MULTIPLAY : The GameLeague is dead , The Battlefield lifes !!!!!

[GxNapoleon]

You loved the GAMELEAGUE ? You loved CALL TO POWER 2 ?

Than its time for you to join The Guardians Clan newest feature :

THE BATTEFIELD

Better, bigger, smarter than the GameLeague !!!

Full automated Ladders, Tournaments, Game Reports and much more ! Join now and get a free account !!!

http://www.the-battlefield.com

and dont forget to visit our Clan Homepage :

http://www.guardiansclan.de

HAVE FUN FOLKS !

Thanx for you time.

Napoleon, webmaster Civ3 , Ctp2 , Guardiansclan

[stankarp]

Listen, if you want to get a competitive league up and running again, then get soemone to fix the rush buy bug in multiplayer. Gameleague was going strong until the big bug in rush buy was discovered. Activisions refusal to even answer emails about it, let alone fix it, is what killed gameleague and, i believe, to a large extent, CTP2.

I had some great battles in GL that gave me a real buzz but when I discovered how easy it was to unbalance games using the rush buy bug, I and many other lost interest in playing competitively. Not much point in playing if your opponent just clicks rush buy during your turn and turns a settler into a wonder. Destroyed the game altogether.

How about the modders fixing that one and I will be back to competitive playing in a flash.

[GxNapoleon]

FIX THE BUG MODMAKERS !

Stankarp is right, this damn bug killed Call to Power 2 in multiplay. MODMAKERS, maybe there are some of you out there who are able and willing to fix that bug so that we can play ctp2 multiplay again. Its so said that it is dead because its such a great game. SO COME ON AND FIX IT !

Napoleon, webmaster

http://www.guardiansclan.de

http://www.the-battlefield.com

[Peter Triggs]

Hi, GxNapoleon

I've never played multiplayer so I don't really know how it works. I assume that everyone has to use the Host's files, otherwise it would just be impossible. So I've written some code that prevents the host - and hence everyone else, I hope, from rush buying anything. It's not a proper fix, but I don't know how to begin to deal with a situation where someone can do something when it's not their turn. I can't test this so I need you and one of your mates to try it out.

It's in the attached small .slc file. Put this file in ...\Call To Power 2\ctp2data\default\gamedata. In the same folder there's a file called script.slc. At the bottom of it add the line #include "MultiPlayerCheatWorkaround.slc" as follows:

#include "feats.slc"

// #including scenario.slc here will pick up the empty scenario.slc in
// this directory, unless a scenario provides a file named scenario.slc in
// its own gamedata directory.
#include "scenario.slc"

#include "diplomacy.slc"

#include "MultiPlayerCheatWorkaround.slc"

Now you need to test it with one of your mates. Start a game with you as the host. (Don't get him to install the workaround.) See if he can cheat, if he can't it works and the next thing I have to do is to try to change it so that it only kicks in when you want to play multiplayer.

Keep your fingers crossed.

Peter

[Locutus]

I'm working on a proper fix. The code is 90% done, give me a few hours/days to work out the details and I'll post it...

Edit: BTW an easier way to accomplish what Peter did would be this:

HandleEvent(BuyFront) 'KillBug' pre {
return STOP;
}

[Peter Triggs]

I forgot about that event. So what about:

HandleEvent(BuyFront) 'KillBug' pre { 
int_t tmpPlayer;

    tmpPlayer=city[0].owner;
    if (g.player!=tmpPlayer) {
         return STOP; 
    }
}

[Martin Gühmann]

Unfortunatly BuyFront is the event that occurs when a building is added to the city. That is the reason why rush buying doen't work if you try to exploit the extra turn bug. The result of Peter's first code is that only the AI can rush buy things. Locutus' code will result that noone (both AI and human) can rush buy anything, and Peter's second code has the same result. At least I already tryed a version of Peter's second code last December. So this code should it do finally:

//These triggers disable the Rush Buy Buttons to prevent cheating in multiplayer

trigger 'TestMultiplayerPatch1' on "BuildEditorWindow.RushBuyButton" when (1) {
tmpPlayer=city[0].owner;
if (g.player!=tmpPlayer) {
    return STOP;
   }
}

trigger 'TestMultiplayerPatch12' on "ControlPanelWindow.ControlPanel.ControlTabPanel.CityTab.TabPanel.RushBuyButton" when (1) {
int_t tmpPlayer;
tmpPlayer=city[0].owner;
if (g.player!=tmpPlayer) {
    return STOP;
   }
}


trigger 'TestMultiplayerPatch13' on "CityWindow.Globals.Tabs.QueueTab.TabPanel.RushBuyButton" when (1) {
tmpPlayer=city[0].owner;
if (g.player!=tmpPlayer) {
    return STOP;
   }
}

trigger 'TestMultiplayerPatch14' on "CityStatusWin.TabGroup.Tab2.TabPanel.RushBuyButton" when (1) {
tmpPlayer=city[0].owner;
if (g.player!=tmpPlayer) {
    return STOP;
   }
} 

PS: Untried and untested. Cross your fingers again. This time it should prevent you from rush buying things if it isn't your turn. And you should now be able to rush buy if it is your turn. So I think there is no need to change it so that it will only kick in multiplayer games.

