BTS Unaltered Gameplay Project

[alerum68]

The BUG Project​

BTS Unaltered Gameplay, or BUG, is a modification code for Civilization IV: BTS. CIV is a very easy game to modify, but not all modifications are compatible with each other. In an effort to combines these many different Mods from the Civ community, into one concise program, the BUG project was born.

BUG combines mods that do not change the basic game play of CIV, while adding flavor and ease of use. Some aspects that we feel are within this criteria are Advisor Screens, City View Screen, the Main View Screen, the Civopedia, as well as the way units may look but not the way they play. Also, any addition or changes made, will not provide any information that cannot be figured out within the game itself.

We feel this MOD is safe for use in any Succession Games, even if the Succession Game being played is running off another Mod. If you find any changes within the code that modify games play, please post a message to us here, or on the Project Development link listed below, and we will make it of the utmost important to fix the problem.

If you would like to have your Mod added, please visit the Project Development page on SourceForge.

Current version: 0.15
Current Flavor version: 0.05

Download Here

Project Development Page: http://sourceforge.net/projects/civ4bug/

MODs added:

Spoiler :

•Option Switching Core by ruff_hi and EmperorFool.

•Main Screen Interface
*Not Just Another Game Clock TheLopez
*Remove Dead Civs from Score by TheLopez
*Power rating in Score by EmperorFool
*Attitude Icons by Porges

•Pop-up Game Messages
*Civ4lerts by Dr. Elmer Jiggle
*Reminders by Eotinb
*Autologger by Eotinb
*Extended Colors by SimCutie

•Advisor Screens
*Better Espionage Screen by Almightix
*Sevopedia by Sevo
*Great Person Tech Preferences by ruff_hi
*Custom Domestic Advisor

•City Screen
*Specialist Stacker by TheLopez
*Raw Commerce by Sevo
*Raw Production by EmperorFool

•Flavor Modifications:
*Ethnically Diverse Units & Cities
*Better Ship Scale
*Better Diplomacy Text

Current Todo List:

Spoiler :

Python to Add
1a) Cammango's 30 pages of menus for CDA
2) Enhanced Military Advisor *Or devise our own improved Military Advisor*
3) ShowInfo MOD
4) (Renaming Mod)Real Military Ranking
5) Snippets from Plot List Enhancment
6) Unit Renaming by TheLopez
i.Roman Numeral Naming by sen2000
ii.City Naming by Porges
iii.Random Names by TheLopez
iv.City Naming and Numbering Porges
v.Borg Naming by ruff_hi

XML to add:
1) Civ Based Great Person MOD - Removed until updated to Python.
2) Hints & Tips

Ideas for improvements:

Spoiler :

1) Combat Experience Counter
2) Hall of Fame win / lose
3) Adding Notes to Units
4) Alert when a AI goes "we have enough on our hands"
5) Making tabs inside Options screen CDA text file placed in Custom Assets Directory.
6) Page up/down, extra info in Glance Page
7) Develop FAQ
8) Give Options for how many Civs are displayed in score.
9) Updating Alerts to include SG events of interest.
10) Add Mac fix
11) Add Rival EP in Espionage Screen
12) After Build Calculator
13) After Revolution Calculator

Devlopers:
Alerum68
Cammagno
EmperorFool
Ket
NikNaks93
ruff_hi

 

[alerum68]

I think the most important thing we need to start with is making a core MOD that will allow us add on to it. I have been out of the loop for so long that I'm not sure if this has been done yet, but if everyone built off my MOD then it's a very loose group of MODs that fit together about as well as a round hole and an oval peg... need to pound it really hard.

As Ket said, I think having optional features is not just nice, but it will be essential. As long as we do that, I don't see why we can't add EVERY MOD that doesn't change gameplay, even ones that may do opposite things. This was my original dream for my MOD, but didn't have the coding Skills. With EF in the mix, we should be able to do this no problem. I like the INI Parser, but from what I remember it was Somewhat buggy. Has that been smoothed out?

Alright, so it's time to start searching for forums for ALL the MODs that will fit into the following criteria: Changes cannot be made that will make game play vary from BTS Vanilla. Other then that, all is fair game.

Now the Core... EF, could you code this yourself to fit our needs, or do you think there is a way to use somethnig already out?

If anyone wishes to contact me, my username on AIM is a-l-e-r-u-m-6-8 without the dashes.

 

[ruff_hi]

I've had YES from Ket, Alerum and EmperorFool.

