Help! Certain units are not available in Apolyton Pack 1.02

[Dire Wolf]

Hi,

I recently installed the Apolyton Pack 1.02. I performed the following steps:

1. Installed CTP2 patch 1.11
2. Installed Apolyton 1.01 Full
3. Installed Apolyton 1.02 Upgrade
4. Set userprofile.txt DebugSlic = No
5. Backed up my original gamefile.txt, newsprite.txt, and great_library.txt
6. Copied and renamed APOL_gamefile.txt, APOL_newsprite.txt, and APOL_great_library.txt to gamefile.txt, newsprite.txt, and great_library.txt, respectively.

After performed all of these steps I have noticed the following:

1. When starting a game using the Earth World scenario, I'm having a hard time starting out. Sometimes it is impossible to build Settlers! I played up to 100 AD with ONE city and never had the option of creating a Settler. So I quit CTP2 and started again. I started new game with the exact same parameters and this time Settlers were available. My wife had the same problem on a different computer. Sometimes you get Settlers and sometime you don't.

2. I'm currently at 1840 AD in the Earth World scenario and I have not been able to build Infantry men, even though I have discovered Gunpowder and can build Cannons. Argh.

The only thing I can think of is that I'm running Windows 2000. Since ModSwapper supposedly doesn't work properly under Windows 2000, I had to install the pack manually.

Can anyone hear help me out?

Thank you in advance,

Joel

[Pedrunn]

This really is strange i never heard nothing like that.
Did you used to get those errors before the apolyton pack?
Or you just jumped into apolyton right away? although that should be the smart thing to do anyway.
all i can think about is to try to download the Apolyton pack 1.02 again. or maybe re-install CTP2.
Sorry i wish i could help your more. maybe someone else will give you a better solution.

You and your wife play it? nice to now that CTP2 is a family entertainment .

[Dire Wolf]

I've played CTP 2 since version 1 and haven't experienced that issue before. Sometimes I've started a game where I've had to research more tech at the start (like agriculture) but I've *always* had Settlers available. Kind of hard to expand without them

I'm thinking that I just might reinstall CTP2, the patch, and then the Apolyton packs.

I read that there is a manual way to install it under Windows 2000 since the ModSwapper tool doesn't work properly (which is strange).

Is there a list of steps to manually install Apolyton 1.02?

----------

Yes, my wife and I love playing CTP2. I was really looking forward to Civ 3 because of the MP but it looks like that won't happen anymore. I guess we'll have to play Empire Earth (like Civ 3 but 3D + real-time). We'll probably end up buying Civ 3 for the SP play but I'm still disappointed.

Thanks again.

Joel

[Martin Gühmann]

The problem is that games saved without Apolyton Pack are incompartible with Apolyton Pack, in the case of Apolyton Pack just some units are disappearing, in other mods these savegames causes crashes. Unfortunatly saved map are similar to savegames. Now I could explain how improt and export the map, but I allready made Activisions World Map for Apolyton Pack.

To install the version of that map unzip the file into your ..\Scenarios\WorldMaps\ directory and open the packlist.txt there. You will find a number in that file change that from 1 to 2.

-Martin

[Dire Wolf]

Yeah, I was starting to wonder about that.

Thank you very much!

BTW Would you happen to have a compatible version of OmniGod's WorldMap - anytime I try to load his map into the editor the game crashes to the desktop with an access violation (which usually points to invalid pointer access/usage possibly caused by different map formats).

Anything you've got would be appreciated.

Thank you again!

Joel

P.S. To install the Apolyton Pack under Win2K should be as simple as renaming:

APOL_gamefile.txt -> gamefile.txt
APOL_newsprite.txt -> newsprite.txt
APOL_great_library.txt -> great_library.txt

correct?

[Martin Gühmann]

Now I have my own version of OmniGod's worldmap. It has a size of 140X280. Maybe it contains some errors concerning geographics, because after sizing it down I had to put in rivers fix, shallow waters and some mountain, and also these many dead polluted tiles, maybe I forgot to remove one of them.

Another problem is the size of the *.zip file it has a size of 240kB to large to attach it here in one peace therefore I had to search for a file splitter. I splitted the *.zip file into two parts afterwards I put the first part into another *.zip file with the readme of the splitter. (I had to give WinRar a reason to put part one in a working *.zip file the second *.zip file contains the second part of the map *.zip file and the splitter/unsplitter program. This program is freeware so no licence violation. Afterwards you got the two parts unzip them and use the unsplitter on the inner *zip file.

