Hi Thamis,
I haven't actually played this one yet, but I will. I do have a few comments, though. I have downloaded and installed it (at work to see what it contains - haven't gotten a chance at home yet, just discovered the mod).
I appreciate the work you put into streamlining the setup and play process, but I would rather not use it myself, unless you can assure me that it's safe. It seems to automatically back up and restore my original Civ3 setup, and that immediately brings up two questions. First, will it work when I have DyP installed on top of Civ3 and second, how do I recuperate form a crash - which sad to say happens once in a while. I like to have control. I personally also like to install from zip files so I can see what they contain before I do the install. But that is my personal preference and others differ.
Please tell me if this would work:
- Install your mod
- Install Civ3 + 1.29f
- Make a backup copy of the wole install (to allow me to run the original by renaming the directories)
- copy the Art, Scenarios and Text from the Ancient Med install into the Civ3 install folder
- Uninstall your mod (if desired)
- Play the game as one of the scenarios you have supplied
I miss a readme that explains the setup and gives an overview of the contents. You have some info on this thread and a reference to it, but we don't all have constant access to the internet. It would have been helpful to have basically the info in the first post of this thread in a readme.txt file. It should also explain the difference between the various bics in the Scenario folder, explain that people can play random maps with this, and give some info on the scope of this mod. It is possible that your play setup explains some of this, but as I said I like to have control.
Your tech tree is a good deal smaller than the original and I assume that the time period is different. How have you dealt with this? Do you have the same number of turns as the original and does it still run from BC 4000 to AD 2050?
There is a downloadable map on the first page of this thread but no explanation of how to use it. Do the bics included in the mod have maps? I would assume so. Also, I get the filename "ancient" when trying to download it, so there's most likely a blank space in the filename. I would advise editing out the blank space(s), or alternatively please specify the filename.
You should consider adding a version.txt file to the mod, so that people can see what they are playing when they use it. It would have to be managed (backup, restore) like the other files. Your mod overwrites so many vital files that you can't play a standard civ3 game when it is loaded, so you might as well take over the version as well. If you're really fancy then I suppose play.bat could copy the original version.txt to a backup file and then append your version text to the text in the original file.
Finally, it is obvious that a lot of good work went into this and I look forward to trying it - when I get the time. Keep it up
