Local tracking of personal Records

Zyxpsilon

Running Spider
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*** July 14th Re-opened for business... anyone that claims having actual solid LUA experience is officially re_invited to contribute as previously stated in CONCLUSION #1 slot below!

LeoPaRd
21/02/11... Concept Phase & Plan.
Let's *DO* it, and let go of the past - we're in for a ride!

Alright... press the reset Button(s), Patch v1338 has triggered another R_Evolution of CiV.

CURRENT TASKS (as of May 1st:pM); Verifications of Gameplay, compatibility with current LPR_DB, trigger files integration, monitoring MODS updating frequency... etc.

PREMISE: It's taken off four sides of a common tetrahedron representing the same costly or cheap coin...

Spoiler :
A) Modders need a place to gather (Up speed too), to coordinate their efforts into finding faster solutions for {-B-} and, to measure up (through collaboration) to some standards beyond what Vanilla gameplay provides by successive defaults.

B) Players need a way to summarize activities, to inspect most results and, to monitor multiple experiences within gameplay while a coherent device helps them reach a sense of statistical proof by tracking Personal Records, Locally.

C) Communities need an incentive towards appreciation of...

First and foremost CFC, then - or Firaxis staff, devs, designers or 2K business driven umbrella or the extra-Steam-Layer of Supports for the game we all LIKE... Civilization V.

D) Someone has to coordinate such a project to its completion assuming cooperation will prevail.

FEATURES: Polynomic complexity at its best in more than just geometric systems...

Spoiler :
Under construction, it had to wait for the (February) March, June and the darn overdue DLL truth ;) and will for a few more weeks of testing_QA -- Men at work!

1-- Menus, Popups.

2-- Assets, DataBase, SQL, LUA, Parser, Tracking.
Spoiler :
2.1) A necessary Flowcharting first step that no coder would even try skipping for any reasons. Such a mess, but it had to be Done.


Legend & details, comin' right up... 1=HOF 2=CFC 3=ACE 4=LPR W=Win. And, we need to flag the results!

2.2)...

3-- LPR, Icons, Preqs, Framework.

4-- SP, MP, Scenarios, Competing with yourselves or...
Spoiler :
4.1) Customize your own LPRs within a pre-defined set of conditions. While having the ability to save the individual LUA driver files.
4.2) How often do *you* win MP matches & against who. Which & when were your highest scores and under what conditions exactly.
4.3)...

5-- Locking the Plan
Spoiler :
Never, and here's why...
I am open-minded, willing & able. Ready for anything. Fair but harsh on principles. Focused on work being done while flexible in multi-tasking terms.


CONCLUSION: Fairly simple equilateral balance of idioms...

Spoiler :

1) Offer your coding experience with LUA/XML for a strict reason.

2) Participate to the project in any other tasks.

3) Get bored trying to figure out where this is all heading!

PROGRESS:... (50% of {-alpha-} Total, so far.)
Spoiler :

[.....................X....................{DLL}...][-a-][...........................................][-b-][.....................................][..........................][-f-]

Legend; (X)_You *ARE* here! (a)_Alpha (b)_Beta (f)_Final release. Four months per range_boxes as a theoretical prediction only.

What's with the Horses?:eek:? (as with Napoleon, Alexander and Khan)
We need typing Monkeys!:D! Not static Leaders.(as in you or me)

CREDITS:... where, when & why they are due!
Spoiler :
[23-03] -- Seraphim (Results flagging functionality)
[24-03] -- Onni (For this essential Tutorial on LUA/XML encoding)
[31-03] -- veyDer (UserEvents component)

**PS; For everything else that matters (like the latest Implementation progress and what features have already been done) refer to Post #6 below.

Questions, comments, suggestions... Feel absolutely free to participate.

-- Zyxpsilon.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________

** This whole thing started on December 12 last year with the following;

... Instead of online Steam Achievements!

I might be a little too early in development phase planning and yet i've got to start somewhere, so here's the idea.

Indirectly this could become an enhanced HOF where some statistics are kept on numerous aspects of progress towards specific goals you may want to set for yourselves.
This came to me as a reaction to the rather easy set of Steam Achievements, i urge for incredibly difficult records.
Some simple examples;

1) Four different variations of... Annex or Puppet or remain Friendly or Ally with the whole maximum of 28 CS in any given game on or right before the last turn.
2) Complete 25, 50, 100+ Future techs before turns time-out.
3) On turn 499... be at least within 50, 25, 10 or even one single turn away from reaching all four major Victory Conditions (Domination, Cultural, Science, Diplomatic) at once.

x) You may just have even better suggestions than the above three. Feel free to post below about any of it.

