Screen Resolution

[Boco]

What screen resolution do you use when you play Civ2 scenario's? I'm trying to figure out the limit on text in pop-up's.

Um, this is my first poll, so the format may get messy. [list=1][*]1152x864 (I got real good eyes)[*]1024x768[*]800x600[*]640x480 (Civ3 messed up my PC, and now it's in Safe Mode)[*]160x160 (I want to play Civ2 on a Palm Pilot)[/list=1]

[Mercator]

Wasn't it possible to add a scrollbar? Or was that only with the scenario introduction text?
(Now where's Allard thread about that again...)

[H Tower]

on my old computer i had to use 800x600 and i had to edit down so many of the scenario intro txt files just so I could click the ok button. don't make it really long!

[Boco]

Wasn't it possible to add a scrollbar?

You're right, the scroll bars seem to come in when your number of lines exceeds xx in @listbox=xx. From what I've seen, lines that are too long, simply get lopped off in the 'Scenario'.txt. There's also a '@width=yy' setting. In an experiment, I edited mine to 900 (pixels?). It worked well at 1024x768, but at 800x600, much of the dialog was outta sight. The font size seemed a little smaller at 800x600, but not enough to compensate.

So, we could face a choice. Make the text lines short enough to fit in a box with a width less than 800, and live with scroll bars, or exceed 800, get rid of scroll bars, and put a line about setting the screen to 1024x768. Then again, as H Tower shows, there's always a strong argument to keep the text short and simple. Not to mention, short texts don't put the player asleep before the scenario starts.

One ToT 'gotcha' is that you can't take advantage of Allard's discovery that @options at the bottom of 'Scenario'.txt allows the listing of the civs without going to another dialog (gets rid of one 'OK' click) in the opening sequence.

[Boco]

Alright, who voted 'other'? If you've a version that works on a handheld, I want it!

[St Leo]

Maybe a MacHead got offended by you only having PC resolutions.

[Boco]

Oops! Mea culpa!

What resolution(s) do MacHeads use?

[St Leo]

Henrik?

[Henrik]

Actually I voted 1024x768 becouse that's what I use

(I have 832x624 on my old computer though which isn't an option, maybe someone has that resolution?)

[klesh]

Wouldnt let me vote. Invalid session. (Mozilla had been fixing this untill now.) Anyway I use 1024x768.

-FMK.

[DarthVeda]

Isn't there an "all about txt files" thingie laying about someplace in this forum?

[yaroslav]

I currently play with 1024x768

But, in my olds computers I played it at 800x600 and even at 640x480

[Boco]

DV, since you mention it, I'll put Allard's discovery here. He posted it in May, 2000. Kobayashi reposted it on CivFan in Feb, 2002. I couldn't find it in the Poly archives.

Btw, FMK, how do you like Mozilla?

Let us bring into public knowledge what I wanted to keep
for myself

TEXT COMMANDS:
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

By Allard H.S. Höfelt

May be used freely without my permission.

-----------NOTES-----------

Not all of these function everywhere, eg. they do not work in
events, menus, etc. Also, some functions are prefixed, eg. the field
to fill in your name is an editbox, though the @options tag is used
as with any other value. Also the "^" command works very differently
in CREDITS.TXT than normally.
It is also unfortunately not possible to add icons/units to places
where they are not originally, nor is it possible to make "links"
to other dialog boxes or to call up movies, etc.

I am not certain about the commands in Test of Time. There might
be more commands (though I seem to remember John Possidente said there
were none), and there might be new tricks.

The commands given here are all the commands that work. It has
been checked while hex-editing the civ2.exe file (near the end of
the file) and there are no more of them. In Colonization and Antietam
and probably more similar MicroProse games, various other commands
are usable, but they do unfortunately not work in civ2.

Combining several values, however, can lead to surprising results,
and I am certain that not all of it has yet been found. Be original,
therefore, with your tries, and remember that a command might not work
the same in one place and another (especially true for the @options
command).

Not all commands have to be added at the top of the file. This
again is especially true for @options.

-----------main commands-----------

@listbox=....
box with list of choices. You can add @options later.
.... is the no. of rows

@options
radio buttons that can be selected. You can type text
before you add @options to make that text appear on
top of the options, so you do not necessarily have to
add @options at the top of the file.
@default=... number of radio button selected by default
@checkbox uses checkboxes instead of radioboxes
option1 text that shows up in available
option2 options (every new line is new option)

Note: leaving one line empty usually also automatically
----- add the @options command to the next lines.

