Unit Updater

[Tamerlin]

I have never played a scenario, I have always played standard games. That means that I don"t know how to install a scenario, and thus Hatchy's UnitUpgrade files, in CtP1 and how to make it work.

Could someone help me on this ground.

[Tamerlin]

By the way Hatschy, the way you have decided to compute the cost of the upgrade sounds very good, it is very logical.

[Tamerlin]

I don't know how but I have managed to install the UnitUpgrade Scenario and to test it (I would really like someone to give me the proper method for installing scenario).

Impressive work Hatschy, the interface is really easy to use and to get familiar with, all thumbs up.

I can provide a French translation as soon as the slic file is ready (I mean as soon as the tests are finished).

Do you intend the UnitUpgrade slic code to be available through a scenario only (like now) or is the code intended to be incorporated in the game as a default option through the addition of a line into the script.slc file?

[Tamerlin]

Here are the Upgrade paths I designed for the original game and the Apolyton Pack when I worked on Grandpa Troll's original Updater.

ORIGINAL GAME

Spy > Cyberninja

Warrior > Phalanx > Legion > Pikemen > Musketeers > Machine Gunner > Marines > Plasmatica

Archer > Mounted Archer > Cavalry

Knight > Cavalry > Tank > Fusion Tank

Cannon > Artillery > Mobile SAM > War Walker

Fighter > Interceptor > Stealth Fighter

Bomber > Stealth Bomber

Trireme > Longship > Troop Ship

Greek Fire Trireme > Ship of the Line > Battleship > Plasma Destroyer

Destroyer > Plasma Destroyer

Submarine > Stealth Submarine

Paratroopers > Swarm





APOLYTON PACK

Spy > Cyberninja

Hoplite > Legion > Pikemen > Musketeers > Machine Gunner > Marines > Plasmatica

Archer > Musketeers

Mounted Archer > (Horse Archer) > Cavalry

Knight > Cavalry > Tank > Fusion Tank (Hovertank)

(Siege Engine) > Cannon > Artillery > Mobile SAM > War Walker

Interceptor > Stealth Fighter

Bomber > Stealth Bomber

Trireme > Longship > Troop Ship (Transport)

(Fire Galley) > Ship of the Line > Battleship > Plasma Destroyer

Destroyer > Plasma Destroyer

Submarine > Stealth Submarine

Paratroopers > Swarm

[Tamerlin]

Double Post... sorry!

[Tamerlin]

French Translation

Here is a French translation of the "UnitUpgrade" scenario's strings. I hope this will incite the French players to test this great mod.

Replace the original file with the one you can find in the archive.

[Tamerlin]

Slic file with Upgrade Paths

Here is the slic file of the "UnitUpgrade" scenario completed with the following upgrade options :

ORIGINAL GAME

Spy > Cyberninja

Warrior > Phalanx > Legion > Pikemen > Musketeers > Machine Gunner > Marines > Plasmatica

Archer > Mounted Archer > Cavalry

Knight > Cavalry > Tank > Fusion Tank

Cannon > Artillery > Mobile SAM > War Walker

Fighter > Interceptor > Stealth Fighter

Bomber > Stealth Bomber

Trireme > Longship > Troop Ship

Greek Fire Trireme > Ship of the Line > Battleship > Plasma Destroyer

Destroyer > Plasma Destroyer

Submarine > Stealth Submarine

Paratroopers > Swarm


Note : about the Warrior being Upgraded to the Phalanx, I remember a talk with someone (perhaps Grandpa Troll or Martin when we were talking about the previous Updater) who told me that the Warrior should not be upgraded as it is a very useful exploring unit at the beginning of the game thanks to its 2 tiles Vision Range.

[Tamerlin]

I am sorry to bomb you with so many posts but I have a question for Hatschy, is your "Upgrade Unit" slic code allowing the AI players to Upgrade their units ?

[Tamerlin]

I am currently testing the "Unit Upgrade" slic file as if it were part of the standard game. I have included the slic file into the scrip.slc file you can find in the Civilization-Call to Power\ctp_data\default\gamedata folder and I have included the text file with the strings in the Civilization-Call to Power\ctp_data\french\gamedata folder.

