Realism Invictus

[ThirdOrbital]

I posted this earlier to another Realism: Invictus thread:

For the memory problems/crashes, I think I found a solution that works for me. It was suggested for another game, but works well here to. The app is called Process Lasso from Bitsum. It runs in the background and monitors/optimizes all the process that are running on your PC. It manages the priorities to keep background processes from hogging the CPU from foreground processes.

One feature it has is a thing called Trim. It will execute a Trim to have certain processes release memory at designated conditions. The other feature is Process Watchdog. This is a tool to monitor a specific process and take certain defined actions when defined conditions occur.

For Civ 4, I have a Watchdog set to Trim the working set memory whenever it exceeds 825Mb. I have not had an in-game memory problem ever since. The only problem is when I try to load a saved game from a running game. It crashes me to the desktop, but then I just restart and load the saved game fresh.

And I'm playing the historical scenario with 55 Civs and the Huge Earth map. I'm currently in game year 1781 and my save game file is 6,148kb.

Thanks so much for this. I had more or less resigned to suffering constant memory failures on huge maps near the late Renaissance. Process Lasso has not eliminated them entirely but I now go for hours between issues.

 

[Walter Hawkwood]

Small bug report: there are two names of Novgorod under the control of vinkings(Holmgard, Holmgardr) in DynamicCityNaming, which can't shift to other names normally when captured by other civs. They should be unified.

Thanks, fixed.

When finishing building canals(UI of China) on flood plains, they become desert plots at last. It seems that canal is a kind of feature on plot rather than an improvement?

Oof, that's quite an oversight from me - canal is an improvement, but to get it to tile properly, it uses a cosmetic "feature". While most features are rightly removed when a canal is built, obviously it shouldn't mess with flood plains. I'll think of a fix.

Have a repeat crash at the end ot this turn. Tried the DLL file a few pages back but no luck. I'm playing the lite version of 3.55.

Hm, are you sure you're using the latest dll I posted: https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/realism-invictus.411799/page-403#post-16167777

Because it works without a crash for me, here's the next turn save.

 

[sazhdapec]

A bit of feedback.
1) Turkish civ cannot build windmills. Is this intended?
2) I know nothing of these kind of things but it just caught my eye. Nguni civ uses Jezailchi as its distinctive Light Infantry. But according to wiki jezails were not commonly used in South Africa.
3) There is a gap in the technology tree between Military Industry and Assembly Line when there are no buildings that give new siege units +2 experience points.
4) Watermill improvement is quite atrocious. I've never actually built it once I got accustomed to RI. Why would I ever build it over a farm or a cottage? At least can it have one extra food?
5) I have a feeling that Free Religion civic is a bit overvalued by AI when there is only one religion present in a civ.
6) I think the difference in cost between Cavalry and Modern Cavalry is a bit too high. It's bigger than between Cavalry and Cuirassier.
7) I think that Blitz and March promotions should be available right away. Since the combat system of RI is more complicated than in vanilla I don't think this change would break it.
8) I suspect there is no way to lock improvements behind civics or make them go obsolete. It's just AI loves building slave farms all the time even when mech farms become available.
9) When a civ rises from the dead the the capital city doesn't get the palace.
10) I think slaves are much more useful as building makers than improvement makers. May I ask to change the default behavior of slaves to UNITAI_ENGINEER?
11) German civ's unique building - Assembly Plant - though cheaper gives less hammers directly than a regular Machine Tools Factory (+2 vs +5). Is this intended?
12) After seeing a lot of AI stacks I have a feeling that it doesn't take into account units' inherited bonuses and penalties. For example, AI loves using recon and mounted units in an assault stack but not shock units. Then it reaches an enemy city, fails to take it and just roams around. Can anyone please fix this?

 

[Walter Hawkwood]

1) Turkish civ cannot build windmills. Is this intended?

It was, back when Timar was a better windmill. Now it isn't, so I'll reenable them.

2) I know nothing of these kind of things but it just caught my eye. Nguni civ uses Jezailchi as its distinctive Light Infantry. But according to wiki jezails were not commonly used in South Africa.

