MPMPM - Multiplayer Mod DLC-hack (Updated!)

[maseren]

Just downloaded this. A few quick comments, its very slow downloading from Mega, and when it did finish, CIV 5 crashed after I installed it in DLC.

Also, I noticed per looking at the MODS list, he added Ocean Cities again, which supposedly crash the game. Just my two cents.

Courtesy of Bacon Bomb on Steam:

https://mega.co.nz/#F!YN4EXTpQ!WvHjNDz1Xj11xuPjqrbUGA The "Ultimate Civ Modded MP Experience"

NOTE: Updated Feb 21, 2015. Nonworking E&D removed, a few more JFD civs and custom buildings added.



Has been played for 6 hours + with few bugs, though there are a few noticed:



Still, should be good stuff.

 

[DLimited]

That tends to happen whenever the folder or .modinfo files get renamed outside of modbuddy. While ideally the file detection would be done a different way, here's Chagui222's explanation of how the folder finding works:



So you should check whether there's multiple folders with the same .modinfo, and whether you the .modinfo file for diplomatic features has the desired format.

(Sorry, still getting used to the multiquote thing)

Thanks, I did manage to pack it now! However, it's not entirely usable yet.

First of all, the City State Diplomacy mod and Civ IV Diplomatic Features mod were skipped/not included in the DLC-modpack, for reasons unknown to me because I didn't see any errors/warnings during the packing process. This resulted in lots of "Could not find file xyz.xml" type errors when starting up a game. However, this seems to be fixed by manually copying the two mod folders into the DLC mod subfolder.

Second, and this is the big one: Loads of new text lines are missing. This screws up descriptions of new units, wonders, and even Social Policies! They work (and look/are interconnected) as in CBP, but they still have the same text as in BNW, so you have no idea what kind of policy you're actually picking, nor do you see the correct Opener, Finisher and in-between bonuses. Similarly, the More-Luxuries rescources are known as TXT_....._RESCOURCE_whathaveyou.

How do I fix that?

Oh, important to note: I do use Enhanced User Interface along with the CBP-EUI compatibility mod. I don't know if that messes things up, and I could not find the CityView.lua lines from the title page.

 

[cicero225]

Cicero, just to confirm, if Bacon Bomb has no dll in his MAIN folder under his mod, all I need to do is copy the .dll into that location, and that's it?

Per instructions in the first page it states the dll has to be copied to a folder under steamapps.

As I wait for you to confirm, i'll try it and keep my fingers crossed

I can confirm that yes. The custom dll takes effect just by being in the same folder. Since active MP is only a custom dll, you can copy it in posthoc.

Sorry to hear you're having trouble with BaconBomb's pack. I don't know how much he's tested it. I can try asking him...

 

[cicero225]

Thanks, I did manage to pack it now! However, it's not entirely usable yet.

First of all, the City State Diplomacy mod and Civ IV Diplomatic Features mod were skipped/not included in the DLC-modpack, for reasons unknown to me because I didn't see any errors/warnings during the packing process. This resulted in lots of "Could not find file xyz.xml" type errors when starting up a game. However, this seems to be fixed by manually copying the two mod folders into the DLC mod subfolder.

Second, and this is the big one: Loads of new text lines are missing. This screws up descriptions of new units, wonders, and even Social Policies! They work (and look/are interconnected) as in CBP, but they still have the same text as in BNW, so you have no idea what kind of policy you're actually picking, nor do you see the correct Opener, Finisher and in-between bonuses. Similarly, the More-Luxuries rescources are known as TXT_....._RESCOURCE_whathaveyou.

How do I fix that?

Oh, important to note: I do use Enhanced User Interface along with the CBP-EUI compatibility mod. I don't know if that messes things up, and I could not find the CityView.lua lines from the title page.

Hmm, it sounds like the text has gone missing from the copied game database. Alternatively, CBP does something custom to the text database that is isn't being picked up. Would it be possible to upload a copy of your completed modpack so I can examine it? It sounds like a flaw in MPMP maker.

