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CivManager Gold Edition by Xin Yu
August 2002
The last 3 paragraphs of this file has very important 'caution' messages. Please make sure you read them.
{Thanks}
Sincerely thank Smash for testing and promoting this product.
{Changes and fixes from the trial version}
1)Added support for WinXP/Win2000
2)Changed the 'Location' column to a clickable cell so that the user can go into the city by clicking on a city's location column
3)After 'Reject change' or 'Accept change', the list will now scroll down to have the last processed city at row 6. Previously the list started at the first city.
4)Enlarged pull-down list windows, now widen and have more rows.
5)Added a global hotkey 'Ctrl-E' to expand CivManager.
6)Fixed a small bug in the Pop(H/U) column color scheme.
7)Fixed incorrect display of turn number.
8)Fixed a bug for the 'Notes' column, it now works properly.
9)Fixed money lower bound problem, now the user cannot spend more than treasury money to rush buy.
10)Fixed the glitch that when a combobox is open and the user used 'Ctrl-A' or 'Ctrl-R', the current value of the combobox changed. Now it is ok to use hotkeys when a combobox is open.
{What does this product do}
The CivManager utility program can be used to manage all cities at the same time in a
civilization II game. It offers the following functions without requiring the player to go
into cities (yet it is easy to access the game city screen from CivManager):
1) change city names
2) change production items
3) incremental buying
4) sell city improvements
5) change all citizens to specialists
6) make (very short) notes about each city
Furthermore, the player can easily 'copy' the current action for a city to other cities,
either individually or globally (yes! you can sell all barracks with just a couple of mouse
clicks!)
A small but useful extra set of information is also provided by CivManager, which includes
the current turn number and research progress.
{For which version of civilization 2 does this product work}
The CivManager utility program only works for the MPE version of civilization II. It does not support the so called 'upgraded' version from either civilization 2.4.2, 2.7.8 or test of time. A separate program will be released soon which will only support the upgraded version, after I find all the necessary memory addresses from that version.
{Using CivManager under WinXP and Win2000}
Due to the special memory allocation schema of XP, CivManager will not show correct advance, improvement or unit names. I don't have Win2000 so I don't know if it has the same problem. (To play it safe I assume it does.) At initialization, CivManager will check what version of Windows is running. If XP or 2000 is detected, then default advance, improvement and unit names are used instead of searching the memory to get them. If you are using XP or 2000 and playing a scenario which has a different rule, you can load the correct names after initialization of CivManager by clicking on the 'Rules...' button. A file browsing window will appear to let you choose your RULES.TXT file and CivManager will load names from the file you chose. If you are running Win95, Win98, WinNT or WinME you don't need to use the button, CivManager will search the memory and get correct names.
{How to report bugs and provide suggestions}
I need your suggestions to make improvements. Please send your comments to xyu101@hotmail.com (that account is flooded with junk mails so please
make sure your e-mail's topic is 'CivManager' or I may accidently delete it).
{How to initialize CivManager}
The CivManager program does not need to be in the same directory as the civ files, it can work from any place.
When first started, CivManager will shrink to the top middle part of your screen and be
idle. You need to go to its pull-down menu and select "expand" to activate it, when civilization MPE is running. (Sorry about the inconvenience, but this is the only way I can prevent it from crushing when the user starts CivManager without running civilization MPE first.) Do not activate the CivManager before taking control of your civ -- in order for the utility program to work properly, you need to be able to manage your cities from the game itself.
{What do the texts, numbers and colors mean in CivManager}
a)The "Rules..." button:
This button is used to load advance, improvement and unit names from a RULES.TXT file. Under WinXP (and probably Win2000 as well) the names are messed up so when playing scenarios which have different rules, the user needs to use this button to load correct names.
b)The 3 disabled buttons:
The left one has the format "turn: XX (Oedo + X)", where XX is the current turn number and X
ranges from 0 to 3. Oedo + 0 years are government changing years (to minimize anarchy turns, the player needs to revolution on an Oedo + 3 year, or discover a tech leading to a new government on an Oedo+0 year).
The middle one shows the current research goal and progress.
