Observations, Question and Ruminations

[Gil Hamilton]

Greetings All,

Had the CD fast mailed. Almost couldn't wait for it-1/2 through dloading the demo, decided against (fearing conflicts w/full Version). Package arrived Fri.- glanced and hissed at the sun on Mon.!

Won first game against 4 comp. gen. easy- they stayed in their own systems. Small quad.

Tried no mods or anything extra as I wanted to see "What she's got" before changing things. Got TDM and a couple more mods from disk, made a folder "Mods" in GEIV folder and each mod in it's own folder in mods. Used the ModLaunchProgram- in its own folder in Mods folder, but can't seem to have it find the mod TDM.

I'm sure I'm not doing it right and won't mind trashing the folders I've made to get it right, but just need clarification.

The game, and the possibilities for changing it to suit your preference, is awesome. Can't wait to get to design ships and cultures! Are new items allowed to be created as well? And planets- sometimes it seems the description doesn't fit with the pic nor the values. Can this be changed?

Also, (Oh No, Not Another Basic Computing Question!!!) how can I tell wich Versions of the game and mods are on the CD? And, besides the ones mentioned above, which mods should I look into- realising that suggestions will be subjective...

Thanx in advance for the help- look forward to learning more. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

[ 02 May 2002: Message edited by: Gil Hamilton ]</p>

[Master Belisarius]

Don't use a folder "Mods" to install the folders of every Mod.
Instead this, copy every folder of every Mod, inside the SE4 folder, and the same with the "SE4 Modlauncher.exe"
You should have not problems.

[Gil Hamilton]

M. B.,

That did the trick, though I would liked to have been able to keep the new files separate to avoid confusion in the future. Thank you for your help.

[ 02 May 2002: Message edited by: Gil Hamilton ]</p>

[Phoenix-D]

You CAN use a folder for all your mods, if you want.

Just change your path.txt to Mods\(mod folder name here) instead of (mod folder name here).

EDIT: WHOO! It works with the launcher! Just press the add directory button and fill in as needed.

Phoenix-D

[ 02 May 2002: Message edited by: Phoenix-D ]</p>

[Matryx]

Heh, glad I have so many people to answer questions about my mod launcher.
Finals for me are only a few weeks away so I'm still finding it hard to get time to check the forums too frequently.

[PDF]

Matryx,
Your Launcher utility rocks, but there's one thing that I cannot make work : loading a save directly from the launcher...
On a "normal" game when I hit the button I just have the "hourglass" for some seconds then it stops, and does not launch the game... And with a Pbem/PBW game I just can't enter my "player number", the field does not allow any input !
So ? Does the prog only works with "normal" c:\program files\... path ? I've put my SE4 on a d:\strategy folder...
http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/confused.gif

[Master Belisarius]

I gave an advice... but I learned something new today! Thanks Phoenix-D!

And PDF, I have the same problem than you loading the save files.

[Phoenix-D]

"So ? Does the prog only works with "normal" c:\program files\... path ? I've put my SE4 on a d:\strategy folder..."

It works with mine fine.. C:\games\Space Empires IV (Gold)
Maybe it doesn't like being on the D drive?

Phoenix-D

[capnq]

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><hr> there's one thing that I cannot make work : loading a save directly from the launcher... <hr></blockquote>We discussed this in another thread somewhere. The Launcher doesn't know how to handle a game without a password. (BTW, Matryx, your suggestion to try entering a single space as the password didn't work, either.)

Also, when you enter your player number, you have to highlight and replace the space in the box.

Suggestion for the next Version: have the player number default to '1' instead of that space.

[Matryx]

Hmm, not sure what the problem with loading savegames is.
Is it for the gold Version or not?
if not, send me the savegame and details on the mod requirements/passwords etc and I'll test it myself.
If it is, er... well... send me a gold Version and the savegame and I can test it http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

Could you e-mail me the details in specific for the game and empires and I'll create a game with the same setup and try to get the launcher to work.

In a few days I'll post a new Version of the launcher with the ability to handle no-password empires and numerical-spinner box for the player number instead.

Greg@Matryx.org.uk for all e-mails please.

One thing to note. If you see the hourglass and no response it means either the player number was incorrect or the password for that player number was incorrect.

If you are playing singleplayer your playernumber should most likely be 1.
If you have no password, several people (including myself) have reported that using a single space character for the password works.

