Game Log ... Keeping Track of Events

[Gatekeeper]

Everyone:

Okay, in my most recent I kept a log of everything that had happened. The following is that log:

1000 BC — CARTHAGE DESTROYS BABYLON.
200 BC — AMERICA builds Colossus
460 AD — Mongols build Hanging Gardens
540 AD — German philsophical Golden Age begins
620 AD — MONGOLIA DESTROYS RUSSIA.
740 AD — Carthage completes King Richard's Crusade
820 AD — AMERICA builds Great Library
840 AD — AMERICA builds Marco Polo's Embassy
860 AD — Contact made w/Carthage
1030 AD — Carthage, Spain sign peace treaty
1080 AD — Mongolia, Carthage go to war
1110 AD — Carthage builds Lighthouse
1200 AD — Mongolia, Carthage make peace
1250 AD — Mongolia builds Pyramids
1280 AD — Contact made w/Germans
1300 AD — Contact and peace made with Spain
1330 AD — Great Library's effects vanish
1340 AD — Spain, Carthage go to war
1380 AD — Spain, Carthage make peace
1440 AD — AMERICA builds Copernicus' Observatory
1480 AD — Carthage, Mongols go to war
1540 AD — Germans build Great Wall
1555 AD — Carthage builds Sun Tzu's War Academy
1560 AD — AMERICA builds Magellan's Expedition
1565 AD — Mongols, Germans make peace
1600 AD — Spain, Mongolia go to war
1610 AD — Cease fire between Germans, Carthage
1615 AD — Germans, Carthage make peace
1645 AD — Germans build Shakespeare's Theatre
1665 AD — AMERICA builds Michelangelo's Chapel.
1700 AD — Contact and peace made w/Mongolia.
1735 AD — Spain, Carthage go to war.
1758 AD — AMERICA, GERMANY GO TO WAR.
— Germans unsuccessfully attack San Francisco.
1762 AD — Spain, Carthage make peace.
1772 AD — Mongolia, Germany go to war.
1776 AD — Mongolia builds Leonardo's Workshop.
1778 AD — Cease fire between AMERICA and GERMANY.
1792 AD — AMERICA builds Adam Smith's Trading Co.
1794 AD — Germans build Oracle.
1830 AD — Carthage, Mongolia make peace.
1842 AD — Mongolia, Germany make peace.
1844 AD — AMERICA, MONGOLIA GO TO WAR.
— Failed negotiations.
1844 AD — Mongolia, Germany go to war.
1852 AD — AMERICA, CARTHAGE GO TO WAR.
— Carthage launches failed attack on Washington.
1854 AD — Mongolia, Germany make peace.
1856 AD — Mongolia builds Eiffel Tower.
1865 AD — AMERICA builds Darwin's Voyage.
1865 AD — Germany builds Statue of Liberty.
1874 AD — AMERICA builds United Nations.
1874 AD — AMERICA builds Women's Suffrage.
1877 AD — AMERICA, Mongolia make peace.
1877 AD — AMERICA, Carthage make peace.
1882 AD — AMERICA, Germany make peace.
1882 AD — Mongolia builds Isaac Newton's College.
1902 AD — Mongolia, Spain go to war.
1904 AD — Mongolia, Carthage go to war.
1906 AD — Mongolia, Germany go to war.
1910 AD — Germany discovers Cure for Cancer.
1936 AD — Mongol discovery of Flight ends Colossus.
1952 AD — AMERICA builds SETI Program.
1961 AD — Mongolia builds Manhatten Project.
1961 AD — MONGOLIA DESTROYS SPAIN.
1963 AD — MONGOLIA DESTROYS GERMANY.
1980 AD — Mongolia builds Apollo Program.
2037 AD — AMERICA, Carthage ALLY against Mongolia.
2037 AD — AMERICA attacks Mongolia.
— Europe liberated from Mongol rule.
2037 AD — AMERICA, Mongolia sign cease-fire.
2039 AD — Mongolia violates cease-fire w/AMERICA.
— Mongols employ nuclear weapons.
— Chunks of Asia liberated from Mongol rule.
2039 AD — AMERICA, Mongolia sign cease-fire.
2040 AD — Mongolia violates cease-fire w/AMERICA.
— Mongols employ use of nuclear weapons.
— More chunks of Asia liberated from Mongol rule.
2040 AD — AMERICA occupys Mongol capital of Karakorum, sending Mongolia into a CIVIL WAR.
2040 AD — Egyptians emerge as independent power.
2040 AD — Mongolian government escapes to Tangier.
2040 AD — AMERICA, Mongolia sign cease-fire.
2040 AD — AMERICA, Egypt sign peace treaty.
2041 AD — Carthage, Egypt go to war.
2041 AD — Egypt, Mongolia go to war.
2041 AD — Mongolia violates cease-fire w/AMERICA.
— Mongols employ use of nuclear weapons.
— AMERICA swears VENGEANCE. DEATH TO MONGOLIA!
— AMERICA occupies Mongol capital of Tangier.
— Mongol weasels escape to Tabriz.
— AMERICA overruns Tabriz.
— Weasels scurry away to Nishapur.
2042 AD — War continues to shatter all of Asia. Quietude, however, prevails across Europe, the Middle East, Africa and, aside from occasional Mongol chopper strikes, in the Americas.
— AMERICA occupies Nishapur.
— Mongol government retreats to Baghad.
2042 AD — AMERICA, Mongolia sign cease-fire.
2049 AD — Count me shocked. A cease-fire with Mongolia has held for some time now. Wow.
2051 AD — Mongols violate cease-fire w/AMERICA.
— Mongols use nuclear weapons against San Diego.
— Personal note: I am using spies to annhilate what's
left of Mongolia w/nuclear weapons.
— 15 non-vet spies netted me four nuked Mongol
cities: Baghdad, Barqa, Kashgar and Mecca.

