Originally posted by Moonsinger
I think he means the shield bonus on the grassland (like shielded grassland type). I guess there are 2 kinds of "Shield Bonus" tiles, at the start position, that are important for HOF games:

1. Those tiles with 1 shield
2. Those tiles with 2 shields.......PRE-REQUISITE for short Aztec Conquest games! (Excluding Center Tile) ;)

So maybe I'm just a knucklehead but..... I can't make it work right!

I followed the instructions, started up a game with the desired settings, then launched mapfinder. I had almost no requirements, only a dom limit between 3k and 6k, just so I could see how it works. It goes through and restarts Conquests repeatedly, but when I generate the report it shows nothing. I would think that every world would fit those criteria, wouldn't they? :hmm:

Originally posted by SesnOfWthr
I followed the instructions, started up a game with the desired settings, then launched mapfinder. I had almost no requirements, only a dom limit between 3k and 6k, just so I could see how it works. It goes through and restarts Conquests repeatedly, but when I generate the report it shows nothing. I would think that every world would fit those criteria, wouldn't they? :hmm:
NO!
3000 Tiles is a pretty high Domination Limit........UNLESS, you're playing on a HUGE Map! ;)

If you want to see a non-blank MapFinder Report, try setting the Minimum Domination Limit to 0! :)

me: :rolleyes: :wallbash:

Eman: [dance] :thanx:

Moonsinger/Dianthus: :worship: :thumbsup:

This has got to be the coolest thing ever!!

Ok, I'm sure its me again, but why is it when it generates the report, it says all spots are desert? for the first ten, I had no req. for the next six, I stipulated at least 1 grassland. Not sure what i'm doing to this thing. I can say that I don't think any of the save are ALL desert.



http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads7/mapfinder.JPG

Not sure, but I think a lake turn into a sea when it is bigger than 9 squares.

@SesnOfWthr, could you upload one of those .savs (preferable zipped) and post a link to it into this thread? I'll take a look tonight and see if it's my .sav reading code that's not working.

Dianthus -- sure thing, but won't happen till about 7 pm est. I'm at work right now.

Dianthus -- here's a zip. Actually put four saves in it so you could have no doubt on whatever you find.

I was thinking about what could cause this, and all I've got are the few mods I made. I use snoopy's graphics, Smiley popheads, and some different border graphics. Other than those, I tried to get DYP working on my PTW ( I got it w/ Conquests) but failed miserably cause I don't know how to launch PTW from my Conquests disc. Anyway, when I did try to play it, lines of text were all over the place and I had to restart C3C. I don't know if this could have somehow corrupted my saves? I'm in some sg's and never have a problem with the handoffs, but I suppose it could still be that.

Anyway, please let me know what you find. I can still use the program and use the screenies, but would be nice if the terrain counts worked too.

Thanks

Saves (http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads7/Mapfinder_saves.zip)

Thanks for the saves SesnOfWthr. It was definitely my bad. I've made a fix and passed the .dll on to Moonsinger to include in a new release of MapFinder.

Originally posted by Dianthus
Thanks for the saves SesnOfWthr. It was definitely my bad. I've made a fix and passed the .dll on to Moonsinger to include in a new release of MapFinder.

Thank you Dianthus!:) Here is the new re-package for version 3.1:

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads7/MapFinder32.zip

Great!! Thanks for the quick turnaround! :)

OK, so I know you guys are probably getting sick of me by now, but it's still not working right. :(

When I generate the report, it still says all squares are desert.

Furthermore, and I can't remember if it did this before, it seems to be identifying the terrain wrong? When I searched for a map with between 1 and 9 grassland, it skipped many maps, some that were ALL grassland, and saved none. When I set it to find between 1-9 flood plain, it saved two files with NO floodplain.

Maybe I'm just not meant to use this program ......

NO!....you're not the only one having problems with the MapFinder!
Apart from experiencing the same as you, my MapFinder won't run for more than a couple of hours.....I come back, C3C has totally vanished and the MapFinder report is showing on the screen! :confused:

I must be doing something wrong....but heck if I know what! :lol:

Originally posted by EMan
NO!....you're not the only one having problems with the MapFinder!
Apart from experiencing the same as you, my MapFinder won't run for more than a couple of hours.....I come back, C3C has totally vanished and the MapFinder report is showing on the screen! :confused:

I must be doing something wrong....but heck if I know what! :lol:

That's because C3C cracked and burned before MapFinder had a chance to restart it (note: I actually quit C3C then restart it before it crack - to avoid other potential problem, I do not restart C3C after it crack). What is your restart counter right now? Eversince I lower the C3C restart counter to 40, I don't have that problem no more.:) Also make sure you launch a fresh start of C3C before launch the MapFinder. For example, if you have been playing C3C for awhile then decide to launch MapFinder in the end may cause C3C to crack a lot sooner.

Thanks Moonsinger......I'll give that a try....I was using the default restart number.

I assume this problem only applies to C3C and not Vanilla Civ & PTW? :)

It's still a GREAT program! :goodjob:

Hey map people!

(@EMAN, u trying to outscore me ... ??:love: )

When I was fighting the McW high for a month, I thought of something grandious for the CFC community -
I thought.. if only I could have more maps..
So here is mapfinder but it consumes something - time!
But it shouldn't be my time - it is the CPU time!

So what we need is a 10-20 computers atleast (distributed computing) being a "MapFinder server" for CFC fans.
Requests can be queued and will be sent by mail..

What do you think?
(Imagine all the people...)

Chaim.:egypt:

Originally posted by boogaboo
So what we need is a 10-20 computers atleast (distributed computing) ...
Is that an offer boogaboo? You've got 10-20 computers sitting around we could use? ;)

Yes, in fact -

Lets go to rob some high-tec company (or electronic music creator) and put these damn computers where they belong!

Srry, no 10-20 computers here..:p

Originally posted by boogaboo
[B](@EMAN, u trying to outscore me ... ??:love: )
Ahhhh Suspense.....I just love it!! ;)


Originally posted by boogaboo So what we need is a 10-20 computers atleast (distributed computing) being a "MapFinder server" for CFC fans.
Requests can be queued and will be sent by mail. Great Idea!! :goodjob:

Just want to let you all know that the "Forest" column on the report is wrong (it is reporting the same value as the grassland colunm now. To save time, I sometimes cut and pasted similar line of codes; once in awhile, I forgot to edit the code after I pasted.:lol:

Sorry for the delay on the next update! I have a lot of other deadlines this month at work that I have to take care first.

Originally posted by Moonsinger
To save time, I sometimes cut and pasted similar line of codes; once in awhile, I forgot to edit the code after I pasted.:lol:

Surely you mean "copy and pasted", or maybe "cut and pasted and pasted"? Cut and paste would be a bit futile, rather like taking 1 step forward and 1 step back :p.

Originally posted by Moonsinger
Thank you Dianthus!:) Here is the new re-package for version 3.1:

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads7/MapFinder32.zip

Are there any previous versions required before downloading and installing this version?

I downloaded, installed, and ran this version. Seemed to work fine. I get no results. I've gotten some map screenshots from the program, but no report telling me what is in the maps it has looked at.

How do I set it up to view X number of maps and show all the information for X number of maps? All I want to use this program for is to find a halfway decent starting position. One that is near rivers. I'm not concerned about the hall of fame yet...

thanks for the help...

Originally posted by Tzar Sasha
Are there any previous versions required before downloading and installing this version?

No!

I downloaded, installed, and ran this version. Seemed to work fine. I get no results. I've gotten some map screenshots from the program, but no report telling me what is in the maps it has looked at.

What map size are you looking for? And also what is your minimum and maximum domination limit setting in MapFinder? While you are at it, please tell me the speed of your CPU and the loading/saving time delay setting of MapFinder.

I you don't really know how to answer those questions, please post your "MapFinder.INI" file here. The "MapFinder.INI" file contains the lastest settings of your most recent run; it can be located at the same location where you installed "MapFinder.EXE" file.

Originally posted by Dianthus
Surely you mean "copy and pasted", or maybe "cut and pasted and pasted"?

You got me there!;) I do mean "copy and pasted".

Originally posted by Moonsinger
What map size are you looking for?
Huge or any I don't care. I only play on huge unless I'm playing a scenario.
And also what is your minimum and maximum domination limit setting in MapFinder?
minimum domination = 0 & maximum domination = 6000 (default) While you are at it, please tell me the speed of your CPU and the loading/saving time delay setting of MapFinder. Intel celeron 800mhz 9000 loading 3000 saving both default settings


Changes to original default settings made: (perhaps the problem lies here)
all resources and terrain types were set to a minimum of -1 since there can't be less than 0 of a terrain type I changed the minimum to 0 & Set maximum to 9, 6, or 3 depending on type of terrain. I will change back to default settings and try it again. Will let you know what the results are.
Also set it to only find ten maps that fit the description and to restart C3C after 40 iterations.

I had in the conquests.ini file windowsfilebox set to 1 instead of 0. The utility isn't programed to handle that I guess. Once changed it started saving maps that fit the selections. However, when it stops or appears to stop and I generate a report it only shows the index.htm file that came with the program. There is no information that transfers from the sav files to the report. How does this happen? Is the report supposed to be generated automatically at some point? Are there "how to" instructions somewhere? I am getting screenshots and sav files now. I suppose I could look at the screenshots corresponding to the sav files and decide which one I want to play. I would just like to see the report function properly....

Originally posted by Tzar Sasha
Intel celeron 800mhz 9000 loading 3000 saving both default settings


Your timing is a little bit too fast. Please set it to 12000 ms for loading and 14000 ms for saving. Since MapFinder will SAVE only when it find a good map, we just want to make sure that it has enough time to save the GOOD map.

Changes to original default settings made: (perhaps the problem lies here)
all resources and terrain types were set to a minimum of -1 since there can't be less than 0 of a terrain type I changed the minimum to 0 & Set maximum to 9, 6, or 3 depending on type of terrain. I will change back to default settings and try it again. Will let you know what the results are.

Bingo! This is exactly why you got no map! -1 = OFF = DO NOT USE OR DO NOT SELECT. Please set everything (except for the min and max of the Domination Limit) back to -1 and try again. Once everything is working correct, you can start fine tune it by setting mininum number of river to 1 (which mean MapFinder will keep only map if there is at least 1 river within the 9 tiles at the starting location). "AND" of course, if you set minimum # of Cattle = 1 which mean you would get only Map with at least 1 cow, etc. Note: that all these options are "AND" logic! For example:

Min# of River =1
Min# of Grassland = 6
Min# of Cattle = 1

Which mean that you want to keep only map with at least 1 river AND at least 6 Grasslands AND must have at least 1 cow.

Originally posted by Tzar Sasha
I had in the conquests.ini file windowsfilebox set to 1 instead of 0. The utility isn't programed to handle that I guess. Once changed it started saving maps that fit the selections. However, when it stops or appears to stop and I generate a report it only shows the index.htm file that came with the program. There is no information that transfers from the sav files to the report. How does this happen? Is the report supposed to be generated automatically at some point? Are there "how to" instructions somewhere? I am getting screenshots and sav files now. I suppose I could look at the screenshots corresponding to the sav files and decide which one I want to play. I would just like to see the report function properly....

As I mentioned in my previous post, you give it only 3000 ms (or 3 seconds) to save the game; your 900 MHz machine can't possily have enough time to deal with that, especially C3C isn't as optimize as Civ3 or PTW. Need to set it to around 14000 ms (or 14 seconds) and I think it will work just fine on your system.

PS: Please keep in mind that my system is a P4 @3.4 GHz; therefore, my default timing of 3000 ms would definitely won't work for you. In the next up date, I will default this number to at least 15000 or something.;)

Any chance of making this great tool work with scenario's?
I like to play randomly generated maps at sizes ranging from 300 X 240 up to and including 362 X 362.
The domination limits on these maps are huge. (For instance, the domination limit of a 300 X 240 map at 40% land is 10,100 tiles give or take 100.) I noticed your tool only allows settings up to 6000 for max. domination limit. :(
Also it won't let me use load scenario in PTW or load Civ-Content in C3C.

I would be eternally grateful if you could make this usable for us 'off-the-wall' players who aren't interested in the HOF. :)

Edit:
To be clearer on what I am doing....
I open a new .bix file in Civ3XEdit, and under world sizes select huge, change the size to what I want, say 240 width by 300 height, change the number of civs to say 20 and adjust the OCN and tech rate. Then I save it.
Start PTW and Load scenario, choose my .bix and the I can still pick the type of map I want Arch, Continents etc., climate, the whole drill.

Basically I want to be able to get a decent map without having to generate it in the Editor. No matter how much you try not to look, you get spoiler info doing it that way. :(

This version 3.3 would fix all of the previously reported bugs. I also added new options for finding food and luxury and support for CivContent/PTW scenario.

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads7/MapFinder04-27-2004.zip

Enjoy!:)

Originally posted by Matt_G
Any chance of making this great tool work with scenario's?
I like to play randomly generated maps at sizes ranging from 300 X 240 up to and including 362 X 362.
The domination limits on these maps are huge. (For instance, the domination limit of a 300 X 240 map at 40% land is 10,100 tiles give or take 100.) I noticed your tool only allows settings up to 6000 for max. domination limit. :(
Also it won't let me use load scenario in PTW or load Civ-Content in C3C.

I would be eternally grateful if you could make this usable for us 'off-the-wall' players who aren't interested in the HOF. :)

MapFinder version 3.3 does work with CivContent and PTW Scenario. I also just raised the maximum domination limit to a really big number (like 25000 or something). Have fun!:)

Thank you Moonsinger!! [dance]

I'm downloading it now and will let it run overnight. I'll let you know how it works tomorrow.

You're the best. :love:

I finally got my copy to work.
Here was the problem:
My civ3map folder was a sub folder of my game saves folder. In the save game dialog box only so many characters could be typed. I was getting game saves but the report would not generate because not all of the file name was typed. I moved my civ3map folder to a top level directory and the utility ran fine.

For some reason the following directory is too long to be typed into the save game box.
d:\Infogrames Interactive\CivilizationIII\Conquests\Saves\Civ3ma p

So please make sure future downloaders know to put the output directory (civ3map) as a top level directory on their hard drive.

Originally posted by Tzar Sasha
I finally got my copy to work.
Here was the problem:
My civ3map folder was a sub folder of my game saves folder. In the save game dialog box only so many characters could be typed. I was getting game saves but the report would not generate because not all of the file name was typed. I moved my civ3map folder to a top level directory and the utility ran fine.

For some reason the following directory is too long to be typed into the save game box.
d:\Infogrames Interactive\CivilizationIII\Conquests\Saves\Civ3ma p

So please make sure future downloaders know to put the output directory (civ3map) as a top level directory on their hard drive.

Thanks!:) Since my map directory was f:\mapfinder, it would explain why I have never run into this problem. I will add a link to your warning to my second post (on this thread). Will correct this tiny problem down the road!

I let it run overnight and for the most part it works great. :)
Just a couple of minor bugs I noticed.

1) Reports are not generated correctly. For instance this morning I had about 20 saves and screenshots in my D:\civ3map folder (top level)but the html report page only listed 6 of them. I ran it again as a test for 100 iterations with fairly lax settings so I would get numerous saves and had the same problem. I can't see a pattern here. <shrug>


2) I had it set to restart C3C after 50 iterations, and while it restarted fine it quit using quick start. It reverted to doing it the old fashioned way, but it do it correctly.

Minor stuff, like I said. This utility is awesome Moonsinger! :worship:
Thank you again. I will be using this tool quite a bit.
:beer:
Matt

Originally posted by Matt_G
I let it run overnight and for the most part it works great. :)
Just a couple of minor bugs I noticed.

1) Reports are not generated correctly. For instance this morning I had about 20 saves and screenshots in my D:\civ3map folder (top level)but the html report page only listed 6 of them. I ran it again as a test for 100 iterations with fairly lax settings so I would get numerous saves and had the same problem. I can't see a pattern here. <shrug>

Would you post a snapshot of your map directory? Just go to the "Command Prompt" or "DOS Shell" then change to your d:\civ3map folder then execute this command:

DIR *.* > filelist.txt

That would generate a complete list of all the files in that directory. Just simply post your filelist.txt here. That would me help to figure out why the report wasn't generated correctly. Thanks!

