MNAI-U: unofficial build & bugfixes

[Vintage Strategist]

Hey @lfgr, thanks for addressing my comments! On the subject of 5. Civilopedia models, here's what I meant:

• Screenshots taken from inside the game with the Clan.
• The tech tree shows civ-specific thumbnails hinting there will be a unique-looking unit:
  • As in attached pic1.png, an orcish paladin has a unique icon.
• When you click for details into the Civilopedia pic2.png the 3d model in the top right is generic, not specific to the Clan.
• This is the same for all "standard" units that have unique looks for a civilization.

 

[fe79]

• Screenshots taken from inside the game with the Clan.
• The tech tree shows civ-specific thumbnails hinting there will be a unique-looking unit:
  • As in attached pic1.png, an orcish paladin has a unique icon.
• When you click for details into the Civilopedia pic2.png the 3d model in the top right is generic, not specific to the Clan.

That is a faction-specific unit model (well, a faction-specific reskin to be precise). The generic paladin unit has a blue color scheme, as opposed to the brown of that orc paladin.

 

[Vintage Strategist]

No it's not. Just go to the World Builder and add an orc paladin. You will see how it looks.

 

[fe79]

No it's not. Just go to the World Builder and add an orc paladin. You will see how it looks.

I see.

Interestingly, the problem does not seem to affect all faction-specific unit models. For example, the Amurites champion model appears as it should.

 

[MagisterCultuum]

The difference is probably that some units have their at styles determined directly by their civilization type while other units have their art styles determined by their racial promotions. If the Clan of Embers captures a human unit and upgrades it to a Paladin it would use the default Paladin art rather than the Orcish Paladin Art as it would not be given the Orc promotion.

 

[fe79]

• The tech tree shows civ-specific thumbnails hinting there will be a unique-looking unit:
  • As in attached pic1.png, an orcish paladin has a unique icon.
• When you click for details into the Civilopedia pic2.png the 3d model in the top right is generic, not specific to the Clan.

The difference is probably that some units have their at styles determined directly by their civilization type while other units have their art styles determined by their racial promotions. If the Clan of Embers captures a human unit and upgrades it to a Paladin it would use the default Paladin art rather than the Orcish Paladin Art as it would not be given the Orc promotion.

Upon examination, that seems to be the case. Human factions have faction-specific unit models, but non-human factions have race-specific unit models.
Adding the Clan paladin model as a faction-specific unit model in CIV4UnitArtStyleTypeInfos.xml gives the expected model in the Sevopedia.

 

[Alekseyev_]

A thought that came to my mind recently: I think I read that in some older versions, Basium could only be summoned if Hyborem had already entered the world, and I feel this reflects their strengths much better. (Hyborem is strong, but Basium's angels are way more powerful and outright geared to kill Hyborem's forces.) Would it be fine for you to add a game option for this?

And for a minor bug report: Svartalfar archmages are T-posing.

Oh, and lastly two more questions that I think are fitting for this thread, too, since it's sort of technical stuff:

1. How does one set the default city growth control to off? All cities start with it (the one next to the production bar, that stops growth if happiness is insufficient) enabled, and I have not found this option in the BUG menu.
2. How can you re-hide shadows after their invisibility promotion was taken away by a Vicar?

 

[omegaflames]

2. AFAIK you can't.

 

[jackal1234]

game is unplayable after update to latest version
error: gfc error : failed to initialize the primary control theme

latest geforce drivers on a 960 gtx, if that matters.



it will only give me a blank screen if i try to do a screenshot

so then, i delete my ffh2 folder from the mods folder and start all over, using the files and methods linked in the first post

installer is broken. i fix locations manually.
something else is broken too. still doesn't work with fixed paths, same error
this is a fresh install, into a new folder, which failed, then a fresh extraction, which also failed

beyond frustrated

edit: retried as third time, same BS

FFH@ patched to "o" patch works fine

have tried using both mod folder names. please fix. this is making me more batty than normal while combatting quitting smoking lol

 

[Sezren]

game is unplayable after update to latest version
error: gfc error : failed to initialize the primary control theme

latest geforce drivers on a 960 gtx, if that matters.



it will only give me a blank screen if i try to do a screenshot

so then, i delete my ffh2 folder from the mods folder and start all over, using the files and methods linked in the first post

installer is broken. i fix locations manually.
something else is broken too. still doesn't work with fixed paths, same error
this is a fresh install, into a new folder, which failed, then a fresh extraction, which also failed

beyond frustrated

edit: retried as third time, same BS

FFH@ patched to "o" patch works fine

have tried using both mod folder names. please fix. this is making me more batty than normal while combatting quitting smoking lol

Not entirely sure you have the same symptoms I had but I fixed it by:
1. Having both the 'Fall from Heaven 2' and the 'More Naval AI' folder. In 'More Naval AI' is the current version and in 'Fall from Heaven 2' some older version of this mod. Maybe copying 'More Naval AI' into 'Fall from Heaven 2' would have worked too but I didnt try that.
2. Restoring the personal .ini file if it got corrupted - not sure this is necessary though.
Also not 100% sure you have the same version. I used manual installation from the archive file and not the installer (I dont like installers...).