The right one shows your money.
c)The 12 columns:
"Location" is the (x,y) coordinates for the cities;
"Name" is the city name;
"Pop(H/U)" gives total population, happy, and unhappy citizens;
"Trade" gives total trade and net trade (i.e., without considering trade routes) for the city;
"Sci" and "Tax" are science and tax outputs, respectively;
"Food" gives food in the foodbox as well as foodbox size;
"Produce" shows the current city production item;
"Shield" gives shields in the shield box as well as shield box size;
"Sell" gives existing city improvements from which the player can pick one to sell;
"Specialist" show how many total specialists are currently hired in the city, and the player
can choose to hire ALL citizens as either scientists, taxmen or entertainers (if city size <
5 then only entertainers can be hired);
"Notes" is a place holder for the player to make short notes.
d)The color scheme
Usually white colored texts mean something good, and red colored texts mean something bad.
For example, white city names indicate that the cities are in celebration while red city
names indicate that the cities are in chaos. For the Pop(H/U) column a similar color scheme
is also implemented to predict the cities' celebration/chaos status for the next turn. Other
columns also have such color schemes but I won't get into the details here.
{What functions does CivManager have and how to use them}
a)Menu items include "expand", "contract", "reject change" and "accept change".
Expand (hotkey: Ctrl-E): There are two states for the CivManager Window: a large one and a small one. You can only work on the cities when the window is large. The expand command is used to get the window to the large status. The first time (initialization) you need to select from menu to expand the window. Later, to expand from small window status, you can either use the hotkey or use mouse to click on the window -- whenever the CivManager window has focus it will automatically expand.
Contract (hotkey: Esc): The opposite of "Expand" (so that you can come back to the game
itself and perform other functions). Whenever the CivManager window loses focus it will
automatically contract to the small status. So you can accomplish this task by click on
anywhere outside the CivManager window area. It is not recommended to use the hotkey since the window will not lose focus automatically and you'll need to do a mouse click to change focus anyway.
Reject Change (hotkey: Ctrl-r): all changes you've made via CivManager will be abandoned and
the CivManager window is refreshed. After this action, the window will automatically scroll down to have your last processed city positioned at row 6, unless you are already at the bottom of your city list so that it is not possible to scroll down further. The hotkey only works when the city information area has the focus.
Accept Change (hotkey: Ctrl-a): all changes you've made via CivManager will be written into
the game memory. Until this command is issued no changes will be made to the game. So keep
in mind that you need to issue this command when you're done with city management. After this action, the window will automatically scroll down to have your last processed city positioned at row 6, unless you are already at the bottom of your city list so that it is not possible to scroll down further.The hotkey only works when the city information area has the focus.
b) Editable controls include the 'Name' and the 'Notes' columns (grey background).
You can type in texts for any cells with a grey background. Edit the 'Name' column to change
city names, and edit the 'Notes' column to make short notes about the cities (Notes will
only be kept in the current session; they will be lost when you quit CivManager.)
c) Combobox controls include the 'Produce', 'Shield', 'Sell' and the 'Specialist' columns
(lightblue background).
When you click on any cell with a lightblue background, a small combobox will appear there and you can choose an item from the pull-down menu. For the 'Produce' column you can change city production item; for the 'Shield' column you can spend some money to buy some shields
(incremental buying will be applied); for the 'Sell' column you can select a city
improvement to sell (after you've already sold an improvement in the current turn, the cell
will become a non-editable one (brown background) and you'll not be able to sell again);
the 'Specialist' column will allow you to change all citizens to scientists, taxmen or
entertainers (warning: this may cause food and shield deficit).
Ctrl-Click (i.e., click while holding the Control key) on a combobox cell will copy the
previous action for the same column to the current city, if it is a valid choice.
Ctrl-Click on a column header for some combobox columns will copy the previous action for the same column to all cities. Currently this feature is only implemented for the 'Produce' and 'Sell' columns since the feature is most useful for them.
d) The 'Location' column (green background).
When you click on a cell with green background, usually the corresponding city window will open. Occasionally you'll just be sent back to the game without the city window, if this happens IMMEDIATELY (i.e., do not click the mouse or press any other key!) press the enter key and you'll be inside the city. After you're done with the city, close the city window and use the Ctrl-E hotkey to get back to CivManager.
{Using keyboard and adjust column width}
When a cell in the city list has the focus, you can use the tab (shift-tab) key to move right (left) and the enter (shift-enter) key to move down (up).
When a combobox is open inside a cell, you can either use the up/down arrow, or enter the first letter for cities and improvements to jump to them. For example, enter 'c' will have the current selection jump among 'capital' and 'cruiser', etc., if they are valid choices.
You can adjust the column widths by holding and dragging a column dividing line in the city listbox to a new position. The column headers will automatically adjust themselves accordingly. However click on column headers ("Location", "Name", etc.) won't adjust the width, only the body of the listbox can initiate the adjustment. A known bug (blame Microsoft): After adjusting the column width, if you click on column headers to perform some functions (e.g., Ctrl-click the copy production item), the program will still think that the column header buttons are at their original positions. In other words, in order for the buttons to function correctly, you need to click on their original positions, not the new positions after column width adjustment.
