[MOD] Fall from Heaven II

[Omegon3]

While I love playing Civ 4 BTS, one of the pains about it is that the game occassionally hangs up my computer -- especially later in the game. The system is hung up so tight that the only way to get it back is via the "on/off" button (not a terribly good way to shut down a system!!). One of the things that I appreciated about Ffh is that, over the course of many, many games, it had NEVER hung up my system (something that I'm sure the fine developers know the reason).

Well... This no longer APPEARS to be true. I just loaded patch "f" and, since hitting turn 200 (huge world, 4 civs, chieftain level -- what can I say? I'm a wimp!!), I have already had the system hang up on me TIGHT twice. The question is whether or not this is simply a coincidence and I've just been lucky all the other games I've played or if there was something done in patch "f" (something that, according to Kael, would "break" saved games) that required additional memory.

So, for the developers (and you've done a great job so far!!), was there something done in patch "f" that required additional memory or was I just lucky in the other games? If something was done, is there possibly some memory leaks that might have been introduced and could be fixed? As I said, it isn't a great way to shut the system down...

Thanks. I've attached the latest save from my game in case it helps (it's an "auto save").

 

[Love]

What the hell does the smiley folder do?

 

[Dragonlord]

@omegon: I've had occasional hangs like that in BTS before, so I don't think it's anything to do with patch f - in fact, I haven't DLed that one yet, because I want to finish my current game first.

@Kael: On a related issue, I had several games crash on me pre-f (one of them I had loaded on the bug thread, but you couldn't reproduce the crash). Each time I got to the mid-game, then crashed to desktop on the AIs turn. In my latest game I've disabled the unique terrain features and now there are no problems!
Just as a heads-up there may still be an issue with those unique terrains..

 

[Kael]

@Omegon- There aren't additional memory requirements in the latest version. The reason it breaks saves is that Im saving a new variable that wasn't be saved before (which is why affinity sometimes got out of wack). Since there is now a new variable it expects to read when loading games old save game files won't work.

Incidently if you computer is hard locking you probably have an issue that is bigger than an application issue. There shouldn't be a command I can issue that can lock a computer up so hard you have to power it off. Part of the theory behind protected memory space is that I can crash the application itself (Civ4) but not the OS. Your computer may be overheating (to check for this get your latest computer locking save and reload it after leaving your computer powered off for a 24 hours straight, if it doesn't crash for at least an hour it may be a heat issue) or you could be having a driver issue.


@Dragonlord- I havent seen a save yet where unique features is whats causing the CtD, but I'll keep my eyes for it, thanks for the heads up.

 

[loki1232]

If you like FfH, then please vote AGAIN for it in the MOTY Awards o7 by o1/o1/o8 GMT, we made it into top100 from 4000, now help us in top 5. two minutes of your freetime will make the difference

All right everybody, today is the last day possible to vote for Fall from Heaven.
In fact, as I post this there are less than 4 and a half hours left.
So if you get this message and like Fall From Heaven (it's the only civ 4 mod left in the competition), please--if its not too much trouble-- follow this link, register an account (it takes 30 seconds), and vote for us.
http://www.moddb.com/events/2007-mod-of-the-year-awards

Thank you, and happy new year.

 

[Omegon3]

Thanks to both Dragonlord and Kael!!! I just found it very coincidental that I had never had Ffh hang up before, but since I loaded "f" it's hung up three times (a couple hundred turns before the previous and last).

 

[Soul oWar]

Ok I guess it was asked and answered but with 325 page ... I can't read that:

1: Blessing of amatheon .. what bonus does it talk about?
2: Settlement for teh kuriotate ... coudl I get a bit of info about them? I mean do they cost maintenance and teh like?

thanks

 

[oyzar]

Tried loading a saved MP game. I was fine(since i was hosting) but the other player got this error... Get same error when trying to join.

 

[Chip56]

1: Blessing of amatheon .. what bonus does it talk about?

reagents, gold, incense, fishes...
all those nice ressources.

2: Settlement for teh kuriotate ... coudl I get a bit of info about them? I mean do they cost maintenance and teh like?

Nope.

 

[Soul oWar]

Tx for teh fast answer! But why don't you want to give me info about settlement? kidding you .. Tx

lol

 

[Kael]

Tried loading a saved MP game. I was fine(since i was hosting) but the other player got this error... Get same error when trying to join.

