Questions about The BUG Mod

[EmperorFool]

Does anyone know where there is a good explanation of the data on the Espionage screen? I have no idea what the numbers mean next to the various rulers. I'm using BUG 4.3.

Next to each leader are four important numbers off the top of my head. The weights determine how your :spy: points are divided among the rivals each turn. The percent is applied to your spending costs, so if you have 110% and you run a 50 point mission, it costs you 55 points.

The two numbers (+ or -) over each other are your points this turn against the rival and the rival's points against you. You can hide the latter numbers using the "Show enemy points" (or something like it) label button at the top of the list.

 

[_alphaBeta_]

Does anyone know where there is a good explanation of the data on the Espionage screen? I have no idea what the numbers mean next to the various rulers. I'm using BUG 4.3.

This (BUG Espionage Screen) should get you started. This screen is new in this release and very powerful. If you're still stuck, post some screenshots with specific questions. I'm not exactly sure what you mean by rulers.

 

[Finarfin]

Thanks for the answers. I'm going to check out that reference. By 'rulers' I meant the opposing leaders. I guess I prefer to rule more than lead. EmperorFool's explanation was nice and straightforward, but I think the problem is that I don't really understand the Civ4 espionage aspect. I'll have to try to get a grasp on it as I'm installing BULL! I know that I have a positive ratio of espionage to my opponents and I like sending spies to disrupt their activities, but beyond that I don't haven't really gotten an understanding of it yet. For example, I don't really understand the sentence 'The weights determine how your :spy: points are divided among the rivals each turn.' I know that I'm bringing in x amount of espionage each turn, but I thought that just went into a general pool of available points. Using a specific example from my current game I see the following for Saladin:

He has the Spy icon to the left of his portrait. I'm assuming this means I'm in a positive relationship spy-wise to him, but not really sure what this means. The next column shows 59% which I'm unsure of the meaning of. The next column has [8] which I'm going to go out on a limb and guess is the number of turns left from my counterespionage mission. The next column has two lines. The top one says 1339 EPs (+680) and below it is 8527 EPS (+69). I really am confused by those numbers. The last column is blank, but for all other leaders I see what looks like an EKG machine followed by science beaker. I have no idea what those indicate. Regardless, I love the available data and am determined to find out what it all means!

 

[Finarfin]

Does the ALT+hover over unit icon no longer show the available movement locations? (It's on the Plot List tab as Move Highlighter.) At least it isn't for me. I'm running BUG 4.3 with BULL 1.1 and the option to show is checked on.

 

[ruff_hi]

He has the Spy icon to the left of his portrait. I'm assuming this means I'm in a positive relationship spy-wise to him, but not really sure what this means.

The spy icon means that you are spending espionage points (EPs) against this leader. There are two little buttons against each leader (a + and a -). These adjust the weight of EPs that you spend against each leader. If every leader has the same weight, then the EPs are split roughly evenly. If you have a weight of '2' against 1 leader and '1' against all of the others, then the leader with the '2' will get twice as many EPs against him as you spend against the others.

If you have a zero weight against 1 leader and a non-zero weight against any other leader, then the leader with zero weight will get no EPs spend against them.

The next column shows 59% which I'm unsure of the meaning of.

This is the espionage mission cost multiplier. If you spend more total EPs against a leader than he spends against you (measured over the total game), then your mission multipler goes down (missions are cheaper) and his goes up. A 59% is pretty good - did you run a spy Great Person mission against this leader? The actual formula is around here somewhere - check that thread someone provided earlier.

You can also see the leaders espionage mission multiplier that he has against you if you select the optional espionage check box in the BUG options.

The next column has [8] which I'm going to go out on a limb and guess is the number of turns left from my counterespionage mission.

Correct. You can also see the countdown that the AI has against you if he runs a counter-espionage mission against you and you have that optional option checked.

The next column has two lines. The top one says 1339 EPs (+680)

This is your EPs against him (1339) and how many will be added next turn (680) - that number can be changed by playing with the weighting of EPs or the total EPs that you are spending.

and below it is 8527 EPS (+69)

That is his EPs against you (8527) and how many he added last turn (69).

The last column is blank, but for all other leaders I see what looks like an EKG machine followed by science beaker.

The EKG is an indicator that says you can see his demographics (if present) or not (if not there). In this situation, you don't have enough EPs against him so you cannot see his demographics.

If you have that optional espionage option checked - you also see little indicators that indicate if the AI can see your demographics.

The science beaker indicates if you can see his current research (or he can see yours).

