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

[Kaiser0985]

Hello, sorry if this has been covered already and hijack the thread but I'm on day 4 of trying to get civ 2 to work and it's driving me nuts. I'm on Windows 10 and have the gold edition version required. I've downloaded your patch and when I run the game it looks like it's going to start, get the wheel spinning as if to get ready to launch then nothing. Please can anyone help? I can't see it running in the background anywhere. Direct play is enabled, tried compatibility settings even tried setting up a virtual machine, but that is beyond my skill set

On some win10 version the game get stuck the first time you launch it.
If you go on the task manager, you will see civ2.exe running even if you never player it.
Just kill the process and run it again, it will work.

 

[Taylor1985]

On some win10 version the game get stuck the first time you launch it.
If you go on the task manager, you will see civ2.exe running even if you never player it.
Just kill the process and run it again, it will work.

Thanks for the advice but I'm afraid civ isn't running in task manager for me to kill it.

 

[Blake00]

Hopefully you looked in exe processes and not just running apps.

Not sure if this is the right place since if a Civ2 install doesn't launch at all due to a pre-existing issue then I'm not sure if Civ2UIA will magically change that and there are a number of Civ2 on Win10 threads elsewhere on this forum with lots of interesting discussions and possible solutions, but it's not my thread so maybe Fox is fine with it.

Either way I still use Windows 7 so I'm not much help with Win 10 stuff but if all else fails and no one here can help you then you could instead setup a VM with VirtualBox and a Windowx XP iso (search for iso on google) and then once setup you can mount your Civ2 cd or iso as the cd drive in the virtual machine and bang.. you're playing Civ2 just fine. I run Civ2 on my main OS but when I was having some problems and bugs caused by Civ2UIA a few years back (Fox has since fixed them) I ended up doing the above and it worked great. I still keep that Civ2 VM install for testing stuff (eg old 16bit fan made editors and special scenario exe's for Civ2), and I always play Civ1 for Windows and Colonization for Windows on the same VM.

Anyway.. @FoxAhead I keep forgetting to post this but if you're taking 'fan wish list' items then as well as the ToTPP Directshow sound patch @Prof. Garfield suggested earlier in this thread to fix some of the audio issues, it would also be super cool if mp3 music functionally was added too like Garfield does in his excellent TOTPP Custom Music Patcher. That way MGE users could put music from vanilla, CiC, FW, that didn't make it into the final MGE all back into the game and even chuck in the cool bonus ToT tracks too if they wanted as well as any other music they want of course, and presumably a lot of Garfields work would be transferable. Purely dream wish list stuff though as obviously most of us just turn off the cd music and play mp3s in media player anyway haha.

.

 

[Taylor1985]

I looked at all exe processes and couldn't see civ 2 running. It goes through the motions as looking like installing then nothing. Changes my resolution briefly then just back to desktop. I've read hours of threads and forums including here and reddit and nothing. Closest I could find to my issue was to run in safe mode so that will be my next move. If all else fails I will attempt to run with virtualbox, although my first attempt at that didn't go as the YouTube guide said it should. My iso file for xp didn't match what was in the guide. I will keep trying though as I'm desperate to get playing again. Thanks for the advice

 

[Taylor1985]

One step further in safe mode and running as administrator. Tried a scan as suggested by YouTube but no violations found. Guess it's on to researching this issue further

 

[Taylor1985]

So after a week of trying I am finally playing managed to get it sorted. Thanks to those for the advice but my issues were something different. After hours of reading I am back playing my favourite ever game

 

[LuKo]

I have tested that in my version the option to check cd does not work - I guess I had to replace civ2.exe with no-cd version and left no backup. Is it possible to make the option override the choice in .exe or to make the civ2 check videos in a folder on drive (so I can copy them and not bother with cd at all)? [EDIT]: I managed to solve the problem.

 

[ew3rivera]

How do I fix this? multiplayer gold edition 5.4.0f (patch 3) error. Thanks in advance.

 

[The Revan]

@FoxAhead I successfully installed your Civilization-II-64-bit-Editbox-Patcher, but when I tried to install this program, I got an error message. I even tried it on a clean install with only the 1.3 patch. I also ran it in admin mode as well. The error is message is:
Error: ReadProcessMemory: 299

Thank you in advance for any help you can give.

 

[The Revan]

@FoxAhead I successfully installed your Civilization-II-64-bit-Editbox-Patcher, but when I tried to install this program, I got an error message. I even tried it on a clean install with only the 1.3 patch. I also ran it in admin mode as well. The error is message is:
Error: ReadProcessMemory: 299

Thank you in advance for any help you can give.