2) I had it set to restart C3C after 50 iterations, and while it restarted fine it quit using quick start. It reverted to doing it the old fashioned way, but it do it correctly.

If you want it to use the Quick start option after it restarts, you may want to try this:

1. Load your CivContent to setup your map selection, etc.
2. Use QuickStart to generate your map
3. Now launch MapFinder @4000BC as usual. Remember to check the QuickStart option on the MapFinder selection dialog.

Basically, since Civ3/PTW/C3C remembers the last option on the Topmenu that you recently pick, by Quickstart a game, Civ3 may remember its last starting option. Again, I'm not sure, but may be you could try the above steps to see what happen next.

I have two questions now:
1) Can I stop MapFinder program? How?
2) My Conquest dont want to restart. "Run program" window appears but followed with nothing.

Originally posted by IgrOK
I have two questions now:
1) Can I stop MapFinder program? How?


There are three ways to stop MapFinder:
1. Exit Civ3/PTW/C3C. Basically, MapFinder will stop whenever Civ3/PTW/C3C isn't running. Isn't that cool or what?;)

2. Whenever Civ3/PTW/C3C no longer the foreground application, MapFinder would also stop - another cool automatically stop feature. In this case, you can stop it anytime by hitting the Window key on your keyboard (that Window key can be located at the bottom left corner on the keyboard right next to the Ctrl key).

3. Whenver you Alt+Tab to another application, MapFinder would also stop. This is the third automatic stop feature.

That's it! Just pick one of those three.


2) My Conquest dont want to restart. "Run program" window appears but followed with nothing.

There are three possible problems:

1. After the "Run program" window appears, there will be a long delay after that. The reason for this delay is because I want to make sure that I give your system enough time for C3C to release any system resources before starting it up again. During this delay period, if you happen to launch another application or whatever, MapFinder won't launch C3C because it thought that you want your system back. IIRC, this delay time = (your delay for loading + saving) * 2. In most case, you will be sleeping while MapFinder running anyway; therefore, you won't be aware of this delay.;)

2. If you have been playing game for awhile, C3C could be dying before you launch MapFinder; therefore, when C3C goes down, it goes down hard and won't restart again until you reboot your system. Again, this only happen in C3C - I believe there is a memory leak in C3C, but I don't expect Firaxis to fix it anytime soon. Defending on system resources (like how much memory system system have), C3C may die a lot sooner than 40 or 50 iterations; in this case, try lower the C3C restart counter to 35 or something.

3. MapFinder assume that your Conquests.EXE is two directories up from your AUTO save directory. Please make sure you point it to the correct AUTO save directory of C3C or it won't be able to locate your Conquests.EXE file.

Conquests.EXE
Hmm... My .exe file is "Civ3Conquests.EXE"

Originally posted by IgrOK
Hmm... My .exe file is "Civ3Conquests.EXE"

Is that a standard name that come out of the box? In that case, I do mean "Civ3Conquests.EXE" in my previous post.

Is that a standard name that come out of the box?
Box? ........ Theoretical question: if it is a pirate version, some probelms can appear?

Originally posted by IgrOK
Theoretical question: if it is a pirate version, some probelms can appear?

I don't know and I don't support pirate version.

Here's the filelist.txt you wanted. I will put the index.htm in the next post.

Here's the report it generated with the above files in the directory.

I found the pattern with the reports I think.
If the domination limit is a 5 digit number (> 10000) the report is not generated.

Originally posted by Matt_G
I found the pattern with the reports I think.
If the domination limit is a 5 digit number (> 10000) the report is not generated.

Bingo! You are absolutely right about that!:) I asked you for the filelist because I was hoping to spot a pattern, but you beat me to it. Since I have never seen anyone who play a map that big, I encode the domination limit on the filename as "%4.4d" (if you are a C programmer, you know what the "%4.4d" mean). In this case, the fix will be very easy, I just have to change the format pattern to "%5.5d" instead. Will kick you a patch after I rebuild my home system - my motherboard just burned last night.:( I had tried everything to clear the CMOS, but it just won't power up at all!:( I just got a new motherboard on my way to work today. I'm writing this from my office. I have to rebuild the company main database server today and I probably have to sleep in my office tonight. Therefore, I may not be able to kick you a patch before Monday.

Btw, what is the speed of your CPU? My system wasn't that slow - just around 3.4 GHz. On a huge map with domination limit around 4400, it usually take me about an hour per turn around 10AD. With a map like your, how long do you have to wait for the computer to make a move?

Sorry to hear about that motherboard. That sucks. :(
Take your time on the patch. You can put it way down on your list as far as I'm concerned. ;)

My system specs are as follows:

Motherboard-> Gigabyte GA-8KNXP (canterwood)
Processor-> P4 3.0C D1 revision (Malay) Mildly overclocked to 3.15GHz (210 FSB)
I can go a lot higher than this but I want to keep PAT enabled. I have had this chip running at 3.6GHz (240 FSB) 3D and Prime95 stable. I had to run VCore at 1.6 volts though. Not really a problem, but I don't need it.
Memory-> 1GB of Corsair 3200LL RAM (LL= Low Latency) It's running 1:1 so 420MHz at 2-3-2-6 timings.
Video-> ATI 9800XT.
Interturns can go an hour+ on big maps. :eek:
That's alright though. I have several computers here (including a couple more P4 3.0's) so I have Civ loaded on another box and usually have another game going. While Game 1 chugs through the interturn I switch computers and play Game 2. :lol:

Hey Moonsinger,

I'm not browsing this forum very often but I must say I was impressed when I read about your Mapfinder tool. Everything seems to be working according to plan, except the "\"(backslash) in path names.

First, when an appropiate map is found and the program wants to save it, the "<" appears in the path-names instead of "\". This off course causes the save to fail.
The same thing seems to be happening when Mapfinder restarts c3c in the "run"-function in WindowsXP. The restart fails because of an invalid path.

I'm normally using danish keyboard, but I tried both UK and german too, and nothing seems to be working. Anybody?

Thanks,

Anders

Originally posted by Anders JJ
I'm normally using danish keyboard, but I tried both UK and german too, and nothing seems to be working. Anybody?

I think it would definitely work with the US keyboard because there are a few other people in this thread having the same problem.

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?postid=1666169#post1666169

Please make sure that MapFinder and Civ3/PTW/C3C aren't running when you switching your keyboard layout to the US. Next version, if I have time, I will have it auto dectect your keyboard layout and translate the key appropriately. At the moment, you may want to try US keyboard layout. Thanks for reporting this problem; you are the third person who have reported this problem; the two others solved it by switching to the US keyboard when they run MapFinder.

Just a tiny update:

1. Fix report to display domination limit of 10K or greater.
2. Adding C3C time delay counter; now you don't have to wait forever for C3C to restart. If you have very fast system, just set it to 4 seconds or something.

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads7/MapFinder05-04-2004.zip

Btw, this version runs great on my system. Please let me know if you encounter any problem.:)

How about adding the ability to track C3C added resources like ivory? I would love to know which saves have ivory so that I might have the chance to build the Statue of Zeus.

Originally posted by Tzar Sasha
How about adding the ability to track C3C added resources like ivory? I would love to know which saves have ivory so that I might have the chance to build the Statue of Zeus.

What do you mean? Are you saying that this feature doesn't work in the latest version or are you saying that you need to see ivory on the report?

----

Anyway, I'm going to retire soon. I hope this utility has served some of you well. It has been nice knowing you all. Unless Firaxis releases another patch for PTW/C3C, you may not hear from me again. Farewell!:)

Originally posted by Moonsinger
What do you mean? Are you saying that this feature doesn't work in the latest version or are you saying that you need to see ivory on the report?

It works with C3C, but not all available at start resources are shown on the report. Ivory is one that I know for sure does not appear on the report. I destinctly remember seeing one map with three ivory resources within the 9 squares, but the report did not list them.


Anyway, I'm going to retire soon. I hope this utility has served some of you well. It has been nice knowing you all. Unless Firaxis releases another patch for PTW/C3C, you may not hear from me again. Farewell!:)

Hope you'll check in from time to time to answer questions some of us newer players might have in reqards to your utility.

What do you mean? Are you saying that this feature doesn't work in the latest version or are you saying that you need to see ivory on the report?

----

Anyway, I'm going to retire soon. I hope this utility has served some of you well. It has been nice knowing you all. Unless Firaxis releases another patch for PTW/C3C, you may not hear from me again. Farewell!:)
Moonsinger, don't go!!
What happened? Found a boyfriend??
We love u!!!

Hi EMan,

I just increased the max for C3C restart delay from 25 seconds to 90 seconds or 90000 ms. You can download it here:

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads7/MapFinder3v5.zip

I wrote you a detail PM, but your message box was full!:( Therefore, I'm posting a short link to the new patch here - Hope you see it.


@Boogaboo, I'm married.;)

Thanks Moonsinger for making that change to MF. :goodjob: :goodjob:

Please NEVER "Retire"! :love:

I have just tried using your Mapfinder program, version 3v5. The program generates maps, but refuses to run more than the initial number of iterations. What happens is that when Mapfinder goes to reload C3C after 50 iterations of trying to find maps, the RUN command box appears with the correct path to the Civ3conquests.exe file, but it never "hits" the OK Button to execute it, so the Mapfinder program terminates because C3C isn't running, and the report is generated with no data, even though there are maps in the save directory. I have tried both increasing and decreasing the three timer values to no avail. My system CPU is an Intel Celeron running at 2.4 GHz with 512 MB of RAM. Help!!!

I have just tried using your Mapfinder program, version 3v5. The program generates maps, but refuses to run more than the initial number of iterations. What happens is that when Mapfinder goes to reload C3C after 50 iterations of trying to find maps, the RUN command box appears with the correct path to the Civ3conquests.exe file, but it never "hits" the OK Button to execute it, so the Mapfinder program terminates because C3C isn't running, and the report is generated with no data, even though there are maps in the save directory. I have tried both increasing and decreasing the three timer values to no avail. My system CPU is an Intel Celeron running at 2.4 GHz with 512 MB of RAM. Help!!!

What is the OS of your system? Anyway, I will fix it to work around C3C once and for all this time. I will find another way to restart C3C once and for all. If there is no other working alternative, I will code it in assembly language if I have too. About the report, I think the path you give to the save directory of MapFinder is too long. If you direct the "output" directory to a shorter path (for example, "c:\mapsave"), it will work. If I have time, I will do something about the "long directory name" too.

Moonsinger - I am running XP on my box. The output directory is the default CivMap directory, so I don't think that it's a long path name proble. After some more tweaking, I found that a value of 9000 for all three Delay variables and setting the restart number to 40 produces maps, but I still can't get a report.

Moonsinger - I am running XP on my box. The output directory is the default CivMap directory, so I don't think that it's a long path name proble. After some more tweaking, I found that a value of 9000 for all three Delay variables and setting the restart number to 40 produces maps, but I still can't get a report.

If you right click on the MapFinder Icon, there will be a popup menu with more options...does the "Generate Report" from the popup menu work? In any case, do you see any *.JPG (screen shot of the starting location) in the output directory along with the save games? Would you post a snapshot of your map directory? Just go to the "Command Prompt" or "DOS Shell" then change to your c:\civmap (or whatever name) folder then execute this command:

DIR *.* > filelist.txt

That would generate a complete list of all the files in that directory. Just simply post your filelist.txt here. That would me help to figure out why the report wasn't generated correctly. Thanks!


Anyway, this version should Restart any version of C3C:

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads7/MapFinder3v6.zip

hey, does anyone have a link to download this util not from the civfanatics server? this one keeps timing out on me.. :(

I've tried this program, but allways when it finds a map and wants to save it, there is an error message from civ3:

"WARNING - The filename you have requested contains illegal characters. Please try again."

Then it's browsing through my c:\ directories and tries saving in an endless loop, allways with the same message. Now I have a lot of JPGs with this error message in my output directory.

What can I do to get the program working?

I've tried this program, but allways when it finds a map and wants to save it, there is an error message from civ3:

"WARNING - The filename you have requested contains illegal characters. Please try again."

Then it's browsing through my c:\ directories and tries saving in an endless loop, allways with the same message. Now I have a lot of JPGs with this error message in my output directory.

What can I do to get the program working?

At the moment, it would work only with the US keyboard layout. You need to switch to the "US keyboard layout" from the system control panel before starting up Civ3 and MapFinder.

hey, does anyone have a link to download this util not from the civfanatics server? this one keeps timing out on me.. :(


!!! if anyone has aim or whatever and can provide me a working link or send the prog to me my sn is stixnstownz

!!! if anyone has aim or whatever and can provide me a working link or send the prog to me my sn is stixnstownz

The software is about 700K, not very big. I'm not sure why CFC is timing out on you. Anyway, if you PM me your email address, I will email it to you.

Here is the list of files that the latest run of MapFinder generated. Again, it only printed a report header without data for any files generated. At least it's generating maps. I created the directory "C:\RELA" to store the maps rather than the default of Civ3Map to see if a different directory name would make a difference. It didn't.

Thank you for that information, now it works and is really great!!! :)

Thanks Tweedledee!:)


@Grognard, the weekend is coming up, I may have some free time to look into your issue. Since your file list look great and I can't find anything wrong with the filename format in your "C:\RELA" directory, I will compile a special "debug" version for you to run on your system.

Thanks for this useful tool! Unfortunately I wasn't yet able to get it to function properly. I use version 3.6 with C3C 1.22. New Maps and starting positions are automatically generated but none of them can be found in the "save directory for acceptable maps" after the process is finished although some of the starting positions had the desired terrain/ressources. A file called "index.htm" is generated and displayed but there are no other files in that directory. The Autosave directory location is correct.
Can anybody help me?

By the way: What does "domination limit" mean and what should be the values for "minimum" and "maximum" there?

And one more thing: I'm from Germany, so sorry for my possibly not so "perfect" English...

Meanwhile I was able to get some SAV-files but not in the correct directory although I already switched to the US keyboard layout.
Screenshots of the starting positions were placed in E:\cm (just like they should be) but the according sav-files were placed in E:\Civ3\Conquests\Saves with filenames like "EÜ^cm^0000463-701100000005-000000000-02095.sav"; I suppose the problem is still connected to the keyboard layout although I already switched from German to English (US).
Because of this problem I was not able to get the file "index.htm".

Thanks for this useful tool! Unfortunately I wasn't yet able to get it to function properly. I use version 3.6 with C3C 1.22. New Maps and starting positions are automatically generated but none of them can be found in the "save directory for acceptable maps" after the process is finished although some of the starting positions had the desired terrain/ressources. A file called "index.htm" is generated and displayed but there are no other files in that directory. The Autosave directory location is correct.
Can anybody help me?

What are the time delay values for loading and saving? Make sure you give your system enough time to restart a new game or to save the map.

By the way: What does "domination limit" mean and what should be the values for "minimum" and "maximum" there?

Of course, if the domination limit setting is all wrong, you won't get any map. Since you are not sure about the type of domination limit you want to play, I recommend the minimum of 1 and the maximum of 9999.:)

And one more thing: I'm from Germany, so sorry for my possibly not so "perfect" English...
Nothing to be sorry about.:)

Meanwhile I was able to get some SAV-files but not in the correct directory although I already switched to the US keyboard layout.Screenshots of the starting positions were placed in E:\cm (just like they should be) but the according sav-files were placed in E:\Civ3\Conquests\Saves with filenames like "EÜ^cm^0000463-701100000005-000000000-02095.sav"; I suppose the problem is still connected to the keyboard layout although I already switched from German to English (US).
Because of this problem I was not able to get the file "index.htm".


The US keyboard layout should have worked. If you read this thread, you may have already noticed that we have a few people from Germany using this utility here. Once they switched to US keyboard layout, it worked for them. Anyway, would you have time to help me to get to the bottom of this keyboard problem? If you do, just say "yes" and I will not rest until it's working perfectly on your system.

