MOD: Long Winded Changes Mod: Improvements increasing Balance, Accuracy, and Fun

[Colony Bug]

i can't get the installer to work!

I'm using windows 2000 pro and can't seem to get the installer working properly

It askes me to extract the files to a new temp folder each time.. I stopped at around 7 of them.. is this normal or what?

should i continue?


thanks

[Desert Dog]

Installer

Hey you should check your installer program it totally destroyed the registry on my computer after installing your mod. I myself NEVER put games in a default location either. Even though I switched drives your installer left civ 3 folder in directory leading me to think it is installing wrong. I am a OEM system builder have seen this before. It may work on some computers fine but others problem city. PLUS, I had trouble making your mod work. You never say where to place the new settler files. I tried to simply replace the files, game keeps crashing. Even after reinstalling after your installer trashed the registry. Not slamming you just something not right with your installing program. Peace!

Desert Dog

[Gwayne]

Mmm, I am using M$ XP and I have the same problem.

I always install games in a games dir.

Like

c:\games\civ3

And the game does now crash all the time

After I deinstall the mod it still crashes. And So I had to desinstall whole civ III and reinstall it. Then it worked again.

But I still want to use the mod. So can you make a version without the installer ?

Or with a manual pointing to the civ install dir. Because I realy like all the changes. But now I cant play them

But keep up the good work btw. Excellent.

[Tyrannus]

Resource Labels

Hey Plutarck,

Have you seen the various 'Resource Labels' mods?

With your permission I'd like to mod your resource.pcx file to include labels. In fact I would do several versions since there are a variety of ways that people seem to want them.

What do ya say?

BTW, you may know me as 'Sleepy Eddie' from ChronX...

[Plutarck]

Tyrannus:

Actually, that gives me an idea. If you want a good idea would be to create a resource.pcx file with many/all the currently released icons so any modmaker can use them if they want them, and also to previde the Resource Labels addition to just that.

That way you'd only have to work on 1 version of the file of the file.

What slots the resources take up would be up to you (or whoever wanted to do it), but I'd certaily use it and set the Icons my .bic uses to fit whatever slots they take up.


But either way, you certainly have my permission to use the resource.pcx file and apply resource labels to them. I really like that mod too


And heya, which faction were/are you with in CX? The name rings a bell but I can't quite remember fully...


Gwayne, Desert Dog, Colony Bug:

I am suddenly getting quite a few reports about the installer going screwy like that. Here's the website of it: www.zerog.com

It's used by many major corporations and is supposed to work on just about every kind of platform there is, but I am only using the Win32 option. Perhaps I'll use the "other Java-enabled platform" option and provide that for download to people having trouble.

I'll try to provide a manual install if the installer decides it wants to be a pain in the arse.

About uninstalling: Due to how the game handles mods it's often required to have to uninstall/reinstall Civ3 to get it working properly again, because you have to replace default files for the game to make it work. Highly annoying, but gotta blame the game for that one.

Also I don't know of any installer system which makes it easy to copy files it replaces so it can then put everything back exactly the way it was before you installed it.

Perhaps some programmer could put together a program for all mod-makers and mod-users to use (after we see what's changed in the next patch) which handles installing/switching between different mods?

Something like the "Modswapper" for CTP2. I like the idea and would work on it myself if I wasn't busy with LWC



On sepperate notes, I think the way resources are used really is due for a more complete revamping, but it will require some sustained effort, and I have to "iron" some other things out first

One problem is with the game itself where changing the req'ed resources for units from events/techs/buildings isn't possible, so to do any such addition you'd basically have to add copys for all such units you want to change. More labor intensive than it should be, certainly.

It should reflect that we use oil in the way we do, for instance, because oil is available. If oil didn't exist does anyone think we just wouldn't have cars or planes?

If we found out we'd be totally out of oil in 20 years we'd find a replacement, without a doubt, just like how tin got replaced with aluminum.

But with all the current limitations it would be far harder to do than it should be.

So I'll concentrate on more "tweaking" than "total overhaul" for the time being.

Otherwise the time between new versions wouldn't be a few days, but multiple weeks, and game improvements would take much longer to see.

Best to tweak for now and save the overhauls until the game as a whole has "developed" more

[Gwayne]

Plutark:

I think that most people never complain about a installer.
They just abandon the mod.

But I think its just getting the bugs out

So I am looking forward until the next version.

[Albatou]

Installer is being evil to me too. Tells me the magic number didn't match : get another copy of the installer and try again. ???? Do I have to download the utility from zerog's website? Oh well.

[Desert Dog]

crashing

Hey I have windows 98 and civ 3 is crashing quite a bit. I have my games folder on drive D system files on drive C. Could be that the dum dum programmers look for the default directory I have seen this type of crappy programming before.
I sure hope they fire the old programmers and get some new ones or something. I am sick and tired of the bugs in this game I paid $65.00 for like an idiot (addict?) I just had to buy the LE edition! Okay I will stop complaining, the game will be good one day if they EVER get the patch done! Peace!

Desert Dog

[Plutarck]

v0.8 is now available!

Version 0.8 is now available! Check the first post for details!


It does a whole bunch of stuff, as you can clearly see from the changelog.

[Claymore]

.8 Version

Just a sad note. I just installed .8 into a great ongoing game I was playing. It is not compatable with previously saved files...ie know that whan you install the new .8 version you must start a new game

[skar760]

Hi. I'd really like to test your mod but I get crashes en masse after having installed your mod. I posted one of the errors below (translated from German) which occurs frequently when browsing the civilopedia. The one below occured when I tried to view the entry for Chichen Itza. Other similar errors occur when I am scrolling.

my system: PIII/700 512MB ram WIN98 2nd ed.

