and with family and all I barely have enough time to play at all anyway.

Grave said earlier on that he might wanna try to germe Super Spies into HiTM as he felt SS was a great idea so I guess I'll just wait for that.

In the meantime I've started a small game whenre I'm gonna so some testing of the various SS functions. Will get back to you in that.

\Skodkim

 

[skodkim]

Hi

I set up a few test games where I added myself and one more player. Gave us what I needed of Spies, buildings to make Esp. points and added improvements and buildings to destroy, Great people to kill off, etc.

When I'm the one who does the spying all goes well - haven't seen a mission with problems so far.

When the AI is the one running missions it's unfortunately another thing. I keep getting CTD's. I put numerous enemy spies on the map, so I'm not sure what he does when I get it, but actually the only "successful" time I see an AI do things is when thie spies get caught - never seen a message that something has been destroyed, etc - just CTD's. Maybe you should go through your files.

I'll attach two save games (don't know if you can use them for anything). One of them is from the beginning of a test where the AI is to do spying missions and one is a Quicksave that should be from one or two rounds before a CTD.

\Skodkim

 

[Trojan Sheep]

Thanks skodkim, I'll take a look tonight.

 

[Trojan Sheep]

1.21 is up, only has a bug fix, but a pretty important one. It's minor on the coding side, and should be 100% compatible with 1.2 save games.

Thanks again for finding that skodkim, although technically you did help me cause it in the first place by suggesting the text change that caused it

 

[skodkim]

Did the same test with my old save game - got CTDs on the same places.

Will probably try to set up a new game with 1.21 and let you know soon.

\Skodkim

 

[Trojan Sheep]

That's very odd, skodkim, I used your test game and was able to play through with no CTDs. Although I forgot AIs wouldn't use offensive espionage unless provoked so for a while justinian wasn't doing bumpkiss, once I declared war on him though the horde of spies I had added to the army you already placed literally tore my land to shreds

Do you have anything else installed that might be causing it?

 

[skodkim]

That's very odd, skodkim, I used your test game and was able to play through with no CTDs. Although I forgot AIs wouldn't use offensive espionage unless provoked so for a while justinian wasn't doing bumpkiss, once I declared war on him though the horde of spies I had added to the army you already placed literally tore my land to shreds

Do you have anything else installed that might be causing it?

"once I declared war on him" - that was the key. Just loaded my savegame and declared war on him to make him use espionage - no problems. I then tried loading again, this time without declaring war on him (as my original test where he will use espionage in some turns) and wham - got a CTD when I go on from 3925 BC.

Included the last autosave and log files.

Really hope you catch this bastard!

\Skodkim

 

[Trojan Sheep]

Very odd, I'll take another look tonight. I believe I ran it that long without declaring war on him and didn't hit any problems though. The only thing I can think is that he's actually trying to steal a tech from you and there's a base game bug that is screwing it up (In the base game it is next to impossible for them to build up enough EP against a single player to steal a tech). All the functionality of super spies should have sunk or swam by that point from what I can see...

A couple questions while I'm civless, is his attitude negative with you when the crash occurs or is he still cautious? (The only mission super spy AIs will use against opponents they are cautious or higher with is steal tech unless they have caught one of your spies, in which case they'll use counter espionage).

 

[Trojan Sheep]

I went past 3000 BC with no CTD, Justinian even stole refrigeration from me, so that's working fine. I think I may have overreacted when I released 1.21, I made the coding change from work without verifying the crash first (it looked like I had made a boo boo, but in retrospect I think the way I originally coded it was fine).

I'm not sure what else to tell you skodkim, all the features of the mod appear to be working perfectly in your save, and unless I can reproduce the crash there isn't much I can do

 

[skodkim]

I went past 3000 BC with no CTD, Justinian even stole refrigeration from me, so that's working fine. I think I may have overreacted when I released 1.21, I made the coding change from work without verifying the crash first (it looked like I had made a boo boo, but in retrospect I think the way I originally coded it was fine).

