How do I access the BAT/BUG settings?

[TheHeirofNiketas]

I just installed the mod and was wondering how I can access menu. It doesn't look like the Ctrl + Alt + O command is working at all.

 

[f1rpo]

The BUG menu is not available from the opening menus; the whole BUG engine only gets initialized once a new game is launched or a savegame loaded. At that point, i.e. within a running game, the key combination should work. Alternatively, there should be a button "BUG Menu" on the in-game main menu – the one that opens through the blue-ish button next to the Civilopedia button in the upper right corner or via the Esc key.
A somewhat common problem is that the player has created a folder around the AdvCiv folder, and then none of the mod's modified assets get loaded, including all the BUG stuff. The path of e.g. CvGameCoreDLL.dll should be: Mods\AdvCiv\Assets

 

[TheHeirofNiketas]

Thanks! I installed it the wrong way and now I can access.

Would you have any suggestions on making the UI bigger for higher resolutions (2000 x 1500 and above?)? I seem to be able to edit the action icons but not the rest of the UI

 

[f1rpo]

The mod already increases the size of the main screen HUD (minimap, panels, buttons) based on the screen resolution through the "Scale Up HUD" option, which is enabled by default (the checkbox is in the lower left corner of the General tab of the BUG menu), and the Civilopedia, Domestic Advisor and Tech Advisor are enlarged to fill the whole screen. I can only test up to 1900x1200 myself; a player recently posted a screenshot (end of the post) at 3840x2160. Seems that the mod could enlarge a bit more aggressively on very high resolutions. The scale factors can be tweaked in CvMainInterface.initState. This is not going to affect the font sizes, which the (closed-source) EXE obtains from Civ4Theme_Common.thm. Mods can (and AdvCiv does) override that file, but it would be difficult to set the sizes dynamically. So you'd have to edit the file manually. With the enlarged widgets on the main screen, there should generally be enough space for larger fonts. However, no one has figured out how to increase the width of the help text area on the lower left, so larger fonts will lead to ugly line wrapping there:

[...] Things I could never found/fixing:
• Width of info overlays (like f1rpo).
• Size of GameFontIcons.

(The second bullet means that the city names on the main map become illegibly small on very large screens.) When I've noticed awkward line wrapping resulting from the font size increases that I've made, I shortened the respective game text, e.g. by abbreviating words. And also some of the popups and Advisor screens will look increasingly weird on higher resolutions. The Advisors could all be maximized, I just never got around to doing that. It's not just a matter of setting higher dimensions, the extra space will have to be used somehow or it'll look weird – by showing more content or at least by spreading the existing content out more. I believe the MNAI-U mod for FfH2 enlarges all of them. The dimensions of popups, in particular the "what would like to research/produce next" popups, are hardcoded in the EXE though.

Maintaining an acceptable UI on increasingly large displays is a real challenge, I don't know if the few remaining modders are up to it. At best, a small number of mods will benefit because the respective code changes aren't easily portable between mods, and the major mods have been devising their own incompatible partial solutions. On that note, the automatic HUD scaling exists only in AdvCiv, DotO and AdvCiv Plus. Realism Invictus has increased font and widget sizes, but those are static changes aimed at some typical screen size. Caveman2Cosmos, I'm sure, has it's own extensive UI changes, so does the We the People mod for Civ4Colonization. History Rewritten has its own UI changes too. For a BUG-based mod that doesn't alter the game rules (bearing in mind your posts in the Quick Modding Questions thread), the Civ4 Remaster could be worth a try. I don't think it has been tested a great deal, however. When using just BUG/BULL (or Taurus, my own fork of BULL) or any mod no longer in development, e.g. the still somewhat popular Legends of Revolution, one may have to bite the bullet and either use a physically smaller display or move a large display closer and play inside a non-maximized window. Actually, setting small-ish window dimensions and then maximizing the window should result in an upscaled UI – but it'll look unacceptably blurry.