I have started a game with the 10.000 Gold bonus in order to test it immediately and it runs fine. I have now removed the code and I have started a full game in order to test it all along a standard game.

More news later...

[hatschy]

Wow, you have been busy as a bee during the last few days, Tamerlin. Thank you .

I'll try to answer your questions.

- Installation of scenarios normally is by copying to the "scenarios" folder (you obviously did the right thing ). Only few of them have an installer (like the Apolyton Pack).

- I didn't try (and didn't think of) incorporating the scenario into the normal game. The beauty of the scenario concept is, that a scenario doesn't influence the normal game in any way, as long as you don't activate it.

- The AIs don't have the option to upgrade their units. The standard AI logic doesn't know anything about the UnitUpgrade scenario, so it would be completely up to us to implement that. Which means that we would have to implement an algorithm, that could decide where and when upgrades make sense. And that algorithm would have to take into consideration all the other options the AI could use its gold for. Not an easy task, you see.

Thank you for the French scenario texts. Just two things about it:

- The line that starts with "UU_NO_UNIT_SELECTED" can be removed together with the accompanying message box function, as it is never used (this is a relict from an early stage of development). The message box function is removed in the attached SLIC file.

- Could you, please, shorten the welcome message ("UU_WELCOME"), since it will never be displayed in its entirety. The English version is about the maximum length that fits into the message box. I know that it is difficult to translate English texts without increasing the size of the text. I had to drop some not so important information when doing the German translation.

I have attached a slightly modified version of the SLIC code. It addresses the problem, that units forget about their orders, when selected by the upgrade unit cycling. The reason for this is, that a unit cannot be grouped when selected for upgrade, since you wouldn't see which unit of the stack is selected. So I sent an ungroup order to the unit before selecting it. The downside of this is, that the unit forgets about its previous order (where to move). The new version won't send the ungroup order, if there is only one unit on the tile. This reduces the problem to tiles with more than one unit. Unfortunately there is no way to to tell for sure, if a unit is grouped (the "Stacked()" built-in function cannot be used, since it only checks, whether all of the units on one tile are stacked) and there is no way to save the previous order when ungrouping. At least I don't know of any.

[hatschy]

One more thing: You said, you had defined upgrade options for the Apolyton Pack. Ok, here is a version of the SLIC code, that includes these units (and the upgrade options you suggested) as well as all the modifications necessary because of the changes the Apolyton Pack applies to the "Units.txt" and the "Govern.txt" files.

The attached file is meant to be extracted into the "CtP_install_directory\scenarios\Apolyton\scen0000" folder. This is where the Apolyton "naked" scenario resides after installing the Apolyton Pack. No files are overwritten or modified, just the unit upgrade functionality is added. If you want to see the French texts, you can of course add a "french\gamedata" folder with the French "scen_str.txt" file to the "scen0000" folder.

If you want to see it in action, just start a new Apolyton "naked" game. You'll notice the Unit Upgrade welcome message at the beginning of your first turn .

[Grandpa Troll]

Outstanding folks

Keep it alive with continued contributions

[Tamerlin]

Originally posted by hatschy
Wow, you have been busy as a bee during the last few days, Tamerlin. Thank you .

My future wife was herself very busy this week and I decided to use this unusual free time in indulging myself into computer gaming. The UnitUpgrade was a marvellous new toy.

And by the way, you are the one that is to be thanked.

- Installation of scenarios normally is by copying to the "scenarios" folder (you obviously did the right thing ). Only few of them have an installer (like the Apolyton Pack).

Thanks for your answer, installing into the scenario folder was not enough, I had to change a few things but I don't know really what. As far as I am concerned it is almost easier to include both the text and slic files in the appropriate game files and to remove them if I want to play without them.

- I didn't try (and didn't think of) incorporating the scenario into the normal game. The beauty of the scenario concept is, that a scenario doesn't influence the normal game in any way, as long as you don't activate it.

