[mod] Log changes

eotinb said:

@all: ......I just wanted to say that because I have seen some feedback in at least one SG that this autolog was eliminating the storytelling component, and I'd hate to see that happen.

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I think that there is a factor of that in SG's anyway. The story tellers will always tell stories regardless of the tool used (or lack of tool). Some of the civ3 SG's were starting to get the same way. Some people like me aren't too creative with the stories. OTOH, others like soul_warrior, Coinich, jb1964, and a bunch of others have a great amount of creativity with their stories. I could try to make up a story like they do but it would be extremely dull and Thunderfall might run me off .

eotinb said:

@Civgeek: Look in autolog.py at the function write(). type = 2 is custom user entries, so this is where you would add bold tags or whatever.

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Thanks!

eotinb said:

@Tubby Rower: Interesting idea. I think I might do this myself later tonight, and I don't think I'm going to do it the way you describe, so for now there is no need to upload. But let me know how it works out, and maybe show us an example.

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I really like the idea of color-coding for clarity; makes a lot of sense and for long logs saves a lot of post-session editing.

eotinb said:

@all: This is intended to be a tool to help you keep notes to write logs. I don't think a straight cut and paste from the text file into a forum post is a very good way to go. Of course, use it as you see fit, but what I've done is edit the text file after my turnset to combine the auto notes and my notes, and to add more notes after the fact (here is an example of what I mean). I just wanted to say that because I have seen some feedback in at least one SG that this autolog was eliminating the storytelling component, and I'd hate to see that happen.

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Also agree; story-telling is important, but I usually inlcude mine with the screen shots or in post-session edits. I think autolog actually should encorage more story-telling (by those so inclined) since it saves signiifcant time on the routine event reporting and frees up more time for those creative juices.

I'll work on color codes later tonight. Nice log, grahamiam.

Here's what I'm trying to do... I'll test it soon and report back. Comment on the colors

Personally, I think too many different colors is more confusing than no colors. Fewer colors also means all the colors you use can be easily readable and distinct enough that if, say, the author of this mod were partially colorblind, he could avoid using colors he has trouble telling apart. I'm thinking something like:

• 1 for combat (wins, losses, promotions, war [if I can get this to work])
• 1 for builds (units, buildings, projects)
• 1 for city stuff (founded, growth, razed, borders, acquired, lost [last two coming soon!] -- may get combined with previous)
• 1 for religion (founded, spreads)
• 1 for technology
• 1 for everything else (tribal village, golden age, great people -- may get combined with previous)
• 1 for a new feature, perhaps

That makes 4-6 for current and upcoming features, depending on if I collapse where indicated. And I'm leaving the open spot for diplomacy, if I can get it to work.

eotinb said:

Personally, I think too many different colors is more confusing than no colors. Fewer colors also means all the colors you use can be easily readable and distinct enough that if, say, the author of this mod were partially colorblind, he could avoid using colors he has trouble telling apart. I'm thinking something like:

• 1 for combat (wins, losses, promotions, war [if I can get this to work])
• 1 for builds (units, buildings, projects)
• 1 for city stuff (founded, growth, razed, borders, acquired, lost [last two coming soon!] -- may get combined with previous)
• 1 for religion (founded, spreads)
• 1 for technology
• 1 for everything else (tribal village, golden age, great people -- may get combined with previous)
• 1 for a new feature, perhaps

That makes 4-6 for current and upcoming features, depending on if I collapse where indicated. And I'm leaving the open spot for diplomacy, if I can get it to work.

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I like this color scheme (without bolds or underlines (would still like to see the prefix in bold). Perhaps add Golden Age/Great People in yellow

I like the color indications too, especially with only a few colors. I agree that with too many colors it becomes too confusing. With just a few colors you can easily look for specific information throughout the log.

With I think I need to take the time to learn Python, or how to mess with stuff.

@Civgeek: I'm still planning to set off custom entries somehow -- probably bold.

@Methos: If you know anything at all about programming, I think you'll find Python pretty easy to use. Prior to fooling around with Python for a project at work, I had taken one C class many years ago in college and fooled around with Java once for about a month -- hardly a coding fool. It helps that the documentation is really good.

