PROJECT: Playtest Thread III

[Fromafar]

Originally posted by Fugi the Great
Got a Slic error: Script:slc:1290:Array index 0 out of bounds Continue yes/no, I click yes. Get another one: Array lookup City[0] failed.

You may safely ignore these for now. It is a report that settling failed, because there was another city too close to the spot where you (or some AI?) tried to settle. The program does not fill in the data of this other city when generating the report, so the city[0] reference in the text generates an error.

[Ekmek]

Originally posted by Fugi the Great

Dumb question, but does anyone know if it is possible to use national flags on the units instead of just colors? - that would just be too cool.

Originally posted by Maquiladora
I dont know but it would be great, no doubt about that, over the cities too.

Ill try the playtest in a little while then change the opening post.

EDIT: First post now updated with the 12 Sept. 2005 playtest.

Just back on vacation and I thought about this too. After I finish up the needsCityGood code I plan on doing that "are you sure you want to attch?" pop up and to add hidden nationality unit ability. When looking into it earlier I saw the code "DrawHerald" which I think draws the unit flag and now with Martin's new Civilizatio.cdb file I', thinking it is very possibly by copying the diplophoto code and make it work for the units. The national flags are already available by a fanbased flags done for Civ2 IIRC. So to sum up, Martin's patience permitting, I'll try to add this code along with the hiden nationality barbarian flag.


PS ampfi, welcome back I look forward to seeing your comments and hopefully you can do something with the code like you did with slic.

[Fugi the Great]

Originally posted by Martin Gühmann

...and I cannot check whether there is a ctp2.exe using the major part if my computer resources.
And of course one possibility is that the problem is on your system, for instance outdated drivers. But I can only speculate here.

-Martin

The weird thing is, when CTP.exe is running normal, I look at the memory usage and it is just fine - somewhere in the 1.5 Meg area, but as soon as the program aborts or I quit it on purpose, the memory usage sky rockets, I have even watched it continue increasing in memory usage once in a while until I shut the program down via the Task Manager - almost like it is just eating up memory.
I suppose the outdated driver possibility exists, but this has only started happening with the latest playtests, Playtest 1 did not have this problem, and is very stable. The game does not have any new graphics or sound capabilities than the first playtest, or the unmodified game for that matter, so as to what drivers would be out of date, your guess is as good a mine. If it happens to be a program running in the background that is interfering with the playtest, than it should also happen in Playtest 1 (which it does not) which I go back to until I test the next version of the playtest that comes out

[Martin Gühmann]

Originally posted by Fugi the Great
I have even watched it continue increasing in memory usage once in a while until I shut the program down via the Task Manager - almost like it is just eating up memory.

Well that's ok if it uses some more memory during program executation, however it should be freed on the end of the program. Well indeed some of it isn't freed by the program itsself, but it should be freed automaticly, even if it was lost for the program during execution. The latter case deals with memory leaks.

Originally posted by Fugi the Great
I suppose the outdated driver possibility exists, but this has only started happening with the latest playtests, Playtest 1 did not have this problem, and is very stable. The game does not have any new graphics or sound capabilities than the first playtest, or the unmodified game for that matter, so as to what drivers would be out of date, your guess is as good a mine. If it happens to be a program running in the background that is interfering with the playtest, than it should also happen in Playtest 1 (which it does not) which I go back to until I test the next version of the playtest that comes out

Well we link now the game against DirectX 9b at least I do, I don't know wether John does this as well. But you could try (just for this effect) one of E's ctp2.exes given they are still floating around in this thread.

-Martin

[J Bytheway]

Originally posted by Martin Gühmann
Well we link now the game against DirectX 9b at least I do, I don't know wether John does this as well.

I thought that I was, but on further examination I seem to be usingthe summer 2003 update. However, the readme for that does faintly suggest that it is in fact 9.0b or later... In conclusion, I'm not entirely sure.

[Fugi the Great]

Originally posted by Martin Gühmann


Well that's ok if it uses some more memory during program executation, however it should be freed on the end of the program. Well indeed some of it isn't freed by the program itsself, but it should be freed automaticly, even if it was lost for the program during execution. The latter case deals with memory leaks.

