CivDip 2.2 and 3.0: Preview - Page 2

Henrik · November 22, 2003, 12:42

Quote:

Originally posted by N35t0r
It's 'Near to Portland' and 'Near to San Francisco' yaros.

Just "near portland" or near San Fransisco would seem better imho

Of isn't needed and to isnt needed either as far as I know

Potus, I could never get even the old version to function on OSX, it starts up but nothing happens...

Mercator · November 22, 2003, 13:28

And a few more nitpicks about the english. demand is with one m and it is a unit not an unit.

Oh, and "Polish" in French is Polonais.

This looks excellent, by the way... even though I'll probably never use it myself.

SlowThinker · November 22, 2003, 16:49

off topic:

Mercator, you should finally download that Cedric's patch.
BTW, we have so many problems with playing PBEM with MGE, isn't the old way of play with 2.42 and changing the byte of human civ simpler?

/off topic

Quote:

Originally posted by yaroslav
I'm trying to stop ... those "disbading" features. I'll post a report tomorrow.

I consider the possibility to disband a given but still supported unit as OK. There is always a question "to trust or not to trust" in diplomatic relations. And player can always rehome the unit to any own city.
If you really want to manage this light problem then add a radio button 'rehome'-'don't rehome'.

Quote:

Originally posted by N35t0r
It's 'Near to Portland' and 'Near to San Francisco' yaros.

I would prefer 'Near Portland'. It is like Civ2 messages.

SlowThinker · November 22, 2003, 17:05

Quote:

Originally posted by yaroslav
I'm trying to stop the 'various movement in a turn' problem

Don't forget this:

Quote:

Originally posted by SlowThinker in Everything about Hex-Editing - UPDATED
9th byte (counted from 1) represents depleted movement (in relation to movement on roads): with standard Civ2 a unit that moves on road gets 1 on 9th byte; a unit that moves out of road gets 3.

yaroslav · November 22, 2003, 17:16

@Nestor,Mercator,Henrik.

Thanks you for your help

This is why I'm ashamed of my english

@ST

Unfortunately, Civ2 resest the 9th byte at the beginning of each turn. I'm trying rigth now a solution and I'll post it if it works

yaroslav · November 22, 2003, 18:08

Ok. Done!

The system of exchanging units... Well, let's see an example with three civs that move in this order:

1) Rusia
2) USA
3) British

Giving an unit to a civ that moves BEFORE For instance, British giving units to USA or Rusia, or USA giving units to Rusia. It's very easy: you use the program, generate the offer and, if your ally acepts the offer, the units are of him. In this case, a unit moving twice in a turn doesn't happen.

Giving an unit to a civ that moves AFTER For instance, Rusia to USA or British, USA to British. In this case, you do the same that before, but when your ally acepts the unit, the program does this:

A) It transfers the units to your ally
B) It puts the units in a mode that make the units NOT mobile - ever.
C) It generates a second offer. Your ally stores the second offer. This offer is scheluded to be accepted the next turn. Your ally wait until his next turn and loads the second offer. Accept again that second offer.
D) After accepting the second offer the units are made mobile again

POTUS · November 22, 2003, 18:27

Quote:

Originally posted by Henrik
Potus, I could never get even the old version to function on OSX, it starts up but nothing happens...

Odd. It works for me and I have 10.2.6. Try downloading the Java update from the Apple site. That might work.

yaroslav · November 22, 2003, 18:33

Does it work? Could you post a screenshot? I don't know how it looks likes in Mac (I used an option where the applications takes the standard look&feel of the machine where it's running)

SlowThinker · November 22, 2003, 19:31

Quote:

Originally posted by yaroslav
Giving an unit to a civ that moves BEFORE For instance, British giving units to USA or Rusia, or USA giving units to Rusia. It's very easy: you use the program, generate the offer and, if your ally acepts the offer, the units are of him. In this case, a unit moving twice in a turn doesn't happen.

Nooo! The year switch is only an artificial point of time, but AFAIK it has no practical meaning (except some details like caravans bring less after turn 200 and so). There is 8 civs (7 + barbs) that rotately play, that's all.
If British give a unit to Rusia then it may move twice between two USA turns - that's the problem: Each unit must be able to run only once between two successive turns of any civ.

