[BTS] Help Plz, game crashes after I modify CIV4TechInfos.xml

[BrendanG]

I wanted a very simple mod that makes it so that the eras last for a realistic period of time. That means I actually spend most of my time in the ancient era, and the modern eras fly by relatively quickly (as has happened in real life). I liked the idea of spending ages with relatively little technology improvement, but lots of chaotic battles. I also thought that even on marathon, I usually don't care much what my starting techs are, because I can research whatever I'm missing before I'd ever usually build even my first worker. But if it took a long time to research agriculture, for instance, then your starting techs would be hugely important. I couldn't find a mod that did this kind of thing, so I looked up how to modify xml files.

I tried to create a mod folder and tell civ 4 to load it, but loading the folder had no effect whatever on the game. So I made a copy of the original xml folder on my desktop, and then modified the original xml files.

I only modified 2 files, the one that changes game speed, and the one that changes tech info.

I made it so that on marathon game speed, each turn lasts 1 year, so that there are a total of 4050 turns.

In the tech info file, I did nothing but change the research costs of improvements in the following way. I modified each cost individually, so it took a few minutes to enter the new value for each tech:
Ancient tech research cost x10
Classical x8
Middle Ages x6
Renaissance x4
Industrial x3
Modern x2
Future no change

When I start a game, everything appears to be working normally at first. However, when I go to the next turn, the place where it shows the date disappears. Instead of going from 4000 BC to 3999 BC like I want it to, it just goes blank after the first turn. However, when I checked the menu options, the game did tell me that there were 4049 turns left, like I wanted. The modified research costs appear in the tech tree, and I am able to select a technology like usual. However, once I select a technology, attempting to save the game will cause a crash. Playing for 2 more turns also appears to cause a crash. I am able to save immediately before picking my first technology without a crash, but attempting to save immediately after picking my first technology causes a crash. I did check all the costs that I modified (by cycling through ctrl f rapidly in the xml file), and none of the costs had strange values (like one being 10x bigger than any other one, or being negative, or removing a bracket or something).

Does anyone know how to fix this? Or if there is a mod that does something similar to what I want?

I am not interested in a mod such as what exists in the Rise of Mankind mod which has a snail pace. I would like early research to take a long time, but I do not want to spend 75 turns creating a warrior. Mankind was in a constant state of warfare for thousands of years before the use of iron became widespread. I do not want to be forced to skip over this period.

 

[<Nexus>]

Hmmm...
I would start with identifying which is the broken file. Restore one and see if the game runs as expected.
That's a quick idea I have right now.

 

[BrendanG]

Your suggestion is an obvious one Zeta, but it helped me solve my problem. I assumed it was the tech file that screwed it up, but it was actually the game speed file. Then I figured out that the increment I changed actually had units of months rather than years. I changed it to 12 increments for 4050 steps instead of 1 increments for 4050 steps, and the problem of crashing seems to have gone away. Thanks.

 

[BrendanG]

What I did significantly changed the way you play the game. At the start, it takes 375 turns to research animal husbandry, and something like 125 to research the wheel. That means you have to be much more careful about what you start researching. I still ended up getting bronze working by about 3000 BC, which is when I understand the historical bronze age started.

Since it's possible to build multiple cities and have battles before even researching archery, it is extremely important to be careful with your money. Small advantages like getting trade routes between cities, getting sailing to get foreign trade routes, getting cottages, getting slavery to shave off excess pop and cut down jungle become extremely important. I ended up deleting a lot of units I made for a long time because I had nothing to do with them and they required too much maintenance.

I am playing against Mansa Musa with Alexander (I made all the start settings random), and I am really far behind. I think his GDP was about 300 at the time that mine was about 50. Actually, it looks like I was ahead of like 3/4 of the AI, but that two of them were racing ahead of everybody else. I think that means the civ bonuses are really unbalanced on these settings. He started with the wheel, so he could immediately build trade routes between cities (I made the mistake of researching animal husbandry first, which probably put me something like 600 gold behind him because I could not get the +2 from my first trade route for a long time). He started with financial, which gives a general boost to income. Somehow, he researched both hinduism and buddhism first, despite not starting with mysticism, and having to compete with 11 other players (did he get mysticism from a tribal village?) He started with a gold mine next to his base. So, between the gold and religious bonuses, he had +2 pop in all cities, he could get trade routes between cities immediately, he had a general financial bonus, and got the religious buildings which give +1 money for each city. I think he's getting like +60 gold per turn from the founding city (both hinduism and buddhism started in the same city). Then he built a bazillion cities and put some right next to my empire. I'm trying to capture/raze his cities, but now I've got like -13 gold per turn with 0% research, so I'm kind of fudged unless I make peace with him and open trade routes again. He is being very stubborn though. I've captured 3 cities, razed 1, and repulsed 2 of his attacking armies, and he still thinks I should give him tribute to end the war. Oh, and I think he's literally twice as far ahead in research. I thought if I attacked him I could force him to part with some techs, but it isn't working.