[Civ2] Civilization II MGE User Interface Additions (CIV2UIA)

[Hans Lemurson]

Nostalgia just called me back to Civ2, and I was very pleased to see that your wonderful Civ2 UIA project has been given new updates.
The GOTO lines and the City Trade-Paths are especially welcome, since in the last game I had left off on I had been struggling to figure out where to put the roads between all my cities in order to get trade route bonuses.

The little city preview window you can get by pressing Ctrl is nice too!

The latest note about fixing the "Overly Aggressive Civs" bug got me pondering the difference between a "bug" and a "feature". Is it still the same game without pointlessly homicidal AIs? What obligations do we have to past history when fixing obvious errors?
That then lead me to think about one of the other major bugs that has plagued Civ2: Pathfinding. GOTO orders will not cross the "International date line", and I think there are some other strange behaviors which hurt the AI's abilities to wage war and settle properly. If the problems were well defined enough to be fixable, would this be going too far and somehow violating the spirit of the game's history?

But regardless, I'm really grateful for everything you have done Mr. FoxAhead. You've made Civ2 much more playable and enjoyable.

I do have a question though about the Soundtrack:
I have a Civ2 MGE Disc Image mounted to the D Drive, and can get the Movies to play, but the soundtrack will not. Choosing "Pick Music" gives a message that "This option is not available unless the Civilization II CD in the disc drive".
Is there something I can do to make that part of the program aware of where the CD is?

 

[Prof. Garfield]

The latest note about fixing the "Overly Aggressive Civs" bug got me pondering the difference between a "bug" and a "feature". Is it still the same game without pointlessly homicidal AIs? What obligations do we have to past history when fixing obvious errors?

The "classic"/2.42 version of the game had an AI that was not universally hostile unless the human player was supreme and it was after turn 200. The hostile AI basically means that a peaceful cooperation strategy is less effective and worthwhile. I suppose that that makes the game "harder", but its not like the AI stands a chance against a competent player anyway.

 

[Milk_Duds_Woop]

Looks like you guys were right, it was windows defender that was causing the issues. I was able to fix it. Thank you everyone!

 

[Thorvald of Lym]

The "classic"/2.42 version of the game had an AI that was not universally hostile unless the human player was supreme and it was after turn 200. The hostile AI basically means that a peaceful cooperation strategy is less effective and worthwhile. I suppose that that makes the game "harder", but its not like the AI stands a chance against a competent player anyway.

I didn't mind it as much in the base game, but the number of times it screwed me over in scenarios...

 

[FoxAhead]

The latest note about fixing the "Overly Aggressive Civs" bug got me pondering the difference between a "bug" and a "feature". Is it still the same game without pointlessly homicidal AIs? What obligations do we have to past history when fixing obvious errors?
That then lead me to think about one of the other major bugs that has plagued Civ2: Pathfinding. GOTO orders will not cross the "International date line", and I think there are some other strange behaviors which hurt the AI's abilities to wage war and settle properly. If the problems were well defined enough to be fixable, would this be going too far and somehow violating the spirit of the game's history?

Throughout the project, I try to stick to the rule of not harming the original gameplay. Everything related to changing the rules and restrictions is already modding and should be placed in separate customizable options. As for fixing a bug with AI aggression, at first I casually copied the solution from other patches. But as it turned out, it was too clumsy a decision to disable the function of changing relations. It is not known how many games were played with this option. Then, when I took a closer look at the ratio calculation procedure, I found a classic programming bug with an uninitialized variable in the code. And here, yes, there is a dilemma. On the one hand, this is an obvious bug, due to which the uninitialized relation delta variable in most cases takes random large values, thereby dropping the relationship to a minimum every turn. But on the other hand, the game was released like this, which means it was somehow tested, and perhaps this bug is somehow compensated in other procedures. On reflection, I decided that since this is an obvious bug in the code, it needs to be fixed even without any options. Because even after my correction, the "200 move" rule will remain in the game - the logic introduced in the MGE version, according to which if you are the first in the rating, then after the 200 turn you will have big problems comparable to a vendetta against you.
This is the current state of the solution. In order to understand how much something has changed, you need to play more than one game. And I'm waiting for feedback. Inwardly, I hope that the AI will still remain aggressive, but at least other rules that change attitudes will work correctly - accounting for the number of betrayals, the Eiffel Tower, your own aggressiveness, and so on. And if someone wants a more peaceful game, at high difficulty levels, then this will already be a new option for modding.

