Hello, Tampa_Gamer. Thanks for replying. I remember your name from my Last SEIV outting!
Since you ask, if my path.txt points to ModPack, upon trying to start SEIV I get an SEIV-type dialog containing (can't copy/paste, so annotated):
Games Setting data file errors: ...\tdm-modpack\data\settings.txt
* could not find field "use old log political message dsiplay" in record 1
* could not find field "system ship movement delay milliseconds" in record 1
Then it takes me to opening screen with only "Quit" (plus Credits!) available
From a brief read of the 1.49 read.me I think these are new fields. FWIW my tdm-modpack settings.txt is 30/06/2001 (UK style), whereas theirs is (now) 04/10/2001, so we can guess the problem. Like I said, AFAIK I had tdm for 1.41 installed, then I updated to SEIV to 1.49 and it no longer worked. And I couldn't find a TDM for 1.49 on this board for trying --- only TDM 3.00 which said for SEIV Gold. This site is not the best for finding things once you're in a forum...
Listen, I'm not idiot
but modding SEIV for use by non-modders always has been and still is a minefield I had a look around and it seems to me the problem lies in the way mods get picked up: it seems you modders have to supply *all* the files SEIV wants, not just those you want to overwrite. So obviously your mods are going to be out-of-date once a new SEIV is released. Why didn't they make it so you could supply just replacement files and it would pick up the others from their original location...
Anyway, whilst typing this in I'm d'ling your linked .zip file (yet again, it contains all the race graphics, I think, though I remember old "assurances" that one would only have to get these once and then the scripts would be available separately --- you wanna see UK phone bills and d'ld times?) which hopefully will sort me out once and for all (till next SEIV patch...)
*Please* don't get me wrong: I'm not wingeing about you modder guys, and I'm very grateful for your prompt and helpful reply.
While you're here (or anyone else) I have a couple of quick questions:
1. Say I don't want to play with mines (so to speak). I presume I would need to disable minefield (and minesweeper) tree on SEIV startup --- right? Then would I need to edit TDMModPack/SEIV-supplied race files to remove mines from being built, or would the AIs gracefully degrade to the next priority? And even if I did this, would TDM/Malfador's AIs then suffer from any change I make like this (in that they would somehow underperform because they needed/assumed mines)?
2. I play with a variety of your (TDM's) new races and the Malf originals. Could you please explain what you mod? (yes, I could probably diffs all the files, but...) What I mean is: do you only add in your new races and retain the originals' behaviours, or do you change Malfs races' behaviours too? And if so, does Malf accept your changes in its patches?
3. Could you just confirm the following: to ensure I get some of new races I need to select these explicitly on startup, otherwise I might not happen to get any --- right? The "race ministers" setting (use general/use from race) --- is this irrelevant in that it only affects my own race, and then only if I turn over to ministers, i.e. does the AI *opponent* always use its own race setting ragardless of this? I think this is where I found mods so confusing.
4. I saw a link here to somebody's web site (with a silly name, forget what) that claimed to have modded to introduce all sorts of brand new tech trees, tech items, component graphics etc. Any good?
5. Will I get a decent AI competition out of any of the latest Malfs/TDM/others these days? (No, human opposition is not an option.) I don't like giving the AI any "bonus" settings, but presumably "difficulty" I could set to "high" assuming that just makes it play better?
BTW, the d'ld has just finished and I can see that settings.txt in the .zip is 05/11/2001 so that should be better. Couldn't find that zip in the mods section... Yes, it works! And even says ModPack on the opening screen! I guess my old 1.41 was not good enough...
This has been a long reply. Please answer! TIA.