New Modpack released for those who enjoy the base game

[JPetroski]

@Knighttime has just uploaded his Medieval Millennium in the Scenario League forums. While I appreciate not all of you enjoy "scenarios" this really isn't one - it's a modpack that gets every last drop of juice out of the Civ2 Test of Time game engine. Go check out the release thread. If you like empire builders, open worlds, random worlds, etc. then you will love this.

 

[Buck2005]

This is an obvious new breakthrough project in the history of civ2. I think this mod will be interesting to the real audience of this game.


A short note: )
However, I would like to have a simple and intuitive recommendation for running this mod. For example, I just downloaded this mod to the folder with a new copy of the game (as you suggested). I run the "play a mod" option. I am informed "No mod found!" I'm sure if I spend more than 5 minutes to figure out how to configure the mod, I will certainly be able to run it. But unfortunately, I cannot spend more time on this now. It would be much easier and more convenient (for a wide audience of players) for this mod to be accompanied by step-by-step recommendations for launching it. )

 

[JPetroski]

I'm 100% certain that knighttime included that information in the readme. When you have a few moments, read through it and get it installed. Your name came up more than once in playtesting. I think you're going to love this!

 

[Knighttime]

The "Play a mod" option, as written by TheNamelessOne, only finds mods installed in folders that are directly beneath the game's main folder. This isn't configurable, unfortunately. If you still have questions or problems after carefully following the Readme.txt instructions, please let me know. I'll gladly update that file if additional info or tips are necessary. Good luck!

 

[Buck2005]

Yes, I didn’t look at Readme yesterday, it’s my mistake. So, I still need your help getting started. Please see what I did wrong:


1. I installed the Medieval Millennium subdirectory into a new "clean" TOTPP
View attachment 576189View attachment 576191

2. I run the "play mod" option. And I get this message:
View attachment 576193
3. Nevertheless, I go through all the stages of choosing the world and so on, and in the final I receive the following message:
View attachment 576194

 

[Knighttime]

The message you saw in #2, "EXIT - Medieval Millennium v1.0.0 is not installed", is actually a good sign. This means that TOTPP found the folder correctly, which is an improvement over the "No mods found" message you saw originally.

With Civ2 closed, did you run the MM_install batch file as specified in Readme.txt? It appears to me that you did not, or if you tried, it didn't complete successfully. Because of the complexity of Medieval Millennium, it isn't enough just to unzip the download file -- you also have to run the installation script, before you open Civ.

You should just be able to double-click that batch file to run it. If this doesn't work, then try opening up a console window in your operating system, changing to the Medieval Millennium directory, typing MM_install at the command prompt, and pressing Enter. If you see any error messages, please post a screenshot here so I can review further.

The error message you saw in #3 is a direct result of trying to click OK and play the mod anyway, when it said to click Exit because it wasn't properly installed. That isn't going to work.

 

[Buck2005]

I was so damn inconsiderate. Yes, I just forgot to run this MM_install file, although this is very clearly written in READ ME. However, the mod now works exactly as described in the launch instructions. All perfectly. I edited the previous post so as not to litter this thread with big pictures.

I don't have time this weekend to study your work thoroughly. I did a few tours to get some impression. I am definitely impressed with the volume and quality of your work. A total rework of the entire game balance within the game on a random map. A huge number of different improvements. t is very, very unfortunate that this mod is currently only available for single player play. I only use civ2 for multiplayer. But most players use this game mode. I'm sure your mod will be a huge success. However, I will definitely play this mod in its entirety from start to finish.

A few quick remarks on several rounds I've done in the game.

1). A lot of voluminous text in pop-up windows. This is certainly convenient for a player who speaks good English. For players who do not speak English, or who are at a weak level, the congestion of the gameplay with windows with text will cause undoubted difficulties. The main problem is the inability to copy the text for translation in the online translator. For example, in our Russian civ2 group, probably only 10-20% of the players are fluent in English. For the rest, your mod will be unavailable due to the language barrier. Of course, can make a complete translation of the mods into the national language. Although it is a time consuming job, it is generally not difficult. However, it takes some motivation to invest the labor. For example, I do not have it yet, since I prefer multiplayer. If in the future it becomes possible to add multiplayer to the mod, I could take on such a job. The second way seems to me to be simpler and more promising. It is necessary to minimize the amount of text in the windows and try to maximize the transfer of all text to external files READ ME, where translation will be possible. A more or less experienced civ2 player will be able to figure out the mod intuitively, in terms of game mechanics. This will remove the language barrier.

2. In fact, I don't really have any other significant comments at the moment, since I played very little time. Note that I am somewhat surprised at the fundamentalism at the start of the game. I admit that this will be balanced by game mechanics in the future. I was also struck by the types of terrain. What is Heathland? How did you manage to get the bonus off the road in this area? If it's tundra, how did you manage to generate a random map consisting of the default tundra? This is amazing and clearly a great advance in mod. I think, as I study your mod, I will have an incredible number of questions, how did you manage to achieve these or those effects.

Anyway, I am impressed with your work. This is truly a new word in mod creation. I will definitely recommend your mod to other players.

 

[Knighttime]

I'm glad to hear that your installation succeeded. I'm also glad to hear that your initial impression is a positive one, and I hope you're able to dive into Medieval Millennium and play an entire game soon. Have fun!