@text
forces all the next text to be displayed as normal
text instead of listboxes, options, etc.

@columns=....
columns, appears to be only used with listboxes and options
@button=..... adds new button left of OK with .... as text on button

@title=...... title of box


-----------location commands-----------

@width=..... width of dialog box
@height=..... height of dialog box
@length=..... length of dialog box
@y=..... y location (- is lower)
@x=..... x location (- is more to right)

-----------obsolete commands-----------

@smallfont
and
@system

These are both older (used in Colonization) commands with no effect.

-----------some more useful strings/commands-----------

%STRING0, %STRING1, ... = pieces of text used in memory.
%NUMBER0, %NUMBER1, ... = numbers used in memory.


^ - New paragraph.
^^ - Center this line.
@@ - Skips this line.
; - Used to time comments after it. Does not always work.
_ - A space. Used by some scenario authors (JB) to add empty lines.
& - Adds a line under the next letter. May be used only once per line.
% - Indicates a string or number. Works inpredictably in other cases.
| - Seems only usable in menu.txt and mapmenu.txt. Aligns further text
to the right.

-----------interesting tricks-----------

- You can let the player choose its tribe from the scenario introduction
screen instead of the next screen, which does not appear then. Simply
open myscenarioname.txt, add "@listbox" on top, and add "@options"
later on where you want to have the choices. Like this, you can also
devide the available civs in 2 or even 3 columns and have more fun.
The normal (next) screen where you choose your civ itself is not
editable in the game.txt (!) so this is the only way of modifying it.

- You can make a much longer scenario introduction text than normally
(you can almost add half a book ) by adding "@listbox=.." with ..
meaning the number of lines you want the text box to be high, and
later add "@options". All text after options will be in a scrolling box.
Note that this is basically the same as the trick above only you type
your text AFTER @options. The nice thing of this is that it also allows
you to type the more important text above the box, and you can use the
box itself for text giving flavour. You can add "."'s in an further
empty line to make it empty, and allowing a new paragraph, which would
normally not be possible, because no empty lines are allowed.

- If you wish to disable certain options (which only works for menus, and
therefore only to humans and then only to options which do not have
keyboard shortcuts) in menus, game.txt or wherever, simply add @@ at
the beginning of the line. Unfortunately, this does not change the
assigned command for that location (i.e. if you remove "begin scenario"
in the first screen when you start up the game, selecting "view credits"
will show you the hall of fame, and selecting "load game" will still
bring you to the load scenario screen). Adding a ~ before the first or the
second character in various of the lines might do the trick, but it is
very unstable, illogical, and only works at some places (i've only seen
it working in the same very screen I just talked of).

- A great deal of fun can be achieved by adding more options (simply more
lines below) to certain values, such as adding more levels of difficulty
and more barbarians. This is known already for a while.
However, another fun thing to add is this. In the field in GAME.TXT where
the scenario player has to fill in its name, you can simply add more lines:

@NAME
@width=440
@title=Please Enter Your Name
@options
Name:
Political Preference:
Nationality:
Date of Birth:
Place of Birth:
Homepage:
Email:

In the next screen, the gender screen, let's remove the gender question,
assuming that Stalin is only supposed to be male, and let's add this
instead:

^^NEWS NEWS NEWS NEWS
^^
^^New %STRING2 Ruler has been announced.
^^%STRING0 will soon start his new function.
^^
^^%STRING0 was born on the %STRING3 in %STRING4. As
^^soon as he finished his University carreer, he
^^joined the %STRING1 party.

Remember that the %strings values will soon be overwritten with new values
that the game uses (it's funny to find these out by adding a %string0 or 1
to a frequently occuring pop-up screen). Therefore, you might want to ask
the more important questions later, to allow them to return later. Remember
however, that when quitting the game, the values are lost and are also not
saved when you save the game. Keep this in mind to avoid strange messages
in the game, and use the strings only in the very first few pop-ups and
the first turns.

- Remember that any text can be changed in GAME.TXT. If you wish to make
clear that the human player should only choose Deity level, write that
before the @options start. You can add whole little stories, for example
like this, another, more fun, way of asking your name.

^"Friends, - for common to all is our return hereafter, and common
to all is our path - now therefore with ungrudging heart choose
the bravest to be our leader, who shall be careful for everything,
to take upon him our quarrels and covenants with strangers."
@options
Name:

You can also change the text that you see when you save or load a game,
such as remove the title of the leader, or you can change the text if
a saved game is in obsolete or later format ("Sorry, this scenario is
only playable using Fantastic Worlds").

