Pitboss Help?

[Ereth]

Hi. I've been playing Civ since the Atari ST version, but I've never tried to run Pitboss before.

Recently I decided I would try that, but I am completely unable to get the thing to work at all.

I've downloaded it from Firaxis site, and 2k Games site, and even from FilePlanet. It is always a single EXE, just over 8MB in size (though sometimes it is zipped with a Word Doc explaining how to play).

I put that EXE in the root of my Civilization 4 directory (otherwise I get Python errors). When I run it, it launches and asks me to choose a mod, then it wants SMTP information, then it wants to know how I want to play (Direct IP, LAN or Internet). No matter what I choose, it then tells me there's an update (on Vista with a dialog box saying that, on XP with a dialog box that says "TXT_KEY_PITBOSS_PATCH_AVAILABLE_DESC". I choose yes and it's painfully slow to download whatever patch it is trying to do. Over an hour on a 10MB cable modem.

Anyway, once it finishes, it tells me to "Click ok to restart and apply the patch" but all that happens when I click OK is that the dialog box goes away. PitBoss continues exactly as it was (with Next and Back grayed out and only Cancel available). I left it running over night once and it never did anything.

And it does this every single time. I've installed it on Vista, XP, even in a VM running XP, it doesn't matter where I downloaded it from, or which OS, it does this and nothing else.

How did you guys get PitBoss to actually run and do what it's intended to do? I'm clearly missing a step! I searched but I could not find any answers either here or with Google. 2k Tech Support simply suggests I re-download it, which I've done at least 6 times now, from different sites.

Any help at all will be very much appreciated.

[snoopy369]

What version of civ are you playing? Civ4 (vanilla), Warlords, or Beyond the Sword?

Pitboss is basically just a frontend for running a Civ4 MP game persistently. As such, the EXE itself is tiny - all it does is have a few dialog boxes, a small amount of logic, and then it loads all the standard Civ4 stuff that the normal game has (but without the graphics, of course!).

If you have any version newer than Civ4 vanilla, you don't have to separately download Pitboss. It comes with it If you have Civ4 Vanilla, I think it comes with one of the patches, possibly 1.52? It's been a while. That sounds like what is the case, to me.

Patch your Civ4 by itself, and you should be good to go. Find the patch, which should have been downloaded to:
c:\documents and settings\(your username)\my documents\my games\sid meier's civilization 4\patches\ [or Warlords\patches\ or Beyond the Sword\patches\ if it is a more advanced version of the game], and run it from there; that should run the patch. (In vista, particularly, it doesn't autorun correctly...) Otherwise, if you don't find that, get a copy of the patch directly (from the firaxis website, or whatever... we probably have one on apolyton, though I don't know exactly where atm).

Once that is run, and the game is patched, you can run a pitboss application I'll go into more detail of what pitboss does later on if you are interested.

[Ereth]

I was playing Civ 4 with Warlords on my Mac. I had a friend running Pitboss (because there was never a Mac version).

But we've fallen out of touch so I brought up my Civ 4 Windows. I didn't buy Warlords for Windows because I bought it for Mac, and now it appears you CAN'T buy it (everybody seems to be "out of stock") unless you get it through Steam.

So I installed Civ 4 and patched it to 1.76. Are you saying that Pitboss runs from inside Civ 4 now? I thought it was a standalone app.

[Ereth]

Well, I thought I could cheat and simply say "No" when it asked if I wanted to patch. At least then I got to the Pitboss configuration screen.

All seemed well until I tried to connect to it and Civ told me that "Critical files are not at the same version. Unable to connect".

This is so frustrating. I get the latest PitBoss.exe from Firaxis and it STILL wants to patch itself!

I have my Civ patched to 1.74, but there's not a PitBoss.exe in the directory until I go get one.

[MMC]

Are you using the Civ4 Pitboss, or the Warlords Pitboss? Because if it's the latter, then the Pitboss exe might be looking for the Warlords files, failing, and insisting on a patch to fix it.

One thing to note it that the pitboss exe is effectively just a replacement for the civilization4 exe which enables people to run servers. You can't play civ4 by putting the Civilization4.exe file in another directory on it's own, and Pitboss is the same.

Warlords, Beyond the Sword, and Civ4Complete all have the Pitboss app (Civ4Complete has all 3 versions). I prefer to patch Civ4 outside of the game anyway. Try using GameShadow (www.gameshadow.com) which is a bit like Steam, only it patches the games you already have - and you can still play the games if you remove the patcher, so no tie-ins.

Also, I know it's a UK site, but Play.com has Warlords for £5 ($10): http://www.play.com/Games/PC/4-/9315...s/Product.html
Or there's Amazon, of course: http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listi...S/ref=dp_olp_2

[Ereth]

I don't have Warlords, or Beyond the Sword, on the PC. I have the original Civ 4, which I bought the day it came out.

I install it. I patch it from inside (check for Updates from inside the Advanced Options inside the game). It patches to current.

There is not a PitBoss.exe anywhere on my computer at this point.

I go to www.firaxis.com, click Support, click Civilization IV, click Patches and Downloads, click Pitboss Application and download the PitBoss.exe. I copy it from my downloads folder to the Civ IV directory (C:\Program Files\Firaxis Games\Sid Meiers Civilization IV\" and run it. (According to the properties on the file, it is version 1.6.1.1841. Properties on Civ IV agree with that before I patch, but are different after I patch).

It opens a CMD window (what we used to call a DOS Window) that runs some things and then opens an incredibly simple GUI window.

It lets me choose a couple of options, then insists on patching itself, an act that takes exceptionally long (hours). Then it fails to apply the patch.

-----

Update: I tried something different. I put the PitBoss.exe file in the Civ IV directory BEFORE patching. The patch then updated the Pitboss.exe to 1.7.4.

Alas, neither Civ IV nor Pitboss will run now, claiming they cannot find d3dx9_32.dll, which is bizarre as that's not been a problem previously.

[Ereth]

Further update...

I copied the missing .dll from elsewhere on my system and now Pitboss.exe works.

But I am puzzled a tiny bit. Are you guys telling me that if I buy Warlords or Beyond the Sword, each of them will come with another Pitboss.exe?

So if I wanted to play a BtS game, I'd run THAT Pitboss instead of the one I finally have working? Do the STEAM versions come with those files?


Edit: I bought the expansions through Steam. I DO see a Civ4Warlords_Pitboss.exe in the Warlords directory, but I do not see a similar file in the Beyond the Sword directory.

[snoopy369]

Yes, pitboss.exe is different for each version of Civ.

All versions of Civ now come with pitboss as part of the install - your problem was you had the 'old' pitboss.exe with a newer version of civ...

There should be a Civ4BeyondSword_PItboss.exe in the BtS folder. Do a find for it if you don't see it at first. Also, patch to 3.17 - it's possible it will be replaced by one of the patches (I think at least a few PTBS changes occurred in 3.13 or 3.17, including the ability to change the length of the (next turn's) timer.

[Ereth]

Well, I only have the Steam version of BtS, and it says it's patched, but you have to patch through Steam. And I DID do a find, and it didn't find it.

But I can at least do Vanilla. My good friend just got Civ IV and I was wanting to set up a game where we could play. I wanted PitBoss precisely because he works nights and I work days and I remember that PitBoss handled that, turned it into almost a PBEM type game, that you could connect whenever was convenient, so we'll be able to play a few turns a day or however many we can get in on days that we are both off.

[snoopy369]

Hmm, no idea then - you might want to contact Steam support in that case. I have the Direct2Drive version (similar to Steam in not requiring a CD, and having its own patches) and it includes the above file.