I PM'd thunderfall and asked for a folder under the Civ4 - Project & Mod Development folder, no answer yet. We should probably move this thread there but also have a bunch of other threads to discuss various options.

I build my v2 from scratch with the aim of making things optional (as much as possible). I think that the first thing we should do is list all the mods that we could add. There are some that Warlords has superceded (unit wrap on the main interface being one) that we probably don't need.

The ini file is probably the best place to start ... I would suggest Gaurav's mod to my mod that allowed for the mod to be placed anywhere. We should lift the core system from there.

 

[ruff_hi]

Do we need a name for this mod? How about ... BtS Unaltered Gameplay Mod. That way we can call it the BUG mod! One question: what do we do about DLL changes that people want to add (better AI, Unit Stats, etc).

 

[alerum68]

I like BUG. I don't want this mod to have any elements that will change stats, or better AI, or anything like that. It has to stay 100% unaltered gameplay. Even a +1 increase on a stat will ruin the aim here.

Another thing... what version will we work off of BTS? I think it should be the original version for at least 3-4 months. By then a patch should be out that will stick around for a while, instead of patches every few weeks.

 

[ruff_hi]

I don't want this mod to have any elements that will change stats, or better AI, or anything like that. It has to stay 100% unaltered gameplay. Even a +1 increase on a stat will ruin the aim here.

Totally agree. However, some bright spark will ask about this and that and we should be able to test / comment on compatibility.

 

[alerum68]

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=234499&highlight=Beyond+the+Sword

humm... this is a script that updates VinCiv4 mods to BTS.

 

[alerum68]

A list to get us started....
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=157141 - Python utility Library. Another good option to start work from. I think it's more basic then the Great Options MOD, and will not have as many options not used as with the first.


+http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=144623 - Autolog and Reminders
+http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=157088 - Civ4 Alerts
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=167023 - Dead Civ Scoreboard
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=158137 - Not Just Another Game Clock
+http://forums.civfanatics.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=523 - Customizable Domestic Advisor
+http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?p=3499585#post3499585 - Cammango's 30 pages of menus for CDA. May not use all of them, but is a great core to take from regardless.
-http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=169549 - Enhanced Military Advisor
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=169549 - Sevopedia * This will be a big project since I think we're going to have to update alot of information to make up for the BTS changes, but is a must have.
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=234523 - (BTS Already) Better Espionage Screen
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=158002 - Raw Commerce City Display (If this give info that can't be figured out by searching around and doing alot of adding, we shouldn't add it.)
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=202050 - Great Person MOD
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=164589 - ShowInfo MOD
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=204073 - unit Formations
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=181857 - Diplomacy Text
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=149572&page=11 - Plot List Enhancement
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=144612 - Reminder MOD

The next three should be made as a combined MOD that lets you pick the option you want:
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=161132 - Random Unit Names
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?p=3878311#post3878311 - Rename Units after City
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=168074 - Roman Numerals
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=184037 - Not a MOD yet, but a good suggestion on renaming units using Unit Rankings. Maybe we can expand on this one to have Ranks for different civs. If someone could code it, I would be fine with searching around and finding proper ranks to use.

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=158636 - Tech Window Enhancement.
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=147308 - SimCuties extended colors.
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?p=3848052#post3848052 - Turns to Complete Culture and GP.
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=161368 - Better Ship Scale
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=167352 - Attitude Icons (How could I forget this one?? I think I was the one who requested it in the first place!)

I didn't include the UN one because it would confuse SGers.

Also I think we should include a link to the Blue Marble texture as well.

I'm going to be trying to test these MODs over the next few days. I'll put an + before each one I test and is working and - for each one that isn't working. It's been so long since I've done python coding I hope I can remember what to do. Keep adding MODs that should be added. EF, would you mind taking a look at our options for the core, and maybe give us some feedback on what you feel would be the best option to give the user flexibility? I would really like to be able to choose from the option screen to turn off all options without having to restart the program, but is probably a pipe dream.


Any others that should be added that I'm missing?

 

[EmperorFool]

Good list to start from. I've basically been pulling links to all those from your guys' existing modpacks.

Raw Commerce only does the addition of known information for you, so it's kosher.

BtS includes the Exotic Foreign Advisor already, but it needs the fixes I made for scenarios where you have a known set of civs to play (when you take any but the first civ).