When you have the unsplitted *.zip file you have to do the same thing as with the first worldmap:

To install the version of that map unzip the file into your ..\Scenarios\WorldMaps\ directory and open the packlist.txt there.

The last part is a little different: Instead changing the number in the packlist.txt from 1 to 2 you have to change it from 2 to 3.

-Martin

[Martin Gühmann]

Here is the second part.

And

APOL_gamefile.txt -> gamefile.txt
APOL_newsprite.txt -> newsprite.txt
APOL_great_library.txt -> great_library.txt

correct, just renaming.

-Martin

[Gen.Dragolen]

Gentlemen,

You missed one file: the apol_wondermovie, if I remember correctly.

Here is a copy of the instructions from Wes' Medmod:

"Wes, you asked for an official explanation about how to get MM2 to work on W2K, so here it is. I took notes while I installed the latest update so I know all the steps are there.
Here goes: (Note that this solution is necessary because Modswapper does not work with W2K.)

1)Unzip all the MM2 zip files to a unique folder. I use d:\CTP2_Senarios.

2) Copy all the files to their respective folders in the Activision folder. They are saved under the proper folder names when they are unzipped. I just put them under a different higher folder name.

3) Copy all of the following files out of the Activision folders and save them in a seperate directory. \\Activision\ctp2_data\English\Great_Library.txt,
\\Activision\ctp2_data\Default\Newsprite.txt,
\\Activision\ctp2_data\Default\Wondermovie.txt,
\\Activision\ctp2_data\Default\Victorymovie.txt,
\\Activision\ctp2_data\Default\gamefile.txt.

4) Once you have saved all the above files into a seperate directory, perhaps called "original", delete them from the game folders.

5) Rename the following files as described;
\\Activision\ctp2_data\English\MM2_Great_Library.t xt to \\Activision\ctp2_data\English\Great_Library.txt, \\Activision\ctp2_data\Default\MM2_Newsprite.txt to \\Activision\ctp2_data\Default\Newsprite.txt, \\Activision\ctp2_data\Default\MM2_Wondermovie.txt to \\Activision\ctp2_data\Default\Wondermovie.txt, \\Activision\ctp2_data\Default\MM2_Victorymovie.tx t to \\Activision\ctp2_data\Default\Victorymovie.txt,
\\Activision\ctp2_data\Default\MM2_gamefile.txt to \\Activision\ctp2_data\Default\Gamefile.txt

6) Copy \\Activision\ctp2_data\English\Great_Library.txt to \\Activision\ctp2_data\Default\Great_Library.txt

7) Open up \\Activision\ctp2_data\Default\Gamefile.txt in Notepad or some other text editor and make the following changes;
change MM2_Wondermovie.txt to Wondermovie.txt,
change MM2_Victorymovie.txt to Victorymovie.txt,
change MM2_Great_Library.txt to Great_Library.txt,
change MM2_Newsprite.txt to Newsprite.txt.

If you follow all these steps things should work fine. Once this is done, if for some inconcievable reason you want to go back to the original game, just copy the saved original files back into their original directories and everything should be back to the same old unchallenging CTP2 many of us have grown to loath and despise.

Timothy Pintello"


Good Hunting.

[Dire Wolf]

Thank you very much!

BTW Can I ask how you are converting these maps? I haven't had much time to mod with CTP2 or use the scenario editor. I do program (C++/VB) for a living so I'm sure I can figure out any instructions you can provide (even links would be good )

Thank you again.

Joel

[Dire Wolf]

Gen.Dragolen,

Thanks for the instructions.
The one thing I find weird about the instructions is how it tells you to change some of the names in the gamefile.txt. If you copy APOL_gamefile.txt, for instance, to gamefile.txt, doesn't that file contain all the correct entries?

Why would you need to change these in gamefile.txt:

change APOL_Wondermovie.txt to Wondermovie.txt,
change APOL_Victorymovie.txt to Victorymovie.txt,
change APOL_Great_Library.txt to Great_Library.txt,
change APOL_Newsprite.txt to Newsprite.txt.

if gamefile.txt already points to the correct ones? In my opinion you should just be able to copy the APOL_gamefile.txt to gamefile.txt. I'm guessing that maybe it is a requirement of the CTP2 engine that certain files be named in a certain way...

Very strange if you ask me . Still if it works, then I'm happy...