{Caution: read carefully}
When rush buying or selling city improvements, the treasury will change. However when you look at the right middle panel in civilization MPE, the treasury does not change accordingly. Do not get fooled by the game -- your true treasury has already been changed, it's just that I don't know how to refresh the game display so the old number still appears.
There is a lower bound set to the treasury to prevent it from getting into negative territory. Hence, if you are low in money, some rush-buy commands will be ignored.
When using the 'Ctrl-click' feature on the 'Sell' column, only those cells which has a 'Select' as the current value will be effected. In other words, if you go to a city and select to sell the Barracks, then go to a second city and select to sell the Marketplaces, then when you Ctrl-click the 'Sell' column header button, all cities except the first one will try to sell Marketplaces (if possible), but the first city will still choose to sell the Barracks.
Very Important: Due to the complicity of the game engine with respect to shield penalty when changing production type, I was not able to make the 'Produce' column and the 'Shield' column work simultaneously. Hence, if you want to change the production item and rush-buy shields, you need to do it in two batches. First change the production and accept the change (Ctrl-A), then rush buy afterwards. Attempting to rush-buying and changing production item at the same time will yield unpredictable results.
Very Important: At the start of each turn it is a good idea to Refresh the window once (Ctrl-R when the data area has focus or select from menu). Otherwise the data may not be fully updated. Also, do not have the game city window open while doing city management in CivManager -- it is like to have two people do one job simultaneously and the result is unpredictable.
Very Important: The rules of the game will only be loaded once to CivManager, so if you play a different scenario with different rules.txt file, you need to restart CivManager (the "Rules..." button only loads names and does not change parameters, so you need a restart to refresh the rules). Furthermore, if you load a saved file after playing for a while, then some of the cities from the previous game may be left to the memory and being processed by CivManager. If that happens you need to quit then restart both Civilization MPE and CivManager to clear the memory (but if at the bottom of your city list in CivManager you don't see extra cities, and you are playing under the same rules.txt, then it is ok to continue without restart).
{end}
August 2002
The last 3 paragraphs of this file has very important 'caution' messages. Please make sure you read them.
{Thanks}
Sincerely thank Smash for testing and promoting this product.
{Changes and fixes from the trial version}
1)Added support for WinXP/Win2000
2)Changed the 'Location' column to a clickable cell so that the user can go into the city by clicking on a city's location column
3)After 'Reject change' or 'Accept change', the list will now scroll down to have the last processed city at row 6. Previously the list started at the first city.
4)Enlarged pull-down list windows, now widen and have more rows.
5)Added a global hotkey 'Ctrl-E' to expand CivManager.
6)Fixed a small bug in the Pop(H/U) column color scheme.
7)Fixed incorrect display of turn number.
8)Fixed a bug for the 'Notes' column, it now works properly.
9)Fixed money lower bound problem, now the user cannot spend more than treasury money to rush buy.
10)Fixed the glitch that when a combobox is open and the user used 'Ctrl-A' or 'Ctrl-R', the current value of the combobox changed. Now it is ok to use hotkeys when a combobox is open.
{What does this product do}
The CivManager utility program can be used to manage all cities at the same time in a
civilization II game. It offers the following functions without requiring the player to go
into cities (yet it is easy to access the game city screen from CivManager):
1) change city names
2) change production items
3) incremental buying
4) sell city improvements
5) change all citizens to specialists
6) make (very short) notes about each city
Furthermore, the player can easily 'copy' the current action for a city to other cities,
either individually or globally (yes! you can sell all barracks with just a couple of mouse
clicks!)
A small but useful extra set of information is also provided by CivManager, which includes
the current turn number and research progress.
{For which version of civilization 2 does this product work}
The CivManager utility program only works for the MPE version of civilization II. It does not support the so called 'upgraded' version from either civilization 2.4.2, 2.7.8 or test of time. A separate program will be released soon which will only support the upgraded version, after I find all the necessary memory addresses from that version.