Well we link now the game against DirectX 9b at least I do, I don't know wether John does this as well. But you could try (just for this effect) one of E's ctp2.exes given they are still floating around in this thread.

-Martin

When I shut the program down through the program, or the program crashes for some reason, that the program is for some reason still running in the background, still increasing in memory when it has already grabbed 300+ Megs almost instantly - something not right there. As for a possible Direct X problem, I don't know, I use version 9c, shouldn't make much difference, I think it just adds more capability for the newer games, should still be fine for the older ones.

[demon59]

Having fun with the new playtest release.
I haven't had problems with this release crashing on exit, like the previous release. However, it still seems to be acting up a bit on shutdown. As if the program is shutting down twice.
The only problem I have seen so far, is with setting research goals. When I pick a goal from the GL listings, it shows me the entry for the tech before the one I chose. For example, I have to highlight the technology after Monarchy in order to set my research goal to, or read the entry for, Monarchy. Not a fatal error, of course, but obviously something you would want to straighten out when you have the time.
Just want to say, also, that I really appreciate the effort you guys are putting into this project! You are all helping to make one of my favorite games, even better!

[Ekmek]

In my sig is a revision build rev465 with my Resources code that did NOT make the playtest (unfortunately). So anyone looking for a latest revision build or wants to tryout the first step towards coding Civ3ish strategic resources, just look to the sig.

[rsewar2]

Hi,
just been playing my first ctp2 game in ages using the latest playtest release so thought I'd let you know how an outsider found it.
seems very stable. played up to about 16th century so far on a medium map with 8 civs. It's crashed twice, both times when the program was closing down anyway.

conquered 3 other civs on the same continent very very easily - never had a single city of my own attacked. I was only playing on (I think) 4/6 hardest difficulty level but expected much more of a challenge when at war after what I've read on these forums.

the ai seems to be better at handling other parts of their civs - I'm having trouble keeping up with the others in terms of wonders and science which makes a nice change!

a few specific bugs:
I traded a tech with another civ, they got my advance but I didn't get theirs. has anyone else experienced this?

The production counter that appears next to each city tile (is this new?) sometimes reads 999 and stays there.

keep up the good work!

[Ekmek]

Originally posted by rsewar2
a few specific bugs:
I traded a tech with another civ, they got my advance but I didn't get theirs. has anyone else experienced this?

The production counter that appears next to each city tile (is this new?) sometimes reads 999 and stays there.

keep up the good work!

I havent experience theadvance bug, but that was an earlier build.

As for 999, I believe thats what you get when you have no growth (probably should be a "-" )

As for fighting the AI, I think I played hard and it was challenging at times. Once the AI cities are taken they don't try too hard to retake them, but they do a better job at defending

[Martin Gühmann]

Originally posted by E
As for 999, I believe thats what you get when you have no growth (probably should be a "-" )

Of course it should be "-", but actually it should show it more seldom.

And by the way rsewar2 it is a counter to the next pop not a production counter.

-Martin

[Ekmek]

I've been adding a few tweaks to the code that gives some new features (citystyleonly, cultureonly, NeedsCityGood) and I was wondering if people are interested in having some of that added to the game.

Mainly I'm thinking simple stuff, like using t e elephants from the alex scenario and adding them to the base game but you need the elephant resource. And adding the legion as a roman cultureonly "samurai/swordsman" but with the same values. Just simple tweaks to show off some of my new code but not unbalancing to the standard game.

Anyone think its a good idea?

[Maquiladora]

I think it would be a mistake not to use some of the new code in the playtests now, if only to test them, although i think they should be considered for the AE too. Perhaps a news item showing all these new features would be good too.

I wouldnt worry too much about unbalancing the game at this stage either, playtesting will take care of it.

[J Bytheway]

If you're worried about unbalancing the base game you can of course put these tweaks in a scenario (since the scenario code is supposed to be working properly now, and if it isn't then it's better to find out as soon as possible).

[Martin Gühmann]

One thing to note about adding units is that we would create an incompatibility of savegames of the old database. However adding some properties to city styles and civilisations isn't a problem.

So the question is whether we want this incompatibility.

-Martin