That means hes probably doesnt have the correst patch level.

 

[oyzar]

We both have patch f. We played the game together the day before...

 

[MagisterCultuum]

The first posts (especially the Spells) really need updating.

 

[Ambreville]

Any plans to come up with a "stone road" feature as opposed to the standard road? The stone road would presumably allow faster move.

Re the topic of game pace -- is it me or are there other people who feel game play is generally on the slow side? I don't mean by that what speed a computer can run this mod, but just the number of turns it takes to build anything. I went back an played regular BTS and was almost overwhelmed by how quickly buildings and units get built. Wow... I had forgotten! That's maybe a little too fast actually.

Seriously, it seems to be taking far too long to build most things in FfH. The settlers in particular take WAAAAY too long in most cases! I find myself more often then not hitting the space bar 20 to 25 times with hardly anything else to do during the early game stage (say the first 200 turns -- playing a standard game at Prince level). Ditto researching some of the early techs. Why? This gets really boring. If the fear is about building cities too fast, the cost of maintaining cities should quickly put an end to any uncontrolled expansion.

It used to be in CIV that the early and mid stages of the games were fun, and the end stage bogged down eventually into a "clickathon". In FfH, the early stages of the game have lost a lot of their fun because of the sheer time it takes to do anything. Well darn!

 

[oyzar]

Yeah quick in ffh is slower than normal in the original game which is rather a shame... The early game tech three in normal civ is rather simple while in ffh it takes forever to get through it(even on quick...). Would also be nice if great people points increase for next great person scaled correctly with speed.

Combine with the fact that the AI is really bad in ffh and it is easy to see why people would tire of the mod as the games takes forever to get interesting and when it does the AI are still mucking around with warriors or whatever(on deity...). It is hard enough for humans to handle the new tech three but the AI really got no understanding of it(even with starting with all the worker techs for free...).

As for stone roads: engineering gives +1 road movement so this is already in the game.

 

[Ambreville]

Yeah quick in ffh is slower than normal in the original game which is rather a shame... The early game tech three in normal civ is rather simple while in ffh it takes forever to get through it(even on quick...).

Combine with the fact that the AI is really bad in ffh and it is easy to see why people would tire of the mod as the games takes forever to get interesting and when it does the AI are still mucking around with warriors or whatever(on deity...). It is hard enough for humans to handle the new tech three but the AI really got no understanding of it(even with starting with all the worker techs for free...).

I agree. I don't think it would be an enormous problem to lower the cost of the early units, buildings, and techs for the purpose to spicing up the early game, especially the settlers. It takes way too long for the game to become exciting as it is right now. It's too bad because there are tons to detail and interesting features to play with.

 

[oyzar]

Well as long as you grow your cities to max size before starting on settlers(workers and AG first and move settler until you find a river) the first settlers shouldn't take THAT long...). It is more the early tech three that is the problem as it takes forever to get mining for example. Combine this with the fact that the "hidden" research bonuses from normal civ is removed and you get a way slower tech pace.

 

[Ambreville]

Well as long as you grow your cities to max size before starting on settlers(workers and AG first and move settler until you find a river) the first settlers shouldn't take THAT long...). It is more the early tech three that is the problem as it takes forever to get mining for example. Combine this with the fact that the "hidden" research bonuses from normal civ is removed and you get a way slower tech pace.

I usually wait for my capital city to get to a POP of 5 or 6 (whatever the number is just before it would turn unhappy), plus one or two workers, plus somewhere around 4-6 warriors. If you have Mining and some unforested hills the problem isn't so bad. But more often than not, you're SOL because either you don't have hills or you can't chop down forests until you get Bronze Working -- that's even later. In the majority of cases, when you start your new civ, most of the surrounding lands are forested. Therefore...

 

[Ambreville]

One more thing on this topic -- the Festivals tech has been moved after Calendar, which makes some sense (but could be argued since not all Festivals need to be calendar-based, especially in ancient times). The problem with the change is that it further slows the early game. Since, from a financial standpoint, you really need Markets at the time you begin your city expansion, that's just one more tech you need to research to move along. It feels like a dang marathon.

 

[oyzar]

That seems really strange cause i can't remember teching festivals anywhere near early playing as non-balesraph civs.. Markets are really expensive compared to what they give you... Working improved titles to support your empire is soo much better... Buildings in general are very underpowered in ffh...