The Ancient Mediterranean MOD

[griffin71]

griffin,

i dont know if this applies or not, but you may check your civ4ini.file and see if python errors are toggled on. I am assuming that you have a clean install of all Civ4 official patches, and a good install of the mod as Amborx said.

I found this post earlier today browsing around, maybe it will help.

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=6324492&postcount=50

Thanks graywarden,

Indeed Python messages are turned on, otherwise these messages would be suppressed.
I have indeed installed Civ vanilla with patch 1.7.4.0. But after a building, like Barracks or Academy, has been completed, there's no movie or splash screen or so being displayed.
Maybe this is correct, but from the code it much seems it is not.
How's the behaviour on your PC?

@ambrox62: How can I tell whether the mod has been installed correctly?

 

[bcr1776]

Snake,

The Romans did have the Equites class going back to their pre-history, but they were not a significant part of their forces during their growth/expansion/empire phase.

Practically all Important Roman cavalry came from client kingdoms, although there was always some Romans.

Until about 50 years ago, most military historians believed writers like Caesar who basically viewed their client cavalry was as likely to desert in battle and joint he other side than help. However, more modern historians just don't believe the ancient writers, feeling that the Romans needed to have more of a cavalry presence than is often ascribed.

Nonetheless, for a game like Civ, the 'basic' system works that a Civ either has the resource or it doesn't; if it has it, there is unlimited builds allowed or otherwise none are allowed. Clearly, the Romans are more realistic to be without horses that with them. Of course, a computer game like Rome: total war can present it more accurately, and a Board Game like Imperium Romanum II has a tremendously realistic system.

Pretty much spot-on. The Equites as a 'class' was not a old class though. It actually developed out of the use of minor Patrician gens male children as a type of aide-de-camp and messenger, becoming somewhat recognized as a 'class' by the time of Trajan. Later on even the Head-count managed to enter the cavalry by as part of the Roman percentage required (through lack of trust of allies) in most auxiliary units. The view of an Equestrian class as a class in the manner of Patrician and Plebeian is fostered in a lot gamers by playing the "Caesar" series. Most of the jobs done by so called Equites in that game were actually done by freedmen descendants of slaves.

Civ as a game system requires you accept random resources, unless playing an historical scenario. Thus the horse is there if you use the specific scenario map, but not necessarily if you use another.

 

[graywarden]

Thanks graywarden,

Indeed Python messages are turned on, otherwise these messages would be suppressed.
I have indeed installed Civ vanilla with patch 1.7.4.0. But after a building, like Barracks or Academy, has been completed, there's no movie or splash screen or so being displayed.
Maybe this is correct, but from the code it much seems it is not.
How's the behaviour on your PC?

@ambrox62: How can I tell whether the mod has been installed correctly?

Griffin,

If you are playing BTS, make sure you have the latest patch from Firaxis as well.

There are no splash screens for anything but Religions Founded, National Wonders, and World Wonders. Some Wonders will have the movies imported from vanilla, most are still screens, but all wonders have their own screen now.

After you have checked to make sure you have all the Firaxis Updates Installed, Delete your current version of TAM, and download the new version.

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=264559

Let me know how it goes.

 

[Shqype]

Hi,

Thanks for the great mod in the first place!
I've played around for a while, but there's one thing that keeps annoying gameplay, viz. the appearance of the following Python error message, each time a building is being built:
-------------------
Traceback (most recent call last):

File "CvScreensInterface", line 122, in showWonderMovie
File "CvWonderMovieScreen", line 73, in interfaceScreen​

TypeError: len() of unsized object
-------------------
No movie is being displayed after a bulding is completed.

I've tried to analyse this, but it seems that the game dll has been modded and Python receives an empty object where it expects movie information.
This is as far as I could get (but maybe I'm wrong).

Any sugestions?
Known issue?

Any help is appreciated!

Assuming you have the latest files, then it's either something in your assets or extra files left over from a previous version of TAM.

I won't say the latest build is without python error messages (there's an annoying "TECH_METAL_CASTING" message that keeps appearing which I haven't located the cause of yet), but I have never received the type of error that you're talking about.