Very true, and mostly due to a lack of an appropriate unit. Now that EU4 Origins has graphical cultures for Sub-equatorial Africa, I'll probably conjure a couple of proper Nguni units. Though jezail is not so much of a stretch for African civs in general, as something very similar was used in the Maghreb: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moukahla (obviously less so for Southern Africa, but Maghrebi guns made their way south through trans-Saharan trade routes).

3) There is a gap in the technology tree between Military Industry and Assembly Line when there are no buildings that give new siege units +2 experience points.

Well observed, will probably move the obsolescence to Assembly Line.

4) Watermill improvement is quite atrocious. I've never actually built it once I got accustomed to RI. Why would I ever build it over a farm or a cottage? At least can it have one extra food?

Well, it can be a good-ish source of production for very flat cities, but could probably use a buff in that regard, to make it at least as good as a mine. I actually contemplated turning it into a city building instead, but this probably won't happen, as I'm too lazy for such a big change at this point.

5) I have a feeling that Free Religion civic is a bit overvalued by AI when there is only one religion present in a civ.

Might be. Generally tricky to balance this kind of stuff with regard to AI preference. Even if it is, it does serve a good purpose though, gameplay-wise, as it greatly diminishes the role of religion in diplomatic relations in the Industrial-Modern eras.

6) I think the difference in cost between Cavalry and Modern Cavalry is a bit too high. It's bigger than between Cavalry and Cuirassier.

The difference is 15 hammers vs 10 hammers for Cuirassier-Cavalry. Percentage-wise, it's even smaller (6.5% increase vs 9% increase). 15 hammers is also the difference from Knight to Cuirassier, and an upgrade to Medium Tank later on is even steeper.

7) I think that Blitz and March promotions should be available right away. Since the combat system of RI is more complicated than in vanilla I don't think this change would break it.

Probably not right away, but I can see some merit in making them available earlier.

8) I suspect there is no way to lock improvements behind civics or make them go obsolete. It's just AI loves building slave farms all the time even when mech farms become available.

Not really, and also that would make switching TO them very painful, as you can't pre-build the needed improvements. The sometimes irrational love AI has for slave farms is of some concern for me too, and I hope I catch its source one day.

9) When a civ rises from the dead the the capital city doesn't get the palace.

Thx, will look into it.

10) I think slaves are much more useful as building makers than improvement makers. May I ask to change the default behavior of slaves to UNITAI_ENGINEER?

A good thought - as a player I also usually use them for that, so AI should too.

11) German civ's unique building - Assembly Plant - though cheaper gives less hammers directly than a regular Machine Tools Factory (+2 vs +5). Is this intended?

It also gives a free craftsman, which is at least three hammers (due to +2 from the Assembly Plant itself), but usually many more at this point in game.

12) After seeing a lot of AI stacks I have a feeling that it doesn't take into account units' inherited bonuses and penalties. For example, AI loves using recon and mounted units in an assault stack but not shock units. Then it reaches an enemy city, fails to take it and just roams around. Can anyone please fix this?

Not me; I am definitely nowhere near the level of understanding needed for this.

 

[TheBirdMan]

Dear Walther.

As for 4:
Don't remove lumbermills/watermills/cottages (upto towns) from the map by making them to city buildings - please...... Actually I would like to see MORE "buildings" outside the citysquare (then civ 5/6 can go "home" with their districts :big-grin.

As for 12:
I have seen it too, that the AI sometimes makes stacks as described. But I have certainly also seen the very same AI (same ruler, same game) produce much bigger stacks with enough power behind.

 

[[Y]]

Well, it can be a good-ish source of production for very flat cities, but could probably use a buff in that regard, to make it at least as good as a mine. I actually contemplated turning it into a city building instead, but this probably won't happen, as I'm too lazy for such a big change at this point.

Maybe it would be more useful if it were made available earlier. It's really only useful for cities that don't have other sources of production (hills, resources, lumber mills), but by midgame they usually get a fair amount of engineers/craftsmen, so the tiles are better used for food/commerce. For early game cities that lack sources of production and are struggling to get anything finished, or chase wonders, some extra hammers could be significant.

