BUG working once and only once...

[Iranon]

The (otherwise awesome!) BUG mod displays a few consistent quirks on my system (Vista 64bit) with BtS 3.17.



Installed into the mods folder:

If I try to load an existing game first, there is no interface. If I return to the main menu via ESC and try to start a new game, the game hangs and I need to kill the task.

If I start a new game, it works fine. I can then load and save as often as I want without any issues. However, if I attempt to start a new game a second time, without restarting BtS, the game crashes to desktop.



As a standard install: The same the first time I run it. After exiting and restarting the game the BUG mod goes missing, and I'm left with the unmodded game.

***

I like the features enough that I'm prepared to work around these issues rather than give up on it entirely... but having to start exactly one new game each time I load it up is rather irritating. Does anyone have a clue how to fix this?

 

[EmperorFool]

You should definitely not have to put up with such nonsense! Let's get you situated.

First a little more information:

1. Civ version? (normal retail package, CivGold, CivComplete, Steam, Direct2Drive, etc)
2. BUG version? (3.5, 3.5.1, SVN snapshot date)
3. What other mods do you have installed in CustomAssets? (BlueMarble, UP, BetterAI, etc)

When you load a game normally, do you double-click the save file or launch BTS and use LOAD GAME? Both should work; I just want as much info as possible.

Next, can you please send me some logging information? Make sure it logs what I need:

1. Turn on logging in CivilizationIV.ini (LoggingEnabled = 1)
2. Set BUG's File Logging to Debug (ALT + CTRL + O, System tab)

Next do whatever it takes to cause the various problems, one at a time, and send both PythonErr.log and PythonDbg.log in the My Games BTS Logs folder after you cause each problem. You can ZIP them all up, but please label which goes with which problem.

 

[Iranon]

Thanks a lot for the quick response and willingness to help!

To answer your questions...

1. Normal Retail version, bought in Germany
2. BUG 3.5.1
3. Blue Marble... problems persisted when I got rid of that as well though.

Loading from start menu and doubleclicking hat the same apparent result; included logs are from doubleclicking.

In the light of some of these error logs, I should probably mention that at some time I deleted my Documents\BtS folder, hoping to get rid of some junk junking things up... this was in response to these issues and seemed a good idea at the time given that BtS created the basics again at the next start.

 

[EmperorFool]

I deleted my Documents\BtS folder, hoping to get rid of some junk junking things up...

But BUG is installed to My Games\BTS\Mods. Did you reinstall BUG using the installer? If so, it should be fine.

I'm checking the logs now . . .

 

[EmperorFool]

I see two things in the logs: 1. Civ4 seems to initialize itself twice and 2. BUG doesn't get a chance to fully initialize itself. It loads all its Python modules but doesn't try to load its XML configuration.

It loads the CvAppInterface module. This module should call BugInit.
Next it loads all the map scripts.
And then it uninitializes Python and starts again!

My first thought is to do the dreaded URDS (uninstall/reinstall dance of shame) of Civ4 entirely. I have no explanation for what you're seeing and haven't seen it before, and that leads me to think that BTS got borked somewhere along the way.

Edit: I know no one wants to do that, but I don't have any other ideas. You could try reinstalling just BUG. BTW, did you use the EXE installer to install BUG? And did you move the BUG Mod 3.5.1 folder to the BTS EXE Mods folder?

 

[Iranon]

Wow, you're quick! Re 1st post: That's the folder I meant... sorry confusing the issue. Used the installer, extracted by hand... both in the mods folder and as a general install. About a dozen times.



Re 2nd post: I ran into the same problem when doing a clean reinstall of civ4 itself, as well as when trying it on another system with another copy of BtS (my sister's). Same problem (I generally try not to waste other people's time until I tried most things that seem plausible to myself...).

I always stayed in the Documents\My Games\Beyond the Sword folder... would there be any reason to try putting it into the folder of the actual program?

Thanks again for the help... and I will attempt yet another clean reinstall tomorrow. At the least, it might result in some prettier error logs

 

[EmperorFool]

Do you have BUG installed currently both in CustomAssets and as a mod? You said you deleted the My Games BTS folder, where CustomAssets is, so maybe not. You definitely don't want it installed in both places concurrently.

One thing to try is to change BUG Mod 3.5.1.ini to ignore CustomAssets. Set both NoCustomAssets and NoCustomArt to 0. This will disable BlueMarble, but it may help find the problem.

Very odd that you're having the problem on multiple computers. I assume normal games work fine, right? Have you tried any of the built-in mods like Next War etc?

The only reason to move the folder to the EXE's Mods folder is to play in multiplayer games.

 

[Iranon]

I'm finally getting somewhere - disabling or getting rid of CustomAssets the brutal way results in BUG running perfectly.

As a standard install it works if I delete the CustomAssets folder and never ever touch that again.
In the mod folder, it works if I delete CustomAssets before AND after installing BUG.

In both cases, it works as smoothly as anything I I leave CustomAssets alone afterwards, but something as innocent as installing Blue Marble and I'm back at my old troubles (order of installation irrelevant).