BtS has formations, unless I don't understand what the mod does. When you select more than one unit, they spread out into formations in BtS. Is this what the mod does?

BtS also includes the turn number. NJAGC adds more (total turns and percentage), so ya probably just include it as well.

BtS uses smaller specialist icons, but I suppose it's still possible to have too many to fit.

BtS also includes the turns to complete culture expansion and great person birth.

I thought Great Options Mod was just The Lopez's modpack of all his modcomps. I'll check it out again; maybe I missed something.

Ruff, in your code you use RuffMod to access options (on/off switches for various features). I assume this is something you built, and we'll definitely want to use it.

I'd like to add these:

Attitude Icons - Adds a face next to each AI civ in the scoreboard showing their attitude towards the player.

Dawn of Man - Enhanced popup when you start a game.

(removed TechWindow and PLE as Alerum added them above)

And yes, Sevopedia is a must-have but will require a bit of work.

 

[alerum68]

I added the suggestion you gave for MODs to add, and had already added a few that I missed on my first edit of the post.

Formations - I didn't realize that the formations were as expanded as this MOD could make it. I was thinking of maybe giving this options on how many units it'll display as well.

Specialist Stacker - You're right, they were smaller. Just added it because it was so useful in past versions and didn't think about it.

Great Options - Was just giving suggestion on different way to give the options from the menu... I didn't realize it was Ruff who came up with the one he uses in his MOD.

 

[EmperorFool]

I would really like to be able to choose from the option screen to turn off all options without having to restart the program, but is probably a pipe dream.

I feel this is important as well, especially with so many modcomps packaged together. I'll start poking around Ruff's options code and see what I can grok. TheLopez's Great Options mod was never updated to Warlords from what I just read in that linked thread.

 

[alerum68]

What about that python script that's supposed to help update Civ4 Mods to BTS? I didn't look at the script to much, but it seems like it would update everything you'd need.

 

[EmperorFool]

Formations ... Specialist Stacker

We may still want to include those. I haven't used either, so I don't know if BtS's solutions are as good. When you check if they work, see if you think they are worth it still.

Great Options ... I didn't realize it was Ruff who came up with the one he uses in his MOD.

I assume it was him from the code I read. I just see that he access a class called "RuffMod" so it's an assumption on my part, and you know how much they're worth.

 

[EmperorFool]

What about that python script that's supposed to help update Civ4 Mods to BTS? I didn't look at the script to much, but it seems like it would update everything you'd need.

Naw, it only updates XML files with new attributes that BtS added, but it won't touch any of the Python code.

 

[alerum68]

Found another I think we should add:

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=234268 - Ethnic Art Styles

 

[Ket]

WOW! You Guys Type a lot...

Ok, Im not sure how many of you remember Unaltered With Flavor...
But one of the key parts of the mod was the enhanced formations. I think its a good place to go for this.

Ethnic Art Styles works VERY well and have it released in my other mod already.

Great person's mod is also another good choice as a starting base.

My strength b.t.w. is architecture orginization and merging.

 

[alerum68]

hehehe... got alot of time while my girl is on vacation.

The last time I was using the Great Person MOD I was getting a ton of conflicts, and I think I read somewhere that it was resolved, but not sure if we should make this our core. Anyway, going to be starting testing tonight. Once we get a list of what is working and what isn't, you and myself can start merging working MODs together while EF and ruff see if they can find some ways to fix the broken code of the others.

 

[alerum68]

hum... it looks like the Dawn of Man MOD is already included in BTS.

 

[EmperorFool]

WOW! You Guys Type a lot...

One of the few high school classes that has paid off over and over again. 90 wpm ftw!

Ok, Im not sure how many of you remember Unaltered With Flavor...

This name sounds just like the idea I was thinking when I came here to post. It dovetails off Alerum's post immediately above.

How about a core mod that is just interface niceties and a "flava" mod that adds art/quotes/names/etc? This clearly adds more work on our part, but I suspect it's not that much more. I would hope that they would not share any files in common, so they could be installed one right over the other.

My main reason for this is that -- again just my assumption -- you can't easily make XML and art-type changes dynamic (i.e. disable via INI and certainly not in-game). Most of the code-based mods can be toggled in-game except perhaps Sevopedia and the various screens.

I'm sure you guys are more familiar with that aspect since I have zero knowledge of it. Well, I suppose you could know just as little as me.

 

[alerum68]

The Enhanced Military Adviser comes up just fine, but no units are display. The Menu is 100% operational.