New Rules Issue

[Timor_Leste]

I just recently got my computer working again and went back to editing Civ2. I came up with a new rules.txt and was game-testing when it ran into an issue when any civ received "university". I checked to see if there was an "A needs B needs A", but couldn't find a loop. Can't think of what else it could be. I've attached the criminal, if you want a look yourself. Any help would be appreciated.

[AGRICOLA]

The contents of your download look like this

Category = Knowledge category ; 0 = Military ; 1 = Economic ; 2 = Social ; 3 = Academic ; 4 = Applied ; @CIVILIZE Flight, 4,-2, Rad, Too, 3, 4 ; AFl Alphabet, 5, 1, nil, nil, 0, 3 ; Alp Amphibious Warfare, 3,-2, Nav, Tac, 3, 0 ; Amp Astronomy, 4, 1, Mys, Mat, 1, 3 ; Ast Atomic Theory, 4,-1, ToG, Phy, 2, 3 ; Ato Automobile, 6,-1, Cmb, Stl, 3, 4 ; Aut Banking, 4, 1, Tra, Rep, 1, 1 ; Ban Bridge Building, 4, 0, Iro, Cst, 0, 4 ; Bri Bronze Working, 6,-1, nil, nil, 0, 4 ; Bro Ceremonial Burial, 5, 0, nil, nil, 0, 2 ; Cer Chemistry, 5,-1, Uni, Med, 1, 3 ; Che Chivalry, 4,-2, Feu, Hor, 1, 0 ; Chi Code of Laws, 4, 1, Alp, nil, 0, 2 ; CoL Combined Arms, 5,-1, Mob, AFl, 3, 0 ; CA Combustion, 5,-1, Ref, Exp, 2, 4 ; Cmb Communism, 5, 0, Phi, Ind, 2, 2 ; Cmn Computers, 4, 1, Min, MP, 3, 4 ; Cmp Conscription, 7,-1, Dem, Met, 2, 0 ; Csc Construction, 4, 0, Mas, Cur, 0, 4 ; Cst Corporations, 4, 0, AFl, Eco, 2, 1 ; Cor Currency, 4, 1, Bro, nil, 0, 1 ; Cur Democracy, 5, 1, Ban, Inv, 2, 2 ; Dem Economics, 4, 1, Uni, Ban, 2, 1 ; Eco Electricity, 4, 0

Any chance of attaching the rules.txt file and not just its unformatted contents?

P.S.
Golden Rule of Attachments: 'After posting, immediately download it yourself and carefully check that it is what you intended.'

[Harry Tuttle]

Looks ok to me...

[curtsibling]

Putting the rules in a small zip/rar/archive will make it easier to inspect...!

[AGRICOLA]

EDIT: Too many beers last night.

[curtsibling]

The last tech in the list is ambiguous...

Ballistic Missiles, 4, 0, no, no, 1, 4 ; ext1

What I noticed = 'ext1' is not a legal preq code...

If using MGE, then the extra techs are compiled thusly...

User Def Tech A, 3, 0, no, no, 0, 0 ; U1
User Def Tech B, 3, 0, no, no, 0, 0 ; U2
User Def Tech C, 3, 0, no, no, 0, 0 ; U3
Extra Advance 1, 3, 0, no, no, 0, 0 ; X1
Extra Advance 2, 3, 0, no, no, 0, 0 ; X2
Extra Advance 3, 3, 0, no, no, 0, 0 ; X3
Extra Advance 4, 3, 0, no, no, 0, 0 ; X4
Extra Advance 5, 3, 0, no, no, 0, 0 ; X5
Extra Advance 6, 3, 0, no, no, 0, 0 ; X6
Extra Advance 7, 3, 0, no, no, 0, 0 ; X7

[curtsibling]

Issue fixed, new rules added...You'll have to investigate AGRICOLA's findings too!

[Mercator]

I had no problems with his attachment and actually found his unzipped rules much easier to inspect...

And you didn't actually fix the issue.

There's a loop in the technology tree:
Radio requires Aeronautics requires Combustion requires Refining requires Corporations requires Flight requires Radio.

The last tech is indeed a little funny (it should either be absent altogether or be replaced by the 7 "Extra" advances as you did), but since it's a no-no it probably doesn't matter.

The "ext1" follows after a semi-colon so it's a comment only. since it isn't referred to anywhere else that isn't a problem at all.

I found the problem in no time using the technology tree analyser I wrote and posted here more than two years ago. Use it!

[curtsibling]

My apologies, Oh master of all things map-orientated!

I never realised you actually got around to finishing that tech-tree project.

Perhaps people were daunted by the prospect of code or programming.

I will begin some experiments with your creation.

[curtsibling]

Been testing Merc's program - It is indeed clever, and I really recommend people give it a shot.

I can find missing commas and other bugs, I found it does not find preq typos, like AFL instead of AFl...

But all the same, for a quick check of the obvious bugs, this one is a must.

Good work, map scrawler!

[Mercator]

Thanks for trying it!

I just made a small update so you might want to download it again.

You can now drag and drop your rules onto it (see link for more info)... You could do that before too, but the window would disappear before you could read anything.

It should find typos like you mentioned as well... Unless you changed one of the three-letter codes following a semi-colon. As I mentioned in my previous post, they're comments only. Civ2 ignores them (as does civ2tech).

[curtsibling]

Cheers for the update, Merc - But when I drag the rules file onto the EXE,
the Dos dialog box still seems to vanish before I can see anything?

...

[Mercator]

What happens if you do it the same as you did before, using the command-line?

You should see something like "Press any key to continue..."

If you don't, your browser might have cached the file from before and you just got the old file again instead of the new one.

[curtsibling]

When I use the command line method, it gives this message:

"Can't use an undefined value as an array reference at line 31"

Care to translate?

[Timor_Leste]

Wow. Thanks for all the helpful replys.

Geez, Agri, the attachment didn't look like that when i posted. When i try to look at it now, it's giving the same sort of gibberish you posted.

Curt, that last tech is just a reminder for myself. I figured, if it didn't like it, the game wouldn't have worked at all. I've started 3 games until they crash when univs discovered.

Thanks Merc!! That's a long loop. I'll try using your program from now on!