Edit: One more thing about Python. I've tried to make my mod relatively end-user friendly. Although I probably could have used more comments, I did make sure to mark the parts I added so that they would clearly stand out. As a result, it should be very easy to open up any of the files in this mod and see what I coded, and from that it's not too much farther to figure out how I did what I did. I'm happy to answer any Python questions (to my limited ability) and explain anything I did in this mod to someone trying to puzzle through on their own.

Ok, stupid question and I'm at work so I can't check this easily.

Does the \\CustomAssets\Python directory exist when the game is installed or do you need to create it? I'm pretty sure I created it (likely a mistake) and then had problems getting the mod to work.

I would re-word the install directions slightly to be specific about this directory (exists?), plus say something about how files in \\CustomAssets\Python get invoked by game. e.g. CiVIV is smart enough to look for files in \\CustomAssets\Python and use them during the game to replace files with the same name from \\Assets\Python.

BTW, great job on this eotinb, will same much time doing IVOTM.

StanNP

imho, if you're going to start coloring the text output, then the only "uncolored" text should be the echo that's typed by the player. That way, our thoughts, stories, etc stand-out a little bit

again, I have to say, your doing wonderful work here!

Ok I have a version that sort of works. The in game log has none of the tags and the text file looks like this (this is before I change the color scheme to eot's version above).

----------------------------New entries----------------------------
Turn 0 (4000 BC)
Tenochtitlan founded
Tenochtitlan begins: Scout
Research begun: Meditation

Turn 1 (3960 BC)

Turn 2 (3920 BC)
Tribal village results: lots of gold

Turn 3 (3880 BC)

Turn 4 (3840 BC)
Tenochtitlan's borders expand

Turn 5 (3800 BC)

Turn 6 (3760 BC)

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@StanNP: Yes, the Custom Assets folder is created upon install. The rest of what you wrote is exactly correct.

@Tubby Rower: Looking good. Did you make the changes in CvEventManager.py mainly or autolog.py? I don't want you to spend a lot of time on this if I'm just going to redo it my way anyway (which would be to add additional types in autolog.py and then change the CvEventManager.py calls to autolog.write() to match the type).

how about...

• 1 for combat (wins, losses, promotions, war [if I can get this to work])
• 1 for builds (units, buildings, projects)
• 1 for city stuff (founded, growth, razed, borders, acquired, lost [last two coming soon!] -- may get combined with previous)
• Diplo stuff (first meeting and hopefully trades
• 1 for religion (founded, spreads)
• 1 for technology and tribal villages
• 1 for golden age, great people
• Tubby: user created entries

This combines a couple of them. I noticed that there was no diplo color. Also I dropped the brown. Bold & black for custom comments.

Making the final touches and hopefully will be up tonight.

eot, mainly what I'm doing is changing the cvEventManager file. I created a new variable called logmessage (as opposed to message). this way the in game log won't have the tags on it. I'm also thinking of adding a variable up top so that the user can turn it off or on depending on what the use is. Do you want me to PM it to you or just post it here?

that yellow is pretty brutal

how about magenta

or perhaps yellow green, or two up from yellow, olive?

OK here is a sample game where I met George Washington and immediately declared. direct copy & paste from log file

Turn 6 (3760 BC)
Tribal village results: experience
Tech learned: Mysticism
Contact made: American Empire

Turn 7 (3720 BC)
Research begun: Polytheism
Warrior promoted: City Raider I
Warrior promoted: City Raider II
Thebes finishes: Warrior

Turn 8 (3680 BC)
Thebes begins: Warrior

Turn 9 (3640 BC)

Turn 10 (3600 BC)
Thebes grows: 2

Turn 11 (3560 BC)
Warrior loses to: American Warrior (0.40/2)

Turn 12 (3520 BC)

Turn 13 (3480 BC)
Thebes finishes: Warrior

Turn 14 (3440 BC)
Thebes begins: Barracks

Turn 15 (3400 BC)
Hinduism founded in a distant land

Turn 16 (3360 BC)

Turn 17 (3320 BC)
Tech learned: Polytheism

Turn 18 (3280 BC)
Research begun: Meditation
Warrior loses to: American Warrior (0.98/2)

