The Distant Rumblings of War!

[Catfish]

Originally posted by PietH
When loading the winter '41 files, it still shows that one file can not be found. Is that intentional, or some file missing?

Well, someone went and renamed all of the unit graphics files without doing the same in the batch file, didn't they? I guess that explains why the CivSwap INI file contains the same discrepancy. I never checked the last batch file version once it was declared OK. Try this batch file for size:

[PietH]

With the Catfish batch file, all files are copied. Still gives the 'Events header not found' message though, but I don't know if that's supposed to be there or not.

[Catfish]

Delevent returns that message when it tries to clear the events from a file with no embedded events. If you've run the batch file already then d7.sav will be clear. Ignore it.

[curtsibling]

Yep!

'Events header not found' just means that the SAV is clear
and ready to use! Load your new events, and give em' hell!

[Mercator]

Originally posted by curtsibling
I will package civswap with the download, as well as the batch so people will be able to use what system they prefer.

Sure. This is still just a test version, though. It should do fine, and it will help me too if people can actually try it while playtesting Dictator. But I'll probably make some more changes before the real version 2.0. That'll hopefully be before you're ready with this scenario yourself...

Civswap seems very cool. Not needing to save the game as a specific filename will be good. Can there be two different games played at the same time?

Gah! That's exactly the question I hoped no-one would ask. No, it isn't possible to play different games at the same time. I did spend a lot of time trying to make that work, though, but I haven't finished that yet. I was hoping I could get away without it.

Originally posted by Catfish
Well, someone went and renamed all of the unit graphics files without doing the same in the batch file, didn't they? I guess that explains why the CivSwap INI file contains the same discrepancy.

Ah, quite... I did see the file names but didn't pay enough attention to those and just copied everything from the batch file... The terrain files swapped okay during my test so I figured everything was fine.

Edit: And I fixed the CivSwap attachment in #216. (link)

[curtsibling]

Nice work, Merc!

Don't worry about the factor of playing two games at once.
I find that I tend to play one game at a time anyway...!

I reckon most people playing D7 will do the same.

So it is not really a problem.

[curtsibling]

Originally posted by Catfish

Well, someone went and renamed all of the unit graphics files without doing the same in the batch file, didn't they? I guess that explains why the CivSwap INI file contains the same discrepancy. I never checked the last batch file version once it was declared OK. Try this batch file for size:

Catfish, is there any changes in this Batch, from the one in the current Dictator scenario Wiki download?

Just so I know if I should pack this one into my new update?

[curtsibling]

BTW - Just finished my own playtest game as Romania!

Definitely had fun playing as old Ion Antonescu! Ended up capturing a vast empire from the Balkans to the Middle East!

Amazing what controlling Europe's oil trade can do -

Germany and Russia are still blowing the hell out of each other, as the Allies try to get a foothold on Europe...
The scenario finished the bloody stalement ending event...The yellow city dots of my civ cover the bottom-right
part of the map...And I was making 1400 gold per turn. ALL HAIL GLORIOUS ROMANIA!

Armed with the data from my game, I now will tweak the events - Not that it need much, but little things like
making the generals random generated...To prevent the delevents from mass-spamming more generals each year.
I also might make the generals more powerful on the attack, but keep the defence as is. I am also going to
fix the pedia file and make some images for the city improvement entries.

Stay tuned! And tell me about any bugs or slugs!

[McMonkey]

If you are playing a game using CivSwap and want to start another one to run at the same time could you just make a copy of the scenario folder and rename it "Dictator 7 Game 2" and play the second game from that folder or would renaming the scenario folder cause problems?

[Mercator]

That would work just fine.

Originally posted by curtsibling
Catfish, is there any changes in this Batch, from the one in the current Dictator scenario Wiki download?

Yes! The units weren't being copied. Catfish fixed that.

My copy of CivSwap had the same problem, so you'll have to re-download that too (attachment to post #216) before you include it.

[curtsibling]

My batch file works fine - No problems here!

So, I want to put an end to all this confusion, once and for all!

The series of units in the multi-file zip are not named in the manner of catfish's batch.
The current batch file requires the units to be named in the units1, units2, units3 convention.

Same goes for all the multi-files. I guess there was a bit of confusion with McMonkey's initial
naming convention. Hopefully we can all now use the same batch style and civ-swap naming too...

Attached is the final, definite batch file...

[curtsibling]

I have listed here what should be contained in your 'Dictator7' CIV2 ToT scenario folder!

All the files outlined below are essential for play...
No other files than those listed are needed...(Civ-swap to be added)

Applications
============
DICTATOR7.BAT
CHOICE.BAT
Delevent.exe
Resource.spr

CIV2 files
============
Dictator7.scn
Cities.bmp
Icons.bmp
Improvements.bmp
People.bmp
Units.bmp
Terrain1.bmp
Terrain2.bmp
Title.gif

Text files
============
Events.txt
Game.txt
Labels.txt
Rules.txt
Pedia.txt
Describe.txt

Multi files
============

(These should be in a folder called 'Events')
Events1.txt = Summer 1941
Events2.txt = Winter 1941
Events3.txt = Summer 1942
Events4.txt = Winter 1942
Events5.txt = Summer 1943
Events6.txt = Winter 1943
Events7.txt = Summer 1944
Events8.txt = Winter 1944
Events9.txt = Summer 1945
Events10.txt = Winter 1945
Events11.txt = Summer 1946

Rules1.txt = Summer 1941
Rules2.txt = Winter 1941
Rules3.txt = Summer 1942
Rules4.txt = Winter 1942
Rules5.txt = Summer 1943
Rules6.txt = Winter 1943
Rules7.txt = Summer 1944
Rules8.txt = Winter 1944
Rules9.txt = Summer 1945
Rules10.txt = Winter 1945
Rules11.txt = Summer 1946

SCities.bmp
STerrain1.bmp
STerrain2.bmp

WCities.bmp
WTerrain1.bmp
WTerrain2.bmp

Units1.bmp = Summer 1941
Units2.bmp = Winter 1941
Units3.bmp = Summer 1942
Units4.bmp = Winter 1942
Units5.bmp = Summer 1943
Units6.bmp = Winter 1943
Units7.bmp = Summer 1944
Units8.bmp = Winter 1944
Units9.bmp = Summer 1945
Units10.bmp = Winter 1945
Units11.bmp = Summer 1946

Sound files
===========
All WAVs go into a standard CIV2 sounds folder!



Hope this is of help to people in organising their Dictator7 folder.

There should be no deviation from this, or errors will happen!

PS
When I get to grips with CIV-swap, I will update this post with details!

[Catfish]

Originally posted by curtsibling
My batch file works fine - No problems here!

So, I want to put an end to all this confusion, once and for all!

The series of units in the multi-file zip are not named in the manner of catfish's batch.
The current batch file requires the units to be named in the units1, units2, units3 convention.

Same goes for all the multi-files. I guess there was a bit of confusion with McMonkey's initial naming convention.

The unit graphics files in the multi-file zip, at the time of my last post, had season/year prefixes, but the batch file you included with the scenario used the units#.bmp naming convention. I assure you, I wasn't drunk at the time.

[Mercator]

Argh! The units were called s41units.bmp, w41units.bmp, etc. last time I checked. I see you renamed them back to units1.bmp etc.

I updated the CivSwap.ini file again in #216 to match that.

[PietH]

Curt's last batch file causes one file not to load again. Reverting back to Catfish's batch file, all files are loaded.