Is anyone interested in a "mapcopy" utility?

Dusty · August 19, 2000, 01:37

I'm working on a scenario, and, being the computer nerd that I am, I've decided to include some programs that will make some clever changes to saved game files as the scenario is being played. To test my code, I wrote a little utility called mapcopy, which I thought would be useful.

Basically, it takes the terrain map from one saved game file, and copies it to another. The two maps must be the same size. The cities and units on the map are not copied. I figure this might be useful if someone needs to make a large change to a map while in the middle of creating a scenario. They could make the change in the Map editor, and then use mapcopy to copy it to the scenario file. Without this utility, they would have to either make the changes from Civ2 (which may not work for some changes, like rivers), or recreate the cities and units in the scenario.

I think this could be useful. Does anyone else? If so, I'll clean it up a bit and release a beta version.

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Dusty
[This message has been edited by Dusty (edited August 19, 2000).]

William Keenan · August 19, 2000, 02:33

I think it would be more useful, Dusty, if you could copy a MP file into a scenario rather then one save file to another. The reason for this is so that you can add rivers to an existing scenario.

The program would have to be error proof, since the SAV file would be ruined if a map of the wrong size were imported.

If you plan to continue your development of the utility I suggest you get in touch with the guru of maps, Mercator.

Kull · August 19, 2000, 03:09

I agree with William. Your program should be able to:

1) Extract a "clean" .mp file from the .scn file. This would allow the scenario developer to run it through the Civ Map Editor (primarily for river edits).

2) Merge the edited .mp file safely back into the .scn file.

I would call that a VERY useful tool.

Allard HS · August 19, 2000, 06:32

I would myself too advise you to make contact with Jorrit Vermeiren (Mercator) jorrit_v@hotmail.com as soon as possible, cause I know he's also creating such a project, and maybe you can merge your discoveries.

For the rest, it's an excellent idea. How many times have I decided to include forests in a map, or more new terrain types?

quote:

The program would have to be error proof, since the SAV file would be ruined if a map of the wrong size were imported.

of course, but that's just a thing to carefully plan. My first save game while making a scenario is called 99, the next 98, etc. I usually end up at 75, so I got 25 backups of varying stages of the scenario. And of course, the program could be so programmed that it backs up the file automatically.
Then it can screw the file up as much as it wants.

Dusty · August 19, 2000, 16:29

William Keenan Wrote:

quote:

I think it would be more useful, Dusty, if you could copy a MP file into a scenario rather then one save file to another. The reason for this is so that you can add rivers to an existing scenario.

Currently you can acomplish that by using the Map Editor to load the scenario file, then save the result to an MP, and then use CIV2 to "start on a premade world" in order to convert the MP to a SAV. Of course, it would be nice to support MP files directly, but I don't know how easy it would be.

William Keenan Wrote:

quote:

The program would have to be error proof, since the SAV file would be ruined if a map of the wrong size were imported.

It currently insists that the source map and the destination map be exactly the same size. This should prevent errors. Of course, it would still do automatic backups, as suggested by Allard.

Kull wrote:

quote:

1) Extract a "clean" .mp file from the .scn file. This would allow the scenario developer to run it through the Civ Map Editor (primarily for river edits).

This is strange. The Map Editor can extract a map from a .SAV file, but not from a .SCN file. I always thought .SCN files were pretty much the same as .SAV, as you can rename a .SAV file to .SCN and load it as a scenario. (What's even stranger is that the Map Editor doesn't seem to be able to load itcan't load it's own MP filesCan't the Map Editor already do this, simply by loading from a .scn file (just as it can from a .sav file?)

From your responses, I gather that I should continue developing this utility, and add .MP and .SCN support. I was hoping I could release this without too much extra coding (as I'd like to get back to my scenario...), but we'll just have to see what happens.

Thanks for your responses!

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Dusty
[This message has been edited by Dusty (edited August 19, 2000).]

Shadowstrike · August 19, 2000, 19:48

I'd like a copy. It would be a useful tool for scenario makers everywhere. Say, can I put a copy up on the website I'm going to make?

Eternal · August 19, 2000, 23:07

I could definitely use this. I have some serious river problems on my current scenario, and providing I won't be too lazy, I could alter the map, put the rivers in the right spot, and import it into this scenario.
Does this work for any particular version of Civ2, or are they all the same in the areas that the utility uses? I hope it works for MGE.
Keep up the good work.

WarVoid · August 21, 2000, 20:20

I must concur with William and Kull on this.

Losing as saved game would be most un-gratifying.

This looks to be a promising utility and I look forward to trying it out very soon.