BtS unofficial patch

[alva]

The game wasn't tested worth a damn. You'll also notice espionage is broken on marathon, as well as the AIs many other glaring faults (does not defend coastal cities enough, parks stacks in your territory without pillaging, spams corporations mindlessly, etc). Also, the scenario AI is lacking in final frontier and there are several bugs in at least two other scenarios I played.

The blame goes to Firaxis, obviously, for relying on fans to make the whole game and test it for them. Blake codes the AI, fans make 4 scenarios, Solver reinvents the air combat, fans make the ethnic units...Firaxis is just lazy. Maybe a patch will come sometime soon.

I started reading your post and even before finishing the first sentence I had a feeling it would be you, so I looked to the left and whaddya know....
So reassuring to know that there are some things in life one can count on.

[Wiglaf]

This is a much more solid release than the original Civ 4 and Warlords, I think. But, yeah, obviously **** snuck in there. The key is what they do about addressing the issues once they've been pointed out. The only time I'm willing to get all pissy about it is when, several months out, these issues haven't been addressed or they try to pull some, "Its not a bug but a feature" nonsense.

The people who make Rome Total War and its sequel do that. Firaxis at least has the integrity to release regular and comprehensive updates..

[Dale]

Originally posted by LordGek


Color me confused, Dale, is this the problem or the fix you've made to a problem? Furthermore is this just something in RtW or the main game as well?

This is my fix to a crash bug (extremely rare, but I saw it twice in a game). I traced it to occur when a stack of fighters intercepted and were all killed. Whilst the units were all killed the "group" was not, and then during that AI's turn it tried to select that group. Being NULL it CTD's.

I've put it into RtW AOP1, so I doubt it's in anything else.

[Solver]

Dale, you better give me some AI coding lessons. Together with Blake

[Wiglaf]

And Firaxis. Oh, no wait. Can anyone there program an AI, or are they just too disinterested to try these days?

[LordGek]

Originally posted by Dale


This is my fix to a crash bug (extremely rare, but I saw it twice in a game). I traced it to occur when a stack of fighters intercepted and were all killed. Whilst the units were all killed the "group" was not, and then during that AI's turn it tried to select that group. Being NULL it CTD's.

I've put it into RtW AOP1, so I doubt it's in anything else.

Well, yeah, duh, the fix will only be where YOU put it but is this bug in the main game as well?

[Wiglaf]

Originally posted by alva
I started reading your post and even before finishing the first sentence I had a feeling it would be you, so I looked to the left and whaddya know....
So reassuring to know that there are some things in life one can count on.

Better to read my assessment than a tester's review that says everything's peachy.

[Dale]

Originally posted by LordGek


Well, yeah, duh, the fix will only be where YOU put it but is this bug in the main game as well?

Yes.

[LordGek]

Originally posted by Wiglaf


Better to read my assessment than a tester's review that says everything's peachy.

Nobody says Firaxis should get a free pass to leave us with a "broken" game (again pretty solid but there is ALWAYS room for improvement), but, Geez, Wiglaf, give them a farking chance to address stuff. If you want a SOLID patch they'll need to test it, right? This shoot doesn't happen over night.

As I see it v3.02 was the quick and dirty emergency patch and this next one can be the one they take some time to really take care of all of the known issues.

Also, Wiglaf, next time if you want a SOLID game, especially with a strategy game as complex as the Civ series, wait until after at least the first two patches. If you aren't willing to wait until then its YOUR problem, isn't it?

[Wiglaf]

No, I was sold a game, not a beta.

It would take months to fix all of BTS' problems, and given how even testers like Solver are in denial ("corporation AI is super!") and how long it took BetterAI to be made by Blake (who, by the way, is only one person), many fundamental problems will probably never be fixed.

[Gyathaar]

Perhaps add the crash fix code from this thread into the DLL too?

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=232492

[Solver]

Gyathaar

That's quite a few crash fixes you are responsible for

[Bhruic]

Any chance of getting the modified source for those of us who've already modified the dll?

Bh

[Solver]

Yes, that's coming soon.

[Solver]

Updated

Download still in first post. Added three crash fixes.

* "Dead unitgroup walking" crash fix as per Dale
* No-conscript colony crash fix as per Gyathaar
* Another colony crash fix as per myself

Modified source files included.