Ruff03 - AW Middle Ages

[Conroe]

Thanks all for a fun game. Anyone want to play again - we are now open to discussing this variant and taking suggestions on changes.

Possible Changes:
- Put cottages back
- Make it so that Always War means everyone is at war with everyone

You're right, this was a fun game, despite the loss. As for changing the mod, I don't think putting cottages back in will solve the problems. We got extremely lucky with this game map. We had a pennisula to ourselves that was defensible with a choke point city. With this map, our Workers were able to roam free without protection and build any improvement. On a different map, the AI would have been constantly pillaging everything we build.

Personally, I think you need to fiddle with the civics choices rather than cottages. The civics were too much of a no-brainer during this game. Have a couple of civics choices for 50% city maintenance or no distance maintenance. Up the free unit support to various levels depending on what civic you choose. Maybe something with war weariness also. Check out the Desert War mod that comes with the game for some interesting ideas about civics.

I also think you should put specialist back in so that the AI can kick off a golden age. As part of our variant, we should not be allowed to kick off a golden age.

 

[ruff_hi]

Interesting comment re the civics. That got me thinking in the shower this morning. We could set up just one column of civic choices and include the following:

• XP for you units
• +50% faster workers
• rush complete with gold
• rush complete with population (slavey)
• +25% defense for your cities
• -50% unit upkeep
• 5% chance of kicking off golden age
• no city upkeep costs

We could also set the anarchy period to zero so it costs nothing to jump between the civic options.

 

[Munterpipe]

Sounds cool. Have you thought more about a modern unit mix?

 

[Conroe]

Do you have an updated mod for us to look at yet?

 

[ruff_hi]

ahhh no. I have a change that involves the SDK to set 'always war' to be always war' for everyone. I'll have to read up on the civics that were mentioned and get back to you. Let me know if you want the mod with the SDK change and I will post it.

 

[Munterpipe]

Great. Can't wait to kick AI ass again.

 

[ruff_hi]

Finally - here is a trial version of the new mod. Here are the things I changed ...

• Heroic Epic now generates 0 GPPs
• Heroic Epic now needs a level 8 unit to build
• civ ai base attitude is decreased (ie angry)
• civ ai will talk to you 9999 turns after war breaks out (ie never)
• anarchy length set to zero
• civic options changed - government options
  • despotism - as per normal
  • hereditary rule - no rush, just happy from units
  • state property - no distance maintenance
  • vassalage - no XPs, base units 15, 1 extra unit per 20% pop
• civic options changed - labor options
  • tribalism - no change
  • rush - can rush via pop or cash
  • serfdom - workers 50% faster
  • organized - +10XPs
  • mobilize - build military 75% faster
• no boats - only fishing boats

You need a new DLL to get the 'everyone at war with everyone' option going. I'll post it when I work out how to upload it.

 

[ruff_hi]

Here is the new dll. Put both zip files in the progfiles/mod directory and unzip them (retaining dir structure).

 

[Munterpipe]

That's terrible timing Ruff.
I'm going to Estonia tomorrow, and won't be able to look at it until friday.
But thanks for the work you've put into it. I'll give my feedback on the mod to you on Friday, and be ready to play Saturday.

 

[Conroe]

I'm getting a couple of error messages:

(1) invalid windows image CvGameCoreDLL.dll
(2) failed to find sibling civ4gametextinfos.xml (getting this one twice)

Don't know if they are related or not ...

 

[ruff_hi]

I don't know what is going on. I can run this mod on my pc with no problems. I do have some xml errors reported in the log but I also get those errors with plain vanilla CIV IV.

Questions

• did you try starting the mod without the dll?
• can you get the game to play at all?
• did you unzip to a completely clean directory?
• is it installed under the progfiles/mod directory?
• can you please start the game with the attached ini file (set for logging) and email me the contents of the log directory

If you can start the game without the DLL, then I will start a dummy game and upload a save. The dll is required to get everyone at war with everyone else. The other way of getting everyone at war with each other is via the worldbuilder map. The only issue with that is that you know everyone.

 

[Conroe]

did you try starting the mod without the dll?
Not the first time around. But, since you asked, I tried renaming the dll. I still got the xml errors, but obviously not the dll error.

can you get the game to play at all?
The game does load to the civ4 menu. I can start a game but have not gone past 4000bc. I am assuming that I am missing some functionality of your mod based upon the error messages.

did you unzip to a completely clean directory?
I just retained the directory in your zip file. In other words, I unzipped them into "Medival All War" -- the directory name that you chose. It did not exist before unzipping your file.

is it installed under the progfiles/mod directory?
Yes, and I also tried under "My Games".

can you please start the game with the attached ini file (set for logging) and email me the contents of the log directory
See attachment ... Although, when using your ini file, I get this funny blue screen. It's basically the BSOD but instead of crashing, the civ4 menu pops up after a few moments. Takes a bit of getting used to ... Does it do that on your machine?

 

[ruff_hi]

Hmmn - eyeballing your xml.log file - it looks the same as mine. Try playing a few turns and / or checking the civics screen - that is where the most obvious changes are.

Re the start up - that ini file had 'don't show startup movies' checked. That might be the cause. Or the resolution might differ - can you compare your standard ini file to mine? Or you could load it here and I can compare it.

 

[Conroe]

I seem to have most of your changes. The civics screen is a bit difficult to read. See the attachment for my version of the screen.

The always war part does not work, though. I assume that is because the dll does not load and the game is using the default one.

As for the startup screen, I am not too worried about it. It went back to normal after I deleted your ini file.

 

[ruff_hi]

I seem to have most of your changes. The civics screen is a bit difficult to read. See the attachment for my version of the screen.

Looks like you are missing a file. Do you have anything in the 'C:\Program Files\Firaxis Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4\Mods\Medival All War\Assets\XML\Text' directory? In particular, you should have a file with the name 'CIV4GameTextInfos_Objects.xml'.

 

[Conroe]

That is the only file that I have in that directory. That is also the one with the "sibling" errors.

Edit: Oops! I evidently misspelled the filename when I originally posted the error message. Sorry about that!

 

[ruff_hi]

Hmm - I don't know. There are some files in the asset directory of the game that have similar names but have something added "_????.xml". Try copying all of those files to the text directory of the mod and see how that goes.

 

[Conroe]

Not sure what you are refering to ... I could not find any other "_????.xml" files in the mod's Asset folder. Although, my Python folder is empty, but I doubt that would cause an xml problem.

 

[ruff_hi]

Sorry - wasn't clear enough. In this directory ... C:\Program Files\Firaxis Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4\Assets\XML\Text ... there are some other XML files that have similar names to the one I changed, namely ...

CIV4GameTextInfos.xml
CIV4GameTextInfos_Cities.xml
CIV4GameTextInfos_GreatPeople.xml
CIV4GameTextInfos_Objects.xml <-- this is the one I changed

Try copying the top three to the XML/Text directory of the mod and see if that fixes the issue. I am suggesting this as it might treat these four files as (somehow) related, hence siblings, hence not having the other 3 is causing sibling errors (this is a total guess).

 

[Conroe]

That is not necessary. If you don't modify a file, it still gets loaded.