It's likely your CityView.lua doesn't have any lines. not many mods do anything to that. That being said, in the new version of the mod, that should no longer be necessary...though I haven't tested it.

 

[DLimited]

Hmm, it sounds like the text has gone missing from the copied game database. Alternatively, CBP does something custom to the text database that is isn't being picked up. Would it be possible to upload a copy of your completed modpack so I can examine it? It sounds like a flaw in MPMP maker.

It's likely your CityView.lua doesn't have any lines. not many mods do anything to that. That being said, in the new version of the mod, that should no longer be necessary...though I haven't tested it.

Hopefully this works: https://www.dropbox.com/s/04k12xjscwyuybc/MP_MODSPACK.7z?dl=0

There are lots of empty files, although I wouldn't know why. I did have to change a couple modfolder names and .modinfo files before packing so that they match, but hopefully that doesn't break anything.

 

[maseren]

Actually i've contacted him directly on steam, and he's working to fix it some and host it somewhere a bit better. Thanks for all your help!

I can confirm that yes. The custom dll takes effect just by being in the same folder. Since active MP is only a custom dll, you can copy it in posthoc.

Sorry to hear you're having trouble with BaconBomb's pack. I don't know how much he's tested it. I can try asking him...

 

[maseren]

Cicero, sorry one more question. I've actually managed to compile a collection myself, surprisingly easy, HOWEVER, i'm still not very clear how to make JDH's AI Multiplayer MOD work. Does it have to be compiled as part of the modpack?

What i did, is exclude it FULLY from the modpack, and once that was done, moved the .dll to the modpack main directory. I ran a QUICK game... 50-60 turns, not once did the AI contact me for anything, so not sure if that worked or not. Any advise?

UPDATE: 2-27-2015:

So, I tried two different things. I compiled the MODS, removing the multiplayer AI mod completely for the compilation (attempting to compile it WITH it inside did not work, firetuner 2 would not run as long as it detected a .dll inside), and after it was created, i added the MOD back in to the mod list of the created modpack, AND, also added the .dll itself to the main folder of the modpack loosely by itself, this caused issues and a crash.

Since that didn't work, i removed the MOD folder from the modpack, and only added the .dll loosely to the main folder of the modpack. No crashes there, but it wasn't working. Played over 100 turns with no contact from an AI.

Any help would be very appreciated as its the last step before i can get playing!

Thanks!

Another Update:

So, I confirmed it, despite following the instructions in the first page for the Multiplayer AI mod and .ddls in general, no go. Compiled it as part of the modpack, if the .dll stays within the modpack mods folder, game crashes (shows washington as my leader when its not), if i remove it from there, and only keep it in the main modpack folder it doesn't seem to work.

I can confirm that yes. The custom dll takes effect just by being in the same folder. Since active MP is only a custom dll, you can copy it in posthoc.

Sorry to hear you're having trouble with BaconBomb's pack. I don't know how much he's tested it. I can try asking him...

 

[CleverAdvisor]

Me and a friend played with multiplayer AI mod and got it to work. I tried alot of things and in the end i just left the DLL in the folder while i created the pack and it ended up working.

 

[maseren]

So to clarify, did you use any OTHER civs besides the basic ones?

Wait, so it allowed you to compile it while you had a DLL within the MOD folder?? i thought the instructions stated that the dll should be removed.

For mine, what I did is I removed the dll and edited the mod info to remove this:

<File md5="C4F9D04B7FC67584A7D13E5C16163022" import="0">GameCore/CvGameCore_Expansion2.dll</File>

per the first page. If you can tell me step by step how you did it, i'd be very grateful. My wife and I have been waiting to play with the hopes of getting this working with new modpacks. Thanks man!

Me and a friend played with multiplayer AI mod and got it to work. I tried alot of things and in the end i just left the DLL in the folder while i created the pack and it ended up working.

 

[cicero225]

So to clarify, did you use any OTHER civs besides the basic ones?

Wait, so it allowed you to compile it while you had a DLL within the MOD folder?? i thought the instructions stated that the dll should be removed.