I have a Civ2 MGE Disc Image mounted to the D Drive, and can get the Movies to play, but the soundtrack will not. Choosing "Pick Music" gives a message that "This option is not available unless the Civilization II CD in the disc drive".

If you do have CD then try turning off the "Disable CD check" option in the launcher.

 

[Thorvald of Lym]

But on the other hand, the game was released like this, which means it was somehow tested, and perhaps this bug is somehow compensated in other procedures.

As a veteran of Paradox Interactive games, I always bear in mind the two core tenets of Quality Assurance:
1. Assume nothing;
2. Trust no-one.

 

[Blake00]

oh boy here we go.. @Milk_Duds_Woop 's Windows Defend issue has finally arrived on my old windows security essentials.. I figured it would sooner or later since surely they use the same virus definitions. Interesting that it's going after the lnk files too. I've forced allowed it so hopefully it won't give me grief in the future every time I run Civ2.. how annoying.

 

[FoxAhead]

oh boy here we go.. @Milk_Duds_Woop 's Windows Defend issue has finally arrived on my old windows security essentials.. I figured it would sooner or later since surely they use the same virus definitions. Interesting that it's going after the lnk files too. I've forced allowed it so hopefully it won't give me grief in the future every time I run Civ2.. how annoying.

View attachment 640396

Yes, some nightmare for me. Virustotal gives 33/70 (!) detection. But most security vendors are "second-rate" and I believe they just looking at each other to confirm detection, so this is like chain reaction. Most trusted one give green: ESET-NOD32, Symantec, Avast, DrWeb, Kaspersky, Microsoft.
As for Microsoft Security Essentials. I submitted false positive report and it is already giving "No malware detected".

 

[FoxAhead]

oh boy here we go.. @Milk_Duds_Woop 's Windows Defend issue has finally arrived on my old windows security essentials.. I figured it would sooner or later since surely they use the same virus definitions. Interesting that it's going after the lnk files too. I've forced allowed it so hopefully it won't give me grief in the future every time I run Civ2.. how annoying.

View attachment 640396

Here is the answer from Microsoft:

At this time, the submitted files do not meet our criteria for malware or potentially unwanted applications. The detection has been removed. Please follow the steps below to clear cached detections and obtain the latest malware definitions. 1. Open command prompt as administrator and change directory to c:\Program Files\Windows Defender 2. Run “MpCmdRun.exe -removedefinitions -dynamicsignatures” 3. Run "MpCmdRun.exe -SignatureUpdate" Alternatively, the latest definition is available for download here: https://docs.microsoft.com/microsof...pdates-baselines-microsoft-defender-antivirus

 

[DaggerDigwillow]

Here is the answer from Microsoft:

How do I make bigger maps? The Civ2map.exe remains limited on the size under custom options despite installing this download and running the Civ2UIAlauncher.exe

Largest I can seem to make on randomized world is 181x181

 

[Blake00]

Thanks mate! Great work! I had no idea the process could be so fast!

 

[FoxAhead]

Civ2map.exe remains limited on the size under custom options despite installing this download and running the Civ2UIAlauncher.exe

This launcher works only for civ2.exe.

Largest I can seem to make on randomized world is 181x181

How?! The default limit is 10000 squares.
May be this can help?