Turn 19 (3240 BC)

Turn 20 (3200 BC)
Warrior defeats (0.08/2): American Warrior

Turn 21 (3160 BC)
Warrior promoted: City Raider I

Turn 22 (3120 BC)
Thebes grows: 3

Turn 23 (3080 BC)

Turn 24 (3040 BC)
Thebes's borders expand

Turn 25 (3000 BC)
Buddhism founded in Thebes
Buddhism has spread: Thebes
Tech learned: Meditation

Turn 26 (2960 BC)
Research begun: Hunting

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Turn 167 (1070 AD)
Archer loses to: Barbarian Archer (2.64/3)
Archer loses to: Barbarian Archer (1.47/3)
Archer defeats (1.62/3): Barbarian Archer
Archer loses to: Barbarian Warrior (0.72/2)
Thebes begins: Archer
Thebes finishes: Archer
Archer defeats (0.60/3): American Archer

Turn 168 (1080 AD)
Archer promoted: Medic I
Archer promoted: Combat II
Archer promoted: Combat I
Archer loses to: American Archer (0.24/3)

Turn 169 (1090 AD)
Archer loses to: American Archer (0.36/3)

Turn 170 (1100 AD)
Thebes begins: Archer
Thebes finishes: Archer
New York finishes: Worker

Turn 171 (1110 AD)
New York begins: Worker
Archer promoted: Combat I
Tech learned: Currency

Turn 172 (1120 AD)
Research begun: Construction
Islam founded in a distant land
Archer defeats (2.55/3): American Archer

Turn 173 (1130 AD)
Archer promoted: Cover

Turn 174 (1140 AD)
Archer loses to: American Archer (3.00/3)
Thebes begins: Archer
Thebes finishes: Archer
Boston finishes: Worker

Turn 175 (1150 AD)
Boston begins: Worker
Archer loses to: American Archer (1.86/3)
Archer defeats (2.49/3): American Archer
Archer promoted: Combat I
Tech learned: Horseback Riding
Tech learned: Calendar
Philadelphia begins: Archer

Turn 176 (1160 AD)
Archer promoted: City Garrison II

Turn 177 (1170 AD)
Thebes begins: Archer
Thebes finishes: Archer

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I personally like the yellow. GA's & great people should stand out.

Hmmm. I guess I actually don't care for the colors that much, personally. It's a good idea but I think it ends up being meaningless in that because everything stands out, nothing does. TR, feel free to post what you've got, but I don't think color will make it into my next revision. I may put it in as an optional thing in the future.

I'm having trouble getting the custom log entry back in there. I changed a few settings but I'll look at it more tomorrow sometime.

Several things I need to remember as I’m beginning to run into stupid problems. First off after you download the zip file it’s best to extract it so it can be used.

Secondly is to change the path of the autolog save file so that the file is created. I forgot to change the \Owner\ to my name.

After playing my turnset in Math08 and purposely adding things to check out the latest version I came to the realization that I failed to change the path. As in everything was lost.

After this realization I adjusted the change and went back into the game to attempt to copy down the turnlog file from in-game. Interesting problem came up. After naming the log file Math08 and the came finished loading I could not access the turnlog at all. Ctr-Tab didn’t work, nor did Ctr-E, Alt-E, and the Esc key. In order to exit out of the game I had to click on the button to exit to Main Menu. Reloading the game I than did not rename the file and just used the default autolog. Everything worked fine. I don’t even have to leave the game just exit to the Main Menu and reload the save game and keep the default autolog text file.

I went back and double checked the path to make sure I had the correct one and it was. So what could be causing this problem?

Quick note - don't know if you've noticed, but some of the "City begins" messages are showing up before the corresponding "City finishes" ones - looks to be when they happen on the same turn, i.e. if there's some overflow on construction. Not sure how easy it'd be to get them to appear the other way around, though.

@methos - did you try a different nondefault name, without any numeric characters? seems unlikely but worth a try.

This looks pretty cool, added it to my subscriptions.

If I might suggest, as new versions are created please update the first post with a link to the current version. I'm having to scan the thread to find the latest one.