New Utility : Multi-Files Editor

[Pano]

I've just made a new utility called Mfe or scenarios where some files are changed (Events.txt, Units.gif,...) during the game. For the moment I know only one scenario like this (I mean not only changing the Events) : Red Front. But I'm sure there will many others in the future...

You can download Mfe at <a href="http://www.campus.ecp.fr/~pano/Mfe/mfe_d.zip">www.campus.ecp.fr/~pano/Mfe/mfe_d.zip </a>. The size is 303K.

Mfe allows you to make easily multi-files scenarios and scenarios which will be easy o use for players. It's a program you run at the same time as civ2 and you use it each time that some files need to be changed. It runs with any version of Civilization II upper than 2.6.2 (that means with Conflicts in Civilization, Fantastic Worlds or Multiplayer Gold Edition). It may also runs with Test of Time and some mark-ups will be unavailable.

In fact, Mfe solves the main problems caused by multi-files scenarios. First it's very easy and very quick to change the files when you're playing if you use Mfe correctly. Secondly there are no problem when you're running a non-English version of Civ2 ; you just have to change one line in a configuration file and all the .txt file will be also copied as .fre files for example. Finally, you can run several games of the same scenario at the same time, because Mfe saves the files needed to restart the game.

Moreover, Mfe allows you to build very complex things for your scenario very easily. In fact you write instructions in text files through mark-ups. In the future versions I hope it will be possible to modify the save file (in order to change the names of the tribes for example).


The problem for the moment is that I haven't made any exemple ! You'll find in the guide only the essencial to run Mfe but it may be hard to see how to use it (for the designer). I'm going to design a small scenario in order to be a good example and then I'll post a design tip in the Scenario League to explain in details how to make a season modpack.


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Pano
http://www.campus.ecp.fr/~pano

[DarthVeda]

If you could edit the save files.... that WOULD be cool!

[Dusty]

Pano, your utility sounds neat, I'll give it a try for my upcomming scenario.

Editing saved game files is something I've been planning for this upcomming scenario. Basically I want to have a massive comet impact that wipes out 25% of the people, does some terrain alteration, and wipes out some units.

For this scenario I'll probably just write a little C program hardcoded to do all these changes. But a little evil part of my mind wants to write a generic command line tool with a scripting language. It would be able to find units/cities/civilizations matching a given criteria, and do things to them based on the scenario writers whim. It would also be cool to be able to create units/cities as well.

But like all my great plans, it'll probably never happen. I'll be lucky if I ever get this scenario out the door. I'm still trying to get the artwork right...


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Dusty

[Pano]

In fact, I think that what you're planning will be very hard because the modifications would be in a part of the .sav file which isn't constant and changes every turn. What I was thinking for the next versions of Mfe was only modifying things like : Name of the tribes, Peace, turn, gold,...

Anyway, for the comet you can use "CHANGETERRAINS" in Events.txt, I think that when you use it in an area all units are wiped out.

[Dusty]

I don't think it would be too hard. The program will just have search the non-constant areas of the saved game files for cities/units etc. to change. Not as easy as using a fixed offset within the file but not too hard.

And I'll definitely be using a ton of CHANGETERRAIN events. But I figured I can save some event space if I changed some terrain using a seperate program, if I already needed that program for another purpose (ie wiping out 25% of every city's population).

[DarthVeda]

Maybe if you insert a negative value for food production? I wonder if that would seriously drop the population FAST. Also, you could just try upping the eats thing for a couple of turns.

[Pano]

In fact, I already know how you would be able to modify the .sav file : there would be first a mark-up in which you indicate the location in the file and the new value. So you could do anything you want. To be more convenient, I'll also make mark-ups like @TRIBENAME@ NewName, @SETPEACE@ Russians French, @GOLD@ English 1000,...) which would be only variants of the first mark-up.

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Pano
http://www.campus.ecp.fr/~pano