LazyCiv Version 2 is available

[Xin Yu]

LazyCiv Version 2 is available

Download Here

I fixed the bug and now you don't need the hex editor. But unfortunately this version does not accept the previous version's record. Knowing that AI can change production without suffering shield penalty, I removed the shield part and used one space for restoring a flag -- only when this flag is available can the program restore production queue. This will make the utility a very safe one, but will also cause records in version 1 not retrievable. Since version 1 is not working properly anyway, this should not be a big loss.

[Dr. Nick]

What's this app about?

[Xin Yu]

It's for restoring your civ production item in a PBEM game. The AI may mess up with your production but with this program you can restore it. When you run Lazyciv in your turn it records your production item, then the next turn if you run it again before you start your turn, the recorded items are restored so no AI messing up.

Hopefully this can also be used for multiplayer drop-off problem, which is similar: you lost connection and when you back up the AI changes your production. Anybody wants to give it a try?

[MagyarCrusader]

Thanks Xin!

[klesh]

Excellent work Xin! I am DLing now, but in the only PBEM game I am playing in right now, my nation is not fighting, so it might be awhile before I get to test this game effects. I am glad you've kept up with this as it will be invaluable to serious PBEM players across the board.

-FMK.

[klesh]

Okay, well I DLed and tried this in a PBEM game being played between Henrik and I. When I ran it on the .net the first time, it indeed changed the last couple of letter of some of my city names, so I assumed it worked okay.

But when I loaded the next turn, the AI had indeed changed all my production, so I must not be doing something right.

We are PBEMing a standard game of Civ II.

I tried running the program when selecting my gender, and also when selecting my name. Neither seemed to work.

I did notice that it also messed with Henrik's Civ as mentioned in the Readme. One of his cities had the  at the end of his city name (I can't see all of his territory, so I am not sure how much was effected).

Xin, where have I gone wrong? Does the program do anything to tell you you have loaded it up properly on the subsequent turns? Must the .net file be named the same as when you run LazyCiv the first time through? Could you provide me with a tad more instruction here, as I am afraid I know not what to do.



-FMK.

[Xin Yu]

FMK,

Looks like you did everything right but the program still didn't work. According to your description the program treated Henrik's civ as the current civ and changed his civ instead of yours.

You can try running Lazyciv a little bit later than what you did -- at the screen "it's our turn to move". That is still before your turn but more likely the civ number will be set to yours.

Please send the saved file to me (the end of Henrik's turn) and I'll have a look at it. Hopefully this is not another bug.

[klesh]

Hi Xin,

Here is a little more info about the game. It was a regular game of CivII that I started, single player, after redoing alot of my default Civ gfx. I played to a point where it seemed that a victory was guarenteed. Henrik, having seen my save game, challenged me to a dual with him playing the only other major nation left in the game, Spain. So somehow he took my .sav and made it a .net, and took his turn.

Now here is yet another strange aspect of this game. When I load up the game there are some screwwy things from the start: The minimap and status section of the screen are gone and the city view screen is at a very odd size which I had never seen before. This is probably the result of hacking a .sav into a .net, and therefor I am not sure that it is your program. Perhpas it is this 'illegitimate' file...

I tried running the program at the "it is our time to move" point, but my production wasn't restored, nor was Henrik's civ altered, so it does need to be ran earlier.

I will attatch the file here. I am the Russians, and Henrik picked up the Spanish.

Here is another question for you, or a possible alteration for version 3... How exactly does this work? Are you only allowed to keep the production cue for one civ of one game? For instance I am about to start a PBEM of 2194, playing as both the germans and the Japanese. I am assuming that I can only save the production values for one of those civs. Well, I guess LazyCiv is a .exe, so I could simply have more than one installed... perhaps rename one of them to "Japan's Prod." and the other to Germany's Prod." and run run them as if I am playing 2 seperate games or something. I know no C++, but maybe once everything is solved, there could be a way to store multiple PBEMs worth of data in LazyCiv? Alas, one thing at a time now Here is the file, none of the civs is passworded.

Enjoy!

-FMK.

[Henrik]

Originally posted by Field Marshal Klesh
I played to a point where it seemed that a victory was guarenteed. Henrik, having seen my save game, challenged me to a dual with him playing the only other major nation left in the game, Spain. So somehow he took my .sav and made it a .net, and took his turn.