Now, there are many coding considerations for the design itself such as interactive Notifications processing, ingame Menu accessibility for tracking results, Database_Logs_Values handling, etc.

Generally speaking, some modders might even be a lot better than i at LUA/XML and, thus could make this whole idea happen in a snap. You're invited to recommend yourselves for the task should you feel it's all worth some of your precious time.
I'll probably handle the Graphics side of things with Icons & other UI designing assets. And i certainly will welcome anybody's work into different areas of this project.

In a sense, such a feature could add a lot of fascinating gameplay stuff.

So, let us begin... as of now, i'm just alone & dreaming of Record breaking statistics.
:please:

Click below :) for a quick glimpse of more generic popups... soon!

First group of Six Re-Balancing Gameplay MODs...

Left to right; Ace, Balance Combined, CFC-HOF, CSDiplo, HTM, CTP.

Second group of 3 out of 6...

LR; NiGHTS, Building Made Fun, PlayWithMe...
 

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Yes. If you're volunteering to help organize it, just get in contact. :)
 
@Pouakai... Didn't know about that one, i'll have a quick glimpse over if only to mix details on conceptual phase.

@stormerne... The thread is certainly a Volunteer call for action. When i've got some of the basic framework complete (Design decisions, minimal features, etc), i'll be sure to contact you for coding stuff or whatever comes to mind. Thanks for the offer!

Soooo... anybody else?
Don't be shy. I won't hurt anyone. :)
 
And, Let's *TRACK* our own stuff, shall we. ;)

Oh, have i mentioned that some "MODS" will be validated for inclusion into this project! Recommendations?

* Let me clear up something important first...

Firstly -- NONE of what is listed below will ever have to be installed by me from an indirect Mod_Mod Combined package, that's not what LeoPaRd is about. Players get to decide how or why any of the necessary MODs (below) should be in their game folders. Except for LeoPaRd of course, which is the major component that binds everything together for the API features.
Should they eventually experience compatibility issues or specific problems by having "supplemental" copies of many MODs, they must contact their corresponding authors. It may seem like i'm targeting Sneaks' CCMAT+ or even Thalassicus' Balance with this comment but i'm not... it's a simple warning to users of LeoPaRd (only) that multiple versions of the same process can actually crash the game often enough to render it unplayable. We're working on a solution, but as of now the risk is still there.

Secondly -- This will also integrate properly with the widely known & usual CFC_HOF(x) process since coordinated assets should allow huge enhancements to both activities.

Thirdly -- If you're wildly lucky, some of the Re-Balancing Gameplay mods below *might* very well be compatible to run simultaneously. Welcome to chaos, i'm not responsible for any of their - let's be polite - bugs, bunny. Want a carrot? :D

My own short List of essentials...

[Y] 0) Mod List (v4) By Whys (A purely technical must if you should ask!)
[Y] 1) Great Person Info Panel (v3) By Valkrionn (Fusing both earlier versions of similar process below...)
[-] .) Great People Info (v3) By BlakeTheGreat
[-] .) AgS Resource Info Panel (v2) By Argentum Studios
[Y] 2) Info Addict (v10) By robk... since DiploCorner.lua conflict was resolved by Alpaca with this.
[Y] 3) CivWillard (v1) By Onni.
[Y] 4) Improved Demographics (v3) By Albert "Einstein" Dunberg
[Y] 5) Custom Notifications (v3) By Alpaca & Sneaks
[P] 6) Single Unit Graphics (v3_LITE) By Nutty
[?] 7) Lucky slot, we never know!


8) Any Re_Balancing Gameplay mods... as long as the corresponding LPR settings require activation of their respective features. But only ONE concept allowed per "game";

** Versions Iteration no longer kept here since i am considering an MD5 function for validation in a persistent tagging procedure.

