No raze patching

[Tasslehoff]

Hi, I'm playing in an SG with a scenario. We want to play the game with a no-raze patch installed while we play. Unfortunately, the no-raze patch is a .exe file, and I can't use it. I know there are ways to open simulating Windows, but those tend to lag my computer far too much.

Does anybody know of a no-raze patch that can be used for macs?

Thanks!

 

[AlanH]

Give us a clue. Where did you get the no-raze patch?

 

[AlanH]

I've tracked down the reference, in the SG thread you were hoping to join.

It looks as though someone has hacked the Windows version of Civ3 to prevent city razing. That involves reverse-engineering the machine code in the application, and hex editing the relevant machine instructions to do what is required.

I think there is a near-zero chance of you being able to find someone willing or able to do the equivalent change to the Mac version.

Note that the EULA expressly forbids reverse engineering, modifying and/or distributing a copy of the application.

 

[Tasslehoff]

*blinks* Wow, I didn't know that. Are you sure that's the only way? I could have sworn that I've heard of other no-raze patches before.

Wow... Thanks.

 

[AlanH]

Well, I'm simply going by the fact that the instructions they gave you require you to change the .exe file. That is the main application file in the Windows version, equivalent to the "Civilization 3 Complete.app" bundle in your Mac OS X installation.

 

[Tasslehoff]

Hi again Alan, I decided against making a new thread for this, because it's related:

I can't get the scenario to work. I've followed the instructions, and they've worked for all the windows players, but not for me. The folder, renamed text file and all is in the Conquests folder, but it doesn't work.

Yet every time I try to load the save, it says that the PediaIcon is missing from Conquests Game Data/Text file. Which is interesting, because it should be looking in Conquests Game Data/Conquests/TCW Fifties/Text.

Any clue?

EDIT: Here's the link to the SG

 

[AlanH]

It's not clear which Conquests folder you have put it in. Normally scenarios go in one of two places:

~/Documents/Civilization 3 Complete/Scenarios/

Or

[Location of Civilization 3 Complete application]/Conquests Game Data/Scenarios/

Then you select "Civ Content" in the main menu to bring up the list of scenarios to choose from.

[Location of Civilization 3 Complete application]/Conquests/ is another possible location, and it may work as well, but I've no experience of it.

The folder structure of the Mac version is different from the Windows one, so the Civ3 software has to try to translate file paths that are included in scenarios to find the correct files. Aspyr had a lot of trouble with this in the first version, and Rev A was supposed to fix most of it, so you *must* ensure that your Civ3 is patched to Rev A. It may still have trouble with some scenarios, and I don't know how well it deals with the "Conquests" location.

If the mod is one of those that defeats the Mac version's file path translation system, the workround is to create a new folder structure containing aliases or symlinks to your actual Civ3 folders, and make it look like the Windows folder structure. Then run Civ3 Complete from within that dummy folder structure and all the paths should work. There are examples of this technique used for other purposes in the threads describing how to get Windows editors and CivAssist II to run on a Mac using Parallels. This case doesn't require Parallels, as all you are doing is remapping the folders.

I'll try to download the mod and investigate. [UPDATE] Three attempts have failed to get the full file. I'll try Speed Download instead of Safari.

 

[AlanH]

OK, got it eventually. I installed it in ~/Documents/Civilization 3 Complete/Scenarios/, edited the Text - UNALIGNED folder to be the same as your screenshot, and started a game with India. There were a lot of adviser messages about new buildings starting, then an error message:

FILE NOT FOUND

"Art\Units\Charioteer\PanzerAttackGun.wav"

That file is actually in Art\Units\Panzer\. So I think we are seeing the problem I described above. That error is presumably different from the one you got, indicating that the paths that are failing are different in my case.

I'll see if a folder full of aliases will work better.

 

[Tasslehoff]

Actually, I had the same error message when starting a new game, but a different one when loading a save file.

And my installation was in ~/Civilization 3 Complete/Conquests Game Data/Conquests, and I had the problem that the game wanted the text and art files to be directly in Conquests Game Data folders, as opposed to Conquests Game Data/Conquests. Putting those files in Conquests Game Data required overwriting the text and art files for the original game, which made C3C impossible to start at all.

 

[AlanH]

Sorry, I've been busy and haven't had time to test an alias solution to the problem.

There is an added challenge with these issues: The Mac game software is actually trying several different paths, so there's no guarantee that the error message is telling you where the files *ought* to be. It may simply be reporting where it last failed to find them.

 

[Tasslehoff]

Hi Alan,
I'm back, and I'm still stuck. I've tried patching Civ to the Mac patch located here, but it still fails to recognize anything, with the files in either location. Do you have any idea?

Note: These crashes have been trying to load a save file. When I try to start a new game, I get a lot of long loading, a bunch of city building messages, and then a totally different error message (PanzerAttackGun.wav).

 

[AlanH]

Hi Alan,
I'm back, and I'm still stuck. I've tried patching Civ to the Mac patch located here, but it still fails to recognize anything, with the files in either location. Do you have any idea?

That was a recommendation from my first post. But as I indicated, I tested it here and it didn't work, so I'm not surprised it's failing for you.

Note: These crashes have been trying to load a save file. When I try to start a new game, I get a lot of long loading, a bunch of city building messages, and then a totally different error message (PanzerAttackGun.wav).

The PanzerAttackGun.wav error is the one I described above. The fact that it fails in a different way when you load a save file probably just means it's loading stuff in a different order, so it hits a different failure first.

I still need to find time to try to build a "virtual image" using symbolic links to try to emulate the Windows folder structure for Civ3.