Hut Finder v1.4

[rah]

One question SG. We have been discussing MP games using the hutfinder. The advantage of finding a hut earlier than others is growing. So we're thinking about having the first person that finds a hut announce it. The problem is that people don't want to announce the coordinates so everyone knows where they are.

Could you display the seed and make it be possible to be used for the base. This way someone finding a hut can just say, use seed 16 and everyone else can punch it in.

RAH

[Makeo]

I'm getting this error message when i try and use this program.

"A required .DLL file, MSVBVM60.DLL, was not found"

Any idea what that means?

[Scouse Gits]

rah --
once a hut has been found (by anyone) they can use HF to determine the location of the nearest hut to an arbitrary point, say (100, 100) and announce that to all players - thus exposing nothing about their location
ST --
If I have undertood you - i disagree with you
Makeo --
New one on me - what OS are you using?

SG[1]

[rah]

Didn't think about doing it that way, but it should work.
Thanks.

RAH

[MrWhereItsAt]

/me was looking for Civ2 strats to apply to the Democracy game, found this interesting lloking thread and went in

/me then got thoroughyl confused again

For the uninitiated (in the Civ2 forums here, not in Civ2!), what is all this that is being spoken of? Seeds, increments of 16, whatever this file does?

[Elephant]

If you start a blank map in MapEditor and then hit the letter "S" up comes a box that asks for Resource Seed. When you change it to anything above 1, the pattern of Specials (Whale and Fish) changes. There are repeating patterns that seem to follow in sets of 16, but given a few locations of specials in a random map you are playing you can often find a pattern that matches your layout but has specials of the wrong type. This means you have the right "base seed", but need to add increments of 16 until you get the right types in the right places.

Have you used MapEditor before? Have you noticed that when you "draw" a land tile on top of an ocean Special, it is also a Special of a particular (not random) type, unless it is grass? So the ocean patterns you see playing with a blank map also hold for land tiles, except for grass. That is what we meant by Hidden Specials, and that is why finding the right seed is important.

The other thing that has been discovered is that there is a mathematical relationship between Specials and Huts, also based on the Seed. In MapEditor, draw a large continent all of plains and you will see what we mean. Once you have found the first Hut, you can use the formula to find other huts as well. The utility called HutFinder just takes the X,Y coordinates of the first hut you find and generates a list of the nearest hut locations. Of course, on a random map some of these will fall on ocean tiles, so they will be missing. HutFinder also shows you the pattern of Specials based on a "base seed"; no guarantee at this point they are the right type.

All of this is info that has been documented and used by other players; HutFinder just makes it accessible in one package as a secondary window. Plus it has a list of OEDO years for those of us who are forgetful in our dotage (LaFayette?). If only it had a tickler to remind us just before we hit ENTER...

[La Fayette]

Originally posted by Elephant
Plus it has a list of OEDO years for those of us who are forgetful in our dotage (LaFayette?).

I am very forgetful indeed
... but the list of oedo years (at deity level) is in the back of my mind once and for all

[SlowThinker]

Originally posted by SG[1]
ST --
If I have undertood you - i disagree with you

SG, this is how I understand the seed stuff (but I am not sure if I am right):

Every map has a real 'seed number' (shortly seed).
(An example: seed=290.) This number is stored in the .sav or .mp file.

There is only 64 different seeds, and so only seed mod 64 is important. Seed 34, 98 (=34+64), 162 (=34+2*64)... 290 (=34+4*64) are equal, i.e. positions of huts and specials and types of specials are equal.
(Our example (290) has 290 mod 64 = 34 and so is equal to seed 34.)

There is only 32 different seeds in aspect of positions of huts. Therefore seeds 2, 34, 66, ... 290 have equal positions of huts.
(Our example (290) has 290 mod 32 = 2 and so its hut layout is equal to seed 2.)

I have supposed that HutFinder shows seed mod 32, i.e. 2 for our example (290). From the knowledge of this value we can reason out that the real seed is 2 or 34 or 66 or... But all seeds after 64 are duplicates of 2 or 34, and so we can choose the real map seed among 2 and 34.

[Scouse Gits]

OK - I give in - I believe that you are correct - my initial test was on a water world (no huts) and I had not realized that the huts shifted with a mod 16 change so it looks as if there are only two seeds that need consideration the one given by HF and that + 32 ...

Good catch

SG[1]

[Ming]

Thanks... just downloaded the new versions this evening. I love the scrolling feature.

[Scouse Gits]

*bump*
not (really) self aggrandizing - but the last HutFinder thread bumped was not the most recent - this one...

Stu

[rah]

But it's such a nice tool, we'll cut you some slack.
(especially the rah button)

[Ljube]

So you are using it in our MP games?

Shame on you!

Now I know why I couldn't find a single hut while Ferret warriors ventured far away from their domain.

[rah]

Hmmm, never denied using it.
A quick look at the RAH rules thread..........
it specifically states that it is allowed.

So feeling no shame here. (and we used to use hut maps prior, so for huts, it really makes no difference except it's a bit faster now.)

And Ferret warriors always venture as far away as possible until killed by barbs freed from huts, or killed by slimey human controlled civs.