The Ancient Mediterranean Mod - Discussion

[AlanH]

I can't imagine how TAM could install differently on your system. It's just a zip file that expands to a set of files and folders. It doesn't know or care what language the OS speaks.

Can you post a screenshot of your hierarchical Finder list view of the folders you are working with?

 

[Party]

Sounds cool, might have to try it out!

 

[Repton]

I just installed TAM, together with AlanH's Modded TAM_XML_Files.zip.

Playing fine, then the game crashed when I tried to view the Civilopedia page for "Hero"...

 

[rudiger136]

I am saddened by all of your matching .xml error messages. I downloaded latest version of TAM for mac and replaced files with AlanH's and I get a different xml error message. I get it on the following files:

text/thrace.xml, assryia.xml, TAM_civilopedia.units.xml, TAM_civilopedia.greatpeople.xml,

and finally not a text one:

Units/CIV4Promotioninfos.xml

any idea why?

p.s. i'm trying to run the mod in warlords should that be a problem? (dont have my civ4 disc anymore.)

 

[Boyd]

Hi all,

I get the following eight (8) error messages when I load the new TAM 2.01 Mod for Mac:

XML Load Error

Failed loading XML file xml\text\tam_civilopedia_units.xml. [/users/markkrenek/Aspyr/Perforce/depot/Civ4/source/Win/FirePlace/FireWorks/Win32/FXml.cpp:140] Error parsing XML File -

File: xml\text\tam_civilopedia_units.xml
Reason: (null)
Line: 0, 0
Source: (null)

XML Load Error

LoadXML call failed for xml\text\tam_civilopedia_units.xml.
Current XML file is: xml\text\tam_greatpeople.xml

XML Load Error

Failed loading XML file xml\text\assyria.xml. [/users/markkrenek/Aspyr/Perforce/depot/Civ4/source/Win/FirePlace/FireWorks/Win32/FXml.cpp:140] Error parsing XML File -

File: xml\text\assyria.xml
Reason: (null)
Line: 0, 0
Source: (null)

XML Load Error

LoadXML call failed for xml\text\assyria.xml.
Current XML file is: xml\text\thrace.xml

XML Load Error

Failed loading XML file xml\text\hittites.xml. [/users/markkrenek/Aspyr/Perforce/depot/Civ4/source/Win/FirePlace/FireWorks/Win32/FXml.cpp:140] Error parsing XML File -

File: xml\text\hittites.xml
Reason: (null)
Line: 0, 0
Source: (null)

XML Load Error

LoadXML call failed for xml\text\hittites.xml.
Current XML file is: xml\text\tam_region.xml

XML Load Error

Failed loading XML file xml\text\tam_civilopadia_buildingprojects.xml. [/users/markkrenek/Aspyr/Perforce/depot/Civ4/source/Win/FirePlace/FireWorks/Win32/FXml.cpp:140] Error parsing XML File -

Fille xml\text\tam_civilopadia_buildingprojects.xml
Reason: (null)
Line: 0, 0
Source: (null)

XML Load Error

LoadXML call failed for xml\text\ tam_civilopadia_buildingprojects.xml.
Current XML file is: xml\text\tam_bonus.xml

Now, before anyone says a) the answer was in a previous post or b) provides an answer that is 'technical', I would like to say that I am a luddite and make no pretensions to understand half of what I have read on this thread or other ones, so please explain this to me in point form idiot English.

Thanks

PS. Love this mod... it really is one of the best out there.

