Dot map?

[panem et circen]

I installed 3.6 and it seems to interface fine, but I can't figure out how to engage "dot map." One thread said "Control X" but that does nothing. I see nothing about a dot map addon included in the 3.6 documentation but threads have indicated it is.

Sorry if it's a dumb question - tried to search for the answer before posting.

Thanks.

 

[panem et circen]

I should have clarified I did enable the dot map option in options screen - they just don't appear.

 

[Anomander Rake]

edit

I found the instructions posted by EF:

A couple months back, Del69 took some of the ideas in the Strategy Layer thread, originally proposed by Eunomiac some time ago, and built an in-game dot-mapping tool. I think it's about time I posted about this awesome feature!

​

It is available in the latest SVN repository.

• CTRL + X: Hide/show the dot-map
• ALT + X: Enter edit mode (showing the dot-map if it's hidden):
  • Left-click color: Set the color to use for new dots
  • Left-click plot: Place a dot and BFC outline using the selected color, replacing any existing dot on the same plot
  • Right-click dot: Remove the dot and BFC
  • ALT + X or Right-click empty plot: Exit edit mode (hiding the dot-map if it was hidden before)

The General tab of the BUG Options screen has sliders to change the brightness of the dots and BFC outlines as well as a few other settings.

It's not immediately obvious, but check the "New Features and Fixes" sticky for more info on BUG's possibilites.

 

[EmperorFool]

What might not be too clear is that CTRL + X hides/shows only the dotmap itself--not the editing controls. If you haven't placed any cities yet, it shows nothing.

Use ALT + X to place/remove cities (edit mode). Once you have at least one city place, CTRL + X will hide/show it/them.

 

[panem et circen]

Thanks for your responses - it is working now.

I love the mod package. The only problem is that I am getting "bad allocation" errors, which never happened prior. But I can reload the game and continue.

Thanks.

 

[EmperorFool]

Odd, those are not expected. Are you using any other mods, or just BUG? What system and video memory do you have? I wouldn't expect BUG to increase the requirements of either significantly.

 

[panem et circen]

BUG was the only mod I was using.

My system info is:

XP
Intel
3.6 GHz

2046 MB RAM

GeForce 7950 GT
250 MB

Nothing spectacular, and the game has always slowed at times, but I never got the memory error.

Thanks.

 

[EmperorFool]

Do the memory errors occur only after playing for awhile, or sometimes soon after starting up BTS? And since you said you can reload the game, I assume continuing from the save sometimes works and sometimes doesn't, right?

The only thing I could recommend would be to reinstall Civ, BTS and BUG. A PITA, but with random errors such as these, I don't have any other advice short of getting a beefier video card.

 

[panem et circen]

It only happens later in the game. I can always (so far) restore the last save with no issues. The game seems to get progressively slower after each "reload" so it seems memory is being increasingly eaten as the turns advance. I just finished a complete game and I would say the crash happened five times - not enough to ruin the game but annoying.

It's time for a new PC anyway, but I will probably have to wait until this one explodes to convince my wife. :-(

 

[EmperorFool]

You could probably vastly improve your playing experience with a $100 video card. I have 2 GB of system RAM myself, and the game cannot use any more than that anyhow. Video memory is typically the more limiting factor, and 256 MB is too small for today's games. Sneak yourself a cheap 1 GB card (buy some flowers for your wife!) and sail on for a couple more years.

Edit: And you definitely didn't have these crashes before BUG? BUG doesn't add any more graphics than the normal game, and it doesn't use much memory (insignificant compared to the normal game's usage). Or is it that because BUG makes you more efficient, you play more turns in a single Civ sitting? We already know that Civ has a memory leak, and restarting every couple hours will reset it.

 

[Cammagno]

You could probably vastly improve your playing experience with a $100 video card. I have 2 GB of system RAM myself, and the game cannot use any more than that anyhow. Video memory is typically the more limiting factor, and 256 MB is too small for today's games. Sneak yourself a cheap 1 GB card (buy some flowers for your wife!) and sail on for a couple more years.

Edit: And you definitely didn't have these crashes before BUG? BUG doesn't add any more graphics than the normal game, and it doesn't use much memory (insignificant compared to the normal game's usage). Or is it that because BUG makes you more efficient, you play more turns in a single Civ sitting? We already know that Civ has a memory leak, and restarting every couple hours will reset it.

I also have these errors, but I never linked them with BUG, because I don't have them with standard maps, but only with maps generated with publicmaps (don't ask me which one, I never been able to remember the different names of those generators, I'll check next time).

I have an ATI Radeon HD4870 Toxic and 4 GB of RAM, so for sure the problem is not HW.

 

[Mark T. Kikero]

FYI: when using a Mac, to engage the dot map it's option + X, not Ctrl + X.