v.0.1 ALPHA: The Song of the Moon: the first Civ TOTAL CONVERSION!

[BlazeRedSXT]

I really am posting this stuff to be helpful. I know this is an alpha...

So, I downloaded the last RAR posted by MatthewV. Deleted my previous version altogether and started from scatch.

Happened on 2 games so far(Moon maps both, one Standard size/Standard Length/Warlord(started this via Play Now! option). Large size/Epic/Noble(started Via Custom Game)).

Loaded to first screen normally, was able to settle a city on the spot and select my first queue item. The first time I move a unit(including automating them and they move via AI) their movement goes to some random astronomical number 27564912415.. and the game hangs. I have to force quite from TM.

Any idea of what I am doing wrong since it seems some of you all are able to get past this point.

Cheers!

 

[JBG]

I was thinking the same thing. We need to lock this thread down and start a new one either with this working version or the next one.

I agree. This thread has been very useful in pointing out the most basic and crippling of errors, but I agree that it's sometimes questionable continuity is a big turn-off.

I will set my sights on creating an Alpha 0.103 page as soon as someone can give me the Filegone location of the latest (working) version. Once the Alpha 0.103 page is up, I will PM Thunderfall and ask for this thread to be locked down.

Looks like we're close to finishing the first stanza. Now for the first chorus!

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@BladeRedSXT: You posted while I was writing this, so I didn't have time to respond. This is the first I have heard of this problem. I direct your question neatly on to Matthewv, who is the man who seems to have all the solutions! I would look into this myself, but unfortunately I have about a week's worth of work to catch up on. Hopefully with the weekend will come some more spare time to work on this.

 

[matthewv]

Happened on 2 games so far(Moon maps both, one Standard size/Standard Length/Warlord(started this via Play Now! option). Large size/Epic/Noble(started Via Custom Game)).

Loaded to first screen normally, was able to settle a city on the spot and select my first queue item. The first time I move a unit(including automating them and they move via AI) their movement goes to some random astronomical number 27564912415.. and the game hangs. I have to force quite from TM.

Any idea of what I am doing wrong since it seems some of you all are able to get past this point.

Cheers!

hmm, now thats an interting bug that does not seem to have been encountered before. It will be hard for me to track since I doubt it is repeatable on my computer.

their movement goes to some random astronomical number 27564912415..

what do you mean by this??The unit moves way of the side of the screen?

 

[woodelf]

Finished a rocket and missile infantry reskin more coming

Cool. Can you email me which you're doing since I'm trying to get it all into one file with the ones I'm adding.

 

[JBG]

I once had my Lunar Scout graphic move into the next tile by way of zipping off one side of the screen, back on via the other, and then moving onto the next tile, but it was a one-off - hasn't happened since - and other than being visually rather bizarre, I encountered no further problems. All my attempts to recreate this 'bug' have failed, so I dismissed it. Thoughts?

 

[matthewv]

I will set my sights on creating an Alpha 0.103 page as soon as someone can give me the Filegone location of the latest (working) version. Once the Alpha 0.103 page is up, I will PM Thunderfall and ask for this thread to be locked down.

My thoughts:
-We should leave this version up for now as it is to track as many bugs as possible.
-We should set a date for a better official release(say a week from now). We would work on adding new stuff to the mod to the end of this week and the begining of next week should be reserved for only for playtesting amonst the mod team. The only editing to the mod should be debuggung and minor balance tweaks.(This way we can ensure a fairly bug free version on release)
-lock this thread up and start a new one when we do the official release.

 

[dsquared]

I was just going down my unit spreadsheet and doing all the early eras, i have the light lastank and am doing the medlastank, what skins did you grab off the unit forum? most of the units appear to be fantasy types and not to useful for ZEE moon

we DEFINITELY need a modder IRC channel or some real time way to communicate

 

[matthewv]

I once had my Lunar Scout graphic move into the next tile by way of zipping off one side of the screen, back on via the other, and then moving onto the next tile, but it was a one-off - hasn't happened since - and other than being visually rather bizarre, I encountered no further problems. All my attempts to recreate this 'bug' have failed, so I dismissed it. Thoughts?