Nevermind I figured it out. Disabling the no CD patch in the options fixed it

 

[The Revan]

Nevermind I figured it out. Disabling the no CD patch in the options fixed it

I guess i spoke too soon. When it worked I played for awhile then saved,quit, and shut down my computer. Later I tried to launch with the your .exe and it had the same error:
Error: ReadProcessMemory: 299
I looked at the options and the no CD patch was not selected. I can not think of anything else I did differently.

 

[FoxAhead]

@FoxAhead I successfully installed your Civilization-II-64-bit-Editbox-Patcher, but when I tried to install this program, I got an error message. I even tried it on a clean install with only the 1.3 patch. I also ran it in admin mode as well. The error is message is:
Error: ReadProcessMemory: 299

Thank you in advance for any help you can give.

Please, zip and share your Civ2 folder for analysis. You can remove some folders to reduce size (for example SCENARIO, Sound etc.).
Also provide some system information: Windows version (Win-R, winver), antivirus software, game installation path. May be some screenshots.

 

[Blake00]

Anyway.. @FoxAhead I keep forgetting to post this but if you're taking 'fan wish list' items then as well as the ToTPP Directshow sound patch @Prof. Garfield suggested earlier in this thread to fix some of the audio issues, it would also be super cool if mp3 music functionally was added too like Garfield does in his excellent TOTPP Custom Music Patcher. That way MGE users could put music from vanilla, CiC, FW, that didn't make it into the final MGE all back into the game and even chuck in the cool bonus ToT tracks too if they wanted as well as any other music they want of course, and presumably a lot of Garfields work would be transferable. Purely dream wish list stuff though as obviously most of us just turn off the cd music and play mp3s in media player anyway haha.

Quoting myself haha as there's been some interesting new updates with TheNamelessOne's similar ToTPP tool for Test of Time has has me wanting to revise my Civ2UIA wishlist post which you can feel free to ignore @FoxAhead as I know it's probably way too much work! But a fan can dream hey haha!

Like I said earlier he's switched sound output to use DX9 DirectShow which if done in MGE might stop those strange issues I and others have had where some or all sounds just stop playing in the game no matter what you do to try and bring them back. And then months later after you've given up they just start working again lol! Also by doing this he's allowed for mp3 sound effect file support which is pretty cool.

It also appears that he's now added built-in mp3 music support which was originally only avaiable via a ToTPP 3rd party addon by Prof Garfield. No more wearing down the old CD for music.

And this is another great one as I think it removes any requirement for people to have the old ancient indeo codec. I also noticed that it's removed all the old pixel dithering/blending effects from the ToT in-game video player and plays them in full colour although I'm guessing that can't be done in MGE due to the 256 colour limit.

And this last one is probably my favourite of them all! He's added mod folder support meaning people no longer have to override core Civ2 files when trying modpacks with custom dlls and other core files that normally don't load from a scenario folder. You just put the mod and all it's files in it's own mod folder, add a @ MOD area to it's rules.txt file with a title & some optional settings, start up ToT, select 'Play a mod' from the main menu, it will scan all subfolders under ToT for mods with the modified rules file and they'll appear in a list, you then just select the mod and it loads everything up as if you'd replaced all the main game dlls etc. Considering how many total conversion mods there are out there for MGE (way more than ToT) it would be a dream to dream to have something like that in MGE. He's also going to look at adding support in a later version for checking to see if there's a 'Video' folder under the mod folder to load them up instead of the main ToT video folder allowing for easy playing of custom wonder videos etc. That would be amazing in MGE for total conversion mods like the Heroes of Might & Magic mod that Metro & I worked on as we replaced all the wonders and event videos (intro, space & death etc) and sadly currently have to force people to backup and override their original video files as well as all the dlls etc.

 

[Prof. Garfield]

It also appears that he's now added built-in mp3 music support which was originally only avaiable via a ToTPP 3rd party addon by Prof Garfield. No more wearing down the old CD for music.

MP3 music support has been there for a while. What my patch does is automatically rename files so that you don't have to listen to the same music all the time. A scenario can have different music which will be copied to the music folder and played in place of the default tracks. You can also write a 'playlist' text file to change the music that will be played.

