Civ3ModManager v0.2 by Wiwi

[wiwi28130]

To support the game's mod community, Play the World will add a modification manager to Civilization III that lets players easily add and remove custom content. The manager will have a preview mode that lets players see exactly what effects a mod will have before they use it.

dixit gamespot.

So I will have more time to play Morrowind

 

[Isak]

Thanks for adding DyP to your Modmanager. It's a brilliant piece of work, and exactly what we need to making modding a bit less painful.

Now if Firaxis would hire you and Gramphos, I'm sure my grandma would soon be able to mod Civ3.

So I will have more time to play Morrowind

Uhmm... please, dont start playing until we see exactly what we get with the new patch.... I have a vague feeling that our 15 mb of Double Your Pleasure mod won't be entirely supported by this 'official' mod manager.

Oh, and btw, the website adress for the DyP mod is actually without the "www"

 

[Isak]

Oooops - I posted that a bit too fast. Now I got back home and wanted to try out the modmanager with DyP and I get an error.

Erreur d'exécution '430':

La classe ne gère pas Automation ou l'interface attendue

I select the DyP mod, press install, select the directory where i have the mod in a single directory (below the Modmanager dir), enter a Mod name and press install..... then the error appears.

I should note that the first time I ran the program, it was missing a "vb6fr.dll" file and it refused to run, but I found this file on the net, copied it to my windows\system folder and the program started.

Am I doing something wrong??

 

[wiwi28130]

Well, I think you miss some .dll.
I should have done I a setup with more .dll

So....
You will have to wait Monday For a bigger install/setup... I have not the sources right now here

Are you under XP, 2000, 98 ?

 

[Isak]

No fear (for me anyway) - I fixed the problem by updating my MDAC to version 2.7 (I am under Win98 so I guess I was running version 2.0 before)

Still, It might be a good idea to include the dll files, if you know which ones are missing - the MDAC update was 5.0 mb (good thing they invented ADSL )

And now I can say - It doesn't just look good, It also performs quite well I'll be putting it through some rough tests over the next few days, I'll let you know if i can make it crash

 

[Isak]

But I did notice that you need to have Civ3 installed in the default directory (i.e. Program Files\Infogrames Interactive\Civilization III\) since the Modmanager installs all files there.

Edit: My mistake - found some files in the original dir, but the Modmanager wasn't the one that left them there..
However - I can't make the DyP mod install working - nothing is copied to the Civ3 dir - the backup is created fine, but nothing is copied - Simple mods work fine, and I havent tested any of the other complex mods yet

 

[wiwi28130]

First,

Thanks thanks and Thousands of thanks for your answers, Isak.

I don't know if you've done it :

I said all the files must be in a single directory means : without the ART\UNITS\ and so on structure...just :

DYP\civililopedia.txt
DYP\infantry.amb
DYP\units_32.pcx....

Is that waht you did ?



Well, just a little bit of history :

1. When i wrote the 0.1 version i just wanted to make a full backup/restore and a backup of files that exists in the "original" civ3.

So i decided to make a database with two columns : first one : name of the file and the second one the destination directory. For exemple :

Name Localization
Civilopedia.txt TEXT

At the beginnig of the prog, with the help of the registry entry, Civ3MM cheks where civ3 is installed and the tool work (for him) with the "current directory.
With all that things, it was easy to backup/restore files. So Snoopy terrains could be install/remove


2. Well, for the 0.2, i decided to introduce the possibity to backup/install/remove mods with news units.
So i introduced a thrid columns called "origine" with 0 for original files and 1 for new files. So i could install mods as WW2 and so on... That's what i thought...

3. Nothing for 0.3.. fix few pbs

4. So Well now for v0.4 let's play with "huge" mods as DYP...
And troubles, troubles...
Why ? Because such a mod uses files from the original BUT not with the same destination directory !!! I was not very happy with this...
So i did a ugly coding mess for the first mod I tested (DYP sorry) Because i did not wanted to add a complete new table in the database.... So I should have !!!!!!!!!
And that's what I have done for The realism Epic and the others...

So I will chek on Monday and rewrite the DYP part...
Hope to release a... 0.4b version on monday let say... about 12h AM GMT...