-Martin

[Locutus]

Okay, can someone explain to me step-by-step how the rush-buy bug works? I wanted to test my code but couldn't reproduce the bug. This is what I did:

1. From the Build Manager (Ctrl-B), added a Granary to the build queue;
2. Added the Ramayana below the Granary in the Build Manager.
3. Went to the Empire screen (F2) and 'Rush Bought' the Granary. (Noticed the drop of 1800 gold from my gold reserve)
4. Went back to the Build Manager and removed the Granary from the queue.
5. Closed the Build Manager and pressed End Turn.

The next turn Ramayana was not built, it simply took 22(?) turns less to complete. So, what have I done wrong?

[Peter Triggs]

I guess it's time to come out of the closet and admit I was born and raised in Canada. 5-2!!! We won the hockey gold medal for the first time since 1952!!!

IW - think Wembley 66

Locutus - think 74/78

Martin - I can't suggest anything to you: you guys win all the god damned time. (Except for Pedro's people)

I'll get back to this tomorrow when I've sobered up.

[Dinner]

Patrick, A.K.A. Napolean,
I'm afraid the others are right CTP2 rankings will never be viable until the "infinite builds bug" is fixed. Still, I'm glade to hear the Guardins are still alive and kicking.

Lucutus,
You use the bug like this; first you rush buy something (ANYTHING!) then you go to the city manager and rush buy it there too. Then all you have to do is keep your que filled and remember to click rush buy in the top manager each turn and you will recieve everything in one turn for free.

[stankarp]

I understand the rush buy bug only works during multiplayer and only if you execute during the other persons turn. Correct me if I am wrong.

However, eliminating rush buy altogether is not the complete solution. It will require an official patch of somekind and then separate lobbies to play it.

There was a lot of confusion in GL sometime back when people appeared in the rankings and we had never seen them playing. It was then realised that they were playing without the official Activision patch so they were in there own non patch lobbies.

[Martin Gühmann]

Originally posted by Locutus
3. Went to the Empire screen (F2) and 'Rush Bought' the Granary. (Noticed the drop of 1800 gold from my gold reserve)
4. Went back to the Build Manager and removed the Granary from the queue.

I did not know that you can remove an item from the build queque, afterwards you rush bought. But it is possible if you rush bought it from the empire screen and not from the build manager. Another odd behaviour is that the rush buy button on the global tab is disabled once the item just need one turn to be finished. The three other buttons are still enabled.

So far as I understood it you can in MP during the turn of your opponent press the button and the building will be complete immediately. And than you can rush buy the next item, without paying something for it. I was able to recreate this bug in SP once as I played with some code that makes the AI to build a happiness improvement, if the happiness drops under a certain level. For testing purpose I enabled the code for the human player, I rush bought something the turn before and the next item was than rush bought for free.

I think a possibility to recreate the bug in SP would be to write a handler that will prevent the AI from ending its turn, than a you will get a message that will allow you to finish the AI turn. So you should be able to do everthing during the AI's turn.

-Martin

[Locutus]

Peter,
Euh... we lost in both '74 and '78, still a big trauma over here... (we should have won of course, it was the referee being against us that made us loose in both cases ). But I get your point, congrats on the victory

Thanks Oerdin and stankarp, it seems I used the wrong description in making my code.

Originally posted by Martin Gühmann
I did not know that you can remove an item from the build queque, afterwards you rush bought. But it is possible if you rush bought it from the empire screen and not from the build manager. Another odd behaviour is that the rush buy button on the global tab is disabled once the item just need one turn to be finished. The three other buttons are still enabled.

I didn't know about any of this either, but found out soon enough when I started playing around with it.

So far as I understood it you can in MP during the turn of your opponent press the button and the building will be complete immediately. And than you can rush buy the next item, without paying something for it. I was able to recreate this bug in SP once as I played with some code that makes the AI to build a happiness improvement, if the happiness drops under a certain level. For testing purpose I enabled the code for the human player, I rush bought something the turn before and the next item was than rush bought for free.

I think a possibility to recreate the bug in SP would be to write a handler that will prevent the AI from ending its turn, than a you will get a message that will allow you to finish the AI turn. So you should be able to do everthing during the AI's turn.

Yes, that would seem like a very useful trick. But as stankarp pointed out, just creating a fix (which is easy enough, simply disabling rush-buy during the opponents turn does the trick, as posted above) isn't enough, you also have to somehow ensure that all players are actually using the code, that's a lot trickier...

[Immortal Wombat]

Put it in a self-extracting exe, give it the CtP2 logo, and call it another Apolyton 'hack'...

Originally posted by Peter Triggs
I guess it's time to come out of the closet and admit I was born and raised in Canada. 5-2!!! We won the hockey gold medal for the first time since 1952!!!

Canadian? Oh well... I suppose at least you're not American.

[Locutus]

Originally posted by Immortal Wombat
Canadian? Oh well... I suppose at least you're not American.

Now, now, Ben, not all Americans are evil capitalist pigs... only 99.99% of 'em

And Canadians are just cute, eh!