If you say "yes", I will compile another version to auto dectect the ":" and the "\" characters for none US keyboard. I can easily program that part, but I need someone with a non-US keyboard to test it out to make sure that it actually work. Thanks!:)

Hello!
I think I know where the problem lies: I can switch to US-keyboard, but every time a new program is launched, the system switches back to German.
In the meantime I was able to get some maps in the right directory. There is a keyboard shortcut for switching the keyboard layout (for example left ALT+SHIFT).

Hello!
I think I know where the problem lies: I can switch to US-keyboard, but every time a new program is launched, the system switches back to German.
In the meantime I was able to get some maps in the right directory. There is a keyboard shortcut for switching the keyboard layout (for example left ALT+SHIFT).

Thanks for your research!:) So far, it seems that the only problem among these different type of keyboards are the ":" (colon) and the "\" (backward slash) key. Therefore, I think I'm going to add two translation boxes for those two keys. Plus I'm going to add a floating status display window as follows:

1. Total # of iteration so far.
2. Total # of restarting C3C so far (only for C3C version, of course)
3. Total # of time elapsed so far.
4. The minimum domination limit encountered so far.
5. The maximum domination limit encountered so far.
6. Total # of acceptable map found so far.

I should have this new version out in a few days.:)

Hello Moonsinger!

I have two more questions:
- Is it possible to skip the restarting of the C3C program? (my keyboard switches back to German as I mentioned before)
- The map finder stops after a certain time although it has found less than the desired 10 or more maps; I refer to "Stop after finding ... acceptable maps!" in the options window.

Anyway, BIG THANKS for this helpful utility!

Hello Moonsinger!
I have two more questions:
- Is it possible to skip the restarting of the C3C program? (my keyboard switches back to German as I mentioned before)

There is a bug in C3C (some kind of memory leak) that causes C3C to crack after about 70 times of starting New Game or Quick Starting new game. Vanilla Civ3 and PTW do not have this problem. If you are playing vanilla Civ3 or PTW, you can start new game for weeks and months without any problem. With C3C, you would be extremely lucky that it won't crack after a few hours of starting and restarting New Game. Btw, you can check this out by manually quitting the game and Restarting the game for about 70 times...and C3C will crack and burn. Therefore, I have no choice but to program MapFinder to safely quit C3C and restart it.

The map finder stops after a certain time although it has found less than the desired 10 or more maps; I refer to "Stop after finding ... acceptable maps!" in the options window.
That's because it has a tough time to restarting C3C. I think the wrong keyboard layout may have leave some unwanted keystrokes in the message buffer to cause it out of sync. Once we get the keyboard problem out of the way, I think it it will work without any problem. I know it will because I have never encountered any of these problems on my system. I have run MapFinder for continously over the weekend when I was out of town without any problem. It was still running when I got home 4 days later and found over 100 maps (and that was with C3C v1.15b). I recently tested it with C3C v1.122f too and it ran for day without any problem.

I encountered another problem: I usually play with "Snoopy's Terrain", so I disabled the "Quick Start Game" and the map finder worked fine. But after C3C is restarted, it jumps to a (random?) different scenario in the "Civ Content" list. I cannot find the cause for this.

I encountered another problem: I usually play with "Snoopy's Terrain", so I disabled the "Quick Start Game" and the map finder worked fine. But after C3C is restarted, it jumps to a (random?) different scenario in the "Civ Content" list. I cannot find the cause for this.

What is the speed of your system? And what is your MapFinder setting for the time delay of loading and saving?

What is the speed of your system? And what is your MapFinder setting for the time delay of loading and saving?

Pentium IV, 2.6 GHz, 1GB RAM

Delays for...
loading game 6000
saving game 5000
restarting C3C 8000

After I deleted some old scenarios from PTW, mapfinder still jumps to a different scenario (after restarting C3C) but jumps immediately back (!) to "snoopy's terrain"; so the program is functioning correctly at the moment.

Pentium IV, 2.6 GHz, 1GB RAM
Delays for...
loading game 6000
saving game 5000
restarting C3C 8000

After I deleted some old scenarios from PTW, mapfinder still jumps to a different scenario (after restarting C3C) but jumps immediately back (!) to "snoopy's terrain"; so the program is functioning correctly at the moment.

Since you are all only one who have encountered this problem so far, let's make sure that there is no missunderstanding on the operation procedure:

1. Boot up your favorite OS (Win2K, WinXP, WinMe).

2. Select US Keyboard layout

3. Launch Civ3/PTW/C3C and MapFinder. It doesn't matter which one go first, just make sure that both Civ3/PTW/C3C and MapFinder are up running before going to the next step.

4. Start New Game (going through all those map selection screens to pick map size, etc).

5. At 4000BC (at the screen where can build our first city), activate MapFinder. Until we get this problem resolve, please increase both your loading/saving delay time to 10000 (to be on the safe side).

Note: Please make do not skip step #4. If step #4 is not done, Civ3/PTW/C3C may not update its configuration files (Civilization3.ini, ptw.ini, or Conquests.ini - note: I don't have Civ3 at the moment and not sure about the correct name of those INI files). Also make sure that those configuration files aren't in READ ONLY mode. Basically, Civ3/PTW/C3C will remember its map selection and its top menu selection everytime you start a new game. MapFinder will then read Civ3/PTW/C3C INI file to get its starting point from the Top Menu item. Since you are saying that MapFinder was going to the scenario screen, I think you probably forgot to do step #4.

Also, what version of Civ3/PTW/C3C are you playing? Since you said that you are deleting some old scenarios from PTW, my guess is that you are playing with PTW. However, previously you also said that you have problem with Restarting C3C?

.....It will save 1 or 2 Maps and then no more....even if the criteria match!

Anybody encountered this problem? :)

.....It will save 1 or 2 Maps and then no more....even if the criteria match!

Anybody encountered this problem? :)
Maybe you set your domination limit too high? ;) :p

Domination Limit:

I set the Minimum to 100; Maximum to 6000

For a Tiny Map! :crazyeye:

Then I'd say you've got a problem.

Just out of curiousity, what are your timers set to? I've got all mine set to 30 seconds and set the reboot iterations to 9999 (so it never does it). It runs slower than heck, but when I'm pulling ten hour shifts I don't really care what my computer's doing...

I only mention this because upping the timers knocked off a lot of problems I was having. Just my two cents...

Ok I wont say I read the whole thread but I glanced here and there.
I have current version of MF.
It will load and save and find maps perfectly so kudos.
Only I cant make it restart C3C.
Im not sure what the problem is, and C3C WILL hang up after about 100 iterations so it is a problem...

This looks like a totally awesome utility, but for some reason I can’t seem to make it work. If I leave everything default it selects and save almost all the game starts, but if I change any values from “-1” I get no saved games? :confused: I have tried doing nothing except changing min river to 1 and nothing else and got zip, nada, nothing. I am assuming I am doing something wrong, but since it works on default values, I guess I don’t understand how the values work. Any suggestions would be appreciated, since one of my biggest time wasters is trying to get a good start location on random maps.
I have tried this on all 3 flavors of Civ3 with the same result, but prefer to play C3C.

TimHobbit

Hi Dianthius and Moonsinger,

I downloaded your utility and it's really quite handy. :) The extract of the files went smooth, and I loaded civ up, filled out the world settings and player settings (I don't go any further by clicking the "O", right?). However, when I loaded up MapFinder, set my settings of domination limit, food bonuses, etc, and clicked "OK", it did the quick start over and over, but when (it was still going on mind you), I went to check the Index.htm file out for the statistics, there were none. Do I have to wait for it to finish finding maps (I set it to 250), or did I do something wrong? Thanks!

Can anyone else answer the last 3 queries? I haven't actually used MapFinder, I just wrote the .sav file reading part!

Update: I let it run this time, but only to get 10 maps. When I came back to my computer, Civ3 Conquests closed (that's a good thing I guess), and MapFinder's Index.htm file was open - but alas, there was no info again. :( Odd.

Can anyone else answer the last 3 queries? I haven't actually used MapFinder, I just wrote the .sav file reading part!
I guess since I've generated over 40,000 maps with the program I can answer a few based off experience:

@LulThyme: It's a serious pain, but yes, C3C will eventually hang and not come back up. I don't know if it would work on your computer, but on mine, if I set the load and save timers to 60000 a piece (a full minute) then C3C will run considerably more iterations before crashing. It still crashes, just not as fast. This has been handy when my computer has nothing else to do, say when I'm at work or sleeping. Actually, I rarely run MapFinder if I'm home and awake, but run it religiously when about to leave or go to bed.

@Tim: Have you run it with all the defaults to see what would happen? It would theoretically save every map it generated, unless your domination minimum was too high.

@GingerAle: From your first post, yes, you have to wait for Mapfinder to finish before it'll give you the information in the index. I'm not sure why it wasn't in the index the second time if there were maps. Was the index still open from the first time? Even without the index, the folder should have the 4000bc's and screenshots paired up.

Update: I let it run this time, but only to get 10 maps. When I came back to my computer, Civ3 Conquests closed (that's a good thing I guess), and MapFinder's Index.htm file was open - but alas, there was no info again. :( Odd.
I've only ran it a few times and haven't re-installed after my latest crash. However, I can tell you this.... If you have the save map folder in several subfolders you won't get any info in your index.htm file. Here is the reason: The save file from mapfinder is a very long string of characters. All the entries in the index.htm have a corresponding character in the save file name from mapfinder. If you are getting saves, but no info. Try moving the save location for generated maps to something simple like "c:\MapFinder_maps" I think that will work for you.....

If that still doesn't work, someone else will have to answer.....

I've only ran it a few times and haven't re-installed after my latest crash. However, I can tell you this.... If you have the save map folder in several subfolders you won't get any info in your index.htm file. Here is the reason: The save file from mapfinder is a very long string of characters. All the entries in the index.htm have a corresponding character in the save file name from mapfinder. If you are getting saves, but no info. Try moving the save location for generated maps to something simple like "c:\MapFinder_maps" I think that will work for you.....

If that still doesn't work, someone else will have to answer.....

Thanks for your response. However, I sent my saves to the folder "c:\HOFSaves" and it still didn't show up...odd. Can anyone give step by step instructions? Thanks.

I guess since I've generated over 40,000 maps with the program I can answer a few based off experience:

@Tim: Have you run it with all the defaults to see what would happen? It would theoretically save every map it generated, unless your domination minimum was too high.

.


Superslug, thanks for the reply. Yes, if I leave it at default it will save every map (with is not very usefull), but if I change any value, any at all, I get NO maps saved! Zip, nada, nothing! It is very discuraging because I had such high hopes.

Tim

Tim, could you give an example of a setting you changed, before which it saved maps, after which it didn't?

Superslug, thanks for the reply. Yes, if I leave it at default it will save every map (with is not very usefull), but if I change any value, any at all, I get NO maps saved! Zip, nada, nothing! It is very discuraging because I had such high hopes.

Even if most of the maps are crap, you can still quickly find what you're looking for by scrolling down the index....

Tim, could you give an example of a setting you changed, before which it saved maps, after which it didn't?

At work so can't give specifics, but any value! If I change any of the default "-1" values to anything else, I get nothing. I will check again tonight, if the "boss" will let me play after dinner.

Tim

Even when I have all the values at -1, there are still no saves in the folde I had it save them in. The Index.htm file is still 'empty'. Can anyone give a possible explination/when Monsinger might visit this thread? ;)

With defaults checked for terrain/resources, I've noticed three things that can cause Mapfinder to not produce any maps:
1) Minimum domination limit set too high. This will vary depending on map size and settings. On huge/pilego, you'll rarely get anything over 4400. On huge/pang, you'll be lucky to top 3800.
2) Mapfinder sometimes won't "loop". It'll go to quickstart on the first iteration, but then go down to load on the next and so forth.
3) Bad timers. Set them too quick and it might trip over itself, I usually see it entering the save c:tmp command in the world seed input. For my longer runs, I usually set the timers for 60000 each and start it from quickstart rather than new game. It means I have to sit there for a few minutes to make sure it's looping right, and it runs mighty slow, but I get the longest lists off those settings.

Important Note for Non-English Users

Mapfinder will/might not work correctly with the German/French whatsoever Keyboard driver.

Simply select in Windows language selections English US as Keyboard driver while you are running Mapfinder and it will work as it is supposed to.

Note: ßß (for Germans) will be displayed instead of \\ while Mapfinder is doing the tmp.sav, and so it will not work at all. The above fix will solve this problem.

I didn't change anything, but now it seems to be working?!?! Must be all the helpfull vibes from here or something. In any case thanks for the responses.

Tim

I just got C3C today... I had C3 and PTW the day they came out. I just downloaded this program today. After figuring out I needed to up the timers to 9k I started cranking out maps. I noticed that it seemed to be running for quite a while... Eventually went to nil's and then crashed out. I read the thread about setting the restart to 2 and complied. Now no matter what I set the restart to... it keeps running till it crashes out. What am I doing wrong? Because of an angry dog, I bought C3 Complete today. I notice that Complete installs to a diffrent dir than the original game with the addons... might this be causing a problem?

Welcome to CFC Trooper4985! :band:

Did Mapfinder generate any maps for you? If so, your locations are probably correct.

It kicked out maps... a couple of nice ones but it wont restart C3C at the alloted number... it keeps going till it crashes no matter if I set it at 2 or 256... it's like it doesn't know it's running Conquests.

I have been thinking...may be I should upgrade this program once more time.

#1. Program a new Timer - I will have to redo this one from the ground up and it would definitely be a lot better and smarter than the current one. Since the current timer is working fine, why do I have to create new one? I don't know...I just want to make it better, that's all. Like Seven of Nine, I seek perfection!;)

#2. Add a floating statistic window to display its progress in real time. For example, the number of loop has been running so far, the number of map has been generated, the number of rejected maps, the number of qualified maps, minimum and maximum domination limit has been found so far, etc. All of these will be displayed in real time while Civ3/PTW/C3C working on the background. It should be really cool to look at, I guess.

#3. Figure what's up with restarting Conquests on some systems (especially on notebook computer)...I guess Firaxis isn't going to fix the bug that cause Conquests to crack after starting/restarting too many new games (note: vanilla Civ3 and PTW do not have this bug). Anyway, I think I may be able to figure out another way to get around it.

#4. Your wish list if you have any! If there is something about this program that you wish to improve upon, please let me know. I can't promise anything, but if it doesn't take a lot of time and easy to do, I will see what I can do.

#4. Your wish list if you have any! If there is something about this program that you wish to improve upon, please let me know. I can't promise anything, but if it doesn't take a lot of time and easy to do, I will see what I can do.

This is what I'd like to see.
Currently, (unless I've downloaded and installed wrong) the program will allow you to flag maps that contain Ivory within the 9 starting tiles. This is fine. However, the HTML display of saved maps does not list Ivory. Therefore, without opening each one I can not tell how many Ivory may be in the starting tiles. I think all that needs to be done is have the HTML page updated to show all items that can be flagged in the program. I have not taken a good look to see if any other items maybe missing....
If no one else has this problem, then please provide me with one single full install of the program. Thanks

I have been thinking...may be I should upgrade this program once more time.
Good to see you drop by Moonsinger! A new version of Mapfinder would be unspeakably awesome. The Hall of Fame has been has gotten possibly more addicted to the program than you might realize. It's not only getting used for huge maps, but also to generate starts for 20k's and Fastest Finishes. We're working on 'relaunching' a new and improved Hall of Fame in January and a new Mapfinder (at some point) would definitely help generate activity.

#2. Add a floating statistic window to display its progress in real time.
That would be really fun to watch!

#3. Figure what's up with restarting Conquests on some systems (especially on notebook computer)...
I've tried to stay current with this thread and even offer experience/advice when I could. The restart problem is definitively the biggest issue. I've learned to live with it because I don't feel right complaining about free blessings, but I think you're right. Another official patch is seriously unlikely.

#4. Your wish list if you have any!
I'm going to second the Ivory, specifically because it's Ivory. There's been a lot of 20k activity in the Hall and a lot of players only go for maps with Ivory so they can plan on Statue of Zeus as part of their strategy.