 

[lfgr]

1. How does one set the default city growth control to off? All cities start with it (the one next to the production bar, that stops growth if happiness is insufficient) enabled, and I have not found this option in the BUG menu.

A BUG option is planned.

@jackal1234: Please try the archive (make sure to follow the instructions).

 

[jackal1234]

A BUG option is planned.

@jackal1234: Please try the archive (make sure to follow the instructions).

thanks for your help, guys. i fooled around with it again and got it working again somehow, using the archive and keeping both folders

 

[Devils_Advocate]

On the subject of the AI misvaluing resources, Hyborem will trade for health and luxury resources.

I somewhat disagree. Units in FfH can have a lot of individual promotions, so having as many as possible non-merged units seems good. Also, having a single non-merged unit might be nice as a reminder of their abilities (in your case, the only really new information is the unit combat type, but there are more complicated units than axemen, obviously). I'm not sure if the game does the latter right now, I think it doesn't.

Why not just show one entry for all precisely identical units in a stack, with all of the information, but preceded by a number showing how many there are? Like, have the line for an individual one of the 51 identical Axemen, but with "(51x)" in front of it? Just not showing exactly the same thing multiple times would probably make the lists for massive AI stacks fit on the screen 90% of the time, because in my experience they tend to be loaded with precisely identical units.

Yeah, somehow having buttons for the AI units (even if you don't have a unit on the same tile) would be nice. But I don't even know how this should work; just showing them when hovering any enemy unit would be very confusing, and maybe not even possible.

Ideally you could just select a tile by clicking on it.

QoL suggestion: consider work boats non-military units - for Pacifism civic (so that the malus to building military units doesn't apply).

Tholal already made that change at my request.

 

[Alekseyev_]

Is it possible to request an interface/civilopedia feature?
I think it would be nice to have the "other" things that depend on a civ also be shown in the civilopedia. For example: Malakim sand lion spell and Nomad promotion (default race?), Illian Whiteout ability, Svartalfar Kidnap ability, Khazad Dwarven Vaults, Bannor towns, Elohim knowing all unique features, and the civ-specific rituals... I am not sure what else I may be missing, but it would be super nice to have these things listed on the civ pages.

Edit: Oh and is it possible to fix the world unit portrait icon not overlaying the unit graphics?

Edit 2: Shadows using their "mask" or "declare nationality" abilities will show their spell graphic effect to other players even if invisible, giving away their presence. This is only noticeable in MP with simultaneous turns, but it might still be nice to have changed.

 

[lfgr]

Why not just show one entry for all precisely identical units in a stack, with all of the information, but preceded by a number showing how many there are? Like, have the line for an individual one of the 51 identical Axemen, but with "(51x)" in front of it? Just not showing exactly the same thing multiple times would probably make the lists for massive AI stacks fit on the screen 90% of the time, because in my experience they tend to be loaded with precisely identical units.

I ended up implementing the following simple (in terms of coding) solution. It's not perfect, but I could avoid rewriting the help text code.
The plot help currently shows one "center" unit in full detain, 15 more units with one unit per line, and the rest compressed as much as possible. First, you can now reduce or increase the number of one-per-line units in the BUG options. Second, there are hotkeys to cycle the "center" unit through the units on the plot. This way, you have access to the full help text on every unit. Since the game uses the "center" units for display purposes, the cycling also change the unit displayed on the plot, which is a nice touch.

Is it possible to request an interface/civilopedia feature?
I think it would be nice to have the "other" things that depend on a civ also be shown in the civilopedia. For example: Malakim sand lion spell and Nomad promotion (default race?), Illian Whiteout ability, Svartalfar Kidnap ability, Khazad Dwarven Vaults, Bannor towns, Elohim knowing all unique features, and the civ-specific rituals... I am not sure what else I may be missing, but it would be super nice to have these things listed on the civ pages.

Sure, sounds reasonable (but what do you mean by "Bannor towns"?). Let me know if you think of anything else. I know e.g. Dwarven Vaults are already in the Dawn of Man screen, but it won't hurt to copy that text to the Strategy section in the pedia

Edit: Oh and is it possible to fix the world unit portrait icon not overlaying the unit graphics?

I think that is due to the pedia resolution change. I'll see to it.

Edit 2: Shadows using their "mask" or "declare nationality" abilities will show their spell graphic effect to other players even if invisible, giving away their presence. This is only noticeable in MP with simultaneous turns, but it might still be nice to have changed.

Might be hard, but I'll see what I can do.

 

[Tielby]

Sure, sounds reasonable (but what do you mean by "Bannor towns"?).