Quote:

A) It transfers the units to your ally
B) It puts the units in a mode that make the units NOT mobile - ever.
C) It generates a second offer. Your ally stores the second offer. This offer is scheluded to be accepted the next turn. Your ally wait until his next turn and loads the second offer. Accept again that second offer.
D) After accepting the second offer the units are made mobile again

Another solution:
The player that accepts the barter can't accept it directly, but only when it is his turn: so he loads the save of his predecessor, starts his civ, saves the game and applies the barter on this new save. Civ2Dip adds unit(s) and sets the 9th byte to maximum (I don't know if there is some maximum of movepoints or you have to check rules.txt for each kind of unit).
(You may force this sequence only when the barter contains unit giving.)

SlowThinker · November 22, 2003, 19:35

Quote:

Originally posted by Henrik
Just "near portland" or near San Fransisco would seem better imho

Quote:

Originally posted by SlowThinker
I would prefer 'Near Portland'. It is like Civ2 messages.

SlowThinker is a plagiator!

yaroslav · November 22, 2003, 19:36

@ST:

Good point about year switch. I'll enforce the "2 offers thing" to ALL civs. The "another solution" that you tell me about it's a good solution. In fact, I've considered the same solution and some others, but they go against the standard use of Cidvip that I'd like to mantain as clear as possible

Henrik · November 23, 2003, 05:10

Quote:

Originally posted by POTUS
Odd. It works for me and I have 10.2.6. Try downloading the Java update from the Apple site. That might work.

I have the latest java update from apple.

What happens when I launch the program is that it starts but it never opens the dialogue it's supposed to.
When I click it in the dock it's aparently responding and I can tell it to quit (though it won't quit) I end up force quiting it via the apple menu...
The program is named "Jmkirchberger launcher" or somesuch in the dock.

Actually on OS X.2 I was able to launch the program but it would fail to allow me to load a file. Now I don't even get that far...

SlowThinker · November 23, 2003, 05:20

Quote:

The "another solution" that you tell me about it's a good solution. In fact, I've considered the same solution and some others, but they go against the standard use of Cidvip that I'd like to mantain as clear as possible

Did you consider a possibility to let it be and only to warn player that he shouldn't move with a new unit?
You know, the unit exchange by online (multiplayer) connection brings the same problem, players should remember not to move with a new unit.

Henrik · November 23, 2003, 05:52

Hmm, the problem might not lie with the program but rather with my computer...
As I was just able to load the program just fine with another user logged in (there was still problems when one actually tried to load a file though).

Eivind IV · November 23, 2003, 11:02

Man! This sounds amazing, yaroslav!

Quote:

What do you think about the Repair feature?

I've never been able to restore production through LazyCiv, so I would love to see this feature in the next version of CivDip

yaroslav · November 24, 2003, 20:32

Here you can see how the auto-map feature window looks like

germanos · November 26, 2003, 18:22

Hmmm,

ST informed me about the Beta version...

I have a few issues with that program. Should I post them here or mail you, Yaroslav?

yaroslav · November 26, 2003, 18:37

The way you prefer it

If you want to be a betatest, only tell me

germanos · November 26, 2003, 19:05

PM and mail send.

I'm off to bed now

yaroslav · November 26, 2003, 19:50

PM and mail sent back

See you tomorrow (or the day after)

yaroslav · November 29, 2003, 19:09

Current status:

Beta phase 2. The second beta is in betatesters' hands and I hope there will be no more problems.

------
Features added while betatesting:

*Great Library effect simulated.
*Barracks are now sold if you get Gundpower or Mobile Warfare.

and some bugs corrected.

SlowThinker · November 30, 2003, 20:00

Barter window
>And demmands from you Great Leader,
demands - one 'm' only

>an unit: Caravan at <134,56>
I suggest to omit 'an' completely

I propose one blank line between 'offer' and 'demand' sections
and to omit the line with gold if 0 gold

'Next' icon
'Please select your leader name', 'Please select the leader name' sections:
It is hard to enable the 'next' button. If I click the first (default) option again and again, nothing happens. I must click on another option, then reclick the wanted one.

Unit giving
Some explaining text in the window would be good: for example it is not clear if the user is offering or demanding units.

City giving
An unimportant thing:
the program offers too much of info fot the user: the order in which opponent cities were built. The Find City feature of Civ2 lists cities in alphabetical order only.