I really appreciate MapFinder, even though I rarely finish the games I start :blush:


#4. Your wish list if you have any! If there is something about this program that you wish to improve upon, please let me know. I can't promise anything, but if it doesn't take a lot of time and easy to do, I will see what I can do.

Since you ask, I'd like to have my cake and eat it...If the game generates an oustandingly big map, but with no cows in the starting nine tiles (when I asked for one), it would be great if it could be saved anyway so I can open it up and look to see what becomes visible in a few turns.

:goodjob:

Since you ask, I'd like to have my cake and eat it...
I always find that expression a little strange. I mean, what's so special about having a cake, and then eating it? Now, if you could have your cake, eat it, and still have it afterward, that really would be impressive!

(Sorry for spamming your thread Moonsinger, I'm just in a silly mood :)).

[High-Pitched Voice]
Spam and pedantry?! Urgh! :)
[/High-Pitched Voice]
The expression is sensible because I want to have my cake AND eat it not to have my cake THEN eat it.
Mebbes the expression should be "eat your cake and have it" though. Since you're already in Oxford, Dianthus, you could just pop into the dictionary office and tell them to change it? :D

If the game generates an oustandingly big map, but with no cows in the starting nine tiles (when I asked for one), it would be great if it could be saved anyway so I can open it up and look to see what becomes visible in a few turns.

If you turn off the minimum # of cows option, you would naturally get the whole set of oustanding big maps (with and without cows). Anyway, I completely understand what you mean...a fall back position. You are set out to find the best possible map with a lot of cows, but if there are no cows of any type, you want to settle for the next best thing, right? I believe we have this similar discussion before some where in this thread between Dianthus and someone making this same request. And Dianthus replied with a song:

There's a song where the chorus goes :
"I'd much rather have a caravan in the hills than a mansion in the slums"

then suddenly at the end the singer has a brainwave and changes it to :
"I'd much rather have a mansion in the hills, what I mean is, I want it ALL"!

Basically, why would we want to settle for the second best when the very best thing is within reach? Unless we are asking for a nearly impossible map, given enough time, MapFinder will find us one. I guess what I mean is...if asking for a biggest mansion in a biggest hill is too much, then you may want to consider a smaller mansion on the biggest hill or a biggest mansion on a smaller hill instead. I'm sorry, it's really not what you want, but it's one of those things that we can live without (at least for now).

Your wish list if you have any! If there is something about this program that you wish to improve upon, please let me know. I can't promise anything, but if it doesn't take a lot of time and easy to do, I will see what I can do.Nice to see you here, Moonsinger.
3 requests:
1. It would be nice to have the "View" column on the left side of the screen as I always have to scroll right to see the next screenshot. (Unless there is another way!?)
2. Ivory is an important resource for Cultural and some Sid games...Would it be possible to list it on the MF Report? :)
3. This is a BIG one: Could you add an option to count the Resouces for ALL the visible squares instead of just the 9 surrounding the Settler? Quite often you're going to move the settler a square or 2 before building the first town. :)

Nice to see you here, Moonsinger.
Nice to see you here too, EMan!

1. It would be nice to have the "View" column on the left side of the screen as I always have to scroll right to see the next screenshot. (Unless there is another way!?)

You could easily solve that problem by getting a bigger view screen.;) Of course, I will move that column to the left - no problem!

2. Ivory is an important resource for Cultural and some Sid games...Would it be possible to list it on the MF Report? :)

No problem!

3. This is a BIG one: Could you add an option to count the Resouces for ALL the visible squares instead of just the 9 surrounding the Settler? Quite often you're going to move the settler a square or 2 before building the first town. :)

Sorry, EMan! You have to talk that over with Dianthus. Dianthus, my co-author of this utility, has full control of the black box (I mean that part of the code). Basically, Dianthus wrote the DLL that analyzing the SAV games (counting the domination limit, type of tiles, etc) and I wrote the interface to tell Civ3 how to generate map. Once I got the map from Civ3, I would pass the SAV file over to Dianthus 's DLL, then Dianthus does his magic and send the result back to me. Then I analyze that result to determine whether or not to keep or to reject the map. Therefore, it's really up to Dianthus to decide if he wants to spend time looking for all visible tiles surrounding the settler.

May be the following example would help explain what I'm trying to do next:

1. Dianthus had provided me a protonic engine of great power.
2. With that protonic engine, I set out to build a starship to carry us among the stars or least to put that protonic engine good use.
3. So far, the ship that I had buit wasn't totally aerodynamics; because of that, his protonic engine hasn't been running at its full potential. Therefore, I like to focus on re-designning my ship first, then after that, I may convince Dianthus to build me a protonic cannon to go with it. Of course, protonic shield, protonic armor will be next on my list... Btw, if you are able to convice Dianthus to come up with the next generation "Omega Particle" engine, I'm sure I will find a way to integrate it into my ship. No problem there!

3. This is a BIG one: Could you add an option to count the Resouces for ALL the visible squares instead of just the 9 surrounding the Settler? Quite often you're going to move the settler a square or 2 before building the first town. :)
Eman, I'm a little unclear what you mean. Do you mean:

Resources of tiles visible in the starting .sav without moving any units (I.e. mountains/hills nearby, so revealing more than the standard 9 tiles).
Tiles that would become visible after moving units.


If a) then I would be happy to make my dll output that information.

I would only be happy to do b) if MapFinder actually moved the units. Then I could return the information for the map after the units have been moved, and that would be your starting .sav. (Assuming Moonsinger would be prepared to do the unit moving).

Tiles that would become visible after moving units.
:dubious: That would constitute spoiler information and would jeopardize MapFinder's HoF legality.

I'm not looking to censor MapFinder in any fashion, but I thought I should point that out.

EDIT: Typo

:dubious: That would constitute spoiler information and would jeopardize MapStat's HoF legality.

I'm not looking to censor MapStat in any fashion, but I thought I should point that out.
Don't worry boss, I realise that (and I'm sure Moonsinger does too). We'll make sure MapFinder (MapStat was a typo, right?) remains HoF legal.

Don't worry boss, I realise that (and I'm sure Moonsinger does too). We'll make sure MapFinder (MapStat was a typo, right?) remains HoF legal.

Typo fixed, thanks. :rolleyes:

Eman, I'm a little unclear what you mean. Do you mean:

Resources of tiles visible in the starting .sav without moving any units (I.e. mountains/hills nearby, so revealing more than the standard 9 tiles).
If a) then I would be happy to make my dll output that information.
Yes, would be very nice! :goodjob:

Here's an example of a legitimate starting position whereby you will see 3 GRASSLAND squares OUTSIDE the "Standard 9":

There is a 1-square Lake square adjacent to the Settler and 3 Grassland squares, OUTSIDE the "9", touching the Lake....those 3 Grassland squares WILL be visible in the Starting Map!.......so it would nice to have an option to apply the resource and/or terrain check to ALL visible squares. Currently, MF may reject some excellent maps that have say cows, ivory, etc. visible outside the "9". ;)

AND, an "Unlikely" example (To illustrate the point):

Your Settler is surrounded by Grassland for "miles" except that there are 4 Lakes, 1 on each inside corner of the "9"........You will be able to "See" the 16 Grassland squares on the "9"'s Perimeter! :)

-so it would nice to have an option to apply the resource and/or terrain check to ALL visible squares. Currently, MF may reject some excellent maps that have say cows, ivory, etc. visible outside the "9". ;)
I'll second that one! This happens a lot for milk maps. Since I specifically look for fresh water/1 cow, I get lakes a lot but don't know about the cow for sure until I view the screenshot.

Don't worry boss, I realise that (and I'm sure Moonsinger does too). We'll make sure MapFinder (MapStat was a typo, right?) remains HoF legal.

Not to worry Superslug, we will make sure it remains HoF legal. Please keep in mind that we can't and we will never move the starting settler; it would be HoF illegal if we move the starting settler. Now, we have to study all the possible permutation of what we can possibly see at the starting location without ever moving the settler. Sound simple, right? Well, not quite....In addition to EMan's example, here is another rough example of some things we may run into:

1. The starting position is on top the hill and right next to a mountain, what are all the visible tiles (assuming we are just looking at one direction).
2. The above scenario plus a hill next to the starting settler, what do we see now?
3. Plus a lake right next to the starting settler
4. Plus another hill on the opposite tile or whatever....
.....

I think you get the idea, there actually quite a bit of permutation we need to consider. IIRC, If the starting location is right on top of a hill, we can generally see 1 extra tile from all directions. Of course, if a mountain blocking our view...then we can see the sides of the mountain but not behide the mountain, etc. Since Dianthus (big huge and thanks) is willing with the enhancement, I will try to outline a pseudo interface tonight.

In addition to Hills & Lakes, there may be the odd Coastal square that gives you a view of land outside the "Standard 9". ;)

(In addition to Hills & Mountains, I guess Volcanoes will block your view too.)

Ahhhh, it's soooooooo good to have you back Moonsinger! :love:

You're still the :queen:

Finally, I just got Civ3/PTW/C3C all installed back to my computer.:) In addition to what EMan just said, I also noticed that the "Forest" and "jungle" would also block the view too....well kind of...if the tile behide it has a higher angle of elevation, we would still be able to see it. For example, the hill and/or mountain behide the forest will still be visible because hill/mountain has a higher angle of elevation than the forest. It's making perfect sense...we can see the mountain behide the hill, but not the hill behide the mountain, etc. I have reviewed my code and sent a pseudo plan to Dianthus 's PM box. Thanks!:)

I have been thinking...may be I should upgrade this program once more time.

#4. Your wish list if you have any! If there is something about this program that you wish to improve upon, please let me know. I can't promise anything, but if it doesn't take a lot of time and easy to do, I will see what I can do.

Well, if you’re asking for wish list items, here is one; I have no idea how hard the calculations would be, sorry.

Would it be possible to have an entry for the min number of extra/bonus food generated under Despotism, which can be used for growth?

Currently there is a min bonus food option, but it only represents the number of resources, i.e. 2 cows or 2 sugars are both 2.

But, under Despotism if the cows or sugar are both on plains with irrigation then 2 cows = 2 extra food & 2 sugar = 0 food for growth.

Then if we could put in that we wanted to have 5+ extra food to make a good settler-pump it would be easy.

I recently started a game which looked good before I realized that those 6 sugars (3 in the basic 9 squares) on the river, but on plains would not be of much help until I could get out of Despotism. I was bummed.

Update: I haven't forgotten you guys...it still needs about 4 more hours of works. Happy New Year!!!

I have been running this baby with C3C for at least 8 hours now...no problem whatsoever! I set it to restart C3C every 32 cycles and 5 seconds delay for both loading and saving on my P4@3.4 GHz machine; if you have a slower machine, I recommend giving it more DELAY time...for example, on a 1GHz machine, the delay time for loading or saving should not be greater than 15 seconds (or 15000 ms). Anyway, the new zip file of the latest version can be downloaded here:

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads8/MapFinder2005v2.zip

Please remember three things when running this new version:

1. File/Setup menu is your friend. Always check your setup and verify your setting before generating new maps.
2. Be sure to tell MapFinder the correct AUTO SAVE directory of Civ/PTW/C3C (depending on which version of the game that you are playing). If you forget to do this step, MapFinder won't generate map (it still run just fine, but it won't give you any map)
3. Remember to start "New Game" first and to activat MapFinder during or after 4000BC but not before 4000BC. Actually, this is the same as in any version of MapFinder.

Happy New Year and Happy Civing!

Here is a sample screenshot of the new MapFinder during the setup process:

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads8/mapfinder2005a.jpg

Changes made to the tile/resource/food/whatever detection rule: Those total values are now calculated based on the total of VISIBLE tiles at the starting position...therefore, all the food bonus/resources/whatever within the visible range will be included/calculated. You can thank Dianthus for enhancing this rule and EMan for suggesting it.:)

:cry: I can't wait to get home from work and run this!

:cry: I can't wait to get home from work and run this!

I can't wait to see how it behave on yours and everyone else systems. So far, it has been working really really great on my system.... I have rebuild its programming structure by starting over from scratch which means there will be plenty of room for enhancement down the road.:)

I'll install it on my system and start running it before I go to bed, then I'll report back on the results after it goes eight hours.

I can't figure out why I am recieving the following error message:
http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads8/error_conquestsini.jpg

The only change to the conquests.ini file was adding the noaipatrol line, and I can't figure out why that would do it.

Why is it not working with C3C? It works fine with PTW but wont acknowledge C3C. I know not the first thing about computer code but could this be because Civ3 Complete installs to diffrent directories and uses diffrent executables than the original Civ3 with the addons installed seperately?

I tried it out last night. For the most part it works. I like the new interface a lot better. I have Win98 and I used it on Conquests. I set my restart C3C to after 30 iterations and it restarted just fine unlike the previous versions. I did have to dink around with the timers to get it right though. That's why I like the new interface it tells you what it is doing. I had to increase the load time to 18000 and the save game to 10000. I could probably kock a second or two off of the save game, but it works fine.

However, I had told it to provide me with 250 maps and it stopped and 105 or 150 I can't remember which. I'll test that out again and see what happens. My C3C had stopped responding for some reason as I couldn't get out of it once I closed mapfinder. I don't know if that's Mapfinder's doing or something else on my system.

The only other thing I can think of right now is that I can now see Ivory and all the other stuff on the final report. Could a small change be made to the report view? I'd like to see ( and for people with not so large resolutions) the iteration# at both ends and at least once in the middle of the colums. I found a map that had Ivory but when I scrolled back to the left I lost my place and could not figure out which map it was.

Thanks for updating the program!!!! :)

Update: 3 small bugs correction! Here is the latest:
http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads8/MapFinder2005v2.zip

I have to go now....will explain and answer all your questions later. Thanks!

Here is the list of the three small bugs that I corrected last night (which I didn't have time to explain previously):

1. I discovered that the save game dialog in Civ3/PTW/C3C has a buffer limit of 64 characters for directory+filename. Since MapFinder filename is 48 characters + "\" separtor for the directory, that would leave us with 16 characters for the output directory. Therefore, I programmed MapFinder to display a warning message about this and ask you to pick a shorter path as needed.

2. Every time C3C restart, the display counter is off by 1.

3. Since we are checking for all visible tiles at the starting location now, it's possible to have more 9 rivers, grassland, cows, or whatever. Therefore, those information is now encoded in base16 instead of base10; otherwise, those map may not show up on the report. Anyway, it's now fixed!

That was it! That was all the bugs that I found after running it for almost 18 hours straight with C3C v1.22. All these three bugs were fixed this morning in version 2005v2 release.

I can't figure out why I am recieving the following error message:
http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads8/error_conquestsini.jpg

The only change to the conquests.ini file was adding the noaipatrol line, and I can't figure out why that would do it.

Would you check to make sure the "conquests.ini" is not in READ-ONLY mode! Also make sure to select the correct AUTO SAVE folder...since I use the AUTO SAVE folder to figure out the location of your "CONQUESTS.INI" file.

Why is it not working with C3C? It works fine with PTW but wont acknowledge C3C. I know not the first thing about computer code but could this be because Civ3 Complete installs to diffrent directories and uses diffrent executables than the original Civ3 with the addons installed seperately?

Not too worry! I will make it work for Civ3 Complete...I wasn't aware that they changed C3C Window Caption/Title in Civ3 Complete. If you have some knowledge of window programming, you may have heard of a Windows API function called "FindWindow". What it does is to locate an instant of an application that is currently running in your system by searching for its window title/caption or window class. Since I do not have Civ3 Complete, there is no way for me to find out what they have changed it to, may be you can help me out on this one. Just do the following:

1. Launch your Civ3/ Complete, C3C or whatever on WinXP/2K (I hope you are running WinXP or Win2K if not, may be some one else can help)

2. While Civ is running, hit Ctrl+Alt+Delete to access the Windows Task Manager. Under the Application Task list, please tell me the exact the name/caption of the C3C window/application. For example, on my system it said "Sid Meiers's Civilization III: Conquests". I bet it says Civ3 Complete or whatever mumble jumble on your system. Just let me know exactly what it says and I will make it work for you. Thanks!