 

[Blake00]

MP3 music support has been there for a while. What my patch does is automatically rename files so that you don't have to listen to the same music all the time. A scenario can have different music which will be copied to the music folder and played in place of the default tracks. You can also write a 'playlist' text file to change the music that will be played.

Ahh my bad.. I understand now.. jeez.. that sounds really good. I've created custom soundtracks for a number of my MGE scenarios however naturally I had to use windows playlist shortcuts and tell people in my readme's where to find the shortcut and to turn off Civ2's music. The fact that your extension can allow people to play custom soundtracks in-game for ToT is super cool man.

 

[FoxAhead]

New version 1.16 (build 68).
A lot of changes. See first post items 16-31 for details.

Download
https://github.com/FoxAhead/Civ2-UI-Additions/releases/tag/v1.16

 

[FoxAhead]

Quoting myself haha as there's been some interesting new updates with TheNamelessOne's similar ToTPP tool for Test of Time has has me wanting to revise my Civ2UIA wishlist post which you can feel free to ignore @FoxAhead as I know it's probably way too much work! But a fan can dream hey haha!

Like I said earlier he's switched sound output to use DX9 DirectShow which if done in MGE might stop those strange issues I and others have had where some or all sounds just stop playing in the game no matter what you do to try and bring them back. And then months later after you've given up they just start working again lol! Also by doing this he's allowed for mp3 sound effect file support which is pretty cool.
View attachment 616730

It also appears that he's now added built-in mp3 music support which was originally only avaiable via a ToTPP 3rd party addon by Prof Garfield. No more wearing down the old CD for music.
View attachment 616731

And this is another great one as I think it removes any requirement for people to have the old ancient indeo codec. I also noticed that it's removed all the old pixel dithering/blending effects from the ToT in-game video player and plays them in full colour although I'm guessing that can't be done in MGE due to the 256 colour limit.
View attachment 616729

And this last one is probably my favourite of them all! He's added mod folder support meaning people no longer have to override core Civ2 files when trying modpacks with custom dlls and other core files that normally don't load from a scenario folder. You just put the mod and all it's files in it's own mod folder, add a @ MOD area to it's rules.txt file with a title & some optional settings, start up ToT, select 'Play a mod' from the main menu, it will scan all subfolders under ToT for mods with the modified rules file and they'll appear in a list, you then just select the mod and it loads everything up as if you'd replaced all the main game dlls etc. Considering how many total conversion mods there are out there for MGE (way more than ToT) it would be a dream to dream to have something like that in MGE. He's also going to look at adding support in a later version for checking to see if there's a 'Video' folder under the mod folder to load them up instead of the main ToT video folder allowing for easy playing of custom wonder videos etc. That would be amazing in MGE for total conversion mods like the Heroes of Might & Magic mod that Metro & I worked on as we replaced all the wonders and event videos (intro, space & death etc) and sadly currently have to force people to backup and override their original video files as well as all the dlls etc.
View attachment 616732

@Blake00,
please don't be offended, but again I ignored all requests for sound and music. These items have the lowest priority, because, as you yourself noticed, the majority really listens to music in the background in the player.
As for mod support, I keep that topic in mind. I would be helped by links to ready-made mods to see what they change and how you can implement resources reloading without exiting the game.
But, to be honest, after almost two months of work on the current release, I want to take a break, and therefore I will not promise anything.

 

[Blake00]

New version 1.16 (build 68).
A lot of changes. See first post items 16-31 for details.

Download
https://github.com/FoxAhead/Civ2-UI-Additions/releases/tag/v1.16

16-31:

• Sort supported units list.
  
  

  SortSupportedUnitsList

  • FoxAhead
  • May 6, 2022
  Sorting order is: role 5 (Settlers, Engineers) is first, then attacking units ordered by domain (ground, air sea), descending by defense, descending by attack and then the rest by ID.
  
  
• Reset Engineer's order after passing its work to coworker. If there is already a worker in the tile, then when adding a new one, he takes the work counter for himself, and the order of the previous one is additionally reset. Thus, there should be only one worker with an order in a cell. This simplifies rush terraforming, as it eliminates the need to wake up the unit each time. Refer to point 3 for more information.
  
  
• Don't break unit movement on ZOC (zone of control). If unit has 'Go To' order, it doesn't stop when entering ZOC. Of course, the ZOC rule still applies. Originally, this behavior was applied only for role 7 units (Caravan, Freight). Be careful with this option, the unit will only stop when it breaks the ZOC rule or runs out of movement points. That is, for example, a unit directed at an enemy city will continuously try to enter it, attacking the defenders. Or attack an enemy unit suddenly emerging from the fog of war.
  
