TAM v0.91 released

[thamis]

Thanks to great work by Ambrox, Greywarden and the TAM team, we've got the latest version of TAM released today, version 0.91 for Beyond the Sword!

You can download it at ModDB:
http://www.moddb.com/downloads/the-ancient-mediterranean-bts-v091


Installation guidelines
-----------------------
1) Copy the EXE file into your BTS folder (tipically "\Program Files\Firaxis Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4\Beyond the Sword" or "\Documents and Settings\[user]\My Documents\My Games\Beyond the Sword" depending on your preferences)
2) Eventually remove (or rename if you wish to preserve it) the previous existing "Mods\TAM" subfolder
3) Remove from "Beyond the Sword\PublicMaps" all previous existing TAM map files
3) Double click on EXE file and confirm extraction
4) Go into "Beyond the Sword\PublicMaps" folder and double click on your preferred TAM map file
I suggest to create a map file shortcut on your desktop (right click on a map file, then "send to" desktop), and click on it to start the mod quickly.

Changelist
----------
Major changes:
-> fixed and improved soundtrack (no more medieval/late music, Bach, Beethoven, etc...) - thanks to Cybrxkhan for his audio libs from where I chose most of TAM 091 music
-> TAM ethnic units included
-> Apostolic Palace text and art (out of TAM timeline) replaced with Edictum Mediolanense (313 AD)
-> SpaceShip text, art and screen replaced with Silk Road concept
-> cultural, diplomatic and silk race victories are now possible outcomes (still difficult but possible)
-> an overall boost on science and gold since the beginning to give chances to complete techtree, building large empires and huge armies at noble/prince difficulty level; monarch level and beyond still remain hard to play

Minor changes:
-> Elder Council now gives 1 science allowing a quick boost for techtree
-> School and Alchemistry now give 2 sciences
-> Observatory now is a standard city building (instead of 1 for every 4 libraries)
-> Olympic Gods religion comes with Heroism now
-> Palace shift is now available at the same time of the Agora
-> Lots of small adjustments on buildings, corporations, unit stats, techs, specialists, wonders, projects, etc...
-> Lots of small graphic fixes

Next plans
----------
There will be a FINAL 0.92 TAM version at end of summer to include the missing ethnic units (infantry and heavy infantry), bug fixes and, eventually, useful feedbacks from players ONLY IF they will involve simple XML changes

 

[ambrox62]

TAM 0.91 patch F (Nov 01, 2010)
http://forums.civfanatics.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=15749

Installation guidelines
-----------------------
1) Unpack the 7z patch file
2) Copy the EXE file into your BTS folder (tipically "\Program Files\Firaxis Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4\Beyond the Sword" or "\Documents and Settings\[user]\My Documents\My Games\Beyond the Sword" depending on your preferences)
3) Double click on EXE file and confirm extraction overwriting existing files

TAM BTS 0.91F Changelog
------------------------------
Silk road - improved completion screens
Silk road - lowered outpost costs to help completion
Cultural victory - lowered "legendary" threshold to help completion
Victory Screens - Introduced movies for each victory kind
Victory Screens - Replaced modern movies with ancient ones
Wonders - Introduced Great Colosseum WW
Wonders - Modified Circus Maximus NW effects
Vassalage - Alliances tech now enables TAM Client States (aka BTS Vassalage feature)
Unit graphic - New ethnic arts for infantry units
Unit graphic - Fixed a bug art for assyrian and babylonian axemen
Civics - Python fix to better accomodate civics into screen (thanks to Dertuek)
Civics - now context tooltip display effects properly
Python - Several python/xml fixes and improvements on events, quests, and messages regarding "army" promotion and vessel plundering (thanks to Dertuek)
Resources - Improved placement on random maps
Resources - Modified some links with techs revealing resources on maps
Text - Improved text about events and quests
Text - Included full french translation (thanks to Dertuek)
Text - Improved english and italian translation
Lots of minor fixes and improvements

OPTIONAL TAM ADDONs
------------------------
Animated Leaderheads 2.1 addon
BUG mod addon

 

[Jet]

Yay!

I tried the newer huge map. I like the resource distribution. I noticed that warrior rushes are pretty easy, and powerful.

 

[ambrox62]

I noticed that warrior rushes are pretty easy, and powerful.

Isn't the same in BTS also?

 

[veBear]

This looks... GREAT! Cant wait to see all those ethnic units in game.

 

[Chode]

Really liking the mod so far. It is really polished. There are a few points I have noticed so far, playing as Babylon.

1) Slave markets say they give - 1 unhealth and -1 unhappy with slavery, when in fact it is +1 with slavery. So a slave market with slave civic gives a total of +2 unhealth/unhappy. Is this intentional? 2 unhappy faces early on is painful.

2) The AI seems pretty weak on Monarch. I play on monarch a lot and BTS AI generally has much bigger armies, especially fortifying cities. I've taken many cities from my neighbors that have only had a couple defenders. Granted, Babylonian archers are good, but the AI still isn't putting up a fight. I'd like to suggest that the difficulty be bumped up a bit for each difficulty level, so the challenge is more or less the same compared to BTS AI.

3) I can rebuild my hero as often as I'd like. I assumed that once he died, he is gone for good. Is this intentional too?

4) More than once I've been attacked by an army with one unit and 5+ rams. Needless to say, these armies are useless.

Thanks. This mod is great. I'm really impressed.

 

[graywarden]

Really liking the mod so far. It is really polished. There are a few points I have noticed so far, playing as Babylon.

1) Slave markets say they give - 1 unhealth and -1 unhappy with slavery, when in fact it is +1 with slavery. So a slave market with slave civic gives a total of +2 unhealth/unhappy. Is this intentional? 2 unhappy faces early on is painful.