The only other thing I can think of right now is that I can now see Ivory and all the other stuff on the final report. Could a small change be made to the report view? I'd like to see ( and for people with not so large resolutions) the iteration# at both ends and at least once in the middle of the colums. I found a map that had Ivory but when I scrolled back to the left I lost my place and could not figure out which map it was.

Not a problem! I could add another column on the far right. Anyway, I was thinking of adding another special display column using graphic icons. For example, if the map has three cows, 1 ivory, and 2 wheat, three icons of cows + 1 icon of ivory + 2 icons of wheats will be displayed. It would make it easier to spot that one special map, I think. What do you think?

Would you check to make sure the "conquests.ini" is not in READ-ONLY mode! Also make sure to select the correct AUTO SAVE folder...since I use the AUTO SAVE folder to figure out the location of your "CONQUESTS.INI" file.

Well, I should have asked my question more clearly. The old version worked fine, the only change made was adding that line, as I said. When I got that message, the first thing I checked was that it was not read only, and it isn't. The conquests.ini file is in Civilization III/Conquests/, and the auto save folder is in Civilization III/Conquests/Saves/, which is where it is supposed to be, and the correct directory is selected in the setup for MapFinder.

Well, I should have asked my question more clearly. The old version worked fine, the only change made was adding that line, as I said. When I got that message, the first thing I checked was that it was not read only, and it isn't. The conquests.ini file is in Civilization III/Conquests/, and the auto save folder is in Civilization III/Conquests/Saves/, which is where it is supposed to be, and the correct directory is selected in the setup for MapFinder.

Would you post a copy of your "Conquests.INI" file? I would like to try it with your INI file to see if it make any different on my system. Thanks!

Guess I should have done this from the beginning. :blush:

[Conquests]
Voice Quality=0
ScrollSpeed=1
Prefs Format=2
Difficulty=0
Aggression=0
Top Menu=2
Faction0=4
Faction1=28
Faction2=26
Faction3=0
Faction4=5
Faction5=6
Faction6=7
Faction7=8
Faction8=32
Faction9=32
Faction10=32
Faction11=32
Faction12=32
Faction13=32
Faction14=32
Faction15=32
Faction16=32
Faction17=32
Faction18=32
Faction19=32
Faction20=32
Faction21=32
Faction22=32
Faction23=32
Faction24=32
Faction25=32
Faction26=32
Faction27=32
Faction28=32
Faction29=32
Faction30=32
num cities to eliminate=1
one city culture to win=20000
all cities culture to win=100000
domination pct terrain=66
domination % pop=66
building wonders=10
killing units=10
researching advances=5
capture cities=100
holding vp locations=25
capturing princess=1000
Victory Point Limit=50000
Turn Limit=540
Preferences=00000111011001111010111110000111
Rules=00000000000001001000000111011111
CleanMap=00000000000000011010111010000000
Governor=00000000000000000000000000000000
Gov Prod Never=00000000000000000000000000011000
Gov Prod Often=00000000000000000000000000000000
CustomLeaderName=
CustomLeaderTitle=
CustomFormalName=
CustomNoun=
CustomAdjective=
CustomGender=0
WorldAridity=2
BarbarianActivity=-1
WorldLandmass=2
WorldOceanCoverage=1
WorldTemperature=1
WorldAge=1
WorldSize=0
WorldSeed=1115831178
Latest Save=D:\Program Files\Infogrames Interactive\Civilization III\Conquests\saves\dman01_2550BC
Main Volume=127
Sound Volume=127
Music Volume=127
WorldSeedName=0
ActualWorldAridity=2
ActualBarbarianActivity=-1
ActualWorldLandmass=2
ActualWorldOceanCoverage=1
ActualWorldTemperature=1
ActualWorldAge=1
ActualWorldSize=0
ActualCiv0=4
ActualCiv1=28
ActualCiv2=26
ActualCiv3=0
ActualCiv4=5
ActualCiv5=6
ActualCiv6=7
ActualCiv7=8
ActualCiv8=-1
ActualCiv9=27
ActualCiv10=12
ActualCiv11=11
ActualCiv12=-1
ActualCiv13=27
ActualCiv14=12
ActualCiv15=28
ActualCiv16=-1
ActualCiv17=4
ActualCiv18=13
ActualCiv19=5
ActualCiv20=14
ActualCiv21=6
ActualCiv22=28
ActualCiv23=15
ActualCiv24=17
ActualCiv25=18
ActualCiv26=19
ActualCiv27=27
ActualCiv28=20
ActualCiv29=24
ActualCiv30=25
Seafaring=1
WindowsFileBox=0
Latest Scenario=Conquests\2 Rise of Rome.biq
MapZoom=0
PlayIntro=0
GridOn=0
noaipatrol=0

Not a problem! I could add another column on the far right. Anyway, I was thinking of adding another special display column using graphic icons. For example, if the map has three cows, 1 ivory, and 2 wheat, three icons of cows + 1 icon of ivory + 2 icons of wheats will be displayed. It would make it easier to spot that one special map, I think. What do you think?

Graphic icons would be a help especially beside the iteration# and save file link.

Oh, I noticed the iteration# being offset at every restart which is tolerable but you did fix it. However, I tried the new version and it did not work for some reason. I will try it again before making a major complaint.

On the first 2005 version, when I tried it a second time to give me 250 maps it locked up at 111. I think my system an 800Mhz Intel Celeron with 256Mb ram running Win98SE may not be able to handle as much new game & restarts as some of the newer machines. May want to provide some kind of warning/suggestion for older machines that they search for fewer maps (100 or less). Of course, it could just be me and nothing with general PC configurations or OS's. I guess we can wait and see if other users of older systems report a similar problem.....

EDIT:
I ran 2005 v2 a second time. This time it was setup for 250 maps and to restart after 30. 18000 for loading, 10000 for saving and 9000 for restarting. It ran fine and saved maps. Restarted after #30 and continued to save maps. Shut down C3C after #61 but did not restart. However, mapfinder continued to run counting and saving non-existant maps. Could there be a bug in there? (as well as my "old" system misbehaving)

To be complete I will try it with PTW and C3V and get back with you....

Guess I should have done this from the beginning. :blush:

[Conquests]
...
Latest Save=D:\Program Files\Infogrames Interactive\Civilization III\Conquests\saves\dman01_2550BC
...
noaipatrol=0

On your original error message you posted previously, you told MapFinder that your Conquests folder was installed in drive C but in the INI file you just posted, it said drive D. Please verify and give MapFinder the correct drive letter or wherever your C3C actually is.

Not too worry! I will make it work for Civ3 Complete...I wasn't aware that they changed C3C Window Caption/Title in Civ3 Complete. If you have some knowledge of window programming, you may have heard of a Windows API function called "FindWindow". What it does is to locate an instant of an application that is currently running in your system by searching for its window title/caption or window class. Since I do not have Civ3 Complete, there is no way for me to find out what they have changed it to, may be you can help me out on this one. Just do the following:

1. Launch your Civ3/ Complete, C3C or whatever on WinXP/2K (I hope you are running WinXP or Win2K if not, may be some one else can help)

2. While Civ is running, hit Ctrl+Alt+Delete to access the Windows Task Manager. Under the Application Task list, please tell me the exact the name/caption of the C3C window/application. For example, on my system it said "Sid Meiers's Civilization III: Conquests". I bet it says Civ3 Complete or whatever mumble jumble on your system. Just let me know exactly what it says and I will make it work for you. Thanks!


Good guess.... Sid Meier's Civilization III: Complete

I can't wait to run this on C3C... I have kicked out 5 or 6 nice maps with 3 or more cows for PTW in the short time I've had this awesome little program.

2005 v2
I tried it on Civ3 Vanilla last night with the same settings except the save directory was changed (of course)

I saw this morning that it had stopped at #211. I had an error message something about file parameter incorrect. I could not run any graphics programs to take a screen shot because Mapfinder and Civ3 were using up my resources. I did manage to manually save the map that the error occured on and will include that in this post (See it below labeled #211_parameter_incorrect.zip). Maybe you can use it to determine what caused the error whether that be Civ3, Mapfinder or something else specific to my system.

PS. I almost always play on Huge maps and that was the type of map I was saving. If that helps any....

Wonder how I missed that? Thanks, Moonsinger!

Update: MapFinder 2005v2.1 (edited: link deleted)

Adding two more features:

For Trooper4985, it should now detect "Sid Meier's Civilization III: Complete". I am assuming that Civ3 Complete is just another name of C3C, am I right? Anyway, if my assumption was correct, it should recognize Civ3 Complete now.

For Tzar Sasha and those that are using older and slower system, you are now have complete control of two generic sleep functions (time delays). You can adjust it in File/Setup/Extra (it's just another TAB in the setup screen). The two sleep functions are as follows:

A. Time delay/sleep between keystrokes -> If you press a key in Civ3, you must give it time to process. MapFinder will put itself to sleep during the wait time. For example, if you press ESC key in Civ3/PTW/C3C, it will take time for the Civ program to process that keystrokes. The default setting is 100ms which is good enough for most system of 1.3 GHz or above. For slower system, you may want to increase that to 500ms or more. Btw, 500 mili-seconds is equal to a half second.

B. Time delay/sleep between Civ Dialog -> The Civ dialogs (small popup window in Civ3) would naturally take Civ3/PTW/C3C more CPU time to process than the keystrokes. For slower and older system, you may want to increase that to 5000 ms or 5 seonds. The default is set to 1000ms (1 second) which is perfect for my system.

Basically, just like in real life, if we sleep less, we would have more time to do things. However, if we don't get enough sleep, our body functions may not work correctly or effectively. If MapFinder doesn't give Civ3 application enough time to process, eventually it will overload Civ3 messages buffer and may cause the system to run out of resources. On the other hand, if MapFinder give Civ3 too much time (by putting itself to a lot of extra sleep), it won't be very productive either. It may take some times to fine tune it to work with your older system.

Thank you Moonsinger. This new revision works great.

Your suggestions at changing the new timers are just right for my system.

I think I found a new bug. I told mapfinder to stop after finding 250 acceptable maps. The only requirement was that there had to be at least 1 ivory. After testing 250 maps, it stopped on #251 and showed the report with only 3 acceptable maps. This had nothing to do with my system resources as nothing was actually locked up unlike the other times. Should it not continue checking maps until it finds 250 maps with ivory, even if it has to check 250,000 maps?

I will do some further tests at lower #'s but I fear that the # of acceptable maps entry is actually the # of maps to test...

EDIT: I ran it again with C3C. This time I told it to stop after find 10 acceptable maps. To restart after 20 maps. And to save only maps that had a minimum of any 2 luxuries. On the 11 map, I had not had any saves and Mapfinder did not continue to search anymore maps. It did not generate a report presumably because there were no maps to report. I think somewhere the # of maps to accept is being confused with the # of maps searched.

Hm, I have two problem:
1) Once an acceptable map is found, the game isn't restarted, but the iteration counts on and on, saving the same start over and over again. Have to stop mapfinder, and close the save location box to get it to restart.
2) Sugar is counted as Food Bonus. Would exclude that, since it simply is none in Despotism (and that's what the game is about, when we're only looking at the start).

Hm, I have two problem:
1) Once an acceptable map is found, the game isn't restarted, but the iteration counts on and on, saving the same start over and over again. Have to stop mapfinder, and close the save location box to get it to restart.


Logically, when an acceptable map is found, MapFinder will ask Civ3 to save the game for you. Note: The offical SAV file is compressed where the AUTOSAVE file isn't. Anyway, since it seems to stop working at this point, it can mean only one thing, you didn't give it enough time to save the game; therefore, you need to increase the "Time Delay for Saving".

2) Sugar is counted as Food Bonus. Would exclude that, since it simply is none in Despotism (and that's what the game is about, when we're only looking at the start).

For the time being, if you are really looking for food bonus, just tell it to look for cows. I will reprogram it to not consider "sugar" as food in the next release. Thanks for pointing that out.

Thank you Moonsinger. This new revision works great.

Your suggestions at changing the new timers are just right for my system.

I'm glad it worked!:)

I think I found a new bug. I told mapfinder to stop after finding 250 acceptable maps. The only requirement was that there had to be at least 1 ivory. After testing 250 maps, it stopped on #251 and showed the report with only 3 acceptable maps. This had nothing to do with my system resources as nothing was actually locked up unlike the other times. Should it not continue checking maps until it finds 250 maps with ivory, even if it has to check 250,000 maps?

I will do some further tests at lower #'s but I fear that the # of acceptable maps entry is actually the # of maps to test...

EDIT: I ran it again with C3C. This time I told it to stop after find 10 acceptable maps. To restart after 20 maps. And to save only maps that had a minimum of any 2 luxuries. On the 11 map, I had not had any saves and Mapfinder did not continue to search anymore maps. It did not generate a report presumably because there were no maps to report. I think somewhere the # of maps to accept is being confused with the # of maps searched.

Thanks for locating that bugs! You are probably right about me getting confused between the acceptable counter with the run counter. I will fix that next.

Update: MapFinder 2005v2.2 (http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads8/MapFinder2005v2r2.zip)

Correct two tiny bugs:

1. MapFinder will stop when it reaches the total # of acceptable..

2. Sugar is no longer counted as food bonus (at least not in Despotism).

MapFinder 2005 is a Sweeeeeeet program. Thank you Moonsinger & Dianthus! :goodjob: :goodjob:

One question:
Does the program currently distinguish between a "Fresh-Water" Lake & a "Salt-Water" Coastal square?
These can BOTH be important & DIFFERENT requirements for Cultural Victories. (I.e. "non-Aqueduct" v Colossus considerations.) ;)

MapFinder 2005 is a Sweeeeeeet program. Thank you Moonsinger & Dianthus! :goodjob: :goodjob:

One question:
Does the program currently distinguish between a "Fresh-Water" Lake & a "Salt-Water" Coastal square?
These can BOTH be important & DIFFERENT requirements for Cultural Victories. (I.e. "non-Aqueduct" v Colossus considerations.) ;)

I second EMan on both counts! Very nice additions. But, now that I can get it to run fast enough, to actually watch it, I have noticed there are many maps that would have met all the prerequisites, except they didn't containing a river, but they do have a lake, which does the same thing. Is there a way to select "Contains Fresh-Water"?

Thanks again for this awesome utility.
Tim

Is there a way to select "Contains Fresh-Water"?

I would need to update the dll to find this information before Moonsinger could present it in the GUI. I don't currently know where this information is stored in the .sav file, if at all. I believe there is a number of tiles over which a group of coast becomes saltwater. Does anyone know what this threshold is?

Is it possible to differentiate Coastal squares by checking the Food Count for the square? (viz. Lake=2, Coast=1) :)

Food count isn't stored with the tile. Each tile has an index into the natural resources in the bic section, and each natural resource has a food count. I guess there must be a hard coded modifier for salt/fresh water, which isn't currently taken into account in my code.

I have messed around in the editor in the past trying to figure out a formula for fresh water lake but without success. In a real game, some huge body of water could be fresh and some small body of water could be salty. The only way for me to find out in the editor was that it won't allow me to put whale in fresh water ocean. Perhaps, someone can ask their friends at Firaxis. My guess is that they must have a subroutine (during runtime) to determine the body type of water. Anyway, I can't do anything in the GUI until you guys figure out the fresh water formula and until after Dianthus has time to include that in his DLL.

I have messed around in the editor in the past trying to figure out a formula for fresh water lake but without success. In a real game, some huge body of water could be fresh and some small body of water could be salty.

That's interesting Moonsinger, I'll take a look into it. There are still a (low) number of bytes I don't know about for the tiles, and it's possible that salt/fresh is one of the things contained there.




The only way for me to find out in the editor was that it won't allow me to put whale in fresh water ocean.

I didn't even know that freshwater ocean was possible!


Did you mean freshwater Sea? Whales aren't allowed in Ocean!

