What does 'delevent' do?

[Fireb]

Thanks for reading:

There are 2 parts to this thread.
1)What does it (delevent.exe) do.
2) Can I do it (whatever it is) in windows XP (relatively easily).

1) Maybe it just deletes simple events.txt files, so that a batch program can replace it with another (in scenarios and mods). However, I believe it has more to do with setting up a save file to recompile a new events file, though I really don't know, apart from the fact that it takes a save file as an argument (e.g. 'delevent savegame.sav'). Any ideas?

2) As I'm running WinXP, things like 'delevent.exe', which is (I think) a Dos executable, do not work (as dos is not supported in XP). I can get around the batch files not working, but not delevent I've tried installing a dos simulator shell, but it didn't work.

Thanks for any answers.

FB

[Case]

Re: What does 'delevent' do?

Originally posted by Fireb
There are 2 parts to this thread.
1)What does it (delevent.exe) do.



1) Maybe it just deletes simple events.txt files, so that a batch program can replace it with another (in scenarios and mods). However, I believe it has more to do with setting up a save file to recompile a new events file, though I really don't know, apart from the fact that it takes a save file as an argument (e.g. 'delevent savegame.sav'). Any ideas?

When it's run on a saved file, etc, delevent.exe 'untriggers' all the events which have previously occured in that game, allowing them to re-occur. In addition, it strips any repeating events from the save, stoping them from recuring again.

As a result of these features, it's very useful for scenarios which employ multiple events files.

[curtsibling]

What I tend to do is have a copy of the application in each important scenario folder.
Just for those situations where you may have to edit events during a playtest game.

You just drag the save game onto the 'delevent.exe' file.
It will open a MS-DOS window for a split second.

Make you changes to the events file or whatever you have to do!

Then when you reload the game, you will see all previously activated events replay on the next AI turn.

Do not worry, this is normal...

This way, you should be able to edit events with ease.

[Fireb]

Thanks guys! That's a great help.

[curtsibling]

Our pleasure!

[Mercator]

Re: What does 'delevent' do?

Completely superfluous, as the questions have already been answered excellently, but I can't help it...

Originally posted by Fireb
1)What does it (delevent.exe) do.

Whenever Civ2 loads/starts a savegame/scenario it checks if there's an events file. If there is, it will "compile" the events and put them inside the savegame itself. When there already are events embedded in the savegame, no new events will be loaded. So Civ2 only actually checks the events.txt the very first time.

That's where delevent.exe comes in. It strips all events from a savegame (or scenario file) so that they can be loaded afresh from the events text file.

I've heard that using the in-game events editor can sometimes cause the events to be stored inside the scenario file. That can be useful, say, if you don't want anybody playing your scenario to pry into your precious events (the events.txt won't be needed as they're stored in the scenario file itself). But it is usually a nuisance during development.

Let me get even more technical. The events section in a savegame/scenario (both use the exact same file format) is stored at the very end of the file and is marked with the string EVNT. What delevent.exe does is find the first occurrence of "EVNT" in a file and remove it and everything after it. So the file you drop onto delevent or pass as a command-line argument to it doesn't even have to be a civ2 file. It'll try to butcher anything you give to it, so to speak.

2) Can I do it (whatever it is) in windows XP (relatively easily).

You can use it in Windows XP, but it won't do anything unless you give it a command-line argument.

The easiest way to do that is as Curt said, drop your savegame onto it.

You can also do it by using the Command Prompt (must be hidden in the Start menu somewhere) or Run... Start menu item. For the latter you'd have to type the full file path and name of delevent followed by the full file path and name to the savegame.

[curtsibling]

[Fireb]