Map Finder Help

[Sun Tzu Wu]

Seems like this utility just isn't for me. Seems like it's a lot of rigamarole, when I can just regen the map a few times and find a decent start. Might just not be able to win at those ultra high levels. But, I don't think those levels aren't really about playing the game, anyhow. More like gimmicky play, in order to win.

Yes, you can just regenerate the map a few times, but that completely misses the point of MapFinder.

There are apparently some players that can and do regenerate the map thousands of time for the "perfect" start. However, most HoF players either work or go to school full-time or both and really can't keep up with the few "full-time" manual map regenerating players. It is for the rest of the serious HoF players that MapFinder was created for; so we can also compete almost fairly with these players that seem to have nearly "infinite" time to manually regenerate a thousand maps per HoF table slot.

MapFinder is an essential tool for the serious HoF player and shulec gave you a good tip and screen shot example of how to effectively use it. This is the "Map Finder Help" thread; your post didn't even have a hint that you appreciated shulec's help.

It is fine to say that MapFinder doesn't fit your style of play, but your comments that it is "lot of rigamarole" and "... gimmicky play ..." goes a bit too far, perhaps. There are more politically correct ways to say you think MapFinder gives HoF players an unfair advantage.

If you do sincerely want help with MapFinder, just ask; I'm happy to help as well.

Sun Tzu Wu

 

[billybgame]

Yes, you can just regenerate the map a few times, but that completely misses the point of MapFinder.

There are apparently some players that can and do regenerate the map thousands of time for the "perfect" start. However, most HoF players either work or go to school full-time or both and really can't keep up with the few "full-time" manual map regenerating players. It is for the rest of the serious HoF players that MapFinder was created for; so we can also compete almost fairly with these players that seem to have nearly "infinite" time to manually regenerate a thousand maps per HoF table slot.

MapFinder is an essential tool for the serious HoF player and shulec gave you a good tip and screen shot example of how to effectively use it. This is the "Map Finder Help" thread; your post didn't even have a hint that you appreciated shulec's help.

It is fine to say that MapFinder doesn't fit your style of play, but your comments that it is "lot of rigamarole" and "... gimmicky play ..." goes a bit too far, perhaps. There are more politically correct ways to say you think MapFinder gives HoF players an unfair advantage.

If you do sincerely want help with MapFinder, just ask; I'm happy to help as well.

Sun Tzu Wu

Well, sorry to hear you think that way. I didn't mean it to come across like that. And, undoubtedly, I appreciate any and all help I get at this site.

I'm just saying, it just appears this utility is not for me.

 

[pixiejmcc]

Spoiler :

Great little app Just a quick question (edit - or 15! ). Every time I click "Load in BTS" I have to manually select the folder in which my BTS exe resides... which is a bit of a pain. Also I'm confused about which group of rules is being used. Or does the MapFinder look for starts which correspond to any of the groups which are currently loaded into the Rule Finder.

Also what does "Test Range" mean? I'm making the assumption that if it is set to the default (three) only the BFC is checked for valid resources etc. But surely the only tiles that can be checked are the visible ones. And related to that, does having "First Move" checked mean your starting warrior/scout is moved in a sensible direction to reveal further tiles in the BFC, before checks are made? (Edit - Actually I'm now starting to wonder whether this moves the save file...)

Oh and I only seem to be getting screenshots of my desktop

Thanks!

Sorrry... I think this can be ignored because I've found answers to most of my questions. I'll post again if I'm still having trouble.

 

[Seraiel]

I don't know how this happens, but every 2nd time I use mapfinder over night, I see next morning that only 400-500 maps were created and that "I have been defeated" . Is this sort of a common bug?

 

[Ozbenno]

I don't know how this happens, but every 2nd time I use mapfinder over night, I see next morning that only 400-500 maps were created and that "I have been defeated" . Is this sort of a common bug?

Never seen that, could you post a screenshot?

 

[pixiejmcc]

Cracking app. Very useful But...Every screenshot is of my desktop...

 

[Ozbenno]

Cracking app. Very useful But...Every screenshot is of my desktop...

This is a known problem unfortunately. To get around it, set BtS to run in windowed mode (it is in the .ini file, change selection to auto and it will ask you if you want to run windowed) and you will see the map pictures.

 

[Seraiel]

I don't know how this happens, but every 2nd time I use mapfinder over night, I see next morning that only 400-500 maps were created and that "I have been defeated" . Is this sort of a common bug?

Never seen that, could you post a screenshot?

Had to wait some time, but here it is:

Spoiler :

 

[neilmeister]

I get that sometimes, I have found that it varies depending on the power of the machine and the size of the map you are trying to regenerate.

My old crappy work laptop used to get this almost every time I used Mapfinder, whereas my new one has only had it happen once.