Dianthus: I decided to get to the bottom of this issue, may be this save game will help you figure out the fresh water tile. As seen in the screen shot, we can have whale, ocean, and sea in the fresh water lake. Anyway, you are correct that we can't have whale in ocean tile.;)

I've been doing some checking too. From the examples I've messed around with 20 tiles seems to be the threshold. <=20 is fresh, >20 is salt. The +1 bonus for fresh applies to sea/ocean, so fresh sea is 2 food and fresh ocean is 1. This is easy for me to recognise, so I'll update savutils.dll.

Oh, I forgot to mention in my previous post that the huge body of water on the left of my capital is fresh and it has 1 ocean tile and 1 sea tile with 1 whale. Of course, the body of water surrounding the landmass is salt water. So one fresh and one salt, a perfect setup for further study.:)

//Edit: I'm too late...you already figure that out.

I thought that the deciding factor of weather it was fresh or not was related to the number of tiles it covered... It seems like 20 or 28 (or another arbirtary number) or less

Btw, what is the yellow diamond at the center of each tile on my screen shot? I have never seen that before. Is that a new feature in version C3C 1.22? Sorry, I have been away for so long.

I've been doing some checking too. From the examples I've messed around with 20 tiles seems to be the threshold. <=20 is fresh, >20 is salt.

Is this number the same for all map size?

The yellow diamond indicates landmark terrain. The 20 tile threshhold should be for all C3C maps. Vanilla & PTW might be different.

I'm pretty sure the 20 tile threshold will be the same for Vanilla/PTW, but I'll check and make sure.

BTW, Moonsinger, you've got mail ;).


I just checked, and the threshold is still 20 for a huge Vanilla map.

I intent to implement the GUI for fresh water as follows:

1. Change the option to set minimum # of river to minimum # of fresh water source (the total amount of fresh water = total number of rivers + total number of lakes)

2. I will leave the option for maximum # of river alone. Therefore, if you just want lake and no river, you can just set the maximum # of river to zero and the minimum # of fresh water to one.

Of course, I also add an additional feature stop automatically whenever MapFinder see C3C causing a critical system error. I don't know what is going on there with C3C, but if MapFinder see that error, it will stop itself to avoid overloading the keyboard buffer. This problem appears to happen only in C3C (once in a blue moon); Vanila Civ3 and PTW could run forever without any problem.

I've been using MapFinder recently. The latest version runs for much longer than last years one :goodjob:. I've had the following error twice though:
http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads8/mferror.png

This occured after around 700 iterations the first time, and around 400 the second. Civ is currently showing a map that matches the criteria, and there is a .sav file in my c:\Civ3Map dir, but no .jpg file. I wanted to keep that map, so I did a printscreen and went to paste into paintbrush, and got a clipboard error. After closing mapfinder I could then do the printscreen then paste. I'm wondering if maybe you're not tidying up the clipboard resources? Just a hunch...

Tzar Sasha
The only other thing I can think of right now is that I can now see Ivory and all the other stuff on the final report. Could a small change be made to the report view? I'd like to see ( and for people with not so large resolutions) the iteration# at both ends and at least once in the middle of the colums. I found a map that had Ivory but when I scrolled back to the left I lost my place and could not figure out which map it was.

Not a problem! I could add another column on the far right. Anyway, I was thinking of adding another special display column using graphic icons. For example, if the map has three cows, 1 ivory, and 2 wheat, three icons of cows + 1 icon of ivory + 2 icons of wheats will be displayed. It would make it easier to spot that one special map, I think. What do you think?
I've had a similar but slightly different idea about how the columns can be narrowed. The columns are much wider than they really need to be, mainly due to the width of the text in the header row. How about replacing the text with icons that have the names as their alternative text. I've produced an example as follows :) :
http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads8/example.png

You'll just have to imagine the cursor hovering over the sugar icon.

I've been using MapFinder recently. The latest version runs for much longer than last years one :goodjob:. I've had the following error twice though:
http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads8/mferror.png

This occured after around 700 iterations the first time, and around 400 the second. Civ is currently showing a map that matches the criteria, and there is a .sav file in my c:\Civ3Map dir, but no .jpg file. I wanted to keep that map, so I did a printscreen and went to paste into paintbrush, and got a clipboard error. After closing mapfinder I could then do the printscreen then paste. I'm wondering if maybe you're not tidying up the clipboard resources? Just a hunch...

Now, that's strange! Since I use only static variables (no pointer, link list, or dynamic array of any type), I don't really see how it could possibly running out of storage memory. Of course, God know what may be going on in the JPEG compression module...I will have to study this problem further. In the mean time, would you try to increase the Time Delay in the Extra setup option to see if it solves the problem.

I've had a similar but slightly different idea about how the columns can be narrowed. The columns are much wider than they really need to be, mainly due to the width of the text in the header row. How about replacing the text with icons that have the names as their alternative text. I've produced an example as follows :) :
http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads8/example.png

You'll just have to imagine the cursor hovering over the sugar icon.

That's a cool idea, Dianthus! :goodjob: I have the new version ready, but I will delay it until I include your idea in the report (soon).

I've had a similar but slightly different idea about how the columns can be narrowed. The columns are much wider than they really need to be, mainly due to the width of the text in the header row. How about replacing the text with icons that have the names as their alternative text. I've produced an example as follows :) :
http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads8/example.png

You'll just have to imagine the cursor hovering over the sugar icon.
I like the idea. :goodjob: It should shorten up the width quite a bit. Could you, however, test it on a screen res of 1024x768? If there is still a sidewise scrollbar on that test, could you please add a 2nd iteration# column on the right side? :)
Thanks....

could you please add a 2nd iteration# column on the right side? :)

This obsession with the iteration# has to be stopped.;) I will post the new version in a few minutes (with a 2nd iteration# as requested).

Update: MapFinder 2005v2.3 (http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads8/MapFinder2005v2r3.zip)

This baby will now do "lake" as we have discussed previously and some new stuffs.

Now, that's strange! Since I use only static variables (no pointer, link list, or dynamic array of any type), I don't really see how it could possibly running out of storage memory.

I missed telling you about a symptom. I checked Task Manager while Map Finder/Civ were still running and I still had 450Mb of physical memory free. This was at the point I could even paste into Paint.




Of course, God know what may be going on in the JPEG compression module...I will have to study this problem further. In the mean time, would you try to increase the Time Delay in the Extra setup option to see if it solves the problem.
Sure, I'll try that. I'm just about to start MapFinder before I go to work.

I missed telling you about a symptom. I checked Task Manager while Map Finder/Civ were still running and I still had 450Mb of physical memory free. This was at the point I could even paste into Paint.

You are probably right! I will check the ScreenCapture subroutine...Just curious, what is the speed of your processor?

Since it takes the screen shot ONLY for acceptable maps, that may explain the different between 700 iterations the first round and 400 iterations the second round. Would you increase the delay time for saving by a couple more seconds (since it also saves ONLY acceptable maps, that won't slow anything down).

//Edit: I forgot to ask...was it with C3C or PTW?

I think I set the times to 1 or 2 seconds, I'll let you know when I get home from work. My PC is a 2.25GHz P4, no hyper threading. 1Gb memory. I'm running C3C 1.22 on XP Pro.

I think I set the times to 1 or 2 seconds, I'll let you know when I get home from work. My PC is a 2.25GHz P4, no hyper threading. 1Gb memory. I'm running C3C 1.22 on XP Pro.

I think your setting is a little bit too fast. I have run MapFinder with over 5000 iterations on one shot without any problem before. In fact, I'm currently running the latest version at home right now (will see how far it will go). My system is actually a P4 2.8 GHz with 1Gig of PC4400 on XP Pro. I usually overlocked it to around 3.4 GHz, but when I'm not home, let set it back to normal at 2.8 GHz.

I've just realised I haven't reported on MapFinders last run! MapFinder was still running when I got in from work. Unfortunately C3C wasn't :(. It had found 36 good maps and rejected 2489 though, so it processed a lot more than previously.

My settings for that run were:
Time (ms) delay for Loading Game: 8000
Time (ms) delay for Saving Game: 3000
Restart C3C after every 50 interations
Time (ms) delay before restarting C3C: 15000

Time (ms) delay/sleep between keystrokes: 500
Time (ms) delay/sleep between Civ Dialogs: 2000

Note that I'm generating Tiny maps, and those times for Loading/Saving the game are WAY higher than needed. I set them high to try and get it running for longer.

I like the idea. :goodjob: It should shorten up the width quite a bit. Could you, however, test it on a screen res of 1024x768? If there is still a sidewise scrollbar on that test, could you please add a 2nd iteration# column on the right side? :)
Thanks....
I've created an example doc using images for all except the 1st 4 column headers. It fits in 1024 on my computer. I've also made it repeat the header every 20 rows, and I can show the header+20 rows with 768 height, so allowing the header to be seen no matter where the scrollbar is. Take a look and see what you think, it's <here> (http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads8/MapFinderDoc.zip)

Feel free to use it Moonsinger. Please :). You might be interested in the html as I changed it a bit to make it smaller, just couldn't help myself. I'm such a sad geek!

I've just realised I haven't reported on MapFinders last run! MapFinder was still running when I got in from work. Unfortunately C3C wasn't :(. It had found 36 good maps and rejected 2489 though, so it processed a lot more than previously.

My settings for that run were:
Time (ms) delay for Loading Game: 8000
Time (ms) delay for Saving Game: 3000
Restart C3C after every 50 interations
Time (ms) delay before restarting C3C: 15000

Time (ms) delay/sleep between keystrokes: 500
Time (ms) delay/sleep between Civ Dialogs: 2000

Note that I'm generating Tiny maps, and those times for Loading/Saving the game are WAY higher than needed. I set them high to try and get it running for longer.

That's good! Your settings seem to be alright; however, if it's still giving you trouble, try this:

1. Restart C3C after every 30 ilterations. This would virtually eliminate all errors that may cause by C3C.

2. Increase the Time (ms) delay/sleep between Civ Dialogs to 3000.

3. Increase Time (ms) delay for Saving Game to 9000. Since it would save ONLY when it finds acceptable map, no harm in pummping that number up.

That's it...I'm sure (99.99% sure) that you should be able to run MapFinder none-stop "forever" or for at least a week without any problem. I have done further testing on individual subroutines and found absolutely no bug of any type. Therefore, I'm 99.99% sure that MapFinder is bug free at the moment.:)

PS: After I get home tonight (about 18 more hours to go), I will change the format of the report to what you have suggested. Thanks a lot for your hard work!:)

Update: MapFinder 2005v2.4 (http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads8/MapFinder2005v2r4.zip)

Changed the report style to what Dianthus had suggested. FYI, you can re-create your previous report by using "Generate Report" from the File menu.

I've created an example doc using images for all except the 1st 4 column headers. It fits in 1024 on my computer. I've also made it repeat the header every 20 rows, and I can show the header+20 rows with 768 height, so allowing the header to be seen no matter where the scrollbar is. Take a look and see what you think, it's <here> (http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads8/MapFinderDoc.zip)

Feel free to use it Moonsinger. Please :). You might be interested in the html as I changed it a bit to make it smaller, just couldn't help myself. I'm such a sad geek!

I thought you can see more than 25 rows with 1024x766 resolution, so I set the column headers to be repeated in every 25 rows instead. Please let me know if you can see it ok with 25 rows (for some reason, I thought 25 was a cool number). Sorry, It was too early and I didn't see the number "20" on your post before I posted the update.

I thought you can see more than 25 rows with 1024x766 resolution, so I set the column headers to be repeated in every 25 rows instead. Please let me know if you can see it ok with 25 rows (for some reason, I thought 25 was a cool number). Sorry, It was too early and I didn't see the number "20" on your post before I posted the update.
I'm sure 25 rows will be OK on my 1600x1200 :). I'll leave it to Tzar Sasha to shout if it doesn't fit in 1024x768.

Around noon yesterday, I set MapFinder 2005v2.3 to run on my old computer here in the office. It's just a P3 1GHz with 512K of RAM, WinXP with C3C 1.22. My Time Delay for Loading was at 13000ms, Time Delay for Saving at 15000ms, C3C to restart at 30 iterations with a restart delay of 16000ms, keyboard delay at 500ms and dialogs delay at 5000ms. My criteria was for huge empire map with minimum domination limit of 4400, 1 source of fresh water and at least 1 food bonus. It has been running non-stop for almost 20 hours now and I'm going to let it run through the weekend...this version seem extremely stable....probably becuase I rebuilt, redesigned, and recoded its main interface from scratch. Anyway, I will post its result on Monday. So far, it has rejected about 4500 maps and keep 20.:)

I'm sure 25 rows will be OK on my 1600x1200 :). I'll leave it to Tzar Sasha to shout if it doesn't fit in 1024x768.
Personally, I liked the 20. :goodjob: I had to remove some toolbars on my browser to see all 20 rows between each icon bar. However, 25 will work. It's only 5 more rows. I shouldn't get too lost... :lol:

Personally, I liked the 20. :goodjob: I had to remove some toolbars on my browser to see all 20 rows between each icon bar. However, 25 will work. It's only 5 more rows. I shouldn't get too lost... :lol:

If you have more than 25 rows, more headers will appear and you can use them as footers.;)

Okay, maybe it's a timer thing... I don't know.
I just checked on Mapfinder 2.4 and it has stopped.
Results were 7 maps acceptable and 536 maps rejected.
Settings were for 250 maps acceptable.
There is a message at the bottom of the Mapfinder window that says "Mapfinder stopped because the correct version of Civ is not running!" Yet you could plainly see C3C v1.22 in the background at year 4000BC of an unacceptable map.
Timer settings were/are:
16000 loading
10000 saving
15000 restart
500 keystrokes
5000 civ dialogs
These all seemed to be ample timings.... Any suggestions as to what went wrong?
I've got an 800mhz Celeron with 250MB ram.... Do I need to increase the timing and if so which?

All this discussion about timing makes me wonder if Mapfinders defaults shouldn't be set perhaps twice as long as needed for a slow system and let the players with fast systems tweak it if they desire. A readme.txt would be a good place to put the instructions. I actually haven't tried it yet because the lack of a readme.txt file and this discussion makes it sound like a trial and error till it runs right utility.

Okay, maybe it's a timer thing... I don't know.
I just checked on Mapfinder 2.4 and it has stopped.
Results were 7 maps acceptable and 536 maps rejected.
Settings were for 250 maps acceptable.
There is a message at the bottom of the Mapfinder window that says "Mapfinder stopped because the correct version of Civ is not running!" Yet you could plainly see C3C v1.22 in the background at year 4000BC of an unacceptable map.

Timer settings were/are:
16000 loading
10000 saving
15000 restart
500 keystrokes
5000 civ dialogs
These all seemed to be ample timings.... Any suggestions as to what went wrong?
I've got an 800mhz Celeron with 250MB ram.... Do I need to increase the timing and if so which?

Sorry, that message is a little bit mis-leading since sometimes it has nothing to do with the correct version of C3C. Here is exactly how it happened:

In the latest edition, I added a feature to track the timestamp of the autosave game file. If the autosave timestamp doesn't change when Civ3 save the game, that mean it has detected an incorrect autosave directory or something is wrong with the saving process. For example, if you point MapFinder to an autosave directory for PTW, MapFinder would knows that it's wrong when it sees C3C running in the background. Pretty smart, right?;) I thought so!;) Anyway, in your situation, it most likely happened as follows:

1. MapFinder was crusing just fine until around 543 iterations (536 rejected + 7 acceptable = 543 iterations) and C3C needed to be restarted. So far so good.

2. MapFinder gave order to your system to restart C3C and put itself to sleep or to wait for 15000ms.

3. After 15000ms, MapFinder waked up and attempt to order C3C to generate a new map. In the meantime, your system is a little bit busy and hadn't successfully launched C3C yet.

4. Because the timmer is out of synch in step #3, the time stamp of the autosave file remain the same; therefore, the reason for the wrong version message. Of course, I will re-word that message in the future. In any case, MapFinder was working correctly and this isn't a bug.

