.The current GOG versions of the games have been modified from the originals. Both exe files (terran.exe and terranx.exe) are larger than the originals. The main game folder also contains two new dll files (goggame.dll and goggame_add.dll). I think this implies that GOG has the source code for the games and has recompiled it, but I'm not certain.
Hmmm, I wonder what they've done.
One change that I noticed is that Alt-Tab has been disabled from within the game.
-----------------------------------------------
CHANGES IN ALIEN CROSSFIRE VERSION 2.0
-----------------------------------------------
FIXES:
· You can now airdrop units into your own bases.
· The correct voiceovers for Alien Crossfire base facilities now play the
first time you build them.
· Pirates can no longer capture units that are defending a base.
· Alien probe teams now use the correct art.
· The Cyborg faction now correctly has the Technology Steal ability.
· It is now possible to rescue a captured faction leader.
· Base facilities no longer cost less than they should at Thinker and
Transcend difficulty levels.
· In some instances a Golden Age would not produce a population boom. It now
does.
· AXStart.exe will now switch to a resolution it supports.
· The Sid and Brian factions can now be loaded in the Faction Editor.
· Occasionally refugees from a captured base would appear at coordinates
0,0. This is fixed.
· The Maritime Control Center now grants a defensive bonus against naval
units for player controlled factions.
· Psi Artillery combat strength is now calculated correctly.
· Some special abilities were not reflected correctly in automatically
designed units.
· The Right-click menu's version of airdrop now correctly uses movement
points.
· You can no longer have a pact brother support one of your factions units.
· The 'Aliens capture your base' interlude now correctly displays, even if
the base captured was obliterated.
· All satellites can now be added to the build queue, even if currently in
production.
· Miscellaneous text fixes.
· Base population no longer 'rolls over' when it reaches 127.
· Native artillery units no longer get a 'hasty' penalty when attacking.
· Drone revolts no longer can select aliens as new masters.
· The Faction Editor now correctly updates bonuses on the Faction page.
· The Faction Editor now correctly loads free units and free abilities.
· The Faction Editor now correctly saves bonus technologies.
· The Drone faction now correctly includes the Base Revolt ability of 75%
· During a random game, if an Alien faction is selected, and there is
another random slot, there will be two Alien factions in the game.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but the proper order seems to be - official 2.0 patch -> scient's -> kyrub's, so there wouldn't be any issue here if not for the fact that my GOG SMAX rejects 2.0 patch. So now I wonder if I can just apply scient's on GOG, probably with modifying cyborg and drone files by hand.Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I think you have 3 options:
(Yeah, I just wanted to rephrase your question to make sure that this GOG problem is addressed.)
I don't play MP, but wouldn't all people need to have the same version of the game, whether it's original, scient, kyrub or GOG?
Scient's patch incorporates all prior official patches. Kyrub's patch incorporates scient's patch. You should only have to install whichever you want to use.
I remember reading somewhere that the Scient patch incorporates the win2k patch. Is this correct or am I delusional again?
We do need to figure this all out. Much of the community on 4 or 5 different versions that may or may not work together could be an issue in some situations.
So many years and I still love you, Alpha! ;Qft.
To be more precise, if you have the Planetary Pack, apply the SMAC Win 2K/XP patch (apparently it's already 2.0?).I remember reading somewhere that the Scient patch incorporates the win2k patch. Is this correct or am I delusional again?
We do need to figure this all out. Much of the community on 4 or 5 different versions that may or may not work together could be an issue in some situations.
Again, for what it's worth, scient says to apply the 2k/xp update after 2.0 patch, and only then proceed with his.
And yeah, I agree we should sort it out. At the moment I'd like to switch from scient to kyrub and I'm unclear on whether I can or should do it. On the one hand, I want smarter AI, on the other - I have MP games ongoing and don't need any issues with that.You can copy all the game files to another folder and use the kyrub version in there. I've done it. That way you have your original installation for MP.
We do need to figure this all out. Much of the community on 4 or 5 different versions that may or may not work together could be an issue in some situations.