I think this may be related to the bug mentioned above. It is likely a rare isolated insident that only occur on a few computers.

 

[woodelf]

I mostly agree, but a lot of grief has been given (and rightly so) about the tech tree discontinuity. I right now have the 1st era cleaned up. I've also added more units and more buttons, and dsquared is skinning more units as we type! Maybe we should do a Friday 0.103 release? If we wait after the potential patch we might have to wait longer just so we can correct the problems that causes.

 

[JBG]

@Matthewv: It never re-occured on mine. Maybe it's the Teenage Poultergeist?

 

[woodelf]

I was just going down my unit spreadsheet and doing all the early eras, i have the light lastank and am doing the medlastank, what skins did you grab off the unit forum? most of the units appear to be fantasy types and not to useful for ZEE moon

we DEFINITELY need a modder IRC channel or some real time way to communicate

I grabbed anything that had to do with mech infantry, navy seals, or modern stuff.

I simply dropped these skins into the new units I coded up. Anything you do won't interfere.

 

[JBG]

I think we're pretty much agreed that cosmetic things such as unit graphics are pretty much all placeholders. It's the code that needs to work, not whether the colour-scheme of the Laser Tank clashes with that of the Defence Cannon or not...

EDIT: And I agree - we need some kind of network between us.

 

[matthewv]

I think we're pretty much agreed that cosmetic things such as unit graphics are pretty much all placeholders. It's the code that needs to work, not whether the colour-scheme of the Laser Tank clashes with that of the Defence Cannon or not...

Don't distract dsquared from his great artwork

 

[woodelf]

I'm going to make it so Nutrients aren't visible until Symbiotic Bacteria. Are there any other resources we should "hide" until a tech is researched? I know that the colonists might be aware of stuff, but they're only there for He3 at first. Maybe finding Plutonium or Carbonice shouldn't happen until they're looking for it?

 

[dsquared]

ok med and light lastanks done, rocket and missile troopers done. sniper next and then the artillery?? or try to get second era untis finished. hmm.

on nutrients: dont make them appear naturally, have them 'discoverable' inside a glasshouse or algae farm, in vanilla you can discover gold or iron from mining, this was a geomodder idea. this represents beneficial mutations etc

edit- also I put radioactive power packs on the med tank to represent increased power needs, maybe we should require uranium or plutonium for our higher level tanks, that way those are 'to die for' resources as belizan suggested

 

[JBG]

I don't know. Certainly resources like Plutonium and Palladium should be hidden until everyone starts thinking 'Crap! We've got to find this ourselves!' Although that said all the resources visible at the beginning lend a nice bit of colour to the terrain. Without, of course, wishing to disparige the excellent terrain art

 

[matthewv]

I'm going to make it so Nutrients aren't visible until Symbiotic Bacteria. Are there any other resources we should "hide" until a tech is researched? I know that the colonists might be aware of stuff, but they're only there for He3 at first. Maybe finding Plutonium or Carbonice shouldn't happen until they're looking for it?

It might not be a bad idea to hide water ice until it can be used since water ice has yet to be found on the moon.

 

[JBG]

And can you guys actually build glasshouses? I can never seem to...

EDIT: And Matthewv, they've already found some in craters near the poles where the sun never ever reaches. There's an article about it somewhere on the NASA and ESA websites.

 

[matthewv]

on nutrients: dont make them appear naturally, have them 'discoverable' inside a glasshouse or algae farm, in vanilla you can discover gold or iron from mining, this was a geomodder idea. this represents beneficial mutations etc

I love this idea, though we should turn the chance up a little more then for discovering gold etc. in vanilla civ 4 when you had a mine.

 

[JBG]

Brilliant! Very good idea. Is it possible to have the chance increase once a certain technology (I'm thinking things like biosolutions and cyanobacteria here) has been researched? Or is that trying to shoot at the moon?