Modified "plymouth Cold War" Colony Game Download

[elwood_s]

BlackBox's "Plymouth Cold War" colony game has frustrated me for a long time.  On "Easy" difficulty, it's no challenge at all because morale is fixed at 99. On "Normal" difficulty it starts out as a great colony building challenge but, unless I cheat, I get killed every time because I can't get up sufficient defenses in time to meet the combined Microwave-Stickyfoam-Starflare lynx attack waves.  I've never tried it on "Hard" for obvious reasons.

When BlackBox ran out of time to devote to this project, he was kind enough to post his source code here.  Although I have no C programming experience, after completing a few of Sirbomber's tutorials and with some help from Hooman, I've been able to make some very minor changes to re-balance the game to make it a bit more win-able, while hopefully keeping it reasonably challenging.  For those of you familiar with the original, the changes I made are as follows:

• You'll get more workers and scientists on all difficulty levels (5 more workers and 2 more scientists on "Normal", 6 more workers and 5 more scientists on "Hard"). ++
• You'll get two cargo trucks instead of one to start with on all difficulty levels, so you can mine more ore to buildup your base faster.
• You'll get 1 more Railgun-Lynx and 1 less Laser-Lynx.  This makes it a lot easier to survive the the AI's Micro-Lynx attacks unscathed. ++
• To make things tougher, the AI's defense is made up entirely of Tigers, instead of Lynxes.
• FreeMoraleLevel once mining starts on all difficulty levels. In the original, morale stays fixed at 99 for the entire game on "Easy" level.
• After refining starts you'll get the second convec and a Standard Lab kit on all three difficulty levels, instead of just on "Easy", ++
• "Hard" difficulty level gets the Earthworker too, ++
• "Easy" and "Normal" get a Robodozer, ++
• and on "Easy" you'll get a third Convec & Residence kit and a third Lynx-Railgun. ++

Items marked with ++ are changes added by the Mod A 1.1- June 24, 2010  upload.

While giving the AI Tigers does make it considerably harder to attack his A-Lab, there is one benefit: Every enemy Lynx you see will be part of an AI attack group. This makes it easier for you to mount a forward defense and breakup the AI's attack groups while they are still forming.


If you'd like to try my modified version, just download the attached file and copy it into your Outpost 2 folder.  The next time you start Outpost 2 it will show up in the colony games menu as "Plymouth Cold War - mod A 1.1".  The file name is different so it won't overwrite the original "Plymouth Cold War", if you already have that installed.

If you try it, I'd appreciate your comments and suggestions.

******  New cersbsA.dll uploaded June 02 2010 10:51AM EDT. Eliminates "Cannot Initialize" errors caused by not having MSVCR90D.dll on your system. ******

****** Latest cersbsA.dll - Mod A 1.1 uploaded June 24 2010 4:35PM EDT -- Changes marked with ++ were added by this version   ******

[starbuck]

I tried downloading this file but my Norton program see this file as a threat and won't allow it to be download.  Did anyone else have this problem

[Highlander]

Game fails to initialize on both Hard/Normal.

[evecolonycamander]

I tried downloading this file but my Norton program see this file as a threat and won't allow it to be download.  Did anyone else have this problem

you should ONLY use this if you trust the source it is coming from. if you use this with a "shady" website you WILL have a lot of virus problems
press [alt] + [ctrl] + [delete]
open the processes window
disable anything that has Norton in its description
hope that helps you starbuck
note unfortunately this also disables spyware/virus protection leaving your computer vurnable

[Spikerocks101]

Whats worse, a small virus that slows your computer down a bit, or a MASSIVE anti-virus that slows your computer down alot? >_>

[elwood_s]

I tried downloading this file but my Norton program see this file as a threat and won't allow it to be download.  Did anyone else have this problem

Game fails to initialize on both Hard/Normal.

I apologize for the problems you're having.

This is puzzling to me.  Just a few minutes ago, after reading both of your posts, I downloaded the cersbasA.dll from the link on this page into the OP2 folder of a computer I'd never tried it on before.  I have Kaspersky Internet Security 9 with the latest virus definitions running on this machine, and it didn't make a peep during the download.  I then scanned the file and Kaspersky reported "no threats detected"  After that I started OP2. The new game showed up in the colony games menu as "Plymouth Cold War - modA", just as expected.  I selected it, clicked the "Play" button and the game started on "Normal" difficulty, no problem.  

The system I developed it on and the one I just tested it on are both running the OPU 1.35.5 Beta 2 version of Outpost 2 under Windows XP sp3.

[evecolonycamander]

Whats worse, a small virus that slows your computer down a bit, or a MASSIVE anti-virus that slows your computer down alot? >_>

i don't think this is where this conversation should be headed

[Sirbomber]

disable anything that has Norton in its description

That is horrible advice.  If you don't know how computers work don't give people advice about 'em.

[starbuck]

I wan to thank everyone that respond (thumbsup) ed.  What I did was disabled the Norton program.  I was able to download the file and then turn Norton back on.