For mine, what I did is I removed the dll and edited the mod info to remove this:

<File md5="C4F9D04B7FC67584A7D13E5C16163022" import="0">GameCore/CvGameCore_Expansion2.dll</File>

per the first page. If you can tell me step by step how you did it, i'd be very grateful. My wife and I have been waiting to play with the hopes of getting this working with new modpacks. Thanks man!

Did you put that line BACK into the modinfo afterward? Sometimes it works to just leave the .dll in the mod folder (civ 5 is very inconsistent about this), but if that breaks it, then you should remove the dll and the line as you did, and then put it back afterward into C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\Sid Meier's Civilization V\assets\DLC\MP_MODSPACK (find the modinfo within the Mods folder and edit the line back in, too).

I've always thought it's okay to just drop the dll back in, but it sounds like maybe not, since you're having trouble.

 

[maseren]

Cicero and everyone that tried to help me, i figured it out. It was stealthy and I never saw what the issue was until 5 minutes ago. Initially I was playing with Bacon Bomb's modpack, which was excellent, but what I didn't know and didn't notice is that CIV IV diplomacy mod ALSO has a dll in it, which essentially was causing the issues. Strangely enough, the multiplayer mod maker would not point it out, and would try to compile it. Add the dll for multiplayer mod, and you have a major issue. I removed it, grabbed all my mods, created the modpack and like you advise cicero, dropped it in the main folder of the mod pack and BOOM, success!

So, if one day someone can figure out a way to make them work together it'd be awesome, but for me, an active AI is more important, though i WILL miss all the things that it brings.

 

[cicero225]

Cicero and everyone that tried to help me, i figured it out. It was stealthy and I never saw what the issue was until 5 minutes ago. Initially I was playing with Bacon Bomb's modpack, which was excellent, but what I didn't know and didn't notice is that CIV IV diplomacy mod ALSO has a dll in it, which essentially was causing the issues. Strangely enough, the multiplayer mod maker would not point it out, and would try to compile it. Add the dll for multiplayer mod, and you have a major issue. I removed it, grabbed all my mods, created the modpack and like you advise cicero, dropped it in the main folder of the mod pack and BOOM, success!

So, if one day someone can figure out a way to make them work together it'd be awesome, but for me, an active AI is more important, though i WILL miss all the things that it brings.

Ahh, yeah that would do it.

Unfortunately, mods that have dlls are mutually incompatible; the only way to combine is for the modders to manually compile and recompile their source code, which is, of course, a bit of an adventure. Even normal mods that have custom dlls are mutually incompatible, but you probably never noticed because Active MP AI isn't really a SP thing...

Though hmm, it might be a good idea to have the pack give a warning about dlls...

 

[cicero225]

Thanks, I did manage to pack it now! However, it's not entirely usable yet.

First of all, the City State Diplomacy mod and Civ IV Diplomatic Features mod were skipped/not included in the DLC-modpack, for reasons unknown to me because I didn't see any errors/warnings during the packing process. This resulted in lots of "Could not find file xyz.xml" type errors when starting up a game. However, this seems to be fixed by manually copying the two mod folders into the DLC mod subfolder.

Second, and this is the big one: Loads of new text lines are missing. This screws up descriptions of new units, wonders, and even Social Policies! They work (and look/are interconnected) as in CBP, but they still have the same text as in BNW, so you have no idea what kind of policy you're actually picking, nor do you see the correct Opener, Finisher and in-between bonuses. Similarly, the More-Luxuries rescources are known as TXT_....._RESCOURCE_whathaveyou.

How do I fix that?

Oh, important to note: I do use Enhanced User Interface along with the CBP-EUI compatibility mod. I don't know if that messes things up, and I could not find the CityView.lua lines from the title page.

There's actually all kinds of things that could go wrong with the pack you have...you're exceedingly lucky that the only thing wrong is missing text, because your mods folder has no less than 4 copies of CityView.lua, and if your city view works, then it must have randomly just happened to pick the right one .

Anyway, looking at what you have, it looks like your initial issue packaging really did mess something up. You'll probably find that all the CSD diplomacy units are missing. So it's necessary to figure out what's causing that...