PS - I barely ever visit this thread, so the best chance to report something or request something related to TAM is to post in the development subforum, located here: http://forums.civfanatics.com/forumdisplay.php?f=206

 

[graywarden]

I'm not sure what you are talking about Snake, I found horses just west of the Alps.


Snake,

there may be a couple of issues going on here.

1. make sure you have the latest firaxis updates installed.
2. delete the current version of TAM
3. download the latest version released

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=264559

4. make sure you download the new mappack as well, and that they are installed in the proper folders (delete or remove your old maps)

5. remember this is a "baby" BTS MOD, the version you were testing was simply the last version of vanilla TAM 2.01 imported into BTS. We are still working out the numerous mechanic changes that this required, and just now getting started on fleshing out the added changes introduced by BTS.

6. the last TAM vanilla version only had 18 civs on the huge meditteranean map, and it was no problem for Rome to obtain horses in either Gaul, Germania, Dacia or even Hispania. The addition of 6 Civilizations has altered the Balance of the Game from what it was, we will be working on this as we grow TAM in BTS. There is a reason the versions are not even 1.0 yet, because technically its not even Born yet...... haha..... think of it as a premature baby.

7. The military portion game of CIV4 and especially TAM BTS is based on the combined forces strategy, and by adopting this you will improve your campaigns whether offensive or defensive.

8. A strategy I often use is the "cannon fodder" one, instead of spending gold on upgrading existing units, i push the military techs to bring in better firepower. I replace my older units that are stationed in my cities with new ones, then use those older units as skirmishers in an offensive campaign.

Just something to try, this strategy is not for everybody, but I tend to do it a lot this way.

9. Im wrapping up my second test on v.082 as Carthage, and just finished taking ROME...... .
My next test I will test as Rome, and will keep in mind, the items you have brung up.

 

[Shqype]

Griffin71,
I just noticed that you're NOT playing the BTS version of TAM; I would strongly recommend abandoning the vanilla version and instead upgrading to the BTS version of TAM, as it is improved and adds more functionality.

Plus, the vanilla version is no longer supported. It's possible that with the latest version of the patch some of the code is incompatible.

 

[Snake Pliskeen]

I'm not sure what you are talking about Snake, I found horses just west of the Alps.


Snake,

there may be a couple of issues going on here.

1. make sure you have the latest firaxis updates installed.
2. delete the current version of TAM
3. download the latest version released

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=264559

4. make sure you download the new mappack as well, and that they are installed in the proper folders (delete or remove your old maps)

5. remember this is a "baby" BTS MOD, the version you were testing was simply the last version of vanilla TAM 2.01 imported into BTS. We are still working out the numerous mechanic changes that this required, and just now getting started on fleshing out the added changes introduced by BTS.

6. the last TAM vanilla version only had 18 civs on the huge meditteranean map, and it was no problem for Rome to obtain horses in either Gaul, Germania, Dacia or even Hispania. The addition of 6 Civilizations has altered the Balance of the Game from what it was, we will be working on this as we grow TAM in BTS. There is a reason the versions are not even 1.0 yet, because technically its not even Born yet...... haha..... think of it as a premature baby.

7. The military portion game of CIV4 and especially TAM BTS is based on the combined forces strategy, and by adopting this you will improve your campaigns whether offensive or defensive.

8. A strategy I often use is the "cannon fodder" one, instead of spending gold on upgrading existing units, i push the military techs to bring in better firepower. I replace my older units that are stationed in my cities with new ones, then use those older units as skirmishers in an offensive campaign.

Just something to try, this strategy is not for everybody, but I tend to do it a lot this way.

9. Im wrapping up my second test on v.082 as Carthage, and just finished taking ROME...... .
My next test I will test as Rome, and will keep in mind, the items you have brung up.

