BUG v3.6 installed as Mod - broken?

[ruff_hi]

I have finally got around to installing BUG v3.6 as a mod (from the installer - nice job by the way ... really like the final message "go forth and conquer the world").

I've started a game with 'locked modified assets' option checked and it crashes on me. Firstly, it showed now interface so I modified the ini file to ignore customassets (I have Blue Marble loaded in the customassets folder). Restarting the game and I get 'Civ4 needs to shut down / debug or abort. which is worse. I swapped my custom assets folder out so that it is empty and the above game now loads under BUG v3.6 (but looks ugly because I haven't got BM installed).

Any suggestions?

I am going to copy BM into the BUG v3.6 mod folder and see if that will load, but, ideally, I would like it to ignore the CustomAssets folder (except for BM).

 

[EmperorFool]

I have no idea why it would crash on you; that's just bizarre.

The problem with Lock Modified Assets is that BUG doesn't see that while it's initializing, and thus it looks in the CA folder for its own XML files. We can't use Civ4 to load the XML files because we need to use our own parser.

The only way to have different versions of BUG installed in CA and a Mods folder is to tell the mod (via its INI file) to ignore CA. Sadly, this causes it to ignore BM because NCAssets overrides NCArt. It's really dumb that they did it this way, but there's no way around it that I know of. IOW, NCAssets set to 1 forces NCArt to 1 as well.

Note, I think I could have BUG check the LMA game option during initialization, but this has two problems. First, if you launch Civ and then load a game, it is too late. Second, if you launch Civ by double-clicking a saved game it will use that game's setting, but if you then load another game without restarting civ, it won't check the new game's setting. I'm just not willing to spend a few weeks rearchitecting BUG in the hope that I could reinitialize it when loading the new game.

If you have a different version installed as a mod a) don't have BUG installed in CA, b) copy BM's CA assets into the mod folder, or c) use your CA-switcher program.

 

[ruff_hi]

a) don't have BUG installed in CA, b) copy BM's CA assets into the mod folder, or c) use your CA-switcher program.

a) ok
b) not an option - locked mod assets checks if the assets change ... BM in there knocks them out - this isn't actually a problem but I have started a game already and have a really nice start
c) ok, but what do I put in CA? Just BM?

 

[EmperorFool]

ok, but what do I put in CA? Just BM?

Yup. Then you can change BUG's INI file's NoCustomAssets setting back to 0 which should allow BM to work in your game.

 

[ruff_hi]

ok, tried that and the game crashed loading up the save. I started civ4 with logging enabled and then loaded the BUG mod, then loaded the game ... no problem.

Let me summarize ...

• load BUG v3.6 mod using the /mod shortcut - crash loading game
• load vanilla Civ4 with logging enabled, load mod from 'advanced' menu, load game, play no problem
• load vanilla Civ4 without logging enabled, load mod from 'advanced' menu, load game, play no problem

Is there a problem with the 'load mod' short cut? I've always used that for HOF.

Here is the properties for HOF and the BUG mod ...

"C:\Program Files\Firaxis Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4\Beyond the Sword\Civ4BeyondSword.exe" mod=\HOF-3.17.001
"C:\Program Files\Firaxis Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4\Beyond the Sword\Civ4BeyondSword.exe" /mod="BUG Mod 3.6"

See a difference?

 

[EmperorFool]

"C:\Program Files\Firaxis Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4\Beyond the Sword\Civ4BeyondSword.exe" mod=\HOF-3.17.001[/I]

See a difference?

Are the \ before HOF and the missing / before mod typos? In any case, BUG doesn't look at these; it gets the value via the replay.

Does double-clicking the saved game that uses the BUG Mod 3.6-as-mod also crash? That should load BUG automatically just as if you had used the /mod parameter.

When does BTS crash? Starting up or loading the game?

 

[ruff_hi]

I played around with the 'mod=' part and some versions load BUG, some don't. The versions that do fail to load the game because the game requires BUG and BUG isn't loaded - when it is.

Seems that I will have to start Civ, load BUG, load the game - not a biggie.

Game crashes loading save.

 

[EmperorFool]

The installer creates a "BUG Mod 3.6" start menu with a "Play BUG Mod" shortcut. Does this work?

 

[ruff_hi]

The installer creates a "BUG Mod 3.6" start menu with a "Play BUG Mod" shortcut. Does this work?

That was the shortcut for BUG installed as a mod that I was using and have quoted above.

 

[ruff_hi]

CA empty except for BM, mod ini allows CA.

I played around with the mod="BUG Mod 3.6" component of the short cut ... putting in '\' at the start, end, before the '=', inside the quotes, etc. All of them loaded BUG, but the game complained that BUG wasn't loaded when I went to open the game. The ones that didn't complain crashed loading the game. It also crashed when I double clicked the game.

The only option that works is to load up Civ4, load up the BUG as a mod, open the game.

Another thing: Typically, when I click on 'single player' (BUG in CA), there is a noticeable pause ... probably about 800ms. When I have BUG loaded as a mod, there is no pause (prob about 75ms). I could have seen this during one of the many tests above so I will check next time I play this game (Saturday).

Spoiler :

the 'ms' numbers are total guesses ... what do you think I am, a counting robot?