Documents folder as default
I hate the fact that the Documents folder is the default one. If Java don't allow to change this, can't you allow to use .net and .dat files as parameters? Only .net file (one parameter) - make barter, both .net and .dat files (two parameters) - view barter.

yaroslav · November 30, 2003, 20:24

Thank you, ST. BTW, I've made a little update, but it doesn't cover your points. Let's see your points one by one

Quote:

Originally posted by SlowThinker
Barter window
>And demmands from you Great Leader,
demands - one 'm' only

>an unit: Caravan at <134,56>
I suggest to omit 'an' completely

I propose one blank line between 'offer' and 'demand' sections
and to omit the line with gold if 0 gold

Yes. It will be corrected in the next BETA/the release if there is no more BETAs.

Quote:

'Next' icon
'Please select your leader name', 'Please select the leader name' sections:
It is hard to enable the 'next' button. If I click the first (default) option again and again, nothing happens. I must click on another option, then reclick the wanted one.

That was the interface bug I told you, the betatesters, in the original .txt document. I'm working at solving it

Quote:

Unit giving
Some explaining text in the window would be good: for example it is not clear if the user is offering or demanding units.

Ok... In fact, there is a label that says "Unit given" but it doesn't display correctly. I'll try to fix it.

Quote:

City giving
An unimportant thing:
the program offers too much of info fot the user: the order in which opponent cities were built. The Find City feature of Civ2 lists cities in alphabetical order only.

Is that important for any reason? I mean, is that info useful for anything excep hex-editing?

Quote:

Documents folder as default
I hate the fact that the Documents folder is the default one. If Java don't allow to change this, can't you allow to use .net and .dat files as parameters? Only .net file (one parameter) - make barter, both .net and .dat files (two parameters) - view barter.

I can't change it - it's a JAVA thing... I don't understand your second point though (about the .NET and .DAT files). Could you clarify it, please?

Thank you, thank you, thank you for your help and to the others betatesters too

SlowThinker · November 30, 2003, 21:03

Thank you, thank you, thank you for your work on the CivDip.

Quote:

Originally posted by SlowThinker
the program offers too much of info fot the user: the order in which opponent cities were built. The Find City feature of Civ2 lists cities in alphabetical order only.

Quote:

Originally posted by yaroslav
Is that important for any reason? I mean, is that info useful for anything excep hex-editing?

It helps you to uncover ACNs (all-inclusive city numbers) - the order in which cities of all civs were founded. With knowledge of ACNs you can determine when cities change supply&demand and which your cities will suffer from additional unhappiness due to number of cities.

Quote:

I don't understand your second point though (about the .NET and .DAT files). Could you clarify it, please?

I want you allow command-line parameters. If I will run the following command
civ2dip.jar bab_b3090.net Assyriansb3061.dat
then Civ2Dip will know the file to open is bab_b3090.net and the barter to work with is Assyriansb3061.dat (it is supposed bab_b3090.net and Assyriansb3061.dat are in the same folder as civ2dip.jar). This way the user will be allowed to skip two initial windows.

yaroslav · December 1, 2003, 07:25

@ST

City Numbers

I'm not sure whether it's easy to order the cities alphabetically or not. I'll give it a shot rigth now.

Command Line

Good idea. However, I've just discovered that there is an API in Java to store user preferencies and I'm rigth now checking a way to store the last path used... and use it again

I'll keep you inform.

yaroslav · December 1, 2003, 11:10

I've made another beta of Civ2Dip, that you can get as usual

New features:

*Civ2Dip now remembers your last path, so if starts from there (no more "My Documents" again).
*English a little polished.
*A new label (units given) added in order to easy the work.
*A little problem with the Repair feature interface (noticed by germanos) fixed.
*Cities ordered by name in the City given window.

The interface problem is hard to solve

yaroslav · December 2, 2003, 07:16

Yet another beta version

* Little problem with Repair function corrected.
* French translation added.

SlowThinker · December 2, 2003, 20:50

A small problem, probably for next version:

I must express some doubts to the automap feature and to exchange of a map of a single civ (I would prefer to see exchanging rectangles in place of it). A player get some additional info:
For example, if I get Babylonian map and I see a square on the Babylonian border is at distance 15 from the nearest Babylonian city, then I know there is no city (of any civ) at distance 14 or lower from that square.

yaroslav · December 3, 2003, 16:12

The thing is that undiscovered cities doesn't have any influence on the map, so the map could be quite inexact... For instance, in a real map World where there are two civs in America, USA and Argentina, Argentinian map will show all America as Argentinian as long as Argentian civ doesn't found Washington or any other American city.

Shaka Naldur · December 5, 2003, 16:57

the map feature is awesome!!!!