{Using CivManager under WinXP and Win2000}
Due to the special memory allocation schema of XP, CivManager will not show correct advance, improvement or unit names. I don't have Win2000 so I don't know if it has the same problem. (To play it safe I assume it does.) At initialization, CivManager will check what version of Windows is running. If XP or 2000 is detected, then default advance, improvement and unit names are used instead of searching the memory to get them. If you are using XP or 2000 and playing a scenario which has a different rule, you can load the correct names after initialization of CivManager by clicking on the 'Rules...' button. A file browsing window will appear to let you choose your RULES.TXT file and CivManager will load names from the file you chose. If you are running Win95, Win98, WinNT or WinME you don't need to use the button, CivManager will search the memory and get correct names.
{How to report bugs and provide suggestions}
I need your suggestions to make improvements. Please send your comments to xyu101@hotmail.com (that account is flooded with junk mails so please
make sure your e-mail's topic is 'CivManager' or I may accidently delete it).
{How to initialize CivManager}
The CivManager program does not need to be in the same directory as the civ files, it can work from any place.
When first started, CivManager will shrink to the top middle part of your screen and be
idle. You need to go to its pull-down menu and select "expand" to activate it, when civilization MPE is running. (Sorry about the inconvenience, but this is the only way I can prevent it from crushing when the user starts CivManager without running civilization MPE first.) Do not activate the CivManager before taking control of your civ -- in order for the utility program to work properly, you need to be able to manage your cities from the game itself.
{What do the texts, numbers and colors mean in CivManager}
a)The "Rules..." button:
This button is used to load advance, improvement and unit names from a RULES.TXT file. Under WinXP (and probably Win2000 as well) the names are messed up so when playing scenarios which have different rules, the user needs to use this button to load correct names.
b)The 3 disabled buttons:
The left one has the format "turn: XX (Oedo + X)", where XX is the current turn number and X
ranges from 0 to 3. Oedo + 0 years are government changing years (to minimize anarchy turns, the player needs to revolution on an Oedo + 3 year, or discover a tech leading to a new government on an Oedo+0 year).
The middle one shows the current research goal and progress.
The right one shows your money.
c)The 12 columns:
"Location" is the (x,y) coordinates for the cities;
"Name" is the city name;
"Pop(H/U)" gives total population, happy, and unhappy citizens;
"Trade" gives total trade and net trade (i.e., without considering trade routes) for the city;
"Sci" and "Tax" are science and tax outputs, respectively;
"Food" gives food in the foodbox as well as foodbox size;
"Produce" shows the current city production item;
"Shield" gives shields in the shield box as well as shield box size;
"Sell" gives existing city improvements from which the player can pick one to sell;
"Specialist" show how many total specialists are currently hired in the city, and the player
can choose to hire ALL citizens as either scientists, taxmen or entertainers (if city size <
5 then only entertainers can be hired);
"Notes" is a place holder for the player to make short notes.
d)The color scheme
Usually white colored texts mean something good, and red colored texts mean something bad.
For example, white city names indicate that the cities are in celebration while red city
names indicate that the cities are in chaos. For the Pop(H/U) column a similar color scheme
is also implemented to predict the cities' celebration/chaos status for the next turn. Other
columns also have such color schemes but I won't get into the details here.
{What functions does CivManager have and how to use them}
a)Menu items include "expand", "contract", "reject change" and "accept change".
Expand (hotkey: Ctrl-E): There are two states for the CivManager Window: a large one and a small one. You can only work on the cities when the window is large. The expand command is used to get the window to the large status. The first time (initialization) you need to select from menu to expand the window. Later, to expand from small window status, you can either use the hotkey or use mouse to click on the window -- whenever the CivManager window has focus it will automatically expand.
Contract (hotkey: Esc): The opposite of "Expand" (so that you can come back to the game
itself and perform other functions). Whenever the CivManager window loses focus it will
automatically contract to the small status. So you can accomplish this task by click on
anywhere outside the CivManager window area. It is not recommended to use the hotkey since the window will not lose focus automatically and you'll need to do a mouse click to change focus anyway.
Reject Change (hotkey: Ctrl-r): all changes you've made via CivManager will be abandoned and
the CivManager window is refreshed. After this action, the window will automatically scroll down to have your last processed city positioned at row 6, unless you are already at the bottom of your city list so that it is not possible to scroll down further. The hotkey only works when the city information area has the focus.
Accept Change (hotkey: Ctrl-a): all changes you've made via CivManager will be written into
the game memory. Until this command is issued no changes will be made to the game. So keep
in mind that you need to issue this command when you're done with city management. After this action, the window will automatically scroll down to have your last processed city positioned at row 6, unless you are already at the bottom of your city list so that it is not possible to scroll down further.The hotkey only works when the city information area has the focus.
b) Editable controls include the 'Name' and the 'Notes' columns (grey background).