MapEdit 2.1

MapEdit is a versatile Civilization II map editing tool. Among other things, it can convert Civ2 maps to bitmaps and vice versa, import maps from any Civ2 savegame or scenario, create maps with a surface larger than 10,000 (up to 32,767), place...

forums.civfanatics.com

 

[Hans Lemurson]

Throughout the project, I try to stick to the rule of not harming the original gameplay. Everything related to changing the rules and restrictions is already modding and should be placed in separate customizable options. As for fixing a bug with AI aggression, at first I casually copied the solution from other patches. But as it turned out, it was too clumsy a decision to disable the function of changing relations. It is not known how many games were played with this option. Then, when I took a closer look at the ratio calculation procedure, I found a classic programming bug with an uninitialized variable in the code. And here, yes, there is a dilemma. On the one hand, this is an obvious bug, due to which the uninitialized relation delta variable in most cases takes random large values, thereby dropping the relationship to a minimum every turn. But on the other hand, the game was released like this, which means it was somehow tested, and perhaps this bug is somehow compensated in other procedures. On reflection, I decided that since this is an obvious bug in the code, it needs to be fixed even without any options. Because even after my correction, the "200 move" rule will remain in the game - the logic introduced in the MGE version, according to which if you are the first in the rating, then after the 200 turn you will have big problems comparable to a vendetta against you.
This is the current state of the solution. In order to understand how much something has changed, you need to play more than one game. And I'm waiting for feedback. Inwardly, I hope that the AI will still remain aggressive, but at least other rules that change attitudes will work correctly - accounting for the number of betrayals, the Eiffel Tower, your own aggressiveness, and so on. And if someone wants a more peaceful game, at high difficulty levels, then this will already be a new option for modding.

If you do have CD then try turning off the "Disable CD check" option in the launcher.

I was playing a game recently that was an old save I found from many years ago in my first forays into the higher difficulty levels. This was with the MGE aggressive AI, and my civ (Russians) was under constant attack from everybody it made contact with.

Resuming play with the fixed Diplomacy, I was able to make peace (and even ally!) with one of my neighbors (Americans), although the larger and more aggressive enemy (Aztecs) accepted peace once, later they kept demanding my entire Treasury for peace, and so a state of war persisted.
Aggressive Civs will still be aggressive it seems. I haven't crossed the 200 turn mark to see if everybody turns on me at that point, but it's a moot point anyways since the Civ2 AI is too inept for their wars to actually be meaningful once you guard your chokepoints. In fact, I wonder whether being at Peace is actually the more challenging since they're no longer sending half their GDP at me to get trampled by Elephants.

I'd say that the Corrected Diplomacy AI is probably closer to the "intended" experience, since a major complaint from MGE was that other leaders were getting angry for no reason. It did lead to strategies and playstyles that revolved around compensating for that, but there were also players who say they preferred the "Original" Civ2 because its AIs weren't psycho. And given that you literally found the bug that caused all of this, and it was obviously a bug, I think you are completely justified in your fix. If people want to replicate the old experience, they can just repeatedly break treaties with everybody until their reputation is ruined.

...
As for the Soundtrack, I have been playing with the "Disable CD check" option turned off, and when I start the game I get the Intro Movie, the High Council works, and Wonder movies play when I build wonders. But choosing "Game > Pick Music" results in:

If I turn "Disable CD check" back on, then I get no movies whatsoever.

 

[Blake00]

I have a Civ2 MGE Disc Image mounted to the D Drive, and can get the Movies to play, but the soundtrack will not. Choosing "Pick Music" gives a message that "This option is not available unless the Civilization II CD in the disc drive".
Is there something I can do to make that part of the program aware of where the CD is?

As for the Soundtrack, I have been playing with the "Disable CD check" option turned off, and when I start the game I get the Intro Movie, the High Council works, and Wonder movies play when I build wonders. But choosing "Game > Pick Music" results in:
[IMG alt="1664414197815.png"]https://forums.civfanatics.com/attachments/1664414197815-png.640454/[/IMG]

If I turn "Disable CD check" back on, then I get no movies whatsoever.

