Final Fixes Reborn

[black_imperator]

I ´ve a stupid question, where can I find this SVN Beta version of AoE?
when I browse https://sourceforge.net/projects/ashesoferebus/files/ I can only find the normal Ashes of Erebus 14.11.7z file, or is that already the SVN one?
Also the modfied date looks weird, because it should be newer then 2014-11-14.
It would be nice to have a better overview in the download section and about file updating to make clear if we got the newest updated version,- escpecially for new players.

if you wanna use the svn version, you must usually follow these instructions :

Beta version - SVN tool - example using tortoisesvn for Windows

• download and install tortoisesvn (where you usually install programs, for example C:\Utils\TortoiseSVN)
• restart computer (necessary to load with windows explorer)
• open Civ4 mods folder (for example="C:\Games\Civilization 4\Beyond the Sword\Mods")
• right click at any place in the folder, and click "svn checkout"
• in the tortoisesvn window that opens, enter parameters as follow :
  • url of repository : svn://svn.code.sf.net/p/ashesoferebus/code/
  • checkout directory : YOUR_CIV4_BTS_FOLDER\YOUR_BTS_FOLDER\Mods\Ashes of Erebus
  • if you're not a C++ programmer, you can remove (avoid downloading) the c++ code by clicking on "choose items", check everything except the folder named "DLL Sourcecode(for coders only)"
• once you hit OK, the software proceeds to donwload the mod to the right place
• When it has finished, you can see "completed at revision ##". Acknowledge with OK.
• You can now create a shortcut to the mod launcher (for example : C:\Jeux\Civilization 4 BTS\Beyond the Sword\Mods\Ashes of Erebus\AoElauncher.exe)

you can also have a normal download if you want but you lose the interest of the svn. Link is here : https://sourceforge.net/p/ashesoferebus/code/HEAD/tarball

 

[Granix]

when playing the svn version, be sure that the mod is actually called Ashes of Erebus. Otherwise it occasionally crashes. And yeah the steam beta is required if you use the steam version. (and the steam version is less stable than the non-steam one for some reason).

as for the size, it's now twice the size, it's just that svn stores much data in case of data corruption.


Nothing in particular to know for the svn version, the explanation on how to install in in the first post. For the multiplayer, there's a OOS issue in current revision of the svn but it'll be fixed when i commit the next one.

Why does the svn require the name be Ashes of Erebus? I added svn to the name to distinguish from the one without svn. I also like to make copies of the mod, so that if I edit them I can go back to the clean original.

 

[black_imperator]

the Civ4.thm in Resource has the path hardcoded in it, you can edit it manually with a text editor.

 

[Granix]

the Civ4.thm in Resource has the path hardcoded in it, you can edit it manually with a text editor.

Hmm, that never seemed to be an issue with the release version. That said, I changed it in case it was having any impact on the teleport. It wasn't. Still nothing about teleporting popping up.

 

[Jerrian]

if you wanna use the svn version, you must usually follow these instructions :

you can also have a normal download if you want but you lose the interest of the svn. Link is here : https://sourceforge.net/p/ashesoferebus/code/HEAD/tarball

I ´m more fan of direct downloads or automatic updates for ease, so I ´ll take your link, thank you .

 

[black_imperator]

You don't have automatic update with the direct download ^^

 

[Jerrian]

Yep, I was aware of that but I didn ´t notice it take so long to download and copy files *grml* ;-).
Maybe I ´ll check for the other way though so I ´m able to see your current great work progressing, pretty curiuos about elohim and chislev ;-).

 

[Lord Brooks]

Nothing in particular to know for the svn version, the explanation on how to install in in the first post. For the multiplayer, there's a OOS issue in current revision of the svn but it'll be fixed when i commit the next one.

Thanks very much.

 

[Jerrian]

Hi, I tried to install the SVN version like explainesd, but after Launch AoE the game immediatly closes while loading, did I made a mistake with installation maybe? Tried to run it as admin and made a reboot before playing.
Maybe a conflict because the installation is in the main Ashes of Erebus folder? Sorry for questions, I ´m not a pro in PC staff :-/.

 

[black_imperator]

The "code" folder should be directly in the Mods folder, and ideally called Ashes of Erebus.