[P] A) [x][X][?][1][IN] A.C.E (v0) By Stormerne (as a Feature driven asset and interactive statistical compiler)
[?] B) [x][X][.][.][.] Balance Combined By Thalassicus
[-] -) [-][-][-][-][-] WWGD By Sneaks (Included in the above)
[?] C) [x][X][.][.][.] Alpha Centauri By (Crazy!) Spatzimaus
[?] D) [x][X][.][.][.] City State Diplomacy By Gazebo
[Y] E) [x][.][.][.][.] Echoes Of Ages By Cyrinno
[P] F) [x][X][.][1][IN] Fanatics (v0) By Denniz & Methos (Links to their submission process while tracking a results slot in our DB)
[?] H) [x][X][.][.][.] History in the Making II By Grave
[?] J) [x][X][1][.][.] Building Made Fun! By Moriboe
[P] L) [x][X][5][5][IN] LeoPaRd (v0) By Zyxpsilon (as in default API without any Re_Balancing Gameplay Mods.)
[N] M) [.][.][11][.][.] Mega By Slowpoke
[?] N) [x][X][.][.][.] NiGHTS By Markusbeutel
[?] P) [x][X][.][.][.] PlayWithMe By Alpaca
[?] Q) [x][.][.][.][.] Petroleum By Amylion
[?] S) [x][.][.][.][.] Strong Economy By Chen Lee
[P] T) [x][.][.][.][.] Food Economy - Tradable Bonus Resources By Deep_Blue
[?] U) [x][.][.][.][.] Cultural Capitals By Moaf
[?] V) [.][.][.][.][.] Economy By Valkrionn
[Y] W) [x][.][.][.][.] Not Another City States Mod By Iceco
[P] X1) [x][-][-][-][-] Any or All Wonders By Ambrox62
[P] X2) [x][-][-][-][-] More Wonders By Pouakai
* (Be warned however that such [X's] mod-component_s might have been integrated in whole or in part by any of the other MODS listed here)
[?] Y) [x][X][.][.][.] Procylon's Call To Power Project By Decimatus

Note to Modders; The progress bar before your slots is an indication where current implementation stands.
[Y/N/P]=Updated to match with latest (or most recent v1275) Official Patches and/or Fixes from Firaxis or tested as being compatible. (Pending)
[First]=Integration [Second]=Icon [Third]=Actual number of LPRs [Fourth]=Coded Procedures [Fifth]=Database Slot

This is by no means a final listing (Alphabet has 26 letters anyway!).
It will mold, expand and be highly adaptative within a number of tracking processes such as how often they are maintained and updated by their original authors to comply with the Vanilla core ruleset. :scan:

There's nothing implied or otherwise about quality or personal opinion from these choices, it simply is meant to provide highly diverse gameplay in a focused environment where features are deployed to fill a need for coherent scoring results among other things.
But let me insist, only ONE of these will ever be allowed for their own individual DB accessing. Hall of Fame_S, indirectly while some specific LPRs will be created for each.

9) Any Scenarios -- mostly created on specific maps, with related winning conditions & custom gameplay principles.

[Y] SG) [x][.][.][.][.] Gauntlets By Ozbenno, Denniz (Monthly events, you must keep watch for Threads)
[?] SR) [x][.][.][.][.] RealNameEarth By Seraphim8400 (Btw, *THIS* mod is the closest project_concept to what i am trying to achieve with LPRs.)

10) Any Flavor Mods.

It has come to my attention that it might be a good idea to allow "Flavor" assets into such a project. I've got no objection since none of these alter gameplay as those currently listed in the suggested "Essentials" section above. I'll start analyzing some of the already available ones... and if you'd like to recommend anything in this thread, share your thoughts in a reply or select any from the list below as you wish;
* R.E.D By Gedemon
* City States Leaders By Mihaifx
*...

11) Any Re-Mapping Scripts or Process -- indirect placeholder for supplemental context.

* YnAEMP By Gedemon
* ...

[P] 12) Mines - what did you expect?! - Z-Advisors, Z-Eras+Center (New overview_concept thread coming soon!), Z-UI(s), Z-LeoPaRd (necessary -duh)... optional or not.

*) Any others you'd want to reach such status?


EDIT(22/02); Sadly, Stormerne just PM'ed me that their ACE project has been abandoned. Shoottttsss, we're gonna have to work at it all by our lonely selves!! :D
EDIT(01/03); Well, One more major patch has just been released... and i'll have to do some re-work for the concept phase; Scheduled!
EDIT(23/03); Flagging hurdle solved!
EDIT(01/05); LPR framework & compatibility phase.
EDIT(14/07); Front-end integration.
 
Yep, that's the general idea with CS driven Records... once i'm through with a fair enough testing of the Biggie patch, i'll post the popup(s) templates and a complete design summary of the essentials -- so that anyone interested in joining can at least get a feel of the whole "system".

