Thanks a ton for writing the mods. Nothing I say should be considered a criticism.
I used the in-game browser to download the unoffical patch +VEM 150. I placed the underscore before the VEM folder, then activated the mod along with UI Trading Opportunites mod.
I started a new game via the menus Main Menu>Mods>(accept disclaimer)>Single Player>Set up.
The new game had the new interface, but two things were wrong:
1) Some of the text labels on the trading UI screen were changed from english to programming labels. Where it should say "Trade" at the top it says "TXT_KEY_DEAL_STATUS". Over on the right are popups labeled things like "TXT_KEY_BORDER_AGREEMENT", "TXT_KEY_RESEARCH_AGREEMENT", etc.
2) The porcelain tower no longer gives 50% bonus to a Reaserch Agreement.
Item 2 makes me think the VEM loaded, since the core game has changed, but perhaps another possibility is the game reverted to the _original_ unpatched shipping version, since I think the 50% was added on a patch from firaxis.
I played a bit, saved and quit, then came back and loaded the game from the Main Menu>Single Player>Load Game (note that I didn't go into the MOD menu). This fixed the problem number 1 above, the labels were all now perfect english. Odd, but good.
Reading about the VEM changes on the website, and recognizing none of them, I started thinking the VEM had, in fact, not loaded, just like the MOD creaters said it wouldn't with the underscore in front of it. So why the change in the Porcelain tower? As a test, I removed the underscore to activate VEM, started a new game, and now the porcelain tower was giving 25% to trade.
Am I correct in concluding that the unoffical patch, without VEM, removes aspects of the game Firaxis added in their patch, such as the 50% RA bonus to the Porcelain tower? Is there no way to combine Firaxis' patch with the unofficial patch improvements, leaving VEM out of it?
edit-> the question is now moot for me. After trying VEM I won't go back, it adds a lot of value. I'm not sure why barbarians are starting with more firepower than civs, or where monty got all the panthermen he just backstabbed me with, but VEM adds so much that even if the balance is different I can just scale back the difficulty.
I used the in-game browser to download the unoffical patch +VEM 150. I placed the underscore before the VEM folder, then activated the mod along with UI Trading Opportunites mod.
I started a new game via the menus Main Menu>Mods>(accept disclaimer)>Single Player>Set up.
The new game had the new interface, but two things were wrong:
1) Some of the text labels on the trading UI screen were changed from english to programming labels. Where it should say "Trade" at the top it says "TXT_KEY_DEAL_STATUS". Over on the right are popups labeled things like "TXT_KEY_BORDER_AGREEMENT", "TXT_KEY_RESEARCH_AGREEMENT", etc.
2) The porcelain tower no longer gives 50% bonus to a Reaserch Agreement.
Item 2 makes me think the VEM loaded, since the core game has changed, but perhaps another possibility is the game reverted to the _original_ unpatched shipping version, since I think the 50% was added on a patch from firaxis.
I played a bit, saved and quit, then came back and loaded the game from the Main Menu>Single Player>Load Game (note that I didn't go into the MOD menu). This fixed the problem number 1 above, the labels were all now perfect english. Odd, but good.
Reading about the VEM changes on the website, and recognizing none of them, I started thinking the VEM had, in fact, not loaded, just like the MOD creaters said it wouldn't with the underscore in front of it. So why the change in the Porcelain tower? As a test, I removed the underscore to activate VEM, started a new game, and now the porcelain tower was giving 25% to trade.
Am I correct in concluding that the unoffical patch, without VEM, removes aspects of the game Firaxis added in their patch, such as the 50% RA bonus to the Porcelain tower? Is there no way to combine Firaxis' patch with the unofficial patch improvements, leaving VEM out of it?
edit-> the question is now moot for me. After trying VEM I won't go back, it adds a lot of value. I'm not sure why barbarians are starting with more firepower than civs, or where monty got all the panthermen he just backstabbed me with, but VEM adds so much that even if the balance is different I can just scale back the difficulty.