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  • CivConverter Bugs/Improvements

    I was just converting Seeds of Greatness into a ToT scenario, and for the most part it worked quite well. Unfortunately there's one fatal flaw, but whether that's caused by CivConverter I really couldn't say. There were several other things worth mentioning too:

    1) "What happened to the Goody Huts?" - All the goody huts vanished from the map! While this may not be a problem for most scenarios, it IS a fatal flaw for SoG. All I know is that they were there in the original .scn file, but now they're gone. Anyone else seen (or solved) this problem?

    2) "Turning off the sprites is elementary, by dear Angelo!" - If CivConverter would just copy a modified version of the Advanced Units Section (with sprites toggled off for all units) and paste it below the Attitudes section of the Rules.txt file, this would solve the entire Sprite Units problem. You'll notice I refer only to Sprite Units, because....

    3) "Terrain Sprites ain't so simple". Actually, all you have to do is go into the ToT/Original folder and rename or move "resource.spr" and the problem is solved. Unfortunately, you also have to go back and "fix" it after playing the scenario so the solution is far from elegant. If anyone knows how to turn them off from within the scenario folder, that would be great. If someone is actually building a ToT ModManager that would would be a good option to include.

    4) "The Terrain1.bmp Bug" - Not really a big deal since it was easy to fix manually, but CivConverter did not copy the terrain in column one into columns two and three, at least for the Jungle Terrain. As a result, SoG had some copper-looking terrain, but most of it had something called copper which looked like a jungle! Again, an easy manual fix but something worth addressing in version 1.5.

    5) Description Length "Bug" - For someone who's motto is "why use 10 words when 50 will suffice", this is a problem. Most of my long winded descriptions of SoG wonders and improvements were cut off about halfway through. Is it possible to change the holding capacity of the information box anywhere? I'm NOT looking forward to rewriting the whole @##@$&* pedia.txt!! The only thing more annoying than half a description is.....

    6) "Why is the Mausoleum description adorned with that lovely mushroom cloud picture?" Although many of the scenario's improvements and graphics do go together, it would be nice to eliminate those pictures since half the time they definitely DON'T apply! Besides, maybe that would leave room in the info box for my not-so-succint descriptions! Has anyone looked into turning these on or off?

    7) "As long we're improving the Rules.txt file...." Appending a modified version of the @Sounds section beneath the new @Units_Advanced section would really be useful. In earlier versions of Civ2, sounds were associated with units based upon their location within the Units.gif file. As a result, it should be relatively easy to create a version of the @sounds section in which all the sound files are already associated with units (based on the old methodology). This isn't true for every scenario though, so you could also give the person doing the conversion the option to "Add @Sound Section to Rules.txt?" (Yes/No).
    To La Fayette, as fine a gentleman as ever trod the Halls of Apolyton

    From what I understand of that Civ game of yours, it's all about launching one's own spaceship before the others do. So this is no big news after all: my father just beat you all to the stars once more. - Philippe Baise

  • #2
    As I continue to work the SoG conversion, a few other observations:

    8) Barbarian Leader "Bug" - When CivConverter creates the new "Units.bmp" file, it fails to move the Barbarian Leader graphic down to the new bottom right location. ToT has two additional rows for new units, and apparently the relative location of the Leader has shifted. This can be fixed manually, but it's something that ought to be handled in version 1.5.

    9) "Unit Facing" - This has nothing to do with Civ converter, but I really think it's cool the way ToT "turns" each unit so that it always faces the direction in which it travels. A pretty minor Graphical enhancement, but when you've played a scenario again and again (and again and...), it's really noticeable.

    10) "All things come to he who actually uses his eyes" Department (aka Description Box Pix...see complaint #6 above): Yes, I found them! So if nothing else I know how to change and/or disable them. Manually. Not elegant. Another suggested ModManager enhancement!