What worked for me (on my old laptop) was increasing the Mapfinder delay settings. Ctrl-Alt-O, and on the Map tab, increase the delays by a few seconds. Hope it works for you!

 

[Lempface]

My wife and I play Civ IV together and on her computer Map Finder's column headers are of the icon variety which I prefer. For some reason on mine it reverts to text headings. I've tried changing the INI to icons, override and none but after launching Map Finder it just edits file back to text. Also making file read only preserves the setting but Map Finder still launches with text headings. I have versions 1-4 of .net installed and I think it might have something to do with .net. Can anyone weigh in on this?

EDIT: Win 7 x64

 

[neilmeister]

My wife and I play Civ IV together....

You are the luckiest man alive.

 

[Ozbenno]

You are the luckiest man alive.

Is the .ini file read only maybe. Sounds like the changes aren't keeping. You could try and copy your wife's .ini file across (delete yours first).

 

[cseanny]

I want to start playing some HoF challenges and have been trying to get Map Finder to work for around the past 3 hours and am left more confused than I started . So any help would be nice. Now I've read where people suggest going to Buffy > options > maps > and change the directory of where map finder stores information but all that is blocked off.

I hover with the mouse and read Bull DLL required, at which point I did around 1.5 hours of reading on the forums about that but once again, was left more confused yet again. Does anyone have a simple step by step tutorial or a link that doesn't cause more confusion than help (at least for me). Just saying......HoF links on new Buffy, bug 4.4.1, Map finder, asset checker......all work like a charm. But trying to get that damn Bull DLL integrated with Buffy to work in conjunction with Map finder is hopeless for me =/.

 

[Ozbenno]

You only need BUFFY for Map Finder.

What are your actual problems? What happens when you try and start Map Finder?

 

[thbrown81]

I want to start playing some HoF challenges and have been trying to get Map Finder to work for around the past 3 hours and am left more confused than I started . So any help would be nice. Now I've read where people suggest going to Buffy > options > maps > and change the directory of where map finder stores information but all that is blocked off.

I hover with the mouse and read Bull DLL required, at which point I did around 1.5 hours of reading on the forums about that but once again, was left more confused yet again. Does anyone have a simple step by step tutorial or a link that doesn't cause more confusion than help (at least for me). Just saying......HoF links on new Buffy, bug 4.4.1, Map finder, asset checker......all work like a charm. But trying to get that damn Bull DLL integrated with Buffy to work in conjunction with Map finder is hopeless for me =/.

Are you running Windows 7? Are you running Civ IV as an administrator? That might solve your problem.

 

[cseanny]

You only need BUFFY for Map Finder.

What are your actual problems? What happens when you try and start Map Finder?

Nothing happens and when I go to check my documents/mygames/civ4mapfinder/saves there's nothing either. Here's a screen shot of what I get in my game buffy options. And a new question, when running lock modified assets you can't even pull buffy open with hot keys so how do we run map finder on a HoF game ^^?.

 

[Manco Capac]

I can't wait to see Cseanny busy with challenger games. And can't believe it happens, seems karma did good there.

If you got BUFFY to work, do you really need super maps. I started the challenger serie I haven't used mapfinder at all yet. And you're like twice as good as me economically (which is the most important skill generally).

Come on, try some without 3 gems/3 golds starts. Sometimes, it takes 5-10 minutes to get a good one (enough food).

 

[Ozbenno]

Nothing happens and when I go to check my documents/mygames/civ4mapfinder/saves there's nothing either. Here's a screen shot of what I get in my game buffy options. And a new question, when running lock modified assets you can't even pull buffy open with hot keys so how do we run map finder on a HoF game ^^?.

Haven't ever seen this sorry, think there might be a problem with the install. This certainly shouldn't be blanked out in BUFFY and you should be able to use all hot keys with lock modified assets (map Finder is Ctl-Alt-G). I would try and reinstall BUFFY.

 

[Denniz]

Nothing happens and when I go to check my documents/mygames/civ4mapfinder/saves there's nothing either. Here's a screen shot of what I get in my game buffy options. And a new question, when running lock modified assets you can't even pull buffy open with hot keys so how do we run map finder on a HoF game ^^?.

The tooltip hides it but the save path is right there on the screen. Is it a valid path? Make sure you create the folder it it isn't there.

Don't think LMA is the problem. Has been working okay for everyone for quite awhile.

 

[cseanny]

Okay, I finally found the BUG DLL file, downloaded it and now map finder works perfectly in most circumstances. There is however one which it doesn't, and that's a rather important one. Both Map Finder and Buffy don't work at all when "Lock Modified Assets" is checked.

So whenever I start a non locked asset game I have complete hot key control of all Buffy functions but the second I use "lock modified assets" it's as if I'm playing the game w/out a single mod, i.e., absolutely nothing works. I've already uninstalled and reinstalled everything 2X and that fixes nothing so there must be something I'm missing?