 

[aantia]

I personally like that you unlock a bunch of new option at once with Mill Machinery. It makes it feel like a small paradigm shift rather than incremental improvement - 'now you can use hills for food and plains for production'!
Got to say I've never actually used waterwheels, though. Unless you have a happiness problem you'll be better off building a farm and getting another specialist. I think it would make sense for them to be buffed up to the same level as windmills.

 

[arievillo]

Using your mod, im having a weird glitch where rivers and oceans are all black textured.
Anyone help me with this? Thanks

1) Black textures. Relatively easy. Alt+tab to windows and back gets rid of black textures as soon as they appear (and is much much quicker than exiting the game and loading it again - though, of course, it also helps).

Hmmm.. lemme see
edit: Instant CTD when i alt tab

i have never face this bug in other times when loading your mod.
So.. its deffo my hardware or something on my end..I'll have to investigate further out there

 

[TheBirdMan]

We are "some" who have seen (to much of) that bug. It even has its own thread in the official R:I forum: http://www.realism-invictus.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=2077
Sometimes this bug just show up and "leave" again after a simple restart or four, sometimes it is much more persistant.


Last time I got so tired of this, that I decided to go back to R:I ver 3.5, where I normally havn't had any problems.
As I make quite a number of personal mods to the xml-files, I have a full copy of each clean installation of the different official versions including the patches.

So that shouldn't be a problem I thought.


Back to ver. 3.5 - simply by copying all files from the original ver. 3.5 to the "right spot". Then I made a new map 160*100, 11 nations - but BANG(!). The bug was still present.
Now I was in trouble.........


Then I decided to check if there was any differences between what I had in the original folders and files and the place I was launching the mod from. And there was(!).
A number of new fpk files (RI_Art0 to RI_art9, dated 1.June 2021) was still present (plus some more files). But I decided to delete those new fpk-files..... And what happend??? The game with R:I ver 3.5 now behaved just the way it was supposed to. No errors at all (except for a single CTD now and then - not really a problem).


In a "little" week or so, I should have finished the game I started back on the 4th Nov (I still have 'round 200 turns left). Then I'll give R:I 3.55 a new try on a TOTALLY clean re-install of both the game including the official 3.19 patch and the R:I ver. 3.55 patch only. Then I'll launch Steam and have that running in the back before I launch BtS/R:I 3.55 to see if that makes any differences to the shadow/texture.

 

[arievillo]

We are "some" who have seen (to much of) that bug. It even has its own thread in the official R:I forum: http://www.realism-invictus.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=2077
Sometimes this bug just show up and "leave" again after a simple restart or four, sometimes it is much more persistant.


Last time I got so tired of this, that I decided to go back to R:I ver 3.5, where I normally havn't had any problems.
As I make quite a number of personal mods to the xml-files, I have a full copy of each clean installation of the different official versions including the patches.

So that shouldn't be a problem I thought.


Back to ver. 3.5 - simply by copying all files from the original ver. 3.5 to the "right spot". Then I made a new map 160*100, 11 nations - but BANG(!). The bug was still present.
Now I was in trouble.........


Then I decided to check if there was any differences between what I had in the original folders and files and the place I was launching the mod from. And there was(!).
A number of new fpk files (RI_Art0 to RI_art9, dated 1.June 2021) was still present (plus some more files). But I decided to delete those new fpk-files..... And what happend??? The game with R:I ver 3.5 now behaved just the way it was supposed to. No errors at all (except for a single CTD now and then - not really a problem).


In a "little" week or so, I should have finished the game I started back on the 4th Nov (I still have 'round 200 turns left). Then I'll give R:I 3.55 a new try on a TOTALLY clean re-install of both the game including the official 3.19 patch and the R:I ver. 3.55 patch only. Then I'll launch Steam and have that running in the back before I launch BtS/R:I 3.55 to see if that makes any differences to the shadow/texture.

waw..nice report man... tnx!
lemme know at some point if your trick works

 

[TheBirdMan]

Had to attack the core of the leading AI (Rome), else the AI would have won a cultural victory yesterday or today. The attack paid off - Rome failed to defend its homeland - had too large an area to defend against too many enemies. So I got a domination victory instead of becomming "glorius" No. 2...........