Joel

[Martin Gühmann]

So far as I know the gamefile.txt is the table of files. It lists up all files. And the original file contains a Victorymovie.txt and Wondermovie.txt entry. The APOL_gamefile.txt contains an APOL_Wondermovie.txt entry and a victorymovie.txt entry as well. Therefore no need to rename both files. Only the files that ModSwapper gaves the perfix orig_ and that are the three files that are not mentioned in the gamefile.txt or string.txt. At first that is the gamefile.txt itsself, the newsprite.txt and finally the Great_Library.txt.

It looks that Timothy's explanation is a little bit long as I said victorymovie.txt and wondermovie.txt are covered by the gamefile.txt, but if you change their names you must also change the entries in the list of the gamefile.txt, that is correct.

Now there is another thing to know about the gamefile.txt the original gamefile.txt contains 65 lines of file entries. Lines beyond the 65th line are ignored by the game, therefore it doesn't matter what you write there. But ModSawpper used three additional lines. The 66th line is for the title of the mod shown up in ModSwapper, the 67th line is for a version of the newsprite.txt and the 68th line is for the Great_Library.txt.

I think you should search for some overwriting and renaming protection functions in your OS maybe that is the reason for the win2K bug.

And the above three steps are the only necessary steps to make it work:

And here again the summery:

Just renaming:

APOL_gamefile.txt -> gamefile.txt
APOL_newsprite.txt -> newsprite.txt
APOL_great_library.txt -> great_library.txt

-Martin

[Dire Wolf]

I might end up writing a quick utility to allow installation of the Apolyton Pack 2 under Windows 2000. I can't see why ModSwapper would have an issue under Windows 2000. Granted it appears that ModSwapper uses the VB5 runtime files. Maybe that could be an issue (especially if it uses the built in file i/o routines).

Basically I'd either use the MS File Scripting component or straight Win32 API calls (which I prefer).

Thank you again.

[Martin Gühmann]

Originally posted by Dire Wolf
Thank you very much!

BTW Can I ask how you are converting these maps? I haven't had much time to mod with CTP2 or use the scenario editor. I do program (C++/VB) for a living so I'm sure I can figure out any instructions you can provide (even links would be good )

Thank you again.

Joel

For Activision's worldmap I used the import/exprot map function, but maybe also the save map function of the scenario editor may work. To export a map just open the chat window pressing (') (of course without the brackets) and type /exportmap mapname.txt of course. For mapname.txt you can select everyname of a text file of your choice. The file will be saved in your ..\ctp2_program\ctp2\ directory. I guess it can also imported to CTP1 but I didn't try it.

Afterwards you exported the map of your choice you have to load a new game of that mod you wish to make the map for. Afterwards you have to import the map again open the chat window and type /importmap mapname.txt and the map is in you started a game with a map of the same size of the map that you whish to import. If the maps doesn't have the same size the map import will fail.

Now the map is in and you have to add start positions for the single nations and maybe ruins. I think I forgot to add ruins on Activion's worlsmap , but I think the origial doesn't have any. Ruins, start positions must be added with the scenario/cheat editor and the river mouths must be readded by putting rivers on the beaches where the river mouth is missing. And maybe a click on the good button is needed, if the goods are missing.

The conversation of OmniGods worldmap is a little bit more complicated, because the original one is a huge *.bmp file, it is a huge advantage to draw such a map in a paint program. At first you need the bmp2ctp2 converter that tool can be found in the Apolyton DataBase and also a lot of maps some in text format others in scenario save game format.

Use the bmp2ctp and put the generated text file into your ..\ctp2_program\ctp2\ directory and improt the the map you can check the size by opening the map text file and you see something like this 70,140. Also the scenario editor can tell you something about the current map size it show the coordinates at the current cursor position.

After importing OmniGod worldmap that is of course shrunk down to the proper(whished) size in a paint program you have to fix a lot of stuff. You have to add ruins, civ start positions, goods, rivers, and terrains. I had the feeling that some colors aren't converted to the intended terrain. And you have to remove all the dead tiles that OmniGod used to mark the rivers. Unfortunatly completly useless in the resolution that I selected. And finally you have to fix the water terrains, because the aren't probably converted concerning Shallow Water, Deep Water, Submarine Ridge, Submarine Canyon, Submarine Volcano, Coral Reef, Kelp Bed and Continental Shelf.

Here is the link to the Bmp2CTP2 convertor

And the link to the Apolyton CTP2 map Database of course all maps there must be converted to Apolyton Pack.

-Martin

[Dire Wolf]

Thank you very much again (I seem to be saying that a lot). It is truly appreciated.

Best regards,

Joel

P.S. Before I read your post, I couldn't get the /importmap to work because I didn't know where to put the text files AND didn't know that I had to modify my const.txt file.