Calis
on time
Thank you. But actually it works for me on Win 10. Should have tried it before asking. Sorry about that.
- Thread starter Moonsinger
- Start date
Good luck and good to see you around Calis!
I don't know if you checked, but you still have ranking of 2 in the Quartermasters competition! And you have a rank of 2 in the octathlon, which is better than my rank of 3.
I don't know if you checked, but you still have ranking of 2 in the Quartermasters competition! And you have a rank of 2 in the octathlon, which is better than my rank of 3.
I was able to get MapFinder running on Windows 10 against a Steam installation (just yesterday!). Impressive how good the install and troubleshooting documentation is, after all of these years.
I left MapFinder running over night, and was impressed to find about a dozen saves that matched my criteria (taken from WastinTime's excellent BC Space Launch thread) waiting for me this morning. Awesome.
This is my first post on this forum, and I came here because I am (consistently) experiencing the crash-on-reload bug first reported here. Everything works fine until I reload in-game (e.g. quick load). I suspect it is because BUFFY isn't happy with my game options. I am not working on a HOF game, I just wanted to use MapFinder, which requires BUFFY.
So... does anyone know how to get reloads to work with BUFFY?
I left MapFinder running over night, and was impressed to find about a dozen saves that matched my criteria (taken from WastinTime's excellent BC Space Launch thread) waiting for me this morning. Awesome.
This is my first post on this forum, and I came here because I am (consistently) experiencing the crash-on-reload bug first reported here. Everything works fine until I reload in-game (e.g. quick load). I suspect it is because BUFFY isn't happy with my game options. I am not working on a HOF game, I just wanted to use MapFinder, which requires BUFFY.
So... does anyone know how to get reloads to work with BUFFY?
I'm writing this post since I tried out MapFinder (because I want to do my first HoF game), but I find it to be complete and utter garbage. It even caused me to exit my browser so I had to write this post completely over again, when I was almost finished writing it. Anyway, I will try to name step by step what I did, and what keeps on happening.
First, I downloaded the last version (v65b), and saved it in a new folder located in ''C:\Games'' called MapFinder. I have set the settings as follows (see thumbnails for details). ''Disable ''Rule Set'' warning message!'' is unchecked.
Second, I own the Steam version of Civ 3 Complete. Since I found out MapFinder never saves properly (which may be a result of it being located in the Steam folder location, as someone mentioned in this thread), I had to make a new folder and copy all Civ 3 files to it. It's now located in ''C:\Games\Sid Meier's Civilization III Complete.''
Third, I start a new game with my preferred settings, click until I can move my settler, and then select the ''Start Map Generator'' of MapFinder.
What happened first (when I opened Civ 3 Conquest from Steam) is that the game kept on starting new games, but never saved them. After I moved all Civ 3 files to the ''C:\Games\Sid Meier's Civilization III Complete'' folder, MapFinder does now save games after finding them. However, there are still a lot of problems with it. I'll number all problems I have with MapFinder and go by them point for point:
1) MapFinder never starts/finds more than 10 games in a row before stopping completely, when I've selected MapFinder to never stop until finding 1000 acceptable maps (see first image).
2) MapFinder never finds a map it deems acceptable. It only finds rejected maps. In fact, I've already let it generate over a hundred maps, but it never found a map that came close to my preferred rule set variables/values. Instead, it only keeps finding awful maps. However, from what I understand this is normal, and is why most people use MapFinder only in nighttime (when asleep).
3) When it finds a map that's very bad (heavy jungle/marshes location), it pauses for 10 seconds before moving on, and when it finds a decent map (f.e., at least two cattle at starting location), it immediately starts a new one). This is opposite from what should be happening.
4) Even worse, when it finds an awful map (f.e., plenty of jungle, whereas I've set ''AND jungle = 0''), it actually tries to save it! And when it finds a decent map (f.e., at least two cattle), it actually immediately starts a new game without saving! This shouldn't be the case, since none of these maps are considered 'acceptable', since none have the correct values for variables I've selected.