- I imagine many more things are possible without me yet knowing of it.
Explore these commands and use them in your scenarios.

[Case]

Well it looks like I'm the only guy who uses 800 x 600

[klesh]

I use a scrollbar intro for both Stalingrad and Lebensraum. I rather like them, allow you to put as much text as you want in there. And yes, I found that lines simply are cut off within the scrollbar box when they exceed the width.

@SCENARIO
@width=300
@title=Lebensraum 1939
^
^^The European Theatre of World War II
^^September 1939- December 1945
^
^
^Special Notes:
^Attacking Minor Nations' cities could
^have grave diplomatic reprocussions.
^Government switching is disabled.
^Negotiations are permitted.
@listbox7
@width=260
@options
......................Historical Background......................
It is the fall of 1939. The continent of Europe has,
for the most part, been calm since the conclusion of
the First World War. Germany, having utterly
disregarded the Versailles restrictions on military
development and munitions production, began to
rearm itself in 1933 shortly after the public's turn
toward fascism and the rise of Adolf Hitler and his
so-called National Socialists.
%
The past years have seen England and France
attempting to appease this ravenous German
nationalism by allowing her to annex neighboring
territories; first came the Rhineland, then the
Anchluss with Austria, the Sudetenland, and then
the invasion of Czechoslovakia. Neville
Chamberlain's inability to curtail Hitler's thirst for
expansion has led the furher to assume he can
turn against Poland without incident.
%
The French sit behind their Maginot Line with the
hopes that they will not have to fight the Germans
in another bloody repeat of WWI. Thought their
army is sizeable, they have fallen behind in tactics
and weapons development and without a change
in leadership, are in no position to strike deep
into Germany. The Soviet Union, fresh from the
Stalinist purges of the officer corps are likewise
in a poor military situation. Though they have
managed to buy some security with the Molotov
-Ribbentrop pact, it surely will not be long before
the Nazi's engage in a conflict with their sworn
Bolshevik enemies.
%
The Italian fascist movement has been less able
to capture the imagination of their people, they
do not have the fanatical public support of their
German counterparts. Italy does however have
military ambitions in this war, as she looks to take
control of the Mediterranean Sea. The British
hold a firm grasp on Eygpt and the Suez, and
are also in position to harrass Italian shipping
from their airfields at Malta. Italy also sees
opportuinities across the Adriatic in Albania and
Greece. They are not in for an easy fight.
%
Will the nations of Europe be able to ally with
one another long enough to bring down the
ever-growing fascist evil which is increasingly
engulfing millions of defenseless peoples?
Many nations' armies are ill-equiped to repel
an onslaught by the German Wermacht. Will
France and England come to their aid and
strike at the German aggressors as promised
in recent years, or will they back down and
become apathetic to the rape of Europe?
If fascism is somehow easily defeated on the
continent, are the western democracies any
more at ease with Iosef Stalin as their new
neighbor? Could the Soviet Union replace
Nazi Germany as the protagonist in this war?
@end -- this line must be here!

Re: Mozilla, absolutely love it, Henrik turned me onto it. Plus it has a built in pop-up killer. Heh.

-FMK.

[DarthVeda]

perfect for browsing poly

[Boco]

FMK, if you move @options to immediately before @end, does the choice of tribes appear in this dialog? Or does it just crash? Not that you'd want to, what with scrollbars and all, but I was curious about how version-specific this trick was.

Yeah, the pop-ups drove me back to Opera. S'pose it's time to update my browser's again. Think it's time to try Mozilla.

[St Leo]

Or does it just crash?

It works in FW and crashes in MGE.

Yeah, the pop-ups drove me back to Opera. S'pose it's time to update my browser's again. Think it's time to try Mozilla.

Nooooo... Try the Opera 7 beta if you want something new. If you aren't big on betae, try http://www.mozilla.org/projects/phoenix/.

[fairline]

I've just had an epiphany (I think thats the right word)

I've always used 1024 x 768 res - the graphics in civ2, particularly the units always look a bit crap. On Palaiologos's suggestion I tried 800 x 600 with Civ2 viewed at standard zoom. Suddenly everything looks good. I know this sounds crazy but trust me on this one - give it a try.

One added benefit is for some reason text pop-ups that are too big normally now fit well. Must be the font or something.

Only problem is I can't use my computer for anything else but civ at this resolution. oh well.

[St Leo]

SHIFT+Z normalizes the zoom at 1024x768 and, should you want to, you can switch to the 800x600 city screen by clickin on the down arrow in its titlebar.