 

[MickyKitsu]

Hi all,

I get the following eight (8) error messages when I load the new TAM 2.01 Mod for Mac:

XML Load Error

Failed loading XML file xml\text\tam_civilopedia_units.xml. [/users/markkrenek/Aspyr/Perforce/depot/Civ4/source/Win/FirePlace/FireWorks/Win32/FXml.cpp:140] Error parsing XML File -

File: xml\text\tam_civilopedia_units.xml
Reason: (null)
Line: 0, 0
Source: (null)

XML Load Error

LoadXML call failed for xml\text\tam_civilopedia_units.xml.
Current XML file is: xml\text\tam_greatpeople.xml

XML Load Error

Failed loading XML file xml\text\assyria.xml. [/users/markkrenek/Aspyr/Perforce/depot/Civ4/source/Win/FirePlace/FireWorks/Win32/FXml.cpp:140] Error parsing XML File -

File: xml\text\assyria.xml
Reason: (null)
Line: 0, 0
Source: (null)

XML Load Error

LoadXML call failed for xml\text\assyria.xml.
Current XML file is: xml\text\thrace.xml

XML Load Error

Failed loading XML file xml\text\hittites.xml. [/users/markkrenek/Aspyr/Perforce/depot/Civ4/source/Win/FirePlace/FireWorks/Win32/FXml.cpp:140] Error parsing XML File -

File: xml\text\hittites.xml
Reason: (null)
Line: 0, 0
Source: (null)

XML Load Error

LoadXML call failed for xml\text\hittites.xml.
Current XML file is: xml\text\tam_region.xml

XML Load Error

Failed loading XML file xml\text\tam_civilopadia_buildingprojects.xml. [/users/markkrenek/Aspyr/Perforce/depot/Civ4/source/Win/FirePlace/FireWorks/Win32/FXml.cpp:140] Error parsing XML File -

Fille xml\text\tam_civilopadia_buildingprojects.xml
Reason: (null)
Line: 0, 0
Source: (null)

XML Load Error

LoadXML call failed for xml\text\ tam_civilopadia_buildingprojects.xml.
Current XML file is: xml\text\tam_bonus.xml

Now, before anyone says a) the answer was in a previous post or b) provides an answer that is 'technical', I would like to say that I am a luddite and make no pretensions to understand half of what I have read on this thread or other ones, so please explain this to me in point form idiot English.

Thanks

PS. Love this mod... it really is one of the best out there.

I had this same issue when i tried to play this mod using Warlords....
...and i didnt get any of these errors when i played this mod in Vanilla.

 

[AlanH]

p.s. i'm trying to run the mod in warlords should that be a problem? (dont have my civ4 disc anymore.)

I have never tested this mod with Warlords, and I don't know whether it is designed to run with Warlords.

 

[Boyd]

My understanding from the little bit i did on the development site (and it was really only a little bit) is that the mod will not run on Warlords. I only run it on Vanilla.

 

[GeneralWolfe]

Hi Everyone,

I've had the same problems with TAM as Boyd and MickyKitsu. I've been having a look round to see if there's a fix... AlanH's replacement XML files fix the text\hittites and text\tam_civ_buildingprojects problems. MAJOR thanks for that! no longer have the Hittite leader's name causing the scoreboard to take up about half my screen!

I've noticed that the Assyrian.xml file in the Text folder will not open in TextEdit - I get the error message: 'The document "Assyria.xml" could not be opened. Text encoding Unicode (UTF-8) is not applicable.' All the other files seem to open fine, so presumably this is the problem! Anyone have any ideas on how to fix this?!

Cheers,
Wolfe

 

[AlanH]

There isn't a file called "Assyria.xml" in my copy of TAM. I'm looking in /Applications/Civilization IV/Mods/The Ancient Mediterranean/Assets/XML/Text/Babylon.xml. Is it a new addition to the mod?

 

[GeneralWolfe]

I guess it must be... I dled my version from the TAM website a few days ago. It's version 2.01. I haven't had any of the earlier versions, so couldn't say if Assyria is a civ that was added in this version.

 

[AlanH]

I've downloaded it. There are obviously several changes since I last looked at it. I had to zap gremlins in half a dozen files, including the Assyrian one. Here is a zip file containing the entire zapped XML/Text/ folder that loads OK here. Just unzip it and use the new folder to replace the one in the installed mod. I'm afraid I didn't stand on ceremony - I just deleted the offending characters.