 

[black_imperator]

So, i had promised you all a dev diary for today. Crime was the winning theme in the poll, so here is the Crime dev diary :

Welcome to the Ashes of Erebus Dev Diaries. Today, we'll be talking about Crime.
If you'be been playing FFH for some time, you know that Crime has been added quite early in development but never had much of an effect.
At the moment, it's a simple value almost static (apart from a few buildings), having next to no effect (apart from a few events) and not really integrated to the rest of the game.

(Note that the mechanic that follows is inspired by the way Caveman2Cosmos handled Crime, Disease and Pollution.)

The first step to fix this is to make it more variable.
Instead of giving a one-time value to crime, buildings will now give a per turn value.
In addition, two new promotion lines will be available to certain unit lines to give a positive or negative per turn value to nearby cities.

The Second and Third steps are to give more effects and integrate them better to the rest of the game.
At certain crime levels and under certain conditions, some effects will be added to cities.

For example, get to a 100 crime and have a Tax Office, and you'll get the Tax Fraud effect, giving -15%Gold to the city.
Get to 200 crime with Mind Mana and you'll get the Illusion Forgery effect, decreasing culture and gold
(Numbers are not final)

Mechanically, those effects have the same possibilities as buildings. They will be mostly negative, with some positive mixed in (free xp, promotions to certain units).
-Some civilizations will get unique, more positive versions of those effects (Balseraph don't really care about illusions. Bannor don't have much jailbreaking since they tend to hang people.)

-Some Buildings will also block effects from appearing (Kilmorph priests are very efficient in squashing Frauds).

- A possibility is to have some buildings and Units require a certain crime level before being buildable, though i'm not certain about that. I'm unlikely to do so for base units, but that may be an interesting sub mechanic.

- Some crime Events will be having those effects as prereq, instead of just the crime level requirement that they currently have.


Finally, i'll probably use this update to add a few crime-related things that Kael has mentioned here and there from the Lore.

In conclusion, the goal of this mechanic is for the player to be more thoughtful when choosing new buildings, balancing the risks of the crimes with the usefulness of the building and the potential benefits of some crime. It also offers a new tool to hurt your opponents without necessarily fighting them.



At the end of every dev diary, i'll give you a todo list of the mechanic and the various parts needed to make it work, along with how you can help :

Work needed :
-DLL Add crime per turn variation. (Easy, Quick)
-DLL Add auto-acquire and must-maintain effects to buildings (Easy, Quick)
-DLL,python Add building categories for separate displays in City Interface (Medium, Medium)
-XML,python Design and Balance Crime Effects ( Easy, Long, Collaborative)



Since this mechanic is partly collaborative, here is the google doc you can use to suggest effects :
https://docs.google.com/document/d/11o6jUOXcgTJZk6DB0PTqIr_iVAujETM0C2LsBdHQW7g/edit

Here is the format for those suggestions :

Name : The name of the effect (Ex : Tax Fraud)
Crime Level : The general crime level needed for the effect to happen ( Low, Medium or High)
Prereqs : What is required for the effect to happen ( Buildings, Bonus, civs,...)
Effects : What effects give the crime.



The poll for the next dev diary starts now, and you can find the list of potential themes here :

https://docs.google.com/document/d/14P90zYvnsodp-PLfRDmAehvX--nuhGV6yhKZMUxy9NI/edit


In other news, new revision coming up soon :
Illusionist and Dominant Emergent Traits
various fixes, balance changes and pedia updates
added keepers of noggomortha and salia the everchanging to inactive modules.

In addition, i'm looking for people to help with three things :
- the pedia update, see here : https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/ashes-of-erebus-civilopedia-update-project.608283/
- making new diploamcy lines for certain leaders
-various xml tasks, especially events.

 

[Airborne7]

Hello I just found out about this mod today having not played fall further in years. I installed the mod as instructed for steam users but I keep getting a "Application load error 5:0000065434" when trying to use the AoE launcher. I can load the mod in the game itself as usual though, is that ok or will it break things? I did search for a fix to this but all the results I got were for different games.

On a side note I noticed there were unactivated modules in the launcher, now I know what the Jotnar are but I had to search to find out frozen is another race and I'm not sure what MPL is. Can I activate these or will that cause issues?

Finally this is all on the latest stable version not the SVN.

 

[black_imperator]

it is ok to load the mod from civ4, yeah. For the inactive modules, i'm not sure of how compatible they are with the standard version. I'm pretty sure Jotnar are not working, but Frozen should be. MPL is a utilitary module, no need to touch it.

