Civ3 1.29 beta 2

[AlanH]

Welcome

Brad has left Westlake to work at Aspyr, so he knows nothing of new Civ3 releases. Before he left he passed over a release version 1.29 to MacSoft for final QA and release. That was 6 to 9 months ago an we've seen nothing more. So don't even hold your breath for 1.29 to be released officially.

As for PtW or Conquests? See those flying pigs? Both expansions use a Microsoft-proprietary Windows games networking technology called DirectPlay that no one has ported to the Mac - they'd probably be sued if they did. And I understand Civ4 will still use the same protocols.

 

[subbss]

Does that mean Civ4 won't come out for the Mac?

 

[AlanH]

I'm usually such an optimist However, on this occasion I really can't see it happening. My guess is that the Mac market for Civ4 simply doesn't support the level of investment that would be required to do it. But I'm guessing, and I have no inside knowledge. I'm sure others will be along soon to provide a more hopeful forecast.

 

[ejday]

A danger?

Does that mean Civ4 won't come out for the Mac?

I've thought about this myself - and it would be an awful disappointment. I've been playing Civ on a Mac since the first version (I should really stop and get something to eat), and to break the string now would be a heartbreaker. However, while I have no sales figures to back this up, they've ported games before with this issue and I haven't heard anything inherently discouraging about continuing the trend.
...I would think that now that Destineer/MacSoft (and Peter Tamte) inherited the license from Inforgrames (Atari), a port and closer support would be more likely. Brad gave an amazing contribution to the Mac Civ3 community, but it was largely on his own time.
If worse comes to worse, maybe MS:Mac might be able to figure out DirectX support for VPC (they own the emulator and the original now). Barring that, there's always a possibility that another emulator will figure it out...

 

[rmendis]

Has anyone tried to back port the PtW and Conquest civs to the Mac as a Mod (+installer) a la GoTM? That is copy over all the images, video and sounds associated with civs, resources, etc., as far as possible.

In know that either PtW or Conquests introduced the new civ types: agricultural and seafaring. But the new civs could be configured to be religious and explorationist instead, for example, as a workaround.

So has anyone (had the time) to do this?

If I had a PC and the time, perhaps I would have.

 

[AlanH]

I thnk you'd have copyright problems with Firaxis if you published a mod that included their PtW images for use by people who haven't paid for PtW. The GOTM mods avoid that by inventing new leaderheads, and getting permission from independent mod makers to use their unit and building graphics. Since the GOTM mods provide most of the extras in PtW, one way or another, and Bluebox has now made those accessible for random play, I think the job has effectively been done to that extent. The Conquests additions are much harder to emulate in Civ3, as they are mostly built into the game software.

The problems that remain include:

- Civ3 is not file compatible with PtW or Conquests, so you can't use PtW or Conquests scenarios or play in PtW/Conquests SGs

- No multi-player options, so no network play or play by email.

- Some extra features, particularly in Conquests, just can't be emulated in a mod - Agricultural trait, Radar Towers, Airbases, Scientific/Military leaders, Conquests armies (killers, apparently) ....

Personally, I can live without all of the above, and find Civ3, GOTM and vanilla SGs quite entertaining enough without worrying about the add-on packs.

 

[Ankka]

Alan, the armies in C3C are overpowered monsters the AI doesn't attack unless it's like an archer army and the AI has cavs.

And the AI doesn't build armies so it isn't fair. And there hasn't yet been a final patch. Scientific age doesn't work, submarines are buggy, AI war weariness is awful... C3C is the buggiest civ ever. In Civ 2 the AI cheated but all knew that. In C3C they're bugs.


I like PTW a lot more than C3C.

 

[AlanH]

@Ankka: I was trying to be polite about Conquests, since I'm certain it'll never see the light of day on the Mac. But you are right, of course, Conquests is broken, we have to suppress some of its grossest misdemeanors in GOTM to make competition reasonable, and I'm not even sure there'll *be* a "final" patch to fix it.

 

[st.lucifer]

i'm having a very hard time downloading this patch- it just spits out code at the above link; at the googled links for firaxis, machome, etc., links are broken or not found. i'm trying to upgrade to TAM (?) (the non DyP mod?), but have had to re-install civIII from cd to do this- unfortunately, my version is 1.16, and i think i need to patch it to 1.29 to install the mod.

any suggestions?
thanks.

