[WTP] Quick questions

[Nightinggale]

Compile guide: https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/the-easiest-way-to-compile-a-new-dll.608137/
A few notes about it. First of all it applies to all versions of the civ4 engine, not specifically BTS despite being in the BTS subforum. Secondly while it mentions MS visual studio 2010, it actually works with any version of VS. It compiles using the 2003 version (DLL and EXE needs to use the same compiler to avoid memory allocation corruption) meaning the version you use to view the code is just that: a viewer, not a compiler.

MSVS has the advantage over other viewers that the builtin debugger actually works. If set up correctly it works just fine with the hotkeys like F5 for start with the debugger attached and if a file is modified, it will compile before starting. I haven't written a guide on the setup yet though, but I plan to do so eventually because apparently nobody else have written one either

 

[bogwart]

I followed the installation guide @ GitHub:
-downloaded 2.7.1.1. sourceCode.zip and unpacked it,
-renamed the folder to We-the-People, copied it into the MODS folder
-downloaded CvGameCoreDLL.zip, unzipped it
but then I couldn'tt find the file "CvGameCoreDLL.zip" in the Assets folder.
It just doesn't exist in the SourceCode.zip.
Besides Art, Python, Res, Sounds and XML folders there's just a .gitignore file, no Assets/CvGameCoreDLL.zip as described in the installation guide.

Nevertheless I copied the CvGameCoreDLL.dll into the Assets folder, but starting the Mod results in error messages and crash.

Should it be copied into an existing RaR folder maybe?

 

[TaylorItaly]

Do not rename the folder.
My folder is labeled "Mod-2.7.1".
Maybe you had download the wrong file?
My is named "Mod-2.7.1" and in there are folders : 1 city plot , 2 city plot , Assets , Project files and PublicMaps.

 

[TaylorItaly]

My only problem in this mod is that i can not prevent the ai from taken over my settings for the wokers in town.
Say i have place 2 fishermen and 2 woodloger manually , when i close the screen and reopen they are aranged
in another way , nomatter if i click at one of the two icons in the down right corner.
Is there a trick?

 

[ConjurerDragon]

The standard is that the AI auto-sets the workers. There is an icon on the screen to activate/deactivate the autosetting of the workers.

 

[bogwart]

Thank you!
Ok I just paste the installation guide on Github here:

How to download and install.

1. Download the "Source code(zip)" and "CvGameCoreDLL.zip" from this release.
2. Unpack the zip at the Mod directory. If everything goes ok, it will create a directory named "Mod-2.7.1-beta6" at that directory. Just rename it either to "Religion_and_Revolution" or "We-the-People".
3. Download the "cvGameCoreDLL.zip" from this release and unpack it somehwhere.
4. Replace the file at "Assets/CvGameCoreDLL.zip" at the mod with the one found at "1 city plot/CvGameCoreDLL.dll" or "2 city plot/CvGameCoreDLL.dll" inside the zip.

So I copied the unzipped Mod folder (Mod-2.7.1.1) to Colonization's MODS folder (step1-3).
But step 4 is a showstopper because:
there is no CvGameCoreDLL.zip or CvGameCoreDLL.dll (maybe a typo) in the Mod-2.7.1.1/Assets folder.
Instead there's just a ".gitignore" file, besides the Art, Python, Res, Sounds, XML folders.
Renaming the MODS folder doesn't help (game still crashes).
Pasting the provided CvGameCoreDLL.dll into the Assets folder doesn't help, too.
I also downloaded and checked the 2.7.1. version to no avail.

I know this sounds funny because you're all having no problems - maybe it's a Github thingy?

 

[TaylorItaly]

Thanks.In mynew game it work like expetced...

 

[TaylorItaly]

The CvGameCoreDLL.dll is in the 1 City Plot folder and in the 2 CityPlot folder.
Just pick the one you want and put it in the MyGame/Colo.../mods/Mod-2.7.1/Assets folder.
The folder is just Mod-2.7.1 not 2.7.1.1!!

2.7.1.1 is only the updated DLL,you have to download 2.7.1

 

[Nightinggale]

I'm puzzled to why people keep having problems installing. You download "Source code (zip)" and unzip it into mods. You open it and copy CvGameCoreDLL.dll from either 1 city plot or 2 city plot and place it in Assets. There shouldn't be more to it than that.