[Fyron]

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><hr>If you have no password, several people (including myself) have reported that using a single space character for the password works.<hr></blockquote>
And I can confirm that. It works for both Gold and non-Gold. Also, it doesn't matter whether you enter your player number as "01" or "1".

[capnq]

I'm fairly certain I installed the Launcher from the Gold CD Extras .zip . It says it's Version 2.01.

Could it matter that I'm only running Windows95?

I can test it some more, but I know one of the savegames I've tried the blank space password with is a v1.60 Quick Start playing the Terrans.

I actually prefer loading solo games manually anyway, since the Launcher bypasses the intro screen. I have the music tracks reprogrammed to play Strauss' "Thus Spoke Zarathustra" (theme from _2001_) on the intro screen. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

[capnq]

Curiouser and curiouser...

I started three test games, all Quick Start playing the Amon'Krie, in SE IV v1.49, v1.60, and v1.69.

Launching with Mod Launcher v2.01, the single space password worked once with the v1.49 savegame, then failed on all subsequent attempts.

The space never worked with the v1.60 and v1.69 saves, even if I rebooted the computer before running the Launcher.

[Fyron]

Maybe it just doesn't like quickstart games?

[PDF]

The launcher does not seems to work with ANY saves with Gold Version (the only I have) ... I've tried with "normal" solo games (not Quickstarted) and Pbem, never worked !

[Fyron]

It works fine for me with Gold.

[Matryx]

Ok, now I'm really confused.
Can everyone double check their player numbers please http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif (though I'm sure you're all doing this)
The only thing I can think of is that more recent Versions may have changed the way passwords are required (or not) for unpassworded empires....
but then it shouldn't work for Imperator Fyron...

capnq, can you e-mail me the 1.49 game so I can test that at least, oh and can you include the latest changelog in the e-mail so I don't have to trawl the forums http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif I'll see if I can see what's up.

Also, can someone attempt to launch directly into their savegame from a command prompt / shortcut please (with a non-passworded empire) and let me know what line they used.. it's possible that it no-longer needs/wants a password parameter for non-passworded empires.

[Matryx]

Re: e-mail from Capnq

Ok, I have tested and here are my discoveries.
1. Yes you are correct it doesn't load (not that this was in doubt)
2. It will load without password prompt from normal SE4 menu (could be because it doesn't check password for non-multiplayer games - This is confirmed as you can set a password for the empire, and then just load the game, which results in the game loading without password prompt)
3. When the password is changed to nothing, then the game is saved, the game *will* launch from the launcher (although in this case my Version complains that data files are non-identical - however it does get past the password verification stage).
4. When the empire you provided was exported, imported into a new game and then an attempt is made to edit it, it prompted for the user to supply a password (which shouldn't happen)

I am not sure why this is happening.

The only thing I can think of is that it is setting a default password of some sort when the empire is created.
Attempt to change the password of the empire to an empty one and then load it.

This is the only cause I can think of at the moment, and indeed if this is the case then there is nothing I can do about it.

[Wardad]

The Launcher is nice to use.

It does need to find the SEIV.exe file, correctly named.
I have an older Version renamed SE4G160 and wanted to rename the current Version SE4G167. I also want to put v1.49 back on and play with Zippys Mod.
Some how I think it's easier (on the registry and me) to rename multiple copies.
It would be real nice for PBW Users if the launcher could be pointed to different targets.

I wonder how some of y'all handle dfferent revs on the same system?

----------------------------------------------

UPGRADES HAPPEN!!!

[Matryx]

My suggestion for different Revs would be to have different SE4 installations. Thanks for the compliments.

Anyway,
We have finally (I believe) sorted the problems with savegame files.

Sometimes, I think only for solo-games, the program requires the game's MASTER password instead of the race's required password.

If anyone still has any problems then just let me know and I'll get right on it.

My thanks to Capnq for assisting me in locating the source of this problem.

[capnq]

You can use the Launcher with multiple installs; you just need to have a copy of SE4 Launcher.exe in the same folder as each install's Se4.exe .

I have subfolders in the Malfador Machinations folder named "Space Empires IV", "Space Empires IV Gold v1.60", and "Space Empires IV Gold", plus shortcuts on my Desktop to the Launcher for v1.49, v1.60, and v1.69.

[ 09 May 2002, 20:35: Message edited by: capnq ]