You're the second telling me there are horses west of Alpes, but I have no horses there on my map, maybe it's a wrong one, I'll try to download a new one. I realize soon that with the units in the game you are forced to have combined army, that's why I complaint about horses lack for Rome, without horse archers you cant defeat an invading large army. In my last game Greece invade my empire with a stack of 50 units, how could I win such a stack without horses? For what concern upgrades, you gave me a reason to talk about them. In my opinion the cost of upgrades is too high, if I compare for example, that when I get money for an almost finished wonder I get around 300 gp, and with this money I can upgrade we say 3 tribal warriors to axemen, their cost is out of scale. Anyway, the game is interesting even if my main complaint is about the civ system where a civilization without cities can be more advanced of a large one, totally unrealistic of course, and I would like that this system could be soften a little allowing a player to expand early in the game and have something to do other than click end of turn bottom, but it's just my opinion. Thx a lot!

 

[graywarden]

Snake,

version 082 seems to be a little more balanced with the massive armies. I made note of them early on and they will be balanced out more in the coming patches and versions.

There are no horses in Gaul at this time in the Huge Mediterranean Map. They were present in one of the older maps. As I said in my last post, I will make my next test with Rome, and make an evaluation based on your comments.

 

[Snake Pliskeen]

Playing a game I've reached 360 turns of play, but now it's really annoying to wait for 10-15 minutes each turn. There is a way to increase the speed of the game? For example, Kael made an improvement to increase speed for Fall from heaven, is it possible to add it to this mod?

 

[nothin_personal]

I am a newbie, so this post is probably misplaced. If you could redirect me to a more suited place for my request.
I am an old player, and since the Civ II I was dreamiong about a realistic approach to the ancient Greek world. Now, with the colony status in the BTS, I think this is attainable. A new mod could be created, where you can onlycontrol one city and every other city you build, becomes a colony.
I have several ideas and a deep enough Knowledge of the ancient Greek history to help any such try, but I know nothing about moding. three scenario ideas that I came up with:
Greek Tribes: Dorieans, Ions, Aioleans, Myceneans, and Minoans (SP?). Add Pelasgians and Illyrians, and maybe Troy and Frygia and you got enough to work with. Core game, where your ultimate goal is to make everyone your vassal or colony. Lots of manipulation, treachery and diplomacy micromanagement, with major cities having multiple colonies and vassals. Razing of cities should be deactivated.
Doric Invasion: The Dorieans (the only tribe that posseses Iron working at the begining) start at the north of the map and find their way down to Peloponissos.. The catch? Cities they conquer become colonies after 10 turns and vassals after another 10. They also can't control more than one city at a time. Goal? Establish the city of Sparta at the preordained location (with the premade settler unit that they have to carry and protect for the whole ride). Secondary goal? Occupy the once legendary city of Mycenae!
Persian Wars: Important Greek Cities are on the map, some binded by Vassal or colonial ties (Athens with colonies Miletos and vassals Samos and Chios, Sparta with a couple of sattelite-colony cities (Messinia, Elis with the Zeus Statue Wonder), Korinth with colony Potidaia and vassal(?) Syracuse, Thiva (vassals Voiotiean league and Fokis with the Oracle Wonder), Plataiea, Argos, Rhodes with Colossus etc. Macedonians starting with Aegae get half the religion bonus, but can have more than just one city under control. All those cities are binded by Hllenic religion that acts as ethnicity (spread only when they are built, the Settlers carry it with them and assimilation after conquest). This should have a lot larger impact (double?) than regular religion, so that even though they fight and bicker between themselves, they unite before external danger (usually they do, there always "traitors" like Thiva and Alicarnassus in the Persian wars. This is why a substantial, religion implied, relations bonus works better than a single nation. Outside enemies are various and at all sizes. They can control any number of cities, but pay big maintenance costs. Persian empire with vassal Phoenicia, Egypt, Mesopotamia, has to face multiple mutinies from their vassals before turning west (or maybe Egypt, Mesopotamia starts independand but declining and Persia is at war with them). Former Phoenician colony of Carthagene (Now independant since Motherland iwas capitulated), looks at Sicily as the only expansion road (they hold a city on the Southeast of the island). They have desert (and the end of the map!) surrounding every other way). Upstart Rome breaks free from the Etrouscan league and they have to deal with the consequences before turning East). Finally, at the northern borders, various minor nations are posing a threat (Illyria, Scythia, and others). You can play any of the outside Nation and the 4 motherland cities of Greece (Athens, Sparta, Korinth and Thiva). Wonders already placed the three afformentioned and The hanging Gardens, Pyramids and others build in the area of the game until 750 BC when the game begins.

