it is the perfect mod for higher-level players who don't play frequently enough to know instinctively when growth is etc. i personally don't think it is an exploit as for me CIV is not about checking your empire every turn, it is about making decisions based on them.
Is BUG MOD an exploit?
- Thread starter comatosedragon
- Start date
Daedal
Prince
The Civ IV UI is so awful that BUG mod should have come standard with the game. Even with the mod installed you'll still be doing lots and lots (and lots) of micromanagement at higher levels. BUG won't tell you when you're about to make a deal with one neighbor that happens to be the worst enemy of your best friend. Or how to arrange whips/chops/overflow to get the fastest build time possible for a particular item. The list goes on and on... BUG just helps with a few of the biggest annoyances.
Gliese 581
Your average civ junkie
The most useful feature for me is city pending growth/has grown alerts. I don't need BUG for this but without it I can spend a minute or more every EOT depending on how many cities I have before I press enter. It's just a tedious task I no longer need to perform and BUG doesn't really help me improve my micromanagement here, it just makes it easier and faster.
obsolete
Deity
Remember that diplo menu that was introduced in Civ III (I think), where you could see relations by those colored bars? They added that into Civ IV too. I actually feel that must have been ground-breaking for the interface department.
I also, never forgot the horror of Civ IV out of the box...
Step 1. Go through 10 buttons to get to...
Step 2. What do you think of... "Choose a Civ"
Step 3. Go through 10 more buttons again to get to
Step 4. What do you think of... "Choose the other civ you just asked the same question"
Step 5. Now go through an exponential process asking every combo with every Civ....
And try doing THAT every turn.....
I never understood that...
I also, never forgot the horror of Civ IV out of the box...
Step 1. Go through 10 buttons to get to...
Step 2. What do you think of... "Choose a Civ"
Step 3. Go through 10 more buttons again to get to
Step 4. What do you think of... "Choose the other civ you just asked the same question"
Step 5. Now go through an exponential process asking every combo with every Civ....
And try doing THAT every turn.....
I never understood that...
Dirk1302
Deity
Glance screen helps alot there indeed.
Daedal
Prince
They fix one screen, but leave a ton of others that are just as bad. For instance, suppose you research a tech nobody else has and you want to get the most bang for your buck. Go around figuring out what each AI will give you for it. Then go around figuring out what each AI will give you for the stuff you trade from the other AIs. Then figure out what order to make the trades in. Then make the trades. Why can't I just go to my trade advisor and ask him to get me the maximum value for my new tech? I don't want the game to play itself for me, but I'd rather be macromanaging my empire than playing a half hour turn and getting a headache micromanaging stuff that the computer should do.
Bleys
Deity
Cant speak for BAT, but BUG is 1 download AFAIK, and v2.30 solved the problems they were having with Civ IV: Complete installs.
No idea, which events? If its the "Partisian Event" that was broken without Bhruics/HoF MOD, then fine, it was broken, but I dont recall seeing other events disabled. Can you link that information?
Both from main BUG page. I will look for the download buttons again; maybe I missed the real button and was actually looking at a directory structure.
The list of features of the most recent version lists, among other things about 7 events that are disabled. Most unfamiliar to me. The fix to the partisan event is a separate entry in the list.
What install problem? I've seen another reference to this in another forum, but not an explanation, not even on the BUG page. If I try to install this on top of BtS and Bhruic, do I need to know anything?
Dirk1302
Deity
No just hit enter button a few times. It sets up a directory structure in custom assets but you don't have to know about that. The installer program is one executable.
Bleys
Deity
There was a problem with BUG not having an interface at all if installed to Civ IV: Complete. It was related to where the INI file is located, it seems that Complete has a different install structure than installing the expansions individually. You had to add a line to the registry so that the BUG.INI file could be found properly.
They fixed it though, no unusual installation tricks at all, and it works just fine with Bhruics patch.
silverbullet
King
Bug mod is not a cheat, it's just something to help people have a more fun play experience.
I like alt+M a lot.
I also like the GP bar - GP are so cruicial to the game and I don't want to accidentally find out I popped the wrong GP from the wrong city
I also like the fact that I get a warning before a city becomes unhappy.
I also get notified as soon as someone I know discovers alphabet.
I sometimes find uses for the expanded city advisor (f1 screen).
@Dirk: I really like the features in your mod (especially pre-chop), but unfortunately I haven't had the chance to play with it much as I have only played immortal university games lately, but I do wish pre-chopping would be integrated to BUG.
One of the features I requested for the BUG mod is to add a warning when an opponent has enough on their hands. It's such a vital information and it is a bit annoying to open the diplomacy screen every turn to check for it. Unfortunately it didn't make it to version 2.3.
I like alt+M a lot.
I also like the GP bar - GP are so cruicial to the game and I don't want to accidentally find out I popped the wrong GP from the wrong city
I also like the fact that I get a warning before a city becomes unhappy.
I also get notified as soon as someone I know discovers alphabet.
I sometimes find uses for the expanded city advisor (f1 screen).
@Dirk: I really like the features in your mod (especially pre-chop), but unfortunately I haven't had the chance to play with it much as I have only played immortal university games lately, but I do wish pre-chopping would be integrated to BUG.
One of the features I requested for the BUG mod is to add a warning when an opponent has enough on their hands. It's such a vital information and it is a bit annoying to open the diplomacy screen every turn to check for it. Unfortunately it didn't make it to version 2.3.
pigswill
fly (one day)
I'm prejudiced against BUG because of the non-user-turnlog-crash bug (which might have been fixed in the latest version) but I'm happy to use HoF which also displays on-screen information.