 

[_alphaBeta_]

By 'rulers' I meant the opposing leaders. I guess I prefer to rule more than lead.

I thought you were referring to horizontal lines like a ruler. It's been a long day, sorry.

EmperorFool's explanation was nice and straightforward, but I think the problem is that I don't really understand the Civ4 espionage aspect.

Try this thread. Don't be intimidated by the math, read Roland Johansen's posts.

Looks like ruff_hi already beat me to the rest.

 

[Finarfin]

Can anyone confirm that the Move Highlight still works for them under BUG 4.3?

 

[Fimbulvetr]

Doesn't work for me either. I have no idea since when though, I didn't even know about this until now.

 

[Finarfin]

It definitely worked in 4.2. It's a feature I used faithfully, and I'm feeling lost without it! Another thing I noticed between 4.2 and 4.3 is that when you are negotiating with a leader, and you get the hover information, it no longer shows what deals you currently have with that nation. And, maybe this is just specific to me, but when I moved from BUG 4.2 to BUG 4.3 + BULL 1.1 the game performance seemed to take a big hit.

 

[EmperorFool]

Make sure you have the Draw Method on the Plot List tab set to PLE for the move highlighter. Ruff can confirm whether or not this will go away when he kills PLE once and for all.

I didn't add anything major to BUG--certainly nothing that should account for a performance hit. Are you using BAT or just BUG and BULL? BULL just does hover text, so that shouldn't be noticeable during the normal game. Is there anything in particular that seems slower?

 

[Finarfin]

I'm currently not running BAT, as the game I'm trying to finish wasn't started with it. I'm running just BUG and BULL. I definitely have it set to PLE, as that was carried over from my 4.2 settings and I double checked it any way. Does this mean that you still see it working in 4.3? And what happens when PLE goes away 'once and for all'? Will the move highlighter be lost, along with the various ways of setting up how you see the units stacked, etc.?

As far as performance, there seems to be a lot more caching going on during game startup and delays at the beginning of my turn. And when leaving the game my disk will just go crazy for a while after I've exited, as if something is being written or read. This could just be something going on with my system, but it seems to only happen with Civ4 and only after I updated to BUG 4.3 and BULL 1.1. So I've really added a couple of variables at the same time: a BUG update and a new application (BULL).

 

[Fimbulvetr]

Deals should be shown if you hold CTRL

Anyway, if I had ALT while hovering over one of my axemen I see 4 lines of description, which is one more than without ALT. The line says: "Leading Group(180226), 1 units" which I guess comes from running debug mode. Could that be a reason why it doesn't work for me?

 

[Finarfin]

Deals should be shown if you hold CTRL

You're right. I thought it always showed them.

 

[Fimbulvetr]

It probably did. I'm actually in favor of changing that back (show deals too, even without CTRL)

 

[EmperorFool]

The deals were shown only recently, and then I switched it to CTRL. That all happened in the space of a couple commits I think. Deals were never shown in the scoreboard before BULL. In any case, you can hover over the Trade Network icon (three arrows) to see the deals without holding CTRL. I did that in case the list got long having added all the worst enemy, war, peace, and defensive pact listings.

Now, if you are talking about the deals showing elsewhere--not in the scoreboard--let me know. That is a mistake. I didn't intend to remove them from anywhere.

I haven't noticed any difference in speed on my end, and I launch/quit/launch/quit BTS a lot during testing, so I would think I'd notice something. Then again, if it happened gradually I may not notice, so I'll do some wall-clock testing this weekend.

 

[Zink]

In the base game, you can so long as you haven't ended a turn yet. That's always been my yardstick, though I've never played on a small enough map where I've met someone on turn 1 and checked to see if I could still regenerate. But I just booted Civ, settled in place, moved my warrior, and had a regenerate map option.

That's how i know it too. On my other PC i use BUG 4.1 and i can regenerate map as long as i havent ended the first turn.
I'll try ALT+G although i only use BUG.

Thanks for BUG though, couldnt play without it anymore!

 

[CBPE]

I apologize for this post if the following questions have already been done.

I'm using bug 4.2 and bull 1.0 which I'd installed copying the extracted files in the proper folders (NOT by the installer), in 'CustomAssets' (NOT as a mod)

Now, I'd want to update at 4.3 and 1.1.