5) It can't save more than one map/save file. This is likely because it gives every save file the exact same name (... of the ..., 4000 BC), but then doesn't click the overwrite button to prevent it from saving over a previous save file it made. The only way for me to solve this is by manually giving a distinct name to the save file it made, every single time. How is it that the developer of this utility didn't even think about giving distinct names to every save file MapFinder makes??
6) It saves the game in the wrong location. As you can see in the first image, I made two distinct folders for both the ''Autosave Directory'' (named MapFinder, located in the 'Saves' folder), and one for the ''Output/Save Directory for Acceptable Map'' (named MapFinder Accept, also loacted in the 'Saves' folder). However, MapFinder only saves in the general 'Saves' folder.
7) I can't even stop MapFinder normally. I have to go to Task Manager and select 'End Task' to force to end it. Also, when I accidentally close Civ 3, it closes other programs I have running, like my browser.
And then I haven't even addressed that this utility is very confusing. The developer didn't even bother to mention that the game only checks the variables/values for the 9 center tiles. I had to skim a lot of pages in this thread before I found this information. This is handy information that should be found in the first post. Would also have been better if it checked the center 21 tiles (BFC tiles) imo.
MapFinder also states that at least one OR Rule Type should be true, or else it doesn't work. However, I found that someone else prior in this thread could make MapFinder work with having only ''AND'' rule types selected. This is also what I have selected (see second image).
Also, I don't even understand what 'highest and lowest limit found' means. My guess is that this has to do with the domination limit? But then why does it say 99999 is the lowest limit it found (see 3rd image below). This was from the last time I just used it.
Last of all, I haven't even talked about MapReport yet. That one doesn't work at all for me. I don't even understand how it works. I have it opened when letting the game select new maps. From what I understand, it should share the starting location with a screen shot, but it never does. It also doesn't display the starting variables/values at all. I don't even understand what the 'View Report' folder location should be selected as. I can't open save files to view those (not even sure if it supposed to work that way).
Would be nice if someone can clear things up, and help out what I'm struggling with.
First, I downloaded the last version (v65b), and saved it in a new folder located in ''C:\Games'' called MapFinder. I have set the settings as follows (see thumbnails for details). ''Disable ''Rule Set'' warning message!'' is unchecked.
Second, I own the Steam version of Civ 3 Complete. Since I found out MapFinder never saves properly (which may be a result of it being located in the Steam folder location, as someone mentioned in this thread), I had to make a new folder and copy all Civ 3 files to it. It's now located in ''C:\Games\Sid Meier's Civilization III Complete.''
Third, I start a new game with my preferred settings, click until I can move my settler, and then select the ''Start Map Generator'' of MapFinder.
What happened first (when I opened Civ 3 Conquest from Steam) is that the game kept on starting new games, but never saved them. After I moved all Civ 3 files to the ''C:\Games\Sid Meier's Civilization III Complete'' folder, MapFinder does now save games after finding them. However, there are still a lot of problems with it. I'll number all problems I have with MapFinder and go by them point for point:
1) MapFinder never starts/finds more than 10 games in a row before stopping completely, when I've selected MapFinder to never stop until finding 1000 acceptable maps (see first image).
2) MapFinder never finds a map it deems acceptable. It only finds rejected maps. In fact, I've already let it generate over a hundred maps, but it never found a map that came close to my preferred rule set variables/values. Instead, it only keeps finding awful maps. However, from what I understand this is normal, and is why most people use MapFinder only in nighttime (when asleep).
3) When it finds a map that's very bad (heavy jungle/marshes location), it pauses for 10 seconds before moving on, and when it finds a decent map (f.e., at least two cattle at starting location), it immediately starts a new one). This is opposite from what should be happening.
4) Even worse, when it finds an awful map (f.e., plenty of jungle, whereas I've set ''AND jungle = 0''), it actually tries to save it! And when it finds a decent map (f.e., at least two cattle), it actually immediately starts a new game without saving! This shouldn't be the case, since none of these maps are considered 'acceptable', since none have the correct values for variables I've selected.