 

[rah]

I'll admit I messed up on the 2 city plot thingie but only took about 2 minutes to figure out what I missed.

 

[raystuttgart]

Hi guys,

how are you all doing?
Are the Civ4Col community and WtP still active?

During my recent vacation I was diving again into another of my old "all time favourites" game series due to nostalgica.
I was amazed how active their modding community still was even after so many years.

Spoiler :

I am talking about Baldurs Gate Series.
The modding community is really awesome.

But actually they had a really really great advantage.
Another publisher had picked up the old series and created an "Enhanced Edition" that not only offered an improved engine but also new quests, new companions and better modding support.

As a result of that Enhanced Edition modding activity was boosted again.
And these mods are really awesome!

When playing the game with all these mods after so many years again I felt happy like a child at christmas.

So I was really wondering:

A) What would happen if the Civ4Col-Community could inspire Firaxis or some other publisher to make a "Civ4Col Enhanced Edition"?
(Ideally reusing some of the great ideas and features from RaR/WtP.)

B) What would happen then if as a consequence of that "Civ4Col Enhanced Edition" a big team of modders for Civ4Col could be started again?
(Something like in the "Golden Days of Civ4Col-modding" when TAC and RaR where still highly active.)

Well, I know it is highly unlikely that some publisher will ever do such a "Civ4Col Enhanced Edition".
(According to all I know Civ4Col was considered a sales failure.)

But sometimes I am still dreaming of those "Golden Days of Civ4Col-modding".

 

[JosEPh_II]

Well, I know it is highly unlikely that some publisher will ever do such a "Civ4Col Enhanced Edition".
(According to all I know Civ4Col was considered a sales failure.)

That is a shame. It had my support and money.

 

[scottfreitas]

According to all I know Civ4Col was considered a sales failure.

The only reason it was initially a sales failure is because it was a bare-bones, cash-grab addition to Civilization 4. It should have been released as a stand-alone game (which it later became, although far too long after the fact for anyone to really care).

Firaxis isn't as smart as the Age of Empires people, that's for sure. If they were, they would eagerly grab hold of the currently-existing We the People version of Colonization, take it home to their studios and polish it up, then re-lease it as "COLONIZATION: THE DEFINITIVE EDITION".

Ideally, they would strip out the stupid "culture" mechanic stolen from Civilization, replacing it with a newly-added "Native alarm system" identical to that which existed in the original 1994 version (remember that? the colored exclamation points superimposed over native buildings, which reflected current "alarm" over your colonies, your troops and their positions, etc).

They could easily earn a couple-three millions dollars off a We The People modified version. But they won't.

Firaxis has become a boring one trick pony company, doing nothing other than re-releasing the same game (Civilization) over and over again. Worse, they often discard truly great game mechanics in newer versions, replacing them with inferior ideas.

Sad.

 

[Nightinggale]

Civilization 4 was developed by lead developer Soren Johnson. He left Firaxis 3 months prior to the release of BTS. This means Colonization was developed under new leadership and we can see in civ5 what the new leadership wanted with the civ franchise.

On top of new leadership, I suspect there is another issue at play here. People wanted the original Colonization, but at the same time they didn't want the original Colonization. It wasn't just about remaking the old game using a modern interface. They had to make a classic, but with modern game mechanics. That's actually really difficult. It looks like it was also unrewarding because fans had possibly unrealistic expectations.

However I'm still thankful that they did make it at all because while vanilla isn't a masterpiece, it's actually not that bad. It's just not the classic Colonization for a modern computer. It has something, which is really awesome, which is the modding abilities. This means the stuff we think they didn't get right can be changed to whatever we think would be better. A lot of later games have good mod support, but good mod support was rare when the game was new. Even to this day, the level of modding freedom with internal stuff like the savegame format is highly unusual. If we look at Medieval Conquest, it added tech trees, trade routes and other stuff using mechanics, which weren't in the game. They are coded from scratch, complete with xml interface and savegame support for new classes/concepts. Any game engine, which grants this level of modding freedom is unusually good.

In short term, the vanilla quality was what affected sales. What I believe affect sales today is the mod support. The game keeps being new despite using an engine, which was released in 2005.