Back to the important: This morning (04:30) I started my test.

Uninstalling the game totally, uninstalled the RI mod too. Checked that all old files/folders was deleted.
Restart of the 'puter.
Installed the Civ IV Complete.
Installed the 3.19 patch.
Restart of the 'puter.
Started a test map. No problems.
Installed the R:I mod ver. 3.55
Restart of the 'puter.
Started a R:I 3.55 test map, the bug was "there" from the start.

Started Steam and had it running the back.
Started a R:I 3.55 test map, All looked fine - Checked the full map with the WorldBuilder - all seems ok.


So far so good. I'll remake my personal changes (XML changes only) and start a "serious" game. Then time will show.

 

[sazhdapec]

Yay! A new improvement! I love it! However, I think minus a whole epidemics percent is a bit too much for a spammable improvement, half a percent should be sufficient.

 

[TheBirdMan]

About the black texture bug:

Below a quote of my post on the Realism:Invictus forum:


Re: Absolutely baffling graphical error bug. I have no ideas
Until proved otherwise, I'm going to send my warmest thanks to Lieutenantlyon for bringing up the info about the Steamversion.

It seems like it solves the problem.


This morning I made a test, starting the game without Steam running in the background. And the bug was there.
Then: Quit to desktop, start Steam, restart the game. The bug was gone.

I don't believe it's needed for most people to reinstall their game if/when this bug shows up. I did it because I knew I had been fooling so much with my 3.55 version, that I had lost "control".

 

[TheBirdMan]

For those, who might be interested - 2 screenshots. First with the bug, second as it should be (with Steam running in the background).

 

[JohnCarterOfMars]

Thanks so much for this. I had more or less resigned to suffering constant memory failures on huge maps near the late Renaissance. Process Lasso has not eliminated them entirely but I now go for hours between issues.

I'm glad it worked for you.

If you are still getting an occasional CTD, you might try reducing the memory limit by 25Mb increments to see if it triggers the memory Trim sooner. Sometimes it lags and lets the program eat up more memory before trimming.

 

[sazhdapec]

- Got rid of 1-2% commerce bonuses with Jeweller and Trading Post, as they were mostly meaningless

Wow that's some nerf! It's actually minus 10% for both buildings with access to all relevant resources. I wouldn't call it meaningless. Should we expect such changes to similar buildings like tailor, weaver's shop, media buildings, factories, plants and refineries?

 

[Walter Hawkwood]

Wow that's some nerf! It's actually minus 10% for both buildings with access to all relevant resources. I wouldn't call it meaningless. Should we expect such changes to similar buildings like tailor, weaver's shop, media buildings, factories, plants and refineries?

Yep, I'm looking to get rid of all the smaller effects that don't really inform players' decisions on their own. While I agree that it does add up to a meaningful figure under ideal conditions, it's still hard to keep track of. I might replace those with more significant lump bonuses in some places.

 

[[Y]]

On the subject of Trading Post, is it possible to remove the resource requirement? While the happiness is nice, the trading bonus is a very significant boost, but requiring coffee, tobacco, or sugar to get it, all of which a relatively rare, makes for a very one sided advantage for civs that can get their hands on them. If it was like Market where the required resources are fairly widespread and most civs will probably have a require resource or two in their borders, it would be fine. But in the games where I can't get a hold of them, it feels like I have a -50% commerce penalty compared to civs that do.

 

[Walter Hawkwood]

That's very intentional - the trading post is specifically designed to simulate large profits from trading certain commodities.

 

[aantia]

You could, perhaps, replace them with bonuses on the tile; e.g. +commerce on precious mines for jeweller, +commerce on the relevant plantations for trading post, and +commerce on sheep and silk for weaver. Or perhaps even make it a flat +1 commerce per resource on the building, so you can still have e.g. the weavers of Liverpool making the city rich on the back of imported cotton.

Edit: on second thoughts, I don't think this would be an improvement over the old system of +1% bonuses, except that it changes from being best on big, valuable cities to being just as good on small ones.