If it's playing the movies and you didn't put them in the install folder then it knows where your virtual CD drive is. So if it can't play the music files and your using a cd image file then the obvious question has got to be what type of image file are you using? ISO files are the most commonly used image format and in this day & age of mp3s people forget that a lot of games used to use tradition CD track slots and that ISO files do NOT support those. If you can't play the music tracks in media player off your image file then that's another sign they're missing entirely. The cd image has to be a BIN, IMG or another format that supports multiple cd tracks (usually accompanied by a CUE file containing the track list positions that you mount instead of the BIN or IMG). Once the CUE file is mounted then the the OS will see the music tracks and windows itself will often play the songs in media player the moment the image file is mounted which is a good sign all is well before you've even started the game.

Most of the dodgy abandonware sites use the half useless ISO image file version of the cd so if that's where you got it from you're going to need to find a better source with a better file type mate. If you burned it yourself then you're going to need to burn it in one of those other formats instead of ISO.

 

[Hans Lemurson]

It looks like you're probably right, Blake. I have a .bin and .cue file, and mounting the .cue, I got a prompt from the OS for what should be done, but "play CD" wasn't an option. When I had Media Player Classic try to open my D: drive (which is what the .cue was mounted to) I was treated to a playlist of all of the Heralds, and then the Advisors, then the Cinematics, and then the Wonder Movies. But not a single music file.

So the likeliest explanation for the game not being able to locate the sound-track is simply because I do not have a sound-track.
I would use my original CD, but I lost it over a decade ago. I'll have to go hunting for a solution.

Sorry to cause you any worry, FoxAhead!

 

[FoxAhead]

It looks like you're probably right, Blake. I have a .bin and .cue file, and mounting the .cue, I got a prompt from the OS for what should be done, but "play CD" wasn't an option. When I had Media Player Classic try to open my D: drive (which is what the .cue was mounted to) I was treated to a playlist of all of the Heralds, and then the Advisors, then the Cinematics, and then the Wonder Movies. But not a single music file.

So the likeliest explanation for the game not being able to locate the sound-track is simply because I do not have a sound-track.
I would use my original CD, but I lost it over a decade ago. I'll have to go hunting for a solution.

Sorry to cause you any worry, FoxAhead!

If the size of BIN file is about 600 ~ 700 Mb then it should have audio tracks. You can get more info about mounted image with some CD-related software like Exact Audio Copy or Nero.

 

[Blake00]

Also you should be able to force load your CUE file in notepad to see if it lists music tracks in the BIN.

 

[Hans Lemurson]

Also you should be able to force load your CUE file in notepad to see if it lists music tracks in the BIN.

The .cue file has 12 audio tracks listed on it.

If the size of BIN file is about 600 ~ 700 Mb then it should have audio tracks. You can get more info about mounted image with some CD-related software like Exact Audio Copy or Nero.

The .bin file claims to be 699MB

Should the soundtrack appear as .wav files? (image contains none)
Or is it all compressed in a .cab? (data1.cab is 55MB and the only sizeable file that isn't one of the movies)
Or would they not appear as discrete files on the disc?
...
Exact Audio Copy crashes when attempting to read from the D: drive.

I'm going to try to hunt down another mountable image and see if that makes any difference.

 

[duplj]

The .cue file has 12 audio tracks listed on it.

The .bin file claims to be 699MB

Should the soundtrack appear as .wav files? (image contains none)
Or is it all compressed in a .cab? (data1.cab is 55MB and the only sizeable file that isn't one of the movies)
Or would they not appear as discrete files on the disc?
...

use Ultraiso software

 

[FoxAhead]

Should the soundtrack appear as .wav files? (image contains none)
Or is it all compressed in a .cab? (data1.cab is 55MB and the only sizeable file that isn't one of the movies)
Or would they not appear as discrete files on the disc?

This is Mixed Mode CD. The first track is used for storing data which you can observe normally in explorer. Other tracks starting from the second contain audio tracks which are not observable as files but can be "seen" by some media software like Media Player, AIMP or some special CD-software like EAC, Nero, UltraIso etc.

Exact Audio Copy crashes when attempting to read from the D: drive.

The only reason which I could find in google is using some "user mode file system driver" like Dokan or WinFSP. Although I don't know what it is.