I'm not even bothing to format the damn thing. Suffice to say, I am playing on the standard Earth map and I really HATE the Mongols.

CYBERAmazon

[Marko_Polo]

How can you make Civ2 to make a log for you? Or must you do it manually?

[Scouse Gits]

Marko - I regret that you have to do this by hand, open a notepad file and Ctrl-tab between the log file and Civ...

------------------
____________
Scouse Git[1]

"CARTAGO DELENDA EST" - Cato the Censor
"The Great Library must be built!"
"A short cut has to be challenging,
were it not so it would be 'the way'." - Paul Craven

[War4ever]

quote: Originally posted by Scouse Gits on 02-01-2001 06:58 AM Marko - I regret that you have to do this by hand, open a notepad file and Ctrl-tab between the log file and Civ...

yikes so that is what i was doing wrong i was doing it by hand and paper....

My cousin Mercantile..... i found 65 pages of civ 2 writing on a game where he LOGGED everything..... when he gets home he has some explaining to do

[DaveV]

Albert - I think the guys at Scenario League have the save game file pretty well doped out. You might check with them on their forum or website for more information.

If you could look at the autosave on a periodic basis (or, somewhat less desireable, at a succession of saves made during the course of the game) and extract information, you would be a hero to the Civ community!

[Albert B]

I have done some very brief research and it appears that something should be able to be written without too much difficulty using the saved games.

I found a hex layout of the saved game files and was looking at a scenerio utility I found form a scenario board thread called "civcity". I downloaded several of the saved games in the current succession game being hosted by you DaveP. I used the utility to examine the glorius city of Rome at the end of several of the players turns. The already made utility lets you monitor (or change, as is the intended use...) such things as trade routes, supplied and demanded commodities, city improvements, city cize, the current city project. Also, the save game layout I found maps out wonder locations, the current turn number and just about anything else you can think of.

I will need to do some more research but I should be able to come up with something to help automate the logging process. I need to do some research into reading/translating hex files because I have very limited experience with them. However, this shouldn't be too big a deal.

What would be helpful to developing a quality product is to get input from people that currently create manual logs. Therefore, any input you can offer or solicit from fellow civers would be greatly appreciated.

Finally, I offer this small disclaimer... I make no promises about when I will be able to deliver a program, however, the thought of becoming "a hero" is offers up quite a bit of motivation to get it done!

I will have some revised ideas down on paper by the end of the weekend that I accumulate from looking over sample manual logs, reading any input found in this thread and studying the hex file layout. I will try to post these ideas sometime over the weekend or Monday during my lunch break.

Albert B

[DaveV]

You might look at some of the OCC fortnight logs on the strategy forum for one style of log. As for another, see: http://apolyton.net/forums/Forum3/HTML/000748.html?16

[Bereta_Eder]

Isn't there a way to make CIV keep a log of its own announcements the way Albert managed to randomize the AI leader characteristics.

I guess not it's not easy but I am asking just in case.

[Albert B]

My program to randomize the leaders' personalities is just a pretty simple program that reads in rules.txt and modifies the values under the @LEADER section. It is the same changes you can make manually but the program chooses a random value (-1, 0, or 1) for each of the three basic characteristics. For the log, you would need to be able to 'look into the program' while you are playing and record your achievements.

I know that I saw a program somewhere that someone had written that would create a map review of a game similar to the review that used to be available at the end of a civ 1 game. If that is possible, I would think that you could do a game log somehow also. (I never got around to downloading it and trying it out however.)

If anyone has knowledge of where this type of information is stored or has an idea of how to code such a program, I would be more than happy to try to develop it.

Albert B

[East Street Trader]

Albert - and any collaborator.

This would unquestionably be a service to the Civ community.

I play the occasional OCC (ha) and benefit from reading an occasional comparison log. But I'm just too slapdash (and lazy) to keep a good log myself to post. Then, of course, I feel a little guilty that I benefit from the labour of others without paying my own dues .

A programme with some simple text written in, modelled on the best of the OCC comparison logs (they seem reasonably standardised already, in fact) would be a boon.

Conceivably there would be a use in succession games too - they seem to be taking a pretty firm root - although, as an observer so far, I hope that the more imaginative among the players will still write some of the excellent accounts of their reign in character from time to time. I loved the newspaper which the SGs published once.