Anyway, to make the long story short and to solve this problem, all you have to do is to increase your C3C delay restart time to 20000ms or 25000ms. On a 800 MHz machine, it could easily take more than 15 seconds to launch C3C. You can time this by clicking on the C3C icon to launch it wait to see how long it actually take to come up. Therefore, 15 seconds (= 15000ms) is way too tight! Need to give it at least 5 more seconds to relax during the restart C3C process and it will be fine.

All this discussion about timing makes me wonder if Mapfinders defaults shouldn't be set perhaps twice as long as needed for a slow system and let the players with fast systems tweak it if they desire. A readme.txt would be a good place to put the instructions. I actually haven't tried it yet because the lack of a readme.txt file and this discussion makes it sound like a trial and error till it runs right utility.

In the latest release, I did adjust those default values to be compatible with a 2GHz machine. The original default will work fine for a 3.6 GHz system (which happened to be the clock speed of my system). Any way, if I'm going to recompile it, I will set the default to be compatible with a 400MHz machine...that is the minimum system requirement for Civ3.

I've gotten a couple more ideas for the program. However, I think it could be a secondary program in itself. If it's not possible I understand. These are just glitzy additions that may be beneficial to some people. I suppose if enough people like the ideas maybe they could be incorporated somehow....

1) I'd like to have the ability to sort the final results (or any report I generate) by any one of the terrain/food bonus/luxury items. I think the very top header icon could be used for the re-sort link.

2) I'd like to see the difficulty level for each map listed. The first letter of each would suffice (C, W, R, M, E, D, S). Some people may run Mapfinder at different levels for different reasons.

******
I've noticed something with the report generator. If Mapfinder finds the correct # of acceptable maps it will show only those maps in the report. If I tell Mapfinder to stop it will only show what has been found so far. However, if Mapfinder is shutdown by an error it will show all maps in the save directory not the ones found only so far.
Therefore, the results when there has been an error are skewed. There maybe a map that fits the search critera, but it was saved on a different difficulty level at an earlier time. This is where #2 above would come in handy. And #1 would allow you to sort the maps by difficulty, effectively moving most unwanted maps to the bottom.

I've gotten a couple more ideas for the program. However, I think it could be a secondary program in itself. If it's not possible I understand. These are just glitzy additions that may be beneficial to some people. I suppose if enough people like the ideas maybe they could be incorporated somehow....

1) I'd like to have the ability to sort the final results (or any report I generate) by any one of the terrain/food bonus/luxury items. I think the very top header icon could be used for the re-sort link.


That's cool but unless enough people are wanting that feature, I'm sure we can get buy without it. Of course, you could use VB or whatever language you like to sort it any way you like.

2) I'd like to see the difficulty level for each map listed. The first letter of each would suffice (C, W, R, M, E, D, S). Some people may run Mapfinder at different levels for different reasons.


******
I've noticed something with the report generator. If Mapfinder finds the correct # of acceptable maps it will show only those maps in the report. If I tell Mapfinder to stop it will only show what has been found so far. However, if Mapfinder is shutdown by an error it will show all maps in the save directory not the ones found only so far.
Therefore, the results when there has been an error are skewed. There maybe a map that fits the search critera, but it was saved on a different difficulty level at an earlier time. This is where #2 above would come in handy. And #1 would allow you to sort the maps by difficulty, effectively moving most unwanted maps to the bottom.

You could easily solve all those above problems by organizing your file folder appropriately. Before you run MapFinder, just start out with an empty directory (btw, you can name those folder as Deity, Sid, or whatever name you like to help you keeping track of them). Of course, you can always rename or move your map anyway you like after using MapFinder.

There are a lot of things I could add to this program...for example, I could auto-dectect the speed of your system and have it automatically setup all the Delay timers. I could even give MapFinder voice recognition's ability, but why? Since this isn't a commercial application and not too many people are using it, I really don't see the need for all those bells and whistles (at least, not yet).

That's cool but unless enough people are wanting that feature, I'm sure we can get buy without it. Of course, you could use VB or whatever language you like to sort it any way you like.


I took your advice and figured out how to sort the data. Unfortunately, it only sorts in an ascending order so the maps that are wanted are at the bottom of the list. I'm going to attach a sample of my work for you to see. If you want to incorporate it, that is fine. If you don't want to, that's fine too.

A bit of description/instruction:
Open MFindex.htm in your browser. The top frame contains the title, timestamp of the generated report, and text/graphic header. The second frame contains one blank header row with clickable underlines followed by the map data.
To sort simply click on the appropriate underline. The data will re-sort without reloading the page thanks to a free javascript. NOTE: Screen Shot and Save Game links only work on my pc. I did not include those files.

If I knew how to get the data from the save files into the HTML table I'd go ahead and put this together as a "MapFinder Companion" but alas I know not how... :(

If you decide you want to use this, and would like to have a noframes option your current report would work great for that albeit unsortable...
To make inputing data from Mapfinder into the HTML table easier, the timestamp can be put into the data frame instead of the title frame.

If I knew how to get the data from the save files into the HTML table I'd go ahead and put this together as a "MapFinder Companion" but alas I know not how... :(


That's easy! Since all the information you need are stored on the filename, you don't need to deal with the SAV files. Here is the format of the filename:

Iteration # (7 digits long) + grassland + floodplain + plain + forest + hill + jungle + desert + tundra + mountain + coastal + marsh + fresh water + cattle + fish + game + gold + oasis + sugar + tobacco + fruit + wheat + ivory + wine + dyes + furs + gems + incense + silks + spices + domatination limit (5 digit long)

Other than the Iteration # of 7 digits long and the domination limit of 5 digit long, the rest of them are single digit encoded in hex format. For example, "0000502-G00000001005-00000000200000000-04445.sav" -> iteration #502, 16 grassland (note: G=16; a normal 1 byte can store a hex digit of 0 to 15; from 16 to 25, it will be G,H,I,J,K,L,M,N,O,P accodringly; therefore P=25), 1 mountain, 5 fresh water source, 2 wheats, and domination limit of 4445.

That's easy! Since all the information you need are stored on the filename, you don't need to deal with the SAV files. Here is the format of the filename:

Iteration # (7 digits long) + grassland + floodplain + plain + forest + hill + jungle + desert + tundra + mountain + coastal + marsh + fresh water + cattle + fish + game + gold + oasis + sugar + tobacco + fruit + wheat + ivory + wine + dyes + furs + gems + incense + silks + spices + domatination limit (5 digit long)
I knew this. But I don't know how to tell the html page to read the filenames and input the data into the correct table cells. Isn't this something that is incorporated into the Mapfinder DLL or EXE?

Other than the Iteration # of 7 digits long and the domination limit of 5 digit long, the rest of them are single digit encoded in hex format. For example, "0000502-G00000001005-00000000200000000-04445.sav" -> iteration #502, 16 grassland (note: G=16; a normal 1 byte can store a hex digit of 0 to 15; from 16 to 25, it will be G,H,I,J,K,L,M,N,O,P accodringly; therefore P=25), 1 mountain, 5 fresh water source, 2 wheats, and domination limit of 4445.

Now that just confuses me....



I guess I'll just wait and see if anybody else likes the idea. If enough do, maybe you'll add it. If not, oh well. I can generate the report with an earlier version and copy/paste the data table into the sortable table page for myself at least..........

There are some very nice html table sort scripts out there. Here is a sample.

The 4 changes you need to make to Index.htm are marked inside the file.

Would it be possible to find goody huts in the starting radius?

There are some very nice html table sort scripts out there. Here is a sample.

The 4 changes you need to make to Index.htm are marked inside the file.

Thanks Dave! That script is very cool! Just change four easy line of codes and the html table will be sorted.:) I was about to go ahead with the modification then I remember something....they also want the header to be repeated in every 20 or 25 rows; therefore, defeating the purpose of sorting! Would you all talk it over and tell me what to do next?

Option #1: Table can be sorted by column header
Option #2: Column Header will be repeated in every 25 rows.

Please tell me which one you would like. Either #1 or #2 but not both! Of course, I could add a switch for each of you to pick which report style that you like best, but do we really want to go there? Personally, I like to go with option #1.

Would it be possible to find goody huts in the starting radius?

You need to ask Dianthus about that!

Please tell me which one you would like. Either #1 or #2 but not both! Of course, I could add a switch for each of you to pick which report style that you like best, but do we really want to go there? Personally, I like to go with option #1.
I would prefer #1 if I had to choose. Hopefully the sorting will be able to bring the ones I'm most interested in to the top anyway, so excessive scrolling wouldn't be necessay.





Would it be possible to find goody huts in the starting radius?

You need to ask Dianthus about that!
Yes, that's possible. I'll add that information to the SAVUtils.dll and pass it on to Moonsinger at some point.

I vote #1.

Thank you Moonsinger & Dianthus for all the time and effort you've put in on this program! :goodjob: :goodjob: (Firaxis would be smart business people to be watching this thread.................in fact, if they want to produce a Great Civ 4, they'd better have someone assigned to study the whole CFC!)

P.s. Hmmmm, thinking out loud.....Is there a way to require "Shielded Grassland" in the selection criteria.......this really is a super Bonus for the starting city. :)

P.s. Hmmmm, thinking out loud.....Is there a way to require "Shielded Grassland" in the selection criteria.......this really is a super Bonus for the starting city. :)
Currently I don't provide that information to Moonsinger. Maybe I'll add that to SAVUtils.dll at the same time I do the goody huts ;).

Currently I don't provide that information to Moonsinger. Maybe I'll add that to SAVUtils.dll at the same time I do the goody huts ;).

Shielded grassland would be a great addition! Thanks Dianthus!:)

FYI: MapFinder has been running none stop four almost 3 straight day now at my old P3-1GHz machine here in the office. So far, it has generated more than 17 thousand maps and still going, I'm telling you...this version is extremely stable.:):):) If it doesn't work on your system, it usually means that you aren't giving it enough DELAY time. Therefore, I probably will include a new feature to automatically detect the speed of your system and adjust the DELAY timing accordingly (of course, you can always manually fine tune it, but I will give you some warnings if your input values are too small or too big). Btw, it has accepted only about 100 maps so far; the maximum domination limit is 4548...will see if it gets any bigger. Anyway, I'm going to let it continue to run for another week to see what happen...

Btw, it has accepted only about 100 maps so far ... Anyway, I'm going to let it continue to run for another week to see what happen...
You mentioned previously that the problem might be related to the number of acceptable maps rather than the number checked as the screenshot is only taken for the acceptable ones. I was using quite a loose acceptance criteria. I had no limit on the domination. The only limit was 1 or more cattle. This was accepting roughly 1 in 20 maps. I've changed this to 2 or more cattle for today's run. Another thing I was wondering. Could it be related to the size of the screenshot? What screen resolution are you using for Civ? Maybe I ought to revert to 1024x768 for civ when using MapFinder?

I would prefer #1 if I had to choose. Hopefully the sorting will be able to bring the ones I'm most interested in to the top anyway, so excessive scrolling wouldn't be necessay.

I believe it's possible to script the column label as footer floating at the bottom of the screen at all time. Therefore, it doesn't matter how far we have to scroll, the column header would always be there on the screen. Sadly, I don't know much about HTML and Java script! So if anyone can teach me how to do that, I will be happy to include it in the report. Thanks!

You mentioned previously that the problem might be related to the number of acceptable maps rather than the number checked as the screenshot is only taken for the acceptable ones. I was using quite a loose acceptance criteria. I had no limit on the domination. The only limit was 1 or more cattle. This was accepting roughly 1 in 20 maps. I've changed this to 2 or more cattle for today's run. Another thing I was wondering. Could it be related to the size of the screenshot? What screen resolution are you using for Civ? Maybe I ought to revert to 1024x768 for civ when using MapFinder?

Good point! Since I set it to stop at 1000 acceptable maps, will see if it blows up when it finds more acceptable map... Let me see...3 days for 100, that mean it will take about a month to get all the way to 1000 acceptable maps.

PS: 1024x768 is my screen resolution. It's an old system and its video card won't support anything higher than that.

Good point! Since I set it to stop at 1000 acceptable maps, will see if it blows up when it finds more acceptable map... Let me see...3 days for 100, that mean it will take about a month to get all the way to 1000 acceptable maps.

PS: 1024x768 is my screen resolution. It's an old system and its video card won't support anything higher than that.
It might be easier to test it with MapFinder set up to accept ALL maps. I'll give this a try tonight with different screen resolutions and let you know how I get on.

Option #1: Table can be sorted by column header
Option #2: Column Header will be repeated in every 25 rows.

Please tell me which one you would like. Either #1 or #2 but not both! Of course, I could add a switch for each of you to pick which report style that you like best, but do we really want to go there? Personally, I like to go with option #1.

#1 of course :D

Well, I've done a number of runs with the criteria set so that all maps are accepted. I managed to repeat the clipboard problem every time, but after varying numbers of iterations. After some of these the clipboard wouldn't capture a full screen even after shutting down both Civ and MapFinder. I rebooted before each of these tests just to make sure. In 1600x1200 it failed after 51, 52 & 48 iterations, at 1024x768 it failed after 104 & 156 iterations. I guess I'll just have to run in 1024x768 and make sure my acceptance criteria are more selective. I don't know what I was thinking setting cattle to 1 anyway!

Well, I've done a number of runs with the criteria set so that all maps are accepted. I managed to repeat the clipboard problem every time, but after varying numbers of iterations. After some of these the clipboard wouldn't capture a full screen even after shutting down both Civ and MapFinder. I rebooted before each of these tests just to make sure. In 1600x1200 it failed after 51, 52 & 48 iterations, at 1024x768 it failed after 104 & 156 iterations. I guess I'll just have to run in 1024x768 and make sure my acceptance criteria are more selective. I don't know what I was thinking setting cattle to 1 anyway!

Thanks for the test to confirm that! I'm going to build a better clipboard soon. We have come this far, I'm not going to let the stupid clipboard to stop us.

Thanks for the test to confirm that! I'm going to build a better clipboard soon. We have come this far, I'm not going to let the stupid clipboard to stop us.
I'm happy with it the way it is, I just wanted to confirm my suspicion. Now I know it's OK as long as I don't accept too many maps it's easily avoidable. Don't spend lots of time on this when you could be doing something more interesting!

I'm happy with it the way it is, I just wanted to confirm my suspicion. Now I know it's OK as long as I don't accept too many maps it's easily avoidable. Don't spend lots of time on this when you could be doing something more interesting!

So far, I haven't found any better function for capturing the screen yet...I'm going to take your advice and go easy on that for awhile. FYI, after about 23K iterations, my system was shutdown by power failure. Oh well, that is the longest time (about over 4 days) I have ever run MapFinder none-stop with C3C. I got 112 acceptable maps but only 5 of those got 2 cows at the starting position.

I'm going to do the tablesort for the report and fix the miss-leading message that Tzar found the other day. I will have that update ready when I get home tonight.

Dianthus & Moonsinger:

I would like to add my thanks to all your work on this truly inspired utility application.

I would like to add my Vote for #1 … sorted

I would also like the idea of bonus grasslands sometime in the future.

I look forward to getting the newest version tomorrow, if everything goes according to Moonsinger’s plans.

TimHobbit

I would also like the idea of bonus grasslands sometime in the future.

I look forward to getting the newest version tomorrow, if everything goes according to Moonsinger’s plans.

So long as you don't expect the bonus grasslands tomorrow, I haven't started my part yet ;).

So long as you don't expect the bonus grasslands tomorrow, I haven't started my part yet ;).


What I want.
What I expect.
What I get.

Are usually three completely different things!

TimHobbit

So long as you don't expect the bonus grasslands tomorrow, I haven't started my part yet ;).

Sorry! I forgot all about the bonus grassland.:blush: I guess I could cut a version tonight and another one for bonus grassland later.

Great catch on the clipboard problem Dianthus! I hadn't input any criteria in for Mapfinder before running it lately and it was crashing after 100 maps. Now that I've tightened the restrictions, it still crashes but after 100 acceptable maps instead of just 100!

I am running Civ 3 Gold and Mapfinder does not recognize that I am running PTW. The name on the task bar is:
Sid Meier's Civilization III: Gold

Is this how mapfinder recognizes PTW is running or am I doing something wrong?