I've unzipped the bug 4.3 file (I don't want to use the installer not even this time) but I've noticed that the names fo the folders that it counts are a bit different from the ones that there were in 4.2, and the 'readme' text for the install instructions seems not to be updated:

1: it says: "you must first copy the files and folders from the Assets folder into your CustomAssets folder", but I have a 'CustomAssets' folder and not an 'Assets' folder in the unzipped folder too (even if the files that it counts seem the right ones, ART/CONFIG/PHYTON/RES/XML)

2: it says: "Finally, copy the files inside PrivateMaps into BTS's PublicMaps folder.", but I have a 'Publicmaps' folder and not a 'Privatempas' folder in the unzipped folder too (even if the files that it counts seem the right ones, Full_of_Resources_3_00.py/Low_Random_Maps_3_0.py/Maze.py etc.)

3: it doesn't mention the 'GameSetUpCheck' folder that I've founded in unzipped bug folder.

So, to update the version, I'd like to know if I'll correct doing so:

A - I'll copy the file in the CustomAssets unzipped folder into the My Documents/My Games/Beyond the sword/CustomAssets folder (overwriting what is there, maybe I'll keep a copy of the original one)

B - I'll copy the Info and UserSettings folders into the My Documents/My Games/Beyond the sword/BUG mod folder (overwriting what is there, maybe I'll keep a copy of the original one)

C - I'll copy the file in the PublicMaps unzipped folder into the My Documents/My Games/Beyond the sword/PublicMaps folder (overwriting what is there, maybe I'll keep a copy of the original one)

then:

D - what will I do with the 'GameSetUpCheck' folder?

E - Is there a way to keep my old settings doing so?

F - Is it better to install before the files for bug 4.3 or before the ones for bull 1.1 (or is the same)?

Just hope I was enough clear

Thank you in advance

 

[Finarfin]

The deals were shown only recently, and then I switched it to CTRL. That all happened in the space of a couple commits I think. Deals were never shown in the scoreboard before BULL. In any case, you can hover over the Trade Network icon (three arrows) to see the deals without holding CTRL. I did that in case the list got long having added all the worst enemy, war, peace, and defensive pact listings.

Now, if you are talking about the deals showing elsewhere--not in the scoreboard--let me know. That is a mistake. I didn't intend to remove them from anywhere.

I haven't noticed any difference in speed on my end, and I launch/quit/launch/quit BTS a lot during testing, so I would think I'd notice something. Then again, if it happened gradually I may not notice, so I'll do some wall-clock testing this weekend.

I'm going to defer to you in these matters since I've only recently started playing Civ again. I could have sworn, though, that at one point you could see the deals in the hover during negotiations with an opponent. Regardless, BUG and BULL give me enough options to see the information needed that I'm not worried about my declining memory.

As far as speed, I'm sure it's probably just something on my system. I was messing around with switching back to BUG 4.2 so that I could have the move highlighter and I was probably just annoying my computer. But I feel naked without the move highlighter!

EDIT: Yea! Fixed my move highlighter. Being the moron I am I was looking at the wrong PLE checkbox.

 

[Fimbulvetr]

It needs not only the "PLE Style" checkbox, which is checked by default anyway, but also Draw Method "PLE" it seems, which is at "Vanilla" by default.

 

[EmperorFool]

1: it says: "you must first copy the files and folders from the Assets folder into your CustomAssets folder".

A. Yes, I forgot to rename the folder. It is the same folder, and you should copy these files to your CustomAssets folder.

B. You are correct about those folders, but nothing changed in them between 4.2 and 4.3, so you don't need to copy the new Info and UserSettings folders.

2: it says: "Finally, copy the files inside PrivateMaps into BTS's PublicMaps folder.".

C. Yes, again I forgot to rename the folder when making the ZIP. Copy these to PublicMaps.

3: it doesn't mention the 'GameSetUpCheck' folder that I've founded in unzipped bug folder.

D. Copy this folder to the "BUG Mod" folder in your "My Games/BTS" folder. It should be next to your UserSettings folder.

E. BUG never includes the INI files which are what contain your personal settings. The new version of BUG will use your old settings files.

F. BUG and BULL do not have any files in common, so you can copy them in either order. However, the next version of BUG (4.4) will be removing some files, so you won't be able to merely copy the new files over the old ones like this. It is highly recommended that you rename your CustomAssets folder and install the new files into a new empty CustomAssets folder.

If you have BlueMarble, other mods, or your own changes in those folders, do them again in a new CA folder. I recommend you do this even for this 4.3 release, just to be safe. This also makes it easy to rollback if anything goes wrong.

BTW, thanks for the Italian translations of the Show Hidden Attitude Mod. They'll go into the next BULL release.