I'm not sure what else to tell you skodkim, all the features of the mod appear to be working perfectly in your save, and unless I can reproduce the crash there isn't much I can do

That is really weird. Was it my last savegame that you could continue on?

Just deleted Super Spies and copyed all the files from 1.21 again to make sure that I had the latest version of everything. I then started a new test game as before and had a CTD after Round 1. Including the savegame here.

If I don't declare war it works. Jst took 104 turns and saw him steal a tech.

That it happens after the first round tells me thta it's NOT one of the missions that goes wrong - at least the opponent shouldn't have enough espionage point to conduct any missions...

I have Bhruics 1.11 patch in the folder he recommends (bts\assets) and the History in the Making in another mod folder than Super Spies. Can't see why any of these would conflict.

\Skodkim

 

[Mister Giggles]

I encountered the same prerequisite overlap you did, Trogan Sheep, except in my case it happened just by adding the spy promotions into the CIV4PromotionInfos file for Rise of Mankind.

I did a test using just my custom built DLL and Super Spies, and with the promotions file that comes with it (Vanilla, I imagine)...I have no problem at all.

I'm currently trying to figure out some kind of work around...but it always overwrites the promotion prerequisite that's there with something that makes no sense (In this case an airplane promotion to get Logistics 1).

-Edit-

Uh...strangely enough...nevermind. I moved all the spy promotions to the top of the list...and suddenly there's no overlapping. Might be something screwed up in Rise of Mankind's promotion file itself...O_o...

 

[Trojan Sheep]

skodkim, just tried your new save and didn't get any crashes.

History in the Making definitely shouldn't matter (separate mod, wouldn't be called at all). Bhruics also shouldn't matter since Super Spies would override it, but stranger things have happened. I'm really not certain that this mod is to blame though, as I've had a 1.2 game going (although admittedly merged into another larger frankenstein-esque mod of my own) and we're at 1400 AD with no issues. I have another game going with another friend which is at a similar age and hasn't had any problems either. My only suggestion albeit a weak one, would be to reinstall BTS entirely without Bhruics, but I can't promise that would help at all.

Giggles, the promotion file is very quirky from what I've noticed. If you find a way to make modular XML work with it, let me know as I'd love to make Super Spies modular itself.

 

[skodkim]

Don't know if this is what did it but I just replaced Bhruics patch with the original dll file of 3.13 and now it seems to work.

Played 130 rounds without any CTD's! Had three techs stolen (but otherwise nothing) - can't wait to see the AI try to kill off some of my GP's, destroy improvements, etc.

Think I'll try doing another set of rounds later just to see what else "turns up".

\Skodkim

 

[Trojan Sheep]

FYI the AI doesn't use the assassination mission yet, and I have no immediate plans to enable it. Given the mechanics I use they really would only have luck against truly clueless players, or ones that were purposefully baiting them, otherwise their spies would spend half their time running around chasing after unguarded workers and what not until they're finally caught. Maybe some day I'll have them target fully fortified units or some such, but for now it's going to be a player only mechanic similar to route pillage and most other custom missions.

Also as I said before, the AI won't do anything malicious to you unless you deserve it, so don't expect improvement destruction/poisoning and what not unless you poke em with a stick a few times

Glad to hear that fixed it, very strange that it did, but don't look a gift horse in the mouth I suppose.

 

[skodkim]

Actually turns out it didn't.

Just tried again and it crashes like crazy. I'm not going to try and reinstall right now - that takes ages...

Really crazy that you can load my savegames and all is fine. I've set "new random seed on reload" to off, so if you just keep hitting return to change turns and do nothing else (no war for example) you should get the same events. Then again - it migh not be the mod itsef but something else that's causing the problem. The log files didn't help by any chance?

\Skodkim

 

[skodkim]

Just to make sure: I don't need Warlords to be installes in order to run this, right?

\Skodkim