Another vote for #1. :)

Update: MapFinder 2005v2.5 (http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads8/MapFinder2005v2r5b.zip)

1. Report now can be sorted by clicking on column header
2. Attempt to recover from tempo out of synch...only happen once in a blue moon, but I went ahead to compensate for it anyway.

Enjoy!

I am running Civ 3 Gold and Mapfinder does not recognize that I am running PTW. The name on the task bar is:
Sid Meier's Civilization III: Gold

Is this how mapfinder recognizes PTW is running or am I doing something wrong?

Version 2.5 should now recongize "Sid Meier's Civilization III: Gold"; I'm assuming that this is the title of PTW. Since I don't have Civ3 Gold, I have no way of knowing for sure.

I wanna use my first post of the year to say thankyou, Moonsinger and Dianthus.
I'm running MapFinder with C3C on an elderly 1.1 GHz laptop and thus far it's been going for two nights and one day without any problems. woo-hoo!

Version 2.5 should now recongize "Sid Meier's Civilization III: Gold"; I'm assuming that this is the title of PTW. Since I don't have Civ3 Gold, I have no way of knowing for sure.

This works great. Now I just have to figure out the time delays to run it on my ancient 400 MHz machine withut glitches. Note that the default times work great after a fresh re-boot, but if I try running after shutting down Civ once it works intermittently.

This works great. Now I just have to figure out the time delays to run it on my ancient 400 MHz machine withut glitches. Note that the default times work great after a fresh re-boot, but if I try running after shutting down Civ once it works intermittently.

On a 400 MHz machine, I think the following time delay settings will work for you:

1. For Loading: 40,000 ms or 40 seconds.
2. For saving: 60,000 ms or 60 seconds
3. Restart C3C every 30 iterations...since you are playing PTW, you do not need to worry about this.
4. Delay for restarting C3C: 150,000ms...again this one doesn't apply to PTW.
5. Between keystrokes: 1000ms or 1 second
6. Between Civ Dialogs: 7000ms or 7 seonds

I wanna use my first post of the year to say thankyou, Moonsinger and Dianthus.
I'm running MapFinder with C3C on an elderly 1.1 GHz laptop and thus far it's been going for two nights and one day without any problems. woo-hoo!

That's great!:) Would you post the Time Delay Values that work for you? I'm going to put together a small list of values for each system types; hopefully, it will help someone to locate the correct set of Time Delay values for their system.

I'm happy to share these settings, which give me no trouble on my machine (1.13 GHz PIII laptop w/ Windows ME)

1. For Loading: 18,000 ms or 18 seconds.
2. For saving: 18,000 ms or 18 seconds
3. Restart C3C every 33 iterations...
4. Delay for restarting C3C: 24,000 ms...
5. Between keystrokes: 1500ms or 1.5 second
6. Between Civ Dialogs: 12000ms or 12 seonds

Most of the delays are probably longer than they need be, but I did notice that 18k ms was not long enough for 4 (delay to restart).

WHERE IS THE CIV III VANILLA VERSION? please post it! :blush:

WHERE IS THE CIV III VANILLA VERSION? please post it! :blush:
I haven't tested it, but I thought the current version should work with ALL versions of Civ! (I know the .sav file reading works). Have you changed the autosave dir to the correct one?

WHERE IS THE CIV III VANILLA VERSION? please post it! :blush:

As far as I know, any version of MapFinder has been working fine with vanilla Civ3 and PTW. Don't forget to specify the correct autosave directory of whatever version of CIV that you are playing; that's all.

PS: Dianthus was right about my screenshot function! I have re-tested MapFinder over and over again and found that the screenshot function would capture about 128 shots on my system => that means it will stop after keeping about 128 acceptable maps. Other than that, MapFinder would run forever without any problem; I have successfully run it none stop through over 28000 iterations without any problem. Sorry about the delay on releasing the next version...since my computer was busy finding maps non-stop during the last weekend.

As far as I know, any version of MapFinder has been working fine with vanilla Civ3 and PTW. Don't forget to specify the correct autosave directory of whatever version of CIV that you are playing; that's all.

PS: Dianthus was right about my screenshot function! I have re-tested MapFinder over and over again and found that the screenshot function would capture about 128 shots on my system => that means it will stop after keeping about 128 acceptable maps. Other than that, MapFinder would run forever without any problem; I have successfully run it none stop through over 28000 iterations without any problem. Sorry about the delay on releasing the next version...since my computer was busy finding maps non-stop during the last weekend.

Moonsinger, Noskcaj has a Machintosh, so the Windows version might not work..

Moonsinger, Noskcaj has a Machintosh, so the Windows version might not work..

Thanks, Chieftess!:) Yes, it might not work with Machintosh.

Would it be possible to have an option to have mapfinder save all maps over a certain limit no matter if it fits the other preferences..?

Reason I ask is after I got back to machine today, I saw the highest domination limit had been 4583(!) but ofcourse it had not fitted the river and cow I was looking for.. but I would sure have liked to have a look at that map no matter what :p

Would it be possible to have an option to have mapfinder save all maps over a certain limit no matter if it fits the other preferences..?

Reason I ask is after I got back to machine today, I saw the highest domination limit had been 4583(!) but ofcourse it had not fitted the river and cow I was looking for.. but I would sure have liked to have a look at that map no matter what :p

Sure! I will have an option for you to specify another directory and use it as a dumping ground for all the maps that have been generated (warning: unless you have a big enough hard drive, 5000 save games in one day could be a lot). However, since there is a bug with screen shot function (not sure if it is a bug within my program or within the Window API or whatever) to limit it to about 128 shots. Think of it as a camera with enough film for 128 shots. Therefore, I won't have it taking screenshot of those rejected games.

I meant more like under the extra tab, you could have an option to specify to always save games over a specified limit.. I would prolly set that to 4500 for 60% huge archepelagio.. most saves would be of no interest :)

Thou the ability to dump them into a different dir would be nice too :)

I meant more like under the extra tab, you could have an option to specify to always save games over a specified limit.. I would prolly set that to 4500 for 60% huge archepelagio.. most saves would be of no interest :)

That's cool! :cool: I think this would be a very nice option to have. I also will add another option to save all map with a minimum of 3 or more cows no matter what. Even with a low domination limit, three or more cows at the starting position may be fun to play.;)

That's cool! :cool: I think this would be a very nice option to have. I also will add another option to save all map with a minimum of 3 or more cows no matter what. Even with a low domination limit, three or more cows at the starting position may be fun to play.;)
That's pretty much what I've been doing. I'm not (too) worried about domination limit. I've just been searching for maps with 2 cows and looking especially at the ones with 3 cows or 2 cows+1 wheat. Has anyone noticed any correlation between civ and how good the start location is? I seemed to be getting much more 2 cow starts with the Babylonians than I am with the Sumerians.

That's pretty much what I've been doing. I'm not (too) worried about domination limit. I've just been searching for maps with 2 cows and looking especially at the ones with 3 cows or 2 cows+1 wheat. Has anyone noticed any correlation between civ and how good the start location is? I seemed to be getting much more 2 cow starts with the Babylonians than I am with the Sumerians.

I have noticed a correlation of good starting location with the number of AI civs on the map. For example, after about 5000 iterations searching for map with domination limit of 4400 with 2 cows, fresh water, and 15 AIs -> none was found. Once I decrease the number of the AI players down to 8, I found about 25 maps in about every 5000 iterations.

I'm wondering if it might be due to "Culturally linked start location". Maybe Bablyon's cultural location just happens to be good. I've tried with this both on and off with Sumeria and it doesn't seem to make much difference, though this is just subjective, no numbers to back up this gut feeling.

An even better extension would be ability to specify a logical expression for what to look for.. but that might be more work.. something like:

(dom > 4500) OR (cow > 2) OR (dom > 4400 AND water > 1 AND cow > 0 )

I'm wondering if it might be due to "Culturally linked start location". Maybe Bablyon's cultural location just happens to be good. I've tried with this both on and off with Sumeria and it doesn't seem to make much difference, though this is just subjective, no numbers to back up this gut feeling.

If you really want to get to the bottom of your gut feeling, you can just simply have MapFinder to generate 100 of maps then write a little utility program to automatically loop through and evaluate the Babylonian starting location in comparing to other civs.;)

Now, you have inspired me to add another option to "Enable/disable screen shot" function, just in case.;)

An even better extension would be ability to specify a logical expression for what to look for.. but that might be more work.. something like:

(dom > 4500) OR (cow > 2) OR (dom > 4400 AND water > 1 AND cow > 0 )

I have already thought of that years ago, but I was too lazy to implement a logic interpreter. If I take that route, I must also support complex logic such as:

((dom > 4500) or (cow > 2)) or (cow > 5) or (((....) and (...)) or (...)))

I think you get the idea....that's way too much programming for me.;) Of course, with enough inspiration, I probably will take that route.

I have already thought of that years ago, but I was too lazy to implement a logic interpreter. If I take that route, I must also support complex logic such as:

((dom > 4500) or (cow > 2)) or (cow > 5) or (((....) and (...)) or (...)))

I think you get the idea....that's way too much programming for me.;) Of course, with enough inspiration, I probably will take that route.

actually.. no matter how complex you write this, it is always possible to reduce the query into a line of :

(a and b and ...) or (c and d) or (e ) or (f and g and i) or ( ... ) ....

as an example:
(a or ((b or c) and d)) and (e or (not f)) is the same as:

(e and a ) or (g and a) or (e and b and d) or (e and c and d) or (g and b and d) or (g and c and d)

where g = (not f)
how do you make a not? well.. just invert the comparison.. dom > 4000 would become dom <= 4000.


but you really dont need this complex stuff for mapfinder I guess... any change would be an improvement... how about this:

you allow up to 2 (or perhaps 3 or 4 extra queries).. they each take the form of pulldown boxes with values..

dom > a (and) dom < b (and) water > c (and) food > d (and) lux > e

for food and lux you have 'food' and 'lux' as generic values, but pulldown lists with the individual food sources and luxes..

with this I would have my normal search running like now, but could set the first extra query list to dom > 4500 (leave b at 6000, c at -1 and d at -1)
2nd line I would select cow as food source and d to 2 (and leave the rest at default value..
and could have a 3rd line where I set e to 0 so I also get all maps with luxes in the starting position (or could set it to ivory if i wanted to be able to build SoZ)

One small thing: Can a Wine on Grass be counted as a bonus food?

One big thing:
I've been wondering if there is a way to generalize some fo the food bonuses. A cow on grass is not the same as a cow on plains. Similiarly, a Wheat has much different value if on grass, plains, or flood plains depending on what other sheild production is going on. Personally, I would be as happy with a grass-cow as I would with a plains-wheat.

I was thinking an alternate evaluation including a combo of Cracker's raw despot values and improved despot values. Refer to Cracker's page http://www.civfanatics.com/doc/civ3/cracker/civ3_starts/opening_plays.htm and go down a page or 2 to see his table of values.

If I could specify that I want to keep any saves that have X number of tiles that have at least value Y then we could get a lot more starts to look at.

One note on the screen-shot bug: On my ancient 400Mhz machine with 96MB memory it comes up with the error after saving 65 screen shots.

Just want to let you all know that I have fixed the Screen Shot bug and it's now can capture thousand of shots without any problem. I know this because I put it in an infinite loop and it ran without any problem.:) I will release that new version this weekend.

@MOTH: I will keep that in mind...If I have time, I will take care of that Simple Logic expression first so that you can script the exact criteria that you want...which mean you can script Cracker's criteria or whatever criteria yourself...killing two birds with one stone.:)

I have noticed a correlation of good starting location with the number of AI civs on the map.

More AIs = More strategic and luxury resources.
More strategic and luxury resources = less bonus resources.

Using Windows 2000, C3C, and MapFinder 2005v2r5b, I see some odd behavior. I first ran it on a setting that made it easy to find 10 acceptable maps, which it did. (It didn't stop running then, but that's not the problem.) I had Quick Start checked in mapfinder, and it did quick starts in C3C

Then I restarted everything. In C3C, I did New Game, changed the world settings (just in case), and got a new world. Then I started mapfinder and changed what is acceptable and let it go. Now the settler takes one move South, which it didn't do before, as I recall. But now mapfinder doesn't do quick starts any more.

This behavior repeats. The settler does a move south only on the first map of each run. I've increased the timings, but don't see any difference.

What could be causing this?

Using Windows 2000, C3C, and MapFinder 2005v2r5b, I see some odd behavior. I first ran it on a setting that made it easy to find 10 acceptable maps, which it did. (It didn't stop running then, but that's not the problem.) I had Quick Start checked in mapfinder, and it did quick starts in C3C

Then I restarted everything. In C3C, I did New Game, changed the world settings (just in case), and got a new world. Then I started mapfinder and changed what is acceptable and let it go. Now the settler takes one move South, which it didn't do before, as I recall. But now mapfinder doesn't do quick starts any more.

This behavior repeats. The settler does a move south only on the first map of each run. I've increased the timings, but don't see any difference.

What could be causing this?

You started a new game via New Game rather than Quick Start. Yet, Mapfinder was set for Quick Start. There are different commands programmed into Mapfinder for quickstart versus normal. Each set could have a different effect on C3C when starting the game in a way different than chosen in Mapfinder. I have not yet tried version 5b however, I've seen strange results in other versions with Mapfinder set on quickstart and C3C started with New game.

Try the following it is what I've done to avoid strange problems:

1. Start New game.
2. Setup the world the way you want it, with what civs etc...
3. When new game starts, exit back to main menu via New Game option.
4. At the main menu choose Quick start it will start a new game with the setting you just put in.

Or you could run Mapfinder without the quickstart option checked.

Now if Moonsinger or Dianthus have a better resolution, that's great. Go with their ideas. I'm just trying to help you work around the issue till they decide if it can be fixed....

You started a new game via New Game rather than Quick Start. Yet, Mapfinder was set for Quick Start. There are different commands programmed into Mapfinder for quickstart versus normal. Each set could have a different effect on C3C when starting the game in a way different than chosen in Mapfinder. I have not yet tried version 5b however, I've seen strange results in other versions with Mapfinder set on quickstart and C3C started with New game.

Try the following it is what I've done to avoid strange problems:

1. Start New game.
2. Setup the world the way you want it, with what civs etc...
3. When new game starts, exit back to main menu via New Game option.
4. At the main menu choose Quick start it will start a new game with the setting you just put in.

Or you could run Mapfinder without the quickstart option checked.

Now if Moonsinger or Dianthus have a better resolution, that's great. Go with their ideas. I'm just trying to help you work around the issue till they decide if it can be fixed....


Thanks, that worked fine, using Quck Start on both C3C and MapFinder. I had thought that it was necessary to start C3C with New Game.

And more thanks to Moonsinger and Dianthus.

Update: MapFinder 2005 v5.7 (http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads8/MapFinder2005v5r7.zip)

Added the following feature:

#1. Option to look for goodie hut (File/Setup/Extra Tab)

#2. Option to look for shield bonus grassland (File/Setup/Extra Tab). Please keep in mind that we do not look for shield bonus hidden under the forest! We could see what hidden under the forest, but we won't do it because that may be illegal for the HoF. The bottom line, MapFinder won't report anything that you can't see with your normal eye at 4000BC.

#3. Remove the length restriction on the output directory. You now can a very long name for your output directory. Basically, I tell MapFinder to save the map in Civ's default "Saves" folder then move it to wherever. The end result = no length restriction.

#4. Add option to save the map whenever a certain domination limit has been found.

#5. Add option to save the map whenever certain number of cow has been found.

Changed to previous feature:

* MapFinder no longer counts Cattle on Plain as bonus resource. Therefore, if you happen to see a cow goes by and MapFinder didn't count, that is perfectly normal.

Bug fixed:

* The screen shot function has been fixed. There is no upper limit and you now can have screen shot for as many acceptable as you like.

//Edit: Just change it to v5.7. There wasn't thing different between v5.6 and v5.7 except for extra syntax check on the new options to make sure they are valid; otherwise, if someone forget to set them, all a lot of maps will be saved.