My impression is that there is a bigger potential audience for single-player scenarios than for those which are only multiplayer. So for an initial 1.0 release, I decided to focus on a single-player game in which the AI could utilize the same features as the human player and prove to be a true competitor. However, I recognize that some players do have a preference -- even a pretty strong one -- for multiplayer. Clearly, then, a scenario that can work smoothly either way would be ideal. I would like to add support for multiplayer into MM at some point in the future, so you might see that in an update release at some point. In the meantime, I hope players find the AI to be a worthy opponent.

There are some lengthy text boxes on early turns, but these are the exception and not typical of the entire game. The primary purpose of them is to emphasize to new players that a lot of the functionality they might expect from Civ II has been altered, and to encourage players to read the documentation instead of simply getting frustrated because they don't understand what's going on.

All of the documentation for the game is available in PDF files in the "Documentation" folder (exactly the same info as is present within the game itself). I think that anyone who wants to read the documentation in a language other than English could copy from those files and paste into Google Translate or something similar. It's certainly an extra step, and the in-game text would continue to be in English, but it might serve to make the game accessible to those less fluent in English. Let me know what you think.

 

[Buck2005]

Yes, I looked in the "Documentation" folder, there is quite enough comprehensive information.

The vast majority of civ2 players really prefer single player mode. So your decision to make this mode in the first place is quite correct. This will allow you to reach the maximum audience.

Also one of my first impressions is how carefully your work is done. Every small detail has been thought out (documentation, dialog boxes, general design, and so on). As if this mod was created by a real game studio.

This is definitely a really cool job.
I plan to go through the whole game and write a detailed review.

 

[Buck2005]

Just small notes:

The coming and going "pollution" (depletion, or whatever it stands for) is just great, WOW! This is incomparable, real dark ages. The centering of the screen is extremely irritating, each move moving somewhere to the center of the map. Barbarians are pouring in bundles, but they cannot kill anyone. An archer is stronger than a cataput. An incomprehensible unit, the Visigoth militia, appears and disappears. My nation is the most backward (6th or 7th place in F8). I play at maximum difficulty, with maximum barbarians. However, I don't remember ever having to be an outsider with an AI.
It is very cool. )

I use the "full immersion" method in the game. I did not specifically read any explanatory files, but try to act at random - as happened in real history (and also, as I played more than 20 years ago, when I met civ2).

 

[Knighttime]

The centering of the screen is extremely irritating, each move moving somewhere to the center of the map.

I've noticed this too. I'll see if it's something I can correct, but it might be a side effect of some events which can't be entirely prevented.

Barbarians are pouring in bundles, but they cannot kill anyone.

I'm not sure how many turns you've played, but there are some stronger barbarians coming later. (For example, Vikings can be pretty tough if you don't have City Walls.)

An archer is stronger than a catapult.

No, but a catapult is an artillery unit and all artillery are capped at doing 50% damage to an enemy. It's your choice to play without reading the documentation but this is explained there!

An incomprehensible unit, the Visigoth militia, appears and disappears.

It turns out that when events change terrain improvements (roads, irrigation, etc.) on tiles you've already explored, your view of the map doesn't update to show you the changes. This can be really confusing since a terrain that looks irrigated isn't necessarily producing extra Health like you'd expect. To fix this, I have the events create one of your units on the affected tile and immediately delete it again; this updates your map view so it is always correct. On my PC, the unit is created/deleted so quickly that I can't even see it; sorry if it's more visible to you, but I still think it's better than the alternative of a misleading map.

My nation is the most backward (6th or 7th place in F8). I play at maximum difficulty, with maximum barbarians. However, I don't remember ever having to be an outsider with an AI.

Yikes! I can't come close to beating this on max difficulty and max barbarians, and I know all the tricks!
I'd recommend that most players use "Duke" or easier difficulty for their first game, but hey, do what's fun for you!

I use the "full immersion" method in the game. I did not specifically read any explanatory files, but try to act at random - as happened in real history (and also, as I played more than 20 years ago, when I met civ2).

Again... not what I'd recommend, but if that's your favorite way to learn how the scenario works, go for it!

 

[Dadais]

Looks gorgeous. This IS gorgeous !
Little issue, beginning turn, 2 peasant militias got dismissed. Guess one of them was active, that launched the "press Enter to end turn" trigger on main map. Pressed "V" to play the other units.

Could this be avoided by selecting as active unit any existing unit of the player after destroying militias (or others) ?

 

[Knighttime]

Thank you, @Dadais! Also good catch on the Peasant Militia. I've never experienced that personally, but I can see how it could happen. I had to deal with a similar problem for projectiles, and was able to resolve it in that case, so it shouldn't be too difficult for me to apply the same solution here.

 

[Knighttime]

Just for the sake of organization, I think I'd like to encourage everyone to post about this in the official Medieval Millennium release thread going forward, rather than here. I certainly appreciate JPetroski starting this thread in order to highlight the scenario for people who don't normally visit the Scenario League forum, and I appreciate the comments from Buck2005 and Dadais as well. But consolidating the feedback and conversations in one thread seems beneficial all around. Thanks, and please continue sharing your reactions there along with any questions or issues!