Was that maybe the Kuriotates settlements?

 

[Devils_Advocate]

First off, the entry for the Bannor themselves doesn't directly mention their exclusive Crusade civic. Secondly, the entry for Crusade doesn't mention how Demagogs are spawned from Towns, which if I'm not mistaken is the main benefit of Crusade. That's one of those important pieces of info just weirdly left out of the in-game documentation entirely, like how the Civilopedia doesn't directly acknowledge the existence of Hills.

 

[Alekseyev_]

Sure, sounds reasonable (but what do you mean by "Bannor towns"?). Let me know if you think of anything else. I know e.g. Dwarven Vaults are already in the Dawn of Man screen, but it won't hurt to copy that text to the Strategy section in the pedia

Sorry for the confusion, I was referring to Crusade's function of spawning Demagogs from Towns. But also, the Crusade Civic is not mentioned on the Bannor civ page. It is mentioned, like Elven forest improvements and the tile modifiers of Malakim and Illians, in the hover-text of the civ's list entry, however.

The Kuriotate Enclave improvement is something else that comes to mind. And that the Doviello upgrade their units slightly differently, being able to do it anywhere and for a lower cost. Balseraph puppets are mentioned in text form.

Clan of Embers, Elohim, Illians and Kuriotates do not have their civ trait listed in the text, while Bannor, Grigori, Hippus, Infernal, Ljosalfar, Sheaim and Svartalfar do.

I think that is due to the pedia resolution change. I'll see to it.

Awesome.

Might be hard, but I'll see what I can do.

Perhaps the better solution would be to simply not have a graphical on-tile effect for this particular pair of ability/spell.

 

[King Bulrush]

Hi @lfgr , if you are still working on your mod, I hope you might be able to help me with the following issue I encountered when trying to run it:

A few days ago I re-installed Civ4 on my computer to play FFH2, and decided to try out your modmod (MNAI-u). I installed it following the instructions in this thread and started to play a new game. I played for more than 300 turns and then the trouble started.
I seem to remember accidentally clicking on the "Toggle Bare Map" option (or at least this is what I think happened, but I can not remember exactly - because as I was looking to undo this, the game crashed to desktop) Fortunately I had saved the game on that turn, so I tried to reload the last save - the game crashed to desktop. I tried to reload a previous autosave - the game crashed to desktop. I tried to start a new game - the game crashed to desktop (all crashes happened immediately after I tried to load/start a new game.
I reinstalled the mod - the game crashed to desktop.
For the next step, I tried something more radical. I uninstalled Civ 4 completely and deleted everything related to it (including the corresponding folders in the My Games folder - I even deleted them from OneDrive to make sure no old backups with potential errors would show up). Then I reinstalled Civ 4, reinstalled vanilla FFH2 and tried to reinstall MNAI-U (I even downloaded the archive again to make sure there are no problems). Vanilla Civ 4 and FFH2 worked without problems, but when I tried to start your mod, the game crashed so badly, it froze my entire PC so I had to restart it. I could still Alt-Tab out of the game and I saw the error message: "The program has encountered a problem and needs to be closed. Do you wish to save a diagnostic file?", but I could not click anywhere on the screen, so I had to restart my computer without generating a crash dump. I know that "the game crashed' is not a very detailed issue description, but that is all I have at the moment. Do you know of any tests I could do to isolate the bug? Also, when I reinstalled the mod, I followed the instructions from the testing guide and enabled logging. Now when I check the "Logs" folder I see multiple files there. How do I know which one of the logs is relevant to this issue?


More issues that might be related:
Weird detail 1: After I saw that I still had issues with your mod, I tried to start a new game in vanilla FFH2. It started without problems but I noticed a weird details - I now have the "Single Unit Graphics" option activated. I do not remember activating that option, I never played with that option on before, and as far as I know it is not the default option. I also checked the .ini file to see if I changed something there by accident, but I found no graphics options there.

Weird detail 2: when I played FFH2 in the past, I usually also install the "Blue Marble" terrain graphics, since this was recommended by Kael himself. So this time again, I installed FFH2, installed Blue Marble on top, and installed MNAI-u on top of that. When I saw that it crashed again, I made one last test: I used a clean install of FFH2 and added MNAI-u directly on top of that, without Blue Marble. The game still crashed as before, but now I get a different error message ("GFC Error: Failed to initialize primary control theme"). I don't know if this is because of the different terrain graphics, or because my first test had already messed something up in the game options.

This all seems very weird to me, but I am not a very tech savvy person, so maybe you can suggest some solutions (or further tests).

If it helps, the game version I use is Civilization IV Complete from GOG.com.

 

[omegaflames]

Check Civ4.thm in the resource folder and make sure line 5 and 8 are pointing to the correct folder path then do the same for Civ4ArtDefines_Misc.xml in assests\xml\art folder line 335 (near the very bottom).