Windows GOTM All-in-One Installer for Civ3 1.29

[AlanH]

For a long while, Mac players of GOTM have had the edge over their Windows friends with a mere three files to download to get their Civ3 set up to play any GOTM. That gap widened a couple of months ago when I produced an All-in-One installer for the GOTM mods for Macs.

Meanwhile our poor deprived Windows v1.29f players have been battling with five downloads and a bunch of file swaps.

Well the gap has closed . I've taken pity on you and produced an All-in-One GOTM Mod Installer for Civ3 v1.29f for Windows, using the same file sets as the Mac one. Bluebox and Ainwood have run the rule over it, offered valuable and constructive advice, and declared it fit for human consumption. So here it is:

The (Pen) Ultimate GOTM Installer for Windows Version 1.29f - 22.3 MBytes

It installs all the files you need to play current GOTMs and SGOTMs, with no further swapping or fiddling, and your modded installation will continue to play standard random games.

It also installs all you need to play random games using bluebox's GOTM scenario or old GOTMs (20-31 inclusive). A simple resources file swap is needed for these options.

It includes an uninstaller to (almost ) revert your installation to its original state. A few backup files are provided, with instructions on using them to complete the uninstallation.

It's the Penultimate Installer, because I'm sure someone out there will find a bug or a problem with using it. If you do then please contact me here or via PM and I'll fix it.

Enjoy!

 

[WillowBrook]

Just missed this by a couple of months... oh, well.
On behalf of the Vanilla civvers that come after me, thanks.

I don't know if this is related, but what happened to the forum link on the left-hand colunm of the GOTM pages? It looks like it was replaced with the mod downloads link. A user-friendlyl link to add, but I found the link to the forums quite handy. Just my two cents.

 

[AlanH]

Sorry, it had an irrelevant title, and I just assumed it was way out of date. I've put it back with an appropriate name, and elevated it to the top group. I've also relegated the 'Articles' link to the bottom of the list, as there's really not much in it, and updated the last paragrraph of the home page.

 

[cidknee]

so let me get this strait... If i have civ 3 vanill ( which i do) I can dload this and play the game of the months? no matter what they are? if so HOOK ME UP

 

[AlanH]

If that was a genuine question then the answer is "Yes" - sorry if that was not clear from my post. I can't guarantee that the game designers will always stick to the mods included in the installer, but they know it's there, and they'll have to have good reasons to depart from it.

If you follow the link in the first post of this thread, or in my signature, then you'll be "hooked up"

 

[cidknee]

sorry..its monday and im at work and well i read it quickly.. that and my brain is still90% asleep...but THANKS

 

[cidknee]

hi there... me again. well ive been trying to play with this but as soon as it loads u[ it says " assigning human colors" or somethin like it.. and the BANG,,, the game shuts down...real annoying any idea whats happening?

 

[AlanH]

The most likely problem is that you didn't swap the resources graphics files before you started to play a bluebox scenario. The installer sets you up to play current GOTMs with the out-of-the-box files, but the scenario uses the pre-gotm32 non-standard graphics, and will crash if they are not there. The ReadMe tells you how to swap them around.

If this isn't the problem, then here are few questions to try to understand what's going on:

1. What OS are you running?

2. Did you apply it to vanilla Civ version 1.29f? This installer doesn't check that your version is correct.

3. Were there any errors or exceptions, eg duplicate or missing files, reported during installation?

4. I assume there was no error message from Civ3 when it shut down?

 

[cidknee]

well im on XP pro, and I have Civ3 1.29 and i think the first time it said the readme was set to a read only file, abort, retry ignore etc... i hit the retry and it went through... I dloaded the America cotm? i thik its #22? and well again wouldnt load up... Ill look in my readme file when I get home, thanks a million it looks awesome, I just wish there was a Canadain civ in there... ive been looking everywhere for one. And ive given up on making one,,, bad bad bad time.

 

[AlanH]

I'm assuming from the fact that you haven't read the ReadMe that you didn't swap the resources files? The scenario and GOTMs before 32 all require the resources file swap and will crash without it. The readme also comes up in the installer intro screens, so you can open that again to read it, then abort it if you don't have the file in the Readme folder.

 

[cidknee]

ok cool.... btw the horses look NOTHING like horses.. lol.. its cool though. Ill play with it when I get home... thanks for all the help though.

 

[AlanH]

How did you get to see the "horses", if the game crashes on start-up?

 

[cidknee]

no one game I got to work, but as a scenario. not the actual gotm or cotm but then as soon as I made contact with 2 or more civs, it crashed

 

[King Alexander]

Great job AlanH: It was something I had in mind and wanted to ask about it - if there was a way to make an installer for both GOTM and SGOTM(I didn't knew that the Mac users had it already) so we could use the same files for both and also play epic games without swapping files all the time.

Now, many players(on XP) will start playing both GOTM and SGOTM.

 

[oopsy poopsy]

i was just about to play my first gotm and i didn't even know i needed mods, so this was perfect. i'd played a cotm and just gone straight in and thought this would be the same. anyway, i've loaded the installer and the save and it came up fine (haven't played a turn yet though). Thanks alanH.
Also, on a side note do you know how to change the screen resolution for civ? i have a 1280x1024 lcd and just noticed how weird things look with civ running in the background? looks like 1024x768. I can't find a video controls option or anything in the game. Is this the only resolution or is there something simple I'm missing?

 

[AlanH]

i was just about to play my first gotm and i didn't even know i needed mods, so this was perfect. i'd played a cotm and just gone straight in and thought this would be the same. anyway, i've loaded the installer and the save and it came up fine (haven't played a turn yet though). Thanks alanH.

You're welcome, I'm pleased to hear it worked! Of course, if you have C3C then you don't need to play in version 1.29, as you have PtW installed as well, and modern GOTMs play in PtW with no mods required. Just start the correct executable, load up the save and play.

Also, on a side note do you know how to change the screen resolution for civ? i have a 1280x1024 lcd and just noticed how weird things look with civ running in the background? looks like 1024x768. I can't find a video controls option or anything in the game. Is this the only resolution or is there something simple I'm missing?

I don't play on a PC myself, as I have this strange affinity for Macs, but I believe this is done by editing the civilization3.ini file, or similar.

 

[bluebox]

I don't play on a PC myself, as I have this strange affinity for Macs, but I believe this is done by editing the civilization3.ini file, or similar.

Please let me specify Alan's suggestion : KeepRes=1 for keeping your desktop res (probably the most suitable solution for you, Ooopsy), VideoMode=XXXX to alter civs default res. in civ3.ini.

Details here.

 

[LethalLogic]

After installing this MOD is there anyway for me to begin a new game with one of the civilizations added in this mod? For instance Arabs?

 

[AlanH]

Yes.

Check the readme's to find out how to swap the resources.pcx and resources_shadows.pcx files, and do it.

Then use the Scenarios menu option at the opening screen and select the GOTM Mod, created by bluebox. That should start up the usual game setup screens where you can pick your civ and your rival civs. Except you should now see all the extra civs that were added for the GOTMs.

 

[LethalLogic]

Thanks Alan