Dirk1302
Deity
Same here, i only have played games from the forums lately and i can't use it then. If you're warring heavily in the modern age sending units repeatedly to the same tile with one keystroke is great also.
It would be great to have the "enough" message nicely listed. This is very difficult though, i haven't specifally searched for this myself but i've glanced over the mod forums and through the python code repeatedly some time ago and i'm fairly sure this hasn't been solved yet.
Probably somewhat simplifying here, the games consists of 4 layers:
- XML
- Python
- SDK
- Information that lies even deeper probably in the executable itself or in files
i don't know.
The first 3 layers are up for modding but the fourth isn't. For example it's sure that the pathfinding algorithm that calculates the fastest path for units lies in the fourth level and can't be modded. Of course there was an ingenious modder (12 Monkeys iirc) who wrote his own pathfinder algorithm and implemented it but that's a different story.
I'm not totally sure where the code for the "enough" warning resides. I do know from the mod forums that there isn't too much code in the diplomacy screen that can be modded. So it's probably that this code also lies beyond our reach in the fourth level.
But i may be wrong and if an expert from the mod forums proves me wrong i'd love to have a go at it, i fear it's a blind alley though.
Finally on forest chopping, there's a trick that makes it a bit easier without any mod: at the end of the turn find one worker which is doing something, press alt and click on the remove actions button of the worker. In this case all the workers stop their current activity. Probably well known but fairly new to me and alot better than finding every worker that's chopping.
Gliese 581
Your average civ junkie
There should be an option to manually assign tasks for workers every turn with a special key to use in conjunction with the normal hotkey to order them to "continue doing this until interrupted or finished".
The WHEOOHRN stuff would be awesome too. I don't always have the patience to check it more than every other turn.
The WHEOOHRN stuff would be awesome too. I don't always have the patience to check it more than every other turn.
JujuLautre
Deity
Fidardorist
Recidivist Civ'er
I use\love the BUG mod and I have no qualms but...
The one thing that does seem like a new piece of info that isn't really available in the regular game is the your-strength-vs.-theirs ratio bottom right of your main map screen with the little muscle emblem.
Now, the only place that I can think this info was previously available was on the F9 info screens. (Some thread explained that this F9 "Soldiers" # was a complicated assesment of strength, which included mili techs and a variety of things, not just bodies. Not sure how the bug one makes the calculation (anyone?) , but to have a specific ratio for each civ. to me seems like a whole new feature which would give a BUG user an advantage over a non-BUGger that could not be made up by any amount of clicking. Is that fair or am I missing something?
This has made me feel just cheat-ish but none the less grateful since I started using BUG.
The one thing that does seem like a new piece of info that isn't really available in the regular game is the your-strength-vs.-theirs ratio bottom right of your main map screen with the little muscle emblem.
Now, the only place that I can think this info was previously available was on the F9 info screens. (Some thread explained that this F9 "Soldiers" # was a complicated assesment of strength, which included mili techs and a variety of things, not just bodies. Not sure how the bug one makes the calculation (anyone?) , but to have a specific ratio for each civ. to me seems like a whole new feature which would give a BUG user an advantage over a non-BUGger that could not be made up by any amount of clicking. Is that fair or am I missing something?
This has made me feel just cheat-ish but none the less grateful since I started using BUG.
Gliese 581
Your average civ junkie
It's the power level you have vs the civ. It's directly from the graphs and you need enough EPs to view the power graph vs a civ before it becomes visible for that civ. It just saves you from having to press F9 as often as you otherwise might feel inclined to do.
obsolete
Deity
I only tested BuG for like 10 seconds just to see the GuI. I'm glad to have Glance back, and it should make things less tedious next game around. I also noticed the GG counter on the top of the screen. I like that, even saving me from hitting F5 constantly is a + in my book.
I think firaxis should have had an option (Advanced GUI, On/Off). Leave it off as default so new players don't get TOO LOST in stats. And let them turn it on once they get their feet wet and am tired of that clunky interface. YUK.
And I agree, that there SHOULD be a trade advisor, who's JOB it is to notify me when something happens like..
"Sir, the Egyptians are have a surplus of 14 gold now. Do you wish inflate our price of spices with them?" Etc...
This woudln't work of course, until firaxis fixes their trade bugs. The worst, is when I am trading spice to Egypt for 5 gold. Then suddenly they have an extra 14 gold coming in. So I cancel my deal which should give them 19 gold, then I attempt to renegotiate for 19 gold.
But no... as soon as I hit cancel, both the 5 gold AND the 14 gold just vanish.
???
So where did it all disappear to, considering Egypt hasn't even HAD a friggen turn yet to do anything yet!? AI's should NOT be allowed to get any extra turns in, ANYWHERE!
We don't...
I think firaxis should have had an option (Advanced GUI, On/Off). Leave it off as default so new players don't get TOO LOST in stats. And let them turn it on once they get their feet wet and am tired of that clunky interface. YUK.
And I agree, that there SHOULD be a trade advisor, who's JOB it is to notify me when something happens like..
"Sir, the Egyptians are have a surplus of 14 gold now. Do you wish inflate our price of spices with them?" Etc...
This woudln't work of course, until firaxis fixes their trade bugs. The worst, is when I am trading spice to Egypt for 5 gold. Then suddenly they have an extra 14 gold coming in. So I cancel my deal which should give them 19 gold, then I attempt to renegotiate for 19 gold.
But no... as soon as I hit cancel, both the 5 gold AND the 14 gold just vanish.
???
So where did it all disappear to, considering Egypt hasn't even HAD a friggen turn yet to do anything yet!? AI's should NOT be allowed to get any extra turns in, ANYWHERE!
We don't...