Um actually, since I am on a mac, all I have to do is change the filetype to a multiplayer save and load it, works like a charm,

The thing about all windows being wrong happened to me too though, before I "altered" the file (by playing my turn in MP mode rather than singleplayer), it happened when I first loaded your save in singleplayer (which leads me to suspect that something with this file was corrupt in the first place)...

[Xin Yu]

Originally posted by Field Marshal Klesh

Here is another question for you, or a possible alteration for version 3... How exactly does this work? Are you only allowed to keep the production cue for one civ of one game? For instance I am about to start a PBEM of 2194, playing as both the germans and the Japanese. I am assuming that I can only save the production values for one of those civs. Well, I guess LazyCiv is a .exe, so I could simply have more than one installed... perhaps rename one of them to "Japan's Prod." and the other to Germany's Prod." and run run them as if I am playing 2 seperate games or something. I know no C++, but maybe once everything is solved, there could be a way to store multiple PBEMs worth of data in LazyCiv? Alas, one thing at a time now Here is the file, none of the civs is passworded.

Enjoy!

-FMK.

If you play more than one civ, save at the end of each civ, then close both lazyciv and civ2 MPE. Reopen civ2 MPE and rerun lazyciv when you select gender for the other civ you are going to play. There is not need to install or run multiple copies of Lazyciv.

[Xin Yu]

FMK,

I downloaded the file and tested lazyciv. It worked. For example, Beijing was originally producing helicopter without Lazyciv, changed to paratroopers after running Lazyciv at the screen of choosing male/female. I don't have your scenario so have to use the original rules, but still the production was restored.

The only reason I can think of is that there is a little confusion for the word "run". Running Lazyciv is to start lazyciv from the beginning, not enlarge it from the bottom bar. So if you had ran lazyciv at an early time then minimized it, waiting for the male/female screen then enlarge the icon at the bottom bar, it won't work. You have to initialize lazyciv at that time.

[klesh]

Hmmm, this is very strange. I tried it again, and checked for what you mentioned. Indeed some things were kept the same, but not all of what I set Lazy Civ to on the previous turn. I will now attatch my previous turn which I sent to Henrik. You will see that most of my city production will not be carried over. I will give you some example cities here and what happened to their production:

St Petersbur ;-)
1909- Howitzer
1910- Helicopter

Smolensk
1909- Howitzer
1910- Submarine

Tblisi
1909- Howitzer
1910- Marines (produced)

Kiev
1909- Armour
1910- Alpine Troops

Sevastopol
1909- Armour
1910- Submarine (produced)

Minsk
1909- Paratroopers
1910- Battleship

Slim Buttes
1908- Completed Barracks
1909- Switched to Armour
1910- Message that Slim Buttes is still building Barracks

Wounded Knee
1909- Fighter
1910- Airport

Little Bighor
1909- Howitzer
1910- Paratroopers (produced)

Shanghai
1909- Armour
1910- Helicopter (produced)

Beijing
1909- Indeed set to build Paratroopers
1910- Building Paratroopers!

Canton
1909- Riflemen
1910- Riflemen built!

Oviedo
1909- Fighter
1910- Fighter built!

So it seems there are some sucesses and some problems.
My conception of 'run' was to close down Lazy Civ after setting the data to the end of my 1909 turn. Then, upon loading 1910, at the gender selection phase, I clicked on Lazy Civ again. I didnt use the minimize feature at all.

This isnt a scenario, it is a standard game of CivII, with the slight exception of AEGIS cruisers being set with the sub flag (personal tweak). Other than that, this is straight up CiVII.

Anyway, here is the end of my turn in 1909 with the desired production set as I wanted it. Try a test with your Lazy Civ and see what happens?

-FMK.

[Xin Yu]

FMK, I downloaded your file and checked Shanghai, St. Petersburg and Minsk. The recorded production items were the ones recovered by Lazyciv in the previous turn (helicoptor, etc.) In fact if you do not use lazyciv you'll see the production items you wanted to build. So the problem is not at the restoring part, but at the recording part. Could it be that you closed lazyciv too early and changed production after lazyciv was not functioning? Or could it be that you skipped one turn without using lazyciv?