 

[GeneralWolfe]

That's brilliant. It loads with no problems now Cheers!

 

[Futilitis]

Thanks to everyone working on making TAM available to us Mac Civ IV players. We do appreciate it when people remember us!

I have mainly enjoyed playing a few games of TAM but failed to finish any of them, as the closer I get to the end, the more likely it is for the game to freeze. By the time I get towards the last 100 turns, it gets to the point where just doing too much moving around the map can cause a freeze after a few turns. It gets irritating having to reboot and play several turns again trying to reach a sequence of four turns in a row! I've only used the standard and small size TAM maps, so I don't know why this particular Civ IV bug is so prevalent using this Mod. My Mac is dual 2.3 MHz Power Mac 5 with 4 GB of memory - so it's pretty beefy. The Civ IV version install is a clean install of the latest patches + HOF Mod so I think I can rule that out as a problem.

Anyway, I was obviously using AlanH's Text directory substitute, and got to wondering about XML character sets and the hows and the whys of the situation, and then thought it would be nice to do a quick sed of the files to keep the right characters since AlanH is clearly far too busy (in a good and helpful way!) to faff around with fixing all the fallout from people using duff editors.

Of course sed doesn't do it unless it's gnu sed, and I thought about the hassle of finding a copy versus the fact that I'd been meaning to do something about learning perl… Upshot is that I've learnt a bit about perl (I still don't much like it), and I have a perl script which may be useful to others, so it is attached below [had to append a .txt to the filename to make it attach]. It is deliberately dumb for easy modification and is my first real does something useful perl program!

The other things that I found out along the way were:

1. XML should generally only contain ASCII text, not characters using the eighth bit of the byte. Macs enforce this correctly - apparently Windows doesn't.

2. There are names like é specified in HTML/XML to create an é. You can also specify a character number in decimal (replacing the eacute bit with #233), but the number should be taken in the context of the character set encoding specified in the header of the file. Civ doesn't appear to recognise the first option, so you are stuck with using the character number method of specifying more exotic characters. [I just found out the forum software is the same!]

3. The character encoding used by the vanilla Mac version of Civ IV appears to be a subset of the Windows 1215 character set (e.g. there is no elipsis [ … ] character available so you need to use three dots instead). [The forum has it!]

4. The character set is apparently hardcoded so it doesn't matter what you put in the xml header encoding field. I suggest that to avoid editor confusion Mac modders should make the first line of XML files:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="windows-1252"?>
I'm not sure this is an official encoding, but I'm betting it will make things less crazy for modders as a workaround.

[ For those interested in the gory details of character sets I found these useful:
http://czyborra.com/charsets/iso8859.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_XML_and_HTML_character_entity_references
YMMV, and you are unlikely to be that masochistic. I hope never to go there again, but spawn of Mr Gates' idiot invention is depressingly prevalent so I suspect I'll be forced to.]

I've also attached a modified Text.zip with no spontaneous ^Ms, "proper" headers - as I see it, several apostrophes and a grammar fix instead of right quotes in Assyria.xml, and I hope the correct character substitutions everywhere else.

Hope some of this is useful to somebody.

 

[thecivdude]

hello! please help.

ok, i've followed this thread very closely and managed to download the "Text" directory and that fixed the errors is was experiencing.

however, when playing as Rome, the cities do not give the proper naming sequence but instead display what looks like an all-caps error message.

each time i found a new city, rather than a new city name- in sequence- it displays this:
TXT_KEY_CITY_NAME_ROMA. as a result, i have to rename each city as i go, and heck - i have no idea what the correct city names for rome are/were.

seems like the other civilizations do not have the same problem. their cities are name in the proper sequence with no problems...

so, when i open the .xml file for - say, the hittites - the xml file lists each city name in order in a very long list. when i open the xml file for rome, this list is missing......

even when i download an entirely new "Text" xml directory from this thread, i get the same problem...

can anyone give me a good "Rome.xml" file?

thanks! -thecivdude