 

[AlanH]

Hello, good morning, and welcome.

Yes, you need 1.29b2 to install most any mod, as they are made for the latest vanilla release of the PC version. Most links to teh patch are broken because it's been removed from the place where Brad uploaded it originally.

When you refer to the "above link" I assume you mean the .sitx file link I've edited in the first post, and put in my sig? Are you running OSX? If so try right clicking it and using "Download Linked File As ... " or the equivalent in that contextual menu for your browser. If you're not running OSX, let me know.

 

[st.lucifer]

ah, thanks. missed it in your sig. seems to have worked. now, to jump over to the dyp thread...i'm trying to install TAM, and having all sorts of trouble with it. the program crashes as the scenario loads, and there doesn't seem to be a mod file like dyp to run through your GOTM installer. it says to open through play.bat, but doesn't seem to work thus far. is there something i'm missing? the advice on the TAM thread taltho posted to is windows-specific and confusing to me. i believe i'm running OS X.2.

 

[AlanH]

I'm pretty sure I've loaded TAM once before, but I can't recall the details and it might have changed since then. I'll have a look at it. A .BAT file is a Windows script file, so your Mac won't know what to do with it.

 

[AlanH]

I installed and ran it with no problems. I downloaded the Zip file for Mac using the link in Thamis' post on the CDG site. Then:

1. Created a shiny new copy of version 1.29b2 and renamed the folder "Civilization III TAM"
2. Ran my Mod Installer
3. Dropped my new Civ3 folder onto the Mod Installer window
4. Dropped the downloaded ZIP file onto the Civ3 folder in the Mod Installer window.
5. Launched the Civilization III in the new folder.
6. Enjoyed the opening splash screen.

I tried starting a random game and one of the scenarios. Both opened fine and got me to a starting position as the Britons. The Civilopedia seemed to work, and the tech tree displayed OK. I've played a few turns and everything seems to work.

HTH

 

[st.lucifer]

works great, thanks for the help.

 

[Addlepated]

Hi there,

I'm using OS 10.3.6 and Civ 3 version 1.29b2. I used the GOTM all-in-one installer, and I am able to open GOTM saved games that I've downloaded from here, but if I try to start a new game by selecting "Load Scenario", choosing GOTM mod, and selecting options such as what tribe to play and my opponents, it crashes when the game starts up. Am I going about this in the wrong way?

 

[AlanH]

Hello! Welcome to Maccivfanatics

The most likely reason for a crash is that you haven't swapped the two resources files. The gotm mod scenario requires the special resources files that were used for games from 21 to 28. Since then the games have reverted to the out-of-the-box files.

Copy resources.pcx and resourcesshadows.pcx from /Art/resources storage/gotm21/ to /Art/. You don't need to make a backup of the old ones as there's a copy of them in /Art/resource storage/standard resources/ that you can use to swap back. This is all covered in the readmes that come with the installer.

HTH

 

[Addlepated]

Thanks for your welcome, Alan! My confusion stemmed from the fact that I wasn't actually opening any of the saved GOTM files; I was merely loading the scenario called "GOTM-1.1.bic" (or something similar) and then trying to start a new game from there. I did as you suggested and added the artwork from gotm21 into /Art and it seems to be working as scheduled. Thanks for putting up with my noobish ways.

 

[Brad Oliver]

I'm usually such an optimist However, on this occasion I really can't see it happening. My guess is that the Mac market for Civ4 simply doesn't support the level of investment that would be required to do it.

I'd be shocked if Civ4 didn't come to the Mac.

 

[Vegasgustan]

I would have to agree with Brad Oliver. I know it may take some time, but Civ4 should come out. Perhaps a year later, but someone is making money off of Civ3 for Mac and someone is going to want to make the same money from Civ4. Maybe if we all cross our fingers and toes...

 

[ejday]

Until the GameSpy crap-in-the-fan, it looked like Mac gaming was only getting stronger. Depsite this kick in the shins, I think Mac gaming will continue to get stronger (and who knows... may eventually lead to GameRanger going cross-platform to give IGN a good poke in the eye).

While I haven't seen Civ3 numbers, it seems the Mac franchise is going strong. Unless somebody knows something I don't (not hard to do, I'll admit), having the Civ4 engine reading values in XML is a very, very good thing. Modding should be less of a tooth-pulling experience for Mac users. Now, if we could only steer Firaxis from the evils of DirectX...