You can type in texts for any cells with a grey background. Edit the 'Name' column to change
city names, and edit the 'Notes' column to make short notes about the cities (Notes will
only be kept in the current session; they will be lost when you quit CivManager.)
c) Combobox controls include the 'Produce', 'Shield', 'Sell' and the 'Specialist' columns
(lightblue background).
When you click on any cell with a lightblue background, a small combobox will appear there and you can choose an item from the pull-down menu. For the 'Produce' column you can change city production item; for the 'Shield' column you can spend some money to buy some shields
(incremental buying will be applied); for the 'Sell' column you can select a city
improvement to sell (after you've already sold an improvement in the current turn, the cell
will become a non-editable one (brown background) and you'll not be able to sell again);
the 'Specialist' column will allow you to change all citizens to scientists, taxmen or
entertainers (warning: this may cause food and shield deficit).
Ctrl-Click (i.e., click while holding the Control key) on a combobox cell will copy the
previous action for the same column to the current city, if it is a valid choice.
Ctrl-Click on a column header for some combobox columns will copy the previous action for the same column to all cities. Currently this feature is only implemented for the 'Produce' and 'Sell' columns since the feature is most useful for them.
d) The 'Location' column (green background).
When you click on a cell with green background, usually the corresponding city window will open. Occasionally you'll just be sent back to the game without the city window, if this happens IMMEDIATELY (i.e., do not click the mouse or press any other key!) press the enter key and you'll be inside the city. After you're done with the city, close the city window and use the Ctrl-E hotkey to get back to CivManager.
{Using keyboard and adjust column width}
When a cell in the city list has the focus, you can use the tab (shift-tab) key to move right (left) and the enter (shift-enter) key to move down (up).
When a combobox is open inside a cell, you can either use the up/down arrow, or enter the first letter for cities and improvements to jump to them. For example, enter 'c' will have the current selection jump among 'capital' and 'cruiser', etc., if they are valid choices.
You can adjust the column widths by holding and dragging a column dividing line in the city listbox to a new position. The column headers will automatically adjust themselves accordingly. However click on column headers ("Location", "Name", etc.) won't adjust the width, only the body of the listbox can initiate the adjustment. A known bug (blame Microsoft): After adjusting the column width, if you click on column headers to perform some functions (e.g., Ctrl-click the copy production item), the program will still think that the column header buttons are at their original positions. In other words, in order for the buttons to function correctly, you need to click on their original positions, not the new positions after column width adjustment.
{Caution: read carefully}
When rush buying or selling city improvements, the treasury will change. However when you look at the right middle panel in civilization MPE, the treasury does not change accordingly. Do not get fooled by the game -- your true treasury has already been changed, it's just that I don't know how to refresh the game display so the old number still appears.
There is a lower bound set to the treasury to prevent it from getting into negative territory. Hence, if you are low in money, some rush-buy commands will be ignored.
When using the 'Ctrl-click' feature on the 'Sell' column, only those cells which has a 'Select' as the current value will be effected. In other words, if you go to a city and select to sell the Barracks, then go to a second city and select to sell the Marketplaces, then when you Ctrl-click the 'Sell' column header button, all cities except the first one will try to sell Marketplaces (if possible), but the first city will still choose to sell the Barracks.
Very Important: Due to the complicity of the game engine with respect to shield penalty when changing production type, I was not able to make the 'Produce' column and the 'Shield' column work simultaneously. Hence, if you want to change the production item and rush-buy shields, you need to do it in two batches. First change the production and accept the change (Ctrl-A), then rush buy afterwards. Attempting to rush-buying and changing production item at the same time will yield unpredictable results.
Very Important: At the start of each turn it is a good idea to Refresh the window once (Ctrl-R when the data area has focus or select from menu). Otherwise the data may not be fully updated. Also, do not have the game city window open while doing city management in CivManager -- it is like to have two people do one job simultaneously and the result is unpredictable.
Very Important: The rules of the game will only be loaded once to CivManager, so if you play a different scenario with different rules.txt file, you need to restart CivManager (the "Rules..." button only loads names and does not change parameters, so you need a restart to refresh the rules). Furthermore, if you load a saved file after playing for a while, then some of the cities from the previous game may be left to the memory and being processed by CivManager. If that happens you need to quit then restart both Civilization MPE and CivManager to clear the memory (but if at the bottom of your city list in CivManager you don't see extra cities, and you are playing under the same rules.txt, then it is ok to continue without restart).
{end}
Wonderful...how long's this been in the works...waaaay too long have I been gone...
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