The scenario start problem...

[OmniGod]

Anyone checked out why there are problems with starting as any civilization in non-Activision scenarios and why if you save them you automatically revert to player1.... since I don't know enough yet about the inner workings of the game, haven't started looking yet...

If you could enlighten me as to where to start looking or if you've corrected it or it doesn't affect you tell me how or send me the appropriate files... that would be greatly appreciated...

thank
Omni

[skorpion59]

Omni,

I just recently got the game and want to spend some time playing it before getting back into maps and scenarios. I can only offer the following right now.

In CtP1, map scenario creation was very hard. You had to follow a very precise set of instructions in a very precise order or nothing you did would work correctly. It might not bite you when you first started the game but eventually it would. Most people other than myself gave up on creating map scenaris for CtP1 for this very reason. Seems they didn't appreciate working 40-60 hours on a map only to have it not work.
I did some multiple, quick scenarios using all 4 start location options in CtP2 and ran into the same problems you have. Apparently, CtP2 is about 10 times as bad as CtP1 was. My guess is, like CtP1, it is going to be a matter of finding the exact steps required to make it work. When I finish playing around with getting the overal feel of CtP2, I will put some time in on this issue since it severly affects what we wil be able to do.

When you play a saved (SP) scenario, you automatically play as player 1. As far as I know, there is NO way around this. That is one reason it is so important to get the Civs, their Start Locations and how to pick them worked out. The userprofile.txt file has a PlayerNumber= option but it was never for saved games, didn't work and doesn't appear to work now either. I didn't spend much time on this in CtP2 though, so it is something you might double-check.

If I run across anything else, I will let you know.

what i have found is that if you use the "nation" button in the empire tab, you can set the starting locations for as many(up to 41 or more if you have added civs) nations as you like. these nations will appear click-able in a selection screen when you start a new game with the scenario.

i dont know if there is any problem with the saved games of these scenarios

[skorpion59]

Thanks Markos, anything anybody finds out and shares would be a big benefit. In the small, limited testing I did, 'By Nation' seemed to be the least error prone of all 4 options.

FYI-1:In CtP1, while you COULD set start locations for 41 players using 'By Nation', you never want to set more than 30. When you add the Barbarians, that comes to 31. The limit was 32 but for some reason, going past 31 introduced a lot of errors. I haven't checked this in CtP2 yet.

FYI-2:When you save a scenario, ALWAYS completely exit CtP before going back and making any other modifications. This is the biggest 'Gotcha' which introduced many errors down the road. Right about the time you were really enjoying your new scenario. (Watch your save games, they should be black. If they turn blue, you have to start over, from scratch.)

notes:

1) if you use "nation", you can't remove a starting location. you can move it, but you cant remove it to exclude a civ from the selection. the only thing you can do is to save your map with no starting locations and come back to it if you make a mistake

2) i dont restart ctp2 to test a scenario. so far i dont think there were any problems...