There's something wrong with the way the more resources mod adds resources to the game, I think. This isn't the first time I've have someone complaining of missing text on the resources, except once the resource text breaks, everything else probably breaks too, since it's one giant file =/. I'll have to do more testing to figure out why it does that.

 

[Poizen 87]

So I've been able to fix the CTD issue when re-loading or exiting to desktop, but I now have another issue. After approximately 20 turns in multiplayer, the game begins de-syncing every turn. I'm currently trying to diagnose the issue in question, and my best hunch is Civs that use really intensive calculations for their abilities, or perhaps a civ with an ability that fires at the end of the turn.

For example, CL - Inuit has an improvement that causes borders to expand in adjacent tiles IF the culture pressure on that tile exceeds a certain amount. They Also have an ability that gives food for claimed ice/tundra tiles outside workable range.

[15385.078] Inuksuks: it triggered
[15385.078] Inuksuks: Inuksuk found!
[15385.078] Inuksuks: Inuksuit are trying to expand your territory!
[15385.078] Inuksuks: Challenge is 240 and culture is 4 in Ivvavik
[15385.078] Inuksuks: We found neutral ground
[15385.078] Inuksuks: We're checking for adjacency!
[15385.078] Inuksuks: Found adjacent Inuit land
[15385.078] Inuksuks: DoesItSpread? 134
[15385.078] Inuksuks: We found neutral ground
[15385.078] Inuksuks: We're checking for adjacency!
[15385.078] Inuksuks: Found adjacent Inuit land
[15385.078] Inuksuks: DoesItSpread? 181
[15385.078] Inuksuks: We found neutral ground
[15385.078] Inuksuks: We're checking for adjacency!
[15385.078] Inuksuks: We found neutral ground
[15385.078] Inuksuks: We're checking for adjacency!
[15385.078] Inuksuks: Found adjacent Inuit land
[15385.078] Inuksuks: DoesItSpread? 22
[15385.078] Inuksuks: We found neutral ground
[15385.078] Inuksuks: We're checking for adjacency!
[15385.078] Inuksuks: We found neutral ground
[15385.078] Inuksuks: We're checking for adjacency!
[15385.078] Inuksuks: Found adjacent Inuit land
[15385.078] Inuksuks: DoesItSpread? 17
[15385.078] Inuksuks: We found neutral ground
[15385.078] Inuksuks: We're checking for adjacency!
[15385.078] Inuksuks: We found neutral ground
[15385.078] Inuksuks: We're checking for adjacency!
[15385.078] Inuksuks: We found neutral ground
[15385.078] Inuksuks: We're checking for adjacency!
[15385.078] Inuksuks: Found adjacent Inuit land
[15385.078] Inuksuks: DoesItSpread? 151
[15385.078] UntilTheIceBreaks: Inuit found for OutOfReachTiles
[15385.093] UntilTheIceBreaks: Ivvavik has 0 secret Culture buildings.
[15385.093] UntilTheIceBreaks: Ivvavik has 0 secret Culture buildings.

MC's Tibet has an ability that literally checks every map tile each turn for trigger purposes:

[15446.531] Tibet_HimalayanCalvalry: PlotAreaSweepIterator((7, 7), r=1, s=1, d=fwd, w=out, c=no)
[15446.531] Tibet_HimalayanCalvalry: PlotAreaSweepIterator((7, 8), r=1, s=1, d=fwd, w=out, c=no)
[15446.531] Tibet_HimalayanCalvalry: PlotAreaSweepIterator((7, 9), r=1, s=1, d=fwd, w=out, c=no)
[15446.531] Tibet_HimalayanCalvalry: PlotAreaSweepIterator((8, 6), r=1, s=1, d=fwd, w=out, c=no)
[15446.531] Tibet_HimalayanCalvalry: PlotAreaSweepIterator((8, 10), r=1, s=1, d=fwd, w=out, c=no)
[15446.531] Tibet_HimalayanCalvalry: PlotAreaSweepIterator((11, 8), r=1, s=1, d=fwd, w=out, c=no)

^ That goes on for dozens and dozens of lines of code, and JFD's Bohemia civ also has the same problem.

