SGOTM 16 - Fifth Element

[MeowZeDung]

OH, so at least it's a good move!

 

[BLubmuz]

Well that killed that idea.

I think MGN have made a similar suggestion to us. I really think we should wait and see numbers before we start carving up all the teams. X team only have 4 players right now.

I think the unallocated players should perhaps be left to the end.

You're welcome if you want to join FE. I've always found you a pleasant guy. If you can also bring some friend, the better.

p.s. there's nothing in this world which can make me change this team name. It's the oldest team in this competition and even if we won only a bronze i'm hold it.

 

[Pangaea]

Put my name forward for this team in the sign up thread, so...

"Hello!"

Not played any kind of GOTM before, but hopefully things go well without me mucking up anything. Have played at Emperor lately and seem to do okay most of the time, so reckon that's my level now. Tend to play agonisingly slow (typically 30+ hours a game, partly due to a crap computer) so I'm not flying through several games a day like some of the more experienced players might. But I'm looking to learn and this should be a great venue for that.

The start looks a bit grotesque, and with an "evil map maker" D) I guess anything can happen. Never played with culture flipping after conquest; what exactly does it do? No city resistance?

 

[Shaandore]

Welcome to the team!

To avoid technical difficulties during the game, you should read this post carefully.

I have never played with flipping after conquest, so we will have to run some test games.

 

[BLubmuz]

Welcome to the team!

ditto!

I have never played with flipping after conquest, so we will have to run some test games.

We played SG 15 (not sure about the number, the one with Gandhi and all Tokus).

I've ran many tests and played the game -obviously - and nothing strange happened. Being this one conquest/no vassals i don't think it will matter.

 

[MeowZeDung]

Welcome Pangaea! I understand being nervous about mucking things up on your turn for your first SG, but don't worry. When I was ready for my first SG turnset I felt nervous, but with a team approved PPP (pre play plan) and clear instructions for what events constitute a save and discussion with the team, you'll do fine.

 

[Pangaea]

Thanks guys. Good to be aboard

(Where is the hot alien?)

Hopefully the turnsets go fine. If all is laid out beforehand and I can go back and forth on the forum, hopefully nothing will go badly.

I wonder about BUFFY though. Had it installed a long time ago, but it was a pain, for example when playing Noble Club games and such, where others can load it and offer comments at times. Can it be installed in customAssets like BUG, or is there some other trick to using it only for SGOTM and be able to play normal games without too much hassle?

The link to it doesn't work for me btw, keep getting timed out.

 

[BLubmuz]

(...)

The link to it doesn't work for me btw, keep getting timed out.

Here the link, just tested.

Just double click and the installer will find the right path. Few seconds and you're done.

I think you'll do not want to play games without BUFFY once you started. In any case, if you launch BtS without any mod, it doesn't load BUFFY.

BTW, where are you from? Time zone?

 

[Shaandore]

If you have BUG+BULL, you will need to restore the original DLLs to make BUFFY work.

I prefer to have both bug+bull and Buffy, and I have two scripts to change the DLLs.

Let me know if you need help with that.

 

[unclethrill]

Welcome Pangea and welcome back team!

This one looks to be right up our alley. We have at least 3 real warmongers already so lets give the Ducks a run for their money!

 

[Pangaea]

Here the link, just tested.

Just double click and the installer will find the right path. Few seconds and you're done.

I think you'll do not want to play games without BUFFY once you started. In any case, if you launch BtS without any mod, it doesn't load BUFFY.

BTW, where are you from? Time zone?

Cheers, got it down now, don't know what was wrong earlier. I'm in Norway, at GMT+1.

If you have BUG+BULL, you will need to restore the original DLLs to make BUFFY work.

I prefer to have both bug+bull and Buffy, and I have two scripts to change the DLLs.

Let me know if you need help with that.

Think I managed to set it up now actually. Copied the normal shortcut and put in stuff for autoloading BUFFY mod, and it seems to work. Had to set it to run as admin in the settings for BUFFY to not scream at me (Win7 on the laptop), but now it actually seems to work. And I can still run the BUG version with the normal shortcut. There was a lot more trouble last time, but I probably did it in a different way then. One thing that was annoying with BUFFY was that others couldn't load my saves without it, and that warning every time I started a new game (think those were repeated throughout the game, but I can't recall). From a very quick look, otherwise it looks much like BUG, but with those extra icons enabled (I don't use them with BUG).

I tried to load the save from the post you linked to btw, but it didn't work (got an access denied message). Probably because it was from a team thread and I guess there must be some type of security in place. Is there a save somewhere I can test, to see if BUFFY works as it should on my end? The startsave for SGOTM 16 or something else?

How are things done when we get to the playing part? Do you basically play the 10-20 whatever turns yourself straight, trying to follow team instructions, or can you for example play a turn (or a few moves), then go back to the team for advice. Save the game, reload it later, etc?

Sorry for sounding like a green noob, but well, I AM At least in this respect.

 

[Folket]

You should not get an access denied message. Did you read all the instructions on how to get Buffy to work? Perhaps you missed the folder permissions that are needed?