5) It can't save more than one map/save file. This is likely because it gives every save file the exact same name (... of the ..., 4000 BC), but then doesn't click the overwrite button to prevent it from saving over a previous save file it made. The only way for me to solve this is by manually giving a distinct name to the save file it made, every single time. How is it that the developer of this utility didn't even think about giving distinct names to every save file MapFinder makes??
6) It saves the game in the wrong location. As you can see in the first image, I made two distinct folders for both the ''Autosave Directory'' (named MapFinder, located in the 'Saves' folder), and one for the ''Output/Save Directory for Acceptable Map'' (named MapFinder Accept, also loacted in the 'Saves' folder). However, MapFinder only saves in the general 'Saves' folder.
7) I can't even stop MapFinder normally. I have to go to Task Manager and select 'End Task' to force to end it. Also, when I accidentally close Civ 3, it closes other programs I have running, like my browser.
And then I haven't even addressed that this utility is very confusing. The developer didn't even bother to mention that the game only checks the variables/values for the 9 center tiles. I had to skim a lot of pages in this thread before I found this information. This is handy information that should be found in the first post. Would also have been better if it checked the center 21 tiles (BFC tiles) imo.
MapFinder also states that at least one OR Rule Type should be true, or else it doesn't work. However, I found that someone else prior in this thread could make MapFinder work with having only ''AND'' rule types selected. This is also what I have selected (see second image).
Also, I don't even understand what 'highest and lowest limit found' means. My guess is that this has to do with the domination limit? But then why does it say 99999 is the lowest limit it found (see 3rd image below). This was from the last time I just used it.
Last of all, I haven't even talked about MapReport yet. That one doesn't work at all for me. I don't even understand how it works. I have it opened when letting the game select new maps. From what I understand, it should share the starting location with a screen shot, but it never does. It also doesn't display the starting variables/values at all. I don't even understand what the 'View Report' folder location should be selected as. I can't open save files to view those (not even sure if it supposed to work that way).
Would be nice if someone can clear things up, and help out what I'm struggling with.
Last edited:
BlackBetsy
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Are you trying to run MapFinder on a recent version of Windows? It just doesn't work. To run MapFinder well, I created a virtual machine that runs Windows XP and it works fine. It took me several hours to set up, but once I did, it was great.
No, I have Windows 11 Home. Do you have free recommendations to make it run properly? I'm not much of a computer expert.
BlackBetsy
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I wrote a post about it - most follow the instructions in these Youtube videos.
Thank you, I'll take a look. I posted my first post before I was done on accident, so I made a few edits with questions you may not have seen.I wrote a post about it - most follow the instructions in these Youtube videos.
First, MapFinder states at least one OR Rule Type should be true, or else it doesn't work. However, I found that someone else prior in this thread could make MapFinder work with having only ''AND'' rule types selected. So which one is true?
Second, I don't understand what 'highest and lowest limit found' means. My guess is that this has to do with the domination limit? But then why does it say 99999 is the lowest limit it found (see 3rd image in my post).
Third, MapReport doesn't even work at all for me. What should the 'View Report' folder location be selected as? Should it open save files or something?
Unfortunately, it doesn't work. I got an error. Not sure what to do now.I wrote a post about it - most follow the instructions in these Youtube videos.
BlackBetsy
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Yeah, I can't help you past this point.
Never mind, I got past it with help of ChatGPT. I'm not done yet, but I'm following the additional steps atm. Also a tip for others to just make use of it in cases of these. Looking up help on forums is bound to get you noweher.
I got Windows XP installed on VirtualBox. However, I still can't run MapFinder. I can't download it from Civfanatics, since it can't be accessed from IE. I also can't seem to download Firefox or Chrome to access it. I tried to access it from my pc as a shared file, but it doesn't seem to recognize said file.
Do you have tips by this point? I also tried to work out some things with help from ChatGPT, but not successful so far.
If nothing works, then it seems MapFinder (and MapReport) will permanently be properly inaccessible.