Before I go digging too deeply into bug-checking something that might be a known issue, does it seem like I'm on the right track? I'm not using any of the events and decisions handlers mentioned in the OP- just new civs.

 

[Vicevirtuoso]

That many print statements in code will cause some serious slowdown. Going in and deleting all print statements from those scripts should improve Lua speed significantly, which may prevent desyncs.

 

[Poizen 87]

Would that be sufficient? Methinks the calculations themselves would also be intensive wouldn't it?

 

[Haken Browning]

Having thrown up my arms at the nightmare of TableSaverLoader kludging within the new builds of Wish For The World, the Crystal Fire pack is now beginning development of an alternate Rebellion-centric modspack line. See my just-after-the-OP post for details.

So far I fear that we're still not escaping the eccentricities of TSL16, as at least one case has been reported of a non-Ultimate Madoka civ (MSF v15) receiving Magical Girls while UMadoka herself isn't among the game's civs. If I can ensure this can be propagated to all mod/native civs rather than just modcivs using TSL16 for data caching played by Player 0, then I can hopefully push the Plan B builds as a Wish-lite and get rid of both Plan A's issues with Grief Seed usage not caching and post-Plan A Wish having entirely too many buckets to fill to be multiplayer-viable.

And if I can't ensure it on my own, I'd like to ask Vice what needs done to make it that way.

SORE DE WA MAGICA FIGHT! READY, GO!!

 

[Vicevirtuoso]

Would that be sufficient? Methinks the calculations themselves would also be intensive wouldn't it?

Print statements in quantities that large are shockingly processor-intensive. While I haven't looked at those Civs' code, I can speak from experience in my own mod that, when I had multiple print statements installed into a function which happened every time a unit moved, I would see some noticeable frame delay between each tile my units moved.

Having thrown up my arms at the nightmare of TableSaverLoader kludging within the new builds of Wish For The World, the Crystal Fire pack is now beginning development of an alternate Rebellion-centric modspack line. See my just-after-the-OP post for details.

That's a shame -- I did some tests with emeralis and cicero with an earlier version of the mod, and I had worked out a lot of (but not quite all) of the kinks. I wonder if TSL serializer is the culprit?

I'd look, but right now it seems that the mod has CTDs in standard mod-load mode, so I need to make sure it's working at 100% there before I even think of trying to fix multiplayer.

So far I fear that we're still not escaping the eccentricities of TSL16, as at least one case has been reported of a non-Ultimate Madoka civ (MSF v15) receiving Magical Girls while UMadoka herself isn't among the game's civs. If I can ensure this can be propagated to all mod/native civs rather than just modcivs using TSL16 for data caching played by Player 0, then I can hopefully push the Plan B builds as a Wish-lite and get rid of both Plan A's issues with Grief Seed usage not caching and post-Plan A Wish having entirely too many buckets to fill to be multiplayer-viable.

Rebellion Pack no longer uses TSL. Are you using v12 of Rebellion Pack?

 

[Haken Browning]

Rebellion Pack no longer uses TSL. Are you using v12 of Rebellion Pack?

I am in fact using v12 and have verified this (for low-tech readers: the Rebellion Pack loads civs via PMMMTraitBootstrapper.lua), and have furthermore semi-successfully replicated the glitch locally. Quitting to Main Menu after starting a single-player game as Ultimate Madoka and starting a new SP game copies the Magical Girl capability to the Player 0 (human's civ) of the next game...as long as that civ happens to be the MSF (or in theory any civ caching data in TSL16 AND not using unique Great People - Arturia failed to spawn a GG from a used KotR, tests with the Saints remain inconclusive, and I have to confirm whether Axel Wildfire's test of Nanoha was properly catalyzed). How PMMMTB.lua would be writing the UMadoka boolean state to TSL16, I wouldn't know, but for the sake of fun I sure don't want it flushed from cache.

 

[Damirith]

So I take it that Civ 4 Diplomacy Features and the City-State Diplomacy Mod does not work for this yet?