 

[BLubmuz]

I tried to load the save from the post you linked to btw, but it didn't work (got an access denied message). Probably because it was from a team thread and I guess there must be some type of security in place. Is there a save somewhere I can test, to see if BUFFY works as it should on my end? The startsave for SGOTM 16 or something else?

How are things done when we get to the playing part? Do you basically play the 10-20 whatever turns yourself straight, trying to follow team instructions, or can you for example play a turn (or a few moves), then go back to the team for advice. Save the game, reload it later, etc?

Sorry for sounding like a green noob, but well, I AM At least in this respect.

You should not get an access denied message. Did you read all the instructions on how to get Buffy to work? Perhaps you missed the folder permissions that are needed?

The access denied message was when trying to dl a save from the CFC server. I think it's the new thing started by Alan during this SG.

Pan, we posted a lot of saves in this thread, just look for one of those to test BUFFY. Or any GotM game can do it.

 

[Shaandore]

How are things done when we get to the playing part? Do you basically play the 10-20 whatever turns yourself straight, trying to follow team instructions, or can you for example play a turn (or a few moves), then go back to the team for advice. Save the game, reload it later, etc?

Sorry for sounding like a green noob, but well, I AM At least in this respect.

The team leader's posts on first pages of team threads sums it up pretty well: when it is your turnset, you ar supposed to post a Pre-Play Plan, or PPP. We discuss that, make some modifications. This takes 1 or 2 days. Then you play out about one third of your turnset (7-8 turns), but you can always stop (and you should) if an important decision needs to be made, or we get an unexpected DoW, etc.

The best way to get to know the SGOTMs is to read a thread. Plastic Ducks' threads are awesome, you can learn a lot, and in the meantime you also see how SGOTMs work. Choosing an SGOTM (SGOTM 16 is fine) and reading the PD thread from beginning to the end will clear up all such questions if you have the time and stamina. You can skip some micro discussion if that is boring.

 

[Pangaea]

Thought I couldn't really venture into the threads of other teams now I'm signed up here, but I guess it's fine until the 17 threads pop up then. Will do that, and look for some saves I can test-load as well. :thup:

 

[Gumbolt]

Thought I couldn't really venture into the threads of other teams now I'm signed up here, but I guess it's fine until the 17 threads pop up then. Will do that, and look for some saves I can test-load as well. :thup:

Yeah you can browse SGOTM 16 and before threads. When SGOTM 17 threads go live you can only browse your team thread till you complete your game. I would avoid any spoilers till then.

 

[Sun Tzu Wu]

Anyone should be able to download SGOTM-16 and earlier game saves now. Is this not the case? If not, AlanH may need to unlock them. Or did I simply misunderstand the permission denied errors generated.

Sun Tzu Wu

 

[Pangaea]

Well, this was quite the halberd in the rear

Tried again to save the SGOTM 13 file from here, both by right-clicking to download and directly with left click. This message pops up, which is also contained in the save when right-clicking to download (I checked in a text editor).

Forbidden

You don't have permission to access /saves/civ4sgotm13/Plastic_Ducks_SG013_BC4000_01.CivBeyondSwordSave on this server.

Additionally, a 404 Not Found error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request.

Went scouring the Plastic Ducks thread for saves. Found some, but all seem to be non-BUFFY test saves, for example these. They loaded with the BUG-version, but with BUFFY I was told no mod was used, and asked to restart. Bah.

Finally I found this page. The WB save at the top loads from normal (BUG) BtS, as a scenario. But I guess this isn't the "real deal". A save for the teams to test stuff?

Then I tried to download the PD end save from 1625AD, from the list there. Finally, this asked me to reload BUFFY-BtS when trying to load it from normal (BUG) BtS. Finally there, I thought.

But when I try to load it from BUFFY-BtS, the application just closes down. There is a message of some type, but it's impossible to read because the application simply vanishes/crashes.

I'm using PeerBlock while surfing the internet, so figured maybe that could have something to do with it, if this save for some reason or another is trying to "phone home". So I disabled PeerBlock and tried again. Same result.

What to do?

...

Addendum:
Tried to find some log files, and there are some. One is called PythonErr2.log. At the bottom, after various "adding event" items, is this, which may be the problem.

07:39:55 DEBUG: BugInit - global context not ready
PY:OnInit
load_module CvAppInterface

The file ends there, so I reckon something - though I don't know what - went awry.

 

[bestsss]

@Pangaea
GO to progress page: http://gotm.civfanatics.net/submit/civ4sgotm_submission_list.php
Below the table w/ the teams select "list of saves" as display format and then download at will.

Here is an example:
http://gotm.civfanatics.net/download.php?file=Fifth_Element_SG013_BC4000_01.CivBeyondSwordSave

 

[Pangaea]

After writing that post, I figured out the same thing and tried to download that very same save you linked to. But it still didn't work The game crashes to the desktop for some reason. Tried again now with a different save (the one labelled 52 in the list), but the same problem. I've no idea what is wrong, but suspect it has something to do with the log I quoted above.

I'll try to setup this on the desktop as well, in the odd case that it works there (on Win XP) and not on my laptop (with Win 7).

Edit.
Nope, doesn't work there either. Same piece of "#¤!#"!