    11) "Airbases (aka Towns) aint Railroads!?!" - Or roads for that matter. Hmmmm. There goes one of the scenario features! I could reintroduce the functionality by sticking railroads underneath each town, but that would mean rebuilding the scenario. Ugh.
    [This message has been edited by Kull (edited July 22, 2000).]
    To La Fayette, as fine a gentleman as ever trod the Halls of Apolyton

    From what I understand of that Civ game of yours, it's all about launching one's own spaceship before the others do. So this is no big news after all: my father just beat you all to the stars once more. - Philippe Baise

    Comment


    • #3
      1)Yes, you're right, Goody Huts are disabled in converted scenarios, John Dulleck warned me of this bug some time ago but 'till now i haven't found time to fix it (And if you look at CivCAD project you'll see why...)

      2)Now, It's better to clear this thing because it gave me a lot of troubles.
      CivConverter 1.4 should turn off sprites writing directly into SCN bits to enable :
      Terrain Animations lockout
      Unit Animations lockout
      SPR file override
      This is why i haven't used rules.txt, i can obtain the same effect just changing three bits and during the testing i've done before the launch of Civconverter the function seemed to work smoothly.
      It's clear now that this function isn't so good as i though, but now i've a question:
      Is Civconverter which doesn't set this flags in converted SCN
      Or are these flags which doesn't work as expected
      Or i haven't understood how these flags are intended to be used?

      3)Resource.spr should be eliminated by Terrain Animations lockout flag (see 2),
      Like you said the solution of removing resource.spr from Tot path is not good, CivConverter gets a Civ2 scenario and throw out a TOT Scenario and it must not handle files in Tot directory, maybe i can write a note in readme.txt but if Terrain Animations lockout works the problem simply cease to exist.

      4)Whoops, i didn't know this, consider it fixed

      5)This bug was pointed out by Harlan Thompson but it doesn't seem to be CivConverter fault; the problem seems to be that Tot added describe.txt (i think it was present in MGE also), so the pedia.txt tnow takes only a brief description while the long description must be written in describe.txt (and user can access it through the description button),
      Now i don't know if there's a way to enlarge info box and write in it long descriptions but if someone found something similar i'll be glad to add it to Civconverter, but up to now too long descriptions are simply cut (by TOT, not by CivConverter)

      6)I agree with you, again, Civconverter can do very few for this problem, it could enlarge icon to large box dimension but i think the effect is far from beautiful (icons are small, box is large), civconverter could create a XYimp.bmp empty, full of gray, but again this is not a good solution, the best solution as you said is to find how to deactivate that box.

      7)This is very interesting, i know i was converting sounds a bit quickly but no one complained so i though i was lucky
      Your suggestion is very easy to implement and i'll add in the future version for sure

      8)Yes, i knew this one also but since graphics routines were a nightmare to code (and i didn't see a barbarian leader in scenarios i played, probably because goody huts were deactivated...) i choose to let the bug in until i was sure this causes heavy problems, ok, i'll see to correct this also in the future version

      9)Yes, i agree

      10)HOW!!! Make me know how! Pleeease!

      11)Ehm, i'm not expert in scenarios, what is the problem? under airbases there isn't railroad? this is a problem of conversion, right?
      I have to learn more about this problem but i'll try to correct it.

      Thank you for your suggestion, and keep searching.

      BTW i don't know if this is the place to put this but i think so: it seems that the first turn bug is not caused by Major Objectives after all but it has something to do with barbarians:
      the crash happens always during barbarian turn and deleting all barbarian unit we found the first turn bug is removed (and also because a scenario with Major Objectives like red front can be played without causing a crash);
      anyone have a clue? in your opinion which differences are between barbarians in scenarios with bugs and scenarios without it? (remember that this bug come out only from FW and late)

      Angelo
      "If it works, it's obsolete."
      -- Marshall McLuhan

      Comment


      • #4
        Whoops, sorry, Posted by mistake - Today is not a good day...
        [This message has been edited by Kestrel (edited July 27, 2000).]

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