 

[Airborne7]

it is ok to load the mod from civ4, yeah. For the inactive modules, i'm not sure of how compatible they are with the standard version. I'm pretty sure Jotnar are not working, but Frozen should be. MPL is a utilitary module, no need to touch it.

Wow thanks for the lightning fast reply! So i guess I just activate frozen in the launcher and then load the mod as usual in game?

 

[black_imperator]

If there's an issue with the launcher, you might have to move the module folder manually, but otherwise, yeah that should work.

 

[Nor'easter]

Finally -- yes, finally! -- downloaded and installed the SVN today. Ended up being a bit more complicated to do so than I expected: when I tried to do the SVN checkout to my BtS Mods folder, I got an "Access denied" message. The problem persisted even after I changed the Security permissions for the folder. So I ended up doing the SVN checkout to my desktop, and once the folder was complete, moved it into the BtS Mods folder. Playing my first game, and so far so good: the mod loaded properly (I launched it from with Civ 4 BtS) and I'm up to Turn 400 something with no crashes.

I like the new cover art and music. Whatever you did to Events I'm liking so far, getting a nice variety compared to before.

More feedback if and when I have some.

 

[Nor'easter]

Getting what seems to be a repeatable CtD at the end of the turn. Just hit "Enter."

 

[Nor'easter]

If the game crashes and I select the "Debug" option, I presume Windows saves a debug log somewhere. Where would I typically find that, or what would it be called? I'm experiencing some crashes on startup, so would like to supply the debugging log, if that's helpful. Thanks.

 

[black_imperator]

the debug logs from windows are rarely useful. i will take the log folder from bts though, in Username/Documents/My Games/Bts. Also ideally activate python errors and take a screen of them (in your civ44config file)

Edit : can't read your save, so i imagine you've started before my latest commit (which is not save-compatible)

 

[Bearmarshal]

So, i had promised you all a dev diary for today. Crime was the winning theme in the poll, so here is the Crime dev diary :
[...]

Sounds interesting. Will buildings increase/decrease crime rate "forever", or will most be capped at a certain percentage or a certain individual contribution?

In addition, i'm looking for people to help with three things :
- the pedia update, see here : https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/ashes-of-erebus-civilopedia-update-project.608283/
- making new diploamcy lines for certain leaders
-various xml tasks, especially events.

I can do various XML and Python tasks. I can even get into working on the DLL if I can bother setting up the Visual Studio project properly. My schedule might not be the most reliable, though, as I only really do programming on the train to and from work, and that's a little dependent on available seating and how tired I happen to be.

Finally -- yes, finally! -- downloaded and installed the SVN today. Ended up being a bit more complicated to do so than I expected: when I tried to do the SVN checkout to my BtS Mods folder, I got an "Access denied" message. The problem persisted even after I changed the Security permissions for the folder.

TortoiseSVN doesn't request elevated privileges to create new folders inside protected folders, so checking out a new copy directly to C:\Program Files (x86)\... is off limit, annoyingly enough. It seems to update already existing files just fine, though...

If the game crashes and I select the "Debug" option, I presume Windows saves a debug log somewhere. Where would I typically find that, or what would it be called? I'm experiencing some crashes on startup, so would like to supply the debugging log, if that's helpful. Thanks.

The debug option usually tries to start an instance of Visual Studio to inspect the code which caused the crash. It's only really useful if you have a debug build of the game which can be linked to the source code, or are a real wizard at reading assembly.

________________________________

Was stuck without a computer for a few days, now back to finding more issues:

Bugs:

1. The barbarians built a city right on top of the Guardian of Pristin Pass in my game, thus destroying it. This probably shouldn't be possible.
   
2. Druids and Yvain can enter impassable terrain (for example volcanos) but not climb peaks. I tracked it down to CvUnit::canClimbPeaks not calling CvUnit::isMoveImpassable or CvUnit::canMoveImpassable, alternatively CvUnit::canMoveInto could call CvUnit::canMoveImpassable as a part of its peak check...
   
3. Yvain starts with both Elemental and Elf. Since these are both races, and thus mutually exclusive, he ends up with only Elf.

Issues and concerns:

1. Lots and lots of redundant 'can enter'/'ignore cost' movement flags on units which start with Flying.
2. No way of assigning m_iClimbPeaks directly from the Unit XML, must be added as a promotion.