City pop-up

[Teodosio]

Hello, I am a fanatic player of civilization and some months ago I decided to try CtP2.

After some playing, I can say that it is a wonderful game with much more features and functions than Civ2, but I have found a small boring thing that causes me a lot of trouble: whereas Civ2 had a city pop-up screen that at the beginning of every turn informed me about the cities that had finished their build queue, CtP2 doesn't have such a commodity, forcing me to control my cities every turn, fearing that some of there are idle.
You can imagine how painful is it, having an empire of 30 or more cities, so my question is: has anyone fixed this in some way?
May be I am the only one that has this problem, and you know some kind of hidden option that turns useful?
Please, help me, or I will be forced to go back to Civ2!

[Locutus]

You can cycle through all units with movement points *and* cities with empty build queues with the 'o'-key.

[child of Thor]

Hello Teodosio,
welcome to CTP2 forum
On to the question, It can be tricky in CTP2, other people might do it a different way but each turn i usualy scan my civillisation to see how it looks(check there are no enemy armies near my borders etc). Any city name that is yellow indicates an empty build queue.That's all i look for.Also at the bottom of the screen if you select the city tab and then left/right scroll through your cities it will also show you which ones are empty.
I think you should stick with CTP2, try some of the mods, there is always lots of new stuff going on here with improving and changing the game. I agree with you CTP2 has loads more features then CivII and better graphics/sound too, i find CivII looks very primitive now when i play it

[Pedrunn]

Easy to solve problem. Like i use im my PC.
Just open the
C:\Call to Power\ctp2_data\default\gamedata\script.slc
You will find 3 different messageboxes with names called something like (i dont have it now here so you have find them yourself) EMPTY_QUEUE_BUILDING, EMPTY_QUEUE_UNIT and EMPTY_QUEUE_WONDER. Once you finding these lines you need to write this line in the middle of them.

Show ();

This way everytime any city has the build queue empty a message will pop up asking if you want to see the city.

If you cant do it yourself. Tomorrow i can attach this this file for you.

Keep me informed.

[Hermann the Lombard]

Yeah, it's aggravating that the "Msg" tab shows so little, and often omits the most critical information (off the screen to the right), and it takes annoying extra mouse clicks to close the Msg window when that pops up. should close that window, but it doesn't.

I use the F2 key, then I sort by "Turns" which puts the empty queue cities right at the top. I also then glance down the list to see if I want to Rush Buy something.

[Eagle]

I find that the msg box is popping up at times where I don't want to see it and it doesn't tell me things I want to know, like when somebody is starting a wonder.

Something else also: When you are at the point of breaking a treaty with somebody, in CIVII there was a box popping up to ask if you are sure, in CTPII it will let you do and afterwards inform you that you have broken the treaty (without popping up a msg box). OK, most of the time I know when I am about to break a treaty, but there are times that I do something that would break a treaty, but I don't know.

For the empty queues. I have the habit of looking in the national manager. Just a scan to see which city is highest ranking on production (so I can put tile improvements in cities that need them) and on the other tab a scan for empty queues and rush buying.

[Pedrunn]

Here it is as i promise. Just move inside this directory
C:\Call to Power\ctp2_data\default\gamedata

[Teodosio]

Thanks to everyone for your kindness! Your suggestions have been very useful, now I can enjoy the game in a different way.

Pedronn, your method is perhaps the best one, but it isn't exactly what I was searching for: in Civ2 when a build-queue is empty appears not a simple message, but the city production screen itself. Anyway it is very better now, thanks again!

[Oerdin]

Just reading this thread reminds me of why I like CTP2 so much. This has to be one of the few (only?) games that let you change absolutely ANYTHING you want. You miss that pop up box? No problem just type this code. Want the AI to be more aggressive? Try this mod.
It's sad that Civ3 wasn't built like this...

[Pedrunn]

I'm really glad i could help .

[DeanToth]

Sorry for my ignorance, but I've heard this complaint before (that you don't know when your cities are "idle") and I just don't get it. Again, maybe I just don't understand what is really being asked.... but here is how I see it:

As soon as a city has an empty build queue:
my copy, at least, of CTPII puts a message in the message list. Maybe european or south american CTP games have different CTP games which don't do this?? Is this where the confusion stems from?

When a city queue is empty, I get a message EVERY SINGLE TURN that it is empty... so i don't see how you could miss it!

Anyway, even if the message is cut off, I can at least see it say "the build queue for XXX" which I know finishes by saying "is empty".... so I simply look at the first few letters of the city name and know which city it is right away...

Even if that isn't clear enough, I click the message and read the popup box... (yes it's a bit of a pain to drag my pointer all the way up there).... But my point is, there is no mystery to when your build queues are empty!!


Usually I never open the popup box. I get all the info I need from the short line of text in the message list.... I just right-click (delete) them each turn.

Anyway, I'm glad there are some "backdoor" fixes to this so EVERYONE can enjoy this great game!

Take it easy

[Alex]

I usually look at the message tab. If it is red, then I don't even have to open it. I just press TAB and go through all the newest messages. Sometimes I also use the F2 key.

[DeanToth]

Also, for anyone who hasn't used it, click on the FLAG (empire) icon on the icon-wheel and then click on the STATUS tab to see a list of every city and what it is building.

You can sort the list by turns left to build, alphabetically, etc. High useful as you can also highlight multiple projects and rush buy them all in a single swoop.

Finally, you can highlight a project and click directly to that cities build-queue straight from here.

This screen is invaluable for the later, larger, richer empire administrator. And allows you the control you need without having to rely on mayors