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BlackBetsy
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I downloaded an old version of Firefox - new one won't work. There are videos instructing you how to download / install old versions of Firefox from your XP virtual machine. Here is one (there are others)
I think version 18 should work for Windows XP. Once you run the old version of Firefox, it will update itself. That's what I remember.
Then go to Civfanatics and download Mapfinder from there.
Remember that (1) you cant be running Civ3 on the virtual machine at the same time as your main laptop; (2) I open MapFinder first (even with warning message) and then open Civ3.
Unfortunately, I was already one step ahead of you and have watched it before you wrote this post. That site (mozilla.org) is inaccessible from IE by now. I believe it became inaccessible somewhere last year.
I can still access http://www.oldversion.com/windows/mozilla-firefox/, however, that downloads a weird .php file I then can't open.
I also tried to share maps from my laptop, but unfortunately, it doesn't seem to recognize .exe files either.
I might be doing something wrong, so I'm still trying some things out. But I fear there is a possibility it may not work.
BlackBetsy
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You can always download the Mozilla old file on your regular machine and transfer it over to the virtual machine and then run it.
Never mind, I just managed to successfully install Firefox on it! The site I shared worked, but I had to download the link by adding '.exe' to it. I could then successfully install.
And yeah I tried what you shared but didn't mange so far to do it that way. But it's not needed anymore.
Even though I have now installed Firefox, I'm still not there yet since CivFanatics seems to have some security protocol by which I can't properly enter it. I think it might still be the easiest way atm.
What a load of work to simply make something like this work. Would be great if people know some quicker workarounds for the problems I experience.
Okay I actually managed to install both Mozilla Firefox and MapFinder/MapReport on Windows XP successfully! However, now I run into a new problem: I can't open up Civ 3 from Windows XP because it must have Steam running... Do you know quick solutions for this?
BlackBetsy
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I bought Civ3 through GOG and they give you a downloadable backup. That's what I installed on the Windows XP machine. You are probably going to have to buy another copy of Civ3 from them (it's $1.49)
Sid Meier's Civilization® III Complete
Sid Meier’s Civilization III Complete provides strategy fans with the classic Civilizat
Alright so I actually have good news after having the GOG version, even though there is also some bad news attached. The bad news is that I get an error while trying to launch it from Windows XP. However, the good news is that I tried this version on Windows 11 Home, and for the very first time I actually saw it make a save! It was really fast, but I actually saw it make a random name, as I think it should be doing!I bought Civ3 through GOG and they give you a downloadable backup. That's what I installed on the Windows XP machine. You are probably going to have to buy another copy of Civ3 from them (it's $1.49)
Sid Meier's Civilization® III Complete
Sid Meier’s Civilization III Complete provides strategy fans with the classic Civilizatwww.gog.com
However, strangely enough, when I checked the associated folder, I couldn't find the file. This brings me back to my initial post, let me re-iterate some of the questions I had over again:
1) Why does MapFinder sometimes load a map immediately, but at other times stay at the map for 10 seconds before moving on? Is this related to the quality of its find?
2) When looking at my settings from my first and second image, should those work properly?
3) Related to my second question: where should I set the 'Autosave Directory'' and ''Output/Save Directory for Acceptable Map'' to? I saw an old post by MoonSinger from way back in the thread, and she said the 'Autosave Directory' should be set to the standard 'Auto' folder. This still leaves the ''Output/Save Directory for Acceptable Map.'' I have it also located to 'Auto', but perhaps that's part of the problem why it didn't save properly?
4) MapFinder states at least one OR Rule Type should be true, or else it doesn't work. However, I found that someone else prior in this thread could make MapFinder work with having only ''AND'' rule types selected. So which one is true?
5) I don't understand what 'highest and lowest limit found' means. My guess is that this has to do with the domination limit? But then why does it say 99999 is the lowest limit it found (see 3rd image in my initial post).
6) How is MapReport supposed to work? What should the 'View Report' folder location be selected as? Should it open save files or something?
7) MapFinder only checks the 9 center tiles, right?
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