Solver's unofficial BtS 3.17 patch

[Solver]

Yeah, I'm curious as to what others think. Generally speaking, I want the unofficial patch to be devoted to fixing issues and, as possible, improving the AI. I want gameplay changes kept to a minimum, only where balance really seems affected...

 

[jkp1187]

Side note: I am thinking of tweaking the capitulation threshold as part of this. It's been changed in 3.17 and so far my experience is that AI civs capitulate very easily. I'm seeing them capitulate after losing 2 or 3 cities. It does help warmonger AIs gain vassals, but so far I find it have quite a negative gameplay effect.

Hmm. Well, I haven't had a chance to play the official 3.17 patch yet, but I'd be inclined to hold off on that until there was a consensus.

Perhaps this might be better addressed via the "Better AI" mod?

 

[Wodan]

I want the unofficial patch to be devoted to fixing issues and, as possible, improving the AI.

Does 3.17 still have the issues with the AI changing cottages/hamlets/villages/towns to farms and workshops? Plus the related problem of changing one tile to another, and vice versa in the same city.

I see the former as a pretty broken issue, seeing as how it dramatically reduces AI modern era competitiveness. The latter "merely" wastes worker turns, so it's an issue, but isn't necessary a game breaker like the first.

Wodan

 

[smjjames]

okay, I extracted the files and now I'm getting a program stops working while it's on launch. The FFH2 mod I have on there works okay though.

 

[deanej]

^ Sounds like you never installed the official 3.17 patch. You need to install it first.

 

[smjjames]

*smacks head*. I didn't know there was an official one lol. AFAIK I have 3.13. Anyways, downloading the official one now.

 

[Solver]

Hmm. Well, I haven't had a chance to play the official 3.17 patch yet, but I'd be inclined to hold off on that until there was a consensus.

Perhaps this might be better addressed via the "Better AI" mod?

Again, don't worry, I won't be going overboard with gameplay changes. I didn't agree with all of Bhruic's changes and I don't want to make any that would upset most users. Can't keep everyone happy, but I'm usually leaning towards having less gameplay changes.

 

[guyfamous]

Thank you, Solver. Your efforts are appreciated here.

 

[Solver]

here's a save like what DMOC is talking about... I presume it's happening in any game save though. I noticed it right away, kind of distressing when these patches miss big things like this. I think the game is the victim of its own complexity.

I must be missing something obvious. It says Hammurabi is the worst enemy of Kublai Khan and of Brennus, but you have already met both of them.

EDIT: Though I can see the buggy behaviour in the screenshot from DMOC.

 

[Minor Annoyance]

Side note: I am thinking of tweaking the capitulation threshold as part of this. It's been changed in 3.17 and so far my experience is that AI civs capitulate very easily. I'm seeing them capitulate after losing 2 or 3 cities. It does help warmonger AIs gain vassals, but so far I find it have quite a negative gameplay effect.

Sounds like Fall from Heaven.

 

[Methos]

Just curious, but are you putting comments around your changes just in case someone else wishes to borrow them? Not that we would do that for the HOF mod...

 

[Zeppelin4]

Would be nice if you put a readme with install instructions in your download. With that said you make no mention of the folder called CvGameCoreDLL\CvUnit.cpp in your main post. Where does this folder go and or is it even needed.

 

[jkp1187]

Would be nice if you put a readme with install instructions in your download. With that said you make no mention of the folder called CvGameCoreDLL\CvUnit.cpp in your main post. Where does this folder go and or is it even needed.

Unless you're scripting your own mod, the only file you need is:

CvGameCoreDLL.dll

Copy that to this folder and you'll be good to go:

C:\Program Files\Firaxis Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4\Beyond the Sword\Assets

The other files are just there as part of the SDK (Software Developer's Kit), and are only needed if you want to make your own changes. (Which will require a compiler).

Oh -- you should probably back up your original copy of CvGameCoreDLL.dll before overwriting it. Just rename it to something like "CvGameCoreDLL.BAK" and you'll be fine.

 

[LlamaCat]

I must be missing something obvious. It says Hammurabi is the worst enemy of Kublai Khan and of Brennus, but you have already met both of them.

EDIT: Though I can see the buggy behaviour in the screenshot from DMOC.

sorry I guess my save is from a few turns later - I had not met certain leaders earlier and that message showed up. if you first left click different leaderheads on the diplomacy screen, then mouseover each one, you will see different popup information and that's where it appears. I think it's fairly easy to recreate from very early in a game.

 

[PieceOfMind]

Side note: I am thinking of tweaking the capitulation threshold as part of this. It's been changed in 3.17 and so far my experience is that AI civs capitulate very easily. I'm seeing them capitulate after losing 2 or 3 cities. It does help warmonger AIs gain vassals, but so far I find it have quite a negative gameplay effect.

Solver,

I experienced behaviour relating to this issue. I was playing the Final Frontier mod, on Noble difficulty and for no obvious reason two civs asked me to be their master on the same turn. No wars had been faught. No cities had been lost AFAIK. It struck me as really odd. I'm not sure how different the AI is in Final Frontier and I'm not sure how similar the capitulation code is to the voluntary vassalization code, but it seemed fairly cheesey to have 2 vassals with no effort at all. I've attached the save in case it is of any use to you.

If Final Frontier is completely irrelevant you can disregard this.

 

[CCRunner]

Dang that was fast! Great job

 

[EmperorFool]

Just curious, but are you putting comments around your changes just in case someone else wishes to borrow them?

With free tools like WinMerge that will show you the differences for an entire directory tree with four clicks (click first folder, ctrl-click the second, right-click either one and click "WinMerge"), this is extra work that merely gets in the way.

One thing I wish I had done with BUG in the beginning is commit the unmodified original files before committing the changed ones. This allows anyone to do a diff more easily, right from SF.net or in their editor. I highly recommend it for any modders out there, and you too Solver if you create an SourceForge project for this.

 

[Breunor]

Can you let us know where to extract the files? Is it in the BTS Directory? The main patch seems to put it in the right place automatically.

Thanks,

Breunor

 

[Balderstrom]

Looking at the Zips file structure, we have

• bts_317_unofficial_patch.zip\Assets\
• bts_317_unofficial_patch.zip\CvGameCoreDLL\

So just copy/move the file to the games ProgramFiles installDIR
Unpack it there, you should see the following directories there

• Resource\
• log\
• Assets\
• CvGameCoreDLL\
• PublicMaps\
• Mods\
• Shaders\

 

[Zelig]

Yeah, I'm curious as to what others think. Generally speaking, I want the unofficial patch to be devoted to fixing issues and, as possible, improving the AI. I want gameplay changes kept to a minimum, only where balance really seems affected...

I thought that in general that capitulation was already pretty easy before the patch. Non-warmonger AIs in particular will capitulate as soon as you crush any decent stacks and take a couple cities.

Although it's also somewhat annoying when Monty is a couple eras behind in tech, and refuses to capitulate until you reduce him from 30 to 3 cities.