Although, i'm quite flexible from the get-go on how this project should be handled and what exact features must be considered as basic assets for LeoPaRd (a nickname that just creeped up in my mind!).
 
oooo you mean ACTUAL challenges rather than junk acheivements? like...

-"Outnumbered and outgunned": beating emperor/immortal/deity OCC
-"Nobody likes me" getting -100/-300/-500 unhappiness in a standard time game
-"Holier than thou":win a cultural victory with 6 branches filled
-"Blast from the past": attack and take a city with only warriors in the modern era
-"We'll meet a again...": Nuke every city
 
Anything will certainly be considered for formal integration... my opinions aren't the absolute ruler when it comes to LPR.
First come, first served -- though. And Slowpoke just got himself a precious early edge!

Btw... here's an extremely basic template i'll be using for the Notification Icons. It shows how the miscellaneous symbols & graphics will be dropped on. Octagon gives plenty of leeway to clearly define the whole idea behind specific Records. I'll add a series of variation and the "finished" product once ready.
 

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Got bored and made some more:

"I'm invincible!": Win a domination with no losses
"We ate sand": Win a game without building farms or bribing a maritime CS
"Kind of a big deal": Win a deity game on a huge map on quick speed.
"Spare some change?": Win a game where you had at most 50 turns in positive gold per turn
"I hate lua!":Upload a mod
"You and what army?": Win a game without building any combat units or bribing any military CSs

Anyways, one thing that makes any of these achievements kind of bland is that they are too easily won with cooked settings. They'd probably be more interesting if they only trigger on prince and up and on standard map sizes/speeds (unless otherwise noted)
 
Got bored and made some more:

"I'm invincible!": Win a domination with no losses
"We ate sand": Win a game without building farms or bribing a maritime CS
"Kind of a big deal": Win a deity game on a huge map on quick speed.
"Spare some change?": Win a game where you had at most 50 turns in positive gold per turn
"I hate lua!":Upload a mod
"You and what army?": Win a game without building any combat units or bribing any military CSs

Anyways, one thing that makes any of these achievements kind of bland is that they are too easily won with cooked settings. They'd probably be more interesting if they only trigger on prince and up and on standard map sizes/speeds (unless otherwise noted)

Yeah, just set max turns to 10, and difficulty Settler, and you've won half the achievements there.
 
-"Holier than thou":win a cultural victory with 6 branches filled
That got me thinking since the very minute you wrote it;

Social Misfits Hit The Fan; Hold up long enough to complete all 10 Social Policy trees, even if it means ending in Total Anarchy before turn 499.

A tiny biddy freaky skillfully luckily more difficult.
 
Yeah, just set max turns to 10, and difficulty Settler, and you've won half the achievements there.
Oh, but i *will* have some (Patented registry calls) routines integrated to try monitoring & prevent such attempts by the occasional cheater.
I'm no genius either... but it isn't a major issue since this project is all about "Locally maintained Personal tracking of Records" and not a community driven measuring device.
 
Entirely possible... but in an external asset only. Since the runtime db will be sealed to editing other than via notification auto_updating within games, it would simply be a matter of SQL'ing an indirect compiler that links community datasets to whomever executes it. First things, first; 1) LPR, stable. 2) ACE integration. 3) Tying it all with community assets.
 
That got me thinking since the very minute you wrote it;

Social Misfits Hit The Fan; Hold up long enough to complete all 10 Social Policy trees, even if it means ending in Total Anarchy before turn 499.

A tiny biddy freaky skillfully luckily more difficult.

Heh, well this would be literally impossible in vanilla I think, as policies rise exponentially, making 60 policies infinitely more challenging then 30.
 
Rather 10x5=50 SP's (plus, the 10 unlocks) to finish... considering three of them (Piety, Freedom, Liberty) would need to be invalidated (through Anarchy) when_if Rationalism & Autocracy are kept for last. Right?

Sure, at 499 turns it really seems be incredibly tough. Might as well use an "Infinite" Turns setting such as 750 or somethin'!:D

But, have a look at the tiny chart below that ties number of cities with "estimated" costs of culture... and, you'll also realize it is almost possible to even build Utopia after the 10th tree has been done too.

Constitution (by spreading Wonders in many Cities) & Free Religion (Last two are certainly VERY high!) have suddenly increased exponentially in importance + A bunch of Allied Cultural CS might become absolutely essential + GA dumping LandMarks everywhere they can... that's for sure!

Well deserving of inclusion into LeoPaRd.
 

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