 

[Isak]

I'm thankful that a utility like this exists. I definitely didn't think it was going to be bug-free, especially not as long as it's still only version 0.4. (we're almost at the same version with DyP and we're not entirely bug-free... )So no need to apologize (I'm not sure if that's what you did, but if it wasn't, I want to make it clear that there's no reason to start doing it in the future )

I'd be happy to help in any way possible - I'm not very proficient with VB, but I have picked up a bit of Database knowledge (mainly Paradox-databases though) - but if nothing else, at least tell me how to make sure the DyP implementation can be as smooth as possible. I definitely think you should continue developement despite what Firaxis says about the next patch - I have a grim feeling it will only handle the BIC and possibly .txt files - hopefully I am wrong, but....

About the installation - Yes, I put everything in a single directory, without any sub-directories.

 

[wiwi28130]

It can't be bug free because it's only my 2nd attempt to make a Development tool. I'm used to be Network admin and servers NT/2000 installer...

And i leran VB with books and internet

But be sure I will find a solution on Monday

 

[wiwi28130]

I have just test the DYP install/remove and i am a little bit ???
Yes, it works fine for me
All the units are created in the ART\Units directory...

So Isak i don't know what to say...

I would be a great idea if other people could tell me if they tested my tool and if it worked for them for the DYP part....

I'm waiting for feedback now...

Something else :

The dyp directory for the install MUST be under the Civ3ModManager directory

 

[wiwi28130]

For the few not french people

 

[wiwi28130]

Hello all


yes, still alive...

Before working on 0.5 version I need feedback...
And what mods should I include ?

Thanks for answers

 

[wiwi28130]

sthg like more than 2300 views
155 downloads
And... 2 or 3 feedback

Bye bye then

 

[Ralendil]

snif.....

grrr....
argg.....

GLOUPS....(FAIS CHIER)

Wiwi !!!
(mais t'as raison.... ca me tente desfois....)

 

[Isak]

Aww, come on Wiwi - you're just disappointed about today's soccer matches

I've given you praise before, so maybe I'm not the one who should do so again - I'm still working on figuring out what went wrong with my install of DyP - I'm pretty sure it's a 'local' problem now - i.e. something on my 'puter not working properly - I'll let you know when I've done some more testing.

Don't give up just because Civvers are such quiet people, Wiwi - this program is really needed and I still doubt the upcoming Firaxis solution will be able to handle big mods, so we need someone like you around.

- and give the man some more feedback if you use/have used the program ppl - it's the only way he can improve it after all

 

[Cretatus_Manus]

just whant to say a few things.

first the entire innstall thing is in french. and i dont speak french so we are at a form of standstill.

in the version 0.4 zip file i downlaoded teher where 3 files:
1 = Civ3ModManagerV04.CAB
2 = setup.exe
3 = SETUP.LST

anyways i proceeded to duble clikc on teh setup.exe and i guessed my way ahead and innstalled it.

in The folder i got theese files:
1 = base.mdb
2 = Civ3ModManagerV04.exe
3 = Filecopy.avi
4 = ST6UNST.000
5 = civ3ModManager.txt
6 = compatibility.txt
7 = ST6UNST.LOG

i started the .exe file and got teh message it couldnt find the language file VB6FR.DLL so i put the file VB6FR.DLL which i downloaded from teh link above into the directory. But still the exe file couldnt find it.

so i extracted teh files from the Civ3ModManagerV04.CAB file.
there i got theese files:
1 = base.mdb
2 = Civ3ModManagerV04.exe
3 = Filecopy.avi
4 = ST6UNST.EXE
5 = VB6STKIT.DLL
6 = SETUP1.EXE
7 = compatibility.txt
8 = civ3ModManager.txt

i started the file Civ3ModManagerV04.exe and got the same message about the language file not beeing found. so i added teh same file as before. But it stil ldidnt fin it. So i clicked on teh setup file. then a error report came up in french saying something like parametres de ligne de commande incorrects. Impossibler de continue." and tehn everything was aborted.

Im using XP as my OS by teh way. So if u could make this thing in english and fix whatever is wrong with it id be happy to give u some good comments.

 

[Cretatus_Manus]

oh and im using teh latest version of Civilization which is 1.21f and i innsatlled the patch on a newly innstalled game so its from the release version upgraded to 1.21f.

 

[Isak]

I believe the .dll file has to go into the Windows\System folder.