 

[Paul Rhodes]

I recently decided to give Civ 4s Colonization a go again after .... 7 years maybe.. of not playing it hahaaa. I played the RaR a fair bit over the last week or so and recently discovered what you guys are doing. So, I got your latest version and installed it etc.
Is it supposed to take 5 actual minutes to load the mod? RaR took about 1min to load up but since I added your 2.7.1 version + the quick fix 2.7.1.1 the game now takes 5 mins to load up the mod (I timed this twice, after having to wait a few times) and its 4m 50ish seconds give or take to load.
Also if I restart a game, click menu and click return to Main Menu the whole game quits back to my desktop and I have to reload the 5min waiting time again. This was not an issue with RaR 2.7.

Any Ideas? Cheers guys.

 

[raystuttgart]

Any Ideas? Cheers guys.

Yes, I have.

Did you read the readme.txt included?
(Please read it.)

You need to copy the DLL you want to play with to the "Assets folder".
(You can choose between 1-Plot and 2-Plot. 2-Plot is RaR style.)

It will break with old RaR-DLL.
You need the new WTP-DLL.

Alternatively:
Do not install it on top of RaR. (Just to be sure that your RaR version is not outdated / incompatible with WTP.)
Download the recent full version of WTP and install it separately in its own folder.

@Nightinggale:
Could we please ask the admins to move these 2 posts moved to the "install problems" thread?

 

[raystuttgart]

Hi guys,

I have been reading around in some of the forums.
(e.g. Steam and other Game Communities)

And I do get the impression that somehow installing a Civ4Col mod generally seems to be more difficult for new players than we do expect.
(Well, after all we modders and also the hard core fans have been doing this for years already.)

And yes, many simply do not read the readme.
And yes, some simply do not use the "Mod-folder" but throw fhe files somewhere else ...
And yes, some simply did not install the 1.01f fix for the exe (if they still have old Civ4Col copies and reinstalled)
And yes, I even had cases in the past where people thought RaR was a mod for Civ4 not Civ4Col (which might also happen to WTP)
And yes, ...

All of this is of course not logical for us anymore.

But we might still need to rethink our release strategy.

A) We might just ship full release installations for public releases - even if downloads take longer. (No delta-installations)
B) We might clearly separate download areas for internal releases from public releases. (To prevent players from accidently getting Assert or Debug DLLs)
C) We might need to give a "Install WTP for Civ4Col Newbies" guide. (Writing down even the most obvious stuff for us.)
D) We should always have a default DLL in "Assets". (Let us have 2-Plot DLL as default but still ship both DLLs in their folders as well.)
E) We might even create a full auto-installer that automatically installs everthing correctly and also sets up a short cut on desktop.

If people start writing too often in the forums something like "This mod is simply broken" it will really not help us.

 

[mohreb]

Hi
I would like to ask if there is a way to have other europeans as AI's that will:
1) not buy FF (or that the FF is not taken away from my list at least)
2) not do the revolution (or at least that their revolution does not make a counter on mine "X turns to finish)
As at the moment if i want to play a relaxed waty i need to make a game where:
> independence only victory (so no time limit)
> no other european players set up (so no competition for FF and for independence)
I would still love to have them as competition but without the time element.
A) What files should i change / modify to make the mod work that way?
B) Am i the only one interested in thease type of games / or can a mod option be considered for this?
Mohreb

 

[raystuttgart]

Hi
I would like to ask if there is a way to have other europeans as AI's that will:
1) not buy FF (or that the FF is not taken away from my list at least)
2) not do the revolution (or at least that their revolution does not make a counter on mine "X turns to finish)

Not possible without changing the code (by C++ programming), sorry.
There is no XML file where you could deactivate these basic features for European AI Players.

Of course you can deactivate "Victory Condition Independence" but as I ready you want to use it yourself.
So either you deactivate it for all Players or no Player.

can a mod option be considered for this?

Technically it is possible of course.
But it is effort and might introduce bugs.

I am personally simply not interested to invest the effort.
Also, I personally would consider it a "heavy cheat" and don't like to code something like that purposely.

I am also not really sure that any other community members would want it.
But since you talk about a "GameOption" most might also not care.

But I cannot speak for all of the other team members of course.
Maybe somebody will be interested to invest the effort.

 

[jesperben]

raystuttgart is right. Ordinary gamers are used to simple installations, the process can quickly become too complicated.

I am not at modder but an experienced gamer and computer user, and I did manage to install this mod. But I and people like me can quickly get in doubt about things that seem obvious to others.