I might check if the same applies to BAT (which I avoided as I'm not fond of many of the minor changes... is it safe for someone with a liberal arts education to hack off unwanted bits with a rusty knife?) because by now the vanilla terrains look a little bland

***

To your questions: I only ever had BUG as a mod OR in CustomAssets. Yes, the normal game and the bundled mods work fine.

 

[EmperorFool]

That is so strange. BUG's mod install should not install anything to CustomAssets. It does create a BUG Mod directory next to CustomAssets, but not inside it.

BUG's Standard install puts all its main files into CustomAssets, so deleting it after should remove BUG! Color me perplexed.

And of course, BlueMarble should work with BUG no matter how you install it.

As for BAT, the main changes you can remove easily are the Improved Graphics terrain (I prefer BlueMarble) and the different player colors. Remove these files:

• Assets/IG_2.0.1.FPK
• Assets/XML/Interface/CIV4ColorVals.xml

 

[Iranon]

I know it's strange. While I'm still confused and haven't found a solution to the original problem, your suggestions helped me a lot.

For now, I'm not touching Custom Assets for Blue Marble or otherwise and simply dumping the IG_2.0.1.FPK of BAT into Assets in the Assets folder of the program itself, which doesn't seem to cause any problems.

Apart from the eerily bright palm trees clashing a little with the rest, I even like the look

 

[EmperorFool]

Well it's working for you, and that's the important part.

 

[seul]

I'm having the exact same issue as Iranon described.

Attempting to solve it I did a clean reinstall of Civ4 and BTS, installed BlueMarble, and then tried to install BUG (no BAT) using the .exe from SourceForge. However, BUG didnt work. I installed it as MOD and altered the civilization.ini to always load BUG, now it is working, except that it only works once, and crashes to Desktop as soon as i try to start a new game when i've been playing another game without exiting Civ4 in between. Re-loading the current game to an earlier state works sometimes, but not 100% of the time either.

Also, i seem to have another issue i couldnt reproduce yet: whenever i start a custom game with BUG with "Lock modified Assets" checked there is a good chance (~30%) that i'll end up with an "all grasslands" map, no oceans, no terrain (except in the starting cross).

Iranon, what did you do to fix it? Delete some files from the CustomAssets folder?

 

[Iranon]

I'm currently using a bit of a strange combination as a quick and dirty solution...

- deleted CustomAssets
- BUG installed as a mod, loaded every time I run Civ4 (I think I used the installer)
- IG_2.0.1.FPK from BAT dumped into C:\Program Files (x86)\Firaxis Games\Assets

I have some bits of Blue Marble left over... themes, leaderhead and custom menu colours. Apparently those go somewhere other than CustomAssets. I'm a bit puzzled about the details, but with this combination I have the interface I want with graphics I'm reasonably happy with.

The only two minor annoyances are

- I don't care much for the vegetation I have and would prefer the more subdued Blue Marble version to the neon-green plastic palm trees (I actually prefer the crisp BAT terrain textures to the Blue Marble ones though)
- putting other things put into CustomAssets tends to mess things up again

***

I'm afraid I haven't encountered the all-grassland problem; the crash problem went away after deleting CustomAssets, installing BUG as a mod, then deleting CustomAssets again (once. After that, I had no recurring issues).

I hope this is helpful... please note that I fiddled around until I had a solution I can live with, without understanding most of the whys and hows. Good luck!

 

[EmperorFool]

I've had the all grassland problem. It happens when I have BUG installed as a mod and play using one of the custom maps, but I fiddle around with my setup all the time while testing, so I didn't narrow it down or look for the cause yet as it's semi-random.

With BUG installed in CustomAssets, I've never had any quirky behavior. That's why it's the standard install method.

I'm hoping that the 3.6 installer solves some of these issues, but honestly I don't have much reason to hope. We put things in only a couple places--all in the right places AFAICT.

 

[phungus420]

With BUG installed in CustomAssets, I've never had any quirky behavior. That's why it's the standard install method.

Actually it can mess with other mods when installed that way. Putting it in it's own proper mod folder, and then using a shortcut to launch BUG is much better. To do that put BUG in the mod folder, then right click on the BtS .exe and create a shortcut, set the target of the shortcut to "...BtS.exe" =\mod BUG and put the shortcut on the desktop. Easy, and launches BUG at startup if that's what you want, and no problems with other mods that way.

 

[EmperorFool]

Actually it can mess with other mods when installed that way.

True, but if you're playing BUG, you aren't playing another mod, and that's what this thread is talking about.

Putting it in it's own proper mod folder, and then using a shortcut to launch BUG is much better.

. . . until you want to use BUG to play in a Succession Game. If you do the above, everyone else will be forced to either install BUG or create an empty mod folder with the same name as your BUG install. By putting BUG into the CustomAssets folder, you don't inconvenience other players.

So really you need to choose where to install BUG based on your usage pattern. Unfortunately, spamming all this information at a new player is pointless as we'll always get questions about why we chose path X or Y.

The new install will put it in any place you want, and it will handle /AltRoot if you use that, too.

. . . create a shortcut, set the target of the shortcut to "...BtS.exe" =\mod BUG and put the shortcut on the desktop.

The new 3.6 installer will do this as well, onto the desktop and/or the start menu.

BUG is all about options.