Can anyone help me?


CIVILIZATION3 caused an error due to an invalid Page
in module CIVILIZATION3.EXE at 024f:0054f0af.
Register:
EAX=00000000 CS=024f EIP=0054f0af EFLGS=00210246
EBX=00873938 SS=0257 ESP=00abf85c EBP=00000000
ECX=ffffffff DS=0257 ESI=01310e18 FS=11a7
EDX=00000000 ES=0257 EDI=5f485341 GS=0000
Bytes at CS:EIP:
f2 ae f7 d1 2b f9 8d 54 24 2c 8b f7 8b fa 8b d1
Batch Values:
005ea2c4 01310e18 00000420 005ea2c4 00000000 005aa3d8 00000000 ffffffff 00000000 4d070000 00000000 00000000 00abf8b0 bff7a10e bff7b326 822fa000

[FalloutBoy]

I have been following this mod for a while now. I am looking forward to trying it after the official patch is released. I have a few comments on it, especially version 0.8. Sorry it's long, but I've been saving them up.

Corruption exists in the game for a very good reason. To prevent unrealistic globe-spanning empires. I am concerned that you may have added so many corruption-reducing buildings that these huge empires are possible again. Especially National Unionization and Global Security Agency (no such thing in reality), which effective reduce corruption in ALL cities. Plus, does the AI know how to build these things? I don't even think the AI is aware that corruption exists. The Thought Police has the same effect, but at least that one has some drawbacks.

Stone is extremely common in reality and I'm not sure what effect making it required for some wonders will have on the AI. Hopefully nothing, but still it is not that difficult to come by in reality, and too many resource icons can clutter up the map. Just my opinion. I would get rid of saltpeter too, since any junior chemist can make it himself.

I like Imperialism, but it sounds like it might be too good. It allows you to pop rush, but without the corruption penalty of despotism. Maybe we should just wait and see if the patch affect this ability, because currently corruption is the only penalty to the despotism pop rush strategy.

Colonialism I don't like because in reality it was more of a policy than a gov't. I'm thinking of England, France, Spain, Portugul, Netherlands during the "pirate years" (more on this below). Plus I'm not sure we really need a gov't that is "Not quite as warlike
as Communism, not quite as peaceful as Democracy."

Luxury resources are supposed to bring happy faces only. By making a city improvement require grapes (Vineyard), now grapes are more of a strategic luxury, and they are more valuable than any other luxury. Plus a vineyard alone doesn't make people happy or increase revenue any more than a wheat field. I could see myself trading a bunch of luxuries just to get grapes so I can build vineyards in all my cities. I would remove Vineyard and make Great Winery a small wonder that you can only build if grapes are in your city radius.

If pollution-causing improvements have negative culture, shouldn't things like mass transit (San Francisco cable cars) and recycling have positive culture? Maybe they already do, I forgot to check.

The age of gov't-sponsored piracy was relatively short, so I don't think we need the Corporate Privateer. My idea was to change the English unique unit to a souped-up privateer called Pirate Ship. This is still in line with historical accuracy and is more interesting to me than the worthless Man-of-War unit. I would set the regular privateer's attack rating equal to the defense rating of a frigate (it should be possible to kill a frigate, but pretty tough) and set the defense to 1, since typically pirates were known for sneak attacking and running away. Then make the Pirate Ship a little higher attack rating. I think this might make early sea travel more exciting, assuming the AI would know how to use them.

In the game I am currently playing, I had barely had enough time to upgrade a couple of my muskets to rifles before I discovered infantry (maybe requiring rubber was supposed to make them harder to build or something). I hope you fixed this part of the tech tree. I'd like to actually build a rifleman unit someday. I also have swordsmen running around with my tanks, but the Partisan should fix that problem. :-)

Is it possible to reduce corruption just for expansionist civs? The problem with this trait is that no matter how much you expand, you'll still eventually get hit by corruption as with any other civ. So rapid expansion is not necessarily as great as it sounds at first. The pioneer unit seems overpowered in the early part of the game, which is not when expansionists need any help. Maybe if there were city improvements that only an expansionist could build.

These are all just my opinions and I could be wrong. Don't take any of this personally because I know you have worked hard on this and you have done a really good job.

[Evil Ankh VIII]

ARRRGH. I still can't get this mod to download. I get it about 50% downloaded and then it says the magic number didn't match : get another copy of the installer and try again. Maybe I am missing something simple, but this is driving me crazy cause I want to play with this mod soooooooooo bad. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Plutarck]

Will deal with the other posts later (in the middle of some programming work), but anyhow:



For those having a problem with the magic number thing, I believe the InstallAnywhere program does a CRC check on itself to see if it is exactly as it should be.

So if any of the bits get changed or the download is incomplete it will throw that error.

I reccommend trying either using the GetRight program, or using no download manager at all, or just using the WebInstaller option I added.

You have to wait for the download to totally finish then run it, else it will see that some of the bytes in the .exe are incorrect and throw the magic number error.

I haven't personally witnessed the magic number problem, but I believe this is certainly the most likely cause of it.

[Tyrannus]

Is 0.8 causing crashes?

I put the kids to bed early tonight so that I could work on the resources.pcx. I've got several different schemes that I've been working and wanted to post a few screenshots. Since Cotton is now out and Stone is in I updated 0.8 from 0.7 using the Installer. Worked just fine for me! Unfortunately I discovered too late that my old savegames won't work, arrgh! Oh well, I started a new game and Surprise! after a few turns it crashed on me, taking Win98 SE with it. Tried it again and after a few more turns it crashed again!

Is there something in 0.8 that might be causing this?

As soon as I can get a shot of some combination of iron/stone/horses/stallions i'll get it posted for comments.

Thanks!