[Hooman]

press [alt] + [ctrl] + [delete]
open the processes window
disable anything that has Norton in its description
hope that helps you starbuck
note unfortunately this also disables spyware/virus protection leaving your computer vurnable

I find this advice particularly scary. Not so much because it's disabling a virus scanner (which I usually prefer not to have running), but because it's presented like you're an expert on the subject and you know exactly what is going on, yet I'm not actually sure you do. Particularly since you make no attempt at explaining why they should be disabling a virus scanner to download some piece of software. Think of the implications of this sort of trust. Following such advice would completely negate the benefits of a virus scanner. If you're going to tell someone to turn off or somehow disable some aspect of a firewall or virus scanner, I think there should be an associated reason why. Plus, the advice should be a work around for the one particular aspect causing the problem, not disable the whole thing. If a firewall is a problem, tell them to open the needed port, not disable the whole firewall. Similar advice for a virus scanner, although, I'm not sure of the terms to use for the specific example in this case.


With that being said, I suspect the virus scanner just blocks all downloads that are executable, and hence potentially harmful? (.exe, .dll, etc.)
 

[Hidiot]

I suspect the virus scanner just blocks all downloads that are executable, and hence potentially harmful? (.exe, .dll, etc.)

That would be a stupid / lazy AV.

Regarding the other part, I'm with Hooman.

[evecolonycamander]

there i have changed the post... hope it is a little better explained.

[Hidiot]

I get this distinct feeling you're not getting the whole point ECC. Frankly, I'm too tired+sick at the moment to recall the whole thing myself, otherwise I would have been more clear.

I also feel I should add the following: Clean sites can be (even if temporarily) infected as well, if their passive security isn't effective enough.

[Highlander]

In any case.. let's get back to topic on this one ?

[Hidiot]

Highlander, for once, feel as if this talk about digital security really is sort of on topic, what with people reporting their AVs going crazy about the very file this topic is made to host and the like.

[Kayedon]

ECC; you're an idiot. I'm sorry, but I'm going to be blunt. Don't pretend you know the first thing about computer security.

I also get "Cannot initialize." No AV annoyances though.

[Highlander]

elwood - I tried again today. Still getting same result though - game fails to initialize.

However, when i put your dll in my OP2 folder and start up OP2, I find 2 plymouth coldwar A missions - not just one, perhaps this is some of what is causing the problem ?

[elwood_s]

Game fails to initialize on both Hard/Normal.

I also get "Cannot initialize." No AV annoyances though.

"Cannot initialize." is an error that I have never encountered.  

I'm sure that both you guys know more about this stuff than I do.  Would one of you please explain the meaning of this error?  And also, when does it occur? Does it happen when you start Op2 after having installed my game? When you select my game from the menu and then click the play button? Or at some other point?  

I've done a search of all (Outpost Universe) forums for the phrase "Cannot initialize."  with Search posts from any date selected, but the only result I got was in this thread. I've tried the game on two different computers, both running the OPU 1.35.5 Beta 2 version of Outpost 2 under Windows XP sp3, and never got this error. Are you guys running the same version of Op2 that I am, and if not do you think this might have something to do with the error? If it's a version related compatibility problem, I'm hopeful that a change can be made to my game to make it compatible with more, if not all versions of Op2.




 

[elwood_s]

elwood - I tried again today. Still getting same result though - game fails to initialize.

However, when i put your dll in my OP2 folder and start up OP2, I find 2 plymouth coldwar A missions - not just one, perhaps this is some of what is causing the problem ?

Thanks Highlander,

It shows up twice in the menu on both of my systems too and I've never been able to figure out why.  It doesn't keep it from working though and I've tried selecting both instances.  They both work.  :wacko:  

[Flashy]

The file name has 8 letters. Maybe that's the problem. As Sirbomber said

All filenames must be no longer than seven letters or bad things will happen!

[Highlander]

I'm sure that both you guys know more about this stuff than I do.  Would one of you please explain the meaning of this error?  And also, when does it occur? Does it happen when you start Op2 after having installed my game? When you select my game from the menu and then click the play button? Or at some other point?

The error occurs when I have selected the scenario and am trying to start it.
The screen changes as if the game was about to start, but then the error pops up instead.


Flashy, I tried removing the original coldwar dll and renaming Elwood's to the same name - same error occurs though.

[elwood_s]

The file name has 8 letters. Maybe that's the problem. As Sirbomber said

All filenames must be no longer than seven letters or bad things will happen!

Thanks Flashy,  I missed that. :blush:

I'll rename the file with a seven character name and upload it again in a few minutes.

[elwood_s]

OK,

I've renamed cersbasA.dll to cersbsA.dll and tried it.   That fixed one problem; now the name of my game only shows up in the menu once instead of twice.  Unfortunately, judging from Highlander's last post, that's not going to fix the "Cannot initialize" error that he and Kayedon are experiencing.

Anyway, I've replaced the attachment in my first post with one with the corrected file name, and thanks again Flashy for catching that for me.

[Highlander]

Unfortunately problem still persists.

Wonder why some people can play this without problem and others can't <_<  

[elwood_s]

Unfortunately problem still persists.

Wonder why some people can play this without problem and others can't <_<

What version of Op2 are you running? All my machines are running the OPU 1.35.5 Beta 2 version of Outpost 2 under Windows XP.  

Could it be a version or OS compatibility problem?