 

[Mettius]

Exactly which directory does one point the extractor to?

X:\Program Files\Firaxis Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4
X:\Program Files\Firaxis Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4\Mods
other?

Where please?

 

[Kalimakhus]

X:\Program Files\Firaxis Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4\Mods

 

[Deon]

Or X:\Program Files\Firaxis Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4\Beyond the Sword\Mods\ if you use the BTS version. There're "FFH Age of Ice", "Final Frontier" and other mod folders, you can look at them to see the example of the right mod placing.

 

[Mettius]

Or X:\Program Files\Firaxis Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4\Beyond the Sword\Mods\

Actually, I discovered that this is true for the actual (main) Mod. But the Animated Leader Heads require that you point it towards X:\Program Files\Firaxis Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4\Beyond the Sword

Hopefully in a future release this will be made consistant, and the directory to unzip to will be specified on the Mod web page as instructions.

I still have no idea where to put the map files.

-Mettius

 

[edboltz]

Does v. 082 work with BTS 3.17?

 

[ambrox62]

Unfortunately not.
A new version will come out soon.

 

[edboltz]

When an update is released, perhaps you could talk to some of the folks at Fall from Heaven about a better install system.

Theirs works with a click, whereas this download is perenially a problem to install.

 

[darkyxinhow]

so, how are things going towards 3.17? \o/

 

[jsiesser]

This mod was fun in Civ III and so far it is nice for Civ 4. I do have some questions and since I am a late comer to the game these questions might be old hat(bought a legit copy 2 weeks ago so 100 hours or less experience).

I am playing Civ 4 straight out of the box. Not BTS or any other version. I am using TAM 2.01, I think, and playing the Greek 7 player world. I started one on Noble as the Minoans and then switched to Prince and Lydia. By 500 BC the Hittites and Dacians had been killed by Barbarians!!! Is this normal? I really found the barbarians tough as Lydia but non-existant as the Minoans, which made sense because i took over my entire island with 7 cities.

So is it normal that the barbarians come in fierce waves and nearly wipe out your civilization? If not what should I do? I am out of the woods now that I have Ionian Spearmen and Javelineers but between 2600 and maybe as late as 1000 there were barbarians EVERYWHERE! That they were able to wipe out the Hittites and Dacians is kinda troubling.

Should I update the game and reinstall TAM? Would this fix it? Have any other players experienced this problem?

I don't know how many people complain about the game time but I didn't like that 5500 to 0 goes by within 10 hours. I really do not like that about any of the Civilization games. Ancient time flies and the middle and modern eras last forever!

I also miss trade routes and piracy of the trade. That was a great feature for Call to Power.

 

[darkyxinhow]

@ jsiesser

you really should try BTS, it adds a lot to the Vanilla game, and when I say a lot I really mean A LOT. There is even a similar feature to CTP's trade route piracy, blockading with privateers.

About your complaint that the ancient times rush in comparison to the middle and modern eras, I think that is kinda natural, not only because of the game time flow, but mainly because you have more cities to manage and more armies to control.

About the barbs, I have seen some civs being taken out by them in TAM already, and I really think they are a real pain in the ass on the huge maps. But I also think that it makes perfect sense, after all, it IS the ancient mediterranean, and not once has a bigger decadent civ been dominated by a "minor" civ or people whom they referred to as barbarians. Also, comparatively, barbs in Civ IV are way more dangerous than in Civ III, and the AI has evolved considerably. You can actually see AI civs going to war with each other far more constantly than in Civ III and their tactics have also improved considerably (although they still are way behind a human). So, if you have smarter and more warlike AI (amongst AI itself), it's reasonable to think that the AI warlikeliness will result in some weaker civs, extremely vulnerable to massive barbarians.