2) The AI seems pretty weak on Monarch. I play on monarch a lot and BTS AI generally has much bigger armies, especially fortifying cities. I've taken many cities from my neighbors that have only had a couple defenders. Granted, Babylonian archers are good, but the AI still isn't putting up a fight. I'd like to suggest that the difficulty be bumped up a bit for each difficulty level, so the challenge is more or less the same compared to BTS AI.

3) I can rebuild my hero as often as I'd like. I assumed that once he died, he is gone for good. Is this intentional too?

4) More than once I've been attacked by an army with one unit and 5+ rams. Needless to say, these armies are useless.

Thanks. This mod is great. I'm really impressed.

1) Slave Market and Slavery Civic is intended as is. If happiness is desired, there are other choices. If gold and production are desired, then enslave the masses.

2) I test with the Huge Mediterranean 24 Civ Map on Noble Difficulty, and Normal Speed, and find it is no walk in the park. (Some of this is due to my own play style which could be described as a Natural/Builder/Expansionist, especially in the early to mid game.)

3) Yes the Hero is intended to be rebuildable. As you have noticed, the Hero promotion here does not have passive training like FFH mods do.

4) Yes the AI loves its siege units, hopefully by the next version, we will have found a fix for that in some manner. it is on the To-Do List. In the meantime, take advantage of it and let the enemy make them for you.

 

[ambrox62]

1) It's a WAD. Slave Market is a powerful building. Adopting slavery civic increases the malus, although these civic effects are on the "watch list" for next version yet

2) I got different results in my test. On paper, BTS and TAM 0.91 have the same difficult level, and monarch is hard to play. May be you are a skilled players. Bear in mind that TAM Civs are intentionally unbalanced: Babylonians are strong, other civs are weak. Furthermore, military rush is often a winner strategy, both in TAM and BTS. However I've noticed a significative AI delay on building fortifications. May be I'll raise the AI value of these buildings in the next version

3) It's a WAD. Heroes are fun to play, and you may build them along the whole game.

4) AI stack of siege units often is the result of a previous huge army vanished after a lose battle. You shouldn't see siege units defending a city, although AI builds them in a city just before a attacking campaign.

Thanks for your precious report

EDIT
----
Gray is too fast compared to me

 

[graywarden]

EDIT
----
Gray is too fast compared to me

Gray cant sleep tonight is the only reason why....

 

[Chode]

Hm, every time I trade for the full world map and start looking around, the game crashes. Zooming out, the game crashes. Would my savefile be any help?

 

[graywarden]

Hm, every time I trade for the full world map and start looking around, the game crashes.

Chode,

I have not run across that in my tests. But I have heard of it on FFH-WM relating to Memory Allocation Failures. Which map are you playing?

 

[Chode]

TAM - 24 Civs - Full Mediterranean

 

[graywarden]

TAM - 24 Civs - Full Mediterranean

Try going a turn or two after acquiring the map before doing any heavy sight seeing.
I dont know if that will make any difference or not, but it might be worth a try.
Go to the Fall from Heaven - Wild Mana (modmod) page, there is a thread there dealing with Memory Allocation Failures. This is most likely a memory processing failure.

 

[LeMAD]

I like the mod, but playing the game without better AI is not the same. If you guys could find a way to merge it with the mod I would be a happy man...

 

[ambrox62]

Sorry, but it can't be done.
Many Better AI features (as Retreating of air units, Air defences, Bomber basing, Air combat mechanics, Voting for peace, Privateer production, Vassals prepare for war, etc...) simply don't apply to TAM.

 

[Chode]

Try going a turn or two after acquiring the map before doing any heavy sight seeing.
I dont know if that will make any difference or not, but it might be worth a try.
Go to the Fall from Heaven - Wild Mana (modmod) page, there is a thread there dealing with Memory Allocation Failures. This is most likely a memory processing failure.

I read that thread and it doesn't look like there is a guaranteed fix for it. What a shame.

 

[graywarden]

I read that thread and it doesn't look like there is a guaranteed fix for it. What a shame.

No the variables between operation systems, RAM, video cards and the much heavier requirements of FFH-WM (in relationship to TAM) meant the results were wide spread.
Myself, I changed by boot.ini, updated my video card drivers, and for the most part have little trouble compared to before. Others as you saw, had little or no results.

Your case is the first i can recall that sounded familiar to those posted on the other mod, which is why i sent you there. One of those tweaks may be all that you need to correct your problem. It has something to do with memory processing in some manner.

 

[Chode]

I suppose I should try the 3gb switch, but someone said it made other games unstable. I do have Windows 7 and over 3gb of ram. Civ4 max RAM usage on my computer is usually 1.5Gb though. One answer I couldn't find: is the memory allocation failure the "APPCRASH" unrecoverable error? It doesn't actually say MAF anywhere I think

edit: the 3gb enabler didn't fix it

 

[graywarden]

I suppose I should try the 3gb switch, but someone said it made other games unstable. I do have Windows 7 and over 3gb of ram. Civ4 max RAM usage on my computer is usually 1.5Gb though. One answer I couldn't find: is the memory allocation failure the "APPCRASH" unrecoverable error? It doesn't actually say MAF anywhere I think

edit: the 3gb enabler didn't fix it

it could be a vista issue, you never know.

have you tried a new/clean install of the mod itself?

 

[Chode]

I haven't tried that, I really don't think there is a problem there.

Just for kicks, I started a new game and opened up the worldbuilder. I can zoom in and out just fine. When the entire mediterranean is populated, it crashes, so it definitely seems like a memory problem.

I think other mods get around this by trimming down the mod so it uses less RAM, but I'm not sure what TAM could trim out other than me choosing to play smaller maps.