I agree with you, I want to play a game that is as close as possible to the original game, this is also one of the reasons why I have, for example, never played a mod other than the CtP2 Apolyton Pack. As far as CtP1 is concerned, I have not yet tested the Apolyton Pack, the changes brang by the Apolytoners and Celestial Dawn are too numerous for me. May be one day...

- The AIs don't have the option to upgrade their units. The standard AI logic doesn't know anything about the UnitUpgrade scenario, so it would be completely up to us to implement that. Which means that we would have to implement an algorithm, that could decide where and when upgrades make sense. And that algorithm would have to take into consideration all the other options the AI could use its gold for. Not an easy task, you see.

I understand the problem, the said problem has been solved through a cheat in CtP2 (and as far as I remember the first CtP1's unit updater uses the same trick), the AI players are allowed to update freely their old units and are becoming more challenging. It can be frustrating for the human player though... But without these free upgrades isn't the human players given an undue advantage?

By the way, the CtP2 Unit Updater is only allowing the player to update his units when they are in a town or a fortress. Do you think that it should be the case in CtP1?

Thank you for the French scenario texts. Just two things about it:

- The line that starts with "UU_NO_UNIT_SELECTED" can be removed together with the accompanying message box function, as it is never used (this is a relict from an early stage of development). The message box function is removed in the attached SLIC file.

You are welcome, I will suppress the line this morning and post the new file.

- Could you, please, shorten the welcome message ("UU_WELCOME"), since it will never be displayed in its entirety. The English version is about the maximum length that fits into the message box. I know that it is difficult to translate English texts without increasing the size of the text. I had to drop some not so important information when doing the German translation.

I think that I have already shortened the welcome message, to check this morning...

I have attached a slightly modified version of the SLIC code. It addresses the problem, that units forget about their orders, when selected by the upgrade unit cycling. The reason for this is, that a unit cannot be grouped when selected for upgrade, since you wouldn't see which unit of the stack is selected. So I sent an ungroup order to the unit before selecting it. The downside of this is, that the unit forgets about its previous order (where to move). The new version won't send the ungroup order, if there is only one unit on the tile. This reduces the problem to tiles with more than one unit. Unfortunately there is no way to to tell for sure, if a unit is grouped (the "Stacked()" built-in function cannot be used, since it only checks, whether all of the units on one tile are stacked) and there is no way to save the previous order when ungrouping. At least I don't know of any.

I will update my files. Thank you for your excellent work. By the way, CtP1 would be close to a perfect game if it had frontiers, like CtP2, that the AI would respect as (bad as) a city radius .

Is it something that would be hard to code?

[Tamerlin]

Originally posted by hatschy
One more thing: You said, you had defined upgrade options for the Apolyton Pack. Ok, here is a version of the SLIC code, that includes these units (and the upgrade options you suggested) as well as all the modifications necessary because of the changes the Apolyton Pack applies to the "Units.txt" and the "Govern.txt" files.

I see that you have also been busy this week... and that you had the time to add my name at the beginning of your slic file. It is very kind of you but you are the one that has done the real work.

As I told you in my previous post I am not currently playing with the Apolyton Pack, but the file you posted is the kind of files that will encourage me to test this mod.

My Civilization: Call to power is not the "naked" game neither. I have tweaked some units (like it was described in the Apolyton Pack, increasing the movement of some naval units is IMO a good thing) and I am playing with most of the options of the AAIPSV1_ORIGINALGAME mod. I really appreciate the fact that there is no new unit for example, the mod is only trying to balance a few things and I really like that.

The attached file is meant to be extracted into the "CtP_install_directory\scenarios\Apolyton\scen0000" folder. This is where the Apolyton "naked" scenario resides after installing the Apolyton Pack. No files are overwritten or modified, just the unit upgrade functionality is added. If you want to see the French texts, you can of course add a "french\gamedata" folder with the French "scen_str.txt" file to the "scen0000" folder.

If you want to see it in action, just start a new Apolyton "naked" game. You'll notice the Unit Upgrade welcome message at the beginning of your first turn .

Thank you very much... two thumbs up !

[Tamerlin]

Here are the french files for the revised scenario slic code. The welcome message has been reduced to 5 lines instead of 7, I think it should be enough.