I contacted someone at GOG about the version number problem. He replied that they are aware of the issue and are looking at it.
scient was limiting himself to bug fixes; kyrub was trying to change the game with AI improvements. See the "SMAC 444 (AI experiment)" thread (http://apolyton.net/showthread.php/195007-SMAC-444-%28AI-experiment%29) at Poly for some history.
scient was limiting himself to bug fixes; kyrub was trying to change the game with AI improvements. See the "SMAC 444 (AI experiment)" thread (http://apolyton.net/showthread.php/195007-SMAC-444-%28AI-experiment%29) at Poly for some history.
I read the entire thread and it doesn't mention anything about Brood Pits. On the other hand, it says something about 'talent facility bug' which I can't figure out. Can someone tell me what it is? Is Paradise Garden bugged or what?
Also, does someone know how to reach kyrub? Apparently he finished his work only half a year ago, maybe we could ask to do more changes with sufficient input.
In my mind, the Kyrub patches are the "un"official patches for the fan community. Everyone who owns a copy should immediately apply it. It does make a difference. It is like the Age of Wonders community always tells the people to install their Upatch 1.4. It is that helpful.
Too bad Kyrub and Scient have probably moved on to other projects. There are some improvements even on these that could be made. But, it blows past unpatched or officially patched versions.
Has anyone installed the entire game from scratch (using the updated installer on GOG)?
But I noticed when starting a game that my bases have 7, not 10 free minerals. What gives?
@Kirov -- Not sure what you're describing in yesterday's post concerning Ctrl-Alt-Tab and such. If Alt-Tab works, then you don't need Crtl-Alt-Tab or the Windows key to switch out of the program. Also, does disabling the movie work or not?
Hm, sorry with the disable issue. It does work, but I mistakenly thought it's somehow related to the alt-tab problem. Mestupid. ::)
Anyhow, I copied the GOG folder to another one. I wanted to apply scient's patch in the first one and kyrub's patch in the other. Does it count as multiple installations? The second copy is a bit unstable. Neither patch solved alt-tab.
Also Ctrl-alt-tab still doesn't work, although my copy seems to change its mind every now and then. Once I did manage to switch by frantically clicking tab and both ctrls and alts in various configuration, but now I can't replicate this result. Weird.
Hm, fine, it seems I'll just have to live with this, it's just annoying when you want to quickly check something with an MP savegame opened.
Thanks for letting us know, Petek. So what does the GOG patch do?
Briefly, the most recent GOG patch installs all the changes made by Firaxis when they released SMAX v2.0. The prior patch from GOG updated terranx.exe to v2.0, but omitted changes to other files (including, but not limited to, cyborg.txt and drone.txt).
Shouldn't be necessary. GOG-SMAC reports v5.0, which is the version # of the XP update. I very carefully told GOG that they needed to reapply the XP update after the SMAX 2.0 update. It appears they did so.Briefly, the most recent GOG patch installs all the changes made by Firaxis when they released SMAX v2.0. The prior patch from GOG updated terranx.exe to v2.0, but omitted changes to other files (including, but not limited to, cyborg.txt and drone.txt).
Thanks for the info. So just to make sure - we still need the Xp update, right?
So is any patch needed after the GOG 2.0.2 install, before or after applying the Scient patch?
About unofficial patches:
We don't normally test to see if unofficial patches or mods work with a game due to the fact that they are, well, unofficial :D. A word of advice: we won't hinder you in trying out mods or unofficial patches but we can't help you if they break your game. I would advise making a separate install for experimenting with unofficial mods or patches. I hope you understand :D.
If you use any of the unofficial patches with GOG-SMACX, I suggest that you rename the unofficial executable to something such as terranx_scient.exe and run that file to start the game. Installing GOG-SMACX makes numerous changes to the registry that reference terran(x).exe.Will it cause problems if I do the opposite approach, rename the gog version to Gog_terran(x).exe? That in fact, is what I have always done with the scient patch. I am just wondering if I have messed something up by doing this?
Will it cause problems if I do the opposite approach, rename the gog version to Gog_terran(x).exe? That in fact, is what I have always done with the scient patch. I am just wondering if I have messed something up by doing this?