Civ 4 Complete Edition ... some clarity?

[Ka Tet]

I just recently purchased Civ 4 Complete Edition (Civ 4, Warlords, BTS, & Colonization) and I was wondering if someone more informed than I can give me some clarity about it. I've been reading the forums here and elsewhere, but haven't found the info I'm looking for yet.

First it took me a bit after install to realize that I was playing Vanilla Civ4. I had to dig into the files and grab the shortcuts to BTS & Warlords - Does that mean that each expansion is designed to play seperately? I was under the impression that expansions modified the main game?

So, my understanding is that Civ 4 complete is actually 4 complete games (with the 2 expansions using vanilla to add on for a differing experience). Is that so, or am I missing something?

Also I thought I read that Fall From Heaven & Rhye's and Fall were included with BTS. If so I haven't located them yet - if they are, are they the same mods that I've been reading about in the forums, or do I need to update them? I'd really like to try them out.

And finally (sorry for being longwinded) my BTS shows version 3.17, but when I contacted customer service to ask about patches I was told not to worry about downloading any since complete is up to date, but I saw a v3.19 patch was out. Any one know if I should dload that and install? When I checked for updates it said none were available.

So to sum up:
A: Is each expansion a seperate entity
B: Is player made content available with BTS
C: Do I need v3.19 patch

Very glad I made the switch to this from Civ3 as I'm liking it quite a bit, I just want to understand everything I have. It took me years before I found all that was on my Civ3 discs.

EDIT: Also very much liking the no disc requirement to play. I wonder why they thought to do that?

 

[Chiyochan]

thats odd, Civ gold started up with warlords, I'm surprised it would act that way
anyway, for clarity on the issue
only colonization is a seperate game built on the engine, Civ 4 bts and warlords are expansions, made to replace and add onto Civ, not be a separate game, the old stand alone programs are there mostly for compatability with old mods.

 

[Ka Tet]

Well, after some digging into it I found some answers to my own questions. I hadn't actually checked BTS if it was updated, that was when I was on vanilla civ. So I ran the update last night and got it up to 3.19. I also found the mods. Again, the first time I had looked I was in the vanilla set up. I was just confused at the way it installed.

I'm not sure why it installed the way it did, although I did install to a location of my choosing rather than the default since I'm on Vista and I don't like my games installed under program files anyway, so maybe that had something to do with it.

Thanks for the reply, Chiyochan. That's pretty much what I had expected, although I had expected only one .exe to run the game. It gives me versatility to be able to play each way, it was just a little confusing at first. As long as I don't get sucked into a game I'll be digging tonight to be sure that BTS integrates the Warlords info into it (This is my first civ4 experience, so I don't know one way or the other. I don't even know specifically what one adds over the other yet)