 

[arcvoodal]

I have a question about the BUG options too. In another version there was an option for "Stack attack" (different from the vanilla game stack attack), which would play the combat animations for all units in a stack attacking at once. They note that it isn't completely stable, but I would only experience a crash like once every two games, it was incredibly rare. Is there a way to have this option with your mod? I don't see it anywhere or in the asset files either.

 

[f1rpo]

Sounds like the Combined Arms Stack Attack in Dale's Combat Mod. Later mods, such as RevDCM (screenshot attached) have integrated the DCM options into the BUG menu. It's of course not just a matter of how combat is visualized but a major change to the combat resolution rules. The in-a-nutshell explanation I am able to find is

best attacker attacks best defender, second-best attacker attacks second-best defender, etc.

(whereas, under the original rules, the initially best defender could repel several attackers in a row). The apparent lack of documentation is one of the gripes I have with it, I also understand that there is no preview for the combat outcome apart from the regular combat odds for the best attacker vs. best defender. I've never looked into the details, but my superficial impression is that this option wasn't developed beyond a demo stage, which is why I wouldn't want to to add it to AdvCiv. Merging the C++ code might also not be straightforward because of K-Mod tweaks and code restructuring – although RevDCM already includes parts of K-Mod and has apparently reconciled those with DCM. If you want to experiment with this, the latest RevDCM code is on SourceForge and the code changes/ additions seem to be commented with SA: – with the bulk of the logic in new functions CvUnit::updateStackCombat and CvSelectionGroup::groupStackAttack.

 

[arcvoodal]

Hectic. Didn't know it changed the mechanics. I thought it was just a way to have all the combat resolve quicker without disabling animations completely. This explains why in the past I posted about the Combat odds seeming to be totally wrong. Turns out it was because that option changed stuff!

And integrating it sounds like too much of a mission anyway, especially since I see there is also the "lead from behind" mod included in this.

I'll leave feedback on the appropriate thread at some point, but so far I love tons of the changes you've made! Lots of little changes have also been great, thanks for this mod!

 

[f1rpo]

There are some parameters for shortening combat animations at the end of GlobalDefinesAlt.xml (starting with STANDARD_BATTLE_ANIMATION_ROUNDS), but those just show fewer hits per combat, and I think the mod is already doing what it can to reduce the duration while maintaining a sensible sequence of events. Which probably cuts the duration at best in half in the late game compared with BtS. I had thought I could just play the animations faster as the game progresses, but apparently the DLL can't do that.

I've at least tried out the RevDCM Stack Attack option once now; a stack of 2 Warriors and 1 Spearman against a Barbarian stack with the same units. So, as the attacker, I get to choose whether I want to send in my units individually, resulting in the same outcome as in BtS or all at once, which makes sure that I won't have to face the enemy Spearman twice, but also won't allow me to make decisions (such as not making further attacks) based on individual outcomes. Seems like an interesting choice – though one that advantages the attacker (because it's up to the attacker whether to stack-attack). As for UI support, at least in this simple example, the shown odds Spearman-vs-Spearman are reasonably helpful. That is going to be the most important engagement and the displayed odds are correct (50%). I guess I'd prefer to see a list of all pairings with their respective combat odds (and fewer Advanced Combat Odds details - to make space), i.e. Spearman-Spearman, Warrior-Warrior, Warrior-Warrior, all 50%. After combat, the Combat Log does show this information and also displays the combat rounds in a readable order (if one reads from the bottom up). Don't know how well collateral damage gets handled wrt. combat odds.

Stack Attack seems like an interesting solution for modders who are bothered by one unit defending several times in a row. Brings to mind this recent post in the Dawn of the Overlords thread:

[...] Now we see a situation where the strongest defender defends first and an unlimited number of times. In fact, a huge stack of garbage can be covered from attack by one strong unit. Which looks like a real fight in about no way.[...]

Personally, I see more problems with defenders being forced to fight for as long as the attacker wishes without a chance for retreat.