  
• Reset units Wait flag after activating. Originally, units ordered with 'Wait' command receives special Wait flag; when switching to the next unit, it is searched for as the closest one without a Wait flag; if nothing is found, then all these flags are cleared and searched again. With this option, all Wait flags are immediately cleared when a unit is manually activated, which should build a more convenient sequence for switching to nearby units.
  
  
• Reset MoveIteration before start moving to prevent wrong warning. This fixes the incorrect 'Long Unit Move' warning that was caused by a non-resetting movement counter.
  
  
• Set focus to City window when opened from Advisor and back to Advisor when closed. Originally, the focus stayed on the Advisor window, so none of the City hotkeys worked, and pressing Esc closed the Advisor instead of the City window.
  
  
• Celebrating city in yellow color instead of white in Attitude Advisor (F4). So it's more noticeable now.
  View media item 6850
  
• Indicating attitude in the city window. Texts below citizen sprites are colored as in Attitude Advisor. This helps to immediately see the effect of the used specialists.
  
  

  CityWindowColorAttitude

  • FoxAhead
  • May 6, 2022
  
  
• Radio buttons hotkeys. Can speed up the selection of options using the keyboard.
  
  

  RadioButtonsHotkeys

  • FoxAhead
  • May 6, 2022
  
  
• City quickinfo tooltips. Hover mouse over the city and hold Ctrl key.
  View media item 6852
  
• Made most advisors and lists vertically resizable.
  
  

  ResizableLists

  • FoxAhead
  • May 6, 2022
  
  
• Advisors caption area increased to make it easier to move windows around.
  
  
• Better scrolling in Units List Popup: no flickering, adjusting scrollbar PageSize, keys navigation.
  
  
• Added Cancel button to city Change Production dialog - Esc is now Cancel.
  
  
• Added shields cost in the city Change Production list.
  View media item 6851
  
• Sorting in City Status advisor. Cities can be sorted by size, name, food, production or trade. Added total cities number.
  View media item 6853
  
• Mass change specialists in City window. Hover mouse over specialist, hold Shift key and scroll mouse wheel - this changes all specialists at once. Shift-clicking on specialist change others to the same one.
  
  
• Suppress simple GAME.TXT popups. The list of popup names could be set in the UIA Settings (Menu - UI Additions - Settings... - List...). These popups will be shown in the map overlay instead, eliminating the annoying need to click 'OK' button.
  
  

  SuppressSimplePopups

  • FoxAhead
  • May 6, 2022
  
  
• Include fix for (229.gif, 250.gif) and pv.dll (105.gif). As here:
  https://forums.civfanatics.com/resources/corrected-dlls-for-mge.24259/
  
  This fix is applied automatically based on GIF size comparisons. If mk.dll and pv.dll are modded, the fix will not be applied.
  
  
• Color correction. If the game seems too dull or too bright for you, then this can be corrected without editing the GIF palettes. This and some other options can be set in Menu - UI Additions - Settings....
  View media item 6859

WOW!!!! You've pretty much doubled the size and content of your mod.. so much great stuff here!!! This is amazing!!! It's funny I filmed a big thing talking about your work for my up and coming huge Civ2 HD tour video about 2 or 3 years ago (it keeps getting delayed due to all my other projects) and then re-filmed a much better version last year and now I'm going to have to do it again as this is so much better now lol!

@Blake00,
please don't be offended, but again I ignored all requests for sound and music. These items have the lowest priority, because, as you yourself noticed, the majority really listens to music in the background in the player.
As for mod support, I keep that topic in mind. I would be helped by links to ready-made mods to see what they change and how you can implement resources reloading without exiting the game.
But, to be honest, after almost two months of work on the current release, I want to take a break, and therefore I will not promise anything.

No worries mate, thank you for considering my dream list suggestions. The mod support would be amazing. I'll see about making a list of top suggestions for you in the near future. The biggest total conversion modpack example will be my up and coming Heroes of Might & Magic mod as that override a whole lot of core dll and movie files however it's not ready for release just yet so I'm glad you're taking a few months off now haha.

.

 

[Thorvald of Lym]

34. Include fix for (229.gif, 250.gif) and pv.dll (105.gif). As here:
https://forums.civfanatics.com/resources/corrected-dlls-for-mge.24259/

tfw senpai notices you

 

[Buck2005]

tfw senpai notices you

Moron?